How to debug c programs by gedit?

Is it possible to debug our programs written in c by gedit text editor ? If not, how can i do it ?


gedit is a text editor - it will color the syntax but won't help you compile or debug it. What I suggest you use is geany. It is a very simple, very easy to use IDE, which you can use to write,compile, and debug. It's available through either Software Center or sudo apt-get install geany


Gedit Plug-ins

Use gedit external terminal plug-in

You can use gedit with terminal plugin. The steps are fairly straight-forward:

  1. Enable "Universe" repository
  2. Install gedit-plugins
  3. Activate "Embedded Terminal"
  4. Use Ctrl+F9 to open terminal
  5. Other gedit plug-ins

Step 1. Enable "Universe" repository

The first step is to ensure Universe repository is activated from Settings->Software & Updates->Ubuntu Software and ensure the third option is checked:

gedit plugins repository.png

Step 2. Install gedit-plugins

Install gedit-plugs with the command:

sudo apt install gedit-plugins

Step 3. Activate "Embedded Terminal"

Open gedit (don't use sudo) and select Edit->Preferences->Plugins and check off Embedded Terminal:

gedit embedded terminal.png

Step 4. Use Ctrl+F9 to open terminal

In the GIF below we use Ctrl+F9 to get a tiny window with the command prompt. Use the mouse to click and drag the dividing line up to reveal an approximate size of 24x80.

The colors are dreadful! (with default gedit color scheme). I was just learning this as creating the answer so my mouse movements are slow below...

gedit open terminal.gif

Step 5. Other gedit plug-ins

As mentioned in Step 4., you can grab the separator bar to make the terminal window bigger. Here's what it looks like in a normal picture ((not a GIF).

There are three other plug-ins I currently use in the gedit coding window:

  • plug-in to display 80 character cut-off with different background color
  • plug-in to display entire document in thumbnail you can drag to quickly go to code section
  • Highlight matching brackets

Additionally there is an external add-on I'd like to install for shellcheck linter / checker that shows bash code errors. I haven't searched for a lint checker for other languages but obviously you can enter gcc and other commands directly into gedit terminal window.

gedit teriminal line wrap.png

For further reading please see:

  • Code completion for gedit
  • Useful Gedit plugins for programmers - HowtoForge
  • gedit: Add Python / C++ Autocomplete Support - nixCraft
  • 5 Must-Have Gedit Plugins for Programmers | Yaser Sulaiman's Blog
  • How to C program in gedit - Quora