Current status

Plugin is still under heavy development. It have only base functionality but still can be usable in some cases (and actually I use it). Also want to notice that it have been tested only on Debian with Neovim v0.7.2.

Now I'm working on documentation for modules development and polishing core API. After that I'm planning to add support for remote debugging setup.

Alternatives

History & motivation

Initially this plugin was developed for educational purposes. I wanted to learn Lua, Neovim API and create a plugin for gdb which is:

Fully written with lua, with no external dependencies
Support easy setup for remote debugging
Keep the core as small as possible
Easily extensible

I've been debugging mostly C and C++ applications for a relatively long time. Since I've migrated to Neovim, I tried to use termdebug and nvim-dap plugins. Termdebug is cool, but written in vimscript and I find it really hard to extend. DAP is so complicated and there is only one DAP-server for C/C++/Rust which is part of VS****. Maybe some time I'll force myself to write a gdb DAP, but not now.

You can consider this plugin as a stripped-down version of termdebug.

What's done

Architecture

Plugin have a core - the main code base that handle the basics, like sending MI commands to gdb and opening files where exection stopped. All other functions will be implemented by things called modules.

Why?

First of all, it is really suits for my style of development, I can focus on one little thing and done it good. Have a long break. Proceed to another with no worries that it will breaks previous work (at least in theory).
Secondly, you can disable modules you don't need.

Features

By now plugin can do:

open up source file where the program execution stops,
control program execution.

After start it create 2 windows: source file and gdb terminal.

Also it provides functions for controlling programm execution.

require'gdb'.debug_start()
require'gdb'.debug_stop()     
require'gdb'.next()
require'gdb'.step()
require'gdb'.stop()
require'gdb'.finish()
require'gdb'.continue()
require'gdb'.exec_until() - until the line where your cursor stands
require'gdb'.jump()       - to the line where your cursor stands

You can map those to have more comfort debug.

How to install

Use your favorite package manager in Neovim. I prefer packer.nvim:

use 'MattBystrin/gdb.nvim'

If you want to run test (which is not complete yet), make sure you have plenary.nvim installed.

Configuration

There is not much to config at least now. You can only set the command that will be invoked when debug started. An example:

require'gdb'.setup({
	command = {
		"gdb",
		"--cd", "<some dir>"
	}
})

You can also setup your gdb startup behavior using .gdbinit file. It won't break things and it's suitable for storing project specific configuration.

Future plans

I'm not planning to add support for any other debuggers. If you need to debug apps written in different languages consider using nvim-dap.

Add remote debug setup.
Add monitor - extra window for programm output
Add config for UI layout.
Add breakpoint support.
Add stackframe support.

Inspiration & thanks

Thanks to Bram Moolenaar an author of termdebug plugin!

Thanks to TJ DeVries an author of vlog.nvim and plenary.nvim !