GNU Info

(gdb.info)DJGPP Native

---

Next: Cygwin Native Prev: SVR4 Process Information Up: Native

---

Enter node , (file) or (file)node

Features for Debugging DJGPP Programs
-------------------------------------

   DJGPP is the port of GNU development tools to MS-DOS and MS-Windows.
DJGPP programs are 32-bit protected-mode programs that use the "DPMI"
(DOS Protected-Mode Interface) API to run on top of real-mode DOS
systems and their emulations.

   GDB supports native debugging of DJGPP programs, and defines a few
commands specific to the DJGPP port.  This subsection describes those
commands.

`info dos'
     This is a prefix of DJGPP-specific commands which print
     information about the target system and important OS structures.

`info dos sysinfo'
     This command displays assorted information about the underlying
     platform: the CPU type and features, the OS version and flavor, the
     DPMI version, and the available conventional and DPMI memory.

`info dos gdt'
`info dos ldt'
`info dos idt'
     These 3 commands display entries from, respectively, Global, Local,
     and Interrupt Descriptor Tables (GDT, LDT, and IDT).  The
     descriptor tables are data structures which store a descriptor for
     each segment that is currently in use.  The segment's selector is
     an index into a descriptor table; the table entry for that index
     holds the descriptor's base address and limit, and its attributes
     and access rights.

     A typical DJGPP program uses 3 segments: a code segment, a data
     segment (used for both data and the stack), and a DOS segment
     (which allows access to DOS/BIOS data structures and absolute
     addresses in conventional memory).  However, the DPMI host will
     usually define additional segments in order to support the DPMI
     environment.

     These commands allow to display entries from the descriptor tables.
     Without an argument, all entries from the specified table are
     displayed.  An argument, which should be an integer expression,
     means display a single entry whose index is given by the argument.
     For example, here's a convenient way to display information about
     the debugged program's data segment:

     `(gdb) info dos ldt $ds'
     `0x13f: base=0x11970000 limit=0x0009ffff 32-Bit Data (Read/Write, Exp-up)'

     This comes in handy when you want to see whether a pointer is
     outside the data segment's limit (i.e. "garbled").

`info dos pde'
`info dos pte'
     These two commands display entries from, respectively, the Page
     Directory and the Page Tables.  Page Directories and Page Tables
     are data structures which control how virtual memory addresses are
     mapped into physical addresses.  A Page Table includes an entry
     for every page of memory that is mapped into the program's address
     space; there may be several Page Tables, each one holding up to
     4096 entries.  A Page Directory has up to 4096 entries, one each
     for every Page Table that is currently in use.

     Without an argument, `info dos pde' displays the entire Page
     Directory, and `info dos pte' displays all the entries in all of
     the Page Tables.  An argument, an integer expression, given to the
     `info dos pde' command means display only that entry from the Page
     Directory table.  An argument given to the `info dos pte' command
     means display entries from a single Page Table, the one pointed to
     by the specified entry in the Page Directory.

     These commands are useful when your program uses "DMA" (Direct
     Memory Access), which needs physical addresses to program the DMA
     controller.

     These commands are supported only with some DPMI servers.

`info dos address-pte ADDR'
     This command displays the Page Table entry for a specified linear
     address.  The argument linear address ADDR should already have the
     appropriate segment's base address added to it, because this
     command accepts addresses which may belong to _any_ segment.  For
     example, here's how to display the Page Table entry for the page
     where the variable `i' is stored:

     `(gdb) info dos address-pte __djgpp_base_address + (char *)&i'
     `Page Table entry for address 0x11a00d30:'
     `Base=0x02698000 Dirty Acc. Not-Cached Write-Back Usr Read-Write +0xd30'

     This says that `i' is stored at offset `0xd30' from the page whose
     physical base address is `0x02698000', and prints all the
     attributes of that page.

     Note that you must cast the addresses of variables to a `char *',
     since otherwise the value of `__djgpp_base_address', the base
     address of all variables and functions in a DJGPP program, will be
     added using the rules of C pointer arithmetics: if `i' is declared
     an `int', GDB will add 4 times the value of `__djgpp_base_address'
     to the address of `i'.

     Here's another example, it displays the Page Table entry for the
     transfer buffer:

     `(gdb) info dos address-pte *((unsigned *)&_go32_info_block + 3)'
     `Page Table entry for address 0x29110:'
     `Base=0x00029000 Dirty Acc. Not-Cached Write-Back Usr Read-Write +0x110'

     (The `+ 3' offset is because the transfer buffer's address is the
     3rd member of the `_go32_info_block' structure.)  The output of
     this command clearly shows that addresses in conventional memory
     are mapped 1:1, i.e. the physical and linear addresses are
     identical.

     This command is supported only with some DPMI servers.