Xcode Man Page

Jason — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 15:37:22 +0000

What if Xcode had a man page? Well now it does.

Instead of searching all over the web for keyboard shortcuts, features, and other common questions you have about Xcode, wouldn't it be great if you could just open a Terminal window and search or browse the Xcode man page?

Impress your friends and coworkers when you go to this man page instead of wasting time searching all over the internet for answers to your Xcode questions. You'll want to keep it open in a tab at all times.

Installation:

1) Create the directory:

sudo mkdir /usr/local/man/man1

2) Download the Xcode manpage:
Download Here

3) Copy the manpage to your direcory:

sudo cp xcode.1.gz /usr/local/man/man1

4) Add new path to the /etc/man.conf file:

sudo vim /etc/man.conf
# Add the following line where you see the other MANPATH entries:
MANPATH /usr/local/man

Now you can use the xcode manpage like so:

man xcode

That's all there is to it.

Please let me know what you think. It is a work in progress and I welcome bug reports, suggestions, etc.

Thanks and enjoy!

Must-have Vim config

Jason — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 06:44:50 +0000

Get the most out of Vim.

Vim is pretty great right out of the box but .vimrc settings are a simple way to elevate your enjoyment of vim and speed up your workflow.

:imap jj <Esc>
:imap kk <C-N>

:set tabstop=4
:set shiftwidth=4
:set expandtab
:set autoindent
:set number
:set term=screen-256color
:set pastetoggle=<f5>

:colorscheme 256_noir

Just drop these lines in a file called .vimrc file and save it to your home directory.

This config file includes the 256_noir Vim color scheme. You can download the scheme here:
https://github.com/andreasvc/vim-256noir

Drop this file here:
~/.vim/colors

If this scheme doesn't work for you, you can omit the last line in the .vimrc file or download and use a different scheme.

As for mapping to jj, I can't tell you how much this improves my workflow. Being able to quickly type jj instead of reaching for the esc every time I need to enter command mode is invaluable.

This is just the beginning. My .vimrc file is over 100 lines. Let me know if you want me to share it. I hope this helps get you started. Let me know what you think.

Setup gdb on macOS in 2020

Jason — Thu, 17 Sep 2020 02:21:35 +0000

Beginning with Mavericks (macOS 10.9) Xcode stopped supporting the gdb debugger. Below are steps to walk you through solving this not-so-straightforward problem.

Install gdb
Generate a certificate
Sign certificate for gdb
Create a gdb command file
Generating builds

Install gdb

Open the Terminal app, Applications > Utilities > Terminal. This guide uses the Terminal throughout, so it's best to leave it open until you have finished all of the steps.

If you don't already have gdb on your system, then you'll need to install it. I'm going to show you how to install gdb by using Homebrew.

Start by verifying whether you already have gdb installed on your system. Type the following in Terminal:



gdb --version

If you have gdb on your system already, you can skip to the Generate a certificate step. If you received an error, then you'll need to install gdb using Homebrew.

Verify whether or not you have Homebrew by typing:



brew --version

If Homebrew isn't already installed on your system, you'll need to install it. Using Terminal, type (or copy and paste) the following command:



/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"

Once Homebrew is installed, you can install gdb. The current version of gdb as of this writing is 9.2, which is confirmed working on Catalina as of Sept. 2020.

In order to install gdb type the command:



brew install gdb

You can confirm whether gdb is installed properly by running:



gdb --version

If everything went well then you're ready to move on to the next step!

Generate a certificate

If it was as simple as installing gdb, I wouldn't have made this guide! If you attempt to debug a file now, you will get errors and unexpected behavior because the Darwin kernel does not allow gdb to control another process without having special rights. Fortunately the rest of this guide walks you through all of the steps you'll need in order to use gdb effectively on your Mac.

In order to give gdb the permissions it needs, you'll need to generate a self-signed certificate.

Here are the steps:

Launch Keychain Access application: Applications > Utilities > Keychain Access.
From the Keychains list on the left, right-click on the System item and select Unlock Keychain "System".
From the toolbar, go to Keychain Access > Certificate Assistant > Create a Certificate.
Choose a name (e.g. gdb-cert).
Set Identity Type to Self Signed Root.
Set Certificate Type to Code Signing.
Check the Let me override defaults checkbox.
At this point, you can go on with the installation process until you get the Specify a Location For The Certificate dialogue box. Here you need to set Keychain to System. Finally, you can click on the Create button.
After these steps, you can see the new certificate under System keychains. From the contextual menu of the newly created certificate (right-click on it) select the Get info option. In the dialogue box, expand the Trust item and set Code signing to Always Trust.
Then, from the Keychains list on the left, right-click on the System item and select Lock Keychain "System".
Finally, reboot your system.

Sign certificate for gdb

Now you'll need to sign the certificate. Create a file called gdb-entitlement.xml. This allows macOS to trust gdb operations for debugging. Type the following into the xml file you just created, and save it:



<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit</key>
    <true/>
    <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory</key>
    <true/>
    <key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables</key>
    <true/>
    <key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation</key>
    <true/>
    <key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-executable-page-protection</key>
    <true/>
    <key>com.apple.security.cs.debugger</key>
    <true/>
    <key>com.apple.security.get-task-allow</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Now back in the Terminal app, navigate to the directory where you saved the xml file.
*note. <gdbPath> in the following command is your path to gdb. It will be something like
/usr/local/Cellar/gdb/version/bin/gdb
or
/usr/local/bin/gdb.
You can find out for sure by typing the following in the terminal:



which gdb

Replace <gdbPath> with your path to gdb.



codesign --entitlements gdb-entitlement.xml -fs gdb-cert <gdbPath>

where gdb-cert is the name of the certificate you created earlier, and gdbPath is the full path to your gdb binary file.

Create a gdb command file

For this step, do one of the following.
Either:

In the home directory, create a new file called .gdbinit. Write the following command into it and save: ```bash

set startup-with-shell off

or 
* Type the following into the Terminal:
```bash


echo "set startup-with-shell off" >> ~/.gdbinit

Generating builds

We're almost there! If you tried debugging with gdb now, you would likely receive a "No symbol table is loaded" error. In order to solve this, you'll need to compile programs with the -ggdb option, as in the following example:



gcc hello_world.c -o hello_world -ggdb.

At this point you should be able to successfully debug your programs on Mac using gdb. Do a test by running (for example):



gdb hello_world

and then from the gdb prompt, try creating a breakpoint:



(gdb)break main

You should see something like the following:



Breakpoint 1 at 0x100000de5: file hello_word.c, line 15.

I hope you're seeing the results you expected! Leave a comment and let me know how it goes!

Reference list:

DEV Community: Jason