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Java, C# and other languages allow one to enumerate all the data
members of a class or struct thru their respective reflection APIs.

Varios Microsoft specific extensions to their C++ compiler allows one
to do the same (I'm thinking of both the COM extentions as wells as the
managed extensions).

I don't believe g++ supports either of these. Does anyone have some
sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?

Thanks,
Siegfried

Siegfried wrote:
> Java, C# and other languages allow one to enumerate all the data
> members of a class or struct thru their respective reflection APIs.
>
> Varios Microsoft specific extensions to their C++ compiler allows one
> to do the same (I'm thinking of both the COM extentions as wells as the
> managed extensions).
>
> I don't believe g++ supports either of these. Does anyone have some
> sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
> debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
> data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?

I'm gonna bet that such a thing isn't available. Maybe if you explain
why you need it, or think you need it, someone could help you find a
more available solution.

Siegfried wrote:
> Java, C# and other languages allow one to enumerate all the data
> members of a class or struct thru their respective reflection APIs.
>
> Varios Microsoft specific extensions to their C++ compiler allows one
> to do the same (I'm thinking of both the COM extentions as wells as the
> managed extensions).
>
> I don't believe g++ supports either of these. Does anyone have some
> sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
> debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
> data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?

have a look at the objdump(1) sources which reads symbols from gcc
generated object files.

but i don't think you will be able to get the information that you need
from the object files, as these linker input files do not necessarily
contain the original C++ object layout in processable form.

you will need C++ parser output to get full identifier information for
C++ source files.

if you don't want to use a full-blown C++ parser implementation, for
example the wrapper/interface generator tool swig has a mode to output
a XML or lisp s-expression formatted abstract syntax tree for given
source files. this gives you parseable data to further work with.

see http://www.swig.org

-- peter

On 27 Nov 2005 01:51:05 -0800, "peter steiner" <>
wrote:
>Siegfried wrote:
>> Does anyone have some
>> sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
>> debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
>> data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?
>
>have a look at the objdump(1) sources which reads symbols from gcc
>generated object files.

or nm
(http://www.gnu.org/software/binutils...inutils_2.html)
on Unix or dumpbin for VC++.

Best wishes,
Roland Pibinger

Siegfried wrote:

> I don't believe g++ supports either of these. Does anyone have some
> sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
> debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
> data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?

Supposing that you find or write such a tool, you must consider that the
member functions of a class can be spawned over several .o files.

--
Salu2

Siegfried wrote:
> Java, C# and other languages allow one to enumerate all the data
> members of a class or struct thru their respective reflection APIs.
>
> Varios Microsoft specific extensions to their C++ compiler allows one
> to do the same (I'm thinking of both the COM extentions as wells as the
> managed extensions).
>
> I don't believe g++ supports either of these. Does anyone have some
> sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
> debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
> data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?


Go ask the gcc people. It's not standard C++ (I wish it was too) so
it's off topic here.

Take a look at the RTTI chapter in Thinking in C++
(www.bruceeckel.com), i don't remember which volume.

"peter steiner" <> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> Siegfried wrote:
> > Java, C# and other languages allow one to enumerate all the data
> > members of a class or struct thru their respective reflection APIs.
> >
> > I don't believe g++ supports either of these. Does anyone have some
> > sample code that will read a g++ .o file (that was compiled with the
> > debug option turned on), or a g++ executable image and extract the meta
> > data about a type so I can enumerate the datamembers?
>
> you will need C++ parser output to get full identifier information for
> C++ source files.

A front end C++ parser that can be straightforwardly configure to do this
can be seen at
http://www.semanticdesigns.com/Produ...ds/CppFrontEnd
It handles full GCC.


--
Ira D. Baxter, Ph.D., CTO 512-250-1018
Semantic Designs, Inc. www.semdesigns.com