heretek

GDB TUI dashboard for remote and embedded debugging

TLDR

Start heretek with default GDB

$ heretek

Connect to a remote target via netcat

$ heretek -r [host:port]

Use a custom GDB binary

$ heretek --gdb-path [path/to/gdb]

Run in 32-bit mode

$ heretek --ptr-size 32

Execute GDB commands from a file

$ heretek -c [path/to/commands.gdb]

SYNOPSIS

heretek [--gdb-path path] [-r host:port] [--ptr-size size] [-c file] [options]

heretek is a GDB TUI dashboard designed to seamlessly connect to remote targets even without a functioning gdbserver. It ships as a single statically-linked musl binary with no Python dependencies, making it ideal for embedded and minimal environments where vendors may ship GDB without Python support.heretek operates on systems with only gdb, nc (netcat), and mkfifo, bypassing common issues with broken gdbserver binaries. The dashboard displays registers, disassembly, stack, and memory in an organized TUI layout.

PARAMETERS

--gdb-path PATH

Override gdb executable path

-r, --remote HOST:PORT

Connect to a netcat session for remote debugging

--ptr-size SIZE

Set pointer size mode (possible values: 32, 64, auto; default: auto)

-c, --cmds FILE

Execute GDB commands line-by-line from a file (lines starting with # are ignored)

--log-path PATH

Path to write log file (set RUST_LOG env variable to change log level)

-h, --help

Print help

-V, --version

Print version

CAVEATS

Requires at minimum gdb, nc, and mkfifo on the target system. Some advanced GDB features that rely on Python extensions are not available. The TUI layout may require a sufficiently wide terminal.

HISTORY

heretek was created by wcampbell0x2a and is written in Rust. It was built to address the pain points of debugging on embedded systems where traditional GDB frontends fail due to missing Python or broken gdbserver installations.