[c++] C++ display stack trace on exception

I want to have a way to report the stack trace to the user if an exception is thrown. What is the best way to do this? Does it take huge amounts of extra code?

To answer questions:

I'd like it to be portable if possible. I want information to pop up, so the user can copy the stack trace and email it to me if an error comes up.

I have a similar problem, and though I like portability, I only need gcc support. In gcc, execinfo.h and the backtrace calls are available. To demangle the function names, Mr. Bingmann has a nice piece of code. To dump a backtrace on an exception, I create an exception that prints the backtrace in the constructor. If I were expecting this to work with an exception thrown in a library, it might require rebuilding/linking so that the backtracing exception is used.

/******************************************
#Makefile with flags for printing backtrace with function names
# compile with symbols for backtrace
CXXFLAGS=-g
# add symbols to dynamic symbol table for backtrace
LDFLAGS=-rdynamic
turducken: turducken.cc
******************************************/

#include <cstdio>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <execinfo.h>
#include "stacktrace.h" /* https://panthema.net/2008/0901-stacktrace-demangled/ */

// simple exception that prints backtrace when constructed
class btoverflow_error: public std::overflow_error
{
    public:
    btoverflow_error( const std::string& arg ) :
        std::overflow_error( arg )
    {
        print_stacktrace();
    };
};


void chicken(void)
{
    throw btoverflow_error( "too big" );
}

void duck(void)
{
    chicken();
}

void turkey(void)
{
    duck();
}

int main( int argc, char *argv[])
{
    try
    {
        turkey();
    }
    catch( btoverflow_error e)
    {
        printf( "caught exception: %s\n", e.what() );
    }
}

Compiling and running this with gcc 4.8.4 yields a backtrace with nicely unmangled C++ function names:

stack trace:
 ./turducken : btoverflow_error::btoverflow_error(std::string const&)+0x43
 ./turducken : chicken()+0x48
 ./turducken : duck()+0x9
 ./turducken : turkey()+0x9
 ./turducken : main()+0x15
 /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 : __libc_start_main()+0xf5
 ./turducken() [0x401629]

Unix: backtrace

Mac: backtrace

Windows: CaptureBackTrace

On Windows, check out BugTrap. Its not longer at the original link, but its still available on CodeProject.

AFAIK libunwind is quite portable and so far I haven't found anything easier to use.

If you are using C++ and don't want/can't use Boost, you can print backtrace with demangled names using the following code [link to the original site].

Note, this solution is specific to Linux. It uses GNU's libc functions backtrace()/backtrace_symbols() (from execinfo.h) to get the backtraces and then uses __cxa_demangle() (from cxxabi.h) for demangling the backtrace symbol names.

// stacktrace.h (c) 2008, Timo Bingmann from http://idlebox.net/
// published under the WTFPL v2.0

#ifndef _STACKTRACE_H_
#define _STACKTRACE_H_

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <execinfo.h>
#include <cxxabi.h>

/** Print a demangled stack backtrace of the caller function to FILE* out. */
static inline void print_stacktrace(FILE *out = stderr, unsigned int max_frames = 63)
{
    fprintf(out, "stack trace:\n");

    // storage array for stack trace address data
    void* addrlist[max_frames+1];

    // retrieve current stack addresses
    int addrlen = backtrace(addrlist, sizeof(addrlist) / sizeof(void*));

    if (addrlen == 0) {
    fprintf(out, "  <empty, possibly corrupt>\n");
    return;
    }

    // resolve addresses into strings containing "filename(function+address)",
    // this array must be free()-ed
    char** symbollist = backtrace_symbols(addrlist, addrlen);

    // allocate string which will be filled with the demangled function name
    size_t funcnamesize = 256;
    char* funcname = (char*)malloc(funcnamesize);

    // iterate over the returned symbol lines. skip the first, it is the
    // address of this function.
    for (int i = 1; i < addrlen; i++)
    {
    char *begin_name = 0, *begin_offset = 0, *end_offset = 0;

    // find parentheses and +address offset surrounding the mangled name:
    // ./module(function+0x15c) [0x8048a6d]
    for (char *p = symbollist[i]; *p; ++p)
    {
        if (*p == '(')
        begin_name = p;
        else if (*p == '+')
        begin_offset = p;
        else if (*p == ')' && begin_offset) {
        end_offset = p;
        break;
        }
    }

    if (begin_name && begin_offset && end_offset
        && begin_name < begin_offset)
    {
        *begin_name++ = '\0';
        *begin_offset++ = '\0';
        *end_offset = '\0';

        // mangled name is now in [begin_name, begin_offset) and caller
        // offset in [begin_offset, end_offset). now apply
        // __cxa_demangle():

        int status;
        char* ret = abi::__cxa_demangle(begin_name,
                        funcname, &funcnamesize, &status);
        if (status == 0) {
        funcname = ret; // use possibly realloc()-ed string
        fprintf(out, "  %s : %s+%s\n",
            symbollist[i], funcname, begin_offset);
        }
        else {
        // demangling failed. Output function name as a C function with
        // no arguments.
        fprintf(out, "  %s : %s()+%s\n",
            symbollist[i], begin_name, begin_offset);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // couldn't parse the line? print the whole line.
        fprintf(out, "  %s\n", symbollist[i]);
    }
    }

    free(funcname);
    free(symbollist);
}

#endif // _STACKTRACE_H_

HTH!

Cpp-tool ex_diag - easyweight, multiplatform, minimal resource using, simple and flexible at trace.

Since the stack is already unwound when entering the catch block, the solution in my case was to not catch certain exceptions which then lead to a SIGABRT. In the signal handler for SIGABRT I then fork() and execl() either gdb (in debug builds) or Google breakpads stackwalk (in release builds). Also I try to only use signal handler safe functions.

GDB:

static const char BACKTRACE_START[] = "<2>--- backtrace of entire stack ---\n";
static const char BACKTRACE_STOP[] = "<2>--- backtrace finished ---\n";

static char *ltrim(char *s)
{
    while (' ' == *s) {
        s++;
    }
    return s;
}

void Backtracer::print()
{
    int child_pid = ::fork();
    if (child_pid == 0) {
        // redirect stdout to stderr
        ::dup2(2, 1);

        // create buffer for parent pid (2+16+1 spaces to allow up to a 64 bit hex parent pid)
        char pid_buf[32];
        const char* stem = "                   ";
        const char* s = stem;
        char* d = &pid_buf[0];
        while (static_cast<bool>(*s))
        {
            *d++ = *s++;
        }
        *d-- = '\0';
        char* hexppid = d;

        // write parent pid to buffer and prefix with 0x
        int ppid = getppid();
        while (ppid != 0) {
            *hexppid = ((ppid & 0xF) + '0');
            if(*hexppid > '9') {
                *hexppid += 'a' - '0' - 10;
            }
            --hexppid;
            ppid >>= 4;
        }
        *hexppid-- = 'x';
        *hexppid = '0';

        // invoke GDB
        char name_buf[512];
        name_buf[::readlink("/proc/self/exe", &name_buf[0], 511)] = 0;
        ssize_t r = ::write(STDERR_FILENO, &BACKTRACE_START[0], sizeof(BACKTRACE_START));
        (void)r;
        ::execl("/usr/bin/gdb",
                "/usr/bin/gdb", "--batch", "-n", "-ex", "thread apply all bt full", "-ex", "quit",
                &name_buf[0], ltrim(&pid_buf[0]), nullptr);
        ::exit(1); // if GDB failed to start
    } else if (child_pid == -1) {
        ::exit(1); // if forking failed
    } else {
        // make it work for non root users
        if (0 != getuid()) {
            ::prctl(PR_SET_PTRACER, PR_SET_PTRACER_ANY, 0, 0, 0);
        }
        ::waitpid(child_pid, nullptr, 0);
        ssize_t r = ::write(STDERR_FILENO, &BACKTRACE_STOP[0], sizeof(BACKTRACE_STOP));
        (void)r;
    }
}

minidump_stackwalk:

static bool dumpCallback(const google_breakpad::MinidumpDescriptor& descriptor, void* context, bool succeeded)
{
    int child_pid = ::fork();
    if (child_pid == 0) {
        ::dup2(open("/dev/null", O_WRONLY), 2); // ignore verbose output on stderr
        ssize_t r = ::write(STDOUT_FILENO, &MINIDUMP_STACKWALK_START[0], sizeof(MINIDUMP_STACKWALK_START));
        (void)r;
        ::execl("/usr/bin/minidump_stackwalk", "/usr/bin/minidump_stackwalk", descriptor.path(), "/usr/share/breakpad-syms", nullptr);
        ::exit(1); // if minidump_stackwalk failed to start
    } else if (child_pid == -1) {
        ::exit(1); // if forking failed
    } else {
        ::waitpid(child_pid, nullptr, 0);
        ssize_t r = ::write(STDOUT_FILENO, &MINIDUMP_STACKWALK_STOP[0], sizeof(MINIDUMP_STACKWALK_STOP));
        (void)r;
    }
    ::remove(descriptor.path()); // this is not signal safe anymore but should still work
    return succeeded;
}

Edit: To make it work for breakpad I also had to add this:

std::set_terminate([]()
{
    ssize_t r = ::write(STDERR_FILENO, EXCEPTION, sizeof(EXCEPTION));
    (void)r;
    google_breakpad::ExceptionHandler::WriteMinidump(std::string("/tmp"), dumpCallback, NULL);
    exit(1); // avoid creating a second dump by not calling std::abort
});

Source: How to get a stack trace for C++ using gcc with line number information? and Is it possible to attach gdb to a crashed process (a.k.a "just-in-time" debugging)

Andrew Grant's answer does not help getting a stack trace of the throwing function, at least not with GCC, because a throw statement does not save the current stack trace on its own, and the catch handler won't have access to the stack trace at that point any more.

The only way - using GCC - to solve this is to make sure to generate a stack trace at the point of the throw instruction, and save that with the exception object.

This method requires, of course, that every code that throws an exception uses that particular Exception class.

Update 11 July 2017: For some helpful code, take a look at cahit beyaz's answer, which points to http://stacktrace.sourceforge.net - I haven't used it yet but it looks promising.

on linux with g++ check out this lib

https://sourceforge.net/projects/libcsdbg

it does all the work for you

If you are using Boost 1.65 or higher, you can use boost::stacktrace:

#include <boost/stacktrace.hpp>

// ... somewhere inside the bar(int) function that is called recursively:
std::cout << boost::stacktrace::stacktrace();

A working example for OSX (tested right now on Catalina 10.15). Not portable to linux/windows obviously. Probably it will be usefull to somebody.

In the "Mew-exception" string you can use backtrace and/or backtrace_symbols functions

#include <stdexcept>
#include <typeinfo>
#include <dlfcn.h>

extern "C" void __cxa_throw(void *thrown_object, std::type_info *tinfo, void (*dest)(void *));
static void (*__cxa_throw_orig)(void *thrown_object, std::type_info *tinfo, void (*dest)(void *));
extern "C" void luna_cxa_throw(void *thrown_object, std::type_info *tinfo, void (*dest)(void *))
{
    printf("Mew-exception you can catch your backtrace here!");
    __cxa_throw_orig(thrown_object, tinfo, dest);
}


//__attribute__ ((used))
//__attribute__ ((section ("__DATA,__interpose")))
static struct replace_pair_t {
    void *replacement, *replacee;
} replace_pair = { (void*)luna_cxa_throw, (void*)__cxa_throw };

extern "C" const struct mach_header __dso_handle;
extern "C" void dyld_dynamic_interpose(const struct mach_header*,
                               const replace_pair_t replacements[],
                               size_t count);

int fn()
{
    int a = 10; ++a;
    throw std::runtime_error("Mew!");
}

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    __cxa_throw_orig = (void (*)(void *thrown_object, std::type_info *tinfo, void (*dest)(void *)))dlsym(RTLD_DEFAULT, "__cxa_throw");

    dyld_dynamic_interpose(&__dso_handle, &replace_pair, 1);

    fn();
    return 0;
}

I would like to add a standard library option (i.e. cross-platform) how to generate exception backtraces, which has become available with C++11:

Use std::nested_exception and std::throw_with_nested

This won't give you a stack unwind, but in my opinion the next best thing. It is described on StackOverflow here and here, how you can get a backtrace on your exceptions inside your code without need for a debugger or cumbersome logging, by simply writing a proper exception handler which will rethrow nested exceptions.

Since you can do this with any derived exception class, you can add a lot of information to such a backtrace! You may also take a look at my MWE on GitHub, where a backtrace would look something like this:

Library API: Exception caught in function 'api_function'
Backtrace:
~/Git/mwe-cpp-exception/src/detail/Library.cpp:17 : library_function failed
~/Git/mwe-cpp-exception/src/detail/Library.cpp:13 : could not open file "nonexistent.txt"

The following code stops the execution right after an exception is thrown. You need to set a windows_exception_handler along with a termination handler. I tested this in MinGW 32bits.

void beforeCrash(void);

static const bool SET_TERMINATE = std::set_terminate(beforeCrash);

void beforeCrash() {
    __asm("int3");
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
SetUnhandledExceptionFilter(windows_exception_handler);
...
}

Check the following code for the windows_exception_handler function: http://www.codedisqus.com/0ziVPgVPUk/exception-handling-and-stacktrace-under-windows-mingwgcc.html

I recommend http://stacktrace.sourceforge.net/ project. It support Windows, Mac OS and also Linux

Poppy can gather not only the stack trace, but also parameter values, local variables, etc. - everything leading to the crash.