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Debugging MM on MacOSX and Unix

Using gdb

Debugging of the C++ code on Mac and Unix can proceed as follows:

cd to your ImageJ directory that contains a self-starting Micro-Manager plugin:

   cd ~/ImageJ

Start gdb debugging java:

   $ gdb -arch i386 java

Now tell java on gdb to run ImageJ:

  (gdb) r -cp ij.jar ij.ImageJ

Control-C can interrupt execution.

Please refer to the gdb documentation for debugging commands.

Using lldb

Apple replaced gdb with lldb (around Mac OS X 10.9?). lldb commands are very similar to gdb, however, please have a look at this tutorial. Note that lldb will stop on every SIGSEGV signal generated by java (for an explanation, see 1. Press ‘c’ to continue (there may be a more efficient way of dealing with this).

Using NetBeans with gdb for C++ debugging

  1. Install NetBeans for C++ or install the C/C++ plugin for in your existing NetBeans installation.
  2. Choose File > New Project… . Select Categories=C/C++, Projects=C/C++ Project with Existing Sources.
  3. Specifiy the folder that contains existing sources (e.g., /projects/micromanager/) and press “Finish.”
  4. Right-click the new project and select “Properties”.
  5. Under Build…Make, set Build Command to “make all; make install” and “Clean Command” to “make clean”. Set Build Result to “/ImageJ.app/Contents/MacOS/JavaApplicationStub" .
  6. Add the following option to the netbeans_default_options=”…“ line of /Applications/NetBeans/NetBeans
    6.8.app/Contents/Resources/NetBeans/etc/netbeans.conf     : -J-Dgdb.init.enable=true
  7. Create a .gdbinit file in ~ that informs gdb of the directories of all .cpp and .h source files you might wish to debug: directory /projects/micromanager/ directory /projects/micromanager/MMCore directory /projects/micromanager/MMDevice directory /projects/micromanager/DeviceAdapters/DemoCamera
  8. Restart Netbeans.
  9. Launch ImageJ (the target of make install from your micromanager source).
  10. Select Debug…Attach debugger.