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doc: some additional contents for the debugging helpers

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Reviewed-by: Leena Miettinen
(cherry picked from commit 0b99631b0a)
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hjk
2010-08-20 11:58:53 +02:00
parent fb56c37b85
commit c00266c254
1 changed files with 32 additions and 8 deletions
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doc/qtcreator.qdoc
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@@ -4900,22 +4900,46 @@
\title Using Debugging Helpers
\section1 Debugging Helper Library with C++
Qt Creator is able to show complex data types in a customized,
user-extensible manner. For this purpose, it takes advantage of
two technologies, collectively referred to as \e{Debugging Helpers}.
While debugging, Qt Creator dynamically loads a helper library into your
program. This helper library enables Qt Creator to pretty print Qt and STL
types. The Qt SDK package already contains a prebuilt debugging helper
Using the debugging helpers is not \e essential for debugging
with Qt Creator, but they enhance the user's ability to quickly
examine complex data significantly.
\section1 Debugging Helpers based on C++
This is the first and original approach to display complex data
types. While it has been superseded on most platforms by the more
robust and more flexible second approch using Python scripting,
it is the only feasible one on Windows/MSVC, Mac OS, and
old Linux distributions. Moreover, this approach will automatically
be chosen as fallback in case the Python based approach fails.
During debugging with the C++ based debugging helpers,
Qt Creator dynamically loads a helper library in form of a DLL or a
shared object into the debugged process.
The Qt SDK package already contains a prebuilt debugging helper
library. To create your own debugging helper library, select \gui{Tools} >
\gui{Options...} > \gui{Qt4} > \gui{Qt Versions}. As the internal data
structures of Qt can change between versions, the debugging helper
library is built for each Qt version.
\section1 Debugging Helper Library with Python
\section1 Debugging Helpers based on Python
With the gdb Python version, you can
use debugging helpers also for user defined types. To do so,
define one Python function per user defined type in \c{.gdbinit}.
On platforms featuring a Python-enabled version of the gdb debugger,
the data extraction is done by a Python script. This is more robust
as the script execution is separated from the debugged process. It
is also easier to extend as the script is less dependend on the
actual Qt version and does not need compilation.
To extend the shipped Python based debugging helpers for custom types,
define one Python function per user defined type in the
gdb startup file. By default, the following startup file is used:
\c{~/.gdbinit}. To use another file, select \gui {Tools > Options... > Gdb}
and specify a filename in the \gui {Gdb startup script} field.
The function name has to be qdump__NS__Foo, where NS::Foo is the class
or class template to be examined. Nested namespaces are possible.