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CONTENTS

NAME

perldebguts - Guts of Perl debugging

DESCRIPTION

This is not perldebug, which tells you how to use the debugger. This manpage describes low-level details concerning the debugger's internals, which range from difficult to impossible to understand for anyone who isn't incredibly intimate with Perl's guts. Caveat lector.

Debugger Internals

Perl has special debugging hooks at compile-time and run-time used to create debugging environments. These hooks are not to be confused with the perl -Dxxx command described in perlrun, which is usable only if a special Perl is built per the instructions in the INSTALL podpage in the Perl source tree.

For example, whenever you call Perl's built-in caller function from the package DB, the arguments that the corresponding stack frame was called with are copied to the @DB::args array. These mechanisms are enabled by calling Perl with the -d switch. Specifically, the following additional features are enabled (cf. "$^P" in perlvar):

Note that if &DB::sub needs external data for it to work, no subroutine call is possible without it. As an example, the standard debugger's &DB::sub depends on the $DB::deep variable (it defines how many levels of recursion deep into the debugger you can go before a mandatory break). If $DB::deep is not defined, subroutine calls are not possible, even though &DB::sub exists.

Writing Your Own Debugger

Environment Variables

The PERL5DB environment variable can be used to define a debugger. For example, the minimal "working" debugger (it actually doesn't do anything) consists of one line:

sub DB::DB {}

It can easily be defined like this:

$ PERL5DB="sub DB::DB {}" perl -d your-script

Another brief debugger, slightly more useful, can be created with only the line:

sub DB::DB {print ++$i; scalar <STDIN>}

This debugger prints a number which increments for each statement encountered and waits for you to hit a newline before continuing to the next statement.

The following debugger is actually useful:

{
  package DB;
  sub DB  {}
  sub sub {print ++$i, " $sub\n"; &$sub}
}

It prints the sequence number of each subroutine call and the name of the called subroutine. Note that &DB::sub is being compiled into the package DB through the use of the package directive.

When it starts, the debugger reads your rc file (./.perldb or ~/.perldb under Unix), which can set important options. (A subroutine (&afterinit) can be defined here as well; it is executed after the debugger completes its own initialization.)

After the rc file is read, the debugger reads the PERLDB_OPTS environment variable and uses it to set debugger options. The contents of this variable are treated as if they were the argument of an o ... debugger command (q.v. in "Configurable Options" in perldebug).

Debugger Internal Variables

In addition to the file and subroutine-related variables mentioned above, the debugger also maintains various magical internal variables.

Debugger Customization Functions

Some functions are provided to simplify customization.

Note that any variables and functions that are not documented in this manpages (or in perldebug) are considered for internal use only, and as such are subject to change without notice.

Frame Listing Output Examples

The frame option can be used to control the output of frame information. For example, contrast this expression trace:

$ perl -de 42
Stack dump during die enabled outside of evals.

Loading DB routines from perl5db.pl patch level 0.94
Emacs support available.

Enter h or 'h h' for help.

main::(-e:1):   0
  DB<1> sub foo { 14 }

  DB<2> sub bar { 3 }

  DB<3> t print foo() * bar()
main::((eval 172):3):   print foo() + bar();
main::foo((eval 168):2):
main::bar((eval 170):2):
42

with this one, once the option frame=2 has been set:

  DB<4> o f=2
               frame = '2'
  DB<5> t print foo() * bar()
3:      foo() * bar()
entering main::foo
 2:     sub foo { 14 };
exited main::foo
entering main::bar
 2:     sub bar { 3 };
exited main::bar
42

By way of demonstration, we present below a laborious listing resulting from setting your PERLDB_OPTS environment variable to the value f=n N, and running perl -d -V from the command line. Examples using various values of n are shown to give you a feel for the difference between settings. Long though it may be, this is not a complete listing, but only excerpts.

  1. entering main::BEGIN
 entering Config::BEGIN
  Package lib/Exporter.pm.
  Package lib/Carp.pm.
 Package lib/Config.pm.
 entering Config::TIEHASH
 entering Exporter::import
  entering Exporter::export
entering Config::myconfig
 entering Config::FETCH
 entering Config::FETCH
 entering Config::FETCH
 entering Config::FETCH

  2. entering main::BEGIN
 entering Config::BEGIN
  Package lib/Exporter.pm.
  Package lib/Carp.pm.
 exited Config::BEGIN
 Package lib/Config.pm.
 entering Config::TIEHASH
 exited Config::TIEHASH
 entering Exporter::import
  entering Exporter::export
  exited Exporter::export
 exited Exporter::import
exited main::BEGIN
entering Config::myconfig
 entering Config::FETCH
 exited Config::FETCH
 entering Config::FETCH
 exited Config::FETCH
 entering Config::FETCH

  3. in  $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:2
  Package lib/Exporter.pm.
  Package lib/Carp.pm.
 Package lib/Config.pm.
 in  $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
 in  $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
  in  $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from li
in  @=Config::myconfig() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_VERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_SUBVERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'osname') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'osvers') from lib/Config.pm:574

  4. in  $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:2
  Package lib/Exporter.pm.
  Package lib/Carp.pm.
 out $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:0
 Package lib/Config.pm.
 in  $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
 out $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
 in  $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
  in  $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/
  out $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/
 out $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
out $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in  @=Config::myconfig() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
 out $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
 out $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_VERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
 out $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_VERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH(ref(Config), 'PERL_SUBVERSION') from lib/Config.pm:574

  5. in  $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:2
  Package lib/Exporter.pm.
  Package lib/Carp.pm.
 out $=Config::BEGIN() from lib/Config.pm:0
 Package lib/Config.pm.
 in  $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
 out $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:644
 in  $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
  in  $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/E
  out $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/E
 out $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
out $=main::BEGIN() from /dev/null:0
in  @=Config::myconfig() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
 out $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'package') from lib/Config.pm:574
 in  $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574
 out $=Config::FETCH('Config=HASH(0x1aa444)', 'baserev') from lib/Config.pm:574

  6. in  $=CODE(0x15eca4)() from /dev/null:0
 in  $=CODE(0x182528)() from lib/Config.pm:2
  Package lib/Exporter.pm.
 out $=CODE(0x182528)() from lib/Config.pm:0
 scalar context return from CODE(0x182528): undef
 Package lib/Config.pm.
 in  $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:628
 out $=Config::TIEHASH('Config') from lib/Config.pm:628
 scalar context return from Config::TIEHASH:   empty hash
 in  $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
  in  $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/Exporter.pm:171
  out $=Exporter::export('Config', 'main', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from lib/Exporter.pm:171
  scalar context return from Exporter::export: ''
 out $=Exporter::import('Config', 'myconfig', 'config_vars') from /dev/null:0
 scalar context return from Exporter::import: ''

In all cases shown above, the line indentation shows the call tree. If bit 2 of frame is set, a line is printed on exit from a subroutine as well. If bit 4 is set, the arguments are printed along with the caller info. If bit 8 is set, the arguments are printed even if they are tied or references. If bit 16 is set, the return value is printed, too.

When a package is compiled, a line like this

Package lib/Carp.pm.

is printed with proper indentation.

Debugging Regular Expressions

There are two ways to enable debugging output for regular expressions.

If your perl is compiled with -DDEBUGGING, you may use the -Dr flag on the command line.

Otherwise, one can use re 'debug', which has effects at compile time and run time. Since Perl 5.9.5, this pragma is lexically scoped.

Compile-time Output

The debugging output at compile time looks like this:

Compiling REx '[bc]d(ef*g)+h[ij]k$'
size 45 Got 364 bytes for offset annotations.
first at 1
rarest char g at 0
rarest char d at 0
   1: ANYOF[bc](12)
  12: EXACT <d>(14)
  14: CURLYX[0] {1,32767}(28)
  16:   OPEN1(18)
  18:     EXACT <e>(20)
  20:     STAR(23)
  21:       EXACT <f>(0)
  23:     EXACT <g>(25)
  25:   CLOSE1(27)
  27:   WHILEM[1/1](0)
  28: NOTHING(29)
  29: EXACT <h>(31)
  31: ANYOF[ij](42)
  42: EXACT <k>(44)
  44: EOL(45)
  45: END(0)
anchored 'de' at 1 floating 'gh' at 3..2147483647 (checking floating) 
      stclass 'ANYOF[bc]' minlen 7 
Offsets: [45]
	1[4] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 5[1]
	0[0] 12[1] 0[0] 6[1] 0[0] 7[1] 0[0] 9[1] 8[1] 0[0] 10[1] 0[0]
	11[1] 0[0] 12[0] 12[0] 13[1] 0[0] 14[4] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0]
	0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 18[1] 0[0] 19[1] 20[0]  
Omitting $` $& $' support.

The first line shows the pre-compiled form of the regex. The second shows the size of the compiled form (in arbitrary units, usually 4-byte words) and the total number of bytes allocated for the offset/length table, usually 4+size*8. The next line shows the label id of the first node that does a match.

The

anchored 'de' at 1 floating 'gh' at 3..2147483647 (checking floating) 
      stclass 'ANYOF[bc]' minlen 7

line (split into two lines above) contains optimizer information. In the example shown, the optimizer found that the match should contain a substring de at offset 1, plus substring gh at some offset between 3 and infinity. Moreover, when checking for these substrings (to abandon impossible matches quickly), Perl will check for the substring gh before checking for the substring de. The optimizer may also use the knowledge that the match starts (at the first id) with a character class, and no string shorter than 7 characters can possibly match.

The fields of interest which may appear in this line are

anchored STRING at POS
floating STRING at POS1..POS2

See above.

matching floating/anchored

Which substring to check first.

minlen

The minimal length of the match.

stclass TYPE

Type of first matching node.

noscan

Don't scan for the found substrings.

isall

Means that the optimizer information is all that the regular expression contains, and thus one does not need to enter the regex engine at all.

GPOS

Set if the pattern contains \G.

plus

Set if the pattern starts with a repeated char (as in x+y).

implicit

Set if the pattern starts with .*.

with eval

Set if the pattern contain eval-groups, such as (?{ code }) and (??{ code }).

anchored(TYPE)

If the pattern may match only at a handful of places, with TYPE being BOL, MBOL, or GPOS. See the table below.

If a substring is known to match at end-of-line only, it may be followed by $, as in floating 'k'$.

The optimizer-specific information is used to avoid entering (a slow) regex engine on strings that will not definitely match. If the isall flag is set, a call to the regex engine may be avoided even when the optimizer found an appropriate place for the match.

Above the optimizer section is the list of nodes of the compiled form of the regex. Each line has format

id: TYPE OPTIONAL-INFO (next-id)

Types of Nodes

Here are the possible types, with short descriptions:

# TYPE arg-description [num-args] [longjump-len] DESCRIPTION

# Exit points
END   no        End of program.
SUCCEED   no        Return from a subroutine, basically.

# Anchors:

BOL        no      Match "" at beginning of line.
MBOL       no      Same, assuming multiline.
SBOL       no      Same, assuming singleline.
EOS        no      Match "" at end of string.
EOL        no      Match "" at end of line.
MEOL       no      Same, assuming multiline.
SEOL       no      Same, assuming singleline.
BOUND      no      Match "" at any word boundary using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
BOUNDL     no      Match "" at any locale word boundary
BOUNDU     no      Match "" at any word boundary using Unicode semantics
BOUNDA     no      Match "" at any word boundary using ASCII semantics
NBOUND     no      Match "" at any word non-boundary using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
NBOUNDL    no      Match "" at any locale word non-boundary
NBOUNDU    no      Match "" at any word non-boundary using Unicode semantics
NBOUNDA    no      Match "" at any word non-boundary using ASCII semantics
GPOS       no      Matches where last m//g left off.

# [Special] alternatives:

REG_ANY    no      Match any one character (except newline).
SANY       no      Match any one character.
CANY       no      Match any one byte.
ANYOF      sv      Match character in (or not in) this class, single char
                   match only
ANYOFV     sv      Match character in (or not in) this class, can
                   match-multiple chars
ALNUM      no      Match any alphanumeric character using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
ALNUML     no      Match any alphanumeric char in locale
ALNUMU     no      Match any alphanumeric char using Unicode semantics
ALNUMA     no      Match [A-Za-z_0-9]
NALNUM     no      Match any non-alphanumeric character using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
NALNUML    no      Match any non-alphanumeric char in locale
NALNUMU    no      Match any non-alphanumeric char using Unicode semantics
NALNUMA    no      Match [^A-Za-z_0-9]
SPACE      no      Match any whitespace character using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
SPACEL     no      Match any whitespace char in locale
SPACEU     no      Match any whitespace char using Unicode semantics
SPACEA     no      Match [ \t\n\f\r]
NSPACE     no      Match any non-whitespace character using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
NSPACEL    no      Match any non-whitespace char in locale
NSPACEU    no      Match any non-whitespace char using Unicode semantics
NSPACEA    no      Match [^ \t\n\f\r]
DIGIT      no      Match any numeric character using native charset semantics
                   for non-utf8
DIGITL     no      Match any numeric character in locale
DIGITA     no      Match [0-9]
NDIGIT     no      Match any non-numeric character using native charset
i                  semantics for non-utf8
NDIGITL    no      Match any non-numeric character in locale
NDIGITA    no      Match [^0-9]
CLUMP      no      Match any extended grapheme cluster sequence

# Alternation

# BRANCH        The set of branches constituting a single choice are hooked
#               together with their "next" pointers, since precedence prevents
#               anything being concatenated to any individual branch.  The
#               "next" pointer of the last BRANCH in a choice points to the
#               thing following the whole choice.  This is also where the
#               final "next" pointer of each individual branch points; each
#               branch starts with the operand node of a BRANCH node.
#
BRANCH	node        Match this alternative, or the next...

# Back pointer

# BACK          Normal "next" pointers all implicitly point forward; BACK
#               exists to make loop structures possible.
# not used
BACK       no      Match "", "next" ptr points backward.

# Literals

EXACT      str     Match this string (preceded by length).
EXACTF     str     Match this string, folded, native charset semantics for
                   non-utf8 (prec. by length).
EXACTFL    str     Match this string, folded in locale (w/len).
EXACTFU    str     Match this string, folded, Unicode semantics for non-utf8
                   (prec. by length).
EXACTFA    str	    Match this string, folded, Unicode semantics for non-utf8,
                   but no ASCII-range character matches outside ASCII (prec.
                   by length),.

# Do nothing types

NOTHING    no        Match empty string.
# A variant of above which delimits a group, thus stops optimizations
TAIL       no        Match empty string. Can jump here from outside.

# Loops

# STAR,PLUS    '?', and complex '*' and '+', are implemented as circular
#               BRANCH structures using BACK.  Simple cases (one character
#               per match) are implemented with STAR and PLUS for speed
#               and to minimize recursive plunges.
#
STAR       node    Match this (simple) thing 0 or more times.
PLUS       node    Match this (simple) thing 1 or more times.

CURLY      sv 2    Match this simple thing {n,m} times.
CURLYN     no 2    Capture next-after-this simple thing
CURLYM     no 2    Capture this medium-complex thing {n,m} times.
CURLYX     sv 2    Match this complex thing {n,m} times.

# This terminator creates a loop structure for CURLYX
WHILEM     no      Do curly processing and see if rest matches.

# Buffer related

# OPEN,CLOSE,GROUPP     ...are numbered at compile time.
OPEN       num 1   Mark this point in input as start of #n.
CLOSE      num 1   Analogous to OPEN.

REF        num 1   Match some already matched string
REFF       num 1   Match already matched string, folded using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
REFFL      num 1   Match already matched string, folded in loc.
REFFU      num 1   Match already matched string, folded using unicode
                   semantics for non-utf8
REFFA      num 1   Match already matched string, folded using unicode
                   semantics for non-utf8, no mixing ASCII, non-ASCII

# Named references.  Code in regcomp.c assumes that these all are after the
# numbered references
NREF       no-sv 1 Match some already matched string
NREFF      no-sv 1 Match already matched string, folded using native charset
                   semantics for non-utf8
NREFFL     no-sv 1 Match already matched string, folded in loc.
NREFFU     num   1 Match already matched string, folded using unicode
                   semantics for non-utf8
NREFFA     num   1 Match already matched string, folded using unicode
                   semantics for non-utf8, no mixing ASCII, non-ASCII

IFMATCH    off 1 2 Succeeds if the following matches.
UNLESSM    off 1 2 Fails if the following matches.
SUSPEND    off 1 1 "Independent" sub-RE.
IFTHEN     off 1 1 Switch, should be preceded by switcher.
GROUPP     num 1   Whether the group matched.

# Support for long RE

LONGJMP    off 1 1 Jump far away.
BRANCHJ    off 1 1 BRANCH with long offset.

# The heavy worker

EVAL       evl 1   Execute some Perl code.

# Modifiers

MINMOD     no      Next operator is not greedy.
LOGICAL    no      Next opcode should set the flag only.

# This is not used yet
RENUM      off 1 1 Group with independently numbered parens.

# Trie Related

# Behave the same as A|LIST|OF|WORDS would. The '..C' variants have
# inline charclass data (ascii only), the 'C' store it in the structure.
# NOTE: the relative order of the TRIE-like regops  is significant

TRIE       trie 1    Match many EXACT(F[ALU]?)? at once. flags==type
TRIEC      charclass Same as TRIE, but with embedded charclass data

# For start classes, contains an added fail table.
AHOCORASICK trie 1   Aho Corasick stclass. flags==type
AHOCORASICKC charclass Same as AHOCORASICK, but with embedded charclass data

# Regex Subroutines
GOSUB      num/ofs 2L recurse to paren arg1 at (signed) ofs arg2
GOSTART    no         recurse to start of pattern

# Special conditionals
NGROUPP    no-sv 1   Whether the group matched.
INSUBP     num 1     Whether we are in a specific recurse.
DEFINEP    none 1    Never execute directly.

# Backtracking Verbs
ENDLIKE    none      Used only for the type field of verbs
OPFAIL     none      Same as (?!)
ACCEPT     parno 1   Accepts the current matched string.


# Verbs With Arguments
VERB       no-sv 1   Used only for the type field of verbs
PRUNE      no-sv 1   Pattern fails at this startpoint if no-backtracking through this
MARKPOINT  no-sv 1   Push the current location for rollback by cut.
SKIP       no-sv 1   On failure skip forward (to the mark) before retrying
COMMIT     no-sv 1   Pattern fails outright if backtracking through this
CUTGROUP   no-sv 1   On failure go to the next alternation in the group

# Control what to keep in $&.
KEEPS      no        $& begins here.

# New charclass like patterns
LNBREAK    none      generic newline pattern
VERTWS     none      vertical whitespace         (Perl 6)
NVERTWS    none      not vertical whitespace     (Perl 6)
HORIZWS    none      horizontal whitespace       (Perl 6)
NHORIZWS   none      not horizontal whitespace   (Perl 6)

FOLDCHAR   codepoint 1 codepoint with tricky case folding properties.

# SPECIAL  REGOPS

# This is not really a node, but an optimized away piece of a "long" node.
# To simplify debugging output, we mark it as if it were a node
OPTIMIZED  off       Placeholder for dump.

# Special opcode with the property that no opcode in a compiled program
# will ever be of this type. Thus it can be used as a flag value that
# no other opcode has been seen. END is used similarly, in that an END
# node cant be optimized. So END implies "unoptimizable" and PSEUDO mean
# "not seen anything to optimize yet".
PSEUDO     off       Pseudo opcode for internal use.

Following the optimizer information is a dump of the offset/length table, here split across several lines:

Offsets: [45]
	1[4] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 5[1]
	0[0] 12[1] 0[0] 6[1] 0[0] 7[1] 0[0] 9[1] 8[1] 0[0] 10[1] 0[0]
	11[1] 0[0] 12[0] 12[0] 13[1] 0[0] 14[4] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0]
	0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 0[0] 18[1] 0[0] 19[1] 20[0]

The first line here indicates that the offset/length table contains 45 entries. Each entry is a pair of integers, denoted by offset[length]. Entries are numbered starting with 1, so entry #1 here is 1[4] and entry #12 is 5[1]. 1[4] indicates that the node labeled 1: (the 1: ANYOF[bc]) begins at character position 1 in the pre-compiled form of the regex, and has a length of 4 characters. 5[1] in position 12 indicates that the node labeled 12: (the 12: EXACT <d>) begins at character position 5 in the pre-compiled form of the regex, and has a length of 1 character. 12[1] in position 14 indicates that the node labeled 14: (the 14: CURLYX[0] {1,32767}) begins at character position 12 in the pre-compiled form of the regex, and has a length of 1 character---that is, it corresponds to the + symbol in the precompiled regex.

0[0] items indicate that there is no corresponding node.

Run-time Output

First of all, when doing a match, one may get no run-time output even if debugging is enabled. This means that the regex engine was never entered and that all of the job was therefore done by the optimizer.

If the regex engine was entered, the output may look like this:

  Matching '[bc]d(ef*g)+h[ij]k$' against 'abcdefg__gh__'
    Setting an EVAL scope, savestack=3
     2 <ab> <cdefg__gh_>    |  1: ANYOF
     3 <abc> <defg__gh_>    | 11: EXACT <d>
     4 <abcd> <efg__gh_>    | 13: CURLYX {1,32767}
     4 <abcd> <efg__gh_>    | 26:   WHILEM
				0 out of 1..32767  cc=effff31c
     4 <abcd> <efg__gh_>    | 15:     OPEN1
     4 <abcd> <efg__gh_>    | 17:     EXACT <e>
     5 <abcde> <fg__gh_>    | 19:     STAR
			     EXACT <f> can match 1 times out of 32767...
    Setting an EVAL scope, savestack=3
     6 <bcdef> <g__gh__>    | 22:       EXACT <g>
     7 <bcdefg> <__gh__>    | 24:       CLOSE1
     7 <bcdefg> <__gh__>    | 26:       WHILEM
				    1 out of 1..32767  cc=effff31c
    Setting an EVAL scope, savestack=12
     7 <bcdefg> <__gh__>    | 15:         OPEN1
     7 <bcdefg> <__gh__>    | 17:         EXACT <e>
       restoring \1 to 4(4)..7
				    failed, try continuation...
     7 <bcdefg> <__gh__>    | 27:         NOTHING
     7 <bcdefg> <__gh__>    | 28:         EXACT <h>
				    failed...
				failed...

The most significant information in the output is about the particular node of the compiled regex that is currently being tested against the target string. The format of these lines is

STRING-OFFSET <PRE-STRING> <POST-STRING> |ID: TYPE

The TYPE info is indented with respect to the backtracking level. Other incidental information appears interspersed within.

Debugging Perl Memory Usage

Perl is a profligate wastrel when it comes to memory use. There is a saying that to estimate memory usage of Perl, assume a reasonable algorithm for memory allocation, multiply that estimate by 10, and while you still may miss the mark, at least you won't be quite so astonished. This is not absolutely true, but may provide a good grasp of what happens.

Assume that an integer cannot take less than 20 bytes of memory, a float cannot take less than 24 bytes, a string cannot take less than 32 bytes (all these examples assume 32-bit architectures, the result are quite a bit worse on 64-bit architectures). If a variable is accessed in two of three different ways (which require an integer, a float, or a string), the memory footprint may increase yet another 20 bytes. A sloppy malloc(3) implementation can inflate these numbers dramatically.

On the opposite end of the scale, a declaration like

sub foo;

may take up to 500 bytes of memory, depending on which release of Perl you're running.

Anecdotal estimates of source-to-compiled code bloat suggest an eightfold increase. This means that the compiled form of reasonable (normally commented, properly indented etc.) code will take about eight times more space in memory than the code took on disk.

The -DL command-line switch is obsolete since circa Perl 5.6.0 (it was available only if Perl was built with -DDEBUGGING). The switch was used to track Perl's memory allocations and possible memory leaks. These days the use of malloc debugging tools like Purify or valgrind is suggested instead. See also "PERL_MEM_LOG" in perlhacktips.

One way to find out how much memory is being used by Perl data structures is to install the Devel::Size module from CPAN: it gives you the minimum number of bytes required to store a particular data structure. Please be mindful of the difference between the size() and total_size().

If Perl has been compiled using Perl's malloc you can analyze Perl memory usage by setting $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS}.

Using $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS}

If your perl is using Perl's malloc() and was compiled with the necessary switches (this is the default), then it will print memory usage statistics after compiling your code when $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS} > 1, and before termination of the program when $ENV{PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS} >= 1. The report format is similar to the following example:

  $ PERL_DEBUG_MSTATS=2 perl -e "require Carp"
  Memory allocation statistics after compilation: (buckets 4(4)..8188(8192)
     14216 free:   130   117    28     7     9   0   2     2   1 0 0
		437    61    36     0     5
     60924 used:   125   137   161    55     7   8   6    16   2 0 1
		 74   109   304    84    20
  Total sbrk(): 77824/21:119. Odd ends: pad+heads+chain+tail: 0+636+0+2048.
  Memory allocation statistics after execution:   (buckets 4(4)..8188(8192)
     30888 free:   245    78    85    13     6   2   1     3   2 0 1
		315   162    39    42    11
    175816 used:   265   176  1112   111    26  22  11    27   2 1 1
		196   178  1066   798    39
  Total sbrk(): 215040/47:145. Odd ends: pad+heads+chain+tail: 0+2192+0+6144.

It is possible to ask for such a statistic at arbitrary points in your execution using the mstat() function out of the standard Devel::Peek module.

Here is some explanation of that format:

buckets SMALLEST(APPROX)..GREATEST(APPROX)

Perl's malloc() uses bucketed allocations. Every request is rounded up to the closest bucket size available, and a bucket is taken from the pool of buckets of that size.

The line above describes the limits of buckets currently in use. Each bucket has two sizes: memory footprint and the maximal size of user data that can fit into this bucket. Suppose in the above example that the smallest bucket were size 4. The biggest bucket would have usable size 8188, and the memory footprint would be 8192.

In a Perl built for debugging, some buckets may have negative usable size. This means that these buckets cannot (and will not) be used. For larger buckets, the memory footprint may be one page greater than a power of 2. If so, the corresponding power of two is printed in the APPROX field above.

Free/Used

The 1 or 2 rows of numbers following that correspond to the number of buckets of each size between SMALLEST and GREATEST. In the first row, the sizes (memory footprints) of buckets are powers of two--or possibly one page greater. In the second row, if present, the memory footprints of the buckets are between the memory footprints of two buckets "above".

For example, suppose under the previous example, the memory footprints were

     free:    8     16    32    64    128  256 512 1024 2048 4096 8192
	   4     12    24    48    80

With a non-DEBUGGING perl, the buckets starting from 128 have a 4-byte overhead, and thus an 8192-long bucket may take up to 8188-byte allocations.

Total sbrk(): SBRKed/SBRKs:CONTINUOUS

The first two fields give the total amount of memory perl sbrk(2)ed (ess-broken? :-) and number of sbrk(2)s used. The third number is what perl thinks about continuity of returned chunks. So long as this number is positive, malloc() will assume that it is probable that sbrk(2) will provide continuous memory.

Memory allocated by external libraries is not counted.

pad: 0

The amount of sbrk(2)ed memory needed to keep buckets aligned.

heads: 2192

Although memory overhead of bigger buckets is kept inside the bucket, for smaller buckets, it is kept in separate areas. This field gives the total size of these areas.

chain: 0

malloc() may want to subdivide a bigger bucket into smaller buckets. If only a part of the deceased bucket is left unsubdivided, the rest is kept as an element of a linked list. This field gives the total size of these chunks.

tail: 6144

To minimize the number of sbrk(2)s, malloc() asks for more memory. This field gives the size of the yet unused part, which is sbrk(2)ed, but never touched.

SEE ALSO

perldebug, perlguts, perlrun re, and Devel::DProf.