XDBX

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 10 February 1989
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NAME

xdbx - X window interface to the dbx debugger.

SYNOPSIS

xdbx [ -toolkitoption ... ] [-dbxoption ... ] [objfile [ corefile ]]

DESCRIPTION

Xdbx is a graphical interface to the dbx debugger under the X Window System. It provides visual feedback and mouse input for the user to examine program execution, set and remove breakpoints, examine variables and data structures, and view source files and functions.

Xdbx supports both Berkeley dbx and Sun dbx. Sun dbx is an extended and debugged version of Berkeley dbx.

Xdbx allows initial dbx commands stored in the file .dbxinit to be executed immediately after the symbolic information is read. If .dbxinit does not exist in the current directory, the user's home directory is searched (~/.dbxinit).

Objfile is an object file produced by a compiler with the appropriate option (-g) specified to produce symbol table information for dbx. For Sun dbx, if no objfile is specified, the debug command can be used later to specify the program to be debugged.

If a file named core exists in the current directory or a corefile is specified, xdbx can be used to examine the state of the program when the core dump occurred.

OPTIONS

Xdbx accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options (see X(1)), and all the dbx options (see dbx(1)).

SUBWINDOWS

Xdbx is made up of the following subwindows:

Title Bar: Display the current version of xdbx.
File Window: Display the name of file displayed in the source window, and the line number of the caret.
Source Window: Display the contents of a source file.
Message Window: Display the execution status and error messages of xdbx .
Command Window: Provide a list of the common dbx commands which are invoked by simply clicking the left mouse button.
Dialog Window: Provide a typing interface to dbx.

The relative sizes of the source window, command window, and the dialog window can be adjusted by dragging the grip (a small square near the right edge of a horizontal border) with the left mouse button down.

SELECTION

To select some text, click the left mouse button at the starting position, then click the right mouse button at the ending position. The selected text is highlighted in reverse-video. It can be pasted into the dialog window by clicking the middle mouse button or unselected by the left mouse button.

An expression or function name can be selected by double clicking the left mouse button. Also, clicking the left mouse button in the source window places the caret at that line, and updates the line label accordingly.

SCROLLBAR

Pressing the left mouse button scrolls the text forward, whereas pressing the right mouse button scrolls the text backward. The amount of scrolling depends on the distance of the pointer button away from the top of the scrollbar. If the button is pressed at the top of the scrollbar, only one line of text is scrolled. If the button is pressed at the bottom of the scrollbar, one screenful of text is scrolled.

Pressing the middle mouse button changes the thumb position of the scrollbar. Dragging the middle mouse button down moves the thumb along and changes the text displayed.

COMMAND BUTTONS

Execution Commands

run: Begin program execution.
cont: Continue execution from where it stopped.
step: Execute one source line, stepping into a function if the source line contains a function call.
next: Execute one source line, without stepping into any function call.

Breakpoint Commands

stop at: Stop program execution at the line selected. To set a breakpoint in the program, place the caret on the source line and click the stop at button. A stop sign will appear next to the source line.
stop in: Stop program execution in the function selected. To set a breakpoint in a function, select the function name and click the stop in button. A stop sign will be placed near the first executable line of the function.
delete: Remove the breakpoint on the source line selected. The stop sign will disappear.
status: Show the current breakpoints and traces.

Stack Commands

where: Show a stack trace of the functions called.
up: Move up one level on the stack.
down: Move down one level on the stack.

Miscellaneous Commands

print: Print the value of the expression selected.
print *: Print the value of the object the selected expression is pointing to.
func: Display a selected function on the source window, and change the scope for variable name resolution to the selected function. The file scope is changed to the file containing the function.
file: Pop up a file menu to select a source file to be displayed, and change the file scope to the selected file.
quit: Exit xdbx.

X DEFAULTS

To change the default values of widget resources used in xdbx, you need to reference the widgets by name or by class. The widget classes used in xdbx are Label, Text, Command, Box, and Scrollbar. The names of the widgets are:

vpane: The vpaned widget containing all the subwindows.
titleBar: The label widget showing the xdbx title.
fileLabel: The label widget showing the name of the source file.
lineLabel: The label widget showing the line number of the caret in the source window.
sourceWindow: The text widget displaying the source file.
commandWindow: The box widget containing the command buttons.
dialogWindow: The text widget acting as a terminal interface to dbx.
fileMenu: The list widget as a file menu.

In addition to the standard X resources, xdbx uses the following application-specific resources for user customization:

shellWidth: Width of xdbx window.
lineLabelWidth: Width of line label.
sourceHeight: Height of source window.
leftMargin: Size of left margin of source window.
dialogHeight: Height of dialog window.
dialogMinHeight: Minimum height of dialog window.
messageHeight: Height of message window.
buttonWidth: Width of a command button.
commandHSpace: Horizontal spacing among the command buttons.
commandVSpace: Vertical spacing among the command buttons.
commandMinHeight: Minimum height of command window.
commandMaxHeight: Maximum height of command window.
columnSpacing: Spacing between columns in the file menu.
filesPerColumn: Number of files per column in the file menu.
noTitleBar: If True, no title bar will be displayed.
stopForeground: Foreground color of the stop sign.
arrowForeground: Foreground color of the arrow sign.
updownForeground: Foreground color of the updown sign.

FILES

a.out           default object file
core            default core file
.dbxinit                local initial commands file
~/.dbxinit      user's initial commands file

LIMITATIONS

Xdbx is developed primarily for C program debugging. Other languages are not fully supported.

BUGS

Typing control-C in the dialog window fails to interrupt dbx.

The file button command does not unhighlight the button border.

Stuffing text to a window outside the xdbx window will sometimes give such message:

"X Toolkit Error: AtomPtr was not initialized"

Xdbx does not work under SunOS 4.0 due to a problem in disabling the packet mode (TIOCPKT) of the pseudo-terminal. If the packet mode is not disabled, each read from the master will return data written previously to the slave (dbx commands entered would reappear), and each newline character is incorrectly mapped to a carriage return and a newline during text display.