[Dwarf-Discuss] imported_unit and reference identity

[Roland McGrath]

> 1) What does it mean for an imported unit to "logically belong at the 
> place of the imported unit entry" (DIE)? The intent here is that there 
> is logically a *copy* of the imported unit that occurs at the place of 
> the import unit DIE.

I find this much clear enough in the spec.  How it relates to references is
the area I find murky.

> 2) Is one partial unit for a given source file always equivalent to 
> every other partial unit for that same source file? Clearly the answer 
> is no. [...]

I never had (nor, I think, expressed) any doubt on this subject.
I'm talking about where two subtrees as encoded are in fact identical.

> 3) How does one reference into a (particular copy of a) partial unit? 
> Here I think is the real deficiency in DWARF as specified. [...]

Agreed.

> A quick off the cuff suggestion might be to introduce a new form
> DW_FORM_unit_addr which takes two parameters:
>   a) a pointer to the DW_TAG_imported_unit DIE that provides the context 
> for the referenced entity
>   b) a reference to the entity within the imported unit.

That seems sufficient off hand.

> Of course, the cascading effects of multiple layers of nesting also 
> needs to be considered--this casual suggestion has not been thought 
> through to that extent. But hopefully it will stimulate discussion and 
> ideas...

I haven't thought through the weird cases either.


Thanks,
Roland