SS$_DEBUG (defined in STARLET) is a condition you can signal from your program to start the debugger. Signalling SS$_DEBUG from your program is equivalent to entering Ctrl/Y followed by DEBUG at that point. You can pass commands to the debugger at the time you signal it with SS$_DEBUG. For example, to start the debugger and issue a SHOW CALLS command at a given point in your program, you could put the following into your program (this example is coded in BLISS): SIGNAL(SS$_DEBUG, 1, UPLIT BYTE(%ASCIC 'SHOW CALLS'));