Helpful Tips and Hints

The following are tips and hints that may be helpful:

• You must have OS/2 WARP 3.0, OS/2 Warp Connect, or OS/2 Warp Server for SMP on your host machine.

• If CAT_HOST_BIN_PATH points to a remote-mounted drive, the drive must be mounted in binary mode.

• Put any environment variables that you want set in a command file. For example, you could put them in the SETICAT.CMD file or create your own command file.

• The DBGSTRIP utility can be used to strip debug information from binaries placed on the victim machine but should not be used on binaries placed in CAT_HOST_BIN_PATH (if you want to do source-level debugging).

• Using C and C++, you can write your program code with stylistic features that are not supported by the debugger. For example, multiple statements on the same line are difficult to debug. None of the individual statements can be accessed separately when you set breakpoints or when you use step commands.

ICAT allows you to manipulate any thread running on the victim machine. Because certain portions of the address space are not shared by all threads, you must be sure that you are in the proper context when you set breakpoints, display storage, etc. The title of a thread-specific window includes the thread's identifier as shown in the Debug Session Control window (see Using the Debug Session Control Window). To ensure you are in the context of the proper thread, select the thread from the Debug Session Control window's Threads pane.

For example, suppose you attach to the victim system and wish to set a breakpoint. If the breakpoint is in a shared region (for example, in a device driver, a DLL, or the kernel), it does not matter which context you are in when you set the breakpoint. But if the breakpoint is not in a shared region such as in an EXE file, you must ensure that you are in the context of a thread that belongs to the process that owns the region before you set the breakpoint. Because the debugger does not necessarily have information about every EXE file in the system, a window may show source for a module even though the thread listed in the title of the window is not part of the process that is running the EXE file. If you set the breakpoint without first verifying you are in the proper context, you will actually set a breakpoint in a different module entirely.