1 If you find inaccuracies in this list, please send mail to
2 bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu. If you would like to work on any of these,
3 you should consider sending mail to the same address, to find out
4 whether anyone else is working on it.
7 Known problems in GDB 5.0
8 =========================
10 Below is a list of problems identified during the GDB 5.0 release
11 cycle. People hope to have these problems fixed in a follow-on
14 (The names in paren indicate people that posted the original problem.)
18 GDB doesn't build under IRIX6.4
22 Has anyone successfully built the latest (from cvs) gdb on IRIX6.4 or
23 later? The first problem I hit is that proc-api.c includes
24 sys/user.h, which no longer exists under IRIX6.4. If I comment out
25 that include, the next problem I hit is that PIOCGETPR and PIOCGETU
26 are no longer defined in IRIX6.4 (presumably related to the
27 disappearance of user.h).
31 gdb-cvs fails to build on freebsd-elf
32 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-04/msg00004.html
34 Either the FreeBSD group need to contribute their local GDB changes
35 back to the master sources or someone needs to provides a new
36 (clean-room) implementation. Since the former involves a fairly
37 complicated assignment the latter may be easier. [cagney]
41 Generic: lin-thread cannot handle thread exit (Mark Kettenis, Michael
42 Snyder) http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00525.html
44 The thread_db assisted debugging code doesn't handle exiting threads
45 properly, at least in combination with glibc 2.1.3 (the framework is
46 there, just not the actual code). There are at least two problems
47 that prevent this from working.
49 As an additional reference point, the pre thread_db code did not work
54 Java (Anthony Green, David Taylor)
56 Anthony Green has a number of Java patches that did not make it into
60 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00512.html
63 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00515.html
65 Patch: handle N_MAIN stab
66 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00527.html
70 Pascal (Pierre Muller, David Taylor)
72 Pierre Muller has contributed patches for adding Pascal Language
75 2 pascal language patches inserted in database
76 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00521.html
79 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00496.html
83 GNU/Linux/x86 and random thread signals (and Solaris/SPARC but not
85 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00336.html
87 Christopher Blizzard writes:
89 So, I've done some more digging into this and it looks like Jim
90 Kingdon has reported this problem in the past:
92 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/bug-gdb/1999-10/msg00058.html
94 I can reproduce this problem both with and without Tom's patch. Has
95 anyone seen this before? Maybe have a solution for it hanging around?
98 There's a test case for this documented at:
100 when debugging threaded applications you get extra SIGTRAPs
101 http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=9565
103 [There should be a GDB testcase - cagney]
107 Possible regressions with some devel GCCs.
108 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00475.html
110 gcc-2.95.2 outputs a line note *before* the prologue (and one for the
111 closing brace after the epilogue, instead of before it, as it used to
112 be). By disabling the RTL-style prologue generating mechanism
113 (undocumented GCC option -mno-schedule-prologue), you get back the
114 traditional behaviour.
115 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00510.html
117 This should now be fixed.
121 RFD: infrun.c: No bpstat_stop_status call after proceed over break?
123 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00665.html
125 GDB misses watchpoint triggers after proceeding over a breakpoint on
130 x86 linux GDB and SIGALRM (???)
131 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb/2000-q1/msg00803.html
133 I know there are problems with single stepping through signal
134 handlers. These problems were present in 4.18. They were just masked
135 because 4.18 failed to recognize signal handlers. Fixing it is not
136 easy, and will require changes to handle_inferior_event(), that I
137 prefer not to make before the 5.0 release.
143 Revised UDP support (was: Re: [Fwd: [patch] UDP transport support])
144 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00000.html
146 (Broken) support for GDB's remote protocol across UDP is to be
147 included in the follow-on release.
151 ------------------------------------------------
156 The following code cleanups are planned for the follow-on release to
163 The need for this as almost been eliminated. The next version of GCC
164 (assuming cagney gets the relevant patch committed) will be able to
165 supress unused parameter warnings.
169 Delete macro TARGET_BYTE_ORDER_SELECTABLE.
171 Patches in the database.
177 Readline 4.? is out. A merge wouldn't hurt.
183 Eliminate all uses of PARAMS in GDB's source code.
187 Elimination of make_cleanup_func. (Andrew Cagney)
189 make_cleanup_func elimination
190 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00791.html
191 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00814.html
195 ChangeLog.mi vs ChangeLog-mi (Andrew Cagney)
196 Needs further debate.
198 Re: [PATCH] Add change-log variables to more MI files
199 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00811.html
203 Re: Various C++ things
205 value_headof/value_from_vtable_info are worthless, and should be removed.
206 The one place in printcmd.c that uses it should use the RTTI functions.
208 RTTI for g++ should be using the typeinfo functions rather than the vtables.
209 The typeinfo functions are always at offset 4 from the beginning of the vtable,
210 and are always right. The vtables will have weird names like E::VB sometimes.
211 The typeinfo function will always be "E type_info function", or somesuch.
213 value_virtual_fn_field needs to be fixed so there are no failures for virtual
214 functions for C++ using g++.
216 Testsuite cases are the major priority right now for C++ support, since i have
217 to make a lot of changes that could potentially break each other.
221 GDBARCH cleanup (Andrew Cagney)
223 The non-generated parts of gdbarch.{sh,h,c} should be separated out
224 into arch-utils.[hc].
226 The ``info architecture'' command should be replaced with a fixed
227 ``set architecture'' (implemented using the command.c enum code).
229 Document that gdbarch_init_ftype could easily fail because it didn't
230 identify an architecture.
234 Migrate qfThreadInfo packet -> qThreadInfo. (Andrew Cagney)
236 Add support for packet enable/disable commands with these thread
237 packets. General cleanup.
239 [PATCH] Document the ThreadInfo remote protocol queries
240 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00832.html
242 [PATCH] "info threads" queries for remote.c
243 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-q1/msg00831.html
247 Eliminate gdb/tui/Makefile.in.
248 Cleanup configury support for optional sub-directories.
250 Check how GCC handles multiple front ends for an example of how things
251 could work. A tentative first step is to rationalize things so that
252 all sub directories are handled in a fashion similar to gdb/mi.
256 [PATCH/5] src/intl/Makefile.in:distclean additions
257 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00363.html
259 Do not forget to merge the patch back into the trunk.
263 Re: [RFC] Change configure.in so -W arnings match reality
264 http://sourceware.cygnus.com/ml/gdb-patches/2000-04/msg00350.html
266 Some GCC compilers do not like -Wreturn-type. (Going forward there
267 may be more problems like that). Need to check which of the warning
268 options are valid. Need to probably disable warnings by default.
277 Check that GDB can handle all BFD architectures (Andrew Cagney)
279 There should be a test that checks that BFD/GDB are in sync with
280 regard to architecture changes. Something like a test that first
281 queries GDB for all supported architectures and then feeds each back
282 to GDB.. Anyone interested in learning how to write tests? :-)
286 This list is probably not up to date, and opinions vary about the
287 importance or even desirability of some of the items.
289 Document trace machinery.
291 Document overlay machinery.
293 Extend .gdbinit mechanism to specify name on command line, allow for
294 lists of files to load, include function of --tclcommand.
296 @c This does not work (yet if ever). FIXME.
297 @c @item --parse=@var{lang} @dots{}
298 @c Configure the @value{GDBN} expression parser to parse the listed languages.
299 @c @samp{all} configures @value{GDBN} for all supported languages. To get a
300 @c list of all supported languages, omit the argument. Without this
301 @c option, @value{GDBN} is configured to parse all supported languages.
303 Add an "info bfd" command that displays supported object formats,
304 similarly to objdump -i.
306 START_INFERIOR_TRAPS_EXPECTED need never be defined to 2, since that
307 is its default value. Clean this up.
309 It should be possible to use symbols from shared libraries before we know
310 exactly where the libraries will be loaded. E.g. "b perror" before running
311 the program. This could maybe be done as an extension of the "breakpoint
312 re-evaluation" after new symbols are loaded.
314 Make single_step() insert and remove breakpoints in one operation.
316 Speed up single stepping by avoiding extraneous ptrace calls.
318 Speed up single stepping by not inserting and removing breakpoints
319 each time the inferior starts and stops.
321 Breakpoints should not be inserted and deleted all the time. Only the
322 one(s) there should be removed when we have to step over one. Support
323 breakpoints that don't have to be removed to step over them.
325 Update gdbint.texinfo to include doc on the directory structure and
326 the various tricks of building gdb.
328 Do a tutorial in gdb.texinfo on how to do simple things in gdb.
329 E.g. how to set a breakpoint that just prints something and continues.
330 How to break on aborts. Etc.
332 Provide "voodoo" debugging of core files. This creates a zombie
333 process as a child of the debugger, and loads it up with the data,
334 stack, and regs of the core file. This allows you to call functions
335 in the executable, to manipulate the data in the core file.
337 GDB reopens the source file on every line, as you "next" through it.
339 Referencing the vtbl member of a struct doesn't work. It prints OK
340 if you print the struct, but it gets 0 if you try to deref it.
342 Persistent command history: A feature where you could save off a list
343 of the commands you did, so you can edit it into something that will bring
344 the target to the same place every time you source it.
345 This would also be useful for automated fast watchpointing; if you go
346 past the place where it watchpoints, you just start it over again and
347 do it more carefully.
349 Deal with the SunOS 4.0 and 4.1.1 ptrace bug that loses the registers if
350 the stack is paged out.
352 Finish the C++ exception handling stub routines. Lint points them out
353 as unused statics functions.
355 Perhaps "i source" should take an argument like that of "list".
357 See if core-aout.c's fetch_core_registers can be used on more machines.
358 E.g. MIPS (mips-xdep.c).
360 unpack_double() does not handle IEEE float on the target unless the host
361 is also IEEE. Death on a vax.
363 Set up interface between GDB and INFO so that you can hop into interactive
364 INFO and back out again. When running under Emacs, should use Emacs
365 info, else fork the info program. Installation of GDB should install
366 its texinfo files into the info tree automagically, including the readline
369 "help address" ought to find the "help set print address" entry.
371 Remove the VTBL internal guts from printouts of C++ structs, unless
374 Remove "at 0xnnnn" from the "b foo" response, if `print address off' and if
375 it matches the source line indicated.
377 The prompt at end of screen should accept space as well as CR.
379 Check STORE_RETURN_VALUE on all architectures. Check near it in tm-sparc.h
380 for other bogosities.
382 Check for storage leaks in GDB, I'm sure there are a lot!
384 vtblprint of a vtbl should demangle the names it's printing.
386 Backtrace should point out what the currently selected frame is, in
387 its display, perhaps showing "@3 foo (bar, ...)" or ">3 foo (bar,
388 ...)" rather than "#3 foo (bar, ...)".
390 "i program" should work for core files, and display more info, like what
391 actually caused it to die.
393 "x/10i" should shorten the long name, if any, on subsequent lines.
395 Check through the code for FIXME comments and fix them. dbxread.c,
396 blockframe.c, and plenty more. (I count 634 as of 940621 - sts)
398 "next" over a function that longjumps, never stops until next time you happen
399 to get to that spot by accident. E.g. "n" over execute_command which has
402 "set zeroprint off", don't bother printing members of structs which
403 are entirely zero. Useful for those big structs with few useful
406 GDB does four ioctl's for every command, probably switching terminal modes
407 to/from inferior or for readline or something.
409 terminal_ours versus terminal_inferior: cache state. Switch should be a noop
410 if the state is the same, too.
414 Clean up invalid_float handling so gdb doesn't coredump when it tries to
415 access a NaN. While this might work on SPARC, other machines are not
418 "b value_at ; commands ; continue ; end" stops EVERY OTHER TIME!
419 Then once you enter a command, it does the command, runs two more
420 times, and then stops again! Bizarre... (This behaviour has been
421 modified, but it is not yet 100% predictable when e.g. the commands
422 call functions in the child, and while there, the child is interrupted
423 with a signal, or hits a breakpoint.)
425 help completion, help history should work.
427 Check that we can handle stack trace through varargs AND alloca in same
430 wait_for_inferior loops forever if wait() gives it an error.
432 "i frame" shows wrong "arglist at" location, doesn't show where the args
433 should be found, only their actual values.
435 There should be a way for "set" commands to validate the new setting
436 before it takes effect.
438 A mess of floating point opcodes are missing from sparc-opcode.h.
439 Also, a little program should test the table for bits that are
440 overspecified or underspecified. E.g. if the must-be-ones bits
441 and the must-be-zeroes bits leave some fields unexamined, and the format
442 string leaves them unprinted, then point this out. If multiple
443 non-alias patterns match, point this out too. Finally, there should
444 be a sparc-optest.s file that tries each pattern out. This file
445 should end up coming back the same (modulo transformation comments)
446 if fed to "gas" then the .o is fed to gdb for disassembly.
448 Eliminate all the core_file_command's in all the xdep files.
449 Eliminate separate declarations of registers[] everywhere.
451 "ena d" is ambiguous, why? "ena delete" seems to think it is a command!
453 Perhaps move the tdep, xdep, and nat files, into the config
454 subdirectories. If not, at least straighten out their names so that
455 they all start with the machine name.
457 inferior_status should include stop_print_frame. It won't need to be
458 reset in wait_for_inferior after bpstat_stop_status call, then.
460 i line VAR produces "Line number not known for symbol ``var''.". I
461 thought we were stashing that info now!
463 We should be able to write to random files at hex offsets like adb.
465 Make "target xxx" command interruptible.
467 Handle add_file with separate text, data, and bss addresses. Maybe
468 handle separate addresses for each segment in the object file?
470 Handle free_named_symtab to cope with multiply-loaded object files
471 in a dynamic linking environment. Should remember the last copy loaded,
472 but not get too snowed if it finds references to the older copy.
474 Generalize and Standardize the RPC interface to a target program,
475 improve it beyond the "ptrace" interface, and see if it can become a
476 standard for remote debugging. (This is talking about the vxworks
477 interface. Seems unlikely to me that there will be "a standard" for
478 remote debugging anytime soon --kingdon, 8 Nov 1994).
480 Remove all references to:
487 now that we have BFD. All remaining are in machine dependent files.
489 When quitting with a running program, if a core file was previously
490 examined, you get "Couldn't read float regs from core file"...if
491 indeed it can't. generic_mourn_inferior...
493 Have remote targets give a warning on a signal argument to
494 target_resume. Or better yet, extend the protocols so that it works
495 like it does on the Unix-like systems.
497 Sort help and info output.
499 Re-organize help categories into things that tend to fit on a screen
502 renote-nindy.c handles interrupts poorly; it error()s out of badly
503 chosen places, e.g. leaving current_frame zero, which causes core dumps
506 Add in commands like ADB's for searching for patterns, etc. We should
507 be able to examine and patch raw unsymboled binaries as well in gdb as
508 we can in adb. (E.g. increase the timeout in /bin/login without source).
510 Those xdep files that call register_addr without defining it are
511 probably simply broken. When reconfiguring this part of gdb, I could
512 only make guesses about how to redo some of those files, and I
513 probably guessed wrong, or left them "for later" when I have a
514 machine that can attempt to build them.
516 When doing "step" or "next", if a few lines of source are skipped between
517 the previous line and the current one, print those lines, not just the
518 last line of a multiline statement.
520 When searching for C++ superclasses in value_cast in valops.c, we must
521 not search the "fields", only the "superclasses". There might be a
522 struct with a field name that matches the superclass name. This can
523 happen when the struct was defined before the superclass (before the
524 name became a typedef).
526 Handling of "&" address-of operator needs some serious overhaul
527 for ANSI C and consistency on arrays and functions.
528 For "float point[15];":
529 ptype &point[4] ==> Attempt to take address of non-lvalue.
530 For "char *malloc();":
531 ptype malloc ==> "char *()"; should be same as
532 ptype &malloc ==> "char *(*)()"
533 call printf ("%x\n", malloc) ==> weird value, should be same as
534 call printf ("%x\n", &malloc) ==> correct value
536 Fix dbxread.c symbol reading in the presence of interrupts. It
537 currently leaves a cleanup to blow away the entire symbol table when a
538 QUIT occurs. (What's wrong with that? -kingdon, 28 Oct 1993).
540 Mipsread.c reads include files depth-first, because the dependencies
541 in the psymtabs are way too inclusive (it seems to me). Figure out what
542 really depends on what, to avoid recursing 20 or 30 times while reading
545 value_add() should be subtracting the lower bound of arrays, if known,
546 and possibly checking against the upper bound for error reporting.
548 mipsread.c symbol table allocation and deallocation should be checked.
549 My suspicion is that it's full of memory leaks.
551 SunOS should have a target_lookup_symbol() for common'd things allocated
552 by the shared library linker ld.so.
554 When listing source lines, check for a preceding \n, to verify that
555 the file hasn't changed out from under us.
557 When listing source lines, eat leading whitespace corresponding to the
558 line-number prefix we print. This avoids long lines wrapping.
560 mipsread.c needs to check for old symtabs and psymtabs for the same
561 files, the way it happens for dbxread.c and coffread.c, for VxWorks
562 incremental symbol table reloading.
564 Get all the remote systems (where the protocol allows it) to be able to
565 stop the remote system when the GDB user types ^C (like remote.c
566 does). For ebmon, use ^Ak.
568 Possible feature: A version of the "disassemble" command which shows
569 both source and assembly code ("set symbol-filename on" is a partial
572 investigate "x/s 0" (right now stops early) (I think maybe GDB is
573 using a 0 address for bad purposes internally).
575 Make "info path" and path_command work again (but independent of the
576 environment either of gdb or that we'll pass to the inferior).
578 Make GDB understand the GCC feature for putting octal constants in
579 enums. Make it so overflow on an enum constant does not error_type
580 the whole type. Allow arbitrarily large enums with type attributes.
581 Put all this stuff in the testsuite.
583 Make TYPE_CODE_ERROR with a non-zero TYPE_LENGTH more useful (print
584 the value in hex; process type attributes). Add this to the
585 testsuite. This way future compilers can add new types and old
586 versions of GDB can do something halfway reasonable.
588 Clean up formatting of "info registers" on MIPS and 88k. See if it
589 is possible to do this generically across all target architectures.
591 GDB gets bfd/corefile.c and gdb/corefile.c confused (this should be easy to
592 repeat even with something more recent than GDB 4.9).
594 Check that unmatched RBRAC doesn't abort().
596 Fix mdebugread.c:parse_type to do fundamental types right (see
597 rs6000_builtin_type in stabsread.c for what "right" is--the point is
598 that the debug format fixes the sizes of these things and it shouldn't
599 depend on stuff like TARGET_PTR_BIT and so on. For mdebug, there seem
600 to be separate bt* codes for 64 bit and 32 bit things, and GDB should
601 be aware of that). Also use a switch statement for clarity and speed.
603 Investigate adding symbols in target_load--some targets do, some
606 Put dirname in psymtabs and change lookup*symtab to use dirname (so
607 /foo/bar.c works whether compiled by cc /foo/bar.c, or cd /foo; cc
610 Merge xcoffread.c and coffread.c. Use breakpoint_re_set instead of
613 Fix byte order and int size sins in tm-a29k.h
614 (EXTRACT_RETURN_VALUE). Perhaps should reproduce bug and verify fix
615 (or perhaps should just fix it...).
617 Make a watchpoint on a constant expression an error (or warning
620 Make a watchpoint which contains a function call an error (it is
621 broken now, making it work is probably not worth the effort).
623 Re-do calls to signal() in remote.c, and inflow.c (set_sigint_trap and
624 so on) to be independent of the debugging target, using target_stop to
625 stop the inferior. Probably the part which is now handled by
626 interrupt_query in remote.c can be done without any new features in
627 the debugging target.
629 New test case based on weird.exp but in which type numbers are not
630 renumbered (thus multiply defining a type). This currently causes an
631 infinite loop on "p v_comb".
637 "source file more recent" loses on re-read
639 Fix 386 floating point so that floating point registers are real
640 registers (but code can deal at run-time if they are missing, like
641 mips and 68k). This would clean up "info float" and related stuff.
643 Look at Solaris bug in interrupt.exp. Can get out of syscall with
644 PRSABORT (syscall will return EINTR) but merely doing that leads to a
645 "can't read memory" error.
647 gcc -g -c enummask.c then gdb enummask.o, then "p v". GDB complains
648 about not being able to access memory location 0.
650 -------------------- enummask.c
669 If try to modify value in file with "set write off" should give
670 appropriate error not "cannot access memory at address 0x65e0".
672 Why do we allow a target to omit standard register names (NO_STD_REGS
673 in tm-z8k.h)? I thought the standard register names were supposed to
674 be just that, standard.
676 Allow core file without exec file on RS/6000.
678 Make sure "shell" with no arguments works right on DOS.
680 Make gdb.ini (as well as .gdbinit) be checked on all platforms, so
681 the same directory can be NFS-mounted on unix or DOS, and work the
684 cd ~/tmp/<M-?> causes infinite loop (where ~/tmp is a directory).
686 Get SECT_OFF_TEXT stuff out of objfile_relocate (might be needed to
687 get RS/6000 to work right, might not be immediately relevant).
689 Clean up add_toc_to_loadinfo
691 Think about attached processes and sharing terminal.
693 John sez in reference to ignoring errors from tcsegpgrp if attach_flag:
694 set_tty_state should not have any trouble with attached processes.
695 Instead, the tty handling should leave the pgrp of the tty alone when
696 attaching to processes (perhaps pass terminal_init_inferior a flag
697 saying whether we're attaching).
699 PAGE_SIZE redefined warnings on AIX. Probably should be using
700 BFD_PAGE_SIZE throughout BFD.
702 Rewrite proceed, wait_for_inferior, and normal_stop to clean them up.
705 1) Make each test in wait_for_inferior a seperate subroutine
707 2) Combine wait_for_inferior and normal_stop to clean up
708 communication via global variables.
709 3) See if you can find some way to clean up the global
710 variables that are used; possibly group them by data flow
711 and information content?
713 Work out some kind of way to allow running the inferior to be done as
714 a sub-execution of, eg. breakpoint command lists. Currently running
715 the inferior interupts any command list execution. This would require
716 some rewriting of wait_for_inferior & friends, and hence should
717 probably be done in concert with the above.
719 Add function arguments to gdb user defined functions.
721 Add convenience variables that refer to exec file, symbol file,
722 selected frame source file, selected frame function, selected frame
725 Add a "suspend" subcommand of the "continue" command to suspend gdb
726 while continuing execution of the subprocess. Useful when you are
727 debugging servers and you want to dodge out and initiate a connection
728 to a server running under gdb.
730 Add stab information to allow reasonable debugging of inline functions
731 (possibly they should show up on a stack backtrace? With a note
732 indicating that they weren't "real"?).
734 Modify the naked "until" command to step until past the current source
735 line, rather than past the current pc value. This is tricky simply
736 because the low level routines have no way of specifying a multi-line
737 step range, and there is no way of saying "don't print stuff when we
738 stop" from above (otherwise could just call step many times).
740 Modify the handling of symbols grouped through BINCL/EINCL stabs to
741 allocate a partial symtab for each BINCL/EINCL grouping. This will
742 seriously decrease the size of inter-psymtab dependencies and hence
743 lessen the amount that needs to be read in when a new source file is
746 Do an "x/i $pc" after each stepi or nexti.
748 Modify all of the disassemblers to use printf_filtered to get correct
751 Modify gdb to work correctly with Pascal.
753 Add a command for searching memory, a la adb. It specifies size,
754 mask, value, start address. ADB searches until it finds it or hits
755 an error (or is interrupted).
757 Remove the range and type checking code and documentation, if not