2 Debugging_Tools

kev10191 edited this page 2013-06-04 06:07:00 +00:00

Table of Contents

• Overview
• Usage
• Rationale

[IN SYNC WITH DEBUG.H]KEEP

Overview

This module provides platform-independent debug facilities, useful for diagnosing and reporting program errors.

• a symbol engine provides access to compiler-generated debug information and can also give a stack trace including local variables;
• the breakpoint API enables stopping when a given address is executed, read or written to (as specified);
• a hook into the system's memory allocator can optionally check for and report heap corruption;
• our more powerful assert() replacement gives a stack trace so that the underlying problem becomes apparent;
• the output routines make for platform-independent logging and crashlogs with "last-known activity" reporting.

Usage

Please see the detailed comments below on how to use the individual features; much of this is only helpful if you explicitly ask for it!

Rationale

Much of this functionality already exists within the VC7 IDE/debugger. motivation for this code is as follows:

• we want a consistent interface for all platforms;
• limitations(+) in the VC variants should be fixed;
• make debugging as easy as possible.

• mostly pertaining to Release mode - e.g. symbols cannot be resolved even if debug information is present and assert dialogs are useless.