ADB(1) — Silicon Graphics
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 usually 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 examined. 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 modified using adb. Adb ignores QUIT; INTERRUPT causes return to the next adb command.
To exit adb use $q or $Q or Control-d.
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 increment.
^ The value of dot decremented by the current increment.
" The last address typed.
integer A number. The prefix 0 (zero) forces interpretation in octal radix; the prefixes 0d and 0D force interpretation in decimal radix; the prefixes 0x and 0X force interpretation in hexadecimal radix. Thus 020 = 0d16 = 0x10 = sixteen. If no prefix appears, then the default radix is used; see the $d command. The default radix is initially hexadecimal. The hexadecimal digits are 0123456789abcdefABCDEF with the obvious values. Note that a hexadecimal number whose most significant digit would otherwise be an alphabetic character must have a 0x (or 0X) prefix. If the default radix is hexadecimal then it must have a leading zero.
’cccc’ The ASCII value of up to 4 characters. \ may be used to escape an ’.
<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 register is obtained from the system header in corfil. The register names are those printed by the $r command.
symbol A symbol is a sequence of upper or lower case letters, underscores or digits, not starting with a digit. \ may be used to escape other characters. 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 distinguish it from internal or hidden variables of a program.
(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.
#exp Logical negation.
Dyadic operators are left associative and are less binding than monadic operators.
e1+e2 Integer addition.
e1−e2 Integer subtraction.
e1*e2 Integer multiplication.
e1%e2 Integer division.
e1&e2 Bitwise conjunction.
e1|e2 Bitwise disjunction.
e1#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. Dot is incremented by the sum of the increments for each format letter (q.v.).
/f Locations starting at address in corfil are printed according to the format f, and dot is incremented as for "?".
=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 subsequent 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 incremented by the amount given for each format letter. If no format is given, then the last format is used. The format letters available are as follows:
in Disassemble the addressed instruction.
o2 Print 2 bytes in octal. All octal numbers output by adb are preceded by 0.
O4 Print 4 bytes in octal.
q2 Print in signed octal.
Q4 Print long signed octal.
d2 Print in decimal.
D4 Print long decimal.
x2 Print 2 bytes in hexadecimal.
X4 Print 4 bytes in hexadecimal.
u2 Print as an unsigned decimal number.
U4 Print long unsigned decimal.
f4 Print the 32-bit value as a floating point number.
F8 Print double (SGI long float ) floating point.
b1 Print the addressed byte in octal.
c1 Print the addressed character.
C1 Print the addressed character using the standard escape convention where control characters are printed as ^X and the delete character is printed as ^?.
sn Print the addressed characters until a zero character is reached.
Sn Print a string using the ^X escape convention (see C above). The n is the length of the string including its zero terminator.
Y4 Print 4 bytes in date format (see ctime(3C)).
a0 Print the value of dot in symbolic form. Symbols are checked to ensure that they have an appropriate type as indicated below.
/ global data symbol
? global text symbol
= global absolute symbol
p4 Print the addressed value in symbolic form using the same rules for symbol lookup as a.
t0 When preceded by an integer tabs to the next appropriate tab stop. For example, 8t moves to the next 8-space tab stop.
r0 Print a space.
n0 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
Repeat the previous command 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 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 respectively) 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 following "!".
$modifier
Miscellaneous commands. The available modifiers are:
<f Read commands from the file f. If this command is executed in a file, further commands in the file are not seen. If f is omitted, the current input stream is terminated. If a count is given, and is zero, the command will be ignored. The value of the count will be placed in variable 9 before the first command in f is executed.
<<f Similar to < except it can be used in a file of commands without causing the file to be closed. Variable 9 is saved during the execution of this command, and restored when it completes. There is a (small) finite limit to the number of << files that can be open at once.
>f Append output to the file f, which is created if it does not exist. If f is omitted, output is returned to the terminal.
? Print process ID, the signal which caused stoppage or termination, as well as the registers as $r. This is the default if modifier is omitted.
r Print the general registers and the instruction addressed by pc. Dot is set to pc.
b Print all breakpoints and their associated counts and commands.
c C stack backtrace. If address is given, then it is taken as the address of the current frame (instead of a7). If count is given, then only the first count frames are printed.
d Set the default radix to decimal.
w Set the page width for output to address (default 80).
s Set the limit for symbol matches to address (default 255).
x Interpret integer input in hexadecimal radix.
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 executed count−1 times before causing a stop. Each time the breakpoint is encountered the command c is executed. If this command is omitted or 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 (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 subprocess to stop is sent. Breakpoint skipping is the same as for r.
s Single step the subprocess count times.
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:
0 The last value printed.
1 The last offset part of an instruction source.
2 The previous value of variable 1.
9 The count on the last $< or $<< command.
On entry the following are set from the system header in the corfil. If corfil does not appear to be a core file, then the following 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 (0407, 0410).
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. If a ? or / is followed 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 values are kept as signed 32-bit integers.
EXAMPLE
adb obj1
will invoke adb with the executable object "obj1"; when adb responds with:
ready
the request:
main,10?ia
will cause 16 (10hex) instructions to be printed in assembly code, starting from location "main".
FILES
a.out
core
SEE ALSO
DIAGNOSTICS
Adb when there is no current command or format. Comments about inaccessible files, syntax errors, abnormal termination of commands, etc. Exit status is 0, unless last command failed or returned nonzero status.
BUGS
Use of # for the unary logical negation operator is peculiar.
When stopping at the entry to a function, the breakpoint should be placed at routine+4, rather than at routine. This causes the link to be done before the breakpoint, and makes a stacktrace work better.
There is no way to clear all breakpoints.
A floating point number cannot be written into memory (i.e., using the w command).
This version of adb is capable only of recognizing hexadecimal and decimal input radices.
Version 2.4 — May 08, 1986