[Bug] GEF supports Python 3.6+ but uses f-string debugging only introduced in Python 3.8+, breaking compatibility

[Unactived]

GEF+GDB version

Cannot run `version` as `GEF` fails to run because of the bug.

GDB is `GNU gdb (Debian 8.3.1-1) 8.3.1`

GEF is AFAIK latest as of writing, just downloaded from https://gef.blah.cat/py

System version of Python 3 is 3.7.5

Operating System

Kali GNU/Linux Rolling Release 2019.4

Describe the issue you encountered

Hello, I attempted to install and use GEF, with GDB and Python versions matching stated requirements.
However, GEF crashes at startup of GDB and GDB remains vanilla.

The error is a Python SyntaxError: invalid syntax. The culprit line* is using the = specifier for f-strings, which was only added in Python 3.8.

* I allege it is

gef/gef.py

Line 9826 in 8031fda

dbg(f"Loading extra plugins from {directory=}")

Suggested fix is rewriting the culprit line in a retro-compatible manner, e.g. dbg(f"Loading extra plugins from directory={directory}") ; or changing the Minimum Supported Python Version to 3.8.

N.B: There is a second culprit line (2 culprit expressions) which crashes upon fixing the first one:

gef/gef.py

Line 11009 in 8031fda

dbg(f"in __invoke_changed_hooks(\"{name}\"), {setting.value=} -> {new_value=}, changing={bool(setting.value != new_value)}")

Fixing that one as well, it appears GEF starts without issue. I suspect there are no more other issues as the whole file would be parsed at startup.

Do you read the docs and look at previously closed issues/PRs for similar cases?

Yes

Architecture impacted

• X86
• X64
• ARM
• ARM64
• MIPS
• MIPS64
• PPC
• PPC64
• RISCV

Describe your issue. Without a proper reproduction step-by-step, your issue will be ignored.

• Use a system featuring GDB 8.0+ and Python 3.6 or 3.7
• Setup source of GEF's Python code as per documentation

wget -O ~/.gdbinit-gef.py -q https://gef.blah.cat/py
echo source ~/.gdbinit-gef.py >> ~/.gdbinit

• Run gdb -q
• Observed output:

  File "<fstring>", line 1
    (directory=)
              ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
(gdb) 

Minimalist test case

No response

Additional context?

No response