xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/stab.5 (revision a0409676120c1e558d0ade943019934e0f15118d)
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28.\"     @(#)stab.5	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/5/93
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30.\"
31.Dd June 10, 2010
32.Dt STAB 5
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm stab
36.Nd symbol table types
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In stab.h
39.Sh DESCRIPTION
40The file
41.In stab.h
42defines some of the symbol table
43.Fa n_type
44field values for a.out files.
45These are the types for permanent symbols (i.e., not local labels, etc.\&)
46used by the old debugger
47.Em sdb
48and the Berkeley Pascal compiler
49.Xr pc 1 .
50Symbol table entries can be produced by the
51.Pa .stabs
52assembler directive.
53This allows one to specify a double-quote delimited name, a symbol type,
54one char and one short of information about the symbol, and an unsigned
55long (usually an address).
56To avoid having to produce an explicit label for the address field,
57the
58.Pa .stabd
59directive can be used to implicitly address the current location.
60If no name is needed, symbol table entries can be generated using the
61.Pa .stabn
62directive.
63The loader promises to preserve the order of symbol table entries produced
64by
65.Pa .stab
66directives.
67As described in
68.Xr a.out 5 ,
69an element of the symbol table
70consists of the following structure:
71.Bd -literal
72/*
73* Format of a symbol table entry.
74*/
75
76struct nlist {
77	union {
78		const char *n_name;	/* for use when in-core */
79		long	n_strx;		/* index into file string table */
80	} n_un;
81	unsigned char	n_type;		/* type flag */
82	char		n_other;	/* unused */
83	short		n_desc;		/* see struct desc, below */
84	unsigned	n_value;	/* address or offset or line */
85};
86.Ed
87.Pp
88The low bits of the
89.Fa n_type
90field are used to place a symbol into
91at most one segment, according to
92the following masks, defined in
93.In a.out.h .
94A symbol can be in none of these segments by having none of these segment
95bits set.
96.Bd -literal
97/*
98* Simple values for n_type.
99*/
100
101#define	N_UNDF	0x0	/* undefined */
102#define	N_ABS	0x2	/* absolute */
103#define	N_TEXT	0x4	/* text */
104#define	N_DATA	0x6	/* data */
105#define	N_BSS	0x8	/* bss */
106
107#define	N_EXT	01	/* external bit, or'ed in */
108.Ed
109.Pp
110The
111.Fa n_value
112field of a symbol is relocated by the linker,
113.Xr ld 1
114as an address within the appropriate segment.
115.Fa N_value
116fields of symbols not in any segment are unchanged by the linker.
117In addition, the linker will discard certain symbols, according to rules
118of its own, unless the
119.Fa n_type
120field has one of the following bits set:
121.Bd -literal
122/*
123* Other permanent symbol table entries have some of the N_STAB bits set.
124* These are given in <stab.h>
125*/
126
127#define	N_STAB	0xe0	/* if any of these bits set, don't discard */
128.Ed
129.Pp
130This allows up to 112 (7 \(** 16) symbol types, split between the various
131segments.
132Some of these have already been claimed.
133The old symbolic debugger,
134.Em sdb ,
135uses the following n_type values:
136.Bd -literal
137#define	N_GSYM	0x20	/* global symbol: name,,0,type,0 */
138#define	N_FNAME	0x22	/* procedure name (f77 kludge): name,,0 */
139#define	N_FUN	0x24	/* procedure: name,,0,linenumber,address */
140#define	N_STSYM	0x26	/* static symbol: name,,0,type,address */
141#define	N_LCSYM	0x28	/* .lcomm symbol: name,,0,type,address */
142#define	N_RSYM	0x40	/* register sym: name,,0,type,register */
143#define	N_SLINE	0x44	/* src line: 0,,0,linenumber,address */
144#define	N_SSYM	0x60	/* structure elt: name,,0,type,struct_offset */
145#define	N_SO	0x64	/* source file name: name,,0,0,address */
146#define	N_LSYM	0x80	/* local sym: name,,0,type,offset */
147#define	N_SOL	0x84	/* #included file name: name,,0,0,address */
148#define	N_PSYM	0xa0	/* parameter: name,,0,type,offset */
149#define	N_ENTRY	0xa4	/* alternate entry: name,linenumber,address */
150#define	N_LBRAC	0xc0	/* left bracket: 0,,0,nesting level,address */
151#define	N_RBRAC	0xe0	/* right bracket: 0,,0,nesting level,address */
152#define	N_BCOMM	0xe2	/* begin common: name,, */
153#define	N_ECOMM	0xe4	/* end common: name,, */
154#define	N_ECOML	0xe8	/* end common (local name): ,,address */
155#define	N_LENG	0xfe	/* second stab entry with length information */
156.Ed
157.Pp
158where the comments give
159.Em sdb
160conventional use for
161.Pa .stab
162.Fa s
163and the
164.Fa n_name ,
165.Fa n_other ,
166.Fa n_desc ,
167and
168.Fa n_value
169fields
170of the given
171.Fa n_type .
172.Em Sdb
173uses the
174.Fa n_desc
175field to hold a type specifier in the form used
176by the Portable C Compiler,
177.Xr cc 1 ;
178see the header file
179.Pa pcc.h
180for details on the format of these type values.
181.Pp
182The Berkeley Pascal compiler,
183.Xr pc 1 ,
184uses the following
185.Fa n_type
186value:
187.Bd -literal
188#define	N_PC	0x30	/* global pascal symbol: name,,0,subtype,line */
189.Ed
190.Pp
191and uses the following subtypes to do type checking across separately
192compiled files:
193.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
1941	source file name
1952	included file name
1963	global label
1974	global constant
1985	global type
1996	global variable
2007	global function
2018	global procedure
2029	external function
20310	external procedure
20411	library variable
20512	library routine
206.Ed
207.Sh SEE ALSO
208.Xr as 1 ,
209.Xr ld 1 ,
210.Xr a.out 5
211.Sh HISTORY
212The
213.Nm
214file appeared in
215.Bx 4.0 .
216.Sh BUGS
217More basic types are needed.
218