Debugging tools

jailbait · 02-15-2023, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jason.nix

I have two questions:

1- I meant the final program. Suppose you run a program that you don't have access to its source code, but it doesn't run and you want to find out why. What should be done in this case?

2- What tools and techniques does someone whose job is a debugger use?

1. Send a bug report to the developer.

2. When debugging most people use memory dumps, file record dumps, error messages, log messages, the source code, and written documentation that explains the function of the program, the type of input expected by the program, and the type of output produced. Usually the written documentation is found as comments in the source code. Other sources of useful information is a description by the user or system administrator as to what they were trying to do with the program and what the results were.

Then there are debuggers (software, not people). They can be very useful but you have to set up a special test run to use the debugger. In most cases a programmer can find the bug using the above information faster than they can set up a debugger run.

dugan · 02-15-2023, 01:19 PM

Quote:

2- What tools and techniques does someone whose job is a debugger use?

https://youtu.be/iUu1d1G4Vrw

dugan · 02-15-2023, 06:18 PM

Seriously, though:

In the case of RStudio, you're not trying to fix the program. You're trying to fix the platform and environment that you're running RStudio on. And one way to do that is to just put it in a Docker.

Jason.nix · 03-07-2023, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

A binary-only program crashes with no error messages when I try to start it?

I’d use “ldd” to check if the program is missing libraries, and also check if the crash shows up in “dmesg”.

You wouldn’t use a binary debugger for this. But since you’re curious about that world, well, here’s a book review:

https://dmfrsecurity.com/2021/12/29/...e-engineering/

Hello,
Thank you so much for your reply.
Yes.
I cleared the dmesg and run the program again, but no result:

Code:

$ sudo dmesg -C
$ sudo rstudio
$ sudo dmesg
$

And about the ldd cpommand:

Code:

$ sudo ldd -v rstudio 
	not a dynamic executable