The expression can use any operators valid in the program’s native language (see Languages). For example, *(int *)0x12345678 will watch a 4-byte region at the specified address (assuming an int occupies 4 bytes).Īn arbitrarily complex expression, such as a*b + c/d. Examples include:Ī reference to the value of a single variable.Īn address cast to an appropriate data type. The expression may be as simple as the value of a single variable, or as complex as many variables combined by operators. Watchpoints are extremely helpful when debugging concurrency issues, like when trying to understand what thread or process is changing a shared resource.
#Clion debugger code#
Like breakpoints, a watchpoint stops execution, but does so whenever the value of an expression changes, without having to predict a particular line of code where this may happen.
#Clion debugger how to#
To learn more, check out this video tutorial, in which I explain conditional and various other breakpoint types, and how to use each of them in your debugging.ĬLion Debugger tips from Anastasia: In CLion you can easily specify a condition that is checked each time a breakpoint is hit. The condition can include a function call, the value of a variable, or the result of any GDB expression. You can write pretty much any condition you want in the programming language of the program you’re debugging, which makes conditional breakpoints very powerful and efficient. For example, if variable “i” normally equals zero, maybe I want to break if “i” is not zero: Instead of pausing every time the breakpoint is reached (which can be tedious if the breakpoint is defined within a loop), I can define a condition for a breakpoint that stops the execution if met. To help debug more efficiently, I’m fond of using conditional breakpoints. Once your program hits a breakpoint, it waits for instructions from you to inspect or manipulate the application state, resume execution, etc. #2 Conditional breakpointsĪ breakpoint lets you stop the execution of the program at a specific line or function in your code. It also helps with other tools, including Valgrind and Sanitizers integration, as well as various options for static code analysis. In this ACCU talk, Dewang Li of Coverity and I go through these categories of tools and explain how they work under the hood.ĬLion Debugger tips from Anastasia: CLion doesn’t only let you debug your code with GDB or LLDB backends. Step backward and forward through execution time to see how your program arrived where it did.Īnalyze or instrument your code to check for buffer overflows and other defects.Īnalyze your code to determine whether there’s a risk of specific defects occurring.Ĭlang Analyzer and Clang-Tidy, Coverity, Cppcheck, IDE built-in linters Pause execution and explore “What’s my program doing?”
#Clion debugger free#
I’ve included commercial and free open-source options for you to explore: Category Here are 4 categories of debugging tools that I recommend every programmer should know how and when to use. #7 Command find to search for a byte sequenceĪll else being equal, a better-equipped developer will avoid and resolve defects faster than one who is less well equipped.#4 User-defined debugging commands in Python.Hopefully, my favorite C++ debugging tips will help you be as clever and productive debugging your code as you are writing it in the first place. For me, this doesn’t just mean “keep it simple.” It also means debugging is central to programming – you cannot be a great programmer without being great at debugging. So if you’re as clever as you can be when you write it, how will you ever debug it?”.
#Clion debugger software#
Greg has over 20 years of experience in both academia and innovative startup software companies.īrian Kernighan famously said, “Everyone knows that debugging is twice as hard as writing a program in the first place. Greg finds it particularly rewarding to turn innovative software technology into real business development. He is a programmer at heart, but likes to keep one foot in the software world and one in the business world. Greg ( is the co-founder and CEO at Undo. In this guest blog post, Greg will share a few top tips for debugging C++ code.