How can I use GDB from inside Visual Studio C++ (Express) to debug my GCC Makefile projects?

Question

I've a couple of Makefile projects on my visual studio (express) 2005/2008 (doesn't matter for now) to compile some application using the MinGW GCC compiler. I don't want to use the MS compiler because there are features that only are available on GCC.

Now I'd like to debug from inside VS since I'm coding from it but this requires me to use GDB (it works from the command line) but i prefer to use the IDE tools.

Is there a way to do this? Even if the Express version is limited and doesn't support it can it be done using the full version?

Answer 1

As far as I know, you can only debug from within the IDE if you have compiled your code with the Microsoft compiler. Otherwise, the Visual Studio debugger doesn't have a clue what to do with the GDB debug information.

Answer 2

If you prefer IDE working under Windows you may be interested in Code Blocks or Qt Creator. They are free.

There are commercial dev-tools for Unixes too: MagicC++ (IDE), debuggers like TotalView, Allinea, Zero-bugs, UndoDB ...

If you want to stay with Visual Studio check this WinGDB.

By the way VirtualBox may be very helpful (I debug (Open)Solaris or Linux as VBox machines very frequently) ;-).