[doc] Update obsolete text about sub-blocks
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Commit Message
The manual claims that there is no way to iterate over the sub-blocks
of a gdb.Block, but this hasn't been true since commit 5166ed9c
("gdb/python: add subblocks property to gdb.Block").
This patch removes the obsolete clause and rewords the paragraph.
---
gdb/doc/python.texi | 7 +++----
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
base-commit: 2ea3f3a7ac2dd6ccd42e96d496b56aa42e7cb993
Comments
On Thu, 2026-05-14 at 13:59 -0600, Tom Tromey wrote:
> The manual claims that there is no way to iterate over the sub-blocks
> of a gdb.Block, but this hasn't been true since commit 5166ed9c
> ("gdb/python: add subblocks property to gdb.Block").
Ah, thanks! I missed that.
>
> This patch removes the obsolete clause and rewords the paragraph.
> ---
> gdb/doc/python.texi | 7 +++----
> 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/gdb/doc/python.texi b/gdb/doc/python.texi
> index 6cafab78d58..663976f1877 100644
> --- a/gdb/doc/python.texi
> +++ b/gdb/doc/python.texi
> @@ -6273,10 +6273,9 @@ The block nested just inside the global block is the @dfn{static
> block}. The static block typically holds file-scoped variables and
> functions.
>
> -@value{GDBN} provides a method to get a block's superblock, but there
> -is currently no way to examine the sub-blocks of a block, or to
> -iterate over all the blocks in a symbol table (@pxref{Symbol Tables In
> -Python}).
> +There is currently no way to iterate over all the blocks in a symbol
> +table (@pxref{Symbol Tables In Python}), but once a block is found,
> +its super- and sub-blocks can be iterated over.
Reading this, I thought maybe we should drop the part talking about
iterating all the blocks of a symtab altogether.
When I read it, my first thought was: "This is not true, one can recursively
iterate over all sub-blocks starting with global block." But then I realized
this is not true either - this iterates over all blocks in a compunit, not
in a particular symtab.
Is it at all possible to get all blocks of given symtab (_not_ compunit)?
I can imagine some complicated way of first finding the symtab for the block
from the superblock chain and then iterating all blocks in a compunit, selecting
only those that are sub-blocks of a block whose Block.function.symtab is the
particular symtab or something like that.
To sum it up, I find the part about iterating all blocks in a symtab
a bit confusing.
Thanks,
Jan
>
> Here is a short example that should help explain blocks:
>
>
> base-commit: 2ea3f3a7ac2dd6ccd42e96d496b56aa42e7cb993
> --
> 2.54.0
@@ -6273,10 +6273,9 @@ The block nested just inside the global block is the @dfn{static
block}. The static block typically holds file-scoped variables and
functions.
-@value{GDBN} provides a method to get a block's superblock, but there
-is currently no way to examine the sub-blocks of a block, or to
-iterate over all the blocks in a symbol table (@pxref{Symbol Tables In
-Python}).
+There is currently no way to iterate over all the blocks in a symbol
+table (@pxref{Symbol Tables In Python}), but once a block is found,
+its super- and sub-blocks can be iterated over.
Here is a short example that should help explain blocks: