The WAM debugger

5.6 The WAM debugger

In some cases it is interesting to have access to the WAM data structures. This sub-debugger allows the user to inspect/modify the contents of any stack or register of the WAM. The WAM debugger is invoked using the built-in predicate wam_debug/0 (section 5.3.1) or the W debugger command (section 5.5). The following table presents the specific commands of the WAM debugger:

Command Description

write A [N] write N terms starting at the address A using write/1 (section 8.14.6)

data A [N] display N words starting at the address A

modify A [N] display and modify N words starting at the address A

where A display the real address corresponding to A

what RA display what corresponds to the real address RA

deref A display the dereferenced word starting at the address A

envir [SA] display the contents of the environment located at SA (or the current one)

backtrack [SA] display the contents of the choice-point located at SA (or the current one)

backtrack all display all choice-points

quit quit the WAM debugger

help display a summary of available commands

In the above table the following conventions apply:

elements between [ and ] are optional.
N is an optional integer (defaults to 1).
A is a WAM address, its syntax is: BANK_NAME [ [ N ] ], i.e. a bank name possibly followed by an index (defaults to 0). BANK_NAME is either:
- reg: WAM general register (stack pointers, continuation, ...).
- x: WAM X register (temporary variables, i.e. arguments).
- y: WAM Y register (permanent variables).
- ab: WAM X register saved in the current choice-point.
- STACK_NAME: WAM stack (STACK_NAME in local, global, trail, cstr).
SA is a WAM stack address, i.e. STACK_NAME [ [ N ] ] (special case of WAM addresses).
RA is a real address, its syntax is the syntax of C integers (in particular the notation 0x… is recognized).

It is possible to only use the first letters of a commands and bank names when there is no ambiguity. Also the square brackets [ ] enclosing the index of a bank name can be omitted. For instance the following command (showing the contents of 25 consecutive words of the global stack from the index 3): data global[3] 25 can be abbreviated as: d g 3 25.

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