how to use the geany debugger?

Question

I am new to debugging and I need to how to use the debugger in geany IDE. Is there any documentation or a video available in the internet related to the geany debugger? I have surfed everywhere but I couldn't find anything understandable. Can anyone help me out?

Answer 1

I have come across this problem myself.

• Compiler: gcc
• Debugger: gdb
• Editor: geany

Assuming you have installed gcc and gdb by this.

Install gcc and gdb

sudo apt install gcc gdb

To install geany:

sudo apt install geany

To install the plugins for geany:

sudo apt install geany-plugins

Restart geany if open now.

To activate the debugger in geany: menu->tools->plugin manager , checkbox the debugger.

Change the build commands to include the -g flag:

menu->build->build commands

Set the compile command to:

gcc -g -Wall -c "%f"

Set the build command to:

gcc -g -Wall -o "%e" "%f"

And now you can set breakpoints in your code by clicking next to the line numbers. You will see a red square.

In the menu->view->show message window You will have a tab called debug.

Click the debug tab then click the target tab.

Choose your target(if you build "example.c" and set output to "example" which you would normally run with "./example" you would choose "example" as target.

On the right side of that window you can start the debugging.

Answer 2

As stated in the documentation most the the controls offered by this plugin are pretty standards (Breakpoints, Watches).

However this page may help you to start using the debugger: http://geanydbg.sourceforge.net/walkthrough.htm.

Answer 3

OK I found something that works here in this forum but still the step into button is still a little buggy :P Will update when I get it correct.