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The COBOL-IT Debugger Engine (cobcdb)

The COBOL-IT Debugger Engine (cobcdb) has been designed to operate as an engine, working in the background, behind a user interface, such as the interface that is provided by the COBOL-IT Debugging Perspective in the Developer Studio. The COBOL-IT Debugger Engine (cobcdb) runs shared object files that have been created by the COBOL-IT Compiler (cobc) and that have been compiled with the –g compiler flag.

Conventions Used

The Debugger Prompt

When you start the COBOL-IT Debugger Engine, the COBOL-IT Debugger Window presents a prompt, into which a Debugger Command can be entered. After entering a Debugger Command, the user will see the results of their command returned, with a subsequent debugger prompt. The default debugger prompt is (cobcdb).

To illustrate:

       C:\COBOL\COBOLIT\samples>cobcdb hello
       CreateProcess "cobcrun -d hello ".
       command:11516
       (cobcdb)
       event:11516
       -event-end-stepping-range #0 hello () at C:/COBOL/COBOLIT/samples/hello.cbl!8

The debugger prompt is here. As an example, enter the version command: 

       version
       ~"COBOL-IT cobcdb 3.6.4\n"
       ^done
       (cobcdb)

Enter a subsequent command here.

Source Location

Source Location is formatted as:
<Absolute source path name>!<line number>

Example:
C:/COBOL/COBOLIT/samples/hello.cbl!21

Variables names

<variable-name> is formatted as:
[@<module-name>.][<section>.][<upper-level-fields >.]<field-name>

If no <module-name> is given, current module is searched.

If no <section> is given, sections are searched in the following order:

  • file section
  • working-storage section
  • linkage-section.

If no <upper-level-field> is given, the first matching field as presented in the original source is returned.

Example:
WORKING-STORAGE.WrkA.Wrk_G1.Wrk_G1_F1 or Wrk_G1.Wrk_G1_F1
is equivalent to
@PrgA.WORKING-STORAGE.WrkA.Wrk_G1.Wrk_G1_F1

where declarations are:

       working-storage section.
              01 WrkA.
                     03 Wrk_F1 PIC 99.
                     03 Wrk_F2 PIC 99.
                     03 Wrk_G1.
                            05 Wrk_G1_F1 PIC 99.
                            05 rk_G1_F2 PIC 99.