Application Note C++ Debugging

Release 02.2025

MANUAL
Application Note C++ Debugging

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Application Note C++ Debugging ............................................................................................. 1

Sample Code used by This Application Note ....................................................................... 3

Gathering Information of Objects .......................................................................................... 4

Display Options Dedicated to Objects 4
Most Derived Class 6
Lifetime of the “this” Pointer 6
Class Conversions 7

Gathering Information of Classes .......................................................................................... 8

C++ Overloading and Symbol Mangling ............................................................................... 9

Demangling 9
Ambiguous Symbols 9
Other Command Line Hints 10

ELF Loader Options ................................................................................................................ 11

Debugging in C++ Code .......................................................................................................... 12

Target Order / Source Order 12
Breakpoints 13

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 2

Application Note C++ Debugging

Version 13-Feb-2025

This application note describes dedicated TRACE32 PowerView commands and approaches that can be
helpful when C++ applications are analyzed.

Sample Code used by This Application Note

Further chapters will contain pictures, commands and source code that are based to a
small sample. This sample code implements two classes A and B, where B is derived UML Class
from A. Diagram
A
Class A n a 1 : in t
n a 1 : in t

A ()
class A { A ( a 1 : in t , a 2 : i n t )
public: S u m ( ) : in t
int na1; ~ A ()

int na2;
A(){na1 = 1; na2 = 2;}
A(int a1, int a2){na1 = a1; na2 = a2;} B
virtual int Sum() { n b 1 : in t
n b 2 : in t
return na1 + na2;
} B ()
virtual ~A(){;} S u m ( ) : in t
~ B ()
};

Class B

class B: public A {
public:
int nb1;
int nb2;
B(){nb1 = 3; nb2 = 4;}
virtual int Sum() {
return A::Sum()+nb1+nb2;
}
virtual ~B(){;}
};

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 3

Gathering Information of Objects

Display Options Dedicated to Objects

The [Link] or [Link] command can show the content of instances of structures or classes. The
command [Link] or the context menu entry Format will open a dialog with various display settings.

The Inherited check box controls whether anything is displayed from the base classes.

To show all known methods of the class, the Methods check box must be turned on. The integer number
after a method indicates the index of that method within the Virtual Function Table.

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 4

 The Hidden check box controls whether artificially created symbols are visible.

V-Table

By the context menu commands “Indirect Dump” and “Indirect List” it is possible to navigate to the virtual
function in order to check if the values match the debug information.

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 5

Most Derived Class

Generic algorithms use the polymorphic nature of classes they work with. These algorithms will handle
pointers to objects that fulfill an interface or are derived from a certain parent class. The Most Derived Class
is the class type that was used to create a particular instance. By default, the [Link] window will treat
these pointers with the type that is used in the current context. The Derived option can be turned on for a
certain entry of the [Link] window by double-clicking the tree node icon or using the context menu.

void TestMostDerivedClass() {
B* pB = new B();
A* pA = pB;
//view content of pA here...
pA = NULL;
delete pB;
};

or

Context
Double click menu
here

To automate the Most Derived Class feature, the [] operator can be used in PRACTICE:

; set nb1 to 1
[Link] (*[pA]).nb1 = 1

; display most derived class of pA

[Link] *[pA]

Lifetime of the “this” Pointer

When a none-static method of a class is called, the object instance is transferred by the call, too. Within the
method a symbol named this will be valid once the stack frame start code has finished. When a method is
implemented into a single line of source code, it is necessary to do assembler steps until this is alive
before any other class member can be observed correctly. The this symbol can be used to show the
members of the instance:

[Link] this

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 6

Class Conversions

The () operator can be used to cast an object to another class.

;cast this pointer to class B and display it

[Link] (B*)this

;cast object at address 0x00114710 to class B and display it

[Link] (B*)0x00114710

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 7

Gathering Information of Classes

There are two ways to gather information about classes: the class browser and the symbol browser.

The class browser lists all known classes in the type column. Righ-clicking a class opens a context menu.

The context menu, for example, provides access to the class hierarchy diagram (Select the View Class
Hierarchy option).

Parent

Via the context menu, it is also possible to view the details of a class (Select the View Details option).

Size
Mangled
Offset Name

The symbol browser can show things that are dedicated to one class by using its capabilities to filter names.

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 8

C++ Overloading and Symbol Mangling

Demangling

In contrast to C, multiple functions can have the same name by using the overloading technique. The
functions must then differ in their parameter signatures. In C++ object files, therefore an exported symbol is
encoded using function name and parameter signature into one mangled name. The mangling can be
different for different compilers. TRACE32 demangles the names controlled by [Link]. The first
parameter set whether the Demangler is turned on. The second parameter controls if the parameter
signature is concatenated to the symbol name.

Symbol of A::A(int,int)
[Link] OFF Demangler switched off __ct__1AFiT1
[Link] ON ON Demangler switched on A::A(int,int)
[Link] ON OFF Demangler switched on, but does A::A
not concatenate parameters

Ambiguous Symbols

Due to the overloading technique of C++, the debug information contains ambiguous short symbol names.
Resolving these symbols will result in an error message:

This behavior can be controlled by the [Link] setting:

[Link] Exact Release error message when ambiguous symbol is resolved

[Link] Best Take the first matching symbol
[Link] Choose Open a symbol browser to select the right symbol

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 9

Other Command Line Hints

C++ symbols are often very long. Therefore use the TAB key to select and automatically complete the input
of a symbol.

Symbols containing brackets must be enclosed in apostrophes to distinguish them from other parser
functions that use brackets.

The symbol browser opens and the symbol matching the passed pattern can be chosen when an input
symbol contains an asterisk character.

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 10

ELF Loader Options

The [Link] command has additional parameters to tune the loader for formats or circumstances it
cannot detect correctly.

Option Behavior

/CPP Used for ELF/STABS format if symbols are loaded correctly.

/CFRONT Load additional symbol information for CFront based compilers

that translate C++ code to C code.

/NoInclude Ignore debug information that is related to code in header files.

/SingleLine One source line is assigned to multiple target code parts.

Therefore the source lines are multiplied, too. In the Source Order
view of the [Link] window, these lines are merged behind a “+”
symbol. When this option is passed, the debugger doesn’t multiply
the source lines. The source line is assigned to the first code part.

/SingleLineAdjacent The option is similar to /SingleLine, but only takes effect if the code
parts are concatenated.

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 11

Debugging in C++ Code

Target Order / Source Order

Due to the usage of inline code, one source line can match multiple code sections. When a memory section
is displayed, it can be source order or target order.

Source Order

Source order mixes the code sections to the order inside the source file:

Target Order mode is active for HLL debugging by default. Both calls of the inline function “malloc2” will
create one code piece each. Due to source order these code pieces are displayed above the
“MultiLineTest2” function. When the function is executed by [Link] commands, the windows selected
source line will jump to the matching code lines. This can be confusing some times.

Target Order

Target Order displays the code in the order of ascending addresses of the code behind:

In this case it is more obvious that the compile has inlined the code from the “malloc2” template. The
execution of the routine by [Link] will work without any confusing jump to other source lines. Target
Order display is the default in Mixed mode debugging.

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 12

Breakpoints

[Link] Sets breakpoints to every function and symbol.

[Link] "[Link] *" A::*

Sometimes it is necessary to break at a method for a certain object. This can be achieved by a breakpoint
containing a condition that checks the passed this pointer of the instance. For example, the this pointer
is passed by register R3 and the object has the address 0x0114710 the breakpoint for the function
A::Sum would be set by:

[Link] A::Sum /CONDition Register(R3)==0114710

©1989-2025 Lauterbach Application Note C++ Debugging | 13