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From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.misc
Subject: Re: adb
Message-ID: <1991Mar15.045507.3845@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 15 Mar 91 04:55:07 GMT
References: <7606@mentor.cc.purdue.edu>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR)
Followup-To: comp.unix.misc
Distribution: usa
Organization: North Coast Public Access Un*x (ncoast)
Lines: 26

As quoted from <7606@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> by 23n@sage.cc.purdue.edu:
+---------------
| I am have been wondering about using adb.
| I Read TFM and played around a little and the thing seems to be a bitch to use.
| I do occasionally have to throw around a few pointers & dbx is okay for that, 
|   too, but what's the deal with adb?
+---------------

adb has been pretty much superseded by sdb/dbx/gdb/cv (SCO) for debugging, but
is still useful for patching binary files.  With two exceptions:

(1) It's still the Xenix ("OMF") format debugger.
(2) SCO UNIX (but, I hope, not other V.3.2's) adb insists that the file *must*
be OMF (Xenix x.out) format; it won't do arbitrary binary files.  (grrr)

It's also just about the only way you can hope to debug a program without a
symbol table, but you need to be familiar enough with assembly language to get
away with it.  Nevertheless, it is possible to debug and even patch symbol-
less binaries with adb.

++Brandon
-- 
Me: Brandon S. Allbery			    Ham: KB8JRR on 40m, 10m when time
Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG		      permits; also 2m, 220, 440, 1200
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