Cpptrace

🚧 WIP 🏗️

Cpptrace is a lightweight C++ stacktrace library supporting C++11 and greater on Linux, Unix, macOS and Windows. The goal: Make stack traces simple for once.

Support for cygwin/mingw will be added soon.

Some day C++23's <stacktrace> will be ubiquitous. And maybe one day the msvc implementation will be acceptable.

Cpptrace

How to use

CMake FetchContent

include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
  cpptrace
  GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/jeremy-rifkin/cpptrace.git
  GIT_TAG        <HASH or TAG>
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(cpptrace)
target_link_libraries(your_target PRIVATE cpptrace)

System-wide installation

git clone https://github.com/jeremy-rifkin/cpptrace.git
# optional: git checkout <HASH or TAG>
mkdir cpptrace/build
cd cpptrace/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debug -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=On
make
sudo make install

Or on windows

git clone https://github.com/jeremy-rifkin/cpptrace.git
# optional: git checkout <HASH or TAG>
mkdir cpptrace/build
cd cpptrace/build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=debug -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=On
msbuild cpptrace.sln
msbuild INSTALL.vcxproj

Note: You'll need to run as an administrator in a developer powershell, or use vcvarsall.bat distributed with visual studio to get the correct environment variables set.

Conan

TODO

Vcpkg

TODO

Docs

cpptrace::print_trace() can be used to print a stacktrace at the current call site, cpptrace::generate_trace() can be used to get raw frame information for custom use.

Note: Debug info (-g) is generally required for good trace information. Some back-ends read symbols from dynamic export information which may require -rdynamic or manually marking symbols for exporting.

namespace cpptrace {
    struct stacktrace_frame {
        uintptr_t address;
        std::uint_least32_t line;
        std::uint_least32_t col;
        std::string filename;
        std::string symbol;
    };
    std::vector<stacktrace_frame> generate_trace(std::uint32_t skip = 0);
    void print_trace(std::uint32_t skip = 0);
}

Back-ends

Back-end libraries are required for unwinding the stack and resolving symbol information (name and source location) in order to generate a stacktrace.

The CMake script attempts to automatically choose a good back-end based on what is available on your system. You can also manually set which back-end you want used.

Unwinding

Library	CMake config	Platforms	Info
libgcc unwind	`CPPTRACE_UNWIND_WITH_UNWIND`	linux, macos	Frames are captured with libgcc's `_Unwind_Backtrace`, which currently produces the most accurate stack traces on gcc/clang. Libgcc is often linked by default, and llvm has something equivalent.
execinfo.h	`CPPTRACE_UNWIND_WITH_EXECINFO`	linux, macos	Frames are captured with `execinfo.h`'s `backtrace`, part of libc.
winapi	`CPPTRACE_UNWIND_WITH_WINAPI`	windows, mingw	Frames are captured with `CaptureStackBackTrace`.
N/A	`CPPTRACE_UNWIND_WITH_NOTHING`	all	Unwinding is not done, stack traces will be empty.

These back-ends require a fixed buffer has to be created to read addresses into while unwinding. By default the buffer can hold addresses for 100 frames (beyond the skip frames). This is configurable with CPPTRACE_HARD_MAX_FRAMES.

Symbol resolution

Library	CMake config	Platforms	Info
libbacktrace	`CPPTRACE_GET_SYMBOLS_WITH_LIBBACKTRACE`	linux, macos, mingw	Libbacktrace is already installed on most systems, or available through the compiler directly. If it is installed but backtrace.h is not already in the include path (this can happen when using clang when backtrace lives in gcc's include folder), `CPPTRACE_BACKTRACE_PATH` can be used to specify where the library should be looked for.
libdl	`CPPTRACE_GET_SYMBOLS_WITH_LIBDL`	linux, macos	Libdl uses dynamic export information. Compiling with `-rdynamic` is needed for symbol information to be retrievable.
addr2line	`CPPTRACE_GET_SYMBOLS_WITH_ADDR2LINE`	linux, mingw(TODO), macos(TODO)	Symbols are resolved by invoking `addr2line` via `fork()`.
dbghelp	`CPPTRACE_GET_SYMBOLS_WITH_DBGHELP`	windows	Dbghelp.h allows access to symbols via debug info.
N/A	`CPPTRACE_GET_SYMBOLS_WITH_NOTHING`	all	No attempt is made to resolve symbols.

*: Requires installation

Demangling

Lastly, depending on other back-ends used a demangler back-end may be needed. A demangler back-end is not needed when doing full traces with libbacktrace, getting symbols with addr2line, or getting symbols with dbghelp.

Library	CMake config	Platforms	Info
cxxabi.h	`CPPTRACE_DEMANGLE_WITH_CXXABI`	Linux, macos, mingw	Should be available everywhere other than msvc.
N/A	`CPPTRACE_DEMANGLE_WITH_NOTHING`	all	Don't attempt to do anything beyond what the symbol resolution back-end does.

Full tracing

Libbacktrace can generate a full stack trace itself, both unwinding and resolving symbols. This can be chosen with CPPTRACE_FULL_TRACE_WITH_LIBBACKTRACE. The auto config attempts to use this if it is available. Full tracing with libbacktrace ignores CPPTRACE_HARD_MAX_FRAMES.

<stacktrace> can of course also generate a full trace, if you're using >=C++23 and your compiler supports it. This is controlled by CPPTRACE_FULL_TRACE_WITH_LIBBACKTRACE. The cmake script will attempt to auto configure to this if possible. CPPTRACE_HARD_MAX_FRAMES is ignored.

More?

There are plenty more libraries that can be used for unwinding, parsing debug information, and demangling. In the future more back-ends can be added. Ideally this library can "just work" on systems, without additional installation work.

License

The library is under the MIT license.

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