Re: Does Insight Actually work or is it just an alpha or pre-alpha?

["Venkat H." <venkat_hanuma@SoftHome.net>]

Insight must not be very popular because it seems like nobody
has responded to your question.  I think the insight debugger
you downloaded is probably just an alpha that still VERY VERY
BUGGY and alot of the features just appear to be there but
are not really implemented yet.

You might consider downloading the source code and
building it yourself and debugging it with some other tools, but
thats a lot if you've never done it before.

good luck!
Vinnie

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Arnold <avr_fan@nettaxi.com>
To: insight@sourceware.cygnus.com <insight@sourceware.cygnus.com>
Date: Friday, June 30, 2000 2:07 AM
Subject: Does Insight Actually work or is it just an alpha or pre-alpha?


>has anyone actually been able to use Insight to do debugging?
>
>I have downloaded the latest and greatest pre-built version for windows95
>and haven't been able to use it at all.  Nice GUI but useless because
>
>1. Breakpoints don't work
>2. Can't load .exe's for debugging
>3. Show's all source in Assembly.
>4. Execution stops with error 193:
>5. Single stepping doesn't work
>
>Let me elaborate:
>
>1. Breakpoints don't work:
>
>run gdb from a bash prompt with executable name as argument: BASH.EXE-2.04$
>gdb foo
>...Insight gui pops up showing source code foo.c  ... set a break point in
>main at the first
>instruction,...click run, then nothing happens, execution doesn't stop at
>the breakpoint,
>focus moves to last line of main() being highlighted and the red breakpoint
>marker there being
>on.
>
>2. Can't load .exe's for debugging:
>...run gdb like so: BASH.EXE-2.04$ gdb
>...gui pops up...from file menu choose Open...browse to and choose an
>executable to debug...
>source is all displayed in assembly, cannot switch view to 'source' the
file
>list at bottom
>of the window has bunch of files not associated with your program
>like...libccrt0.cc, mount.h, _ansi.h...
>and so on.  Execution will stop at a breakpoint, but when trying to single
>step, program seems to
>run to completion and doesn't stop at the next instruction.
>
>3. Source code in Assembly:
>...when loading .exe's from commandline like so: gdb foo  source code is
>shown C but when loading
>from file->open menu only viewable in assembly.
>
>4. Execution stops with error 193:
>load an executable into gdb for debugging,
>open the console view
>(gdb) file foo
>(gdb) break main
>Breakpoint 3 at 0x2704: file foo.c, line 50.
>(gdb) r
>Starting program: /lab5/foo model1
>Error: Error creating process /lab5/foo , (error 193)
>
>
>5. Single stepping doesn't work:
>
>...Same as above, can't step into a program. Have to set a breakpoint first
>I assume and then
>run...but I think this is just the way gdb works right? In order to step
you
>have to first 'run' the program.
>but would be nice if you could step into a program without having to set
any
>breakpoints.
>Sometimes what happens is the execution breaks in one of the cygwin files
>and Insight window is
>showing source like this:
>
>- 0x40374f <cygwin_crt0_common(int (*)(int, char **, char **))+47>:
>- 0x403754 <cygwin_crt0_common(int (*)(int, char **, char **))+52>:
>
>
>I would really like to use Insight to do debugging but so far it's useless
>to me besides having a nice
>GUI.  Can anyone give me any suggestions to resolve these issues?
Initially
>I was very excited to see
>such a great looking front end but that is starting to fade unless I figure
>out how to make this thing work.
>The online help is so minimal, doesn't help much.
>
>/dAVe
>
>