XCode: Problems with the debugger

I am having serious issues with the debugger NOT stopping at break points, doing a step into or step over causes the program to just run and not step to the next statement.

I have the debug mode on, I have it set to zero optimizations, full symbols, full debug. What else do I need to do so I can step through my code without it running away? I have done cleans, and full rebuilds, tweaked some linker flags, but no matter what I do, I can't step through a program reliably and even if I have 50 break points in, it will skip them all.

EMac, Mac Mini, Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Posted on Sep 16, 2008 10:02 AM

19 replies

Oct 1, 2008 7:46 AM in response to TheSilverHammer

Is it possible you have a custom project template that is overriding the default template, and that would have survived the uninstall/reinstall process? (Look in /Library/Developer Tools/Shared/Xcode/Project Templates or /Library/Developer Tools/2.5/Xcode/Project Templates, or the equivalent path under your home directory.)

I believe DWARF has been the preferred format since Xcode 2.4, but there are some reasons to prefer STABS (although I don't recall them since I haven't personally encountered them). You may have to google around for this; sorry I can't be more helpful there.

Oct 1, 2008 8:49 AM in response to Russell Finn

I didn't find any extra project templates where you suggested. However I did a search for "Project Templates" and found two locations. I installed XCode again and rebooted. The 2nd templates was still there, in /Library/Application Support/Apple/Project Templates. It looked like the same XCode stuff, so I nuked the folder and rebooted again hoping I didn't screw something up. It reboots, and I search and there are no project templates directories. I reinstall XCode 2.5, reboot, make a new c++ cmd line tool, and both debug and release are identical. Oh well.

Oct 1, 2008 9:15 AM in response to TheSilverHammer

Well, you know what? I tried it out, and got the same thing -- on 2.5 the Debug and Release configurations appear to be identical. How bizarre. Sorry to waste your time.

On 3.1, there are subtle differences -- both configurations compile with the same compiler flags, only the Release configuration uses "DWARF with dSYM" instead of "DWARF" -- i.e. the debugging symbols are in separate files, not in the output application -- and it performs some additional stripping as well. But both configurations generate debugging symbols. (For optimization, Debug uses -O0 while Release uses -Os.)

None of this solves your original problem, of course. Sorry I couldn't be more help. (For what it's worth, I think Xcode 3.1 is a big improvement over 2.5, if that helps you decide to upgrade...)

Oct 1, 2008 9:25 AM in response to Russell Finn

No problem man. It is not if I decide to upgrade, but if my company decides I need an upgrade. I suppose once they must support 10.5 only stuff they will have to upgrade my machine.

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XCode: Problems with the debugger