I learned a lot of debugging using GDB from Greg Laws CPPCon talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n9Fkq1e6sg. With that being said, one of the things I've heard is that debugging on Linux is a poorer experience than it is on Windows. I believe that RAD Game Tools tried to create a debugger for Linux that was better, but the project failed for some reason. I hope with the increased interest in Linux, GDB or another debugger can be improved enough to address the issues people have historically had with it
Debugging with GDB
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Re: Debugging with GDB
#12How difficult is it to setup an editor like sublime text with gdb? I'm curious if it can be an alternative to visual studio, meaning a window showing the stack, locals, watch, etc?
I don't know if it is possible in Sublime text (I never tried it), but there are several GUI frontend to GDB, including Nemiver and KDbg, as well as some IDEs allowing to use GDB to debug, like KDevelop and Eclipse.
I'd expect Emacs to have some GDB integration as well.
Re: Debugging with GDB
#13On Emacs the GUD major mode, makes using GDB from the GUI quite convenient.
Does VIM has anything similar?
Re: Debugging with GDB
#14I generally stick pretty close to the classic "old but still good" tools, but GDB is something I really could not get a handle on (probably because it isn't a daily-use tool for me).
Even if the rest of GDB remains a mystery to you, you can learn the two simplest and most useful functions: 1) how to create a backtrace, and 2) how to create a core dump. That way you can always send a bug report with lots of detail to somebody else for analysis.
Re: Debugging with GDB
#15Took me some time to get familiar with it but GDB is well documented and fulfills its duty. It looks ancient but it is powerful. Do not underestimate the power of the print command! And the advanced stuff like revers-debugging, multi-threading (all-stop mode - which is the default - and the non-stop mode), binary manipulation (yep, it is possible), and remote debugging. Nowadays accompanied by stuff like debuginfod.…
> It looks ancient but it is powerful
It is powerful because it is ancient.
Re: Debugging with GDB
#16Are there any easier to use C debuggers than GDB? All I really need to do is watch my variables change with each line.
Re: Debugging with GDB
#17Unrelated but does anyone have tips on debugging async code in Nodejs. My work has a gigantic Nodejs monorepo and frankly I am struggling so pointers would be appreciated. There is dependency injection & layers of async / await abstraction.
Not fun, when I model my code / unit test against a working sample and some method 25+ layers down does not work as expected as it does not have expected input when the stack frame does not even give me the caller. Is there a better way than peppering the codebase with logging statements?
Re: Debugging with GDB
#18Are there any easier to use C debuggers than GDB? All I really need to do is watch my variables change with each line.
You can use jetbrain clion an attach it to a binary. Or use even vscode.
Re: Debugging with GDB
#19Are there any easier to use C debuggers than GDB? All I really need to do is watch my variables change with each line.
If you're on Windows you can use RemedyBG: https://remedybg.itch.io/remedybg
Re: Debugging with GDB
#20I generally stick pretty close to the classic "old but still good" tools, but GDB is something I really could not get a handle on (probably because it isn't a daily-use tool for me).
What do you use for debugging instead?