R devel - Feb 2017 - Debugging tools and practices in Windows?

Hello r-devel, could someone share the tools and practices they use to
debug the core R sources in Windows?

For instance, I would like to set a breakpoint in `gl_loadhistory` and
troubleshoot from there.

Thanks in advance - Javier Luraschi

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On 23/02/2017 1:36 PM, Javier Luraschi wrote:
> Hello r-devel, could someone share the tools and practices they use to
> debug the core R sources in Windows?
>
> For instance, I would like to set a breakpoint in `gl_loadhistory` and
> troubleshoot from there.
You're talking about debugging the C code rather than the R code, I think.

These days I mostly avoid debugging in Windows, but when I have to do 
it, I use gdb.  There used to be a front end for it (Insight) that 
worked in Windows, but I don't think it works with our current gdb 
build.  Google names lots of other front ends, but I haven't tried any 
of them in Windows.

The other choice is the old fashioned method:  add lots of Rprintf() 
statements to the source and recompile.

Duncan Murdoch

Right, I'm talking about C code.

Do you remember if you had to set specific CFLAGS or other settings to get
gdb working? I wasn't able to get gdb() working with the standard build
settings.

Otherwise, Rprintf() would work for sure.

Thank you!



On Thu, Feb 23, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Duncan Murdoch <murdoch.duncan at
gmail.com>
wrote:
> On 23/02/2017 1:36 PM, Javier Luraschi wrote:
>
>> Hello r-devel, could someone share the tools and practices they use to
>> debug the core R sources in Windows?
>>
>> For instance, I would like to set a breakpoint in `gl_loadhistory` and
>> troubleshoot from there.
>>
>
> You're talking about debugging the C code rather than the R code, I
think.
>
> These days I mostly avoid debugging in Windows, but when I have to do it,
> I use gdb.  There used to be a front end for it (Insight) that worked in
> Windows, but I don't think it works with our current gdb build.  Google
> names lots of other front ends, but I haven't tried any of them in
Windows.
>
> The other choice is the old fashioned method:  add lots of Rprintf()
> statements to the source and recompile.
>
> Duncan Murdoch
>
>
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