tra86

tra86 is a Rust desktop assembly tracer/debugger experiment. It is still currently under development. More coming soon.

Current Status

What is verified right now:

• cargo check passes
• cargo test passes with analysis tests, LLDB parser tests, and real LLDB integration tests against compiled C and C++ fixtures
• cargo run -p tra86-app launches the desktop app
• the LLDB path can launch, attach, inspect memory/registers/frames, resolve symbols/source, and step real native fixtures

What is not yet true:

• this is not a production-ready tracer/debugger
• the backend is not yet robust across common failure cases
• mid-run pause/stop is still not reliable enough on the current LLDB CLI transport, so the UI does not pretend that it is
• the analysis layer is still thin
• the architecture still contains a few abstractions that overpromise capability

Workspace

• tra86-core: normalized execution/domain types
• tra86-backend: backend trait, errors, mock backend, thin backend wrapper
• tra86-backend-lldb: LLDB-specific adapter and parsers
• tra86-analysis: register delta and instruction classification helpers
• tra86-ui: egui rendering and UI event model
• tra86-app: application wiring, worker thread, session persistence

What Already Exists

• egui desktop shell
• backend worker thread to keep debugger work off the UI thread
• disassembly, registers, frames, threads, breakpoints, memory, trace panes
• LLDB adapter behind a Rust trait instead of embedding LLDB types in the UI
• a mock backend that is useful for UI work but currently makes the product look farther along than it is

Biggest Current Problems

• the LLDB adapter is text-protocol brittle
• the session model is better than it was, but it is still not a full state machine with generation tracking
• some backend failure paths are now surfaced in the UI, but lifecycle recovery is still incomplete
• test coverage is now real but still thin compared to the size of the product goal
• some abstractions are more decorative than proven

Build And Run

Prerequisites:

• Rust stable toolchain
• LLDB installed and available on PATH
• macOS or Linux desktop environment

Commands:

cargo check
cargo test
cargo run -p tra86-app

Interactive debugger CLI:

cargo run -p tra86-app --bin tra86_cli
cargo run -p tra86-app --bin tra86_cli -- launch /path/to/program -- arg1 arg2
cargo run -p tra86-app --bin tra86_cli -- attach 12345

Once the CLI starts, use help to list commands for launch, attach, stepping, register reads, memory reads, breakpoints, and disassembly.

Useful smoke check:

cargo run -p tra86-app --bin lldb_smoke -- /path/to/debuggable/binary

Performance notes and current hotspots live in PERF.md.

Direction

The intended product is still the same:

• Rust-native desktop application
• backend-agnostic normalized execution model
• real tracing/debugging on native binaries
• strong debugger fidelity before UI polish

The next work should focus on backend reliability, a better transport for true async pause/resume behavior, typed failure handling, and a session model that does not drift out of sync when the target process does something inconvenient.