How do Time Travel Debuggers Work? - Design and Implementation of a Time Travel Debugger - Greg Law

Greg Law explains the design and implementation of time-travel debuggers like rr, Microsoft TTD, and Undo.

cppnow.org --- How do Time Travel Debuggers Work? - Design and Implementation of a Time Travel Debugger - Greg Law - C++Now 2024 --- Time-Travel Debuggers are powerful tools for debugging complex C++ code. They present the programmer with an infinitely detailed view of program execution: the programmer can inspect any piece of program state (memory or registers) for any line of code that executed. And all with surprisingly low runtime and memory overheads. This is especially relevant for C++ which, by design, allows for many kinds of bugs that are impossible in other, safer languages. But how do these seemingly-magically tools really work? This talk dives deep into the implementation details of the three highest profile time travel debuggers: rr, Microsoft's TTD, and Undo.io. All three have some common traits and important differences. We examine the low-level interactions with the CPU, the Operating System and the language. --- Slides: github.com/boostcon/cppnow_presentations_2024/blob/main/Pres… --- Greg Law Greg is the co-founder and CEO of Undo.io. He is a coder at heart, but likes to bridge the gap between the business and software worlds. Greg's experience includes creating and working on Operating Systems, Networking Stacks and Developer Tools. He has held development and management roles at companies including the pioneering British computer firm Acorn, as well as fast-growing start ups, NexWave and Solarflare. It was at Acorn that Greg met Julian and on evenings and weekends, they invented the core technology that would eventually become Undo. Greg holds a PhD from City University, London and was nominated for the 2001 British Computer Society Distinguished Dissertation Award. He lives in Cambridge, UK with his wife and two children and in his spare time, catches up on email. --- C++Now 2025 - 28th April - 2nd May C++Now is an annual onsite international C++ programming and coding conference held in Aspen, Colarado. For all C++ developers, C++ software engineers and those involved with the C++ language, CppNow provides an indepth and technical content provided by the best and brightest C++ experts of the C++ world. Annual CppNow Conference - cppnow.org linkedin.com/company/cppnow twitter.com/cppnow facebook.com/CppNow reddit.com/r/CppNow mastodon.social/@cppnow think-cell develops one of the world’s leading PowerPoint applications, with C++ at the core of everything we build, from layout algorithms to deep integration with Microsoft Office. Interested in working on challenging C++ problems with real-world impact? Explore our open roles: think-cell.com/en/career/tech --- Videos Filmed & Edited By Bash Films: bashfilms.com/ YouTube Channel Managed & Optimized By Digital Medium Ltd: events.digital-medium.co.uk --- #boost #cpp #debugging #debugger #programming