Helpful C Tools：source、executables、debugging and performance tuning

context comes from 《expert C Programming》

Tools to Examine Source

Tools to Examine Executables

Tools to Help with Debugging

Tools to Help with Performance Tuning

Tools to Examine Source

Tool Where to Find It What It Does

cb Comes with the compiler C program beautifier. Run your source through this filter to put it in a standard layout and indentation. Comes from Berkeley. indent Does the same things cb does. Comes from AT & T. cdecl This book Unscrambles C declarations. cflow Comes with the compiler Prints the caller/callee relationships of a program. cscope Comes with the compiler An interactive ASCII-based C program browser. We use it in the OS group to check the impact of changes to header files. It provides quick answers to questions like: "How many commands use libthread?" or "Who are all the kmem readers?" ctags /usr/bin Creates a tags file for use in vi editor. A tags file speeds up examining program source by maintaining a table of where most objects are located. lint Comes with the compiler A C program checker. sccs /usr/ccs/bin A source code version control system. vgrind /usr/bin A formatter for printing nice C listings.

Tools to Examine Executables

Tool Where to Find It What It Does

dis /usr/ccs/bin Object code disassembler dump -Lv /usr/ccs/bin Prints dynamic linking information ldd /usr/bin Prints the dynamic libraries this file needs nm /usr/ccs/bin Prints the symbol table of an object file strings /usr/bin Looks at the strings embedded in a binary. Useful for looking at the error messages a binary can generate, built-in file names, and (sometimes) symbol names or version and copyright information. sum /usr/bin Prints checksum and block count for a file. An-swers questions like: "Are two executables the same version?" "Did the transmission go OK?"

Tools to Help with Debugging

Tool Where to Find It What It Does

truss /usr/bin The SVr4 version of trace. This tool prints out the system calls that an executable makes. Use it to see what a binary is doing, and why it's stuck or failing. This is a great help! ps /usr/bin Displays process characteristics. ctrace Comes with the compiler Modifies your source to print lines as they are executed. A great tool for small programs! debugger Comes with the compiler Interactive debugger. file /usr/bin Tells you what a file contains (e.g., executable, data, ASCII, shell script, archive, etc.).

Tools to Help with Performance Tuning

Tool Where to Find It What It Does

collector Comes with the compiler (SunOS only) Collects runtime performance data under the control of the debugger. analyzer Comes with the compiler (SunOS only) Analyzes collected performance data. gprof /usr/ccs/bin Displays the call-graph profile data (identifies the computeintensive functions). prof /usr/ccs/bin Displays the percentage of time spent in each routi ne. tcov Comes with the compiler Displays a count of how often each statement is executed (identifies the compute-intensive loops within a function). time /usr/bin/time Displays the total real and CPU time used by a program.