This commit was inspired by these mailing list posts:
https://sourceware.org/pipermail/gdb-patches/2022-June/190323.htmlhttps://sourceware.org/pipermail/gdb-patches/2022-April/188098.html
The idea is to add a new function gdb::checked_static_cast, which can,
in some cases, be used as a drop-in replacement for static_cast. And
so, if I previously wrote this:
BaseClass *base = get_base_class_pointer ();
DerivedClass *derived = static_cast<DerivedClass *> (base);
I can now write:
BaseClass *base = get_base_class_pointer ();
DerivedClass *derived = gdb::checked_static_cast<DerivedClass *> (base);
The requirement is that BaseClass and DerivedClass must be
polymorphic.
The benefit of making this change is that, when GDB is built in
developer mode, a run-time check will be made to ensure that `base`
really is of type DerivedClass before the cast is performed. If
`base` is not of type DerivedClass then GDB will assert.
In a non-developer build gdb::checked_static_cast is equivalent to a
static_cast, and there should be no performance difference.
This commit adds the support function, but does not make use of this
function, a use will be added in the next commit.
Co-Authored-By: Pedro Alves <pedro@palves.net>
Co-Authored-By: Tom Tromey <tom@tromey.com>
