GDB Plugin

Martin Gergov

T.C. Hollingsworth <tchollingsworth@gmail.com>

Introduction

Kate's GDB plugin provides a simple frontend to the popular GNU Project Debugger.

Important

Previous experience with GDB is strongly recommended. For more information on using GDB, visit the GDB website

You can enable the GDB plugin in the Plugins section of Kate's configuration.

For the plugin to work properly, you must have a source file (of any type supported by GDB) and an executable.

Tip

If you compile using gcc/g++ you might want to use the -ggdb command line argument.

After these preparations are made, open the source file in Kate, enter the path to the executable in Settings tab of the Debug View tool view, and select Debug → Start Debugging from the menu to get started.

Menu and Toolbar Structure

All of these options are available in Kate's menus, and many are available on the Debug toolbar as well.

View → Tool View → Show Debug View: Shows a tool view containing GDB output, the GDB command line used, and other settings.
View → Tool View → Show Locals: Shows a list of all currently loaded variables and their values.
View → Tool View → Show Call Stack: Shows a GDB backtrace.
Debug → Targets: A submenu containing a list of targets (executables).
Debug → Arg Lists: A submenu containing all argument lists.
Debug → Start Debugging: Starts GDB with a target.
Debug → Kill / Stop Debugging: Stops GDB.
Debug → Restart Debugging: Restarts GDB.
Debug → Toggle Breakpoint / Break: Set a breakpoint at the current cursor position.
Debug → Step In: Execute the present statement (function call will be debugged).
Debug → Step Over: Execute the present statement (function call will not be debugged).
Debug → Step Out: Resumes execution until the program that is executing terminates.
Debug → Move PC: Move program counter (next execution).
Debug → Run To Cursor: Runs the program until it reaches current cursor position.
Debug → Continue: Ignores any breakpoints and executes program until it terminates (successfully or not).
Debug → Print Value: Prints the value of the variable that the cursor is currently pointing to.
Settings → Toolbars Shown → GDB Plugin: Display the debugging toolbar.

Debug View

The Debug View tool view consists of several tabs:

GDB Output

Contains output from GDB and a GDB command line.

The Output tab displaying the output from a debugging session.

Settings

Target: Path to the target (executable) for debugging.
Working Directory: The current working directory provided to the target.
Arg List: Arguments passed to the program.
Keep focus: Keeps focus on the GDB command line.
Redirect IO: Opens a new IO tab in the Debug View where you can view output and provide input to the running program.

The Settings tab displaying the configuration of a debugging session.

IO

Contains an area that displays output from the running program and a command line where you may provide input to it.

The IO tab displaying output from a simple test program.

Call Stack and Locals

The Call Stack tool view contains list of formated backtrace returned from GDB.

The GDB Plugin's Call Stack tool view.

The Locals tool view contains a list of all currently loaded variables from the program and their corresponding values.

The GDB Plugin's Locals tool view.

Thanks and Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Google Code-In 2011 participant Martin Gergov for writing much of this section.

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