DDD: Best Visual Debugger

Debugging is the most important activity in the software and program development. In order to remove or identify the logical errors in the program; debugging is done. Linux uses the utility of ‘gdb’ (GNU Debugger) to debug the programs. It has a strong instruction set but lacking in visual GUI debugging utility. 

DDD or Data Display Debugger is a visual debugger made available under GNU public license uses the gdb activities with GUI at foreground! Not only gdb but ddd has in-built command-line debuggers such as DBX, JDB, HP Wildebeest Debugger (WDB), XDB, the Perl debugger, the Bash debugger, the Python debugger, and the GNU Make debugger etc. So, by this visual debugger you can debug programs of C, C++, Java, Shell, Perl, Python etc.

Here I am giving a small tutorial to show how to use ddd to debug the C programs. The advanced tutorials will be given afterwards.

Let’s start… As I told ddd is available under GPL, so you can download the debugger using following command directly by debian version Linux.

sudo apt-get install ddd

or you may go to ‘Ubuntu Software Centre’ and search for ‘ddd’ as shown in the picture 1 below. You may get information about it and install from there.

[Note: If images are not visible, click on it to view large]

Picture 1: DDD entry in Ubuntu Software Centre

For example, you have written a C program code named ‘basic.c’. Compile it using gcc in the following fashion:

gcc –g –o basic basic.c

here, -o suggests the name of the output file that you will create after compilation of ‘basic.c’ and –g suggests that you are giving ability to debug this program. If the –g is missing your program can’t be debugged by gdb or ddd. After compilation you will get an executable file named ‘basic’ (without extension). Note: you may give any name to your executable file at the time of compilation after option –o.

Your program will be compiled successfully as shown in the picture 2 below.

Picture 2: Compilation of program for debugging

Now, open your ‘ddd’ by simply typing ‘ddd’ on the terminal.

Open your program ‘basic.’c by using ‘File’ menu -> open program option. Your program will be opened as shown in the picture 3 below.

Picture 3: The ddd windows

Your program will be visible in ‘Program Window’. Below of it, you may find ‘Assembly Code Window’, where the assembly equivalent code is shown. And below of this window, your gdb command line debugger is shown. You may instruct program directly by using gdb also! 

In order to set a breakpoint inside the program move your mouse on to respective line and press right click. You may get options as shown in the picture 4 below.

Picture 4 : Setting a breakpoint

The any number of breakpoints can be set in a single program. It is used for executing the program till that point. From that line onwards, you may execute program step-by-step. The breakpoints in the function can be set by typing the command ‘b main’ in the ‘gdb window’ also! Or ‘b 12’ can also be written. Here 12 is the line number in the program.

Now, go to ‘Program’ menu and click on the ‘Run’. Your program will get executed till the first breakpoint set. See the picture 5 below:

Picture 5: Watch variable values by F6

The green arrow shows the line which is in execution currently. Red dot shows the breakpoint. Now, from here onwards you may execute step-by-step just by pressing function key ‘F6’. The program execution will be processed step-by-step as you go on pressing ‘F6’. You may find arrow is traversing with the lines of execution. When you move the mouse on any variable used in the program, you may get the value of the variable on current execution. In the picture 5, you may see the values inside array ‘a’ is shown by the ‘ddd’ at mouse position. By this way you can check the contents of the variable at any point in the program.

You may check the content by typing the command in the ‘gdb window’ as shown in the picture 6 below. It has shown the contents of a[i] by typing ‘print a[i]’ in the gdb window.

Picture 6: Use gdb window.

The features of ‘ddd’ are not limited with this. It has a rich set of applications. Just find the options given in the ‘ddd’s menu. You will learn a lot!