After starting the debugger as explained in the topic Starting the Debugger, bring a program under debugger control using one of the following two techniques: - Run a specified image. This is the most common technique and is described below. - Run an image by specifying a symbol for a foreign command or a DCL command. This technique is described in the topic Running an Image by Specifying a Symbol. To run a specified image: 1. Choose Run Image... from the File menu on the main window. The Run Image... dialog box appears, which lists: - A Directories list that contains the parent directory and any subdirectories contained in the current directory - A Filter field; by default this specifies the .EXE files in your current directory - An Images list that contains the names of images in the current directory that meet the filter specification - An Arguments field to pass any required arguments to the image to be run - A Heap Analyzer button to run the Heap Analyzer - An Image field to display and specify the full file specification of the image to be run - An OK button to run the image specified in the Image field and dismiss the dialog box - A Filter button to display a list of files that meet the specification in the Filter field - A Cancel button to dismiss the dialog box without taking and further action - A Help button to display this help information 2. In the Directories list, click on the name of the appropriate subdirectory and click on Filter to list the (filtered) files in the subdirectory. The debugger also displays, in the Directories list, the parent directory and any subdirectories of the selected directory. 3. In the Images list, click on the name of the image to be debugged. The Image field now shows the image specification. You can edit this specification as needed. 4. If applicable, enter arguments to be passed to the program in the Arguments field. Quoted strings, may require additional quotation marks because the debugger strips quotes when parsing the string. 5. To run the Heap Analyzer, click the Heap Analyzer button. 6. Click on OK to dismiss the dialog box and run the spcified image. When the program is under debugger control, the debugger: - Displays the program's source code in the main window. - Suspends execution at the start of the main program. The current-location pointer, to the left of the source code, shows the line whose code will be executed next. The message displayed in the command view indicates the name of the main program unit and also indicates that the debugging session is initialized for the source language of the program. The initialization sets up language-dependent debugger parameters. These parameters control the way the debugger parses names and expressions, formats debugger output, and so on. You can now debug your program. With certain programs, the debugger suspends execution at the start of some initialization code, before the main program, and displays the following message: Type GO to reach main program With some of these programs (for example, Ada programs), the first breakpoint lets you debug the initialization code using full symbolic information. Note the following restrictions about running a program under debugger control: - You cannot use the procedure just described to connect the debugger to a running program. - You cannot run a program under debugger control over a DECnet link. Both the image to be debugged and the debugger must reside on the same node.