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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_SANITIZER 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 and run the tests:

user@host:~/quokka$ cmake -B build-tests \
                          -S . \
                          -DIDA_VERSION=9.2 \
                          -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug \
                          -DBUILD_TEST:BOOL=On
user@host:~/quokka$ cmake --build build-tests -- -j
user@host:~/quokka$ ctest --test-dir build-tests

user@host:~/quokka$ cmake -B build-tests \
                          -S . \
                          -DIdaSdk_ROOT_DIR:STRING=path/to/ida_sdk \
                          -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE:STRING=Debug \
                          -DBUILD_TEST:BOOL=On
user@host:~/quokka$ cmake --build build-tests -- -j
user@host:~/quokka$ ctest --test-dir build-tests

For the Python bindings

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

For the Ghidra extension

The Ghidra extension has JUnit tests:

user@host:~/quokka$ cd ghidra_extension && ./gradlew test

Python integration tests for the Ghidra export require GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR to be set and the extension installed:

user@host:~/quokka$ export GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR="$(scripts/fetch_ghidra.sh)"
user@host:~/quokka$ pytest tests/python/tests/ghidra/ -v

Tests auto-skip when GHIDRA_INSTALL_DIR is unset or analyzeHeadless is not found.