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			1118 lines
		
	
	
		
			46 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			HTML
		
	
	
	
	
	
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
 | 
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                      "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
 | 
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<html>
 | 
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<head>
 | 
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  <title>Source Level Debugging with LLVM</title>
 | 
						|
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="llvm.css" type="text/css">
 | 
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</head>
 | 
						|
<body>
 | 
						|
 | 
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<div class="doc_title">Source Level Debugging with LLVM</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<table class="layout" style="width:100%">
 | 
						|
  <tr class="layout">
 | 
						|
    <td class="left">
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
  <li><a href="#introduction">Introduction</a>
 | 
						|
  <ol>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#phil">Philosophy behind LLVM debugging information</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#debugopt">Debugging optimized code</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#future">Future work</a></li>
 | 
						|
  </ol></li>
 | 
						|
  <li><a href="#llvm-db">Using the <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a>
 | 
						|
  <ol>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#limitations">Limitations of <tt>llvm-db</tt></a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#sample">A sample <tt>llvm-db</tt> session</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#startup">Starting the debugger</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#commands">Commands recognized by the debugger</a></li>
 | 
						|
  </ol></li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
  <li><a href="#architecture">Architecture of the LLVM debugger</a>
 | 
						|
  <ol>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#arch_debugger">The Debugger and InferiorProcess classes</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#arch_info">The RuntimeInfo, ProgramInfo, and SourceLanguage classes</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#arch_llvm-db">The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#arch_todo">Short-term TODO list</a></li>
 | 
						|
  </ol></li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
  <li><a href="#format">Debugging information format</a>
 | 
						|
  <ol>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#format_common_anchors">Anchors for global objects</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#format_common_stoppoint">Representing stopping points in the source program</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#format_common_lifetime">Object lifetimes and scoping</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#format_common_descriptors">Object descriptor formats</a>
 | 
						|
    <ul>
 | 
						|
      <li><a href="#format_common_source_files">Representation of source files</a></li>
 | 
						|
      <li><a href="#format_common_program_objects">Representation of program objects</a></li>
 | 
						|
      <li><a href="#format_common_object_contexts">Program object contexts</a></li>
 | 
						|
    </ul></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#format_common_intrinsics">Debugger intrinsic functions</a></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#format_common_tags">Values for debugger tags</a></li>
 | 
						|
  </ol></li>
 | 
						|
  <li><a href="#ccxx_frontend">C/C++ front-end specific debug information</a>
 | 
						|
  <ol>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#ccxx_pse">Program Scope Entries</a>
 | 
						|
    <ul>
 | 
						|
      <li><a href="#ccxx_compilation_units">Compilation unit entries</a></li>
 | 
						|
      <li><a href="#ccxx_modules">Module, namespace, and importing entries</a></li>
 | 
						|
    </ul></li>
 | 
						|
    <li><a href="#ccxx_dataobjects">Data objects (program variables)</a></li>
 | 
						|
  </ol></li>
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
</td>
 | 
						|
<td class="right">
 | 
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<img src="img/venusflytrap.jpg" alt="A leafy and green bug eater" width="247"
 | 
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height="369">
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</td>
 | 
						|
</tr></table>
 | 
						|
 | 
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<div class="doc_author">
 | 
						|
  <p>Written by <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a></p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_section"><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></div> 
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>This document is the central repository for all information pertaining to
 | 
						|
debug information in LLVM.  It describes the <a href="#llvm-db">user
 | 
						|
interface</a> for the <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool, which provides a 
 | 
						|
powerful <a href="#llvm-db">source-level debugger</a>
 | 
						|
to users of LLVM-based compilers.  It then describes the <a
 | 
						|
href="#architecture">various components</a> that make up the debugger and the
 | 
						|
libraries which future clients may use.  Finally, it describes the <a
 | 
						|
href="#format">actual format that the LLVM debug information</a> takes,
 | 
						|
which is useful for those interested in creating front-ends or dealing directly
 | 
						|
with the information.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="phil">Philosophy behind LLVM debugging information</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The idea of the LLVM debugging information is to capture how the important
 | 
						|
pieces of the source-language's Abstract Syntax Tree map onto LLVM code.
 | 
						|
Several design aspects have shaped the solution that appears here.  The
 | 
						|
important ones are:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
<li>Debugging information should have very little impact on the rest of the
 | 
						|
compiler.  No transformations, analyses, or code generators should need to be
 | 
						|
modified because of debugging information.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>LLVM optimizations should interact in <a href="#debugopt">well-defined and
 | 
						|
easily described ways</a> with the debugging information.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Because LLVM is designed to support arbitrary programming languages,
 | 
						|
LLVM-to-LLVM tools should not need to know anything about the semantics of the
 | 
						|
source-level-language.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Source-level languages are often <b>widely</b> different from one another.
 | 
						|
LLVM should not put any restrictions of the flavor of the source-language, and
 | 
						|
the debugging information should work with any language.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>With code generator support, it should be possible to use an LLVM compiler
 | 
						|
to compile a program to native machine code and standard debugging formats.
 | 
						|
This allows compatibility with traditional machine-code level debuggers, like
 | 
						|
GDB or DBX.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The approach used by the LLVM implementation is to use a small set of <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_intrinsics">intrinsic functions</a> to define a mapping
 | 
						|
between LLVM program objects and the source-level objects.  The description of
 | 
						|
the source-level program is maintained in LLVM global variables in an <a
 | 
						|
href="#ccxx_frontend">implementation-defined format</a> (the C/C++ front-end
 | 
						|
currently uses working draft 7 of the <a
 | 
						|
href="http://www.eagercon.com/dwarf/dwarf3std.htm">Dwarf 3 standard</a>).</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>When a program is debugged, the debugger interacts with the user and turns
 | 
						|
the stored debug information into source-language specific information.  As
 | 
						|
such, the debugger must be aware of the source-language, and is thus tied to a
 | 
						|
specific language of family of languages.  The <a href="#llvm-db">LLVM
 | 
						|
debugger</a> is designed to be modular in its support for source-languages.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="debugopt">Debugging optimized code</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>An extremely high priority of LLVM debugging information is to make it
 | 
						|
interact well with optimizations and analysis.  In particular, the LLVM debug
 | 
						|
information provides the following guarantees:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>LLVM debug information <b>always provides information to accurately read the
 | 
						|
source-level state of the program</b>, regardless of which LLVM optimizations
 | 
						|
have been run, and without any modification to the optimizations themselves.
 | 
						|
However, some optimizations may impact the ability to modify the current state
 | 
						|
of the program with a debugger, such as setting program variables, or calling
 | 
						|
function that have been deleted.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>LLVM optimizations gracefully interact with debugging information.  If they
 | 
						|
are not aware of debug information, they are automatically disabled as necessary
 | 
						|
in the cases that would invalidate the debug info.  This retains the LLVM
 | 
						|
features making it easy to write new transformations.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>As desired, LLVM optimizations can be upgraded to be aware of the LLVM
 | 
						|
debugging information, allowing them to update the debugging information as they
 | 
						|
perform aggressive optimizations.  This means that, with effort, the LLVM
 | 
						|
optimizers could optimize debug code just as well as non-debug code.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>LLVM debug information does not prevent many important optimizations from
 | 
						|
happening (for example inlining, basic block reordering/merging/cleanup, tail
 | 
						|
duplication, etc), further reducing the amount of the compiler that eventually
 | 
						|
is "aware" of debugging information.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>LLVM debug information is automatically optimized along with the rest of the
 | 
						|
program, using existing facilities.  For example, duplicate information is
 | 
						|
automatically merged by the linker, and unused information is automatically
 | 
						|
removed.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Basically, the debug information allows you to compile a program with
 | 
						|
"<tt>-O0 -g</tt>" and get full debug information, allowing you to arbitrarily
 | 
						|
modify the program as it executes from the debugger.  Compiling a program with
 | 
						|
"<tt>-O3 -g</tt>" gives you full debug information that is always available and
 | 
						|
accurate for reading (e.g., you get accurate stack traces despite tail call
 | 
						|
elimination and inlining), but you might lose the ability to modify the program
 | 
						|
and call functions where were optimized out of the program, or inlined away
 | 
						|
completely.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="future">Future work</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>There are several important extensions that could be eventually added to the
 | 
						|
LLVM debugger.  The most important extension would be to upgrade the LLVM code
 | 
						|
generators to support debugging information.  This would also allow, for
 | 
						|
example, the X86 code generator to emit native objects that contain debugging
 | 
						|
information consumable by traditional source-level debuggers like GDB or
 | 
						|
DBX.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Additionally, LLVM optimizations can be upgraded to incrementally update the
 | 
						|
debugging information, <a href="#commands">new commands</a> can be added to the
 | 
						|
debugger, and thread support could be added to the debugger.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The "SourceLanguage" modules provided by <tt>llvm-db</tt> could be
 | 
						|
substantially improved to provide good support for C++ language features like
 | 
						|
namespaces and scoping rules.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>After working with the debugger for a while, perhaps the nicest improvement
 | 
						|
would be to add some sort of line editor, such as GNU readline (but one that is
 | 
						|
compatible with the LLVM license).</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>For someone so inclined, it should be straight-forward to write different
 | 
						|
front-ends for the LLVM debugger, as the LLVM debugging engine is cleanly
 | 
						|
separated from the <tt>llvm-db</tt> front-end.  A new LLVM GUI debugger or IDE
 | 
						|
would be nice.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_section">
 | 
						|
  <a name="llvm-db">Using the <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool provides a GDB-like interface for source-level
 | 
						|
debugging of programs.  This tool provides many standard commands for inspecting
 | 
						|
and modifying the program as it executes, loading new programs, single stepping,
 | 
						|
placing breakpoints, etc.  This section describes how to use the debugger.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p><tt>llvm-db</tt> has been designed to be as similar to GDB in its user
 | 
						|
interface as possible.  This should make it extremely easy to learn
 | 
						|
<tt>llvm-db</tt> if you already know <tt>GDB</tt>.  In general, <tt>llvm-db</tt>
 | 
						|
provides the subset of GDB commands that are applicable to LLVM debugging users.
 | 
						|
If there is a command missing that make a reasonable amount of sense within the
 | 
						|
<a href="#limitations">limitations of <tt>llvm-db</tt></a>, please report it as
 | 
						|
a bug or, better yet, submit a patch to add it.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="limitations">Limitations of <tt>llvm-db</tt></a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p><tt>llvm-db</tt> is designed to be modular and easy to extend.  This
 | 
						|
extensibility was key to getting the debugger up-and-running quickly, because we
 | 
						|
can start with simple-but-unsophisicated implementations of various components.
 | 
						|
Because of this, it is currently missing many features, though they should be
 | 
						|
easy to add over time (patches welcomed!).  The biggest inherent limitations of
 | 
						|
<tt>llvm-db</tt> are currently due to extremely simple <a
 | 
						|
href="#arch_debugger">debugger backend</a> (implemented in
 | 
						|
"lib/Debugger/UnixLocalInferiorProcess.cpp") which is designed to work without
 | 
						|
any cooperation from the code generators.  Because it is so simple, it suffers
 | 
						|
from the following inherent limitations:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Running a program in <tt>llvm-db</tt> is a bit slower than running it with
 | 
						|
<tt>lli</tt> (i.e., in the JIT).</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Inspection of the target hardware is not supported.  This means that you
 | 
						|
cannot, for example, print the contents of X86 registers.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Inspection of LLVM code is not supported.  This means that you cannot print
 | 
						|
the contents of arbitrary LLVM values, or use commands such as <tt>stepi</tt>.
 | 
						|
This also means that you cannot debug code without debug information.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Portions of the debugger run in the same address space as the program being
 | 
						|
debugged.  This means that memory corruption by the program could trample on
 | 
						|
portions of the debugger.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>Attaching to existing processes and core files is not currently
 | 
						|
supported.</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>That said, the debugger is still quite useful, and all of these limitations
 | 
						|
can be eliminated by integrating support for the debugger into the code
 | 
						|
generators, and writing a new <a href="#arch_debugger">InferiorProcess</a>
 | 
						|
subclass to use it.  See the <a href="#future">future work</a> section for ideas
 | 
						|
of how to extend the LLVM debugger despite these limitations.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="sample">A sample <tt>llvm-db</tt> session</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>TODO: this is obviously lame, when more is implemented, this can be much
 | 
						|
better.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
$ <b>llvm-db funccall</b>
 | 
						|
llvm-db: The LLVM source-level debugger
 | 
						|
Loading program... successfully loaded 'funccall.bc'!
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>create</b>
 | 
						|
Starting program: funccall.bc
 | 
						|
main at funccall.c:9:2
 | 
						|
9 ->            q = 0;
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>list main</b>
 | 
						|
4       void foo() {
 | 
						|
5               int t = q;
 | 
						|
6               q = t + 1;
 | 
						|
7       }
 | 
						|
8       int main() {
 | 
						|
9 ->            q = 0;
 | 
						|
10              foo();
 | 
						|
11              q = q - 1;
 | 
						|
12
 | 
						|
13              return q;
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>list</b>
 | 
						|
14      }
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>step</b>
 | 
						|
10 ->           foo();
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>s</b>
 | 
						|
foo at funccall.c:5:2
 | 
						|
5 ->            int t = q;
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>bt</b>
 | 
						|
#0 ->   0x85ffba0 in foo at funccall.c:5:2
 | 
						|
#1      0x85ffd98 in main at funccall.c:10:2
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>finish</b>
 | 
						|
main at funccall.c:11:2
 | 
						|
11 ->           q = q - 1;
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>s</b>
 | 
						|
13 ->           return q;
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>s</b>
 | 
						|
The program stopped with exit code 0
 | 
						|
(llvm-db) <b>quit</b>
 | 
						|
$
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="startup">Starting the debugger</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>There are three ways to start up the <tt>llvm-db</tt> debugger:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>When run with no options, just <tt>llvm-db</tt>, the debugger starts up
 | 
						|
without a program loaded at all.  You must use the <a
 | 
						|
href="#c_file"><tt>file</tt> command</a> to load a program, and the <a
 | 
						|
href="#c_set_args"><tt>set args</tt></a> or <a href="#c_run"><tt>run</tt></a>
 | 
						|
commands to specify the arguments for the program.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>If you start the debugger with one argument, as <tt>llvm-db
 | 
						|
<program></tt>, the debugger will start up and load in the specified
 | 
						|
program.  You can then optionally specify arguments to the program with the <a
 | 
						|
href="#c_set_args"><tt>set args</tt></a> or <a href="#c_run"><tt>run</tt></a>
 | 
						|
commands.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The third way to start the program is with the <tt>--args</tt> option.  This
 | 
						|
option allows you to specify the program to load and the arguments to start out
 | 
						|
with.  <!-- No options to <tt>llvm-db</tt> may be specified after the
 | 
						|
<tt>-args</tt> option. --> Example use: <tt>llvm-db --args ls /home</tt></p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="commands">Commands recognized by the debugger</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>FIXME: this needs work obviously.  See the <a
 | 
						|
href="http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/documentation/">GDB documentation</a> for
 | 
						|
information about what these do, or try '<tt>help [command]</tt>' within
 | 
						|
<tt>llvm-db</tt> to get information.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
<h2>General usage:</h2>
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
<li>help [command]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>quit</li>
 | 
						|
<li><a name="c_file">file</a> [program]</li>
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<h2>Program inspection and interaction:</h2>
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
<li>create (start the program, stopping it ASAP in <tt>main</tt>)</li>
 | 
						|
<li>kill</li>
 | 
						|
<li>run [args]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>step [num]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>next [num]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>cont</li>
 | 
						|
<li>finish</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>list [start[, end]]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info source</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info sources</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info functions</li>
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<h2>Call stack inspection:</h2>
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
<li>backtrace</li>
 | 
						|
<li>up [n]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>down [n]</li>
 | 
						|
<li>frame [n]</li>
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<h2>Debugger inspection and interaction:</h2>
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
<li>info target</li>
 | 
						|
<li>show prompt</li>
 | 
						|
<li>set prompt</li>
 | 
						|
<li>show listsize</li>
 | 
						|
<li>set listsize</li>
 | 
						|
<li>show language</li>
 | 
						|
<li>set language</li>
 | 
						|
<li>show args</li>
 | 
						|
<li>set args [args]</li>
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<h2>TODO:</h2>
 | 
						|
<ul>
 | 
						|
<li>info frame</li>
 | 
						|
<li>break</li>
 | 
						|
<li>print</li>
 | 
						|
<li>ptype</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>info types</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info variables</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info program</li>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<li>info args</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info locals</li>
 | 
						|
<li>info catch</li>
 | 
						|
<li>... many others</li>
 | 
						|
</ul>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_section">
 | 
						|
  <a name="architecture">Architecture of the LLVM debugger</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>The LLVM debugger is built out of three distinct layers of software.  These
 | 
						|
layers provide clients with different interface options depending on what pieces
 | 
						|
of they want to implement themselves, and it also promotes code modularity and
 | 
						|
good design.  The three layers are the <a href="#arch_debugger">Debugger
 | 
						|
interface</a>, the <a href="#arch_info">"info" interfaces</a>, and the <a
 | 
						|
href="#arch_llvm-db"><tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a> itself.</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="arch_debugger">The Debugger and InferiorProcess classes</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>The Debugger class (defined in the <tt>include/llvm/Debugger/</tt> directory)
 | 
						|
is a low-level class which is used to maintain information about the loaded
 | 
						|
program, as well as start and stop the program running as necessary.  This class
 | 
						|
does not provide any high-level analysis or control over the program, only
 | 
						|
exposing simple interfaces like <tt>load/unloadProgram</tt>,
 | 
						|
<tt>create/killProgram</tt>, <tt>step/next/finish/contProgram</tt>, and
 | 
						|
low-level methods for installing breakpoints.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The Debugger class is itself a wrapper around the lowest-level InferiorProcess
 | 
						|
class.  This class is used to represent an instance of the program running under
 | 
						|
debugger control.  The InferiorProcess class can be implemented in different
 | 
						|
ways for different targets and execution scenarios (e.g., remote debugging).
 | 
						|
The InferiorProcess class exposes a small and simple collection of interfaces
 | 
						|
which are useful for inspecting the current state of the program (such as
 | 
						|
collecting stack trace information, reading the memory image of the process,
 | 
						|
etc).  The interfaces in this class are designed to be as low-level and simple
 | 
						|
as possible, to make it easy to create new instances of the class.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The Debugger class exposes the currently active instance of InferiorProcess
 | 
						|
through the <tt>Debugger::getRunningProcess</tt> method, which returns a
 | 
						|
<tt>const</tt> reference to the class.  This means that clients of the Debugger
 | 
						|
class can only <b>inspect</b> the running instance of the program directly.  To
 | 
						|
change the executing process in some way, they must use the interces exposed by
 | 
						|
the Debugger class.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="arch_info">The RuntimeInfo, ProgramInfo, and SourceLanguage classes</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The next-highest level of debugger abstraction is provided through the
 | 
						|
ProgramInfo, RuntimeInfo, SourceLanguage and related classes (also defined in
 | 
						|
the <tt>include/llvm/Debugger/</tt> directory).  These classes efficiently
 | 
						|
decode the debugging information and low-level interfaces exposed by
 | 
						|
InferiorProcess into a higher-level representation, suitable for analysis by the
 | 
						|
debugger.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The ProgramInfo class exposes a variety of different kinds of information about
 | 
						|
the program objects in the source-level-language.  The SourceFileInfo class
 | 
						|
represents a source-file in the program (e.g. a .cpp or .h file).  The
 | 
						|
SourceFileInfo class captures information such as which SourceLanguage was used
 | 
						|
to compile the file, where the debugger can get access to the actual file text
 | 
						|
(which is lazily loaded on demand), etc.  The SourceFunctionInfo class
 | 
						|
represents a... <b>FIXME: finish</b>.  The ProgramInfo class provides interfaces
 | 
						|
to lazily find and decode the information needed to create the Source*Info
 | 
						|
classes requested by the debugger.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The RuntimeInfo class exposes information about the currently executed program,
 | 
						|
by decoding information from the InferiorProcess and ProgramInfo classes.  It
 | 
						|
provides a StackFrame class which provides an easy-to-use interface for
 | 
						|
inspecting the current and suspended stack frames in the program.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The SourceLanguage class is an abstract interface used by the debugger to
 | 
						|
perform all source-language-specific tasks.  For example, this interface is used
 | 
						|
by the ProgramInfo class to decode language-specific types and functions and by
 | 
						|
the debugger front-end (such as <a href="#arch_llvm-db"><tt>llvm-db</tt></a> to
 | 
						|
evaluate source-langauge expressions typed into the debugger.  This class uses
 | 
						|
the RuntimeInfo & ProgramInfo classes to get information about the current
 | 
						|
execution context and the loaded program, respectively.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="arch_llvm-db">The <tt>llvm-db</tt> tool</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The <tt>llvm-db</tt> is designed to be a debugger providing an interface as <a
 | 
						|
href="#llvm-db">similar to GDB</a> as reasonable, but no more so than that.
 | 
						|
Because the <a href="#arch_debugger">Debugger</a> and <a
 | 
						|
href="#arch_info">info</a> classes implement all of the heavy lifting and
 | 
						|
analysis, <tt>llvm-db</tt> (which lives in <tt>llvm/tools/llvm-db</tt>) consists
 | 
						|
mainly of of code to interact with the user and parse commands.  The CLIDebugger
 | 
						|
constructor registers all of the builtin commands for the debugger, and each
 | 
						|
command is implemented as a CLIDebugger::[name]Command method.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="arch_todo">Short-term TODO list</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
FIXME: this section will eventually go away.  These are notes to myself of
 | 
						|
things that should be implemented, but haven't yet.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
<b>Breakpoints:</b> Support is already implemented in the 'InferiorProcess'
 | 
						|
class, though it hasn't been tested yet.  To finish breakpoint support, we need
 | 
						|
to implement breakCommand (which should reuse the linespec parser from the list
 | 
						|
command), and handle the fact that 'break foo' or 'break file.c:53' may insert
 | 
						|
multiple breakpoints.  Also, if you say 'break file.c:53' and there is no
 | 
						|
stoppoint on line 53, the breakpoint should go on the next available line.  My
 | 
						|
idea was to have the Debugger class provide a "Breakpoint" class which
 | 
						|
encapsulated this messiness, giving the debugger front-end a simple interface.
 | 
						|
The debugger front-end would have to map the really complex semantics of
 | 
						|
temporary breakpoints and 'conditional' breakpoints onto this intermediate
 | 
						|
level. Also, breakpoints should survive as much as possible across program
 | 
						|
reloads.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
<b>UnixLocalInferiorProcess.cpp speedup</b>: There is no reason for the debugged
 | 
						|
process to code gen the globals corresponding to debug information.  The
 | 
						|
IntrinsicLowering object could instead change descriptors into constant expr
 | 
						|
casts of the constant address of the LLVM objects for the descriptors.  This
 | 
						|
would also allow us to eliminate the mapping back and forth between physical
 | 
						|
addresses that must be done.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
<b>Process deaths</b>: The InferiorProcessDead exception should be extended to
 | 
						|
know "how" a process died, i.e., it was killed by a signal.  This is easy to
 | 
						|
collect in the UnixLocalInferiorProcess, we just need to represent it.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_section">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format">Debugging information format</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>LLVM debugging information has been carefully designed to make it possible
 | 
						|
for the optimizer to optimize the program and debugging information without
 | 
						|
necessarily having to know anything about debugging information.  In particular,
 | 
						|
the global constant merging pass automatically eliminates duplicated debugging
 | 
						|
information (often caused by header files), the global dead code elimination
 | 
						|
pass automatically deletes debugging information for a function if it decides to
 | 
						|
delete the function, and the linker eliminates debug information when it merges
 | 
						|
<tt>linkonce</tt> functions.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>To do this, most of the debugging information (descriptors for types,
 | 
						|
variables, functions, source files, etc) is inserted by the language front-end
 | 
						|
in the form of LLVM global variables.  These LLVM global variables are no
 | 
						|
different from any other global variables, except that they have a web of LLVM
 | 
						|
intrinsic functions that point to them.  If the last references to a particular
 | 
						|
piece of debugging information are deleted (for example, by the
 | 
						|
<tt>-globaldce</tt> pass), the extraneous debug information will automatically
 | 
						|
become dead and be removed by the optimizer.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The debugger is designed to be agnostic about the contents of most of the
 | 
						|
debugging information.  It uses a <a href="#arch_info">source-language-specific
 | 
						|
module</a> to decode the information that represents variables, types,
 | 
						|
functions, namespaces, etc: this allows for arbitrary source-language semantics
 | 
						|
and type-systems to be used, as long as there is a module written for the
 | 
						|
debugger to interpret the information.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>To provide basic functionality, the LLVM debugger does have to make some
 | 
						|
assumptions about the source-level language being debugged, though it keeps
 | 
						|
these to a minimum.  The only common features that the LLVM debugger assumes
 | 
						|
exist are <a href="#format_common_source_files">source files</a>, and <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_program_objects">program objects</a>.  These abstract objects are
 | 
						|
used by the debugger to form stack traces, show information about local
 | 
						|
variables, etc.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>This section of the documentation first describes the representation aspects
 | 
						|
common to any source-language.  The <a href="#ccxx_frontend">next section</a>
 | 
						|
describes the data layout conventions used by the C and C++ front-ends.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_anchors">Anchors for global objects</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>One important aspect of the LLVM debug representation is that it allows the
 | 
						|
LLVM debugger to efficiently index all of the global objects without having the
 | 
						|
scan the program.  To do this, all of the global objects use "anchor" globals of
 | 
						|
type "<tt>{}</tt>", with designated names.  These anchor objects obviously do
 | 
						|
not contain any content or meaning by themselves, but all of the global objects
 | 
						|
of a particular type (e.g., source file descriptors) contain a pointer to the
 | 
						|
anchor.  This pointer allows the debugger to use def-use chains to find all
 | 
						|
global objects of that type.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>So far, the following names are recognized as anchors by the LLVM
 | 
						|
debugger:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
  %<a href="#format_common_source_files">llvm.dbg.translation_units</a> = linkonce global {} {}
 | 
						|
  %<a href="#format_program_objects">llvm.dbg.globals</a>         = linkonce global {} {}
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Using anchors in this way (where the source file descriptor points to the
 | 
						|
anchors, as opposed to having a list of source file descriptors) allows for the
 | 
						|
standard dead global elimination and merging passes to automatically remove
 | 
						|
unused debugging information.  If the globals were kept track of through lists,
 | 
						|
there would always be an object pointing to the descriptors, thus would never be
 | 
						|
deleted.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_stoppoint">
 | 
						|
     Representing stopping points in the source program
 | 
						|
  </a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>LLVM debugger "stop points" are a key part of the debugging representation
 | 
						|
that allows the LLVM to maintain simple semantics for <a
 | 
						|
href="#debugopt">debugging optimized code</a>.  The basic idea is that the
 | 
						|
front-end inserts calls to the <tt>%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</tt> intrinsic function
 | 
						|
at every point in the program where the debugger should be able to inspect the
 | 
						|
program (these correspond to places the debugger stops when you "<tt>step</tt>"
 | 
						|
through it).  The front-end can choose to place these as fine-grained as it
 | 
						|
would like (for example, before every subexpression evaluated), but it is
 | 
						|
recommended to only put them after every source statement that includes
 | 
						|
executable code.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Using calls to this intrinsic function to demark legal points for the
 | 
						|
debugger to inspect the program automatically disables any optimizations that
 | 
						|
could potentially confuse debugging information.  To non-debug-information-aware
 | 
						|
transformations, these calls simply look like calls to an external function,
 | 
						|
which they must assume to do anything (including reading or writing to any part
 | 
						|
of reachable memory).  On the other hand, it does not impact many optimizations,
 | 
						|
such as code motion of non-trapping instructions, nor does it impact
 | 
						|
optimization of subexpressions, code duplication transformations, or basic-block
 | 
						|
reordering transformations.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>An important aspect of the calls to the <tt>%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</tt>
 | 
						|
intrinsic is that the function-local debugging information is woven together
 | 
						|
with use-def chains.  This makes it easy for the debugger to, for example,
 | 
						|
locate the 'next' stop point.  For a concrete example of stop points, see the
 | 
						|
example in <a href="#format_common_lifetime">the next section</a>.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_lifetime">Object lifetimes and scoping</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>In many languages, the local variables in functions can have their lifetime
 | 
						|
or scope limited to a subset of a function.  In the C family of languages, for
 | 
						|
example, variables are only live (readable and writable) within the source block
 | 
						|
that they are defined in.  In functional languages, values are only readable
 | 
						|
after they have been defined.  Though this is a very obvious concept, it is also
 | 
						|
non-trivial to model in LLVM, because it has no notion of scoping in this sense,
 | 
						|
and does not want to be tied to a language's scoping rules.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>In order to handle this, the LLVM debug format uses the notion of "regions"
 | 
						|
of a function, delineated by calls to intrinsic functions.  These intrinsic
 | 
						|
functions define new regions of the program and indicate when the region
 | 
						|
lifetime expires.  Consider the following C fragment, for example:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
1.  void foo() {
 | 
						|
2.    int X = ...;
 | 
						|
3.    int Y = ...;
 | 
						|
4.    {
 | 
						|
5.      int Z = ...;
 | 
						|
6.      ...
 | 
						|
7.    }
 | 
						|
8.    ...
 | 
						|
9.  }
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Compiled to LLVM, this function would be represented like this (FIXME: CHECK
 | 
						|
AND UPDATE THIS):</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
void %foo() {
 | 
						|
    %X = alloca int
 | 
						|
    %Y = alloca int
 | 
						|
    %Z = alloca int
 | 
						|
    <a name="#icl_ex_D1">%D1</a> = call {}* %llvm.dbg.func.start(<a href="#format_program_objects">%lldb.global</a>* %d.foo)
 | 
						|
    %D2 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D1, uint 2, uint 2, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    %D3 = call {}* %llvm.dbg.DEFINEVARIABLE({}* %D2, ...)
 | 
						|
    <i>;; Evaluate expression on line 2, assigning to X.</i>
 | 
						|
    %D4 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D3, uint 3, uint 2, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    %D5 = call {}* %llvm.dbg.DEFINEVARIABLE({}* %D4, ...)
 | 
						|
    <i>;; Evaluate expression on line 3, assigning to Y.</i>
 | 
						|
    %D6 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D5, uint 5, uint 4, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    <a name="#icl_ex_D1">%D7</a> = call {}* %llvm.region.start({}* %D6)
 | 
						|
    %D8 = call {}* %llvm.dbg.DEFINEVARIABLE({}* %D7, ...)
 | 
						|
    <i>;; Evaluate expression on line 5, assigning to Z.</i>
 | 
						|
    %D9 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D8, uint 6, uint 4, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    <i>;; Code for line 6.</i>
 | 
						|
    %D10 = call {}* %llvm.region.end({}* %D9)
 | 
						|
    %D11 = call {}* <a href="#format_common_stoppoint">%llvm.dbg.stoppoint</a>({}* %D10, uint 8, uint 2, <a href="#format_common_source_files">%lldb.compile_unit</a>* %file)
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
    <i>;; Code for line 8.</i>
 | 
						|
    <a name="#icl_ex_D1">%D12</a> = call {}* %llvm.region.end({}* %D11)
 | 
						|
    ret void
 | 
						|
}
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>This example illustrates a few important details about the LLVM debugging
 | 
						|
information.  In particular, it shows how the various intrinsics used are woven
 | 
						|
together with def-use and use-def chains, similar to how <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_anchors">anchors</a> are used with globals.  This allows
 | 
						|
the debugger to analyze the relationship between statements, variable
 | 
						|
definitions, and the code used to implement the function.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>In this example, two explicit regions are defined, one with the <a
 | 
						|
href="#icl_ex_D1">definition of the <tt>%D1</tt> variable</a> and one with the
 | 
						|
<a href="#icl_ex_D7">definition of <tt>%D7</tt></a>.  In the case of
 | 
						|
<tt>%D1</tt>, the debug information indicates that the function whose <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_program_objects">descriptor</a> is specified as an argument to the
 | 
						|
intrinsic.  This defines a new stack frame whose lifetime ends when the region
 | 
						|
is ended by <a href="#icl_ex_D12">the <tt>%D12</tt> call</a>.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Using regions to represent the boundaries of source-level functions allow
 | 
						|
LLVM interprocedural optimizations to arbitrarily modify LLVM functions without
 | 
						|
having to worry about breaking mapping information between the LLVM code and the
 | 
						|
and source-level program.  In particular, the inliner requires no modification
 | 
						|
to support inlining with debugging information: there is no explicit correlation
 | 
						|
drawn between LLVM functions and their source-level counterparts (note however,
 | 
						|
that if the inliner inlines all instances of a non-strong-linkage function into
 | 
						|
its caller that it will not be possible for the user to manually invoke the
 | 
						|
inlined function from the debugger).</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Once the function has been defined, the <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_stoppoint">stopping point</a> corresponding to line #2 of
 | 
						|
the function is encountered.  At this point in the function, <b>no</b> local
 | 
						|
variables are live.  As lines 2 and 3 of the example are executed, their
 | 
						|
variable definitions are automatically introduced into the program, without the
 | 
						|
need to specify a new region.  These variables do not require new regions to be
 | 
						|
introduced because they go out of scope at the same point in the program: line
 | 
						|
9.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>In contrast, the <tt>Z</tt> variable goes out of scope at a different time,
 | 
						|
on line 7.  For this reason, it is defined within <a href="#icl_ex_D7">the
 | 
						|
<tt>%D7</tt> region</a>, which kills the availability of <tt>Z</tt> before the
 | 
						|
code for line 8 is executed.  In this way, regions can support arbitrary
 | 
						|
source-language scoping rules, as long as they can only be nested (ie, one scope
 | 
						|
cannot partially overlap with a part of another scope).</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>It is worth noting that this scoping mechanism is used to control scoping of
 | 
						|
all declarations, not just variable declarations.  For example, the scope of a
 | 
						|
C++ using declaration is controlled with this, and the <tt>llvm-db</tt> C++
 | 
						|
support routines could use this to change how name lookup is performed (though
 | 
						|
this is not implemented yet).</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_descriptors">Object descriptor formats</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>The LLVM debugger expects the descriptors for program objects to start in a
 | 
						|
canonical format, but the descriptors can include additional information
 | 
						|
appended at the end that is source-language specific.  All LLVM debugging
 | 
						|
information is versioned, allowing backwards compatibility in the case that the
 | 
						|
core structures need to change in some way.  Also, all debugging information
 | 
						|
objects start with a <a href="#format_common_tags">tag</a> to indicate what type
 | 
						|
of object it is.  The source-language is allows to define its own objects, by
 | 
						|
using unreserved tag numbers.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The lowest-level descriptor are those describing <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_source_files">the files containing the program source
 | 
						|
code</a>, as most other descriptors (sometimes indirectly) refer to them.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_source_files">Representation of source files</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
Source file descriptors are patterned after the Dwarf "compile_unit" object.
 | 
						|
The descriptor currently is defined to have at least the following LLVM
 | 
						|
type entries:</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
%lldb.compile_unit = type {
 | 
						|
       uint,                 <i>;; Tag: <a href="#tag_compile_unit">LLVM_COMPILE_UNIT</a></i>
 | 
						|
       ushort,               <i>;; LLVM debug version number</i>
 | 
						|
       ushort,               <i>;; Dwarf language identifier</i>
 | 
						|
       sbyte*,               <i>;; Filename</i>
 | 
						|
       sbyte*,               <i>;; Working directory when compiled</i>
 | 
						|
       sbyte*                <i>;; Producer of the debug information</i>
 | 
						|
}
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
These descriptors contain the version number for the debug info, a source
 | 
						|
language ID for the file (we use the Dwarf 3.0 ID numbers, such as
 | 
						|
<tt>DW_LANG_C89</tt>, <tt>DW_LANG_C_plus_plus</tt>, <tt>DW_LANG_Cobol74</tt>,
 | 
						|
etc), three strings describing the filename, working directory of the compiler,
 | 
						|
and an identifier string for the compiler that produced it.  Note that actual
 | 
						|
compile_unit declarations must also include an <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_anchors">anchor</a> to <tt>llvm.dbg.translation_units</tt>,
 | 
						|
but it is not specified where the anchor is to be located.  Here is an example
 | 
						|
descriptor:
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p><pre>
 | 
						|
%arraytest_source_file = internal constant %lldb.compile_unit {
 | 
						|
    <a href="#tag_compile_unit">uint 17</a>,                                                      ; Tag value
 | 
						|
    ushort 0,                                                     ; Version #0
 | 
						|
    ushort 1,                                                     ; DW_LANG_C89
 | 
						|
    sbyte* getelementptr ([12 x sbyte]* %.str_1, long 0, long 0), ; filename
 | 
						|
    sbyte* getelementptr ([12 x sbyte]* %.str_2, long 0, long 0), ; working dir
 | 
						|
    sbyte* getelementptr ([12 x sbyte]* %.str_3, long 0, long 0), ; producer
 | 
						|
    {}* %llvm.dbg.translation_units                               ; Anchor
 | 
						|
}
 | 
						|
%.str_1 = internal constant [12 x sbyte] c"arraytest.c\00"
 | 
						|
%.str_2 = internal constant [12 x sbyte] c"/home/sabre\00"
 | 
						|
%.str_3 = internal constant [12 x sbyte] c"llvmgcc 3.4\00"
 | 
						|
</pre></p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
Note that the LLVM constant merging pass should eliminate duplicate copies of
 | 
						|
the strings that get emitted to each translation unit, such as the producer.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_program_objects">Representation of program objects</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
The LLVM debugger needs to know about some source-language program objects, in
 | 
						|
order to build stack traces, print information about local variables, and other
 | 
						|
related activities.  The LLVM debugger differentiates between three different
 | 
						|
types of program objects: subprograms (functions, messages, methods, etc),
 | 
						|
variables (locals and globals), and others.  Because source-languages have
 | 
						|
widely varying forms of these objects, the LLVM debugger expects only a few
 | 
						|
fields in the descriptor for each object:
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
%lldb.object = type {
 | 
						|
       uint,                  <i>;; <a href="#format_common_tag">A tag</a></i>
 | 
						|
       <i>any</i>*,                  <i>;; The <a href="#format_common_object_contexts">context</a> for the object</i>
 | 
						|
       sbyte*                 <i>;; The object 'name'</i>
 | 
						|
}
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The first field contains a tag for the descriptor.  The second field contains
 | 
						|
either a pointer to the descriptor for the containing <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_source_files">source file</a>, or it contains a pointer to
 | 
						|
another program object whose context pointer eventually reaches a source file.
 | 
						|
Through this <a href="#format_common_object_contexts">context</a> pointer, the
 | 
						|
LLVM debugger can establish the debug version number of the object.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The third field contains a string that the debugger can use to identify the
 | 
						|
object if it does not contain explicit support for the source-language in use
 | 
						|
(ie, the 'unknown' source language handler uses this string).  This should be
 | 
						|
some sort of unmangled string that corresponds to the object, but it is a
 | 
						|
quality of implementation issue what exactly it contains (it is legal, though
 | 
						|
not useful, for all of these strings to be null).</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Note again that descriptors can be extended to include
 | 
						|
source-language-specific information in addition to the fields required by the
 | 
						|
LLVM debugger.  See the <a href="#ccxx_descriptors">section on the C/C++
 | 
						|
front-end</a> for more information.  Also remember that global objects
 | 
						|
(functions, selectors, global variables, etc) must contain an <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_anchors">anchor</a> to the <tt>llvm.dbg.globals</tt>
 | 
						|
variable.</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_object_contexts">Program object contexts</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
Allow source-language specific contexts, use to identify namespaces etc
 | 
						|
Must end up in a source file descriptor.
 | 
						|
Debugger core ignores all unknown context objects.
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_intrinsics">Debugger intrinsic functions</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
Define each intrinsics, as an extension of the language reference manual.
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
llvm.dbg.stoppoint
 | 
						|
llvm.dbg.region.start
 | 
						|
llvm.dbg.region.end
 | 
						|
llvm.dbg.function.start
 | 
						|
llvm.dbg.declare
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="format_common_tags">Values for debugger tags</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>Happen to be the same value as the similarly named Dwarf-3 tags, this may
 | 
						|
change in the future.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<pre>
 | 
						|
  <a name="tag_compile_unit">LLVM_COMPILE_UNIT</a>     : 17
 | 
						|
  <a name="tag_subprogram">LLVM_SUBPROGRAM</a>       : 46
 | 
						|
  <a name="tag_variable">LLVM_VARIABLE</a>         : 52
 | 
						|
<!--  <a name="tag_formal_parameter">LLVM_FORMAL_PARAMETER :  5-->
 | 
						|
</pre>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_section">
 | 
						|
  <a name="ccxx_frontend">C/C++ front-end specific debug information</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The C and C++ front-ends represent information about the program in a format
 | 
						|
that is effectively identical to <a
 | 
						|
href="http://www.eagercon.com/dwarf/dwarf3std.htm">Dwarf 3.0</a> in terms of
 | 
						|
information content.  This allows code generators to trivially support native
 | 
						|
debuggers by generating standard dwarf information, and contains enough
 | 
						|
information for non-dwarf targets to translate it as needed.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>The basic debug information required by the debugger is (intentionally)
 | 
						|
designed to be as minimal as possible.  This basic information is so minimal
 | 
						|
that it is unlikely that <b>any</b> source-language could be adequately
 | 
						|
described by it.  Because of this, the debugger format was designed for
 | 
						|
extension to support source-language-specific information.  The extended
 | 
						|
descriptors are read and interpreted by the <a
 | 
						|
href="#arch_info">language-specific</a> modules in the debugger if there is
 | 
						|
support available, otherwise it is ignored.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<p>This section describes the extensions used to represent C and C++ programs.
 | 
						|
Other languages could pattern themselves after this (which itself is tuned to
 | 
						|
representing programs in the same way that Dwarf 3 does), or they could choose
 | 
						|
to provide completely different extensions if they don't fit into the Dwarf
 | 
						|
model.  As support for debugging information gets added to the various LLVM
 | 
						|
source-language front-ends, the information used should be documented here.</p>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="ccxx_pse">Program Scope Entries</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>TODO</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="ccxx_compilation_units">Compilation unit entries</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>
 | 
						|
Translation units do not add any information over the standard <a
 | 
						|
href="#format_common_source_files">source file representation</a> already
 | 
						|
expected by the debugger.  As such, it uses descriptors of the type specified,
 | 
						|
with a trailing <a href="#format_common_anchors">anchor</a>.
 | 
						|
</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- -------------------------------------------------------------------------->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsubsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="ccxx_modules">Module, namespace, and importing entries</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>TODO</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- ======================================================================= -->
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_subsection">
 | 
						|
  <a name="ccxx_dataobjects">Data objects (program variables)</a>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<div class="doc_text">
 | 
						|
<p>TODO</p>
 | 
						|
</div>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<!-- *********************************************************************** -->
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
<hr>
 | 
						|
<address>
 | 
						|
  <a href="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/check/referer"><img
 | 
						|
  src="http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/images/vcss" alt="Valid CSS!"></a>
 | 
						|
  <a href="http://validator.w3.org/check/referer"><img
 | 
						|
  src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/valid-html401" alt="Valid HTML 4.01!"></a>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
  <a href="mailto:sabre@nondot.org">Chris Lattner</a><br>
 | 
						|
  <a href="http://llvm.cs.uiuc.edu">LLVM Compiler Infrastructure</a><br>
 | 
						|
  Last modified: $Date$
 | 
						|
</address>
 | 
						|
 | 
						|
</body>
 | 
						|
</html>
 |