Using the GNU Visual Debugger

Version 1.2.0

Document revision level 1.54

Date: 2001/04/24 12:46:07

ACT-Europe

The Menu Bar

File
Edit

Preferences...

Integrating GVD

Debugging a program remotely

Environment

Reporting bugs

Copyright (C) 2000-2001, ACT-Europe. This document may be copied, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, as is or with alterations, provided that (1) alterations are clearly marked as alterations and (2) this copyright notice is included unmodified in any copy.

Introduction

GVD is a graphical front-end for text based debuggers such as GDB. A knowledge of the basics of the underlying debugger used by GVD will help understanding how GVD works and what kind of functionalities it provides. Please refer to the debugger specific documentation (e.g the GDB documentation) for more details.

The purpose of a debugger such as GVD is to allow you to see what is going on inside another program while it executes, or what another program was doing at the moment it crashed.

Description of the main windows

main-window

The Menu Bar

The menu bar provides operations that act either at a global level, or on a specific debugger. Since GVD can handle multiple debuggers at the same time, the commands that deal with debugging on a specific module are always using the current debugger to perform the various operations provided by the menus. Key shortcuts are also available for the most common operations, and are displayed in the menus themselves. Here is a detailed list of the menu items that can be found in the menu bar:

File

Open Program...: Open a file selection dialog that allows you to choose a program to debug. The program to debug is either an executable for native debugging, or a partially linked module for cross environments (e.g VxWorks). Do not use this menu to edit a source file, see the section The Explorer Window, or the section open source menu.
New Debugger...: Open a dialog to create a new debugger window. The new debugger window will by default (when the Replace Current Debugger check button is active) replace the current debugger. Otherwise, it will be added in the main window as an additional debugger. This dialog allows you to specify the name of the executable to debug by entering its name in the Program File entry, or by clicking on the ... button to open a file selection dialog. You can also select the machine on which your underlying debugger (e.g GDB) will run. By default, the debugger will run on the current machine (the machine on which GVD is running), so you only need to specify a value for remote debugging. For more information, see section Debugging a program remotely. Limitation: under Windows systems, you can only have one debugger window at a time, so you have to replace the current debugger with a new one, and launch several GVDs to debug multiple processes. See also the section close menu, to close a debugger window explicitely.
Open Core Dump...: This will open a file selection dialog that allows you to debug a core file instead of debugging a running process. Note that you must first specify an executable to debug, by either using the section open program menu, or by specifying the name of the executable on the command line (see section Command Line Options).
Edit Source: Launch an external editor that will open the file currently displayed in se source window (see section The Source Window). You can specify the name of the external editor by using the section preferences menu.
Open Source...: Open a file selection dialog that allows you to load any source file in the source window. You can also open directly the source files used in your application by using section The Explorer Window.
Open Session...: Open a dialog giving you the list of sessions that are saved under the `$HOME/.gvd/sessions' directory under Unix systems, and `%HOME%\.gvd\sessions' under Windows systems. The Session List area lists all such sessions. The Session field shows the current selection (that can be filled either by entering the name on the keyboard, or by clicking in the Session List window). The right area gives you a list of sub-sessions, or debuggers launched during a selected session. You can select any of the debuggers of a specific session in order to replay one, some or all of them. To select the debuggers, either click on the check box on the left of each item, or use the Select All and Unselect All buttons. If you confirm by clicking on the OK button, GVD will open a new debugger for each sub session selected and will replay all the commands automatically.
Save Session As...: Open a dialog similar to the Open Session dialog, allowing you to specify the name of the session to save, and what sub sessions/debuggers to save. By default, this will save all the sub sessions ran in GVD since start up.
Attach To Process...: Instead of starting a program to debug, you can instead attach GVD to an already running process. To do so, you need to specify the process id of the process you want to debug. The process might be busy in an infinite loop, or waiting for event processing. Note that as for section core files, you need to specify an executable before attaching to a process.
Detach Process: Detach the currently debugged process from the underlying debugger. This means that the executable will continue to run outside GVD. You can use the Attach To Process menu to re-attach later to this process.
Change Directory...: Open a directory selection dialog to change the directory in the underlying debugger. Useful in particular before executing a process, or loading a file using a relative path.
Close: Close the current debugger. If this is the last debugger, the main window will remain visible, but with a gray area instead of the notebook containing the Data, Explorer, Source and Debugger windows. To create a new debugger, see also the section new debugger menu.
Exit: Save the window settings and exit GVD.

Edit

The only item currently available in this menu is the preferences menu.

Preferences...

Open a dialog window allowing you to modify the global preferences of GVD. To enable the new preferences, you simply need to confirm by pressing the OK button. The preferences will be saved in a file located under `$HOME/.gvd/preferences' under Unix systems, and `%HOME%\.gvd\preferences' under Windows systems.

To simply test your changes, you can use the Test button. Pressing the Cancel button will undo all your changes.

The preferences dialog is composed of five areas, accessible through the tabs at the top of the dialog, labelled General, Source, Data, Command, Memory, Helpers. Each page corresponds to a section of preferences.

General

Give access to the general preferences in GVD.

Break On Exceptions: Whether a breakpoint on all exceptions should be set by default when loading a program.
Status Bar Time Out: Time after which a message in the status bar will disappear. Messages that have disappeared can be displayed using the arrow in the bottom left area of the main window.
File Extensions: Filename extensions recognized for each of the following supported languages: Ada, C, C++. Each text entry is a semicolon separated list of filename extensions, e.g .ads;.adb for Ada files.

Source

You can modify the preferences for the Explorer, Source, and Assembly windows, in particular the font and colors used to highlight elements.

Display Explorer Tree: Whether the list of files should be displayed.
File Name Background: Color used for the background of the file name in the editor. This is also used for the background of the current frame in the Call Stack window.
Font: Font used in the editor.
Show Line Numbers: Whether line numbers should be displayed in the code editor.
Show Lines with Code: Whether dots should be displayed in the code editor for lines that contain code.
Automatic Display of Variables: Whether tooltips should appear automatically to display the value of the variable under the cursor.
Syntax Highlighting: Indicate whether the editor should provide color highlighting.
Strip Carriage Return: Whether Carriage Return characters will be stripped when reading a file. GVD tries to detect this automatically but in some rare cases, it can be useful to enable this option by hand.
Comments: Color used for comments.
Strings: Color used for string literals.
Keywords: Color used for keywords.
Current Line: The color to use to highlight the current line in the editor

Data

Let you change the preferences of the Data Window, in particular the fonts and colors used to display the data graphically.

Clickable Item: Color to use for the items that are clickable (e.g pointers).
Title Background: Color to use for the background of the title.
Changed Data: Color used to highlight fields that have changed since the last update.
Auto-Refreshed: Color used for auto-refreshed items.
Frozen: Color used for frozen items.
Separate Window: Whether the Data window should be a separate window.
3D Look: Whether the items should have a 3d look.
Item Name: Font used for the name of the item.
Item Value: Font used to display the value of the item.
Item Type: Font used to display the type of the item.
Hide Big Items: Whether items larger than a given size will start in a hidden state.
Big Item Height: Items taller than this value will start hidden.
Detect Aliased (shared data structures): If enabled, do not create new items when an item with the same address is already present in the canvas.
Display Grid Points: Whether the grid should be displayed in the canvas.
Auto-Align Displays on Nearest Grid Point: Whether items should be aligned on the grid.
Show Call Stack: Whether the Call Stack view should be shown in the data window.

Command

Enable you to change the preferences of the Debugger Console, also known as the Command Window.

Color Highlighting: Set the color used to highlight debugger commands and prompts.
Font: Set the font name and size for the Debugger Console. Note that it is recommended to use a fixed size font such as Courier to get a better looking display.

Memory

Gives access to the preferences related to the memory view window. The values are currently not taken into account.

Font: Set the font name and size to display the contents of the memory. It is recommended to use a fixed size font such as Courier to get a better looking display.
Default Color: Color used by default in the memory view window.
Color Highlighting: Color used for highlighted items in the memory view.
Selection: Color used for selected items in the memory view.
Modified: Color used for modified items in the memory view.

Helpers

Helpers are external programs that are used by GVD to perform specific actions.

Edit Sources: Program used by the Edit Current Source menu. Special arguments are %f that is replaced by the full path name to the current file, and %l that is replaced by the current line number. This value is superseded by the environment variable GVD_EDITOR if it exists (see also section GVD_EDITOR). Try e.g using "xterm -e /bin/vi %f +%l" if you prefer vi.
List Processes: This is the command that generates a list of processes suitable for process actions such as attach. This helper is ignored under Windows when using a local debugger, since the computation of the list of processes is built-in under this OS.
Remote Shell: Command used to establish a remote connection (see section Using GVD with a Remote Debugger).
Remote Copy: Command used to copy files remotely (see section Using GVD with a Remote Debugger).
HTML Browser: Command used to browse HTML files, in particular the HTML version of this help file.

Program

Run/Start...: Open a dialog window allowing you to specify the arguments to pass to the program, and whether the program should be stopped at the beginning of the main program. If you confirm by clicking on the OK button, the program will be launched according to the arguments entered.
Step: Step the program until it reaches a different source line.
Step Instruction: Step the program by one machine instruction exactly.
Next: Step the program, proceeding through subroutine calls.
Next Instruction: Step the program by one machine instruction but proceed through subroutine calls.
Finish: Continue until selected stack frame returns.
Continue: Continue the program being debugged.
Interrupt: Interrupt asynchronously the program being debugged. Note that depending on the state of the program, you may stop it in low level system code that does not have debug information, or even in some cases, a coherent state. Use of breakpoints is recommended instead to stop programs.

Command

Command History...: Open a dialog with the list of commands executed in the current session. You can select any number of items in this list and replay the selection automatically.
Clear Window: Clear the debugger console window. This removes the recording of interchanges between GVD and the underlying debugger, and resets the scrollbar accordingly.

Data

Note that most items in this menu need to access to the underlying debugger when the process is stopped, not when it is running, which means that you first need to stop the process on a breakpoint, or interrupt it before using the following items. Failing to do so will result in blank windows.

Call Stack: Display/Hide the Call Stack window inside the Data window. See section The Call Stack Window for more details. Note that you can also display or hide the call stack at the preferences level, see section Show Call Stack.
Threads...: The process being debugged needs to be stopped before using this window, otherwise a blank list will be displayed. Open a new window containing the list of threads currently present in the executable as reported by the underlying debugger. For each thread, it will give information such as internal identifier, name and status. This information is language and debugger dependent. You should refer to the underlying debugger's documentation for more details. When supported by the underlying debugger, clicking on a thread will change the context (variables, call stack, source file) displayed by GVD, allowing you to inspect the new thread's stack.
Tasks...: As for the thread window, the process being debugged needs to be stopped before using this window. For GDB only, this will open a new window containing the list of Ada tasks currently present in the executable. Similarly to the thread window, you can switch to the task context by clicking on it, if supported by GDB. See the GDB documentation for the list of items displayed for each task.
Edit Breakpoints...: Open an advanced window to create any kind of breakpoint. For simple breakpoint creation, see the description of the source window.
Examine Memory...: Open a memory viewer/editor. See section The Memory Window for more details.
Display Local Variables: Open an item in the Data Window containing all the local variables for the current frame.
Display Arguments: Open an item in the Data Window containing the arguments for the current frame.
Display Registers: Open an item in the Data Window containing the machine registers for the current frame.
Display Any Expression...: Open a small dialog letting you specify an arbitrary expression in the Data Window. This expression can be a variable name, or a more complex expression, following the syntax of the underlying debugger. See the documentation of e.g gdb for more details on the syntax. The check button Expression is a subprogram call should be enabled if the expression is actually not an expression but rather a debugger command (e.g p/x var) or a procedure call in the program being debugged (e.g call my_proc).
Refresh: Refresh all the items displayed in the Data Window.

Help

GVD Manual...: Open this documentation in an HTML browser (as specified in the section HTML browser).
About...: Open a simple information box about GVD.

The Tool Bar

The tool bar can be detached from the main window, using the left area: click on this left gray area, and move your mouse outside the window. The tool bar will be detached and its form will also change from a horizontal bar to a vertical bar with two columns. To move it back to the main window, double click on the left area.

Run: Run the program using the arguments set previously (e.g on the command line).
Start: Same as Run, but stops at the beginning of the main subprogram.
Step: Step the program until it reaches a different source line.
Stepi: Step the program by one machine instruction exactly.
Next: Step the program, proceeding through subroutine calls.
Nexti: Step the program by one machine instruction but proceed through subroutine calls.
Finish: Continue until selected stack frame returns.
Cont: Continue the program being debugged.
Up: Go up one frame in the call stack.
Down: Go down one frame in the call stack.
Interrupt: Interrupt asynchronously the program being debugged. Note that depending on the state of the program, you may stop it in low level system code that does not have debug information, or even in some cases, a coherent state. Use of breakpoints is recommended instead to stop programs.

The Call Stack Window

The call stack window gives a list of frames corresponding to the current stack of execution for the current thread/task. The top frame corresponds to the outermost frame where the thread is currently stopped. This frame corresponds to the first function executed by the current thread (e.g main for the main thread in C). You can click on any frame to switch to the caller's context, this will update the display in the source window. See also the up and down buttons in the tool bar to go up and down one frame in the call stack.

The contextual menu (right mouse button) allows you to choose which information you want to display in the call stack window (via check buttons):

Frame number: the debugger frame number (usually starts at 0 or 1)
Program Counter: the low level address corresponding to the function's entry point.
Subprogram Name: name of the subprogram in a given frame
Parameters: parameters of the subprogram
File Location: filename and line number information.

By default, the subprogram and parameters are displayed. You can hide the call stack window using the menu Data->Call Stack, and show it again using the same menu (this menu item is a check button that can be enabled/disabled)

The Data Window

Description

The data window will contain all the graphic boxes that can be accessed using the Data->Display menu items, or the data window Display Expression... contextual menu, or the source window Display contextual menu items, or finally the graph command in the debugger console.

For each of these commands, a box will be displayed in the data window with the following information:

canvas

A title bar containing:
- The number of this expression: this is a positive number starting from 1 and incremented for each new box displayed. It represents the internal identifier of the box.
- The name of the expression: this is the expression or variable specified when creating the box.
- An icon representing either a flash light, or a lock. This is a click-able icon that will change the state of the box from automatically updated (the flash light icon) to frozen (the lock icon). When frozen, the value is grayed, and will never change, until you change the state. When updated, the value of the box will be recomputed each time an execution command is sent to the debugger (e.g step, next).
- An icon representing an 'X'. You can click on this icon to close/delete any box.
A main area. The main area will display the data value hierarchically in a language sensitive manner. The canvas knows about data structures of various languages (e.g C, Ada, C++) and will organize them accordingly. For example, each field of a record/struct/class, or each item of an array will be displayed separately. For each subcomponent, a thin box is displayed to separate it from the other components.

A contextual menu, taking into account the current component pointed to by the mouse, gives access to the following capabilities:

Close component: Close the selected item.
Hide all component: Hide all subcomponents of the selected item. To select a particular field or item in a record/array, move your mouse over the name of this component, not over the box containing the values for this item.
Show all component: Show all subcomponents of the selected item.
Clone component: Clone the selected component into a new, independant item.
View memory at &component: Bring up the memory view dialog and explore memory at the address of the component.
Set value of component: Set the value of a selected component. This will open an entry box where you can enter the new value of a variable/component. Note that GDB does not perform any type or range checking on the value entered.
Update Value: Refresh the value displayed in the selected item.
Show Value: Show only the value of the item.
Show Type: Show only the type of each field for the item.
Show Value+Type: Show both the value and the type of the item.
Auto refresh: Enable or disable the automatic refreshing of the item upon program execution (e.g step, next).

A contextual menu can be accessed in the canvas itself (point the mouse to an empty area in the canvas, and click on the right mouse button) with the following entries:

Display Expression...: Open a small dialog letting you specify an arbitrary expression in the Data Window. This expression can be a variable name, or a more complex expression, following the syntax of the current language and underlying debugger. See the documentation of e.g gdb for more details on the syntax. The check button Expression is a subprogram call should be enabled if the expression is actually not an expression but rather a debugger command (e.g p/x var) or a procedure call in the program being debugged (e.g call my_proc).
Align On Grid: Enable or disable alignment of items on the grid.
Detect Aliases: Enable or disable the automatic detection of shared data structures. Each time you display an item or dereference a pointer, GVD look at all the items already displayed on the canvas and compares their addresses with the address of the new item to display. If they match, GVD will not create a new item, but it will create a link (if you tried to dereference a pointer).
Zoom in: Redisplay the items in the data window with a bigger font
Zoom out: Display the items in the data window with smaller fonts and pixmaps. This can be used when you have several items in the window and you can't see all of them at the same time (for instance if you are displaying a tree and want to clearly see its structure).
Zoom: This allows you to choose the zoom level directly from a menu.

Manipulating items

Moving items

All the items on the canvas have some common behavior and can be fully manipulated with the mouse.

They can be moved freely anywhere on the canvas, simply by clicking on them and then dragging the mouse. Note that if you are trying to move an item outside of the visible area of the data window, the latter will be scrolled so as to make the new position visible.

Automatic scrolling is also provided if you move the mouse, while dragging an item, near the borders of the data window. As long as the mouse remains close to the border and the button is pressed on the item, the data window is scrolled and the item is moved. This provides an easy way to move an item a long distance from its initial position.

Colors

Most of the items are displayed using several colors, each conveying a special meaning. Here is the description for all the colors (note that the exact color can be changed through the preferences dialog; these are the default colors):

colors

black: This is the default color used to print the value of variables or expressions.
blue: This color is used for C pointers (or Ada access values), ie all the variables and fields that are memory addresses pointing to some other value in memory. You can easily dereference these (see the value pointed to) by double-clicking on the blue text itself.
red: This color is used for variables and fields whose value has changed since the data window was last displayed. For instance, if you display an array in the data window and then select the Next button in the toolbar, then the elements of the array whose value has just changed will appear in red. As another example, if you choose to display the value of local variables in the data window (Display->Display Local Variables), then only the variables whose value has changed are highlighted, the others are left in black.

Icons

Several different icons can be used to in the display of items. They also convey special meanings.

trash bin icon: This icon indicates that the debugger could not get the value of the variable or expression. There might be several reasons, for instance the variable is currently not in scope (and thus does not exist), or it might have been optimized away by the compiler. In all cases, GVD will update the display as soon as the variable becomes visible again.
package icon: This icon indicates that part of a complex structure is currently hidden. Manipulating huge items in the data window (for instance if the variable is an array of hundreds of complex elements) might not be very helpful. As a result, GVD gives you the opportunity to shrink part of the value to save some screen space and make it easier to visualize the interesting parts of these variables. See section hiding big items to enable or disable this facility, and to set the threshold used to hide items automatically. Double-clicking on this icon will expand the hidden part, and clicking on any sub-rectangle in the display of the variable will hide that part and replace it with that icon. See also the description of the contextual menu to automatically show or hide all the contents of an item. Note also that one alternative to hidding subcomponents is to clone them in a separate item (see the contextual menu again).

The Memory Window

memory-view

The memory window allows you to display the contents of the memory given either an address, or a variable name.

To display memory contents, enter the address with the C hexadecimal form: 0xabcd, or the name of a variable, e.g foo in the Location text entry. In the latter case, GVD will compute its address automatically. Then either press Enter or click on the View button. This will display the memory with the corresponding addresses in the bottom text area.

You can also specify the unit size (Byte, Halfword or Word), the format (Hexadecimal, Decimal, Octal or ASCII), and you can display the corresponding ASCII value at the same time.

The up and down arrows as well as the Page up and Page down keys in the memory text area allows you to walk through the memory.

Finally, you can modify a memory area by simply clicking on the location you want to modify, and by entering the new values. Modified values will appear in a different color (red by default) and will only be taken into account (i.e written to the target) when you click on the Submit changes button. Clicking on the Undo changes or going up/down in the memory will undo your editing.

Clicking on Close will close the memory window, cancelling your last nonsubmitted changes, if any.

The Explorer Window

explorer

The explorer window gives a fast access to the files contained in the module you debug (and that have been compiled with debug information). Note that you can have multiple entries with the same file name if there are duplicate file name located at different places (which can either be different files, e.g /usr/include/signal.h and /usr/include/sys/signal.h, or identical files located in different source paths).

Each file can be opened (by clicking on the + icon on the left of the file name, or double clicking on the file name), giving access to language sensitive information such as packages, functions, tasks, etc... You can then open each of these sections and by selecting an item, the source editor will select and jump to this item.

Note: some items are disabled until an executable is loaded using either the Open Program, Open Core Dump, or Attach Process menu, or the corresponding commands in the debugger console.

Contextual menu:

Hide System Files: Hide the files that are part of the system. This currently only affects Ada programs compiled with GNAT, and will hide the GNAT run time files used by the executable.
Reload Files: Recompute the list of files. this is particularly useful when the program uses shared libraries that are not known until the program references them.
Delete Files Not Found: Delete the files that cannot be found on the file system. Note that this operation can take a long time to complete.
Show Current File: Highlight the file containing the current execution point.

The Source Window

The source window is composed of two main areas. The first is a small column on the left containing the following information:

Lines with code: In this area, blue dots are shown that represent lines for which the debugger has debug information, in other words, lines that have been compiled with debug information and for which the compiler has generated some code. Currently, GVD does not check whether you try to set a breakpoint on a dotted line or not, and it will simply send the breakpoint command to the underlying debugger. This will usually (e.g in the case of gdb) result in setting a breakpoint in the closest location that matches the file and line that you specified.
Current line executed: This is a green arrow showing the line about to be executed.
Lines with breakpoints: For lines where breakpoints have been set, a red mark is displayed on top of the blue dots showing the lines with code. You can add and delete breakpoints by clicking on this area (the first click will set a breakpoint, the second click will remove it).

tooltips

The second area in the source window is a text window on the right that displays the source files with syntax highlighting. If you leave the cursor over a variable, a tooltip will appear showing the value of this variable. Automatic tooltips can be disabled in the section preferences menu.

The contextual menu of the source window contains the following entries. Note that these entries are dynamic, that is they will apply to the entity found under the cursor when the menu is displayed (depending on the current language). However, if a selection has been made in the source window, the text of the selection will be used instead. This allows you to display more complex expressions easily (perhaps by adding some comments to your code with the complex expressions you want to be able to display in the debugger).

Print selection

Print the selection (or by default the name under the cursor) in the debugger console.

Display selection

Display the selection (or by default the name under the cursor) in the data window. The value will be automatically refreshed each time the process state changes (e.g after a step or a next command). To freeze the display in the canvas, you can either click on the corresponding icon in the data window, or use the contextual menu for the specific item (see section The Data Window for more information).

Print selection.all

Dereference the selection (or by default the name under the cursor) and print the value in the debugger console.

Display selection.all

Dereference the selection (or by default the name under the cursor) and display the value in the data window.

View memory at &selection

Bring up the memory view dialog and explore memory at the address of the selection.

Set Breakpoint on Line xx

Set a breakpoint on the line under the cursor, in the current file.

Set Breakpoint on selection

Set a breakpoint at the beginning of the subprogram named selection

Continue Until Line xx

Contine execution (the program must have been started previously) until a specified line.

Show Current Location

Jump to the current line of execution. This is particularly useful after navigating through your source code.

Display Line Numbers

Enable/Disable the display of line numbers on the left of the source editor.

Show Lines with Code

Enable/Disable the display of lines with code, as described above.

Show...

A submenu composed of the following options:

Source Code: Show only the source code.
Asm Code: Show only the assembly code around the current execution point. See section The Assembly Window for more details.
Asm and Source: Show both the source code and the assembly window at the same time.

The Assembly Window

It is often convenient to look at the assembly code for the subprogram or source line you are currently debugging. If the underlying debugger provides this kind of support (gdb does, but not jdb), then GVD will fully support that kind of debugging.

You can access the assembly window by right-clicking in the source window, and select one of the menus "Show Asm Code" or "Show Asm and Source", the later will allow you to see both the source code and the matching assembly code.

assembly

The current assembly instruction is, as usual, highlighted with a green arrow on its left. The instructions corresponding to the current source line are highlighted in red by default. This allows you to easily see where the program counter will point to once you have pressed the "Next" button on the toolbar.

Moving to the next assembly instruction is done through the "Nexti" (next instruction) button in the toolbar. If you choose "Stepi" instead (step instruction), this will also jump to the subprogram being called.

For efficiency reasons, GVD will only display a small part of the assembly code around the current instruction. You can specify in the section preferences menu how many instructions are displayed by default. Also, you can easily display the instructions immediately preceding or following the currently displayed instructions by pressing one of the Page up or Page down keys, or by using the contextual menu in the assembly window.

One feature which is related to debugging at the assembly level is the display of the value of registers. When the debugger supports it (as gdb does), you can select the Data->Display Registers menu to get an item in the canvas that will show the current value of the registers, and will be updated every time one of them changes.

You might however choose to look at a single register. Although this is dependent on the debugger you are currently using, you can do this with gdb by selecting the Data->Display Any Expression, entering something like

output /x $eax

in the field, and select the toggle button "Expression is a subprogram call". This will create a new canvas item that will be refreshed every time the value of the register (in this case eax) changes.

The Debugger Console

This is the text window located at the bottom of the main window. In this console, you have direct access to the underlying debugger, and can send commands (you need to refer to the underlying debugger's documentation, but usually typing help will give you an overview of the commands available).

If the underlying debugger allows it, pressing the TAB key in this window will provide completion for the command that is being typed (or its arguments).

GVD also adds a number of commands to the debugger to provide a simple text interface to some of its graphical features. These commands, as documented below, enable you to create scripts that automatically change the graphical aspect of GVD. They also permit, through the use of the --tty command line option, a better integration of GVD into other integrated environments and editors like GNU Emacs.

Here is the complete list of such commands. The arguments between square brackets are optional and can be omitted.

graph (print|display) expression [dependent on display_num] [link_name name]

This command creates a new item in the canvas, that shows the value of Expression. Expression should be the name of a variable, or one of its fields, that is in the current scope for the debugger. The command graph print will create a frozen item, that is not automatically refreshed when the debugger stops, whereas graph display displays an automatically refreshed item. The new item is associated with a number, that is visible in its title bar. These numbers can be used to create links between the items, using the second argument to the command, dependent on. The link itself (ie the line) can be given a name that is automatically displayed, using the third argument.

graph (print|display) `command`

This command is similar to the one above, except it should be used to display the result of a debugger command in the canvas. For instance, if you want to display the value of a variable in hexadecimal rather than the default decimal with gdb, you should use a command like:

graph display `print /x my_variable`

This will evaluate the command between back-quotes every time the debugger stops, and display this in the canvas. The lines that have changed will be automatically highlighted (in red by default). This command is the one used by default to display the value of registers for instance.

graph (enable|disable) display display_num [display_num ...]

This command will change the refresh status of items in the canvas. As explained above, items are associated with a number visible in their title bar. Using the graph enable command will force the item to be automatically refreshed every time the debugger stops, whereas the graph disable command will freeze the item.

graph undisplay display_num

This command will remove an item from the canvas

view (source|asm|source_asm)

This command indicates what should be displayed in the source window. The first possible value indicates that only the source code should be visible, the second one specifies that only the assembly code should be visible, and the last one indicates that both should be displayed.

The Status Line

This is the line located at the bottom of the main window. This area will contain information about events, and errors such as parsing errors. After a time out (that can be changed in the preferences menu), each message disappears and is added to the history of messages that can be accessed using the arrow located at the left of the status line.

Integrating GVD

General Information

To have GVD run as an inferior in other front-ends, you can either set up your debugger front-end such that gvd --tty is invoked instead of the inferior debugger, or use GVD as a library. When GVD is invoked using the --tty option, it enables its TTY interface, taking additional debugger commands from standard input and forwarding debugger output to standard output, just as if the inferior debugger had been invoked directly. All remaining GVD functionalities stay unchanged. Note that the --tty option is currently not supported under Windows systems.

The --tty option also implies the GDB -fullname option, when GDB is used as the underlying debugger.

You may also invoke gvd --tty directly, entering GVD commands from your TTY, or use GVD as the end of a pipe, controlled by a remote program. Be aware, however, that the TTY interface does not support line editing and command completion. Also, do not try to run GVD with GVD as inferior debugger.

Using GVD with Glide

Select Ada->Project->Edit Current, go in the [Ada Menu] section, in the Debugging the application: field, enter gvd --tty ${main}. Save. Then launch the debugging session by using the menu Ada->Debug. In the source window, you can display variables graphically using the contextual menu on top of a variable, or after selecting an expression. The display will be done in GVD's canvas window.

If you activate the option in the menu Ada->Options->Tight Integration with GVD, then a new frame from Emacs will be swallowed directly in the GVD window (This is currently specific to Unix systems). This means that the source window of GVD will be completely replaced by the Glide window, and thus will be a full editor. It also provides cross-references, which might help you debug your code.

Using GVD with Emacs

Use M-x gdb to start a debugging session. At the prompt, enter gvd --tty and the name of the program to be debugged. Process as usual.

A file `gvd.el' is provided with the GVD binaries and in the `distrib/' directory of the GVD sources. This file provides a function called gvd, that can be used just like the standard gdb command, but that adds some special arguments to the command line so that an Emacs frame is automatically swallowed inside GVD and used as the source editor (see description in section Using GVD with Glide).

Simply load that file in Emacs, with a command like

  (load "/complete/path/gvd.el")

in your `.emacs' configuration file, and then use the command M-x gvd to launch GVD.

Using GVD with XEmacs

In XEmacs 21 and later, select Tools->Debug (GDB). At the prompt, enter gvd --tty and the name of the program to be debugged. Proceed as usual.

Using GVD as a Library

GVD can also be used as a library. This is still work in progress however. The interface provided by GVD to other programs can be found in the file gvd-api.ads, and gvd-api.h. Note that to integrate GVD code in Ada applications, using the various high level packages provided by GVD directly is the recommended way. The gvd-api.ads file is provided mainly for integrating GVD in other languages. This API is provided as a C API, so that any language that can interface with C can use it. For more information, refer directly to the gvd-api.ads file.

Using GVD as a Corba Object

Future development plans of GVD include transforming GVD into a Corba object, so that it can be used by other applications in any language easily, and in particular in the context of the GNOME framework.

Debugging a program remotely

It is possible to have the inferior debugger run on a remote host. This is useful when the remote host has a slow network connection or when GVD is available on the local host only.

Furthermore, the inferior debugger may support debugging a program on a remote host. This is useful when the inferior debugger is not available on the remote host - for instance, because the remote system does not have a general purpose operating system powerful enough to run a full featured debugger. When developing in a cross environment (e.g VxWorks, Lynx OS), you will be in such situation.

Using GVD with a Remote Debugger

To debug a program running on a remote machine you have two main options: either run GVD on the remote machine, using the remote capabilities of the X windowing system; or run GVD on the host machine, and run the underlying debugger on the remote machine.

For the first option, open a shell on the remote machine (using e.g telnet or rlogin), simply set the DISPLAY environment variable to the value of your local display, and launch gvd from your remote machine. For example, assuming your local machine is called local, and your display is the default display local:0, your remote machine is called remote. you can do the following (assuming you are using an sh-like shell):

$ rlogin remote
$ DISPLAY=local:0
$ export DISPLAY
$ gvd

You also need to ensure that remote is allowed to access local:0 by e.g using the xhost utility under Unix.

For the second option, gvd will internally use the standard rsh and rcp utilities. These are standard tools available under all Unix systems and under Windows NT/2000 as well.

First make sure that rsh/rcp can be used from your local to your remote machine without having to enter a password. This is usually done via the configuration of a .rhosts file in your remote home directory that will typically look like:

local user-name

local is the name of the local machine you want to rlogin from, and the .rhosts file needs to be present in the home directory on the remote machine.

To check whether you can use gvd in remote mode, try the following using a shell window on your local machine:

$ rsh remote gdb

This should launch gdb on the remote machine.

Note that on some systems, rsh is called differently, in particular under HPUX, the remote shell capability is called remsh. For those systems, and also in order to use other remote utilities such as ssh/scp, you can change the default remote shell and copy by using the section helpers menu.

After ensuring that you have the proper setup in place, to run the debugger on a remote host remote, either invoke GVD as

gvd --host 'remote' remote-program

or use the File->New Debugger... menu in GVD.

There are a few caveats in remote mode:

The remote debugger is started in your remote home directory. Hence, you must specify an absolute path name for remote-program (or a path name relative to your remote home directory). The same applies to remote core files. Also, be sure to specify a remote process id when debugging a running program.

To access files remotely, gvd will first try to read the files locally, assuming that you have the remote files mounted locally at the same location (using e.g nfs+symbolic links, or samba), and if it cannot find the files locally, it will then try to copy the file from the remote machine, using rcp. As for rsh, you need to make sure that rcp can be called without having to enter a password, and you can also replace rcp by similar remote copy utilities such as scp. Note that the file selection dialogs (change directory, open file, ...) will scan the local directory, so you will need to know in advance the complete path if your remote files are not mounted on your local host.

Using GVD with a Remote Program

The GDB debugger allows you to run the debugger program on a remote machine (called program host) while GDB runs on the local machine.

The section Remote debugging in the GDB documentation contains all the details. Basically, the following steps are required:

Transfer the executable to the remote target.

Optionally start gdbserver on the remote target (e.g under Lynx OS). This is not needed for environments such as VxWorks.

Start GVD using a properly configured cross GDB, e.g powerpc-wrs-vxworks-gdb for a gdb configured for VxWorks PowerPC and specify the name of the remote target, as well as the protocol used to communicate with it. To specify the cross gdb and the remote target, you can use either the --debugger and --target command line options, e.g:

gvd --debugger powerpc-wrs-vxworks-gdb --target my_target:wtx

or using the Debugger Name, Program Host and Protocol entries in the File->New Debugger menu item.

process

You can also combine GVD remote mode and GDB remote mode, running GVD, GDB and the debugged program each on a different machine.

Environment

Command Line Options

Usage:
   gvd [options...] executable-file
       [--dargs [debugger options]] [--pargs [program options]]

The options recognized by GVD are:

--debugger DEBUG

use DEBUG as the underlying debugger.

--jdb

assume a Java debugger. This option is currently not fully supported.

--host HOST

Run inferior debugger on HOST. See section Using GVD with a Remote Debugger for more information.

--target TARG:PRO

Load program on machine TARG using protocol PRO. Note that TARG can contain the : character for e.g specifying the port number. The last colon will be used by GVD as the separator between the target and the protocol. For instance, assuming you want to connect to a board named bare on port 1234 using the remote protocol, you would specify:

gvd --target bare:1234:remote

See section Using GVD with a Remote Program for more information.

--log-level [0-4]

Set level of logging (Default is 3). This option can be useful when reporting bugs in GVD, in which case the maximum level of logs (4) gives more details, but will also generate more disk activity, which can slow down GVD significantly if the log file is located through a network disk.

--editor-window=xid

Use xid as the editor X window id. GVD takes advantage of this option by integrating the specified window as the source editor. This option is not currently supported under Windows. Note that the best way to use this option is directly through Glide or Emacs, as explained in section Using GVD with Glide. Glide will automatically pass the correct xid value.

--tty

Use controlling tty as the debugger console. This option is very useful for integrating GVD in other debugger front-ends (e.g Emacs), since in this mode, GVD appears as the underlying debugger to the caller. See section Integrating GVD for more details. This option is not currently supported under Windows.

--version

Show the GVD version and exit.

The --dargs section let you specify an arbitrary number of options to pass to the underlying debugger.

Similarly, the --pargs section let you specify options to pass to the debugged program.

For example, if you want to pass the --nx option to gdb, and the options --file foo --version to the debugged program my_code you would launch GVD as follows:

gvd my_code --dargs --nx --pargs --file foo --version

Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be set to override some default settings in GVD:

`GVD_ROOT.': Override the default root directory specified when GVD is built (during the configure process, see the file INSTALL in the GVD sources for more details) to access information such as the location of the translation files.
`GVD_HOME.': Override the variable HOME if present. All the configuration files and directories used by GVD are either relative to $HOME/.gvd (%HOME%\.gvd under Windows) if GVD_HOME is not set, or to $GVD_HOME/.gvd (respectively %GVD_HOME%\.gvd) if set.
`GVD_EDITOR.': Override the default editor as found in the section helpers menu.

Files

`$HOME/.gvd': GVD state directory
`$HOME/.gvd/log': Log file created automatically by GVD. This log file contains all the input and output exchanged between GVD and the underlying debugger. You can specify the level of logs (from no log to very verbose) by using the --log-level command line option. Using a high level of log can be useful to track communication problems between GVD and the underlying debugger, but will slow down GVD if $HOME is located on a network disk.
`$HOME/.gvd/preferences': Contains all the preferences in XML format, as specified in the section preferences menu.
`$HOME/.gvd/window_settings': Contains all the settings of the windows (window sizes, pane offset) in XML format. These settings are saved automatically when quitting GVD, and loaded automatically at start up. To reset the settings, simply remove this file.
`$HOME/.gvd/sessions': Directory containing the GVD sessions.
`$HOME/.gvd/sessions/session': Each file in the sessions directory represents a particular session saved by the user.
`$HOME/.gdbinit GDB initialization file'

Limitations

General Limitations

If command output is sent to the debugger console, it is impossible for GVD to distinguish between the output of the debugged program and the output of the inferior debugger. This problem can be avoided by running the program in the separate execution window.

Output that confuses GVD includes:

Primary debugger prompts (e.g '(gdb) ')
Secondary debugger prompts (e.g '>')
Confirmation prompts (e.g '(y or n)')

If your program outputs any of these strings, you should run it in the separate execution window.

If the inferior debugger changes the default TTY settings, for instance through a stty command in its initialization file, GVD will likely become confused. The same applies to debugged program which change the default TTY settings.

Limitations using GDB

Some GDB settings are essential for GVD to work correctly. These settings with their correct values are:

set height 0
set width 0
set verbose off
set prompt (gdb)

GVD sets these values automatically when invoking GDB; if these values are changed, there may be some malfunctions, especially in the data display.

Reporting bugs

If you encounter a bug in GVD, you can report it to mailto:report@gnat.com if you are a supported user (to become a supported user, contact mailto:sales@gnat.com), or to the public gvd development list (mailto:gvd-devel@lists.act-europe.fr).

Please try to include a detailed description of the problem, including sources to reproduce it if possible, and/or a scenario describing the actions performed to reproduce the problem. Saving your session and the log file (see section log file) can help automate this process.

This document was generated on January, 28 2002 using texi2html 1.56k.

Using the GNU Visual Debugger

Version 1.2.0

Document revision level 1.54

Date: 2001/04/24 12:46:07

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