A practical tutorial on debugging using GDB (the GNU project debugger) and DDD (the Data Display Debugger, a graphical front end)

Debugging is of central importance to successful software development, and yet many beginning programmers are unaware of the techniques they can use to reduce the time they spend finding and fixing programming errors. GDB, a popular open source debugger, allows a programmer to trace program execution line by line, set breakpoints, inspect variables, and look at what the program is doing at any given time. Using an assortment of real world coding errors "from simple typos to major logical blunders "The Art of Debugging with GDB and DDD discusses how to manage memory, understand core dumps, and trace programming errors to their root cause. The book covers topics other debugging books omit "such as threaded, server/client, GUI, and parallel programming "as well as how to avoid common debugging pitfalls. Readers also learn about techniques and tools they can use to prevent errors, saving themselves valuable time and effort.