Author Topic: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging  (Read 23531 times)

Offline Denis

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Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« on: August 01, 2007, 05:36:07 pm »
I can't see values of unicode strings while debugging. I just see "" for wxString or something like 97 for const wchar_t* variables at watch frame or at popup hint with value. Values for variables like "const char*" or std::string (not unicode) are show correctly. How do you find out values of unicode string variables?

PS: MinGW GCC 3.4.2 + GNU gdb 6.6
PSS: Sorry for my English :-)

Offline Hitnrun

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2007, 06:49:19 pm »
Don't know if this can pose any trouble, but the only way I could see a wxString on the watch window, is to add the wxString variable to the watch window, right-click edit, "Edit watch", keep the type "undefined", enable the "watch as array", and set some array count (say, 20).
If the array count is bigger than the string, some garbage characters appear, don't know if this can result in a SEGV in the future.

Offline eranif

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2007, 09:22:31 pm »
Hi,

I am not using C::B for debugging, but for watching wxString in unicode build, I simply type in the gdb command line:
'p str.ToAscii()' and voila!

I believe you can do this in C::B as well.

Eran

Offline Hitnrun

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2007, 04:51:09 pm »
Hi,

I am not using C::B for debugging, but for watching wxString in unicode build, I simply type in the gdb command line:
'p str.ToAscii()' and voila!

I believe you can do this in C::B as well.

Eran

I don't know why, but when I try to watch

str.ToAscii()

I get an error message

gdb: Kernel event for pid=XXXX tid=YYYY code=EXCEPTION_DEBUG_EVENT

does someone knows why?

Offline Denis

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2007, 04:41:26 pm »
This is very inconvenient ways to find out value of wxString or wchat_t* variables :( I wanna see it fast and without any problems.

Offline Biplab

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2007, 07:53:30 pm »
I hope you mean the following.



It works fine with me though I do get that "Kernel event for..." message. :)
Be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem.

Offline eranif

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2007, 09:45:40 pm »
Quote
I don't know why, but when I try to watch

str.ToAscii()

I get an error message

gdb: Kernel event for pid=XXXX tid=YYYY code=EXCEPTION_DEBUG_EVENT

does someone knows why?

this is not an error message, these are messages that the debugger displays when setting the debugevent to on.
I guess that the debugger plugin uses this event to capture some information about the debugee process (debugee process ID maybe?)

Anyway, passing the following to the debugger, will make him shutup:
Code
set debugevent off

Eran

Offline Denis

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #7 on: September 29, 2007, 02:01:23 pm »
However, is there fast solution to see value of unicode string?

marlo_nl

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #8 on: November 04, 2007, 12:33:05 pm »
I've encountered the same issue during (gdb) debugging of a wxSmith Dialog Based application within my CodeBlocks environment:
The debugger does not show contents of wxString variables.

Just to make sure that this was not related to an “old” version of CodeBlocks (snv 4237) I’ve updated my CodeBlocks environment to a more recent nightly build (snv 4564),  however the issue remains.

I've been searching the internet for half a day, but I did find a clear answer to the question if the gdb debugger within CodeBlocks is able to show wxString contents or not.

From reading threads I learned that the CodeBlocks script file "gdb_types.script" should make the (gdb) debugger aware of wxString variables.
When starting a debug session I can see that wxString is registered as new type by looking to the “Debugger Messages” window:

  Starting debugger: done
  Registered new type: wxString
  Registered new type: STL String
  Registered new type: STL Vector
  Setting breakpoints
  Debugger name and version: GNU gdb 6.3

However, if I move the mouse cursor over a wxString variable (evaluate expression under cursor), the debugger messages window tells “Cannot evaluate function -- may be inlined” and the popup window will show:
  Symbol :  <varname> (wxString)
  Address:  0x…….
  “”
If I add a wxString variable to the “Watch” Window the debugger messages window also tells “Cannot evaluate function -- may be inlined” and the Watch Window will show:
  <varname> = “”


To repeat I question I’ve seen appear in a number of threads on the internet:

- Is it possible to see the contents of wxString variables in gdb debug sessions within CodeBlocks?


If the answer is to this question is yes, are there specific boundary conditions that need to be met? For example:
- is the wxWidgets library used relevant (I’m currently using a static debug library: libwxmsw28ud.a)?
- is the project type relevant (I’m currently using a wxSmith Dialog Based project)?


Regards, Marlo

Offline mandrav

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #9 on: November 04, 2007, 02:44:52 pm »
- is the wxWidgets library used relevant (I’m currently using a static debug library: libwxmsw28ud.a)?

Yes. The linker strips code you never use from static libraries. In this case, wxString::c_str() is needed which you obviously don't use directly in your code (and so is being stripped off the resulting binary).
Evaluating wxStrings works fine with dll-based wx configurations because the aforementioned stripping does not take place.
Be patient!
This bug will be fixed soon...

Offline Ramazan Kartal

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2007, 05:17:27 pm »
Hi,

I think I found a solution. Could you please try the following:

1. Open the gdb_types.script file in "C:\Program Files\CodeBlocks\share\CodeBlocks\scripts". Your installation dir may be different so change the above path if necessary.

2. Find the function "Evaluate_wxString".

3. Now find the line containing:
    local result = _T("output /c ") + a_str + oper + _T("c_str()[") + start + _T("]@");

And change it to:
    local result = _T("output /c ") + a_str + oper + _T("m_pchData[") + start + _T("]@");

Note we are only changing "c_str()" to "m_pchData".

4. Now save this file, start debugging.

This worked for me, I hope it will work for you.

Regards,
Ramazan Kartal

« Last Edit: November 04, 2007, 05:19:03 pm by Ramazan Kartal »

marlo_nl

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #11 on: November 05, 2007, 08:43:00 am »
Mandrav,

Thanks very much for your useful feedback.
I did not see a remark about the dependency on wxWidgets libraries in earlier threads.

- is the wxWidgets library used relevant (I’m currently using a static debug library: libwxmsw28ud.a)?

Yes. The linker strips code you never use from static libraries. In this case, wxString::c_str() is needed which you obviously don't use directly in your code (and so is being stripped off the resulting binary).
Evaluating wxStrings works fine with dll-based wx configurations because the aforementioned stripping does not take place.

Considering your remark above, can I translate this into a "general guideline" for wxWidgets debugging (gdb) within the CodeBlocks environment?

  "For debugging it is strongly advised to use a Shared Debug version of wxWidgets library"


I can't recall having seen such a "guideline" in earlier readings.
In case the "guideline" above is valid then it might be useful (for other users) to document this guideline somewhere, for instance in:

http://wiki.codeblocks.org/index.php?title=Debugging_with_Code::Blocks 


Ramazan Kartal,

I tried your suggestion and modified the "gdb_types.script" file.

I can confirm that changing the script-file has an influence on the behavior of wxString debugging within the CodeBlocks environment (with static wxWidgets debug library).

- It does not change the behavior of the "evaluate expression under cursor" CodeBlocks feature.

- It does change the behavior of a wxString variable added to the "Watch" window. If I select "Edit Watch" in the "right-click" pop-up menu of the Watch window and if I set the "Count" property to a non-zero value (even without the "watch as array" checkbox checked) I can recognize (part of) the actual string value during debugging.


Regards, Marlo

Offline Ramazan Kartal

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2007, 03:52:09 pm »
Dear Marlo,

Could you please do the following:

1. Open the same gdb_types.script and find the same "Evaluate_wxString" function.

2. Locate and change the following line from this:
        result = result + a_str + oper + _T("size()");

to this:
        result = result + _T("((wxStringData*)") + a_str + oper + _T("m_pchData - 1)->nDataLength");

I hope this helps. If it works ok than I will propose a patch so that it will not be owerwritten with every nightly.

Regards,
Ramazan Kartal
« Last Edit: November 05, 2007, 03:56:11 pm by Ramazan Kartal »

marlo_nl

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2007, 06:30:34 pm »
Dear Ramazan Kartal,

I've changed the two lines in the gdb_types.script file as you suggested:

    local result = _T("output /c ") + a_str + oper + _T("m_pchData[") + start + _T("]@");

        result = result + _T("((wxStringData*)") + a_str + oper + _T("m_pchData - 1)->nDataLength");

I can confirm that this solves the wxString debug issue (when using the Static wxWidgets Debug library).
Both the "evaluate expression under cursor" CodeBlocks feature and the "Watch" window watching a wxString variable now operate as desired.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Please do propose the patch so that other users can also benefit from your work in case they use a Static wxWidgets Debug Library (maybe for no good or specific reason, just like me) in their CodeBlocks environment.


I'm still intrigued by Mandrav's remark about using a Static Debug Library and code stripping by the linker.
Can we better make use of Shared Debug Libraries for debugging, or is it fair to expect same behavior during debugging when we use Static Debug Libraries?

Remark: In the past I've used the MSVC environment and I can't recall seeing different behavior when debugging projects using Static or Shared MFC libraries.


Regards, Marlo

Offline mandrav

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Re: Can't see value of unicode strings while debugging
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2007, 11:07:31 pm »
Quote
Remark: In the past I've used the MSVC environment and I can't recall seeing different behavior when debugging projects using Static or Shared MFC libraries.

Ramazan's solution works and is even ok for wxString. But this can't be said about other libraries, especially STL. Its implementation is vendor specific and in order to access a container's contents we must use library exposed functions (if we want to be portable), like c_str() for strings.
While wxString does indeed have a m_pchData data member (from which we can directly read the string's value), the same can't be said about STL's std::string (or other STL containers)... Each vendor has a different implementation and accessing a data member just isn't gonna cut it for us. This is the major reason why we use the c_str() function for STL string too.

MSVC on the other hand, has no such issues: everything there is provided by the same vendor and so compatibility is a given between the libraries and the environment.

Now you see why C::B's multiple compiler support is both a blessing and a curse :).

Quote
Can we better make use of Shared Debug Libraries for debugging, or is it fair to expect same behavior during debugging when we use Static Debug Libraries?

My suggestion is to use DLLs for debugging, not only for issues similar to the one you 're experiencing: if you work on an above-average sized project, DLLs will save you also because of the significantly smaller linking times.
Be patient!
This bug will be fixed soon...