HP-UX Programming Tools Release Notes

8 Chapter1

New and Changed Features

HP Distributed Debugging Environment (HP DDE) 4.23

Hardware Watchpoints

HP DDE 4.10 supports hardware watchpoints, which vastly improve the

debugger's speed of execution when you use data watchpoints.

With hardware watchpoints, the debugger uses hardware page

protection to determine when the value of a variable changes. Hardware

watchpoints can be set only on static data; they cannot be set on data

stored in registers.

You can obtain hardware watchpoints either with the watchpoint

command or through the debugger's graphical user interface.

• If you use the watchpoint command without specifying any

granularity, the debugger attempts to set a hardware watchpoint by

default. If it cannot set a hardware watchpoint, it reverts to the

previous default of statement granularity.

If you specify the -hw option with the watchpoint command, the

debugger sets a hardware watchpoint if possible. If it cannot set a

hardware watchpoint, it issues an error message and does not set a

watchpoint.

• If you choose the Watch: Set at Modification ( ) menu item, the

debugger attempts to set a hardware watchpoint, and sets a

statement watchpoint if it cannot do so.

In the Watch: Set… menu item, the default setting is a Stop

watchpoint, which is the fastest possible setting since the debugger

only checks the value of the variable when it stops for some other

reason. Choose Modification to have the debugger set a hardware

watchpoint if it can do so.

For online help on hardware watchpoints, choose "HP DDE Command

Reference" in the main help window, then choose "Alphabetical List of

Commands", then choose watchpoint. Or choose "Graphical User

Interface", then choose "Watch Menu."

Changes to the Menu Bar

The HP DDE Menu Bar now contains a Tools pull-down menu with one

selection, Performance Analyzer. This menu selecton starts the Puma

performance analysis tool, allowing you to run Puma on the program you

are debugging.

In addition, the File: Quit menu selection has been changed to File:

Exit.