Date: Wed Jun 23 15:27:57 CEST 2004
User: Derick Rethans
Directory: xdebug
Log Message:
[0.25]
- Added Specs to CVS
Added files:
xdebug/docs/Makefile (new version: 1.1)
xdebug/docs/dbgp.txt (new version: 1.1)
xdebug/docs/gdb.txt (new version: 1.1)
[FILE: /xdebug/docs/Makefile]
all: dbgp.html gdb.html
gdb.html: gdb.txt
/dat/install/docutils-0.3.3/tools/html.py gdb.txt > gdb.html
dbgp.html: dbgp.txt
/dat/install/docutils-0.3.3/tools/html.py dbgp.txt > dbgp.html
clean:
rm -rf dbgp.html gdb.html
[FILE: /xdebug/docs/dbgp.txt]
DBGP - A common debugger protocol for languages and debugger UI communication
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:Version: 1.0
:Status: draft 14
:Authors: - Shane Caraveo, ActiveState <shanec[@]ActiveState.com>
- Derick Rethans <derick[@]derickrethans.nl>
.. contents::
1. Description
==============
This document describes a simple protocol for use with language tools
and engines for the purpose of debugging applications. It does not
describe user interfaces or interactions with the debugger. The
protocol provides a means of communication between a debugger
engine (scripting engine, vm, etc.) and a debugger IDE (IDE, etc.).
Any references to the debugger IDE UI are recommendations only, and are
provided for additional explanation or as reasoning for specific
design decisions.
1.1 Issues
==========
1. The handling of proxy errors needs to be clarified. Without both
IDE and debugger engine supporting commands to be received at
arbitrary times, the proxy may have problems sending error or status
information to either one. See section 5.3.2. We should think a bit
more about what a proxy might need to do.
2. Requirements
===============
* extensibility, allow for vendor or language specific features
* backwards and forwards compatibility
* firewall and tunneling support
* support for multiple languages
* support for multiple processes or threads
* support for dynamic and possibly for compiled languages
3. Terminology
==============
IDE
An IDE, or other debugger UI IDE or tool.
debugger engine
The language engine being debugged.
proxy
An intermediary demon that acts as a proxy, and may also
implement support for other features such as just in time
debugging, ip security, etc.
session
a single thread in an application. multiple threads in an
application will attach separately.
TRUE
a value defined as TRUE should be a numeric one.
FALSE
a value defined as FALSE should be a numeric zero.
NUM
a base 10 numeric value that is stringified.
4. Security
===========
It is expected that implementations will provide security, such as ip
filtering, ssh tunneling, etc. This protocol itself does not provide
a means of securing the debugging session.
5. Initiating a debugging session
=================================
The debugger engine initiates a debugging session. The debugger engine
will make a connection to a listening IDE, then wait for the IDE to
initiate commands. The debugger engine does not step into the first line of
execution until the IDE issues one of the continuation commands.
The first thing that should happen in a debug session is that the IDE
negotiates features using the feature_get and feature_set commands, and sets
any additional data, such as breakpoints. Debugger engine implementations
should store and data it receives if it is unable to process them prior to
compiling and/or executing code. Commands such as stack_get should not be
expected to work during this phase, otherwise known as the 'starting' state (see
section 7.1 for status levels).
Likewise, at the end of a debug session, there is a 'stopping' state. This state
is entered after all execution is complete. For most debugger engine implementations,
only a 'stop' command can be accepted at this point, however some implementations
may provide additional commands for retrieving various data from the engine for
post debug session processing.
5.1 Standard DBGP port
----------------------
The IDE listens on port 9000 for debugger connections, unless the
IDE is using a proxy, in which case it may listen on any port. In
that case, the IDE will tell the proxy which port it is listening on, and the
proxy should listen on port 9000. While this document defines port 9000
as the standard DBGP port, an implementation may support the use of any
port. Current implementations accept various forms of configuration that
allow this port to be defined.
5.2 Connection Initialization
-----------------------------
When a debugger engine connects to either a IDE or proxy, it must send an
init packet: ::
<init appid="APPID"
idekey="IDE_KEY"
session="DBGP_COOKIE"
thread="THREAD_ID"
parent="PARENT_APPID"
language="LANGUAGE_NAME"
protocol_version="1.0"
fileuri="file://path/to/file">
Attributes in the init element can include:
=============== ========================================================
Attribute Description
=============== ========================================================
appid defined by the debugger engine
idekey defined by the user. The DBGP_IDEKEY environment
variable SHOULD be used if it is available,
otherwise setting this value is debugger engine
implementation specific. This value may be empty.
session If the environment variable DBGP_COOKIE exists,
then the init packet MUST contain a session
attribute with the value of the variable. This
allows an IDE to execute a debugger engine, and
maintain some state information between the
execution and the protocol connection. This value
should not be expected to be set in 'remote'
debugging situations where the IDE is not in
control of the process.
thread_id the systems thread id
parent_appid the appid of the application that spawned the
process. When an application is executed, it
should set it's APPID into the environment.
If an APPID already exists, it should first
read that value and use it as the PARENT_APPID.
language_name debugger engine specific, must not contain
additional information, such as version, etc.
protocol The highest version of this protocol supported
fileuri URI of the script file being debugged
=============== ========================================================
The IDE responds by dropping socket connection, or starting with
debugger commands.
The init packet may have child elements for additional vendor specific
data. These are entirely optional and must not effect behavior
of the debugger interaction. Suggested child elements include: ::
<engine version="1.abcd">product title</engine>
<author>author</author>
<company>company</company>
<license>licensing info</license>
<url>url</url>
<copyright>xxx</copyright>
5.3 Just in time debugging and debugger proxies
-----------------------------------------------
Proxies are supported to allow multiuser systems work with a defined
port for debugging. Each IDE would listen on a unique port and notify the
proxy what port it is listening on, along with a key value that is used by
the debugger engine to specify which IDE it should be connected with.
With the exception of the init packet, all communications
will be passed through without modifications. A proxy could also implement
support for just in time debugging. In this case, a debugger engine would
break (perhaps on an error or exception) and connect to the proxy. The proxy
would then start the IDE (if it is not already running) and initiate a
debugging session with it.
The method for handling just in time debugging is not defined by the protocol
and is implementation specific. One example of how this may work is that the
proxy has a configuration file that defines key's for each user, along with
the path to the executable that will provide the UI for that user. The debugger
engine would have to know this key value in advance and provide it to the proxy
in the init packet (see IDE_KEY in section 5.2). The proxy would know if the
IDE is running, since the IDE should have communicated with the proxy already,
if it has not, the proxy could execute the IDE directly.
To support proxies and jit deamons, the IDE should be configured with
and ip:port pointing to the proxy/jit. The IDE then makes a
connection to the proxy when it starts and sends the following command:
IDE command ::
proxyinit -a ip:port -k ide_key -m [0|1]
== ========================================================
-p the port that the IDE listens for debugging on. The address
is retrieved from the connection information.
-k a IDE key, which the debugger engine will also use in it's
debugging init command. this allows the proxy to match
request to IDE. Typically the user will provide the
session key as a configuration item.
-m this tells the demon that the IDE supports (or doesn't)
multiple debugger sessions. if -m is missing, zero or no
support is default.
== ========================================================
IDE command ::
proxystop -k ide_key
The IDE sends a proxystop command when it wants the proxy
server to stop listening for it.
The proxy should respond with a simple XML statement alerting the
IDE to an error, or the success of the initialization (see section
6.5 for more details on the error element). ::
<proxyinit success="[0|1]"
idekey="{ID}">
<error id="app_specific_error_code">
<message>UI Usable Message</message>
</error>
</proxyinit>
Once the IDE has sent this command, and received a confirmation, it
disconnects from the proxy. The IDE will only connect to the proxy
when it initially wants to start accepting connections from the proxy,
or when it wants to stop accepting connections from the proxy.
5.3.1 Init Packet Handling
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If a proxy receives the init packet (see section 5.2), it will use the
idekey attribute to pass the request to the correct IDE, or to do some
other operation such as which may be required to implement security or
initiate just in time debugging. The proxy will add the idekey as a attribute
to the init packet when it passes it through to the IDE. The proxy may
also add child elements with further information, and must add an
attribute to the init element called 'proxied' with the attribute
value being the ip address of the debugger engine. This is the only
time the proxy should modify data being passed to the IDE.
5.3.2 Proxy Errors
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If the proxy must send error data to the IDE, it may send an XML
message with the root element named 'proxyerror'. This message will
be in the format of the error packets defined in 6.3 below.
If the proxy must send error data to the debugger engine, it may
send the proxyerror command defined in section 7 below.
5.3.3 Proxy Ports
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The proxy listens for IDE connections on port 9001, and for debugger
engine connections on port 9000. As with section 5.1, these ports may
be configurable in the implementation.
5.4 Multiple Processes or Threads
---------------------------------
The debugger protocol is designed to use a separate socket connection
for each process or thread. The IDE may or may not support
multiple debugger sessions. If it does not, the debugger engine must
not attempt to start debug sessions for threads, and the IDE should
not accept more than one socket connection for debugging. The
IDE should tell the debugger engine whether it supports multiple
debugger sessions, the debugger engine should assume that the IDE does
not. The IDE can use the feature_set command with the feature name of
'multiple_sessions' to notify the debugger engine that it supports multiple
session debugging. The IDE may also query the the debugger engine specifically
for multithreaded debugging support by using the feature_get command with
a feature name of 'language_supports_threads'.
5.5 Feature Negotiation
-----------------------
Although the IDE may at any time during the debugging session send
feature_get or feature_set commands, the IDE should be designed to
negotiate the base set of features up front. Differing languages and
debugger engines may operate in many ways, and the IDE should be
prepared to handle these differences. Likewise, the IDE may dictate
certain features or capabilities be supported by the debugger engine.
In any case, the IDE should strive to work with all debugger engines
that support this protocol. Therefore, this section describes a
minimal set of features the debugger engine must support. These
required features are outlined here in the form of discussion,
actual implementation of feature arguments are detailed in section 7
under the feature_get and feature_set commands.
Data packet negotiation
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
IDE's may want to limit the size of data that is retrieved from
debugger engines. While the debugger engines will define their own
base default values, the IDE should negotiate these terms if it
needs to. The debugger engine must support these requests from the
IDE. This includes limits to the data size of a property or
variable, and the depth limit to arrays, hashes, objects, or other
tree like structures. The data size excludes any the protocol
overhead.
Asynchronous Communications
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
While the protocol does not depend on asynchronous socket support,
certain design considerations may require that the IDE and/or debugger
engine treat incoming and outgoing data in an asynchronous fashion.
For ease of design, some implementations may choose to utilize this
protocol in a completely synchronous fashion, and not implement
optional commands that require the debugger engine to behave in an
asynchronous fashion. One example of this is the break command.
The break command is sent from the IDE while the debugger engine is
in a run state. To support this, the debugger engine must periodically
peek at the socket to see if there are any incoming commands. For
this reason the break command is optional. If a command requires
this type of asynchronous behavior on the part of the debugger
engine it must be optional for the debugger engine to support it.
On the other hand, IDE's MUST at times behave in an asynchronous
fashion. When an IDE tells the debugger engine to enter a 'run' state,
it must watch the socket for incoming packets for stdout or stderr,
if it has requested the data be sent to it from the debugger engine.
The form of asynchronous communications that may occur in this
protocol are defined further in section 6.2 below.
6. Message Packets
==================
The IDE sends simple ASCII commands to the debugger engine. The
debugger engine responds with XML data. The XML data is prepended
with a stringified integer representing the length of the XML data
packet. The length and XML data are separated by a NULL byte. The
XML data is ended with a NULL byte. Neither the IDE or debugger engine
packets may contain NULL bytes within the packet since it is used as
a separator. Binary data must be encoded using base64. ::
IDE: command [SPACE] [args] -- data [NULL]
DEBUGGER: [NUMBER] [NULL] XML(data) [NULL]
Arguments to the IDE commands are in the same format as common command
line arguments, and should be parseable by common code such as getopt,
or Pythons Cmd module: ::
command -a value -b value ...
All numbers in the protocol are base 10 string representations, unless
the number is noted to be debugger engine specific (eg. the address
attribute on property elements).
6.1 Why not XML both ways?
--------------------------
The primary reason is to avoid the requirement that a debugger
engine has an XML parser available. XML is easy to generate, but
requires additional libraries for parsing.
6.2 Packet Communications
-------------------------
The IDE sends a command, then waits for a response from the
debugger engine. If the command is not received in a reasonable
time (implementation dependent) it may assume the debugger engine
has entered a non-responsive state. The exception to this is when
the IDE sends a 'continuation' command which may not have an immediate response.
'continuation' commands include, but may not be limited to: run, step_into,
step_over, step_out and eval. When the debugger engine
receives such a command, it is considered to have entered a
'run state'.
During a 'continuation' command, the IDE should expect to possibly receive
stdin and/or stderr packets from the debugger engine prior to
receiving a response to the command itself. It may also possibly
receive error packets from either the debugger engine, or a proxy
if one is in use, either prior to the 'continuation' response, or in response
to any other command.
Stdout and stderr, if requested by the IDE, may only be sent during
commands that have put the debugger engine into a 'run' state.
If the debugger engine supports asynchronous commands, the IDE may also
send commands while the debugger engine is in a 'run' state. These
commands should be limited to commands such as the 'break' or 'status'
commands for performance reasons, but this protocol does not impose
such limitations. The debugger engine MUST respond to these commands
prior to responding to the original 'run' command.
An example of communication between IDE and debugger engines. (this
is not an example of the actual protocol.) ::
IDE: feature_get supports_async
DBG: yes
IDE: stdin redirect
DBG: ok
IDE: stderr redirect
DBG: ok
IDE: run
DBG: stdin data...
DBG: stdin data...
DBG: reached breakpoint, done running
IDE: give me some variables
DBG: ok, here they are
IDE: evaluate this expression
DBG: stderr data...
DBG: ok, done
IDE: run
IDE: break
DBG: ok, breaking
DBG: at breakpoint, done running
IDE: stop
DBG: good bye
6.3 IDE to debugger engine communications
-----------------------------------------
A debugging IDE (IDE) sends commands to the debugger engine in
the form of command line arguments. One argument that is included in
all commands is the data length. The data itself is the last part of
the command line. The data may be binary data if the encoding argument
is 'binary'. ::
command [SPACE] [arguments] [SPACE] base64(data) [NULL]
Standard arguments for all commands ::
-i Transaction ID
unique for each command generated by the IDE
6.4 debugger engine to IDE communications
-----------------------------------------
The debugger engine always replies or sends XML data. The standard
namespace for the root elements returned from the debugger
engine MUST be "urn:debugger_protocol_v1". Namespaces have been left
out in the examples in this document. The messages sent by the
debugger engine must always be NULL terminated. The XML document tag
must always be present to provide XML version and encoding information.
Two base tags are used for the root tags: ::
data_length
[NULL]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response command="command_name"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
[NULL]
data_length
[NULL]
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<stream type="stdout|stderr">...Base64 Data...</stream>
[NULL]
For simplification, data length and NULL bytes will be left out of the
rest of the examples in this document.
6.5 debugger engine errors
--------------------------
A debugger engine may need to relay error information back to the IDE in
response to any command. The debugger engine may add an error element
as a child of the response element. Note that this is not the same
as getting language error messages, such as exception data. This is
specifically a debugger engine error in response to a IDE
command. IDEs and debugger engines may elect to support additional
child elements in the error element, but should namespace the elements
to avoid conflicts with other implementations. ::
<response command="command_name"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
<error code="error_code" apperr="app_specific_error_code">
<message>UI Usable Message</message>
</error>
</response>
6.5.1 Error Codes
-----------------
The following are predefined error codes for the response to commands:
000 Command parsing errors ::
0 - no error
1 - parse error in command
2 - duplicate arguments in command
3 - invalid options (ie, missing a required option)
4 - Unimplemented command
5 - Command not available (Is used for async commands. For instance
if the engine is in state "run" than only "break" and "status"
are available).
100 File related errors ::
100 - can not open file (as a reply to a "source" command if the
requested source file can't be opened)
101 - stream redirect failed
200 Breakpoint, or code flow errors ::
200 - breakpoint could not be set (for some reason the breakpoint
could not be set due to problems registering it)
201 - breakpoint type not supported (for example I don't support
'watch' yet and thus return this error)
202 - invalid breakpoint (the IDE tried to set a breakpoint on a
line that does not exist in the file (ie "line 0" or lines
past the end of the file)
203 - no code on breakpoint line (the IDE tried to set a breakpoint
on a line which does not have any executable code. The
debugger engine is NOT required to return this type if it
is impossible to determine if there is code on a given
location. (For example, in the PHP debugger backend this
will only be returned in some special cases where the current
scope falls into the scope of the breakpoint to be set)).
204 - Invalid breakpoint state (using an unsupported breakpoint state
was attempted)
205 - No such breakpoint (used in breakpoint_get etc. to show that
there is no breakpoint with the given ID)
206 - Error evaluating code (use from eval() (or perhaps
property_get for a full name get))
207 - Invalid expression (the expression used for a non-eval()
was invalid)
300 Data errors ::
300 - Can not get property (when the requested property to get did
not exist, this is NOT used for an existing but uninitialized
property, which just gets the type "uninitialised" (See:
PreferredTypeNames)).
301 - Stack depth invalid (the -d stack depth parameter did not
exist (ie, there were less stack elements than the number
requested) or the parameter was < 0)
302 - Context invalid (an non existing context was requested)
900 Protocol errors ::
900 - Encoding not supported
998 - An internal exception in the debugger occurred
999 - Unknown error
6.6 file paths
--------------
All file paths passed between the IDE and debugger engine must be in
the URI format specified by IETF RFC 1738 and 2396, and must be
absolute paths.
6.7 Dynamic code and virtual files
----------------------------------
The protocol reserves the URI scheme 'dbgp' for all virtual
files generated and maintained by language engines. Such
virtual files are usually managed by a language engine for
dynamic code blocks, i.e. code created at runtime, without
an association with a regular file. Any IDE seeing an URI
with the 'dbgp' scheme has to use the 'source' command (See
section 7.14) to obtain the contents of the file from the
engine responsible for that URI.
All URIs in that scheme have the form:
dbgp:engine-specific-identifier
The engine-specific-identifier is some string which the debugger engine
uses to keep track of the specific virtual file. The IDE must return
the URI to the debugger engine unchanged through the source command to
retrieve the virtual file.
7. Core Commands
================
Both IDE and debugger engine must support all core commands.
7.1 status
----------
The status command is a simple way for the IDE to find out from
the debugger engine whether execution may be continued or not.
no body is required on request. If async support has been
negotiated using feature_get/set the status command may be sent
while the debugger engine is in a 'run state'.
The status attribute values of the response may be:
starting:
State prior to execution of any code
stopping:
State after completion of code execution. This typically
happens at the end of code execution, allowing the IDE to
further interact with the debugger engine (for example, to
collect performance data, or use other extended commands).
stopped:
IDE is detached from process, no further interaction is
possible.
running:
code is currently executing. Note that this
state would only be seen with async support
turned on, otherwise the typical state during
IDE/debugger interaction would be 'break'
break:
code execution is paused, for whatever reason
(see below), and the IDE/debugger can pass
information back and forth.
The reason attribute value may be:
- ok
- error
- aborted
- exception
IDE ::
status -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="status"
status="starting"
reason="ok"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
message data
</response>
7.2 Options and Configuration
-----------------------------
The feature commands are used to request feature support from the debugger
engine. This includes configuration options, some of which may be changed via
feature_set, the ability to discover support for implemented commands, and to
discover values for various features, such as the language version or name.
An example of usage would be to send a feature request with the string 'stdin'
to find out if the engine supports redirection of the stdin stream through the
debugger socket. The debugger engine must consider all commands as keys for this
command, but may also have keys that are for features that do not map directly
to commands.
7.2.1 Feature Names
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following features strings MUST be available:
========================= ======= ==========================================
language_supports_threads get [0|1]
language_name get {eg. PHP, Python, Perl}
language_version get {version string}
encoding get current encoding in use by
the debugger session
protocol_version get {for now, always 1}
supports_async get {for commands such as break}
data_encoding get optional, allows to turn off
the default base64 encoding of data. This
should only be used for development and
debugging of the debugger engines
themselves, and not for general use. If
implemented the value 'base64' must be
supported to turn back on regular
encoding. the value 'none' means no
encoding is in use. all elements that use
encoding must include an encoding
attribute.
breakpoint_languages get some engines may support more than one
language. This feature returns a string
which is a comma separated list of
supported languages. **If the engine does
not provide this feature, then it is
assumed that the engine only supports the
language defined in the feature
language_name.** One example of this is an
XSLT debugger engine which supports XSLT,
XML, HTML and XHTML. An IDE may need this
information to to know what types of
breakpoints an engine will accept.
multiple_sessions get|set {0|1}
encoding get|set {ISO8859-15, UTF-8, etc.}
max_children get|set max number of array or object
children to initially retrieve
max_data get|set max amount of variable data to
get|set initially retrieve.
max_depth get|set maximum depth that the debugger
engine may return when sending arrays,
hashs or object structures to the IDE.
data_encoding get|set see feature_get
========================= ======= ==========================================
The following features strings MAY be available, if they are not, the IDE should
assume that the feature is not available:
========================= ======= ==========================================
supports_postmortem get [0|1] This feature lets an IDE know that
there is benefit to continuing interaction
during the STOPPING state (sect. 7.1).
show_hidden get|set [0|1] This feature can get set by the IDE
if it wants to have more detailed internal
information on properties (eg. private
members of classes, etc.) Zero means that
hidden members are not shown to the IDE.
notify_ok get|set [0|1] See section 8.5
========================= ======= ==========================================
Additionally, all protocol commands supported must have a string,
such as the following examples: ::
breakpoint_set
break
eval
7.2.2 feature_get
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
arguments for feature_get include:
== ==========================================
-n feature_name
== ==========================================
IDE ::
feature-get -i transaction_id -n feature_name
debugger engine ::
<response command="feature_get"
feature_name="feature_name"
supported="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
feature setting or available options, such as a list of
supported encodings
</response>
7.2.3 feature_set
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The feature set command allows a IDE to tell the debugger engine what additional
capabilities it has. One example of this would be telling the debugger engine
whether the IDE supports multiple debugger sessions (for threads, etc.). The
debugger engine responds with telling the IDE whether it has enabled the feature
or not.
Note: The IDE does not have to listen for additional debugger connections if it
does not support debugging multiple sessions. debugger engines must handle
connection failures gracefully.
arguments for feature_set include:
== ==========================================
-n feature_name
-v value to be set
== ==========================================
feature_set can be called at any time during a debug session to
change values previously set. This allows a IDE to change
encodings.
IDE ::
feature_set -i transaction_id -n feature-name -v value
debugger engine ::
<response command="feature_set"
feature="feature_name"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
7.5 continuation commands
-------------------------
resume the execution of the application.
run:
starts or resumes the script until a new breakpoint is reached,
or the end of the script is reached.
step_into:
steps to the next statement, if there is a function call
involved it will break on the first statement in that function
step_over:
steps to the next statement, if there is a function call on the
line from which the step_over is issued then the debugger engine
will stop at the statement after the function call in the same
scope as from where the command was issued
step_out:
steps out of the current scope and breaks on the statement after
returning from the current function. (Also called 'finish' in
GDB)
stop:
ends execution of the script immediately, the debugger engine may
not respond, though if possible should be designed to do so.
The script will be terminated right away and be followed by a
disconnection of the network connection from the IDE (and debugger
engine if required in multi request apache processes).
detach (optional):
stops interaction with the debugger engine. Once this command
is executed, the IDE will no longer be able to communicate with
the debugger engine. This does not end execution of the script
as does the stop command above, but rather detaches from debugging.
Support of this continuation command is optional, and the IDE should
verify support for it via the feature_get command. If the IDE has
created stdin/stdout/stderr pipes for execution of the script
(eg. an interactive shell or other console to catch script output),
it should keep those open and usable by the process until the process
has terminated normally.
The response to a continue command is a status response (see
status above). The debugger engine does not send this response
immediately, but rather when it reaches a breakpoint, or ends
execution for any other reason.
IDE ::
run -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="run"
status="starting"
reason="ok"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
7.6 breakpoints
---------------
Breakpoints are locations or conditions at which a debugger engine
pauses execution, responds to the IDE, and waits for further commands
from the IDE. A failure in any breakpoint commands results in an
error defined in `section 6.5`_.
The following DBGP commands relate to breakpoints:
================== =================================================
breakpoint_set_ Set a new breakpoint on the session.
breakpoint_get_ Get breakpoint info for the given breakpoint id.
breakpoint_update_ Update one or more attributes of a breakpoint.
breakpoint_remove_ Remove the given breakpoint on the session.
breakpoint_list_ Get a list of all of the session's breakpoints.
================== =================================================
.. _breakpoint_set: `7.6.1 breakpoint_set`_
.. _breakpoint_get: `7.6.2 breakpoint_get`_
.. _breakpoint_update: `7.6.3 breakpoint_update`_
.. _breakpoint_remove: `7.6.4 breakpoint_remove`_
.. _breakpoint_list: `7.6.5 breakpoint_list`_
There are six different breakpoints *types*:
============== =========== =========================================
Type Req'd Attrs Description
============== =========== =========================================
line filename, break on the given lineno in the given
lineno file
call function break on entry into new stack for
function name
return function break on exit from stack for function
name
exception exception break on exception of the given name
conditional expression break when the given expression is true
at the given filename and line number or
just in given filename
watch expression break on write of the variable or address
defined by the expression argument
============== =========== =========================================
A breakpoint has the following attributes. Note that some attributes are only
applicable for some breakpoint types.
================== ======================================================
type breakpoint type (see table above for valid types)
filename The file the breakpoint is effective in. This must be
a "file://" URI.
lineno Line number on which breakpoint is effective. Line
numbers are 1-based. If an implementation requires a
numeric value to indicate that *lineno* is not set,
it is suggested that -1 be used, although this is not
enforced.
state Current state of the breakpoint. This must be one of
*enabled*, *disabled*.
function Function name for *call* or *return* type
breakpoints.
temporary Flag to define if breakpoint is temporary. A
temporary breakpoint is one that is deleted after its
first use. This is useful for features like "Run to
Cursor". Once the debugger engine uses a temporary
breakpoint, it should automatically remove the breakpoint
from it's list of valid breakpoints.
hit_count Number of effective hits for the breakpoint in the
current session. This value is maintained by the
debugger engine (a.k.a. DBGP client). A
breakpoint's hit count should be increment whenever
it is considered to break execution (i.e. whenever
debugging comes to this line). If the breakpoint is
*disabled* then the hit count should NOT be
incremented.
hit_value A numeric value used together with the
*hit_condition* to determine if the breakpoint should
pause execution or be skipped.
hit_condition A string indicating a condition to use to compare
*hit_count* and *hit_value*. The following values are
legal:
`>=`
break if hit_count is greater than or equal to
hit_value [default]
`==`
break if hit_count is equal to hit_value
`%`
break if hit_count is a multiple of hit_value
exception Exception name for *exception* type breakpoints.
================== ======================================================
Breakpoints should be maintained in the debugger engine at an application
level, not the thread level. Debugger engines that support thread debugging
MUST provide breakpoint id's that are global for the application, and must
use all breakpoints for all threads where applicable.
As for any other commands, if there is error the debugger engine should
return an error response as described in `section 6.5`_.
.. _`section 6.5`: `6.5 debugger engine errors`_
7.6.1 breakpoint_set
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to set a breakpoint for the session.
IDE to debugger engine::
breakpoint_set -i TRANSACTION_ID [<arguments...>] -- base64(expression)
where the arguments are:
================== =====================================================
-t TYPE breakpoint *type*, see below for valid values
[required]
-s STATE breakpoint *state* [optional, defaults to "enabled"]
-f FILENAME the *filename* to which the breakpoint belongs
[optional]
-n LINENO the line number (*lineno*) of the breakpoint
[optional]
-m FUNCTION *function* name [required for *call* or *return*
breakpoint types]
-x EXCEPTION *exception* name [required for *exception* breakpoint
types]
-h HIT_VALUE hit value (*hit_value*) used with the hit condition
to determine if should break; a value of zero
indicates hit count processing is disabled for this
breakpoint [optional, defaults to zero (i.e.
disabled)]
-o HIT_CONDITION hit condition string (*hit_condition*); see
hit_condition documentation above; BTW 'o' stands for
'operator' [optional, defaults to '>=']
-r 0|1 Boolean value indicating if this breakpoint is
*temporary*. [optional, defaults to false]
-- EXPRESSION code *expression*, in the language of the debugger
engine [required for *conditional* breakpoint types]
================== =====================================================
An example breakpoint_set command for a conditional breakpoint could look
like this::
breakpoint_set -i 1 -f test.pl -l 20 -- base64($x > 3)
A unique id for this breakpoint for this session is returned by the debugger
engine. This *session breakpoint id* is used by the IDE to identify the
breakpoint in other breakpoint commands.
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="breakpoint_set"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"
state="STATE"
id="BREAKPOINT_ID"/>
where,
================== =====================================================
BREAKPOINT_ID is an arbitrary string that uniquely identifies this
breakpoint in the debugger engine.
STATE the initial state of the breakpoint as set by the
debugger engine
================== =====================================================
7.6.2 breakpoint_get
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to get breakpoint information from the
debugger engine.
IDE to debugger engine::
breakpoint_get -i TRANSACTION_ID -d BREAKPOINT_ID
where,
================== =====================================================
BREAKPOINT_ID is the unique *session breakpoint id* returned by
*breakpoint_set*.
================== =====================================================
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="breakpoint_get"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID">
<breakpoint id="BREAKPOINT_ID"
type="TYPE"
state="STATE"
filename="FILENAME"
lineno="LINENO"
function="FUNCTION"
exception="EXCEPTION"
hit_value="HIT_VALUE"
hit_condition="HIT_CONDITION"
hit_count="HIT_COUNT">
<expression>EXPRESSION</expression>
</breakpoint>
</response>
where each breakpoint attribute is only required if its value is relevant.
E.g., the <expression/> child element need only be included if there is an
expression defined, the *function* attribute need only be included if this is
a *function* breakpoint.
7.6.3 breakpoint_update
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to update one or more attributes of a
breakpoint that was already set on the debugger engine via *breakpoint_set*.
IDE to debugger engine::
breakpoint_update -i TRANSACTION_ID -d BREAKPOINT_ID [<arguments...>]
where the arguments are as follows. All arguments are optional, however
at least one argument should be present. See breakpoint_set_ for a description of
each argument:
== ===============
-s STATE
-n LINENO
-h HIT_VALUE
-o HIT_CONDITION
== ===============
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="breakpoint_update"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"/>
7.6.4 breakpoint_remove
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to remove the given breakpoint.
IDE to debugger engine::
breakpoint_remove -i TRANSACTION_ID -d BREAKPOINT_ID
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="breakpoint_remove"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"/>
7.6.5 breakpoint_list
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to get breakpoint information for all
breakpoints that the debugger engine has.
IDE to debugger engine::
breakpoint_list -i TRANSACTION_ID
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="breakpoint_list"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID">
<breakpoint id="BREAKPOINT_ID"
type="TYPE"
state="STATE"
filename="FILENAME"
lineno="LINENO"
function="FUNCTION"
exception="EXCEPTION"
hit_value="HIT_VALUE"
hit_condition="HIT_CONDITION"
hit_count="HIT_COUNT">
<expression>EXPRESSION</expression>
</breakpoint>
<breakpoint ...>...</breakpoint>
...
</response>
7.7 stack_depth
---------------
IDE ::
stack-depth -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="stack_depth"
depth="{NUM}"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
7.8 stack_get
-------------
Returns stack information for a given stack depth. For extended
debuggers, multiple file/line's may be returned by having
child elements of the stack element. This is to allow
for debuggers, such as XSLT, that have execution and data files.
The filename returned should always be the local file
system path translated into a file URI, and should include the
system name if the engine is not connecting to an ip on the local
box: file://systemname/c|/path. If the stack depth is
specified, only one stack element is returned, for the depth
requested, though child elements may be returned also. The
current context is stack depth of zero, the 'oldest' context
(in some languages known as 'main') is the highest numbered
context.
== ==========================================
-d stack depth (optional)
== ==========================================
IDE ::
stack_get -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="stack_get"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
<stack level="{NUM}"
type="file|eval|?"
filename="..."
lineno="{NUM}"
where=""
cmdbegin="line_number:offset"
cmdend="line_number:offset"/>
<stack level="{NUM}"
type="file|eval|?"
filename="..."
lineno="{NUM}">
<input level="{NUM}"
type="file|eval|?"
filename="..."
lineno="{NUM}"/>
</stack>
</response>
Attributes for the stack element can include:
========= ========================================================
Attribute Description
========= ========================================================
level stack depth for this stack element
type the type of stack frame. Valid values are file or eval.
filename file URI
lineno 1-based line offset into the buffer
where current command name (optional)
cmdbegin line number and text offset from beginning of line
for the current instruction (optional)
cmdend same as cmdbegin, denotes end of current instruction
========= ========================================================
The attributes where, cmdbegin and cmdlength are primarily used
for relaying visual information in the IDE. cmdbegin and cmdend
can be used by the IDE for high lighting the command that is
currently being debugged. The where attribute contains the name
of the current stack. This could be the current function name
that the user is stepping through.
7.9 context_names
-----------------
The names of currently available contexts at a given stack depth,
typically Local, Global and Class. These SHOULD be UI friendly
names. The id attribute returned with the names is used in other
commands such as context_get to identify the context. The context
id zero is always considered to be the 'default' context is no
context id is provided. In most languages, this will the be
'local' context.
== ========================================================
-d stack depth (optional)
== ========================================================
IDE ::
context_names -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="context_names"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
<context name="Local" id="0"/>
<context name="Global" id="1"/>
<context name="Class" id="2"/>
</response>
7.10 context_get
----------------
Returns an array of properties in a given context at a given
stack depth. If the stack depth is omitted, the current
stack depth is used. If the context name is omitted, the context
with an id zero is used (generally the 'locals' context).
== ========================================================
-d stack depth (optional)
-c context id (optional, retrieved by context-names)
== ========================================================
IDE ::
context_get -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="context_get"
context="context_id"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
<property ... />
</response>
7.11 Properties, variables and values
-------------------------------------
Properties that have children may return an arbitrary depth of
children, as defaulted by the debugger engine. A maximum depth
may be defined by the IDE using the feature_set command with the
max_depth argument. The IDE may then use the fullname attribute of
a property to dig further into the tree. Data types are defined
further in section 7.12 below.
The number of children sent is defined by the debugger engine
unless otherwise defined by sending the feature_set command with
the max_children argument. ::
<property
name="short_name"
fullname="long_name"
type="data_type"
classname="name_of_object_class"
constant="0|1"
children="0|1"
size="{NUM}"
page="{NUM}"
pagesize="{NUM}"
address="{NUM}"
key="language_dependent_key"
encoding="base64|none"
numchildren="{NUM}">
...encoded Value Data...
</property>
Attributes in the property element can include:
=============== ========================================================
Attribute Description
=============== ========================================================
name variable name. This is the short part of the
name. For instance, in PHP:
$v = 0; // short name 'v'
class:$v; // short name 'v'
fullname variable name. This is the long form of the name
which can be eval'd by the language to retrieve
the value of the variable.
$v = 0; // long name 'v'
class::$v; // short name 'v', long 'class::$v'
$this->v; // short name 'v', long '$this->v'
classname If the type is an object or resource, then the
debugger engine MAY specify the class name
This is an optional attribute.
page if not all the children in the first level are
returned, then the page attribute, in combination
with the pagesize attribute will define where in
the array or object these children should be
located.
pagesize the size of each page of data, defaulted by the
debugger engine, or negotiated with feature_set
and max_children
type language specific data type name
facet provides a hint to the IDE about additional
facets of this value. These are space separated
names, such as private, protected, public,
constant, etc.
size size of property data in bytes
children true/false whether the property has children
this would be true for objects or array's.
numchildren optional attribute with number of children for
the property.
key language dependent reference for the property.
if the key is available, the IDE SHOULD use it
to retrieve further data for the property
address containing physical memory address
encoding if this is binary data, it should be base64 encoded
with this attribute set
=============== ========================================================
7.12 Data Types
---------------
Languages may have different names or meanings for data types,
however the IDE may want to be able to handle similar data types
as the same type. For this reason, we define a minimal set of
standard data types, and a method for specifying more explicit
facets on those types. We provide three different type attributes,
and a command to map those types to each other. The schema type
serves as a hint to the IDE as to how to handle this specific data
type, if it so chooses to, but should not be considered to be
generally supported. If the debugger engine chooses to support
Schema, it should handle all data validation itself.
language type:
A language specific name for a data type
common type:
A name used by the IDE to group data types
that are similar or the same
schema type:
The XML Schema data type name as specified
in the W3C Recommendation, XML Schema
Part 2: Datatypes located at
http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/
The use of the schema type is completely
optional. The language engine should not
expect an IDE to support usage of this
attribute. The IDE identifies support for
this in the debugger engine by retrieving
the data map, which would contain the
schema type attribute.
7.12.1 Common Data Types
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is a list of the common data types supported by this protocol.
For ease of documentation, and as hints to the IDE, they are mapped
to one or more schema data types, which are documented at
http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/. Some non-scalar types are also
defined, which do not have direct mappings to the base types defined
by XML Schema.
=========== =======================================================
Common Type Schema Type
=========== =======================================================
bool boolean (The value is always 0 or 1)
int integer, long, short, byte, and signed or
unsigned variants
float float, double, decimal
string string or other string-like data types, such as
dateTime, hexBinary, etc.
=========== =======================================================
Data types that do not map to schema:
null:
For example the "None" of Python or
the "null" of PHP. Some languages may not have
a method to specify a null type.
array:
for non-associative arrays, such as
List in Python. Arrays have integers as keys,
and the index is put in the name attribute of
the property element.
hash:
for associative arrays, such as Dictionaries
in Python. The only supported key type is a
string, which would be in the name attribute of
the property.
object:
An instance of a class.
resource:
Any data type the language supports that does
not map into one of the common types. This
could include pointers in C, various Python
types such as Method or Class types, or
file descriptors, database resources, etc. in
PHP. Complex types may also be defined by
using XML Schema, and mapping a type to the
Schema type. This is a more specialized use
of the type mapping, and should be considered
experimental, and not generally available in
implementations of this protocol.
For the most part, this protocol treats array's and hashes in the
same way, placing the key or index into the name attribute of the
property element.
7.12.2 typemap_get
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The IDE calls this command to get information on how to
map language specific type names (as received in the property
element returned by the context_get, and property_*
commands). The debugger engine returns all data types that
it supports. There may be multiple map elements with the same
type attribute value, but the name value must be unique. This
allows a language to map multiple language specific types into
one of the common data types (eg. float and double can both
be mapped to float).
IDE ::
typemap_get -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="typemap_get"
transaction_id="transaction_id"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<map type="common_type"
name="language_type_name"
xsi:type="xsd:schema_type_name"/>
</response>
Using the map element, a language can map a specific data type
into something the IDE can handle in a more generic way. For
example, if a language supports both float and double, the IDE
does not necessarily need to distinguish between them (but MAY). ::
<map type="float"
name="float"
xsi:type="xsd:float"/>
<map type="float"
name="double"
xsi:type="xsd:double"/>
<map type="float"
name="real"
xsi:type="xsd:decimal"/>
Complex types may be supported if an implementation wishes to. Any
implementation doing so should work without the other end having
support for this::
<response command="typemap_get"
transaction_id="transaction_id"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:mytypes="http://mysite/myschema.xsd">
<map type="resource"
name="SpecialDataType"
xsi:type="mytypes:SpecialDataType"/>
</response>
7.13 property_get, property_set, property_value
-----------------------------------------------
Gets/sets a property value. When retrieving a property with the
get method, the maximum data that should be returned is a default
defined by the debugger engine unless it has been negotiated using
feature_set with max_data. If the size of the properties data is
larger than that, the debugger engine only returns the configured
amount, and the IDE should call property_value to get the entire
data. This is to prevent large data from slowing down debugger
sessions. The IDE should implement UI that allows the user to
decide whether they want to retrieve all the data. The IDE should
not read more data than the length defined in the packet header.
The IDE can determine if there is more data by using the property
data length information. As per the context_get command, the depth
of nested elements returned is either defaulted by the debugger
engine, or negotiated using feature_set with max_children.
== ========================================================
-d stack depth (optional, debugger engine should assume
zero if not provided)
-c context id (optional, retrieved by context-names,
debugger engine should assume zero if not provided)
-n property long name (required)
-m max data size to retrieve (optional)
-t data type (optional)
-p data page (optional, for arrays, hashes, objects, etc.)
-k property key as retrieved in a property element,
optional, used for property_get of children and
property_value, required if it was provided by the
debugger engine.
-a property address as retrieved in a property element,
optional, used for property_set/value, required if it
was provided by the debugger engine.
== ========================================================
IDE ::
property_get -n property_long_name -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="property_get"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
<property ... />
...
</response>
IDE ::
property_set -n property_long_name -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
-l data_length -- {DATA}
debugger engine ::
<response command="property_set"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
IDE ::
property_value -n property_long_name -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="property_value"
size="{NUM}"
encoding="base64|none"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
...data...
</response>
7.14 source
-----------
The body of the request is the URI (retrieved from the stack info),
the body of the response is the data contents of the URI. If the
file uri is not provided, then the file for the current context
is returned.
== ========================================================
-b begin line (optional)
-e end line (optional)
-f file URI
== ========================================================
IDE ::
source -i transaction_id -f fileURI
debugger engine ::
<response command="source"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
...data source code...
</response>
7.15 stdout, stderr
-------------------
Body of the request is null, body of the response is true or false.
Upon receiving one of these redirect requests, the debugger engine
will start to copy data bound for one of these streams to the IDE,
using the message packets.
== ===========================================================
-c [0|1|2] 0 - disable, 1 - copy data, 2 - redirection ::
0 (disable) stdout/stderr output goes to regular
place, but not to IDE
1 (copy) stdout/stderr output goes to both regular
destination and IDE
2 (redirect) stdout/stderr output goes to IDE only.
== ===========================================================
IDE ::
stdout -i transaction_id -c 1
debugger engine ::
<response command="stdout"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
8. Extended Commands
====================
A IDE can query the debugger engine by using the feature_get command
(see above). The feature strings for extended commands defined in this
specification are the same as the command itself. For commands not
listed in this specification, the prefix is 'xcmd_name'. Vendor or language
specific commands may be prefixed with 'xcmd_vendorname_name'.
8.1 stdin
---------
The stdin command has nearly the same arguments and responses as
stdout and stderr from the core commands (section 7). Since
redirecting stdin may be very difficult to support in some
languages, it is provided as an optional command. Uses for
this command would primarily be for remote console operations.
If an IDE wishes to redirect stdin, or cancel the stdin redirection,
then it must send the stdin command with the -c argument, without
any data. After the IDE has redirected stdin, it can send more
stdin commands with the data. Sending both the -c argument and
data in the same command is invalid.
If the IDE requests stdin, it will *always* be a redirection,
and the debugger engine must not accept stdin from any other
source. The debugger engine may choose to not allow stdin to be
redirected in certain situations (such as when running under
a web server).
== ============================================================
-c [0|1] 0 - disable, 1 - redirection ::
0 (disable) stdin is read from the regular place
1 (redirect) stdin is read from stdin packets received
from the IDE.
== ============================================================
IDE ::
stdin -i transaction_id -c 1
stdin -i transaction_id -- base64(data)
debugger engine ::
<response command="stdin"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
8.2 break
---------
This command can be sent to interrupt the execution of the
debugger engine while it is in a 'run state'.
IDE ::
break -i transaction_id
debugger engine ::
<response command="break"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
8.3 eval
--------
Evaluate a given string within the current execution context. A
property element MAY be returned as a child element of the
response, but the IDE MUST NOT expect one. The string being evaluated
may be an expression or a code segment to be executed. Languages, such
as Python, which have separate statements for these, will need to handle
both appropriately. For implementations that need to be more explicit, use
the expr or exec commands below.
IDE ::
eval -i transaction_id -- {DATA}
debugger engine ::
<response command="eval"
success="0|1"
transaction_id="transaction_id">
<property .../>
</response>
8.3.1 expr
^^^^^^^^^^
expr, short for expression, uses the same command and response as eval above,
except that it is limited to evaluating expressions. Only some languages
support this functionality. expr should always return a property element
if the expression is evaluated successfully. This command is specified for
those applications that may need to implement this specific functionality.
General uses of the protocol should not expect to find this command available,
and should rely on eval above.
8.3.2 exec
^^^^^^^^^^
exec, short for execute, uses the same command and response as eval above,
except that it is limited to executing code fragments. Only some languages
support this functionality. An IDE should not expect exec to return a value.
This command is specified for those applications that may need to implement
this specific functionality. General uses of the protocol should not expect
to find this command available, and should rely on eval above.
8.4 spawnpoints
---------------
Spawnpoints are points in (currently Tcl) file where a new debug session
might (i.e. if this position is a point in the code where a new application
is created) get spawned when hit. Spawnpoints are treated much like a
different type of breakpoint: They share many of the same attributes as
breakpoints, using a *type=="spawn"* to distinguish themselves. Spawnpoints
have an equivalent set of commands. A failure in any spawnpoint commands
results in an error defined in `section 6.5`_.
The following DBGP commands relate to spawnpoints:
================== =================================================
spawnpoint_set_ Set a new spawnpoint on the session.
spawnpoint_get_ Get spawnpoint info for the given spawnpoint id.
spawnpoint_update_ Update one or more attributes of a spawnpoint.
spawnpoint_remove_ Remove the given spawnpoint on the session.
spawnpoint_list_ Get a list of all of the session's spawnpoints.
================== =================================================
.. _spawnpoint_set: `8.4.1 spawnpoint_set`_
.. _spawnpoint_get: `8.4.2 spawnpoint_get`_
.. _spawnpoint_update: `8.4.3 spawnpoint_update`_
.. _spawnpoint_remove: `8.4.4 spawnpoint_remove`_
.. _spawnpoint_list: `8.4.5 spawnpoint_list`_
A spawnpoint has the following attributes:
================== ======================================================
type always set to "spawn"
filename The file the spawnpoint is effective in. This must be
a "file://" URI.
lineno Line number on which spawnpoint is effective. Line
numbers are 1-based. If an implementation requires a
numeric value to indicate that *lineno* is not set,
it is suggested that -1 be used, although this is not
enforced.
state Current state of the spawnpoint. This must be one of
*enabled*, *disabled*.
================== ======================================================
Spawnpoints should be maintained in the debugger engine at an application
level, not the thread level. Debugger engines that support thread debugging
MUST provide spawnpoint id's that are global for the application, and must
use all spawnpoints for all threads where applicable.
As for any other commands, if there is error the debugger engine should
return an error response as described in `section 6.5`_.
8.4.1 spawnpoint_set
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to set a spawnpoint for the session.
IDE to debugger engine::
spawnpoint_set -i TRANSACTION_ID [<arguments...>]
where the arguments are:
================== =====================================================
-f FILENAME the *filename* to which the spawnpoint belongs
[optional]
-n LINENO the line number (*lineno*) of the spawnpoint
[optional]
-s STATE spawnpoint *state* [optional, defaults to "enabled"]
================== =====================================================
A unique id for this spawnpoint for this session is returned by the debugger
engine. This *session spawnpoint id* is used by the IDE to identify the
spawnpoint in other spawnpoint commands.
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="spawnpoint_set"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"
state="STATE"
id="SPAWNPOINT_ID"/>
where,
================== =====================================================
SPAWNPOINT_ID is an arbitrary string that uniquely identifies this
spawnpoint in the debugger engine.
STATE the initial state of the spawnpoint as set by the
debugger engine
================== =====================================================
8.4.2 spawnpoint_get
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to get spawnpoint information from the
debugger engine.
IDE to debugger engine::
spawnpoint_get -i TRANSACTION_ID -d SPAWNPOINT_ID
where,
================== =====================================================
SPAWNPOINT_ID is the unique *session spawnpoint id* returned by
*spawnpoint_set*.
================== =====================================================
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="spawnpoint_get"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID">
<spawnpoint id="SPAWNPOINT_ID"
state="STATE"
filename="FILENAME"
lineno="LINENO"/>
</response>
8.4.3 spawnpoint_update
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to update one or more attributes of a
spawnpoint that was already set on the debugger engine via *spawnpoint_set*.
IDE to debugger engine::
spawnpoint_update -i TRANSACTION_ID -d SPAWNPOINT_ID [<arguments...>]
where the arguments are as follows. Both arguments are optional, however
at least one should be provided. See spawnpoint_set_ for a description of
each option:
================== =====================================================
-s STATE
-n LINENO
================== =====================================================
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="spawnpoint_update"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"/>
8.4.4 spawnpoint_remove
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to remove the given spawnpoint.
IDE to debugger engine::
spawnpoint_remove -i TRANSACTION_ID -d SPAWNPOINT_ID
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="spawnpoint_remove"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"/>
8.4.5 spawnpoint_list
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This command is used by the IDE to get spawnpoint information for all
spawnpoints that the debugger engine has.
IDE to debugger engine::
spawnpoint_list -i TRANSACTION_ID
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="spawnpoint_list"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID">
<spawnpoint id="SPAWNPOINT_ID"
state="STATE"
filename="FILENAME"
lineno="LINENO"/>
<spawnpoint .../>
...
</response>
8.5 Notifications
-----------------
At times it may be desirable to recieve a notification from the debugger
engine for various events. This notification tag allows for some simple
data to be passed from the debugger engine to the IDE. Customized
implementations may add child elements for additional data.
As an example, this is usefull for handling STDIN. The debugger engine
interupts all STDIN reads, and when a read is done by the application, it sends
a notification to the IDE. The IDE is then able to do something to let the user
know the application is waiting for input, such as placing a cursor in the
debugger output window.
A new feature name is introduced: notify_ok. The IDE will call feature_set
with the notify_ok name and a TRUE value. This lets the debugger engine know
that it can send notifications to the IDE. If the IDE has not set this value,
or sets it to FALSE, then the debugger engine MUST NOT send notifications to
the IDE.
The debugger engine MUST NOT expect a notification to cause an IDE to behave
in any particular way, or even to be handled by the IDE at all.
A proxy may also use notifications, during a debug session, to let the IDE know
about events that happen in the proxy. To do this, the proxy will have to
listen for feature_set commands and keep track of the values set, as well as
passing them through to the debugger engine.
IDE initialization of notifications::
feature_set -i TRANSACTION_ID -n notify_ok -- base64(1)
debugger engine notifications to IDE::
<notify name="notification_name">
TEXT_NODE or CDATA
<custom.../>
</notify>
8.5.1 Standard Notifications
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The following list of notifications are standardized for the protocol. Other
notifications may be added by other implementations. It is suggested that
notification names not found in this document are preceeded with 'XXX' or some
similar tag as a means of preventing name conflicts when new notifications get
added to the protocol in the future.
======= =====================================================
Name Description
======= =====================================================
stdin notification occurs when the debugger engine is about
to read the stdin pipe.
======= =====================================================
8.6 interact - Interactive Shell
--------------------------------
The interact command allows an IDE to send chunks of code to be compiled and
executed by the debugger engine. While this is similar to the eval command,
it has a couple important differences.
First, it buffers code sent to it until a successful compile is achieved. The
buffering allows the IDE to send a line of code for each call to the interact
command, which reflects a user typing code into a console. Each line is joined
in the debugger engine with a newline character. As soon as a successful
compile happens, the code is run and any output returned to the IDE (via
stdout/stderr or otherwise).
Second, it returns a prompt string that can be used by the IDE as an input
prompt for the user.
The interact command can only be called during a break or interactive state.
The debugger engine implementation MAY also be designed to work in
and interactive-only mode, where there is no script being debugged, and
all code is received through the interact command. This allows the
protocol to be utilized for the purpose of a pure interactive shell
for the language.
Control characters should be sent in the data section of the command, and the
debugger engine should handle the control characters in a way that is expected
by the implementation. These characters can include Ctrl-C (KeyboardInterupt
in Python) and other such console like controls. The IDE should not expect
the debugger engine to handle control characters in any specific way.
The IDE can query the debugger engine for interact support using the
feature_get command.
The 'filename' in the stack for an interactive session should be '<console>'
or some other string to denote a console stack level.
The debugger engine is not required to enable debugging of code
recieved via the interact command, however it should provide access
to other information, such as the variables retrieved via context_get.
IDE to debugger engine::
interact -i TRANSACTION_ID -m mode -- base64(code)
where,
======== ==========================================
-m mode a mode of zero tells the interact command
to clear the buffer and any other state
that was maintained for previous interact
commands. The prompt attribute returned
should be an empty string.
======== ==========================================
debugger engine to IDE::
<response command="interact"
transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"
status="STATUS_NAME"
more="CONTINUE_FLAG"
prompt="PROMPT" />
where,
============= ========================================
STATUS_NAME A valid status name from the list of
status names in section 7.1. A new name
is added specificaly for this command
which is 'interactive'. The interactive
status is returned unless the mode in the
command was zero, in which case the
status will be up to the debugger engine
(typically the last status before running
interact), or some error has occured
that causes a different status.
CONTINUE_FLAG a boolean which is true if the interact
command requires more code to compile
successfully
PROMPT a string containing the prompt for the
next line of code
============= ========================================
A. ChangeLog
============
2004-05-12
- 7.2 reorganize the feature names, add a couple missing names
(supports_postmortem, show_hidden, notify_ok).
2004-04-05
- 8.5 New notification support
- 8.6 New interact command
2004-02-20
- 1.2 moved the change log to appendix A
- 5 massive reorganization of section 5
- 5.3 expanded description of proxies and just in time debugging.
- 5.4 expand description of multisession and multithreaded debugging.
- 7.2 A new feature name, breakpoint_languages, has been added. This option
is only required if the engine supports more than one language.
- 7.2 and 7.3 Remove crufty documentation that still referred to old binary
protocol information.
- 7.6.1 For conditional breakpoints the expression has been moved to the data
section of the command.
- 8.3 remove the length argument in the eval command, it is unnecessary.
- 8.3 be more explicit about how eval works, add 8.3.1 expr and 8.3.2 exec as
additional optional commands that can be used in special implementations.
- 8.4 Remove the 'delete' state, this was old and removed in breakpoints.
2004-01-28
- 7.8 Fix cmdbegin/end attributes for stack_get
2004-01-09
- 5.1 New DBGP_IDEKEY environment variable
2004-01-07
- 7.5 renamed the stop and kill commands to detach and stop, added
some clarification to the description of the commands.
2003-12-16
- 7.6, 8.4 re-write the breakpoint and spawnpoint sections to be clearer
2003-12-09
- 6.7 new section describing dbgp file protocol
- 7.6 better document breakpoints
2003-12-05
- 6 Change the deliminator for command data to '--'. This conforms to
standard getopt libraries.
- 7.11 remove the recursive attribute, if an IDE wants to handle
circular references, it can do so based on the address attribute if
the engine provides it.
2003-12-02
- 7.6 remove breakpoint_enable/disable, and add breakpoint_update
command. Enable/disable states are changed through breakpoint_update.
- 8.4 new (optional) spawnpoint commands
2003-11-25
- 7.6 Change the breakpoint *hits* and *ignore* attributes to *hit_count*,
*hit_value* and *hit_condition* to add functionality available in VS.NET
and to simplify usage. Also clarify some other breakpoint attribute legal
values.
2003-11-24
- 7.5 correct the stop command documentation, stop is 'detach', and
does not allow for continued interaction. Document how expressions
are returned from breakpoint_get.
- 7.8 correct old documentation on the stack element. Add new
attributes: where, cmdbegin, cmdlength. Provide further documentation
about all the attributes.
2003-11-20
- 5.1 better define session keys vs. ide key for proxy, document how
proxy works better.
- 7.6 better document attributes and hit option
2003-11-18
- 7.1 Clarify stopping and stopped states
- 7.5 Clarify the stop command
- 7.6 Remove 'temporary' as a status for breakpoints, make it an option
in the command line. Remove the 'function' breakpoint type, provide
two new types, 'call' and 'return'. Add 'hits' option to allow a
breakpoint to be ignored a number of times before being used.
2003-11-12
- draft 12
- Rest markup tweaks
2003-11-09
- draft 11
- 7.12 new section inserted as 7.12. This section specifies common
data types, and how to map more specific data types to the the common
types.
- 7.11 two new optional attributes, classname and facet, that provide
additional hints to the IDE about the nature of the property. New
key attribute for language specific keys to properties.
- 6.5 new section, 6.5.1 for defining common error codes.
2003-11-05
- spelling fixes
- 5.1 change proxy options
- 7.6 clarify breakpoint command options
- 7.12 fix old text about context names
2003-10-15
- 6 remove the first NULL in the command structure from IDE to debugger
engine. This makes dealing with those commands easier.
- 6.6 NEW File paths must be URI's.
- 7 source command returns the source for the current context if no
file uri is provided.
- 7 added sub-item numbering
- 7.1 clarify the status values
- 8 added sub-item numbering
2003-10-09
- 7 remove run_to, unnecessary
- 7 remove 'step', there is no generic step command
- 7 clarify continuation commands
- 7 clarify breakpoints
2003-10-07
- more layout changes for reStructuredText
2003-10-06
- reformat to `reStructuredText markup
<http://docutils.sourceforge.net/spec/rst/reStructuredText.html>`_
- 6 clarify message packets
- 6.3 clarify command packets
- 7 clarify feature_get/set
- 7 allow error results on breakpoints if a type of breakpoint
is not supported by a debugger engine.
- 7 add recursive attribute to properties, and clarify the
address attribute and how recursive data is handled.
- 7,8 moved stdin to the optional commands section
2003-10-02
- 5.1 changed proxy error to be the same as that in 6.5
- 5.1 the IDE and proxy ports have been defined to 9000/9001
- 5.3 exclude protocol overhead from data size definition
- 6.2 changed typo 'stdin and stdout' to 'stdout and stderr'
- 6.5 changed error id to error code
- 7 removed comments on 'body' from the run commands
- 7 clarified 'source' command arguments to be optional
- 7 added 'disable' option to stdin/out/err commands
- 7 breakpoint arguments and types have been better defined since
not all arguments need to be required for all types
- 7 the expression breakpoint type has been removed since it is
covered by the conditional breakpoint type
2003-09-30
- section numbers added, changes below are marked with the section
number
- 3 Terminology changed (frontend -> IDE, backend -> debugger engine)
- 5.1 added response packet from proxy to IDE when IDE issues the
proxyinit command.
- 5.1 the proxy now adds a proxyclientid to the init packet from
the debugger engine when it passes the packet through to the IDE.
- 5.1 the proxy must be able to send errors to the IDE, for instance,
if it looses the connection to the debugger engine.
- 5.1 the proxy must be able to send errors to the Debugger, for
instance, if it looses the connection to the IDE.
- 5.3 added new section to help better define feature negotiation
with feature_get/set commands.
- 6 packets have been better defined. This section has also been
reorganized.
- 6.2 the communication of packets has been rewritten.
- 7 feature_get/set have some modifications.
- 7 context_get and property_* commands have been modified to better
reflect negotiation of features using the feature_get/set commands.
- 7 property_* commands have been commented a bit more, and an
additional argument is available for paging arrays, etc.
- 7 The definition of the property tag has been modified
- 7 stdin command has been modified, the debugger engine may choose
to not redirect stdin.
- 7 status command modified to support the async state
- 7 source command now accepts begin and end line arguments for
retrieving only parts of a file.
- 7 stack_get now defines an enumeration for the stack
- 8 break command clarified so it can only be sent while the debugger
engine is in a run state.
- 8 eval can return a property as part of the response
[FILE: /xdebug/docs/gdb.txt]
GDB - A GDB commandline like protocol to interact with Xdebug
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
:Version: 1.0
:Status: draft 1
:Authors: - Derick Rethans <derick[@]xdebug.org>
.. contents::
1. Description
==============
This document describes a simple GDB-like protocol to interact with
Xdebug with a simple client. The protocol is a text based protocol
for easy implementation and human readability, it is not meant to be
implemented in a GUI debugger.
The protocol provides a means of communication between a debugger engine
(Xdebug) and a debugger client (such as Xdebug 1.3's bundled client).
The structure (and some of the text) in this specification are reused from
the `DBGp specifications <http://xdebug.org/docs-dbgp.php>`_.
2. Terminology
==============
debug client
A client to interact with the debugger engine.
debugger engine
The language engine being debugged.
TRUE
a value defined as TRUE should be a numeric one.
FALSE
a value defined as FALSE should be a numeric zero.
3. Initiating a debugging session
=================================
The debugger engine initiates a debugging session. The debugger engine
will make a connection to a listening debug client, then wait for the debug
client to initiate commands. The debugger engine does not step into the first
line of execution until the IDE issues one of the continuation commands. The
first thing that should happen in a debug session is that the debug client
sets options with the option command, and sets
any additional data, such as breakpoints. Debugger engine implementations
should store and data it receives if it is unable to process them prior to
compiling and/or executing code. Only commands from the "init" section
can be used at this stage.
3.1 Standard GDB port
----------------------
The debug client listens by default on port 17869 for debugger connections, but
this port might be configurable.
.. 5.2 Connection Initialization
.. -----------------------------
..
.. When a debugger engine connects to either a IDE or proxy, it must send an
.. init packet: ::
..
.. <init appid="APPID"
.. idekey="IDE_KEY"
.. session="DBGP_COOKIE"
.. thread="THREAD_ID"
.. parent="PARENT_APPID"
.. language="LANGUAGE_NAME"
.. protocol_version="1.0"
.. fileuri="file://path/to/file">
..
..
.. Attributes in the init element can include:
..
.. =============== ========================================================
.. Attribute Description
.. =============== ========================================================
.. appid defined by the debugger engine
.. idekey defined by the user. The DBGP_IDEKEY environment
.. variable SHOULD be used if it is available,
.. otherwise setting this value is debugger engine
.. implementation specific. This value may be empty.
.. session If the environment variable DBGP_COOKIE exists,
.. then the init packet MUST contain a session
.. attribute with the value of the variable. This
.. allows an IDE to execute a debugger engine, and
.. maintain some state information between the
.. execution and the protocol connection. This value
.. should not be expected to be set in 'remote'
.. debugging situations where the IDE is not in
.. control of the process.
.. thread_id the systems thread id
.. parent_appid the appid of the application that spawned the
.. process. When an application is executed, it
.. should set it's APPID into the environment.
.. If an APPID already exists, it should first
.. read that value and use it as the PARENT_APPID.
.. language_name debugger engine specific, must not contain
.. additional information, such as version, etc.
.. protocol The highest version of this protocol supported
.. fileuri URI of the script file being debugged
.. =============== ========================================================
..
.. The IDE responds by dropping socket connection, or starting with
.. debugger commands.
..
.. The init packet may have child elements for additional vendor specific
.. data. These are entirely optional and must not effect behavior
.. of the debugger interaction. Suggested child elements include: ::
..
.. <engine version="1.abcd">product title</engine>
.. <author>author</author>
.. <company>company</company>
.. <license>licensing info</license>
.. <url>url</url>
.. <copyright>xxx</copyright>
..
.. 5.3 Just in time debugging and debugger proxies
.. -----------------------------------------------
..
.. Proxies are supported to allow multiuser systems work with a defined
.. port for debugging. Each IDE would listen on a unique port and notify the
.. proxy what port it is listening on, along with a key value that is used by
.. the debugger engine to specify which IDE it should be connected with.
..
.. With the exception of the init packet, all communications
.. will be passed through without modifications. A proxy could also implement
.. support for just in time debugging. In this case, a debugger engine would
.. break (perhaps on an error or exception) and connect to the proxy. The proxy
.. would then start the IDE (if it is not already running) and initiate a
.. debugging session with it.
..
.. The method for handling just in time debugging is not defined by the protocol
.. and is implementation specific. One example of how this may work is that the
.. proxy has a configuration file that defines key's for each user, along with
.. the path to the executable that will provide the UI for that user. The debugger
.. engine would have to know this key value in advance and provide it to the proxy
.. in the init packet (see IDE_KEY in section 5.2). The proxy would know if the
.. IDE is running, since the IDE should have communicated with the proxy already,
.. if it has not, the proxy could execute the IDE directly.
..
.. To support proxies and jit deamons, the IDE should be configured with
.. and ip:port pointing to the proxy/jit. The IDE then makes a
.. connection to the proxy when it starts and sends the following command:
..
.. IDE command ::
..
.. proxyinit -a ip:port -k ide_key -m [0|1]
..
.. == ========================================================
.. -p the port that the IDE listens for debugging on. The address
.. is retrieved from the connection information.
.. -k a IDE key, which the debugger engine will also use in it's
.. debugging init command. this allows the proxy to match
.. request to IDE. Typically the user will provide the
.. session key as a configuration item.
.. -m this tells the demon that the IDE supports (or doesn't)
.. multiple debugger sessions. if -m is missing, zero or no
.. support is default.
.. == ========================================================
..
.. IDE command ::
..
.. proxystop -k ide_key
..
.. The IDE sends a proxystop command when it wants the proxy
.. server to stop listening for it.
..
.. The proxy should respond with a simple XML statement alerting the
.. IDE to an error, or the success of the initialization (see section
.. 6.5 for more details on the error element). ::
..
.. <proxyinit success="[0|1]"
.. idekey="{ID}">
.. <error id="app_specific_error_code">
.. <message>UI Usable Message</message>
.. </error>
.. </proxyinit>
..
.. Once the IDE has sent this command, and received a confirmation, it
.. disconnects from the proxy. The IDE will only connect to the proxy
.. when it initially wants to start accepting connections from the proxy,
.. or when it wants to stop accepting connections from the proxy.
..
.. 5.3.1 Init Packet Handling
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. If a proxy receives the init packet (see section 5.2), it will use the
.. idekey attribute to pass the request to the correct IDE, or to do some
.. other operation such as which may be required to implement security or
.. initiate just in time debugging. The proxy will add the idekey as a attribute
.. to the init packet when it passes it through to the IDE. The proxy may
.. also add child elements with further information, and must add an
.. attribute to the init element called 'proxied' with the attribute
.. value being the ip address of the debugger engine. This is the only
.. time the proxy should modify data being passed to the IDE.
..
.. 5.3.2 Proxy Errors
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. If the proxy must send error data to the IDE, it may send an XML
.. message with the root element named 'proxyerror'. This message will
.. be in the format of the error packets defined in 6.3 below.
..
.. If the proxy must send error data to the debugger engine, it may
.. send the proxyerror command defined in section 7 below.
..
.. 5.3.3 Proxy Ports
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. The proxy listens for IDE connections on port 9001, and for debugger
.. engine connections on port 9000. As with section 5.1, these ports may
.. be configurable in the implementation.
..
.. 5.5 Feature Negotiation
.. -----------------------
..
.. Although the IDE may at any time during the debugging session send
.. feature_get or feature_set commands, the IDE should be designed to
.. negotiate the base set of features up front. Differing languages and
.. debugger engines may operate in many ways, and the IDE should be
.. prepared to handle these differences. Likewise, the IDE may dictate
.. certain features or capabilities be supported by the debugger engine.
.. In any case, the IDE should strive to work with all debugger engines
.. that support this protocol. Therefore, this section describes a
.. minimal set of features the debugger engine must support. These
.. required features are outlined here in the form of discussion,
.. actual implementation of feature arguments are detailed in section 7
.. under the feature_get and feature_set commands.
..
..
.. 6. Message Packets
.. ==================
..
.. The IDE sends simple ASCII commands to the debugger engine. The
.. debugger engine responds with XML data. The XML data is prepended
.. with a stringified integer representing the length of the XML data
.. packet. The length and XML data are separated by a NULL byte. The
.. XML data is ended with a NULL byte. Neither the IDE or debugger engine
.. packets may contain NULL bytes within the packet since it is used as
.. a separator. Binary data must be encoded using base64. ::
..
.. IDE: command [SPACE] [args] -- data [NULL]
.. DEBUGGER: [NUMBER] [NULL] XML(data) [NULL]
..
.. Arguments to the IDE commands are in the same format as common command
.. line arguments, and should be parseable by common code such as getopt,
.. or Pythons Cmd module: ::
..
.. command -a value -b value ...
..
.. All numbers in the protocol are base 10 string representations, unless
.. the number is noted to be debugger engine specific (eg. the address
.. attribute on property elements).
..
.. 6.1 Why not XML both ways?
.. --------------------------
..
.. The primary reason is to avoid the requirement that a debugger
.. engine has an XML parser available. XML is easy to generate, but
.. requires additional libraries for parsing.
..
..
.. 6.2 Packet Communications
.. -------------------------
..
.. The IDE sends a command, then waits for a response from the
.. debugger engine. If the command is not received in a reasonable
.. time (implementation dependent) it may assume the debugger engine
.. has entered a non-responsive state. The exception to this is when
.. the IDE sends a 'continuation' command which may not have an immediate response.
..
.. 'continuation' commands include, but may not be limited to: run, step_into,
.. step_over, step_out and eval. When the debugger engine
.. receives such a command, it is considered to have entered a
.. 'run state'.
..
.. During a 'continuation' command, the IDE should expect to possibly receive
.. stdin and/or stderr packets from the debugger engine prior to
.. receiving a response to the command itself. It may also possibly
.. receive error packets from either the debugger engine, or a proxy
.. if one is in use, either prior to the 'continuation' response, or in response
.. to any other command.
..
.. Stdout and stderr, if requested by the IDE, may only be sent during
.. commands that have put the debugger engine into a 'run' state.
..
.. If the debugger engine supports asynchronous commands, the IDE may also
.. send commands while the debugger engine is in a 'run' state. These
.. commands should be limited to commands such as the 'break' or 'status'
.. commands for performance reasons, but this protocol does not impose
.. such limitations. The debugger engine MUST respond to these commands
.. prior to responding to the original 'run' command.
..
.. An example of communication between IDE and debugger engines. (this
.. is not an example of the actual protocol.) ::
..
.. IDE: feature_get supports_async
.. DBG: yes
.. IDE: stdin redirect
.. DBG: ok
.. IDE: stderr redirect
.. DBG: ok
.. IDE: run
.. DBG: stdin data...
.. DBG: stdin data...
.. DBG: reached breakpoint, done running
.. IDE: give me some variables
.. DBG: ok, here they are
.. IDE: evaluate this expression
.. DBG: stderr data...
.. DBG: ok, done
.. IDE: run
.. IDE: break
.. DBG: ok, breaking
.. DBG: at breakpoint, done running
.. IDE: stop
.. DBG: good bye
..
..
.. 6.3 IDE to debugger engine communications
.. -----------------------------------------
..
.. A debugging IDE (IDE) sends commands to the debugger engine in
.. the form of command line arguments. One argument that is included in
.. all commands is the data length. The data itself is the last part of
.. the command line. The data may be binary data if the encoding argument
.. is 'binary'. ::
..
.. command [SPACE] [arguments] [SPACE] base64(data) [NULL]
..
.. Standard arguments for all commands ::
..
.. -i Transaction ID
.. unique for each command generated by the IDE
..
.. 6.4 debugger engine to IDE communications
.. -----------------------------------------
..
.. The debugger engine always replies or sends XML data. The standard
.. namespace for the root elements returned from the debugger
.. engine MUST be "urn:debugger_protocol_v1". Namespaces have been left
.. out in the examples in this document. The messages sent by the
.. debugger engine must always be NULL terminated. The XML document tag
.. must always be present to provide XML version and encoding information.
..
.. Two base tags are used for the root tags: ::
..
.. data_length
.. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
.. <response command="command_name"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
..
.. data_length
.. <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
.. <stream type="stdout|stderr">...Base64 Data...</stream>
..
.. For simplification, data length and NULL bytes will be left out of the
.. rest of the examples in this document.
..
.. 6.5 debugger engine errors
.. --------------------------
..
.. A debugger engine may need to relay error information back to the IDE in
.. response to any command. The debugger engine may add an error element
.. as a child of the response element. Note that this is not the same
.. as getting language error messages, such as exception data. This is
.. specifically a debugger engine error in response to a IDE
.. command. IDEs and debugger engines may elect to support additional
.. child elements in the error element, but should namespace the elements
.. to avoid conflicts with other implementations. ::
..
.. <response command="command_name"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id">
.. <error code="error_code" apperr="app_specific_error_code">
.. <message>UI Usable Message</message>
.. </error>
.. </response>
..
.. 6.5.1 Error Codes
.. -----------------
..
.. The following are predefined error codes for the response to commands:
..
.. 000 Command parsing errors ::
..
.. 0 - no error
.. 1 - parse error in command
.. 2 - duplicate arguments in command
.. 3 - invalid options (ie, missing a required option)
.. 4 - Unimplemented command
.. 5 - Command not available (Is used for async commands. For instance
.. if the engine is in state "run" than only "break" and "status"
.. are available).
..
.. 100 File related errors ::
..
.. 100 - can not open file (as a reply to a "source" command if the
.. requested source file can't be opened)
.. 101 - stream redirect failed
..
.. 200 Breakpoint, or code flow errors ::
..
.. 200 - breakpoint could not be set (for some reason the breakpoint
.. could not be set due to problems registering it)
.. 201 - breakpoint type not supported (for example I don't support
.. 'watch' yet and thus return this error)
.. 202 - invalid breakpoint (the IDE tried to set a breakpoint on a
.. line that does not exist in the file (ie "line 0" or lines
.. past the end of the file)
.. 203 - no code on breakpoint line (the IDE tried to set a breakpoint
.. on a line which does not have any executable code. The
.. debugger engine is NOT required to return this type if it
.. is impossible to determine if there is code on a given
.. location. (For example, in the PHP debugger backend this
.. will only be returned in some special cases where the current
.. scope falls into the scope of the breakpoint to be set)).
.. 204 - Invalid breakpoint state (using an unsupported breakpoint state
.. was attempted)
.. 205 - No such breakpoint (used in breakpoint_get etc. to show that
.. there is no breakpoint with the given ID)
.. 206 - Error evaluating code (use from eval() (or perhaps
.. property_get for a full name get))
.. 207 - Invalid expression (the expression used for a non-eval()
.. was invalid)
..
.. 300 Data errors ::
..
.. 300 - Can not get property (when the requested property to get did
.. not exist, this is NOT used for an existing but uninitialized
.. property, which just gets the type "uninitialised" (See:
.. PreferredTypeNames)).
.. 301 - Stack depth invalid (the -d stack depth parameter did not
.. exist (ie, there were less stack elements than the number
.. requested) or the parameter was < 0)
.. 302 - Context invalid (an non existing context was requested)
..
.. 900 Protocol errors ::
..
.. 900 - Encoding not supported
.. 998 - An internal exception in the debugger occurred
.. 999 - Unknown error
..
..
.. 6.6 file paths
.. --------------
..
.. All file paths passed between the IDE and debugger engine must be in
.. the URI format specified by IETF RFC 1738 and 2396, and must be
.. absolute paths.
..
.. 6.7 Dynamic code and virtual files
.. ----------------------------------
..
.. The protocol reserves the URI scheme 'dbgp' for all virtual
.. files generated and maintained by language engines. Such
.. virtual files are usually managed by a language engine for
.. dynamic code blocks, i.e. code created at runtime, without
.. an association with a regular file. Any IDE seeing an URI
.. with the 'dbgp' scheme has to use the 'source' command (See
.. section 7.14) to obtain the contents of the file from the
.. engine responsible for that URI.
..
.. All URIs in that scheme have the form:
..
.. dbgp:engine-specific-identifier
..
.. The engine-specific-identifier is some string which the debugger engine
.. uses to keep track of the specific virtual file. The IDE must return
.. the URI to the debugger engine unchanged through the source command to
.. retrieve the virtual file.
..
.. 7. Core Commands
.. ================
..
.. Both IDE and debugger engine must support all core commands.
..
..
.. 7.2 Options and Configuration
.. -----------------------------
..
.. The feature commands are used to request feature support from the debugger
.. engine. This includes configuration options, some of which may be changed via
.. feature_set, the ability to discover support for implemented commands, and to
.. discover values for various features, such as the language version or name.
..
.. An example of usage would be to send a feature request with the string 'stdin'
.. to find out if the engine supports redirection of the stdin stream through the
.. debugger socket. The debugger engine must consider all commands as keys for this
.. command, but may also have keys that are for features that do not map directly
.. to commands.
..
.. 7.2.1 Feature Names
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. The following features strings MUST be available:
..
.. ========================= ======= ==========================================
.. language_supports_threads get [0|1]
.. language_name get {eg. PHP, Python, Perl}
.. language_version get {version string}
.. encoding get current encoding in use by
.. the debugger session
.. protocol_version get {for now, always 1}
.. supports_async get {for commands such as break}
.. data_encoding get optional, allows to turn off
.. the default base64 encoding of data. This
.. should only be used for development and
.. debugging of the debugger engines
.. themselves, and not for general use. If
.. implemented the value 'base64' must be
.. supported to turn back on regular
.. encoding. the value 'none' means no
.. encoding is in use. all elements that use
.. encoding must include an encoding
.. attribute.
.. breakpoint_languages get some engines may support more than one
.. language. This feature returns a string
.. which is a comma separated list of
.. supported languages. **If the engine does
.. not provide this feature, then it is
.. assumed that the engine only supports the
.. language defined in the feature
.. language_name.** One example of this is an
.. XSLT debugger engine which supports XSLT,
.. XML, HTML and XHTML. An IDE may need this
.. information to to know what types of
.. breakpoints an engine will accept.
.. multiple_sessions get|set {0|1}
.. encoding get|set {ISO8859-15, UTF-8, etc.}
.. max_children get|set max number of array or object
.. children to initially retrieve
.. max_data get|set max amount of variable data to
.. get|set initially retrieve.
.. max_depth get|set maximum depth that the debugger
.. engine may return when sending arrays,
.. hashs or object structures to the IDE.
.. data_encoding get|set see feature_get
.. ========================= ======= ==========================================
..
.. The following features strings MAY be available, if they are not, the IDE should
.. assume that the feature is not available:
..
.. ========================= ======= ==========================================
.. supports_postmortem get [0|1] This feature lets an IDE know that
.. there is benefit to continuing interaction
.. during the STOPPING state (sect. 7.1).
.. show_hidden get|set [0|1] This feature can get set by the IDE
.. if it wants to have more detailed internal
.. information on properties (eg. private
.. members of classes, etc.) Zero means that
.. hidden members are not shown to the IDE.
.. notify_ok get|set [0|1] See section 8.5
.. ========================= ======= ==========================================
..
.. Additionally, all protocol commands supported must have a string,
.. such as the following examples: ::
..
.. breakpoint_set
.. break
.. eval
..
.. 7.2.3 feature_set
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. The feature set command allows a IDE to tell the debugger engine what additional
.. capabilities it has. One example of this would be telling the debugger engine
.. whether the IDE supports multiple debugger sessions (for threads, etc.). The
.. debugger engine responds with telling the IDE whether it has enabled the feature
.. or not.
..
.. Note: The IDE does not have to listen for additional debugger connections if it
.. does not support debugging multiple sessions. debugger engines must handle
.. connection failures gracefully.
..
.. arguments for feature_set include:
..
.. == ==========================================
.. -n feature_name
.. -v value to be set
.. == ==========================================
..
.. feature_set can be called at any time during a debug session to
.. change values previously set. This allows a IDE to change
.. encodings.
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. feature_set -i transaction_id -n feature-name -v value
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="feature_set"
.. feature="feature_name"
.. success="0|1"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
..
..
.. 7.5 continuation commands
.. -------------------------
..
.. resume the execution of the application.
..
.. run:
.. starts or resumes the script until a new breakpoint is reached,
.. or the end of the script is reached.
..
.. step_into:
.. steps to the next statement, if there is a function call
.. involved it will break on the first statement in that function
..
.. step_over:
.. steps to the next statement, if there is a function call on the
.. line from which the step_over is issued then the debugger engine
.. will stop at the statement after the function call in the same
.. scope as from where the command was issued
..
.. step_out:
.. steps out of the current scope and breaks on the statement after
.. returning from the current function. (Also called 'finish' in
.. GDB)
..
.. stop:
.. ends execution of the script immediately, the debugger engine may
.. not respond, though if possible should be designed to do so.
.. The script will be terminated right away and be followed by a
.. disconnection of the network connection from the IDE (and debugger
.. engine if required in multi request apache processes).
..
.. detach (optional):
.. stops interaction with the debugger engine. Once this command
.. is executed, the IDE will no longer be able to communicate with
.. the debugger engine. This does not end execution of the script
.. as does the stop command above, but rather detaches from debugging.
.. Support of this continuation command is optional, and the IDE should
.. verify support for it via the feature_get command. If the IDE has
.. created stdin/stdout/stderr pipes for execution of the script
.. (eg. an interactive shell or other console to catch script output),
.. it should keep those open and usable by the process until the process
.. has terminated normally.
..
.. The response to a continue command is a status response (see
.. status above). The debugger engine does not send this response
.. immediately, but rather when it reaches a breakpoint, or ends
.. execution for any other reason.
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. run -i transaction_id
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="run"
.. status="starting"
.. reason="ok"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
..
.. 7.6 breakpoints
.. ---------------
..
.. Breakpoints are locations or conditions at which a debugger engine
.. pauses execution, responds to the IDE, and waits for further commands
.. from the IDE. A failure in any breakpoint commands results in an
.. error defined in `section 6.5`_.
..
..
.. The following DBGP commands relate to breakpoints:
..
.. ================== =================================================
.. breakpoint_set_ Set a new breakpoint on the session.
.. breakpoint_get_ Get breakpoint info for the given breakpoint id.
.. breakpoint_update_ Update one or more attributes of a breakpoint.
.. breakpoint_remove_ Remove the given breakpoint on the session.
.. breakpoint_list_ Get a list of all of the session's breakpoints.
.. ================== =================================================
..
.. .. _breakpoint_set: `7.6.1 breakpoint_set`_
.. .. _breakpoint_get: `7.6.2 breakpoint_get`_
.. .. _breakpoint_update: `7.6.3 breakpoint_update`_
.. .. _breakpoint_remove: `7.6.4 breakpoint_remove`_
.. .. _breakpoint_list: `7.6.5 breakpoint_list`_
..
..
.. There are six different breakpoints *types*:
..
.. ============== =========== =========================================
.. Type Req'd Attrs Description
.. ============== =========== =========================================
.. line filename, break on the given lineno in the given
.. lineno file
.. call function break on entry into new stack for
.. function name
.. return function break on exit from stack for function
.. name
.. exception exception break on exception of the given name
.. conditional expression break when the given expression is true
.. at the given filename and line number or
.. just in given filename
.. watch expression break on write of the variable or address
.. defined by the expression argument
.. ============== =========== =========================================
..
..
.. A breakpoint has the following attributes. Note that some attributes are only
.. applicable for some breakpoint types.
..
.. ================== ======================================================
.. type breakpoint type (see table above for valid types)
.. filename The file the breakpoint is effective in. This must be
.. a "file://" URI.
.. lineno Line number on which breakpoint is effective. Line
.. numbers are 1-based. If an implementation requires a
.. numeric value to indicate that *lineno* is not set,
.. it is suggested that -1 be used, although this is not
.. enforced.
.. state Current state of the breakpoint. This must be one of
.. *enabled*, *disabled*.
.. function Function name for *call* or *return* type
.. breakpoints.
.. temporary Flag to define if breakpoint is temporary. A
.. temporary breakpoint is one that is deleted after its
.. first use. This is useful for features like "Run to
.. Cursor". Once the debugger engine uses a temporary
.. breakpoint, it should automatically remove the breakpoint
.. from it's list of valid breakpoints.
.. hit_count Number of effective hits for the breakpoint in the
.. current session. This value is maintained by the
.. debugger engine (a.k.a. DBGP client). A
.. breakpoint's hit count should be increment whenever
.. it is considered to break execution (i.e. whenever
.. debugging comes to this line). If the breakpoint is
.. *disabled* then the hit count should NOT be
.. incremented.
.. hit_value A numeric value used together with the
.. *hit_condition* to determine if the breakpoint should
.. pause execution or be skipped.
.. hit_condition A string indicating a condition to use to compare
.. *hit_count* and *hit_value*. The following values are
.. legal:
..
.. `>=`
.. break if hit_count is greater than or equal to
.. hit_value [default]
.. `==`
.. break if hit_count is equal to hit_value
.. `%`
.. break if hit_count is a multiple of hit_value
.. exception Exception name for *exception* type breakpoints.
.. ================== ======================================================
..
.. Breakpoints should be maintained in the debugger engine at an application
.. level, not the thread level. Debugger engines that support thread debugging
.. MUST provide breakpoint id's that are global for the application, and must
.. use all breakpoints for all threads where applicable.
..
.. As for any other commands, if there is error the debugger engine should
.. return an error response as described in `section 6.5`_.
..
.. .. _`section 6.5`: `6.5 debugger engine errors`_
..
..
.. 7.6.1 breakpoint_set
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. This command is used by the IDE to set a breakpoint for the session.
..
.. IDE to debugger engine::
..
.. breakpoint_set -i TRANSACTION_ID [<arguments...>] -- base64(expression)
..
.. where the arguments are:
..
.. ================== =====================================================
.. -t TYPE breakpoint *type*, see below for valid values
.. -s STATE breakpoint *state* [optional, defaults to "enabled"]
.. -f FILENAME the *filename* to which the breakpoint belongs
.. -n LINENO the line number (*lineno*) of the breakpoint
.. -m FUNCTION *function* name [required for *call* or *return*
.. breakpoint types]
.. -x EXCEPTION *exception* name [required for *exception* breakpoint
.. types]
.. -h HIT_VALUE hit value (*hit_value*) used with the hit condition
.. to determine if should break; a value of zero
.. indicates hit count processing is disabled for this
.. breakpoint [optional, defaults to zero (i.e.
.. disabled)]
.. -o HIT_CONDITION hit condition string (*hit_condition*); see
.. hit_condition documentation above; BTW 'o' stands for
.. 'operator' [optional, defaults to '>=']
.. -r 0|1 Boolean value indicating if this breakpoint is
.. *temporary*. [optional, defaults to false]
.. -- EXPRESSION code *expression*, in the language of the debugger
.. engine [required for *conditional* breakpoint types]
.. ================== =====================================================
..
.. An example breakpoint_set command for a conditional breakpoint could look
.. like this::
..
.. breakpoint_set -i 1 -f test.pl -l 20 -- base64($x > 3)
..
.. A unique id for this breakpoint for this session is returned by the debugger
.. engine. This *session breakpoint id* is used by the IDE to identify the
.. breakpoint in other breakpoint commands.
..
.. debugger engine to IDE::
..
.. <response command="breakpoint_set"
.. transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"
.. state="STATE"
.. id="BREAKPOINT_ID"/>
..
.. where,
..
.. ================== =====================================================
.. BREAKPOINT_ID is an arbitrary string that uniquely identifies this
.. breakpoint in the debugger engine.
.. STATE the initial state of the breakpoint as set by the
.. debugger engine
.. ================== =====================================================
..
..
.. 7.6.2 breakpoint_get
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. This command is used by the IDE to get breakpoint information from the
.. debugger engine.
..
.. IDE to debugger engine::
..
.. breakpoint_get -i TRANSACTION_ID -d BREAKPOINT_ID
..
.. where,
..
.. ================== =====================================================
.. BREAKPOINT_ID is the unique *session breakpoint id* returned by
.. *breakpoint_set*.
.. ================== =====================================================
..
.. debugger engine to IDE::
..
.. <response command="breakpoint_get"
.. transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID">
.. <breakpoint id="BREAKPOINT_ID"
.. type="TYPE"
.. state="STATE"
.. filename="FILENAME"
.. lineno="LINENO"
.. function="FUNCTION"
.. exception="EXCEPTION"
.. hit_value="HIT_VALUE"
.. hit_condition="HIT_CONDITION"
.. hit_count="HIT_COUNT">
.. <expression>EXPRESSION</expression>
.. </breakpoint>
.. </response>
..
.. where each breakpoint attribute is only required if its value is relevant.
.. E.g., the <expression/> child element need only be included if there is an
.. expression defined, the *function* attribute need only be included if this is
.. a *function* breakpoint.
..
..
.. 7.6.3 breakpoint_update
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. This command is used by the IDE to update one or more attributes of a
.. breakpoint that was already set on the debugger engine via *breakpoint_set*.
..
.. IDE to debugger engine::
..
.. breakpoint_update -i TRANSACTION_ID -d BREAKPOINT_ID [<arguments...>]
..
.. where the arguments are as follows. All arguments are optional, however
.. at least one argument should be present. See breakpoint_set_ for a description of
.. each argument:
..
.. == ===============
.. -s STATE
.. -n LINENO
.. -h HIT_VALUE
.. -o HIT_CONDITION
.. == ===============
..
.. debugger engine to IDE::
..
.. <response command="breakpoint_update"
.. transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"/>
..
..
.. 7.6.4 breakpoint_remove
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. This command is used by the IDE to remove the given breakpoint.
..
.. IDE to debugger engine::
..
.. breakpoint_remove -i TRANSACTION_ID -d BREAKPOINT_ID
..
.. debugger engine to IDE::
..
.. <response command="breakpoint_remove"
.. transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID"/>
..
..
.. 7.6.5 breakpoint_list
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. This command is used by the IDE to get breakpoint information for all
.. breakpoints that the debugger engine has.
..
.. IDE to debugger engine::
..
.. breakpoint_list -i TRANSACTION_ID
..
.. debugger engine to IDE::
..
.. <response command="breakpoint_list"
.. transaction_id="TRANSACTION_ID">
.. <breakpoint id="BREAKPOINT_ID"
.. type="TYPE"
.. state="STATE"
.. filename="FILENAME"
.. lineno="LINENO"
.. function="FUNCTION"
.. exception="EXCEPTION"
.. hit_value="HIT_VALUE"
.. hit_condition="HIT_CONDITION"
.. hit_count="HIT_COUNT">
.. <expression>EXPRESSION</expression>
.. </breakpoint>
.. <breakpoint ...>...</breakpoint>
.. ...
.. </response>
..
..
..
.. 7.7 stack_depth
.. ---------------
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. stack-depth -i transaction_id
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="stack_depth"
.. depth="{NUM}"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
..
..
.. 7.8 stack_get
.. -------------
..
.. Returns stack information for a given stack depth. For extended
.. debuggers, multiple file/line's may be returned by having
.. child elements of the stack element. This is to allow
.. for debuggers, such as XSLT, that have execution and data files.
.. The filename returned should always be the local file
.. system path translated into a file URI, and should include the
.. system name if the engine is not connecting to an ip on the local
.. box: file://systemname/c|/path. If the stack depth is
.. specified, only one stack element is returned, for the depth
.. requested, though child elements may be returned also. The
.. current context is stack depth of zero, the 'oldest' context
.. (in some languages known as 'main') is the highest numbered
.. context.
..
.. == ==========================================
.. -d stack depth (optional)
.. == ==========================================
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. stack_get -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="stack_get"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id">
.. <stack level="{NUM}"
.. type="file|eval|?"
.. filename="..."
.. lineno="{NUM}"
.. where=""
.. cmdbegin="line_number:offset"
.. cmdend="line_number:offset"/>
.. <stack level="{NUM}"
.. type="file|eval|?"
.. filename="..."
.. lineno="{NUM}">
.. <input level="{NUM}"
.. type="file|eval|?"
.. filename="..."
.. lineno="{NUM}"/>
.. </stack>
.. </response>
..
.. Attributes for the stack element can include:
..
.. ========= ========================================================
.. Attribute Description
.. ========= ========================================================
.. level stack depth for this stack element
.. type the type of stack frame. Valid values are file or eval.
.. filename file URI
.. lineno 1-based line offset into the buffer
.. where current command name (optional)
.. cmdbegin line number and text offset from beginning of line
.. for the current instruction (optional)
.. cmdend same as cmdbegin, denotes end of current instruction
.. ========= ========================================================
..
.. The attributes where, cmdbegin and cmdlength are primarily used
.. for relaying visual information in the IDE. cmdbegin and cmdend
.. can be used by the IDE for high lighting the command that is
.. currently being debugged. The where attribute contains the name
.. of the current stack. This could be the current function name
.. that the user is stepping through.
..
..
..
.. 7.11 Properties, variables and values
.. -------------------------------------
..
.. Properties that have children may return an arbitrary depth of
.. children, as defaulted by the debugger engine. A maximum depth
.. may be defined by the IDE using the feature_set command with the
.. max_depth argument. The IDE may then use the fullname attribute of
.. a property to dig further into the tree. Data types are defined
.. further in section 7.12 below.
..
.. The number of children sent is defined by the debugger engine
.. unless otherwise defined by sending the feature_set command with
.. the max_children argument. ::
..
.. <property
.. name="short_name"
.. fullname="long_name"
.. type="data_type"
.. classname="name_of_object_class"
.. constant="0|1"
.. children="0|1"
.. size="{NUM}"
.. page="{NUM}"
.. pagesize="{NUM}"
.. address="{NUM}"
.. key="language_dependent_key"
.. encoding="base64|none"
.. numchildren="{NUM}">
.. ...encoded Value Data...
.. </property>
..
.. Attributes in the property element can include:
..
.. =============== ========================================================
.. Attribute Description
.. =============== ========================================================
.. name variable name. This is the short part of the
.. name. For instance, in PHP:
.. $v = 0; // short name 'v'
.. class:$v; // short name 'v'
.. fullname variable name. This is the long form of the name
.. which can be eval'd by the language to retrieve
.. the value of the variable.
.. $v = 0; // long name 'v'
.. class::$v; // short name 'v', long 'class::$v'
.. $this->v; // short name 'v', long '$this->v'
.. classname If the type is an object or resource, then the
.. debugger engine MAY specify the class name
.. This is an optional attribute.
.. page if not all the children in the first level are
.. returned, then the page attribute, in combination
.. with the pagesize attribute will define where in
.. the array or object these children should be
.. located.
.. pagesize the size of each page of data, defaulted by the
.. debugger engine, or negotiated with feature_set
.. and max_children
.. type language specific data type name
.. facet provides a hint to the IDE about additional
.. facets of this value. These are space separated
.. names, such as private, protected, public,
.. constant, etc.
.. size size of property data in bytes
.. children true/false whether the property has children
.. this would be true for objects or array's.
.. numchildren optional attribute with number of children for
.. the property.
.. key language dependent reference for the property.
.. if the key is available, the IDE SHOULD use it
.. to retrieve further data for the property
.. address containing physical memory address
.. encoding if this is binary data, it should be base64 encoded
.. with this attribute set
.. =============== ========================================================
..
..
.. 7.12 Data Types
.. ---------------
..
.. Languages may have different names or meanings for data types,
.. however the IDE may want to be able to handle similar data types
.. as the same type. For this reason, we define a minimal set of
.. standard data types, and a method for specifying more explicit
.. facets on those types. We provide three different type attributes,
.. and a command to map those types to each other. The schema type
.. serves as a hint to the IDE as to how to handle this specific data
.. type, if it so chooses to, but should not be considered to be
.. generally supported. If the debugger engine chooses to support
.. Schema, it should handle all data validation itself.
..
.. language type:
.. A language specific name for a data type
.. common type:
.. A name used by the IDE to group data types
.. that are similar or the same
.. schema type:
.. The XML Schema data type name as specified
.. in the W3C Recommendation, XML Schema
.. Part 2: Datatypes located at
.. http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/
.. The use of the schema type is completely
.. optional. The language engine should not
.. expect an IDE to support usage of this
.. attribute. The IDE identifies support for
.. this in the debugger engine by retrieving
.. the data map, which would contain the
.. schema type attribute.
..
..
.. 7.12.1 Common Data Types
.. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
..
.. This is a list of the common data types supported by this protocol.
.. For ease of documentation, and as hints to the IDE, they are mapped
.. to one or more schema data types, which are documented at
.. http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-2/. Some non-scalar types are also
.. defined, which do not have direct mappings to the base types defined
.. by XML Schema.
..
.. =========== =======================================================
.. Common Type Schema Type
.. =========== =======================================================
.. bool boolean (The value is always 0 or 1)
.. int integer, long, short, byte, and signed or
.. unsigned variants
.. float float, double, decimal
.. string string or other string-like data types, such as
.. dateTime, hexBinary, etc.
.. =========== =======================================================
..
.. Data types that do not map to schema:
..
.. null:
.. For example the "None" of Python or
.. the "null" of PHP. Some languages may not have
.. a method to specify a null type.
.. array:
.. for non-associative arrays, such as
.. List in Python. Arrays have integers as keys,
.. and the index is put in the name attribute of
.. the property element.
.. hash:
.. for associative arrays, such as Dictionaries
.. in Python. The only supported key type is a
.. string, which would be in the name attribute of
.. the property.
.. object:
.. An instance of a class.
.. resource:
.. Any data type the language supports that does
.. not map into one of the common types. This
.. could include pointers in C, various Python
.. types such as Method or Class types, or
.. file descriptors, database resources, etc. in
.. PHP. Complex types may also be defined by
.. using XML Schema, and mapping a type to the
.. Schema type. This is a more specialized use
.. of the type mapping, and should be considered
.. experimental, and not generally available in
.. implementations of this protocol.
..
.. For the most part, this protocol treats array's and hashes in the
.. same way, placing the key or index into the name attribute of the
.. property element.
..
..
.. 7.13 property_get, property_set, property_value
.. -----------------------------------------------
..
.. Gets/sets a property value. When retrieving a property with the
.. get method, the maximum data that should be returned is a default
.. defined by the debugger engine unless it has been negotiated using
.. feature_set with max_data. If the size of the properties data is
.. larger than that, the debugger engine only returns the configured
.. amount, and the IDE should call property_value to get the entire
.. data. This is to prevent large data from slowing down debugger
.. sessions. The IDE should implement UI that allows the user to
.. decide whether they want to retrieve all the data. The IDE should
.. not read more data than the length defined in the packet header.
.. The IDE can determine if there is more data by using the property
.. data length information. As per the context_get command, the depth
.. of nested elements returned is either defaulted by the debugger
.. engine, or negotiated using feature_set with max_children.
..
.. == ========================================================
.. -d stack depth (optional, debugger engine should assume
.. zero if not provided)
.. -c context id (optional, retrieved by context-names,
.. debugger engine should assume zero if not provided)
.. -n property long name (required)
.. -m max data size to retrieve (optional)
.. -t data type (optional)
.. -p data page (optional, for arrays, hashes, objects, etc.)
.. -k property key as retrieved in a property element,
.. optional, used for property_get of children and
.. property_value, required if it was provided by the
.. debugger engine.
.. -a property address as retrieved in a property element,
.. optional, used for property_set/value, required if it
.. was provided by the debugger engine.
.. == ========================================================
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. property_get -n property_long_name -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="property_get"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id">
.. <property ... />
.. ...
.. </response>
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. property_set -n property_long_name -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
.. -l data_length -- {DATA}
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="property_set"
.. success="0|1"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id"/>
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. property_value -n property_long_name -d {NUM} -i transaction_id
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="property_value"
.. size="{NUM}"
.. encoding="base64|none"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id">
.. ...data...
.. </response>
..
..
.. 7.14 source
.. -----------
..
.. The body of the request is the URI (retrieved from the stack info),
.. the body of the response is the data contents of the URI. If the
.. file uri is not provided, then the file for the current context
.. is returned.
..
.. == ========================================================
.. -b begin line (optional)
.. -e end line (optional)
.. -f file URI
.. == ========================================================
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. source -i transaction_id -f fileURI
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="source"
.. success="0|1"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id">
.. ...data source code...
.. </response>
..
..
..
.. 8.3 eval
.. --------
..
.. Evaluate a given string within the current execution context. A
.. property element MAY be returned as a child element of the
.. response, but the IDE MUST NOT expect one. The string being evaluated
.. may be an expression or a code segment to be executed. Languages, such
.. as Python, which have separate statements for these, will need to handle
.. both appropriately. For implementations that need to be more explicit, use
.. the expr or exec commands below.
..
.. debug client ::
..
.. eval -i transaction_id -- {DATA}
..
.. debugger engine ::
..
.. <response command="eval"
.. success="0|1"
.. transaction_id="transaction_id">
.. <property .../>
.. </response>
..
..
..
..
.. A. ChangeLog
.. ============
..
.. 2004-05-12
..
.. - 7.2 reorganize the feature names, add a couple missing names
.. (supports_postmortem, show_hidden, notify_ok).
..
.. 2004-04-05
..
.. - 8.5 New notification support
.. - 8.6 New interact command
..
.. 2004-02-20
..
.. - 1.2 moved the change log to appendix A
.. - 5 massive reorganization of section 5
.. - 5.3 expanded description of proxies and just in time debugging.
.. - 5.4 expand description of multisession and multithreaded debugging.
.. - 7.2 A new feature name, breakpoint_languages, has been added. This option
.. is only required if the engine supports more than one language.
.. - 7.2 and 7.3 Remove crufty documentation that still referred to old binary
.. protocol information.
.. - 7.6.1 For conditional breakpoints the expression has been moved to the data
.. section of the command.
.. - 8.3 remove the length argument in the eval command, it is unnecessary.
.. - 8.3 be more explicit about how eval works, add 8.3.1 expr and 8.3.2 exec as
.. additional optional commands that can be used in special implementations.
.. - 8.4 Remove the 'delete' state, this was old and removed in breakpoints.
..
.. 2004-01-28
..
.. - 7.8 Fix cmdbegin/end attributes for stack_get
..
.. 2004-01-09
..
.. - 5.1 New DBGP_IDEKEY environment variable
..
.. 2004-01-07
..
.. - 7.5 renamed the stop and kill commands to detach and stop, added
.. some clarification to the description of the commands.
..
.. 2003-12-16
..
.. - 7.6, 8.4 re-write the breakpoint and spawnpoint sections to be clearer
..
.. 2003-12-09
..
.. - 6.7 new section describing dbgp file protocol
.. - 7.6 better document breakpoints
..
.. 2003-12-05
..
.. - 6 Change the deliminator for command data to '--'. This conforms to
.. standard getopt libraries.
.. - 7.11 remove the recursive attribute, if an IDE wants to handle
.. circular references, it can do so based on the address attribute if
.. the engine provides it.
..
.. 2003-12-02
..
.. - 7.6 remove breakpoint_enable/disable, and add breakpoint_update
.. command. Enable/disable states are changed through breakpoint_update.
.. - 8.4 new (optional) spawnpoint commands
..
.. 2003-11-25
..
.. - 7.6 Change the breakpoint *hits* and *ignore* attributes to *hit_count*,
.. *hit_value* and *hit_condition* to add functionality available in VS.NET
.. and to simplify usage. Also clarify some other breakpoint attribute legal
.. values.
..
.. 2003-11-24
..
.. - 7.5 correct the stop command documentation, stop is 'detach', and
.. does not allow for continued interaction. Document how expressions
.. are returned from breakpoint_get.
.. - 7.8 correct old documentation on the stack element. Add new
.. attributes: where, cmdbegin, cmdlength. Provide further documentation
.. about all the attributes.
..
.. 2003-11-20
..
.. - 5.1 better define session keys vs. ide key for proxy, document how
.. proxy works better.
.. - 7.6 better document attributes and hit option
..
.. 2003-11-18
..
.. - 7.1 Clarify stopping and stopped states
.. - 7.5 Clarify the stop command
.. - 7.6 Remove 'temporary' as a status for breakpoints, make it an option
.. in the command line. Remove the 'function' breakpoint type, provide
.. two new types, 'call' and 'return'. Add 'hits' option to allow a
.. breakpoint to be ignored a number of times before being used.
..
.. 2003-11-12
..
.. - draft 12
.. - Rest markup tweaks
..
.. 2003-11-09
..
.. - draft 11
.. - 7.12 new section inserted as 7.12. This section specifies common
.. data types, and how to map more specific data types to the the common
.. types.
.. - 7.11 two new optional attributes, classname and facet, that provide
.. additional hints to the IDE about the nature of the property. New
.. key attribute for language specific keys to properties.
.. - 6.5 new section, 6.5.1 for defining common error codes.
..
.. 2003-11-05
..
.. - spelling fixes
.. - 5.1 change proxy options
.. - 7.6 clarify breakpoint command options
.. - 7.12 fix old text about context names
..
.. 2003-10-15
..
.. - 6 remove the first NULL in the command structure from IDE to debugger
.. engine. This makes dealing with those commands easier.
.. - 6.6 NEW File paths must be URI's.
.. - 7 source command returns the source for the current context if no
.. file uri is provided.
.. - 7 added sub-item numbering
.. - 7.1 clarify the status values
.. - 8 added sub-item numbering
..
.. 2003-10-09
..
.. - 7 remove run_to, unnecessary
.. - 7 remove 'step', there is no generic step command
.. - 7 clarify continuation commands
.. - 7 clarify breakpoints
..
.. 2003-10-07
..
.. - more layout changes for reStructuredText
..
.. 2003-10-06
..
.. - reformat to `reStructuredText markup
.. <http://docutils.sourceforge.net/spec/rst/reStructuredText.html>`_
.. - 6 clarify message packets
.. - 6.3 clarify command packets
.. - 7 clarify feature_get/set
.. - 7 allow error results on breakpoints if a type of breakpoint
.. is not supported by a debugger engine.
.. - 7 add recursive attribute to properties, and clarify the
.. address attribute and how recursive data is handled.
.. - 7,8 moved stdin to the optional commands section
..
.. 2003-10-02
..
.. - 5.1 changed proxy error to be the same as that in 6.5
.. - 5.1 the IDE and proxy ports have been defined to 9000/9001
.. - 5.3 exclude protocol overhead from data size definition
.. - 6.2 changed typo 'stdin and stdout' to 'stdout and stderr'
.. - 6.5 changed error id to error code
.. - 7 removed comments on 'body' from the run commands
.. - 7 clarified 'source' command arguments to be optional
.. - 7 added 'disable' option to stdin/out/err commands
.. - 7 breakpoint arguments and types have been better defined since
.. not all arguments need to be required for all types
.. - 7 the expression breakpoint type has been removed since it is
.. covered by the conditional breakpoint type
..
..
.. 2003-09-30
..
.. - section numbers added, changes below are marked with the section
.. number
.. - 3 Terminology changed (frontend -> IDE, backend -> debugger engine)
.. - 5.1 added response packet from proxy to IDE when IDE issues the
.. proxyinit command.
.. - 5.1 the proxy now adds a proxyclientid to the init packet from
.. the debugger engine when it passes the packet through to the IDE.
.. - 5.1 the proxy must be able to send errors to the IDE, for instance,
.. if it looses the connection to the debugger engine.
.. - 5.1 the proxy must be able to send errors to the Debugger, for
.. instance, if it looses the connection to the IDE.
.. - 5.3 added new section to help better define feature negotiation
.. with feature_get/set commands.
.. - 6 packets have been better defined. This section has also been
.. reorganized.
.. - 6.2 the communication of packets has been rewritten.
.. - 7 feature_get/set have some modifications.
.. - 7 context_get and property_* commands have been modified to better
.. reflect negotiation of features using the feature_get/set commands.
.. - 7 property_* commands have been commented a bit more, and an
.. additional argument is available for paging arrays, etc.
.. - 7 The definition of the property tag has been modified
.. - 7 stdin command has been modified, the debugger engine may choose
.. to not redirect stdin.
.. - 7 status command modified to support the async state
.. - 7 source command now accepts begin and end line arguments for
.. retrieving only parts of a file.
.. - 7 stack_get now defines an enumeration for the stack
.. - 8 break command clarified so it can only be sent while the debugger
.. engine is in a run state.
.. - 8 eval can return a property as part of the response
..
.. */
Received on Wed Jun 23 2004 - 15:27:59 BST
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : Sun Jun 24 2018 - 04:00:02 BST