Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect

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Revised for H06.08

Seth Hawthorne

NonStop Enterprise Division

Hewlett-Packard Company

Introduction

Native Inspect is the standard command-line

debugger for debugging natively compiled

programs on HP Integrity NonStop systems.

It fulfills the roles formerly played by

DEBUG and Inspect on S-series and TNS

systems.

If you are reading this, you are probably

migrating to Native Inspect for the first time.

If you are familiar with the GNU GDB

debugger, a de facto industry standard

debugger found on many platforms, you will

be able to get started with GDB-based

Native Inspect in no time. Just scan for the

notes that identify GDB differences.

If you are a long-time Inspect user, use the

information in this document to translate

common Inspect debugging operations to

Native Inspect. The underlying concepts are

the same, though expressed differently. If

you are accustomed to Inspect commands,

the biggest challenge may be retraining your

fingers to issue the new commands that you

learn.

Note: Before H06.06, Native Inspect did not

support TNS/E COBOL; it now supports the

TNS/E versions of COBOL, C/C++, and pTAL.

In this document, Native Inspect commands

appear in courier bold and command

parameters appear in times italics. You can

abbreviate most commands.

Paradigm Shift

Accurate expectations are a key success

factor in many endeavors, especially in this

case. When you migrate to Native Inspect,

keep a few things in mind:

 Native Inspect is a NonStop

implementation of the GNU GDB

debugger, not an Inspect descendent.

 Native Inspect is in its initial releases

and will evolve.

 Inspect is a scope-based debugger in

that code and data locations are

identified relative to the containing

procedure or function; Native Inspect

uses source file names and line numbers.

Preparing to Debug

Compiling Programs

You can compile programs on the NonStop

operating system or in a PC-based cross-

development environment. In the latter case,

you must transfer source files to the

NonStop system when debugging and might

have to define the location of source files to

the debugger.

As on S-series systems, the following

compilation optimization levels are

supported:

Level Description

O0 Limited optimizations and

best debugging.

O1 (default) Reasonable optimization

and debugging, but some

variables and locations

might not be available.

O2 Compiled for performance

with limited debugging.

Summary of content (15 pages)

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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Revised for H06.08 Seth Hawthorne NonStop Enterprise Division Hewlett-Packard Company Paradigm Shift Introduction Native Inspect is the standard command-line debugger for debugging natively compiled programs on HP Integrity NonStop systems. It fulfills the roles formerly played by DEBUG and Inspect on S-series and TNS systems. If you are reading this, you are probably migrating to Native Inspect for the first time.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect During the development and debugging phase, compile programs at optimize level 0 (O0). Tip: Use the enoft lp * d command to determine the optimization level of the functions that compose your program. Starting Programs You start programs under control of the debugger the same way as on earlier systems.   Guardian: use the rund command.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect list line-number list file:line-number Inspect Difference: Native Inspect does not support the ability to search for text in source files or to close open source files. Gotcha: In Native Inspect, the source command has the same meaning as the Inspect OBEY command. If Native Inspect cannot locate your source files, see Locating Source and Symbols on page 6.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect To list currently set breakpoints, use the info breakpoints command. Like Inspect, breakpoints are identified to related commands using ordinal numbers. You can apply these commands: condition breakpoint-ord condition Add or remove a breakpoint condition. ignore breakpoint-ord Ignore the breakpoint a specified number of times (Inspect EVERY clause). commands breakpoint-ord Add a list of commands to be executed when the breakpoint is hit.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Pointers Like GDB, Native Inspect automatically dereferences C/C++ character pointers (char *). Limitation: Whereas pTAL automatically dereferences pointers, Native Inspect currently treats them like C/C++ non-character pointers; you must explicitly dereference them. Arrays Native Inspect does not directly support the Inspect FOR clause.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Modifying Variables To modify a variable, use either of these commands: print variable = value set variable variable = value The value can be a constant, another variable, or the result of an expression. GDB Gotcha: The variable clause of the set command is optional but must be specified if the name of the variable is the same as a debugger option, listed by the show command.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Note: For DLL loadfiles, Native Inspect uses the actual load address to address variables. If you need to override use of the actual address, the add-symbol command allows you to specify a base address when loading the file.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Machine-Level Debugging Sometimes viewing your program execution at the source level might be insufficient, and instead you need to see how the machine is executing the compiler-translated instructions. Doing so reveals the much larger register file, longer instruction sequences, and compiler optimizations inherent to TNS/E processors. Whereas Inspect supported a low-level mode for this purpose, machine-level debugging commands are integrated into Native Inspect.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Execution Control The step and next commands have corresponding stepi and nexti commands for stepping instructions. To set a breakpoint at an address, use this command: b *address Privileged Debugging Like DEBUG or Inspect, you can use Native Inspect to perform privileged debugging. To enable privileged debugging, you must log on as super ID and issue this Native Inspect command: priv on Once enabled, you can examine privileged memory regions.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Value History Native Inspect saves displayed values in a value history list, which is analogous to the command history list. Entries are identified by a $-prefixed ordinal number that is printed at the beginning of print command output. Values can be recalled and used with other commands. For example, print $3 Using Convenience Variables Value history variables are one example of GDB convenience variables, whose names are prefixed with a $.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Appendix A - Inspect to Native Inspect Command Mapping In the following table, | is used to identify alternative choices. Inspect Command Native Inspect Command A a Description Display memory in ASCII. (Native Inspect Debug compatibility command) ADD ALIAS Not supported Add a command alias. ADD KEY Not supported Add a command binding to a terminal function key. ADD PROGRAM attach | snapshot Debug a running process or load a snapshot file.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Inspect Command FILES Native Inspect Command Not supported FA Not supported Edit a previously defined command alias. FB Not supported Edit a previously defined breakpoint. FX Not supported Edit a previously defined function key binding. FN fn Find number; search memory for a value. HELP help Display online help. HIGH N/A Enter symbolic debugging mode HISTORY show commands List the history of most recently executed commands.
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Appendix A – Inspect Command Mapping Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Inspect Command Native Inspect Command INFO SIGNALS ih Description Display information about defined signal handlers. KEY Not supported List defined function key bindings. LIST ALIAS Not supported List command aliases. LIST BREAKPOINTS info breakpoints List defined breakpoints. (Native Inspect Debug currently does not list the memory access breakpoint.
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Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Inspect Command Native Inspect Command OUT log PAUSE wait Suspend debugger prompting until a process debug event occurs, or the user presses the break key. PROGRAM vector Select the specified program as the current program, on which all debugger operations apply. RESUME continue Continue execution of the process. SAVE save Save process state to a snapshot file for later “post-mortem” debugging.
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Appendix A – Inspect Command Mapping Migrating from Inspect to Native Inspect Inspect Command Native Inspect Command SOURCE list STEP IN step, stepi, Step program execution a statement or an instruction at a time, stepping in to function/procedure/program unit calls. STEP OUT finish Step program execution out of the current function/procedure/program unit call.