HP-UX Reference (11i v2 03/08) - 5 Miscellaneous Topics, 7 Device (Special) Files, 9 General Information, Index (vol 9)

a
Aries(5) Aries(5)
(Itanium(R)-Based Processor Family Only)
NAME
Aries - emulate PA-RISC applications on Itanium-based processor family
DESCRIPTION
Aries is a binary emulator that transparently emulates 32-bit and 64-bit HP-UX PA-RISC applications on
HP-UX Itanium-based machines. Aries is transparent in that:
• The HP-UX PA-RISC application is not re-compiled.
• The user does not explicitly invoke Aries.
The HP-UX Itanium-based kernel recognizes a HP-UX PA-RISC executable and invokes Aries to emulate
the application.
Aries consists of 4 shared libraries :
/usr/lib/hpux32/aries32.so
/usr/lib/hpux32/pa_boot32.so
/usr/lib/hpux64/aries64.so
/usr/lib/hpux64/pa_boot64.so
aries32.so is the shared library that contains the Aries emulator for 32-bit applications.
pa_boot32.so contains code to load aries32.so. Likewise, aries64.so is the emulator for 64-
bit applications. pa_boot64.so loads aries64.so
. Upon detecting a 32-bit HP-UX PA-RISC exe-
cutable, the HP-UX Itanium-based kernel invokes
pa_boot32.so, which loads aries32.so into
memory and sets it up to emulate the HP-UX PA-RISC executable. Likewise,
aries64.so is loaded for
a 64-bit HP-UX PA-RISC executable.
PA GDB Support
Aries supports debugging of PA applications on HP-UX Itanium-based systems, using PA
gdb.
On HP-UX Itanium-based systems
/usr/ccs/bin contains the PA gdb32 and gdb64 binaries. A
symbolic link named
/usr/ccs/bin/gdbpa
points to /usr/ccs/bin/gdb32. The HP-UX
Itanium-based systems
gdb recognizes the binary being debugged as a PA binary and launches
/usr/ccs/bin/gdbpa
under Aries.
Debugging PA Applications on Itanium-based Systems
The following steps have to be followed by the user in order to debug PA applications on HP-UX Itanium-
based systems using PA
gdb.
1. Set the environment variable
PA_DEBUG to 1.
2. Set the environment variable
SHELL to point to a PA shell, which should be present on the
Itanium-based machine on which debugging is being carried out. PA shell can be obtained from a
HP-UX PA-RISC machine from /usr/bin.
3. Add
/usr/ccs/bin to the PATH environment variable.
4. Run
gdb as:
$ gdb PA_binary
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 PA GDB Support.
After debugging is finished, perform the following steps.
1. Unset the environment variable
PA_DEBUG.
2. Restore the original value of the
SHELL environment variable.
Limitations of PA GDB Support
The following are current limitations of PA
gdb support.
1. No support for debuggers other than HP-UX PA-RISC
gdb for debugging an emulated PA program
on Itanium-based systems.
2. No support for attaching the debugger to a running emulated PA program on Itanium-based sys-
tem.
Section 5−−40 Hewlett-Packard Company − 1 − HP-UX 11i Version 2: August 2003