Source-level debugger
programming, tool
A debugger that shows the programmer the line or expression in the source code that resulted in a particular machine code instruction of a running program loaded in memory. This helps the programmer to analyse a program’s behaviour in the high-level terms like source-level flow control constructs, procedure calls, named variables, etc instead of machine instructions and memory locations. Source-level debugging also makes it possible to step through execution a line at a time and set source-level breakpoints.
In order to support source-level debugging, the program must be compiled with this option enabled so that extra information is included in the executable code to identify the corresponding positions in the source code.
A symbolic debugger is one level lower – it displays symbols (procedure and variable names) stored in the executable but not individual source code lines.
GDB is a widely used example of a source-level debugger.
(2007-04-03)
Read Also:
- Source-material
noun 1. original, authoritative, or basic materials utilized in research, as diaries or manuscripts.
- Source of all good bits
jargon, job A person from whom (or a place from which) useful information may be obtained. If you need to know about a program, a guru might be the source of all good bits. The title is often applied to a particularly competent secretary. [Jargon File] (2001-01-27)
- Source package
software A collection (usually an archive file) containing all the files necessary to build and modify a piece of software. A Debian source package includes the original source archive (.orig.tar.gz), Debianisation diffs (-.diff.gz) and a Debian source control file (-.dsc). (2000-05-31)
- Source program
noun 1. an original computer program written by a programmer that is converted into the equivalent object program, written in machine language, by the compiler or assembler
- Source route
messaging An electronic mail address which specifies the route the message should take as a sequence of hostnames. It is called a source route because the route is determined at the source of the message rather than at each stage as is now more common. The most common kind of source route is a UUCP […]