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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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