Native Inspect Manual (H06.13+, J06.03+)

Inspect (that is, the registered global debugger) to debug all processes in a CPU that encounter
the global breakpoints.
Considerations for Global Debugging
• Privileged mode must be enabled before you can set breakpoints in or examine privileged
code. You must logon with the super ID and explicitly enable privileged mode debugging by
entering the priv command.
• To set a global breakpoint, you must enable privileged debugging and then specify the -g
flag when setting a breakpoint. Global breakpoints are triggered by any process that executes
the code on which the breakpoint is set.
• Global debugging mode begins when the first global breakpoint is set, and ends when the
last global breakpoint is deleted. While global debugging is in effect, all other debugging in
the CPU is suspended.
• Native Inspect detects debugging events only when it is waiting. The debugger cannot detect
debugging events when prompting the user for input. For this reason, you should periodically
issue the wait command so that Native Inspect can detect any debugging events that might
have occurred. When waiting, you can press the Break key to redisplay the command prompt.
• The super ID has the unique ability to vector to and examine processes running in the current
CPU without establishing a debugging session with that process.
CAUTION: Use the super ID’s vector capability with care. The process might be executing,
and you cannot use execution control commands or commands that alter the process state.
• When privileged debugging mode is enabled, the attach command issues a DEBUGNOW
request instead of a DEBUG request.
Debugging TNS Processes
Native Inspect does not support debugging TNS processes nor TNS snapshot files. However, a
TNS process may come under the control of Native Inspect when the Inspect subsystem (T9226)
is not running.
If a TNS process becomes the current process in Native Inspect, you can do the following:
• Create a snapshot of the TNS process for later analysis with Visual Inspect or Inspect (using
the save command)
• Display a stack trace of the TNS process (using the bt command)
• Continue execution (using the continue command)
• Transfer the TNS process to Inspect once the Inspect subsystem is started (using the switch
command)
• Stop the TNS process or exit the debugger (using the kill command)
For TNS programs that are executing OCA-generated TNS/E code, Native Inspect can debug the
program, nonsymbolically, at the TNS/E machine level. You can use commands such as continue,
finish, next, step, and until. Native Inspect applies the commands to the underlying TNS/E
native view rather than to the TNS process itself. Also, the bt command can display a TNS stack
trace.
Debugging Snapshot Files
A process snapshot file or snapshot is a disk file that is an image of a process, its data, and its
status at the moment it was saved. Snapshot files are analogous to the core files on UNIX systems.
Snapshot files have file code 130. You can use all three debuggers (Native Inspect, Visual Inspect,
and Inspect) to debug snapshot files (Inspect refers to snapshot files as save files).
Debugging TNS Processes 27