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<a name="GDB%2fMI-Development-and-Front-Ends"></a>
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<a name="GDB_002fMI-Development-and-Front-Ends"></a>
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<h3 class="section">27.4 <span class="sc">gdb/mi</span> Development and Front Ends</h3>
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<p><a name="index-g_t_0040sc_007bgdb_002fmi_007d-development-2966"></a>
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The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the
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program being debugged to the user is called a <dfn>front end</dfn>.
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<p>Since <span class="sc">gdb/mi</span> is used by a variety of front ends to <span class="sc">gdb</span>, changes
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to the MI interface may break existing usage. This section describes how the
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protocol changes and how to request previous version of the protocol when it
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does.
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<p>Some changes in MI need not break a carefully designed front end, and
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for these the MI version will remain unchanged. The following is a
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list of changes that may occur within one level, so front ends should
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parse MI output in a way that can handle them:
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<ul>
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<li>New MI commands may be added.
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<li>New fields may be added to the output of any MI command.
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<li>The range of values for fields with specified values, e.g.,
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<code>in_scope</code> (see <a href="_002dvar_002dupdate.html#g_t_002dvar_002dupdate">-var-update</a>) may be extended.
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<!-- The format of field's content e.g type prefix, may change so parse it -->
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<!-- at your own risk. Yes, in general? -->
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<!-- The order of fields may change? Shouldn't really matter but it might -->
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<!-- resolve inconsistencies. -->
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</ul>
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<p>If the changes are likely to break front ends, the MI version level
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will be increased by one. The new versions of the MI protocol are not compatible
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with the old versions. Old versions of MI remain available, allowing front ends
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to keep using them until they are modified to use the latest MI version.
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<p>Since <code>--interpreter=mi</code> always points to the latest MI version, it is
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recommended that front ends request a specific version of MI when launching
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<span class="sc">gdb</span> (e.g. <code>--interpreter=mi2</code>) to make sure they get an
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interpreter with the MI version they expect.
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<p>The following table gives a summary of the the released versions of the MI
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interface: the version number, the version of GDB in which it first appeared
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and the breaking changes compared to the previous version.
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<p><table summary=""><tr align="left"><th valign="top" width="5%">MI version </th><th valign="top" width="5%">GDB version </th><th valign="top" width="90%">Breaking changes
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<p><br></th></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="5%"><div align="center">1</div>
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<p></td><td valign="top" width="5%">
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<div align="center">5.1</div>
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<p></td><td valign="top" width="90%">
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None
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<p><br></td></tr><tr align="left"><td valign="top" width="5%"><div align="center">2</div>
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<p></td><td valign="top" width="5%">
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<div align="center">6.0</div>
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<p></td><td valign="top" width="90%">
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<ul>
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<li>The <code>-environment-pwd</code>, <code>-environment-directory</code> and
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<code>-environment-path</code> commands now returns values using the MI output
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syntax, rather than CLI output syntax.
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<li><code>-var-list-children</code>'s <code>children</code> result field is now a list, rather
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than a tuple.
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<li><code>-var-update</code>'s <code>changelist</code> result field is now a list, rather than
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a tuple.
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</ul>
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<br></td></tr></table>
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<p>The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your front
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end is to make your project known to <span class="sc">gdb</span> developers and
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follow development on <a href="mailto:gdb@sourceware.org">gdb@sourceware.org</a> and
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<a href="mailto:gdb-patches@sourceware.org">gdb-patches@sourceware.org</a>.
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<a name="index-mailing-lists-2967"></a>
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