how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs
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Banibrata Dut
#1 / 6
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 how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs hi,
is there a way (apart from the ph2c or something), to
programmatically dump the structure contents, in a
format that closely resembles the actual structure,
which could itself be composed of structures and sub-structures,
i.e. in a manner the de{*filter*}s display, without writing
my code for it ??
i know i must be wishing for too much... actually my
structures are too big and too many to handcode their
debug prints...
thanks,
bd
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| Tue, 22 Nov 2005 15:38:43 GMT |
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Richard B
#2 / 6
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how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs Quote:
> is there a way (apart from the ph2c or something), to
> programmatically dump the structure contents, in a
> format that closely resembles the actual structure,
> which could itself be composed of structures and sub-structures,
> i.e. in a manner the de{*filter*}s display, without writing
> my code for it ??
Not defined by the Standard, no. There's no telling what your particular
compiler might not provide, but ISO C, and therefore comp.lang.c, cannot
tell you what individual compilers do beyond the call of the Standard.
You'll have to read your manual or ask in a compiler-specific group.
Richard
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| Tue, 22 Nov 2005 16:57:02 GMT |
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Thomas Matthew
#3 / 6
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how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs Quote:
> hi, > is there a way (apart from the ph2c or something), to
> programmatically dump the structure contents, in a
> format that closely resembles the actual structure,
> which could itself be composed of structures and sub-structures,
> i.e. in a manner the de{*filter*}s display, without writing
> my code for it ??
> i know i must be wishing for too much... actually my
> structures are too big and too many to handcode their
> debug prints...
> thanks,
> bd
You could write a function that prints out a structure
in human readable (and descriptive) form.
If the structure is contained in another structure,
call the function.
Look at your de{*filter*}; perhaps it has the ability.
--
Thomas Matthews
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Other sites:
http://www.*-*-*.com/ -- C++ STL Library book
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| Tue, 22 Nov 2005 22:19:30 GMT |
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Richard Heathfiel
#4 / 6
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how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs Quote:
> hi, > is there a way (apart from the ph2c or something), to
> programmatically dump the structure contents, in a
> format that closely resembles the actual structure,
> which could itself be composed of structures and sub-structures,
> i.e. in a manner the de{*filter*}s display, without writing
> my code for it ??
No way to do this is provided directly by the C language, but there is
nothing to stop you writing code for it except time, skill, and enthusiasm.
Quote: > i know i must be wishing for too much... actually my
> structures are too big and too many to handcode their
> debug prints...
The trick is to do them as you go along. :-)
--
"Usenet is a strange place." - Dennis M Ritchie, 29 July 1999.
C FAQ: http://www.*-*-*.com/ ~scs/C-faq/top.html
K&R answers, C books, etc: http://www.*-*-*.com/
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| Wed, 23 Nov 2005 02:04:26 GMT |
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Banibrata Dut
#5 / 6
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how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs hi,
Quote: > > i know i must be wishing for too much... actually my > > structures are too big and too many to handcode their > > debug prints... > The trick is to do them as you go along. :-)
development environment, we need to deal with code
written by others, who maynot have taken care to
make their code very easy to debug...
of course, writing the function that prints out every
field and subfiled is the way to go, but was hoping to
find some kludgy trick that might have made my life
easier. it seems that ph2c came closest to what i
wanted to do...
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| Wed, 23 Nov 2005 07:05:51 GMT |
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E. Gibbo
#6 / 6
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how to dump easy-to-read structures from within C programs
Quote:
>hi, >is there a way (apart from the ph2c or something), to
>programmatically dump the structure contents, in a
>format that closely resembles the actual structure,
>which could itself be composed of structures and sub-structures,
>i.e. in a manner the de{*filter*}s display, without writing
>my code for it ??
>i know i must be wishing for too much... actually my
>structures are too big and too many to handcode their
>debug prints...
The de{*filter*}, or some other tool that can analyze the source code,
is the way to go here. Once C code is compiled, all the "interesting"
information such as names of struct fields is lost. Be glad of this.
The only thing you can do with structs if you don't have the ability
to analyze the source code or write specialized "print methods" for
each struct, is to print the raw bytes. The one piece of info you
have is the size of the struct, in bytes, so without any other
knowledge you can print the raw contents (including, possibly, irrelevant
padding bytes). Sounds like you want something more friendly than a
hex dump, though.
There are tons of tools out there to help with this kind of "source code
browsing" -- starting with your de{*filter*}. Frankly, if your source code is
reasonably uniform so that you don't have a lot of hairy special cases to
handle, you can probably write a simple tool yourself, in C or some other
(off-topic) language such as Perl, to generate the source code of a "print
method" for each type of struct in your header files, in a day or less.
Try it!
--Ben
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| Tue, 06 Dec 2005 14:30:32 GMT |
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