Run test subprocesses in gdb

[QuLogic]

If you've got some buggy C-level code, running in gdb can be very useful because it prints out a very detailed traceback, with full argument names and values. This could be achieved by something like gdb -return-child-result -batch -ex r -ex bt --args python -m pytest $PYTEST_ARGS.

However, gdb doesn't work with distributed testing because they are separate process which gdb doesn't know anything about. There is the pytest-faulthandler plugin which is handy but it produces a much more limited traceback with addresses only.

It would be nice if there were some way to run the child processes in gdb like this to automatically get these backtraces.

[RonnyPfannschmidt]

i suspect this will require additions to execnet as well (at least as things stand)

im happy to accept contributiosn in that direction, but its unlikely most of the pytest/xdist core developers can spend volunteer time on this anytime soon

[LaserPhaser]

@QuLogic Could you please provide detailed example of current problem and expected output. I would try to be a volunteer here (looks like I had similar problem).