vi pid
5i [ textfile ]
5i pid
ki [ textfile ]
ki pid
qi [ textfile ]
qi pid
Vi will simulate the execution of a named textfile . It will also make a copy of an existing process with process id pid and simulate its continuation.
As a debugger vi offers more complete information than db (1). Tracing can be performed at the level of instructions, system calls, or function calls. Vi allows breakpoints to be triggered when specified addresses in memory are accessed. A report of instruction counts, load delay fills and distribution is produced for each run. Vi simulates the CPU's caches and MMU to assist the optimization of compilers and programs.
The command interface mirrors the interface to db ; see db (1) for a detailed description. Data formats and addressing are compatible with db except for disassembly: vi offers only MIPS ( db -mmipsco ) mnemonics for machine instructions. Ki offers both Plan 9 and Sun SPARC formats.
Several extra commands allow extended tracing and printing of statistics:
$t [ 0ics ] The t command controls tracing. Zero cancels all tracing options.
i Enable instruction tracing
c Enable call tracing
s Enable system call tracing
$i [ itsp ] The i command prints statistics accumulated by all code run in this session.
i Print instruction counts and frequency.
p Print cycle profile.
t ( Vi only) Print TLB and cache statistics.
s Print memory reference, working set and size statistics.
:b [ arwe ] Vi allows breakpoints to be set on any memory location. These breakpoints monitor when a location is accessed, read, written, or equals a certain value. For equality the compared value is the count (see db (1)) supplied to the command.