Step over operation for machine code function calls

• US 9,122,792 B2
• Filed: 05/17/2013
• Issued: 09/01/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bates, Cary L., Chen, XiaoLing, Fan, Wang
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sinha, Ravi K
• Application Number:
  US13/896,422
• Publication Number:
  US 20140344789A1
• Time in Patent Office: 837 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/362 Software debugging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3624 by performing operations on the source code, e.g. via a compiler
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program

Abstract

A method for implementing a step over operation by a debugger for an instruction in a routine includes receiving a step over command for an instruction and determining whether the instruction is a branch used for a function call. If the instruction is not a branch used for a function call, then the debugger treats the instruction as not a function call. If the instruction is a branch used for a function call, then the debugger determines whether the instruction is generated from source code. If the instruction is not generated from source code, then the debugger treats the instruction as not a function call. If the instruction is generated from source code, then the debugger treats the instruction as a function call.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for implementing a step over command by a debugger for a machine code instruction in a routine, comprising:

receiving a step over command for a machine code instruction;

determining whether the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call;

in response to determining that the machine code instruction is not a branch used for a function call, setting a first breakpoint at a next machine code instruction in the routine and setting a second breakpoint at a target machine code instruction of the branch;

in response to determining that the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call, determining whether the machine code instruction is generated from source code;

in response to determining that the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call and is not generated from source code, setting the first breakpoint at a next machine code instruction in the routine and setting a second breakpoint at a target machine code instruction of the branch; and

in response to determining that the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call and is generated from source code, setting the first breakpoint at the next machine code instruction of the routine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call further comprises:

determining whether the machine code instruction is a branch; and

in response to determining that the machine code instruction is not a branch, setting a first breakpoint at a next machine code instruction in the routine.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of whether the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call and the determining of whether the instruction is a branch further comprise:

in response to determining that the machine code instruction is a branch, determining whether the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call by;

accessing a call table of instructions used for function calls;

determining whether the machine code instruction is present in the call table;

in response to determining that if the machine code instruction is not present in the call table, determining that the machine code instruction is a branch not used for a call function; and

in response to determining that if the machine code instruction is present in the call table, determining that the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of whether the machine code instruction is generated from source code comprises:

accessing source line mapping in debug information created by a compiler;

determining whether the machine code instruction maps to a statement of source code using the debug information;

in response to determining that the machine code instruction does not map to a statement of source code, determining that the machine code instruction is not generated from source code; and

in response to determining that the machine code instruction maps to a line of source code, determining that the instruction is generated from source code.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining that the machine code instruction is a branch used for a function call, the determining that the machine code instruction is generated from source code, and the setting the first breakpoint at the next machine code instruction of the routine further comprises:

saving a starting stack depth;

executing the routine until a next breakpoint is encountered;

determining whether a current stack depth is greater than the starting stack depth when the next breakpoint is encountered; and

stopping at the next breakpoint when the current stack depth is not greater than the starting stack depth.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the machine code instruction is from an IBM z architecture instruction set.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the debug information is in DWARF format.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the debugger is dbx.