comparison etc/DEBUG @ 37333:54ec1bffae34

Document problems with MS debugger working on optimized code. From Jason Rumney <[e-mail]>.

37332:446514f572dd

** Some suggestions for debugging on MS Windows:

   (written by Marc Fleischeuers, Geoff Voelker and Andrew Innes)

To debug Emacs with Microsoft Visual C++, you either start emacs from
the debugger or attach the debugger to a running emacs process.  To
start emacs from the debugger, you can use the file bin/debug.bat.  The
Microsoft Developer studio will start and under Project, Settings,
Debug, General you can set the command-line arguments and Emacs's
startup directory.  Set breakpoints (Edit, Breakpoints) at Fsignal and
other functions that you want to examine.  Run the program (Build,
Start debug).  Emacs will start and the debugger will take control as
soon as a breakpoint is hit.

It is also possible to keep appropriately masked and typecast Lisp
symbols in the Watch window, this is more convenient when steeping
though the code.  For instance, on entering apply_lambda, you can
watch (struct Lisp_Symbol *) (0xfffffff & args[0]).

37333:54ec1bffae34

** Some suggestions for debugging on MS Windows:

   (written by Marc Fleischeuers, Geoff Voelker and Andrew Innes)

To debug Emacs with Microsoft Visual C++, you either start emacs from
the debugger or attach the debugger to a running emacs process.

To start emacs from the debugger, you can use the file bin/debug.bat.
The Microsoft Developer studio will start and under Project, Settings,
Debug, General you can set the command-line arguments and Emacs's
startup directory.  Set breakpoints (Edit, Breakpoints) at Fsignal and
other functions that you want to examine.  Run the program (Build,
Start debug).  Emacs will start and the debugger will take control as
soon as a breakpoint is hit.

It is also possible to keep appropriately masked and typecast Lisp
symbols in the Watch window, this is more convenient when steeping
though the code.  For instance, on entering apply_lambda, you can
watch (struct Lisp_Symbol *) (0xfffffff & args[0]).

Optimizations often confuse the MS debugger.  For example, the
debugger will sometimes report wrong line numbers, e.g., when it
prints the backtrace for a crash.  It is usually best to look at the
disassembly to determine exactly what code is being run--the
disassembly will probably show several source lines followed by a
block of assembler for those lines.  The actual point where Emacs
crashes will be one of those source lines, but not neccesarily the one
that the debugger reports.

Another problematic area with the MS debugger is with variables that
are stored in registers: it will sometimes display wrong values for
those variables.  Usually you will not be able to see any value for a
register variable, but if it is only being stored in a register
temporarily, you will see an old value for it.  Again, you need to
look at the disassembly to determine which registers are being used,
and look at those registers directly, to see the actual current values
of these variables.