rdb

A Linux debugger written in Rust. This is a project for learning Rust and about debuggers. The implementation follows along with Writing a Linux Debugger, porting the code over to Rust.

The main dependencies used are the libc crate to interact with the kernel using ptrace (which is how the debugger controls the target process) and gimli for parsing debug info for source-level debugging. Rdb also uses rustyline to make the command-line input nicer to use, and clap to simplify parsing commands and arguments.

Here's an interesting session with the debugger, running a simple "Hello, world" program (test.rs):

$ cargo build
$ ./target/debug/rdb ./target/debug/test
debugging pid 392654
rdb> break use_vars
set breakpoint at 0x31560: file src/bin/test.rs, line 4 (in use_vars)
rdb> continue
hit breakpoint 0x7b48
/home/tchajed/rdb/src/bin/test.rs:
   fn use_vars() {
>      let mut a: u64 = 3;
       let mut b: u64 = 2;
rdb> bt
frame #1 at 0x7b48, file src/bin/test.rs at line 4 (in use_vars)
frame #2 at 0x7bf9, file src/bin/test.rs at line 34 (in test::main)
rdb> next
/home/tchajed/rdb/src/bin/test.rs:
       let mut a: u64 = 3;
>      let mut b: u64 = 2;
       let c = a + b;
rdb> finish
/home/tchajed/rdb/src/bin/test.rs:
       use_vars();
>      greeting();
       call_little_functions();
rdb> step
/home/tchajed/rdb/src/bin/test.rs:
   #[no_mangle]
>  fn greeting() {
       println!("Hello, world");
rdb> continue
Hello, world
program exited
rdb> quit