A debugging data format is a means of storing information about a compiled

computer program A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to execute. Computer programs are one component of software, which also includes documentation and other intangible components. A computer progra ...

for use by high-level

debugger A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" program). The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the programmer to track its execut ...

s. Modern debugging data formats store enough information to allow source-level debugging. High-level debuggers need information about variables, types, constants, subroutines and so on, so they can translate between machine-level storage and source language constructs. Such information can also be used by other software tools. The information must be generated by the

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...

and stored in the

executable In computing, executable code, an executable file, or an executable program, sometimes simply referred to as an executable or binary, causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instructions", as opposed to a data fil ...

file or

dynamic library In computing, a dynamic linker is the part of an operating system that loads and links the shared libraries needed by an executable when it is executed (at " run time"), by copying the content of libraries from persistent storage to RAM, filli ...

by the linker. Some

object file An object file is a computer file containing object code, that is, machine code output of an assembler or compiler. The object code is usually relocatable, and not usually directly executable. There are various formats for object files, and the ...

formats include debugging information, but others can use generic debugging data formats such as

stabs stabs (sometimes written STABS) is a debugging data format for storing information about computer programs for use by symbolic and source-level debuggers. (The information is stored in symbol table strings; hence the name "stabs".) Cygnus Sup ...

and

DWARF Dwarf or dwarves may refer to: Common uses *Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore * Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...

List of debugging formats

COFF The Common Object File Format (COFF) is a format for executable, object code, and shared library computer files used on Unix systems. It was introduced in Unix System V, replaced the previously used a.out format, and formed the basis for ext ...

Portable Executable The Portable Executable (PE) format is a file format for executables, object code, DLLs and others used in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems. The PE format is a data structure that encapsulates the information necessary f ...

(PE/COFF) *

Relocatable Object Module Format The Relocatable Object Module Format (OMF) is an object file format used primarily for software intended to run on Intel 80x86 microprocessors. Version 4.0 was released by Intel in 1981 under the name ''Object Module Format'', and is perhaps b ...

(OMF) * IEEE-695 *

References

* (NB. Concentrates on DWARF, but also discusses debugging formats in general, with an overview of all the major formats.) Computer file formats {{programming-software-stub

List of debugging formats

See also

References