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3.6 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 3.3.1) or the W debugger command (section 3.5). 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 6.14.6)
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 SA	display the real address corresponding to SA
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).
    
    
  • 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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Copyright (C) 1999,2000 Daniel Diaz

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