[llvm-dev] RFC: Move parts of llvm-symbolizer tool implementation to LLVMSymbolize library

[Alexey Samsonov via llvm-dev]

Hi,

We have a lot of non-trivial logic accumulated in the
implementation of llvm-symbolizer tool
(tools/llvm-symbolizer/LLVMSymbolize.{h,cpp}), for instance:

* dynamic dispatch between DWARF and PDB debug info;
* building address->symbol_name mapping from object file (with special
cases for PowerPC function descriptor section, and COFF export tables);
* finding debug info stored in separate files (.dSYM files on Darwin, ELF
.gnu_debuglink section, etc.);
* demangling (with platform-specific implementations for Windows and Unix).

I propose to move this code into a separate library LLVMSymbolize (stored
under lib/DebugInfo/Symbolize), and make llvm-symbolizer a short and simple
tool using it. This would allow to:

* implement in-process symbolized stack trace printers (for the cases when
it's possible to link in a bunch of LLVM libraries into the executable).
* easily write more tools that can make use of symbolized code locations,
such as coverage data visualizers.
* (at least sometimes) write unit tests instead of testing functionality by
running "llvm-symbolizer" executable on pre-built executables checked in
repository.

Any comments/objections?

-- 
Alexey Samsonov
vonosmas at gmail.com
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