VAX-11 Symbolic Debugger Reference Manual

This document serves as a reference manual for the VAX-11 Symbolic Debugger, a program designed to assist programmers in locating and correcting errors within executable user images. Published in August 1978, it is particularly relevant for those programming in VAX-11 MACRO assembly language.

The manual outlines the debugger's interactive and symbolic facilities, its support for various languages, and its ability to handle different data forms (decimal, octal, hexadecimal, ASCII, and VAX-11 MACRO instructions). It provides detailed instructions on:

• Initiating and terminating debugging sessions.
• Controlling program execution using commands like GO and STEP, and interrupting operations.
• Utilizing special characters in arithmetic and address expressions, and as delimiters.
• Managing entry and display modes including context, length, radix, and pathname search modes.
• Working with symbols and pathnames, including the debugger's symbol table and translation rules.
• Setting, showing, and canceling breakpoints, tracepoints, and watchpoints to monitor program flow and data modifications.
• Examining and modifying memory locations and registers.
• Evaluating expressions, performing radix conversions, and examining bit fields.
• Processing exception conditions and understanding various debugger messages (informational, warning, error, fatal).
• Calling routines and displaying active call frames.
• Displaying and altering the Processor Status Longword (PSL).

An appendix summarizes all debugger commands alphabetically.