C Programming: Debugging with pthreads

One of the hardest things for me to initially adjust to was my first intense experience programming with pthreads in C. I was used to knowing exactly what the next line of code to be run would be and most of my debugging techniques centered around that expectation.

What are some good techniques to debugging with pthreads in C? You can suggest personal methodologies without any added tools, tools you use, or anything else that helps you debug.

P.S. I do my C programming using gcc in linux, but don't let that necessarily restrain your answer

c multithreading debugging pthreads

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In the 'thinking' phase, before you start coding, use the State Machine concept. It can make the design much clearer.

printf's can help you understand the dynamics of your program. But they clutter up the source code, so use a macro DEBUG_OUT() and in its definition enable it with a boolean flag. Better still, set/clear this flag with a signal that you send via 'kill -USR1'. Send the output to a log file with a timestamp.

also consider using assert(), and then analyze your core dumps using gdb and ddd.

answered 2010-02-13T15:17:25.997

C Programming: Debugging with pthreads

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