Dynamic hardware watchpoint

摘要

An apparatus for monitoring changes to a block of data is disclosed. A first hardware watchpoint is set to monitor changes to the block of data at a current location of the block of data in memory and a second hardware watchpoint is set to monitor changes at a selected location in the memory where a reference to the block of data is located. Responsive to the second hardware watchpoint being triggered by a change at the selected location where the reference to the block of data is located, a new location of the block of data in the memory is identified based on the change that triggered the second hardware watchpoint. Subsequent to identifying the new location of the block of data, the first hardware watchpoint is reset to monitor changes to the block of data at the new location of the block of data.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a memory storing instructions and blocks of data, and at least one processing unit for executing the instructions for monitoring changes to a block of data in the blocks of data, the at least one processing unit executing the instructions to: set a first hardware watchpoint to monitor changes to the block of data at a current location of the block of data in the memory and a second hardware watchpoint to monitor changes at a selected location in the memory where a reference to the block of data is located; identify a new location of the block of data in the memory based on a change at the selected location where the reference to the block of data is located, responsive to the change triggering the second hardware watchpoint; subsequent to identifying the new location of the block of data, reset the first hardware watchpoint to monitor changes to the block of data at the new location of the block of data, wherein the reference to the block of data is a first reference to the block of data in a plurality of references in the memory that point to the block of data or to one of other references in the plurality of references selectively, and the change is a first change; set additional hardware watchpoints to monitor changes to each location in the memory pointed to by each of the plurality of references; and responsive to one or more of the additional hardware watchpoints being triggered by a second change in the memory, reset each of the additional hardware watchpoints affected by the second change to continue monitoring changes to each location in the memory pointed to by each of the plurality of references.