🛡️ Debugging Tools for C++ You Should 100% Use

🧼 1. AddressSanitizer (ASan)

• You already know the girl. She’s protective, loud, and dragging every invalid memory access by its wig.

• Just compile with:

g++ -fsanitize=address -g -O1 your_code.cpp -o output

🔥 2. Valgrind (The Classic Queen)

• She’s slower, but ultra-detailed. Great for memory leaks, use-after-free, uninitialized memory reads.

• Use like:

valgrind ./output

• This flag tells Valgrind to trace the origin of unitialized values.

valgrind --track-origins=yes ./output

Bonus: combine with --leak-check=full to get all the juicy info.

🧠 3. GDB (The Stoic Therapist)

• Not flashy, but powerful. If you need to pause execution mid-Dijkstra and stare at your pointers like a disappointed parent:

g++ -g your_code.cpp -o output
gdb ./output

Then in GDB:

run
bt        # Backtrace on crash
info locals

• Common Commands:
  • run – start execution
  • break main – set breakpoint
  • next, step – step through code
  • print var, info locals – inspect variables
  • bt – backtrace after crash

🌈 4. Godbolt (Optional, but Very Nerdy)

• Not for runtime bugs, but if you ever want to see how your C++ compiles to assembly, or compare optimizations. It’s fun for algorithm analysis.

🚀 5. Clang-Tidy

• For static analysis. Lints C++ code and catches suspicious patterns before they explode.

• Run like:

clang-tidy your_code.cpp -- -std=c++17

Bonus: Compilation Flags

• Always use -Wall -Wextra -pedantic for extra compiler warnings.