Running setup.sh on installed Pwndbg should be more clear

[disconnect3d]

We have this at the end of our setup.sh:

pwndbg/setup.sh

Lines 157 to 160 in f01f932

	# Load Pwndbg into GDB on every launch.
	if ! grep pwndbg ~/.gdbinit &> /dev/null; then
	echo "source $PWD/gdbinit.py" >> ~/.gdbinit
	fi

This can be confusing for users when they try to install Pwndbg for the second time but they haven't cleared the ~/.gdbinit file.

I guess we should:

• Check for source <gdbinit.py> in ~/.gdbinit as the very first thing in setup.sh
• If we find an entry, we should ask the user if they want to proceed and override the initializer line
• If the user don't want to proceed, we should stop the installation
• If the user wants to proceed, we should install all deps etc, and add the source ... line to ~/.gdbinit at the end of setup.sh

[Cycatz]

@disconnect3d Could I take this?

[disconnect3d]

@Cycatz Hi, sure.

[Cycatz]

@disconnect3d I have an idea: we can mark the region of the configs added by the setup script, such as ### Begin of pwndbg configs ### and ### End of pwndbg configs###.

Thus we can remove the config between the comments when user want to overwrite, and it also avoids some false positives when simply grepping "pwndbg" in .gdbinit (e.g., a comment # pwndbg falls out of the condition).

[disconnect3d]

@Cycatz We can do so, but will it actually improve anything? I mean, the user could still put anything in between that and may want to have those preserved on another pwndbg install :/

[Cycatz]

I mean, the user could still put anything in between that and may want to have those preserved on another pwndbg install :/

You're right, the user could still put anything in between the tags.

My concern is that the condition if ! grep pwndbg ~/.gdbinit &> /dev/null; is not robust enough to handle the scenarios where a user has comments with the word "pwndbg" or has renamed the cloned directory of pwndbg. In these cases, the grep command would not be able to accurately detect the presence of pwndbg in the user's ~/.gdbinit file, which could lead to problems with the installation process.

Anyway, it's up to you to decide if the potential benefits are worth the effort of implementing this feature.

[disconnect3d]

Shall we then look for 'pwndbg/gdbinit.py' and then fallback to gdbinit.py?

[Cycatz]

Shall we then look for 'pwndbg/gdbinit.py' and then fallback to gdbinit.py?

Yes, I think that's a good idea!

[Cycatz]

Here is my rough implementation:

# Check for the presence of the initializer line in the user's ~/.gdbinit file
if grep -q "pwndbg/gdbinit.py" ~/.gdbinit; then
    # Ask the user if they want to proceed and override the initializer line
    read -p "An initializer line was found in your ~/.gdbinit file. Do you want to proceed and override it? (y/n) " answer

    # If the user does not want to proceed, exit the script
    if [ "$answer" != "y" ]; then
        exit 0
    fi
fi

# Install all necessary dependencies

# Check for the presence of the initializer line in the user's ~/.gdbinit file again
if grep -q "pwndbg/gdbinit.py" ~/.gdbinit; then
    # If so, comment it out
    sed -i '/pwndbg\/gdbinit.py/ s/^/# /' ~/.gdbinit
fi
# Now we can append the line sourcing pwndbg's gdbinit script
echo "source $PWD/gdbinit.py" >> ~/.gdbinit

[disconnect3d]

@Cycatz Can you just send this as a pull request? :)

[Cycatz]

Sure! I will clean the file up and issue a PR in these two days.

[Cycatz]

Fixed in #1620

[gsingh93]

@disconnect3d anything left to be done here or can this be closed?

[disconnect3d]

I think we are good to close it. Thanks again!