Trouble debugging C++ using Eclipse Galileo on Mac

Asked 13/8, 2009 at 6:7 Answered 21/2, 2014 at 19:12

I am trying to debug C++ code using Eclipse Galileo on my MacBook Pro running Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard). It's my first time trying this. I have a complicated C++ program I'd like to debug, but to test things out, I just tried to debug and step through the following:

#include <iostream>
using namespace std;

int main()
{
  int x = 0;
  cout << x << endl;

  x = 54;
  cout << x << endl;

  return 0;
}

I clicked the debug icon, told it to use GDB (DSF) Create Process Launcher and started to step through the code. I wanted to be able to monitor the value of x, so I opened up the Variables window and watched. Initially, it was 4096 - presumably some garbage value. As soon as I hit the next line, where it had shown the value, it now shows the following error:

Failed to execute MI command:
-var-update 1 var1
Error message from debugger back end:
Variable object not found

I can't seem to figure this out or get around it. And a few Google searches turned up bone dry without even the hint of a lead.

Solution: As drhirsch pointed out below, use the Standard Create Process Launcher instead of the GDB Create Process Launcher. (This is actually a workaround and not a true solution, but it worked for at least two of us.)

Megacycle answered 13/8, 2009 at 6:7 Comment(4)

Did you compile with debug information and not strip the executable? – Houstonhoustonia 13/8, 2009 at 7:9

I'm building in Debug and don't see anything like that in the project settings, so I'm pretty sure that's not it. Plus, it actually does edit and continue just fine during debug. Thanks for the idea, though. – Megacycle 13/8, 2009 at 8:10

hi, i am getting the same error how do you get on screen the error output "Failed to execute .."? I do not even any info .... – Gustie 20/12, 2009 at 22:10

Ok, at the moment, using /opt/local/bin/fsf-gdb which is version 7.1, seems to do the trick! I did not test it extensively, but I can use breakpoints in very different functions, and the program stops there while debugging – Gustie 4/3, 2011 at 15:35

In my experience the gdb/dsf launcher is still quite unusable. I can't get it to show variables too, it seems still very buggy.

Did you try the Standard Create Process Launcher? For me this works fine.

Swat answered 13/8, 2009 at 7:47 Comment(2)

You know, I honestly tried switching to that and got an entirely different sort of application error. However, on your suggestion, I tried again and whaddaya know...it works! Thanks! – Megacycle 13/8, 2009 at 8:11

I may have restarted Eclipse since then. That could be why. – Megacycle 13/8, 2009 at 8:12

This appears to still be a problem without a reliably good answer, other than using an IDE other than Eclipse.

I tried both the DSF Create Process Launcher and the Standard Create Process Launcher variations, but neither results in a successful debugging experience. The GDB debugger launches either way, but breakpoints are not handled properly (unresolved in some cases) and almost no variable values can be inspected/tracked.

Here's what software I'm using:

Eclipse 3.5.2 (Galileo), 64-bit Cocoa version
Eclipse C/C++ development tools 6.0.2.2
Mac OS X 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard)
GDB 6.3.5 (Apple's version that ships with Xcode)

I've also tried building GDB 7.1 from source since as of 7.0 it is supposed to have native x86/x86_64 Darwin support. It builds fine and launches OK from the command-line, but it has various problems when I try launching it from Eclipse. These appear to be related to changes that Apple made recently to how the taskgated mechanism works for allowing debuggers to connect to processes. The following error is typical of these:

Target request failed: Unable to find Mach task port for process-id 88283:
(os/kern) failure (0x5).\n (please check gdb is codesigned - see taskgated(8)).

Various sources on the web indicate that Apple uses their own special patches in GDB 6.3.5 to support Mac OS X, however this is a really old code base (2004). Conversely, other web sources indicate that the Eclipse DSF debugger framework requires GDB commands that only appear starting in GDB 6.6 (circa 2006?).

I've been all over the Eclipse-related forums but have found no signs of a solution to this problem. It appears that almost no one on the Eclipse CDT development team uses Mac OS X, so they rarely bother to test their changes on this platform.

EDIT UPDATE: In addition to the above, I've retried all of the prior described testing (GDB versions 6.3.5 and 7.1) with a developer build, Eclipse Helios 3.6 RC3 (IDE for C/C++ developers), which includes CDT 7.0. Encountered all of the same reported problems. Eclipse CDT debugging on Mac OS X Snow Leopard is still non-functional.

Does anyone know something different and/or a reliable Eclipse-based solution to the scenario I've reported above?

Boding answered 3/6, 2010 at 23:58 Comment(5)

Joel, you may want to post this as your own question. For my purposes, drhirsch's recommendation to simply use the Standard launcher worked just fine for me. Two upvotes indicate it may have helped others as well, but based on the feedback on this page, it doesn't seem to be helping everyone. Perhaps this topic deserves another question from someone such as yourself who is still experiencing the issue. – Megacycle 28/6, 2010 at 16:52

@speedmetal - Thanks for the suggestion; I may do that yet as the problem still exists for me--I've been using XCode instead. I'll probably try posting on one of the Eclipse forums first, though. – Boding 29/6, 2010 at 18:9

I am having the same problem, did you find a new solution? – Gustie 3/3, 2011 at 8:52

I am thinking about the following workaround; install linux ubuntu or similar in a virtual machine and then activate remote debugging so your program is debugged there. it should work, although not a very elegant solution – Gustie 3/3, 2011 at 8:53

I still have not found a solution. Looked again about 1-2 months ago, but I found nothing that works. I'm still stuck working with Xcode on Mac OSX. – Boding 19/3, 2011 at 1:14

I've had similar problems with multiple versions of Eclipse on Ubuntu. One solution that has often worked for me is to use GDB version 6.6 rather than the latest versions.

Purposely answered 15/4, 2011 at 19:57 Comment(0)

In the future, you could also try using Xcode (just to debug) - drag all the files in to import them into a new project, but don't compile. Instead, open the debugger window and attach to your running process.

Rella answered 9/10, 2009 at 5:45 Comment(1)

it is not very practical to use two IDEs I would say – Gustie 3/3, 2011 at 9:23

The same problem, but I might have found a way. In Eclipse, under the project properties, in Run/Debug settings, I deleted the launch configurations and ran the debugger again.

At that point everything worked correctly, although it takes at least 10 seconds to launch the debugger if I modify. I think it has to do with a combination of both the debugging properties and the launcher configuration.

Baumann answered 13/2, 2010 at 19:6 Comment(0)

Update to the released version of Eclipse 3.6 (Helios) and use the DSF/GDB Create Launcher. There was a lot of work done to bring the feature parity of the DSF/GDB framework up to usable levels for Eclipse 3.6 (Helios). Debugging now works just fine on OS X 10.5 and 10.6 using Eclipse CDT 3.6 Helios.

Saville answered 7/7, 2010 at 15:25 Comment(1)

hi mike, could you tell us which debug setting are you using? – Gustie 3/3, 2011 at 9:22

OK, at the moment, using /opt/local/bin/fsf-gdb which is version 7.1, seems to do the trick! I did not test it extensively, but I can use breakpoints in very different functions, and the program stops there while debugging.

Gustie answered 5/3, 2011 at 9:4 Comment(0)

You can follow the instructions of page GDB on OS X Mavericks and Xcode 5.

Desperado answered 21/2, 2014 at 19:12 Comment(0)

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