Stack Trace

How to obtain a Stack Trace

If GnuCash terminates abnormally (i. e. it crashes), then a stack trace is a very helpful information for the developers to figure out the program error that caused this crash.

Explanations on how to obtain stack traces:

• http://live.gnome.org/GettingTraces
• http://www.dirac.org/linux/gdb/06-Debugging_A_Running_Process.php
• (in German) http://www.linuxwiki.de/gdb

Attach gdb to running process

The program "gnucash" itself is not an executable but a script. Therefore it cannot be called directly by the gdb debugger. We propose to "attach" the gdb to the running gnucash process instead.

To attach to the running gnucash process:

1. Start gnucash normally
2. Use "ps afx" to find out the process number (PID) of the running gnucash process; it might be called "gnucash" or "guile", I'm not sure. Say the PID is 12345.
3. Start gdb by typing "gdb"
4. Attach to the running process by typing "attach 12345"; gdb will temporarily stop the program
5. Continue program execution by typing "continue" at the gdb prompt
6. Provoke the crash; type "backtrace" or shorthand "bt" at the gdb prompt.

Please submit the backtrace together with the instructions on how to reproduce this crash as a new bug report into Bugzilla. Thank you for your contribution.