How to debug a C program

Question

I am using Linux , GCC and C .

I have a make file.

I want to debug my module. I don't want to debug a single file, I want to debug the whole module.

How can I do it?

Answer 1

Compile your code with the -g flag, and then use the gdb debugger. Documentation for gdb is here , but in essence:

gcc -g -o prog myfile.c another.c

and then:

gdb prog

If you want a user-friendly GUI for gdb, take a look at DDD or Insight .

Answer 2

I guess that you are building from the command line.

You might want to consider an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), such as KDevelop or Eclipse, etc (hint - Eclipse ... ECLPISE ... ECLI PS E).

Use an IDE to edit your code, refactor your code, examine your code - class tree, click a variable, class or function to jump to declaration, etc, etc

And - of course - to debug:

• run your code in the IDE
• set breakpoints to stop at particular lines
• or just step through, a line at a time
• examine the call stack to see how you go there
• examine the current values of variables, to understand your problem
• change the values of those variables and run to see what happens
• and more, more, more

ps as wasatz mentioned- DDD is great - for visualizing the contents of arrays/matrices, and - imo - especially if you have linked lists

Answer 3

You can use gdb-based simple and useful GUI "Nemiver". It can debug your whole module comprising many source files.