Mastering Debugging: How to Avoid Unwanted Function Calls and Stay Focused

The article discusses strategies for avoiding stepping into uninteresting functions while debugging in different environments like GDB, LLDB, Visual Studio, and Fuchsia's zxdb. It highlights the issue where stepping into a function call may unnecessarily lead to nested functions, particularly in standard libraries like C++. The author addresses how GDB allows skipping functions using the skip command and discusses settings in LLDB to skip library functions by default. Additionally, it mentions Visual Studio's "Just My Code" feature for avoiding framework code during debugging. Alternative approaches in different debugging environments are also outlined, focusing on user productivity by minimizing distractions from complex nested calls.

Key Points:

• Stepping into simple functions like STL calls can disrupt debugging flow in GDB.
• GDB provides a skip command to avoid stepping into specific functions or library calls.
• LLDB has a setting (target.process.thread.step-avoid-regexp) to skip functions starting with std::.
• Visual Studio features like "Just My Code" allow skipping non-user code automatically.
• Fuchsia's zxdb debugger includes a "Step Into Specific" command for targeted stepping into function calls.
• Proposals exist to enhance matching for skipped functions in debugging tools.
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