Patent · US Expired

Method and apparatus to debug a program from a predetermined starting point

US6981243B1 · kind B1 · utility

25Cited by
7References
29Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 20, 2000
Grant dateDec 27, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 31, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F11/3698
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus allow a programmer to repeatedly debug a program from the same starting point. The entire process state of the process can be saved at any time in the course of a debugging session to a disk file, called the checkpoint file. Now registers or memory may be modified, if necessary, and the program may be brought back to the same starting point where the state had been previously saved by resuming from the checkpoint file. The method and apparatus allow the state of all the programs to be saved multiple times and resumed from any one of those states. The debugging of a problem is considerably facilitated by not having to start from scratch to debug the problem as the last saved state of the program can be used to start the debugging.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.