Renuka Deshmukh presented on using CINT (C Interpreter) to improve the debugging process for C/C++ code. CINT allows code to be interpreted rather than compiled, reducing the compile/link cycle and enabling rapid debugging. It provides a GDB-like debugging environment and allows data structures to be dumped and modified at runtime without recompiling. This allows bugs to be identified, isolated, and fixed in hours rather than days.

1. RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012
www.PosterPresentations.com
• Name: Renuka Deshmukh
• Background:
– Degree: Master of Science, Indiana
University, Bloomington
– Interest Areas: Application Development,
Data Science, Productivity Tools,
CodeJams
• Role@Cisco: Data Analysis and Application
Development
• I also like Reading, Hiking, Music and Playing
Mobile Games
• Mentors – Rahul Kalra, Shreyas Chandrashekar,
Mana Palai, CB Dasgupta
INTRODUCTION
• Extensive and cumbersome debugging process.
• Large turn around time for identifying and fixing
issues.
• Difficult to duplicate corner-case scenarios.
• Need to compile code every time
a change is made.
• Adding traces is time consuming.
PROBLEMS ADDRESSED
• CINT – C Interpreter
– An interpreter for C and C++ code.
– Written in C++ and covers most of ANSI C.
– CINT offers a GDB like debugging environment for interpreted programs.
– Reduces the compile and link cycle drastically facilitating rapid development.
– Portability – CINT is portable with a vast number of OS including Linux, Windows, MacOS and
Solaris. All standard compilers including gcc, Cygwin-gcc, Borland-gcc, MS Visual C++, etc. are
supported by CINT.
WORK FLOW
USE CASES
LEARNING
• Unix/Linux Environment
• C Language
• CINT Interpreter
• Makefile workings
• GCC environment
• Python
• Hackathon
CONCLUSIONS
• Earlier:
Identifying, Debugging, Isolating and Fixing a
bug takes days.
• Now:
CINT provides a simple and easy
to use debugging framework.
• Embedded script can directly call
functions from the pre-compiled
library.
• No need to compile the entire code after
making changes to the CINT script.
• Minimal changes required in code to get
dump of data structures.
• Easy to manipulate data structures and follow
code execution path.
• Debugging time will be reduced to hours
instead of days.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank my team for helping me
with my project. I would especially like to
thank my manager Vibin P Thomas, and all my
mentors for guiding me all the way to the
completion of my project.
ROSG – Router and Optical Switching Group
Renuka Deshmukh
Integrating XR Framework with CINT
• Dump of data structures:- By writing a simple function to return pointer to a data structure in the pre-
compiled code, CINT can be used to get a dump of the data structure.
• Runtime debugging of process:- CINT can be used to directly call functions of the pre-compiled library
by passing custom values, thus providing the ability of live debugging.
• Change data structure values:- Given pointer to a data structure, CINT can then be used to change values
at run-time and study its impact on other values of data structure.
• Execute mini task in process context:- As CINT can directly call functions from the pre-compiled library, it
can also be used to execute mini process, thus proving the facility of localizing the issue and working on
it.
• No Compilation Required:- Changes to the CINT script does not require compiling the code, enabling in
saving considerable time.
Figure 1: Work Process