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bashdb(1)			    GNU Tools			       bashdb(1)

NAME
     bashdb - bash debugger script

SYNOPSIS
     bashdb [options] script-name [--] [script options]

     bashdb [options] -c execution-string

     bash --debugger [bash-options...] script-name [[--] script options]

DESCRIPTION
     "bashdb"  is  a bash script to which arranges for another bash script to be
     debugged.	The debugger has a similar command interface as gdb(1).

     The way this script arranges debugging to occur is by including  (or  actu-
     ally  "source"-ing)  some	debug-support  code  and then sourcing the given
     script or command string.

     One problem with sourcing a debugged script is that the program name stored
     in $0 will be "bashdb" rather than the name of the script to  be  debugged.
     The  debugged script will appear in a call stack not as the top item but as
     the item below "bashdb". If this is of concern, use  the  last  form  given
     above, "bash --debugger" script-name [script-options].

     If  you used bashdb script and need to pass options to the script to be de-
     bugged, add "--" after the script name. That will tell bashdb not to try to
     process any further options.

     See the reference	manual	<http://bashdb.sourceforge.net/bashdb.html>  for
     how to to call the debugger from inside your program or arrange for the de-
     bugger to get called when your program is sent a signal.

OPTIONS
     -h | --help
	 Print	a usage message on standard error and exit with a return code of
	 100.

     -A | --annotation level
	 Sets to output additional stack and  status  information  which  allows
	 front-ends such as emacs to track what's going on without polling.

	 This  is needed in for regression testing. Using this option is equiva-
	 lent to issuing:

	   set annotation LEVEL

	 inside the debugger.

     -B | --basename
	 In places where a filename appears in debugger  output  give  just  the
	 basename only. This is needed in for regression testing. Using this op-
	 tion is equivalent to issuing:

	   set basename on

	 inside the debugger.

     -n | nx
	 Normally the debugger will read debugger commands in "~/.bashdbinit" if
	 that  file  exists before accepting user interaction.	".bashdbinit" is
	 analogus to Perl's ".perldb" or GNU gdb's ".gdbinit": a user might want
	 to create such a debugger profile to  add  various  user-specific  cus-
	 tomizations.

	 Using	the  "-n" option this initialization file will not be read. This
	 is useful in regression testing or in	tracking  down	a  problem  with
	 one's ".bashdbinit" profile.

     -c command-string
	 Instead of specifying the name of a script file, one can give an execu-
	 tion string that is to be debugged. Use this option to do that.

	 If  you  invoke  the  debugger via "bash --debugger", the filename that
	 will appear in source listing or in a call stack trace will be the  ar-
	 tificial name *BOGUS*.

     -q | --quiet
	 Do  not  print  introductory version and copyright information. This is
	 again useful in regression testing where we don't  want  to  include  a
	 changeable copyright date in the regression-test matching.

     -x debugger-cmdfile
	 Run the debugger commands debugger-cmdfile before accepting user input.
	 These commands are read however after any ".bashdbinit" commands. Again
	 this is useful running regression-testing debug scripts.

     -L | --library debugger-library
	 The debugger needs to source or include a number of functions and these
	 reside  in  a library. If this option is not given the default location
	 of library is relative to the installed bashdb script: "../lib/bashdb".

     -T | --tempdir temporary-file-directory
	 The debugger needs to make use of some temporary filesystem storage  to
	 save  persistent  information	across	a subshell return or in order to
	 evaluate an expression. The default directory is "/tmp" but you can use
	 this option to set the directory where debugger temporary files will be
	 created.

     -t | --tty tty-name
	 Debugger output usually goes to a terminal rather than STDOUT which the
	 debugged program may use. Determination of the  tty  or  pseudo-tty  is
	 normally  done  automatically. However if you want to control where the
	 debugger output goes, use this option.

	 If you want output to go to STDOUT use &1. Note: the '&' may have to be
	 escaped or quoted to avoid shell interpretation with forking.

     -V | --version
	 Show version number and no-warranty and exit with return code 1.

     -X | --trace
	 Similar to ""set -x"" line tracing except that by default the	location
	 of each line, the bash level, and subshell level are printed. You might
	 be able to get something roughly similar if you set "PS4" as follows

	     export PS4='(${BASH_SOURCE}:${LINENO}): ${FUNCNAME[0]}\n'

	 In  contrast however to ""set -x"" tracing, indentation of the original
	 program is also preserved in the source output. And  if  you  interrupt
	 the  program with a break (a "SIGINT" signal), you will go into the de-
	 bugger (assuming your program doesn't trap "SIGINT").

BUGS
     The "bashdb" script and "--debugger" option assume a version of  bash  with
     debugging support. That is you can't debug bash scripts using the standard-
     issue version 2.05b bash or earlier versions. In versions after 3.0, debug-
     ging should have been enabled when bash was built. (I think this is usually
     the case though.) If you try to run the bashdb script on such as shell, may
     get the message:

       Sorry, you need to use a debugger-enabled version of bash.

     Debugging	startup  time  can  be	slow  especially  on large bash scripts.
     Scripts created by GNU autoconf are at thousands of lines line  and  it  is
     not uncommon for them to be tens of thousands of lines.

     There  is	a provision to address this problem by including a fast file-to-
     array read routine (readarray), but the bashdb package has to  be	compiled
     in a special way which needs access to the bash source code and objects.

     Another  reason of the debugger slowness is that the debugger has to inter-
     cept every line and check to see if some action is to be taken for this and
     this is all in bash code. A better and faster architecture would be for the
     debugger to register a list of conditions or  stopping  places  inside  the
     bash  code itself and have it arrange to call the debugger only when a con-
     dition requiring the debugger arises. Checks would be faster as this  would
     be  done  in  C code and access to internal structures would make this more
     efficient.

SEE ALSO
     *	 <http://bashdb.sourceforge.net/bashdb.html> -	an  extensive  reference
	 manual.

     *	 <http://bashdb.sourceforge.net> - the homepage for the project

     *	 <http://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bashref.html> - bash reference
	 manual

AUTHOR
     The current version is maintained (or not) by Rocky Bernstein.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2003, 2006-2007, 2016 Rocky Bernstein
       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
       it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
       the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
       (at your option) any later version.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
       but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
       MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
       GNU General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
       along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
       Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA

     $Id: bashdb-man.pod 2016/08/13 16:30:00 rockyb Exp $

5.0-1.1.1			   2019-10-08			       bashdb(1)

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