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From: brnstnd@kramden.acf.nyu.edu (Dan Bernstein)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: assertions and debuggers
Message-ID: <14186:Sep2105:48:2290@kramden.acf.nyu.edu>
Date: 21 Sep 90 05:48:22 GMT
References: <10835@rama.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: IR
Lines: 17

In article <10835@rama.UUCP> lvw@rama.UUCP (Lyndon VanWagner) writes:
> On the VAX, we have been able to redefine the assert macro to place
> us into the VMS debugger at the point of error, rather than just 
> exiting the program.
  [ and in UNIX? ]

Why not just change the exit() to an abort()? Or, if you really want to
hard-code dumping the user into the debugger: switch(fork()) { case -1:
send some intelligent error message and die; case 0: abort(); default:
wait((int *) 0); execlp("dbx","dbx",argv[0],(char *) 0); die horribly; }
You should put this into a function so that the code isn't replicated at
each assert().

(Side note: I typed that in without having to think about it. How long
did your VMS solution take? Followups to alt.religion.computers.)

---Dan