# Debugging Ruby Core **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 23, 2008, 9:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283 "2008-09-23T09:39:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 9:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/1 "2008-09-23T09:39:22Z")
Hello everyone, is there a debugger which I could use for debugging the C-Core if I modify it? Thanks so much, sala ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 10:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/2 "2008-09-23T22:10:36Z")
Saladin M. wrote: > is there a debugger which I could use for debugging the C-Core if I > modify it? There’s nothing special about Ruby’s C core. You can use whatever debugger goes with the compiler you use, eg Microsoft’s debugging tools if compiled with MSVC; gdb if compiled with gcc (although I’ve found gdb on MingW / Windows pretty unstable). If you want a step-through debugger for Ruby, I’d look into ruby-debug. It’s much faster than ruby’s stdlib pure-ruby debugger, and also has nice integration eg with emacs. alex ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 1:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/3 "2008-09-24T13:25:46Z")
Thank you, I’ll have a look! ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/4 "2008-09-24T14:45:22Z")
Alex F. wrote: > Saladin M. wrote: > > > is there a debugger which I could use for debugging the C-Core if I > > modify it? > > There’s nothing special about Ruby’s C core. You can use whatever > debugger goes with the compiler you use, eg Microsoft’s debugging tools > if compiled with MSVC; gdb if compiled with gcc (although I’ve found gdb > on MingW / Windows pretty unstable). > > If you want a step-through debugger for Ruby, I’d look into ruby-debug. > It’s much faster than ruby’s stdlib pure-ruby debugger, and also has > nice integration eg with emacs. > > alex But , in order to do this ( with gdb ) , shouldn’t ruby be recompiled with -g ? Or that option is already set ? ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/5 "2008-09-24T15:50:30Z")
Lex W. wrote: > But , in order to do this ( with gdb ) , shouldn’t ruby be recompiled > with -g ? Or that option is already set ? -g flag to gcc is needed, but recompilation isn’t always going to be necessary. The last time I built ruby (MingW, 1.9.0-4) gcc got the options “-g -O2” without having to do anything special, just “./configure; make” Distro / vendor supplied rubies will vary in how they’re compiled. a ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/6 "2008-09-24T16:01:54Z")
> The last time I built ruby (MingW, 1.9.0-4) gcc got the options “-g -O2” > without having to do anything special, just “./configure; make” I also use MingGW. Do I have to put -g 02 in the config “string” ? (Now I only use: /configure --with-baseruby=/home/MYUSERNAME/ruby-1.8.6/bin/ruby.exe –prefix=/rubytest --program-suffix=test ) How would it look like with the gnu debugger? ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 8:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/7 "2008-10-02T08:23:08Z")
Saladin, did you succeed in debugging the MinGW Ruby? I’m interested in this, too. Regards, Pit ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2008, 4:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/8 "2008-09-24T16:12:22Z")
Saladin M. wrote: > > The last time I built ruby (MingW, 1.9.0-4) gcc got the options “-g -O2” > > without having to do anything special, just “./configure; make” > > I also use MingGW. > Do I have to put -g 02 in the config “string” ? > > (Now I only use: > /configure --with-baseruby=/home/MYUSERNAME/ruby-1.8.6/bin/ruby.exe > –prefix=/rubytest --program-suffix=test > ) > > How would it look like with the gnu debugger? Typically you specify additional/overriding gcc flags with the CFLAGS environment variable, so you could say export CFLAGS=-g ./configure …whatever… I’m surprised that Alex got “-g -O2” automatically. I would not expect Ruby to compile with debugging information by default. ---
**Author:** ![saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@saladinmundi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/saladinmundi)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/debugging-ruby-core/149283/9 "2008-10-02T16:50:13Z")
Pit C. wrote: > Saladin, did you succeed in debugging the MinGW Ruby? I’m interested > in this, too. Hey Pit, well not really. I used this tutorial [http://www.ruby-mine.de/2007/5/7/ruby-1-9-aus-neuen-snapshots-auf-windows-erstellen](http://www.ruby-mine.de/2007/5/7/ruby-1-9-aus-neuen-snapshots-auf-windows-erstellen) from [Ruby-Mine.de](http://Ruby-Mine.de) (unless its in german) Additionally I installed the gnu debugger into msys. But I have no real clue how to really use the debugger. For my actual tasks it is enough to look into the msys console when compiling Ruby. I had a closer look into the compiling dialog from msys and there it shows me the line “gcc -g -02 …” (like Alex mentioned). If this is equivalent to the gnu debugger than I have it. I’m a little bit overstrained with it because I don’t really now what I could really do with it.