| <section xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" version="5.0" |
| xml:id="manual.intro.using.debug" xreflabel="Debugging Support"> |
| <?dbhtml filename="debug.html"?> |
| |
| <info><title>Debugging Support</title> |
| <keywordset> |
| <keyword>C++</keyword> |
| <keyword>debug</keyword> |
| </keywordset> |
| </info> |
| |
| |
| |
| <para> |
| There are numerous things that can be done to improve the ease with |
| which C++ binaries are debugged when using the GNU tool chain. Here |
| are some of them. |
| </para> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.compiler"><info><title>Using <command>g++</command></title></info> |
| |
| <para> |
| Compiler flags determine how debug information is transmitted |
| between compilation and debug or analysis tools. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| The default optimizations and debug flags for a libstdc++ build |
| are <code>-g -O2</code>. However, both debug and optimization |
| flags can be varied to change debugging characteristics. For |
| instance, turning off all optimization via the <code>-g -O0 |
| -fno-inline</code> flags will disable inlining and optimizations, |
| and add debugging information, so that stepping through all functions, |
| (including inlined constructors and destructors) is possible. In |
| addition, <code>-fno-eliminate-unused-debug-types</code> can be |
| used when additional debug information, such as nested class info, |
| is desired. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Or, the debug format that the compiler and debugger use to |
| communicate information about source constructs can be changed via |
| <code>-gdwarf-2</code> or <code>-gstabs</code> flags: some debugging |
| formats permit more expressive type and scope information to be |
| shown in GDB. Expressiveness can be enhanced by flags like |
| <code>-g3</code>. The default debug information for a particular |
| platform can be identified via the value set by the |
| PREFERRED_DEBUGGING_TYPE macro in the GCC sources. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Many other options are available: please see <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Debugging-Options.html#Debugging%20Options">"Options |
| for Debugging Your Program"</link> in Using the GNU Compiler |
| Collection (GCC) for a complete list. |
| </para> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.req"><info><title>Debug Versions of Library Binary Files</title></info> |
| |
| |
| <para> |
| If you would like debug symbols in libstdc++, there are two ways to |
| build libstdc++ with debug flags. The first is to create a separate |
| debug build by running make from the top-level of a tree |
| freshly-configured with |
| </para> |
| <programlisting> |
| --enable-libstdcxx-debug |
| </programlisting> |
| <para>and perhaps</para> |
| <programlisting> |
| --enable-libstdcxx-debug-flags='...' |
| </programlisting> |
| <para> |
| Both the normal build and the debug build will persist, without |
| having to specify <code>CXXFLAGS</code>, and the debug library will |
| be installed in a separate directory tree, in <code>(prefix)/lib/debug</code>. |
| For more information, look at the |
| <link linkend="manual.intro.setup.configure">configuration</link> section. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| A second approach is to use the configuration flags |
| </para> |
| <programlisting> |
| make CXXFLAGS='-g3 -fno-inline -O0' all |
| </programlisting> |
| |
| <para> |
| This quick and dirty approach is often sufficient for quick |
| debugging tasks, when you cannot or don't want to recompile your |
| application to use the <link linkend="manual.ext.debug_mode">debug mode</link>.</para> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.memory"><info><title>Memory Leak Hunting</title></info> |
| |
| |
| <para> |
| There are various third party memory tracing and debug utilities |
| that can be used to provide detailed memory allocation information |
| about C++ code. An exhaustive list of tools is not going to be |
| attempted, but includes <code>mtrace</code>, <code>valgrind</code>, |
| <code>mudflap</code>, and the non-free commercial product |
| <code>purify</code>. In addition, <code>libcwd</code> has a |
| replacement for the global new and delete operators that can track |
| memory allocation and deallocation and provide useful memory |
| statistics. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Regardless of the memory debugging tool being used, there is one |
| thing of great importance to keep in mind when debugging C++ code |
| that uses <code>new</code> and <code>delete</code>: there are |
| different kinds of allocation schemes that can be used by <code> |
| std::allocator</code>. For implementation details, see the <link linkend="manual.ext.allocator.mt">mt allocator</link> documentation and |
| look specifically for <code>GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW</code>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| In a nutshell, the optional <classname>mt_allocator</classname> |
| is a high-performance pool allocator, and can |
| give the mistaken impression that in a suspect executable, memory is |
| being leaked, when in reality the memory "leak" is a pool being used |
| by the library's allocator and is reclaimed after program |
| termination. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| For valgrind, there are some specific items to keep in mind. First |
| of all, use a version of valgrind that will work with current GNU |
| C++ tools: the first that can do this is valgrind 1.0.4, but later |
| versions should work at least as well. Second of all, use a |
| completely unoptimized build to avoid confusing valgrind. Third, use |
| GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW to keep extraneous pool allocation noise from |
| cluttering debug information. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Fourth, it may be necessary to force deallocation in other libraries |
| as well, namely the "C" library. On linux, this can be accomplished |
| with the appropriate use of the <code>__cxa_atexit</code> or |
| <code>atexit</code> functions. |
| </para> |
| |
| <programlisting> |
| #include <cstdlib> |
| |
| extern "C" void __libc_freeres(void); |
| |
| void do_something() { } |
| |
| int main() |
| { |
| atexit(__libc_freeres); |
| do_something(); |
| return 0; |
| } |
| </programlisting> |
| |
| |
| <para>or, using <code>__cxa_atexit</code>:</para> |
| |
| <programlisting> |
| extern "C" void __libc_freeres(void); |
| extern "C" int __cxa_atexit(void (*func) (void *), void *arg, void *d); |
| |
| void do_something() { } |
| |
| int main() |
| { |
| extern void* __dso_handle __attribute__ ((__weak__)); |
| __cxa_atexit((void (*) (void *)) __libc_freeres, NULL, |
| &__dso_handle ? __dso_handle : NULL); |
| do_test(); |
| return 0; |
| } |
| </programlisting> |
| |
| <para> |
| Suggested valgrind flags, given the suggestions above about setting |
| up the runtime environment, library, and test file, might be: |
| </para> |
| <programlisting> |
| valgrind -v --num-callers=20 --leak-check=yes --leak-resolution=high --show-reachable=yes a.out |
| </programlisting> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.races"><info><title>Data Race Hunting</title></info> |
| <para> |
| All synchronization primitives used in the library internals need to be |
| understood by race detectors so that they do not produce false reports. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Two annotation macros are used to explain low-level synchronization |
| to race detectors: |
| <code>_GLIBCXX_SYNCHRONIZATION_HAPPENS_BEFORE()</code> and |
| <code> _GLIBCXX_SYNCHRONIZATION_HAPPENS_AFTER()</code>. |
| By default, these macros are defined empty -- anyone who wants |
| to use a race detector needs to redefine them to call an |
| appropriate API. |
| Since these macros are empty by default when the library is built, |
| redefining them will only affect inline functions and template |
| instantiations which are compiled in user code. This allows annotation |
| of templates such as <code>shared_ptr</code>, but not code which is |
| only instantiated in the library. Code which is only instantiated in |
| the library needs to be recompiled with the annotation macros defined. |
| That can be done by rebuilding the entire |
| <filename class="libraryfile">libstdc++.so</filename> file but a simpler |
| alternative exists for ELF platforms such as GNU/Linux, because ELF |
| symbol interposition allows symbols defined in the shared library to be |
| overridden by symbols with the same name that appear earlier in the |
| runtime search path. This means you only need to recompile the functions |
| that are affected by the annotation macros, which can be done by |
| recompiling individual files. |
| Annotating <code>std::string</code> and <code>std::wstring</code> |
| reference counting can be done by disabling extern templates (by defining |
| <code>_GLIBCXX_EXTERN_TEMPLATE=-1</code>) or by rebuilding the |
| <filename>src/string-inst.cc</filename> file. |
| Annotating the remaining atomic operations (at the time of writing these |
| are in <code>ios_base::Init::~Init</code>, <code>locale::_Impl</code>, |
| <code>locale::facet</code> and <code>thread::_M_start_thread</code>) |
| requires rebuilding the relevant source files. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| The approach described above is known to work with the following race |
| detection tools: |
| <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" |
| xlink:href="http://valgrind.org/docs/manual/drd-manual.html"> |
| DRD</link>, |
| <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" |
| xlink:href="http://valgrind.org/docs/manual/hg-manual.html"> |
| Helgrind</link>, and |
| <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" |
| xlink:href="http://code.google.com/p/data-race-test/"> |
| ThreadSanitizer</link>. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| With DRD, Helgrind and ThreadSanitizer you will need to define |
| the macros like this: |
| <programlisting> |
| #define _GLIBCXX_SYNCHRONIZATION_HAPPENS_BEFORE(A) ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_BEFORE(A) |
| #define _GLIBCXX_SYNCHRONIZATION_HAPPENS_AFTER(A) ANNOTATE_HAPPENS_AFTER(A) |
| </programlisting> |
| Refer to the documentation of each particular tool for details. |
| </para> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.gdb"><info><title>Using <command>gdb</command></title></info> |
| |
| <para> |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Many options are available for GDB itself: please see <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/"> |
| "GDB features for C++" </link> in the GDB documentation. Also |
| recommended: the other parts of this manual. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| These settings can either be switched on in at the GDB command line, |
| or put into a <filename>.gdbinit</filename> file to establish default |
| debugging characteristics, like so: |
| </para> |
| |
| <programlisting> |
| set print pretty on |
| set print object on |
| set print static-members on |
| set print vtbl on |
| set print demangle on |
| set demangle-style gnu-v3 |
| </programlisting> |
| |
| <para> |
| Starting with version 7.0, GDB includes support for writing |
| pretty-printers in Python. Pretty printers for containers and other |
| classes are distributed with GCC from version 4.5.0 and should be installed |
| alongside the libstdc++ shared library files and found automatically by |
| GDB. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Depending where libstdc++ is installed, GDB might refuse to auto-load |
| the python printers and print a warning instead. |
| If this happens the python printers can be enabled by following the |
| instructions GDB gives for setting your <code>auto-load safe-path</code> |
| in your <filename>.gdbinit</filename> configuration file. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| Once loaded, standard library classes that the printers support |
| should print in a more human-readable format. To print the classes |
| in the old style, use the <userinput>/r</userinput> (raw) switch in the |
| print command (i.e., <userinput>print /r foo</userinput>). This will |
| print the classes as if the Python pretty-printers were not loaded. |
| </para> |
| |
| <para> |
| For additional information on STL support and GDB please visit: |
| <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/STLSupport"> "GDB Support |
| for STL" </link> in the GDB wiki. Additionally, in-depth |
| documentation and discussion of the pretty printing feature can be |
| found in "Pretty Printing" node in the GDB manual. You can find |
| on-line versions of the GDB user manual in GDB's homepage, at |
| <link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://sourceware.org/gdb/"> "GDB: The GNU Project |
| Debugger" </link>. |
| </para> |
| |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.exceptions"><info><title>Tracking uncaught exceptions</title></info> |
| |
| <para> |
| The <link linkend="support.termination.verbose">verbose |
| termination handler</link> gives information about uncaught |
| exceptions which kill the program. |
| </para> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.debug_mode"><info><title>Debug Mode</title></info> |
| |
| <para> The <link linkend="manual.ext.debug_mode">Debug Mode</link> |
| has compile and run-time checks for many containers. |
| </para> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.compile_time_checks"><info><title>Compile Time Checking</title></info> |
| |
| <para> The <link linkend="manual.ext.compile_checks">Compile-Time |
| Checks</link> extension has compile-time checks for many algorithms. |
| </para> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section xml:id="debug.profile_mode" xreflabel="debug.profile_mode"><info><title>Profile-based Performance Analysis</title></info> |
| |
| <para> The <link linkend="manual.ext.profile_mode">Profile-based |
| Performance Analysis</link> extension has performance checks for many |
| algorithms. |
| </para> |
| </section> |
| |
| </section> |