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90912a88f6
Clean up the SLD document a LOT Fill in a lot of details in the SLD document update the formats for the object descriptors llvm-svn: 10698
1170 lines
46 KiB
HTML
1170 lines
46 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>Source Level Debugging with LLVM</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
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</head>
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<body>
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<div class="doc_title">Source Level Debugging with LLVM</div>
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<ul>
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<img src="venusflytrap.jpg" alt="A leafy and green bug eater"
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width=247 height=369 align=right>
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<li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a></li>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#phil">Philosophy behind LLVM debugging information</a></li>
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<li><a href="#debugopt">Debugging optimized code</a></li>
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<li><a href="#future">Future work</a></li>
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</ol>
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<li><a href="#llvm-db">Using the <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#limitations">Limitations of <tt>llvm-db</tt></a></li>
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<li><a href="#sample">A sample <tt>llvm-db</tt> session</a></li>
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<li><a href="#startup">Starting the debugger</a></li>
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<li><a href="#commands">Commands recognized by the debugger</a></li>
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</ol></li>
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<li><a href="#architecture">Architecture of the LLVM debugger</a></li>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#arch_debugger">The Debugger and InferiorProcess classes</a></li>
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<li><a href="#arch_info">The RuntimeInfo, ProgramInfo, and SourceLanguage classes</a></li>
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<li><a href="#arch_llvm-db">The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a></li>
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<li><a href="#arch_todo">Short-term TODO list</a></li>
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</ol>
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<li><a href="#format">Debugging information format</a></li>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#format_common_anchors">Anchors for global objects</a></li>
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<li><a href="#format_common_stoppoint">Representing stopping points in the source program</a></li>
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<li><a href="#format_common_lifetime">Object lifetimes and scoping</a></li>
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<li><a href="#format_common_descriptors">Object descriptor formats</a></li>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#format_common_source_files">Representation of source files</a></li>
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<li><a href="#format_common_program_objects">Representation of program objects</a></li>
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<li><a href="#format_common_object_contexts">Program object contexts</a></li>
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</ul>
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<li><a href="#format_common_intrinsics">Debugger intrinsic functions</a></li>
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<li><a href="#format_common_tags">Values for debugger tags</a></li>
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</ol>
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<li><a href="#ccxx_frontend">C/C++ front-end specific debug information</a></li>
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<ol>
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<li><a href="#ccxx_pse">Program Scope Entries</a></li>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#ccxx_compilation_units">Compilation unit entries</a></li>
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<li><a href="#ccxx_modules">Module, namespace, and importing entries</a></li>
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</ul>
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<li><a href="#ccxx_dataobjects">Data objects (program variables)</a></li>
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</ol>
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</ul>
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<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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<div class="doc_section"><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></div>
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<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>This document is the central repository for all information pertaining to
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debug information in LLVM. It describes the <a href="#llvm-db">user
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interface</a> for the <a href="CommandGuide/llvm-db.html"><tt>llvm-db</tt>
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tool</a>, which provides a powerful <a href="#llvm-db">source-level debugger</a>
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to users of LLVM-based compilers. It then describes the <a
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href="#architecture">various components</a> that make up the debugger and the
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libraries which future clients may use. Finally, it describes the <a
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href="#format">actual format that the LLVM debug information</a> takes,
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which is useful for those interested in creating front-ends or dealing directly
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with the information.</p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="phil">Philosophy behind LLVM debugging information</a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>
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The idea of the LLVM debugging information is to capture how the important
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pieces of the source-language's Abstract Syntax Tree map onto LLVM code.
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Several design aspects have shaped the solution that appears here. The
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important ones are:</p>
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<p><ul>
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<li>Debugging information should have very little impact on the rest of the
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compiler. No transformations, analyses, or code generators should need to be
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modified because of debugging information.</li>
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<li>LLVM optimizations should interact in <a href="#debugopt">well-defined and
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easily described ways</a> with the debugging information.</li>
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<li>Because LLVM is designed to support arbitrary programming languages,
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LLVM-to-LLVM tools should not need to know anything about the semantics of the
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source-level-language.</li>
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<li>Source-level languages are often <b>widely</b> different from one another.
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LLVM should not put any restrictions of the flavor of the source-language, and
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the debugging information should work with any language.</li>
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<li>With code generator support, it should be possible to use an LLVM compiler
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to compile a program to native machine code and standard debugging formats.
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This allows compatibility with traditional machine-code level debuggers, like
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GDB or DBX.</li>
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</ul></p>
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<p>
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The approach used by the LLVM implementation is to use a small set of <a
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href="#format_common_intrinsics">intrinsic functions</a> to define a mapping
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between LLVM program objects and the source-level objects. The description of
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the source-level program is maintained in LLVM global variables in an <a
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href="#ccxx_frontend">implementation-defined format</a> (the C/C++ front-end
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currently uses working draft 7 of the <a
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href="http://www.eagercon.com/dwarf/dwarf3std.htm">Dwarf 3 standard</a>).</p>
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<p>
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When a program is debugged, the debugger interacts with the user and turns the
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stored debug information into source-language specific information. As such,
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the debugger must be aware of the source-language, and is thus tied to a
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specific language of family of languages. The <a href="#llvm-db">LLVM
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debugger</a> is designed to be modular in its support for source-languages.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="debugopt">Debugging optimized code</a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>
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An extremely high priority of LLVM debugging information is to make it interact
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well with optimizations and analysis. In particular, the LLVM debug information
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provides the following guarantees:</p>
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<p><ul>
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<li>LLVM debug information <b>always provides information to accurately read the
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source-level state of the program</b>, regardless of which LLVM optimizations
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have been run, and without any modification to the optimizations themselves.
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However, some optimizations may impact the ability to modify the current state
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of the program with a debugger, such as setting program variables, or calling
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function that have been deleted.</li>
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<li>LLVM optimizations gracefully interact with debugging information. If they
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are not aware of debug information, they are automatically disabled as necessary
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in the cases that would invalidate the debug info. This retains the LLVM
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features making it easy to write new transformations.</li>
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<li>As desired, LLVM optimizations can be upgraded to be aware of the LLVM
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debugging information, allowing them to update the debugging information as they
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perform aggressive optimizations. This means that, with effort, the LLVM
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optimizers could optimize debug code just as well as non-debug code.</li>
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<li>LLVM debug information does not prevent many important optimizations from
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happening (for example inlining, basic block reordering/merging/cleanup, tail
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duplication, etc), further reducing the amount of the compiler that eventually
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is "aware" of debugging information.</li>
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<li>LLVM debug information is automatically optimized along with the rest of the
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program, using existing facilities. For example, duplicate information is
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automatically merged by the linker, and unused information is automatically
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removed.</li>
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</ul></p>
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<p>
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Basically, the debug information allows you to compile a program with "<tt>-O0
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-g</tt>" and get full debug information, allowing you to arbitrarily modify the
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program as it executes from the debugger. Compiling a program with "<tt>-O3
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-g</tt>" gives you full debug information that is always available and accurate
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for reading (e.g., you get accurate stack traces despite tail call elimination
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and inlining), but you might lose the ability to modify the program and call
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functions where were optimized out of the program, or inlined away completely.
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="future">Future work</a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>
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There are several important extensions that could be eventually added to the
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LLVM debugger. The most important extension would be to upgrade the LLVM code
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generators to support debugging information. This would also allow, for
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example, the X86 code generator to emit native objects that contain debugging
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information consumable by traditional source-level debuggers like GDB or
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DBX.</p>
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<p>
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Additionally, LLVM optimizations can be upgraded to incrementally update the
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debugging information, <a href="#commands">new commands</a> can be added to the
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debugger, and thread support could be added to the debugger.</p>
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<p>
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The "SourceLanguage" modules provided by <tt>llvm-db</tt> could be substantially
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improved to provide good support for C++ language features like namespaces and
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scoping rules.</p>
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<p>
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After working with the debugger for a while, perhaps the nicest improvement
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would be to add some sort of line editor, such as GNU readline (but one that is
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compatible with the LLVM license).</p>
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<p>
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For someone so inclined, it should be straight-forward to write different
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front-ends for the LLVM debugger, as the LLVM debugging engine is cleanly
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separated from the <tt>llvm-db</tt> front-end. A new LLVM GUI debugger or IDE
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would be nice. :)
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</p>
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</div>
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<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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<div class="doc_section">
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<a name="llvm-db">Using the <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a>
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</div>
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<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>
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The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool provides a GDB-like interface for source-level
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debugging of programs. This tool provides many standard commands for inspecting
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and modifying the program as it executes, loading new programs, single stepping,
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placing breakpoints, etc. This section describes how to use the debugger.
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</p>
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<p><tt>llvm-db</tt> has been designed to be as similar to GDB in its user
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interface as possible. This should make it extremely easy to learn
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<tt>llvm-db</tt> if you already know <tt>GDB</tt>. In general, <tt>llvm-db</tt>
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provides the subset of GDB commands that are applicable to LLVM debugging users.
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If there is a command missing that make a reasonable amount of sense within the
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<a href="#limitations">limitations of <tt>llvm-db</tt></a>, please report it as
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a bug or, better yet, submit a patch to add it. :)</p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="limitations">Limitations of <tt>llvm-db</tt></a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p><tt>llvm-db</tt> is designed to be modular and easy to extend. This
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extensibility was key to getting the debugger up-and-running quickly, because we
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can start with simple-but-unsophisicated implementations of various components.
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Because of this, it is currently missing many features, though they should be
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easy to add over time (patches welcomed!). The biggest inherent limitations of
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<tt>llvm-db</tt> are currently due to extremely simple <a
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href="#arch_debugger">debugger backend</a> (implemented in
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"lib/Debugger/UnixLocalInferiorProcess.cpp") which is designed to work without
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any cooperation from the code generators. Because it is so simple, it suffers
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from the following inherent limitations:</p>
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<p><ul>
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<li>Running a program in <tt>llvm-db</tt> is a bit slower than running it with
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<tt>lli</tt> (i.e., in the JIT).</li>
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<li>Inspection of the target hardware is not supported. This means that you
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cannot, for example, print the contents of X86 registers.</li>
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<li>Inspection of LLVM code is not supported. This means that you cannot print
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the contents of arbitrary LLVM values, or use commands such as <tt>stepi</tt>.
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This also means that you cannot debug code without debug information.</li>
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<li>Portions of the debugger run in the same address space as the program being
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debugged. This means that memory corruption by the program could trample on
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portions of the debugger.</li>
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<li>Attaching to existing processes and core files is not currently
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supported.</li>
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</ul></p>
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<p>That said, the debugger is still quite useful, and all of these limitations
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can be eliminated by integrating support for the debugger into the code
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generators, and writing a new <a href="#arch_debugger">InferiorProcess</a>
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subclass to use it. See the <a href="#future">future work</a> section for ideas
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of how to extend the LLVM debugger despite these limitations.</p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="sample">A sample <tt>llvm-db</tt> session</a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>TODO: this is obviously lame, when more is implemented, this can be much
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better.</p>
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<p><pre>
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$ <b>llvm-db funccall</b>
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llvm-db: The LLVM source-level debugger
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Loading program... successfully loaded 'funccall.bc'!
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(llvm-db) <b>create</b>
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Starting program: funccall.bc
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main at funccall.c:9:2
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9 -> q = 0;
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(llvm-db) <b>list main</b>
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4 void foo() {
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5 int t = q;
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6 q = t + 1;
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7 }
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8 int main() {
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9 -> q = 0;
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10 foo();
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11 q = q - 1;
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12
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13 return q;
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(llvm-db) <b>list</b>
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14 }
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(llvm-db) <b>step</b>
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10 -> foo();
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(llvm-db) <b>s</b>
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foo at funccall.c:5:2
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5 -> int t = q;
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(llvm-db) <b>bt</b>
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#0 -> 0x85ffba0 in foo at funccall.c:5:2
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#1 0x85ffd98 in main at funccall.c:10:2
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(llvm-db) <b>finish</b>
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main at funccall.c:11:2
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11 -> q = q - 1;
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(llvm-db) <b>s</b>
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13 -> return q;
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(llvm-db) <b>s</b>
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The program stopped with exit code 0
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(llvm-db) <b>quit</b>
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$
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</pre></p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="startup">Starting the debugger</a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>There are three ways to start up the <tt>llvm-db</tt> debugger:</p>
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<p>When run with no options, just <tt>llvm-db</tt>, the debugger starts up
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without a program loaded at all. You must use the <a
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href="#c_file"><tt>file</tt> command</a> to load a program, and the <a
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href="c_set_args"><tt>set args</tt></a> or <a href="#c_run"><tt>run</tt></a>
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commands to specify the arguments for the program.</p>
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<p>If you start the debugger with one argument, as <tt>llvm-db
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<program></tt>, the debugger will start up and load in the specified
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program. You can then optionally specify arguments to the program with the <a
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href="c_set_args"><tt>set args</tt></a> or <a href="#c_run"><tt>run</tt></a>
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commands.</p>
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<p>The third way to start the program is with the <tt>--args</tt> option. This
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option allows you to specify the program to load and the arguments to start out
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with. <!-- No options to <tt>llvm-db</tt> may be specified after the
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<tt>-args</tt> option. --> Example use: <tt>llvm-db --args ls /home</tt></p>
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</div>
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<!-- ======================================================================= -->
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<div class="doc_subsection">
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<a name="commands">Commands recognized by the debugger</a>
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</div>
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<div class="doc_text">
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<p>FIXME: this needs work obviously. See the <a
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href="http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/documentation/">GDB documentation</a> for
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information about what these do, or try '<tt>help [command]</tt>' within
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<tt>llvm-db</tt> to get information.</p>
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<p>
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<h2>General usage:</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>help [command]</li>
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<li>quit</li>
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<li><a name="c_file">file</a> [program]</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Program inspection and interaction:</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>create (start the program, stopping it ASAP in <tt>main</tt>)</li>
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<li>kill</li>
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<li>run [args]</li>
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<li>step [num]</li>
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<li>next [num]</li>
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<li>cont</li>
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<li>finish</li>
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<li>list [start[, end]]</li>
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<li>info source</li>
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<li>info sources</li>
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<li>info functions</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Call stack inspection:</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>backtrace</li>
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<li>up [n]</li>
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<li>down [n]</li>
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<li>frame [n]</li>
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</ul>
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|
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<h2>Debugger inspection and interaction:</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>info target</li>
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<li>show prompt</li>
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<li>set prompt</li>
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<li>show listsize</li>
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<li>set listsize</li>
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<li>show language</li>
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<li>set language</li>
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<li>show args</li>
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<li>set args [args]</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>TODO:</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>info frame</li>
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<li>break</li>
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<li>print</li>
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<li>ptype</li>
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<li>info types</li>
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<li>info variables</li>
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<li>info program</li>
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<li>info args</li>
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<li>info locals</li>
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<li>info catch</li>
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<li>... many others</li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
|
|
<div class="doc_section">
|
|
<a name="architecture">Architecture of the LLVM debugger</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The LLVM debugger is built out of three distinct layers of software. These
|
|
layers provide clients with different interface options depending on what pieces
|
|
of they want to implement themselves, and it also promotes code modularity and
|
|
good design. The three layers are the <a href="#arch_debugger">Debugger
|
|
interface</a>, the <a href="#arch_info">"info" interfaces</a>, and the
|
|
<a href="#arch_llvm-db"><tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a> itself.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="arch_debugger">The Debugger and InferiorProcess classes</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
The Debugger class (defined in the <tt>include/llvm/Debugger/</tt> directory) is
|
|
a low-level class which is used to maintain information about the loaded
|
|
program, as well as start and stop the program running as necessary. This class
|
|
does not provide any high-level analysis or control over the program, only
|
|
exposing simple interfaces like <tt>load/unloadProgram</tt>,
|
|
<tt>create/killProgram</tt>, <tt>step/next/finish/contProgram</tt>, and
|
|
low-level methods for installing breakpoints.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The Debugger class is itself a wrapper around the lowest-level InferiorProcess
|
|
class. This class is used to represent an instance of the program running under
|
|
debugger control. The InferiorProcess class can be implemented in different
|
|
ways for different targets and execution scenarios (e.g., remote debugging).
|
|
The InferiorProcess class exposes a small and simple collection of interfaces
|
|
which are useful for inspecting the current state of the program (such as
|
|
collecting stack trace information, reading the memory image of the process,
|
|
etc). The interfaces in this class are designed to be as low-level and simple
|
|
as possible, to make it easy to create new instances of the class.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The Debugger class exposes the currently active instance of InferiorProcess
|
|
through the <tt>Debugger::getRunningProcess</tt> method, which returns a
|
|
<tt>const</tt> reference to the class. This means that clients of the Debugger
|
|
class can only <b>inspect</b> the running instance of the program directly. To
|
|
change the executing process in some way, they must use the interces exposed by
|
|
the Debugger class.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="arch_info">The RuntimeInfo, ProgramInfo, and SourceLanguage classes</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
The next-highest level of debugger abstraction is provided through the
|
|
ProgramInfo, RuntimeInfo, SourceLanguage and related classes (also defined in
|
|
the <tt>include/llvm/Debugger/</tt> directory). These classes efficiently
|
|
decode the debugging information and low-level interfaces exposed by
|
|
InferiorProcess into a higher-level representation, suitable for analysis by the
|
|
debugger.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The ProgramInfo class exposes a variety of different kinds of information about
|
|
the program objects in the source-level-language. The SourceFileInfo class
|
|
represents a source-file in the program (e.g. a .cpp or .h file). The
|
|
SourceFileInfo class captures information such as which SourceLanguage was used
|
|
to compile the file, where the debugger can get access to the actual file text
|
|
(which is lazily loaded on demand), etc. The SourceFunctionInfo class
|
|
represents a... <b>FIXME: finish</b>. The ProgramInfo class provides interfaces
|
|
to lazily find and decode the information needed to create the Source*Info
|
|
classes requested by the debugger.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The RuntimeInfo class exposes information about the currently executed program,
|
|
by decoding information from the InferiorProcess and ProgramInfo classes. It
|
|
provides a StackFrame class which provides an easy-to-use interface for
|
|
inspecting the current and suspended stack frames in the program.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The SourceLanguage class is an abstract interface used by the debugger to
|
|
perform all source-language-specific tasks. For example, this interface is used
|
|
by the ProgramInfo class to decode language-specific types and functions and by
|
|
the debugger front-end (such as <a href="#arch_llvm-db"><tt>llvm-db</tt></a> to
|
|
evaluate source-langauge expressions typed into the debugger. This class uses
|
|
the RuntimeInfo & ProgramInfo classes to get information about the current
|
|
execution context and the loaded program, respectively.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="arch_llvm-db">The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
The <tt>llvm-db</tt> is designed to be a debugger providing an interface as <a
|
|
href="#llvm-db">similar to GDB</a> as reasonable, but no more so than that.
|
|
Because the <a href="#arch_debugger">Debugger</a> and <a
|
|
href="#arch_info">info</a> classes implement all of the heavy lifting and
|
|
analysis, <tt>llvm-db</tt> (which lives in <tt>llvm/tools/llvm-db</tt>) consists
|
|
mainly of of code to interact with the user and parse commands. The CLIDebugger
|
|
constructor registers all of the builtin commands for the debugger, and each
|
|
command is implemented as a CLIDebugger::[name]Command method.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="arch_todo">Short-term TODO list</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
FIXME: this section will eventually go away. These are notes to myself of
|
|
things that should be implemented, but haven't yet.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Breakpoints:</b> Support is already implemented in the 'InferiorProcess'
|
|
class, though it hasn't been tested yet. To finish breakpoint support, we need
|
|
to implement breakCommand (which should reuse the linespec parser from the list
|
|
command), and handle the fact that 'break foo' or 'break file.c:53' may insert
|
|
multiple breakpoints. Also, if you say 'break file.c:53' and there is no
|
|
stoppoint on line 53, the breakpoint should go on the next available line. My
|
|
idea was to have the Debugger class provide a "Breakpoint" class which
|
|
encapsulated this messiness, giving the debugger front-end a simple interface.
|
|
The debugger front-end would have to map the really complex semantics of
|
|
temporary breakpoints and 'conditional' breakpoints onto this intermediate
|
|
level. Also, breakpoints should survive as much as possible across program
|
|
reloads.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>UnixLocalInferiorProcess.cpp speedup</b>: There is no reason for the debugged
|
|
process to code gen the globals corresponding to debug information. The
|
|
IntrinsicLowering object could instead change descriptors into constant expr
|
|
casts of the constant address of the LLVM objects for the descriptors. This
|
|
would also allow us to eliminate the mapping back and forth between physical
|
|
addresses that must be done.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<b>Process deaths</b>: The InferiorProcessDead exception should be extended to
|
|
know "how" a process died, i.e., it was killed by a signal. This is easy to
|
|
collect in the UnixLocalInferiorProcess, we just need to represent it.</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
|
|
<div class="doc_section">
|
|
<a name="format">Debugging information format</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
|
|
<p>LLVM debugging information has been carefully designed to make it possible
|
|
for the optimizer to optimize the program and debugging information without
|
|
necessarily having to know anything about debugging information. In particular,
|
|
the global constant merging pass automatically eliminates duplicated debugging
|
|
information (often caused by header files), the global dead code elimination
|
|
pass automatically deletes debugging information for a function if it decides to
|
|
delete the function, and the linker eliminates debug information when it merges
|
|
<tt>linkonce</tt> functions.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>To do this, most of the debugging information (descriptors for types,
|
|
variables, functions, source files, etc) is inserted by the language front-end
|
|
in the form of LLVM global variables. These LLVM global variables are no
|
|
different from any other global variables, except that they have a web of LLVM
|
|
intrinsic functions that point to them. If the last references to a particular
|
|
piece of debugging information are deleted (for example, by the
|
|
<tt>-globaldce</tt> pass), the extraneous debug information will automatically
|
|
become dead and be removed by the optimizer.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The debugger is designed to be agnostic about the contents of most of the
|
|
debugging information. It uses a <a href="#arch_info">source-language-specific
|
|
module</a> to decode the information that represents variables, types,
|
|
functions, namespaces, etc: this allows for arbitrary source-language semantics
|
|
and type-systems to be used, as long as there is a module written for the
|
|
debugger to interpret the information.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
To provide basic functionality, the LLVM debugger does have to make some
|
|
assumptions about the source-level language being debugged, though it keeps
|
|
these to a minimum. The only common features that the LLVM debugger assumes
|
|
exist are <a href="#format_common_source_files">source files</a>, and <a
|
|
href="#format_program_objects">program objects</a>. These abstract objects are
|
|
used by the debugger to form stack traces, show information about local
|
|
variables, etc.
|
|
|
|
<p>This section of the documentation first describes the representation aspects
|
|
common to any source-language. The <a href="#ccxx_frontend">next section</a>
|
|
describes the data layout conventions used by the C and C++ front-ends.</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_anchors">Anchors for global objects</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
One important aspect of the LLVM debug representation is that it allows the LLVM
|
|
debugger to efficiently index all of the global objects without having the scan
|
|
the program. To do this, all of the global objects use "anchor" globals of type
|
|
"<tt>{}</tt>", with designated names. These anchor objects obviously do not
|
|
contain any content or meaning by themselves, but all of the global objects of a
|
|
particular type (e.g., source file descriptors) contain a pointer to the anchor.
|
|
This pointer allows the debugger to use def-use chains to find all global
|
|
objects of that type.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
So far, the following names are recognized as anchors by the LLVM debugger:
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
%<a href="#format_common_source_files">llvm.dbg.translation_units</a> = linkonce global {} {}
|
|
%<a href="#format_program_objects">llvm.dbg.globals</a> = linkonce global {} {}
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Using anchors in this way (where the source file descriptor points to the
|
|
anchors, as opposed to having a list of source file descriptors) allows for the
|
|
standard dead global elimination and merging passes to automatically remove
|
|
unused debugging information. If the globals were kept track of through lists,
|
|
there would always be an object pointing to the descriptors, thus would never be
|
|
deleted.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_stoppoint">
|
|
Representing stopping points in the source program
|
|
</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
|
|
<p>LLVM debugger "stop points" are a key part of the debugging representation
|
|
that allows the LLVM to maintain simple semantics for <a
|
|
href="#debugopt">debugging optimized code</a>. The basic idea is that the
|
|
front-end inserts calls to the <tt>%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</tt> intrinsic function
|
|
at every point in the program where the debugger should be able to inspect the
|
|
program (these correspond to places the debugger stops when you "<tt>step</tt>"
|
|
through it). The front-end can choose to place these as fine-grained as it
|
|
would like (for example, before every subexpression evaluated), but it is
|
|
recommended to only put them after every source statement that includes
|
|
executable code.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Using calls to this intrinsic function to demark legal points for the debugger
|
|
to inspect the program automatically disables any optimizations that could
|
|
potentially confuse debugging information. To non-debug-information-aware
|
|
transformations, these calls simply look like calls to an external function,
|
|
which they must assume to do anything (including reading or writing to any part
|
|
of reachable memory). On the other hand, it does not impact many optimizations,
|
|
such as code motion of non-trapping instructions, nor does it impact
|
|
optimization of subexpressions, code duplication transformations, or basic-block
|
|
reordering transformations.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
An important aspect of the calls to the <tt>%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</tt> intrinsic
|
|
is that the function-local debugging information is woven together with use-def
|
|
chains. This makes it easy for the debugger to, for example, locate the 'next'
|
|
stop point. For a concrete example of stop points, see the example in <a
|
|
href="#format_common_lifetime">the next section</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_lifetime">Object lifetimes and scoping</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
In many languages, the local variables in functions can have their lifetime or
|
|
scope limited to a subset of a function. In the C family of languages, for
|
|
example, variables are only live (readable and writable) within the source block
|
|
that they are defined in. In functional languages, values are only readable
|
|
after they have been defined. Though this is a very obvious concept, it is also
|
|
non-trivial to model in LLVM, because it has no notion of scoping in this sense,
|
|
and does not want to be tied to a language's scoping rules.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In order to handle this, the LLVM debug format uses the notion of "regions" of a
|
|
function, delineated by calls to intrinsic functions. These intrinsic functions
|
|
define new regions of the program and indicate when the region lifetime expires.
|
|
Consider the following C fragment, for example:
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
1. void foo() {
|
|
2. int X = ...;
|
|
3. int Y = ...;
|
|
4. {
|
|
5. int Z = ...;
|
|
6. ...
|
|
7. }
|
|
8. ...
|
|
9. }
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Compiled to LLVM, this function would be represented like this (FIXME: CHECK AND
|
|
UPDATE THIS):
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
void %foo() {
|
|
%X = alloca int
|
|
%Y = alloca int
|
|
%Z = alloca int
|
|
<a name="#icl_ex_D1">%D1</a> = call {}* %llvm.dbg.func.start(<a href="#format_program_objects">%lldb.global</a>* %d.foo)
|
|
%D2 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D1, uint 2, uint 2, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
|
|
|
|
%D3 = call {}* %llvm.dbg.DEFINEVARIABLE({}* %D2, ...)
|
|
<i>;; Evaluate expression on line 2, assigning to X.</i>
|
|
%D4 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D3, uint 3, uint 2, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
|
|
|
|
%D5 = call {}* %llvm.dbg.DEFINEVARIABLE({}* %D4, ...)
|
|
<i>;; Evaluate expression on line 3, assigning to Y.</i>
|
|
%D6 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D5, uint 5, uint 4, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
|
|
|
|
<a name="#icl_ex_D1">%D7</a> = call {}* %llvm.region.start({}* %D6)
|
|
%D8 = call {}* %llvm.dbg.DEFINEVARIABLE({}* %D7, ...)
|
|
<i>;; Evaluate expression on line 5, assigning to Z.</i>
|
|
%D9 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D8, uint 6, uint 4, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
|
|
|
|
<i>;; Code for line 6.</i>
|
|
%D10 = call {}* %llvm.region.end({}* %D9)
|
|
%D11 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D10, uint 8, uint 2, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
|
|
|
|
<i>;; Code for line 8.</i>
|
|
<a name="#icl_ex_D1">%D12</a> = call {}* %llvm.region.end({}* %D11)
|
|
ret void
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
This example illustrates a few important details about the LLVM debugging
|
|
information. In particular, it shows how the various intrinsics used are woven
|
|
together with def-use and use-def chains, similar to how <a
|
|
href="#format_common_anchors">anchors</a> are used with globals. This allows the
|
|
debugger to analyze the relationship between statements, variable definitions,
|
|
and the code used to implement the function.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In this example, two explicit regions are defined, one with the <a
|
|
href="#icl_ex_D1">definition of the <tt>%D1</tt> variable</a> and one with the
|
|
<a href="#icl_ex_D7">definition of <tt>%D7</tt></a>. In the case of
|
|
<tt>%D1</tt>, the debug information indicates that the function whose <a
|
|
href="#format_program_objects">descriptor</a> is specified as an argument to the
|
|
intrinsic. This defines a new stack frame whose lifetime ends when the region
|
|
is ended by <a href="#icl_ex_D12">the <tt>%D12</tt> call</a>.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Using regions to represent the boundaries of source-level functions allow LLVM
|
|
interprocedural optimizations to arbitrarily modify LLVM functions without
|
|
having to worry about breaking mapping information between the LLVM code and the
|
|
and source-level program. In particular, the inliner requires no modification
|
|
to support inlining with debugging information: there is no explicit correlation
|
|
drawn between LLVM functions and their source-level counterparts (note however,
|
|
that if the inliner inlines all instances of a non-strong-linkage function into
|
|
its caller that it will not be possible for the user to manually invoke the
|
|
inlined function from the debugger).</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Once the function has been defined, the <a
|
|
href="#format_common_stoppoint">stopping point</a> corresponding to line #2 of the
|
|
function is encountered. At this point in the function, <b>no</b> local
|
|
variables are live. As lines 2 and 3 of the example are executed, their
|
|
variable definitions are automatically introduced into the program, without the
|
|
need to specify a new region. These variables do not require new regions to be
|
|
introduced because they go out of scope at the same point in the program: line
|
|
9.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In contrast, the <tt>Z</tt> variable goes out of scope at a different time, on
|
|
line 7. For this reason, it is defined within <a href="#icl_ex_D7">the
|
|
<tt>%D7</tt> region</a>, which kills the availability of <tt>Z</tt> before the
|
|
code for line 8 is executed. In this way, regions can support arbitrary
|
|
source-language scoping rules, as long as they can only be nested (ie, one scope
|
|
cannot partially overlap with a part of another scope).
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
It is worth noting that this scoping mechanism is used to control scoping of all
|
|
declarations, not just variable declarations. For example, the scope of a C++
|
|
using declaration is controlled with this, and the <tt>llvm-db</tt> C++ support
|
|
routines could use this to change how name lookup is performed (though this is
|
|
not implemented yet).
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_descriptors">Object descriptor formats</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
The LLVM debugger expects the descriptors for program objects to start in a
|
|
canonical format, but the descriptors can include additional information
|
|
appended at the end that is source-language specific. All LLVM debugging
|
|
information is versioned, allowing backwards compatibility in the case that the
|
|
core structures need to change in some way. Also, all debugging information
|
|
objects start with a <a href="#format_common_tags">tag</a> to indicate what type
|
|
of object it is. The source-language is allows to define its own objects, by
|
|
using unreserved tag numbers.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>The lowest-level descriptor are those describing <a
|
|
href="#format_common_source_files">the files containing the program source
|
|
code</a>, as most other descriptors (sometimes indirectly) refer to them.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_source_files">Representation of source files</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
Source file descriptors are patterned after the Dwarf "compile_unit" object.
|
|
The descriptor currently is defined to have at least the following LLVM
|
|
type entries:</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
%lldb.compile_unit = type {
|
|
uint, <i>;; Tag: <a href="#tag_compile_unit">LLVM_COMPILE_UNIT</a></i>
|
|
ushort, <i>;; LLVM debug version number</i>
|
|
ushort, <i>;; Dwarf language identifier</i>
|
|
sbyte*, <i>;; Filename</i>
|
|
sbyte*, <i>;; Working directory when compiled</i>
|
|
sbyte* <i>;; Producer of the debug information</i>
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
These descriptors contain the version number for the debug info, a source
|
|
language ID for the file (we use the Dwarf 3.0 ID numbers, such as
|
|
<tt>DW_LANG_C89</tt>, <tt>DW_LANG_C_plus_plus</tt>, <tt>DW_LANG_Cobol74</tt>,
|
|
etc), three strings describing the filename, working directory of the compiler,
|
|
and an identifier string for the compiler that produced it. Note that actual
|
|
compile_unit declarations must also include an <a
|
|
href="#format_common_anchors">anchor</a> to <tt>llvm.dbg.translation_units</tt>,
|
|
but it is not specified where the anchor is to be located. Here is an example
|
|
descriptor:
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
%arraytest_source_file = internal constant %lldb.compile_unit {
|
|
<a href="#tag_compile_unit">uint 17</a>, ; Tag value
|
|
ushort 0, ; Version #0
|
|
ushort 1, ; DW_LANG_C89
|
|
sbyte* getelementptr ([12 x sbyte]* %.str_1, long 0, long 0), ; filename
|
|
sbyte* getelementptr ([12 x sbyte]* %.str_2, long 0, long 0), ; working dir
|
|
sbyte* getelementptr ([12 x sbyte]* %.str_3, long 0, long 0), ; producer
|
|
{}* %llvm.dbg.translation_units ; Anchor
|
|
}
|
|
%.str_1 = internal constant [12 x sbyte] c"arraytest.c\00"
|
|
%.str_2 = internal constant [12 x sbyte] c"/home/sabre\00"
|
|
%.str_3 = internal constant [12 x sbyte] c"llvmgcc 3.4\00"
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Note that the LLVM constant merging pass should eliminate duplicate copies of
|
|
the strings that get emitted to each translation unit, such as the producer.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
|
|
<a name="format_program_objects">Representation of program objects</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
The LLVM debugger needs to know about some source-language program objects, in
|
|
order to build stack traces, print information about local variables, and other
|
|
related activities. The LLVM debugger differentiates between three different
|
|
types of program objects: subprograms (functions, messages, methods, etc),
|
|
variables (locals and globals), and others. Because source-languages have
|
|
widely varying forms of these objects, the LLVM debugger expects only a few
|
|
fields in the descriptor for each object:
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
%lldb.object = type {
|
|
uint, <i>;; <a href="#format_common_tag">A tag</a></i>
|
|
<i>any</i>*, <i>;; The <a href="#format_common_object_contexts">context</a> for the object</i>
|
|
sbyte* <i>;; The object 'name'</i>
|
|
}
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The first field contains a tag for the descriptor. The second field contains
|
|
either a pointer to the descriptor for the containing <a
|
|
href="#format_common_source_files">source file</a>, or it contains a pointer to
|
|
another program object whose context pointer eventually reaches a source file.
|
|
Through this <a href="#format_common_object_contexts">context</a> pointer, the
|
|
LLVM debugger can establish the debug version number of the object.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The third field contains a string that the debugger can use to identify the
|
|
object if it does not contain explicit support for the source-language in use
|
|
(ie, the 'unknown' source language handler uses this string). This should be
|
|
some sort of unmangled string that corresponds to the object, but it is a
|
|
quality of implementation issue what exactly it contains (it is legal, though
|
|
not useful, for all of these strings to be null).
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Note again that descriptors can be extended to include source-language-specific
|
|
information in addition to the fields required by the LLVM debugger. See the <a
|
|
href="#ccxx_descriptors">section on the C/C++ front-end</a> for more
|
|
information. Also remember that global objects (functions, selectors, global
|
|
variables, etc) must contain an <a href="format_common_anchors">anchor</a> to
|
|
the <tt>llvm.dbg.globals</tt> variable.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_object_contexts">Program object contexts</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
Allow source-language specific contexts, use to identify namespaces etc
|
|
Must end up in a source file descriptor.
|
|
Debugger core ignores all unknown context objects.
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_intrinsics">Debugger intrinsic functions</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
Define each intrinsics, as an extension of the language reference manual.
|
|
|
|
llvm.dbg.stoppoint
|
|
llvm.dbg.region.start
|
|
llvm.dbg.region.end
|
|
llvm.dbg.function.start
|
|
llvm.dbg.declare
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="format_common_tags">Values for debugger tags</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Happen to be the same value as the similarly named Dwarf-3 tags, this may change
|
|
in the future.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p><pre>
|
|
<a name="tag_compile_unit">LLVM_COMPILE_UNIT</a> : 17
|
|
<a name="tag_subprogram">LLVM_SUBPROGRAM</a> : 46
|
|
<a name="tag_variable">LLVM_VARIABLE</a> : 52
|
|
<!-- <a name="tag_formal_parameter">LLVM_FORMAL_PARAMETER : 5-->
|
|
</pre></p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
|
|
<div class="doc_section">
|
|
<a name="ccxx_frontend">C/C++ front-end specific debug information</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The C and C++ front-ends represent information about the program in a format
|
|
that is effectively identical to <a
|
|
href="http://www.eagercon.com/dwarf/dwarf3std.htm">Dwarf 3.0</a> in terms of
|
|
information content. This allows code generators to trivially support native
|
|
debuggers by generating standard dwarf information, and contains enough
|
|
information for non-dwarf targets to translate it as needed.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The basic debug information required by the debugger is (intentionally) designed
|
|
to be as minimal as possible. This basic information is so minimal that it is
|
|
unlikely that <b>any</b> source-language could be adequately described by it.
|
|
Because of this, the debugger format was designed for extension to support
|
|
source-language-specific information. The extended descriptors are read and
|
|
interpreted by the <a href="#arch_info">language-specific</a> modules in the
|
|
debugger if there is support available, otherwise it is ignored.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
This section describes the extensions used to represent C and C++ programs.
|
|
Other languages could pattern themselves after this (which itself is tuned to
|
|
representing programs in the same way that Dwarf 3 does), or they could choose
|
|
to provide completely different extensions if they don't fit into the Dwarf
|
|
model. As support for debugging information gets added to the various LLVM
|
|
source-language front-ends, the information used should be documented here.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="ccxx_pse">Program Scope Entries</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
|
|
<a name="ccxx_compilation_units">Compilation unit entries</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
Translation units do not add any information over the standard <a
|
|
href="#format_common_source_files">source file representation</a> already
|
|
expected by the debugger. As such, it uses descriptors of the type specified,
|
|
with a trailing <a href="#format_common_anchors">anchor</a>.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!----------------------------------------------------------------------------->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
|
|
<a name="ccxx_modules">Module, namespace, and importing entries</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
|
|
<div class="doc_subsection">
|
|
<a name="ccxx_dataobjects">Data objects (program variables)</a>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<div class="doc_text">
|
|
<p>
|
|
|
|
</p>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
|
|
<hr>
|
|
<div class="doc_footer">
|
|
<address><a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></address>
|
|
<a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">The LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a>
|
|
<br>
|
|
Last modified: $Date$
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|