NAME
docs/debug.pod - Debugging Parrot
ABSTRACT
This document describes how to debug various parts of Parrot.
VERSION
$Revision $
THE PARROT BINARY
Using a debugger
Per default the parrot binary is being built with debugging symbols.
This means that you can run parrot under an debugger like gdb.
Debugging support can be explicitly enabled with:
shell> perl Configure.pl --debugging
shell> make
For testing it might be a good idea to make test runs without debug support. So debugging can also be turned off with:
shell> perl Configure.pl --debugging=0 shell> make
Using a memory checker
You could, and should, also run the tests with a memory checker such as valgrind. You can enable valgrind, by running:
shell> make test VALGRIND="valgrind --log-file=/tmp/grind"
Another possibility is to use Electric Fence, or ...
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
Some of the more frequent and exasperating parrot bugs are related to memory management in general, and garbage collection in particular.
Infant mortality
See docs/dev/infant.pod for details of one frequent problem: infant mortality. Infant mortality is when you create a Parrot object, but the garbage collector runs before you put it into a Parrot register or in something else that is itself within a Parrot register.
To help in resolving these issues, the parrot binary accepts a --gc-debug flag. This flag makes garbage collection occur as frequently as possible, which maximizes the probability that any newborn objects will run afoul of the garbage collector.
PIR AND PASM CODE
Let's say you have written (or generated) a huge .pasm or .pir file. It's not working. You'd like some help in figuring out why.
parrot_debugger
One possible tool is parrot_debugger, the Parrot Debugger. See docs/debugger.pod for details on it.
PIR CODE GENERATION
The parrot binary has a bunch of debugging flags for spewing out information about various aspects of its processing. See running.pod for a list of flags. Or have a look at the information provided by:
shell> parrot --help
or
shell> parrot --help-debug
BACKTRACING
auto-magical
If Parrot is built on a system with GNU libc it is capable of automatically generating a backtrace on stderr for debugging purposes. Currently these automatically backtraces are only generated by assertion failures but in the future they also be produced by other bad events (for example, SEGV).
Here is an example of a what a backtrace might look like:
Backtrace - Obtained 15 stack frames (max trace depth is 32).
(unknown)
Parrot_confess
Parrot_str_new_COW
Parrot_String_get_string
Parrot_set_s_p
(unknown)
(unknown)
(unknown)
(unknown)
Parrot_runops_fromc_args
Parrot_runcode
(unknown)
imcc_run
(unknown)
__libc_start_main
(unknown)
It must be noted that glibc's backtraces are not without limitation. It's method depends completely on information that is available at run time.
- Functions marked as
staticcan only be identified by address as they have no "symbol name" for dynamic linking in the executable's symbol table. Static functions will appears as(unknown). - There must be some means available for walking the stack at runtime. On x86(-64)? the "stack pointer" must be in
[re]spregister. For example, thisgcccompilation flag would break backtracing (except for functions that do dynamic allocation on the stack as this optimization can no be allied to them).perl Configure.pl --ccflags=-fomit-frame-pointer - Some platforms may require extra linker flags in order to get all of the required symbols exported in the symbol table.
Configure.pl --ccflags=-rdynamic - Any debugging information embedded in the object is not accessible. So file and line number can not be included as part of the backtrace information.
- Be warned that signals may cause incorrect backtraces!
gdb
On systems not equipped with libc, one will need to use an external debugger to get backtrace information. This method is actually more capable then the auto-magical approach as most debuggers will use debugging information if it's available in the object code (for example, if parrot was built with -g).
Since the Parrot_confess symbol is always compiled into parrot it can be used as a break point to obtain a backtrace. Here is an example of doing this with gdb and a version of parrot compiled with gcc and the -g flag.
$ gdb parrot
GNU gdb 6.6
Copyright (C) 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are
welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".
(gdb) b main
Breakpoint 1 at 0x80488a0: file src/main.c, line 38.
(gdb) r foo.pir
Starting program: /home/moanui/jhoblitt/parrot/parrot foo.pir
Failed to read a valid object file image from memory.
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
[New Thread -1213900128 (LWP 23148)]
[Switching to Thread -1213900128 (LWP 23148)]
Breakpoint 1, main (argc=-400292727, argv=0x159a0) at src/main.c:38
38 {
(gdb) b Parrot_confess
Breakpoint 2 at 0xb7c542a0: file src/exceptions.c, line 767.
(gdb) c
Continuing.
[New Thread -1214039152 (LWP 23151)]
[New Thread -1222431856 (LWP 23152)]
1..1
Breakpoint 2, Parrot_confess (cond=0xb7eeda65 "s",
file=0xb7eeda58 "src/string.c", line=129) at src/exceptions.c:767
warning: Source file is more recent than executable.
767 {
(gdb) bt full
#0 Parrot_confess (cond=0xb7eeda65 "s", file=0xb7eeda58 "src/string.c",
line=129) at src/exceptions.c:767
No locals.
#1 0xb7c433b1 in Parrot_str_new_COW (interp=0x804e008, s=0x0)
at src/string.c:129
d = (STRING *) 0x81c21b8
__PRETTY_FUNCTION__ = "Parrot_str_new_COW"
#2 0xb7e40db3 in Parrot_String_get_string (interp=0x804e008, pmc=0x81c8578)
at src/pmc/string.c:310
No locals.
#3 0xb7cc7d41 in Parrot_set_s_p (cur_opcode=0x825d470, interp=0x804e008)
at src/ops/set.ops:159
No locals.
#4 0xb7c9da32 in runops_slow_core (interp=0x804e008, pc=0x825d470)
at src/runcore/cores.c:184
No locals.
#5 0xb7c67acf in runops_int (interp=0x804e008, offset=0)
at src/interp/interpreter.c:816
pc = (opcode_t * const) 0x8239730
lo_var_ptr = 134537224
core = (opcode_t *(*)(Parrot_Interp,
opcode_t *)) 0xb7c9d940 <runops_slow_core at src/runcore/cores.c:169>
#6 0xb7c6854e in runops (interp=0x804e008, offs=0) at src/call/ops.c:100
offset = 0
old_runloop_id = 0
our_runloop_level = 1
our_runloop_id = 1
#7 0xb7c687da in runops_args (interp=0x804e008, sub=0x8204d58, obj=0x80912d8,
meth_unused=0x0, sig=0xb7eefca6 "vP",
ap=0xbfec614c "@M \b�b��P�\222K\230�\004\b@\236\"\b@M \bXM
\b\004����t��\b�\004\b\001") at src/call/ops.c:216
offset = 0
dest = (opcode_t *) 0x8239730
ctx = (Parrot_Context *) 0x822a3b0
new_sig = ""
sig_p = 0xb7eefca7 "P"
old_ctx = (Parrot_Context * const) 0x804e298
#8 0xb7c688fb in Parrot_runops_fromc_args (interp=0x804e008, sub=0x8204d58,
sig=0xb7eefca6 "vP") at src/call/ops.c:293
args = 0xbfec614c "@M \b�b��P�\222K\230�\004\b@\236\"\b@M
\bXM \b\004����t��\b�\004\b\001"
ctx = (Parrot_Context *) 0xb7fa1548
#9 0xb7c50c51 in Parrot_runcode (interp=0x804e008, argc=1, argv=0xbfec62e8)
at src/embed.c:783
userargv = (PMC *) 0x8204d40
main_sub = (PMC *) 0x8204d58
#10 0xb7ed74a1 in imcc_run_pbc (interp=0x804e008, obj_file=0, output_file=0x0,
argc=1, argv=0xbfec62e8) at compilers/imcc/main.c:614
No locals.
#11 0xb7ed7d90 in imcc_run (interp=0x804e008, sourcefile=0xbfec6e0a "foo.pir",
argc=1, argv=0xbfec62e8) at compilers/imcc/main.c:815
obj_file = 0
yyscanner = (yyscan_t) 0x822a090
output_file = 0x0
#12 0x080489b7 in main (argc=136704448, argv=0x825f220) at src/main.c:62
sourcefile = 0xbfec6e0a "foo.pir"
interp = (Interp *) 0x804e008
executable_name = (STRING *) 0x821b8e4
executable_name_pmc = (PMC *) 0x8204d70
status = 1267896320
(gdb)