Debugging Tools

Debugging Tools

In this tutorial, you will learn about some popular Debugging tools. A debugging tool is a computer program used to debug and test other programs.

What are Debugging Tools?

Debugging tools are software utilities that help developers identify, analyze, and fix bugs or errors in their code. These tools provide visibility into program execution, allowing developers to inspect variables, control flow, memory usage, and runtime behavior to ensure the software functions as intended.

Features of Debugging Tools

• Breakpoints: Pause code execution at specific lines to inspect state.
• Step Execution: Step through code one line or function at a time.
• Watch Variables: Monitor the values of selected variables during execution.
• Call Stack Inspection: See the sequence of function calls that led to a point.
• Memory Dump: Inspect memory usage and detect leaks.
• Logging and Output: Output logs for understanding execution flow and error messages.
• Exception Handling: Catch and analyze runtime errors.

Some widely used in the debugging process are as follows:

• WinDbg
• Valgrind
• Radare2

Windows Debugger

A Windows debugger used for analyzing crash dumps, drivers, and low-level system behavior. WinDbg is a debugger tool Microsoft provides for debugging Windows applications( .exe files ) and device drivers. It supports both user mode and kernel mode debugging. User mode debugging is used for debugging regular applications, while kernel mode debugging is used for debugging low-level systems and drivers.
WinDbg analyzes crash dumps (memory dump files) generated when a system or application crashes. This is particularly useful for identifying the root cause of system crashes.

Valgrind

Valgrind is an open-source Linux tool designed for memory debugging, memory leak detection, and profiling. It provides a framework for instrumenting programs to detect a variety of memory-related errors automatically:

Memory leak detection: Valgrind can identify memory leaks by tracking memory allocations and deallocations. It helps developers find areas where memory is allocated but not correctly freed in their code.
Memory corruption: Detecting accesses to uninitialized or freed memory.
Memory Error Detection: Valgrind can detect a range of memory-related errors, such as reading from or writing to uninitialized memory, accessing freed memory, and other undefined memory operations.
Profiling: Valgrind can profile a program’s memory usage and execution time, providing insights into performance bottlenecks and resource consumption.

C, C ++ programs

Many IDEs have built-in debugging tools specific to the programming languages they support. Popular IDEs are Eclipse, IntelliJ, Code::Blocks, etc.

gdb: GNU Debugger is a command-line debugger for C, C++, and other languages. It allows developers to debug the program set breakpoints, step through code, and inspect program variables.

 

More information on Valgrind:

• https://valgrind.org/

 

Browser debugging Tools

• Chrome DevTools

  • Built into the Chrome browser; helps debug HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and inspect network activity.

• Firefox Developer Tools

  • Similar to Chrome DevTools; used for web development and debugging in Firefox.

Programming Languages

• JDB (Java Debugger)

  • A command-line tool to debug Java programs using the Java Platform Debugger Architecture.

• PyCharm Debugger

  • Integrated with the PyCharm IDE, used for step-by-step debugging of Python code.

• PDB( Python Debugger )

  • A built-in Python module for command-line debugging of Python scripts.

• ADB (Android Debug Bridge)

  • A command-line tool for communicating with Android devices; supports debugging apps and system logs.