Remote debugging with an Eclipse client
When you develop programs in the workbench, you use the Debug perspective to handle debugging with either a z/OS® debug engine or a workstation debug engine.
- You use a z/OS debug engine to debug host applications.
- You use a z/OS debug engine to debug code in an
MVS subproject, which must be in an online
state. You can also use a workstation debug engine to debug code in a local project.Notes:
- Local project debugging is not available in IBM® Debug for z/OS or Wazi Developer for Eclipse.
- MVS subprojects are not supported in IBM Debug for z/OS.
- For more information about the limitation on different operating systems, see Platform limitations.
Your debugging experience is similar for the local code and for
the z/OS-based code. In either
case, you can do the following tasks:
- Set and clear breakpoints at a specific line.
- Set and clear breakpoints for an error or warning-level error that is based on Language Environment® severities.
- Run to a breakpoint.
- Step into a procedure.
- Step over a procedure.
- View variable values and change them as you step through the code.
- View variable values in the context of a larger area of storage.
- View the call stack.
Before you begin to debug applications, verify the setting of the Build (if required) before launching debug option:
- Open the Preferences window.
- In the left pane of the Preferences window, expand Run/Debug and click Launching.
- Look for Build (if required) before launching. If this option remains in the default state, which is selected, any time you debug or run a compiled application, compilations are run resulting in performance degradation. You might want to clear the option and manually build the code that you want to debug before you start a debugging session or run an application.
IBM z/OS Debugger supports two modes of remote debugging:
- Standard mode
- Uses the Program Information and Control Library (PICL) engine
technology. With the PICL technology, part of the processing is performed
in the client machine, which can reduce the overhead in the z/OS system. The following features
are provided in the standard mode only:
- Support for 64 bit Enterprise PL/I for z/OS Version 5
- Support for 64 bit C/C++ feature of z/OS
- Debug Tool compatibility mode
- Uses the remote debug engine from the former Debug Tool for z/OS to perform all host debugging tasks. This mode supports all features that were available
in Debug Tool for z/OS. The following feature is provided in
the Debug Tool compatibility mode only:
- Debugging and collecting code coverage for ZUnit tests