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Debugging with GDB

A debugger lets you pause a program, examine and change variables, and step through code. Spend a few hours to learn one so you can avoid dozens of hours of frustration in the future. This is a quick guide, more information here:

Getting Started: Starting and Stopping

Stepping Through Code

Stepping lets you trace the path of your program, and zero in on the code that is crashing or returning invalid input.

Breakpoints and Watchpoints

Breakpoints are one of the keys to debugging. They pause (break) a program when it reaches a certain location. You can examine and change variables, then resume execution. This is helpful when seeing why certain inputs fail, or testing inputs.

Setting Variables and Calling Functions

Viewing and changing variables at run-time is a huge part of debugging. Try giving functions invalid inputs or running other test cases to find the root of problems. Typically, you will view/set variables when the program is paused.

Backtrace and Changing Frames

The stack is a list of the current function calls – it shows you where you are in the program. A frame stores the details of a single function call, such as the arguments.

Crashes and Core Dumps

A “core dump” is a snapshot of memory at the instant the program crashed, typically saved in a file called “core”. GDB can read the core dump and give you the line number of the crash, the arguments that were passed, and more. This is very helpful, but remember to compile with (-g) or the core dump will be difficult to debug.

Handling Signals

Signals are messages thrown after certain events, such as a timer or error. GDB may pause when it encounters a signal; you may wish to ignore them instead.

Integration with Emacs

The Emacs text editor integrates well with GDB. Debugging directly inside the editor is great because you can see an entire screen of code at a time. Use M-x gdb to start a new window with GDB and learn more here.

Tips


#include 

#define LOG_NONE 0
#define LOG_ERROR 1
#define LOG_WARN 2
#define LOG_INFO 3
#define LOG_LEVEL LOG_WARN


// shows msg if allowed by LOG_LEVEL
int log(char *msg, int level){
  if (LOG_LEVEL >= level){
    printf("LOG %d: %s\n", level, msg);
    // could also log to file
  }

  return 0;
}

int main(int argc, char** argv){
  printf("Hi there!\n");

  log("Really bad error!", LOG_ERROR);
  log("Warning, not so serious.", LOG_WARN);
  log("Just some info, not that important.", LOG_INFO);

  return 0;
}