5.1 What is Debugger

A debugger dbx is available for C programs on Sun, VAX etc. In dbx, one can use commands such as setting break-point on a source line, stepwise execution, inspecting a variable’s value etc. Asir provides such a dbx-like debugger. In addition to such commands, we adopted several useful commands from gdb. In order to enter the debug-mode, type debug; at the top level of Asir.

[10] debug;
(debug)

Asir also enters the debug-mode by the following means or in the following situations.

• When it reaches a break point while executing a program.
• When the ‘d’ option is selected at an interruption.
• When it detects errors while executing a program.

  In this case, to continue the execution of the program is impossible. But because it reports the statement in the user defined function that caused the error, then enters the debug-mode, user can inspect the values of variables at the error state. This helps to analyze the error and debug the program.

• When built-in function error() is called.

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