Soft Debugger Wire Format

Introduction

The Mono Soft Debugger (SDB) is a debugger implemented by the Mono runtime. The Mono runtime exposes an interface that debugger clients can use to debug a Mono application. Mono provides a convenience library in the form of the Mono.Debugger.Soft.dll that can be used to communicate with a running Mono process.

The Mono.Debugger.Soft.dll library uses a protocol over sockets to debug applications. The wire protocol is inspired by the JDWP (Java Debug Wire Protocol). Familiarity with that specification is a good read.

This document describes the wire protocol used between debugging clients and the Mono runtime.

Where possible, the corresponding protocol detail is linked to a function name and file location in Mono source code. These informations are based on Mono master version at revision f42ba4a168e7cb9b9486b8a96c53752e4467be8a.

Protocol details

Transport

Mono SDB protocol, just like its Java counterpart, was designed with no specific transport in mind. However, presently the public Mono SDB only has a TCP/IP transport available (under the transport name of dt_socket). Other transports can be plugged by modifying this interface.

Bootstraping a connection

To boostrap a connection, the client send handshake to the server (see debugger-agent.c:1034) in the form of the 13 ASCII characters string “DWP-Handshake” and wait for the server reply which consist of the exact same ASCII character sequence.

Packets

Just like JDWP, Mono SDB protocol is packet-based with two types of packet: command and reply. All fields in a packet is sent in big-endian format which is transparently handled in Mono source code with corresponding helper encode/decode functions.

Command packet are used by either side (client or server) to request information, act on the execution of the debugged program or to inform of some event. Replies is only sent in response to a command with information on the success/failure of the operation and any extra data depending on the command that triggered it.

Both type of packet contains a header. The header is always 11 bytes long. Their descriptions are given afterwards:

Command packet header
byte 1	byte 2	byte 3	byte 4	byte 5	byte 6	byte 7	byte 8	byte 9	byte 10	byte 11
length				id				flags	command set	command

In Mono SDB source code, the command header is decoded in the server thread debugger_thread function at debugger-agent.c:7583.

Reply packet header
byte 1	byte 2	byte 3	byte 4	byte 5	byte 6	byte 7	byte 8	byte 9	byte 10	byte 11
length				id				flags	error code

In Mono SDB source code, a reply packet is constructed and sent by the send_reply_packet function in debugger-agent:1514.

Packet field details

Common fields

length

The total length in byte of the packet including header i.e. this value will be 11 if the packet only consists of header with no other data

id

Uniquely identify sent packet command/reply pair so that they can be asynchronously matched. This is in practise a simple monotonic integer counter. Note that client and server may use the same id value when sending their packets as the uniqueness property is only with respect to a specific source.

flags

At the moment this value is only used with a reply packet in which case its value is set to 0x80. A command packet should have this value set to 0.

Command specific fields

command set

This value allows grouping commands into similar blocks for quicker processing. The different command sets with their values are given below:

Command set	Value
Virtual Machine	1
Object reference	9
String reference	10
Threads	11
Array reference	13
Event request	15
Stack frame	16
AppDomain	20
Assembly	21
Method	22
Type	23
Module	24
Events	64

command

Tell what command this packet corresponds to. This value is relative to the previously defined command set so the values are reused across different command sets. Definition of each command is given in a later chapter.

Reply specific fields

error code

Define which error occured or if the command was successful. Error code definition is given below:

Error name	Value	Mono specific notes
Success	0
Invalid object	20
Invalid field ID	25
Invalid frame ID	30
Not Implemented	100
Not Suspended	101
Invalid argument	102
Unloaded	103	AppDomain has been unloaded
No Invocation	104	Returned when trying to abort a thread which isn’t in a runtime invocation
Absent information	105	Returned when a requested method debug information isn’t available
No seq point at IL Offset	106	Returned when a breakpoint couldn’t be set

Data type marshalling

Name	Size	Description
byte	1 byte	A byte value
short	2 byte	A UInt16 value
int	4 bytes	A UInt32 value
long	8 bytes	A UInt64 value
id	4 bytes	The same size is used for all IDs (ObjectID, PointerID, TypeId, MethodID, AssemblyID, ModuleID, FieldID, PropertyID, DomainID)
string	At least 4 bytes	A string consists of a leading int value giving the string size followed by size bytes of character data. Thus an empty string is simply a 4 bytes integer value of 0
variant	At least 1 byte	A variant type is a special value which consists of a leading byte giving away the MonoType information of the variant followed directly by its raw value.
boolean	4 bytes (an int)	Tough not strictly a type, a boolean is represented by an int value whose value is 1 for true and 0 for false.

Most of the encoding function for these types are defined as buffer_add_* functions starting from debugger-agent.c:1429. Their counterpart are of the form decode_* starting from debugger-agent.c:1349.

A lot command returns or accepts fixed-length list of value. In these case, such a list is always prefixed with an int value giving its length followed by length element of the same type (which needs to be inferred from the context). When such a list is used the term “list” will be used. For clarification, an empty list is thus a single int value equals to 0.

Various enumeration value definition

For the record, the following C enumerations define the values used for flags, kind, … parameters in some commands.

typedef enum {
    EVENT_KIND_VM_START = 0,
    EVENT_KIND_VM_DEATH = 1,
    EVENT_KIND_THREAD_START = 2,
    EVENT_KIND_THREAD_DEATH = 3,
    EVENT_KIND_APPDOMAIN_CREATE = 4,
    EVENT_KIND_APPDOMAIN_UNLOAD = 5,
    EVENT_KIND_METHOD_ENTRY = 6,
    EVENT_KIND_METHOD_EXIT = 7,
    EVENT_KIND_ASSEMBLY_LOAD = 8,
    EVENT_KIND_ASSEMBLY_UNLOAD = 9,
    EVENT_KIND_BREAKPOINT = 10,
    EVENT_KIND_STEP = 11,
    EVENT_KIND_TYPE_LOAD = 12,
    EVENT_KIND_EXCEPTION = 13,
    EVENT_KIND_KEEPALIVE = 14,
    EVENT_KIND_USER_BREAK = 15,
    EVENT_KIND_USER_LOG = 16
} EventKind;
 
typedef enum {
    SUSPEND_POLICY_NONE = 0,
    SUSPEND_POLICY_EVENT_THREAD = 1,
    SUSPEND_POLICY_ALL = 2
} SuspendPolicy;
 
typedef enum {
    MOD_KIND_COUNT = 1,
    MOD_KIND_THREAD_ONLY = 3,
    MOD_KIND_LOCATION_ONLY = 7,
    MOD_KIND_EXCEPTION_ONLY = 8,
    MOD_KIND_STEP = 10,
    MOD_KIND_ASSEMBLY_ONLY = 11,
    MOD_KIND_SOURCE_FILE_ONLY = 12,
    MOD_KIND_TYPE_NAME_ONLY = 13,
    MOD_KIND_NONE = 14
} ModifierKind;
 
typedef enum {
    STEP_DEPTH_INTO = 0,
    STEP_DEPTH_OVER = 1,
    STEP_DEPTH_OUT = 2
} StepDepth;
 
typedef enum {
    STEP_SIZE_MIN = 0,
    STEP_SIZE_LINE = 1
} StepSize;
 
typedef enum {
    TOKEN_TYPE_STRING = 0,
    TOKEN_TYPE_TYPE = 1,
    TOKEN_TYPE_FIELD = 2,
    TOKEN_TYPE_METHOD = 3,
    TOKEN_TYPE_UNKNOWN = 4
} DebuggerTokenType;
 
typedef enum {
    VALUE_TYPE_ID_NULL = 0xf0,
    VALUE_TYPE_ID_TYPE = 0xf1,
    VALUE_TYPE_ID_PARENT_VTYPE = 0xf2
} ValueTypeId;
 
typedef enum {
    FRAME_FLAG_DEBUGGER_INVOKE = 1,

    // Use to allow the debugger to display managed-to-native transitions in stack frames.
    FRAME_FLAG_NATIVE_TRANSITION = 2
} StackFrameFlags;
 
typedef enum {
    INVOKE_FLAG_DISABLE_BREAKPOINTS = 1,
    INVOKE_FLAG_SINGLE_THREADED = 2,

    // Allow for returning the changed value types after an invocation
    INVOKE_FLAG_RETURN_OUT_THIS = 4,

    // Allows the return of modified value types after invocation
    INVOKE_FLAG_RETURN_OUT_ARGS = 8,

    // Performs a virtual method invocation
    INVOKE_FLAG_VIRTUAL = 16
} InvokeFlags;

Command list

Types given in each command comments corresponds to the type described above. When there are additional arguments or multiple values in a command’s reply, they are each time described in the order they appear or have to appear in the data part. Not also that there is no kind of separation sequence or added alignement padding between each value.

In all cases, if you ask for a command that doesn’t exist, a reply will be sent with an error code of NOT_IMPLEMENTED.

Virtual machine commands

Name	Value	Action and type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
VERSION	1	Returns a mono virtual machine version information (string) followed by two int giving respectively the runtime major and minor version	None	None
ALL_THREADS	2	Returns a list of ObjectID each mapping to a System.Threading.Thread instance.	None	None
SUSPEND	3	Suspend the VM execution and returns an empty reply	None	None
RESUME	4	Resume the VM execution and returns an empty reply	None	NOT_SUSPENDED
EXIT	5	Stop VM and returns an empty reply	Ask for a exit code (int) to be used by the VM when it exits	None
DISPOSE	6	Clear event requests, resume the VM and disconnect	None	None
INVOKE_METHOD	7	Returns a boolean telling if the call was successful followed by an exception object (as a variant) if it was not and by the actual returned value (variant) if it was.	Ask for an ObjectID (id) mapping to a System.Threading.Thread instance, a flags value (int) to pass to the invoke request, the MethodID (id) of the method to invoke, a variant value to be used as this (VALUE_TYPE_ID_NULL in case of a valuetype) and a list of variant value representing the parameters of the method.	INVALID_OBJECT, NOT_SUSPENDED, INVALID_METHODID, INVALID_ARGUMENT
SET_PROTOCOL_VERSION	8	Returns an empty reply	Ask for two int giving respectively the major and minor version of the procotol to use.	None
ABORT_INVOKE	9	Abort the invocation and returns an empty reply	Ask for an ObjectID (id) mapping to a System.Threading.Thread instance and the id (int) of the command packet that set up the invocation to cancel	INVALID_OBJECT, NO_INVOCATION
SET_KEEPALIVE	10	Set up the new keep alive value and returns an empty reply	Ask for a timeout value (int)	None
GET_TYPES_FOR_SOURCE_FILE	11	Returns a list of TypeID (id) of class defined inside the supplied file name	Ask for a file name (string) and an ignore case flag (byte) although setting it to something different than 0 isn’t currently supported.	None
GET_TYPES	12	Returns a list of TypeID (id) of type which corresponds to the provided type name	Ask for type name (string) and a ignore case flag (byte) which acts like a boolean value	INVALID_ARGUMENT
INVOKE_METHODS	13	Batch invocation of methods	Ask for an ObjectID (id) mapping to a System.Threading.Thread instance, a flags value (int) to pass to the invoke request, the number of methods to invoke (int), and for each method the the MethodID (id) for each method to invoke, a variant value to be used as this (VALUE_TYPE_ID_NULL in case of a valuetype) and a list of variant value representing the parameters of the method.	INVALID_OBJECT, NOT_SUSPENDED, INVALID_METHODID, INVALID_ARGUMENT
VM_START_BUFFERING	14	Initiates the buffering of reply packets to improve latency. Must be paired with a VM_STOP_BUFFERING command	None	None
VM_STOP_BUFFERING	15	Ends the block of buffered commands, must come after a call to VM_START_BUFFERING	None	None

The main function handling these commands is vm_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:5671

Events commands

Events allows the debuggee to act on program execution (stepping) and also to set up things like breakpoints, watchpoints, exception catching, etc.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
REQUEST_SET	1	Returns the request id (int)	Ask for 3 bytes giving the event kind (EventKind enumeration), suspend policy (SuspendPolicy enumeration) and a list of modifiers which content is context dependent and given in the table below	INVALID_METHODID, INVALID_TYPEID, NO_SEQ_POINT_AT_IL_OFFSET, INVALID_OBJECT, INVALID_ASSEMBLYID
REQUEST_CLEAR	2	Clear the requested event and returns an empty reply	Ask for an event type (byte) and a request id (int)	None
REQUEST_CLEAR_ALL_BREAKPOINTS	3	Returns an empty reply	None	None

The main function handling these commands is event_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:5916

Each modifier has the first byte describing the modification it’s carrying out and corresponding to the values found in the ModifierKind enumeration. The following table list the remaining body depending on the modification value.

Mod value	Body
COUNT	a MethodID (id)
LOCATION_ONLY	a MethodID (id) and a location information (long)
STEP	A thread id, size of the step (int) corresponding to the StepSize enumeration and depth of it (int) corresponding to the StepDepth enumeration
THREAD_ONLY	A thread id
EXCEPTION_ONLY	A TypeID representing a exception type and two byte values setting respectively the caught and uncaught filter
ASSEMBLY_ONLY	A list of AssemblyID (id)
SOURCE_FILE_ONLY	A list of source file name (string)
TYPE_NAME_ONLY	A list of type name (string)
NONE

Thread commands

Each command requires at least one ObjectID (of type id) parameter mapping to a thread instance before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_FRAME_INFO	1	Returns a list of quadruplet of frame ID (int), MethodID (id), IL offset (int) and frame flags (byte)	Ask for a start frame (currently other value than 0 aren’t supported) as an int and a length as a int	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_NAME	2	Returns the name of the thread as a string	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_STATE	3	Return the thread state as an int	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_INFO	4	Returns a byte value telling if the thread is a threadpool thread (1) or not (0)	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_ID	5	Returns the thread id (address of the object) as a long	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_TID	6	Returns the proper thread id (or TID) as a long	None	INVALID_OBJECT
SET_IP	7	Set the location where execution will return when this thread is resumed	Thread ID (int), Method ID (long), IL offset (long)	INVALID_ARGUMENT

The main function handling these commands is thread_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:6991

AppDomains commands

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_ROOT_DOMAIN	1	Returns the DomainID of the root domain	None	None
GET_FRIENDLY_NAME	2	Returns the friendly name as a string of the provided DomainID	Ask for a DomainID (id)	INVALID_DOMAINID
GET_ASSEMBLIES	3	Returns a list of AssemblyID contained inside this AppDomain	Ask for a DomainID (id)	INVALID_DOMAINID
GET_ENTRY_ASSEMBLY	4	Returns the entry AssemblyID of this domain	Ask for a DomainID (id)	INVALID_DOMAINID
CREATE_STRING	5	Returns the ObjectID of the created string	Ask for a DomainID (id) where to create the new string and a string typed value to put inside the domain	INVALID_DOMAINID
GET_CORLIB	6	Returns the AssemblyID of the load corlib inside this AppDomain	Ask for a DomainID (id)	INVALID_DOMAINID
CREATE_BOXED_VALUE	7	Returns the ObjectID of the boxed value	Ask for a DomainID (id), TypeID of the type that is going to be boxed and a variant value which is going to be put into the boxed value	INVALID_DOMAINID, INVALID_TYPEID

The main function handling these commands is domain_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:6104

Assembly commands

Each command requires at least one AssemblyID (of type id) parameter before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_LOCATION	1	Returns the filename (string) of image associated to the assembly	None	INVALID_ASSEMBLYID
GET_ENTRY_POINT	2	Returns the MethodID (id) of the entry point or a 0 id if there is none (in case of dynamic assembly or library for instance)	None	INVALID_ASSEMBLYID
GET_MANIFEST_MODULE	3	Returns the ModuleID (id) of the assembly	None	INVALID_ASSEMBLYID
GET_OBJECT	4	Returns the ObjectID of the AssemblyID object instance	None	INVALID_ASSEMBLYID
GET_TYPE	5	Returns the TypeID of the found type or a null id if it wasn’t found	Ask for a type information in form of a string and a byte value to tell if case should be ignored (1) or not (0)	INVALID_ASSEMBLYID
GET_NAME	6	Return the full name of the assembly as a string	None	INVALID_ASSEMBLYID

The main function handling these commands is assembly_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:6203

Module commands

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
CMD_MODULE_GET_INFO	1	Returns the following strings: basename of the image, scope name, full name, GUID and the image AssemblyID (id)	Ask for a ModuleID (id)	None

The main function handling these commands is module_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:6295

Method commands

Each command requires at least one MethodID (of type id) parameter before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_NAME	1	Returns a string of the method name	None	INVALID_METHODID
GET_DECLARING_TYPE	2	Returns a TypeID of the declaring type for this method	None	INVALID_METHODID
GET_DEBUG_INFO	3	Returns the code size of the method (int), source file name (string) and a list of tuple of IL offset (int) and line numbers (int) for the method	None	INVALID_METHODID
GET_PARAM_INFO	4	Returns the call convention (int), parameter count (int), generic parameter count (int), TypeID of the returned value (id), parameter count TypeID for each parameter type and finally parameter count parameter name (string) for each parameter.	None	INVALID_METHODID
GET_LOCALS_INFO	5	Returns the number of locals (int) followed by the TypeID (id) for each locals, followed by the name (string) of each locals (empty string if there is none) and finally followed by the scope of each locals which is a tuple of int giving the start address and end offset.	None	INVALID_METHODID
GET_INFO	6	Returns 3 int representing respectively the method flags, implementation flags and token	None	INVALID_METHODID
GET_BODY	7	Returns a list of byte corresponding to the method IL code.	None	INVALID_METHODID
RESOLVE_TOKEN	8	Returns a variant value corresponding to the provided token	Ask for a token value (int)	INVALID_METHODID
GET_CATTRS	9	Returns the custom attributes for the methods	Method ID, attribute-type ID	INVALID_METHODID,LOADER_ERROR
MAKE_GENERIC_METHOD	10	Makes a generic version of the method	Method ID, number of type arguments (int), TypeID for each type argument (int)	INVALID_ARGUMENT, INVALID_METHODID

The main functions handling these commands are method_commands and method_commands_internal and are situated at debugger-agent.c:6968 and debugger-agent.c:6968 respectively.

Type commands

Each command requires at least one TypeID (of type id) parameter before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_INFO	1	Returns the following informations about the type in that order: namespace (string), class name (string), full name (string), AssemblyID (id), ModuleID (id), TypeID (id), TypeID (id) of underlying type (or a 0 id if there is none), type token (int), type rank (byte), type flags (int), underlying byval type (byte) flags (see after table) and a list of nested type TypeID	None	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_METHODS	2	Returns a list of MethodID corresponding to each of the method of the type	None	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_FIELDS	3	Returns list of quadruplet of FieldID (id), field name (string), field TypeID (id), field attributes (int)	None	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_VALUES	4	Returns a number of variant value equals to the number of FieldID that was passed as parameter. If the field had a ThreadStatic attribute applied to it, value fetched are from the current thread point of view.	Ask for a list of FieldID representing this type static fields to the the value of. Only static field are supported.	INVALID_TYPEID, INVALID_FIELDID
GET_OBJECT	5	Returns an ObjectID corresponding to the type instance	None	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_SOURCE_FILES	6	Returns the same output than GET_SOURCE_FILES_2 except only the basename of each path is returned	None	INVALID_TYPEID
SET_VALUES	7	Returns an empty response	Ask for a list of tuple of FieldID and variant value. Only pure static field can be set (i.e. with no extra attribute like ThreadStatic).	INVALID_TYPEID, INVALID_FIELDID
IS_ASSIGNABLE_FROM	8	Returns a boolean equals to true if the type is assignable from the other provided type, false otherwise	Ask for an extra TypeID	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_PROPERTIES	9	Returns a list of quadruplet of FieldID (id), get accessor MethodID (string), set accessor MethodID (id), property attributes (int)	None	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_CATTRS	10	Returns a list of custom attribute applied on the type. Custom attribute definition is given below.	Ask for a TypeID of an custom attribute type	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_FIELD_CATTRS	11	Returns a list of custom attributes of a type’s field. Custom attribute definition is given below.	Ask for a FieldID of one the type field and a TypeID of an custom attribute type	INVALID_TYPEID, INVALID_FIELDID
GET_PROPERTY_CATTRS	12	Returns a list of custom attributes of a type’s property. Custom attribute definition is given below.	Ask for a PropertyID of one the type field and a TypeID of an custom attribute type	INVALID_TYPEID, INVALID_PROPERTYID
GET_SOURCE_FILES_2	13	Returns a list of source file full paths (string) where the type is defined	None	INVALID_TYPEID
GET_VALUES_2	14	Returns a number of variant value equals to the number of FieldID that was passed as parameter. If the field had a ThreadStatic attribute applied to it, value fetched are from the thread parameter point of view.	Ask for an ObjectID representing a System.Thread instance and a list of FieldID representing this type static fields to the the value of. Only static field are supported.	INVALID_OBJECT, INVALID_TYPEID, INVALID_FIELDID

The main functions handling these commands are type_commands and type_commands_internal and are situated at debugger-agent.c:6726 and debugger-agent.c:6403 respectively.

Byval flags is an indication of the type attribute for a parameter when it’s passed by value. A description of these flags follows:

byte 1	byte 2	byte 3	byte 4	byte 5	byte 6	byte 7	byte 8
Is a pointer type	Is a primitive type	Is a value type	Is an enumeration	Unused	Unused	Unused	Unused

Custom attribute definition is as follows: MethodID of the attribute ctor, a list of variant objects representing the typed arguments of the attribute prepended by a length attribute (int) and another list representing named arguments of which elements are either tuple of the constant 0x53 followed by a variant value (in case the named argument is a field) or a triplet of the constant 0x54 followed by a PropertyID followed by a variant value (in case the named argument is a property). In both list case, an empty list is simply one int of value 0.

Stackframe commands

Each command requires at least one ObjectID (of type id) parameter mapping to a System.Threading.Thread instance and a FrameID (of type id) before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_VALUES	1	Ask for a list of position (int) information.	Returns a list of miscelleanous typed values. If the position information was negative, the value corresponds to a parameter and if it was positive to a local variable.	INVALID_OBJECT, INVALID_FRAMEID, ABSENT_INFORMATION
GET_THIS	2	Returns the this value prepended by a single byte value describing its type, or the special TYPE_ID_NULL (byte) value which is equal to 0xf0 in case there is no this parameter.	None	INVALID_OBJECT, INVALID_FRAMEID, ABSENT_INFORMATION
SET_VALUES	3	Returns an empty reply	Ask for a list of pair of position (int) information and variant whose value is going to be used.	INVALID_OBJECT, INVALID_FRAMEID, ABSENT_INFORMATION, INVALID_ARGUMENT

The main function handling these commands is frame_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:7082

Array commands

Each command requires at least one ObjectID (of type id) parameter mapping to a System.Array instance before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_LENGTH	1	Returns an int corresponding to the array rank followed by a set of int pair corresponding respectively to the length and lower bound of each of the array dimensions. In case of a single dimensional zero-based array, the returned data amount to 3 int values with the second being the total length of the array and the third one being 0.	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_VALUES	2	Returns a list of length elements which individual size in bytes depends on the underlying type of the System.Array instance.	Ask for an index (int) and a length (int) to determine the range of value to return	INVALID_OBJECT
SET_VALUES	3	Return an empty reply	Ask for an index (int) and a length (int) to determine the range of value to set and a length number of trailing values whose type and byte size match those of the underlying type of the System.Array instance.	INVALID_OBJECT

The main function handling these commands is vm_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:5671

String commands

Each command requires at least one ObjectID (of type id) parameter mapping to a System.String instance before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_VALUE	1	Returns a UTF8-encoded string corresponding to the System.String instance with its length prepended as a int value	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_LENGTH	2	Returns the length of a UTF8-encoded string corresponding to the System.String instance as an int value	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_CHARS	3	Returns length short values each encoding a character of the string slice	Ask for a start index (long) and a length parameter (long) of the string slice to take.	INVALID_OBJECT, INVALID_ARGUMENT

The main function handling these commands is string_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:7293

Object commands

Each command requires at least one ObjectID (of type id) parameter before any additional parameter the command may require.

Name	Value	Type of reply	Additional parameters	Possible error code returned
GET_TYPE	1	Returns the TypeID as an id	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_VALUES	2	Ask for a list of FieldID to fetch value of	Returns length values of miscellaneous type and size corresponding to the underlying type of each queried field	INVALID_OBJECT, UNLOADED, INVALID_FIELDID
IS_COLLECTED	3	Returns an int equals to 1 if the object has been collected by GC, 0 otherwise	None	None
GET_ADDRESS	4	Returns a long value corresponding to the address where the object is stored in memory	None	INVALID_OBJECT
GET_DOMAIN	5	Returns an id corresponding to the DomainID the object is located in	None	INVALID_OBJECT
SET_VALUES	6	Returns an empty reply	Ask for a list of tuple of FieldID (id) and of the value that should be set to it	INVALID_OBJECT, UNLOADED, INVALID_FIELDID

The main function handling these commands is object_commands and is situated at debugger-agent.c:7318

Composite commands

Name	Value	Description
COMPOSITE	100	This command is actually part of the event command set and is used for ?

Differences with JDWP

• Handshake ASCII sequence is DWP-Handshake instead of JDWP-Handshake
• Some new Mono specific command set such as AppDomain, Assembly or Module and removal/renaming of some Java specific set such as InterfaceType, ThreadGroupReference, ClassLoaderReference, etc.
• Mono SDB protocol has its own specific ID types related to the new command sets.
• SDB protocol has less error code although some are Mono-specific like “No Invocation”, “Absent Informations” and “No seq point at IL offset” codes.