MPE/iX update from Mark Bixby.

[p5sagit/p5-mst-13.2.git] / pod / perlhack.pod

diff --git a/pod/perlhack.pod b/pod/perlhack.pod
index 612b418..bb54e73 100644 (file)
--- a/pod/perlhack.pod
+++ b/pod/perlhack.pod
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ patch directory.
 
 It's then up to you to apply these patches, using something like
 
- # last=`ls -rt1 *.gz | sed -n '$p'`
+ # last=`ls -t *.gz | sed q`
  # rsync -avz rsync://ftp.linux.activestate.com/perl-current-diffs/ .
  # find . -name '*.gz' -newer $last -exec gzcat {} \; >blead.patch
  # cd ../perl-current
@@ -1249,7 +1249,6 @@ important ones are explained in L<perlxs> as well. Pay special attention
 to L<perlguts/Background and PERL_IMPLICIT_CONTEXT> for information on
 the C<[pad]THX_?> macros.
 
-
 =head2 Poking at Perl
 
 To really poke around with Perl, you'll probably want to build Perl for
@@ -1868,6 +1867,17 @@ which creates a binary named 'pureperl' that has been Purify'ed.
 This binary is used in place of the standard 'perl' binary
 when you want to debug Perl memory problems.
 
+To minimize the number of memory leak false alarms
+(see L</PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL>), set environment variable
+PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL to 2.
+
+    setenv PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL 2
+
+In Bourne-type shells:
+
+    PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL=2
+    export PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL
+
 As an example, to show any memory leaks produced during the
 standard Perl testset you would create and run the Purify'ed
 perl as:
@@ -2002,8 +2012,9 @@ There is a way to tell perl to do complete cleanup: set the
 environment variable PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL to a non-zero value.
 The t/TEST wrapper does set this to 2, and this is what you
 need to do too, if you don't want to see the "global leaks":
+For example, for "third-degreed" Perl:
 
-       PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL=2 ./perl.third t/foo/bar.t
+       env PERL_DESTRUCT_LEVEL=2 ./perl.third -Ilib t/foo/bar.t
 
 =head2 Profiling
 
@@ -2192,6 +2203,47 @@ Unexecuted procedures.
 
 For further information, see your system's manual pages for pixie and prof.
 
+=head2 Miscellaneous tricks
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+Those debugging perl with the DDD frontend over gdb may find the
+following useful:
+
+You can extend the data conversion shortcuts menu, so for example you
+can display an SV's IV value with one click, without doing any typing.
+To do that simply edit ~/.ddd/init file and add after:
+
+  ! Display shortcuts.
+  Ddd*gdbDisplayShortcuts: \
+  /t ()   // Convert to Bin\n\
+  /d ()   // Convert to Dec\n\
+  /x ()   // Convert to Hex\n\
+  /o ()   // Convert to Oct(\n\
+
+the following two lines:
+
+  ((XPV*) (())->sv_any )->xpv_pv  // 2pvx\n\
+  ((XPVIV*) (())->sv_any )->xiv_iv // 2ivx
+
+so now you can do ivx and pvx lookups or you can plug there the
+sv_peek "conversion":
+
+  Perl_sv_peek(my_perl, (SV*)()) // sv_peek
+
+(The my_perl is for threaded builds.)
+Just remember that every line, but the last one, should end with \n\
+
+Alternatively edit the init file interactively via:
+3rd mouse button -> New Display -> Edit Menu
+
+Note: you can define up to 20 conversion shortcuts in the gdb
+section.
+
+=back
+
 =head2 CONCLUSION
 
 We've had a brief look around the Perl source, an overview of the stages