How do I make Qt Creator's debugger show the contents of C++ vectors in OS X?

Question

I'm writing a program that makes extensive use of vectors and am developing with Qt Creator 2.0.1 on Mac OS X 10.6.6 for the first time.

As I am debugging, I can see literals and arrays just fine in the Locals and Watchers window, but as soon as I go to expand a vector, in this case of type Student, I get this tree:

The other person I am working with on this is using the same version of Qt Creator on Ubuntu and can see the contents of the vectors just fine. What am I doing wrong?

This is his debugger:

Answer 1

QtCreator 2.6 has support for Mac FSF GDB (7.5) support. FSF GDB supports python which allows qtcreator to properly display QVector, QSet, QList, QString, etc. It can be download from macports.

1. Download and Install macports (download it from here http://www.macports.org/install.php)

2. To install FSF GDB 7.5:

        sudo port install gdb
   

3. Give FSF GDB permission to debug applications:

   sudo codesign -s gdb-cert /opt/local/bin/ggdb
   

   If gdb-cert isn't found, create a gdb-cert by clicking on the link below, and follow the directions for "Creating a certificate":

   http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/BuildingOnDarwin

   If you don't give permission to ggdb, you'll get a:

    Unable to find Mach task port for process-id 28885: (os/kern) failure (0x5).
    (please check gdb is codesigned - see taskgated(8)) 
   

4. Change the kit debugger in QtCreator

   Change the path from /usr/bin/gdb to /opt/local/bin/ggdb

5. By default FSF GDB fails to handle breakpoints correctly because mac clang++ doesn't export debug symbols. To export the debugging symbols, dsymutil needs to be run manually. Luckly, dysmutil command can be run automatically after link the program using qmake. Add the following lines in your .pro file:

   macx {
       CONFIG(debug, debug|release) {
           QMAKE_POST_LINK = dsymutil \"MyApp.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp\"
       }
   }   
   

Answer 2

You need to build the debugging helper. Should be under Tools -> Options ...

Once the debugging helper is built, you can visualize std::string, QString and containers as well.

There should be a rebuild button in same the place as where you choose which version of Qt to use.

http://www.qtcentre.org/threads/31862-quot-No-valid-Qt-version-set.-Set-one-in-Tools-Options-quot-Windows-QtCreator