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authorUlrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>2001-02-12 20:15:14 +0000
committerUlrich Drepper <drepper@redhat.com>2001-02-12 20:15:14 +0000
commitf6b02eff0d93d6e2ef31725f6b1d256ed883ea03 (patch)
tree4d7f0fd3de304192ad6e5fcd725e408d8934f9b4 /manual/debug.texi
parent2632a4ccb4886b3c67ff40fad0879bb76001e226 (diff)
Improved the wording.
Diffstat (limited to 'manual/debug.texi')
-rw-r--r--manual/debug.texi34
1 files changed, 17 insertions, 17 deletions
diff --git a/manual/debug.texi b/manual/debug.texi
index 0fe1e3e4e7..c29f626394 100644
--- a/manual/debug.texi
+++ b/manual/debug.texi
@@ -3,12 +3,12 @@
@c %MENU% Functions to help debugging applications.
@chapter Debugging support
-Applications often get debugged using dedicated debugger programs. But
-sometimes this is not possible and it is in any case useful to provide
-the developer at the time the problems are experienced with as much
-information as possible. For this reason there exist a few functions
-which a program can use to help the developer more easily locate the
-problem.
+Applications are usually debugged using dedicated debugger programs.
+But sometimes this is not possible and, in any case, it is useful to
+provide the developer with as much information as possible at the time
+the problems are experienced. For this reason a few functions are
+provided which a program can use to help the developer more easily
+locate the problem.
@menu
@@ -39,9 +39,9 @@ and manipulate backtraces of the current thread.
The @code{backtrace} function obtains a backtrace for the current
thread, as a list of pointers, and places the information into
@var{buffer}. The argument @var{size} should be the number of
-@w{@code{void *}} elements fitting into @var{buffer}. The return value
-is the actual number of entries of @var{buffer} that are obtained, and
-is at most @var{size}.
+@w{@code{void *}} elements that will fit into @var{buffer}. The return
+value is the actual number of entries of @var{buffer} that are obtained,
+and is at most @var{size}.
The pointers placed in @var{buffer} are actually return addresses
obtained by inspecting the stack, one return address per stack frame.
@@ -67,19 +67,19 @@ The return value is a pointer to an array of strings, which has
contains a printable representation of the corresponding element of
@var{buffer}. It includes the function name (if this can be
determined), an offset into the function, and the actual return address
-(in hexidecimal).
+(in hexadecimal).
-Currently, the function name and offset can currently only be obtained
-on systems that use the ELF binary format for programs and libraries.
-On other systems, only the hexidecimal return address will be present.
-Also, you may need to pass additional flags to the linker
-(@code{-rdynamic} on systems using GNU ld) to make the function names
-available to the program.
+Currently, the function name and offset only be obtained on systems that
+use the ELF binary format for programs and libraries. On other systems,
+only the hexadecimal return address will be present. Also, you may need
+to pass additional flags to the linker to make the function names
+available to the program. (For example, on systems using GNU ld, you
+must pass (@code{-rdynamic}.)
The return value of @code{backtrace_symbols} is a pointer obtained via
the @code{malloc} function, and it is the responsibility of the caller
to @code{free} that pointer. Note that only the return value need be
-freed, but not the individual strings.
+freed, not the individual strings.
The return value is @code{NULL} if sufficient memory for the strings
cannot be obtained.