Simple Debug

Simple Debug helps you set and unset breakpoints from within emacs that lldb can parse and set.

How does it work

Simple Debug creates a minor mode called "simple-debug" with SiD lighter. It adds itself to c-mode-common-hook so its invoked for C/C++ files. It binds <F6> key to simple-debug-toggle-line-breakpoint and <F7> key to simple-debug-toggle-function-breakpoint. This way pressing <F6> on any line creates a line breakpoint in the current file. Similarly the idea is that pressing <F7> anywhere in the body of a function creates a function breakpoint. At the moment function name needs to be selcted before pressig <F7>.

These breakpoints are written out into .simple-debug.json file in your project root directory (via projectile-root-folder). When you are ready to debug in lldb. You can import these using the provided python script;

command script import /root/of/simple-debug/simple_debug_lldb_breakpoints.py

You can also add this to your .lldbinit file to load any project .simple-debug.json files on start up (its also possible to create a project specific .lldbinit but its not the best practice).

Getting started

To try this out first clone the repo and then run the following commands.

git clone https://github.com/abbaswasim/simple-debug.git && cd simple-debug

Open simple-debug.el in emacs and call eval-buffer. Now you can open any C/C++ file within your projectile project to add/remove breakpoints. Once done in emacs. Load your executable in lldb and load the python script to install all the breakpoints.

command script import /root/of/simple-debug/simple_debug_lldb_breakpoints.py

Requirements

Json
Projectile

Limitation

At the moment after editing your source files. The debug marker moves fine but the actual breakpoint location doesn't change. This requires constant update to the breakpoint line numbers which has performance implications.
Enabling and disabling the minor mode multiple times gets confused. Only one shot at the moment.
Function breakpoints can only be used by selecting the function name cleanly. Ideally I would read the function name somehow from anywhere within its body.

Wishlist

Need a method to reset all breakpoints
A method to update breakpoints according to the overlays in the source file
Very complex for this usecase but maybe in the future migrate to using lldb syntax for the breakpoints itself
Navigation of breakpoints accross the project to easily add/remove them
Create an equivalent gdb script