debugbreak.h allows you to put breakpoints in your C/C++ code with a call to debug_break():
#include <stdio.h>
#include "debugbreak.h"
int main()
{
debug_break(); /* will break into debugger */
printf("hello world\n");
return 0;
}- Include one header file and insert calls to
debug_break()in the code where you wish to break into the debugger. - Supports GCC, Clang and MSVC.
- Works well on ARM, AArch64, i686, x86-64, POWER and has a fallback code path for other architectures.
- Works like the DebugBreak() fuction provided by Windows and QNX.
License: the very permissive 2-Clause BSD.
Known Problem: if continuing execution after a debugbreak breakpoint hit doesn't work (e.g. on ARM or POWER), see HOW-TO-USE-DEBUGBREAK-GDB-PY.md for a workaround.
The requirements for the debug_break() function are:
- Act as a compiler code motion barrier
- Don't cause the compiler optimizers to think the code following it can be removed
- Trigger a software breakpoint hit when executed (e.g. SIGTRAP on Linux)
- GDB commands like continue, next, step, stepi must work after a debug_break() hit
Ideally, both GCC and Clang would provide a __builtin_debugtrap() that satisfies the above on all architectures and operating systems. Unfortunately, that is not the case (yet). GCC's __builtin_trap() causes the optimizers to think the code follwing can be removed (test/trap.c):
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
__builtin_trap();
printf("hello world\n");
return 0;
}compiles to:
main
0x0000000000400390 <+0>: 0f 0b ud2
Notice how the call to printf() is not present in the assembly output.
Further, on i386 / x86-64 __builtin_trap() generates an ud2 instruction which triggers SIGILL instead of SIGTRAP. This makes it necessary to change GDB's default behavior on SIGILL to not terminate the process being debugged:
(gdb) handle SIGILL stop nopass
Even after this, continuing execution in GDB doesn't work well on some GCC, GDB combinations. See GCC Bugzilla 84595.
On ARM, __builtin_trap() generates a call to abort(), making it even less suitable.
debug_break() generates an int3 instruction on i386 / x86-64 (test/break.c):
#include <stdio.h>
#include "debugbreak.h"
int main()
{
debug_break();
printf("hello world\n");
return 0;
}compiles to:
main
0x00000000004003d0 <+0>: 50 push %rax
0x00000000004003d1 <+1>: cc int3
0x00000000004003d2 <+2>: bf a0 05 40 00 mov $0x4005a0,%edi
0x00000000004003d7 <+7>: e8 d4 ff ff ff callq 0x4003b0 <puts@plt>
0x00000000004003dc <+12>: 31 c0 xor %eax,%eax
0x00000000004003de <+14>: 5a pop %rdx
0x00000000004003df <+15>: c3 retq
which correctly trigges SIGTRAP and single-stepping in GDB after a debug_break() hit works well.
Clang / LLVM also has a __builtin_trap() that generates ud2 but further provides __builtin_debugtrap() that generates int3 on i386 / x86-64 (original LLVM intrinsic, further fixes, Clang builtin support).
On ARM, debug_break() generates .inst 0xe7f001f0 in ARM mode and .inst 0xde01 in Thumb mode which correctly triggers SIGTRAP on Linux. Unfortunately, stepping in GDB after a debug_break() hit doesn't work and requires a workaround like:
(gdb) set $l = 2
(gdb) tbreak *($pc + $l)
(gdb) jump *($pc + $l)
(gdb) # Change $l from 2 to 4 for ARM mode
to jump over the instruction. A new GDB command, debugbreak-step, is defined in debugbreak-gdb.py to automate the above. See HOW-TO-USE-DEBUGBREAK-GDB-PY.md for sample usage.
$ arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gdb -x debugbreak-gdb.py test/break-c++
<...>
(gdb) run
Program received signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
main () at test/break-c++.cc:6
6 debug_break();
(gdb) debugbreak-step
7 std::cout << "hello, world\n";
On AArch64, debug_break() generates .inst 0xd4200000.
See table below for the behavior of debug_break() on other architecturs.
| Architecture | debug_break() |
|---|---|
| x86/x86-64 | int3 |
| ARM mode, 32-bit | .inst 0xe7f001f0 |
| Thumb mode, 32-bit | .inst 0xde01 |
| AArch64, ARMv8 | .inst 0xd4200000 |
| POWER | .4byte 0x7d821008 |
| RISC-V | .4byte 0x00100073 |
| MSVC compiler | __debugbreak |
| Apple compiler on AArch64 | __builtin_trap() |
| Otherwise | raise(SIGTRAP) |