Problems in carrying out the steps described in the manual

[Ekopalypse]

1. Created a debug version with gcc
2. Saved the current nppPluginList.json under ...\plugins\Config
3. Edited as described in manual (hopefully)
4. Started Npp and PluginAdmin but I don't see the plugin listed

What did I forget to do?

[Ekopalypse]

It looks like the issue is that a debug build of gcc does not count as a debug version :-(

[rdipardo]

It looks like the issue is that a debug build of gcc does not count as a debug version :-(

Did you define _DEBUG for the GCC compiler, the way the VC++ project file does for MSVC?

nppPluginList/vcxproj/nppPluginList.vcxproj

Line 160 in 567f7b8

<PreprocessorDefinitions>_DEBUG;_WINDOWS;_USRDLL;NPPPLUGINLIST_EXPORTS;%(PreprocessorDefinitions)</PreprocessorDefinitions>

Other relevant info:

• what compiler, linker flags are you using?

• 32- or 64-bit? I believe MinGW will decorate functions with the @n suffix in 32-bit mode unless you pass --kill-at to the linker

[Ekopalypse]

Thank you for your interest in my problem.
It looks like gcc wants to see an environment variable called DEBUG with some value, so I defined DEBUG=1 and it creates a debug build. The file is > 100MB and I can use gdb to see the symbols.
For the build process I followed the instructions on how to build with gcc.
I opened a git-bash, exported DEBUG=1 and ran mingw32-make.
Don't be confused by the name, it still sees that I'm on x64 and builds a 64bit executable.

But you are right that DEBUG is not passed to the build. In the makefile would be a
CPP_DEFINE += DEBUG
but this is commented and if I comment it out then the build fails.
Probably the reason why it is commented.

[rdipardo]

Sorry to ask another silly question, but did you also try editing the pl.x64.json manifest under src and recompiling nppPluginList.dll? Ordinarily the list is embedded as a resource string:

nppPluginList/src/resource.h

Lines 33 to 37 in 567f7b8

	#ifdef _M_ARM64
	#define PLJSON "pl.arm64.json"
	#else
	#define PLJSON "pl.x64.json"
	#endif

To be honest, I wasn't aware you could edit an external manifest and have it dynamically loaded by the module 😊

[Ekopalypse]

Don't be sorry - I'm grateful for any help I get.
No, I didn't, I followed the instruction from the manual ... hmm ... maybe that's one way to make it work.
I'll give it a try. Thank you very much. :-)

[rdipardo]

I should have suggested this to start with, but if you check what the pre-processor emits in debug mode, you'll see the expected code path is actually getting compiled:

g++ -DDEBUG --std=c++17 -Wpedantic -Wall -g -DSCI_OWNREGEX \
-I../../scintilla/include -I../../lexilla/include -I../src \
-I../src/ScintillaComponent -I../src/TinyXml -I../src/TinyXml/tinyXmlA \
-I../src/MISC/Common -I../src//MISC/PluginsManager -I../src/MISC/Process \
-I../src/WinControls/AboutDlg -I../src/WinControls -I../src/WinControls/AnsiCharPanel \
-I../src/WinControls/ContextMenu -I../src/WinControls/ColourPicker \
-I../src/WinControls/TabBar -I../src/WinControls//ImageListSet \
-I../src/WinControls/StaticDialog -I../src/WinControls/shortcut \
-I../src/WinControls/ToolBar -I../src/json -I../../boostregex \
-E ../src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp > pluginsAdmin.pre.processed.cpp

That leaves the question of why GDB appeared to be stepping into the release code path in your screen capture. 🤔

[Ekopalypse]

Thank you for all the testing and research you do.
I have not used the VERBOSE environment variable before and yes, that makes it even more confusing ... we should assume it has DEBUG defined ... but I don't see the pre-processing step being done for me.

These are the only two instances of pluginsAdmin.cpp that I see, and I don't see any line with -E at all.

I do see a couple of lines starting with g++ -DDEBUG ... but not for pluginsAdmin.

[Ekopalypse]

Btw ... I'm using g++.exe (MinGW-W64 x86_64-posix-seh, built by Brecht Sanders) 11.2.0
I think, that is the one you use as well, correct?

[chcg]

Maybe you want to check:
https://github.com/chcg/notepad-plus-plus/blob/master/PowerEditor/gcc/makefile#L63
unclear why it is commented out.

[Ekopalypse]

Thanks - I tried that already, with the result that the compilation fails. I assume that is why it is commented.

[chcg]

Sorry I didn't spot it above.

[rdipardo]

@Ekopalypse,

I tried that already, with the result that the compilation fails.

In fact, it fails at exactly the code path you want: the call to PluginsAdminDlg::initFromJson():

../src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp: In member function 'bool PluginsAdminDlg::initFromJson()':
../src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp:709:55: error: no matching function for call to 'std::basic_ifstream<char>::basic_ifstream(generic_string&)'
  709 |         ifstream nppPluginListJson(_pluginListFullPath);
    |                                                       ^
In file included from ../src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp:20:
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:584:9: note: candidate: 'template<class _Path, class _Require> std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>::basic_ifstream(const _Path&, std::ios_base::openmode) [with _Path = _Path; _Require = _Require; _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]'
  584 |         basic_ifstream(const _Path& __s,
    |         ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:584:9: note:   template argument deduction/substitution failed:
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:583:32: error: 'class std::__cxx11::basic_string<wchar_t>' has no member named 'make_preferred'
  583 |       template<typename _Path, typename _Require = _If_fs_path<_Path>>
    |                                ^~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:592:7: note: candidate: 'std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>::basic_ifstream(std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>&&) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]'
  592 |       basic_ifstream(basic_ifstream&& __rhs)
    |       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:592:39: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from 'generic_string' {aka 'std::__cxx11::basic_string<wchar_t>'} to 'std::basic_ifstream<char>&&'
  592 |       basic_ifstream(basic_ifstream&& __rhs)
    |                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:567:7: note: candidate: 'std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>::basic_ifstream(const string&, std::ios_base::openmode) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::string = std::__cxx11::basic_string<char>; std::ios_base::openmode = std::ios_base::openmode]'
  567 |       basic_ifstream(const std::string& __s,
    |       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:567:41: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from 'generic_string' {aka 'std::__cxx11::basic_string<wchar_t>'} to 'const string&' {aka 'const std::__cxx11::basic_string<char>&'}
  567 |       basic_ifstream(const std::string& __s,
    |                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:549:7: note: candidate: 'std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>::basic_ifstream(const wchar_t*, std::ios_base::openmode) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::ios_base::openmode = std::ios_base::openmode]'
  549 |       basic_ifstream(const wchar_t* __s,
    |       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:549:37: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from 'generic_string' {aka 'std::__cxx11::basic_string<wchar_t>'} to 'const wchar_t*'
  549 |       basic_ifstream(const wchar_t* __s,
    |                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:534:7: note: candidate: 'std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>::basic_ifstream(const char*, std::ios_base::openmode) [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>; std::ios_base::openmode = std::ios_base::openmode]'
  534 |       basic_ifstream(const char* __s, ios_base::openmode __mode = ios_base::in)
    |       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:534:34: note:   no known conversion for argument 1 from 'generic_string' {aka 'std::__cxx11::basic_string<wchar_t>'} to 'const char*'
  534 |       basic_ifstream(const char* __s, ios_base::openmode __mode = ios_base::in)
    |                      ~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:523:7: note: candidate: 'std::basic_ifstream<_CharT, _Traits>::basic_ifstream() [with _CharT = char; _Traits = std::char_traits<char>]'
  523 |       basic_ifstream() : __istream_type(), _M_filebuf()
    |       ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~
c:\winlibs-mingw-msvcrt\current\include\c++\11.2.0\fstream:523:7: note:   candidate expects 0 arguments, 1 provided
mingw32-make[1]: *** [makefile:239: bin.x86_64-debug.build/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.o] Error 1
mingw32-make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....

Looks like an issue with MinGW's support of the C++17 standard.
As it currently makes debug builds impossible, there will definitely be a patch against N++ when this gets figured out.

[rdipardo]

@Ekopalypse, does it work better like this?

diff --git a/PowerEditor/gcc/makefile b/PowerEditor/gcc/makefile
index 4f0ce59f..c97ced4d 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/gcc/makefile
+++ b/PowerEditor/gcc/makefile
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ else
 BUILD_TYPE := debug
 BUILD_SUFFIX := -debug
 CXXFLAGS += -Og -g -Wall -Wpedantic -Wconversion-null
-#CPP_DEFINE += DEBUG
+CPP_DEFINE += DEBUG
 endif
 
 #
diff --git a/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp b/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp
index 8a091ad1..34f52373 100644
--- a/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp
+++ b/PowerEditor/src/WinControls/PluginsAdmin/pluginsAdmin.cpp
@@ -706,7 +706,11 @@ bool PluginsAdminDlg::initFromJson()
 #ifdef DEBUG // if not debug, then it's release
 	
 	// load from nppPluginList.json instead of nppPluginList.dll
+#ifdef __MINGW32__
+	ifstream nppPluginListJson(_pluginListFullPath.c_str());
+#else
 	ifstream nppPluginListJson(_pluginListFullPath);
+#endif	
 	nppPluginListJson >> j;
 
 #else //RELEASE

0001-Fix-GCC-Debug-build.diff.txt

[Ekopalypse]

Brilliant, YES, this works!!
Thank you very much.

Don't be confused by the "build time", it still shows yesterday's date because I replaced the existing exe with the newly created exe.