Thread: How to use breakpoints

Hi everyone,

I am trying to learn the basics of debugging using SEGGER. I am using a very simple blinky example to start learning debugging.
I have declare and initialize two variables x & y. When I run the debugger and use the "watch" window to monitor the value of each variable, I can see the y variable but neither the x or i variables.. It sais "symbol not found" as shown on screenshot_69



The strange thing is that if I initialize x=0 then I can see the x variable on "watch" window as shown on screenshot_70. But again I cannot see the i variable.



Moreover if I delete both x and y variables then I can monitor i variable while debugging as shown in screenshot_71.




I cannot figure out what I am doing wrong with the breakpoints.. Any help?

Hi Salem and thank you for your answer!!

Originally Posted by Salem

Which compiler are you using?

I am using the GCC compiler with SEGGER IDE.

Originally Posted by Salem

How are you compiling the code?

Unless you specifically compile with debug enabled (say gcc -g) and no optimisations (say gcc -O0), then some things might not actually exist in the code any more.

You're right (that's why I love forums!!!), I was compiling in release mode, that's why I wasn't reading particular variables.. After compiling into debugging mode I was able to read every variable.

I lost two hours of searching yesterday but that was I good lesson since now I have a clearer view of release and debugging modes.

So in general while developing a firmware you have to compile in debugging mode and as soon as you're ready to flash the firmware to the target you have to compile into release mode for optimization right?