Before diving in to the details, we need to introduce several important concepts that apply to just about all debuggers, including dgawk. The following list defines terms used throughout the rest of this chapter.
For each function on the call stack, the system maintains a data area that contains the function's parameters, local variables, and return value, as well as any other “bookkeeping” information needed to manage the call stack. This data area is termed a stack frame.
gawk also follows this model, and dgawk gives you
access to the call stack and to each stack frame. You can see the
call stack, as well as from where each function on the stack was
invoked. Commands that print the call stack print information about
each stack frame (as detailed later on).