xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/stab.5 (revision 1aaed33edb24c98a09130cd66667d6a795b6b2a8)
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32.\"     @(#)stab.5	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 10, 2010
36.Dt STAB 5
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm stab
40.Nd symbol table types
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In stab.h
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The file
45.In stab.h
46defines some of the symbol table
47.Fa n_type
48field values for a.out files.
49These are the types for permanent symbols (i.e., not local labels, etc.)
50used by the old debugger
51.Em sdb
52and the Berkeley Pascal compiler
53.Xr pc 1 .
54Symbol table entries can be produced by the
55.Pa .stabs
56assembler directive.
57This allows one to specify a double-quote delimited name, a symbol type,
58one char and one short of information about the symbol, and an unsigned
59long (usually an address).
60To avoid having to produce an explicit label for the address field,
61the
62.Pa .stabd
63directive can be used to implicitly address the current location.
64If no name is needed, symbol table entries can be generated using the
65.Pa .stabn
66directive.
67The loader promises to preserve the order of symbol table entries produced
68by
69.Pa .stab
70directives.
71As described in
72.Xr a.out 5 ,
73an element of the symbol table
74consists of the following structure:
75.Bd -literal
76/*
77* Format of a symbol table entry.
78*/
79
80struct nlist {
81	union {
82		const char *n_name;	/* for use when in-core */
83		long	n_strx;		/* index into file string table */
84	} n_un;
85	unsigned char	n_type;		/* type flag */
86	char		n_other;	/* unused */
87	short		n_desc;		/* see struct desc, below */
88	unsigned	n_value;	/* address or offset or line */
89};
90.Ed
91.Pp
92The low bits of the
93.Fa n_type
94field are used to place a symbol into
95at most one segment, according to
96the following masks, defined in
97.In a.out.h .
98A symbol can be in none of these segments by having none of these segment
99bits set.
100.Bd -literal
101/*
102* Simple values for n_type.
103*/
104
105#define	N_UNDF	0x0	/* undefined */
106#define	N_ABS	0x2	/* absolute */
107#define	N_TEXT	0x4	/* text */
108#define	N_DATA	0x6	/* data */
109#define	N_BSS	0x8	/* bss */
110
111#define	N_EXT	01	/* external bit, or'ed in */
112.Ed
113.Pp
114The
115.Fa n_value
116field of a symbol is relocated by the linker,
117.Xr ld 1
118as an address within the appropriate segment.
119.Fa N_value
120fields of symbols not in any segment are unchanged by the linker.
121In addition, the linker will discard certain symbols, according to rules
122of its own, unless the
123.Fa n_type
124field has one of the following bits set:
125.Bd -literal
126/*
127* Other permanent symbol table entries have some of the N_STAB bits set.
128* These are given in <stab.h>
129*/
130
131#define	N_STAB	0xe0	/* if any of these bits set, don't discard */
132.Ed
133.Pp
134This allows up to 112 (7 \(** 16) symbol types, split between the various
135segments.
136Some of these have already been claimed.
137The old symbolic debugger,
138.Em sdb ,
139uses the following n_type values:
140.Bd -literal
141#define	N_GSYM	0x20	/* global symbol: name,,0,type,0 */
142#define	N_FNAME	0x22	/* procedure name (f77 kludge): name,,0 */
143#define	N_FUN	0x24	/* procedure: name,,0,linenumber,address */
144#define	N_STSYM	0x26	/* static symbol: name,,0,type,address */
145#define	N_LCSYM	0x28	/* .lcomm symbol: name,,0,type,address */
146#define	N_RSYM	0x40	/* register sym: name,,0,type,register */
147#define	N_SLINE	0x44	/* src line: 0,,0,linenumber,address */
148#define	N_SSYM	0x60	/* structure elt: name,,0,type,struct_offset */
149#define	N_SO	0x64	/* source file name: name,,0,0,address */
150#define	N_LSYM	0x80	/* local sym: name,,0,type,offset */
151#define	N_SOL	0x84	/* #included file name: name,,0,0,address */
152#define	N_PSYM	0xa0	/* parameter: name,,0,type,offset */
153#define	N_ENTRY	0xa4	/* alternate entry: name,linenumber,address */
154#define	N_LBRAC	0xc0	/* left bracket: 0,,0,nesting level,address */
155#define	N_RBRAC	0xe0	/* right bracket: 0,,0,nesting level,address */
156#define	N_BCOMM	0xe2	/* begin common: name,, */
157#define	N_ECOMM	0xe4	/* end common: name,, */
158#define	N_ECOML	0xe8	/* end common (local name): ,,address */
159#define	N_LENG	0xfe	/* second stab entry with length information */
160.Ed
161.Pp
162where the comments give
163.Em sdb
164conventional use for
165.Pa .stab
166.Fa s
167and the
168.Fa n_name ,
169.Fa n_other ,
170.Fa n_desc ,
171and
172.Fa n_value
173fields
174of the given
175.Fa n_type .
176.Em Sdb
177uses the
178.Fa n_desc
179field to hold a type specifier in the form used
180by the Portable C Compiler,
181.Xr cc 1 ;
182see the header file
183.Pa pcc.h
184for details on the format of these type values.
185.Pp
186The Berkeley Pascal compiler,
187.Xr pc 1 ,
188uses the following
189.Fa n_type
190value:
191.Bd -literal
192#define	N_PC	0x30	/* global pascal symbol: name,,0,subtype,line */
193.Ed
194.Pp
195and uses the following subtypes to do type checking across separately
196compiled files:
197.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
1981	source file name
1992	included file name
2003	global label
2014	global constant
2025	global type
2036	global variable
2047	global function
2058	global procedure
2069	external function
20710	external procedure
20811	library variable
20912	library routine
210.Ed
211.Sh SEE ALSO
212.Xr as 1 ,
213.Xr ld 1 ,
214.Xr a.out 5
215.Sh HISTORY
216The
217.Nm
218file appeared in
219.Bx 4.0 .
220.Sh BUGS
221More basic types are needed.
222