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| <div class="www_title"> |
| The <strong>LLDB</strong> Debugger |
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| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Getting Started</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>Here's a short precis of how to run lldb if you are familiar with the gdb command set. |
| We will start with some details on lldb command structure and syntax to help orient you.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Command Structure</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>Unlike gdb's command set, which is rather free-form, we tried to make |
| the lldb command syntax fairly structured. The commands are all of the |
| form:</p> |
| |
| <code color=#ff0000> |
| <noun> <verb> [-options [option-value]] [argument [argument...]] |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>The command line parsing is done before command execution, so it is |
| uniform across all the commands. The command syntax for basic commands is very simple, |
| arguments, options and option values are all white-space |
| separated, and double-quotes are used to protect white-spaces in an argument. |
| If you need to put a backslash or double-quote character |
| in an argument you back-slash it in the argument. That makes the |
| command syntax more regular, but it also means you may have to |
| quote some arguments in lldb that you wouldn't in gdb.</p> |
| |
| <p>Options can be placed anywhere on the command line, but if the arguments |
| begin with a "<code>-</code>" then you have to tell lldb that you're done with options |
| for the current command by adding an option termination: "<code>--</code>" |
| So for instance if you want to launch a process and give the "process launch" command |
| the "<code>--stop-at-entry</code>" option, yet you want the |
| process you are about to launch to be launched with the arguments |
| "<code>-program_arg value</code>", you would type:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) process launch --stop-at-entry -- -program_arg value |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>We also tried to reduce the number of special purpose argument |
| parsers, which sometimes forces the user to be a little more explicit |
| about stating their intentions. The first instance you'll note of |
| this is the breakpoint command. In gdb, to set a breakpoint, you |
| might enter</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (gdb) break foo.c:12 |
| </code> |
| <p>to break at line 12 of foo.c, and:</p> |
| <code> |
| (gdb) break foo |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>to break at the function <code>foo</code>. As time went on, the parser that tells <code>foo.c:12</code> |
| from <code>foo</code> from <code>foo.c::foo</code> (which means the function foo in the file |
| foo.c) got more and more complex and bizarre, and especially in C++ |
| there are times where there's really no way to specify the function |
| you want to break on. The lldb commands are more verbose but also more precise |
| and allow for intelligent auto completion. |
| |
| <p>To set the same file and line breakpoint in LLDB you can enter either of:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --file foo.c --line 12 |
| <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -f foo.c -l 12 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>To set a breakpoint on a function named <code>foo</code> in LLDB you can enter either of:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --name foo |
| <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -n foo |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can use the --name option multiple times to make a breakpoint on a set of functions as well. This is convenient |
| since it allows you to set common conditions or commands without having to specify them multiple times:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --name foo --name bar |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>Setting breakpoints by name is even more specialized in LLDB as you can specify |
| that you want to set a breakpoint at a function by method name. To set a breakpoint |
| on all C++ methods named <code>foo</code> you can enter either of:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --method foo |
| <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -M foo |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>To set a breakpoint Objective-C selectors named <code>alignLeftEdges:</code> you can enter either of:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --selector alignLeftEdges: |
| <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -S alignLeftEdges: |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can limit any breakpoints to a specific executable image by using |
| the "<code>--shlib <path></code>" ("<code>-s <path></code>" for short):</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --shlib foo.dylib --name foo |
| <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -s foo.dylib -n foo |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>The <code>--shlib</code> option can also be repeated to specify several shared libraries.</p> |
| |
| <p>Suggestions on more interesting primitives of this sort are also very welcome.</p> |
| |
| <p>Just like gdb, the lldb command interpreter does a shortest unique |
| string match on command names, so the following two commands will |
| both execute the same command:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set -n "-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:]" |
| <br>(lldb) br s -n "-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:]" |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>lldb also supports command completion for source file names, symbol |
| names, file names, etc. Completion is initiated by a hitting a <b>TAB</b>. |
| Individual options in a command can have different completers, so for |
| instance the "<code>--file <path></code>" option in "breakpoint" completes to source files, the |
| "<code>--shlib <path></code>" option to currently loaded shared libraries, etc. We can even do |
| things like if you specify "<code>--shlib <path></code>", and are completing on "<code>--file <path></code>", we will only |
| list source files in the shared library specified by "<code>--shlib <path></code>".</p> |
| |
| <p>The individual commands are pretty extensively documented. You can |
| use the <code>help</code> command to get an overview of which commands are |
| available or to obtain details about specific commands. There is also an |
| <code>apropos</code> command that will search the help text for all commands |
| for a particular word and dump a summary help string for each matching |
| command.</p> |
| |
| <p>Finally, there is a mechanism to construct aliases for commonly used |
| commands. So for instance if you get annoyed typing:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --file foo.c --line 12 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>you can do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) command alias bfl breakpoint set -f %1 -l %2 |
| <br>(lldb) bfl foo.c 12 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>We have added a few aliases for commonly used commands (e.g. "step", |
| "next" and "continue") but we haven't tried to be exhaustive because |
| in our experience it is more convenient to make the basic commands |
| unique down to a letter or two, and then learn these sequences than |
| to fill the namespace with lots of aliases, and then have to type them |
| all the way out.</p> |
| |
| <p>However, users are free to customize lldb's command set however they |
| like, and since lldb reads the file ~/.lldbinit at startup, you can |
| store all your aliases there and they will be generally available to |
| you. Your aliases are also documented in the help command so you can |
| remind yourself of what you've set up.</p> |
| |
| <p> One alias of note that we do include by popular demand is a weak emulator |
| of gdb's "break" command. It doesn't try to do everything that gdb's |
| break command does (for instance, it doesn't handle <code>foo.c::bar</code>. But |
| it mostly works, and makes the transition easier. Also by popular demand, it |
| is aliased to <code>b</code>. If you actually want to learn the lldb command |
| set natively, that means it will get in the way of the rest of the breakpoint |
| commands. Fortunately, if you don't like one of our aliases, you an easily |
| get rid of it by running (for example):</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) command unalias b |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>I actually also do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) command alias b breakpoint |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>so I can run the native lldb breakpoint command with just <code>b</code></p> |
| |
| <p>The lldb command parser also supports "raw" commands, where, after command options |
| are stripped off, the rest of the command string is passed uninterpreted to the command. |
| This is convenient for commands whose arguments might be some complex expression that would |
| be painful to backslash protect. |
| For instance the "expression" command is a "raw" command for obvious reasons. The |
| "help" output for a command will tell you if it is "raw" or not, so you know what to expect. |
| The one thing you have to watch out for is that since raw commands still can have options, |
| if your command string has dashes in it, you'll have to indicate these are not option |
| markers by putting "--" after the command name, but before your command string. |
| |
| <p>lldb also has a built-in Python interpreter, which is accessible by |
| the "script" command. All the functionality of the debugger is |
| available as classes in the Python interpreter, so the more complex |
| commands that in gdb you would introduce with the "define" command can |
| be done by writing Python functions using the lldb-Python library, |
| then loading the scripts into your running session and accessing them |
| with the "script" command.</p> |
| |
| <p>Having given an overview of lldb's command syntax, we proceed to lay out the stages |
| of a standard debug session.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Loading a program into lldb</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>First we need to set the program to debug. As with gdb, you |
| can start lldb and specify the file you wish to debug on the command line:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| $ lldb /Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app |
| <br>Current executable set to '/Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app' (x86_64). |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>or you can specify it after the fact with the "file" command:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| $ lldb |
| <br>(lldb) file /Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app |
| <br>Current executable set to '/Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app' (x86_64). |
| </code> |
| <p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Setting breakpoints</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>We've discussed how to set breakpoints above. You can use <code>help breakpoint set</code> |
| to see all the options for breakpoint setting. For instance, we might do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --selector alignLeftEdges: |
| <br>Breakpoint created: 1: name = 'alignLeftEdges:', locations = 1, resolved = 1 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can find out about the breakpoints you've set with:</p> |
| |
| <pre><tt>(lldb) breakpoint list |
| Current breakpoints: |
| 1: name = 'alignLeftEdges:', locations = 1, resolved = 1 |
| 1.1: where = Sketch`-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:] + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTGraphicView.m:1405, address = 0x0000000100010d5b, resolved, hit count = 0 |
| </tt></pre> |
| |
| <p>Note that setting a breakpoint creates a <i>logical</i> breakpoint, which could |
| resolve to one or more <i>locations</i>. For instance, break by selector would |
| set a breakpoint on all the methods that implement that selector in the classes in |
| your program. Similarly, a file and line breakpoint might result in multiple |
| locations if that file and line were inlined in different places in your code.</p> |
| |
| <p>The logical breakpoint has an integer id, and it's locations have an |
| id within their parent breakpoint (the two are joined by a ".", |
| e.g. 1.1 in the example above.) </p> |
| |
| <p>Also the logical breakpoints remain <i>live</i> so that if another shared library |
| were to be loaded that had another implementation of the |
| "<code>alignLeftEdges:</code>" selector, the new location would be added to |
| breakpoint 1 (e.g. a "1.2" breakpoint would be set on the newly loaded |
| selector).</p> |
| |
| <p>The other piece of information in the breakpoint listing is whether the |
| breakpoint location was <i>resolved</i> or not. A location gets resolved when |
| the file address it corresponds to gets loaded into the program you are |
| debugging. For instance if you set a breakpoint in a shared library that |
| then gets unloaded, that breakpoint location will remain, but it will no |
| longer be <i>resolved</i>.</p> |
| |
| <p>One other thing to note for gdb users is that lldb acts like gdb with:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (gdb) set breakpoint pending on |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>That is, lldb will always make a breakpoint from your specification, even |
| if it couldn't find any locations that match the specification. You can tell |
| whether the expression was resolved or not by checking the locations field |
| in "breakpoint list", and we report the breakpoint as "pending" when you |
| set it so you can tell you've made a typo more easily, if that was indeed |
| the reason no locations were found:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set --file foo.c --line 12 |
| <br>Breakpoint created: 2: file ='foo.c', line = 12, locations = 0 (pending) |
| <br>WARNING: Unable to resolve breakpoint to any actual locations. |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can delete, disable, set conditions and ignore counts either on all the |
| locations generated by your logical breakpoint, or on any one of the particular locations |
| your specification resolved to. For instance if we wanted to add a command |
| to print a backtrace when we hit this breakpoint we could do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint command add 1.1 |
| <br>Enter your debugger command(s). Type 'DONE' to end. |
| <br>> bt |
| <br>> DONE |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>By default, the <code> breakpoint command add</code> command takes lldb command line commands. |
| You can also specify this explicitly by passing the "<code>--command</code>" option. |
| Use "<code>--script</code>" if you want to implement your breakpoint command using the Python script instead.</p> |
| |
| <p>This is an convenient point to bring up another feature of the lldb command help. Do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) help break command add |
| <br>Add a set of commands to a breakpoint, to be executed whenever the breakpoint is hit. |
| <br> |
| <br>Syntax: breakpoint command add <cmd-options> <breakpt-id> |
| <br> etc... |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>When you see arguments to commands specified in the Syntax in angle |
| brackets like <code><breakpt-id></code>, that indicates that |
| that is some common argument type that you can get further help on from the command system. |
| So in this case you could do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) help <breakpt-id> |
| <br><breakpt-id> -- Breakpoint ID's consist major and minor numbers; the major |
| <br> etc... |
| </code> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Breakpoint Names</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>Breakpoints carry two orthognal sets of information: one specifies where to |
| set the breakpoint, and the other how to react when the breakpoint is hit. |
| The latter set of information (e.g. commands, conditions, hit-count, auto-continue...) |
| we call breakpoint options.</p> |
| <p>It is fairly common to want to apply one set of options to a number of breakpoints. |
| For instance, you might want to check that <code>self == nil</code> and if it is, |
| print a backtrace and continue, on a number of methods. |
| One convenient way to do that would be to make all |
| the breakpoints, then configure the options with:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint modify -c "self == nil" -C bt --auto-continue 1 2 3 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>That's not too bad, but you have to repeat this for every new breakpoint you |
| make, and if you wanted to change the options, you have to remember all the ones you |
| are using this way.</p> |
| |
| <p> Breakpoint names provide a convenient solution to this problem. The simple solution would |
| be to use the name to gather the breakpoints you want to affect this way into a group. So |
| when you make the breakpoint you would do:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint set <SPECIFICATION> -N SelfNil |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>Then when you've made all your breakpoints, you can set up or modify the options using |
| the name to collect all the relevant breakpoints.</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint modify -c "self == nil" -C bt --auto-continue SelfNil |
| </code> |
| |
| <p> That is better, but suffers from the problem that when new breakpoints get added, they |
| don't pick up these modifications, and the options only exist in the context of actual |
| breakpoints, so they are hard to store & reuse. </p> |
| <p>A even better solution is to make a |
| fully configured breakpoint name:</p> |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint name configure -c "self == nil" -C bt --auto-continue SelfNil |
| </code> |
| <p>Then you can apply the name to your breakpoints, and they will all pick up these |
| options. The connection from name to breakpoints remains live, so when you change the |
| options configured on the name, all the breakpoints pick up those changes. This makes |
| it easy to use configured names to experiment with your options.</p> |
| <p>You can make breakpoint names in your .lldbinit file, so you can use them to |
| can behaviors that you have found useful and reapply them in future sessions.</p> |
| |
| <p>You can also make a breakpoint name from the options set on a breakpoint:</p> |
| <code> |
| (lldb) breakpoint name configure -B 1 SelfNil |
| </code> |
| <p>which makes it easy to copy behavior from one breakpoint to a set of others.</p> |
| |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Setting watchpoints</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>In addition to breakpoints, you can use <code>help watchpoint</code> |
| to see all the commands for watchpoint manipulations. For instance, we might do the following to watch |
| a variable called 'global' for write operation, but only stop if the condition '(global==5)' is true:</p> |
| |
| <pre><tt>(lldb) watch set var global |
| Watchpoint created: Watchpoint 1: addr = 0x100001018 size = 4 state = enabled type = w |
| declare @ '/Volumes/data/lldb/svn/ToT/test/functionalities/watchpoint/watchpoint_commands/condition/main.cpp:12' |
| (lldb) watch modify -c '(global==5)' |
| (lldb) watch list |
| Current watchpoints: |
| Watchpoint 1: addr = 0x100001018 size = 4 state = enabled type = w |
| declare @ '/Volumes/data/lldb/svn/ToT/test/functionalities/watchpoint/watchpoint_commands/condition/main.cpp:12' |
| condition = '(global==5)' |
| (lldb) c |
| Process 15562 resuming |
| (lldb) about to write to 'global'... |
| Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted. |
| Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted. |
| Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted. |
| Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted. |
| Process 15562 stopped |
| * thread #1: tid = 0x1c03, 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16, stop reason = watchpoint 1 |
| frame #0: 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16 |
| 13 |
| 14 static void modify(int32_t &var) { |
| 15 ++var; |
| -> 16 } |
| 17 |
| 18 int main(int argc, char** argv) { |
| 19 int local = 0; |
| (lldb) bt |
| * thread #1: tid = 0x1c03, 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16, stop reason = watchpoint 1 |
| frame #0: 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16 |
| frame #1: 0x0000000100000eac a.out`main + 108 at main.cpp:25 |
| frame #2: 0x00007fff8ac9c7e1 libdyld.dylib`start + 1 |
| (lldb) frame var global |
| (int32_t) global = 5 |
| (lldb) watch list -v |
| Current watchpoints: |
| Watchpoint 1: addr = 0x100001018 size = 4 state = enabled type = w |
| declare @ '/Volumes/data/lldb/svn/ToT/test/functionalities/watchpoint/watchpoint_commands/condition/main.cpp:12' |
| condition = '(global==5)' |
| hw_index = 0 hit_count = 5 ignore_count = 0 |
| (lldb) </tt></pre> |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Starting or attaching to your Program</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>To launch a program in lldb we use the "<code>process launch</code>" command or |
| one of its built in aliases:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) process launch |
| <br>(lldb) run |
| <br>(lldb) r |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can also attach to a process by process ID or process name. |
| When attaching to a process by name, lldb also supports the "<code>--waitfor</code>" option which waits for the |
| next process that has that name to show up, and attaches to it</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) process attach --pid 123 |
| <br>(lldb) process attach --name Sketch |
| <br>(lldb) process attach --name Sketch --waitfor |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>After you launch or attach to a process, your process might stop |
| somewhere:</p> |
| <code> |
| (lldb) process attach -p 12345 |
| <br>Process 46915 Attaching |
| <br>Process 46915 Stopped |
| <br>1 of 3 threads stopped with reasons: |
| <br>* thread #1: tid = 0x2c03, 0x00007fff85cac76a, where = libSystem.B.dylib`__getdirentries64 + 10, stop reason = signal = SIGSTOP, queue = com.apple.main-thread |
| </code> |
| |
| |
| <p>Note the line that says "<code>1 of 3 threads stopped with reasons:</code>" and the |
| lines that follow it. In a multi-threaded environment it is very |
| common for more than one thread to hit your breakpoint(s) before the |
| kernel actually returns control to the debugger. In that case, you |
| will see all the threads that stopped for some interesting reason |
| listed in the stop message.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Controlling your Program</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| |
| <p>After launching, we can continue until we hit our breakpoint. The primitive |
| commands for process control all exist under the "thread" command:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) thread continue |
| <br>Resuming thread 0x2c03 in process 46915 |
| <br>Resuming process 46915 |
| <br>(lldb) |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>At present you can only operate on one thread at a time, but the |
| design will ultimately support saying "step over the function in |
| Thread 1, and step into the function in Thread 2, and continue Thread |
| 3" etc. When we eventually support keeping some threads running while |
| others are stopped this will be particularly important. For |
| convenience, however, all the stepping commands have easy aliases. |
| So "thread continue" is just "c", etc.</p> |
| |
| <p>The other program stepping commands are pretty much the same as in gdb. |
| You've got:</p> |
| |
| <pre><tt>(lldb) thread step-in // The same as gdb's "step" or "s" |
| (lldb) thread step-over // The same as gdb's "next" or "n" |
| (lldb) thread step-out // The same as gdb's "finish" or "f" |
| </tt></pre> |
| |
| <p>By default, lldb does defined aliases to all common gdb process control |
| commands ("<code>s</code>", "<code>step</code>", "<code>n</code>", "<code>next</code>", "<code>finish</code>"). |
| If we have missed any, please add them to your <code>~/.lldbinit</code> file |
| using the "<code>command alias</code>" command. |
| |
| <p>lldb also supported the <i>step by instruction</i> versions:</p> |
| <pre><tt>(lldb) thread step-inst // The same as gdb's "stepi" / "si" |
| (lldb) thread step-over-inst // The same as gdb's "nexti" / "ni" |
| </tt></pre> |
| |
| <p>Finally, lldb has a <i>run until line or frame exit</i> stepping mode:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) thread until 100 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>This command will run the thread in the current frame till it reaches line 100 in |
| this frame or stops if it leaves the current frame. This is a pretty |
| close equivalent to gdb's "<code>until</code>" command.</p> |
| |
| <p>A process, by default, will share the lldb terminal with the inferior |
| process. When in this mode, much like when debugging with gdb, when |
| the process is running anything you type will go to the STDIN of the |
| inferior process. To interrupt your inferior program, type CTRL+C.</p> |
| |
| <p>If you attach to a process, or launch a process with the "<code>--no-stdin</code>" |
| option, the command interpreter is always available to enter commands. This |
| might be a little disconcerting to gdb users when always have an <code>(lldb)</code> |
| prompt. This allows you to set a breakpoint, etc without having to explicitly interrupt |
| the program you are debugging:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) process continue |
| <br>(lldb) breakpoint set --name stop_here |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>There are many commands that won't work while running, and the command |
| interpreter should do a good job of letting you know when this is the |
| case. If you find any instances where the command interpreter isn't |
| doing its job, please file a bug. This way of operation will set us |
| up for a future debugging mode called <i>thread centric debugging</i>. |
| This mode will allow us to run all threads and only stop the threads |
| that are at breakpoints or have exceptions or signals.</p> |
| |
| <p>The commands that currently work while running include |
| interrupting the process to halt execution ("<code>process interrupt</code>"), |
| getting the process status ("<code>process status</code>"), |
| breakpoint setting and clearing ("<code> breakpoint [set|clear|enable|disable|list] ...</code>"), |
| and memory reading and writing ("<code> memory [read|write] ...</code>"). |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>The question of disabling stdio when running brings up a good opportunity to |
| show how to set debugger properties in general. |
| If you always want to run in the <code>--no-stdin</code> mode, you can set this |
| as a generic process property using the lldb "<code>settings</code>" command, |
| which is equivalent to gdb's "<code>set</code>" command. For instance, |
| in this case you would say:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) settings set target.process.disable-stdio true |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>Over time, gdb's "<code>set</code> command became a wilderness of disordered options, |
| so that there were useful options that even experienced gdb users didn't know about |
| because they were too hard to find. We tried to organize the settings hierarchically |
| using the structure of the basic entities in the debugger. For the most part anywhere |
| you can specify a setting on a generic entity (threads, for example) you can also apply |
| the option to a particular instance, which can also be convenient at times. |
| You can view the available settings with "<code>settings list</code>" and |
| there is help on the settings command explaining how it works more generally.</p> |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Examining Thread State</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| <p>Once you've stopped, lldb will choose a current thread, usually the |
| one that stopped "for a reason", and a current frame in that thread (on stop this is always the bottom-most frame). |
| Many the commands for inspecting state work on this current |
| thread/frame.</p> |
| |
| <p>To inspect the current state of your process, you can start with the |
| threads:</p> |
| |
| <pre><tt>(lldb) thread list |
| Process 46915 state is Stopped |
| * thread #1: tid = 0x2c03, 0x00007fff85cac76a, where = libSystem.B.dylib`__getdirentries64 + 10, stop reason = signal = SIGSTOP, queue = com.apple.main-thread |
| thread #2: tid = 0x2e03, 0x00007fff85cbb08a, where = libSystem.B.dylib`kevent + 10, queue = com.apple.libdispatch-manager |
| thread #3: tid = 0x2f03, 0x00007fff85cbbeaa, where = libSystem.B.dylib`__workq_kernreturn + 10 |
| </tt></pre> |
| |
| <p>The * indicates that Thread 1 is the current thread. To get a |
| backtrace for that thread, do:</p> |
| |
| <pre><tt>(lldb) thread backtrace |
| thread #1: tid = 0x2c03, stop reason = breakpoint 1.1, queue = com.apple.main-thread |
| frame #0: 0x0000000100010d5b, where = Sketch`-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:] + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTGraphicView.m:1405 |
| frame #1: 0x00007fff8602d152, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 95 |
| frame #2: 0x00007fff860516be, where = AppKit`-[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] + 365 |
| frame #3: 0x00007fff86051428, where = AppKit`-[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] + 121 |
| frame #4: 0x00007fff860370c1, where = AppKit`-[NSMenu performKeyEquivalent:] + 272 |
| frame #5: 0x00007fff86035e69, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication _handleKeyEquivalent:] + 559 |
| frame #6: 0x00007fff85f06aa1, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 3630 |
| frame #7: 0x00007fff85e9d922, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication run] + 474 |
| frame #8: 0x00007fff85e965f8, where = AppKit`NSApplicationMain + 364 |
| frame #9: 0x0000000100015ae3, where = Sketch`main + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTMain.m:11 |
| frame #10: 0x0000000100000f20, where = Sketch`start + 52 |
| </tt></pre> |
| |
| <p>You can also provide a list of threads to backtrace, or the keyword |
| "all" to see all threads:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) thread backtrace all |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can select the current thread, which will be used by default in all the commands in |
| the next section, with the "thread select" command:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) thread select 2 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>where the thread index is just the one shown in the "<code>thread list</code>" listing. |
| |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| <div class="post"> |
| <h1 class ="postheader">Examining Stack Frame State</h1> |
| <div class="postcontent"> |
| |
| |
| <p>The most convenient way to inspect a frame's arguments and local variables is to use the "<code>frame variable</code>" command:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) frame variable |
| <br>self = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000100208b40 |
| <br>_cmd = (struct objc_selector *) 0x000000010001bae1 |
| <br>sender = (id) 0x00000001001264e0 |
| <br>selection = (NSArray *) 0x00000001001264e0 |
| <br>i = (NSUInteger) 0x00000001001264e0 |
| <br>c = (NSUInteger) 0x00000001001253b0 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>As you see above, if you don't specify any variable names, all arguments |
| and locals will be shown. If you call "<code>frame variable</code>" |
| passing in the names of a particular local(s), only those variables |
| will be printed. For instance: |
| </p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) frame variable self |
| <br>(SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000100208b40 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can also pass in a path to some subelement of one of the available locals, |
| and that sub-element will be printed. For instance: |
| </p> |
| |
| <code> |
| <br>(lldb) frame variable self.isa |
| <br>(struct objc_class *) self.isa = 0x0000000100023730 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>The "<code>frame variable</code>" command is not a full expression |
| parser but it does support a few simple operations like &, *, ->, [] (no overloaded |
| operators). The array brackets can be used on pointers to treat pointers |
| as arrays:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) frame variable *self |
| <br>(SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000100208b40 |
| <br>(NSView) NSView = { |
| <br>(NSResponder) NSResponder = { |
| <br>... |
| <br> |
| <br>(lldb) frame variable &self |
| <br>(SKTGraphicView **) &self = 0x0000000100304ab |
| <br> |
| <br>(lldb) frame variable argv[0] |
| <br>(char const *) argv[0] = 0x00007fff5fbffaf8 "/Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app/Contents/MacOS/Sketch" |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>The frame variable command will also perform "object printing" operations on |
| variables (currently we only support ObjC printing, using the object's "description" method. |
| Turn this on by passing the -o flag to frame variable:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) frame variable -o self |
| (SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000100208b40 <SKTGraphicView: 0x100208b40> |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can select another frame to view with the "<code>frame select</code>" command</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) frame select 9 |
| <br>frame #9: 0x0000000100015ae3, where = Sketch`function1 + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTFunctions.m:11 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can also move up and down the stack by passing the "<code>--relative</code>" ("<code>-r</code>") |
| option. And we have built-in aliases "<code>u</code>" and "<code>d</code>" which |
| behave like their gdb equivalents. |
| |
| <p>If you need to view more complex data or change program data, you can |
| use the general "expression" command. It takes an expression and |
| evaluates it in the scope of the currently selected frame. For instance:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) expr self |
| <br>$0 = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000100135430 |
| <br>(lldb) expr self = 0x00 |
| <br>$1 = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000000000000 |
| <br>(lldb) frame var self |
| <br>(SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000000000000 |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>You can also call functions:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) expr (int) printf ("I have a pointer 0x%llx.\n", self) |
| <br>$2 = (int) 22 |
| <br>I have a pointer 0x0. |
| </code> |
| |
| <p>As I said above, "expression" is one of the "raw" commands. So |
| you don't have to quote your whole expression, nor backslash protect quotes, |
| etc...</p> |
| |
| <p>Finally, the results of the expressions are stored in persistent variables |
| (of the form $[0-9]+) that you can use in further expressions, like:</p> |
| |
| <code> |
| (lldb) expr self = $0 |
| <br>$4 = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000100135430 |
| </code> |
| <p> |
| </div> |
| <div class="postfooter"></div> |
| |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </div> |
| </body> |
| </html> |