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Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +00001<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
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Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +00006<title>LLDB Tutorial</title>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +00007</head>
8
9<body>
10 <div class="www_title">
11 The <strong>LLDB</strong> Debugger
12 </div>
13
14<div id="container">
15 <div id="content">
16 <!--#include virtual="sidebar.incl"-->
17 <div id="middle">
18 <div class="post">
19 <h1 class ="postheader">Getting Started</h1>
20 <div class="postcontent">
21
22 <p>Here's a short precis of how to run lldb if you are familiar with the gdb command set.
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +000023 We will start with some details on lldb command structure and syntax to help orient you.</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +000024
25 </div>
26 <div class="postfooter"></div>
27
28 <div class="post">
29 <h1 class ="postheader">Command Structure</h1>
30 <div class="postcontent">
31
32 <p>Unlike gdb's command set, which is rather free-form, we tried to make
33 the lldb command syntax fairly structured. The commands are all of the
34 form:</p>
35
36 <code color=#ff0000>
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +000037 &lt;noun&gt; &lt;verb&gt; [-options [option-value]] [argument [argument...]]
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +000038 </code>
39
40 <p>The command line parsing is done before command execution, so it is
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +000041 uniform across all the commands. The command syntax for basic commands is very simple,
42 arguments, options and option values are all white-space
43 separated, and double-quotes are used to protect white-spaces in an argument.
44 If you need to put a backslash or double-quote character
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +000045 in an argument you back-slash it in the argument. That makes the
46 command syntax more regular, but it also means you may have to
47 quote some arguments in lldb that you wouldn't in gdb.</p>
48
49 <p>Options can be placed anywhere on the command line, but if the arguments
50 begin with a "<code>-</code>" then you have to tell lldb that you're done with options
51 for the current command by adding an option termination: "<code>--</code>"
52 So for instance if you want to launch a process and give the "process launch" command
53 the "<code>--stop-at-entry</code>" option, yet you want the
54 process you are about to launch to be launched with the arguments
55 "<code>-program_arg value</code>", you would type:</p>
56
57 <code>
58 (lldb) process launch --stop-at-entry -- -program_arg value
59 </code>
60
61 <p>We also tried to reduce the number of special purpose argument
62 parsers, which sometimes forces the user to be a little more explicit
63 about stating their intentions. The first instance you'll note of
64 this is the breakpoint command. In gdb, to set a breakpoint, you
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +000065 might enter</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +000066
67 <code>
68 (gdb) break foo.c:12
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +000069 </code>
70 <p>to break at line 12 of foo.c, and:</p>
71 <code>
72 (gdb) break foo
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +000073 </code>
74
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +000075 <p>to break at the function <code>foo</code>. As time went on, the parser that tells <code>foo.c:12</code>
76 from <code>foo</code> from <code>foo.c::foo</code> (which means the function foo in the file
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +000077 foo.c) got more and more complex and bizarre, and especially in C++
78 there are times where there's really no way to specify the function
79 you want to break on. The lldb commands are more verbose but also more precise
80 and allow for intellegent auto completion.
81
82 <p>To set the same file and line breakpoint in LLDB you can enter either of:</p>
83
84 <code>
85 (lldb) breakpoint set --file foo.c --line 12
86 <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -f foo.c -l 12
87 </code>
88
89 <p>To set a breakpoint on a function named <code>foo</code> in LLDB you can enter either of:</p>
90
91 <code>
92 (lldb) breakpoint set --name foo
93 <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -n foo
94 </code>
95
Jim Ingham0772b532013-02-14 19:17:49 +000096 <p>You can use the --name option multiple times to make a breakpoint on a set of functions as well. This is convenient
97 since it allows you to set commmon conditions or commands without having to specify them multiple times:</p>
98
99 <code>
100 (lldb) breakpoint set --name foo --name bar
101 </code>
102
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000103 <p>Setting breakpoints by name is even more specialized in LLDB as you can specify
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000104 that you want to set a breakpoint at a function by method name. To set a breakpoint
Johnny Chen9faf3272011-08-04 21:01:04 +0000105 on all C++ methods named <code>foo</code> you can enter either of:</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000106
107 <code>
108 (lldb) breakpoint set --method foo
109 <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -M foo
110 </code>
111
Johnny Chen9faf3272011-08-04 21:01:04 +0000112 <p>To set a breakpoint Objective C selectors named <code>alignLeftEdges:</code> you can enter either of:</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000113
114 <code>
115 (lldb) breakpoint set --selector alignLeftEdges:
116 <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -S alignLeftEdges:
117 </code>
118
119 <p>You can limit any breakpoints to a specific executable image by using
120 the "<code>--shlib &lt;path&gt;</code>" ("<code>-s &lt;path&gt;</code>" for short):</p>
121
122 <code>
123 (lldb) breakpoint set --shlib foo.dylib --name foo
124 <br>(lldb) breakpoint set -s foo.dylib -n foo
125 </code>
126
Jim Ingham0772b532013-02-14 19:17:49 +0000127 <p>The <code>--shlib</code> option can also be repeated to specify several shared libraries.</p>
128
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000129 <p>Suggestions on more interesting primitives of this sort are also very welcome.</p>
130
131 <p>Just like gdb, the lldb command interpreter does a shortest unique
132 string match on command names, so the following two commands will
133 both execute the same command:</p>
134
135 <code>
136 (lldb) breakpoint set -n "-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:]"
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000137 <br>(lldb) br s -n "-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:]"
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000138 </code>
139
140 <p>lldb also supports command completion for source file names, symbol
141 names, file names, etc. Completion is initiated by a hitting a <b>TAB</b>.
142 Individual options in a command can have different completers, so for
143 instance the "<code>--file &lt;path&gt;</code>" option in "breakpoint" completes to source files, the
144 "<code>--shlib &lt;path&gt;</code>" option to currently loaded shared libraries, etc. We can even do
145 things like if you specify "<code>--shlib &lt;path&gt;</code>", and are completing on "<code>--file &lt;path&gt;</code>", we will only
146 list source files in the shared library specified by "<code>--shlib &lt;path&gt;</code>".</p>
147
Sean Callanan24592a32012-12-12 18:02:47 +0000148 <p>The individual commands are pretty extensively documented. You can
149 use the <code>help</code> command to get an overview of which commands are
150 available or to obtain details about specific commands. There is also an
151 <code>apropos</code> command that will search the help text for all commands
152 for a particular word and dump a summary help string for each matching
153 command.</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000154
155 <p>Finally, there is a mechanism to construct aliases for commonly used
156 commands. So for instance if you get annoyed typing:</p>
157
158 <code>
159 (lldb) breakpoint set --file foo.c --line 12
160 </code>
161
162 <p>you can do:</p>
163
164 <code>
165 (lldb) command alias bfl breakpoint set -f %1 -l %2
166 <br>(lldb) bfl foo.c 12
167 </code>
168
169 <p>We have added a few aliases for commonly used commands (e.g. "step",
170 "next" and "continue") but we haven't tried to be exhaustive because
171 in our experience it is more convenient to make the basic commands
172 unique down to a letter or two, and then learn these sequences than
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000173 to fill the namespace with lots of aliases, and then have to type them
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000174 all the way out.</p>
175
176 <p>However, users are free to customize lldb's command set however they
177 like, and since lldb reads the file ~/.lldbinit at startup, you can
178 store all your aliases there and they will be generally available to
179 you. Your aliases are also documented in the help command so you can
180 remind yourself of what you've set up.</p>
181
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000182 <p> One alias of note that we do include by popular demand is a weak emulator
183 of gdb's &quot;break&quot; command. It doesn't try to do everything that gdb's
184 break command does (for instance, it doesn't handle <code>foo.c::bar</code>. But
185 it mostly works, and makes the transition easier. Also by popular demand, it
186 is aliased to <code>b</code>. If you actually want to learn the lldb command
187 set natively, that means it will get in the way of the rest of the breakpoint
188 commands. Fortunately, if you don't like one of our aliases, you an easily
189 get rid of it by running (for example):</p>
190
191 <code>
192 (lldb) command unalias b
193 </code>
194
195 <p>I actually also do:</p>
196
197 <code>
198 (lldb) command alias b breakpoint
199 </code>
200
201 <p>so I can run the native lldb breakpoint command with just <code>b</code></p>
202
203 <p>The lldb command parser also supports "raw" commands, where, after command options
204 are stripped off, the rest of the command string is passed uninterpreted to the command.
205 This is convenient for commands whose arguments might be some complex expression that would
206 be painful to backslash protect.
207 For instance the "expression" command is a "raw" command for obvious reasons. The
208 "help" output for a command will tell you if it is "raw" or not, so you know what to expect.
209 The one thing you have to watch out for is that since raw commands still can have options,
210 if your command string has dashes in it, you'll have to indicate these are not option
211 markers by putting "--" after the command name, but before your command string.
212
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000213 <p>lldb also has a built-in Python interpreter, which is accessible by
214 the "script" command. All the functionality of the debugger is
215 available as classes in the Python interpreter, so the more complex
216 commands that in gdb you would introduce with the "define" command can
217 be done by writing Python functions using the lldb-Python library,
218 then loading the scripts into your running session and accessing them
219 with the "script" command.</p>
220
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000221 <p>Having given an overview of lldb's command syntax, we proceed to lay out the stages
222 of a standard debug session.</p>
223
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000224 </div>
225 <div class="postfooter"></div>
226
227
228 <div class="post">
229 <h1 class ="postheader">Loading a program into lldb</h1>
230 <div class="postcontent">
231
232 <p>First we need to set the program to debug. As with gdb, you
233 can start lldb and specify the file you wish to debug on the command line:</p>
234
235 <code>
236 $ lldb /Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app
237 <br>Current executable set to '/Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app' (x86_64).
238 </code>
239
240 <p>or you can specify it after the fact with the "file" command:</p>
241
242 <code>
243 $ lldb
244 <br>(lldb) file /Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app
245 <br>Current executable set to '/Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app' (x86_64).
246 </code>
247 <p>
248 </div>
249 <div class="postfooter"></div>
250
251 <div class="post">
252 <h1 class ="postheader">Setting breakpoints</h1>
253 <div class="postcontent">
254
255 <p>We've discussed how to set breakpoints above. You can use <code>help breakpoint set</code>
256 to see all the options for breakpoint setting. For instance, we might do:</p>
257
258 <code>
259 (lldb) breakpoint set --selector alignLeftEdges:
260 <br>Breakpoint created: 1: name = 'alignLeftEdges:', locations = 1, resolved = 1
261 </code>
262
263 <p>You can find out about the breakpoints you've set with:</p>
264
265 <pre><tt>(lldb) breakpoint list
266Current breakpoints:
2671: name = 'alignLeftEdges:', locations = 1, resolved = 1
268 1.1: where = Sketch`-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:] + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTGraphicView.m:1405, address = 0x0000000100010d5b, resolved, hit count = 0
269</tt></pre>
270
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000271 <p>Note that setting a breakpoint creates a <i>logical</i> breakpoint, which could
272 resolve to one or more <i>locations</i>. For instance, break by selector would
273 set a breakpoint on all the methods that implement that selector in the classes in
274 your program. Similarly, a file and line breakpoint might result in multiple
275 locations if that file and line were inlined in different places in your code.</p>
276
277 <p>The logical breakpoint has an integer id, and it's locations have an
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000278 id within their parent breakpoint (the two are joined by a ".",
279 e.g. 1.1 in the example above.) </p>
280
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000281 <p>Also the logical breakpoints remain <i>live</i> so that if another shared library
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000282 were to be loaded that had another implementation of the
283 "<code>alignLeftEdges:</code>" selector, the new location would be added to
284 breakpoint 1 (e.g. a "1.2" breakpoint would be set on the newly loaded
285 selector).</p>
286
287 <p>The other piece of information in the breakpoint listing is whether the
288 breakpoint location was <i>resolved</i> or not. A location gets resolved when
289 the file address it corresponds to gets loaded into the program you are
290 debugging. For instance if you set a breakpoint in a shared library that
291 then gets unloaded, that breakpoint location will remain, but it will no
292 longer be <i>resolved</i>.</p>
293
294 <p>One other thing to note for gdb users is that lldb acts like gdb with:</p>
295
296 <code>
297 (gdb) set breakpoint pending on
298 </code>
299
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000300 <p>That is, lldb will always make a breakpoint from your specification, even
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000301 if it couldn't find any locations that match the specification. You can tell
302 whether the expression was resolved or not by checking the locations field
303 in "breakpoint list", and we report the breakpoint as "pending" when you
304 set it so you can tell you've made a typo more easily, if that was indeed
305 the reason no locations were found:</p>
306
307 <code>
308 (lldb) breakpoint set --file foo.c --line 12
309 <br>Breakpoint created: 2: file ='foo.c', line = 12, locations = 0 (pending)
310 <br>WARNING: Unable to resolve breakpoint to any actual locations.
311 </code>
312
313 <p>You can delete, disable, set conditions and ignore counts either on all the
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000314 locations generated by your logical breakpoint, or on any one of the particular locations
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000315 your specification resolved to. For instance if we wanted to add a command
316 to print a backtrace when we hit this breakpoint we could do:</p>
317
318 <code>
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000319 (lldb) breakpoint command add 1.1
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000320 <br>Enter your debugger command(s). Type 'DONE' to end.
321 <br>&gt; bt
322 <br>&gt; DONE
323 </code>
324
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000325 <p>By default, the <code> breakpoint command add</code> command takes lldb command line commands.
326 You can also specify this explicitly by passing the "<code>--command</code>" option.
327 Use "<code>--script</code>" if you want to implement your breakpoint command using the Python script instead.</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000328
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000329 <p>This is an convenient point to bring up another feature of the lldb command help. Do:</p>
330
331 <code>
332 (lldb) help break command add
333 <br>Add a set of commands to a breakpoint, to be executed whenever the breakpoint is hit.
334 <br>
335 <br>Syntax: breakpoint command add &lt;cmd-options&gt; &lt;breakpt-id&gt;
336 <br> etc...
337 </code>
338
339 <p>When you see arguments to commands specified in the Syntax in angle
340 brackets like <code>&lt;breakpt-id&gt;</code>, that indicates that
341 that is some common argument type that you can get further help on from the command system.
342 So in this case you could do:</p>
343
344 <code>
345 (lldb) help &lt;breakpt-id&gt;
346 <br>&lt;breakpt-id&gt; -- Breakpoint ID's consist major and minor numbers; the major
347 <br> etc...
348 </code>
349
Johnny Chen48e8dde2012-03-16 00:44:02 +0000350 </div>
351 <div class="postfooter"></div>
352
353 <div class="post">
354 <h1 class ="postheader">Setting watchpoints</h1>
355 <div class="postcontent">
356
357 <p>In addition to breakpoints, you can use <code>help watchpoint</code>
358 to see all the commands for watchpoint manipulations. For instance, we might do the following to watch
359 a variable called 'global' for write operation, but only stop if the condition '(global==5)' is true:</p>
360
Jason Molendaee7a6632012-10-19 19:52:12 +0000361 <pre><tt>(lldb) watch set var global
Johnny Chen48e8dde2012-03-16 00:44:02 +0000362Watchpoint created: Watchpoint 1: addr = 0x100001018 size = 4 state = enabled type = w
363 declare @ '/Volumes/data/lldb/svn/ToT/test/functionalities/watchpoint/watchpoint_commands/condition/main.cpp:12'
364(lldb) watch modify -c '(global==5)'
365(lldb) watch list
366Current watchpoints:
367Watchpoint 1: addr = 0x100001018 size = 4 state = enabled type = w
368 declare @ '/Volumes/data/lldb/svn/ToT/test/functionalities/watchpoint/watchpoint_commands/condition/main.cpp:12'
369 condition = '(global==5)'
370(lldb) c
371Process 15562 resuming
372(lldb) about to write to 'global'...
373Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted.
374Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted.
375Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted.
376Process 15562 stopped and was programmatically restarted.
377Process 15562 stopped
378* thread #1: tid = 0x1c03, 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16, stop reason = watchpoint 1
379 frame #0: 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16
380 13
381 14 static void modify(int32_t &var) {
382 15 ++var;
383-> 16 }
384 17
385 18 int main(int argc, char** argv) {
386 19 int local = 0;
387(lldb) bt
388* thread #1: tid = 0x1c03, 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16, stop reason = watchpoint 1
389 frame #0: 0x0000000100000ef5 a.out`modify + 21 at main.cpp:16
390 frame #1: 0x0000000100000eac a.out`main + 108 at main.cpp:25
391 frame #2: 0x00007fff8ac9c7e1 libdyld.dylib`start + 1
392(lldb) frame var global
393(int32_t) global = 5
394(lldb) watch list -v
395Current watchpoints:
396Watchpoint 1: addr = 0x100001018 size = 4 state = enabled type = w
397 declare @ '/Volumes/data/lldb/svn/ToT/test/functionalities/watchpoint/watchpoint_commands/condition/main.cpp:12'
398 condition = '(global==5)'
399 hw_index = 0 hit_count = 5 ignore_count = 0
400(lldb) </tt></pre>
401 </div>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000402 <div class="postfooter"></div>
403
404 <div class="post">
405 <h1 class ="postheader">Starting or attaching to your Program</h1>
406 <div class="postcontent">
407
408 <p>To launch a program in lldb we use the "<code>process launch</code>" command or
409 one of its built in aliases:</p>
410
411 <code>
412 (lldb) process launch
413 <br>(lldb) run
414 <br>(lldb) r
415 </code>
416
417 <p>You can also attach to a process by process ID or process name.
418 When attaching to a process by name, lldb also supports the "<code>--waitfor</code>" option which waits for the
419 next process that has that name to show up, and attaches to it</p>
420
421 <code>
422 (lldb) process attach --pid 123
423 <br>(lldb) process attach --name Sketch
424 <br>(lldb) process attach --name Sketch --waitfor
425 </code>
426
427 <p>After you launch or attach to a process, your process might stop
428 somewhere:</p>
429 <code>
430 (lldb) process attach -p 12345
431 <br>Process 46915 Attaching
432 <br>Process 46915 Stopped
433 <br>1 of 3 threads stopped with reasons:
434 <br>* thread #1: tid = 0x2c03, 0x00007fff85cac76a, where = libSystem.B.dylib`__getdirentries64 + 10, stop reason = signal = SIGSTOP, queue = com.apple.main-thread
435 </code>
436
437
438 <p>Note the line that says "<code>1 of 3 threads stopped with reasons:</code>" and the
439 lines that follow it. In a multi-threaded environment it is very
440 common for more than one thread to hit your breakpoint(s) before the
441 kernel actually returns control to the debugger. In that case, you
442 will see all the threads that stopped for some interesting reason
443 listed in the stop message.</p>
444
445 </div>
446 <div class="postfooter"></div>
447
448 <div class="post">
449 <h1 class ="postheader">Controlling your Program</h1>
450 <div class="postcontent">
451
452
453 <p>After launching, we can continue until we hit our breakpoint. The primitive
454 commands for process control all exist under the "thread" command:</p>
455
456 <code>
457 (lldb) thread continue
458 <br>Resuming thread 0x2c03 in process 46915
459 <br>Resuming process 46915
460 <br>(lldb)
461 </code>
462
463 <p>At present you can only operate on one thread at a time, but the
464 design will ultimately support saying "step over the function in
465 Thread 1, and step into the function in Thread 2, and continue Thread
466 3" etc. When we eventually support keeping some threads running while
467 others are stopped this will be particularly important. For
468 convenience, however, all the stepping commands have easy aliases.
469 So "thread continue" is just "c", etc.</p>
470
471 <p>The other program stepping commands are pretty much the same as in gdb.
472 You've got:</p>
473
474 <pre><tt>(lldb) thread step-in // The same as gdb's "step" or "s"
475(lldb) thread step-over // The same as gdb's "next" or "n"
476(lldb) thread step-out // The same as gdb's "finish" or "f"
477</tt></pre>
478
479 <p>By default, lldb does defined aliases to all common gdb process control
480 commands ("<code>s</code>", "<code>step</code>", "<code>n</code>", "<code>next</code>", "<code>finish</code>").
481 If we have missed any, please add them to your <code>~/.lldbinit</code> file
482 using the "<code>command alias</code>" command.
483
484 <p>lldb also supported the <i>step by instruction</i> versions:</p>
485 <pre><tt>(lldb) thread step-inst // The same as gdb's "stepi" / "si"
486(lldb) thread step-over-inst // The same as gdb's "nexti" / "ni"
487</tt></pre>
488
489 <p>Finally, lldb has a <i>run until line or frame exit</i> stepping mode:</p>
490
491 <code>
492 (lldb) thread until 100
493 </code>
494
495 <p>This command will run the thread in the current frame till it reaches line 100 in
496 this frame or stops if it leaves the current frame. This is a pretty
497 close equivalent to gdb's "<code>until</code>" command.</p>
498
499 <p>A process, by default, will shared the lldb terminal with the inferior
500 process. When in this mode, much like when debugging with gdb, when
501 the process is running anything you type will go to the STDIN of the
502 inferior process. To interrupt your inferior program, type CTRL+C.</p>
503
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000504 <p>If you attach to a process, or launch a process with the &quot;<code>--no-stdin</code>&quot;
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000505 option, the command interpreter is always available to enter commands. This
506 might be a little disconcerting to gdb users when always have an <code>(lldb)</code>
507 prompt. This allows you to set a breakpoint, etc without having to explicitly interrupt
508 the program you are debugging:</p>
509
510 <code>
511 (lldb) process continue
512 <br>(lldb) breakpoint set --name stop_here
513 </code>
514
515 <p>There are many commands that won't work while running, and the command
516 interpreter should do a good job of letting you know when this is the
517 case. If you find any instances where the command interpreter isn't
518 doing its job, please file a bug. This way of operation will set us
519 up for a future debugging mode called <i>thread centric debugging</i>.
520 This mode will allow us to run all threads and only stop the threads
521 that are at breakpoints or have exceptions or signals.</p>
522
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000523 <p>The commands that currently work while running include
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000524 interrupting the process to halt execution ("<code>process interrupt</code>"),
525 getting the process status ("<code>process status</code>"),
526 breakpoint setting and clearing ("<code> breakpoint [set|clear|enable|disable|list] ...</code>"),
527 and memory reading and writing ("<code> memory [read|write] ...</code>").
528 </p>
529
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000530 <p>The question of disabling stdio when running brings up a good opportunity to
531 show how to set debugger properties in general.
532 If you always want to run in the <code>--no-stdin</code> mode, you can set this
533 as a generic process property using the lldb &quot;<code>settings</code>&qout; command,
534 which is equivalent to gdb's &quot;<code>set</code>&quot; command. For instance,
535 in this case you would say:</p>
536
537 <code>
538 (lldb) settings set target.process.disable-stdio true
539 </code>
540
541 <p>Over time, gdb's &quot;<code>set</code> command became a wilderness of disordered options,
542 so that there were useful options that even experienced gdb users didn't know about
543 because they were too hard to find. We tried to organize the settings hierarchically
544 using the structure of the basic entities in the debugger. For the most part anywhere
545 you can specify a setting on a generic entity (threads, for example) you can also apply
546 the option to a particular instance, which can also be convenient at times.
547 You can view the available settings with &quot;<code>settings list</code>&quot; and
548 there is help on the settings command explaining how it works more generally.</p>
549
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000550 </div>
551 <div class="postfooter"></div>
552
553 <div class="post">
554 <h1 class ="postheader">Examining Thread State</h1>
555 <div class="postcontent">
556
557 <p>Once you've stopped, lldb will choose a current thread, usually the
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000558 one that stopped "for a reason", and a current frame in that thread (on stop this is always the bottom-most frame).
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000559 Many the commands for inspecting state work on this current
560 thread/frame.</p>
561
562 <p>To inspect the current state of your process, you can start with the
563 threads:</p>
564
565 <pre><tt>(lldb) thread list
566Process 46915 state is Stopped
567* thread #1: tid = 0x2c03, 0x00007fff85cac76a, where = libSystem.B.dylib`__getdirentries64 + 10, stop reason = signal = SIGSTOP, queue = com.apple.main-thread
568 thread #2: tid = 0x2e03, 0x00007fff85cbb08a, where = libSystem.B.dylib`kevent + 10, queue = com.apple.libdispatch-manager
569 thread #3: tid = 0x2f03, 0x00007fff85cbbeaa, where = libSystem.B.dylib`__workq_kernreturn + 10
570</tt></pre>
571
572 <p>The * indicates that Thread 1 is the current thread. To get a
573 backtrace for that thread, do:</p>
574
575 <pre><tt>(lldb) thread backtrace
576thread #1: tid = 0x2c03, stop reason = breakpoint 1.1, queue = com.apple.main-thread
577 frame #0: 0x0000000100010d5b, where = Sketch`-[SKTGraphicView alignLeftEdges:] + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTGraphicView.m:1405
578 frame #1: 0x00007fff8602d152, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] + 95
579 frame #2: 0x00007fff860516be, where = AppKit`-[NSMenuItem _corePerformAction] + 365
580 frame #3: 0x00007fff86051428, where = AppKit`-[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] + 121
581 frame #4: 0x00007fff860370c1, where = AppKit`-[NSMenu performKeyEquivalent:] + 272
582 frame #5: 0x00007fff86035e69, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication _handleKeyEquivalent:] + 559
583 frame #6: 0x00007fff85f06aa1, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication sendEvent:] + 3630
584 frame #7: 0x00007fff85e9d922, where = AppKit`-[NSApplication run] + 474
585 frame #8: 0x00007fff85e965f8, where = AppKit`NSApplicationMain + 364
586 frame #9: 0x0000000100015ae3, where = Sketch`main + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTMain.m:11
587 frame #10: 0x0000000100000f20, where = Sketch`start + 52
588</tt></pre>
589
590 <p>You can also provide a list of threads to backtrace, or the keyword
591 "all" to see all threads:</p>
592
593 <code>
594 (lldb) thread backtrace all
595 </code>
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000596
597 <p>You can select the current thread, which will be used by default in all the commands in
598 the next section, with the "thread select" command:</p>
599
600 <code>
601 (lldb) thread select 2
602 </code>
603
604 <p>where the thread index is just the one shown in the &quot;<code>thread list</code>&quot listing.
605
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000606 </div>
607 <div class="postfooter"></div>
608
609 <div class="post">
610 <h1 class ="postheader">Examining Stack Frame State</h1>
611 <div class="postcontent">
612
613
614 <p>The most convenient way to inspect a frame's arguments and local variables is to use the "<code>frame variable</code>" command:</p>
615
616 <code>
617 (lldb) frame variable
618 <br>self = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000100208b40
619 <br>_cmd = (struct objc_selector *) 0x000000010001bae1
620 <br>sender = (id) 0x00000001001264e0
621 <br>selection = (NSArray *) 0x00000001001264e0
622 <br>i = (NSUInteger) 0x00000001001264e0
623 <br>c = (NSUInteger) 0x00000001001253b0
624 </code>
625
626 <p>As you see above, if you don't specify any variable names, all arguments
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000627 and locals will be shown. If you call "<code>frame variable</code>"
628 passing in the names of a particular local(s), only those variables
629 will be printed. For instance:
630 </p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000631
632 <code>
633 (lldb) frame variable self
634 <br>(SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000100208b40
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000635 </code>
636
637 <p>You can also pass in a path to some subelement of one of the available locals,
638 and that sub-element will be printed. For instance:
639 </p>
640
641 <code>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000642 <br>(lldb) frame variable self.isa
643 <br>(struct objc_class *) self.isa = 0x0000000100023730
644 </code>
645
646 <p>The "<code>frame variable</code>" command is not a full expression
647 parser but it does support a few simple operations like &amp;, *, ->, [] (no overloaded
648 operators). The array brackets can be used on pointers to treat pointers
649 as arrays:</p>
650
651 <code>
652 (lldb) frame variable *self
653 <br>(SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000100208b40
654 <br>(NSView) NSView = {
655 <br>(NSResponder) NSResponder = {
656 <br>...
657 <br>
658 <br>(lldb) frame variable &amp;self
659 <br>(SKTGraphicView **) &amp;self = 0x0000000100304ab
660 <br>
661 <br>(lldb) frame variable argv[0]
662 <br>(char const *) argv[0] = 0x00007fff5fbffaf8 "/Projects/Sketch/build/Debug/Sketch.app/Contents/MacOS/Sketch"
663 </code>
664
665 <p>The frame variable command will also perform "object printing" operations on
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000666 variables (currently we only support ObjC printing, using the object's "description" method.
667 Turn this on by passing the -o flag to frame variable:</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000668
669 <code>
670 (lldb) frame variable -o self
671 (SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000100208b40 &lt;SKTGraphicView: 0x100208b40&gt;
672 </code>
673
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000674 <p>You can select another frame to view with the "<code>frame select</code>" command</p>
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000675
676 <code>
677 (lldb) frame select 9
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000678 <br>frame #9: 0x0000000100015ae3, where = Sketch`function1 + 33 at /Projects/Sketch/SKTFunctions.m:11
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000679 </code>
680
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000681 <p>You can also move up and down the stack by passing the &quot;<code>--relative</code>&quot; (&quot;<code>-r</code>&quot;)
682 option. And we have built-in aliases &quot;<code>u</code>&quot; and &quot;<code>d</code>&quot; which
683 behave like their gdb equivalents.
684
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000685 <p>If you need to view more complex data or change program data, you can
686 use the general "expression" command. It takes an expression and
687 evaluates it in the scope of the currently selected frame. For instance:</p>
688
689 <code>
690 (lldb) expr self
691 <br>$0 = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000100135430
692 <br>(lldb) expr self = 0x00
693 <br>$1 = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000000000000
694 <br>(lldb) frame var self
695 <br>(SKTGraphicView *) self = 0x0000000000000000
696 </code>
697
698 <p>You can also call functions:</p>
699
700 <code>
701 (lldb) expr (int) printf ("I have a pointer 0x%llx.\n", self)
702 <br>$2 = (int) 22
703 <br>I have a pointer 0x0.
704 </code>
705
Jim Ingham8d8e3ed2011-03-31 21:56:13 +0000706 <p>As I said above, &quot;expression&quot; is one of the &quot;raw&quot; commands. So
Greg Claytonb01a6542011-03-30 01:02:37 +0000707 you don't have to quote your whole expression, nor backslash protect quotes,
708 etc...</p>
709
710 <p>Finally, the results of the expressions are stored in persistent variables
711 (of the form $[0-9]+) that you can use in further expressions, like:</p>
712
713 <code>
714 (lldb) expr self = $0
715 <br>$4 = (SKTGraphicView *) 0x0000000100135430
716 </code>
717 <p>
718 </div>
719 <div class="postfooter"></div>
720
721 </div>
722 </div>
723 </div>
724</div>
725</body>
726</html>