gdb and debugging plugins 2003-11-28 - By Andrew Cammarano
Back
Thanks Deane,
That's exactly what I was looking for. BTW have you ever done any of
this directly from emacs? DDD's probably more intuitive but I'm on a
mouse avoidance binge since the little devil's seem to be the main
source of my carp[aoi]l tunnel problems.
thanks again for the great tutorial.
-andrew
On Thu, 2003-11-27 at 15:37, deane@(protected) wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 24, 2003 at 11:55:58AM +0100, Andrew Cammarano wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone know of a good tutorial on using gdb to debug .so's. Better
> > yet, does anyone want to outline the specific steps I need to take to step
> > through my plugin code using gdb? Not sure what commands to call or if I
> > need to attach to the Maya process..etc.
>
> Sure, I do it all the time.
>
> First off, when you compile your plugin, remember to get rid of the '-O'
> switch, unless it says '-O0' and add '-g' and '-gstabs+'. That latter is
> very important as otherwise gdb will have a lot of trouble finding
> non-static methods within classes.
>
> Next, download and install 'ddd' so that you can debug without going crazy.
> ddd provides a graphical front-end to gdb which provides a scrollable
> display of source code on which you can click to set breakpoints, etc.
> Very useful.
>
> When you're ready to run maya, use the following command:
>
> maya -d ddd
>
> After the ddd window comes up, start Maya by using Program -> Run Again.
> (If you need to give Maya some command line args, then use Program -> Run,
> which will pop up a window where you can fill in the args.)
>
> Once Maya is up, load your plugin: ddd/gdb won't know about your sources
> until you do.
>
> Now you can set breakpoints in your source code using Source ->
> Breakpoints. The window which comes up will have a little stop-sign icon
> near the top. Click on that to get an input field.
>
> If you want to set a breakpoint at the start of a particular method, then
> enter:
>
> myClass::myMethod
>
> If you want to set a breakpoint at line 123 of source file 'myFile.cpp',
> then enter:
>
> myFile.cpp:123
>
> Alternatively, you can use File -> Open Source to display a specific source
> file, then scroll to where you want the breakpoint, right-click in the
> margin to the left of the line and select 'Set Breakpoint'.
>
> Now do whatever you need to do in Maya to hit the breakpoint. When you do,
> execution will halt and ddd will pop up a palette of buttons to let you do
> things like single-step, step into functions, step over functions, continue
> normal execution, and so on.
>
> While execution is halted, ddd will also display the page of code in which
> it halted, with the exact line indicated with an arrow. You can see the
> value of a variable by either hovering the cursor over its name in the
> displayed source, or else highlighting its name and clicking the 'Print'
> button. The same thing works for more complex expressions: highlight the
> expression and click 'Print'. Note, however, that because the Maya API
> hides most of its internal data behind opaque types, you will rarely be
> able to see anything useful within a Maya API variable. For example, you
> won't be able to see the contents of an MString.
>
>
> You can see the callback stack by using Status -> Backtrace, which is
> especially useful for investigating crashes. The backtrace displayed is
> for the current thread. Usually that's the one you want, but for some
> particularly tricky bugs (e.g. when Mental Ray is involved) you may need to
> see the call stack for a different thread. You can do that by using Status
> -> Threads to select a different thread, then using the Backtrace function
> again to see the new thread's stack.
>
>
> That covers about 95% of what I do in ddd/gdb. For the rest, cruise
> through the menus. Also note that every menu item in ddd displays the
> corresponding gdb command in the command-line portion of the ddd window, so
> you can use that to learn about gdb commands, if you want.
>
> ===========================================================================
> - deane Gooroos Software: Plugging you into Maya
>
> Visit http://www.gooroos.com for more information
>
> -- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---
> List-help: <mailto:listar@(protected)?Subject=help>
> List-archive: <http://www.highend3d.com/maya/devarchive/>
>
-- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ---
List-help: <mailto:listar@(protected)?Subject=help>
List-archive: <http://www.highend3d.com/maya/devarchive/>
|
|
