How do I debug through system libraries on OS X?

Question

I'm debugging a Cocoa app, which calls the system libraries. I get debug symbols for my own code, but not the system libraries, which stops me debugging any further. How can I get debug symbols for the system library.

I'm using gdb, compiling against the 10.5 SDK on 10.6.4 (gcc 4.2).

Here is the stack-trace I'd like to get symbols for:

(gdb) bt
#0  0x93713e43 in CFQSortArray ()
#1  0x936f4c49 in CFArraySortValues ()
#2  0x958f0bc0 in ColorSyncProfileCopyTagSignatures ()
#3  0x9591d218 in CMMProfile::Usable ()
#4  0x9591cb5d in DoValidateProfile ()
#5  0x9591cc75 in AppleCMMValidateProfile ()
#6  0x958f1e52 in ColorSyncProfileVerify ()
#7  0x91b13b88 in validateProfile ()
#8  0x91b13aed in CMSValidateProfile ()
#9  0x93b27f6c in CGCMSInterfaceValidateProfile ()
#10 0x93b27f4c in CGCMSUtilsValidateProfile ()
#11 0x93b27e4b in CGColorSpaceCreateICCBased ()
#12 0x93b27203 in create_generic_color_space ()
#13 0x93b26f92 in CGColorSpaceCreateWithIndex ()
#14 0x90228ad5 in +[NSColorSpace specialColorSpaceWithID:] ()
#15 0x90228a0c in +[NSColorSpace genericRGBColorSpace] ()
#16 0x9022881e in -[NSBitmapImageRep _bitmapImageRep_setColorSpaceName:] ()
#17 0x904f6e39 in -[NSBitmapImageRep initWithBitmapDataPlanes:pixelsWide:pixelsHigh:bitsPerSample:samplesPerPixel:hasAlpha:isPlanar:colorSpaceName:bitmapFormat:bytesPerRow:bitsPerPixel:] ()
#18 0x902282ae in -[NSBitmapImageRep _initWithSharedBitmap:rect:] ()
#19 0x90227efe in -[NSImage _addRepresentationWithSharedKitWindow:rect:] ()
#20 0x90226d06 in +[NSImage _findSystemImageNamed:] ()
#21 0x90226a48 in +[NSImage imageNamed:] ()
#22 0x902268ea in -[NSCustomResource _loadImageWithName:] ()
#23 0x9022681e in -[NSCustomResource loadImageWithName:] ()
#24 0x90225d5f in -[NSCustomResource awakeAfterUsingCoder:] ()
#25 0x915a2208 in _decodeObjectBinary ()
#26 0x915a14e4 in _decodeObject ()
#27 0x9022556f in -[NSMenuItem initWithCoder:] ()
#28 0x915a21ec in _decodeObjectBinary ()
#29 0x915a2ff8 in -[NSKeyedUnarchiver _decodeArrayOfObjectsForKey:] ()
#30 0x915a3665 in -[NSArray(NSArray) initWithCoder:] ()
#31 0x915a21ec in _decodeObjectBinary ()
#32 0x915a14e4 in _decodeObject ()
#33 0x90229ff0 in -[NSMenu initWithCoder:] ()
#34 0x915a21ec in _decodeObjectBinary ()
#35 0x915a2ff8 in -[NSKeyedUnarchiver _decodeArrayOfObjectsForKey:] ()
#36 0x915a3665 in -[NSArray(NSArray) initWithCoder:] ()
#37 0x915a21ec in _decodeObjectBinary ()
#38 0x915a14e4 in _decodeObject ()
#39 0x9021ff29 in -[NSIBObjectData initWithCoder:] ()
#40 0x915a21ec in _decodeObjectBinary ()
#41 0x915a14e4 in _decodeObject ()
#42 0x9021f4a8 in loadNib ()
#43 0x9021eb5b in +[NSBundle(NSNibLoading) _loadNibFile:nameTable:withZone:ownerBundle:] ()
#44 0x9021e811 in +[NSBundle(NSNibLoading) loadNibFile:externalNameTable:withZone:] ()

Answer 1

As described in this apple TechNote, you want to set DYLD_IMAGE_SUFFIX to _debug.

http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2004/tn2124.html

there are further problems then (not having the right version on the right system) which are hard to overcome, so I haven't tested this.