# GDBFrontend | Easy, Flexible & Extensionable GUI Debugger

**URL:** <https://onehack.st/t/gdbfrontend-easy-flexible-extensionable-gui-debugger/88008>\
**Category:** Tools & Scripts\
**Tags:** tools, programming\
**Created:** [May 23, 2020, 2:41pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/gdbfrontend-easy-flexible-extensionable-gui-debugger/88008 "2020-05-23T14:41:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BlueHacker](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/bluehacker/32/174721_2.png) [@BlueHacker](https://onehack.st/u/BlueHacker)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2020, 2:41pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/gdbfrontend-easy-flexible-extensionable-gui-debugger/88008/1 "2020-05-23T14:41:41Z")

</div>

![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/5/2/524f18bb080250770adb512e9950d67728f65270.png)

GDBFrontend is an easy, flexible and extensionable gui debugger.

 ![image](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/0/3/03a988461cbb49ae20cf4ab37d746bd739e60476.png)

## Installing

### Deb Package (Debian / Ubuntu / KDE Neon)

You can install GDBFrontend via deb package for Debian-based distributions.

You can install it from following commands:

echo “deb [trusted=yes] [https://oguzhaneroglu.com/deb/](https://oguzhaneroglu.com/deb/) ./” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list \> /dev/null sudo apt update sudo apt install gdbfrontend

After installing with APT, you will get updates for new releases on APT upgrade.

You can get upgrades with following commands:

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade gdbfrontend

and you can run it:

gdbfrontend

### Running From GIT

You can download latest source and run it.

#### Requirements

- GDB =\> 8.2 (with python3)
- python3
- tmux

You can run gdb-frontend with following commands:

git clone [https://github.com/rohanrhu/gdb-frontend.git](https://github.com/rohanrhu/gdb-frontend.git) gdb-frontend cd gdb-frontend ./gdbfrontend

and you can open it with:

```auto
http://127.0.0.1:5551/terminal/

```

or without terminal:

```auto
http://127.0.0.1:5551/

```

You can open GDB shell with the command:

tmux a -t gdb-frontend

### Flatpak

Flatpak package is a TODO.

## `./gdbfrontend`

```auto
$ gdbfrontend --help
GDBFrontend is a easy, flexible and extensionable gui debugger.

Options:
  --help, -h: Shows this help message.
  --version, -v: Shows version.
  --gdb-executable=PATH, -g PATH: Specifies GDB executable path (Default is "gdb" command on PATH environment variable.)
  --tmux-executable=PATH, -tmux PATH: Specifies Tmux executable path (Default is "tmux" command on PATH environment variable.)
  --terminal-id=NAME, -t NAME: Specifies tmux terminal identifier name (Default is "gdb-frontend".)
  --host=IP, -H IP: Specifies current host address that you can access via for HTTP and WS servers.
  --listen=IP, -l IP: Specifies listen address for HTTP and WS servers.
  --port=PORT, -p PORT: Specifies port range for three ports to (Gotty: PORT, HTTP: PORT+1, WS: PORT+2 or 0 for random ports).
  --http-port=PORT: Specifies HTTP server port.
  --server-port=PORT: Specifies WS server port.
  --gotty-port=PORT: Specifies Gotty server port.
  --readonly, -r: Makes code editor readonly. (Notice: This option is not related to security.)
  --workdir, -w: Specifies working directory.
  --plugin-dir, -P: Specifies plugins directory.
  --verbose, -V: Enables verbose output.

```

### Options

#### `--help` , `-h`

Shows help text.

#### `--version` , `-v`

Shows version.

#### `--gdb-executable=PATH` , `-g PATH`

You can specify GDB executable path like `gdbfrontend --gdb-executable=/path/to/gdb` . (Optional)

#### `--tmux-executable=PATH` , `-tmux PATH`

You can specify Tmux executable path like `gdbfrontend --tmux-executable=/path/to/tmux` . (Optional)

#### `--terminal-id=PATH` , `-t PATH`

You can specify Tmux terminal id like `gdbfrontend --terminal-id=terminal-name` . (Default: `gdb-frontend` )

#### `--host=IP` , `-H IP`

Specifies current host address that you can access via for HTTP and WS servers.

#### `--listen=IP` , `-l IP`

Specifies listen address for HTTP and WS servers.

#### `--port=PORT` , `-p PORT`

Specifies port range for three ports to (Gotty: PORT, HTTP: PORT+1, WS: PORT+2 or 0 for random ports).

#### `--http-port=PORT`

Specifies HTTP server port.

#### `--server-port=PORT`

Specifies WS server port.

#### `--gotty-port=PORT`

Specifies Gotty server port.

#### `--readonly, -r`

Makes code editor readonly. (Notice: This option is not related to security.)

#### `--workdir, -w`

Specifies working directory.

#### `--plugin-dir, -P`

Specifies plugins directory.

#### `--verbose` , `-V`

Enables verbose output.

## Troubleshooting

### Zombie Processes

Sometimes GDB and gdb-frontend may not be closed correctly. In this case, you can terminate gdb-frontend shell.

tmux kill-session -t gdb-frontend

## GDB-Related Issues and Tips

- GDB does not give sources of linked object **until stepping a line that calls a function from the linked object once**. You can add break point a line and step it once, then you will see sources from linked object hereafter during the session.

## Windows

In fact, gdb-frontend is able to run on Windows but there are some serious issues in the GDB’s Windows version those avoid using gdb-frontend on Windows. Of course you can use gdb-frontend on WSL if you are using Windows 10.

### Issues about Windows-GDB

- GDB’s main-thread is being blocked during running process. (gdb-frontend has an interrupting mechanism to fixing this but it is not enough yet.)
- Windows-GDB’s prompt is being blocked during running process and there are some issues about interrupting the application.
- Current release of Windows-GDB contains Python2. New GDB 9 have Python3 but it is not released yet.

## WSL

You can use gdb-frontend on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

### Issues about WSL

- Random port option is not usable on WSL becasue `/proc/net/tcp` interface is not working on WSL.

## Documentation

Documentation is TODO yet.

## API Documentation

API Documentation is TODO yet.

## Plugin Development

You can read the [Plugin Development Tutorial](https://github.com/rohanrhu/gdb-frontend/wiki/Plugin-Development-Tutorial).

## GitHub:

> **[GitHub - rohanrhu/gdb-frontend: ☕ GDBFrontend is an easy, flexible and extensible...](https://github.com/rohanrhu/gdb-frontend)**
>
> ☕ GDBFrontend is an easy, flexible and extensible gui debugger.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![darekingdom](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/darekingdom/32/36081_2.png) [@darekingdom](https://onehack.st/u/darekingdom)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 9:02am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/gdbfrontend-easy-flexible-extensionable-gui-debugger/88008/2 "2020-05-24T09:02:02Z")

</div>

Looks cool. Should give it a try,