Calling Functions

The debugger has a built-in C/C++ expression interpreter that can be used to invoke functions defined inside the debugged program.

From the menu bar, select Tools -> Evaluate. The Evaluate dialog pops up; type the name of the function, with its parameters, then hit the Evaluate button.

When invoking a method on an object from within another method of the same object, you must prefix the method with this->.Static methods must be fully-qualified, as in MyClass::some_method()

Note: Some functions such as constructors and user-defined conversion operators may be called behind the scenes when static_cast or C-style cast expressions are evaluated.

Note: The C calling convention is the only one supported at this time. (Parameters are pushed onto the stack starting from the right-most, and the caller is responsible for cleaning up the stack after the function returns).

Other limitations of the expression evaluator:

functions that are inlined or optimized out cannot be called

variables that are optimized out cannot be used in expressions

the comma (,) operator is not supported

the types used in an expression must exist in the debuggee

types, variables and functions in a shared library that is not loaded into memory may not be available

true and false are not recognized; use 1 and 0 instead. This is on purpose, for backwards compatibility with C programs

Note: If a function invoked from the debugger causes a signal (such as SIGSEGV) to be raised inside the debugged program, the debugger will do its best to restore the CPU registers and rewind the stack; however, side-effects such as modifications of the memory, or I/O operations cannot be undone.