Stories with Tag Debugger

• Show HN: CodeTracer – A new time-traveling debugger implemented in Nim and Rust

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  Posted: 2025-03-06 14:30:10

  Verbose tl;dr

  CodeTracer is a new, open-source, time-traveling debugger built with Nim and Rust, aiming to be a modern alternative to GDB. It allows developers to record program execution and then step forwards and backwards through the code, inspect variables, and analyze program state at any point in time. Its core functionality includes reverse debugging, function call history navigation, and variable value inspection across different execution points. CodeTracer is designed to be cross-platform and currently supports debugging C/C++, with plans to expand to other languages like Python and JavaScript in the future.

  The Hacker News post introduces CodeTracer, a novel debugging tool built with a focus on "time-traveling" capabilities. Developed using the Nim and Rust programming languages, CodeTracer allows developers to record and replay the execution of their programs, offering a significantly enhanced debugging experience compared to traditional step-by-step debuggers. This time-travel functionality enables developers to move both forward and backward through the execution history of their code, inspecting the program's state at any point in time. This facilitates a deeper understanding of program behavior and simplifies the process of identifying and resolving bugs.

  The core of CodeTracer's functionality lies in its recording mechanism, which captures a comprehensive snapshot of the program's state at each step of execution. This snapshot includes details such as variable values, memory contents, and call stack information. This detailed record allows developers to rewind and replay the execution, examining how variables change over time and pinpoint the exact moment where an error occurs. Furthermore, CodeTracer emphasizes performance, aiming to minimize the overhead associated with recording program execution. This allows developers to use the tool for debugging complex and computationally intensive applications without significant performance degradation.

  The implementation leverages the strengths of both Nim and Rust. Nim provides high-level abstractions and metaprogramming capabilities that facilitate the creation of a user-friendly and expressive debugging interface, while Rust ensures performance and memory safety within the core recording and replaying engine. CodeTracer is presented as an open-source project, encouraging community involvement and contribution to its further development and refinement. The project maintainers highlight the potential for CodeTracer to revolutionize the debugging process, offering a powerful new tool for developers to understand and debug their code more effectively.

  • Debugging
  • Debugger
  • time-travel debugging
  • reverse debugging
  • Nim
  • Rust
  • Programming Tools
  • developer tools
  • Open Source
  • CodeTracer
  • metacraft-labs
  • GitHub

  Summary of Comments ( 13 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43280615

  Verbose tl;dr

  Hacker News users discussed CodeTracer's novelty, questioning its practical advantages over existing debuggers like rr and gdb. Some praised its cross-platform potential and ease of use compared to rr, while others highlighted rr's maturity and deeper system integration as significant advantages. The use of Nim and Rust also sparked debate, with some expressing concerns about the complexity of debugging a debugger written in two languages. Several users questioned the performance implications of recording every instruction, suggesting it might be impractical for complex programs. Finally, some questioned the project's open-source licensing and requested clarification on its usage restrictions.

  The Hacker News post titled "Show HN: CodeTracer – A new time-traveling debugger implemented in Nim and Rust" generated a moderate amount of discussion, with several commenters expressing interest and raising pertinent questions.

  A recurring theme in the comments is the comparison of CodeTracer to existing time-travel debuggers, such as rr and RevPDB. One commenter points out that rr works by recording execution at the system call level, questioning how CodeTracer handles this aspect and expressing skepticism about its performance if it's recording every single instruction. Another commenter highlights the challenges of reverse debugging, especially when dealing with complex programs, suggesting that achieving good performance with a reasonable memory footprint is crucial.

  Several commenters inquired about the specific implementation details of CodeTracer, particularly its use of Nim and Rust. One commenter wonders why Nim was chosen for the frontend and Rust for the backend, prompting a reply from the creator (seemingly the original poster) explaining that Nim provides a nice development experience and simplified GUI development with GTK, while Rust offers performance and low-level control for the core debugging functionality. They also clarify that the debugger's performance is currently limited by disk I/O speed, as every instruction trace is written to disk, but they are working on implementing a caching mechanism.

  The discussion also touches upon the potential applications and limitations of CodeTracer. One commenter expresses enthusiasm for the project and suggests its potential usefulness in debugging multithreaded programs. Another commenter mentions a previous project of theirs with a similar concept, though they didn't pursue it as far as implementing reverse execution.

  Overall, the comments demonstrate a genuine interest in CodeTracer and its potential, acknowledging the complexities of building a time-traveling debugger while also praising the developers for tackling the challenge. The discussion reveals some of the technical hurdles faced by such projects, such as performance optimization and handling system calls efficiently. However, there's a sense of optimism and encouragement for the project's continued development.

• Show HN: Letting LLMs Run a Debugger

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  Posted: 2025-02-12 09:54:14

  Verbose tl;dr

  This project introduces an experimental VS Code extension that allows Large Language Models (LLMs) to actively debug code. The LLM can set breakpoints, step through execution, inspect variables, and evaluate expressions, effectively acting as a junior developer aiding in the debugging process. The extension aims to streamline debugging by letting the LLM analyze the code and runtime state, suggest potential fixes, and even autonomously navigate the debugging session to identify the root cause of errors. This approach promises a potentially more efficient and insightful debugging experience by leveraging the LLM's code understanding and reasoning capabilities.

  This GitHub repository, "llm-debugger-vscode-extension," introduces a novel approach to debugging code by leveraging the power of Large Language Models (LLMs). The core idea is to empower developers within the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) environment to utilize LLMs as active debugging assistants. Instead of manually stepping through code and inspecting variables, developers can describe the bug they are encountering in natural language. The extension then interacts with the LLM, providing it with relevant context like the code snippet, stack trace, and any error messages.

  The LLM processes this information and attempts to diagnose the problem. It then returns its analysis, which might include potential causes of the bug, suggested fixes, or relevant code sections to examine. This information is presented directly within the VS Code interface, streamlining the debugging workflow. The extension essentially acts as a bridge, facilitating communication between the developer and the LLM, translating the developer's natural language queries into a format the LLM can understand and then presenting the LLM's technical analysis back in an accessible way.

  The project utilizes the LangChain framework, a popular tool for developing applications powered by language models. This framework likely handles tasks like formatting the code and debugging information for the LLM, managing the interaction with the chosen LLM provider (e.g., OpenAI), and parsing the LLM's response. While the initial implementation appears to focus on Python, the underlying architecture suggests potential adaptability to other programming languages. The VS Code integration is achieved through an extension, allowing seamless incorporation into the developer's existing workflow.

  The potential benefits of this approach include faster debugging cycles, assistance for developers less familiar with a particular codebase, and the ability to leverage the LLM's vast knowledge base to identify complex or non-obvious bugs. By abstracting some of the technical complexities of debugging, the extension aims to make the process more accessible and efficient. The project is open-source, allowing community contributions and further development of this promising approach to integrating LLMs into the software development process.

  • LLMs
  • Large Language Models
  • Debugging
  • Debugger
  • vscode
  • visual studio code
  • Extension
  • Software Development
  • AI
  • artificial intelligence
  • Code Generation
  • Code Analysis
  • Automated Debugging
  • developer tools

  Summary of Comments ( 16 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43023698

  Verbose tl;dr

  Hacker News users generally expressed interest in the LLM debugger extension for VS Code, praising its innovative approach to debugging. Several commenters saw potential for expanding the tool's capabilities, suggesting integration with other debuggers or support for different LLMs beyond GPT. Some questioned the practical long-term applications, wondering if it would be more efficient to simply improve the LLM's code generation capabilities. Others pointed out limitations like the reliance on GPT-4 and the potential for the LLM to hallucinate solutions. Despite these concerns, the overall sentiment was positive, with many eager to see how the project develops and explores the intersection of LLMs and debugging. A few commenters also shared anecdotes of similar debugging approaches they had personally experimented with.

  The Hacker News post "Show HN: Letting LLMs Run a Debugger" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43023698) discussing a VS Code extension allowing LLMs to debug code, sparked a modest discussion with a few key points raised.

  One commenter expressed skepticism about the practical value, arguing that using print statements remains a more efficient debugging method for the types of errors LLMs typically make. They elaborated that LLMs often struggle with higher-level logic errors, which debuggers are less suited to address compared to understanding the flow of execution through prints. This commenter suggested the potential benefit is limited to cases where the LLM generates code with subtle, low-level bugs that are more easily caught by a debugger.

  Another comment explored the possibility of using such a tool to teach LLMs about debugging, envisioning a scenario where the LLM could learn to debug by observing and interacting with the debugging process. They acknowledge this is speculative but see potential in this approach.

  A different user focused on the technical implementation details, inquiring about the communication method between the LLM and the debugger. The author of the VS Code extension clarified that the LLM interacts with the debugger through its debug adapter protocol, enabling control over execution and data inspection.

  Finally, one commenter simply expressed their appreciation for the project, finding it "cool".

  While the discussion isn't extensive, it highlights several perspectives: practical doubts about the immediate usefulness, the potential for educational applications, interest in the technical underpinnings, and general enthusiasm for the innovative concept. The comments collectively reflect the community's interest in exploring new ways to integrate LLMs into the software development process while maintaining a healthy dose of pragmatism.

• Show HN: Uscope, a new Linux debugger written from scratch

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  Posted: 2025-01-31 17:07:01

  Verbose tl;dr

  Uscope is a new, from-scratch debugger for Linux written in C and Python. It aims to be a modern, user-friendly alternative to GDB, boasting a simpler, more intuitive command language and interface. Key features include reverse debugging capabilities, a TUI interface with mouse support, and integration with Python scripting for extended functionality. The project is currently under active development and welcomes contributions.

  A new debugger for Linux, named "Uscope," has been introduced. Developed entirely from scratch, Uscope aims to provide a modern and efficient debugging experience. The project emphasizes a clean and understandable codebase written primarily in C, intending to facilitate contributions and extensions by others. It leverages the Linux kernel's ptrace facility, the underlying mechanism for process tracing and manipulation, which allows Uscope to control and inspect the execution of other programs.

  Uscope's feature set includes standard debugging capabilities such as setting breakpoints, stepping through code (both line by line and instruction by instruction), inspecting variables, and evaluating expressions. The debugger is designed to be terminal-based, eschewing graphical user interfaces for a lightweight and responsive experience familiar to those comfortable with command-line tools. While still in its early stages of development, the project roadmap suggests future enhancements, including support for additional architectures beyond its initial x86_64 focus. The source code is publicly available on GitHub under the MIT license, encouraging community involvement and fostering open-source collaboration. The creator emphasizes the educational aspect of the project, viewing it as a learning exercise in systems programming and debugger implementation. This educational focus is reflected in the clear and commented codebase, intended to be approachable for those interested in understanding how debuggers work.

  • Linux
  • Debugger
  • Debugging
  • Software Development
  • Open Source
  • Uscope
  • Systems Programming
  • C
  • Low-level
  • Kernel
  • development tools
  • HN
  • Show HN
  • GitHub

  Summary of Comments ( 123 )
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42889407

  Verbose tl;dr

  Hacker News users generally expressed interest in Uscope, praising its clean UI and the ambition of building a debugger from scratch. Several commenters questioned the practical need for a new debugger given existing robust options like GDB, LLDB, and Delve, wondering about Uscope's potential advantages. Some discussed the challenges of debugger development, highlighting the complexities of DWARF parsing and platform compatibility. A few users suggested integrations with other tools, like REPLs, and requested features like remote debugging. The novelty of a fresh approach to debugging generated curiosity, but skepticism regarding long-term viability and differentiation also emerged. Some expressed concerns about feature parity with existing debuggers and the sustainability of the project.

  The Hacker News post titled "Show HN: Uscope, a new Linux debugger written from scratch" generated a fair amount of discussion, with several commenters expressing interest and offering feedback on the project.

  One of the most compelling threads revolved around the challenges of writing a debugger from scratch. A commenter pointed out the significant effort involved, highlighting the complexities of handling different architectures, signal handling, and the intricacies of the ptrace API. This spurred further discussion about the motivation behind creating a new debugger when established options like GDB exist. The author of Uscope, 'jcalabro,' responded to these queries, explaining that their goal was not necessarily to replace GDB but to explore new ideas in debugger design and create a more streamlined and modern debugging experience, potentially focusing on specific niches. They also acknowledged the magnitude of the undertaking.

  Another key area of discussion centered around the user interface and user experience. Commenters questioned the decision to use a terminal user interface (TUI) instead of a graphical one, with some arguing that a GUI would be more intuitive and user-friendly. Others expressed their preference for a TUI and appreciated its simplicity and efficiency. This led to a broader conversation about the trade-offs between TUIs and GUIs in debugging tools.

  Several commenters offered specific suggestions for improving Uscope, such as adding support for reverse debugging, enhancing the display of variables and data structures, and improving performance. The author engaged with these comments, expressing gratitude for the feedback and indicating their willingness to consider these suggestions for future development.

  The discussion also touched upon the technical details of Uscope's implementation. Commenters inquired about the programming language used (C++), the choice of libraries, and the overall architecture of the debugger. There was also some discussion about the potential for integrating Uscope with other development tools.

  Overall, the comments on the Hacker News post demonstrated a genuine interest in Uscope and provided valuable feedback for its further development. While acknowledging the challenges involved in creating a new debugger, commenters recognized the potential of Uscope to offer a fresh perspective on debugging and provide a useful tool for developers.