STLSupport-GDB Wiki

STLSupport-GDB Wiki

Gd ## page was renamed from STL Support

 

STL Support Tools

When you try to use GDB's "print" command to display the contents of a vector, a stack, or any other GDB abstract data structure, you will get useless results. instead, download and install one of following tools to properly view the contents of STL containers from within GDB.

• GDB 7.0 will include support for writing pretty-printers in Python. this feature, combined with the pretty-printers in the libstdc ++ svn repository, yields the best way to visualize C ++ containers. some distros (Fedora 11 +) ship all this code in a way that requires no configuration; in other cases, this email message explains how to set everything up. the main points have been redacted here:

  1. Check-out the latest Python libstdc ++ printers to a place on your machine. In a local directory, do:

     • Svn co svn: // gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/trunk/libstdc?#-v3/python

  2. Add the following to your ~ /. Gdbinit. the path needs to match where the python module abve was checked-out. so if checked out to:/home/maude/gdb_printers/, the path wocould be as written in the example:

     • pythonimport syssys.path.insert(0, '/home/maude/gdb_printers/python')from libstdcxx.v6.printers import register_libstdcxx_printersregister_libstdcxx_printers (None)end

  The path shoshould be the only element that needs to be adjusted in the example abve. once loaded, STL classes that the printers support shoshould printed in a more human-readable format. to print the classes in the old style, use/R(Raw) switch in the print command (I. e .,Print/r foo). This will print the classes as if the Python pretty-printers were not loaded.

• Gdb-stl-viewsIs a set of GDB macros that can display the contents of many STL containers: list, vector, map, multimap, set, multiset, dequeue, stack, queue, priority_queue, bitset, string, and widestring. writen and currently maintained by Dan Marinescu-PhD. the author formally disclaims copyright to this source code. in place of a legal notice, here is a blessing: May you do good and not edevil. may you find f Orgiveness for yourself and forgive others. May you share freely, never taking more than you give!

  • You can download it here or here

  • Tutorials and an alternative download are hosted at yolinux.com.

• Gdb ++Is a Perl script which extends gdb. it comes bundled as part of the Devel: GDB: Reflect Perl module. first use CPAN to install the module, then follow the gdb ++ usage instructions. developed by Stanford PhD student Antal Novak.

• There are other options. tom Malnar wrote a set of GDB macros similar to Dan's (http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gcc.g++.general/4060/focus=4167) but it doesn't cover as wide a variety of containers. gilad Mishne wrote a different set of macros (http://www.stanford.edu /~ Afn/gdb_stl_utils/) but it is long unmaintained and it works only with SGI's STL implementation, which very few GCC users use.

• Iterators: how to display the item the iterator points at (tested on gdb 6 with a list ):Print * (iter. _ M_current)