Re: [Nasm-users] What debugger front end for Linux?

[Anonymous <cr...@ec...>]

You wrote:

> On 16-05-2011 12:57, Fritz Wuehler wrote:
> > Hi guys, I am trying to learn x86 assembly with NASM since it uses the less
> > hideous Intel syntax! However the debugger front end I tried doesn't seem to
> > recognize this format and I can't set breakpoints. Whoever is using NASM on
> > Linux can you explain your environment a bit, what tools should I be using
> > etc. for best results. Thanks guys.
> >
> I have not debugged nasm code on Linux, so I have no specific advice for 
> you, but here are some general
> info to help you along:
> 
> Hmm, maybe it is not the nasm format, but the debug information format 
> that is the problem.  As on all platforms, there are different file
> formats that compilers, assemblers etc. can use to tell debuggers which
> code bytes in the output file correspond to which lines in your source 
> code file and what the name of that file is.

Thank you. I finally found a problem was reported on the insight front end
to gdb back in 2009 causing a segfault, looks like it was never fixed. So I
am using ddd for now, it's not as pretty as insight but it doesn't crash
LOL. I finally found where to say Intel format instead of ATT so now I am
doing better. I'm so happy about NASM, how can anybody stand to use ATT
format or gas? It's a crime against humanity!

> In the case of Linux/Unix/GNU tools it may also be mandatory to include 
> NASM directives to mark the beginning and end of each named function, as
> gdb seems to be overly focused on checking that information before looking
> at anything real.

I will try and remember this. At the moment I'm writing just a few
instructions to try and learn and go through the book.

> Anyway, most current Linux tools use the GNU DWARF debug information 
> format, I don't know if NASM includes DWARF information in its elf32
> output files.

I was reading a book that said to use stabs debug info but I will try and
see if I can use dwarf and get better results. I am using elf64 format at
the moment.