ADB(1) ADB(1)
NAME
adb - debugger
SYNOPSIS
adb [-w] [ objfil [ corfil ] ]
DESCRIPTION
Adb is a general purpose debugging program. It may be used
to examine files and to provide a controlled environment for
the execution of UNIX programs.
Objfil is normally an executable program file, preferably
containing a symbol table; if not then the symbolic features
of adb cannot be used although the file can still be exam-
ined. The default for objfil is a.out. Corfil is assumed to
be a core image file produced after executing objfil; the
default for corfil is core.
Requests to adb are read from the standard input and
responses are to the standard output. If the -w flag is
present then both objfil and corfil are created if necessary
and opened for reading and writing so that files can be mod-
ified using adb. Adb ignores QUIT; INTERRUPT causes return
to the next adb command.
In general requests to adb are of the form
[address] [, count] [command] [;]
If address is present then dot is set to address. Initially
dot is set to 0. For most commands count specifies how many
times the command will be executed. The default count is 1.
Address and count are expressions.
The interpretation of an address depends on the context it
is used in. If a subprocess is being debugged then
addresses are interpreted in the usual way in the address
space of the subprocess. For further details of address
mapping see ADDRESSES.
EXPRESSIONS
. The value of dot.
+ The value of dot incremented by the current incre-
ment.
^ The value of dot decremented by the current incre-
ment.
" The last address typed.
ADB(1) ADB(1)
integer
An octal number if integer begins with a 0; a hex-
adecimal number if preceded by #; otherwise a decimal
number.
integer.fraction
A 32 bit floating point number.
'cccc' The ASCII value of up to 4 characters. \ may be used
to escape a '.
< name The value of name, which is either a variable name or
a register name. Adb maintains a number of variables
(see VARIABLES) named by single letters or digits.
If name is a register name then the value of the reg-
ister is obtained from the system header in corfil.
The register names are r0 ... r5 sp pc ps.
symbol A symbol is a sequence of upper or lower case let-
ters, underscores or digits, not starting with a
digit. The value of the symbol is taken from the
symbol table in objfil. An initial _ or ~ will be
prepended to symbol if needed.
_ symbol
In C, the `true name' of an external symbol begins
with _. It may be necessary to utter this name to
disinguish it from internal or hidden variables of a
program.
routine.name
The address of the variable name in the specified C
routine. Both routine and name are symbols. If name
is omitted the value is the address of the most
recently activated C stack frame corresponding to
routine.
(exp) The value of the expression exp.
Monadic operators
*exp The contents of the location addressed by exp in
corfil.
@exp The contents of the location addressed by exp in
objfil.
-exp Integer negation.
~exp Bitwise complement.
Dyadic operators are left associative and are less binding
ADB(1) ADB(1)
than monadic operators.
e2 Integer addition.
e2 Integer subtraction.
e2 Integer multiplication.
e2 Integer division.
e2 Bitwise conjunction.
e2 Bitwise disjunction.
e2 E1 rounded up to the next multiple of e2.
COMMANDS
Most commands consist of a verb followed by a modifier or
list of modifiers. The following verbs are available. (The
commands `?' and `/' may be followed by `*'; see ADDRESSES
for further details.)
?f Locations starting at address in objfil are printed
according to the format f.
/f Locations starting at address in corfil are printed
according to the format f.
=f The value of address itself is printed in the styles
indicated by the format f. (For i format `?' is printed
for the parts of the instruction that reference subse-
quent words.)
A format consists of one or more characters that specify a
style of printing. Each format character may be preceded by
a decimal integer that is a repeat count for the format
character. While stepping through a format dot is incre-
mented temporarily by the amount given for each format let-
ter. If no format is given then the last format is used.
The format letters available are as follows.
o 2 Print 2 bytes in octal. All octal numbers output
by adb are preceded by 0.
O 4 Print 4 bytes in octal.
q 2 Print in signed octal.
Q 4 Print long signed octal.
d 2 Print in decimal.
D 4 Print long decimal.
x 2 Print 2 bytes in hexadecimal.
X 4 Print 4 bytes in hexadecimal.
u 2 Print as an unsigned decimal number.
U 4 Print long unsigned decimal.
ADB(1) ADB(1)
f 4 Print the 32 bit value as a floating point number.
F 8 Print double floating point.
b 1 Print the addressed byte in octal.
c 1 Print the addressed character.
C 1 Print the addressed character using the following
escape convention. Character values 000 to 040
are printed as @ followed by the corresponding
character in the range 0100 to 0140. The charac-
ter @ is printed as @@.
s n Print the addressed characters until a zero char-
acter is reached.
S n Print a string using the @ escape convention. n
is the length of the string including its zero
terminator.
Y 4 Print 4 bytes in date format (see ctime(3)).
i n Print as PDP11 instructions. n is the number of
bytes occupied by the instruction. This style of
printing causes variables 1 and 2 to be set to the
offset parts of the source and destination respec-
tively.
a 0 Print the value of dot in symbolic form. Symbols
are checked to ensure that they have an appropri-
ate type as indicated below.
/ local or global data symbol
? local or global text symbol
= local or global absolute symbol
p 2 Print the addressed value in symbolic form using
the same rules for symbol lookup as a.
t 0 When preceded by an integer tabs to the next
appropriate tab stop. For example, 8t moves to
the next 8-space tab stop.
r 0 Print a space.
n 0 Print a newline.
"..." 0
Print the enclosed string.
^ Dot is decremented by the current increment.
Nothing is printed.
+ Dot is incremented by 1. Nothing is printed.
- Dot is decremented by 1. Nothing is printed.
newline
If the previous command temporarily incremented dot,
make the increment permanent. Repeat the previous com-
mand with a count of 1.
[?/]l value mask
Words starting at dot are masked with mask and compared
with value until a match is found. If L is used then
the match is for 4 bytes at a time instead of 2. If no
match is found then dot is unchanged; otherwise dot is
ADB(1) ADB(1)
set to the matched location. If mask is omitted then
-1 is used.
[?/]w value ...
Write the 2-byte value into the addressed location. If
the command is W, write 4 bytes. Odd addresses are not
allowed when writing to the subprocess address space.
[?/]m b1 e1 f1[?/]
New values for (b1, e1, f1) are recorded. If less than
three expressions are given then the remaining map
parameters are left unchanged. If the `?' or `/' is
followed by `*' then the second segment (b2,e2,f2) of
the mapping is changed. If the list is terminated by
`?' or `/' then the file (objfil or corfil respec-
tively) is used for subsequent requests. (So that, for
example, `/m?' will cause `/' to refer to objfil.)
>name
Dot is assigned to the variable or register named.
! A shell is called to read the rest of the line follow-
ing `!'.
$modifier
Miscellaneous commands. The available modifiers are:
<f Read commands from the file f and return.
>f Send output to the file f, which is created if it
does not exist.
r Print the general registers and the instruction
addressed by pc. Dot is set to pc.
f Print the floating registers in single or double
length. If the floating point status of ps is set
to double (0200 bit) then double length is used
anyway.
b Print all breakpoints and their associated counts
and commands.
a ALGOL 68 stack backtrace. If address is given
then it is taken to be the address of the current
frame (instead of r4). If count is given then
only the first count frames are printed.
c C stack backtrace. If address is given then it is
taken as the address of the current frame (instead
of r5). If C is used then the names and (16 bit)
values of all automatic and static variables are
printed for each active function. If count is
given then only the first count frames are
printed.
e The names and values of external variables are
printed.
w Set the page width for output to address (default
ADB(1) ADB(1)
80).
s Set the limit for symbol matches to address
(default 255).
o All integers input are regarded as octal.
d Reset integer input as described in EXPRESSIONS.
q Exit from adb.
v Print all non zero variables in octal.
m Print the address map.
:modifier
Manage a subprocess. Available modifiers are:
bc Set breakpoint at address. The breakpoint is exe-
cuted count-1 times before causing a stop. Each
time the breakpoint is encountered the command c
is executed. If this command sets dot to zero
then the breakpoint causes a stop.
d Delete breakpoint at address.
r Run objfil as a subprocess. If address is given
explicitly then the program is entered at this
point; otherwise the program is entered at its
standard entry point. count specifies how many
breakpoints are to be ignored before stopping.
Arguments to the subprocess may be supplied on the
same line as the command. An argument starting
with < or > causes the standard input or output to
be established for the command. All signals are
turned on on entry to the subprocess.
cs The subprocess is continued with signal s c s, see
signal(2). If address is given then the subprocess
is continued at this address. If no signal is
specified then the signal that caused the subpro-
cess to stop is sent. Breakpoint skipping is the
same as for r.
ss As for c except that the subprocess is single
stepped count times. If there is no current sub-
process then objfil is run as a subprocess as for
r. In this case no signal can be sent; the
remainder of the line is treated as arguments to
the subprocess.
k The current subprocess, if any, is terminated.
VARIABLES
Adb provides a number of variables. Named variables are set
initially by adb but are not used subsequently. Numbered
variables are reserved for communication as follows.
ADB(1) ADB(1)
0 The last value printed.
1 The last offset part of an instruction source.
2 The previous value of variable 1.
On entry the following are set from the system header in the
corfil. If corfil does not appear to be a core file then
these values are set from objfil.
b The base address of the data segment.
d The data segment size.
e The entry point.
m The `magic' number (0405, 0407, 0410 or 0411).
s The stack segment size.
t The text segment size.
ADDRESSES
The address in a file associated with a written address is
determined by a mapping associated with that file. Each
mapping is represented by two triples (b1, e1, f1) and (b2,
e2, f2) and the file address corresponding to a written
address is calculated as follows.
b1≦address<e1 => file address=address+f1-b1, otherwise,
b2≦address<e2 => file address=address+f2-b2,
otherwise, the requested address is not legal. In some
cases (e.g. for programs with separated I and D space) the
two segments for a file may overlap. If a ? or / is fol-
lowed by an * then only the second triple is used.
The initial setting of both mappings is suitable for normal
a.out and core files. If either file is not of the kind
expected then, for that file, b1 is set to 0, e1 is set to
the maximum file size and f1 is set to 0; in this way the
whole file can be examined with no address translation.
So that adb may be used on large files all appropriate val-
ues are kept as signed 32 bit integers.
FILES
/dev/mem
/dev/swap
a.out
core
SEE ALSO
ptrace(2), a.out(5), core(5)
DIAGNOSTICS
`Adb' when there is no current command or format. Comments
about inaccessible files, syntax errors, abnormal
ADB(1) ADB(1)
termination of commands, etc. Exit status is 0, unless last
command failed or returned nonzero status.
BUGS
A breakpoint set at the entry point is not effective on ini-
tial entry to the program.
When single stepping, system calls do not count as an exe-
cuted instruction.
Local variables whose names are the same as an external
variable may foul up the accessing of the external.