What should I do if Golang cannot debug?

In recent years, Golang (also known as Go), as an efficient, concise and fast programming language, has been widely favored by developers at home and abroad. However, developers encountered a very difficult problem when using Golang for development: Golang cannot be debugged.

This problem is not a defect of Golang itself, but is related to the difference in Golang operating environment and debugger. In particular, the way Golang operates is quite different from conventional languages, which makes some traditional debugging methods no longer applicable. This article will explore the following questions in detail: Why can't debugging be done in Golang? How to handle debugging of Golang code?

Why can't debugging be done in Golang?

First, let’s take a look at how Golang operates with other languages ​​(such as Java, Python, etc.). In Java, we use JVM to run programs, and we can remotely debug code through Java Debug Wire Protocol (JDWP). Python uses a corresponding interpreter to parse the code, and can use the pdb debugger for local debugging. These debuggers can step through code, observe variable values, etc., which greatly facilitates program development.

Compared with this, the way Golang operates is somewhat different. Golang compiles code into native machine code and runs it, making it difficult for a debugger to obtain information about the internals of a program the usual way. To make matters worse, Golang's default compiler does not support remote debugging protocols, which further limits our ability to debug at runtime.

So, how to solve these problems?

How to handle debugging of Golang code?

In Golang, there are actually two ways to handle debugging: debugging output and GDB debugging.

Debug output

Debug output is the simplest method and is also the method chosen by many developers. Debug output refers to using the log package in the code to output the variable values ​​that need to be debugged to the terminal or log file. This approach adds log output at specific points in the code to understand the internal state of the program at runtime.

The advantage of using debugging output is that it is relatively efficient and can be easily debugged during the development and testing stages. However, when the code size is large, debugging output can produce excessive output, causing performance and readability problems in the program.

GDB Debugging

Another way to debug Golang programs is to use GDB (GNU Debugger). GDB can be used in Linux and MacOS systems and can be integrated with Golang for debugging. Debugging Golang programs using GDB requires generating debuggable binaries for the program.

Generate debuggable binary files: add debugging flags

If you want to use GDB to debug Golang code, you first need to add debugging flags to the Golang program. When building a binary using the go build -gcflags "-N -l" command, you need to add the -gcflags flag. The -N flag tells the compiler to generate binaries containing debugging information, and the -l flag tells the compiler not to disable function inlining.

Example:

$ go build -gcflags "-N -l" -o main main.go

Debug using GDB

When we get Once you have a debuggable binary, you can use GDB to debug your code. You can use the gdb main command to enter the GDB interactive interface. In the interface, we can use the break command to set breakpoints in the code, enable or disable breakpoints, instantly view variable values ​​and expression values, etc.

Example:

$ gdb main
(gdb) break main.go:6
(gdb) run
(gdb) p variable

Of course, the use of GDB debugging is relatively complicated and is not suitable for every developer. However, GDB is an optional debugging tool until there are other debugging tools in Golang.

In addition to the above methods, there are also some third-party debuggers, such as Delve, which can be used to debug Golang programs. Although these tools are not official, they do provide some useful features such as single-stepping, viewing call stacks and goroutines, repeating execution, etc.

Conclusion

Golang debugging does have certain limitations, but it is not absolutely impossible to debug. By using debugging output and GDB debugging, debugging of Golang programs can be completed. In addition, third-party tools such as Delve also provide some support for developers. Through these methods, developers can continue to enjoy the advantages of simplicity, efficiency and speed brought by Golang.

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