Re: Can DDD be used to debug cgi scripts which are written c?

[Andrew Gaylard]

Julie Gong wrote:
> I like DDD a lot. We have web based course management system which is 
> written in c.
> I would like to use DDD as our debug tool. But I do not know DDD can 
> debug cgi scripts.
> If DDD can do this job, Would you please give me some information?

Yes, DDD can easily do this job.

Step 0: put a "sleep( 60 );" into the code at the point where you'd
like to start debugging from.

Step 1: compile your code with no optimisation and full debugging.
For gcc, this means you need a "-ggdb3" and must have no "-O"
directives.  Do not run "strip" at any stage either.

Step 2: call your code by pointing a web browser at it.

step 3: use the "ps" command to find the PID of your CGI process.

Step 4: start DDD as the user running the CGI process, in the
same directory where the source files are:
        "ddd /path/to/your/binary"

Step 5: connect to the process which will be busy in the
"sleep( 60 )" call, by issuing this command in DDD's command
window:
        attach your_PID

Step 6: debug as normal.

Step 7: When your program exits, just redo steps 1, 2, 3, and 5;
there's no need to exit DDD each time.

Once you've done steps 3 and 5 a few times, you'll find that
60 seconds can be reduced down to about 10 seconds.  Once you've
done it many times, you'll figure out a way to wrap these steps
into a script...

Good luck,
Andrew.