About This Guide

This guide describes how to use the TotalView® debugger, a source- and machine-level debugger for multi-process, multi-threaded programs. It is assumed that you are familiar with programming languages, a UNIX or Linux operating system, and the processor architecture of the system on which you are running TotalView and your program.

This user guide combines information for running theTotalView debugger either from within a Graphic User Interface (GUI), or the Command Line Interface (CLI), run within an xterm-like window for typing commands.

The information here emphasizes the GUI interface, as it is easier to use. Understanding the GUI will also help you understand the CLI.

Although TotalView doesn’t change much from platform to platform, differences between platforms are mentioned.

The information in this guide is organized into these parts:

Part I, “Introduction” contains an overview of TotalView features and introduces the TotalView process/thread model. These chapters give you a feel for what TotalView can do.

Part II, “Setting Up” describes how to configure TotalView for a variety of platforms. Chapter 3, “Accessing TotalView Remotely” contains general information. Chapter 4 through Chapter 6 discuss running programs under TotalView control. Chapter 6 explains how to get the TotalView Debugger Server (tvdsvr) running and how to reconfigure the way that TotalView launches the tvdsvr. In most cases, TotalView defaults work fine and you won’t need this information.

Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 both look at high performance computing environments such as MPICH, OpenMP, and UPC.

Part III, “Using the GUI” describes the function and use of most of the TotalView windows as well as tools such as the Visualizer and the Call Graph that help analyze what a program is doing.

Part IV, “Using the CLI” discusses the basics of using the Command Line Interface (CLI) for debugging. CLI commands are not documented in this book but in the TotalView Reference Guide.

Part V, “Debugging” describes the debugging process. Most chapters prior to this part provide introductory and set-up material. So, if TotalView launches normally (and it should) and you understand what debuggers do, go directly to this part. These chapters explain how to examine your program and its data, and how to set action points that allow you to stop and monitor your program’s execution.