Debugging

CMAKE provides several useful flags for debugging and code analysis. We've included many of these in just recipes for convenience.

Commands to use:

configure-clang-tidy - Enables clang-tidy static analysis during compilation to catch potential bugs and style issues before runtime. The CMAKE flag is -DENABLE_CLANG_TIDY=ON. This will slow down compilation but provides valuable feedback on code quality.

configure-clang-lto - Switches to the clang/clang++ compiler and enables LTO (Link Time Optimization), which can improve performance by optimizing across compilation units during linking. The flags are -DENABLE_LTO=ON -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=clang++ -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER=clang. Note: LTO significantly increases link time but may catch additional optimization-related issues.

configure-asan-ubsan - Enables both ASAN (AddressSanitizer) and UBSAN (UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer) to detect memory errors (buffer overflows, use-after-free, etc.) and undefined behavior at runtime. The flags are -DENABLE_SANITIZER_UNDEFINED_BEHAVIOR=ON -DENABLE_SANITIZER_ADDRESS=ON.
- Important: These sanitizers only detect issues when the problematic code is actually executed.
- If issues are detected, the program will abort and print detailed diagnostic information.

configure-gdb - Compiles with debug symbols preserved and optimizations disabled, enabling effective debugging with GDB (GNU Debugger). The flag is -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug. This allows you to:
- Set breakpoints and step through code line-by-line
- Inspect variable values during execution
- View readable stack traces
- Note: Debug builds are significantly slower than release builds due to disabled optimizations.