llvm-project/lldb
Dave Lee c7a56af307 [lldb][bindings] Implement __repr__ instead of __str__
When using the `script` Python repl, SB objects are printed in a way that gives
the user no information. The simplest example is:

```
(lldb) script lldb.debugger
<lldb.SBDebugger; proxy of <Swig Object of type 'lldb::SBDebugger *' at 0x1097a5de0> >
```

This output comes from the Python repl printing the `repr()` of an object.

None of the SB classes implement `__repr__`, and all print like the above.
However, many (most?, all?) SB classes implement `__str__`. Because they
implement `__str__`, a more detailed output can be had by `print`ing the
object, for example:

```
(lldb) script print(lldb.debugger)
Debugger (instance: "debugger_1", id: 1)
```

For convenience, this change switches all SB classes that implement to
`__str__` to instead implement `__repr__`. **The result is that `str()` and
`repr()` will produce the same output**. This is because `str` calls `__repr__`
for classes that have  no `__str__` method.

The benefit being that when writing a `script` invocation, you don't need to
remember to wrap in `print()`. If that isn't enough motivation, consider the
case where your Python expression results in a list of SB objects, in that case
you'd have to `map` or use a list comprehension like `[str(x) for x in <expr>]`
in order to see the details of the objects in the list.

For reference, the docs for `repr` say:

> repr(object)
>   Return a string containing a printable representation of an object. For
>   many types, this function makes an attempt to return a string that would
>   yield an object with the same value when passed to eval(); otherwise, the
>   representation is a string enclosed in angle brackets that contains the
>   name of the type of the object together with additional information often
>   including the name and address of the object. A class can control what this
>   function returns for its instances by defining a __repr__() method.

and the docs for `__repr__` say:

> object.__repr__(self)
>   Called by the repr() built-in function to compute the “official” string
>   representation of an object. If at all possible, this should look like a
>   valid Python expression that could be used to recreate an object with the
>   same value (given an appropriate environment). If this is not possible, a
>   string of the form <...some useful description...> should be returned. The
>   return value must be a string object. If a class defines __repr__() but not
>   __str__(), then __repr__() is also used when an “informal” string
>   representation of instances of that class is required.
>
>   This is typically used for debugging, so it is important that the
>   representation is information-rich and unambiguous.

Even if it were convenient to construct Python expressions for SB classes so
that they could be `eval`'d, however for typical lldb usage, I can't think of a
motivating reason to do so. As it stands, the only action the docs say to do,
that this change doesn't do, is wrap the `repr` string in `<>` angle brackets.

An alternative implementation is to change lldb's python repl to apply `str()`
to the top level result. While this would work well in the case of a single SB
object, it doesn't work for a list of SB objects, since `str([x])` uses `repr`
to convert each list element to a string.

Differential Revision: https://reviews.llvm.org/D127458
2022-06-11 10:19:51 -07:00
..
bindings [lldb][bindings] Implement __repr__ instead of __str__ 2022-06-11 10:19:51 -07:00
cmake [lldb] Disable modules in Apple-lldb-base 2022-05-24 17:17:14 -07:00
docs [LLDB][Docs] Fix formatting of example code-block 2022-06-10 08:17:08 -07:00
examples [lldb/crashlog] Show help when the command is called without any argument 2022-06-10 13:44:43 -07:00
include/lldb [lldb] Set COFF module ABI from default triple and make it an option 2022-06-09 22:43:33 +03:00
packages/Python/lldbsuite [lldb] [test] Implement getting thread ID on FreeBSD 2022-06-10 10:26:58 +02:00
resources
scripts Prefer /usr/bin/env xxx over /usr/bin/xxx where xxx = perl, python, awk 2021-02-25 11:32:27 +01:00
source [lldb] Set COFF module ABI from default triple and make it an option 2022-06-09 22:43:33 +03:00
test [lldb][bindings] Implement __repr__ instead of __str__ 2022-06-11 10:19:51 -07:00
third_party/Python/module [lldb][NFC] Inclusive language: replace master/slave names for ptys 2021-11-12 10:54:18 -06:00
tools [lldb/fuzzer] Moving target fuzzer into separate subdirectory 2022-05-26 17:05:14 -07:00
unittests Store a by name list of signals with their actions in the Target 2022-05-26 14:50:33 -07:00
utils [lldb] Match test dependencies name to other LLVM projects. 2021-05-21 00:10:27 -07:00
.clang-format
.clang-tidy [LLDB] Applying clang-tidy modernize-use-override over LLDB 2022-04-22 13:29:47 -07:00
.gitignore
CMakeLists.txt [cmake] Make include(GNUInstallDirs) always below project(..) 2022-01-20 18:59:17 +00:00
CODE_OWNERS.txt [CODE OWNERS] Add wallace as code owner 2022-01-12 12:36:30 -08:00
LICENSE.TXT
use_lldb_suite_root.py