Building a Debugger

Master the inner workings of your x64 Linux system and expand your OS expertise by writing your very own debugger using C++.

If debuggers seem like magic to you, there is no better way to demystify them than to write your own. This book will show you exactly how to do it, walking you through the entire process of building a debugger for x64 Linux systems using C++. As go from an empty filesystem folder to a fully fledged debugger capable of setting breakpoints, stepping through code, manipulating variables, and more, you’ll learn how to:

• Attach to a process
• Read and write to registers
• Set hardware and software breakpoints
• Output disassembly
• Support multithreading and other tasks

As you add features to your debugger, you’ll also pick up a wealth of knowledge about operating systems, compilers, software testing, and low-level programming that you can use in your day-to-day development.

Table of Contents

1. Project Setup  

2. Compilation and Computer Architecture  

3. Attaching to a Process  

4. Pipes, procfs, and Automated Testing  

5. Registers  

6. Testing Registers with x64 Assembly  

7. Software Breakpoints  

8. Memory and Disassembly  

9. Hardware Breakpoints and Watchpoints  

10. Signals and Syscalls  

11. Object Files  

12. Debug Information  

13. Line Tables  

14. Source-Level Breakpoints and Stepping  

15. Call Frame Information  

16. Stack Unwinding  

17. Shared Libraries  

18. Multithreading  

19. Dwarf Expressions  

20. Variables and Types  

21. Expression Evaluation  

22. Advanced Topics  

About the Author

Sy Brand is Microsoft’s C++ Developer Advocate. With more than 10 years’ experience in developer tooling, they’ve worked on profilers, compilers, language runtimes, standard libraries, and, of course, debuggers. They’ve also contributed to the standards for C++, DWARF, and HSA.

They graduated from the University of St Andrews with a 1st class degree in computer science, where they specialized in compiler implementation.

Outside the world of technology, they are a published poet, maker of experimental films and music, activist, and parent to three cats and one entire human.