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Devs Tips & Tricks

Debug the Plugin

First, generate a debug build using the option CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug. This will decrease the performances but allow to debug the plugin easily.

Setup for CLion

It is possible to perform a step-by-step debug of the plugin while running with IDA. The following steps are using CLion but are adaptable for other IDEs.

  1. First, configure the Profiles for the project. The two most important options are the SDK Root directory and the IDA bin directory. Profile Window
  2. Create a Run/Debug configuration Debug
  3. Set the target to quokka_plugin
  4. Set the executable to be your idat file
  5. Set arguments (the same you would use on the command line)
  6. Add some environment variables:
    • IDALOG=/path/to/file Save the IDA's output in a file
    • TVHEADLESS=1 - Improve the speed
  7. Set Build and Install as action before launch.

If you set a breakpoint in the code, you can now debug your plugin by simply running Debug in CLion interface.

Use Sanitizers

By using the ENABLE_SANITIZERS option in CMake, you enable ASan.

Of note, to run with IDA, you need to specify the path to Asan using LD_PRELOAD.

Running Tests

For the plugin

The C++ tests are at best lackluster but the framework is here to improve them.

To compile tests: 

user@host:~/quokka$ cmake -B build-tests \ # Where to build 
                          -S . \ # Where are the sources
                          -DIdaSdk_ROOT_DIR:STRING=path/to/ida_sdk \ # Path to IDA SDK 
                          -DIda_BIN_DIR:STRING=/path/to/ida/dir \ # Path to IDA 
                          -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug \ # Build Type 
                          -DBUILD_TEST:BOOL=On

For the Python bindings

The tests for the Python bindings are also limited but can be improved. To run them, use the following command.

user@host:~/quokka$ pytest tests/python