Intellij-rust: GDB debug formatters not working

[dmarcuse]

Environment

• Intellij-Rust plugin version: v0.2.95.2120-183
• Rust toolchain version: rustc 1.33.0 (2aa4c46cf 2019-02-28)
• IDE name and version: CLion 2018.3.4
• Operating system: Arch Linux 5.0.4

Problem description

When debugging with GDB, formatters for all non-primitive types seem to be non-functional. When using LLDB, the formatters seem to work properly.

GDB (System, v8.2.1):

LLDB (Bundled, v6.0.0):

The following message is printed to the console when using GDB, leading me to believe it's an issue with my setup:

Error during pretty printers setup: Error while executing Python code.

Some features and performance optimizations will not be available.

Steps to reproduce

In a new binary project, paste the following code and set a breakpoint on the println line, then debug it with GDB:

use std::sync::Arc;

fn main() {
    let int = 10;
    let bool = true;
    let vec = vec![1, 2, 3, 4];
    let arc = Arc::new(5);
    let boxed = Box::new(6);
    let string = String::from("abc");
    let option = Some(7);

    println!("breakpoint here");
}

[dmarcuse]

Doing some deeper digging, I found this in the logs:

2019-03-27 11:37:18,415 [ 871466]   INFO - brains.cidr.execution.debugger - Debugger started 
2019-03-27 11:37:18,514 [ 871565]   WARN - brains.cidr.execution.debugger - >python import sys; sys.dont_write_bytecode = True; sys.path.insert(0, "/opt/clion/bin/gdb/renderers"); from default.printers import register_default_printers; register_default_printers(None); from default.libstdcxx_printers import patch_libstdcxx_printers_module; patch_libstdcxx_printers_module(); from libstdcxx.v6.printers import register_libstdcxx_printers; register_libstdcxx_printers(None);  
2019-03-27 11:37:18,514 [ 871565]   WARN - brains.cidr.execution.debugger - <^error,msg="Error while executing Python code." 
2019-03-27 11:37:18,514 [ 871565]   WARN - brains.cidr.execution.debugger - Error during pretty printers setup: Error while executing Python code.

Some features and performance optimizations will not be available. 
com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver$GDBCommandException: Error while executing Python code.
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver$Response.createGDBError(GDBDriver.java:3089)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver$Communication.waitFor(GDBDriver.java:2544)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver.sendSilentRequestAndWaitForDone(GDBDriver.java:2350)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver.c(GDBDriver.java:406)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver.a(GDBDriver.java:517)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver$VoidCommand.call(GDBDriver.java:2902)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver$4.call(GDBDriver.java:499)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver$4.call(GDBDriver.java:494)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.debugger.backend.gdb.GDBDriver.a(GDBDriver.java:2878)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.ExecutionQueueProcessor.a(ExecutionQueueProcessor.java:26)
    at com.jetbrains.cidr.execution.ExecutionQueueProcessor.a(ExecutionQueueProcessor.java:36)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor$RunnableConsumer.consume(QueueProcessor.java:280)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor$RunnableConsumer.consume(QueueProcessor.java:277)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.lambda$null$0(QueueProcessor.java:79)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.runSafely(QueueProcessor.java:232)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.lambda$wrappingProcessor$1(QueueProcessor.java:79)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.lambda$null$3(QueueProcessor.java:212)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.runSafely(QueueProcessor.java:232)
    at com.intellij.util.concurrency.QueueProcessor.lambda$startProcessing$4(QueueProcessor.java:212)
    at com.intellij.openapi.application.impl.ApplicationImpl$1.run(ApplicationImpl.java:314)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:515)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:264)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1128)
    at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:628)
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:834)

It seems that this issue is caused by the way CLion is packaged in the Arch Linux AUR: The package aur/clion includes the core CLion IDE, but not the bundled toolchains - I only have aur/clion and aur/clion-lldb installed, and am using the system binaries for GDB and other tools. This means the directory /opt/clion/bin/gdb/renderers doesn't exist, which is likely the cause of the error in the logs.

[dmarcuse]

After installing the clion-gdb package, the error is gone from the console/log and the values are better formatted, although still not quite as nicely as with LLDB:

[ortem]

@dmarcuse Thanks for reporting and investigating the issue!

As for comparing LLDB and GDB: now CLion with GDB (even for C++) can show either summary (size in case of Vec) or children (elements in case of Vec). It is a bug and I hope it will be fixed in the future.

Also, you are welcome to suggest the Rust types that our formatters currently don't support via creating new issues for it!