<<../../../_common/components/_debugging_intro.md>>
<<../../../_common/components/_debugging_analyze.md>>
In this exercise, you'll use the Fuchsia debugger (zxdb) to inspect a running instance of the echo component and understand the cause of a crash.
<<../_common/_start_femu_with_packages.md>>
Once the emulator has started up, start a zxdb debugging session with the ffx debug connect command:
ffx debug connect
Connecting (use "disconnect" to cancel)... Connected successfully. 👉 To get started, try "status" or "help". [zxdb]
After successfully connecting, the zxdb prompt is ready to accept commands.
Before launching the component, configure zxdb to attach to an instance of echo. This enables the debugger to attach as soon as the process starts:
Set a breakpoint on the greeting() function:
With the debugger ready, start a new echo component instance:
ffx component run /core/ffx-laboratory:echo fuchsia-pkg://fuchsiasamples.com/echo-example#meta/echo.cm
Upon reaching the breakpoint in greeting(), execution stops and the debugger waits for a new command. Use the list command to show where execution is currently paused:
[zxdb] list 17 18 // Return a proper greeting for the list ▶ 19 std::string greeting(std::vector<std::string>& names) { 20 // Join the list of names based on length 21 auto number_of_names = names.size(); 22 switch (number_of_names) { 23 case 0: 24 return "Nobody!"; 25 case 1: 26 return join(names, ""); 27 case 2: 28 return join(names, " and "); 29 default:
Step into the greeting() function using the next command:
The print command will output the state of any variables in the current stack frame. Print the current value of names:
Step through the greeting() function a more few times using next:
To let the program continue to completion, use the continue command:
Exit the debugging session to return to the terminal:
Next, you'll add some code to main() to cause the component to crash (or panic). Simulate this behavior by adding an strlen(nullptr) reference just after the arguments are collected:
echo/main.cc:
int main(int argc, const char* argv[], char* envp[]) { // ... {{ '<strong>' }}// Simulate a crash {{ '</strong>' }} {{ '<strong>' }}std::strlen(nullptr);{{ '</strong>' }} // Print a greeting to syslog std::cout << "Hello, " << echo::greeting(arguments) << "!" << std::endl; return 0; }
Build and publish the updated package to the fuchsiasamples.com repository:
bazel run //fuchsia-codelab/echo:pkg.publish -- \ --repo_name fuchsiasamples.com
Start a new debug session with zxdb:
ffx debug connect
Configure the debugger to attach to the echo component:
Start a new instance of the component:
ffx component run /core/ffx-laboratory:echo fuchsia-pkg://fuchsiasamples.com/echo-example#meta/echo.cm --recreate
This time, the debugger detects that an exception was thrown and halts execution:
Attached Process 1 state=Running koid=1164808 name=echo.cm ════════════════════════════════════════════════ Page fault reading address 0x0 (second chance) ════════════════════════════════════════════════ Process 1 (koid=1164808) thread 1 (koid=1164810) Faulting instruction: 0x43e0fd349210 🛑 strlen(const char*) • strlen.c:21 [zxdb]
Use the frame command to inspect the stack trace at the point of the crash:
[zxdb] frame ▶ 0 strlen(…) • strlen.c:21 {{ '<strong>' }}1 main(…) • main.cc:27{{ '</strong>' }} 2 «libc startup» (-r expands) 3 «libc startup» (-r expands) 4 $elf(_start) + 0x11
Notice line 1 in the stack trace indicates the point in main.cc where the crash happened, corresponding to the nullptr reference.
The current stack frame (frame 0) is deep within the system library, but you can inspect any stack frame by prefixing the command with the frame number from the stack trace.
Print the value of the arguments at the point of the crash by passing the frame number as follows:
Exit the debugging session to return to the terminal:
Clean up the echo instance using the following command:
ffx component destroy /core/ffx-laboratory:echo