LLDB Visualizer VS Code Extension

LLDB Visualizer is a Visual Studio Code extension that provides an interactive, graphical visualization of LLDB debugging sessions. It features a custom webview UI for inspecting threads, stack frames, registers, local variables, and heap memory in real time.

Features

• Visualize threads, stack frames, and call stacks
• Inspect registers and local variables
• Interactive heap and memory visualization
• Set and manage breakpoints
• Custom webview UI built with React
• Real-time updates from the LLDB backend

Requirements

• Python 3 (for backend)
• LLDB (must be installed and available in your PATH)
• macOS (tested; other platforms may require adjustments)

Installing LLDB via Homebrew (Recommended)

To ensure you have the latest version of LLDB, install it via Homebrew:

brew install llvm

This will install LLDB and related tools to /opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin (Apple Silicon) or /usr/local/opt/llvm/bin (Intel Macs).

Add Homebrew LLDB to your PATH

Add the following to your shell profile (e.g., ~/.zshrc or ~/.bash_profile):

# For Apple Silicon (M1/M2):
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin:$PATH"

# For Intel Macs:
# export PATH="/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin:$PATH"

Then reload your shell profile:

source ~/.zshrc  # or source ~/.bash_profile

You can verify the correct LLDB is being used with:

which lldb
lldb --version

Getting Started

1. Install dependencies:

   • Python 3
   • LLDB (see above)
   • Node.js and npm

2. Build the webview UI:

   cd webview-ui
   npm install
   npm run build

   The build output will be placed in webview-ui/build (see below for customizing output location).

3. Run/Debug the extension:

   • Open the root folder in VS Code.
   • Use the command palette (Cmd+Shift+P/Ctrl+Shift+P) and run Open Visualizer.

Extension Settings

This extension does not currently contribute any custom settings.

Known Issues

• Only tested on macOS; Linux/Windows support is experimental.
• Requires LLDB and Python 3 to be installed and available in your PATH.
• The backend uses a custom Python script and socket communication.

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For more information, see the VS Code Extension Guidelines.