Symbian OS Data view: Chunks

The Symbian OS Data view displays the processes and threads for the suspended debug session based on the selection in the Debug view. Read-only data is displayed for ARM build configurations. Data to be viewed includes:

NOTE Information for the Chunks and Libraries tabs is not available when debugging with the TRK debug agent.


Chunks

Chunks are an area of contiguous linear memory. It is the unit of memory allocation where a region of RAM is mapped into contiguous logical addresses. Chunks are allocated during boot for such things as the Kernel's data and stack.

The Chunks tab (Figure 4) provides a flat list of corresponding kernel objects. The list will display “sortable” attributes of that type of object in columns. The “sortable attribute” means you can sort the list by that attribute. For example, you may want to sort the list by the owning process name. Sort the list of any column by clicking on the column header.

NOTE Chunks data is not available during TRK debugging.

Figure 4. Chunks Pane of Symbian OS View

Attaching to a Process

If you double click on a thread item in the Thread tab, or right-click and choose Debug, the owning process of the thread will be attached. The thread with an attached process will appear in bold. You can also select a thread and click the bug icon in the Symbian OS Data toolbar. You can also view properties for the attached process by clicking the "Show properties of the selected item" icon () in the Symbian OS Data toolbar or right-click the thread and choose Properties.

NOTE If an executable is not part of a project in the workspace use the Executables view to import an executable to make it visible to the debugger. Once included in the Executables list, the symbolics for that executable can be loaded and breakpoints resolved and hit. Open a source file in an editor view or use the Breakpoints view to verify that the executable breakpoints have been resolved.

IMPORTANT In stop mode debugging when debugging multiple processes at the same time, selecting a process in the Debug pane and clicking Terminate disconnects the attached process on the board, leaving all other processes running. It does not terminate the debug session. However, if there is only one debug process when you click Terminate the CPU is suspended until the next debug session.

WARNING Detaching from a system process or any process not initiated by the program you are attempting to debug may cause the device to stop working, forcing a restart of the device.

Other references