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. |
| Mago-MI | Good support: Breakpoints; Stack frames; Variable inspection; GDB/MI compatible interface for Mago debugger. | ||
| WinDbg | Supplied with the main D compiler zip file download. Overview | ||
| ddbg | Doesn't seem to be working well. Project no longer maintained. | ||
| OllyDbg 2 | Reasonable support when assisted by cv2pdb; stack frames; mangled symbols; shows source code alongside disassembly. Note: v2.01 has a bug that may cause frequent crashes when reading PDB files. Details and patch here. | ||
|
DMD-Win64 |
COFF | Mago/VisualD | TODO: same level of support as for win32? Has issues with structs and pointers, break on D exceptions can no longer be toggled for unknown reasons. |
| RemedyDB | Paid. Works better at certain duties than VS. Still in active development. Does not have an option for break on exceptions, but can be mitigated with putting a breakpoint into an exception CTOR. | ||
|
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 | GDB | Limited/outdated support?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 |
| GDB | DlangIDE | D language IDE written in D. Supports GDB-MI compatible debuggers. | Linux, Windows, MacOS |
| GDB | Dexed - GDB commander | Visual debugging with GDB in one of the IDE widget. | Linux |
| mago-mi | DlangIDE | D language IDE written in D. Supports GDB-MI compatible debuggers. | Windows |
| mago-mi | DDT | Eclipse-based IDE. Supports mago-mi debugger using GDB-MI interface. | Windows |
| GDB / LLDB | VS Code with C/C++ Extension | Visual Studio Code along with the C/C++ extension which allows for debugging native applications. It is possible to use the extension's debugger with D. | Linux, MacOS |
| GDB / LLDB / mago-mi | Native Debug (VS Code Extension) | Debugging through Visual Studio Code's debugging UI. | Linux, Windows, MacOS |
Specific Debugger Tutorials
Some video resources on learning debugging can be found here: Debugging with GDB (Linux demonstration), Debugging with lldb (Mac demonstration with LDC2 and DMD) (Note, as the quality of debug information improves you may get more information/abilities through your debugger over time). Please visit the Tutorials which may contain further resources.
