How to Debug Anything
summary
Starts with an actionable claim: you can debug anything by getting a third‑party view of runtime behavior, strace attach to a running Apache process reveals system calls, working work backwards from the client 500 shows a missing db.in.php typo and a site restored in 3 minutes. For package tooling a megabyte of strace output plus apt source inspection finds a strict HTTP parser rejecting an empty Content‑Type header flagged as bad header line fixed by setting Content‑Type on S3.
AI-written summary · about
chapters (10)
- 0:00Introduction and context
- 1:14The reality of software bugs
- 3:21Methodology for debugging
- 5:06Case study: PHP site failure
- 7:42Introduction to strace
- 10:34Strace analysis methodology
- 13:45Formulating the debugging rules
- 15:57Case study: APT package issue
- 18:49Diving into source code
- 23:46Conclusion and final steps
related talks
57mDebug your thinking
27mDebugging product engineering organizations
26mDebugging Product Teams
04mTalk to me! The art of reporting a bug
06mHow Automated Tools Can Communicate Effective Strategies for Fixing Bugs
56mCode & Homicide: What Software Devs (..) from Offender Profiling
32mOpening Keynote: The Good Bad Bug: Fail Your Way to Better Code
01h 01mBecoming an Engineering Manager Without Losing Your Technical Soul
