Downloading, Installing, and Starting

The following is an abbreviated set of steps for downloading, installing, and running JSwat. If you encounter complications at any point, please refer to the detailed steps given in the following sections.

  1. You need JDK 6.0 or higher to use the latest version of JSwat.
  2. Get the installer.jar from the files page.
  3. Invoke the installer: java -jar jswat-x.y-installer.jar
  4. Start JSwat via the launcher: bin/jswat

Downloading

This section outlines the means by which to acquire JSwat. The next section briefly discusses the installation process.

Requirements

To run the 4.x versions of JSwat you will need the Java Platform, Standard Edition 6.0 or higher installed on your system. For the 3.x versions, JDK 5.0 or higher will suffice, while for the 2.x versions, JDK 1.4 or higher is required, and for 1.x versions, JDK 1.2 or higher is required. Note that the JRE alone will not be sufficient, as that lacks the required JPDA library, which contains the Java Debug Interface (JDI) classes used by JSwat.

Installing

Installation of JSwat is very straight forward. The process varies slightly depending on which form of JSwat you have downloaded.

Installer

With versions 3.0 and above, a graphical installer is provided which extracts the JSwat files to a location of your choosing, and makes a few adjustments to a configuration file to suit your environment. To launch the installer, simply invoke the installer.jar file like so:

java -jar jswat-x.y-installer.jar

You must substitute the x.y with the version number of the debugger that you have downloaded. If you encounter problems with the installer, be sure to send email to jswat-bugs@bluemarsh.com with a description of the problem. In the meantime, you can simply extract the installer.jar to a temporary location, then extract the jswat.zip file to a more permanent location on your system. There you will find a file called etc/jswat.conf which needs a minor adjustment, that being the netbeans_jdkhome value (point it to your JDK installation).

Zip File

If you acquired a Zip file containing the JSwat software, then simply extract that Zip file to a directory on your system. Use either the unzip program, or WinZip, or the Zip support in Windows XP.

Troubleshooting

Exceptions on Fedora Core 5 Linux

If you see an exception like the one below when trying to run the installer, it is probably because of the Java related packages that are installed on the system.

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
  at java.lang.System.arraycopy (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.text.BoxView.replace (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.text.View.updateChildren (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.text.View.insertUpdate (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTextUI$RootView.insertUpdate (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTextUI$DocumentHandler.insertUpdate (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.text.AbstractDocument.fireInsertUpdate (libgcj.so.7)
  at javax.swing.text.AbstractDocument.insertString (libgcj.so.7)
  at com.bluemarsh.jswat.installer.WelcomePanel.<init> (WelcomePanel.java:49)
  at com.bluemarsh.jswat.installer.Controller.getPanel (Controller.java:94)
  at com.bluemarsh.jswat.installer.Controller.start (Controller.java:193)
  at com.bluemarsh.jswat.installer.Main.main (Main.java:36)

The libgcj.so entries are a giveaway that the gcj packages installed on FC5 are causing trouble. The rememdy is to make sure you are invoking java from a true Java Development Kit, such as the one from Sun.

X11 Exceptions on Unix-like Systems

This is an all-too-common problem when running graphical applications on a Unix-like system as the root superuser. The exception can take several forms, but generally it will state either a permissions problem, or something to do with the DISPLAY environment variable. Consult the administrative documentation for your system for the details on how to give the root user the necessary permissions to run X applications.

Running

Now that JSwat has been placed on disk using one of the methods described above, you are ready to read about starting JSwat. This is best achieved by examining the README.html file contained in the JSwat installation directory. This file covers the dependencies of JSwat and the various ways in which it can be launched. Additionally, issues specific to certain platforms are covered. It should only take a few minutes to read and will save you the trouble of asking for help.

However, if you are in a hurry then look for the executable file named jswat.exe on Microsoft Windows, or jswat on Unix-like systems, and invoke it. That should work in most cases, but if not, check the README.html file before asking for help.