[Valgrind-developers] tool-specific CLOs

[Nicholas N. <nj...@ca...>]

Hi,

A current problem with VALGRIND_OPTS is that you can't put tool-specific
options in it, otherwise you'll get problems if you run a different tool.
Eg. a Memcheck-specific option will cause Cachegrind to fall over.

I have a patch that addresses this, whereby you can prefix an option with
"--toolname:" and it will only be run where "toolname" matches the chosen
tool.  Eg, with this:

  --memcheck:--leak-check

the --leak-check will only be applied for Memcheck, and ignored for other
tools.

The way I have coded it, this "--toolname:" prefix works in VALGRIND_OPTS
or on the command line... the latter wasn't really necessary, but it
doesn't seem to be a problem.

I was originally thinking of using the syntax "toolname:--option", but
it's easier to have "--" at the start, because stage2 considers any
command line word that doesn't begin with '-' to be the start of the
executable.

It wouldn't be hard to allow ./.valgrindrc and ~/.valgrindrc files, too,
which can contain (prefixed and non-prefixed) options, just like the
VALGRIND_OPTS var.

What do people think?

N