PrintCallStack

[markcmiller86]

Just some helpful stuff about debugging. If you are using GCC (Gnu Compiler Collection), you can use PrintCallStack() in src/common/utility/Utility.h to print out the current call stack from anywhere within the code.

For example, in debugging a feature for MOAB database to support per-instance file open options, I added a call in avtMOAB Options.C like so...

DBOptionsAttributes *
GetMOABReadOptions(void)
{
   printf("In GetMOABReadOptions()\n");
   PrintCallStack(std::cout, __FILE__, __LINE__);

    DBOptionsAttributes *rv = new DBOptionsAttributes;
    rv->SetBool("Parallel format", true);
   .
   .
   .

And, that will result in some output like so...

In GetMOABReadOptions()
Call stack from /Users/miller86/visit/visit/34rc/src/databases/MOAB/avtMOABOptions.C 39
1:  1   libMMOABDatabase.dylib              0x00000001194cd671 _Z18GetMOABReadOptionsv + 49
2:  2   libMMOABDatabase.dylib              0x00000001194b2541 _ZNK20MOABCommonPluginInfo14GetReadOptionsEv + 17
3:  3   mdserver                            0x000000010d7aeb06 _ZN18MDServerConnection15GetDBPluginInfoEv + 502
4:  4   mdserver                            0x000000010d7a0705 _ZN26GetDBPluginInfoRPCExecutor6UpdateEP7Subject + 165
5:  5   libvisitcommon.dylib                0x00000001136148d8 _ZN7Subject6NotifyEv + 168
6:  6   libvisitcommon.dylib                0x00000001133fa39d _ZN16AttributeSubject6NotifyEv + 29
7:  7   libvisitcommon.dylib                0x00000001136763d6 _ZN4Xfer7ProcessEv + 470
8:  8   mdserver                            0x000000010d7abf81 _ZN18MDServerConnection12ProcessInputEv + 65
9:  9   mdserver                            0x000000010d7a5b57 _ZN19MDServerApplication7ExecuteEv + 471
10:  10  mdserver                            0x000000010d7c3189 _Z12MDServerMainiPPc + 281
11:  11  mdserver                            0x000000010d7c37e2 main + 34
12:  12  dyld                                0x00007ff81344c418 start + 1896

[biagas]

@markcmiller86 I think this would be great to add to our Debugging Tips section of the manual.

[JustinPrivitera]

This is very cool 😎

[JustinPrivitera]

Saved my bacon. 🥓

[JustinPrivitera]

Saved my bacon yet again 🥓🥓🥓

[JustinPrivitera]

I can't thank you enough for this. Every month it saves me.

[markcmiller86]

So glad it is helpful.

@dpugmire wrote it.

My only role was to remind people it is there with this discussion post 😉.

There is another useful function there @hankchilds wrote called WaitUntilFile(char const *path) which will not return from the call until a file at the specified path appears. Can be helpful when trying to attach debuggers.

[biagas]

There is another useful function there @hankchilds wrote called WaitUntilFile(char const *path) which will not return from the call until a file at the specified path appears. Can be helpful when trying to attach debuggers.

Its documented, too: WaitUntilFile