Here are the commands to use the debugger breakpoints.

Related topics:

See also .

Breakpoints list

Opens the breakpoints window.

In this window, you can view information related to existing breakpoints. Breakpoints are saved in the database, and restored as soon as possible (once the memory becomes writeable).

The 'Pass count' column indicates how many times the program needs to hit the breakpoint before being suspended (0 means "always suspend").

Add breakpoint

Edit breakpoint

This command opens a dialog box to edit an existing breakpoint.

Location

Settings

Actions

Please note that hardware breakpoints occur AFTER the instruction execution while software breakpoints occur BEFORE the instruction.

Usually, it is easier to use software breakpoints, except if:

See also

Delete breakpoint

This command deletes an existing breakpoint at the current address.

Page breakpoints

Page breakpoints are memory access breakpoints that can be set to detect when the application reads, writes, or executes code/data in a specific memory range. Page breakpoints are very similar to hardware breakpoints but there is no limitation on the number of page breakpoints that can be set or their size, in contrast with normal hardware breakpoints.

Memory access breakpoints are implemented by removing page permissions according to the specified type of the page breakpoint to be added (for example, for a write page breakpoint, the write permission will be removed from the page). When the access violation exception occurs because the application tries to access the specific memory region, IDA reports a breakpoint hit.

As page breakpoints can be set for a small part of a memory page but the permissions of the whole page must be changed, page breakpoints can slow down the debugger because many access violation exceptions may be generated. If the application accesses memory outside of the desired range but on the same page, the generated exception must be silently handled and the application resumed. Specifically, page breakpoints in the code segment can slow down the debugger very much.

Memory access breakpoints are supported since IDA version 6.3 for the following debuggers:

Win32

WinDbg

Bochs

Find breakpoint

Open the breakpoints window if needed, then find current breakpoint in it.

Breakpoint conditions

Expressions

Statements

See also

Low level breakpoint conditions

Low level breakpoint conditions can be used to speed up the debugger. They are evaluated like this:

In both cases, there is a significant speed up. This improvement imposes some limitations on the breakpoint condition: