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- README.GDBTK
- Written by Stu Grossman
- Updated 9/26/95 by Fred Fish for gdb 4.15 release
- Updated 4/18/97 by Martin Hunt
-
-This file describes how to build, install, use and hack on GDBtk, a TK based
-GUI for GDB, the GNU debugger.
-
-Introduction
-============
-
-GDBtk is a version of GDB that uses Tcl/Tk to implement a graphical
-user inter-face. It is a fully integrated GUI, not a separate
-front-end program. The interface consists of several seperate
-windows, which use standard elements like buttons, scrollbars, entry
-boxes and such to create a fairly easy to use interface. Each window
-has a distinct content and purpose, and can be enabled or disabled
-individually. The windows contain things like the current source
-file, a disassembly of the current function, text commands (for things
-that aren't accessible via a button), and so forth.
-
-Building and installing
-=======================
-
-Building GDBtk is very straightforward. The main difference is that you will
-need to use the `--enable-gdbtk' option when you run configure in the top level
-directory. You will also need to install Tcl version 7.6 and Tk version 4.2.
-
-On Unix machines, you will also need to have X11 (R4/R5/R6) installed
-(this is a prerequisite to installing Tk).
-
-For Windows, you can obtain Tcl/Tk from ftp://ftp.smli.com:/pub/tcl/win76p2.exe.
-There is a bug in this version of Tcl/tk that requires you to set the
-environmental variable TK_LIBRARY to where the tk library directory is installed.
-There is also a problem with the colors in images on 16-bit displays under
-Windows, so some icons may look strange.
-
-[See the GDB README file for more details on configure options and such.]
-
-For example:
-
- host> cd gdbtk
- host> ./configure --enable-gdbtk
- host> make
- host> make install
-
-Using GDBtk
-===========
-
-Just run it like you would a normal GDB (in fact, it's actually called `gdb').
-If everything goes well, you should have several windows pop up. To get going,
-hit the start button, and go exploring.
-
-If you want to use GDB in command line mode, just use the -nw option. Or, you
-can undefine the DISPLAY environment variable.
-
-In the current version, you can have up to 6 windows active at once. They are:
-
- 1) Command
- 2) Source
- 3) Assembly
- 4) Register
- 5) Auto Command
- 6) Expression
-
-Most windows have a similar layout consisting of a menubar, display area,
-scrollbar, status box and window-specific buttons.
-
-The menubar contains the following items:
-
- File - General file control. Also has window close and quit buttons.
- Options - Window specific options.
- Window - A menu of other windows that can be popped up or created.
- Help - Mostly unimplemented.
-
-The status box indicates things like the current file and function, or the
-current PC and function depending upon the window.
-
-Command window:
-
- This can be used to type commands at GDB (useful for when there isn't a
- button for what you want to do).
-
-Source window:
-
- This contains the current source file. The margin displays line
- numbers, and has an indicator for lines that actually contain code (and
- therefore can have breakpoints as well). When a breakpoint is set at
- that line, the indicator is replaced with a stop sign icon.
-
- The buttons are:
-
- Start - Put a breakpoint at main, and then run.
- Stop - Stop the program (only active when program is running).
- Step, Next, Cont[inue], Finish, Up, Down - Same as the corresponding
- GDB command. (Finish runs the current subroutine until it's done.)
- Bottom - Does a `frame 0' to put you at the innermost call frame.
-
- There are also accelerators for various buttons (just type the letter
- without any control/meta/alt/shift in the text frame):
-
- s - Step
- n - Next
- c - Continue
- f - Finish
- u - Up
- d - Down
-
- The mouse can also be used to set and clear breakpoints when clicked
- in the margin (on a breakpoint indicator).
-
-Assembly window:
-
- This displays a disassembly of the current function. It's buttons are
- similar to those of the source window, except that it uses Stepi and
- Nexti to run one instruction at a time instead of one statement at a
- time. The accelerators and mouse actions are also similar.
-
- Additionally, there is an option to enable mixed source and assembly.
-
-Register window:
-
- This displays the registers. It may have to be resized to properly
- display all the registers. The displayed registers can be selected
- via the Options|Config menu item.
-
-Auto Command window:
-
- Using this window, you can specify a command to be executed frequently.
- The output will be automatically updated. Options|Accumulate-output
- can be used to avoid clearing the window each time so that you can
- accumulate a history.
-
-Expressions:
-
- The expression window can be used to just calculate an expression, or
- to watch the value of an expression (ala the `display' command), using
- the Update button. The expression window will also pop up
- automatically when an expression is double-clicked in the source window.
-
-Customizing GDBtk
-=================
-
-There are three primary ways to customize GDBtk. One is to modifiy the
-appropriate X resources. The other is to hack a ~/.gdbtkinit file. The last
-is to change the files in gdbtcl, which defines the most basic interface
-elements.
-
-X resources give you control over things like the choice of fonts, color
-schemes and some geometry info.
-
-For more serious customizations, you will probably need to hack your
-~/.gdbtkinit or gdbtcl files.
-
-X Resources
-===========
-
- The class name for GDBtk is `Gdb', and it's appname is `gdb'. The top-
-level windows have instance names of `src', 'asm', 'reg', and 'cmd'. The main
-display area in each has the class `Text'. So, to change the font in all the
-main display areas, something like the following will do:
-
- Gdb*Text*font: fixed
-
-To change the font in only the source window:
-
- Gdb*src*Text*font: fixed
-
-To find out the names of the widgets do the following (in the command window):
-
- tk info comm .*
-
-To get the list of resources (and their classes) for a given widget, do some-
-thing like:
-
- tk .asm.text config
-
-This will return a list of lists, where each sublist looks something like this:
-
- {-height height Height 24 25}
-
-The first item is the name of the config option used when creating the widget.
-The second item is the instance name of this resource, the third is the class
-name. The fourth item is the default value, and the last item is the current
-value.
-
-To get info about a single resource, add the config option name to the end of
-the previous command. Ie:
-
- tk .asm.text config -font
-
-will return just the info about the font.
-
-To find out the class of a window, just do:
-
- tk winfo class .asm.text
-
-Note that some things may be explicitly overridden by gdbtk.tcl. In
-particular, the `tk colormodel . monochrome' command should probably be
-disabled if you want to use color.
-
-Hacking ~/.gdbtkinit and gdbtcl
-==================================
-~/.gdbtkinit is sourced at the end of gdbtk.tcl. Currently there is no good
-doc on this. See gdbtcl/main.tcl for see what you can change.
-
-The GUI is primarily implemented by Tcl/Tk code which lives in gdbtcl and a
-C file called gdbtk.c. The Tcl/Tk code determines the look and feel, the
-layout, and the functions associated with all of the interface elements. The C
-code is mostly just glue between GDB internals and Tclland. In essence, all of
-the policy is implemented in Tcl/Tk, and is easily changed without recompiling.
-
-To make more serious changes to the interface, such as adding a new window or
-changing the framework, you will have to hack the tcl code. This directory is
-installed in $(libdir) (probably /usr/local/lib/). But, you will probably want
-to hack on your own private copy before putting it up for the rest of the
-users. To find the GDB tcl code, GDB first checks for the environment variable
-GDBTK_LIBRARY. This can be a directory name or a list of directories seperated
-by colons (semicolons on Windows). GDB will check each directory in order until
-it finds "main.tcl". If GDBTK_LIBRARY is not set, GDB will look for
-"gdbtcl/main.tcl" in the current directory, and finally, it will try to find
-the tcl directory in the sources.
-
-Note that the old GDBTK_FILENAME environment variable is no longer used.
-
-Internally, GDBtk is basically GDB, linked with Tcl/Tk, and some glue code that
-interfaces GDB internals to Tclland. This means that GDBtk operates as a
-single program, not a front-end to GDB. All GDB commands, and a great deal of
-the target program state are accessible to the Tcl programmer. In addition,
-there are many callbacks from GDB to notify Tclland of important events.
-
-Here is a brief rundown of the GDB<=>Tcl interfaces:
-
-Tcl->GDB calls:
- gdb_cmd - sends a text command to gdb. Returns the result
- gdb_loc - takes PC, and returns a list consisting of a short file name,
- the function name, a long file name, the line number and the
- PC (in case you didn't supply it).
- gdb_sourcelines - Takes a filename, and returns a list of lines that
- contain code.
- gdb_listfiles - Returns a list of all of the source files.
- gdb_stop - Stops the target process.
- gdb_regnames - Returns a list of all of the register names.
- gdb_fetch_registers - Returns the contents of the specified registers.
- gdb_changed_register_list - Returns a list of registers that have
- changed since the last call.
- gdb_disassemble - Takes a function or PC. Returns the text of a dis-
- assembly of the entire function.
- gdb_eval - Takes an expression. Returns it's value.
- gdb_get_breakpoint_list - Does the obvious.
- gdb_get_breakpoint_info - Takes a breakpoint number. Returns a list of
- info about that breakpoint.
-
-GDB->Tcl callbacks:
- gdb_tcl_fputs - Sends output into Tcl for the command window.
- gdb_tcl_query - Pops up a query window.
- gdbtk_tcl_breakpoint - Notifies Tcl of changes to a breakpoint.
- gdbtk_tcl_idle - Notifies Tcl that debugged process is now idle.
- gdbtk_tcl_busy - Notifies Tcl that debugged process is now running.
-
-For details, see the usage in gdbtk.tcl, or the definitions in gdbtk.c.
-
-Additionally, there is a new GDB command `tk', which can be used to poke at
-Tk/Tcl from the command window.
-
-Problems
-========
-
-During building, you may run into problems with finding Tcl, Tk or X11. Look
-in gdb/Makefile, and fix TCL_CFLAGS, TCL, TK_CFLAGS, TK, and ENABLE_CLIBS as
-appropriate.
-
-If you one of the following messages when you run gdb:
-
- Tcl_Init failed: can't find init.tcl; perhaps you need to
- install Tcl or set your TCL_LIBRARY environment variable?
-or
- Tk_Init failed: can't find tk.tcl; perhaps you need to
- install Tk or set your TK_LIBRARY environment variable?
-
-then you haven't installed Tcl or TK properly. Fix the appropriate environment
-variable to point at the {tcl tk}/library directory, and restart gdb.
-
-If you get the following:
-
- /usr/local/lib/gdbtk.tcl:1: couldn't read file "/usr/local/lib/gdbtk.tcl": No such file or directory
- Stack trace:
- can't unset "auto_index": no such variable
- while executing
- "unset auto_index"
-
-then GDBtk wasn't installed properly. You can set the GDBTK_FILENAME
-environment variable to point at the gdbtk.tcl in your source directory. Note
-that the stack trace displayed here is not valid. If you actually get an error
-in gdbtk.tcl, the stack trace is useful to pinpoint the location.
-
-Known Bugs
-==========
-
-generic problems
-
- o If you open an Assembly window before you have run the program, gdbtk
- pops up a dialog box titled "Error in Tcl Script" with the contents
- "Error: No function contains the specified address". Trying to then
- do other things brings up a dialog box with the contents "Error:
- can't read 'current_asm_label': no such variable.
-
- Solution: Close Assembly window when there is no program running.
-
- o If you open Registers window before you have run the program, gdbtk
- pops up a dialog box titled "Error in Tcl Script" with the contents
- "Error: No registers". Trying to then do other things, like use the
- Start button to run the program, repeatedly produce the same dialog
- box and the action is not performed.
-
- Solution: Close Registers window when there is no program running.
-
- o Expressions are sometimes not displayed correctly in the Expression
- window. I.E. "argc" works, as does "*(argv+argc)" but not "argv[argc]".
-
- Solution: None
- [ I believe this problem is fixed, but I have not tested it ]
-
- o The Breakpoint window does not get automatically updated and changes
- made in the window are not reflected back in the results from "info br".
- I.E. the breakpoint count in the window is not updated at each hit and
- enabling/disabling the breakpoint from the Breakpoint window has no effect.
-
- Solution: Use the command interface to control breakpoints and don't
- open a Breakpoint window.
-
- o Sometimes while an expression window is active you get a dialog box
- that complains "Error: invalide command name ".expr.e5.expr" for
- example. The Tcl stack trace looks something like:
-
- invalid command name ".expr.e5.expr"
- while executing
- "$e.expr get 0.0 end"
- invoked from within
- "set expr [$e.expr get 0.0 end]..."
- (procedure "update_expr" line 17)
- invoked from within
- "update_expr $expr_num"
- invoked from within
- "if $expr_update_list($expr_num) {
- update_expr $expr_num
- .
- .
- .
-
- Solution: None except close expression window and reopen it.
-
- o If you select the "Down" button in either the Source or Assembly
- window while in the bottom (innermost) frame, the error message that
- results goes just to the command window and may be missed if the
- command window is not open. This may also apply to other messages
- as well. It should probably put up a notification box instead.
-
- Solution: Keep Command window open to see error messages.
-
- o Not really a problem, but it would be nice to have a backtrace
- window.
-
- Solution: Do bt in command window?
-
- o Also not really a problem, but it might be nice to have a frame/stack
- window that displays the last N words on the stack, along with
- indications about which function owns a particular frame, how the
- frame pointers are chained, and possibly the names of variables
- alongside their frame slots.
-
-m68k-hp-hpux9.00:
-
- o Attempting to use a Register window results in a Tcl Script Error
- "Error: Erroneous arithmetic operation". The Tcl stack trace is:
-
- while executing
- "gdb_fetch_registers $reg_format $regnum"
- invoked from within
- "set regval [gdb_fetch_registers $reg_format $regnum]..."
- ("foreach" body line 2)
- invoked from within
- "foreach regnum $reg_display_list {
- set regval [gdb_fetch_registers $reg_format $regnum]
- set regval [format "%-*s" $valwidth $regval]
- $win del ..."
- invoked from within
- "if {$which == "all"} {
- set lineindex 1
- foreach regnum $reg_display_list {
- set regval [gdb_fetch_registers $reg_format $regnum]
- set regval [f ..."
- (procedure "update_registers" line 16)
- invoked from within
- "update_registers all"
- .
- .
- .
-
-