Document revision date: 19 July 1999
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OpenVMS Debugger Manual


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Bit-Field Operator

The following example shows how to use the bit-field operator. For example, to examine the address expression X_NAME starting at bit 3 with a length of 4 bits and no sign extension, enter the following command:


DBG> EXAMINE X_NAME <3,4,0>

B.3.8 Obtaining Information About Exceptions

The following built-in symbols enable you to obtain information about the current exception and use that information to qualify breakpoints or tracepoints:
Symbol Description
%EXC_FACILITY Name of facility that issued the current exception
%EXC_NAME Name of current exception
%ADAEXC_NAME Ada exception name of current exception (for Ada programs only)
%EXC_NUMBER Number of current exception
%EXC_SEVERITY Severity code of current exception

For example:


DBG> EVALUATE %EXC_NAME
"FLTDIV_F"
DBG> SET BREAK/EXCEPTION WHEN (%EXC_NAME = "FLTDIV_F")
   .
   .
   .
DBG> EVALUATE %EXC_NUMBER
12
DBG> EVALUATE/CONDITION_VALUE %EXC_NUMBER
%SYSTEM-F-ACCVIO, access violation at PC !XL, virtual address !XL
DBG> SET BREAK/EXCEPTION WHEN (%EXC_NUMBER = 12)

The conditional expressions in the WHEN clauses are language-specific.

B.3.9 Specifying the Current, Next, and Previous Scope on the Call Stack

You can use the following built-in symbols to obtain and manipulate the scope for symbol lookup and for source or instruction display relative to the routine call stack:
Built-in Symbol Description
%CURRENT_SCOPE_ENTRY The call frame that the debugger is currently using as reference when displaying source code or decoded instructions, or when searching for symbols. By default, this is call frame 0.
%NEXT_SCOPE_ENTRY The next call frame down the call stack from the call frame denoted by %CURRENT_SCOPE_ENTRY.
%PREVIOUS_SCOPE_ENTRY The next call frame up the call stack from the call frame denoted by %CURRENT_SCOPE_ENTRY.

These symbols return integer values that denote a call frame on the call stack. Call frame 0 denotes the routine at the top of the stack, where execution is suspended. Call frame 1 denotes the calling routine, and so on.

For example, the following command specifies that the debugger search for symbols starting with the scope denoted by the next routine down the call stack (rather than starting with the routine at the top of the call stack):


DBG> SET SCOPE/CURRENT %NEXT_SCOPE_ENTRY


Appendix C
Summary of Debugger Support for Languages

On VAX processors, you can use the debugger with programs written in the following DEC languages:
Ada BASIC BLISS C
C++ COBOL DIBOL Fortran
MACRO-32 Pascal PL/I RPG II
SCAN      

On Alpha processors, you can use the debugger with programs written in the following DEC languages:
Ada BASIC BLISS C
C++ COBOL Fortran MACRO-32 1
MACRO-64 Pascal PL/I  


1Note that MACRO-32 must be compiled with the AMACRO compiler.

The manual describes debugging techniques that are common to most of the supported languages. The following topics provide further information that is specific to each language.

C.1 Overview

The debugger recognizes the syntax, data typing, and scoping rules of each language. It also recognizes each language's operators and expression syntax. Therefore, when using debugger commands you can specify variables and other program entities as you might in the source code of the program. You can also compute the value of a source-language expression using the syntax of that language.

The manual describes debugging techniques that are common to most of the supported languages. The help topics provide further information specific to each language:

For more information about language-specific debugger support, refer to the documentation furnished with a particular language.

If your program is written in more than one language, you can change the debugging context from one language to another during a debugging session. Use the SET LANGUAGE command with the keyword corresponding to your language choice.

On VAX processors, you can specify one of the following keywords:
ADA BASIC BLISS C
C++ COBOL DIBOL FORTRAN
MACRO PASCAL PLI RPG
SCAN UNKNOWN    

On Alpha processors, you can specify one of the following keywords:
ADA AMACRO BASIC BLISS
C C++ COBOL FORTRAN
MACRO MACRO64 PASCAL UNKNOWN

When you are debugging a program written in an unsupported language, enter the SET LANGUAGE UNKNOWN command. To maximize the usability of the debugger with unsupported languages, this setting causes the debugger to accept a large set of data formats and operators, including some that might be specific to only a few supported languages. For information about the operators and constructs that are recognized when the language is set to UNKNOWN, type Help Language_UNKNOWN.

C.2 Ada

The following subtopics describe debugger support for Ada. For information specific to Ada tasking programs, see also Chapter 17.

C.2.1 Ada Names and Symbols

The following subtopics describe debugger support for Ada names and symbols, including predefined attributes.

Note that parts of names may be language expressions---for example, attributes such as 'FIRST or 'POS. This affects how you use the EXAMINE, EVALUATE, and DEPOSIT commands with such names. For examples of enumeration types, type Help Specifying_Attributes_with_Enumeration_Types.

C.2.1.1 Ada Names

Supported Ada names follow:
Kind of Name Debugger Support
Lexical elements Full support for Ada rules for the syntax of identifiers.

Function designators that are operator symbols (for example, + and *) rather than identifiers must be prefixed with %NAME. Also, the operator symbol must be enclosed in quotation marks.

Full support for Ada rules for numeric literals, character literals, string literals, and reserved words.

The debugger accepts signed integer literals in the range --2147483648 to 2147483647.

Depending on context and architecture, the debugger interprets floating-point types as F_floating, D_floating, G_floating, H_floating, S_floating, or T_floating.

Indexed components Full support.
Slices You can examine and evaluate an entire slice or an indexed component of a slice.

You can deposit only to an indexed component of a slice. You cannot deposit an entire slice.

Selected components Full support, including use of the keyword all in .all.
Literals Full support, including the keyword null.
Boolean symbols Full support (TRUE, FALSE).
Aggregates You can examine the entire record and array objects with the EXAMINE command. You can deposit a value in a component of an array or record. You cannot use the DEPOSIT command with aggregates, except to deposit character string values.

C.2.1.2 Predefined Attributes

Supported Ada predefined attributes follow. Note that the debugger SHOW SYMBOL/TYPE command provides the same information that is provided by the P'FIRST, P'LAST, P'LENGTH, P'SIZE, and P'CONSTRAINED attributes.
Attribute Debugger Support
P'CONSTRAINED For a prefix P that denotes a record object with discriminants. The value of P'CONSTRAINED reflects the current state of P (constrained or unconstrained).
P'FIRST For a prefix P that denotes an enumeration type or a subtype of an enumeration type. Yields the lower bound of P.
P'FIRST For a prefix P that is appropriate for an array type, or that denotes a constrained array subtype. Yields the lower bound of the first index range.
P'FIRST(N) For a prefix P that is appropriate for an array type, or that denotes a constrained array subtype. Yields the lower bound of the Nth index range.
P'LAST For a prefix P that denotes an enumeration type, or a subtype of an enumeration type. Yields the upper bound of P.
P'LAST For a prefix P that is appropriate for an array type, or that denotes a constrained array subtype. Yields the upper bound of the first index range.
P'LAST(N) For a prefix P that is appropriate for an array type, or that denotes a constrained array subtype. Yields the upper bound of the Nth index range.
P'LENGTH For a prefix P that is appropriate for an array type, or that denotes a constrained array subtype. Yields the number of values of the first index range (zero for a null range).
P'LENGTH(N) For a prefix P that is appropriate for an array type, or that denotes a constrained array subtype. Yields the number of values of the Nth index range (zero for a null range).
P'POS(X) For a prefix P that denotes an enumeration type or a subtype of an enumeration type. Yields the position number of the value X. The first position is 0.
P'PRED(X) For a prefix P that denotes an enumeration type or a subtype of an enumeration type. Yields the value of type P which has a position number one less than that of X.
P'SIZE For a prefix P that denotes an object. Yields the number of bits allocated to hold the object.
P'SUCC(X) For a prefix P that denotes an enumeration type or a subtype of an enumeration type. Yields the value of type P which has a position number one more than that of X.
P'VAL(N) For a prefix P that denotes an enumeration type or a subtype of an enumeration type. Yields the value of type P which has the position number N. The first position is 0.

C.2.1.2.1 Specifying Attributes with Enumeration Types

Consider the following declarations:


type DAY is
   (MONDAY,TUESDAY,WEDNESDAY,THURSDAY,FRIDAY,SATURDAY,SUNDAY); 
MY_DAY : DAY; 

The following examples show the use of attributes with enumeration types. Note that you cannot use the EXAMINE command to determine the value of attributes, because attributes are not variable names. You must use the EVALUATE command instead. For the same reason, attributes can appear only on the right of the := operator in a DEPOSIT command.


DBG> EVALUATE DAY'FIRST
MON
DBG> EVALUATE DAY'POS(WEDNESDAY)
2
DBG> EVALUATE DAY'VAL(4)
FRI
DBG> DEPOSIT MY_DAY := TUESDAY
DBG> EVALUATE DAY'SUCC(MY_DAY)
WED
DBG> DEPOSIT . := DAY'PRED(MY_DAY)
DBG> EXAMINE .
EXAMPLE.MY_DAY: MONDAY
DBG> EVALUATE DAY'PRED(MY_DAY)
%DEBUG-W-ILLENUMVAL, enumeration value out of legal range

C.2.1.2.2 Resolving Overloaded Enumeration Literals

Consider the following declarations:


type MASK is (DEC,FIX,EXP); 
type CODE is (FIX,CLA,DEC); 
MY_MASK : MASK; 
MY_CODE : CODE; 

In the following example, the qualified expression CODE'(FIX) resolves the overloaded enumeration literal FIX, which belongs to both type CODE and type MASK:


DBG> DEPOSIT MY_CODE := FIX
%DEBUG-W-NOUNIQUE, symbol 'FIX' is not unique
DBG> SHOW SYMBOL/TYPE FIX
data EXAMPLE.FIX 
    enumeration type (CODE, 3 elements), size: 1 byte 
data EXAMPLE.FIX 
    enumeration type (MASK, 3 elements), size: 1 byte
DBG> DEPOSIT MY_CODE := CODE'(FIX)
DBG> EXAMINE MY_CODE
EXAMPLE.MY_CODE:        FIX

C.2.2 Operators and Expressions

The following sections describe debugger support for Ada operators and language expressions.

C.2.2.1 Operators in Language Expressions

Supported Ada operators in language expressions include:
Kind Symbol Function
Prefix + Unary plus (identity)
Prefix - Unary minus (negation)
Infix + Addition
Infix - Subtraction
Infix * Multiplication
Infix / Division
Infix MOD Modulus
Infix REM Remainder
Infix ** Exponentiation (VAX specific)
Prefix ABS Absolute value
Infix & Concatenation (only string types)
Infix = Equality (only scalar and string types)
Infix /= Inequality (only scalar and string types)
Infix > Greater than (only scalar and string types)
Infix >= Greater than or equal (only scalar and string types)
Infix < Less than (only scalar and string types)
Infix <= Less than or equal (only scalar and string types)
Prefix NOT Logical NOT
Infix AND Logical AND (not for bit arrays)
Infix OR Logical OR (not for bit arrays)
Infix XOR Logical exclusive OR (not for bit arrays)

The debugger does not support the following items:

C.2.2.2 Language Expressions

Supported Ada expressions include:
Kind of Expression Debugger Support
Type conversions No support for any of the explicit type conversions specified in Ada. However, the debugger performs certain implicit type conversions between numeric types during the evaluation of expressions.

The debugger converts lower-precision types to higher-precision types before evaluating expressions involving types of different precision:

  • If integer and floating-point types are mixed, the integer type is converted to floating-point type.
  • If integer and fixed-point types are mixed, the integer type is converted to fixed-point type.
  • If integer types of different sizes are mixed (for example, byte-integer and word-integer), the one with the smaller size is converted to the larger size.
Subtypes Full support. Note that the debugger denotes subtypes and types that have range constraints as "subrange" types.
Qualified expressions Supported as required to resolve overloaded enumeration literals (literals that have the same identifier but belong to different enumeration types). The debugger does not support qualified expressions for any other purpose.
Allocators No support for any operations with allocators.
Universal expressions No support.

C.2.3 Data Types

Supported Ada data types follow:
Ada Data Type Operating System Data Type Name
INTEGER Longword Integer (L)
SHORT_INTEGER Word Integer (W)
SHORT_SHORT_INTEGER Byte Integer (B)
SYSTEM.UNSIGNED_QUADWORD Quadword Unsigned (QU)
SYSTEM.UNSIGNED_LONGWORD Longword Unsigned (LU)
SYSTEM.UNSIGNED_WORD Word Unsigned (WU)
SYSTEM.UNSIGNED_BYTE Byte Unsigned (BU)
FLOAT F_Floating (F)
SYSTEM.F_FLOAT F_Floating (F)
SYSTEM.D_FLOAT D_Floating (D)
LONG_FLOAT D_Floating (D), if pragma LONG_FLOAT (D_FLOAT) is in effect.
G_Floating (G), if pragma LONG_FLOAT (G_FLOAT) is in effect.
SYSTEM.G_FLOAT G_Floating (G)
SYSTEM.H_FLOAT
(VAX specific)
H_Floating (H)
LONG_LONG_FLOAT
(VAX specific)
H_Floating (H)
IEEE_SINGLE_FLOAT
(Alpha specific)
S_Floating (FS)
IEEE_DOUBLE_FLOAT
(Alpha specific)
T_Floating (FT)
Fixed (None)
STRING ASCII Text (T)
BOOLEAN Aligned Bit String (V)
BOOLEAN Unaligned Bit String (VU)
Enumeration For any enumeration type whose value fits into an unsigned byte or word: Byte Unsigned (BU) or Word Unsigned (WU), respectively. Otherwise: No corresponding operating system data type.
Arrays (None)
Records (None)
Access (pointers) (None)
Tasks (None)


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