Art of Debugging with GDB, DDD, and Eclipse

Name: Art of Debugging with GDB, DDD, and Eclipse
Price: 35.05 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9781593271749

ISBN-10: 1593271743

ISBN-13: 9781593271749

Edition: 2008

Authors: Norman Matloff, Peter Salzman

List price: $39.95

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Description:

Debugging is of central importance to successful software development, and yet many beginning programmers are unaware of the techniques they can use to reduce the time they spend finding and fixing programming errors. GDB, a popular open source debugger, allows a programmer to trace program execution line by line, set breakpoints, inspect variables, and look at what the program is doing at any given time. Using an assortment of real world coding errors "from simple typos to major logical blunders "The Art of Debugging with GDB and DDD discusses how to manage memory, understand core dumps, and trace programming errors to their root cause. The book covers topics other debugging books omit…

Book details

List price: $39.95
Copyright year: 2008
Publisher: No Starch Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 10/14/2008
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 280
Size: 7.00" wide x 9.25" long x 0.89" tall
Weight: 1.188
Language: English

Norman Matloff, Ph.D., is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis. He is the creator of several popular software packages, as well as a number of widely-used Web tutorials on computer topics. He has written articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Forbes Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times, among others, and is also the author, with Peter Jay Salzman, of The Art of Debugging (No Starch Press).



Preface



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



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



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



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



Seg Faults and Unix Signals



Other Types of Exceptions



Core Files



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



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



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



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 Itrace



Static Code Checkers: Iint 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



Using GDB/DDD/Eclipse for Other Languages



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



Perl



Debugging Perl via DDD



Debugging Perl in Eclipse



Python



Debugging Python in DDD



Debugging Python in Eclipse



Debugging SWIG Code



Assembly Language


Index