mtr@ukc.ac.uk (M.T.Russell) (04/20/91)
Ups is a source level C debugger which runs under the X11 and Sunview window systems on the SPARC, Sun 3, Sun 386i, VAX, and DECstation. It has been the C debugger of choice for several years at the University of Kent. The first public source release of ups is now available by anonymous FTP from export.lcs.mit.edu (18.30.0.238). The distribution is in a compressed tar file called contrib/ups-2.28.tar.Z. There is a plain text copy of the top level README file in contrib/ups-2.28.README. From the README file: Ups runs in a window with two major regions: one showing the current state of the target program data and the other showing the currently executing source code. A key feature of ups is that the variables display is persistent: when you add a variable to the display it stays there as you step through the code. The current stack trace (which function called which) is always visible. Ups includes a C interpreter which allows you to add fragments of code simply by editing them into the source window (the source file itself is not modified). This lets you add debugging printf calls without recompiling, relinking (or even restarting) the target program. You can also add conditional breakpoints in a natural way - you just add a statement like "if (i == 73) #stop" at the appropriate place in the source window. Some things you can do with ups: - Add variables to the display by simply clicking on them in the source window. - Expand (recursively) structures and unions to show their members. - Assign to variables by editing the displayed value. - Add breakpoints by pointing with the mouse at the line where you want execution to stop. - Add interpreted code at any breakpoint, including code that calls compiled functions and assigns to variables. It's hard to describe an interactive application in a few paragraphs of text - the best way to see what ups is like is to grab a copy and try it. In theory ups should just compile and run on the the supported machines. If you have problems please send me mail. Share and enjoy. Mark Russell