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element-desktop/docs/gdb.md
Richard van der Hoff 3a8726f953 Notes on using gdb
... because I always forget how to do this, and it takes me ages to remember.
2025-05-01 17:13:49 +01:00

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# Using gdb against Element-Desktop
Occasionally it is useful to be able to connect to a running Element-Desktop
with [`gdb`](https://sourceware.org/gdb/), or to analayze a coredump. For this,
you will need debug symbols.
1. If you don't already have the right version of Element-Desktop (eg because
you are analyzing someone else's coredump), download and unpack the tarball
from https://packages.element.io/desktop/install/linux/. If it was a
nightly, your best bet may be to download the deb from
https://packages.element.io/debian/pool/main/e/element-nightly/ and unpack
it.
2. Figure out which version of Electron your Element-Desktop is based on. The
best way to do this is to figure out the version of Element-Desktop, then
look at
[`yarn.lock`](https://github.com/element-hq/element-desktop/blob/develop/yarn.lock)
for the corresponding version. There should be an entry starting
`electron@`, and under it a `version` line: this will tell you the version
of Electron that was used for that version of Element-Desktop.
3. Go to [Electron's releases page](https://github.com/electron/electron/releases/)
and find the version you just identified. Under "Assets", download
`electron-v<version>-linux-x64-debug.zip` (or, the -debug zip corresponding to your
architecture).
4. The debug zip has a structure like:
```
.
├── debug
│   ├── chrome_crashpad_handler.debug
│   ├── electron.debug
│   ├── libEGL.so.debug
│   ├── libffmpeg.so.debug
│   ├── libGLESv2.so.debug
│   └── libvk_swiftshader.so.debug
├── LICENSE
├── LICENSES.chromium.html
└── version
```
Take all the contents of `debug`, and copy them into the Element-Desktop directory,
so that `electron.debug` is alongside the `element-desktop-nightly` executable.
5. You now have a thing you can gdb as normal, either as `gdb --args element-desktop-nightly`, or
`gdb element-desktop-nightly core`.