Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jimbokun 5357 days ago
"Also, using printf() for debugging? In 2011? I seriously hope you guys don't do this."

OK, I'll bite. I haven't done any serious straight up C programming in over a decade, and yes, I used a lot of printf for debugging back then. What's the best way to debug C programs now? (I imagine printf wasn't the best way to debug programs when I was writing C, either.) A different logging library? gdb?

1 comments

printf() is fine if you just want to see if something is being run (assuming, of course, you recognize the flushing caveat we're discussing).

If you're dumping printf()s all over the place to see exactly what flow your program is taking at runtime, you're better off just setting a breakpoint or two and using a debugger to quickly step through it.