11.1 The Debug Menu

The Debug entry in the menu bar provides operations that act at a global level. Key shortcuts are 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:

Run...

Opens a dialog window allowing you to specify the arguments to pass to the program to be debugged, and whether this program should be stopped at the beginning of the main subprogram. If you confirm by clicking on the OK button, the program will be launched according to the arguments entered.

Step

Execute the program until it reaches a different source line.

Step Instruction

Execute the program for one machine instruction only.

Next

Execute the program until it reaches the next source line, stepping over subroutine calls.

Next Instruction

Execute the program until it reaches the next machine instruction, stepping over subroutine calls.

Finish

Continue execution until selected stack frame returns.

Continue

Continue execution of the program being debugged.

Interrupt

Asynchronously interrupt 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 in some cases, not even a coherent state. Use of breakpoints is preferable to interrupting programs. Interrupting programs is nevertheless required in some situations, for example when the program appears to be in an infinite (or at least very time-consuming) loop.

Terminate Current

Terminate the current debug session by terminating the underlying debugger (e.g gdb) used to handle the low level debugging. You can control what happens to the windows through the Debugger/Debugger Windows preference.

Terminate

Terminate all your debug sessions. Same as Terminate Current if there is only one debugger open.

11.1.1 Debug

Connect to Board...

Opens a simple dialog to connect to a remote board. This option is only relevant to cross debuggers.

Load File...

Opens 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).

Add Symbols...

Add the symbols from a given file/module. This corresponds to the gdb command add-symbol-file. This menu is particularly useful under VxWorks targets, where the modules can be loaded independently of the debugger. For instance, if a module is independently loaded on the target (e.g. using windshell), it is absolutely required to use this functionality, otherwise the debugger won't work properly.

Attach...

Instead of starting a program to debug, you can instead attach 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 core files, you need to specify an executable before attaching to a process.

Detach

Detaches the currently debugged process from the underlying debugger. This means that the executable will continue to run independently. You can use the Attach To Process menu later to re-attach to this process.

Debug Core File...

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 before loading a core file.

Kill

Kills the process being debugged.

11.1.2 Data

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

Data Window

Displays the Data window. If this window already exists, it is raised so that it becomes visible

Call Stack

Displays the Call Stack window. See The Call Stack Window for more details.

Threads

Opens 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. As indicated above, the process being debugged needs to be stopped before using this command, otherwise a blank list will be displayed.

When supported by the underlying debugger, clicking on a thread will change the context (variables, call stack, source file) displayed, allowing you to inspect the stack of the selected thread.

Tasks

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 a selected task context by clicking on it, if supported by GDB. See the GDB documentation for the list of items displayed for each task.

As for the thread window, the process being debugged needs to be stopped before using this window.

Protection Domains

For VxWorks AE only, this will open a new window containing the list of available protection domains in the target. To change to a different protection domain, simply click on it. A indicates the current protection domain.

Assembly

Opens a new window displaying an assembly dump of the current code being executed. See The Assembly Window for more details.

Edit Breakpoints

Opens an advanced window to create and modify any kind of breakpoint, including watchpoints (see The Breakpoint Editor). For simple breakpoint creation, see the description of the source window.

Examine Memory

Opens a memory viewer/editor. See The Memory Window for more details.

Command History

Opens 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.

Display Local Variables

Opens an item in the Data Window containing all the local variables for the current frame.

Display Arguments

Opens an item in the Data Window containing the arguments for the current frame.

Display Registers

Opens an item in the Data Window containing the machine registers for the current frame.

Display Any Expression...

Opens 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 a debugger command (e.g p/x var) or a procedure call in the program being debugged (e.g call my_proc).

Recompute

Recomputes and refreshes all the items displayed in the Data Window.