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21 <a href="/"><h1 id="title">i3 - improved tiling WM</h1></a>
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32 <h1>Debugging i3: How To</h1>
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33 <span id="author">Michael Stapelberg</span><br />
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34 <span id="email"><tt><<a href="mailto:michael@i3wm.org">michael@i3wm.org</a>></tt></span><br />
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35 <span id="revdate">January 2014</span>
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38 <div class="sectionbody">
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39 <div class="paragraph"><p>This document describes how to debug i3 to send us useful bug
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40 reports, even if you have no knowledge of C programming.</p></div>
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41 <div class="paragraph"><p>Thank you for being interested in debugging i3. It really means
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42 something to us to get your bug fixed. If you have any questions about the
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43 process and/or need further help, do not hesitate to contact us!</p></div>
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47 <h2 id="_verify_you_are_using_i3_4_7">1. Verify you are using i3 ≥ 4.7</h2>
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48 <div class="sectionbody">
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49 <div class="paragraph"><p>Only the latest major version of i3 is supported, i.e. version 4.7 currently.
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50 To verify which version you are running, use:</p></div>
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51 <div class="listingblock">
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52 <div class="content">
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53 <pre><tt>$ i3 --moreversion 2>&- || i3 --version
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54 Binary i3 version: 4.7 (2013-12-22, branch "tags/4.7")
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55 Running i3 version: 4.7-84-gac74a63 (2014-01-01, branch "next") (pid 1995)</tt></pre>
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57 <div class="paragraph"><p>Your version can look like this:</p></div>
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58 <div class="dlist"><dl>
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59 <dt class="hdlist1">
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60 4.7 (release version)
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64 You are using a release version. In many cases, bugs are already
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65 fixed in the development version of i3. Even if the bug is not a known fixed
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66 one, we will still ask you to reproduce your error with the most recent
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67 development version of i3. Therefore, please upgrade to a development version
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71 <dt class="hdlist1">
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72 4.7-85-g9c15b95 (development version)
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76 Your version is 85 commits newer than 4.7, and the git revision of your
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77 version is <tt>9c15b95</tt>. Go to <a href="http://code.i3wm.org/i3/commit/?h=next">http://code.i3wm.org/i3/commit/?h=next</a> and see if
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78 the line "commit" starts with the same revision. If so, you are using the
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83 <div class="paragraph"><p>Development versions of i3 have logging enabled by default and are compiled
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84 with debug symbols.</p></div>
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88 <h2 id="_enabling_logging">2. Enabling logging</h2>
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89 <div class="sectionbody">
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90 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you are using a development version (see previous section), you don’t need
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91 to do anything — skip to section 3.</p></div>
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92 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you are using a release version with a custom <tt>~/.xsession</tt> (or xinitrc)
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93 file, execute i3 with a line like this:</p></div>
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94 <div class="listingblock">
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95 <div class="content">
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96 <pre><tt># Use 25 MiB of RAM for debug logs
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97 exec i3 --shmlog-size=26214400</tt></pre>
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99 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you are <strong>NOT</strong> using an <tt>~/.xsession</tt> file but you just chose "i3" from the
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100 list of sessions in your desktop manager (gdm, lxdm, …), edit
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101 <tt>/usr/share/xsessions/i3.desktop</tt> and replace the <tt>Exec=i3</tt> line with:</p></div>
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102 <div class="listingblock">
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103 <div class="content">
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104 <pre><tt>Exec=i3 --shmlog-size=26214400</tt></pre>
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106 <div class="paragraph"><p>If you cannot restart i3 for some reason, you can enable debug logging on the
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108 <div class="listingblock">
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109 <div class="content">
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110 <pre><tt>i3-msg 'debuglog on; shmlog on; reload'</tt></pre>
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114 <div class="sect1">
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115 <h2 id="_obtaining_the_debug_logfile">3. Obtaining the debug logfile</h2>
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116 <div class="sectionbody">
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117 <div class="paragraph"><p>No matter whether i3 misbehaved in some way without crashing or whether it just
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118 crashed, the logfile provides all information necessary to debug the problem.</p></div>
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119 <div class="paragraph"><p>To upload a compressed version of the logfile (for a bugreport), use:</p></div>
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120 <div class="listingblock">
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121 <div class="content">
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122 <pre><tt>DISPLAY=:0 i3-dump-log | bzip2 -c | curl --data-binary @- http://logs.i3wm.org</tt></pre>
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124 <div class="paragraph"><p>This command does not depend on i3 (it also works while i3 displays
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125 the crash dialog), but it requires a working X11 connection.</p></div>
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126 <div class="paragraph"><p>After running it, you will get a URL to the logfile. Please include that URL in
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127 your bug report.</p></div>
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130 <div class="sect1">
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131 <h2 id="_on_crashes_obtaining_a_backtrace">4. On crashes: Obtaining a backtrace</h2>
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132 <div class="sectionbody">
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133 <div class="paragraph"><p>When i3 crashes, it will display a dialog stating “i3 just crashed”, offering
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134 you to save a backtrace to a text file.</p></div>
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135 <div class="paragraph"><p>To actually get useful backtraces, you should make sure that your version of i3
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136 is compiled with debug symbols:</p></div>
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137 <div class="listingblock">
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138 <div class="content">
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139 <pre><tt>$ file `which i3`
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140 /usr/bin/i3: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically
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141 linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.18, not stripped</tt></pre>
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143 <div class="paragraph"><p>Notice the <tt>not stripped</tt>, which is the important part. If you have a version
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144 which is stripped, please check whether your distribution provides debug
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145 symbols (package <tt>i3-wm-dbg</tt> on Debian for example) or if you can turn off
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146 stripping. If nothing helps, please build i3 from source.</p></div>
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147 <div class="paragraph"><p>Once you have made sure that your i3 is compiled with debug symbols and the C
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148 debugger <tt>gdb</tt> is installed on your machine, you can let i3 generate a
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149 backtrace in the crash dialog.</p></div>
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150 <div class="paragraph"><p>After pressing "b" in the crash dialog, you will get a file called
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151 <tt>/tmp/i3-backtrace.%d.%d.txt</tt> where the first <tt>%d</tt> is replaced by i3’s process
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152 id (PID) and the second one is incremented each time you generate a backtrace,
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153 starting at 0.</p></div>
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156 <div class="sect1">
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157 <h2 id="_sending_bug_reports_debugging_on_irc">5. Sending bug reports/debugging on IRC</h2>
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158 <div class="sectionbody">
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159 <div class="paragraph"><p>When sending bug reports, please attach the <strong>whole</strong> log file. Even if you think
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160 you found the section which clearly highlights the problem, additional
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161 information might be necessary to completely diagnose the problem.</p></div>
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162 <div class="paragraph"><p>When debugging with us in IRC, be prepared to use a so called nopaste service
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163 such as <a href="http://nopaste.info">http://nopaste.info</a> or <a href="http://pastebin.com">http://pastebin.com</a> because pasting large
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164 amounts of text in IRC sometimes leads to incomplete lines (servers have line
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165 length limitations) or flood kicks.</p></div>
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169 <div id="footnotes"><hr /></div>
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170 <div id="footer" lang="de">
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171 © 2009-2011 Michael Stapelberg, <a href="/impress.html">Impressum</a>
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