| Debugging with GDB: Hardware Debug Support |
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When GDB interacts with a server or stub running on the
remote target, the target-side application can perform a number of
host-side file I/O operations, see File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension. Remote debugging can also involve a separate server that
controls the target via a hardware debug mechanism, for example jtag
or BDM. If so, then target-side code may be unable to generate the
remote protocol messages directly. Instead, it can send the request
by triggering a breakpoint or processor exception at a well-known
location named _gdb_hwdebug_break. This functionality is
disabled by default, allowing the application to run stand-alone as
well as inside a debug session. It can be enabled by a set
hwdebug on command, or disabled by set hwdebug off.
Exact usage depends on the application being debugged. Amongst other
things, set hwdebug clears a flag _gdb_hwdebug_disabled
on the target. If the application is loaded into RAM, then there are
no problems. However, if it is programmed into flash and restarted
from the reset vector inside the debug session, then typically the
target-side initialization code will reset the disabled flag to its
default state, undoing the effect of set hwdebug. Instead, it
will be necessary to set a hardware breakpoint at a suitably early
point in the application startup and invoke set hwdebug when
that breakpoint is hit.
Note: In the eCosCentric build of GDB, connecting to a remote
target with target remote will implicitly invoke the equivalent
of set hwdebug on at that point. In practice, this will only have
an effect if symbols such as _gdb_hwdebug_break are present in
the debugged program, and if they are not, then there will be no change
in behavior, and no warning will be printed. Nevertheless, it still
remains possible to manually control this feature by use of set
hwdebug on and set hwdebug off.
The target-side API for accessing the hardware debug file I/O functionality depends on the embedded OS or run-time being used. If the functionality has not yet been ported, then a reference implementation can be found in doc/hwdebug-example.c in the GDB sources.
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