Welcome to WDB GUI Help Home and Help Icons Keyword Index Home Using Help
Line Graphic
Line Graphic

Contents

Keyword Index

Using the WDB GUI

Reference Information

Troubleshooting

Using Help



Bullet Overview
Bullet Debugging PA-RISC Application on IPF
Bullet Debugging PA-RISC Core file on IPF
Bullet Limitations of debugging PA application/core file on IPF

Line Graphic

Overview

Using WDB, you can transparently debug HP-UX PA applications running in compatibility mode under Aries on Itanium-based systems using HP-UX PA WDB. In this case, WDB also runs on the Itanium-based HP-UX platform in compatibility mode under Aries. The Itanium-based HP-UX WDB is enhanced to recognize the binary being debugged as an HP-UX PA binary and launches /usr/ccs/bin/gdbpa under Aries.

Debugging PA-RISC Application on IPF

The following steps have to be followed by the user in order to debug PA applications on HP-UX IPF using WDB:

  • Set the environment variable PA_DEBUG to 1.
  • Set the environment variable SHELL to point to a PA-RISC/HP-UX shell, which should be present on the IPF machine on which debugging is being performed. You can copy PA-RISC shell from the /usr/bin directory on HP-UX PA-RISC machines.
    For instance, if the PA-RISC/HP-UX shell ksh is in your home directory, /home/myhome, then set SHELL=/home/myhome/ksh.
  • Add /usr/ccs/bin to the PATH environment variable, since the PA-RISC/HP-UX gdb is packaged under /usr/ccs/bin.
NOTE: gdb32 and gdb64 are located in /usr/ccs/bin.
A symbolic link, gdbpa, is in /usr/ccs/bin and points at /usr/ccs/bin/gdb32.

The rest of the debugging process is exactly similar to that followed on the HP-UX PA-RISC platform. All commands of gdb are supported subject to limitations listed under Limitations of debugging PA application/core file on IPF.

After debugging is completed, perform the following steps.

  • Unset the environment variable PA_DEBUG.
  • Restore the original value of the SHELL environment variable.
NOTE: WDB behaves differently for child programs created using fork() and vfork(), since in Aries vfork() calls made by application are replaced by fork() calls.
Line Graphic

Debugging PA-RISC Core file on IPF

To debug a core file generated by a PA-RISC program on a machine other than the one on which the core file was generated, follow these steps:

  • Transfer the executable program, core file and all shared libraries used by the PA-RISC application to the target machine.
  • Set the GDB_SHLIB_PATH environment variable to a colon-separated list of directory path names on the system where the transferred shared libraries reside.
  • Use WDB to examine the core file as you would on a PA-RISC system.

Limitations of debugging PA application/core file on IPF

These PA-RISC HP WDB features are not supported on Itanium-based systems:

  1. Attaching WDB to a running program.
  2. Conditional reporting of system call entry and exit events.
  3. Applications compiled on old gdb versions of HP-UX 10.20 and earlier. However, debugging HP-UX 10.20 applications using a HP-UX 11.0 PA gdb is supported.
  4. Debugging mixed applications on Itanium-based systems, for example, PA-RISC applications that use IPF libraries or vice versa.
  5. Automatic run-time checking or memory leak detection.
Line Graphic

Return to Top

© Copyright 1999 Hewlett-Packard Company