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17<title>Debugging with GDB: Xmethod API</title>
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64<a name="Xmethod-API"></a>
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66<p>
67Next: <a href="Writing-an-Xmethod.html#Writing-an-Xmethod" accesskey="n" rel="next">Writing an Xmethod</a>, Previous: <a href="Xmethods-In-Python.html#Xmethods-In-Python" accesskey="p" rel="previous">Xmethods In Python</a>, Up: <a href="Python-API.html#Python-API" accesskey="u" rel="up">Python API</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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69<hr>
70<a name="Xmethod-API-1"></a>
71<h4 class="subsubsection">23.2.2.14 Xmethod API</h4>
72<a name="index-xmethod-API"></a>
73
74<p>The <small>GDB</small> Python API provides classes, interfaces and functions
75to implement, register and manipulate xmethods.
76See <a href="Xmethods-In-Python.html#Xmethods-In-Python">Xmethods In Python</a>.
77</p>
78<p>An xmethod matcher should be an instance of a class derived from
79<code>XMethodMatcher</code> defined in the module <code>gdb.xmethod</code>, or an
80object with similar interface and attributes.  An instance of
81<code>XMethodMatcher</code> has the following attributes:
82</p>
83<dl>
84<dt><a name="index-name"></a>Variable: <strong>name</strong></dt>
85<dd><p>The name of the matcher.
86</p></dd></dl>
87
88<dl>
89<dt><a name="index-enabled"></a>Variable: <strong>enabled</strong></dt>
90<dd><p>A boolean value indicating whether the matcher is enabled or disabled.
91</p></dd></dl>
92
93<dl>
94<dt><a name="index-methods"></a>Variable: <strong>methods</strong></dt>
95<dd><p>A list of named methods managed by the matcher.  Each object in the list
96is an instance of the class <code>XMethod</code> defined in the module
97<code>gdb.xmethod</code>, or any object with the following attributes:
98</p>
99<dl compact="compact">
100<dt><code>name</code></dt>
101<dd><p>Name of the xmethod which should be unique for each xmethod
102managed by the matcher.
103</p>
104</dd>
105<dt><code>enabled</code></dt>
106<dd><p>A boolean value indicating whether the xmethod is enabled or
107disabled.
108</p>
109</dd>
110</dl>
111
112<p>The class <code>XMethod</code> is a convenience class with same
113attributes as above along with the following constructor:
114</p>
115<dl>
116<dt><a name="index-XMethod_002e_005f_005finit_005f_005f"></a>Function: <strong>XMethod.__init__</strong> <em>(self, name)</em></dt>
117<dd><p>Constructs an enabled xmethod with name <var>name</var>.
118</p></dd></dl>
119</dd></dl>
120
121<p>The <code>XMethodMatcher</code> class has the following methods:
122</p>
123<dl>
124<dt><a name="index-XMethodMatcher_002e_005f_005finit_005f_005f"></a>Function: <strong>XMethodMatcher.__init__</strong> <em>(self, name)</em></dt>
125<dd><p>Constructs an enabled xmethod matcher with name <var>name</var>.  The
126<code>methods</code> attribute is initialized to <code>None</code>.
127</p></dd></dl>
128
129<dl>
130<dt><a name="index-XMethodMatcher_002ematch"></a>Function: <strong>XMethodMatcher.match</strong> <em>(self, class_type, method_name)</em></dt>
131<dd><p>Derived classes should override this method.  It should return a
132xmethod worker object (or a sequence of xmethod worker
133objects) matching the <var>class_type</var> and <var>method_name</var>.
134<var>class_type</var> is a <code>gdb.Type</code> object, and <var>method_name</var>
135is a string value.  If the matcher manages named methods as listed in
136its <code>methods</code> attribute, then only those worker objects whose
137corresponding entries in the <code>methods</code> list are enabled should be
138returned.
139</p></dd></dl>
140
141<p>An xmethod worker should be an instance of a class derived from
142<code>XMethodWorker</code> defined in the module <code>gdb.xmethod</code>,
143or support the following interface:
144</p>
145<dl>
146<dt><a name="index-XMethodWorker_002eget_005farg_005ftypes"></a>Function: <strong>XMethodWorker.get_arg_types</strong> <em>(self)</em></dt>
147<dd><p>This method returns a sequence of <code>gdb.Type</code> objects corresponding
148to the arguments that the xmethod takes.  It can return an empty
149sequence or <code>None</code> if the xmethod does not take any arguments.
150If the xmethod takes a single argument, then a single
151<code>gdb.Type</code> object corresponding to it can be returned.
152</p></dd></dl>
153
154<dl>
155<dt><a name="index-XMethodWorker_002eget_005fresult_005ftype"></a>Function: <strong>XMethodWorker.get_result_type</strong> <em>(self, *args)</em></dt>
156<dd><p>This method returns a <code>gdb.Type</code> object representing the type
157of the result of invoking this xmethod.
158The <var>args</var> argument is the same tuple of arguments that would be
159passed to the <code>__call__</code> method of this worker.
160</p></dd></dl>
161
162<dl>
163<dt><a name="index-XMethodWorker_002e_005f_005fcall_005f_005f"></a>Function: <strong>XMethodWorker.__call__</strong> <em>(self, *args)</em></dt>
164<dd><p>This is the method which does the <em>work</em> of the xmethod.  The
165<var>args</var> arguments is the tuple of arguments to the xmethod.  Each
166element in this tuple is a gdb.Value object.  The first element is
167always the <code>this</code> pointer value.
168</p></dd></dl>
169
170<p>For <small>GDB</small> to lookup xmethods, the xmethod matchers
171should be registered using the following function defined in the module
172<code>gdb.xmethod</code>:
173</p>
174<dl>
175<dt><a name="index-register_005fxmethod_005fmatcher"></a>Function: <strong>register_xmethod_matcher</strong> <em>(locus, matcher, replace=False)</em></dt>
176<dd><p>The <code>matcher</code> is registered with <code>locus</code>, replacing an
177existing matcher with the same name as <code>matcher</code> if
178<code>replace</code> is <code>True</code>.  <code>locus</code> can be a
179<code>gdb.Objfile</code> object (see <a href="Objfiles-In-Python.html#Objfiles-In-Python">Objfiles In Python</a>), or a
180<code>gdb.Progspace</code> object (see <a href="Progspaces-In-Python.html#Progspaces-In-Python">Progspaces In Python</a>), or
181<code>None</code>.  If it is <code>None</code>, then <code>matcher</code> is registered
182globally.
183</p></dd></dl>
184
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187<p>
188Next: <a href="Writing-an-Xmethod.html#Writing-an-Xmethod" accesskey="n" rel="next">Writing an Xmethod</a>, Previous: <a href="Xmethods-In-Python.html#Xmethods-In-Python" accesskey="p" rel="previous">Xmethods In Python</a>, Up: <a href="Python-API.html#Python-API" accesskey="u" rel="up">Python API</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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