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[COMMIT] Document the can-use-hw-watchpoints variable
- From: "Eli Zaretskii" <eliz at gnu dot org>
- To: gdb-patches at sources dot redhat dot com
- Date: Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:06:24 +0300
- Subject: [COMMIT] Document the can-use-hw-watchpoints variable
- Reply-to: Eli Zaretskii <eliz at gnu dot org>
FYI, now it is documented.
Committed.
2005-04-01 Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
* gdb.texinfo (Set Watchpoints): Document can-use-hw-watchpoints.
Rearrange index entries and improve wording about support for
hardware watchpoints.
Index: gdb.texinfo
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/src/gdb/doc/gdb.texinfo,v
retrieving revision 1.233
diff -u -b -B -w -r1.233 gdb.texinfo
--- gdb.texinfo 10 Mar 2005 13:12:33 -0000 1.233
+++ gdb.texinfo 1 Apr 2005 14:03:22 -0000
@@ -2741,12 +2741,12 @@
@subsection Setting watchpoints
@cindex setting watchpoints
-@cindex software watchpoints
-@cindex hardware watchpoints
You can use a watchpoint to stop execution whenever the value of an
expression changes, without having to predict a particular place where
this may happen.
+@cindex software watchpoints
+@cindex hardware watchpoints
Depending on your system, watchpoints may be implemented in software or
hardware. @value{GDBN} does software watchpointing by single-stepping your
program and testing the variable's value each time, which is hundreds of
@@ -2754,10 +2754,9 @@
catch errors where you have no clue what part of your program is the
culprit.)
-On some systems, such as HP-UX, @sc{gnu}/Linux and some other x86-based targets,
-@value{GDBN} includes support for
-hardware watchpoints, which do not slow down the running of your
-program.
+On some systems, such as HP-UX, @sc{gnu}/Linux and most other
+x86-based targets, @value{GDBN} includes support for hardware
+watchpoints, which do not slow down the running of your program.
@table @code
@kindex watch
@@ -2785,7 +2784,17 @@
value at the exact instruction where the change occurs. If @value{GDBN}
cannot set a hardware watchpoint, it sets a software watchpoint, which
executes more slowly and reports the change in value at the next
-statement, not the instruction, after the change occurs.
+@emph{statement}, not the instruction, after the change occurs.
+
+@vindex can-use-hw-watchpoints
+@cindex use only software watchpoints
+You can force @value{GDBN} to use only software watchpoints with the
+@kbd{set can-use-hw-watchpoints 0} command. With this variable set to
+zero, @value{GDBN} will never try to use hardware watchpoints, even if
+the underlying system supports them. (Note that hardware-assisted
+watchpoints that were set @emph{before} setting
+@code{can-use-hw-watchpoints} to zero will still use the hardware
+mechanism of watching expressiion values.)
When you issue the @code{watch} command, @value{GDBN} reports