4 <meta http-equiv=
"Content-Type" content=
"text/html">
5 <meta name=
"description" content=
"STABS">
6 <meta name=
"generator" content=
"makeinfo 4.3">
7 <link href=
"http://www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/" rel=
"generator-home">
12 Node:
<a name=
"Overview">Overview
</a>
16 <h2 class=
"chapter">Overview of Stabs
</h2>
18 <p><dfn>Stabs
</dfn> refers to a format for information that describes a program
19 to a debugger. This format was apparently invented by
21 the University of California at Berkeley, for the
<code>pdx
</code> Pascal
22 debugger; the format has spread widely since then.
24 <p>This document is one of the few published sources of documentation on
25 stabs. It is believed to be comprehensive for stabs used by C. The
26 lists of symbol descriptors (see
<a href=
"Symbol-Descriptors.html#Symbol%20Descriptors">Symbol Descriptors
</a>) and type
27 descriptors (see
<a href=
"Type-Descriptors.html#Type%20Descriptors">Type Descriptors
</a>) are believed to be completely
28 comprehensive. Stabs for COBOL-specific features and for variant
29 records (used by Pascal and Modula-
2) are poorly documented here.
31 <p>Other sources of information on stabs are
<cite>Dbx and Dbxtool
32 Interfaces
</cite>,
2nd edition, by Sun,
1988, and
<cite>AIX Version
3.2 Files
33 Reference
</cite>, Fourth Edition, September
1992,
"dbx Stabstring Grammar" in
34 the a.out section, page
2-
31. This document is believed to incorporate
35 the information from those two sources except where it explicitly directs
36 you to them for more information.
39 <li><a accesskey=
"1" href=
"Flow.html#Flow">Flow
</a>: Overview of debugging information flow
40 <li><a accesskey=
"2" href=
"Stabs-Format.html#Stabs%20Format">Stabs Format
</a>: Overview of stab format
41 <li><a accesskey=
"3" href=
"String-Field.html#String%20Field">String Field
</a>: The string field
42 <li><a accesskey=
"4" href=
"C-Example.html#C%20Example">C Example
</a>: A simple example in C source
43 <li><a accesskey=
"5" href=
"Assembly-Code.html#Assembly%20Code">Assembly Code
</a>: The simple example at the assembly level