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LM33

This document discusses debugging techniques for software. It begins by explaining what debugging is and how the terms "bug" and "debugging" originated from a moth found in a computer at Harvard. It then provides nine rules for debugging, including understanding the system, making it fail, quitting thinking and looking, dividing and conquering, changing one thing at a time, keeping an audit trail, checking the plug, getting a fresh view, and ensuring it is truly fixed if you think you fixed it. The document also discusses debugging methods, tools, and techniques as well as ways to prevent bugs.

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39 views21 pages

LM33

This document discusses debugging techniques for software. It begins by explaining what debugging is and how the terms "bug" and "debugging" originated from a moth found in a computer at Harvard. It then provides nine rules for debugging, including understanding the system, making it fail, quitting thinking and looking, dividing and conquering, changing one thing at a time, keeping an audit trail, checking the plug, getting a fresh view, and ensuring it is truly fixed if you think you fixed it. The document also discusses debugging methods, tools, and techniques as well as ways to prevent bugs.

Uploaded by

manideepak.c
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 21

Finding and solving

problems in software

Debugging
What is debugging?

"Bug" and "debugging" are attributed to the


discovery of a moth found in a Mark II computer at
Harvard University.

Debugging is not troubleshooting


Debugging Rules...
1. Understand the system

2. Make it fail

3. Quit thinking and look

4. Divide and Conquer

5. Change one thing at a time

6. Keep an audit trail

7. Check the plug

8. Get a fresh view

9. If you didn't fix it, it aint fixed


Debugging - A Simple Method
a) Start
|
b) Construct a Hypothesis
|
c) Construct an Experiment
|
d) Hypothesis Proved? - goto b)
|
Need more evidence? - goto c)
|
Stop
1. Understanding the System

Know the fundamentals of the system

Understand the frameworks involved

Read the API's and communication interfaces

Know your tools

Understand what each module of the system does


2. Make it Fail

Start at the beginning

Automate the failure

No detail is insignificant

Intermittent failures?

Isolate the failure

Build debugging tools and test harnesses


3. Quit thinking and look
Gather the low level details and "see" the failure

Understand the context of the bug

Design instrumentation in:


● Runtime statistics
● Status messages
● Debug logging - be descriptive!!!
● Deployment time environment checks

Hypothesise and test


4. Divide and Conquer
Narrow the search down, software AND
hardware. Successive approximation.

Start at the bad end (e.g. the error log) and work
your way up the chain looking at the various
points on the way

Fix the bugs you know about - fixing one could


fix the other

Fix the noise first, but don't go nuts


5. Change one thing at a time
Compare with a good one !

Use a rifle not a shotgun

What's changed recently, it used to work!

Separate environment and product


6. Keep an audit trail
Keep a day book of what you did

During debugging write down...

1.What you did...


2.In what order...
3.And what happened!

Be specific and consistent

Correlate symptoms with others

Version control and change logs are great for


determining an audit trail of what's changed
7. Check the plug
Question your assumptions
8. Get a Fresh View
Get another viewpoint on the solution

Talk to somebody about the problem

Ask an expert:
●Email the author
●Check the forums
●Subscribe to the mailing list

Make sure you report symptoms not theories


9. If you didn't fix it, it aint fixed!
The most important lesson by far...

●Fix the root cause

●Make sure it can't possibly happen again

●Fix the process at fault

"We didn't see an issue until we deployed into the production


environment"

= Deploy early and deploy often


Debugging Methods and Tools
Debugging Methods

Print/Trace Debugging - watching the flow of execution after


adding print statements to the original code

Remote Debugging - connect to a remote system with a


debugger, monitor the execution and state

Post Mortem Debugging - analysis of a memory dump from a


program that has crashed

Profiling - not debugging per se, but a useful technique for


analysing a running program to look for issues
Lesser Known (?) Debugging Methods

Rubber Ducking - explaining your problem to someone else.


Stating the problem aloud in order to work it out.

Failfirst - Write a unit test that exposes the failure, correct the
code and make it pass

Saff Squeeze - Write a system test, inline code, write test, repeat
until fixed
http://www.threeriversinstitute.org/HitEmHighHitEmLow.html

Chaos Monkey - AWS Netflix approach - randomly kill and test


areas. Fail consistently to test fault tolerant software.
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/04/working-with-the-chaos-monkey.html
Eclipse Debugging 1

Set breakpoints in the code

Step into, over, return

Watches - display a variable value

Hit counts

Setting an exception breakpoint

Setting a method breakpoint


Eclipse Debugging 2

Class load breakpoint

Using display after a breakpoint has been hit

Attaching a remote debugger via a JDB agent


Bug Taxonomies and Bug Types

There are ways to categorise bugs... lots of


taxonomies available from research literature

Some bug types include:

●Bohrbug - bug that manifests itself consistently


under a set of conditions

●Heisenbug - bug that alters its' characteristics


when studied
Preventing Bugs
Debugging is hard and expensive in terms of fixing
the bug, testing it and re-deploying it...

We can try and prevent bugs with:

●Code Review

●Defensive Programming

●Precondition, postcondition and invariant checking

●Assertions
Further Resources

●Debugging - The 9 Indispensable Rules for Finding


Even The Most Elusive Software and Hardware
Problems - David Agans

●Debug It! : Find, Repair and Prevent Bugs in Your


Code (Pragmatic Programmers) - Paul Butcher

●Testing Education
- http://www.testingeducation.org/a/bugtax.pdf

●Lars Vogels Debugging Overview (2011) -


http://www.vogella.de/articles/EclipseDebugging/articl

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