CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c++valgrind
carsten
carsten

Reputation: 1365

method to trace function call in C++

I'm using a large software package that doesn't have any consistent method error handling. I see error messages like this:

ERROR: stupid message

Now, using grep etc., I was able to find the function where this message is emitted, i.e.

void somefunc(Arg1 arg1, Arg2 arg2, ...){
  // ...
  std::cout << "ERROR: stupid message" << std::endl;
}

However, I have difficulties finding out where this function is called in my usecase. If this was an exception or segfault, I could see the stack trace - but like this, I'm a bit lost.

I can't touch the code of somefunc, so I guess I'll have to use valgrind or something like that to find the offending function call, but I wouldn't know how to do this. I'm using a Linux system and compile my code with g++, but I can't change or recompile the code section containing somefunc. Any suggestions?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1118

Answers (1)

Thomas Matthews
Thomas Matthews

Reputation: 57749

Here are some techniques (tools) to help you:

Use a debugger

Place a breakpoint at the output statement. When the breakpoint is reached, print a back trace or view the call stack.

Generate a call tree

Some documentation tools, like Doxygen, can generate a "caller" and "callee" graph. You can use these to search for possible execution paths.

Upvotes: 1

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