| Scientific Computing with Free Linux Software |
3. Code Development Tools
3.2. Debugging Tools
In this section links are given to mainly debugging tools for GCC and FORTRAN. I understand that python has a debugging module built in though I have not used it. The purpose of a debugger is to allow you to see what is going on inside a program while it executes or what the program was doing when/if it crashed.
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Ftnchek: A FORTRAN checker designed to detect errors in a Fortran program that a compiler usually does not. Therefore it is best to run ftnchek on your FORTRAN programs after it has compiled without errors. Its purpose is to assist the user in finding semantic errors. Semantic errors are legal in the Fortran language but are wasteful or may cause incorrect operation. An on-line manual is available. This project is looking for volunteers to bringing ftnchek up to the Fortran 90 standard.
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gdb : All programs written in the languages supported by GCC can be debugged using gdb, an excellent interactive, command line debugger. You can compile your programs using a -g option which then compiles your code with debugging information inserted into the executable. It can start your programs, stop your programs on specified conditions and at specified locations, examine what happened when your program stops. In a large code with multiple cascading calls to various functions it can back trace the function calls. You can also Download the document Debugging with GDB and a quick reference card.
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xxgdb: It is a front end to the gdb debugger. Useful for beginners to gdb as it lists out the whole gdb commands as buttons with a area for viewing source on which one can include break points, etc by a click of the mouse, and another area for viewing the debugging results.
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DDD: The GNU Data Display Debugger, GNU DDD, is a graphical front-end for command-line debuggers such as GDB, DBX, WDB, Ladebug, JDB, XDB, the Perl debugger, or the Python debugger. Besides ``usual'' front-end features such as viewing source texts it also has a good interactive graphical data display, where data structures are displayed as graphs. Follow this link for a DDD manual in postscript / HTML / PDF format.
Next:
3.3. Version Control Tools
3.4. Integrated Development Environments
Scientific Computing with Free Linux Software
Table of Contents
0. Home
1. Preamble
2. Introduction
3. Code Development Tools
4. Mathematics Packages
5. Numerical Methods and Libraries
6. Graphics and Visualization
7. Programming systems for GNU/Linux
8. Word-Processing and Poster presenting tools on Linux
9. Free Database Management Systems for Linux
10. Linux in the laboratory
