Setting debug preferences

You can set a variety of debug-related preferences, such as the daemon port number to use, Debugger Editor preferences, and the length of time to wait for a response from the debug engine.

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Selecting Window > Preferences from the Eclipse IDE menu bar opens the Preferences dialog box. In this dialog box, you can choose and expand the Run/Debug node to set a variety of debug preferences. These include the following preferences (found in the Animated Step Into, Debug Daemon, and Compiled Debug nodes) that you might want to set when debugging your compiled language applications:

Animated Step Into preferences

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In the Preferences dialog box, selecting Run/Debug > Compiled Debug > Animated Step Into will open the Animated Step Into preference page. In this page, you can set the current step into pace (or current step into delay) and the maximum pace (or maximum step into delay) of the animated step into action. In addition, you can set the amount of time by which the pace increases or decreases when you select the Speed Up or Slow Down Animated Step Into actions in the Debug view.

The default values of the fields in this preference page are:

  • Current pace (ms) field: 2 seconds or 2000 milliseconds
  • Speed up/Slow down by (ms) field: 200 milliseconds
  • Maximum pace (ms) field: 5 seconds or 5000 milliseconds

Debug Daemon preferences

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In the Preferences dialog box, selecting Run/Debug > Debug Daemon will open the Debug Daemon page. In this page, you can set the port, a range of ports, or a combination of ports on which the daemon will listen for debug engine connections. Ranges and combinations of ports can be specified in comma-separated lists, hyphenated ranges, or a combination of the two. By default, the port is set to 8001.

Note: It is recommended that the default port be left as is, unless you are having problems or are running on a multiuser machine where the default port is already being used.

If you change the daemon port in the Debug Daemon preference page, you can easily set it back to its default value by clicking the preference page Restore Defaults push button.

If the daemon was already set in the user interface to listen for debug engines, the debugger will start the daemon on the new port number for you when you change the daemon port number in this preference page.

Debugger editor preferences

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In the Preferences dialog box, selecting Run/Debug > Compiled Debug > Debug Editors will open the Debugger Editor page. In this page, you can set the editor to allow hover and type evaluation. When the Allow hover evaluation check box is selected, you can hover over an expression in the Debugger Editor to display its value in a pop-up. When the Display types in hover check box is selected, the expression's type will be displayed in the pop-up.

The Always use while debugging check box determines the editor that source will open in when debugging. It also determines what you will see when stepping. The default setting for this check box depends on the product that you have installed this debugger with. When this check box is deselected:

  • Source will open in the default editor that is associated with the source file type in the workbench preferences.
  • If the source or listing can only be found by the host debug engine, it will open in the Debugger editor.

In this section, you can also:

  • Set the editor to load entire source files. By default, this setting is off. When the Load entire file content check box is selected, the entire source file will load, however, performance may be adversely impacted. You may want to turn this setting on when using certain advanced LPEX editor actions, such as incrementally searching within the file or using bracket matching functions.
  • Set the debugger to allow monitored expressions to be added to the Monitors view when they are double-clicked in the editor.
  • Select the Center view on execution line check box if you want to have the current line of execution centered in the Debugger Editor for all debug sessions.
  • Choose the color of the line of execution.

Compiled Debug preferences

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In the Preferences dialog box, selecting Run/Debug > Compiled Debug will open the Compiled Debug page. In this page, you can set these preferences:

Program profiles

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You can choose to delete program profiles. A program profile is saved by the debugger for each program that you debug. The program profile includes information such as breakpoint and monitor settings. To delete all currently-saved program profiles, select this button.

If you want exception breakpoint settings to apply only to the program being debugged in the current debug session, select the Save exception breakpoint settings by program check box. If this check box is not selected, exception breakpoint settings will apply to all programs that are debugged by the current debug engine.

Engine response time

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If you want to specify the length of time for the debugger to wait for a response from the debug engine, select the Wait (in seconds) radio button and then enter the length of time in seconds to wait in the field. By default, the debugger will wait 15 seconds for an engine response. When the Wait radio button is selected, if an engine does not respond within the specified waiting period, a dialog box will prompt you to continue waiting for an engine response. If you choose not to continue waiting, the debug session will terminate.

If you want the debugger to wait indefinitely for a reply from the debug engine, select the Infinite radio button. When this radio button is selected, you will need to manually terminate the debug session if an engine fails to respond.

The Trace engine connection setting is used for diagnostic purposes. When this setting is selected, large files that are only readable by IBM can be written to your disk. Select this setting only when instructed by an IBM service representative.