THE ART OF DEBUGGING WITH GDB, DDD, AND ECLIPSE

Table of Contents

1. SOME PRELIMINARIES FOR BEGINNERS AND PROS

Debugging Tools Used in This Book

Programming Language Focus

The Principles of Debugging

The Essence of Debugging: The Principle of Confirmation
Of What Value Is a Debugging Tool for the Principle of Confirmation?
Other Debugging Principles

Text-Based vs. GUI-Based Debugging Tools, and a Compromise Between Them

Brief Comparison of Interfaces
Compromises

Main Debugger Operations

Stepping Through the Source Code
Inspecting Variables
Issuing an "All Points Bulletin" for Changes to a Variable
Moving Up and Down the Call Stack

Online Help

Introductory Debugging Session

The GDB Approach
The Same Session in DDD
The Session in Eclipse

Use of Startup Files

2. STOPPING TO TAKE A LOOK AROUND

Mechanisms for Pause

Overview of Breakpoints

Keeping Track of Breakpoints

Breakpoint Lists in GDB
Breakpoint Lists in DDD
Breakpoint Lists in Eclipse

Setting Breakpoints

Setting Breakpoints in GDB
Setting Breakpoints in DDD
Setting Breakpoints in Eclipse

Extended GDB Example

Persistence of Breakpoints

Deleting and Disabling Breakpoints

Deleting Breakpoints in GDB
Disabling Breakpoints in GDB
Deleting and Disabling Breakpoints in DDD
Deleting and Disabling Breakpoints in Eclipse
"Moving" Breakpoints in DDD
Undoing/Redoing Breakpoint Actions in DDD

More on Viewing Breakpoint Attributes

GDB
DDD
Eclipse

Resuming Execution

In GDB
In DDD
In Eclipse

Conditional Breakpoints

GDB
DDD
Eclipse

Breakpoint Command Lists

Watchpoints

Setting Watchpoints
Expressions

3. INSPECTING AND SETTING VARIABLES

Our Main Example Code

Advanced Inspection and Setting of Variables

Inspection in GDB
Inspection in DDD
Inspection in Eclipse
Inspecting Dynamic Arrays
What About C++?
Monitoring Local Variables
Examining Memory Directly
Advanced Options for Print and Display

Setting Variables from Within GDB/DDD/Eclipse

GDB's Own Variables

Making Use of the Value History
Convenience Variables

4. WHEN A PROGRAM CRASHES

Background Material: Memory Management

Why Does a Program Crash?
Program Layout in Memory
The Notion of Pages
Details on the Role of the Page Table
A Slight Memory-Access Bug Might Not Cause a Seg Fault
4.1.6 Seg Faults and Unix Signals
Other Types of Exceptions

How Core Files Are Created
Your Shell May Suppress the Creation of a Core File

Extended Example

First Bug
Don't Leave GDB During a Debugging Session
Second and Third Bugs
Fourth Bug
Fifth and Sixth Bugs

5. DEBUGGING IN A MULTIPLE-ACTIVITIES CONTEXT

Debugging Client/Server Network Programs

Debugging Threaded Code

Review of Processes and Threads
Basic Example
A Variation
GDB Threads Command Summary
Threads Commands in DDD
Threads Commands in Eclipse

Debugging Parallel Applications

Message-Passing Systems
Shared-Memory Systems

Extended Example

OpenMP Overview
OpenMP Example Program

6. SPECIAL TOPICS

What If It Doesn't Even Compile or Load?

Phantom Line Numbers in Syntax Error Messages
Missing Libraries

Debugging GUI Programs

Debugging Curses Programs

7. OTHER TOOLS

Making Good Use of a Text Editor

Syntax Highlighting
Matching Brackets
Vim and Makefiles
Makefiles and Compiler Warnings
Final Thoughts on a Text Editor as an IDE

Making Good Use of the Compiler

Error Reporting in C

Using errno

Better Living with strace and ltrace

Static Code Checkers: lint and Friends

How to Use splint
Last Words

Debugging Dynamically Allocated Memory

Strategies for Detecting DAM Problems
Electric Fence
Debugging DAM Problems with GNU C Library Tools

8. USING GDB/DDD/ECLIPSE FOR OTHER LANGUAGES

TestLL.java
Direct Use of GDB for Debugging Java
Using DDD with GDB to Debug Java
Using DDD as a GUI for JDB
Debugging Java in Eclipse

Debugging Perl via DDD
Debugging Perl in Eclipse

Debugging Python in DDD
Debugging Python in Eclipse

Debugging SWIG Code

Assembly Language