A scheme for building visual debugging environment with dynamic debugging method for parallel systems

Abstract

Cyclical debugging with replay support and visualization are two key techniques to assist in debugging parallel programs. In this contribution we present the concept of an integrated visual debugging environment for debugging parallel programs in both distributed and shared memory computational models. This environment is designed to offer several graphical views of a program's behavior while giving textual informations as result of cyclical debugging. This is achieved by mapping the particular textual point into the corresponding graphical view point automatically. The user can repeatedly stop the program during execution, examines the state, and then continues or re-execute the program, while analyzing or animating the corresponding trace event in graphical views. The proposed textual/graphical view mapper bridges the cyclical and visual debugging and is useful for error isolation in a parallel programming environment.

This work was performed as a part of “TICOM IV joint project” supported by the Ministry of Information and Communication and the Ministry of Science and Technology from Feb. 1994 to Jan. 1998.