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Annotation of lucent/sys/man/1/vi, revision 1.1

1.1     ! root        1: .TH VI 1
        !             2: .SH NAME
        !             3: vi, ki, xi \- instruction simulators
        !             4: .SH SYNOPSIS
        !             5: .B vi
        !             6: [
        !             7: .I textfile
        !             8: ]
        !             9: .br
        !            10: .B vi
        !            11: .I pid
        !            12: .br
        !            13: .B ki
        !            14: [
        !            15: .I textfile
        !            16: ]
        !            17: .br
        !            18: .B ki
        !            19: .I pid
        !            20: .br
        !            21: .B xi
        !            22: [
        !            23: .I textfile
        !            24: ]
        !            25: .br
        !            26: .B xi
        !            27: .I pid
        !            28: .SH DESCRIPTION
        !            29: .I Vi
        !            30: simulates the execution of a MIPS binary in
        !            31: a Plan 9 environment.
        !            32: It has two main uses: as
        !            33: a debugger and as a statistics gatherer.
        !            34: Programs running under
        !            35: .I vi
        !            36: execute about two hundred times
        !            37: slower than normal\(embut faster than
        !            38: single stepping under
        !            39: .IR db .
        !            40: .I Ki
        !            41: and
        !            42: .I xi
        !            43: are similar to
        !            44: .I vi
        !            45: but interpret SPARC and ATT3210 binaries.
        !            46: The following discussion refers to
        !            47: .I vi
        !            48: but applies to the others
        !            49: as well.
        !            50: .PP
        !            51: .I Vi
        !            52: will simulate the execution of a named
        !            53: .IR textfile .
        !            54: It will also make a copy of an existing process with process id
        !            55: .I pid
        !            56: and simulate its continuation.
        !            57: .PP
        !            58: As a debugger
        !            59: .I vi
        !            60: offers more complete information
        !            61: than
        !            62: .IR db (1).
        !            63: Tracing can be performed at the level of instructions,
        !            64: system calls, or function calls.
        !            65: .I Vi
        !            66: allows breakpoints to be triggered when specified addresses
        !            67: in memory are accessed.
        !            68: A report of instruction counts,
        !            69: load delay fills and distribution is produced for
        !            70: each run.
        !            71: .I Vi
        !            72: simulates the CPU's caches and MMU
        !            73: to assist the optimization of compilers and programs.
        !            74: .PP
        !            75: The command interface mirrors the interface to
        !            76: .IR db ;
        !            77: see
        !            78: .IR db (1)
        !            79: for a detailed description.
        !            80: Data formats and addressing are compatible with
        !            81: .I db
        !            82: except
        !            83: for disassembly: 
        !            84: .I vi
        !            85: offers only MIPS
        !            86: .RB ( db
        !            87: .BR -mmipsco )
        !            88: mnemonics for
        !            89: machine instructions.
        !            90: .I Ki
        !            91: offers both Plan 9 and Sun SPARC formats.
        !            92: .PP
        !            93: Several extra commands allow
        !            94: extended tracing and printing of statistics:
        !            95: .TP
        !            96: .BR $t [ 0ics ]
        !            97: The
        !            98: .I t
        !            99: command controls tracing. Zero cancels all tracing
        !           100: options.
        !           101: .RS
        !           102: .TP
        !           103: .B i
        !           104: Enable instruction tracing
        !           105: .TP
        !           106: .B c
        !           107: Enable call tracing
        !           108: .TP
        !           109: .B s
        !           110: Enable system call tracing
        !           111: .RE
        !           112: .TP
        !           113: .BR $i [ itsp ]
        !           114: The
        !           115: .B i
        !           116: command prints statistics accumulated by
        !           117: all code run in this session.
        !           118: .RS
        !           119: .TP
        !           120: .B i
        !           121: Print instruction counts and frequency.
        !           122: .TP
        !           123: .B p
        !           124: Print cycle profile.
        !           125: .TP
        !           126: .B t
        !           127: .RI ( Vi
        !           128: only) Print TLB and cache statistics.
        !           129: .TP
        !           130: .B s
        !           131: Print memory reference, working set and size statistics.
        !           132: .RE
        !           133: .TP
        !           134: .BR :b [ arwe ]
        !           135: .I Vi
        !           136: allows breakpoints to be set on any memory location.
        !           137: These breakpoints monitor when a location is
        !           138: accessed, read, written, or equals a certain value.
        !           139: For equality the compared value is the
        !           140: .I count
        !           141: (see
        !           142: .IR db (1))
        !           143: supplied to the command.
        !           144: .SH SOURCE
        !           145: .B /sys/src/cmd/vi
        !           146: etc.
        !           147: .SH "SEE ALSO"
        !           148: .IR nm (1),
        !           149: .IR db (1)
        !           150: .SH BUGS
        !           151: The code generated by
        !           152: the compilers
        !           153: is well supported, but some unusual instructions are unimplemented.
        !           154: Some Plan 9 system calls such as
        !           155: .I rfork
        !           156: cause simulated traps.
        !           157: The floating point simulation makes assumptions about the interpreting
        !           158: machine's floating point support. The floating point conversions performed
        !           159: by
        !           160: .I vi
        !           161: may cause a loss of precision.

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