Книга: Microsoft Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Exam Preparation Kit

Advanced Debugger Tools

Advanced Debugger Tools

The target control shell and CEDebugX commands enable you to perform a thorough analysis of a running system or a CE dump file (if you select the CE Dump File Reader as the debugger to perform postmortem debugging), yet you are not restricted to the command-line interface. Platform Builder includes several graphical tools with a dedicated purpose to increase your debugging efficiency. You can access these advanced debugger tools in Visual Studio via the Debug menu when you open the Windows submenu.

The Platform Builder IDE includes the following advanced debugger tools:

? Breakpoints Lists the breakpoints enabled on the system and provides access to the breakpoint properties.

? Watch Provides read and write access to local and global variables.

? Autos Provides access to variables similar to the Watch window, except that the debugger creates this list of variables dynamically, while the Watch window lists all manually added variables whether they are accessible or not. The Autos window is useful if you want to check the parameter values passed to a function.

? Call Stack Accessible only when the system is in a break state (code execution has halted on a breakpoint). This window provides a list of all processes enabled on the system and a list of hosted threads.

? Threads Provides a list of the threads running in the processes on the system. This information is dynamically retrieved and can be updated at any time.

? Modules Lists the modules loaded and unloaded on the system and provides the memory address where those modules are loaded. This feature is useful for identifying whether a driver DLL is actually loaded or not.

? Processes Similar to the Threads window, this window provides a list of the processes running on the system. Among other things, you can terminate processes if required.

? Memory Provides direct access to device memory. You can use memory addresses or variable names to locate the desired memory content.

? Disassembly Reveals the assembly code of the current code line executed on the system.

? Registers Provides access to the CPU register values when running a specific line of code.

? Advanced Memory Can be used to search the device memory, move portions of memory to different sections, and fill memory ranges by using content patterns.

? List Nearest Symbols Determines a specific memory address for the nearest symbols available in the binaries. It also provides the complete path to the file containing the symbol. This tool is useful to locate the name of a function that generated an exception.

Оглавление книги