xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/stab.5 (revision 1db64f89363c97858961c4df0b7d02f3223723cf)
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28.Dd June 10, 2010
29.Dt STAB 5
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm stab
33.Nd symbol table types
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.In stab.h
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37The file
38.In stab.h
39defines some of the symbol table
40.Fa n_type
41field values for a.out files.
42These are the types for permanent symbols (i.e., not local labels, etc.\&)
43used by the old debugger
44.Em sdb
45and the Berkeley Pascal compiler
46.Xr pc 1 .
47Symbol table entries can be produced by the
48.Pa .stabs
49assembler directive.
50This allows one to specify a double-quote delimited name, a symbol type,
51one char and one short of information about the symbol, and an unsigned
52long (usually an address).
53To avoid having to produce an explicit label for the address field,
54the
55.Pa .stabd
56directive can be used to implicitly address the current location.
57If no name is needed, symbol table entries can be generated using the
58.Pa .stabn
59directive.
60The loader promises to preserve the order of symbol table entries produced
61by
62.Pa .stab
63directives.
64As described in
65.Xr a.out 5 ,
66an element of the symbol table
67consists of the following structure:
68.Bd -literal
69/*
70* Format of a symbol table entry.
71*/
72
73struct nlist {
74	union {
75		const char *n_name;	/* for use when in-core */
76		long	n_strx;		/* index into file string table */
77	} n_un;
78	unsigned char	n_type;		/* type flag */
79	char		n_other;	/* unused */
80	short		n_desc;		/* see struct desc, below */
81	unsigned	n_value;	/* address or offset or line */
82};
83.Ed
84.Pp
85The low bits of the
86.Fa n_type
87field are used to place a symbol into
88at most one segment, according to
89the following masks, defined in
90.In a.out.h .
91A symbol can be in none of these segments by having none of these segment
92bits set.
93.Bd -literal
94/*
95* Simple values for n_type.
96*/
97
98#define	N_UNDF	0x0	/* undefined */
99#define	N_ABS	0x2	/* absolute */
100#define	N_TEXT	0x4	/* text */
101#define	N_DATA	0x6	/* data */
102#define	N_BSS	0x8	/* bss */
103
104#define	N_EXT	01	/* external bit, or'ed in */
105.Ed
106.Pp
107The
108.Fa n_value
109field of a symbol is relocated by the linker,
110.Xr ld 1
111as an address within the appropriate segment.
112.Fa N_value
113fields of symbols not in any segment are unchanged by the linker.
114In addition, the linker will discard certain symbols, according to rules
115of its own, unless the
116.Fa n_type
117field has one of the following bits set:
118.Bd -literal
119/*
120* Other permanent symbol table entries have some of the N_STAB bits set.
121* These are given in <stab.h>
122*/
123
124#define	N_STAB	0xe0	/* if any of these bits set, don't discard */
125.Ed
126.Pp
127This allows up to 112 (7 \(** 16) symbol types, split between the various
128segments.
129Some of these have already been claimed.
130The old symbolic debugger,
131.Em sdb ,
132uses the following n_type values:
133.Bd -literal
134#define	N_GSYM	0x20	/* global symbol: name,,0,type,0 */
135#define	N_FNAME	0x22	/* procedure name (f77 kludge): name,,0 */
136#define	N_FUN	0x24	/* procedure: name,,0,linenumber,address */
137#define	N_STSYM	0x26	/* static symbol: name,,0,type,address */
138#define	N_LCSYM	0x28	/* .lcomm symbol: name,,0,type,address */
139#define	N_RSYM	0x40	/* register sym: name,,0,type,register */
140#define	N_SLINE	0x44	/* src line: 0,,0,linenumber,address */
141#define	N_SSYM	0x60	/* structure elt: name,,0,type,struct_offset */
142#define	N_SO	0x64	/* source file name: name,,0,0,address */
143#define	N_LSYM	0x80	/* local sym: name,,0,type,offset */
144#define	N_SOL	0x84	/* #included file name: name,,0,0,address */
145#define	N_PSYM	0xa0	/* parameter: name,,0,type,offset */
146#define	N_ENTRY	0xa4	/* alternate entry: name,linenumber,address */
147#define	N_LBRAC	0xc0	/* left bracket: 0,,0,nesting level,address */
148#define	N_RBRAC	0xe0	/* right bracket: 0,,0,nesting level,address */
149#define	N_BCOMM	0xe2	/* begin common: name,, */
150#define	N_ECOMM	0xe4	/* end common: name,, */
151#define	N_ECOML	0xe8	/* end common (local name): ,,address */
152#define	N_LENG	0xfe	/* second stab entry with length information */
153.Ed
154.Pp
155where the comments give
156.Em sdb
157conventional use for
158.Pa .stab
159.Fa s
160and the
161.Fa n_name ,
162.Fa n_other ,
163.Fa n_desc ,
164and
165.Fa n_value
166fields
167of the given
168.Fa n_type .
169.Em Sdb
170uses the
171.Fa n_desc
172field to hold a type specifier in the form used
173by the Portable C Compiler,
174.Xr cc 1 ;
175see the header file
176.Pa pcc.h
177for details on the format of these type values.
178.Pp
179The Berkeley Pascal compiler,
180.Xr pc 1 ,
181uses the following
182.Fa n_type
183value:
184.Bd -literal
185#define	N_PC	0x30	/* global pascal symbol: name,,0,subtype,line */
186.Ed
187.Pp
188and uses the following subtypes to do type checking across separately
189compiled files:
190.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
1911	source file name
1922	included file name
1933	global label
1944	global constant
1955	global type
1966	global variable
1977	global function
1988	global procedure
1999	external function
20010	external procedure
20111	library variable
20212	library routine
203.Ed
204.Sh SEE ALSO
205.Xr as 1 ,
206.Xr ld 1 ,
207.Xr a.out 5
208.Sh HISTORY
209The
210.Nm
211file appeared in
212.Bx 4.0 .
213.Sh BUGS
214More basic types are needed.
215