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diff --git a/lldb/www/index.html b/lldb/www/index.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..00bebe1780c --- /dev/null +++ b/lldb/www/index.html @@ -0,0 +1,197 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd"> +<!-- Material used from: HTML 4.01 specs: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/ --> +<html> +<head> + <META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> + <title>The LLDB Debugger</title> + <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="menu.css"> + <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="content.css"> +</head> + +<body> +<!--#include virtual="menu.html.incl"--> +<div id="content"> + <!--*********************************************************************--> + <h1>The LLDB Debugger</h1> + <!--*********************************************************************--> + + <p>LLDB is a next generation, high-performance debugger. It is built as a set + of reusable components which highly leverage existing libraries in the + larger LLVM Project, such as the Clang expression parser and LLVM + disassembler.</p> + <p>LLDB is in early development, but is mature enough to support basic + debugging scenarios on Mac OS X in C, Objective-C and C++.</p> + + <p>All of the code in the LLDB project is available under the standard + <a href="http://llvm.org/docs/DeveloperPolicy.html#license">LLVM + License</a>, an open source "BSD-style" license.</p> + + <!--=====================================================================--> + <h2 id="goals">Goals</h2> + <!--=====================================================================--> + + <p>The current state of the art in open source debuggers are that + they work in the common cases for C applications, but don't + handle many "hard cases" properly. For example, C++ expression + parsing, handling overloading, templates, multi-threading, and + other non-trivial scenarios all work in some base cases, but + don't work reliably.</p> + + <p>The goal of LLDB is to provide an amazing debugging experience that "just + works". We aim to solve these long-standing problems where debuggers get + confused, so that you can think about debugging your problem, not + about deficiencies in the debugger.</p> + + <p>With a long view, there is no good reason for a debugger to + reinvent its own C/C++ parser, type system, know all the + target calling convention details, implement its own disassembler, + etc. By using the existing libraries vended by the LLVM + project, we believe that many of these problems will be defined + away, and the debugger can focus on important issues like + process control, efficient symbol reading and indexing, thread + management, and other debugger-specific problems.</p> + + <p>Some more specific goals include:</p> + + <ul> + <li>Build libraries for inclusion in IDEs, command line tools, and + other analysis tools</li> + <li>High performance and efficient memory use</li> + <li>Extensible: Python scriptable and use a plug-in architecture</li> + <li>Reuse existing compiler technology where it makes sense</li> + <li>Excellent multi-threaded debugging support</li> + <li>Great support for C, Objective-C and C++</li> + <li>Retargetable to support multiple platforms</li> + <li>Provide a base for debugger research and other innovation</li> + </ul> + + <!--=====================================================================--> + <h2 id="why">Why a new debugger?</h2> + <!--=====================================================================--> + + <p>In order to achieve our goals we decided to start with a fresh architecture + that would support modern multi-threaded programs, handle debugging symbols + in an efficient manner, use compiler based code knowledge and have plug-in + support for functionality and extensions. Additionally we want the debugger + capabilities to be available to other analysis tools, be they scripts or + compiled programs, without requiring them to be GPL.</p> + + <!--=====================================================================--> + <h2 id="features">Features</h2> + <!--=====================================================================--> + + <p>LLDB supports a broad variety of basic debugging features such as + reading DWARF, supporting step, next, finish, backtraces, etc. Some + more interested bits are:</p> + + <ul> + <li>Plug-in architecture for portability and extensibility: + <ul> + <li>Object file parsers for executable file formats. Support currently + includes Mach-O (32 and 64-bit) & ELF (32-bit).</li> + <li>Object container parsers to extract object files contained within a file. + Support currently includes universal Mach-O files & BSD Archives. + </li> + <li>Debug symbol file parsers to incrementally extract debug information from + object files. Support currently includes DWARF & Mach-O symbol + tables.</li> + <li>Symbol vendor plug-ins collect data from a variety of different sources + for an executable object.</li> + <li>Disassembly plug-ins for each architecture. Support currently includes + an LLVM disassembler for <a + href="http://blog.llvm.org/2010/01/x86-disassembler.html">i386, + x86_64</a>, & ARM/Thumb.</li> + <li>Debugger plug-ins implement the host and target specific functions + required to debug.</li> + </ul> + <li>SWIG-generated script bridging allows Python to access and control the + public API of the debugger library.</li> + <li>A remote protocol server, debugserver, implements Mac OS X debugging on + i386 and x86_64.</li> + <li>A command line debugger - the lldb executable itself.</li> + <li>A framework API to the library.</li> + </ul> + + <!--=====================================================================--> + <h2 id="requirements">Platform Support</h2> + <!--=====================================================================--> + + <p>LLDB is known to work on the following platforms, but ports to new + platforms are welcome:</p> + + <li>Machine Architectures: + <ul> + <li>Mac OS X i386 and X86-64</li> + </ul></li> + + <!--=====================================================================--> + <h2 id="status">Current Status</h2> + <!--=====================================================================--> + + <p>LLDB is in early development and supports basic debugging scenarios on + Mac OS X. The public API has not been finalized, and different parts are + at different levels of maturity. We welcome any help fleshing out missing + pieces and improving the code.</p> + + <p>What works well:</p> + <ul> + <li>Process control, including external process control via debugserver + (which is included as part of the lldb project)</li> + <li>Breakpoints: Source-line, symbolic, C++ mangled names, module + scoping</li> + <li>Symbol reading and object file introspection</li> + <li>Script bridging</li> + <li>Thread inspection and stepping</li> + <li>Disassembly of i386, x86_64, & ARM/Thumb machine code, and + backtracing on i386 & x86_64</li> + <li>The basic command line prompt system, shared library tracking, + source listings.</li> + </ul> + + <p>What is still pretty new:</p> + <ul> + <li>The public API to the library</li> + <li>Expression evaluation</li> + <li>Objective-C support: stepping into/over, printing the description of + an object ("po")</li> + <li>Breakpoint actions & scripts</li> + <li>Attaching to existing processes</li> + </ul> + + <p>What isn't there yet:</p> + <ul> + <li>Regression test suite</li> + <li>Operating system support hasn't been fully modularized yet</li> + <li><a href="http://clang.llvm.org/docs/LanguageExtensions.html#blocks">Blocks</a> support</li> + <li>Calling functions in expressions</li> + <li>Objective-C 2.0 Support: Printing properties, synthetic properties, + Objective-C expressions, KVO, dynamic types, dot syntax, runtime data</li> + <li>C++ support: Method access, handling demangled names, dynamic types</li> + <li>Exception support: Breaking by name, thrown object, thrower</li> +</li> + </ul> + + <!--=====================================================================--> + <h2>Get it and get involved!</h2> + <!--=====================================================================--> + + <p>To check out the code, use:</p> + + <ul> + <li>svn co http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/lldb/trunk lldb</li> + </ul> + + <p>Note that LLDB currently only builds out of the box on Darwin with + Xcode, but patches to improve portability are definitely welcome.</p> + + <p>Discussions about LLDB should go to the <a + href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/lldb-dev">lldb-dev</a> mailing + list. Commit messages for the lldb SVN module are automatically sent to the + <a + href="http://lists.cs.uiuc.edu/mailman/listinfo/lldb-commits">lldb-commits</a> + mailing list, and this is also the preferred mailing list for patch + submissions.</p> +</div> +</body> +</html> |
