Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers

dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
10 Sep 90 14:22:46 GMT

          From comp.compilers

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[6 earlier articles]
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers vu0310@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu.cc.binghamton.ed (1990-09-10)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers hankd@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (1990-09-09)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers Chuck.Phillips@FtCollins.NCR.COM (1990-09-10)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers adamsf@turing.cs.rpi.edu (1990-09-10)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers harrison@necssd.NEC.COM (1990-09-11)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers freek@fwi.uva.nl (1990-09-12)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers dik@cwi.nl (1990-09-10)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers markh@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Mark William Hopkins) (1990-09-10)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers Jonathan.Bowen@prg.oxford.ac.uk (Jonathan Bowen) (1990-09-13)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers nreadwin@miclon.uucp (1990-09-13)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers td@alice.UUCP (1990-09-13)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers kym@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu.cc.binghamton.edu (1990-09-14)
Re: Help on disassembler/decompilers hankd@dynamo.ecn.purdue.edu (1990-09-14)
[10 later articles]
| List of all articles for this month |

Newsgroups: comp.compilers
From: dik@cwi.nl (Dik T. Winter)
Keywords: code, assembler, debug
Organization: CWI, Amsterdam
References: <HOW.90Sep5173755@sundrops.ucdavis.edu> <2524@l.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: 10 Sep 90 14:22:46 GMT

In article <2524@l.cc.purdue.edu> hrubin@l.cc.purdue.edu (Herman Rubin) writes:
  > > [Turning object code back into assembler is pretty straightforward, and
  > > every debugger does it. Someone else asked about disassembling into higher
  > > level languages a little while ago, but I didn't see any responses. -John]
  >
  > It is not quite that straightforward, and disassemblers can be somewhat
  > hard to get. Debuggers usually use object code set up specially for
  > debugging, with certain features available. Some debuggers even require
  > that the source code be included in such a way that this can be displayed
  > at debug time. Disassembly frequently is even ambiguous.


Moreover, debuggers know at what addresses instructions start, a disassembler
does not have knowledge about it. This gets hairy if the program uses
indirect jumps on a machine with variable sized instructions. I once wrote
a disassembler for a CDC Cyber PPU. It tried to follow all code threads,
but failed horribly in this aspect; and had to be guided.
--
dik t. winter, cwi, amsterdam, nederland
dik@cwi.nl
--


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