Best unix/linux C++ debuger/IDE ?

Question

All the work I've done in C++ have either been to small to require a good debugger or been on windows so I've used Visual Studio at work.

Now I'm faced with a situation where I need to write some C++ while being on Ubuntu, so after looking over some of the alternatives I have when picking between the IDEs I can honestly say I don't have the foggiest on which one to choose (good debugger > all other features for me, but any recommendations are welcome)

So, to sum it up: Which is the "best" (I assume a lot of people will have a lot of opinion on which one is the "best") C++ IDE/debugger for Linux?

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Good question, of course, but its been done before:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/408418/what-editor-ide-do-you-use-for-c-programming-on-linux-and-why-closed
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/86676/is-there-a-good-and-free-ide-for-c-c-in-linux
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/149321/what-ide-would-be-good-for-linux-kernel-driver-development
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2756/lightweight-ide-for-linux
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/524404/simple-gui-ide

Answer 1

Eclipse

Answer 2

I like the zero-bugs debugger. It's commercial, but you can download a trial version (while limited beta versions are free) and it's got a fair price.

Anyway, I'm using emacs+gdb personally. I put screenshots of it in action on this answer. By the way, next gdb version will support scripting it with python too.

Answer 3

Most (if not all) Linux debuggers are actually gdb wrapped up somewhat. If you just want a debugger, about the best is DDD. For a simple yet workable IDE, I recommend Code::Blocks at http://www.codeblocks.org.

Answer 4

vim + terminal + gdb + frontend

Answer 5

I found Code::Blocks to be the best IDE to work with for C++ on Linux. Its easy to set up (apt-get install ...) , debugging is a breeze, and it has all the mod-cons you'd expect from a modern IDE.

Answer 6

Just for balance, I'll put in a word for KDevelop - maybe not the most polished IDE, but it works (and it has pretty decent debugger integration with gdb)

Answer 7

I've recently discovered that emacs is great at this (and I've been using it for a decade!)...

Before you dismiss this, check this image out:

Emacs/GDB

It does nearly everything fancy graphical debuggers can do, and I suspect some things they can't, like hardware read watches.

Then check out this article:

gdb in emacs

Answer 8

Unfortunately, debugging C++ on Linux is difficult and not too much fun... GDB is the standard debugger and it does not handle c++ well. Just try displaying STL collections and you'll see what I mean -- you get to see the internal structure of the class ... and it is not a pretty sight.

There is some hope, however. You can take a look at Project Archer which attempts to marry a python interpreter to gdb and can pretty print STL collections (and with some python scripts -- your own classes as well). It's not part of any official gdb release but you can download and compile a version from the developer git repository if you like living on the edge :)

ZeroBugs (mentioned in another answer) is a commerical debugger which takes a similar approach. I have never used it as they supply binary packages for a limited number of distributions.

As for IDEs... I'm using DDD as a gdb frontend but you might be better off with plain old emacs. DDD hasn't been updated in years (except perhaps minor fixes) and it shows.