Attaching debugger to existing process

[Leif Ekblad]

I thought this function already was supposed to be present, but it seems
like it is not. I want this function at least for target RDOS, as it is a
superior method of finding out what went wrong as a program faults
unexpectedly and you haven't loaded it with the debugger.

There are a couple of issues related to this:

1. A way to find which processes can be attached to. This function should
probably be in the trap-file. I'd probably want to add it to the
asynchronous debugging interface.

2. A way to attach to an already running process. Probably requires changes
both to debugger and the trap-interface

3. A new dialog at program-load time that in addition to selecting a file
also could select to attach to an already running process.

Thoughts?

Leif Ekblad

[Uwe Schmelich]

This feature is partly supported at least in win32, but it lacks some code
to work correctly.
There was a short users thread in june 2010 on topic "Auto Execute
Debugger".
There is some wiki info here too:
<http://www.openwatcom.org/index.php/Making_wdw_the_Default_Debugger_(WinNT)>

Uwe

[Leif Ekblad]

I'm not competent enough on Win32 to suggest a solution there.

I looked through the code yesterday planning possible solutions. I think the
easiest & best solution is to start wd and the debug-traps in the normal
way, and let the target trap decide if it should attach to an already
running process, or if it should spawn a new one. It doesn't seem like this
scenario was planned for to start with in the debugger, and it would be hard
to add without major changes to the traps and wd itself. Thus, it would be
up to each trap to add this functionality if possible.

Leif Ekblad