Debugging Eigen in VSCode

3
votes

During debugging I'd like to have access to eigen matrices and vectors values. It seems that once I have a .natvis file, a custom view of c++ object could be created. There is a .natvis file for Eigen here, however I don't know a way to integrate it with VSCode. I also tried a gdb extension but didn't work out.

Current debugger view

How can I do that? Or what other solution do I have?

1
debuggingvisual-studio-codeeigenvscode-debugger
GDB extension works fine on my linux system. example output. Can you please provide details on how did you try using the extension? - Sumit Dey
@SumitDey I think I have done something wrong then! It is working now. - ignacio
@SumitDey Would you mind writing a tutorial for that so I can mark your answer as right answer? - ignacio

1 Answers

1
votes

GDB Extension

It is basic but supports fixed size as well as dynamic size matrices, and should suffice for ordinary use cases. Result: Expect to view Eigen matrices on VS Code as the sample here.

Setup (linux)

  1. Copy / create required files:
wget -P ~/gdbExtensions/ "https://bitbucket.org/eigen/eigen/raw/default/debug/gdb/printers.py"
touch ~/gdbExtensions/__init__.py
  1. Add extension to the .gdbinit (replace <USER> with username; basically provide absolute path to ~/gdbExtensions):
echo -en "\
python \n\
import sys \n\
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/<USER>/gdbExtensions') \n\
from printers import register_eigen_printers \n\
register_eigen_printers (None) \n\
end\n" >> ~/.gdbinit

The above info is available in the file documentation.