facebook / chisel

Chisel is a collection of LLDB commands to assist debugging iOS apps.

Chisel

Chisel is a collection of LLDB commands to assist in the debugging of iOS apps.

[Installation • Commands • Custom Commands • Development Workflow Contributing • License]

For a comprehensive overview of LLDB, and how Chisel complements it, read Ari Grant's Dancing in the Debugger — A Waltz with LLDB in issue 19 of objc.io.

Installation

brew update
brew install chisel

if .lldbinit file doesn't exist you can create it & open it by tapping on the terminal

touch .lldbinit
open .lldbinit

Then add the following line to your ~/.lldbinit file.

# ~/.lldbinit
...
command script import /usr/local/opt/chisel/libexec/fbchisellldb.py

• Note that if you are installing on an M1 Mac, the path above should be /opt/homebrew/opt/chisel/libexec/fbchisellldb.py instead.

Alternatively, download chisel and add the following line to your ~/.lldbinit file.

# ~/.lldbinit
...
command script import /path/to/fbchisellldb.py

The commands will be available the next time Xcode starts.

Commands

There are many commands; here's a few: (Compatibility with iOS/Mac indicated at right)

Command	Description	iOS	OS X
pviews	Print the recursive view description for the key window.	Yes	Yes
pvc	Print the recursive view controller description for the key window.	Yes	No
visualize	Open a UIImage, CGImageRef, UIView, CALayer, NSData (of an image), UIColor, CIColor, CIImage, CGColorRef or CVPixelBuffer in Preview.app on your Mac.	Yes	No
fv	Find a view in the hierarchy whose class name matches the provided regex.	Yes	No
fvc	Find a view controller in the hierarchy whose class name matches the provided regex.	Yes	No
show/hide	Show or hide the given view or layer. You don't even have to continue the process to see the changes!	Yes	Yes
mask/unmask	Overlay a view or layer with a transparent rectangle to visualize where it is.	Yes	No
border/unborder	Add a border to a view or layer to visualize where it is.	Yes	Yes
caflush	Flush the render server (equivalent to a "repaint" if no animations are in-flight).	Yes	Yes
bmessage	Set a symbolic breakpoint on the method of a class or the method of an instance without worrying which class in the hierarchy actually implements the method.	Yes	Yes
wivar	Set a watchpoint on an instance variable of an object.	Yes	Yes
presponder	Print the responder chain starting from the given object.	Yes	Yes
...	... and many more!

To see the list of all of the commands execute the help command in LLDB or go to the Wiki.

(lldb) help
The following is a list of built-in, permanent debugger commands:
...

The following is a list of your current user-defined commands:
...

The bottom list contains all the commands sourced from Chisel.

You can also inspect a specific command by passing its name as an argument to the help command (as with all other LLDB commands).

(lldb) help border
Draws a border around <viewOrLayer>. Color and width can be optionally provided.

Arguments:
  <viewOrLayer>; Type: UIView*; The view to border.

Options:
  --color/-c <color>; Type: string; A color name such as 'red', 'green', 'magenta', etc.
  --width/-w <width>; Type: CGFloat; Desired width of border.

Syntax: border [--color=color] [--width=width] <viewOrLayer>

All of the commands provided by Chisel come with verbose help. Be sure to read it when in doubt!

Custom Commands

You can add local, custom commands. Here's a contrived example.

#!/usr/bin/python
# Example file with custom commands, located at /magical/commands/example.py

import lldb
import fbchisellldbbase as fb

def lldbcommands():
  return [ PrintKeyWindowLevel() ]

class PrintKeyWindowLevel(fb.FBCommand):
  def name(self):
    return 'pkeywinlevel'

  def description(self):
    return 'An incredibly contrived command that prints the window level of the key window.'

  def run(self, arguments, options):
    # It's a good habit to explicitly cast the type of all return
    # values and arguments. LLDB can't always find them on its own.
    lldb.debugger.HandleCommand('p (CGFloat)[(id)[(id)[UIApplication sharedApplication] keyWindow] windowLevel]')

Then all that's left is to source the commands in lldbinit. Chisel has a python function just for this, loadCommandsInDirectory in the fbobjclldb.py module.

# ~/.lldbinit
...
command script import /path/to/fbobjclldb.py
script fbobjclldb.loadCommandsInDirectory('/magical/commands/')

There's also builtin support to make it super easy to specify the arguments and options that a command takes. See the border and pinvocation commands for example use.

Development Workflow

Developing commands, whether for local use or contributing to Chisel directly, both follow the same workflow. Create a command as described in the Custom Commands section and then

1. Start LLDB
2. Reach a breakpoint (or simply pause execution via the pause button in Xcode's debug bar or process interrupt if attached directly)
3. Execute command source ~/.lldbinit in LLDB to source the commands
4. Run the command you are working on
5. Modify the command
6. Optionally run script reload(modulename)
7. Repeat steps 3-6 until the command becomes a source of happiness

Contributing

Please contribute any generic commands that you make. If it helps you then it will likely help many others! :D See CONTRIBUTING.md to learn how to contribute.

License

Chisel is MIT-licensed. See LICENSE.

chisel's Issues

add parameter to take window or window level for pvc

pvc only works in the key window. You should be able to specify the window or window level that you want to perform pvc on incase the problem view controller is on another window.

got error at ' isMac = runtimeHelpers.isMacintoshArch()'

run any command, got this error
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/opt/chisel/libexec/fblldb.py", line 81, in runCommand
command.run(args, options)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/commands/FBPrintCommands.py", line 104, in run
isMac = runtimeHelpers.isMacintoshArch()
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'isMacintoshArch'

Preview not show up

Nothing happen when i input "show self.view".

command 'mask' always get wrong

when I use mask self.view or mask (UIView *)self.view, get the following error code: 'error: error: no known method '-initWithFrame:'; cast the message send to the method's return type'

show{view,layer...} could not work, didi i miss something?

Xcode 5.01

There are so many warnings/errors:
First UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions not defined
Then tens of thousands context 0x0

showview self.view
Error [IRForTarget]: Call to a symbol-only function 'memset' that is not present in the target
error: warning: function 'UIGraphicsBeginImageContextWithOptions' has internal linkage but is not defined
note: used here
error: The expression could not be prepared to run in the target
Mar 11 11:37:57 shin-de-iMac.local App58ForIphone[4817] <Error>: CGContextSaveGState: invalid context 0x0. This is a serious error. This application, or a library it uses, is using an invalid context  and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system stability and reliability. This notice is a courtesy: please fix this problem. It will become a fatal error in an upcoming update.
Mar 11 11:37:57 shin-de-iMac.local App58ForIphone[4817] <Error>: CGContextSaveGState: invalid context 0x0. This is a serious error. This application, or a library it uses, is using an invalid context  and is thereby contributing to an overall degradation of system stability and reliability. This notice is a courtesy: please fix this problem. It will become a fatal error in an upcoming update.

Create test suite

Let's build a test suite for Chisel. I'm thinking integration tests.

• Build an app for the test harness.
• Build test runner
• Profit Write tests

Thoughts?

The mask command breaks if the orientation is portrait upside down.

In the case where the simulator has the view rotated so that the orientation is portrait upside down, the mask command will shade the wrong area.

libobjc required

Found out that if an app isn't calling the objc runtime, then the objc runtime definitions required by Chisel aren't available and cause Chisel to give unfriendly errors. For example Ivar is needed by pivar and wivar, and without those, the error message is:

error: error: use of undeclared identifier 'Ivar'
error: 1 errors parsing expression
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/kastiglione/.../chisel/fblldb.py", line 81, in runCommand
    command.run(args, options)
  File "/Users/kastiglione/.../chisel/commands/FBPrintCommands.py", line 244, in run
    printCommand = 'po' if ('@' in ivarTypeEncodingFirstChar) else 'p'
TypeError: argument of type 'NoneType' is not iterable

pviews output incorrectly

• pviews

(lldb) pviews 0x177d6310
resize = RM+BM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d5b60>>
   | <UIView: 0x177d7190; frame = (0 84; 320 0.5); autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d6db0>>

• po `-recursiveDescription`
  

(lldb) po [0x177d6310 recursiveDescription]
<HYSelectOneWayShipHeaderView: 0x177d6310; frame = (0 0; 320 85); autoresize = W+H; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d6440>>
   | <UILabel: 0x177d6610; frame = (10 38; 85 47); text = '2014-05-29'; clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d66c0>>
   | <UIButton: 0x177d66f0; frame = (0 0; 160 37); opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d5880>>
   |    | <UIImageView: 0x177e18d0; frame = (21 13; 6 11); clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x177e1950>>
   |    | <UIButtonLabel: 0x177dbc90; frame = (62 10; 42 17); text = '前一天'; clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x177dbd40>>
   | <UIButton: 0x1751f580; frame = (160 0; 160 37); opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751f680>>
   |    | <UIImageView: 0x1751cfd0; frame = (136 13; 6 11); clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751cf60>>
   |    | <UIButtonLabel: 0x177d84c0; frame = (57 10; 42 17); text = '后一天'; clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d8570>>
   | <UIView: 0x1751e760; frame = (160 0; 0.5 37); autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751e7c0>>
   | <UIView: 0x1751e690; frame = (0 36; 320 0.5); autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751e660>>
   | <UILabel: 0x1751e5b0; frame = (128 38; 85 47); text = '广州
番禺莲花山'; clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751e580>>
   | <UILabel: 0x1751e370; frame = (231 37; 85 47); text = '香港
港澳码头'; clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751e340>>
   | <UIImageView: 0x1751e180; frame = (215 57; 15 8); autoresize = RM+BM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x1751e150>>
   | <UILabel: 0x177d7480; frame = (93 38; 40 47); text = '周四'; clipsToBounds = YES; opaque = NO; autoresize = RM+BM; userInteractionEnabled = NO; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d5b60>>
   | <UIView: 0x177d7190; frame = (0 84; 320 0.5); autoresize = RM+BM; layer = <CALayer: 0x177d6db0>>

Doesn't seem to work for me

Followed install instructions. Relaunched Xcode. None of the chisel commands are recognized in the debugger window and neither are "po" and "p". Any ideas?

Removed .lldbinit file as well as chisel-master folder. Relaunched Xcode. "po" and "p" still unavailable. Any idea about how to get "po" and "p" back?

Thanks.

Feature idea: playout command, like pviews but just for layout

A playout command might differ from pviews by:

1. Don't show full -description, just show class name and frame. Perhaps an flag to allow inclusion of a given property, if present.
2. Order the tree visually, top (minY) to bottom (maxY), left (minX) to right (maxX). Currently pviews shows things in breadth first of subview order (back-to-front) but this order can differ from visual order.
3. Show frames converted to the given root view, so all origins can be compared without reference to the parent's frame.

Alternatively, could make pviews do these biddings via flags.

New Release?

What are the plans for doing a new release? there's been 50+ commits since 1.2 and some bug fixes so it seems we should do one soon.

pvc doesn't work when running on 64-bit devices

When running on an iPhone 5s:

error: Execution was interrupted, reason: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x10).
The process has been returned to the state before expression evaluation.
error: Execution was interrupted, reason: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x10).
The process has been returned to the state before expression evaluation.
error: Execution was interrupted, reason: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (code=1, address=0x10).
The process has been returned to the state before expression evaluation.
[Error getting description.]
   | [Error getting description.]
   |   | [Error getting description.]

When disabling the arm64 architecture, this works. It might an LLDB bug? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/11372232/strange-behaviours-with-stringwithformat-float

Ability to visualize colors

If I run visualize someColor, I get:

UIDeviceRGBColor isn't supported. You can visualize UIImage, CGImageRef, UIView, CALayer or NSData.

Chisel should generate a square or circular image of the color, optionally with some RGB/hex info included in the image, and open the image in Preview.

Print NSData as text

I often get NSData representing UTF-8-encoded strings back from APIs. What I want essentially comes down to a shortcut for:

po [[NSString alloc] initWithData:(NSData *)self.mutableData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding

But it would need to coexist with the existing feature to print NSData representing an image. It might also be nice to have an option to copy the resulting text to the clipboard, or open it in $EDITOR or maybe even a configurable app (e.g. TextMate or CocoaJSONEditor).

Posting this here to get feedback on what kind of features/options people would want. Would you want other encodings besides UTF-8? How would the interface for that work? If there is interest and some consensus on the interface, I can probably submit a PR.

Mine painter crash

openeye.openmods.info/crashes/bba0c6fbe6cdcfab88360b36da8c4db8

mine painter, is most likely the problem but the mod author dose not seem to be responding to contact attempts with this bug from other people, it occurs when you try to take a "chip" out of one of the converted blocks from chisel. and now the world will not open.

sorry if this is the wrong place to post bugs, couldn't think of anywhere else better otherwise :)

-thx

fb.evaluateIntegerExpression converting incorrectly to hex?

I'm working on getting a count of a method, and it returns a large number, 0x7fffffff (2147483647). The value 2147483647 is getting passed to int('2147483647', 16), which is not correct, it should be int ('2147483647', 10). Am I missing something?

Install instructions from `brew` misses information

Installation misses instructions when installing from brew and, I guess, when you use python from OS X, not the one installed with brew. I had to manually add this command to ~/.lldbinit:

command script import /usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.0.0/libexec/fblldb.py

while the instructions suggest that it is needed only when installing manually.

Add target/action commands

As described in the Dancing in the Debugger — A Waltz with LLDB, it's straight forward to manually determine the targets/actions of a control. However, what was new to me in that article is the ability to use a 0 value UIControlEvents, as a form of a wildcard.

I think there might be room for two commands: pactions, and bactions.

cc @arigrant

Tag new release and upgrade Homebrew formula

The Homebrew formula is still pointing at the 1.0.0 tag (and the sha b6cd385bb8ac66116de398e93cf0ab8b28955293, which I don't see in the repo). If everything is stable, I'd be more than happy to tag 1.0.1 and update the homebrew formula.

Really, I just want coworkers to be able to use my fvc --view command without manually installing chisel.

Add pjson command

@ilkera suggested we add a pjson command which would accept NSArray and NSDictionary and print their contents as JSON. It would also be good to accept an instance of NSString or NSData which represents URL encoded form data, and print that as JSON. The pjson command should also copy the results into the copy buffer as well.

wivar not work

In my ViewController, I have

@interface ViewController ()
@property (nonatomic, strong) NSNumber *number;
@end

And in LLDB
wivar self _number

I change that number, but the program does not pause. Use Xcode Debugger -> Right click on variable -> Watch works

Feature idea: commands for only breaking on or off main thread

It may not be that common, but I just had a case where I wanted to restrict a certain breakpoint to only the main thread. The breakpoint command has a -t flag, but the tid is not the simply the thread number, instead the tid needs to be looked up via thread list.

As for a command for breaking only when off the main thread, I don't know yet if the Python API would allow that.

Issue with Visualize command with CGImageRef

Whenever I try the visualize a CGImageRef. I got the following error:

error: error: cannot initialize a parameter of type 'CGImage *' with an lvalue of type 'CGImageRef' (aka 'CGImage *')
error: 1 errors parsing expression
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/opt/chisel/libexec/fblldb.py", line 81, in runCommand
    command.run(args, options)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/commands/FBVisualizationCommands.py", line 138, in run
    _visualize(arguments[0])
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/commands/FBVisualizationCommands.py", line 109, in _visualize
    _showImage('(id)[UIImage imageWithCGImage:' + target + ']')
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/commands/FBVisualizationCommands.py", line 37, in _showImage
    imageBytesStartAddress = fb.evaluateExpression('(void *)[(id)' + imageDataAddress + ' bytes]')
TypeError: cannot concatenate 'str' and 'NoneType' objects

Using Xcode 6.3.2

border <view> not working on osx

i have an NSView* view and i try to border it but i get this.
(lldb) border view
error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIColor'
error: 1 errors parsing expression

Doesn't work?

I followed all the instructions but it still can't recognize any chisel command. xcode6.3.2
what to do?

Improve documentation

It would be nice to have a more comprehensive set of docs in the GitHub wiki (perhaps even just copy/pasted from help , initially). It's not clear from the README what all of these awesome commands can do!

bmessage breakpoints fail on methods defined in categories

I don't know if there was a recent change or regression to lldb, but in order to set breakpoints on methods defined in categories, the category needs to be included in the breakpoint name.

For example, setting a breakpoint on -setFrame: now has to be:

breakpoint set -n '-[UIView(Geometry) setFrame:]'

Currently, bmessage doesn't consider categories when creating the breakpoint and silently fails on methods defined in categories.

I don't know of anyway to find out the category from the objc runtime. If that's indeed not possible the two ways I fixes I can think of are:

1. Use a regex breakpoint: br s -r '-\[UIView(\(.+\))? setFrame:\]'
2. Scrape the category out of the symbol table: target modules dump symtab.

Any better ideas?

Update homebrew formula

See #81

'import' is not a valid command

Executing command source ~/.lldbinit I get the following error:

error: Aborting reading of commands after command #0: 'command source /Users/justin/Developer/Tools/Chisel/fblldb.py' failed with error: Aborting reading of commands after command #9: 'import lldb' failed with error: 'import' is not a valid command.

'vs' command broken?

XCode prints this, anyone knows how to fix it?

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/fblldb.py", line 81, in runCommand
command.run(args, options)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/commands/FBFlickerCommands.py", line 60, in run
walker = FlickerWalker(object)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/commands/FBFlickerCommands.py", line 67, in init
self.handler = inputHelpers.FBInputHandler(lldb.debugger, self.inputCallback)
File "/usr/local/Cellar/chisel/1.2.0/libexec/fblldbinputhelpers.py", line 16, in init
self.inputReader = lldb.SBInputReader()
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'SBInputReader'

Can't install chisel

The command specified in the Readme does not work:

brew install chisel
Error: No available formula for chisel
Searching taps...
Error: 404 Not Found
Please report this bug:
https://github.com/mxcl/homebrew/wiki/troubleshooting
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:277:in open_http' /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/search.rb:98:invalue'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/search.rb:98:in search_taps' /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/1.8/open-uri.rb:230:ininject'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/search.rb:95:in each' /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/search.rb:95:ininject'
/usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/search.rb:95:in search_taps' /usr/local/Library/Homebrew/cmd/install.rb:54:ininstall'
/usr/local/Library/brew.rb:91:in `send'
/usr/local/Library/brew.rb:91

Specify objc++ where necessary for Swift support

In #68 (comment) @moreindirection pointed out that in the context of Swift, many lldb commands called internally from Chisel commands need to be updated to explicitly specify the language as objc++.

See #73

AppCode compatibility?

Is this intended to work/already works in AppCode?

I've installed as per the instructions and have chisel commands (pviews, visualize, etc...) working in Xcode.

Issuing "help" in lldb within AppCode displays the chisel commands. However, I don't see any results in AppCode from issuing commands (pviews, visualize, etc...) . Other non-chisel commands, even 3rd party additions, work.

I generally assume issues like these are my own fault somehow, but it would be reassuring to know if these commands work for others within AppCode.

Thanks!

PVC command error in Xcode 6.3 beta1

test on a simple iOS One View Application
error message as follows.

(lldb) pvc
error: error: use of undeclared identifier 'CGRect'
error: missing '[' at start of message send expression
error: expected ']'
note: to match this '['
error: 3 errors parsing expression
[Error getting description.]

(lldb) 

Add command to enable writing to const types

@rohan-mehta seeded this idea. When a variable is const, lldb will respect that and prevent assignment to the variable. Perhaps we could add a chisel convenience command that does this for the user:

(lldb) e CGFloat *p = (CGFloat *)&constVariable; *p = 1.0

Many OS X features say that work break in OS X apps

Try testing this on an OS X application on a particular NSView you know the visual location of.

This is after the latest version of Chisel is loaded into LLDB

pro at -n Xcode 
hide 0x7fe500fd5660

The above works. But try the mask command

mask 0x7fe500fd5660
error: error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIWindow'
error: expected expression
error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIApplication'
error: expected ']'
note: to match this '['
error: 4 errors parsing expression
error: error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIView'
error: expected expression
error: use of undeclared identifier 'None'
error: expected ']'
note: to match this '['
error: 4 errors parsing expression
error: use of undeclared identifier 'None'
error: 1 errors parsing expression
error: error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIWindow'
error: expected expression
error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIApplication'
error: expected ']'
note: to match this '['
error: 4 errors parsing expression
error: error: use of undeclared identifier 'None'
error: 1 errors parsing expression
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Users/derekselander/lldb/fblldb.py", line 81, in runCommand
    command.run(args, options)
  File "/Users/derekselander/lldb/commands/FBDisplayCommands.py", line 93, in run
    viewHelpers.maskView(viewOrLayer, options.color, options.alpha)
  File "/Users/derekselander/lldb/fblldbviewhelpers.py", line 24, in maskView
    origin = convertPoint(0, 0, viewOrLayer, window)
  File "/Users/derekselander/lldb/fblldbviewhelpers.py", line 47, in convertPoint

The border command that says is available in the README also doesn't work on OS X

border 0x7fe500fd5660
error: use of undeclared identifier 'UIColor'
error: 1 errors parsing expression

Seems like some of these commands are hardcoded for iOS only?

Issues running in Swift

I am getting errors because my expressions are running in Swift despite the evaluateExpressionValueInFrameLanguage function

Typical error statement:

error: expected ',' separator
(int)((BOOL)((unsigned long)CFGetTypeID((CFTypeRef)(shape)) == (unsigned long)CGImageGetTypeID()))

Is there something I'm missing here? I'm just calling visualize <value>

bmessage: Consult skip-prologue setting on x86

If the target.skip-prologue setting is set to true, then functionPreambleExpressionForSelf() will return an invalid expression. When the prologue is skipped, the expression should be *(id*)($ebp+8).

cc @rohan-mehta

short option can't works well in command 'fvc'

full option can works well, bug if i use short option, it show nothing.

(lldb) fvc -n=viewcontroller
(lldb) fvc --name=viewcontroller
0x7fd01a90f310 ViewController

is autocompletion of variables/methods possible?

or is it a limitation of lldb?
like when i type "po s" i get "po self", but if i do "pview s" i get nothing.

Merge `show{view,layer,image,imageref}` into `visualize`

As suggested in #11

We should actually merge show{view,layer,image,imageref} into visualize which basically does an -isKindOfClass: check and assume the else clause means imageref.

123456789

987654321

chisel only works fine once

I installed chisel correctly, and it work fine when i debug first time.
but when i run debugging again, chisel can not be loaded. So i have to restart the xcode to make it works again.

please tell me how to fix this?

the scripts works like this

//first time
(lldb) visualize someview

//second time
(lldb) visualize someview
error: 'visualize' is not a valid command.

Adding ComponentKit's debugging commands to Chisel

It would be nice to have something to print the components' hierarchy in Chisel.

Wouldn't

pcomponents

be better of

po [CKComponentHierarchyDebugHelper componentHierarchyDescription]

make all commands work with remote debug sessions

Commands such as visualize and border do not work when connected to a process running on a remote machine and connected through the gdb-remote command through lldb on the client machine.

Installation issues

Hi!

The install instructions are not working as expected. I updated .lldbinit to include the following:

command source ~/chisel/fblldb.py
command alias pi print (int)

The second command being for debug purposes and works fine, chisel however does not. I also tried expanding the tilde to the full path but it didn't help. Any advice on what might be wrong with the installation?

Break out a libChisel

I mentioned this in a recent comment, but I'd like to get more feedback on this idea.

Many of the commands end up marshaling a bunch of expressions back and forth between LLDB's python interpreter and the target app, but this has proven to be slowish at times. For example the manual path pvc is a fair bit slower than the path that uses +[UIViewController _printHierarchy].

I believe there could be a solid usability and maintainability improvement if we divided the architecture into two halves:

1. Code that interacts with LLDB's interfaces.
2. Code that interacts with the app's objects and data.

I think we could bundle a dynamic library and have Chisel load that into the app via target modules addprocess load. This adds some complexity, but the benefits would be faster interaction & feedback with Chisel commands, and also I think this would smooth the path toward adding testing to the project. Plus not having to write objc encoded in python strings is an improvement.

cc @arigrant @mattjgalloway @mmmulani @dstnbrkr @KingOfBrian @kolinkrewinkel

Detect if debugging an iOS or Mac app and use NSView vs UIView appropriately.

I'm working on a lot of Mac stuff these days, and a lot of these commands shouldn't be that much different in implementation.

Where to create .lldbinit file

Its specified in the documentation as

Alternatively, download chisel and add the following line to your ~/.lldbinit file. If it doesn't exist, create it.

I really don't know where to locate this .lldbinit file.

I downloaded .lldbinit file and placed it in my project folder like .gitignore but it dint work.

Sorry for this newbie question, but I really done know where to locate this or create and put this.