~~NOTOC~~
====== Debugging Xfce4-panel ======

The Xfce Panel has a number of tools to create good [[https://bugzilla.xfce.org|bug reports]]. It can also provide some valuable insight for users into how the panel works, in case you have problems.

=== See Also ===

  * **[[:contribute:bugs:start]]** -- Information about reporting bugs and generating backtraces.

  * **[[:xfce:building]]** -- How to compile Xfce from source to provide better debug information.

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===== Debug Logs =====

On startup, the panel checks the environment variable ''PANEL_DEBUG''. If you want to test this, you can open a terminal, run ''xfce4-panel -q'' to exit the running instance. Then run ''PANEL_DEBUG=1 xfce4-panel'' and you will see the panel starts to output to //stderr//.

The messages look like ''xfce4-panel (<module>): <some message>''. It will print all sorts of information about panel positioning, plugins that are started, etc.

The value ''1'' enabled //default// logging, but some modules and plugins have more detailed logging that will normally clutter the log output. To show this you can specify the module name like ''PANEL_DEBUG=display-layout''.\\
Other valid debug //domains// are: //application, applicationsmenu, base-window, display-layout, external46, external, main, module-factory, module, positioning, struts, systray, tasklist//. You can also use //all// or combine options by creating a comma-separated list to show multiple domains in detail at the same time.

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===== Debugging Plugins =====

If an external plugin crashed, the panel will automatically restart it or ask the user what to do if the plugin crashed more then once within 60 seconds. Nonetheless, we all know this should never happen, so the panel provides tools to help debugging plugins.

==== GDB ====

If you start the panel with ''PANEL_DEBUG=gdb'' and [[http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/|gdb]] is installed on your computer, all external plugins will be started in gdb. The output of //gdb// is written to ''/tmp/<stamp>_gdb_<plugin-name>_<plugin-id>.log''. If the plugin segfaults, it will automatically create a //backtrace full// and dump //info registers//.

This does not mean that the output contains valuable information. For good backtraces, it is still recommended to create a debug-build of the plugin.

==== Valgrind ====

To detect memory leaks and corruptions, it is also possible to run plugins in [[http://valgrind.org/|valgrind]]. For this, start the panel with ''PANEL_DEBUG=valgrind''. Logs will be written to the same location as the //gdb// logs.

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