[[sec:trigger]]
== Sdtrig (ISA Extension)

This chapter describes the Sdtrig ISA extension, which can be
implemented independently of functionality described in the other
chapters. It consists exclusively of the Trigger Module (TM).

Triggers can cause a breakpoint exception, entry into Debug Mode, or a
trace action without having to execute a special instruction. This makes
them invaluable when debugging code from ROM. They can trigger on
execution of instructions at a given memory address, or on the
address/data in loads/stores.

If Sdtrig is implemented, the Trigger Module must support at least one
trigger. Accessing trigger CSRs that are not used by any of the
implemented triggers must result in an illegal instruction exception.
M-Mode and Debug Mode accesses to trigger CSRs that are used by any of
the implemented triggers must succeed, regardless of the current type of
the currently selected trigger.

A trigger matches when the conditions that it specifies (e.g. a load
from a specific address) are met. A trigger fires when a trigger that
matches performs the action configured for that trigger.

Triggers do not fire while in Debug Mode.

=== Enumeration

Each trigger may support a variety of features. A debugger can build a
list of all triggers and their features as follows:

Write 0 to . If this results in an illegal instruction exception, then
there are no triggers implemented.

Read back and check that it contains the written value. If not, exit the
loop.

Read .

If that caused an exception, the debugger must read to discover the
type. (If is 0, this trigger doesn’t exist. Exit the loop.)

If is 1, this trigger doesn’t exist. Exit the loop.

Otherwise, the selected trigger supports the types discovered in .

Repeat, incrementing the value in .

The above algorithm reads back so that implementations which have
latexmath:[$2^n$] triggers only need to implement latexmath:[$n$] bits
of .

The algorithm checks and in case the implementation has latexmath:[$m$]
bits of but fewer than latexmath:[$2^m$] triggers.

=== Actions

Triggers can be configured to take one of several actions when they
fire. Table #tab:action[[tab:action]] lists all options.

|r|L| Value & Description +
& Raise a breakpoint exception. (Used when software wants to use the
trigger module without an external debugger attached.) must contain the
virtual address of the next instruction that must be executed to
preserve the program flow. +
& Enter Debug Mode. must contain the virtual address of the next
instruction that must be executed to preserve the program flow.

This action is only legal when the trigger’s is 1. Since the `tdata`
registers are WARL, hardware should clear the action field whenever the
action field is 1, the new value of would be 0, and the new value of the
action field would be 1.

This action can only be supported if Sdext is implemented on the hart. +
& Trace on, described in the trace specification. +
& Trace off, described in the trace specification. +
& Trace notify, described in the trace specification. +
& Reserved for use by the trace specification. +
– 9 & Send a signal to TM external trigger output 0 or 1
(respectively). +
other & Reserved for future use. +

Actions 8 and 9 are intended to increment custom event counters, but
these signals could also be brought to outputs for use by external
logic.

=== Priority

Table #tab:priority[[tab:priority]] lists the synchronous exceptions
from the Privileged Spec, and where the various types of triggers fit
in. The first 3 columns come from the Privileged Spec, and the final
column shows where triggers fit in. Priorities in the table are
separated by horizontal lines, so e.g. etrigger and itrigger have the
same priority. If this table contradicts the table in the Privileged
Spec, then the latter takes precedence.

This table only applies if triggers are precise. Otherwise triggers will
fire some indeterminate time after the event, and the priority is
irrelevant. When triggers are chained, the priority is the lowest
priority of the triggers in the chain.

|l|p.7in|p2.3in|p2.5in| Priority & Exception Code & Description &
Trigger +
_Highest_ & 3 & & etrigger +
& 3 & & icount +
& 3 & & itrigger +
& 3 & & mcontrol/mcontrol6 after (on previous instruction) +
& 3 & Instruction address breakpoint & mcontrol/mcontrol6 execute
address before +
& 12, 20, 1 & During instruction address translation: First encountered
page fault, guest-page fault, or access fault & +
& 1 & With physical address for instruction: Instruction access fault
& +
& 3 & & mcontrol/mcontrol6 execute data before +
& 2 & Illegal instruction & +
& 22 & Virtual instruction & +
& 0 & Instruction address misaligned & +
& 8, 9, 10, 11 & Environment call & +
& 3 & Environment break & +
& 3 & Load/Store/AMO address breakpoint & mcontrol/mcontrol6 load/store
address/data before +
& 4, 6 & Optionally: Load/Store/AMO address misaligned & +
& 13, 15, 21, 23, 5, 7 & During address translation for an explicit
memory access: First encountered page fault, guest-page fault, or access
fault & +
& 5, 7 & With physical address for an explicit memory access:
Load/store/AMO access fault & +
& 4, 6 & If not higher priority: Load/store/AMO address misaligned & +
_Lowest_ & 3 & & mcontrol/mcontrol6 load data before +

When multiple triggers in the same priority fire at once, (if
implemented) is set for all of them. If more than one of these triggers
has then `tval` is updated in accordance with one of them, but which one
is . If one of these triggers has the ``enter Debug Mode'' action (1)
and another trigger has the ``raise a breakpoint exception'' action (0),
the preferred behavior is to have both actions take place. It is
implementation-dependent which of the two happens first. This ensures
both that the presence of an external debugger doesn’t affect execution
and that a trigger set by user code doesn’t affect the external
debugger. If this is not implemented, then the hart must enter Debug
Mode and ignore the breakpoint exception. In the latter case, of the
trigger whose action is 0 must still be set, giving a debugger an
opportunity to handle this case. What happens with trace actions when
triggers with different actions are also firing is left to the trace
specification.

[[sec:nativetrigger]]
=== Native Triggers

Triggers can be used for native debugging when . If supported by the
hart and desired by the debugger, triggers will often be programmed to
have so that when they fire they cause a breakpoint exception to trap to
a more privileged mode. That breakpoint exception can either be taken in
M-mode or it can be delegated to a less privileged mode. However, it is
possible for triggers to fire in the same mode that the resulting
exception will be handled in.

In these cases such a trigger may cause a breakpoint exception while
already in a trap handler. This might leave the hart unable to resume
normal execution because state such as and would be overwritten.

In particular, when :

mcontrol and mcontrol6 triggers with can cause a breakpoint exception
that is taken from M-mode to M-mode (regardless of delegation).

mcontrol and mcontrol6 triggers with can cause a breakpoint exception
that is taken from S-mode to S-mode if .

mcontrol6 triggers with can cause a breakpoint exception that is taken
from VS-mode to VS-mode if and .

icount triggers with can cause a breakpoint exception that is taken from
M-mode to M-mode (regardless of delegation).

icount triggers with can cause a breakpoint exception that is taken from
S-mode to S-mode if .

icount triggers with can cause a breakpoint exception that is taken from
VS-mode to VS-mode if and .

etrigger and itrigger triggers will always be taken from a trap handler
before the first instruction of the handler. If etrigger/itrigger is set
to trigger on exception/interrupt X and if X is delegated to mode Y then
the trigger will cause a breakpoint exception that is taken from mode Y
to mode Y unless breakpoint exceptions are delegated to a more
privileged mode than Y.

tmexttrigger triggers are asynchronous and may occur in any mode and at
any time.

Harts that support triggers with should implement one of the following
two solutions to solve the problem of reentrancy:

The hardware prevents triggers with from matching or firing while in
M-mode and while in is 0. If then it prevents triggers with from
matching or firing while in S-mode and while in is 0. If and then it
prevents triggers with from matching or firing while in VS-mode and
while in is 0.

and in is implemented. is hard-wired to 0.

The first option has the limitation that interrupts might be disabled at
times when a user still might want triggers to fire. It has the benefit
that breakpoints are not required to be handled in M-mode.

The second option has the benefit that it only disables triggers during
the trap handler, though it requires specific software support for this
debug feature in the M-mode trap handlers. It can only work if
breakpoints are not delegated to less privileged modes and therefore
targets primarily implementations without S-mode.

Because is not accessible to S-mode, the second option can not be
extended to accommodate delegation without adding additional S-mode and
VS-mode CSRs.

Both options prevent etrigger and itrigger from having any effect on
exceptions and interrupts that are handled in M-mode. They also prevent
triggering during some initial portion of each handler. Debuggers should
use other mechanisms to debug these cases, such as patching the handler
or setting a breakpoint on the instruction after is cleared.

=== Memory Access Triggers

and both enable triggers on memory accesses. This section describes for
both of them how certain corner cases are treated.

==== A Extension

If the A extension is supported, then triggers on loads/stores treat
them as follows:

`lr` instructions are loads.

Successful `sc` instructions are stores.

It is  whether failing `sc` instructions are stores or not.

Each AMO instruction is a load for the read portion of the operation.
The address is always available to trigger on, although the value loaded
might not be, depending on the hardware implementation.

Each AMO instruction is a store for the write portion of the operation.
The address is always available to trigger on, although the value stored
might not be, depending on the hardware implementation.

If the destination register of any load or AMO is then it is  whether a
data load trigger will match. Whether data store triggers match on AMOs
is .

==== Combined Accesses

Some instructions lead a hart to perform multiple memory accesses. This
includes vector loads and stores, as well as `cm.push` and `cm.pop`
instructions. The Trigger Module should match such accesses as if they
all happened individually. E.g. a vector load should be treated as if it
performed multiple loads of size SEW (selected element width), and
`cm.push` should be treated as if it performed multiple stores of size
XLEN.

==== Cache Operations

Cache operations are infrequently performed, and code that uses them can
have hard-to-find bugs. For the purposes of debug triggers, two classes
of cache operations must match as stores:

Cache operations that enable software to maintain coherence between
otherwise non-coherent implicit and explicit memory accesses.

Cache operations that perform block writes of constant data.

Only triggers with and will match. Since cache operations affect
multiple addresses, there are multiple possible values to compare
against. Implementations must implement one of the following options.
From most desirable to least desirable, they are:

Every address from the effective address rounded down to the nearest
cache block boundary (inclusive) to the effective address rounded up to
the nearest cache block boundary (exclusive) is a compare value.

The effective address rounded down to the nearest cache block boundary
is a compare value.

The effective address of the instruction is a compare value.

Cache operations encoded as HINTs do not match debug triggers.

The above language intends to capture the trigger behavior with respect
to the cache operations to be introduced in a forthcoming I/D
consistency extension.

For RISC-V Base Cache Management Operation ISA Extensions 1.0.1, this
means the following:

, , and match as if they are stores because they affect consistency.

matches as if it is a store because it performs a block write of
constant data.

The prefetch instructions don’t match at all.

[[sec:multistate]]
=== Multiple State Change Instructions

An instruction that performs multiple architectural state changes (e.g.,
register updates and/or memory accesses) might cause a trigger to fire
at an intermediate point in its execution. As a result, architectural
state changes up to that point might have been performed, while
subsequent state changes, starting from the event that activated the
trigger, might not have been. The definition of such an instruction will
specify the order in which architectural state changes take place.
Alternatively, it may state that partial execution is not allowed,
implying that a mid-execution trigger must prevent any architectural
state changes from occurring.

Debuggers won’t be aware if an instruction has been partially executed.
When they resume execution, they will execute the same instruction once
more. Therefore, it’s crucial that partially executing the instruction
and then executing it again leaves the hart in a state closely
resembling the state it would have been in if the instruction had only
been executed once.

=== Trigger Registers

These registers are CSRs, accessible using the RISC-V `csr` opcodes and
optionally also using abstract debug commands.

Almost all trigger functionality is optional. All `tdata` registers
follow write-any-read-legal semantics. If a debugger writes an
unsupported configuration, the register will read back a value that is
supported (which may simply be a disabled trigger). This means that a
debugger must always read back values it writes to `tdata` registers,
unless it already knows already what is supported. Writes to one `tdata`
register must not modify the contents of other `tdata` registers, nor
the configuration of any trigger besides the one that is currently
selected.

The combination of these rules means that a debugger cannot simply set a
trigger by writing , then , etc. The current value of might not be legal
with the new value of . To help with this situation, it is guaranteed
that writing 0 to disables the trigger, and leaves it in a state where
and can be written with any value that makes sense for any trigger type
supported by this trigger.

As a result, a debugger can write any supported trigger as follows:

Write 0 to . (This will result in containing a non-zero value, since the
register is .)

Write desired values to and .

Write desired value to .

Code that restores CSR context of triggers that might be configured to
fire in the current privilege mode must use this same sequence to
restore the triggers. This avoids the problem of a partially written
trigger firing at a different time than is expected.

Attempts to access an unimplemented Trigger Register raise an illegal
instruction exception.
