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automatically add a breakpoint that breaks on postgres errors (#7279)
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When debugging postgres it is quite hard to get to the source for
`errfinish` in `elog.c`. Instead of relying on the developer to set a
breakpoint in the `elog.c` file for `errfinish` for `elevel == ERROR`,
this change adds the breakpoint to `.gdbinit`. This makes sure that
whenever a debugger is attached to a postgres backend it will break on
postgres errors.

When attaching the debugger a small banner is printed that explains how
to disable the breakpoint.
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thanodnl authored Oct 27, 2023
1 parent f9218d9 commit d0b093c
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28 changes: 28 additions & 0 deletions .devcontainer/.gdbinit
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# actually also works when debugging with vscode. Providing nice tools
# to understand the internal datastructures we are working with.
source /root/gdbpg.py

# when debugging postgres it is convenient to _always_ have a breakpoint
# trigger when an error is logged. Because .gdbinit is sourced before gdb
# is fully attached and has the sources loaded. To make sure the breakpoint
# is added when the library is loaded we temporary set the breakpoint pending
# to on. After we have added out breakpoint we revert back to the default
# configuration for breakpoint pending.
# The breakpoint is hard to read, but at entry of the function we don't have
# the level loaded in elevel. Instead we hardcode the location where the
# level of the current error is stored. Also gdb doesn't understand the
# ERROR symbol so we hardcode this to the value of ERROR. It is very unlikely
# this value will ever change in postgres, but if it does we might need to
# find a way to conditionally load the correct breakpoint.
set breakpoint pending on
break elog.c:errfinish if errordata[errordata_stack_depth].elevel == 21
set breakpoint pending auto

echo \n
echo ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n
echo when attaching to a postgres backend a breakpoint will be set on elog.c:errfinish \n
echo it will only break on errors being raised in postgres \n
echo \n
echo to disable this breakpoint from vscode run `-exec disable 1` in the debug console \n
echo this assumes it's the first breakpoint loaded as it is loaded from .gdbinit \n
echo this can be verified with `-exec info break`, enabling can be done with \n
echo `-exec enable 1` \n
echo ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------\n
echo \n

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