gdb’s Obsolete Annotations

Edition 1.0
July 2003

Free Software Foundation

Copyright c 1994-2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of
the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the
Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with
no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free
Documentation License”.
 i

Table of Contents

1 What is an Annotation? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Limitations of the Annotation Interface . . . . . . . 1

2.1 Dependant on cli output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
2.2 Scalability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.3 Correctness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.4 Reliability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2.5 Maintainability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

3 Migrating to gdb/mi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

4 The Server Prefix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

5 Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

6 Frames . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

7 Displays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

8 Annotation for gdb Input. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

9 Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

10 Information on Breakpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

11 Invalidation Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

12 Running the Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

13 Displaying Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

14 Multi-threaded Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License . . 9

 1

1 What is an Annotation?
To produce obsolete level two annotations, start gdb with the --annotate=2 option.
Annotations start with a newline character, two ‘control-z’ characters, and the name
of the annotation. If there is no additional information associated with this annotation,
the name of the annotation is followed immediately by a newline. If there is additional
information, the name of the annotation is followed by a space, the additional information,
and a newline. The additional information cannot contain newline characters.
Any output not beginning with a newline and two ‘control-z’ characters denotes literal
output from gdb. Currently there is no need for gdb to output a newline followed by two
‘control-z’ characters, but if there was such a need, the annotations could be extended
with an ‘escape’ annotation which means those three characters as output.
A simple example of starting up gdb with annotations is:
$ gdb --annotate=2
GNU GDB 5.0
Copyright 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License,
and you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it
under certain conditions.
Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty"
for details.
This GDB was configured as "sparc-sun-sunos4.1.3"

^Z^Zpre-prompt
(gdb)
^Z^Zprompt
quit

^Z^Zpost-prompt
$
Here ‘quit’ is input to gdb; the rest is output from gdb. The three lines beginning
‘^Z^Z’ (where ‘^Z’ denotes a ‘control-z’ character) are annotations; the rest is output
from gdb.

2 Limitations of the Annotation Interface

The level two annotations mechanism is known to have a number of technical and architec-
tural limitations. As a consequence, in 2001, with the release of gdb 5.1 and the addition
of gdb/mi, the annotation interface was marked as deprecated.
This chapter discusses the known problems.

2.1 Dependant on cli output

The annotation interface works by interspersing markups with gdb normal command-line
interpreter output. Unfortunately, this makes the annotation client dependant on not just
the annotations, but also the cli output. This is because the client is forced to assume
that specific gdb commands provide specific information. Any change to gdb’s cli output
modifies or removes that information and, consequently, likely breaks the client.
Since the gdb/mi output is independent of the cli, it does not have this problem.
Chapter 4: The Server Prefix 2

2.2 Scalability
The annotation interface relies on value annotations (see Chapter 5 [Value Annotations],
page 3) and the display mechanism as a way of obtaining up-to-date value information.
These mechanisms are not scalable.
In a graphical environment, where many values can be displayed simultaneously, a serious
performance problem occurs when the client tries to first extract from gdb, and then re-
display, all those values. The client should instead only request and update the values that
changed.
The gdb/mi Variable Objects provide just that mechanism.

2.3 Correctness
The annotation interface assumes that a variable’s value can only be changed when the
target is running. This assumption is not correct. A single assignment to a single variable
can result in the entire target, and all displayed values, needing an update.
The gdb/mi Variable Objects include a mechanism for efficiently reporting such changes.

2.4 Reliability
The gdb/mi interface includes a dedicated test directory (gdb/gdb.mi), and any addition
or fix to gdb/mi must include testsuite changes.

2.5 Maintainability
The annotation mechanism was implemented by interspersing cli print statements with
various annotations. As a consequence, any cli output change can alter the annotation
output.
Since the gdb/mi output is independent of the cli, and the gdb/mi is increasingly
implemented independent of the cli code, its long term maintenance is much easier.

3 Migrating to gdb/mi
By using the ‘interp mi’ command, it is possible for annotation clients to invoke gdb/mi
commands, and hence access the gdb/mi. By doing this, existing annotation clients have
a migration path from this obsolete interface to gdb/mi.

4 The Server Prefix

To issue a command to gdb without affecting certain aspects of the state which is seen by
users, prefix it with ‘server ’. This means that this command will not affect the command
history, nor will it affect gdb’s notion of which command to repeat if RET is pressed on a
line by itself.
The server prefix does not affect the recording of values into the value history; to print
a value without recording it into the value history, use the output command instead of the
print command.
 3

5 Values
Value Annotations have been removed. gdb/mi instead provides Variable Objects.
When a value is printed in various contexts, gdb uses annotations to delimit the value
from the surrounding text.
If a value is printed using print and added to the value history, the annotation looks
like
^Z^Zvalue-history-begin history-number value-flags
history-string
^Z^Zvalue-history-value
the-value
^Z^Zvalue-history-end

where history-number is the number it is getting in the value history, history-string is

a string, such as ‘$5 = ’, which introduces the value to the user, the-value is the output
corresponding to the value itself, and value-flags is ‘*’ for a value which can be dereferenced
and ‘-’ for a value which cannot.
If the value is not added to the value history (it is an invalid float or it is printed with
the output command), the annotation is similar:
^Z^Zvalue-begin value-flags
the-value
^Z^Zvalue-end

When gdb prints an argument to a function (for example, in the output from the
backtrace command), it annotates it as follows:
^Z^Zarg-begin
argument-name
^Z^Zarg-name-end
separator-string
^Z^Zarg-value value-flags
the-value
^Z^Zarg-end

where argument-name is the name of the argument, separator-string is text which separates
the name from the value for the user’s benefit (such as ‘=’), and value-flags and the-value
have the same meanings as in a value-history-begin annotation.
When printing a structure, gdb annotates it as follows:
^Z^Zfield-begin value-flags
field-name
^Z^Zfield-name-end
separator-string
^Z^Zfield-value
the-value
^Z^Zfield-end

where field-name is the name of the field, separator-string is text which separates the name
from the value for the user’s benefit (such as ‘=’), and value-flags and the-value have the
same meanings as in a value-history-begin annotation.
When printing an array, gdb annotates it as follows:
^Z^Zarray-section-begin array-index value-flags
 4

where array-index is the index of the first element being annotated and value-flags has the
same meaning as in a value-history-begin annotation. This is followed by any number
of elements, where is element can be either a single element:
‘,’ whitespace ; omitted for the first element
the-value
^Z^Zelt
or a repeated element
‘,’ whitespace ; omitted for the first element
the-value
^Z^Zelt-rep number-of-repetitions
repetition-string
^Z^Zelt-rep-end
In both cases, the-value is the output for the value of the element and whitespace
can contain spaces, tabs, and newlines. In the repeated case, number-of-repetitions is the
number of consecutive array elements which contain that value, and repetition-string is a
string which is designed to convey to the user that repetition is being depicted.
Once all the array elements have been output, the array annotation is ended with
^Z^Zarray-section-end

6 Frames
Value Annotations have been removed. gdb/mi instead provides a number of frame com-
mands.
Frame annotations are no longer available. The gdb/mi provides ‘-stack-list-arguments’,
‘-stack-list-locals’, and ‘-stack-list-frames’ commands.
Whenever gdb prints a frame, it annotates it. For example, this applies to frames printed
when gdb stops, output from commands such as backtrace or up, etc.
The frame annotation begins with
^Z^Zframe-begin level address
level-string
where level is the number of the frame (0 is the innermost frame, and other frames have
positive numbers), address is the address of the code executing in that frame, and level-
string is a string designed to convey the level to the user. address is in the form ‘0x’ followed
by one or more lowercase hex digits (note that this does not depend on the language). The
frame ends with
^Z^Zframe-end
Between these annotations is the main body of the frame, which can consist of
•
^Z^Zfunction-call
function-call-string
where function-call-string is text designed to convey to the user that this frame is asso-
ciated with a function call made by gdb to a function in the program being debugged.
•
^Z^Zsignal-handler-caller
signal-handler-caller-string
Chapter 6: Frames 5

where signal-handler-caller-string is text designed to convey to the user that this frame
is associated with whatever mechanism is used by this operating system to call a signal
handler (it is the frame which calls the signal handler, not the frame for the signal
handler itself).
• A normal frame.
This can optionally (depending on whether this is thought of as interesting information
for the user to see) begin with
^Z^Zframe-address
address
^Z^Zframe-address-end
separator-string
where address is the address executing in the frame (the same address as in
the frame-begin annotation, but printed in a form which is intended for user
consumption—in particular, the syntax varies depending on the language), and
separator-string is a string intended to separate this address from what follows for the
user’s benefit.
Then comes
^Z^Zframe-function-name
function-name
^Z^Zframe-args
arguments
where function-name is the name of the function executing in the frame, or ‘??’ if not
known, and arguments are the arguments to the frame, with parentheses around them
(each argument is annotated individually as well, see Chapter 5 [Value Annotations],
page 3).
If source information is available, a reference to it is then printed:
^Z^Zframe-source-begin
source-intro-string
^Z^Zframe-source-file
filename
^Z^Zframe-source-file-end
:
^Z^Zframe-source-line
line-number
^Z^Zframe-source-end
where source-intro-string separates for the user’s benefit the reference from the text
which precedes it, filename is the name of the source file, and line-number is the line
number within that file (the first line is line 1).
If gdb prints some information about where the frame is from (which library, which
load segment, etc.; currently only done on the RS/6000), it is annotated with
^Z^Zframe-where
information
Then, if source is to actually be displayed for this frame (for example, this is not true
for output from the backtrace command), then a source annotation (see Chapter 13
[Source Annotations], page 9) is displayed. Unlike most annotations, this is output
instead of the normal text which would be output, not in addition.
 6

7 Displays
Display Annotations have been removed. gdb/mi instead provides Variable Objects.
When gdb is told to display something using the display command, the results of the
display are annotated:
^Z^Zdisplay-begin
number
^Z^Zdisplay-number-end
number-separator
^Z^Zdisplay-format
format
^Z^Zdisplay-expression
expression
^Z^Zdisplay-expression-end
expression-separator
^Z^Zdisplay-value
value
^Z^Zdisplay-end
where number is the number of the display, number-separator is intended to separate the
number from what follows for the user, format includes information such as the size, format,
or other information about how the value is being displayed, expression is the expression
being displayed, expression-separator is intended to separate the expression from the text
that follows for the user, and value is the actual value being displayed.

8 Annotation for gdb Input

When gdb prompts for input, it annotates this fact so it is possible to know when to send
output, when the output from a given command is over, etc.
Different kinds of input each have a different input type. Each input type has three
annotations: a pre- annotation, which denotes the beginning of any prompt which is being
output, a plain annotation, which denotes the end of the prompt, and then a post- anno-
tation which denotes the end of any echo which may (or may not) be associated with the
input. For example, the prompt input type features the following annotations:
^Z^Zpre-prompt
^Z^Zprompt
^Z^Zpost-prompt
The input types are
prompt When gdb is prompting for a command (the main gdb prompt).
commands When gdb prompts for a set of commands, like in the commands command.
The annotations are repeated for each command which is input.
overload-choice
When gdb wants the user to select between various overloaded functions.
query When gdb wants the user to confirm a potentially dangerous operation.
prompt-for-continue
When gdb is asking the user to press return to continue. Note: Don’t expect
this to work well; instead use set height 0 to disable prompting. This is
because the counting of lines is buggy in the presence of annotations.
 7

9 Errors
^Z^Zquit
This annotation occurs right before gdb responds to an interrupt.
^Z^Zerror
This annotation occurs right before gdb responds to an error.
Quit and error annotations indicate that any annotations which gdb was in the middle
of may end abruptly. For example, if a value-history-begin annotation is followed by a
error, one cannot expect to receive the matching value-history-end. One cannot expect
not to receive it either, however; an error annotation does not necessarily mean that gdb
is immediately returning all the way to the top level.
A quit or error annotation may be preceded by
^Z^Zerror-begin
Any output between that and the quit or error annotation is the error message.
Warning messages are not yet annotated.

10 Information on Breakpoints
Breakpoint Annotations have been removed. gdb/mi instead provides breakpoint commands.
The output from the info breakpoints command is annotated as follows:
^Z^Zbreakpoints-headers
header-entry
^Z^Zbreakpoints-table
where header-entry has the same syntax as an entry (see below) but instead of containing
data, it contains strings which are intended to convey the meaning of each field to the user.
This is followed by any number of entries. If a field does not apply for this entry, it is
omitted. Fields may contain trailing whitespace. Each entry consists of:
^Z^Zrecord
^Z^Zfield 0
number
^Z^Zfield 1
type
^Z^Zfield 2
disposition
^Z^Zfield 3
enable
^Z^Zfield 4
address
^Z^Zfield 5
what
^Z^Zfield 6
frame
^Z^Zfield 7
condition
^Z^Zfield 8
ignore-count
^Z^Zfield 9
commands
 8

Note that address is intended for user consumption—the syntax varies depending on the
language.
The output ends with
^Z^Zbreakpoints-table-end

11 Invalidation Notices
The following annotations say that certain pieces of state may have changed.
^Z^Zframes-invalid
The frames (for example, output from the backtrace command) may have
changed.
^Z^Zbreakpoints-invalid
The breakpoints may have changed. For example, the user just added or deleted
a breakpoint.

12 Running the Program

When the program starts executing due to a gdb command such as step or continue,
^Z^Zstarting
is output. When the program stops,
^Z^Zstopped
is output. Before the stopped annotation, a variety of annotations describe how the
program stopped.
^Z^Zexited exit-status
The program exited, and exit-status is the exit status (zero for successful exit,
otherwise nonzero).
^Z^Zsignalled
The program exited with a signal. After the ^Z^Zsignalled, the annotation
continues:
intro-text
^Z^Zsignal-name
name
^Z^Zsignal-name-end
middle-text
^Z^Zsignal-string
string
^Z^Zsignal-string-end
end-text
where name is the name of the signal, such as SIGILL or SIGSEGV, and string is
the explanation of the signal, such as Illegal Instruction or Segmentation
fault. intro-text, middle-text, and end-text are for the user’s benefit and have
no particular format.
^Z^Zsignal
The syntax of this annotation is just like signalled, but gdb is just saying
that the program received the signal, not that it was terminated with it.
 9

^Z^Zbreakpoint number
The program hit breakpoint number number.
^Z^Zwatchpoint number
The program hit watchpoint number number.

13 Displaying Source
The following annotation is used instead of displaying source code:
^Z^Zsource filename:line:character:middle:addr
where filename is an absolute file name indicating which source file, line is the line
number within that file (where 1 is the first line in the file), character is the character
position within the file (where 0 is the first character in the file) (for most debug formats
this will necessarily point to the beginning of a line), middle is ‘middle’ if addr is in the
middle of the line, or ‘beg’ if addr is at the beginning of the line, and addr is the address
in the target program associated with the source which is being displayed. addr is in the
form ‘0x’ followed by one or more lowercase hex digits (note that this does not depend on
the language).

14 Multi-threaded Applications
The following annotations report thread related changes of state.
^Z^Znew-thread
This annotation is issued once for each thread that is created apart from the
main thread, which is not reported.
^Z^Zthread-changed
The selected thread has changed. This may occur at the request of the user
with the thread command, or as a result of execution, e.g., another thread hits
a breakpoint.

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publisher.
D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other
copyright notices.
F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public
permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form
shown in the Addendum below.
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 13

G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover
Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
H. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
I. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item
stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version
as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Docu-
ment, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document
as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as
stated in the previous sentence.
J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to
a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in
the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the
“History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published
at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the
version it refers to gives permission.
K. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title
of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the
contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and
in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the
section titles.
M. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included
in the Modified Version.
N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in
title with any Invariant Section.
O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify
as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at
your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their
titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version’s license notice. These
titles must be distinct from any other section titles.
You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but
endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of
peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative
definition of a standard.
You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up
to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified
Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be
added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already
includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement
made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but
you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that
added the old one.
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 14

The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission
to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified
Version.
5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS
You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License,
under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you
include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents,
unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license
notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.
The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical
Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant
Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section
unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or
publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment
to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined
work.
In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the vari-
ous original documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any
sections Entitled “Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You
must delete all sections Entitled “Endorsements.”
6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS
You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released
under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various
documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you
follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all
other respects.
You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individu-
ally under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted
document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of
that document.
7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS
A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent
documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called
an “aggregate” if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the
legal rights of the compilation’s users beyond what the individual works permit. When
the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other
works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.
If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document,
then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document’s Cover
Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the
electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they
must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.
8. TRANSLATION
Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations
of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 15

translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may
include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions
of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the
license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you
also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of
those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and
the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will
prevail.
If a section in the Document is Entitled “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, or “His-
tory”, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require
changing the actual title.
9. TERMINATION
You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly
provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or
distribute it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular
copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder
explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright
holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days
after the cessation.
Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if
the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the
first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that
copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the
notice.
Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties
who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have
been terminated and not permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the
same material does not give you any rights to use it.
10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE
The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free
Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit
to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/.
Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document
specifies that a particular numbered version of this License “or any later version”
applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that
specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by
the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of
this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free
Software Foundation. If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future
versions of this License can be used, that proxy’s public statement of acceptance of a
version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.
11. RELICENSING
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 16

“Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site” (or “MMC Site”) means any World Wide
Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities
for anybody to edit those works. A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of
such a server. A “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration” (or “MMC”) contained in the
site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.
“CC-BY-SA” means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license pub-
lished by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with a principal
place of business in San Francisco, California, as well as future copyleft versions of that
license published by that same organization.
“Incorporate” means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part
of another Document.
An MMC is “eligible for relicensing” if it is licensed under this License, and if all works
that were first published under this License somewhere other than this MMC, and
subsequently incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts
or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008.
The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under
CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1, 2009, provided the MMC is
eligible for relicensing.
Appendix A: GNU Free Documentation License 17

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the
document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (C) year your name.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ‘‘GNU
Free Documentation License’’.
If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the
“with. . . Texts.” line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
being list.
If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the
three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.
If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing
these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU
General Public License, to permit their use in free software.