how to debug application as root in eclipse in Ubuntu?

c eclipse debugging root libpcap
futang picture futang · May 23, 2010 · Viewed 37.2k times · Source

I'm programming application using libpcap. when I debug the application in normal mode, pcap cannot get the network device. it seems that I have to debug the application in root. How can I debug the application in root? I have the root password. I think eclipse has such an option that can add root for the debugging application,but I don't know how to do it. please help.

Answer

xmoex picture xmoex · Nov 15, 2011
  1. Enable your user to run as root without being asked for any password:
    sudo visudo
    Add the following line after all other rules:
    <youruser> ALL=(root) NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/gdb
  2. Create or modify a debug configuration in to run gdb as root
    e.g. in Run > Debug Configurations > C/C++ Application > YourProject Debug:
    change Debugger > Main > GDB debugger from gdb to sudo -u <youruser> gdb

Update (and warning!):

In his comment nategoose pointed out that this answer should come with a warning:

Enabling a user to use sudo for gdb like suggested in my answer in fact gives admin privileges to him/her which in many cases might be an undesired side effect. I therefore consider the answer appropriate in an environment where it's not assumed that the user would try to harm the system (e.g. it's your own personal computer or a virtual machine)

For a multi-(non-trusted)-user environment I think it might be a better idead to utilize unix' file capabilities to enable gdb to debug an application without the need of admin privileges

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