ADB(1)                                                                  ADB(1)


NAME
       adb - debugger

SYNOPSIS
       adb [-w] [ -k ] [ -Idir ] [ objfil [ corfil ] ]

DESCRIPTION
       Adb  is a general purpose debugging program.  It may be used to examine
       files and to provide a controlled environment for the execution of UNIX
       programs.

       Objfil  is normally an executable program file, preferably containing a
       symbol table; if not then the symbolic features of adb cannot  be  used
       although  the  file  can  still be examined.  The default for objfil is
       a.out.  Corfil is assumed to be a core image file produced  after  exe‐
       cuting objfil; the default for corfil is core.

       Requests  to  adb are read from the standard input and responses are to
       the standard output.  If the -w flag is present then  both  objfil  and
       corfil  are  created if necessary and opened for reading and writing so
       that files can be modified using adb.

       The -k option makes adb do UNIX kernel memory  mapping;  it  should  be
       used when core is a UNIX crash dump or /dev/mem.

       The  -I  option specifies a directory where files to be read with $< or
       $<< (see below) will be sought; the default is /usr/lib/adb.

       Adb ignores QUIT; INTERRUPT causes return to the next adb command.

       In general requests to adb are of the form

                [address]  [, count] [command] [;]

       If address is present then dot is set to address.  Initially dot is set
       to  0.   For  most  commands count specifies how many times the command
       will be executed.  The default count  is  1.   Address  and  count  are
       expressions.

       The  interpretation of an address depends on the context it is used in.
       If a subprocess is being debugged then addresses are interpreted in the
       usual  way  in  the  address space of the subprocess.  If the operating
       system is being debugged either post-mortem or using the  special  file
       /dev/mem  to  interactive examine and/or modify memory the maps are set
       to map the kernel virtual addresses which start at 0x80000000  (on  the
       VAX).  ADDRESSES.

EXPRESSIONS
       .      The value of dot.

       +      The value of dot incremented by the current increment.

       ^      The value of dot decremented by the current increment.

       "      The last address typed.

       integer
              A  number.  The prefixes 0o and 0O (“zero oh”) force interpreta‐
              tion in octal radix; the prefixes 0t and 0T force interpretation
              in decimal radix; the prefixes 0x and 0X force interpretation in
              hexadecimal radix.  Thus 0o20 = 0t16 = 0x10 =  sixteen.   If  no
              prefix  appears,  then  the  default radix  is  used; see the $d
              command.  The default radix is initially hexadecimal.  The  hex‐
              adecimal digits are 0123456789abcdefABCDEF with the obvious val‐
              ues.  Note that a  hexadecimal  number  whose  most  significant
              digit  would otherwise be an alphabetic character must have a 0x
              (or 0X) prefix (or a leading zero if the default radix  is  hex‐
              adecimal).

       integer.fraction
              A 32 bit floating point number.

       ´cccc´ The  ASCII value of up to 4 characters.  \ may be used to escape
              a ´.

       < name The value of name, which is either a variable name or a register
              name.  Adb maintains a number of variables (see VARIABLES) named
              by single letters or digits.  If name is a  register  name  then
              the  value of the register is obtained from the system header in
              corfil.  The register names are those printed by the $r command.

       symbol A  symbol  is  a sequence of upper or lower case letters, under‐
              scores or digits, not starting  with  a  digit.   The  backslash
              character  \  may be used to escape other characters.  The value
              of the symbol is taken from the symbol table in objfil.  An ini‐
              tial _ will be prepended to symbol if needed.

       _ symbol
              In  C,  the ‘true name’ of an external symbol begins with _.  It
              may be necessary to utter  this  name  to  distinguish  it  from
              internal or hidden variables of a program.

       routine.name
              The  address  of  the  variable name in the specified C routine.
              Both routine and name are symbols.  If name is omitted the value
              is the address of the most recently activated C stack frame cor‐
              responding to routine.  (This form is currently  broken  on  the
              VAX; local variables can be examined only with dbx(1).)

       (exp)  The value of the expression exp.

       Monadic operators

       *exp   The contents of the location addressed by exp in corfil.

       @exp   The contents of the location addressed by exp in objfil.

       -exp   Integer negation.

       ~exp   Bitwise complement.

       #exp   Logical negation.

       Dyadic operators are left associative and are less binding than monadic
       operators.

       e1+e2  Integer addition.

       e1-e2  Integer subtraction.

       e1*e2  Integer multiplication.

       e1%e2  Integer division.

       e1&e2  Bitwise conjunction.

       e1e2  Bitwise disjunction.

       e1#e2  E1 rounded up to the next multiple of e2.

COMMANDS
       Most commands consist of a verb followed by a modifier or list of modi‐
       fiers.   The  following verbs are available.  (The commands ‘?’ and ‘/’
       may be followed by ‘*’; see ADDRESSES for further details.)

       ?f   Locations starting at address in objfil are printed  according  to
            the format f.  dot is incremented by the sum of the increments for
            each format letter (q.v.).

       /f   Locations starting at address in corfil are printed  according  to
            the format f and dot is incremented as for ‘?’.

       =f   The  value of address itself is printed in the styles indicated by
            the format f.  (For i format ‘?’ is printed for the parts  of  the
            instruction that reference subsequent words.)

       A  format  consists  of  one or more characters that specify a style of
       printing.  Each format character may be preceded by a  decimal  integer
       that  is  a  repeat  count  for  the  format character.  While stepping
       through a format dot is incremented by the amount given for each format
       letter.   If no format is given then the last format is used.  The for‐
       mat letters available are as follows.

              o 2    Print 2 bytes in octal.  All octal numbers output by  adb
                     are preceded by 0.
              O 4    Print 4 bytes in octal.
              q 2    Print in signed octal.
              Q 4    Print long signed octal.
              d 2    Print in decimal.
              D 4    Print long decimal.
              x 2    Print 2 bytes in hexadecimal.
              X 4    Print 4 bytes in hexadecimal.
              u 2    Print as an unsigned decimal number.
              U 4    Print long unsigned decimal.
              f 4    Print the 32 bit value as a floating point number.
              F 8    Print double floating point.
              b 1    Print the addressed byte in octal.
              c 1    Print the addressed character.
              C 1    Print  the  addressed character using the standard escape
                     convention where control characters are printed as ^X and
                     the delete character is printed as ^?.
              s n    Print  the addressed characters until a zero character is
                     reached.
              S n    Print a string using the  ^X  escape  convention  (see  C
                     above).  n is the length of the string including its zero
                     terminator.
              Y 4    Print 4 bytes in date format (see ctime(3)).
              i n    Print as machine instructions.  n is the number of  bytes
                     occupied  by  the  instruction.   This  style of printing
                     causes variables 1 and 2 to be set to the offset parts of
                     the source and destination respectively.
              a 0    Print  the  value  of  dot in symbolic form.  Symbols are
                     checked to ensure that they have an appropriate  type  as
                     indicated below.

                /  local or global data symbol
                ?  local or global text symbol
                =  local or global absolute symbol

              p 4    Print the addressed value in symbolic form using the same
                     rules for symbol lookup as a.
              t 0    When preceded by an integer tabs to the next  appropriate
                     tab  stop.  For example, 8t moves to the next 8-space tab
                     stop.
              r 0    Print a space.
              n 0    Print a newline.
              "..." 0
                     Print the enclosed string.
              ^      Dot is decremented by the current increment.  Nothing  is
                     printed.
              +      Dot is incremented by 1.  Nothing is printed.
              -      Dot is decremented by 1.  Nothing is printed.

       newline
              Repeat the previous command with a count of 1.

       [?/]l value mask
              Words  starting  at  dot  are masked with mask and compared with
              value until a match is found.  If L is used then  the  match  is
              for  4  bytes at a time instead of 2.  If no match is found then
              dot is unchanged; otherwise dot is set to the matched  location.
              If mask is omitted then -1 is used.

       [?/]w value ...
              Write the 2-byte value into the addressed location.  If the com‐
              mand is W, write 4 bytes.  Odd addresses are  not  allowed  when
              writing to the subprocess address space.

       [?/]m b1 e1 f1[?/]
              New  values  for  (b1, e1, f1) are recorded.  If less than three
              expressions are given then the remaining map parameters are left
              unchanged.  If the ‘?’ or ‘/’ is followed by ‘*’ then the second
              segment (b2,e2,f2) of the mapping is changed.  If  the  list  is
              terminated by ‘?’ or ‘/’ then the file (objfil or corfil respec‐
              tively) is used for subsequent requests.  (So that, for example,
              ‘/m?’ will cause ‘/’ to refer to objfil.)

       >name  Dot is assigned to the variable or register named.

       !      A shell (/bin/sh) is called to read the rest of the line follow‐
              ing ‘!’.

       $modifier
              Miscellaneous commands.  The available modifiers are:

              <f     Read commands from the file f.  If this command  is  exe‐
                     cuted  in  a  file,  further commands in the file are not
                     seen.  If f is omitted, the current input stream is  ter‐
                     minated.   If  a count is given, and is zero, the command
                     will be ignored.  The value of the count will  be  placed
                     in  variable 9 before the first command in f is executed.
              <<f    Similar to < except it can be used in a file of  commands
                     without  causing  the  file  to be closed.  Variable 9 is
                     saved during the execution of this command, and  restored
                     when  it  completes.   There is a (small) finite limit to
                     the number of << files that can be open at once.
              >f     Append output to the file f, which is created if it  does
                     not  exist.   If  f is omitted, output is returned to the
                     terminal.
              ?      Print process id, the signal  which  caused  stoppage  or
                     termination, as well as the registers as $r.  This is the
                     default if modifier is omitted.
              r      Print the general registers and the instruction addressed
                     by pc.  Dot is set to pc.
              b      Print  all  breakpoints  and  their associated counts and
                     commands.
              c      C stack backtrace.  If address is given then it is  taken
                     as  the  address of the current frame instead of the con‐
                     tents of the frame-pointer register.  If C is  used  then
                     the names and (32 bit) values of all automatic and static
                     variables are printed for each active  function.  (broken
                     on the VAX).  If count is given then only the first count
                     frames are printed.
              d      Set the default radix  to  address  and  report  the  new
                     value.   Note  that  address  is interpreted in the (old)
                     current radix.  Thus “10$d”  never  changes  the  default
                     radix.   To make decimal the default radix, use “0t10$d”.
              e      The names and values of external variables are printed.
              w      Set the page width for output to address (default 80).
              s      Set the limit for  symbol  matches  to  address  (default
                     255).
              o      All integers input are regarded as octal.
              q      Exit from adb.
              v      Print all non zero variables in octal.
              m      Print the address map.
              p      (Kernel  debugging) Change the current kernel memory map‐
                     ping to map the designated user structure to the  address
                     given  by  the  symbol  _u.   The address argument is the
                     address of the user’s user page  table  entries  (on  the
                     VAX).

       :modifier
              Manage a subprocess.  Available modifiers are:

              bc     Set  breakpoint  at  address.  The breakpoint is executed
                     count-1 times before  causing  a  stop.   Each  time  the
                     breakpoint  is encountered the command c is executed.  If
                     this command is omitted or sets  dot  to  zero  then  the
                     breakpoint causes a stop.

              d      Delete breakpoint at address.

              r      Run  objfil as a subprocess.  If address is given explic‐
                     itly then the program is entered at this point; otherwise
                     the  program  is  entered  at  its  standard entry point.
                     count specifies how many breakpoints are  to  be  ignored
                     before stopping.  Arguments to the subprocess may be sup‐
                     plied on the same  line  as  the  command.   An  argument
                     starting  with < or > causes the standard input or output
                     to be established for the command.

              cs     The subprocess is continued with signal s, see sigvec(2).
                     If  address  is given then the subprocess is continued at
                     this address.  If no signal is specified then the  signal
                     that  caused  the subprocess to stop is sent.  Breakpoint
                     skipping is the same as for r.

              ss     As for c except that the  subprocess  is  single  stepped
                     count times.  If there is no current subprocess then obj
                     fil is run as a subprocess as for r.   In  this  case  no
                     signal  can be sent; the remainder of the line is treated
                     as arguments to the subprocess.

              k      The current subprocess, if any, is terminated.

VARIABLES
       Adb provides a number of variables.  Named variables are set  initially
       by  adb but are not used subsequently.  Numbered variables are reserved
       for communication as follows.

       0      The last value printed.
       1      The last offset part of an instruction source.
       2      The previous value of variable 1.
       9      The count on the last $< or $<< command.

       On entry the following are set from the system header  in  the  corfil.
       If  corfil  does not appear to be a core file then these values are set
       from objfil.

       b      The base address of the data segment.
       d      The data segment size.
       e      The entry point.
       m      The ‘magic’ number (0407, 0410 or 0413).
       s      The stack segment size.
       t      The text segment size.

ADDRESSES
       The address in a file associated with a written address  is  determined
       by a mapping associated with that file.  Each mapping is represented by
       two triples (b1, e1, f1) and (b2, e2, f2) and the file  address  corre‐
       sponding to a written address is calculated as follows.

        b1address<e1 => file address=address+f1-b1, otherwise,

        b2address<e2 => file address=address+f2-b2,

       otherwise, the requested address is not legal.  In some cases (e.g. for
       programs with separated I and D space) the two segments for a file  may
       overlap.   If a ?  or / is followed by an * then only the second triple
       is used.

       The initial setting of both mappings is suitable for normal  a.out  and
       core  files.  If either file is not of the kind expected then, for that
       file, b1 is set to 0, e1 is set to the maximum file size and f1 is  set
       to 0; in this way the whole file can be examined with no address trans‐
       lation.


FILES
       a.out
       core

SEE ALSO
       cc(1), dbx(1), ptrace(2), a.out(5), core(5)

DIAGNOSTICS
       ‘Adb’ when there is no current command or format.  Comments about inac‐
       cessible  files,  syntax errors, abnormal termination of commands, etc.
       Exit status is 0, unless last command failed or returned  nonzero  sta‐
       tus.

BUGS
       Since no shell is invoked to interpret the arguments of the :r command,
       the customary wild-card and variable expansions cannot occur.


4th Berkeley Distribution       April 29, 1985                          ADB(1)
 
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