Hacker News with Generative AI: Debugging

Practicing graphical debugging using visualizations of the Hilbert curve (akkartik.name)
For a while now I've been advocating for a particular style of programming: Use tools that don't change too often. Use tools that don't keep historical accidents around indefinitely. Minimize moving parts. Avoid additional third-party libraries, and forswear native libraries entirely.
Debugging, Visualization, Software Development, Programming Languages
30 points by akkartik 19 hours ago | 1 comments
Disabling kernel functions in your process (2009) (chadaustin.me)
Detecting and reporting unhandled exceptions with SetUnhandledExceptionFilter seemed logical, and, in fact, it worked... for a while. Eventually, we started to notice failures that should have been reported as a last-chance exception but weren't. After much investigation, we discovered that both Direct3D and Flash were installing their own unhandled exception filters! Worse, they were fighting over it, installing their handlers several times per second!
Programming, Windows, Debugging, Security, Software Development
34 points by rolph 2 days ago | 6 comments
Emulator Debugging: Area 5150's Lake Effect (blogspot.com)
My last few articles on bus sniffing the IBM 5150 have been building up to this one. We're going to leverage our bus sniffer and sniffer decoder to finally debug Area5150's "Lake" effect.
Debugging, Emulators, IBM 5150
68 points by rbanffy 4 days ago | 9 comments
Poireau: A Sampling Allocation Debugger (github.com/backtrace-labs)
Poireau: a sampling allocation debugger
Debugging, Software, Tools
9 points by luu 4 days ago | 2 comments
Backtrace is finally cheap by abusing x86/Linux's shadow stack (intmainreturn0.com)
Backtrace is a very helpful debugging tool in native programming by giving out the source location at each call level. Unfortunately, getting a backtrace is expensive.
Debugging, Programming, Linux, Optimization, x86
15 points by htfy96 5 days ago | 0 comments
Setenv() isn't threadsafe and even safe Rust didn't save us (geldata.com)
We're in the process of porting a significant portion of the network I/O code in EdgeDB from Python to Rust, and we've been learning a lot of very interesting lessons in the process.
Rust, Programming Languages, Networking, Software Development, Debugging
4 points by fanf2 7 days ago | 1 comments
Using TLA+ in the Real World to Understand a Glibc Bug (2020) (probablydance.com)
TLA+ is a formal specification language that you can use to verify programs. It’s different from other formal verification systems in that it’s very pragmatic. Instead of writing proofs, it works using the simple method of running all possible executions of a program. You can write assertions and if they’re not true for any possible execution, it tells you the shortest path through your program that breaks your assertion.
Formal Verification, Programming Languages, Debugging, Software Development
14 points by Tomte 7 days ago | 0 comments
Use Method: Linux Performance Checklist (brendangregg.com)
The USE Method provides a strategy for performing a complete check of system health, identifying common bottlenecks and errors. For each system resource, metrics for utilization, saturation and errors are identified and checked. Any issues discovered are then investigated using further strategies.
Linux, Performance Optimization, System Administration, Debugging, Troubleshooting
7 points by Tomte 9 days ago | 0 comments
Show HN: I made a platform to debug Puppeteer (JS) crashes visually (buglesstack.com)
JavaScript, Debugging, Puppeteer, Web Development, Tools
24 points by ivanalemunioz 10 days ago | 2 comments
A Taxonomy of Bugs (ruby0x1.github.io)
Debugging is often an undervalued skill. It’s not really taught in schools (as far as I know), instead, you kind of have to pick it up as you go along. Today, I’ll try to remedy that by looking at some common bugs and what to do about them.
Debugging, Software Development, Programming
52 points by lissine 10 days ago | 24 comments
Self-hostable webhook tester in go (testwebhook.xyz)
Webhook Tester is a lightweight platform that lets developers create temporary webhook endpoints to inspect and debug HTTP requests in real-time.
Go, Webhooks, Debugging, Development Tools
76 points by muliswilliam 10 days ago | 15 comments
The Audio Stack Is a Crime Scene (mataroa.blog)
You plug in headphones. Nothing. You unplug them again. Still nothing. The speakers are muted. The system says they aren’t. You check volumes. You restart Pulse. You restart PipeWire. You restart your whole damn session. And still—no sound.
Audio, Debugging, Linux
83 points by todsacerdoti 11 days ago | 18 comments
"just" is a four letter word (neverjust.net)
Picture yourself wrestling with a complex problem - maybe it's an elusive bug in a legacy codebase, or a fragile system architecture held together by workarounds and technical debt. You've invested countless hours diving deep into the problem, meticulously mapping out dependencies and edge cases. Your mind is swimming with implementation details when someone casually drops in to say:
Software Development, Debugging, Technical Debt
9 points by markflorkowski 15 days ago | 3 comments
Leak and Seek a Go Runtime Mystery (cyolo.io)
"We think we have a problem." That's how the conversation with the customer success team started: A polite heads-up about a potential memory leak by the platform team. Little did we know, we were about to embark on a debugging adventure worthy of any great detective novel. Within hours, three of our largest customers were reporting significant performance issues. Clearly, this wasn't just "a problem." It was a full-blown crisis.
Debugging, Go, Performance, Software
10 points by gavra 15 days ago | 0 comments
Using tests as a debugging tool for logic errors (qodo.ai)
In Java development, logic errors constitute a unique class of defects where code executes flawlessly according to its written instructions while systematically violating business requirements.
Java, Debugging, Testing, Logic Errors
38 points by simplesort 16 days ago | 15 comments
Nnd – a TUI debugger alternative to GDB, LLDB (github.com/al13n321)
A debugger for Linux. Partially inspired by RemedyBG.
Debugging, Linux, Command-line Interface, Software, Tools
278 points by zX41ZdbW 17 days ago | 83 comments
An Interactive Debugger for Rust Trait Errors (cs.brown.edu)
Human developers frequently make simple mistakes. Thankfully, type systems do a great job of statically catching simple mistakes and saving developers time. However, as type errors become more complex, developers may spend significant time trying to understand the error message itself.
Rust, Debugging, Programming Languages, Software Development
57 points by matt_d 17 days ago | 10 comments
Finding a Bug in Chromium (bou.ke)
This week I’ve submitted a report for a bug I found in Chromium, the first time I’ve done so. I wanted to show how I found the bug and to spread … to hopefully speed up the resolution of it.
Software, Debugging, Chromium, Open Source
65 points by bouk 18 days ago | 12 comments
AI Meets WinDBG (svnscha.de)
Let's face it - while the rest of software development has evolved at warp speed, crash dump analysis feels like it's been preserved in digital amber for decades.
Debugging, Artificial Intelligence, Software Development
290 points by thunderbong 18 days ago | 60 comments
Switch bouncing reference traces for a variety of different switches (github.com/gsuberland)
This repository contains a collection of example traces showing switch bouncing behaviour. This may be useful if you want some quick reference data for implementing robust debouncing systems in your circuits and firmware.
Electronics, Hardware, Firmware, Debugging, Circuit Design
51 points by luu 19 days ago | 23 comments
Be Productively Pessimistic (dontbreakprod.com)
The earlier you can catch problems, the better. So why not try to catch them before they even happen.
Software Development, Debugging, Prevention
5 points by dorkrawk 23 days ago | 0 comments
Recognizing Patterns in Memory (2022) (timdbg.com)
Something I find frustrating is how hard it is to teach debugging skills. I think the biggest reason is because there are many things that can only be learned through experience. This is true for anything that requires pattern recognition.
Debugging, Pattern Recognition, Software Development, Learning
10 points by misonic 24 days ago | 1 comments
Show HN: Raindrop – Sentry for AI Products (raindrop.ai)
Raindrop sends you alerts when your AI misbehaves and links straight to the events, so you can dig into the conversations or traces, understand the root cause, and fix it—fast.
AI, Monitoring, Debugging, Software, Tools
11 points by alexisgauba 25 days ago | 2 comments
Show HN: Web-eval-agent – Let the coding agent debug itself (github.com/Operative-Sh)
Let the coding agent debug itself, you've got better things to do.
Debugging, Programming, Software, AI, Web Development
84 points by neversettles 25 days ago | 12 comments
Differential Coverage for Debugging (swtch.com)
I have been debugging some code I did not write and was reminded of this technique.
Debugging, Software Development, Programming
72 points by todsacerdoti 28 days ago | 10 comments
Show HN: BugStalker - a modern Rust debugger (github.com/godzie44)
Rust, Debugging, Software, Open Source
115 points by godzie 28 days ago | 17 comments
Writing a Linux Debugger (2017) (tartanllama.xyz)
Linux, Debugging, Programming, Software Development
20 points by ibobev 28 days ago | 2 comments
Searching for the cause of hung tasks in the Linux kernel (cloudflare.com)
Depending on your configuration, the Linux kernel can produce a hung task warning message in its log.
Linux Kernel, Debugging, Performance, Operating Systems
6 points by tanelpoder 29 days ago | 0 comments
Why Does My eBPF Program Work on One Kernel but Fail on Another? (ebpfchirp.substack.com)
In a perfect world, everyone’s systems would be fully updated, patched regularly, and running the latest kernel.
eBPF, Linux Kernel, Debugging, Software Development, Operating Systems
108 points by musha68k 30 days ago | 22 comments
Kmemdump Proposed for the Linux Kernel to Help with Memory Dumping and Debugging (phoronix.com)
Eugen Hristev of Linaro sent out a "request for comments" patch series today proposing kmemdump for the Linux kernel as a new means to assist in debugging driver/system problems by making it easier to dump memory for specific areas/regions.
Linux Kernel, Debugging, Memory Dumping, Software Development
5 points by LinuxBender 31 days ago | 0 comments