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Dev tools · December 11, 2023

FireDBG – A Time Travel Visual Debugger for Rust

Hey HN, the is Chris, creator of FireDBG. We’ve been working on this debugger just about a year now. Time travel debugging isn’t a new concept, the new idea here is to use call tree visualisation to help us navigate the debug trace. It supports various Linux distros on x64 and macOS on x64 and M1. It’s only available for Rust right now, but we do want to bring this debugging experience to other programming languages. Please give it a try! Would love to know your thoughts. What’s your anecdote in debugging programs? My stupidity is usually in the form of: after a few hours of debugging, I…

FireDBG – A Time Travel Visual Debugger for Rust launched on December 11, 2023 with 44 votes, #748 of 3,780 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 2 years on.

Visit firedbg.sea-ql.org ↗Alternativestop 20% of December 2023

In plain words

FireDBG is a time travel visual debugger for Rust that lets developers step backward through program execution to pinpoint bugs. It uses call tree visualization to help navigate debug traces, making it easier to understand how code reached a particular state. The tool runs on Linux and macOS (x64 and M1 processors). It aims to reduce debugging time by providing a clearer view of program flow and state changes over time, with plans to expand support to other programming languages.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Debugging programs is hard

In the maker’s words, at launch

Hey HN, the is Chris, creator of FireDBG. We’ve been working on this debugger just about a year now. Time travel debugging isn’t a new concept, the new idea here is to use call tree visualisation to help us navigate the debug trace. It supports various Linux distros on x64 and macOS on x64 and M1. It’s only available…

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