HPAVC/HPAVC CD-ROM.iso/SICE-DOC.ZIP/DOC-TXT.ZIP/CHAP11

Text File | 1992-05-24 | 14KB | 369 lines

   SECTION III - Advanced Topics

   CHAPTER 11

 Advanced Features
   11.1 Using Soft-ICE with other Debuggers
   11.1.1 Debuggers that Use DOS
   11.1.2 ACTION Command with other Debuggers
   11.1.3 Special Considerations
   11.1.4 Using Soft-ICE with CODEVIEW
   11.1.5 Debuggers that Use 80386 Break Point
                         Registers
   11.2 User-Qualified Break Points
   11.2.1 Example of a User-Qualified Break Point
   11.3 The Window in Graphics Mode
   11.4 Expanded Memory Debugging Features
   11.5 Extended Memory Debugging Features

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11.1 Using Soft-ICE with other Debuggers

Soft-ICE was designed to work well with other debuggers. Each debugger
offers different features, and therefore can require special treatment.
This section will describe some ways to use several debuggers effectively.

11.1.1 Debuggers that Use DOS

Many debuggers use DOS and ROM BIOS to perform their display and keyboard
I/O. Special consideration must be taken when using these debuggers with
Soft-ICE (e.g., DEBUG, SYMDEB, and CODEVIEW), because DOS and ROM BIOS are
not fully re-entrant. If a break point occurs while code is executing in
DOS or BIOS, a re-entrancy problem can occur.

Soft-ICE provides optional re-entrancy warning, which is activated with
the WARN command. When WARN mode is on, Soft-ICE checks for DOS or ROM
BIOS re-entrancy before generating the ACTION that wakes up the host
debugger. When a re-entrancy problem is detected, Soft-ICE displays a
warning message and offers you the choice of continuing to execute the
code or returning to Soft-ICE.

Note that Soft-ICE itself does not use DOS or ROM BIOS calls in its
debugging commands. This means that you can use Soft-ICE any time, without
the worry of re-entrancy problems.

For more information on the WARN command, see section 5.4.

11.1.2 ACTION Command with other Debuggers

Different debuggers use different methods of activation For a description
of these methods see section 13.1.


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If you want to return to your debugger after a break point reached, you
must change the ACTION (see section 5.4) to work with your debugger.

In most cases, the action that should be taken after a break point is
reached is INT3. For instance, DEBUG and SYMDEB will work best with ACTION
set to INT3.

If INT3 doesn't work with your debugger, try INT1 or NMI. CODEVIEW works
best with ACTION set to NMI.

 11.1.3 Special Considerations

When a break point is set, you must be careful not to set off the break
point unintentionally. For instance, if you set a memory break point at
0:0, then use your debugger to dump memory location 0:0, Soft-ICE will be
triggered. If ACTION is set to go to your debugger, then your debugger
will be triggered by itself. Since some debuggers cannot be re-entrant,
this could be a fatal problem. This problem can also occur with other
debugging functions, such as editing or unassembling.

For this reason, it is a good practice to disable the Soft-ICE break
points once Soft-ICE has helped you get to the point where you want to
look around with your debugger.

 11.1.4 Using Soft-ICE with CODEVIEW

Soft-ICE works best with CODEVIEW when CODEVIEW is either in Assembler
mode or Mixed mode. When CODEVIEW is in Source mode with higher-level
languages it does not always break correctly.
It is always best to use ACTION NMI when you want Soft-ICE to wake up
CODEVIEW.

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11.1.5 Debuggers that Use 80386 Break Point Registers

The 80386 has 4 break point registers that are available for use by
debuggers. Soft-ICE uses these for its memory byte, word and double word
break points. If the debugger you are using Soft-ICE with uses these debug
registers there will be a conflict. There are two ways to handle this
problem.

    1. Disable the use of 80386 break point registers in the
        debugger you are using Soft-ICE with. Check the
        documentation of your other debugger for a
        description of how to do this.
    2. Some debuggers automatically use the break point
        registers if they detect an 80386 processor with no
        method of turning them off (some versions of
        SYMDEB do this). For these debuggers do the
        following:
        * Bring up the Soft-ICE window before you start
            the other debugger.
        * Turn on Soft-ICE's break mode with the
            BREAK command (you may want to do this in
            the INIT statement of S-ICE.DAT if you are
            doing this frequently).
        * Start up your other debugger.
        * You may now pop up the Soft-ICE window and
            turn the Soft-ICE break mode off if desired.

11.2 User-Qualified Break Points

Occasionally you may have the need for a very specific set of break point
conditions. If the special conditions require qualifying register values
or memory values, you can write a break point qualification routine.

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Soft-ICE contains a very general mechanism for calling user-written break
point qualification routines: the ACTION command. When you use the ACTION
command, Soft-ICE can route all break points through special interrupt
vector. However, before break points can be routed, the qualification
routine must be placed in memory, and the interrupt vector must be
pointing to the qualification routine.

All registers are identical to the values when the Soft-ICE break point
occurred. It is the responsibility of the qualification routine to save
and restore the registers. If your qualification routine detects a match
of break point conditions, it can do a variety of activities. Some
examples of useful activities that a routine can do when a match is found
are:

    * store information for later
    * send the information directly to a printer or serial
        terminal
    * issue an INT 3 instruction to bring up Soft-ICE
        The command 13HERE must be turned on in order
        for the INT 3 to bring up Soft-ICE (see section 5.4).

If conditions do not match, the qualification routine in should execute an
IRET instruction. To summarize:

    1. Create a break point qualification routine in your
        code space, or anywhere in free memory. The
        routine must preserve registers. After comparing
        the desired conditions, the routine can execute
        either an INT 3 to bring up Soft-ICE, or an IRET
        to continue.
    2. Point an unused interrupt vector to your
        qualification routine. This can be done either
        within your code or from Soft-ICE.

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   3. In Soft-ICE, set ACTION to the interrupt- number
        that was used to point to your qualification routine.
   4. In Soft-ICE, set 13HERE on. This is necessary to
        bring up Soft-ICE after the conditions have been
        met.
   5. Set the Soft-ICE general break point conditions.
        When any of these break point conditions are met,
        your qualification routine will be called.


 11.2.1 Example of a User-Qualified Break Point

This section contains an example of a user-qualified break point that
compares for the conditions of U = 3, BX = 4 and CX = 5 when a break point
goes off.

First, we create the qualification routine. For the purposes of this
example, we will assemble the command directly into memory with the Soft-
ICE interactive assembler. For this example we will arbitrarily assemble
the routine at location 9000:0H. The following statements are entered into
Soft-ICE:

   A 9000:0
   9000:0 CMP AX,3
   9000:3 JNE 10
   9000:5 CMP BX,4
   9000:7 JNE 10
   9000:A CMP CX,5
   9000:D JNE 10
   9000:F INT3
   9000:10 IRET

Now that the routine is in memory, you must point an interrupt vector to
the routine. For this example, we arbitrarily pick INT 99H. To place
9000:0H in the INT 99H vector enter:

   ED 0:99*4 9000:0

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Set the ACTION command so that Soft-ICE will call your break point
qualification routine on every break point.

   ACTION 99

Set 13HERE on so the qualification routine can activate Soft-ICE when the
conditions occur.

  13HERE ON

Now you need to set the break points. For this example, we are just
interested when the registers are: U = 3, BX = 4, CX = 5 in a specific
program, and we do not want any further qualification. To do this, use a
range break point on memory read:

    BPR segment:starting-offset segment:ending-offset

This will cause your break point qualification routine to be called after
every instruction is executed in the specified memory range. When the
register conditions do not match, then the IRET instruction is executed.
When the conditions finally match the specified qualifications, the INT 3
is executed and Soft-ICE is popped up.

When Soft-ICE pops up, the instruction pointer will be pointing at the
INT3 in your qualification routine (9OOO:FH in our example). To get to the
instruction after the one that caused the break point, you must change the
instruction pointer to point to the IRET instruction (F000: 10H in the
example) and single step one time. This is accomplished with the following
Soft-ICE commands

   RIP IP + 1
   T

After your break conditions have gone off, remember to change the ACTION
command back to ACTION HERE that subsequent break points do not go through
your qualification routine.

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11.3 The Window in Graphics Mode

The screen is switched to text mode when Soft-ICE is invoked. If the
screen was in graphics mode or 40-column mode, the graphics display is not
visible while the window is up. For users who must see the graphics
display while debugging, three features are provided. The first feature
allows the Soft-ICE window to display on a second monitor (see the ALTSCR
command, section 5.9). The second feature allows you to restore the screen
while you are doing P or T instruction step commands (see the FLASH
command, section 5.9). The third feature allows you to restore the program
screen temporarily (see the RS command, section 5.9).

If Soft-ICE does not seem to be following your program into graphics mode,
try turning WATCHV on (see section 5.9 for details).

 11.4 Expanded Memory Debugging Features

A range break point or a break point on memory that is set in an EMM
mappable area will stay at that address no matter which EMM page is mapped
in.

When debugging EMM programs, the EMMMAP command may also be very useful.
See section 5.6 for more information.

The D, E, S, F, and C commands can be used to view or modify any allocated
EMM handle page. The page does not have to be currently mapped in. The
syntax of these commands is similar to that of the commands when being
used for non-EMM pages, except for the following:
    * In the D, E, S, and F commands, the address
       portion of the command must be specified in the
       following way:
       Hhandle# Ppage# offset

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      where handle is a number specifying which EMM
      handle to use, page is a number specifying which
      EMM page to use, and offset is a number from 0 to
      4000H, specifying the offset from the beginning of
      the page.
      Example:

      DB H1 P3 0

      This command will dump bytes from page 3 of
      handle 1, starting at offset 0.

   * The C command must be specified in the following
      way:

      C Hhandle# Ppage# offset1 L length offset2

      where handle and page are the same as above.
      offset1 is a number from 0 to 4000H, specifying the
      offset from the beginning of the page, where the
      first data block to be compared is located.
      offset2 is a number from 0 to 4000H, specifying the
      offset from the beginning of the page, where the
      second data block to be compared is located.
      Example:

      C H2 P4 00 L10 1000

      This command will compare the first 10 bytes of
      memory located at offset 0 of page 4 of handle 2
      with the first 10 bytes of memory located at offset
      1000 of page 4 of handle 2.

Note:
Subsequent uses of the D, E, S, F, and C commands will continue to use the
handle and page last specified. To get back to conventional memory, use
one of the above

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commands with a segment specified in the address field, for example:
          D 0:0

11.5 Extended Memory Debugging Features

The D, E, S, F, and C commands can be used to view or modify extended
memory. Extended memory reserved by Soft-ICE can not be displayed. The
syntax of these commands is similar to that of the commands when being
used for conventional memory:

    * In the D, E, S, and F commands, the address
       portion of the command must be specified in the
       following way:
       M megabyte address
       where megabyte is a number specifying which
       megabyte to use, and address specifies the address
       in the specified megabyte.
       Example:
       DB M 2 0:0
       This command will dump bytes from start of the
       megabyte starting at linear address 200000H.
   * The C command must be specified in the following
       way:
       C M megabyte address1 L length address2
       where megabyte and address1 are the same as above.
       address2 specifies the address in the specified
       megabyte, where the second data block to be
       compared is located.

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       Example:

       C M 3 1000:2000 L10 3000:4000

       This command will compare the first 10 bytes of
       memory located at 1000:2000 with the first 10 bytes
       of memory located at 3000:4000.

Note:
Subsequent uses of the D, E, S, F, and C commands will continue to use the
last megabyte specified. To get back to megabyte 0 (conventional memory),
use one of the above commands with 0 specified as the megabyte, for
example:

   D M 0

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