GNU Project - Software
DDD - the Data Display Debugger

What is DDD?

GNU DDD is a graphical front-end for command-line debuggers such as GDB, DBX, WDB, Ladebug, JDB, XDB, the Perl debugger, the bash debugger bashdb, the GNU Make debugger remake, or the Python debugger pydb. Besides ``usual'' front-end features such as viewing source texts, DDD has become famous through its interactive graphical data display, where data structures are displayed as graphs.

DDD Plots Debugger Settings Registers Signals

For more information (and more screenshots), see the DDD Manual.

DDD News

Where do I get DDD source?

DDD can be found at /gnu/ddd/ on ftp.gnu.org, on Savannah or at any GNU FTP mirror near you. The ddd/ directory contains the DDD source distribution:
ddd-version.tar.gz -- this package is the one you want. It includes

Here are further instructions on how to download and unpack GNU packages.

You can support the principle of software freedom by buying stuff from the FSF shop.

Where do I get DDD binaries?

The FSF does not distribute DDD binaries. You can ask for help if you need technical support.

DDD binaries for GNU/Linux are typically available via your GNU/Linux distributor:

The written word provides binaries of freely available software for various platforms. Their FTP server contains DDD and XPM packages.

What do I need to build DDD?

To build DDD from sources, you need The simplest way to build and install DDD is:
  1. Unpack the DDD source distribution
  2. Change into the ddd-version subdirectory
  3. Type ./configure && make.
  4. If the above doesn't give an error, type make install to install the program. (Depending on your OS and permission level you might need to use sudo make install to install instead.)
To run DDD, you need the GNU debugger (GDB), version 4.16 or later (or depending on the program to be debugged, possibly other command-line debuggers such as Ladebug, JDB, XDB, the Perl debugger, the bash debugger bashdb, the GNU Make debugger remake, or the Python debugger pydb.)

How do I get started with DDD?

The DDD Manual contains a detailed tutorial.

Here are some free third-party tutorials on the Web:

Where do I get DDD alpha releases?

The DDD Subversion repository (containing all versions of DDD, including the very latest changes) is available via http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/ddd.

I have found a bug! How do I report it?

You can report bugs on the bug tracker. Before you do this, please check the following:

The purpose of reporting a bug is to enable the bug to be fixed for the sake of the whole community of users. You may or may not receive a response; the maintainers will send one if that helps them find or verify a fix. Most GNU maintainers are volunteers and all are overworked; they don't have time to help individuals and still fix the bugs and make the improvements that everyone wants. If you want help for yourself in particular, you may have to hire someone for technical support.

If you are willing to help fixing DDD bugs, you can subscribe to the bug-ddd mailing list or access its archives.

I have a question regarding DDD. Where do I get assistance?

We have a general-purpose mailing list devoted to DDD. You can ask any questions to ddd at gnu.org. Patches and new releases are also announced here. Subscription info and mailing list archives are available. Owing to abuse by spammers, it is necessary to subscribe before posting to the list.

If you need technical support on DDD, you can ask for technical support.

Where can I learn more about the debuggers DDD uses?

As mentioned above, DDD runs a number of debuggers under the scenes. One can issue commands directly to those debuggers. Below are links for these debuggers:

(To do: expand the above for more references on each debugger, e.g, tutorials, books, video demos.)

Where can I learn more about debugging and debuggers?

Here are some other related resources: Have fun with DDD!


Current Maintainer:
Shaunak Saha <shaunak at gnu.org>


Former Maintainers:
Peter Wainwright <peter dot wainwright at ieee dot org>

Andreas Zeller <zeller at gnu.org>

Andrew Gaylard <apg at users dot sf dot net>

Jose María Gómez Vergara <josemaria at jmgv dot org>

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Updated: $Date: 2013/08/23 08:56:53 $ $Author: shaunak $

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