Debuggers
To debug D programs you need to use a debugger that understands the format of the debug symbols information that your chosen compiler produces. The quality of the debug symbols information might vary depending on which compiler you use and its underlying debug format. For example, some compiler configurations may present the names of variables and/or functions in it's C mangled form, instead of the natural D name.
Debugging support by compiler
Compiler+Platform | Format | Debugger | Supported functionality |
---|---|---|---|
DMD-Win32 | OMF | Mago/VisualD | Good support: Breakpoints; Stack frames; Mostly pretty names ('.' shows up as '@'); Variable inspection; Visual Studio based. |
WinDbg | Supplied with the main D compiler zip file download. Overview | ||
ddbg | Doesn't seem to be working well. Project no longer maintained. | ||
DMD-Win64 | COFF | Mago/VisualD | TODO: same level of support as for win32? |
DMD-Linux |
DWARF | GDB | Good support: Breakpoints; Stack frames; Pretty names; Variable inspection; |
ZeroBUGS | "Modular debugger for C/C++/D programming languages (and virtually anything else that supports Stabs/DWARF debug formats)". Supported debugging functionality?? | ||
LDC-MinGW | DWARF | - | DWARF debug symbol info seems to be broken for LLVM compiled with MinGW note |
DMD-MacOS |
? | GDB | Limited/outdated support? According to Jacob Carlberg:
"D symbols need to be prefixed with an extra underscore." "Line numbers don't work." |
LLDB | ? |
Graphical debugger frontends
Frontends providing support to a command-line debugger mentioned in the previous section.
Debugger | Frontend | Description | Platform |
---|---|---|---|
GDB | Mono-D | MonoDeveloped-based full D IDE. Has integration with the GDB debugger.
"Debugging (using MonoDevelop’s integrated gdb support on Linux currently)" |
Linux? |
GDB | DDT | Eclipse-based IDE. Has integration with the GDB debugger, including D support. (Debugging support is based on Eclipse CDT) | Linux, Windows, MacOS |
GDB | Nemiver | Graphical frontend to the GDB debugger, which supports full D syntax from version 7.2. | Linux |
GDB | CGDB | Command line frontend to the GDB debugger, which supports full D syntax from version 7.2.Shows code and the GDB console in split windows. | Linux, MacOS |
GDB | DDD | GNU DDD is a graphical front-end for command-line debuggers such as GDB. Usual front-end features such as viewing source code, viewing variables, etc. | Linux |
GDB | Affinic Debugger | Affinic Debugger GUI .aka. ADG, is designed as a graphical user interface for various debuggers. This version is specifically targeted on GDB, the GNU debugger. | Linux, Windows, MacOS |