Part II:

Debugging Tools and Tasks

This part introduces basic tools and features for debugging your programs using TotalView, including:

Chapter 4, “Starting TotalView”

If you just enter totalview in a shell, the Sessions Manager launches where you can configure your debugging session. But you can also bypass the manager and launch TotalView directly. This chapter details the multiple options you have for starting TotalView.

Chapter 5, “Loading and Managing Sessions”

You can set up a debugging session in several ways, depending on your platform. This chapter discusses common setup scenarios and configurations.

Chapter 6, “Using and Customizing the GUI”

The TotalView GUI provides an extensive set of tools for viewing, navigating, and customization. This chapter discusses features specific to TotalView’s interface.

Chapter 7, “Stepping through and Executing your Program”

TotalView provides a wide set of tools for stepping through your program, using either the Process and Group menus, toolbar commands, or the CLI.

Chapter 8, “Setting Action Points”

Action points control how your programs execute and what happens when your program reaches statements that you define as important. Action points also let you monitor changes to a variable’s value.

Chapter 9, “Examining and Editing Data and Program Elements”

This chapter discusses how to examine the value stored in a variable.

Chapter 10, “Examining Arrays”

Displaying information in arrays presents special problems. This chapter tells how TotalView solves these problems.

Chapter 11, “Visualizing Programs and Data”

Some TotalView commands and tools are only useful if you’re using the GUI. Here you will find information on the Call Graph and Visualizer.

Chapter 12, “Evaluating Expressions”

Many TotalView operations such as displaying variables are actually operating upon expressions. Here’s where you’ll find details of what TotalView does. This information is not just for advanced users.

Chapter 13, “About Groups, Processes, and Threads”

This chapter is the first of a three-chapter look at the TotalView process/thread model and how to manipulate threads and processes while debugging your multi-threaded applications. This chapter contains concept information on threads and processes in general. Chapter 14, “Manipulating Processes and Threads” describes TotalView’s hands-on tools for organizing and viewing thread and process activity and data, while Chapter 21, “Group, Process, and Thread Control” includes advanced configuration and customization, useful for finely controlling execution in very complex applications.

Chapter 14, “Manipulating Processes and Threads”

The second (of three) chapter focusing on threads and processes, with an emphasis on hands-on tasks and tools to control the view, execution, and focus of a single or group of threads and processes.

Chapter 15, “Debugging Strategies for Parallel Applications”

Because debugging parallel applications can be so complex, this chapter offers a few strategies that can help streamline the task.