This is gdb.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.7 from gdb.texinfo. Copyright (C) 1988-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in developing GNU and promoting software freedom." INFO-DIR-SECTION Software development START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Gdb: (gdb). The GNU debugger. * gdbserver: (gdb) Server. The GNU debugging server. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY This file documents the GNU debugger GDB. This is the Tenth Edition, of 'Debugging with GDB: the GNU Source-Level Debugger' for GDB (GDB) Version 11.1. Copyright (C) 1988-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in developing GNU and promoting software freedom."  File: gdb.info, Node: Top, Next: Summary, Up: (dir) Debugging with GDB ****************** This file describes GDB, the GNU symbolic debugger. This is the Tenth Edition, for GDB (GDB) Version 11.1. Copyright (C) 1988-2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. This edition of the GDB manual is dedicated to the memory of Fred Fish. Fred was a long-standing contributor to GDB and to Free software in general. We will miss him. * Menu: * Summary:: Summary of GDB * Sample Session:: A sample GDB session * Invocation:: Getting in and out of GDB * Commands:: GDB commands * Running:: Running programs under GDB * Stopping:: Stopping and continuing * Reverse Execution:: Running programs backward * Process Record and Replay:: Recording inferior's execution and replaying it * Stack:: Examining the stack * Source:: Examining source files * Data:: Examining data * Optimized Code:: Debugging optimized code * Macros:: Preprocessor Macros * Tracepoints:: Debugging remote targets non-intrusively * Overlays:: Debugging programs that use overlays * Languages:: Using GDB with different languages * Symbols:: Examining the symbol table * Altering:: Altering execution * GDB Files:: GDB files * Targets:: Specifying a debugging target * Remote Debugging:: Debugging remote programs * Configurations:: Configuration-specific information * Controlling GDB:: Controlling GDB * Extending GDB:: Extending GDB * Interpreters:: Command Interpreters * TUI:: GDB Text User Interface * Emacs:: Using GDB under GNU Emacs * GDB/MI:: GDB's Machine Interface. * Annotations:: GDB's annotation interface. * JIT Interface:: Using the JIT debugging interface. * In-Process Agent:: In-Process Agent * GDB Bugs:: Reporting bugs in GDB * Command Line Editing:: Command Line Editing * Using History Interactively:: Using History Interactively * In Memoriam:: In Memoriam * Formatting Documentation:: How to format and print GDB documentation * Installing GDB:: Installing GDB * Maintenance Commands:: Maintenance Commands * Remote Protocol:: GDB Remote Serial Protocol * Agent Expressions:: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism * Target Descriptions:: How targets can describe themselves to GDB * Operating System Information:: Getting additional information from the operating system * Trace File Format:: GDB trace file format * Index Section Format:: .gdb_index section format * Man Pages:: Manual pages * Copying:: GNU General Public License says how you can copy and share GDB * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation * Concept Index:: Index of GDB concepts * Command and Variable Index:: Index of GDB commands, variables, functions, and Python data types  File: gdb.info, Node: Summary, Next: Sample Session, Up: Top Summary of GDB ************** The purpose of a debugger such as GDB is to allow you to see what is going on "inside" another program while it executes--or what another program was doing at the moment it crashed. GDB can do four main kinds of things (plus other things in support of these) to help you catch bugs in the act: * Start your program, specifying anything that might affect its behavior. * Make your program stop on specified conditions. * Examine what has happened, when your program has stopped. * Change things in your program, so you can experiment with correcting the effects of one bug and go on to learn about another. You can use GDB to debug programs written in C and C++. For more information, see *note Supported Languages: Supported Languages. For more information, see *note C and C++: C. Support for D is partial. For information on D, see *note D: D. Support for Modula-2 is partial. For information on Modula-2, see *note Modula-2: Modula-2. Support for OpenCL C is partial. For information on OpenCL C, see *note OpenCL C: OpenCL C. Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, file variables, or nested functions does not currently work. GDB does not support entering expressions, printing values, or similar features using Pascal syntax. GDB can be used to debug programs written in Fortran, although it may be necessary to refer to some variables with a trailing underscore. GDB can be used to debug programs written in Objective-C, using either the Apple/NeXT or the GNU Objective-C runtime. * Menu: * Free Software:: Freely redistributable software * Free Documentation:: Free Software Needs Free Documentation * Contributors:: Contributors to GDB  File: gdb.info, Node: Free Software, Next: Free Documentation, Up: Summary Free Software ============= GDB is "free software", protected by the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL gives you the freedom to copy or adapt a licensed program--but every person getting a copy also gets with it the freedom to modify that copy (which means that they must get access to the source code), and the freedom to distribute further copies. Typical software companies use copyrights to limit your freedoms; the Free Software Foundation uses the GPL to preserve these freedoms. Fundamentally, the General Public License is a license which says that you have these freedoms and that you cannot take these freedoms away from anyone else.  File: gdb.info, Node: Free Documentation, Next: Contributors, Prev: Free Software, Up: Summary Free Software Needs Free Documentation ====================================== The biggest deficiency in the free software community today is not in the software--it is the lack of good free documentation that we can include with the free software. Many of our most important programs do not come with free reference manuals and free introductory texts. Documentation is an essential part of any software package; when an important free software package does not come with a free manual and a free tutorial, that is a major gap. We have many such gaps today. Consider Perl, for instance. The tutorial manuals that people normally use are non-free. How did this come about? Because the authors of those manuals published them with restrictive terms--no copying, no modification, source files not available--which exclude them from the free software world. That wasn't the first time this sort of thing happened, and it was far from the last. Many times we have heard a GNU user eagerly describe a manual that he is writing, his intended contribution to the community, only to learn that he had ruined everything by signing a publication contract to make it non-free. Free documentation, like free software, is a matter of freedom, not price. The problem with the non-free manual is not that publishers charge a price for printed copies--that in itself is fine. (The Free Software Foundation sells printed copies of manuals, too.) The problem is the restrictions on the use of the manual. Free manuals are available in source code form, and give you permission to copy and modify. Non-free manuals do not allow this. The criteria of freedom for a free manual are roughly the same as for free software. Redistribution (including the normal kinds of commercial redistribution) must be permitted, so that the manual can accompany every copy of the program, both on-line and on paper. Permission for modification of the technical content is crucial too. When people modify the software, adding or changing features, if they are conscientious they will change the manual too--so they can provide accurate and clear documentation for the modified program. A manual that leaves you no choice but to write a new manual to document a changed version of the program is not really available to our community. Some kinds of limits on the way modification is handled are acceptable. For example, requirements to preserve the original author's copyright notice, the distribution terms, or the list of authors, are ok. It is also no problem to require modified versions to include notice that they were modified. Even entire sections that may not be deleted or changed are acceptable, as long as they deal with nontechnical topics (like this one). These kinds of restrictions are acceptable because they don't obstruct the community's normal use of the manual. However, it must be possible to modify all the _technical_ content of the manual, and then distribute the result in all the usual media, through all the usual channels. Otherwise, the restrictions obstruct the use of the manual, it is not free, and we need another manual to replace it. Please spread the word about this issue. Our community continues to lose manuals to proprietary publishing. If we spread the word that free software needs free reference manuals and free tutorials, perhaps the next person who wants to contribute by writing documentation will realize, before it is too late, that only free manuals contribute to the free software community. If you are writing documentation, please insist on publishing it under the GNU Free Documentation License or another free documentation license. Remember that this decision requires your approval--you don't have to let the publisher decide. Some commercial publishers will use a free license if you insist, but they will not propose the option; it is up to you to raise the issue and say firmly that this is what you want. If the publisher you are dealing with refuses, please try other publishers. If you're not sure whether a proposed license is free, write to . You can encourage commercial publishers to sell more free, copylefted manuals and tutorials by buying them, and particularly by buying copies from the publishers that paid for their writing or for major improvements. Meanwhile, try to avoid buying non-free documentation at all. Check the distribution terms of a manual before you buy it, and insist that whoever seeks your business must respect your freedom. Check the history of the book, and try to reward the publishers that have paid or pay the authors to work on it. The Free Software Foundation maintains a list of free documentation published by other publishers, at .  File: gdb.info, Node: Contributors, Prev: Free Documentation, Up: Summary Contributors to GDB =================== Richard Stallman was the original author of GDB, and of many other GNU programs. Many others have contributed to its development. This section attempts to credit major contributors. One of the virtues of free software is that everyone is free to contribute to it; with regret, we cannot actually acknowledge everyone here. The file 'ChangeLog' in the GDB distribution approximates a blow-by-blow account. Changes much prior to version 2.0 are lost in the mists of time. _Plea:_ Additions to this section are particularly welcome. If you or your friends (or enemies, to be evenhanded) have been unfairly omitted from this list, we would like to add your names! So that they may not regard their many labors as thankless, we particularly thank those who shepherded GDB through major releases: Andrew Cagney (releases 6.3, 6.2, 6.1, 6.0, 5.3, 5.2, 5.1 and 5.0); Jim Blandy (release 4.18); Jason Molenda (release 4.17); Stan Shebs (release 4.14); Fred Fish (releases 4.16, 4.15, 4.13, 4.12, 4.11, 4.10, and 4.9); Stu Grossman and John Gilmore (releases 4.8, 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, and 4.4); John Gilmore (releases 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.0, and 3.9); Jim Kingdon (releases 3.5, 3.4, and 3.3); and Randy Smith (releases 3.2, 3.1, and 3.0). Richard Stallman, assisted at various times by Peter TerMaat, Chris Hanson, and Richard Mlynarik, handled releases through 2.8. Michael Tiemann is the author of most of the GNU C++ support in GDB, with significant additional contributions from Per Bothner and Daniel Berlin. James Clark wrote the GNU C++ demangler. Early work on C++ was by Peter TerMaat (who also did much general update work leading to release 3.0). GDB uses the BFD subroutine library to examine multiple object-file formats; BFD was a joint project of David V. Henkel-Wallace, Rich Pixley, Steve Chamberlain, and John Gilmore. David Johnson wrote the original COFF support; Pace Willison did the original support for encapsulated COFF. Brent Benson of Harris Computer Systems contributed DWARF 2 support. Adam de Boor and Bradley Davis contributed the ISI Optimum V support. Per Bothner, Noboyuki Hikichi, and Alessandro Forin contributed MIPS support. Jean-Daniel Fekete contributed Sun 386i support. Chris Hanson improved the HP9000 support. Noboyuki Hikichi and Tomoyuki Hasei contributed Sony/News OS 3 support. David Johnson contributed Encore Umax support. Jyrki Kuoppala contributed Altos 3068 support. Jeff Law contributed HP PA and SOM support. Keith Packard contributed NS32K support. Doug Rabson contributed Acorn Risc Machine support. Bob Rusk contributed Harris Nighthawk CX-UX support. Chris Smith contributed Convex support (and Fortran debugging). Jonathan Stone contributed Pyramid support. Michael Tiemann contributed SPARC support. Tim Tucker contributed support for the Gould NP1 and Gould Powernode. Pace Willison contributed Intel 386 support. Jay Vosburgh contributed Symmetry support. Marko Mlinar contributed OpenRISC 1000 support. Andreas Schwab contributed M68K GNU/Linux support. Rich Schaefer and Peter Schauer helped with support of SunOS shared libraries. Jay Fenlason and Roland McGrath ensured that GDB and GAS agree about several machine instruction sets. Patrick Duval, Ted Goldstein, Vikram Koka and Glenn Engel helped develop remote debugging. Intel Corporation, Wind River Systems, AMD, and ARM contributed remote debugging modules for the i960, VxWorks, A29K UDI, and RDI targets, respectively. Brian Fox is the author of the readline libraries providing command-line editing and command history. Andrew Beers of SUNY Buffalo wrote the language-switching code, the Modula-2 support, and contributed the Languages chapter of this manual. Fred Fish wrote most of the support for Unix System Vr4. He also enhanced the command-completion support to cover C++ overloaded symbols. Hitachi America (now Renesas America), Ltd. sponsored the support for H8/300, H8/500, and Super-H processors. NEC sponsored the support for the v850, Vr4xxx, and Vr5xxx processors. Mitsubishi (now Renesas) sponsored the support for D10V, D30V, and M32R/D processors. Toshiba sponsored the support for the TX39 Mips processor. Matsushita sponsored the support for the MN10200 and MN10300 processors. Fujitsu sponsored the support for SPARClite and FR30 processors. Kung Hsu, Jeff Law, and Rick Sladkey added support for hardware watchpoints. Michael Snyder added support for tracepoints. Stu Grossman wrote gdbserver. Jim Kingdon, Peter Schauer, Ian Taylor, and Stu Grossman made nearly innumerable bug fixes and cleanups throughout GDB. The following people at the Hewlett-Packard Company contributed support for the PA-RISC 2.0 architecture, HP-UX 10.20, 10.30, and 11.0 (narrow mode), HP's implementation of kernel threads, HP's aC++ compiler, and the Text User Interface (nee Terminal User Interface): Ben Krepp, Richard Title, John Bishop, Susan Macchia, Kathy Mann, Satish Pai, India Paul, Steve Rehrauer, and Elena Zannoni. Kim Haase provided HP-specific information in this manual. DJ Delorie ported GDB to MS-DOS, for the DJGPP project. Robert Hoehne made significant contributions to the DJGPP port. Cygnus Solutions has sponsored GDB maintenance and much of its development since 1991. Cygnus engineers who have worked on GDB fulltime include Mark Alexander, Jim Blandy, Per Bothner, Kevin Buettner, Edith Epstein, Chris Faylor, Fred Fish, Martin Hunt, Jim Ingham, John Gilmore, Stu Grossman, Kung Hsu, Jim Kingdon, John Metzler, Fernando Nasser, Geoffrey Noer, Dawn Perchik, Rich Pixley, Zdenek Radouch, Keith Seitz, Stan Shebs, David Taylor, and Elena Zannoni. In addition, Dave Brolley, Ian Carmichael, Steve Chamberlain, Nick Clifton, JT Conklin, Stan Cox, DJ Delorie, Ulrich Drepper, Frank Eigler, Doug Evans, Sean Fagan, David Henkel-Wallace, Richard Henderson, Jeff Holcomb, Jeff Law, Jim Lemke, Tom Lord, Bob Manson, Michael Meissner, Jason Merrill, Catherine Moore, Drew Moseley, Ken Raeburn, Gavin Romig-Koch, Rob Savoye, Jamie Smith, Mike Stump, Ian Taylor, Angela Thomas, Michael Tiemann, Tom Tromey, Ron Unrau, Jim Wilson, and David Zuhn have made contributions both large and small. Andrew Cagney, Fernando Nasser, and Elena Zannoni, while working for Cygnus Solutions, implemented the original GDB/MI interface. Jim Blandy added support for preprocessor macros, while working for Red Hat. Andrew Cagney designed GDB's architecture vector. Many people including Andrew Cagney, Stephane Carrez, Randolph Chung, Nick Duffek, Richard Henderson, Mark Kettenis, Grace Sainsbury, Kei Sakamoto, Yoshinori Sato, Michael Snyder, Andreas Schwab, Jason Thorpe, Corinna Vinschen, Ulrich Weigand, and Elena Zannoni, helped with the migration of old architectures to this new framework. Andrew Cagney completely re-designed and re-implemented GDB's unwinder framework, this consisting of a fresh new design featuring frame IDs, independent frame sniffers, and the sentinel frame. Mark Kettenis implemented the DWARF 2 unwinder, Jeff Johnston the libunwind unwinder, and Andrew Cagney the dummy, sentinel, tramp, and trad unwinders. The architecture-specific changes, each involving a complete rewrite of the architecture's frame code, were carried out by Jim Blandy, Joel Brobecker, Kevin Buettner, Andrew Cagney, Stephane Carrez, Randolph Chung, Orjan Friberg, Richard Henderson, Daniel Jacobowitz, Jeff Johnston, Mark Kettenis, Theodore A. Roth, Kei Sakamoto, Yoshinori Sato, Michael Snyder, Corinna Vinschen, and Ulrich Weigand. Christian Zankel, Ross Morley, Bob Wilson, and Maxim Grigoriev from Tensilica, Inc. contributed support for Xtensa processors. Others who have worked on the Xtensa port of GDB in the past include Steve Tjiang, John Newlin, and Scott Foehner. Michael Eager and staff of Xilinx, Inc., contributed support for the Xilinx MicroBlaze architecture. Initial support for the FreeBSD/mips target and native configuration was developed by SRI International and the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory under DARPA/AFRL contract FA8750-10-C-0237 ("CTSRD"), as part of the DARPA CRASH research programme. Initial support for the FreeBSD/riscv target and native configuration was developed by SRI International and the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory (Department of Computer Science and Technology) under DARPA contract HR0011-18-C-0016 ("ECATS"), as part of the DARPA SSITH research programme. The original port to the OpenRISC 1000 is believed to be due to Alessandro Forin and Per Bothner. More recent ports have been the work of Jeremy Bennett, Franck Jullien, Stefan Wallentowitz and Stafford Horne. Weimin Pan, David Faust and Jose E. Marchesi contributed support for the Linux kernel BPF virtual architecture. This work was sponsored by Oracle.  File: gdb.info, Node: Sample Session, Next: Invocation, Prev: Summary, Up: Top 1 A Sample GDB Session ********************** You can use this manual at your leisure to read all about GDB. However, a handful of commands are enough to get started using the debugger. This chapter illustrates those commands. One of the preliminary versions of GNU 'm4' (a generic macro processor) exhibits the following bug: sometimes, when we change its quote strings from the default, the commands used to capture one macro definition within another stop working. In the following short 'm4' session, we define a macro 'foo' which expands to '0000'; we then use the 'm4' built-in 'defn' to define 'bar' as the same thing. However, when we change the open quote string to '' and the close quote string to '', the same procedure fails to define a new synonym 'baz': $ cd gnu/m4 $ ./m4 define(foo,0000) foo 0000 define(bar,defn('foo')) bar 0000 changequote(,) define(baz,defn(foo)) baz Ctrl-d m4: End of input: 0: fatal error: EOF in string Let us use GDB to try to see what is going on. $ gdb m4 GDB is free software and you are welcome to distribute copies of it under certain conditions; type "show copying" to see the conditions. There is absolutely no warranty for GDB; type "show warranty" for details. GDB 11.1, Copyright 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc... (gdb) GDB reads only enough symbol data to know where to find the rest when needed; as a result, the first prompt comes up very quickly. We now tell GDB to use a narrower display width than usual, so that examples fit in this manual. (gdb) set width 70 We need to see how the 'm4' built-in 'changequote' works. Having looked at the source, we know the relevant subroutine is 'm4_changequote', so we set a breakpoint there with the GDB 'break' command. (gdb) break m4_changequote Breakpoint 1 at 0x62f4: file builtin.c, line 879. Using the 'run' command, we start 'm4' running under GDB control; as long as control does not reach the 'm4_changequote' subroutine, the program runs as usual: (gdb) run Starting program: /work/Editorial/gdb/gnu/m4/m4 define(foo,0000) foo 0000 To trigger the breakpoint, we call 'changequote'. GDB suspends execution of 'm4', displaying information about the context where it stops. changequote(,) Breakpoint 1, m4_changequote (argc=3, argv=0x33c70) at builtin.c:879 879 if (bad_argc(TOKEN_DATA_TEXT(argv[0]),argc,1,3)) Now we use the command 'n' ('next') to advance execution to the next line of the current function. (gdb) n 882 set_quotes((argc >= 2) ? TOKEN_DATA_TEXT(argv[1])\ : nil, 'set_quotes' looks like a promising subroutine. We can go into it by using the command 's' ('step') instead of 'next'. 'step' goes to the next line to be executed in _any_ subroutine, so it steps into 'set_quotes'. (gdb) s set_quotes (lq=0x34c78 "", rq=0x34c88 "") at input.c:530 530 if (lquote != def_lquote) The display that shows the subroutine where 'm4' is now suspended (and its arguments) is called a stack frame display. It shows a summary of the stack. We can use the 'backtrace' command (which can also be spelled 'bt'), to see where we are in the stack as a whole: the 'backtrace' command displays a stack frame for each active subroutine. (gdb) bt #0 set_quotes (lq=0x34c78 "", rq=0x34c88 "") at input.c:530 #1 0x6344 in m4_changequote (argc=3, argv=0x33c70) at builtin.c:882 #2 0x8174 in expand_macro (sym=0x33320) at macro.c:242 #3 0x7a88 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=209696, td=0xf7fffa30) at macro.c:71 #4 0x79dc in expand_input () at macro.c:40 #5 0x2930 in main (argc=0, argv=0xf7fffb20) at m4.c:195 We step through a few more lines to see what happens. The first two times, we can use 's'; the next two times we use 'n' to avoid falling into the 'xstrdup' subroutine. (gdb) s 0x3b5c 532 if (rquote != def_rquote) (gdb) s 0x3b80 535 lquote = (lq == nil || *lq == '\0') ? \ def_lquote : xstrdup(lq); (gdb) n 536 rquote = (rq == nil || *rq == '\0') ? def_rquote\ : xstrdup(rq); (gdb) n 538 len_lquote = strlen(rquote); The last line displayed looks a little odd; we can examine the variables 'lquote' and 'rquote' to see if they are in fact the new left and right quotes we specified. We use the command 'p' ('print') to see their values. (gdb) p lquote $1 = 0x35d40 "" (gdb) p rquote $2 = 0x35d50 "" 'lquote' and 'rquote' are indeed the new left and right quotes. To look at some context, we can display ten lines of source surrounding the current line with the 'l' ('list') command. (gdb) l 533 xfree(rquote); 534 535 lquote = (lq == nil || *lq == '\0') ? def_lquote\ : xstrdup (lq); 536 rquote = (rq == nil || *rq == '\0') ? def_rquote\ : xstrdup (rq); 537 538 len_lquote = strlen(rquote); 539 len_rquote = strlen(lquote); 540 } 541 542 void Let us step past the two lines that set 'len_lquote' and 'len_rquote', and then examine the values of those variables. (gdb) n 539 len_rquote = strlen(lquote); (gdb) n 540 } (gdb) p len_lquote $3 = 9 (gdb) p len_rquote $4 = 7 That certainly looks wrong, assuming 'len_lquote' and 'len_rquote' are meant to be the lengths of 'lquote' and 'rquote' respectively. We can set them to better values using the 'p' command, since it can print the value of any expression--and that expression can include subroutine calls and assignments. (gdb) p len_lquote=strlen(lquote) $5 = 7 (gdb) p len_rquote=strlen(rquote) $6 = 9 Is that enough to fix the problem of using the new quotes with the 'm4' built-in 'defn'? We can allow 'm4' to continue executing with the 'c' ('continue') command, and then try the example that caused trouble initially: (gdb) c Continuing. define(baz,defn(foo)) baz 0000 Success! The new quotes now work just as well as the default ones. The problem seems to have been just the two typos defining the wrong lengths. We allow 'm4' exit by giving it an EOF as input: Ctrl-d Program exited normally. The message 'Program exited normally.' is from GDB; it indicates 'm4' has finished executing. We can end our GDB session with the GDB 'quit' command. (gdb) quit  File: gdb.info, Node: Invocation, Next: Commands, Prev: Sample Session, Up: Top 2 Getting In and Out of GDB *************************** This chapter discusses how to start GDB, and how to get out of it. The essentials are: * type 'gdb' to start GDB. * type 'quit' or 'Ctrl-d' to exit. * Menu: * Invoking GDB:: How to start GDB * Quitting GDB:: How to quit GDB * Shell Commands:: How to use shell commands inside GDB * Logging Output:: How to log GDB's output to a file  File: gdb.info, Node: Invoking GDB, Next: Quitting GDB, Up: Invocation 2.1 Invoking GDB ================ Invoke GDB by running the program 'gdb'. Once started, GDB reads commands from the terminal until you tell it to exit. You can also run 'gdb' with a variety of arguments and options, to specify more of your debugging environment at the outset. The command-line options described here are designed to cover a variety of situations; in some environments, some of these options may effectively be unavailable. The most usual way to start GDB is with one argument, specifying an executable program: gdb PROGRAM You can also start with both an executable program and a core file specified: gdb PROGRAM CORE You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument or use option '-p', if you want to debug a running process: gdb PROGRAM 1234 gdb -p 1234 would attach GDB to process '1234'. With option '-p' you can omit the PROGRAM filename. Taking advantage of the second command-line argument requires a fairly complete operating system; when you use GDB as a remote debugger attached to a bare board, there may not be any notion of "process", and there is often no way to get a core dump. GDB will warn you if it is unable to attach or to read core dumps. You can optionally have 'gdb' pass any arguments after the executable file to the inferior using '--args'. This option stops option processing. gdb --args gcc -O2 -c foo.c This will cause 'gdb' to debug 'gcc', and to set 'gcc''s command-line arguments (*note Arguments::) to '-O2 -c foo.c'. You can run 'gdb' without printing the front material, which describes GDB's non-warranty, by specifying '--silent' (or '-q'/'--quiet'): gdb --silent You can further control how GDB starts up by using command-line options. GDB itself can remind you of the options available. Type gdb -help to display all available options and briefly describe their use ('gdb -h' is a shorter equivalent). All options and command line arguments you give are processed in sequential order. The order makes a difference when the '-x' option is used. * Menu: * File Options:: Choosing files * Mode Options:: Choosing modes * Startup:: What GDB does during startup * Initialization Files:: Initialization Files  File: gdb.info, Node: File Options, Next: Mode Options, Up: Invoking GDB 2.1.1 Choosing Files -------------------- When GDB starts, it reads any arguments other than options as specifying an executable file and core file (or process ID). This is the same as if the arguments were specified by the '-se' and '-c' (or '-p') options respectively. (GDB reads the first argument that does not have an associated option flag as equivalent to the '-se' option followed by that argument; and the second argument that does not have an associated option flag, if any, as equivalent to the '-c'/'-p' option followed by that argument.) If the second argument begins with a decimal digit, GDB will first attempt to attach to it as a process, and if that fails, attempt to open it as a corefile. If you have a corefile whose name begins with a digit, you can prevent GDB from treating it as a pid by prefixing it with './', e.g. './12345'. If GDB has not been configured to included core file support, such as for most embedded targets, then it will complain about a second argument and ignore it. Many options have both long and short forms; both are shown in the following list. GDB also recognizes the long forms if you truncate them, so long as enough of the option is present to be unambiguous. (If you prefer, you can flag option arguments with '--' rather than '-', though we illustrate the more usual convention.) '-symbols FILE' '-s FILE' Read symbol table from file FILE. '-exec FILE' '-e FILE' Use file FILE as the executable file to execute when appropriate, and for examining pure data in conjunction with a core dump. '-se FILE' Read symbol table from file FILE and use it as the executable file. '-core FILE' '-c FILE' Use file FILE as a core dump to examine. '-pid NUMBER' '-p NUMBER' Connect to process ID NUMBER, as with the 'attach' command. '-command FILE' '-x FILE' Execute commands from file FILE. The contents of this file is evaluated exactly as the 'source' command would. *Note Command files: Command Files. '-eval-command COMMAND' '-ex COMMAND' Execute a single GDB command. This option may be used multiple times to call multiple commands. It may also be interleaved with '-command' as required. gdb -ex 'target sim' -ex 'load' \ -x setbreakpoints -ex 'run' a.out '-init-command FILE' '-ix FILE' Execute commands from file FILE before loading the inferior (but after loading gdbinit files). *Note Startup::. '-init-eval-command COMMAND' '-iex COMMAND' Execute a single GDB command before loading the inferior (but after loading gdbinit files). *Note Startup::. '-early-init-command FILE' '-eix FILE' Execute commands from FILE very early in the initialization process, before any output is produced. *Note Startup::. '-early-init-eval-command COMMAND' '-eiex COMMAND' Execute a single GDB command very early in the initialization process, before any output is produced. '-directory DIRECTORY' '-d DIRECTORY' Add DIRECTORY to the path to search for source and script files. '-r' '-readnow' Read each symbol file's entire symbol table immediately, rather than the default, which is to read it incrementally as it is needed. This makes startup slower, but makes future operations faster. '--readnever' Do not read each symbol file's symbolic debug information. This makes startup faster but at the expense of not being able to perform symbolic debugging. DWARF unwind information is also not read, meaning backtraces may become incomplete or inaccurate. One use of this is when a user simply wants to do the following sequence: attach, dump core, detach. Loading the debugging information in this case is an unnecessary cause of delay.  File: gdb.info, Node: Mode Options, Next: Startup, Prev: File Options, Up: Invoking GDB 2.1.2 Choosing Modes -------------------- You can run GDB in various alternative modes--for example, in batch mode or quiet mode. '-nx' '-n' Do not execute commands found in any initialization files (*note Initialization Files::). '-nh' Do not execute commands found in any home directory initialization file (*note Home directory initialization file: Initialization Files.). The system wide and current directory initialization files are still loaded. '-quiet' '-silent' '-q' "Quiet". Do not print the introductory and copyright messages. These messages are also suppressed in batch mode. This can also be enabled using 'set startup-quietly on'. The default is 'off'. Use 'show startup-quietly' to see the current setting. Place 'set startup-quietly on' into your early initialization file (*note Initialization Files: Initialization Files.) to have future GDB sessions startup quietly. '-batch' Run in batch mode. Exit with status '0' after processing all the command files specified with '-x' (and all commands from initialization files, if not inhibited with '-n'). Exit with nonzero status if an error occurs in executing the GDB commands in the command files. Batch mode also disables pagination, sets unlimited terminal width and height *note Screen Size::, and acts as if 'set confirm off' were in effect (*note Messages/Warnings::). Batch mode may be useful for running GDB as a filter, for example to download and run a program on another computer; in order to make this more useful, the message Program exited normally. (which is ordinarily issued whenever a program running under GDB control terminates) is not issued when running in batch mode. '-batch-silent' Run in batch mode exactly like '-batch', but totally silently. All GDB output to 'stdout' is prevented ('stderr' is unaffected). This is much quieter than '-silent' and would be useless for an interactive session. This is particularly useful when using targets that give 'Loading section' messages, for example. Note that targets that give their output via GDB, as opposed to writing directly to 'stdout', will also be made silent. '-return-child-result' The return code from GDB will be the return code from the child process (the process being debugged), with the following exceptions: * GDB exits abnormally. E.g., due to an incorrect argument or an internal error. In this case the exit code is the same as it would have been without '-return-child-result'. * The user quits with an explicit value. E.g., 'quit 1'. * The child process never runs, or is not allowed to terminate, in which case the exit code will be -1. This option is useful in conjunction with '-batch' or '-batch-silent', when GDB is being used as a remote program loader or simulator interface. '-nowindows' '-nw' "No windows". If GDB comes with a graphical user interface (GUI) built in, then this option tells GDB to only use the command-line interface. If no GUI is available, this option has no effect. '-windows' '-w' If GDB includes a GUI, then this option requires it to be used if possible. '-cd DIRECTORY' Run GDB using DIRECTORY as its working directory, instead of the current directory. '-data-directory DIRECTORY' '-D DIRECTORY' Run GDB using DIRECTORY as its data directory. The data directory is where GDB searches for its auxiliary files. *Note Data Files::. '-fullname' '-f' GNU Emacs sets this option when it runs GDB as a subprocess. It tells GDB to output the full file name and line number in a standard, recognizable fashion each time a stack frame is displayed (which includes each time your program stops). This recognizable format looks like two '\032' characters, followed by the file name, line number and character position separated by colons, and a newline. The Emacs-to-GDB interface program uses the two '\032' characters as a signal to display the source code for the frame. '-annotate LEVEL' This option sets the "annotation level" inside GDB. Its effect is identical to using 'set annotate LEVEL' (*note Annotations::). The annotation LEVEL controls how much information GDB prints together with its prompt, values of expressions, source lines, and other types of output. Level 0 is the normal, level 1 is for use when GDB is run as a subprocess of GNU Emacs, level 3 is the maximum annotation suitable for programs that control GDB, and level 2 has been deprecated. The annotation mechanism has largely been superseded by GDB/MI (*note GDB/MI::). '--args' Change interpretation of command line so that arguments following the executable file are passed as command line arguments to the inferior. This option stops option processing. '-baud BPS' '-b BPS' Set the line speed (baud rate or bits per second) of any serial interface used by GDB for remote debugging. '-l TIMEOUT' Set the timeout (in seconds) of any communication used by GDB for remote debugging. '-tty DEVICE' '-t DEVICE' Run using DEVICE for your program's standard input and output. '-tui' Activate the "Text User Interface" when starting. The Text User Interface manages several text windows on the terminal, showing source, assembly, registers and GDB command outputs (*note GDB Text User Interface: TUI.). Do not use this option if you run GDB from Emacs (*note Using GDB under GNU Emacs: Emacs.). '-interpreter INTERP' Use the interpreter INTERP for interface with the controlling program or device. This option is meant to be set by programs which communicate with GDB using it as a back end. *Note Command Interpreters: Interpreters. '--interpreter=mi' (or '--interpreter=mi3') causes GDB to use the "GDB/MI interface" version 3 (*note The GDB/MI Interface: GDB/MI.) included since GDB version 9.1. GDB/MI version 2 ('mi2'), included in GDB 6.0 and version 1 ('mi1'), included in GDB 5.3, are also available. Earlier GDB/MI interfaces are no longer supported. '-write' Open the executable and core files for both reading and writing. This is equivalent to the 'set write on' command inside GDB (*note Patching::). '-statistics' This option causes GDB to print statistics about time and memory usage after it completes each command and returns to the prompt. '-version' This option causes GDB to print its version number and no-warranty blurb, and exit. '-configuration' This option causes GDB to print details about its build-time configuration parameters, and then exit. These details can be important when reporting GDB bugs (*note GDB Bugs::).  File: gdb.info, Node: Startup, Next: Initialization Files, Prev: Mode Options, Up: Invoking GDB 2.1.3 What GDB Does During Startup ---------------------------------- Here's the description of what GDB does during session startup: 1. Performs minimal setup required to initialize basic internal state. 2. Reads commands from the early initialization file (if any) in your home directory. Only a restricted set of commands can be placed into an early initialization file, see *note Initialization Files::, for details. 3. Executes commands and command files specified by the '-eiex' and '-eix' command line options in their specified order. Only a restricted set of commands can be used with '-eiex' and 'eix', see *note Initialization Files::, for details. 4. Sets up the command interpreter as specified by the command line (*note interpreter: Mode Options.). 5. Reads the system wide initialization file and the files from the system wide initialization directory, *note System Wide Init Files::. 6. Reads the initialization file (if any) in your home directory and executes all the commands in that file, *note Home Directory Init File::. 7. Executes commands and command files specified by the '-iex' and '-ix' options in their specified order. Usually you should use the '-ex' and '-x' options instead, but this way you can apply settings before GDB init files get executed and before inferior gets loaded. 8. Processes command line options and operands. 9. Reads and executes the commands from the initialization file (if any) in the current working directory as long as 'set auto-load local-gdbinit' is set to 'on' (*note Init File in the Current Directory::). This is only done if the current directory is different from your home directory. Thus, you can have more than one init file, one generic in your home directory, and another, specific to the program you are debugging, in the directory where you invoke GDB. *Note Init File in the Current Directory during Startup::. 10. If the command line specified a program to debug, or a process to attach to, or a core file, GDB loads any auto-loaded scripts provided for the program or for its loaded shared libraries. *Note Auto-loading::. If you wish to disable the auto-loading during startup, you must do something like the following: $ gdb -iex "set auto-load python-scripts off" myprogram Option '-ex' does not work because the auto-loading is then turned off too late. 11. Executes commands and command files specified by the '-ex' and '-x' options in their specified order. *Note Command Files::, for more details about GDB command files. 12. Reads the command history recorded in the "history file". *Note Command History::, for more details about the command history and the files where GDB records it.  File: gdb.info, Node: Initialization Files, Prev: Startup, Up: Invoking GDB 2.1.4 Initialization Files -------------------------- During startup (*note Startup::) GDB will execute commands from several initialization files. These initialization files use the same syntax as "command files" (*note Command Files::) and are processed by GDB in the same way. To display the list of initialization files loaded by GDB at startup, in the order they will be loaded, you can use 'gdb --help'. The "early initialization" file is loaded very early in GDB's initialization process, before the interpreter (*note Interpreters::) has been initialized, and before the default target (*note Targets::) is initialized. Only 'set' or 'source' commands should be placed into an early initialization file, and the only 'set' commands that can be used are those that control how GDB starts up. Commands that can be placed into an early initialization file will be documented as such throughout this manual. Any command that is not documented as being suitable for an early initialization file should instead be placed into a general initialization file. Command files passed to '--early-init-command' or '-eix' are also early initialization files, with the same command restrictions. Only commands that can appear in an early initialization file should be passed to '--early-init-eval-command' or '-eiex'. In contrast, the "general initialization" files are processed later, after GDB has finished its own internal initialization process, any valid command can be used in these files. Throughout the rest of this document the term "initialization file" refers to one of the general initialization files, not the early initialization file. Any discussion of the early initialization file will specifically mention that it is the early initialization file being discussed. As the system wide and home directory initialization files are processed before most command line options, changes to settings (e.g. 'set complaints') can affect subsequent processing of command line options and operands. The following sections describe where GDB looks for the early initialization and initialization files, and the order that the files are searched for. 2.1.4.1 Home directory early initialization files ................................................. GDB initially looks for an early initialization file in the users home directory(1). There are a number of locations that GDB will search in the home directory, these locations are searched in order and GDB will load the first file that it finds, and subsequent locations will not be checked. On non-macOS hosts the locations searched are: * The file 'gdb/gdbearlyinit' within the directory pointed to by the environment variable 'XDG_CONFIG_HOME', if it is defined. * The file '.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit' within the directory pointed to by the environment variable 'HOME', if it is defined. * The file '.gdbearlyinit' within the directory pointed to by the environment variable 'HOME', if it is defined. By contrast, on macOS hosts the locations searched are: * The file 'Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbearlyinit' within the directory pointed to by the environment variable 'HOME', if it is defined. * The file '.gdbearlyinit' within the directory pointed to by the environment variable 'HOME', if it is defined. It is possible to prevent the home directory early initialization file from being loaded using the '-nx' or '-nh' command line options, *note Choosing Modes: Mode Options. 2.1.4.2 System wide initialization files ........................................ There are two locations that are searched for system wide initialization files. Both of these locations are always checked: 'system.gdbinit' This is a single system-wide initialization file. Its location is specified with the '--with-system-gdbinit' configure option (*note System-wide configuration::). It is loaded first when GDB starts, before command line options have been processed. 'system.gdbinit.d' This is the system-wide initialization directory. Its location is specified with the '--with-system-gdbinit-dir' configure option (*note System-wide configuration::). Files in this directory are loaded in alphabetical order immediately after 'system.gdbinit' (if enabled) when GDB starts, before command line options have been processed. Files need to have a recognized scripting language extension ('.py'/'.scm') or be named with a '.gdb' extension to be interpreted as regular GDB commands. GDB will not recurse into any subdirectories of this directory. It is possible to prevent the system wide initialization files from being loaded using the '-nx' command line option, *note Choosing Modes: Mode Options. 2.1.4.3 Home directory initialization file .......................................... After loading the system wide initialization files GDB will look for an initialization file in the users home directory(2). There are a number of locations that GDB will search in the home directory, these locations are searched in order and GDB will load the first file that it finds, and subsequent locations will not be checked. On non-Apple hosts the locations searched are: '$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit' '$HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit' '$HOME/.gdbinit' While on Apple hosts the locations searched are: '$HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit' '$HOME/.gdbinit' It is possible to prevent the home directory initialization file from being loaded using the '-nx' or '-nh' command line options, *note Choosing Modes: Mode Options. The DJGPP port of GDB uses the name 'gdb.ini' instead of '.gdbinit' or 'gdbinit', due to the limitations of file names imposed by DOS filesystems. The Windows port of GDB uses the standard name, but if it finds a 'gdb.ini' file in your home directory, it warns you about that and suggests to rename the file to the standard name. 2.1.4.4 Local directory initialization file ........................................... GDB will check the current directory for a file called '.gdbinit'. It is loaded last, after command line options other than '-x' and '-ex' have been processed. The command line options '-x' and '-ex' are processed last, after '.gdbinit' has been loaded, *note Choosing Files: File Options. If the file in the current directory was already loaded as the home directory initialization file then it will not be loaded a second time. It is possible to prevent the local directory initialization file from being loaded using the '-nx' command line option, *note Choosing Modes: Mode Options. ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) On DOS/Windows systems, the home directory is the one pointed to by the 'HOME' environment variable. (2) On DOS/Windows systems, the home directory is the one pointed to by the 'HOME' environment variable.  File: gdb.info, Node: Quitting GDB, Next: Shell Commands, Prev: Invoking GDB, Up: Invocation 2.2 Quitting GDB ================ 'quit [EXPRESSION]' 'q' To exit GDB, use the 'quit' command (abbreviated 'q'), or type an end-of-file character (usually 'Ctrl-d'). If you do not supply EXPRESSION, GDB will terminate normally; otherwise it will terminate using the result of EXPRESSION as the error code. An interrupt (often 'Ctrl-c') does not exit from GDB, but rather terminates the action of any GDB command that is in progress and returns to GDB command level. It is safe to type the interrupt character at any time because GDB does not allow it to take effect until a time when it is safe. If you have been using GDB to control an attached process or device, you can release it with the 'detach' command (*note Debugging an Already-running Process: Attach.).  File: gdb.info, Node: Shell Commands, Next: Logging Output, Prev: Quitting GDB, Up: Invocation 2.3 Shell Commands ================== If you need to execute occasional shell commands during your debugging session, there is no need to leave or suspend GDB; you can just use the 'shell' command. 'shell COMMAND-STRING' '!COMMAND-STRING' Invoke a standard shell to execute COMMAND-STRING. Note that no space is needed between '!' and COMMAND-STRING. On GNU and Unix systems, the environment variable 'SHELL', if it exists, determines which shell to run. Otherwise GDB uses the default shell ('/bin/sh' on GNU and Unix systems, 'cmd.exe' on MS-Windows, 'COMMAND.COM' on MS-DOS, etc.). The utility 'make' is often needed in development environments. You do not have to use the 'shell' command for this purpose in GDB: 'make MAKE-ARGS' Execute the 'make' program with the specified arguments. This is equivalent to 'shell make MAKE-ARGS'. 'pipe [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND' '| [COMMAND] | SHELL_COMMAND' 'pipe -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND' '| -d DELIM COMMAND DELIM SHELL_COMMAND' Executes COMMAND and sends its output to SHELL_COMMAND. Note that no space is needed around '|'. If no COMMAND is provided, the last command executed is repeated. In case the COMMAND contains a '|', the option '-d DELIM' can be used to specify an alternate delimiter string DELIM that separates the COMMAND from the SHELL_COMMAND. Example: (gdb) p var $1 = { black = 144, red = 233, green = 377, blue = 610, white = 987 } (gdb) pipe p var|wc 7 19 80 (gdb) |p var|wc -l 7 (gdb) p /x var $4 = { black = 0x90, red = 0xe9, green = 0x179, blue = 0x262, white = 0x3db } (gdb) ||grep red red => 0xe9, (gdb) | -d ! echo this contains a | char\n ! sed -e 's/|/PIPE/' this contains a PIPE char (gdb) | -d xxx echo this contains a | char!\n xxx sed -e 's/|/PIPE/' this contains a PIPE char! (gdb) The convenience variables '$_shell_exitcode' and '$_shell_exitsignal' can be used to examine the exit status of the last shell command launched by 'shell', 'make', 'pipe' and '|'. *Note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars.  File: gdb.info, Node: Logging Output, Prev: Shell Commands, Up: Invocation 2.4 Logging Output ================== You may want to save the output of GDB commands to a file. There are several commands to control GDB's logging. 'set logging on' Enable logging. 'set logging off' Disable logging. 'set logging file FILE' Change the name of the current logfile. The default logfile is 'gdb.txt'. 'set logging overwrite [on|off]' By default, GDB will append to the logfile. Set 'overwrite' if you want 'set logging on' to overwrite the logfile instead. 'set logging redirect [on|off]' By default, GDB output will go to both the terminal and the logfile. Set 'redirect' if you want output to go only to the log file. 'set logging debugredirect [on|off]' By default, GDB debug output will go to both the terminal and the logfile. Set 'debugredirect' if you want debug output to go only to the log file. 'show logging' Show the current values of the logging settings. You can also redirect the output of a GDB command to a shell command. *Note pipe::.  File: gdb.info, Node: Commands, Next: Running, Prev: Invocation, Up: Top 3 GDB Commands ************** You can abbreviate a GDB command to the first few letters of the command name, if that abbreviation is unambiguous; and you can repeat certain GDB commands by typing just . You can also use the key to get GDB to fill out the rest of a word in a command (or to show you the alternatives available, if there is more than one possibility). * Menu: * Command Syntax:: How to give commands to GDB * Command Settings:: How to change default behavior of commands * Completion:: Command completion * Command Options:: Command options * Help:: How to ask GDB for help  File: gdb.info, Node: Command Syntax, Next: Command Settings, Up: Commands 3.1 Command Syntax ================== A GDB command is a single line of input. There is no limit on how long it can be. It starts with a command name, which is followed by arguments whose meaning depends on the command name. For example, the command 'step' accepts an argument which is the number of times to step, as in 'step 5'. You can also use the 'step' command with no arguments. Some commands do not allow any arguments. GDB command names may always be truncated if that abbreviation is unambiguous. Other possible command abbreviations are listed in the documentation for individual commands. In some cases, even ambiguous abbreviations are allowed; for example, 's' is specially defined as equivalent to 'step' even though there are other commands whose names start with 's'. You can test abbreviations by using them as arguments to the 'help' command. A blank line as input to GDB (typing just ) means to repeat the previous command. Certain commands (for example, 'run') will not repeat this way; these are commands whose unintentional repetition might cause trouble and which you are unlikely to want to repeat. User-defined commands can disable this feature; see *note dont-repeat: Define. The 'list' and 'x' commands, when you repeat them with , construct new arguments rather than repeating exactly as typed. This permits easy scanning of source or memory. GDB can also use in another way: to partition lengthy output, in a way similar to the common utility 'more' (*note Screen Size: Screen Size.). Since it is easy to press one too many in this situation, GDB disables command repetition after any command that generates this sort of display. Any text from a '#' to the end of the line is a comment; it does nothing. This is useful mainly in command files (*note Command Files: Command Files.). The 'Ctrl-o' binding is useful for repeating a complex sequence of commands. This command accepts the current line, like , and then fetches the next line relative to the current line from the history for editing.  File: gdb.info, Node: Command Settings, Next: Completion, Prev: Command Syntax, Up: Commands 3.2 Command Settings ==================== Many commands change their behavior according to command-specific variables or settings. These settings can be changed with the 'set' subcommands. For example, the 'print' command (*note Examining Data: Data.) prints arrays differently depending on settings changeable with the commands 'set print elements NUMBER-OF-ELEMENTS' and 'set print array-indexes', among others. You can change these settings to your preference in the gdbinit files loaded at GDB startup. *Note Startup::. The settings can also be changed interactively during the debugging session. For example, to change the limit of array elements to print, you can do the following: (GDB) set print elements 10 (GDB) print some_array $1 = {0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90...} The above 'set print elements 10' command changes the number of elements to print from the default of 200 to 10. If you only intend this limit of 10 to be used for printing 'some_array', then you must restore the limit back to 200, with 'set print elements 200'. Some commands allow overriding settings with command options. For example, the 'print' command supports a number of options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by 'set print' subcommands. *Note print options::. The example above could be rewritten as: (GDB) print -elements 10 -- some_array $1 = {0, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90...} Alternatively, you can use the 'with' command to change a setting temporarily, for the duration of a command invocation. 'with SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]' 'w SETTING [VALUE] [-- COMMAND]' Temporarily set SETTING to VALUE for the duration of COMMAND. SETTING is any setting you can change with the 'set' subcommands. VALUE is the value to assign to 'setting' while running 'command'. If no COMMAND is provided, the last command executed is repeated. If a COMMAND is provided, it must be preceded by a double dash ('--') separator. This is required because some settings accept free-form arguments, such as expressions or filenames. For example, the command (GDB) with print array on -- print some_array is equivalent to the following 3 commands: (GDB) set print array on (GDB) print some_array (GDB) set print array off The 'with' command is particularly useful when you want to override a setting while running user-defined commands, or commands defined in Python or Guile. *Note Extending GDB: Extending GDB. (GDB) with print pretty on -- my_complex_command To change several settings for the same command, you can nest 'with' commands. For example, 'with language ada -- with print elements 10' temporarily changes the language to Ada and sets a limit of 10 elements to print for arrays and strings.  File: gdb.info, Node: Completion, Next: Command Options, Prev: Command Settings, Up: Commands 3.3 Command Completion ====================== GDB can fill in the rest of a word in a command for you, if there is only one possibility; it can also show you what the valid possibilities are for the next word in a command, at any time. This works for GDB commands, GDB subcommands, command options, and the names of symbols in your program. Press the key whenever you want GDB to fill out the rest of a word. If there is only one possibility, GDB fills in the word, and waits for you to finish the command (or press to enter it). For example, if you type (gdb) info bre GDB fills in the rest of the word 'breakpoints', since that is the only 'info' subcommand beginning with 'bre': (gdb) info breakpoints You can either press at this point, to run the 'info breakpoints' command, or backspace and enter something else, if 'breakpoints' does not look like the command you expected. (If you were sure you wanted 'info breakpoints' in the first place, you might as well just type immediately after 'info bre', to exploit command abbreviations rather than command completion). If there is more than one possibility for the next word when you press , GDB sounds a bell. You can either supply more characters and try again, or just press a second time; GDB displays all the possible completions for that word. For example, you might want to set a breakpoint on a subroutine whose name begins with 'make_', but when you type 'b make_' GDB just sounds the bell. Typing again displays all the function names in your program that begin with those characters, for example: (gdb) b make_ GDB sounds bell; press again, to see: make_a_section_from_file make_environ make_abs_section make_function_type make_blockvector make_pointer_type make_cleanup make_reference_type make_command make_symbol_completion_list (gdb) b make_ After displaying the available possibilities, GDB copies your partial input ('b make_' in the example) so you can finish the command. If you just want to see the list of alternatives in the first place, you can press 'M-?' rather than pressing twice. 'M-?' means ' ?'. You can type this either by holding down a key designated as the shift on your keyboard (if there is one) while typing '?', or as followed by '?'. If the number of possible completions is large, GDB will print as much of the list as it has collected, as well as a message indicating that the list may be truncated. (gdb) b m main <... the rest of the possible completions ...> *** List may be truncated, max-completions reached. *** (gdb) b m This behavior can be controlled with the following commands: 'set max-completions LIMIT' 'set max-completions unlimited' Set the maximum number of completion candidates. GDB will stop looking for more completions once it collects this many candidates. This is useful when completing on things like function names as collecting all the possible candidates can be time consuming. The default value is 200. A value of zero disables tab-completion. Note that setting either no limit or a very large limit can make completion slow. 'show max-completions' Show the maximum number of candidates that GDB will collect and show during completion. Sometimes the string you need, while logically a "word", may contain parentheses or other characters that GDB normally excludes from its notion of a word. To permit word completion to work in this situation, you may enclose words in ''' (single quote marks) in GDB commands. A likely situation where you might need this is in typing an expression that involves a C++ symbol name with template parameters. This is because when completing expressions, GDB treats the '<' character as word delimiter, assuming that it's the less-than comparison operator (*note C and C++ Operators: C Operators.). For example, when you want to call a C++ template function interactively using the 'print' or 'call' commands, you may need to distinguish whether you mean the version of 'name' that was specialized for 'int', 'name()', or the version that was specialized for 'float', 'name()'. To use the word-completion facilities in this situation, type a single quote ''' at the beginning of the function name. This alerts GDB that it may need to consider more information than usual when you press or 'M-?' to request word completion: (gdb) p 'func< M-? func() func() (gdb) p 'func< When setting breakpoints however (*note Specify Location::), you don't usually need to type a quote before the function name, because GDB understands that you want to set a breakpoint on a function: (gdb) b func< M-? func() func() (gdb) b func< This is true even in the case of typing the name of C++ overloaded functions (multiple definitions of the same function, distinguished by argument type). For example, when you want to set a breakpoint you don't need to distinguish whether you mean the version of 'name' that takes an 'int' parameter, 'name(int)', or the version that takes a 'float' parameter, 'name(float)'. (gdb) b bubble( M-? bubble(int) bubble(double) (gdb) b bubble(dou M-? bubble(double) See *note quoting names:: for a description of other scenarios that require quoting. For more information about overloaded functions, see *note C++ Expressions: C Plus Plus Expressions. You can use the command 'set overload-resolution off' to disable overload resolution; see *note GDB Features for C++: Debugging C Plus Plus. When completing in an expression which looks up a field in a structure, GDB also tries(1) to limit completions to the field names available in the type of the left-hand-side: (gdb) p gdb_stdout.M-? magic to_fputs to_rewind to_data to_isatty to_write to_delete to_put to_write_async_safe to_flush to_read This is because the 'gdb_stdout' is a variable of the type 'struct ui_file' that is defined in GDB sources as follows: struct ui_file { int *magic; ui_file_flush_ftype *to_flush; ui_file_write_ftype *to_write; ui_file_write_async_safe_ftype *to_write_async_safe; ui_file_fputs_ftype *to_fputs; ui_file_read_ftype *to_read; ui_file_delete_ftype *to_delete; ui_file_isatty_ftype *to_isatty; ui_file_rewind_ftype *to_rewind; ui_file_put_ftype *to_put; void *to_data; } ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) The completer can be confused by certain kinds of invalid expressions. Also, it only examines the static type of the expression, not the dynamic type.  File: gdb.info, Node: Command Options, Next: Help, Prev: Completion, Up: Commands 3.4 Command options =================== Some commands accept options starting with a leading dash. For example, 'print -pretty'. Similarly to command names, you can abbreviate a GDB option to the first few letters of the option name, if that abbreviation is unambiguous, and you can also use the key to get GDB to fill out the rest of a word in an option (or to show you the alternatives available, if there is more than one possibility). Some commands take raw input as argument. For example, the print command processes arbitrary expressions in any of the languages supported by GDB. With such commands, because raw input may start with a leading dash that would be confused with an option or any of its abbreviations, e.g. 'print -p' (short for 'print -pretty' or printing negative 'p'?), if you specify any command option, then you must use a double-dash ('--') delimiter to indicate the end of options. Some options are described as accepting an argument which can be either 'on' or 'off'. These are known as "boolean options". Similarly to boolean settings commands--'on' and 'off' are the typical values, but any of '1', 'yes' and 'enable' can also be used as "true" value, and any of '0', 'no' and 'disable' can also be used as "false" value. You can also omit a "true" value, as it is implied by default. For example, these are equivalent: (gdb) print -object on -pretty off -element unlimited -- *myptr (gdb) p -o -p 0 -e u -- *myptr You can discover the set of options some command accepts by completing on '-' after the command name. For example: (gdb) print - -address -max-depth -raw-values -union -array -null-stop -repeats -vtbl -array-indexes -object -static-members -elements -pretty -symbol Completion will in some cases guide you with a suggestion of what kind of argument an option expects. For example: (gdb) print -elements NUMBER unlimited Here, the option expects a number (e.g., '100'), not literal 'NUMBER'. Such metasyntactical arguments are always presented in uppercase. (For more on using the 'print' command, see *note Examining Data: Data.)  File: gdb.info, Node: Help, Prev: Command Options, Up: Commands 3.5 Getting Help ================ You can always ask GDB itself for information on its commands, using the command 'help'. 'help' 'h' You can use 'help' (abbreviated 'h') with no arguments to display a short list of named classes of commands: (gdb) help List of classes of commands: aliases -- User-defined aliases of other commands breakpoints -- Making program stop at certain points data -- Examining data files -- Specifying and examining files internals -- Maintenance commands obscure -- Obscure features running -- Running the program stack -- Examining the stack status -- Status inquiries support -- Support facilities tracepoints -- Tracing of program execution without stopping the program user-defined -- User-defined commands Type "help" followed by a class name for a list of commands in that class. Type "help" followed by command name for full documentation. Command name abbreviations are allowed if unambiguous. (gdb) 'help CLASS' Using one of the general help classes as an argument, you can get a list of the individual commands in that class. If a command has aliases, the aliases are given after the command name, separated by commas. If an alias has default arguments, the full definition of the alias is given after the first line. For example, here is the help display for the class 'status': (gdb) help status Status inquiries. List of commands: info, inf, i -- Generic command for showing things about the program being debugged info address, iamain -- Describe where symbol SYM is stored. alias iamain = info address main info all-registers -- List of all registers and their contents, for selected stack frame. ... show, info set -- Generic command for showing things about the debugger Type "help" followed by command name for full documentation. Command name abbreviations are allowed if unambiguous. (gdb) 'help COMMAND' With a command name as 'help' argument, GDB displays a short paragraph on how to use that command. If that command has one or more aliases, GDB will display a first line with the command name and all its aliases separated by commas. This first line will be followed by the full definition of all aliases having default arguments. 'apropos [-v] REGEXP' The 'apropos' command searches through all of the GDB commands, and their documentation, for the regular expression specified in ARGS. It prints out all matches found. The optional flag '-v', which stands for 'verbose', indicates to output the full documentation of the matching commands and highlight the parts of the documentation matching REGEXP. For example: apropos alias results in: alias -- Define a new command that is an alias of an existing command aliases -- User-defined aliases of other commands while apropos -v cut.*thread apply results in the below output, where 'cut for 'thread apply' is highlighted if styling is enabled. taas -- Apply a command to all threads (ignoring errors and empty output). Usage: taas COMMAND shortcut for 'thread apply all -s COMMAND' tfaas -- Apply a command to all frames of all threads (ignoring errors and empty output). Usage: tfaas COMMAND shortcut for 'thread apply all -s frame apply all -s COMMAND' 'complete ARGS' The 'complete ARGS' command lists all the possible completions for the beginning of a command. Use ARGS to specify the beginning of the command you want completed. For example: complete i results in: if ignore info inspect This is intended for use by GNU Emacs. In addition to 'help', you can use the GDB commands 'info' and 'show' to inquire about the state of your program, or the state of GDB itself. Each command supports many topics of inquiry; this manual introduces each of them in the appropriate context. The listings under 'info' and under 'show' in the Command, Variable, and Function Index point to all the sub-commands. *Note Command and Variable Index::. 'info' This command (abbreviated 'i') is for describing the state of your program. For example, you can show the arguments passed to a function with 'info args', list the registers currently in use with 'info registers', or list the breakpoints you have set with 'info breakpoints'. You can get a complete list of the 'info' sub-commands with 'help info'. 'set' You can assign the result of an expression to an environment variable with 'set'. For example, you can set the GDB prompt to a $-sign with 'set prompt $'. 'show' In contrast to 'info', 'show' is for describing the state of GDB itself. You can change most of the things you can 'show', by using the related command 'set'; for example, you can control what number system is used for displays with 'set radix', or simply inquire which is currently in use with 'show radix'. To display all the settable parameters and their current values, you can use 'show' with no arguments; you may also use 'info set'. Both commands produce the same display. Here are several miscellaneous 'show' subcommands, all of which are exceptional in lacking corresponding 'set' commands: 'show version' Show what version of GDB is running. You should include this information in GDB bug-reports. If multiple versions of GDB are in use at your site, you may need to determine which version of GDB you are running; as GDB evolves, new commands are introduced, and old ones may wither away. Also, many system vendors ship variant versions of GDB, and there are variant versions of GDB in GNU/Linux distributions as well. The version number is the same as the one announced when you start GDB. 'show copying' 'info copying' Display information about permission for copying GDB. 'show warranty' 'info warranty' Display the GNU "NO WARRANTY" statement, or a warranty, if your version of GDB comes with one. 'show configuration' Display detailed information about the way GDB was configured when it was built. This displays the optional arguments passed to the 'configure' script and also configuration parameters detected automatically by 'configure'. When reporting a GDB bug (*note GDB Bugs::), it is important to include this information in your report.  File: gdb.info, Node: Running, Next: Stopping, Prev: Commands, Up: Top 4 Running Programs Under GDB **************************** When you run a program under GDB, you must first generate debugging information when you compile it. You may start GDB with its arguments, if any, in an environment of your choice. If you are doing native debugging, you may redirect your program's input and output, debug an already running process, or kill a child process. * Menu: * Compilation:: Compiling for debugging * Starting:: Starting your program * Arguments:: Your program's arguments * Environment:: Your program's environment * Working Directory:: Your program's working directory * Input/Output:: Your program's input and output * Attach:: Debugging an already-running process * Kill Process:: Killing the child process * Inferiors Connections and Programs:: Debugging multiple inferiors connections and programs * Threads:: Debugging programs with multiple threads * Forks:: Debugging forks * Checkpoint/Restart:: Setting a _bookmark_ to return to later  File: gdb.info, Node: Compilation, Next: Starting, Up: Running 4.1 Compiling for Debugging =========================== In order to debug a program effectively, you need to generate debugging information when you compile it. This debugging information is stored in the object file; it describes the data type of each variable or function and the correspondence between source line numbers and addresses in the executable code. To request debugging information, specify the '-g' option when you run the compiler. Programs that are to be shipped to your customers are compiled with optimizations, using the '-O' compiler option. However, some compilers are unable to handle the '-g' and '-O' options together. Using those compilers, you cannot generate optimized executables containing debugging information. GCC, the GNU C/C++ compiler, supports '-g' with or without '-O', making it possible to debug optimized code. We recommend that you _always_ use '-g' whenever you compile a program. You may think your program is correct, but there is no sense in pushing your luck. For more information, see *note Optimized Code::. Older versions of the GNU C compiler permitted a variant option '-gg' for debugging information. GDB no longer supports this format; if your GNU C compiler has this option, do not use it. GDB knows about preprocessor macros and can show you their expansion (*note Macros::). Most compilers do not include information about preprocessor macros in the debugging information if you specify the '-g' flag alone. Version 3.1 and later of GCC, the GNU C compiler, provides macro information if you are using the DWARF debugging format, and specify the option '-g3'. *Note Options for Debugging Your Program or GCC: (gcc)Debugging Options, for more information on GCC options affecting debug information. You will have the best debugging experience if you use the latest version of the DWARF debugging format that your compiler supports. DWARF is currently the most expressive and best supported debugging format in GDB.  File: gdb.info, Node: Starting, Next: Arguments, Prev: Compilation, Up: Running 4.2 Starting your Program ========================= 'run' 'r' Use the 'run' command to start your program under GDB. You must first specify the program name with an argument to GDB (*note Getting In and Out of GDB: Invocation.), or by using the 'file' or 'exec-file' command (*note Commands to Specify Files: Files.). If you are running your program in an execution environment that supports processes, 'run' creates an inferior process and makes that process run your program. In some environments without processes, 'run' jumps to the start of your program. Other targets, like 'remote', are always running. If you get an error message like this one: The "remote" target does not support "run". Try "help target" or "continue". then use 'continue' to run your program. You may need 'load' first (*note load::). The execution of a program is affected by certain information it receives from its superior. GDB provides ways to specify this information, which you must do _before_ starting your program. (You can change it after starting your program, but such changes only affect your program the next time you start it.) This information may be divided into four categories: The _arguments._ Specify the arguments to give your program as the arguments of the 'run' command. If a shell is available on your target, the shell is used to pass the arguments, so that you may use normal conventions (such as wildcard expansion or variable substitution) in describing the arguments. In Unix systems, you can control which shell is used with the 'SHELL' environment variable. If you do not define 'SHELL', GDB uses the default shell ('/bin/sh'). You can disable use of any shell with the 'set startup-with-shell' command (see below for details). The _environment._ Your program normally inherits its environment from GDB, but you can use the GDB commands 'set environment' and 'unset environment' to change parts of the environment that affect your program. *Note Your Program's Environment: Environment. The _working directory._ You can set your program's working directory with the command 'set cwd'. If you do not set any working directory with this command, your program will inherit GDB's working directory if native debugging, or the remote server's working directory if remote debugging. *Note Your Program's Working Directory: Working Directory. The _standard input and output._ Your program normally uses the same device for standard input and standard output as GDB is using. You can redirect input and output in the 'run' command line, or you can use the 'tty' command to set a different device for your program. *Note Your Program's Input and Output: Input/Output. _Warning:_ While input and output redirection work, you cannot use pipes to pass the output of the program you are debugging to another program; if you attempt this, GDB is likely to wind up debugging the wrong program. When you issue the 'run' command, your program begins to execute immediately. *Note Stopping and Continuing: Stopping, for discussion of how to arrange for your program to stop. Once your program has stopped, you may call functions in your program, using the 'print' or 'call' commands. *Note Examining Data: Data. If the modification time of your symbol file has changed since the last time GDB read its symbols, GDB discards its symbol table, and reads it again. When it does this, GDB tries to retain your current breakpoints. 'start' The name of the main procedure can vary from language to language. With C or C++, the main procedure name is always 'main', but other languages such as Ada do not require a specific name for their main procedure. The debugger provides a convenient way to start the execution of the program and to stop at the beginning of the main procedure, depending on the language used. The 'start' command does the equivalent of setting a temporary breakpoint at the beginning of the main procedure and then invoking the 'run' command. Some programs contain an "elaboration" phase where some startup code is executed before the main procedure is called. This depends on the languages used to write your program. In C++, for instance, constructors for static and global objects are executed before 'main' is called. It is therefore possible that the debugger stops before reaching the main procedure. However, the temporary breakpoint will remain to halt execution. Specify the arguments to give to your program as arguments to the 'start' command. These arguments will be given verbatim to the underlying 'run' command. Note that the same arguments will be reused if no argument is provided during subsequent calls to 'start' or 'run'. It is sometimes necessary to debug the program during elaboration. In these cases, using the 'start' command would stop the execution of your program too late, as the program would have already completed the elaboration phase. Under these circumstances, either insert breakpoints in your elaboration code before running your program or use the 'starti' command. 'starti' The 'starti' command does the equivalent of setting a temporary breakpoint at the first instruction of a program's execution and then invoking the 'run' command. For programs containing an elaboration phase, the 'starti' command will stop execution at the start of the elaboration phase. 'set exec-wrapper WRAPPER' 'show exec-wrapper' 'unset exec-wrapper' When 'exec-wrapper' is set, the specified wrapper is used to launch programs for debugging. GDB starts your program with a shell command of the form 'exec WRAPPER PROGRAM'. Quoting is added to PROGRAM and its arguments, but not to WRAPPER, so you should add quotes if appropriate for your shell. The wrapper runs until it executes your program, and then GDB takes control. You can use any program that eventually calls 'execve' with its arguments as a wrapper. Several standard Unix utilities do this, e.g. 'env' and 'nohup'. Any Unix shell script ending with 'exec "$@"' will also work. For example, you can use 'env' to pass an environment variable to the debugged program, without setting the variable in your shell's environment: (gdb) set exec-wrapper env 'LD_PRELOAD=libtest.so' (gdb) run This command is available when debugging locally on most targets, excluding DJGPP, Cygwin, MS Windows, and QNX Neutrino. 'set startup-with-shell' 'set startup-with-shell on' 'set startup-with-shell off' 'show startup-with-shell' On Unix systems, by default, if a shell is available on your target, GDB) uses it to start your program. Arguments of the 'run' command are passed to the shell, which does variable substitution, expands wildcard characters and performs redirection of I/O. In some circumstances, it may be useful to disable such use of a shell, for example, when debugging the shell itself or diagnosing startup failures such as: (gdb) run Starting program: ./a.out During startup program terminated with signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. which indicates the shell or the wrapper specified with 'exec-wrapper' crashed, not your program. Most often, this is caused by something odd in your shell's non-interactive mode initialization file--such as '.cshrc' for C-shell, $'.zshenv' for the Z shell, or the file specified in the 'BASH_ENV' environment variable for BASH. 'set auto-connect-native-target' 'set auto-connect-native-target on' 'set auto-connect-native-target off' 'show auto-connect-native-target' By default, if the current inferior is not connected to any target yet (e.g., with 'target remote'), the 'run' command starts your program as a native process under GDB, on your local machine. If you're sure you don't want to debug programs on your local machine, you can tell GDB to not connect to the native target automatically with the 'set auto-connect-native-target off' command. If 'on', which is the default, and if the current inferior is not connected to a target already, the 'run' command automaticaly connects to the native target, if one is available. If 'off', and if the current inferior is not connected to a target already, the 'run' command fails with an error: (gdb) run Don't know how to run. Try "help target". If the current inferior is already connected to a target, GDB always uses it with the 'run' command. In any case, you can explicitly connect to the native target with the 'target native' command. For example, (gdb) set auto-connect-native-target off (gdb) run Don't know how to run. Try "help target". (gdb) target native (gdb) run Starting program: ./a.out [Inferior 1 (process 10421) exited normally] In case you connected explicitly to the 'native' target, GDB remains connected even if all inferiors exit, ready for the next 'run' command. Use the 'disconnect' command to disconnect. Examples of other commands that likewise respect the 'auto-connect-native-target' setting: 'attach', 'info proc', 'info os'. 'set disable-randomization' 'set disable-randomization on' This option (enabled by default in GDB) will turn off the native randomization of the virtual address space of the started program. This option is useful for multiple debugging sessions to make the execution better reproducible and memory addresses reusable across debugging sessions. This feature is implemented only on certain targets, including GNU/Linux. On GNU/Linux you can get the same behavior using (gdb) set exec-wrapper setarch `uname -m` -R 'set disable-randomization off' Leave the behavior of the started executable unchanged. Some bugs rear their ugly heads only when the program is loaded at certain addresses. If your bug disappears when you run the program under GDB, that might be because GDB by default disables the address randomization on platforms, such as GNU/Linux, which do that for stand-alone programs. Use 'set disable-randomization off' to try to reproduce such elusive bugs. On targets where it is available, virtual address space randomization protects the programs against certain kinds of security attacks. In these cases the attacker needs to know the exact location of a concrete executable code. Randomizing its location makes it impossible to inject jumps misusing a code at its expected addresses. Prelinking shared libraries provides a startup performance advantage but it makes addresses in these libraries predictable for privileged processes by having just unprivileged access at the target system. Reading the shared library binary gives enough information for assembling the malicious code misusing it. Still even a prelinked shared library can get loaded at a new random address just requiring the regular relocation process during the startup. Shared libraries not already prelinked are always loaded at a randomly chosen address. Position independent executables (PIE) contain position independent code similar to the shared libraries and therefore such executables get loaded at a randomly chosen address upon startup. PIE executables always load even already prelinked shared libraries at a random address. You can build such executable using 'gcc -fPIE -pie'. Heap (malloc storage), stack and custom mmap areas are always placed randomly (as long as the randomization is enabled). 'show disable-randomization' Show the current setting of the explicit disable of the native randomization of the virtual address space of the started program.  File: gdb.info, Node: Arguments, Next: Environment, Prev: Starting, Up: Running 4.3 Your Program's Arguments ============================ The arguments to your program can be specified by the arguments of the 'run' command. They are passed to a shell, which expands wildcard characters and performs redirection of I/O, and thence to your program. Your 'SHELL' environment variable (if it exists) specifies what shell GDB uses. If you do not define 'SHELL', GDB uses the default shell ('/bin/sh' on Unix). On non-Unix systems, the program is usually invoked directly by GDB, which emulates I/O redirection via the appropriate system calls, and the wildcard characters are expanded by the startup code of the program, not by the shell. 'run' with no arguments uses the same arguments used by the previous 'run', or those set by the 'set args' command. 'set args' Specify the arguments to be used the next time your program is run. If 'set args' has no arguments, 'run' executes your program with no arguments. Once you have run your program with arguments, using 'set args' before the next 'run' is the only way to run it again without arguments. 'show args' Show the arguments to give your program when it is started.  File: gdb.info, Node: Environment, Next: Working Directory, Prev: Arguments, Up: Running 4.4 Your Program's Environment ============================== The "environment" consists of a set of environment variables and their values. Environment variables conventionally record such things as your user name, your home directory, your terminal type, and your search path for programs to run. Usually you set up environment variables with the shell and they are inherited by all the other programs you run. When debugging, it can be useful to try running your program with a modified environment without having to start GDB over again. 'path DIRECTORY' Add DIRECTORY to the front of the 'PATH' environment variable (the search path for executables) that will be passed to your program. The value of 'PATH' used by GDB does not change. You may specify several directory names, separated by whitespace or by a system-dependent separator character (':' on Unix, ';' on MS-DOS and MS-Windows). If DIRECTORY is already in the path, it is moved to the front, so it is searched sooner. You can use the string '$cwd' to refer to whatever is the current working directory at the time GDB searches the path. If you use '.' instead, it refers to the directory where you executed the 'path' command. GDB replaces '.' in the DIRECTORY argument (with the current path) before adding DIRECTORY to the search path. 'show paths' Display the list of search paths for executables (the 'PATH' environment variable). 'show environment [VARNAME]' Print the value of environment variable VARNAME to be given to your program when it starts. If you do not supply VARNAME, print the names and values of all environment variables to be given to your program. You can abbreviate 'environment' as 'env'. 'set environment VARNAME [=VALUE]' Set environment variable VARNAME to VALUE. The value changes for your program (and the shell GDB uses to launch it), not for GDB itself. The VALUE may be any string; the values of environment variables are just strings, and any interpretation is supplied by your program itself. The VALUE parameter is optional; if it is eliminated, the variable is set to a null value. For example, this command: set env USER = foo tells the debugged program, when subsequently run, that its user is named 'foo'. (The spaces around '=' are used for clarity here; they are not actually required.) Note that on Unix systems, GDB runs your program via a shell, which also inherits the environment set with 'set environment'. If necessary, you can avoid that by using the 'env' program as a wrapper instead of using 'set environment'. *Note set exec-wrapper::, for an example doing just that. Environment variables that are set by the user are also transmitted to 'gdbserver' to be used when starting the remote inferior. *note QEnvironmentHexEncoded::. 'unset environment VARNAME' Remove variable VARNAME from the environment to be passed to your program. This is different from 'set env VARNAME ='; 'unset environment' removes the variable from the environment, rather than assigning it an empty value. Environment variables that are unset by the user are also unset on 'gdbserver' when starting the remote inferior. *note QEnvironmentUnset::. _Warning:_ On Unix systems, GDB runs your program using the shell indicated by your 'SHELL' environment variable if it exists (or '/bin/sh' if not). If your 'SHELL' variable names a shell that runs an initialization file when started non-interactively--such as '.cshrc' for C-shell, $'.zshenv' for the Z shell, or the file specified in the 'BASH_ENV' environment variable for BASH--any variables you set in that file affect your program. You may wish to move setting of environment variables to files that are only run when you sign on, such as '.login' or '.profile'.  File: gdb.info, Node: Working Directory, Next: Input/Output, Prev: Environment, Up: Running 4.5 Your Program's Working Directory ==================================== Each time you start your program with 'run', the inferior will be initialized with the current working directory specified by the 'set cwd' command. If no directory has been specified by this command, then the inferior will inherit GDB's current working directory as its working directory if native debugging, or it will inherit the remote server's current working directory if remote debugging. 'set cwd [DIRECTORY]' Set the inferior's working directory to DIRECTORY, which will be 'glob'-expanded in order to resolve tildes ('~'). If no argument has been specified, the command clears the setting and resets it to an empty state. This setting has no effect on GDB's working directory, and it only takes effect the next time you start the inferior. The '~' in DIRECTORY is a short for the "home directory", usually pointed to by the 'HOME' environment variable. On MS-Windows, if 'HOME' is not defined, GDB uses the concatenation of 'HOMEDRIVE' and 'HOMEPATH' as fallback. You can also change GDB's current working directory by using the 'cd' command. *Note cd command::. 'show cwd' Show the inferior's working directory. If no directory has been specified by 'set cwd', then the default inferior's working directory is the same as GDB's working directory. 'cd [DIRECTORY]' Set the GDB working directory to DIRECTORY. If not given, DIRECTORY uses ''~''. The GDB working directory serves as a default for the commands that specify files for GDB to operate on. *Note Commands to Specify Files: Files. *Note set cwd command::. 'pwd' Print the GDB working directory. It is generally impossible to find the current working directory of the process being debugged (since a program can change its directory during its run). If you work on a system where GDB supports the 'info proc' command (*note Process Information::), you can use the 'info proc' command to find out the current working directory of the debuggee.  File: gdb.info, Node: Input/Output, Next: Attach, Prev: Working Directory, Up: Running 4.6 Your Program's Input and Output =================================== By default, the program you run under GDB does input and output to the same terminal that GDB uses. GDB switches the terminal to its own terminal modes to interact with you, but it records the terminal modes your program was using and switches back to them when you continue running your program. 'info terminal' Displays information recorded by GDB about the terminal modes your program is using. You can redirect your program's input and/or output using shell redirection with the 'run' command. For example, run > outfile starts your program, diverting its output to the file 'outfile'. Another way to specify where your program should do input and output is with the 'tty' command. This command accepts a file name as argument, and causes this file to be the default for future 'run' commands. It also resets the controlling terminal for the child process, for future 'run' commands. For example, tty /dev/ttyb directs that processes started with subsequent 'run' commands default to do input and output on the terminal '/dev/ttyb' and have that as their controlling terminal. An explicit redirection in 'run' overrides the 'tty' command's effect on the input/output device, but not its effect on the controlling terminal. When you use the 'tty' command or redirect input in the 'run' command, only the input _for your program_ is affected. The input for GDB still comes from your terminal. 'tty' is an alias for 'set inferior-tty'. You can use the 'show inferior-tty' command to tell GDB to display the name of the terminal that will be used for future runs of your program. 'set inferior-tty [ TTY ]' Set the tty for the program being debugged to TTY. Omitting TTY restores the default behavior, which is to use the same terminal as GDB. 'show inferior-tty' Show the current tty for the program being debugged.  File: gdb.info, Node: Attach, Next: Kill Process, Prev: Input/Output, Up: Running 4.7 Debugging an Already-running Process ======================================== 'attach PROCESS-ID' This command attaches to a running process--one that was started outside GDB. ('info files' shows your active targets.) The command takes as argument a process ID. The usual way to find out the PROCESS-ID of a Unix process is with the 'ps' utility, or with the 'jobs -l' shell command. 'attach' does not repeat if you press a second time after executing the command. To use 'attach', your program must be running in an environment which supports processes; for example, 'attach' does not work for programs on bare-board targets that lack an operating system. You must also have permission to send the process a signal. When you use 'attach', the debugger finds the program running in the process first by looking in the current working directory, then (if the program is not found) by using the source file search path (*note Specifying Source Directories: Source Path.). You can also use the 'file' command to load the program. *Note Commands to Specify Files: Files. If the debugger can determine that the executable file running in the process it is attaching to does not match the current exec-file loaded by GDB, the option 'exec-file-mismatch' specifies how to handle the mismatch. GDB tries to compare the files by comparing their build IDs (*note build ID::), if available. 'set exec-file-mismatch 'ask|warn|off'' Whether to detect mismatch between the current executable file loaded by GDB and the executable file used to start the process. If 'ask', the default, display a warning and ask the user whether to load the process executable file; if 'warn', just display a warning; if 'off', don't attempt to detect a mismatch. If the user confirms loading the process executable file, then its symbols will be loaded as well. 'show exec-file-mismatch' Show the current value of 'exec-file-mismatch'. The first thing GDB does after arranging to debug the specified process is to stop it. You can examine and modify an attached process with all the GDB commands that are ordinarily available when you start processes with 'run'. You can insert breakpoints; you can step and continue; you can modify storage. If you would rather the process continue running, you may use the 'continue' command after attaching GDB to the process. 'detach' When you have finished debugging the attached process, you can use the 'detach' command to release it from GDB control. Detaching the process continues its execution. After the 'detach' command, that process and GDB become completely independent once more, and you are ready to 'attach' another process or start one with 'run'. 'detach' does not repeat if you press again after executing the command. If you exit GDB while you have an attached process, you detach that process. If you use the 'run' command, you kill that process. By default, GDB asks for confirmation if you try to do either of these things; you can control whether or not you need to confirm by using the 'set confirm' command (*note Optional Warnings and Messages: Messages/Warnings.).  File: gdb.info, Node: Kill Process, Next: Inferiors Connections and Programs, Prev: Attach, Up: Running 4.8 Killing the Child Process ============================= 'kill' Kill the child process in which your program is running under GDB. This command is useful if you wish to debug a core dump instead of a running process. GDB ignores any core dump file while your program is running. On some operating systems, a program cannot be executed outside GDB while you have breakpoints set on it inside GDB. You can use the 'kill' command in this situation to permit running your program outside the debugger. The 'kill' command is also useful if you wish to recompile and relink your program, since on many systems it is impossible to modify an executable file while it is running in a process. In this case, when you next type 'run', GDB notices that the file has changed, and reads the symbol table again (while trying to preserve your current breakpoint settings).  File: gdb.info, Node: Inferiors Connections and Programs, Next: Threads, Prev: Kill Process, Up: Running 4.9 Debugging Multiple Inferiors Connections and Programs ========================================================= GDB lets you run and debug multiple programs in a single session. In addition, GDB on some systems may let you run several programs simultaneously (otherwise you have to exit from one before starting another). On some systems GDB may even let you debug several programs simultaneously on different remote systems. In the most general case, you can have multiple threads of execution in each of multiple processes, launched from multiple executables, running on different machines. GDB represents the state of each program execution with an object called an "inferior". An inferior typically corresponds to a process, but is more general and applies also to targets that do not have processes. Inferiors may be created before a process runs, and may be retained after a process exits. Inferiors have unique identifiers that are different from process ids. Usually each inferior will also have its own distinct address space, although some embedded targets may have several inferiors running in different parts of a single address space. Each inferior may in turn have multiple threads running in it. To find out what inferiors exist at any moment, use 'info inferiors': 'info inferiors' Print a list of all inferiors currently being managed by GDB. By default all inferiors are printed, but the argument ID... - a space separated list of inferior numbers - can be used to limit the display to just the requested inferiors. GDB displays for each inferior (in this order): 1. the inferior number assigned by GDB 2. the target system's inferior identifier 3. the target connection the inferior is bound to, including the unique connection number assigned by GDB, and the protocol used by the connection. 4. the name of the executable the inferior is running. An asterisk '*' preceding the GDB inferior number indicates the current inferior. For example, (gdb) info inferiors Num Description Connection Executable * 1 process 3401 1 (native) goodbye 2 process 2307 2 (extended-remote host:10000) hello To get informations about the current inferior, use 'inferior': 'inferior' Shows information about the current inferior. For example, (gdb) inferior [Current inferior is 1 [process 3401] (helloworld)] To find out what open target connections exist at any moment, use 'info connections': 'info connections' Print a list of all open target connections currently being managed by GDB. By default all connections are printed, but the argument ID... - a space separated list of connections numbers - can be used to limit the display to just the requested connections. GDB displays for each connection (in this order): 1. the connection number assigned by GDB. 2. the protocol used by the connection. 3. a textual description of the protocol used by the connection. An asterisk '*' preceding the connection number indicates the connection of the current inferior. For example, (gdb) info connections Num What Description * 1 extended-remote host:10000 Extended remote serial target in gdb-specific protocol 2 native Native process 3 core Local core dump file To switch focus between inferiors, use the 'inferior' command: 'inferior INFNO' Make inferior number INFNO the current inferior. The argument INFNO is the inferior number assigned by GDB, as shown in the first field of the 'info inferiors' display. The debugger convenience variable '$_inferior' contains the number of the current inferior. You may find this useful in writing breakpoint conditional expressions, command scripts, and so forth. *Note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars, for general information on convenience variables. You can get multiple executables into a debugging session via the 'add-inferior' and 'clone-inferior' commands. On some systems GDB can add inferiors to the debug session automatically by following calls to 'fork' and 'exec'. To remove inferiors from the debugging session use the 'remove-inferiors' command. 'add-inferior [ -copies N ] [ -exec EXECUTABLE ] [-no-connection ]' Adds N inferiors to be run using EXECUTABLE as the executable; N defaults to 1. If no executable is specified, the inferiors begins empty, with no program. You can still assign or change the program assigned to the inferior at any time by using the 'file' command with the executable name as its argument. By default, the new inferior begins connected to the same target connection as the current inferior. For example, if the current inferior was connected to 'gdbserver' with 'target remote', then the new inferior will be connected to the same 'gdbserver' instance. The '-no-connection' option starts the new inferior with no connection yet. You can then for example use the 'target remote' command to connect to some other 'gdbserver' instance, use 'run' to spawn a local program, etc. 'clone-inferior [ -copies N ] [ INFNO ]' Adds N inferiors ready to execute the same program as inferior INFNO; N defaults to 1, and INFNO defaults to the number of the current inferior. This is a convenient command when you want to run another instance of the inferior you are debugging. (gdb) info inferiors Num Description Connection Executable * 1 process 29964 1 (native) helloworld (gdb) clone-inferior Added inferior 2. 1 inferiors added. (gdb) info inferiors Num Description Connection Executable * 1 process 29964 1 (native) helloworld 2 1 (native) helloworld You can now simply switch focus to inferior 2 and run it. 'remove-inferiors INFNO...' Removes the inferior or inferiors INFNO.... It is not possible to remove an inferior that is running with this command. For those, use the 'kill' or 'detach' command first. To quit debugging one of the running inferiors that is not the current inferior, you can either detach from it by using the 'detach inferior' command (allowing it to run independently), or kill it using the 'kill inferiors' command: 'detach inferior INFNO...' Detach from the inferior or inferiors identified by GDB inferior number(s) INFNO.... Note that the inferior's entry still stays on the list of inferiors shown by 'info inferiors', but its Description will show ''. 'kill inferiors INFNO...' Kill the inferior or inferiors identified by GDB inferior number(s) INFNO.... Note that the inferior's entry still stays on the list of inferiors shown by 'info inferiors', but its Description will show ''. After the successful completion of a command such as 'detach', 'detach inferiors', 'kill' or 'kill inferiors', or after a normal process exit, the inferior is still valid and listed with 'info inferiors', ready to be restarted. To be notified when inferiors are started or exit under GDB's control use 'set print inferior-events': 'set print inferior-events' 'set print inferior-events on' 'set print inferior-events off' The 'set print inferior-events' command allows you to enable or disable printing of messages when GDB notices that new inferiors have started or that inferiors have exited or have been detached. By default, these messages will not be printed. 'show print inferior-events' Show whether messages will be printed when GDB detects that inferiors have started, exited or have been detached. Many commands will work the same with multiple programs as with a single program: e.g., 'print myglobal' will simply display the value of 'myglobal' in the current inferior. Occasionally, when debugging GDB itself, it may be useful to get more info about the relationship of inferiors, programs, address spaces in a debug session. You can do that with the 'maint info program-spaces' command. 'maint info program-spaces' Print a list of all program spaces currently being managed by GDB. GDB displays for each program space (in this order): 1. the program space number assigned by GDB 2. the name of the executable loaded into the program space, with e.g., the 'file' command. An asterisk '*' preceding the GDB program space number indicates the current program space. In addition, below each program space line, GDB prints extra information that isn't suitable to display in tabular form. For example, the list of inferiors bound to the program space. (gdb) maint info program-spaces Id Executable * 1 hello 2 goodbye Bound inferiors: ID 1 (process 21561) Here we can see that no inferior is running the program 'hello', while 'process 21561' is running the program 'goodbye'. On some targets, it is possible that multiple inferiors are bound to the same program space. The most common example is that of debugging both the parent and child processes of a 'vfork' call. For example, (gdb) maint info program-spaces Id Executable * 1 vfork-test Bound inferiors: ID 2 (process 18050), ID 1 (process 18045) Here, both inferior 2 and inferior 1 are running in the same program space as a result of inferior 1 having executed a 'vfork' call.  File: gdb.info, Node: Threads, Next: Forks, Prev: Inferiors Connections and Programs, Up: Running 4.10 Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads ============================================= In some operating systems, such as GNU/Linux and Solaris, a single program may have more than one "thread" of execution. The precise semantics of threads differ from one operating system to another, but in general the threads of a single program are akin to multiple processes--except that they share one address space (that is, they can all examine and modify the same variables). On the other hand, each thread has its own registers and execution stack, and perhaps private memory. GDB provides these facilities for debugging multi-thread programs: * automatic notification of new threads * 'thread THREAD-ID', a command to switch among threads * 'info threads', a command to inquire about existing threads * 'thread apply [THREAD-ID-LIST | all] ARGS', a command to apply a command to a list of threads * thread-specific breakpoints * 'set print thread-events', which controls printing of messages on thread start and exit. * 'set libthread-db-search-path PATH', which lets the user specify which 'libthread_db' to use if the default choice isn't compatible with the program. The GDB thread debugging facility allows you to observe all threads while your program runs--but whenever GDB takes control, one thread in particular is always the focus of debugging. This thread is called the "current thread". Debugging commands show program information from the perspective of the current thread. Whenever GDB detects a new thread in your program, it displays the target system's identification for the thread with a message in the form '[New SYSTAG]', where SYSTAG is a thread identifier whose form varies depending on the particular system. For example, on GNU/Linux, you might see [New Thread 0x41e02940 (LWP 25582)] when GDB notices a new thread. In contrast, on other systems, the SYSTAG is simply something like 'process 368', with no further qualifier. For debugging purposes, GDB associates its own thread number --always a single integer--with each thread of an inferior. This number is unique between all threads of an inferior, but not unique between threads of different inferiors. You can refer to a given thread in an inferior using the qualified INFERIOR-NUM.THREAD-NUM syntax, also known as "qualified thread ID", with INFERIOR-NUM being the inferior number and THREAD-NUM being the thread number of the given inferior. For example, thread '2.3' refers to thread number 3 of inferior 2. If you omit INFERIOR-NUM (e.g., 'thread 3'), then GDB infers you're referring to a thread of the current inferior. Until you create a second inferior, GDB does not show the INFERIOR-NUM part of thread IDs, even though you can always use the full INFERIOR-NUM.THREAD-NUM form to refer to threads of inferior 1, the initial inferior. Some commands accept a space-separated "thread ID list" as argument. A list element can be: 1. A thread ID as shown in the first field of the 'info threads' display, with or without an inferior qualifier. E.g., '2.1' or '1'. 2. A range of thread numbers, again with or without an inferior qualifier, as in INF.THR1-THR2 or THR1-THR2. E.g., '1.2-4' or '2-4'. 3. All threads of an inferior, specified with a star wildcard, with or without an inferior qualifier, as in INF.'*' (e.g., '1.*') or '*'. The former refers to all threads of the given inferior, and the latter form without an inferior qualifier refers to all threads of the current inferior. For example, if the current inferior is 1, and inferior 7 has one thread with ID 7.1, the thread list '1 2-3 4.5 6.7-9 7.*' includes threads 1 to 3 of inferior 1, thread 5 of inferior 4, threads 7 to 9 of inferior 6 and all threads of inferior 7. That is, in expanded qualified form, the same as '1.1 1.2 1.3 4.5 6.7 6.8 6.9 7.1'. In addition to a _per-inferior_ number, each thread is also assigned a unique _global_ number, also known as "global thread ID", a single integer. Unlike the thread number component of the thread ID, no two threads have the same global ID, even when you're debugging multiple inferiors. From GDB's perspective, a process always has at least one thread. In other words, GDB assigns a thread number to the program's "main thread" even if the program is not multi-threaded. The debugger convenience variables '$_thread' and '$_gthread' contain, respectively, the per-inferior thread number and the global thread number of the current thread. You may find this useful in writing breakpoint conditional expressions, command scripts, and so forth. *Note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars, for general information on convenience variables. If GDB detects the program is multi-threaded, it augments the usual message about stopping at a breakpoint with the ID and name of the thread that hit the breakpoint. Thread 2 "client" hit Breakpoint 1, send_message () at client.c:68 Likewise when the program receives a signal: Thread 1 "main" received signal SIGINT, Interrupt. 'info threads [THREAD-ID-LIST]' Display information about one or more threads. With no arguments displays information about all threads. You can specify the list of threads that you want to display using the thread ID list syntax (*note thread ID lists::). GDB displays for each thread (in this order): 1. the per-inferior thread number assigned by GDB 2. the global thread number assigned by GDB, if the '-gid' option was specified 3. the target system's thread identifier (SYSTAG) 4. the thread's name, if one is known. A thread can either be named by the user (see 'thread name', below), or, in some cases, by the program itself. 5. the current stack frame summary for that thread An asterisk '*' to the left of the GDB thread number indicates the current thread. For example, (gdb) info threads Id Target Id Frame * 1 process 35 thread 13 main (argc=1, argv=0x7ffffff8) 2 process 35 thread 23 0x34e5 in sigpause () 3 process 35 thread 27 0x34e5 in sigpause () at threadtest.c:68 If you're debugging multiple inferiors, GDB displays thread IDs using the qualified INFERIOR-NUM.THREAD-NUM format. Otherwise, only THREAD-NUM is shown. If you specify the '-gid' option, GDB displays a column indicating each thread's global thread ID: (gdb) info threads Id GId Target Id Frame 1.1 1 process 35 thread 13 main (argc=1, argv=0x7ffffff8) 1.2 3 process 35 thread 23 0x34e5 in sigpause () 1.3 4 process 35 thread 27 0x34e5 in sigpause () * 2.1 2 process 65 thread 1 main (argc=1, argv=0x7ffffff8) On Solaris, you can display more information about user threads with a Solaris-specific command: 'maint info sol-threads' Display info on Solaris user threads. 'thread THREAD-ID' Make thread ID THREAD-ID the current thread. The command argument THREAD-ID is the GDB thread ID, as shown in the first field of the 'info threads' display, with or without an inferior qualifier (e.g., '2.1' or '1'). GDB responds by displaying the system identifier of the thread you selected, and its current stack frame summary: (gdb) thread 2 [Switching to thread 2 (Thread 0xb7fdab70 (LWP 12747))] #0 some_function (ignore=0x0) at example.c:8 8 printf ("hello\n"); As with the '[New ...]' message, the form of the text after 'Switching to' depends on your system's conventions for identifying threads. 'thread apply [THREAD-ID-LIST | all [-ascending]] [FLAG]... COMMAND' The 'thread apply' command allows you to apply the named COMMAND to one or more threads. Specify the threads that you want affected using the thread ID list syntax (*note thread ID lists::), or specify 'all' to apply to all threads. To apply a command to all threads in descending order, type 'thread apply all COMMAND'. To apply a command to all threads in ascending order, type 'thread apply all -ascending COMMAND'. The FLAG arguments control what output to produce and how to handle errors raised when applying COMMAND to a thread. FLAG must start with a '-' directly followed by one letter in 'qcs'. If several flags are provided, they must be given individually, such as '-c -q'. By default, GDB displays some thread information before the output produced by COMMAND, and an error raised during the execution of a COMMAND will abort 'thread apply'. The following flags can be used to fine-tune this behavior: '-c' The flag '-c', which stands for 'continue', causes any errors in COMMAND to be displayed, and the execution of 'thread apply' then continues. '-s' The flag '-s', which stands for 'silent', causes any errors or empty output produced by a COMMAND to be silently ignored. That is, the execution continues, but the thread information and errors are not printed. '-q' The flag '-q' ('quiet') disables printing the thread information. Flags '-c' and '-s' cannot be used together. 'taas [OPTION]... COMMAND' Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s [OPTION]... COMMAND'. Applies COMMAND on all threads, ignoring errors and empty output. The 'taas' command accepts the same options as the 'thread apply all' command. *Note thread apply all::. 'tfaas [OPTION]... COMMAND' Shortcut for 'thread apply all -s -- frame apply all -s [OPTION]... COMMAND'. Applies COMMAND on all frames of all threads, ignoring errors and empty output. Note that the flag '-s' is specified twice: The first '-s' ensures that 'thread apply' only shows the thread information of the threads for which 'frame apply' produces some output. The second '-s' is needed to ensure that 'frame apply' shows the frame information of a frame only if the COMMAND successfully produced some output. It can for example be used to print a local variable or a function argument without knowing the thread or frame where this variable or argument is, using: (gdb) tfaas p some_local_var_i_do_not_remember_where_it_is The 'tfaas' command accepts the same options as the 'frame apply' command. *Note frame apply: Frame Apply. 'thread name [NAME]' This command assigns a name to the current thread. If no argument is given, any existing user-specified name is removed. The thread name appears in the 'info threads' display. On some systems, such as GNU/Linux, GDB is able to determine the name of the thread as given by the OS. On these systems, a name specified with 'thread name' will override the system-give name, and removing the user-specified name will cause GDB to once again display the system-specified name. 'thread find [REGEXP]' Search for and display thread ids whose name or SYSTAG matches the supplied regular expression. As well as being the complement to the 'thread name' command, this command also allows you to identify a thread by its target SYSTAG. For instance, on GNU/Linux, the target SYSTAG is the LWP id. (GDB) thread find 26688 Thread 4 has target id 'Thread 0x41e02940 (LWP 26688)' (GDB) info thread 4 Id Target Id Frame 4 Thread 0x41e02940 (LWP 26688) 0x00000031ca6cd372 in select () 'set print thread-events' 'set print thread-events on' 'set print thread-events off' The 'set print thread-events' command allows you to enable or disable printing of messages when GDB notices that new threads have started or that threads have exited. By default, these messages will be printed if detection of these events is supported by the target. Note that these messages cannot be disabled on all targets. 'show print thread-events' Show whether messages will be printed when GDB detects that threads have started and exited. *Note Stopping and Starting Multi-thread Programs: Thread Stops, for more information about how GDB behaves when you stop and start programs with multiple threads. *Note Setting Watchpoints: Set Watchpoints, for information about watchpoints in programs with multiple threads. 'set libthread-db-search-path [PATH]' If this variable is set, PATH is a colon-separated list of directories GDB will use to search for 'libthread_db'. If you omit PATH, 'libthread-db-search-path' will be reset to its default value ('$sdir:$pdir' on GNU/Linux and Solaris systems). Internally, the default value comes from the 'LIBTHREAD_DB_SEARCH_PATH' macro. On GNU/Linux and Solaris systems, GDB uses a "helper" 'libthread_db' library to obtain information about threads in the inferior process. GDB will use 'libthread-db-search-path' to find 'libthread_db'. GDB also consults first if inferior specific thread debugging library loading is enabled by 'set auto-load libthread-db' (*note libthread_db.so.1 file::). A special entry '$sdir' for 'libthread-db-search-path' refers to the default system directories that are normally searched for loading shared libraries. The '$sdir' entry is the only kind not needing to be enabled by 'set auto-load libthread-db' (*note libthread_db.so.1 file::). A special entry '$pdir' for 'libthread-db-search-path' refers to the directory from which 'libpthread' was loaded in the inferior process. For any 'libthread_db' library GDB finds in above directories, GDB attempts to initialize it with the current inferior process. If this initialization fails (which could happen because of a version mismatch between 'libthread_db' and 'libpthread'), GDB will unload 'libthread_db', and continue with the next directory. If none of 'libthread_db' libraries initialize successfully, GDB will issue a warning and thread debugging will be disabled. Setting 'libthread-db-search-path' is currently implemented only on some platforms. 'show libthread-db-search-path' Display current libthread_db search path. 'set debug libthread-db' 'show debug libthread-db' Turns on or off display of 'libthread_db'-related events. Use '1' to enable, '0' to disable.  File: gdb.info, Node: Forks, Next: Checkpoint/Restart, Prev: Threads, Up: Running 4.11 Debugging Forks ==================== On most systems, GDB has no special support for debugging programs which create additional processes using the 'fork' function. When a program forks, GDB will continue to debug the parent process and the child process will run unimpeded. If you have set a breakpoint in any code which the child then executes, the child will get a 'SIGTRAP' signal which (unless it catches the signal) will cause it to terminate. However, if you want to debug the child process there is a workaround which isn't too painful. Put a call to 'sleep' in the code which the child process executes after the fork. It may be useful to sleep only if a certain environment variable is set, or a certain file exists, so that the delay need not occur when you don't want to run GDB on the child. While the child is sleeping, use the 'ps' program to get its process ID. Then tell GDB (a new invocation of GDB if you are also debugging the parent process) to attach to the child process (*note Attach::). From that point on you can debug the child process just like any other process which you attached to. On some systems, GDB provides support for debugging programs that create additional processes using the 'fork' or 'vfork' functions. On GNU/Linux platforms, this feature is supported with kernel version 2.5.46 and later. The fork debugging commands are supported in native mode and when connected to 'gdbserver' in either 'target remote' mode or 'target extended-remote' mode. By default, when a program forks, GDB will continue to debug the parent process and the child process will run unimpeded. If you want to follow the child process instead of the parent process, use the command 'set follow-fork-mode'. 'set follow-fork-mode MODE' Set the debugger response to a program call of 'fork' or 'vfork'. A call to 'fork' or 'vfork' creates a new process. The MODE argument can be: 'parent' The original process is debugged after a fork. The child process runs unimpeded. This is the default. 'child' The new process is debugged after a fork. The parent process runs unimpeded. 'show follow-fork-mode' Display the current debugger response to a 'fork' or 'vfork' call. On Linux, if you want to debug both the parent and child processes, use the command 'set detach-on-fork'. 'set detach-on-fork MODE' Tells gdb whether to detach one of the processes after a fork, or retain debugger control over them both. 'on' The child process (or parent process, depending on the value of 'follow-fork-mode') will be detached and allowed to run independently. This is the default. 'off' Both processes will be held under the control of GDB. One process (child or parent, depending on the value of 'follow-fork-mode') is debugged as usual, while the other is held suspended. 'show detach-on-fork' Show whether detach-on-fork mode is on/off. If you choose to set 'detach-on-fork' mode off, then GDB will retain control of all forked processes (including nested forks). You can list the forked processes under the control of GDB by using the 'info inferiors' command, and switch from one fork to another by using the 'inferior' command (*note Debugging Multiple Inferiors Connections and Programs: Inferiors Connections and Programs.). To quit debugging one of the forked processes, you can either detach from it by using the 'detach inferiors' command (allowing it to run independently), or kill it using the 'kill inferiors' command. *Note Debugging Multiple Inferiors Connections and Programs: Inferiors Connections and Programs. If you ask to debug a child process and a 'vfork' is followed by an 'exec', GDB executes the new target up to the first breakpoint in the new target. If you have a breakpoint set on 'main' in your original program, the breakpoint will also be set on the child process's 'main'. On some systems, when a child process is spawned by 'vfork', you cannot debug the child or parent until an 'exec' call completes. If you issue a 'run' command to GDB after an 'exec' call executes, the new target restarts. To restart the parent process, use the 'file' command with the parent executable name as its argument. By default, after an 'exec' call executes, GDB discards the symbols of the previous executable image. You can change this behaviour with the 'set follow-exec-mode' command. 'set follow-exec-mode MODE' Set debugger response to a program call of 'exec'. An 'exec' call replaces the program image of a process. 'follow-exec-mode' can be: 'new' GDB creates a new inferior and rebinds the process to this new inferior. The program the process was running before the 'exec' call can be restarted afterwards by restarting the original inferior. For example: (gdb) info inferiors (gdb) info inferior Id Description Executable * 1 prog1 (gdb) run process 12020 is executing new program: prog2 Program exited normally. (gdb) info inferiors Id Description Executable 1 prog1 * 2 prog2 'same' GDB keeps the process bound to the same inferior. The new executable image replaces the previous executable loaded in the inferior. Restarting the inferior after the 'exec' call, with e.g., the 'run' command, restarts the executable the process was running after the 'exec' call. This is the default mode. For example: (gdb) info inferiors Id Description Executable * 1 prog1 (gdb) run process 12020 is executing new program: prog2 Program exited normally. (gdb) info inferiors Id Description Executable * 1 prog2 'follow-exec-mode' is supported in native mode and 'target extended-remote' mode. You can use the 'catch' command to make GDB stop whenever a 'fork', 'vfork', or 'exec' call is made. *Note Setting Catchpoints: Set Catchpoints.  File: gdb.info, Node: Checkpoint/Restart, Prev: Forks, Up: Running 4.12 Setting a _Bookmark_ to Return to Later ============================================ On certain operating systems(1), GDB is able to save a "snapshot" of a program's state, called a "checkpoint", and come back to it later. Returning to a checkpoint effectively undoes everything that has happened in the program since the 'checkpoint' was saved. This includes changes in memory, registers, and even (within some limits) system state. Effectively, it is like going back in time to the moment when the checkpoint was saved. Thus, if you're stepping thru a program and you think you're getting close to the point where things go wrong, you can save a checkpoint. Then, if you accidentally go too far and miss the critical statement, instead of having to restart your program from the beginning, you can just go back to the checkpoint and start again from there. This can be especially useful if it takes a lot of time or steps to reach the point where you think the bug occurs. To use the 'checkpoint'/'restart' method of debugging: 'checkpoint' Save a snapshot of the debugged program's current execution state. The 'checkpoint' command takes no arguments, but each checkpoint is assigned a small integer id, similar to a breakpoint id. 'info checkpoints' List the checkpoints that have been saved in the current debugging session. For each checkpoint, the following information will be listed: 'Checkpoint ID' 'Process ID' 'Code Address' 'Source line, or label' 'restart CHECKPOINT-ID' Restore the program state that was saved as checkpoint number CHECKPOINT-ID. All program variables, registers, stack frames etc. will be returned to the values that they had when the checkpoint was saved. In essence, gdb will "wind back the clock" to the point in time when the checkpoint was saved. Note that breakpoints, GDB variables, command history etc. are not affected by restoring a checkpoint. In general, a checkpoint only restores things that reside in the program being debugged, not in the debugger. 'delete checkpoint CHECKPOINT-ID' Delete the previously-saved checkpoint identified by CHECKPOINT-ID. Returning to a previously saved checkpoint will restore the user state of the program being debugged, plus a significant subset of the system (OS) state, including file pointers. It won't "un-write" data from a file, but it will rewind the file pointer to the previous location, so that the previously written data can be overwritten. For files opened in read mode, the pointer will also be restored so that the previously read data can be read again. Of course, characters that have been sent to a printer (or other external device) cannot be "snatched back", and characters received from eg. a serial device can be removed from internal program buffers, but they cannot be "pushed back" into the serial pipeline, ready to be received again. Similarly, the actual contents of files that have been changed cannot be restored (at this time). However, within those constraints, you actually can "rewind" your program to a previously saved point in time, and begin debugging it again -- and you can change the course of events so as to debug a different execution path this time. Finally, there is one bit of internal program state that will be different when you return to a checkpoint -- the program's process id. Each checkpoint will have a unique process id (or PID), and each will be different from the program's original PID. If your program has saved a local copy of its process id, this could potentially pose a problem. 4.12.1 A Non-obvious Benefit of Using Checkpoints ------------------------------------------------- On some systems such as GNU/Linux, address space randomization is performed on new processes for security reasons. This makes it difficult or impossible to set a breakpoint, or watchpoint, on an absolute address if you have to restart the program, since the absolute location of a symbol will change from one execution to the next. A checkpoint, however, is an _identical_ copy of a process. Therefore if you create a checkpoint at (eg.) the start of main, and simply return to that checkpoint instead of restarting the process, you can avoid the effects of address randomization and your symbols will all stay in the same place. ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) Currently, only GNU/Linux.  File: gdb.info, Node: Stopping, Next: Reverse Execution, Prev: Running, Up: Top 5 Stopping and Continuing ************************* The principal purposes of using a debugger are so that you can stop your program before it terminates; or so that, if your program runs into trouble, you can investigate and find out why. Inside GDB, your program may stop for any of several reasons, such as a signal, a breakpoint, or reaching a new line after a GDB command such as 'step'. You may then examine and change variables, set new breakpoints or remove old ones, and then continue execution. Usually, the messages shown by GDB provide ample explanation of the status of your program--but you can also explicitly request this information at any time. 'info program' Display information about the status of your program: whether it is running or not, what process it is, and why it stopped. * Menu: * Breakpoints:: Breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints * Continuing and Stepping:: Resuming execution * Skipping Over Functions and Files:: Skipping over functions and files * Signals:: Signals * Thread Stops:: Stopping and starting multi-thread programs  File: gdb.info, Node: Breakpoints, Next: Continuing and Stepping, Up: Stopping 5.1 Breakpoints, Watchpoints, and Catchpoints ============================================= A "breakpoint" makes your program stop whenever a certain point in the program is reached. For each breakpoint, you can add conditions to control in finer detail whether your program stops. You can set breakpoints with the 'break' command and its variants (*note Setting Breakpoints: Set Breaks.), to specify the place where your program should stop by line number, function name or exact address in the program. On some systems, you can set breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run. A "watchpoint" is a special breakpoint that stops your program when the value of an expression changes. The expression may be a value of a variable, or it could involve values of one or more variables combined by operators, such as 'a + b'. This is sometimes called "data breakpoints". You must use a different command to set watchpoints (*note Setting Watchpoints: Set Watchpoints.), but aside from that, you can manage a watchpoint like any other breakpoint: you enable, disable, and delete both breakpoints and watchpoints using the same commands. You can arrange to have values from your program displayed automatically whenever GDB stops at a breakpoint. *Note Automatic Display: Auto Display. A "catchpoint" is another special breakpoint that stops your program when a certain kind of event occurs, such as the throwing of a C++ exception or the loading of a library. As with watchpoints, you use a different command to set a catchpoint (*note Setting Catchpoints: Set Catchpoints.), but aside from that, you can manage a catchpoint like any other breakpoint. (To stop when your program receives a signal, use the 'handle' command; see *note Signals: Signals.) GDB assigns a number to each breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint when you create it; these numbers are successive integers starting with one. In many of the commands for controlling various features of breakpoints you use the breakpoint number to say which breakpoint you want to change. Each breakpoint may be "enabled" or "disabled"; if disabled, it has no effect on your program until you enable it again. Some GDB commands accept a space-separated list of breakpoints on which to operate. A list element can be either a single breakpoint number, like '5', or a range of such numbers, like '5-7'. When a breakpoint list is given to a command, all breakpoints in that list are operated on. * Menu: * Set Breaks:: Setting breakpoints * Set Watchpoints:: Setting watchpoints * Set Catchpoints:: Setting catchpoints * Delete Breaks:: Deleting breakpoints * Disabling:: Disabling breakpoints * Conditions:: Break conditions * Break Commands:: Breakpoint command lists * Dynamic Printf:: Dynamic printf * Save Breakpoints:: How to save breakpoints in a file * Static Probe Points:: Listing static probe points * Error in Breakpoints:: "Cannot insert breakpoints" * Breakpoint-related Warnings:: "Breakpoint address adjusted..."  File: gdb.info, Node: Set Breaks, Next: Set Watchpoints, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.1 Setting Breakpoints ------------------------- Breakpoints are set with the 'break' command (abbreviated 'b'). The debugger convenience variable '$bpnum' records the number of the breakpoint you've set most recently; see *note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars, for a discussion of what you can do with convenience variables. 'break LOCATION' Set a breakpoint at the given LOCATION, which can specify a function name, a line number, or an address of an instruction. (*Note Specify Location::, for a list of all the possible ways to specify a LOCATION.) The breakpoint will stop your program just before it executes any of the code in the specified LOCATION. When using source languages that permit overloading of symbols, such as C++, a function name may refer to more than one possible place to break. *Note Ambiguous Expressions: Ambiguous Expressions, for a discussion of that situation. It is also possible to insert a breakpoint that will stop the program only if a specific thread (*note Thread-Specific Breakpoints::) or a specific task (*note Ada Tasks::) hits that breakpoint. 'break' When called without any arguments, 'break' sets a breakpoint at the next instruction to be executed in the selected stack frame (*note Examining the Stack: Stack.). In any selected frame but the innermost, this makes your program stop as soon as control returns to that frame. This is similar to the effect of a 'finish' command in the frame inside the selected frame--except that 'finish' does not leave an active breakpoint. If you use 'break' without an argument in the innermost frame, GDB stops the next time it reaches the current location; this may be useful inside loops. GDB normally ignores breakpoints when it resumes execution, until at least one instruction has been executed. If it did not do this, you would be unable to proceed past a breakpoint without first disabling the breakpoint. This rule applies whether or not the breakpoint already existed when your program stopped. 'break ... if COND' Set a breakpoint with condition COND; evaluate the expression COND each time the breakpoint is reached, and stop only if the value is nonzero--that is, if COND evaluates as true. '...' stands for one of the possible arguments described above (or no argument) specifying where to break. *Note Break Conditions: Conditions, for more information on breakpoint conditions. The breakpoint may be mapped to multiple locations. If the breakpoint condition COND is invalid at some but not all of the locations, the locations for which the condition is invalid are disabled. For example, GDB reports below that two of the three locations are disabled. (gdb) break func if a == 10 warning: failed to validate condition at location 0x11ce, disabling: No symbol "a" in current context. warning: failed to validate condition at location 0x11b6, disabling: No symbol "a" in current context. Breakpoint 1 at 0x11b6: func. (3 locations) Locations that are disabled because of the condition are denoted by an uppercase 'N' in the output of the 'info breakpoints' command: (gdb) info breakpoints Num Type Disp Enb Address What 1 breakpoint keep y stop only if a == 10 1.1 N* 0x00000000000011b6 in ... 1.2 y 0x00000000000011c2 in ... 1.3 N* 0x00000000000011ce in ... (*): Breakpoint condition is invalid at this location. If the breakpoint condition COND is invalid in the context of _all_ the locations of the breakpoint, GDB refuses to define the breakpoint. For example, if variable 'foo' is an undefined variable: (gdb) break func if foo No symbol "foo" in current context. 'break ... -force-condition if COND' There may be cases where the condition COND is invalid at all the current locations, but the user knows that it will be valid at a future location; for example, because of a library load. In such cases, by using the '-force-condition' keyword before 'if', GDB can be forced to define the breakpoint with the given condition expression instead of refusing it. (gdb) break func -force-condition if foo warning: failed to validate condition at location 1, disabling: No symbol "foo" in current context. warning: failed to validate condition at location 2, disabling: No symbol "foo" in current context. warning: failed to validate condition at location 3, disabling: No symbol "foo" in current context. Breakpoint 1 at 0x1158: test.c:18. (3 locations) This causes all the present locations where the breakpoint would otherwise be inserted, to be disabled, as seen in the example above. However, if there exist locations at which the condition is valid, the '-force-condition' keyword has no effect. 'tbreak ARGS' Set a breakpoint enabled only for one stop. The ARGS are the same as for the 'break' command, and the breakpoint is set in the same way, but the breakpoint is automatically deleted after the first time your program stops there. *Note Disabling Breakpoints: Disabling. 'hbreak ARGS' Set a hardware-assisted breakpoint. The ARGS are the same as for the 'break' command and the breakpoint is set in the same way, but the breakpoint requires hardware support and some target hardware may not have this support. The main purpose of this is EPROM/ROM code debugging, so you can set a breakpoint at an instruction without changing the instruction. This can be used with the new trap-generation provided by SPARClite DSU and most x86-based targets. These targets will generate traps when a program accesses some data or instruction address that is assigned to the debug registers. However the hardware breakpoint registers can take a limited number of breakpoints. For example, on the DSU, only two data breakpoints can be set at a time, and GDB will reject this command if more than two are used. Delete or disable unused hardware breakpoints before setting new ones (*note Disabling Breakpoints: Disabling.). *Note Break Conditions: Conditions. For remote targets, you can restrict the number of hardware breakpoints GDB will use, see *note set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit::. 'thbreak ARGS' Set a hardware-assisted breakpoint enabled only for one stop. The ARGS are the same as for the 'hbreak' command and the breakpoint is set in the same way. However, like the 'tbreak' command, the breakpoint is automatically deleted after the first time your program stops there. Also, like the 'hbreak' command, the breakpoint requires hardware support and some target hardware may not have this support. *Note Disabling Breakpoints: Disabling. See also *note Break Conditions: Conditions. 'rbreak REGEX' Set breakpoints on all functions matching the regular expression REGEX. This command sets an unconditional breakpoint on all matches, printing a list of all breakpoints it set. Once these breakpoints are set, they are treated just like the breakpoints set with the 'break' command. You can delete them, disable them, or make them conditional the same way as any other breakpoint. In programs using different languages, GDB chooses the syntax to print the list of all breakpoints it sets according to the 'set language' value: using 'set language auto' (see *note Set Language Automatically: Automatically.) means to use the language of the breakpoint's function, other values mean to use the manually specified language (see *note Set Language Manually: Manually.). The syntax of the regular expression is the standard one used with tools like 'grep'. Note that this is different from the syntax used by shells, so for instance 'foo*' matches all functions that include an 'fo' followed by zero or more 'o's. There is an implicit '.*' leading and trailing the regular expression you supply, so to match only functions that begin with 'foo', use '^foo'. When debugging C++ programs, 'rbreak' is useful for setting breakpoints on overloaded functions that are not members of any special classes. The 'rbreak' command can be used to set breakpoints in *all* the functions in a program, like this: (gdb) rbreak . 'rbreak FILE:REGEX' If 'rbreak' is called with a filename qualification, it limits the search for functions matching the given regular expression to the specified FILE. This can be used, for example, to set breakpoints on every function in a given file: (gdb) rbreak file.c:. The colon separating the filename qualifier from the regex may optionally be surrounded by spaces. 'info breakpoints [LIST...]' 'info break [LIST...]' Print a table of all breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints set and not deleted. Optional argument N means print information only about the specified breakpoint(s) (or watchpoint(s) or catchpoint(s)). For each breakpoint, following columns are printed: _Breakpoint Numbers_ _Type_ Breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint. _Disposition_ Whether the breakpoint is marked to be disabled or deleted when hit. _Enabled or Disabled_ Enabled breakpoints are marked with 'y'. 'n' marks breakpoints that are not enabled. _Address_ Where the breakpoint is in your program, as a memory address. For a pending breakpoint whose address is not yet known, this field will contain ''. Such breakpoint won't fire until a shared library that has the symbol or line referred by breakpoint is loaded. See below for details. A breakpoint with several locations will have '' in this field--see below for details. _What_ Where the breakpoint is in the source for your program, as a file and line number. For a pending breakpoint, the original string passed to the breakpoint command will be listed as it cannot be resolved until the appropriate shared library is loaded in the future. If a breakpoint is conditional, there are two evaluation modes: "host" and "target". If mode is "host", breakpoint condition evaluation is done by GDB on the host's side. If it is "target", then the condition is evaluated by the target. The 'info break' command shows the condition on the line following the affected breakpoint, together with its condition evaluation mode in between parentheses. Breakpoint commands, if any, are listed after that. A pending breakpoint is allowed to have a condition specified for it. The condition is not parsed for validity until a shared library is loaded that allows the pending breakpoint to resolve to a valid location. 'info break' with a breakpoint number N as argument lists only that breakpoint. The convenience variable '$_' and the default examining-address for the 'x' command are set to the address of the last breakpoint listed (*note Examining Memory: Memory.). 'info break' displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with the 'ignore' command. You can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, and then run again, ignoring one less than that number. This will get you quickly to the last hit of that breakpoint. For a breakpoints with an enable count (xref) greater than 1, 'info break' also displays that count. GDB allows you to set any number of breakpoints at the same place in your program. There is nothing silly or meaningless about this. When the breakpoints are conditional, this is even useful (*note Break Conditions: Conditions.). It is possible that a breakpoint corresponds to several locations in your program. Examples of this situation are: * Multiple functions in the program may have the same name. * For a C++ constructor, the GCC compiler generates several instances of the function body, used in different cases. * For a C++ template function, a given line in the function can correspond to any number of instantiations. * For an inlined function, a given source line can correspond to several places where that function is inlined. In all those cases, GDB will insert a breakpoint at all the relevant locations. A breakpoint with multiple locations is displayed in the breakpoint table using several rows--one header row, followed by one row for each breakpoint location. The header row has '' in the address column. The rows for individual locations contain the actual addresses for locations, and show the functions to which those locations belong. The number column for a location is of the form BREAKPOINT-NUMBER.LOCATION-NUMBER. For example: Num Type Disp Enb Address What 1 breakpoint keep y stop only if i==1 breakpoint already hit 1 time 1.1 y 0x080486a2 in void foo() at t.cc:8 1.2 y 0x080486ca in void foo() at t.cc:8 You cannot delete the individual locations from a breakpoint. However, each location can be individually enabled or disabled by passing BREAKPOINT-NUMBER.LOCATION-NUMBER as argument to the 'enable' and 'disable' commands. It's also possible to 'enable' and 'disable' a range of LOCATION-NUMBER locations using a BREAKPOINT-NUMBER and two LOCATION-NUMBERs, in increasing order, separated by a hyphen, like 'BREAKPOINT-NUMBER.LOCATION-NUMBER1-LOCATION-NUMBER2', in which case GDB acts on all the locations in the range (inclusive). Disabling or enabling the parent breakpoint (*note Disabling::) affects all of the locations that belong to that breakpoint. It's quite common to have a breakpoint inside a shared library. Shared libraries can be loaded and unloaded explicitly, and possibly repeatedly, as the program is executed. To support this use case, GDB updates breakpoint locations whenever any shared library is loaded or unloaded. Typically, you would set a breakpoint in a shared library at the beginning of your debugging session, when the library is not loaded, and when the symbols from the library are not available. When you try to set breakpoint, GDB will ask you if you want to set a so called "pending breakpoint"--breakpoint whose address is not yet resolved. After the program is run, whenever a new shared library is loaded, GDB reevaluates all the breakpoints. When a newly loaded shared library contains the symbol or line referred to by some pending breakpoint, that breakpoint is resolved and becomes an ordinary breakpoint. When a library is unloaded, all breakpoints that refer to its symbols or source lines become pending again. This logic works for breakpoints with multiple locations, too. For example, if you have a breakpoint in a C++ template function, and a newly loaded shared library has an instantiation of that template, a new location is added to the list of locations for the breakpoint. Except for having unresolved address, pending breakpoints do not differ from regular breakpoints. You can set conditions or commands, enable and disable them and perform other breakpoint operations. GDB provides some additional commands for controlling what happens when the 'break' command cannot resolve breakpoint address specification to an address: 'set breakpoint pending auto' This is the default behavior. When GDB cannot find the breakpoint location, it queries you whether a pending breakpoint should be created. 'set breakpoint pending on' This indicates that an unrecognized breakpoint location should automatically result in a pending breakpoint being created. 'set breakpoint pending off' This indicates that pending breakpoints are not to be created. Any unrecognized breakpoint location results in an error. This setting does not affect any pending breakpoints previously created. 'show breakpoint pending' Show the current behavior setting for creating pending breakpoints. The settings above only affect the 'break' command and its variants. Once breakpoint is set, it will be automatically updated as shared libraries are loaded and unloaded. For some targets, GDB can automatically decide if hardware or software breakpoints should be used, depending on whether the breakpoint address is read-only or read-write. This applies to breakpoints set with the 'break' command as well as to internal breakpoints set by commands like 'next' and 'finish'. For breakpoints set with 'hbreak', GDB will always use hardware breakpoints. You can control this automatic behaviour with the following commands: 'set breakpoint auto-hw on' This is the default behavior. When GDB sets a breakpoint, it will try to use the target memory map to decide if software or hardware breakpoint must be used. 'set breakpoint auto-hw off' This indicates GDB should not automatically select breakpoint type. If the target provides a memory map, GDB will warn when trying to set software breakpoint at a read-only address. GDB normally implements breakpoints by replacing the program code at the breakpoint address with a special instruction, which, when executed, given control to the debugger. By default, the program code is so modified only when the program is resumed. As soon as the program stops, GDB restores the original instructions. This behaviour guards against leaving breakpoints inserted in the target should gdb abrubptly disconnect. However, with slow remote targets, inserting and removing breakpoint can reduce the performance. This behavior can be controlled with the following commands:: 'set breakpoint always-inserted off' All breakpoints, including newly added by the user, are inserted in the target only when the target is resumed. All breakpoints are removed from the target when it stops. This is the default mode. 'set breakpoint always-inserted on' Causes all breakpoints to be inserted in the target at all times. If the user adds a new breakpoint, or changes an existing breakpoint, the breakpoints in the target are updated immediately. A breakpoint is removed from the target only when breakpoint itself is deleted. GDB handles conditional breakpoints by evaluating these conditions when a breakpoint breaks. If the condition is true, then the process being debugged stops, otherwise the process is resumed. If the target supports evaluating conditions on its end, GDB may download the breakpoint, together with its conditions, to it. This feature can be controlled via the following commands: 'set breakpoint condition-evaluation host' This option commands GDB to evaluate the breakpoint conditions on the host's side. Unconditional breakpoints are sent to the target which in turn receives the triggers and reports them back to GDB for condition evaluation. This is the standard evaluation mode. 'set breakpoint condition-evaluation target' This option commands GDB to download breakpoint conditions to the target at the moment of their insertion. The target is responsible for evaluating the conditional expression and reporting breakpoint stop events back to GDB whenever the condition is true. Due to limitations of target-side evaluation, some conditions cannot be evaluated there, e.g., conditions that depend on local data that is only known to the host. Examples include conditional expressions involving convenience variables, complex types that cannot be handled by the agent expression parser and expressions that are too long to be sent over to the target, specially when the target is a remote system. In these cases, the conditions will be evaluated by GDB. 'set breakpoint condition-evaluation auto' This is the default mode. If the target supports evaluating breakpoint conditions on its end, GDB will download breakpoint conditions to the target (limitations mentioned previously apply). If the target does not support breakpoint condition evaluation, then GDB will fallback to evaluating all these conditions on the host's side. GDB itself sometimes sets breakpoints in your program for special purposes, such as proper handling of 'longjmp' (in C programs). These internal breakpoints are assigned negative numbers, starting with '-1'; 'info breakpoints' does not display them. You can see these breakpoints with the GDB maintenance command 'maint info breakpoints' (*note maint info breakpoints::).  File: gdb.info, Node: Set Watchpoints, Next: Set Catchpoints, Prev: Set Breaks, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.2 Setting Watchpoints ------------------------- You can use a watchpoint to stop execution whenever the value of an expression changes, without having to predict a particular place where this may happen. (This is sometimes called a "data breakpoint".) The expression may be as simple as the value of a single variable, or as complex as many variables combined by operators. Examples include: * A reference to the value of a single variable. * An address cast to an appropriate data type. For example, '*(int *)0x12345678' will watch a 4-byte region at the specified address (assuming an 'int' occupies 4 bytes). * An arbitrarily complex expression, such as 'a*b + c/d'. The expression can use any operators valid in the program's native language (*note Languages::). You can set a watchpoint on an expression even if the expression can not be evaluated yet. For instance, you can set a watchpoint on '*global_ptr' before 'global_ptr' is initialized. GDB will stop when your program sets 'global_ptr' and the expression produces a valid value. If the expression becomes valid in some other way than changing a variable (e.g. if the memory pointed to by '*global_ptr' becomes readable as the result of a 'malloc' call), GDB may not stop until the next time the expression changes. Depending on your system, watchpoints may be implemented in software or hardware. GDB does software watchpointing by single-stepping your program and testing the variable's value each time, which is hundreds of times slower than normal execution. (But this may still be worth it, to catch errors where you have no clue what part of your program is the culprit.) On some systems, such as most PowerPC or x86-based targets, GDB includes support for hardware watchpoints, which do not slow down the running of your program. 'watch [-l|-location] EXPR [thread THREAD-ID] [mask MASKVALUE]' Set a watchpoint for an expression. GDB will break when the expression EXPR is written into by the program and its value changes. The simplest (and the most popular) use of this command is to watch the value of a single variable: (gdb) watch foo If the command includes a '[thread THREAD-ID]' argument, GDB breaks only when the thread identified by THREAD-ID changes the value of EXPR. If any other threads change the value of EXPR, GDB will not break. Note that watchpoints restricted to a single thread in this way only work with Hardware Watchpoints. Ordinarily a watchpoint respects the scope of variables in EXPR (see below). The '-location' argument tells GDB to instead watch the memory referred to by EXPR. In this case, GDB will evaluate EXPR, take the address of the result, and watch the memory at that address. The type of the result is used to determine the size of the watched memory. If the expression's result does not have an address, then GDB will print an error. The '[mask MASKVALUE]' argument allows creation of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature (e.g., PowerPC Embedded architecture, see *note PowerPC Embedded::.) A "masked watchpoint" specifies a mask in addition to an address to watch. The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed by the inferior against the watchpoint address. Thus, a masked watchpoint watches many addresses simultaneously--those addresses whose unmasked bits are identical to the unmasked bits in the watchpoint address. The 'mask' argument implies '-location'. Examples: (gdb) watch foo mask 0xffff00ff (gdb) watch *0xdeadbeef mask 0xffffff00 'rwatch [-l|-location] EXPR [thread THREAD-ID] [mask MASKVALUE]' Set a watchpoint that will break when the value of EXPR is read by the program. 'awatch [-l|-location] EXPR [thread THREAD-ID] [mask MASKVALUE]' Set a watchpoint that will break when EXPR is either read from or written into by the program. 'info watchpoints [LIST...]' This command prints a list of watchpoints, using the same format as 'info break' (*note Set Breaks::). If you watch for a change in a numerically entered address you need to dereference it, as the address itself is just a constant number which will never change. GDB refuses to create a watchpoint that watches a never-changing value: (gdb) watch 0x600850 Cannot watch constant value 0x600850. (gdb) watch *(int *) 0x600850 Watchpoint 1: *(int *) 6293584 GDB sets a "hardware watchpoint" if possible. Hardware watchpoints execute very quickly, and the debugger reports a change in value at the exact instruction where the change occurs. If GDB cannot set a hardware watchpoint, it sets a software watchpoint, which executes more slowly and reports the change in value at the next _statement_, not the instruction, after the change occurs. You can force GDB to use only software watchpoints with the 'set can-use-hw-watchpoints 0' command. With this variable set to zero, GDB will never try to use hardware watchpoints, even if the underlying system supports them. (Note that hardware-assisted watchpoints that were set _before_ setting 'can-use-hw-watchpoints' to zero will still use the hardware mechanism of watching expression values.) 'set can-use-hw-watchpoints' Set whether or not to use hardware watchpoints. 'show can-use-hw-watchpoints' Show the current mode of using hardware watchpoints. For remote targets, you can restrict the number of hardware watchpoints GDB will use, see *note set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit::. When you issue the 'watch' command, GDB reports Hardware watchpoint NUM: EXPR if it was able to set a hardware watchpoint. Currently, the 'awatch' and 'rwatch' commands can only set hardware watchpoints, because accesses to data that don't change the value of the watched expression cannot be detected without examining every instruction as it is being executed, and GDB does not do that currently. If GDB finds that it is unable to set a hardware breakpoint with the 'awatch' or 'rwatch' command, it will print a message like this: Expression cannot be implemented with read/access watchpoint. Sometimes, GDB cannot set a hardware watchpoint because the data type of the watched expression is wider than what a hardware watchpoint on the target machine can handle. For example, some systems can only watch regions that are up to 4 bytes wide; on such systems you cannot set hardware watchpoints for an expression that yields a double-precision floating-point number (which is typically 8 bytes wide). As a work-around, it might be possible to break the large region into a series of smaller ones and watch them with separate watchpoints. If you set too many hardware watchpoints, GDB might be unable to insert all of them when you resume the execution of your program. Since the precise number of active watchpoints is unknown until such time as the program is about to be resumed, GDB might not be able to warn you about this when you set the watchpoints, and the warning will be printed only when the program is resumed: Hardware watchpoint NUM: Could not insert watchpoint If this happens, delete or disable some of the watchpoints. Watching complex expressions that reference many variables can also exhaust the resources available for hardware-assisted watchpoints. That's because GDB needs to watch every variable in the expression with separately allocated resources. If you call a function interactively using 'print' or 'call', any watchpoints you have set will be inactive until GDB reaches another kind of breakpoint or the call completes. GDB automatically deletes watchpoints that watch local (automatic) variables, or expressions that involve such variables, when they go out of scope, that is, when the execution leaves the block in which these variables were defined. In particular, when the program being debugged terminates, _all_ local variables go out of scope, and so only watchpoints that watch global variables remain set. If you rerun the program, you will need to set all such watchpoints again. One way of doing that would be to set a code breakpoint at the entry to the 'main' function and when it breaks, set all the watchpoints. In multi-threaded programs, watchpoints will detect changes to the watched expression from every thread. _Warning:_ In multi-threaded programs, software watchpoints have only limited usefulness. If GDB creates a software watchpoint, it can only watch the value of an expression _in a single thread_. If you are confident that the expression can only change due to the current thread's activity (and if you are also confident that no other thread can become current), then you can use software watchpoints as usual. However, GDB may not notice when a non-current thread's activity changes the expression. (Hardware watchpoints, in contrast, watch an expression in all threads.) *Note set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit::.  File: gdb.info, Node: Set Catchpoints, Next: Delete Breaks, Prev: Set Watchpoints, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.3 Setting Catchpoints ------------------------- You can use "catchpoints" to cause the debugger to stop for certain kinds of program events, such as C++ exceptions or the loading of a shared library. Use the 'catch' command to set a catchpoint. 'catch EVENT' Stop when EVENT occurs. The EVENT can be any of the following: 'throw [REGEXP]' 'rethrow [REGEXP]' 'catch [REGEXP]' The throwing, re-throwing, or catching of a C++ exception. If REGEXP is given, then only exceptions whose type matches the regular expression will be caught. The convenience variable '$_exception' is available at an exception-related catchpoint, on some systems. This holds the exception being thrown. There are currently some limitations to C++ exception handling in GDB: * The support for these commands is system-dependent. Currently, only systems using the 'gnu-v3' C++ ABI (*note ABI::) are supported. * The regular expression feature and the '$_exception' convenience variable rely on the presence of some SDT probes in 'libstdc++'. If these probes are not present, then these features cannot be used. These probes were first available in the GCC 4.8 release, but whether or not they are available in your GCC also depends on how it was built. * The '$_exception' convenience variable is only valid at the instruction at which an exception-related catchpoint is set. * When an exception-related catchpoint is hit, GDB stops at a location in the system library which implements runtime exception support for C++, usually 'libstdc++'. You can use 'up' (*note Selection::) to get to your code. * If you call a function interactively, GDB normally returns control to you when the function has finished executing. If the call raises an exception, however, the call may bypass the mechanism that returns control to you and cause your program either to abort or to simply continue running until it hits a breakpoint, catches a signal that GDB is listening for, or exits. This is the case even if you set a catchpoint for the exception; catchpoints on exceptions are disabled within interactive calls. *Note Calling::, for information on controlling this with 'set unwind-on-terminating-exception'. * You cannot raise an exception interactively. * You cannot install an exception handler interactively. 'exception [NAME]' An Ada exception being raised. If an exception name is specified at the end of the command (eg 'catch exception Program_Error'), the debugger will stop only when this specific exception is raised. Otherwise, the debugger stops execution when any Ada exception is raised. When inserting an exception catchpoint on a user-defined exception whose name is identical to one of the exceptions defined by the language, the fully qualified name must be used as the exception name. Otherwise, GDB will assume that it should stop on the pre-defined exception rather than the user-defined one. For instance, assuming an exception called 'Constraint_Error' is defined in package 'Pck', then the command to use to catch such exceptions is 'catch exception Pck.Constraint_Error'. The convenience variable '$_ada_exception' holds the address of the exception being thrown. This can be useful when setting a condition for such a catchpoint. 'exception unhandled' An exception that was raised but is not handled by the program. The convenience variable '$_ada_exception' is set as for 'catch exception'. 'handlers [NAME]' An Ada exception being handled. If an exception name is specified at the end of the command (eg 'catch handlers Program_Error'), the debugger will stop only when this specific exception is handled. Otherwise, the debugger stops execution when any Ada exception is handled. When inserting a handlers catchpoint on a user-defined exception whose name is identical to one of the exceptions defined by the language, the fully qualified name must be used as the exception name. Otherwise, GDB will assume that it should stop on the pre-defined exception rather than the user-defined one. For instance, assuming an exception called 'Constraint_Error' is defined in package 'Pck', then the command to use to catch such exceptions handling is 'catch handlers Pck.Constraint_Error'. The convenience variable '$_ada_exception' is set as for 'catch exception'. 'assert' A failed Ada assertion. Note that the convenience variable '$_ada_exception' is _not_ set by this catchpoint. 'exec' A call to 'exec'. 'syscall' 'syscall [NAME | NUMBER | group:GROUPNAME | g:GROUPNAME] ...' A call to or return from a system call, a.k.a. "syscall". A syscall is a mechanism for application programs to request a service from the operating system (OS) or one of the OS system services. GDB can catch some or all of the syscalls issued by the debuggee, and show the related information for each syscall. If no argument is specified, calls to and returns from all system calls will be caught. NAME can be any system call name that is valid for the underlying OS. Just what syscalls are valid depends on the OS. On GNU and Unix systems, you can find the full list of valid syscall names on '/usr/include/asm/unistd.h'. Normally, GDB knows in advance which syscalls are valid for each OS, so you can use the GDB command-line completion facilities (*note command completion: Completion.) to list the available choices. You may also specify the system call numerically. A syscall's number is the value passed to the OS's syscall dispatcher to identify the requested service. When you specify the syscall by its name, GDB uses its database of syscalls to convert the name into the corresponding numeric code, but using the number directly may be useful if GDB's database does not have the complete list of syscalls on your system (e.g., because GDB lags behind the OS upgrades). You may specify a group of related syscalls to be caught at once using the 'group:' syntax ('g:' is a shorter equivalent). For instance, on some platforms GDB allows you to catch all network related syscalls, by passing the argument 'group:network' to 'catch syscall'. Note that not all syscall groups are available in every system. You can use the command completion facilities (*note command completion: Completion.) to list the syscall groups available on your environment. The example below illustrates how this command works if you don't provide arguments to it: (gdb) catch syscall Catchpoint 1 (syscall) (gdb) r Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall 'close'), \ 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall () (gdb) c Continuing. Catchpoint 1 (returned from syscall 'close'), \ 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall () (gdb) Here is an example of catching a system call by name: (gdb) catch syscall chroot Catchpoint 1 (syscall 'chroot' [61]) (gdb) r Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall 'chroot'), \ 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall () (gdb) c Continuing. Catchpoint 1 (returned from syscall 'chroot'), \ 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall () (gdb) An example of specifying a system call numerically. In the case below, the syscall number has a corresponding entry in the XML file, so GDB finds its name and prints it: (gdb) catch syscall 252 Catchpoint 1 (syscall(s) 'exit_group') (gdb) r Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall 'exit_group'), \ 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall () (gdb) c Continuing. Program exited normally. (gdb) Here is an example of catching a syscall group: (gdb) catch syscall group:process Catchpoint 1 (syscalls 'exit' [1] 'fork' [2] 'waitpid' [7] 'execve' [11] 'wait4' [114] 'clone' [120] 'vfork' [190] 'exit_group' [252] 'waitid' [284] 'unshare' [310]) (gdb) r Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall fork), 0x00007ffff7df4e27 in open64 () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (gdb) c Continuing. However, there can be situations when there is no corresponding name in XML file for that syscall number. In this case, GDB prints a warning message saying that it was not able to find the syscall name, but the catchpoint will be set anyway. See the example below: (gdb) catch syscall 764 warning: The number '764' does not represent a known syscall. Catchpoint 2 (syscall 764) (gdb) If you configure GDB using the '--without-expat' option, it will not be able to display syscall names. Also, if your architecture does not have an XML file describing its system calls, you will not be able to see the syscall names. It is important to notice that these two features are used for accessing the syscall name database. In either case, you will see a warning like this: (gdb) catch syscall warning: Could not open "syscalls/i386-linux.xml" warning: Could not load the syscall XML file 'syscalls/i386-linux.xml'. GDB will not be able to display syscall names. Catchpoint 1 (syscall) (gdb) Of course, the file name will change depending on your architecture and system. Still using the example above, you can also try to catch a syscall by its number. In this case, you would see something like: (gdb) catch syscall 252 Catchpoint 1 (syscall(s) 252) Again, in this case GDB would not be able to display syscall's names. 'fork' A call to 'fork'. 'vfork' A call to 'vfork'. 'load [REGEXP]' 'unload [REGEXP]' The loading or unloading of a shared library. If REGEXP is given, then the catchpoint will stop only if the regular expression matches one of the affected libraries. 'signal [SIGNAL... | 'all']' The delivery of a signal. With no arguments, this catchpoint will catch any signal that is not used internally by GDB, specifically, all signals except 'SIGTRAP' and 'SIGINT'. With the argument 'all', all signals, including those used by GDB, will be caught. This argument cannot be used with other signal names. Otherwise, the arguments are a list of signal names as given to 'handle' (*note Signals::). Only signals specified in this list will be caught. One reason that 'catch signal' can be more useful than 'handle' is that you can attach commands and conditions to the catchpoint. When a signal is caught by a catchpoint, the signal's 'stop' and 'print' settings, as specified by 'handle', are ignored. However, whether the signal is still delivered to the inferior depends on the 'pass' setting; this can be changed in the catchpoint's commands. 'tcatch EVENT' Set a catchpoint that is enabled only for one stop. The catchpoint is automatically deleted after the first time the event is caught. Use the 'info break' command to list the current catchpoints.  File: gdb.info, Node: Delete Breaks, Next: Disabling, Prev: Set Catchpoints, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.4 Deleting Breakpoints -------------------------- It is often necessary to eliminate a breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint once it has done its job and you no longer want your program to stop there. This is called "deleting" the breakpoint. A breakpoint that has been deleted no longer exists; it is forgotten. With the 'clear' command you can delete breakpoints according to where they are in your program. With the 'delete' command you can delete individual breakpoints, watchpoints, or catchpoints by specifying their breakpoint numbers. It is not necessary to delete a breakpoint to proceed past it. GDB automatically ignores breakpoints on the first instruction to be executed when you continue execution without changing the execution address. 'clear' Delete any breakpoints at the next instruction to be executed in the selected stack frame (*note Selecting a Frame: Selection.). When the innermost frame is selected, this is a good way to delete a breakpoint where your program just stopped. 'clear LOCATION' Delete any breakpoints set at the specified LOCATION. *Note Specify Location::, for the various forms of LOCATION; the most useful ones are listed below: 'clear FUNCTION' 'clear FILENAME:FUNCTION' Delete any breakpoints set at entry to the named FUNCTION. 'clear LINENUM' 'clear FILENAME:LINENUM' Delete any breakpoints set at or within the code of the specified LINENUM of the specified FILENAME. 'delete [breakpoints] [LIST...]' Delete the breakpoints, watchpoints, or catchpoints of the breakpoint list specified as argument. If no argument is specified, delete all breakpoints (GDB asks confirmation, unless you have 'set confirm off'). You can abbreviate this command as 'd'.  File: gdb.info, Node: Disabling, Next: Conditions, Prev: Delete Breaks, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.5 Disabling Breakpoints --------------------------- Rather than deleting a breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint, you might prefer to "disable" it. This makes the breakpoint inoperative as if it had been deleted, but remembers the information on the breakpoint so that you can "enable" it again later. You disable and enable breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints with the 'enable' and 'disable' commands, optionally specifying one or more breakpoint numbers as arguments. Use 'info break' to print a list of all breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints if you do not know which numbers to use. Disabling and enabling a breakpoint that has multiple locations affects all of its locations. A breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint can have any of several different states of enablement: * Enabled. The breakpoint stops your program. A breakpoint set with the 'break' command starts out in this state. * Disabled. The breakpoint has no effect on your program. * Enabled once. The breakpoint stops your program, but then becomes disabled. * Enabled for a count. The breakpoint stops your program for the next N times, then becomes disabled. * Enabled for deletion. The breakpoint stops your program, but immediately after it does so it is deleted permanently. A breakpoint set with the 'tbreak' command starts out in this state. You can use the following commands to enable or disable breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints: 'disable [breakpoints] [LIST...]' Disable the specified breakpoints--or all breakpoints, if none are listed. A disabled breakpoint has no effect but is not forgotten. All options such as ignore-counts, conditions and commands are remembered in case the breakpoint is enabled again later. You may abbreviate 'disable' as 'dis'. 'enable [breakpoints] [LIST...]' Enable the specified breakpoints (or all defined breakpoints). They become effective once again in stopping your program. 'enable [breakpoints] once LIST...' Enable the specified breakpoints temporarily. GDB disables any of these breakpoints immediately after stopping your program. 'enable [breakpoints] count COUNT LIST...' Enable the specified breakpoints temporarily. GDB records COUNT with each of the specified breakpoints, and decrements a breakpoint's count when it is hit. When any count reaches 0, GDB disables that breakpoint. If a breakpoint has an ignore count (*note Break Conditions: Conditions.), that will be decremented to 0 before COUNT is affected. 'enable [breakpoints] delete LIST...' Enable the specified breakpoints to work once, then die. GDB deletes any of these breakpoints as soon as your program stops there. Breakpoints set by the 'tbreak' command start out in this state. Except for a breakpoint set with 'tbreak' (*note Setting Breakpoints: Set Breaks.), breakpoints that you set are initially enabled; subsequently, they become disabled or enabled only when you use one of the commands above. (The command 'until' can set and delete a breakpoint of its own, but it does not change the state of your other breakpoints; see *note Continuing and Stepping: Continuing and Stepping.)  File: gdb.info, Node: Conditions, Next: Break Commands, Prev: Disabling, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.6 Break Conditions ---------------------- The simplest sort of breakpoint breaks every time your program reaches a specified place. You can also specify a "condition" for a breakpoint. A condition is just a Boolean expression in your programming language (*note Expressions: Expressions.). A breakpoint with a condition evaluates the expression each time your program reaches it, and your program stops only if the condition is _true_. This is the converse of using assertions for program validation; in that situation, you want to stop when the assertion is violated--that is, when the condition is false. In C, if you want to test an assertion expressed by the condition ASSERT, you should set the condition '! ASSERT' on the appropriate breakpoint. Conditions are also accepted for watchpoints; you may not need them, since a watchpoint is inspecting the value of an expression anyhow--but it might be simpler, say, to just set a watchpoint on a variable name, and specify a condition that tests whether the new value is an interesting one. Break conditions can have side effects, and may even call functions in your program. This can be useful, for example, to activate functions that log program progress, or to use your own print functions to format special data structures. The effects are completely predictable unless there is another enabled breakpoint at the same address. (In that case, GDB might see the other breakpoint first and stop your program without checking the condition of this one.) Note that breakpoint commands are usually more convenient and flexible than break conditions for the purpose of performing side effects when a breakpoint is reached (*note Breakpoint Command Lists: Break Commands.). Breakpoint conditions can also be evaluated on the target's side if the target supports it. Instead of evaluating the conditions locally, GDB encodes the expression into an agent expression (*note Agent Expressions::) suitable for execution on the target, independently of GDB. Global variables become raw memory locations, locals become stack accesses, and so forth. In this case, GDB will only be notified of a breakpoint trigger when its condition evaluates to true. This mechanism may provide faster response times depending on the performance characteristics of the target since it does not need to keep GDB informed about every breakpoint trigger, even those with false conditions. Break conditions can be specified when a breakpoint is set, by using 'if' in the arguments to the 'break' command. *Note Setting Breakpoints: Set Breaks. They can also be changed at any time with the 'condition' command. You can also use the 'if' keyword with the 'watch' command. The 'catch' command does not recognize the 'if' keyword; 'condition' is the only way to impose a further condition on a catchpoint. 'condition BNUM EXPRESSION' Specify EXPRESSION as the break condition for breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint number BNUM. After you set a condition, breakpoint BNUM stops your program only if the value of EXPRESSION is true (nonzero, in C). When you use 'condition', GDB checks EXPRESSION immediately for syntactic correctness, and to determine whether symbols in it have referents in the context of your breakpoint. If EXPRESSION uses symbols not referenced in the context of the breakpoint, GDB prints an error message: No symbol "foo" in current context. GDB does not actually evaluate EXPRESSION at the time the 'condition' command (or a command that sets a breakpoint with a condition, like 'break if ...') is given, however. *Note Expressions: Expressions. 'condition -force BNUM EXPRESSION' When the '-force' flag is used, define the condition even if EXPRESSION is invalid at all the current locations of breakpoint BNUM. This is similar to the '-force-condition' option of the 'break' command. 'condition BNUM' Remove the condition from breakpoint number BNUM. It becomes an ordinary unconditional breakpoint. A special case of a breakpoint condition is to stop only when the breakpoint has been reached a certain number of times. This is so useful that there is a special way to do it, using the "ignore count" of the breakpoint. Every breakpoint has an ignore count, which is an integer. Most of the time, the ignore count is zero, and therefore has no effect. But if your program reaches a breakpoint whose ignore count is positive, then instead of stopping, it just decrements the ignore count by one and continues. As a result, if the ignore count value is N, the breakpoint does not stop the next N times your program reaches it. 'ignore BNUM COUNT' Set the ignore count of breakpoint number BNUM to COUNT. The next COUNT times the breakpoint is reached, your program's execution does not stop; other than to decrement the ignore count, GDB takes no action. To make the breakpoint stop the next time it is reached, specify a count of zero. When you use 'continue' to resume execution of your program from a breakpoint, you can specify an ignore count directly as an argument to 'continue', rather than using 'ignore'. *Note Continuing and Stepping: Continuing and Stepping. If a breakpoint has a positive ignore count and a condition, the condition is not checked. Once the ignore count reaches zero, GDB resumes checking the condition. You could achieve the effect of the ignore count with a condition such as '$foo-- <= 0' using a debugger convenience variable that is decremented each time. *Note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars. Ignore counts apply to breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints.  File: gdb.info, Node: Break Commands, Next: Dynamic Printf, Prev: Conditions, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.7 Breakpoint Command Lists ------------------------------ You can give any breakpoint (or watchpoint or catchpoint) a series of commands to execute when your program stops due to that breakpoint. For example, you might want to print the values of certain expressions, or enable other breakpoints. 'commands [LIST...]' '... COMMAND-LIST ...' 'end' Specify a list of commands for the given breakpoints. The commands themselves appear on the following lines. Type a line containing just 'end' to terminate the commands. To remove all commands from a breakpoint, type 'commands' and follow it immediately with 'end'; that is, give no commands. With no argument, 'commands' refers to the last breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint set (not to the breakpoint most recently encountered). If the most recent breakpoints were set with a single command, then the 'commands' will apply to all the breakpoints set by that command. This applies to breakpoints set by 'rbreak', and also applies when a single 'break' command creates multiple breakpoints (*note Ambiguous Expressions: Ambiguous Expressions.). Pressing as a means of repeating the last GDB command is disabled within a COMMAND-LIST. You can use breakpoint commands to start your program up again. Simply use the 'continue' command, or 'step', or any other command that resumes execution. Any other commands in the command list, after a command that resumes execution, are ignored. This is because any time you resume execution (even with a simple 'next' or 'step'), you may encounter another breakpoint--which could have its own command list, leading to ambiguities about which list to execute. If the first command you specify in a command list is 'silent', the usual message about stopping at a breakpoint is not printed. This may be desirable for breakpoints that are to print a specific message and then continue. If none of the remaining commands print anything, you see no sign that the breakpoint was reached. 'silent' is meaningful only at the beginning of a breakpoint command list. The commands 'echo', 'output', and 'printf' allow you to print precisely controlled output, and are often useful in silent breakpoints. *Note Commands for Controlled Output: Output. For example, here is how you could use breakpoint commands to print the value of 'x' at entry to 'foo' whenever 'x' is positive. break foo if x>0 commands silent printf "x is %d\n",x cont end One application for breakpoint commands is to compensate for one bug so you can test for another. Put a breakpoint just after the erroneous line of code, give it a condition to detect the case in which something erroneous has been done, and give it commands to assign correct values to any variables that need them. End with the 'continue' command so that your program does not stop, and start with the 'silent' command so that no output is produced. Here is an example: break 403 commands silent set x = y + 4 cont end  File: gdb.info, Node: Dynamic Printf, Next: Save Breakpoints, Prev: Break Commands, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.8 Dynamic Printf -------------------- The dynamic printf command 'dprintf' combines a breakpoint with formatted printing of your program's data to give you the effect of inserting 'printf' calls into your program on-the-fly, without having to recompile it. In its most basic form, the output goes to the GDB console. However, you can set the variable 'dprintf-style' for alternate handling. For instance, you can ask to format the output by calling your program's 'printf' function. This has the advantage that the characters go to the program's output device, so they can recorded in redirects to files and so forth. If you are doing remote debugging with a stub or agent, you can also ask to have the printf handled by the remote agent. In addition to ensuring that the output goes to the remote program's device along with any other output the program might produce, you can also ask that the dprintf remain active even after disconnecting from the remote target. Using the stub/agent is also more efficient, as it can do everything without needing to communicate with GDB. 'dprintf LOCATION,TEMPLATE,EXPRESSION[,EXPRESSION...]' Whenever execution reaches LOCATION, print the values of one or more EXPRESSIONS under the control of the string TEMPLATE. To print several values, separate them with commas. 'set dprintf-style STYLE' Set the dprintf output to be handled in one of several different styles enumerated below. A change of style affects all existing dynamic printfs immediately. (If you need individual control over the print commands, simply define normal breakpoints with explicitly-supplied command lists.) 'gdb' Handle the output using the GDB 'printf' command. 'call' Handle the output by calling a function in your program (normally 'printf'). 'agent' Have the remote debugging agent (such as 'gdbserver') handle the output itself. This style is only available for agents that support running commands on the target. 'set dprintf-function FUNCTION' Set the function to call if the dprintf style is 'call'. By default its value is 'printf'. You may set it to any expression. that GDB can evaluate to a function, as per the 'call' command. 'set dprintf-channel CHANNEL' Set a "channel" for dprintf. If set to a non-empty value, GDB will evaluate it as an expression and pass the result as a first argument to the 'dprintf-function', in the manner of 'fprintf' and similar functions. Otherwise, the dprintf format string will be the first argument, in the manner of 'printf'. As an example, if you wanted 'dprintf' output to go to a logfile that is a standard I/O stream assigned to the variable 'mylog', you could do the following: (gdb) set dprintf-style call (gdb) set dprintf-function fprintf (gdb) set dprintf-channel mylog (gdb) dprintf 25,"at line 25, glob=%d\n",glob Dprintf 1 at 0x123456: file main.c, line 25. (gdb) info break 1 dprintf keep y 0x00123456 in main at main.c:25 call (void) fprintf (mylog,"at line 25, glob=%d\n",glob) continue (gdb) Note that the 'info break' displays the dynamic printf commands as normal breakpoint commands; you can thus easily see the effect of the variable settings. 'set disconnected-dprintf on' 'set disconnected-dprintf off' Choose whether 'dprintf' commands should continue to run if GDB has disconnected from the target. This only applies if the 'dprintf-style' is 'agent'. 'show disconnected-dprintf off' Show the current choice for disconnected 'dprintf'. GDB does not check the validity of function and channel, relying on you to supply values that are meaningful for the contexts in which they are being used. For instance, the function and channel may be the values of local variables, but if that is the case, then all enabled dynamic prints must be at locations within the scope of those locals. If evaluation fails, GDB will report an error.  File: gdb.info, Node: Save Breakpoints, Next: Static Probe Points, Prev: Dynamic Printf, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.9 How to save breakpoints to a file --------------------------------------- To save breakpoint definitions to a file use the 'save breakpoints' command. 'save breakpoints [FILENAME]' This command saves all current breakpoint definitions together with their commands and ignore counts, into a file 'FILENAME' suitable for use in a later debugging session. This includes all types of breakpoints (breakpoints, watchpoints, catchpoints, tracepoints). To read the saved breakpoint definitions, use the 'source' command (*note Command Files::). Note that watchpoints with expressions involving local variables may fail to be recreated because it may not be possible to access the context where the watchpoint is valid anymore. Because the saved breakpoint definitions are simply a sequence of GDB commands that recreate the breakpoints, you can edit the file in your favorite editing program, and remove the breakpoint definitions you're not interested in, or that can no longer be recreated.  File: gdb.info, Node: Static Probe Points, Next: Error in Breakpoints, Prev: Save Breakpoints, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.10 Static Probe Points -------------------------- GDB supports "SDT" probes in the code. SDT stands for Statically Defined Tracing, and the probes are designed to have a tiny runtime code and data footprint, and no dynamic relocations. Currently, the following types of probes are supported on ELF-compatible systems: * 'SystemTap' () SDT probes(1). 'SystemTap' probes are usable from assembly, C and C++ languages(2). * 'DTrace' () USDT probes. 'DTrace' probes are usable from C and C++ languages. Some 'SystemTap' probes have an associated semaphore variable; for instance, this happens automatically if you defined your probe using a DTrace-style '.d' file. If your probe has a semaphore, GDB will automatically enable it when you specify a breakpoint using the '-probe-stap' notation. But, if you put a breakpoint at a probe's location by some other method (e.g., 'break file:line'), then GDB will not automatically set the semaphore. 'DTrace' probes do not support semaphores. You can examine the available static static probes using 'info probes', with optional arguments: 'info probes [TYPE] [PROVIDER [NAME [OBJFILE]]]' If given, TYPE is either 'stap' for listing 'SystemTap' probes or 'dtrace' for listing 'DTrace' probes. If omitted all probes are listed regardless of their types. If given, PROVIDER is a regular expression used to match against provider names when selecting which probes to list. If omitted, probes by all probes from all providers are listed. If given, NAME is a regular expression to match against probe names when selecting which probes to list. If omitted, probe names are not considered when deciding whether to display them. If given, OBJFILE is a regular expression used to select which object files (executable or shared libraries) to examine. If not given, all object files are considered. 'info probes all' List the available static probes, from all types. Some probe points can be enabled and/or disabled. The effect of enabling or disabling a probe depends on the type of probe being handled. Some 'DTrace' probes can be enabled or disabled, but 'SystemTap' probes cannot be disabled. You can enable (or disable) one or more probes using the following commands, with optional arguments: 'enable probes [PROVIDER [NAME [OBJFILE]]]' If given, PROVIDER is a regular expression used to match against provider names when selecting which probes to enable. If omitted, all probes from all providers are enabled. If given, NAME is a regular expression to match against probe names when selecting which probes to enable. If omitted, probe names are not considered when deciding whether to enable them. If given, OBJFILE is a regular expression used to select which object files (executable or shared libraries) to examine. If not given, all object files are considered. 'disable probes [PROVIDER [NAME [OBJFILE]]]' See the 'enable probes' command above for a description of the optional arguments accepted by this command. A probe may specify up to twelve arguments. These are available at the point at which the probe is defined--that is, when the current PC is at the probe's location. The arguments are available using the convenience variables (*note Convenience Vars::) '$_probe_arg0'...'$_probe_arg11'. In 'SystemTap' probes each probe argument is an integer of the appropriate size; types are not preserved. In 'DTrace' probes types are preserved provided that they are recognized as such by GDB; otherwise the value of the probe argument will be a long integer. The convenience variable '$_probe_argc' holds the number of arguments at the current probe point. These variables are always available, but attempts to access them at any location other than a probe point will cause GDB to give an error message. ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) See for more information on how to add 'SystemTap' SDT probes in your applications. (2) See for a good reference on how the SDT probes are implemented.  File: gdb.info, Node: Error in Breakpoints, Next: Breakpoint-related Warnings, Prev: Static Probe Points, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.11 "Cannot insert breakpoints" ---------------------------------- If you request too many active hardware-assisted breakpoints and watchpoints, you will see this error message: Stopped; cannot insert breakpoints. You may have requested too many hardware breakpoints and watchpoints. This message is printed when you attempt to resume the program, since only then GDB knows exactly how many hardware breakpoints and watchpoints it needs to insert. When this message is printed, you need to disable or remove some of the hardware-assisted breakpoints and watchpoints, and then continue.  File: gdb.info, Node: Breakpoint-related Warnings, Prev: Error in Breakpoints, Up: Breakpoints 5.1.12 "Breakpoint address adjusted..." --------------------------------------- Some processor architectures place constraints on the addresses at which breakpoints may be placed. For architectures thus constrained, GDB will attempt to adjust the breakpoint's address to comply with the constraints dictated by the architecture. One example of such an architecture is the Fujitsu FR-V. The FR-V is a VLIW architecture in which a number of RISC-like instructions may be bundled together for parallel execution. The FR-V architecture constrains the location of a breakpoint instruction within such a bundle to the instruction with the lowest address. GDB honors this constraint by adjusting a breakpoint's address to the first in the bundle. It is not uncommon for optimized code to have bundles which contain instructions from different source statements, thus it may happen that a breakpoint's address will be adjusted from one source statement to another. Since this adjustment may significantly alter GDB's breakpoint related behavior from what the user expects, a warning is printed when the breakpoint is first set and also when the breakpoint is hit. A warning like the one below is printed when setting a breakpoint that's been subject to address adjustment: warning: Breakpoint address adjusted from 0x00010414 to 0x00010410. Such warnings are printed both for user settable and GDB's internal breakpoints. If you see one of these warnings, you should verify that a breakpoint set at the adjusted address will have the desired affect. If not, the breakpoint in question may be removed and other breakpoints may be set which will have the desired behavior. E.g., it may be sufficient to place the breakpoint at a later instruction. A conditional breakpoint may also be useful in some cases to prevent the breakpoint from triggering too often. GDB will also issue a warning when stopping at one of these adjusted breakpoints: warning: Breakpoint 1 address previously adjusted from 0x00010414 to 0x00010410. When this warning is encountered, it may be too late to take remedial action except in cases where the breakpoint is hit earlier or more frequently than expected.  File: gdb.info, Node: Continuing and Stepping, Next: Skipping Over Functions and Files, Prev: Breakpoints, Up: Stopping 5.2 Continuing and Stepping =========================== "Continuing" means resuming program execution until your program completes normally. In contrast, "stepping" means executing just one more "step" of your program, where "step" may mean either one line of source code, or one machine instruction (depending on what particular command you use). Either when continuing or when stepping, your program may stop even sooner, due to a breakpoint or a signal. (If it stops due to a signal, you may want to use 'handle', or use 'signal 0' to resume execution (*note Signals: Signals.), or you may step into the signal's handler (*note stepping and signal handlers::).) 'continue [IGNORE-COUNT]' 'c [IGNORE-COUNT]' 'fg [IGNORE-COUNT]' Resume program execution, at the address where your program last stopped; any breakpoints set at that address are bypassed. The optional argument IGNORE-COUNT allows you to specify a further number of times to ignore a breakpoint at this location; its effect is like that of 'ignore' (*note Break Conditions: Conditions.). The argument IGNORE-COUNT is meaningful only when your program stopped due to a breakpoint. At other times, the argument to 'continue' is ignored. The synonyms 'c' and 'fg' (for "foreground", as the debugged program is deemed to be the foreground program) are provided purely for convenience, and have exactly the same behavior as 'continue'. To resume execution at a different place, you can use 'return' (*note Returning from a Function: Returning.) to go back to the calling function; or 'jump' (*note Continuing at a Different Address: Jumping.) to go to an arbitrary location in your program. A typical technique for using stepping is to set a breakpoint (*note Breakpoints; Watchpoints; and Catchpoints: Breakpoints.) at the beginning of the function or the section of your program where a problem is believed to lie, run your program until it stops at that breakpoint, and then step through the suspect area, examining the variables that are interesting, until you see the problem happen. 'step' Continue running your program until control reaches a different source line, then stop it and return control to GDB. This command is abbreviated 's'. _Warning:_ If you use the 'step' command while control is within a function that was compiled without debugging information, execution proceeds until control reaches a function that does have debugging information. Likewise, it will not step into a function which is compiled without debugging information. To step through functions without debugging information, use the 'stepi' command, described below. The 'step' command only stops at the first instruction of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that could otherwise occur in 'switch' statements, 'for' loops, etc. 'step' continues to stop if a function that has debugging information is called within the line. In other words, 'step' _steps inside_ any functions called within the line. Also, the 'step' command only enters a function if there is line number information for the function. Otherwise it acts like the 'next' command. This avoids problems when using 'cc -gl' on MIPS machines. Previously, 'step' entered subroutines if there was any debugging information about the routine. 'step COUNT' Continue running as in 'step', but do so COUNT times. If a breakpoint is reached, or a signal not related to stepping occurs before COUNT steps, stepping stops right away. 'next [COUNT]' Continue to the next source line in the current (innermost) stack frame. This is similar to 'step', but function calls that appear within the line of code are executed without stopping. Execution stops when control reaches a different line of code at the original stack level that was executing when you gave the 'next' command. This command is abbreviated 'n'. An argument COUNT is a repeat count, as for 'step'. The 'next' command only stops at the first instruction of a source line. This prevents multiple stops that could otherwise occur in 'switch' statements, 'for' loops, etc. 'set step-mode' 'set step-mode on' The 'set step-mode on' command causes the 'step' command to stop at the first instruction of a function which contains no debug line information rather than stepping over it. This is useful in cases where you may be interested in inspecting the machine instructions of a function which has no symbolic info and do not want GDB to automatically skip over this function. 'set step-mode off' Causes the 'step' command to step over any functions which contains no debug information. This is the default. 'show step-mode' Show whether GDB will stop in or step over functions without source line debug information. 'finish' Continue running until just after function in the selected stack frame returns. Print the returned value (if any). This command can be abbreviated as 'fin'. Contrast this with the 'return' command (*note Returning from a Function: Returning.). 'set print finish [on|off]' 'show print finish' By default the 'finish' command will show the value that is returned by the function. This can be disabled using 'set print finish off'. When disabled, the value is still entered into the value history (*note Value History::), but not displayed. 'until' 'u' Continue running until a source line past the current line, in the current stack frame, is reached. This command is used to avoid single stepping through a loop more than once. It is like the 'next' command, except that when 'until' encounters a jump, it automatically continues execution until the program counter is greater than the address of the jump. This means that when you reach the end of a loop after single stepping though it, 'until' makes your program continue execution until it exits the loop. In contrast, a 'next' command at the end of a loop simply steps back to the beginning of the loop, which forces you to step through the next iteration. 'until' always stops your program if it attempts to exit the current stack frame. 'until' may produce somewhat counterintuitive results if the order of machine code does not match the order of the source lines. For example, in the following excerpt from a debugging session, the 'f' ('frame') command shows that execution is stopped at line '206'; yet when we use 'until', we get to line '195': (gdb) f #0 main (argc=4, argv=0xf7fffae8) at m4.c:206 206 expand_input(); (gdb) until 195 for ( ; argc > 0; NEXTARG) { This happened because, for execution efficiency, the compiler had generated code for the loop closure test at the end, rather than the start, of the loop--even though the test in a C 'for'-loop is written before the body of the loop. The 'until' command appeared to step back to the beginning of the loop when it advanced to this expression; however, it has not really gone to an earlier statement--not in terms of the actual machine code. 'until' with no argument works by means of single instruction stepping, and hence is slower than 'until' with an argument. 'until LOCATION' 'u LOCATION' Continue running your program until either the specified LOCATION is reached, or the current stack frame returns. The location is any of the forms described in *note Specify Location::. This form of the command uses temporary breakpoints, and hence is quicker than 'until' without an argument. The specified location is actually reached only if it is in the current frame. This implies that 'until' can be used to skip over recursive function invocations. For instance in the code below, if the current location is line '96', issuing 'until 99' will execute the program up to line '99' in the same invocation of factorial, i.e., after the inner invocations have returned. 94 int factorial (int value) 95 { 96 if (value > 1) { 97 value *= factorial (value - 1); 98 } 99 return (value); 100 } 'advance LOCATION' Continue running the program up to the given LOCATION. An argument is required, which should be of one of the forms described in *note Specify Location::. Execution will also stop upon exit from the current stack frame. This command is similar to 'until', but 'advance' will not skip over recursive function calls, and the target location doesn't have to be in the same frame as the current one. 'stepi' 'stepi ARG' 'si' Execute one machine instruction, then stop and return to the debugger. It is often useful to do 'display/i $pc' when stepping by machine instructions. This makes GDB automatically display the next instruction to be executed, each time your program stops. *Note Automatic Display: Auto Display. An argument is a repeat count, as in 'step'. 'nexti' 'nexti ARG' 'ni' Execute one machine instruction, but if it is a function call, proceed until the function returns. An argument is a repeat count, as in 'next'. By default, and if available, GDB makes use of target-assisted "range stepping". In other words, whenever you use a stepping command (e.g., 'step', 'next'), GDB tells the target to step the corresponding range of instruction addresses instead of issuing multiple single-steps. This speeds up line stepping, particularly for remote targets. Ideally, there should be no reason you would want to turn range stepping off. However, it's possible that a bug in the debug info, a bug in the remote stub (for remote targets), or even a bug in GDB could make line stepping behave incorrectly when target-assisted range stepping is enabled. You can use the following command to turn off range stepping if necessary: 'set range-stepping' 'show range-stepping' Control whether range stepping is enabled. If 'on', and the target supports it, GDB tells the target to step a range of addresses itself, instead of issuing multiple single-steps. If 'off', GDB always issues single-steps, even if range stepping is supported by the target. The default is 'on'.  File: gdb.info, Node: Skipping Over Functions and Files, Next: Signals, Prev: Continuing and Stepping, Up: Stopping 5.3 Skipping Over Functions and Files ===================================== The program you are debugging may contain some functions which are uninteresting to debug. The 'skip' command lets you tell GDB to skip a function, all functions in a file or a particular function in a particular file when stepping. For example, consider the following C function: 101 int func() 102 { 103 foo(boring()); 104 bar(boring()); 105 } Suppose you wish to step into the functions 'foo' and 'bar', but you are not interested in stepping through 'boring'. If you run 'step' at line 103, you'll enter 'boring()', but if you run 'next', you'll step over both 'foo' and 'boring'! One solution is to 'step' into 'boring' and use the 'finish' command to immediately exit it. But this can become tedious if 'boring' is called from many places. A more flexible solution is to execute 'skip boring'. This instructs GDB never to step into 'boring'. Now when you execute 'step' at line 103, you'll step over 'boring' and directly into 'foo'. Functions may be skipped by providing either a function name, linespec (*note Specify Location::), regular expression that matches the function's name, file name or a 'glob'-style pattern that matches the file name. On Posix systems the form of the regular expression is "Extended Regular Expressions". See for example 'man 7 regex' on GNU/Linux systems. On non-Posix systems the form of the regular expression is whatever is provided by the 'regcomp' function of the underlying system. See for example 'man 7 glob' on GNU/Linux systems for a description of 'glob'-style patterns. 'skip [OPTIONS]' The basic form of the 'skip' command takes zero or more options that specify what to skip. The OPTIONS argument is any useful combination of the following: '-file FILE' '-fi FILE' Functions in FILE will be skipped over when stepping. '-gfile FILE-GLOB-PATTERN' '-gfi FILE-GLOB-PATTERN' Functions in files matching FILE-GLOB-PATTERN will be skipped over when stepping. (gdb) skip -gfi utils/*.c '-function LINESPEC' '-fu LINESPEC' Functions named by LINESPEC or the function containing the line named by LINESPEC will be skipped over when stepping. *Note Specify Location::. '-rfunction REGEXP' '-rfu REGEXP' Functions whose name matches REGEXP will be skipped over when stepping. This form is useful for complex function names. For example, there is generally no need to step into C++ 'std::string' constructors or destructors. Plus with C++ templates it can be hard to write out the full name of the function, and often it doesn't matter what the template arguments are. Specifying the function to be skipped as a regular expression makes this easier. (gdb) skip -rfu ^std::(allocator|basic_string)<.*>::~?\1 *\( If you want to skip every templated C++ constructor and destructor in the 'std' namespace you can do: (gdb) skip -rfu ^std::([a-zA-z0-9_]+)<.*>::~?\1 *\( If no options are specified, the function you're currently debugging will be skipped. 'skip function [LINESPEC]' After running this command, the function named by LINESPEC or the function containing the line named by LINESPEC will be skipped over when stepping. *Note Specify Location::. If you do not specify LINESPEC, the function you're currently debugging will be skipped. (If you have a function called 'file' that you want to skip, use 'skip function file'.) 'skip file [FILENAME]' After running this command, any function whose source lives in FILENAME will be skipped over when stepping. (gdb) skip file boring.c File boring.c will be skipped when stepping. If you do not specify FILENAME, functions whose source lives in the file you're currently debugging will be skipped. Skips can be listed, deleted, disabled, and enabled, much like breakpoints. These are the commands for managing your list of skips: 'info skip [RANGE]' Print details about the specified skip(s). If RANGE is not specified, print a table with details about all functions and files marked for skipping. 'info skip' prints the following information about each skip: _Identifier_ A number identifying this skip. _Enabled or Disabled_ Enabled skips are marked with 'y'. Disabled skips are marked with 'n'. _Glob_ If the file name is a 'glob' pattern this is 'y'. Otherwise it is 'n'. _File_ The name or 'glob' pattern of the file to be skipped. If no file is specified this is ''. _RE_ If the function name is a 'regular expression' this is 'y'. Otherwise it is 'n'. _Function_ The name or regular expression of the function to skip. If no function is specified this is ''. 'skip delete [RANGE]' Delete the specified skip(s). If RANGE is not specified, delete all skips. 'skip enable [RANGE]' Enable the specified skip(s). If RANGE is not specified, enable all skips. 'skip disable [RANGE]' Disable the specified skip(s). If RANGE is not specified, disable all skips. 'set debug skip [on|off]' Set whether to print the debug output about skipping files and functions. 'show debug skip' Show whether the debug output about skipping files and functions is printed.  File: gdb.info, Node: Signals, Next: Thread Stops, Prev: Skipping Over Functions and Files, Up: Stopping 5.4 Signals =========== A signal is an asynchronous event that can happen in a program. The operating system defines the possible kinds of signals, and gives each kind a name and a number. For example, in Unix 'SIGINT' is the signal a program gets when you type an interrupt character (often 'Ctrl-c'); 'SIGSEGV' is the signal a program gets from referencing a place in memory far away from all the areas in use; 'SIGALRM' occurs when the alarm clock timer goes off (which happens only if your program has requested an alarm). Some signals, including 'SIGALRM', are a normal part of the functioning of your program. Others, such as 'SIGSEGV', indicate errors; these signals are "fatal" (they kill your program immediately) if the program has not specified in advance some other way to handle the signal. 'SIGINT' does not indicate an error in your program, but it is normally fatal so it can carry out the purpose of the interrupt: to kill the program. GDB has the ability to detect any occurrence of a signal in your program. You can tell GDB in advance what to do for each kind of signal. Normally, GDB is set up to let the non-erroneous signals like 'SIGALRM' be silently passed to your program (so as not to interfere with their role in the program's functioning) but to stop your program immediately whenever an error signal happens. You can change these settings with the 'handle' command. 'info signals' 'info handle' Print a table of all the kinds of signals and how GDB has been told to handle each one. You can use this to see the signal numbers of all the defined types of signals. 'info signals SIG' Similar, but print information only about the specified signal number. 'info handle' is an alias for 'info signals'. 'catch signal [SIGNAL... | 'all']' Set a catchpoint for the indicated signals. *Note Set Catchpoints::, for details about this command. 'handle SIGNAL [KEYWORDS...]' Change the way GDB handles signal SIGNAL. The SIGNAL can be the number of a signal or its name (with or without the 'SIG' at the beginning); a list of signal numbers of the form 'LOW-HIGH'; or the word 'all', meaning all the known signals. Optional arguments KEYWORDS, described below, say what change to make. The keywords allowed by the 'handle' command can be abbreviated. Their full names are: 'nostop' GDB should not stop your program when this signal happens. It may still print a message telling you that the signal has come in. 'stop' GDB should stop your program when this signal happens. This implies the 'print' keyword as well. 'print' GDB should print a message when this signal happens. 'noprint' GDB should not mention the occurrence of the signal at all. This implies the 'nostop' keyword as well. 'pass' 'noignore' GDB should allow your program to see this signal; your program can handle the signal, or else it may terminate if the signal is fatal and not handled. 'pass' and 'noignore' are synonyms. 'nopass' 'ignore' GDB should not allow your program to see this signal. 'nopass' and 'ignore' are synonyms. When a signal stops your program, the signal is not visible to the program until you continue. Your program sees the signal then, if 'pass' is in effect for the signal in question _at that time_. In other words, after GDB reports a signal, you can use the 'handle' command with 'pass' or 'nopass' to control whether your program sees that signal when you continue. The default is set to 'nostop', 'noprint', 'pass' for non-erroneous signals such as 'SIGALRM', 'SIGWINCH' and 'SIGCHLD', and to 'stop', 'print', 'pass' for the erroneous signals. You can also use the 'signal' command to prevent your program from seeing a signal, or cause it to see a signal it normally would not see, or to give it any signal at any time. For example, if your program stopped due to some sort of memory reference error, you might store correct values into the erroneous variables and continue, hoping to see more execution; but your program would probably terminate immediately as a result of the fatal signal once it saw the signal. To prevent this, you can continue with 'signal 0'. *Note Giving your Program a Signal: Signaling. GDB optimizes for stepping the mainline code. If a signal that has 'handle nostop' and 'handle pass' set arrives while a stepping command (e.g., 'stepi', 'step', 'next') is in progress, GDB lets the signal handler run and then resumes stepping the mainline code once the signal handler returns. In other words, GDB steps over the signal handler. This prevents signals that you've specified as not interesting (with 'handle nostop') from changing the focus of debugging unexpectedly. Note that the signal handler itself may still hit a breakpoint, stop for another signal that has 'handle stop' in effect, or for any other event that normally results in stopping the stepping command sooner. Also note that GDB still informs you that the program received a signal if 'handle print' is set. If you set 'handle pass' for a signal, and your program sets up a handler for it, then issuing a stepping command, such as 'step' or 'stepi', when your program is stopped due to the signal will step _into_ the signal handler (if the target supports that). Likewise, if you use the 'queue-signal' command to queue a signal to be delivered to the current thread when execution of the thread resumes (*note Giving your Program a Signal: Signaling.), then a stepping command will step into the signal handler. Here's an example, using 'stepi' to step to the first instruction of 'SIGUSR1''s handler: (gdb) handle SIGUSR1 Signal Stop Print Pass to program Description SIGUSR1 Yes Yes Yes User defined signal 1 (gdb) c Continuing. Program received signal SIGUSR1, User defined signal 1. main () sigusr1.c:28 28 p = 0; (gdb) si sigusr1_handler () at sigusr1.c:9 9 { The same, but using 'queue-signal' instead of waiting for the program to receive the signal first: (gdb) n 28 p = 0; (gdb) queue-signal SIGUSR1 (gdb) si sigusr1_handler () at sigusr1.c:9 9 { (gdb) On some targets, GDB can inspect extra signal information associated with the intercepted signal, before it is actually delivered to the program being debugged. This information is exported by the convenience variable '$_siginfo', and consists of data that is passed by the kernel to the signal handler at the time of the receipt of a signal. The data type of the information itself is target dependent. You can see the data type using the 'ptype $_siginfo' command. On Unix systems, it typically corresponds to the standard 'siginfo_t' type, as defined in the 'signal.h' system header. Here's an example, on a GNU/Linux system, printing the stray referenced address that raised a segmentation fault. (gdb) continue Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. 0x0000000000400766 in main () 69 *(int *)p = 0; (gdb) ptype $_siginfo type = struct { int si_signo; int si_errno; int si_code; union { int _pad[28]; struct {...} _kill; struct {...} _timer; struct {...} _rt; struct {...} _sigchld; struct {...} _sigfault; struct {...} _sigpoll; } _sifields; } (gdb) ptype $_siginfo._sifields._sigfault type = struct { void *si_addr; } (gdb) p $_siginfo._sifields._sigfault.si_addr $1 = (void *) 0x7ffff7ff7000 Depending on target support, '$_siginfo' may also be writable. On some targets, a 'SIGSEGV' can be caused by a boundary violation, i.e., accessing an address outside of the allowed range. In those cases GDB may displays additional information, depending on how GDB has been told to handle the signal. With 'handle stop SIGSEGV', GDB displays the violation kind: "Upper" or "Lower", the memory address accessed and the bounds, while with 'handle nostop SIGSEGV' no additional information is displayed. The usual output of a segfault is: Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68 68 value = *(p + len); While a bound violation is presented as: Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault Upper bound violation while accessing address 0x7fffffffc3b3 Bounds: [lower = 0x7fffffffc390, upper = 0x7fffffffc3a3] 0x0000000000400d7c in upper () at i386-mpx-sigsegv.c:68 68 value = *(p + len);  File: gdb.info, Node: Thread Stops, Prev: Signals, Up: Stopping 5.5 Stopping and Starting Multi-thread Programs =============================================== GDB supports debugging programs with multiple threads (*note Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads: Threads.). There are two modes of controlling execution of your program within the debugger. In the default mode, referred to as "all-stop mode", when any thread in your program stops (for example, at a breakpoint or while being stepped), all other threads in the program are also stopped by GDB. On some targets, GDB also supports "non-stop mode", in which other threads can continue to run freely while you examine the stopped thread in the debugger. * Menu: * All-Stop Mode:: All threads stop when GDB takes control * Non-Stop Mode:: Other threads continue to execute * Background Execution:: Running your program asynchronously * Thread-Specific Breakpoints:: Controlling breakpoints * Interrupted System Calls:: GDB may interfere with system calls * Observer Mode:: GDB does not alter program behavior  File: gdb.info, Node: All-Stop Mode, Next: Non-Stop Mode, Up: Thread Stops 5.5.1 All-Stop Mode ------------------- In all-stop mode, whenever your program stops under GDB for any reason, _all_ threads of execution stop, not just the current thread. This allows you to examine the overall state of the program, including switching between threads, without worrying that things may change underfoot. Conversely, whenever you restart the program, _all_ threads start executing. _This is true even when single-stepping_ with commands like 'step' or 'next'. In particular, GDB cannot single-step all threads in lockstep. Since thread scheduling is up to your debugging target's operating system (not controlled by GDB), other threads may execute more than one statement while the current thread completes a single step. Moreover, in general other threads stop in the middle of a statement, rather than at a clean statement boundary, when the program stops. You might even find your program stopped in another thread after continuing or even single-stepping. This happens whenever some other thread runs into a breakpoint, a signal, or an exception before the first thread completes whatever you requested. Whenever GDB stops your program, due to a breakpoint or a signal, it automatically selects the thread where that breakpoint or signal happened. GDB alerts you to the context switch with a message such as '[Switching to Thread N]' to identify the thread. On some OSes, you can modify GDB's default behavior by locking the OS scheduler to allow only a single thread to run. 'set scheduler-locking MODE' Set the scheduler locking mode. It applies to normal execution, record mode, and replay mode. If it is 'off', then there is no locking and any thread may run at any time. If 'on', then only the current thread may run when the inferior is resumed. The 'step' mode optimizes for single-stepping; it prevents other threads from preempting the current thread while you are stepping, so that the focus of debugging does not change unexpectedly. Other threads never get a chance to run when you step, and they are completely free to run when you use commands like 'continue', 'until', or 'finish'. However, unless another thread hits a breakpoint during its timeslice, GDB does not change the current thread away from the thread that you are debugging. The 'replay' mode behaves like 'off' in record mode and like 'on' in replay mode. 'show scheduler-locking' Display the current scheduler locking mode. By default, when you issue one of the execution commands such as 'continue', 'next' or 'step', GDB allows only threads of the current inferior to run. For example, if GDB is attached to two inferiors, each with two threads, the 'continue' command resumes only the two threads of the current inferior. This is useful, for example, when you debug a program that forks and you want to hold the parent stopped (so that, for instance, it doesn't run to exit), while you debug the child. In other situations, you may not be interested in inspecting the current state of any of the processes GDB is attached to, and you may want to resume them all until some breakpoint is hit. In the latter case, you can instruct GDB to allow all threads of all the inferiors to run with the 'set schedule-multiple' command. 'set schedule-multiple' Set the mode for allowing threads of multiple processes to be resumed when an execution command is issued. When 'on', all threads of all processes are allowed to run. When 'off', only the threads of the current process are resumed. The default is 'off'. The 'scheduler-locking' mode takes precedence when set to 'on', or while you are stepping and set to 'step'. 'show schedule-multiple' Display the current mode for resuming the execution of threads of multiple processes.  File: gdb.info, Node: Non-Stop Mode, Next: Background Execution, Prev: All-Stop Mode, Up: Thread Stops 5.5.2 Non-Stop Mode ------------------- For some multi-threaded targets, GDB supports an optional mode of operation in which you can examine stopped program threads in the debugger while other threads continue to execute freely. This minimizes intrusion when debugging live systems, such as programs where some threads have real-time constraints or must continue to respond to external events. This is referred to as "non-stop" mode. In non-stop mode, when a thread stops to report a debugging event, _only_ that thread is stopped; GDB does not stop other threads as well, in contrast to the all-stop mode behavior. Additionally, execution commands such as 'continue' and 'step' apply by default only to the current thread in non-stop mode, rather than all threads as in all-stop mode. This allows you to control threads explicitly in ways that are not possible in all-stop mode -- for example, stepping one thread while allowing others to run freely, stepping one thread while holding all others stopped, or stepping several threads independently and simultaneously. To enter non-stop mode, use this sequence of commands before you run or attach to your program: # If using the CLI, pagination breaks non-stop. set pagination off # Finally, turn it on! set non-stop on You can use these commands to manipulate the non-stop mode setting: 'set non-stop on' Enable selection of non-stop mode. 'set non-stop off' Disable selection of non-stop mode. 'show non-stop' Show the current non-stop enablement setting. Note these commands only reflect whether non-stop mode is enabled, not whether the currently-executing program is being run in non-stop mode. In particular, the 'set non-stop' preference is only consulted when GDB starts or connects to the target program, and it is generally not possible to switch modes once debugging has started. Furthermore, since not all targets support non-stop mode, even when you have enabled non-stop mode, GDB may still fall back to all-stop operation by default. In non-stop mode, all execution commands apply only to the current thread by default. That is, 'continue' only continues one thread. To continue all threads, issue 'continue -a' or 'c -a'. You can use GDB's background execution commands (*note Background Execution::) to run some threads in the background while you continue to examine or step others from GDB. The MI execution commands (*note GDB/MI Program Execution::) are always executed asynchronously in non-stop mode. Suspending execution is done with the 'interrupt' command when running in the background, or 'Ctrl-c' during foreground execution. In all-stop mode, this stops the whole process; but in non-stop mode the interrupt applies only to the current thread. To stop the whole program, use 'interrupt -a'. Other execution commands do not currently support the '-a' option. In non-stop mode, when a thread stops, GDB doesn't automatically make that thread current, as it does in all-stop mode. This is because the thread stop notifications are asynchronous with respect to GDB's command interpreter, and it would be confusing if GDB unexpectedly changed to a different thread just as you entered a command to operate on the previously current thread.  File: gdb.info, Node: Background Execution, Next: Thread-Specific Breakpoints, Prev: Non-Stop Mode, Up: Thread Stops 5.5.3 Background Execution -------------------------- GDB's execution commands have two variants: the normal foreground (synchronous) behavior, and a background (asynchronous) behavior. In foreground execution, GDB waits for the program to report that some thread has stopped before prompting for another command. In background execution, GDB immediately gives a command prompt so that you can issue other commands while your program runs. If the target doesn't support async mode, GDB issues an error message if you attempt to use the background execution commands. To specify background execution, add a '&' to the command. For example, the background form of the 'continue' command is 'continue&', or just 'c&'. The execution commands that accept background execution are: 'run' *Note Starting your Program: Starting. 'attach' *Note Debugging an Already-running Process: Attach. 'step' *Note step: Continuing and Stepping. 'stepi' *Note stepi: Continuing and Stepping. 'next' *Note next: Continuing and Stepping. 'nexti' *Note nexti: Continuing and Stepping. 'continue' *Note continue: Continuing and Stepping. 'finish' *Note finish: Continuing and Stepping. 'until' *Note until: Continuing and Stepping. Background execution is especially useful in conjunction with non-stop mode for debugging programs with multiple threads; see *note Non-Stop Mode::. However, you can also use these commands in the normal all-stop mode with the restriction that you cannot issue another execution command until the previous one finishes. Examples of commands that are valid in all-stop mode while the program is running include 'help' and 'info break'. You can interrupt your program while it is running in the background by using the 'interrupt' command. 'interrupt' 'interrupt -a' Suspend execution of the running program. In all-stop mode, 'interrupt' stops the whole process, but in non-stop mode, it stops only the current thread. To stop the whole program in non-stop mode, use 'interrupt -a'.  File: gdb.info, Node: Thread-Specific Breakpoints, Next: Interrupted System Calls, Prev: Background Execution, Up: Thread Stops 5.5.4 Thread-Specific Breakpoints --------------------------------- When your program has multiple threads (*note Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads: Threads.), you can choose whether to set breakpoints on all threads, or on a particular thread. 'break LOCATION thread THREAD-ID' 'break LOCATION thread THREAD-ID if ...' LOCATION specifies source lines; there are several ways of writing them (*note Specify Location::), but the effect is always to specify some source line. Use the qualifier 'thread THREAD-ID' with a breakpoint command to specify that you only want GDB to stop the program when a particular thread reaches this breakpoint. The THREAD-ID specifier is one of the thread identifiers assigned by GDB, shown in the first column of the 'info threads' display. If you do not specify 'thread THREAD-ID' when you set a breakpoint, the breakpoint applies to _all_ threads of your program. You can use the 'thread' qualifier on conditional breakpoints as well; in this case, place 'thread THREAD-ID' before or after the breakpoint condition, like this: (gdb) break frik.c:13 thread 28 if bartab > lim Thread-specific breakpoints are automatically deleted when GDB detects the corresponding thread is no longer in the thread list. For example: (gdb) c Thread-specific breakpoint 3 deleted - thread 28 no longer in the thread list. There are several ways for a thread to disappear, such as a regular thread exit, but also when you detach from the process with the 'detach' command (*note Debugging an Already-running Process: Attach.), or if GDB loses the remote connection (*note Remote Debugging::), etc. Note that with some targets, GDB is only able to detect a thread has exited when the user explictly asks for the thread list with the 'info threads' command.  File: gdb.info, Node: Interrupted System Calls, Next: Observer Mode, Prev: Thread-Specific Breakpoints, Up: Thread Stops 5.5.5 Interrupted System Calls ------------------------------ There is an unfortunate side effect when using GDB to debug multi-threaded programs. If one thread stops for a breakpoint, or for some other reason, and another thread is blocked in a system call, then the system call may return prematurely. This is a consequence of the interaction between multiple threads and the signals that GDB uses to implement breakpoints and other events that stop execution. To handle this problem, your program should check the return value of each system call and react appropriately. This is good programming style anyways. For example, do not write code like this: sleep (10); The call to 'sleep' will return early if a different thread stops at a breakpoint or for some other reason. Instead, write this: int unslept = 10; while (unslept > 0) unslept = sleep (unslept); A system call is allowed to return early, so the system is still conforming to its specification. But GDB does cause your multi-threaded program to behave differently than it would without GDB. Also, GDB uses internal breakpoints in the thread library to monitor certain events such as thread creation and thread destruction. When such an event happens, a system call in another thread may return prematurely, even though your program does not appear to stop.  File: gdb.info, Node: Observer Mode, Prev: Interrupted System Calls, Up: Thread Stops 5.5.6 Observer Mode ------------------- If you want to build on non-stop mode and observe program behavior without any chance of disruption by GDB, you can set variables to disable all of the debugger's attempts to modify state, whether by writing memory, inserting breakpoints, etc. These operate at a low level, intercepting operations from all commands. When all of these are set to 'off', then GDB is said to be "observer mode". As a convenience, the variable 'observer' can be set to disable these, plus enable non-stop mode. Note that GDB will not prevent you from making nonsensical combinations of these settings. For instance, if you have enabled 'may-insert-breakpoints' but disabled 'may-write-memory', then breakpoints that work by writing trap instructions into the code stream will still not be able to be placed. 'set observer on' 'set observer off' When set to 'on', this disables all the permission variables below (except for 'insert-fast-tracepoints'), plus enables non-stop debugging. Setting this to 'off' switches back to normal debugging, though remaining in non-stop mode. 'show observer' Show whether observer mode is on or off. 'set may-write-registers on' 'set may-write-registers off' This controls whether GDB will attempt to alter the values of registers, such as with assignment expressions in 'print', or the 'jump' command. It defaults to 'on'. 'show may-write-registers' Show the current permission to write registers. 'set may-write-memory on' 'set may-write-memory off' This controls whether GDB will attempt to alter the contents of memory, such as with assignment expressions in 'print'. It defaults to 'on'. 'show may-write-memory' Show the current permission to write memory. 'set may-insert-breakpoints on' 'set may-insert-breakpoints off' This controls whether GDB will attempt to insert breakpoints. This affects all breakpoints, including internal breakpoints defined by GDB. It defaults to 'on'. 'show may-insert-breakpoints' Show the current permission to insert breakpoints. 'set may-insert-tracepoints on' 'set may-insert-tracepoints off' This controls whether GDB will attempt to insert (regular) tracepoints at the beginning of a tracing experiment. It affects only non-fast tracepoints, fast tracepoints being under the control of 'may-insert-fast-tracepoints'. It defaults to 'on'. 'show may-insert-tracepoints' Show the current permission to insert tracepoints. 'set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on' 'set may-insert-fast-tracepoints off' This controls whether GDB will attempt to insert fast tracepoints at the beginning of a tracing experiment. It affects only fast tracepoints, regular (non-fast) tracepoints being under the control of 'may-insert-tracepoints'. It defaults to 'on'. 'show may-insert-fast-tracepoints' Show the current permission to insert fast tracepoints. 'set may-interrupt on' 'set may-interrupt off' This controls whether GDB will attempt to interrupt or stop program execution. When this variable is 'off', the 'interrupt' command will have no effect, nor will 'Ctrl-c'. It defaults to 'on'. 'show may-interrupt' Show the current permission to interrupt or stop the program.  File: gdb.info, Node: Reverse Execution, Next: Process Record and Replay, Prev: Stopping, Up: Top 6 Running programs backward *************************** When you are debugging a program, it is not unusual to realize that you have gone too far, and some event of interest has already happened. If the target environment supports it, GDB can allow you to "rewind" the program by running it backward. A target environment that supports reverse execution should be able to "undo" the changes in machine state that have taken place as the program was executing normally. Variables, registers etc. should revert to their previous values. Obviously this requires a great deal of sophistication on the part of the target environment; not all target environments can support reverse execution. When a program is executed in reverse, the instructions that have most recently been executed are "un-executed", in reverse order. The program counter runs backward, following the previous thread of execution in reverse. As each instruction is "un-executed", the values of memory and/or registers that were changed by that instruction are reverted to their previous states. After executing a piece of source code in reverse, all side effects of that code should be "undone", and all variables should be returned to their prior values(1). On some platforms, GDB has built-in support for reverse execution, activated with the 'record' or 'record btrace' commands. *Note Process Record and Replay::. Some remote targets, typically full system emulators, support reverse execution directly without requiring any special command. If you are debugging in a target environment that supports reverse execution, GDB provides the following commands. 'reverse-continue [IGNORE-COUNT]' 'rc [IGNORE-COUNT]' Beginning at the point where your program last stopped, start executing in reverse. Reverse execution will stop for breakpoints and synchronous exceptions (signals), just like normal execution. Behavior of asynchronous signals depends on the target environment. 'reverse-step [COUNT]' Run the program backward until control reaches the start of a different source line; then stop it, and return control to GDB. Like the 'step' command, 'reverse-step' will only stop at the beginning of a source line. It "un-executes" the previously executed source line. If the previous source line included calls to debuggable functions, 'reverse-step' will step (backward) into the called function, stopping at the beginning of the _last_ statement in the called function (typically a return statement). Also, as with the 'step' command, if non-debuggable functions are called, 'reverse-step' will run thru them backward without stopping. 'reverse-stepi [COUNT]' Reverse-execute one machine instruction. Note that the instruction to be reverse-executed is _not_ the one pointed to by the program counter, but the instruction executed prior to that one. For instance, if the last instruction was a jump, 'reverse-stepi' will take you back from the destination of the jump to the jump instruction itself. 'reverse-next [COUNT]' Run backward to the beginning of the previous line executed in the current (innermost) stack frame. If the line contains function calls, they will be "un-executed" without stopping. Starting from the first line of a function, 'reverse-next' will take you back to the caller of that function, _before_ the function was called, just as the normal 'next' command would take you from the last line of a function back to its return to its caller (2). 'reverse-nexti [COUNT]' Like 'nexti', 'reverse-nexti' executes a single instruction in reverse, except that called functions are "un-executed" atomically. That is, if the previously executed instruction was a return from another function, 'reverse-nexti' will continue to execute in reverse until the call to that function (from the current stack frame) is reached. 'reverse-finish' Just as the 'finish' command takes you to the point where the current function returns, 'reverse-finish' takes you to the point where it was called. Instead of ending up at the end of the current function invocation, you end up at the beginning. 'set exec-direction' Set the direction of target execution. 'set exec-direction reverse' GDB will perform all execution commands in reverse, until the exec-direction mode is changed to "forward". Affected commands include 'step, stepi, next, nexti, continue, and finish'. The 'return' command cannot be used in reverse mode. 'set exec-direction forward' GDB will perform all execution commands in the normal fashion. This is the default. ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) Note that some side effects are easier to undo than others. For instance, memory and registers are relatively easy, but device I/O is hard. Some targets may be able undo things like device I/O, and some may not. The contract between GDB and the reverse executing target requires only that the target do something reasonable when GDB tells it to execute backwards, and then report the results back to GDB. Whatever the target reports back to GDB, GDB will report back to the user. GDB assumes that the memory and registers that the target reports are in a consistent state, but GDB accepts whatever it is given. (2) Unless the code is too heavily optimized.  File: gdb.info, Node: Process Record and Replay, Next: Stack, Prev: Reverse Execution, Up: Top 7 Recording Inferior's Execution and Replaying It ************************************************* On some platforms, GDB provides a special "process record and replay" target that can record a log of the process execution, and replay it later with both forward and reverse execution commands. When this target is in use, if the execution log includes the record for the next instruction, GDB will debug in "replay mode". In the replay mode, the inferior does not really execute code instructions. Instead, all the events that normally happen during code execution are taken from the execution log. While code is not really executed in replay mode, the values of registers (including the program counter register) and the memory of the inferior are still changed as they normally would. Their contents are taken from the execution log. If the record for the next instruction is not in the execution log, GDB will debug in "record mode". In this mode, the inferior executes normally, and GDB records the execution log for future replay. The process record and replay target supports reverse execution (*note Reverse Execution::), even if the platform on which the inferior runs does not. However, the reverse execution is limited in this case by the range of the instructions recorded in the execution log. In other words, reverse execution on platforms that don't support it directly can only be done in the replay mode. When debugging in the reverse direction, GDB will work in replay mode as long as the execution log includes the record for the previous instruction; otherwise, it will work in record mode, if the platform supports reverse execution, or stop if not. Currently, process record and replay is supported on ARM, Aarch64, Moxie, PowerPC, PowerPC64, S/390, and x86 (i386/amd64) running GNU/Linux. Process record and replay can be used both when native debugging, and when remote debugging via 'gdbserver'. For architecture environments that support process record and replay, GDB provides the following commands: 'record METHOD' This command starts the process record and replay target. The recording method can be specified as parameter. Without a parameter the command uses the 'full' recording method. The following recording methods are available: 'full' Full record/replay recording using GDB's software record and replay implementation. This method allows replaying and reverse execution. 'btrace FORMAT' Hardware-supported instruction recording, supported on Intel processors. This method does not record data. Further, the data is collected in a ring buffer so old data will be overwritten when the buffer is full. It allows limited reverse execution. Variables and registers are not available during reverse execution. In remote debugging, recording continues on disconnect. Recorded data can be inspected after reconnecting. The recording may be stopped using 'record stop'. The recording format can be specified as parameter. Without a parameter the command chooses the recording format. The following recording formats are available: 'bts' Use the "Branch Trace Store" (BTS) recording format. In this format, the processor stores a from/to record for each executed branch in the btrace ring buffer. 'pt' Use the "Intel Processor Trace" recording format. In this format, the processor stores the execution trace in a compressed form that is afterwards decoded by GDB. The trace can be recorded with very low overhead. The compressed trace format also allows small trace buffers to already contain a big number of instructions compared to BTS. Decoding the recorded execution trace, on the other hand, is more expensive than decoding BTS trace. This is mostly due to the increased number of instructions to process. You should increase the buffer-size with care. Not all recording formats may be available on all processors. The process record and replay target can only debug a process that is already running. Therefore, you need first to start the process with the 'run' or 'start' commands, and then start the recording with the 'record METHOD' command. Displaced stepping (*note displaced stepping: Maintenance Commands.) will be automatically disabled when process record and replay target is started. That's because the process record and replay target doesn't support displaced stepping. If the inferior is in the non-stop mode (*note Non-Stop Mode::) or in the asynchronous execution mode (*note Background Execution::), not all recording methods are available. The 'full' recording method does not support these two modes. 'record stop' Stop the process record and replay target. When process record and replay target stops, the entire execution log will be deleted and the inferior will either be terminated, or will remain in its final state. When you stop the process record and replay target in record mode (at the end of the execution log), the inferior will be stopped at the next instruction that would have been recorded. In other words, if you record for a while and then stop recording, the inferior process will be left in the same state as if the recording never happened. On the other hand, if the process record and replay target is stopped while in replay mode (that is, not at the end of the execution log, but at some earlier point), the inferior process will become "live" at that earlier state, and it will then be possible to continue the usual "live" debugging of the process from that state. When the inferior process exits, or GDB detaches from it, process record and replay target will automatically stop itself. 'record goto' Go to a specific location in the execution log. There are several ways to specify the location to go to: 'record goto begin' 'record goto start' Go to the beginning of the execution log. 'record goto end' Go to the end of the execution log. 'record goto N' Go to instruction number N in the execution log. 'record save FILENAME' Save the execution log to a file 'FILENAME'. Default filename is 'gdb_record.PROCESS_ID', where PROCESS_ID is the process ID of the inferior. This command may not be available for all recording methods. 'record restore FILENAME' Restore the execution log from a file 'FILENAME'. File must have been created with 'record save'. 'set record full insn-number-max LIMIT' 'set record full insn-number-max unlimited' Set the limit of instructions to be recorded for the 'full' recording method. Default value is 200000. If LIMIT is a positive number, then GDB will start deleting instructions from the log once the number of the record instructions becomes greater than LIMIT. For every new recorded instruction, GDB will delete the earliest recorded instruction to keep the number of recorded instructions at the limit. (Since deleting recorded instructions loses information, GDB lets you control what happens when the limit is reached, by means of the 'stop-at-limit' option, described below.) If LIMIT is 'unlimited' or zero, GDB will never delete recorded instructions from the execution log. The number of recorded instructions is limited only by the available memory. 'show record full insn-number-max' Show the limit of instructions to be recorded with the 'full' recording method. 'set record full stop-at-limit' Control the behavior of the 'full' recording method when the number of recorded instructions reaches the limit. If ON (the default), GDB will stop when the limit is reached for the first time and ask you whether you want to stop the inferior or continue running it and recording the execution log. If you decide to continue recording, each new recorded instruction will cause the oldest one to be deleted. If this option is OFF, GDB will automatically delete the oldest record to make room for each new one, without asking. 'show record full stop-at-limit' Show the current setting of 'stop-at-limit'. 'set record full memory-query' Control the behavior when GDB is unable to record memory changes caused by an instruction for the 'full' recording method. If ON, GDB will query whether to stop the inferior in that case. If this option is OFF (the default), GDB will automatically ignore the effect of such instructions on memory. Later, when GDB replays this execution log, it will mark the log of this instruction as not accessible, and it will not affect the replay results. 'show record full memory-query' Show the current setting of 'memory-query'. The 'btrace' record target does not trace data. As a convenience, when replaying, GDB reads read-only memory off the live program directly, assuming that the addresses of the read-only areas don't change. This for example makes it possible to disassemble code while replaying, but not to print variables. In some cases, being able to inspect variables might be useful. You can use the following command for that: 'set record btrace replay-memory-access' Control the behavior of the 'btrace' recording method when accessing memory during replay. If 'read-only' (the default), GDB will only allow accesses to read-only memory. If 'read-write', GDB will allow accesses to read-only and to read-write memory. Beware that the accessed memory corresponds to the live target and not necessarily to the current replay position. 'set record btrace cpu IDENTIFIER' Set the processor to be used for enabling workarounds for processor errata when decoding the trace. Processor errata are defects in processor operation, caused by its design or manufacture. They can cause a trace not to match the specification. This, in turn, may cause trace decode to fail. GDB can detect erroneous trace packets and correct them, thus avoiding the decoding failures. These corrections are known as "errata workarounds", and are enabled based on the processor on which the trace was recorded. By default, GDB attempts to detect the processor automatically, and apply the necessary workarounds for it. However, you may need to specify the processor if GDB does not yet support it. This command allows you to do that, and also allows to disable the workarounds. The argument IDENTIFIER identifies the CPU and is of the form: 'VENDOR:PROCESSOR IDENTIFIER'. In addition, there are two special identifiers, 'none' and 'auto' (default). The following vendor identifiers and corresponding processor identifiers are currently supported: 'intel' FAMILY/MODEL[/STEPPING] On GNU/Linux systems, the processor FAMILY, MODEL, and STEPPING can be obtained from '/proc/cpuinfo'. If IDENTIFIER is 'auto', enable errata workarounds for the processor on which the trace was recorded. If IDENTIFIER is 'none', errata workarounds are disabled. For example, when using an old GDB on a new system, decode may fail because GDB does not support the new processor. It often suffices to specify an older processor that GDB supports. (gdb) info record Active record target: record-btrace Recording format: Intel Processor Trace. Buffer size: 16kB. Failed to configure the Intel Processor Trace decoder: unknown cpu. (gdb) set record btrace cpu intel:6/158 (gdb) info record Active record target: record-btrace Recording format: Intel Processor Trace. Buffer size: 16kB. Recorded 84872 instructions in 3189 functions (0 gaps) for thread 1 (...). 'show record btrace replay-memory-access' Show the current setting of 'replay-memory-access'. 'show record btrace cpu' Show the processor to be used for enabling trace decode errata workarounds. 'set record btrace bts buffer-size SIZE' 'set record btrace bts buffer-size unlimited' Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format. Default is 64KB. If SIZE is a positive number, then GDB will try to allocate a buffer of at least SIZE bytes for each new thread that uses the btrace recording method and the BTS format. The actually obtained buffer size may differ from the requested SIZE. Use the 'info record' command to see the actual buffer size for each thread that uses the btrace recording method and the BTS format. If LIMIT is 'unlimited' or zero, GDB will try to allocate a buffer of 4MB. Bigger buffers mean longer traces. On the other hand, GDB will also need longer to process the branch trace data before it can be used. 'show record btrace bts buffer-size SIZE' Show the current setting of the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format. 'set record btrace pt buffer-size SIZE' 'set record btrace pt buffer-size unlimited' Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor Trace format. Default is 16KB. If SIZE is a positive number, then GDB will try to allocate a buffer of at least SIZE bytes for each new thread that uses the btrace recording method and the Intel Processor Trace format. The actually obtained buffer size may differ from the requested SIZE. Use the 'info record' command to see the actual buffer size for each thread. If LIMIT is 'unlimited' or zero, GDB will try to allocate a buffer of 4MB. Bigger buffers mean longer traces. On the other hand, GDB will also need longer to process the branch trace data before it can be used. 'show record btrace pt buffer-size SIZE' Show the current setting of the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in Intel Processor Trace format. 'info record' Show various statistics about the recording depending on the recording method: 'full' For the 'full' recording method, it shows the state of process record and its in-memory execution log buffer, including: * Whether in record mode or replay mode. * Lowest recorded instruction number (counting from when the current execution log started recording instructions). * Highest recorded instruction number. * Current instruction about to be replayed (if in replay mode). * Number of instructions contained in the execution log. * Maximum number of instructions that may be contained in the execution log. 'btrace' For the 'btrace' recording method, it shows: * Recording format. * Number of instructions that have been recorded. * Number of blocks of sequential control-flow formed by the recorded instructions. * Whether in record mode or replay mode. For the 'bts' recording format, it also shows: * Size of the perf ring buffer. For the 'pt' recording format, it also shows: * Size of the perf ring buffer. 'record delete' When record target runs in replay mode ("in the past"), delete the subsequent execution log and begin to record a new execution log starting from the current address. This means you will abandon the previously recorded "future" and begin recording a new "future". 'record instruction-history' Disassembles instructions from the recorded execution log. By default, ten instructions are disassembled. This can be changed using the 'set record instruction-history-size' command. Instructions are printed in execution order. It can also print mixed source+disassembly if you specify the the '/m' or '/s' modifier, and print the raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form by specifying the '/r' modifier. The current position marker is printed for the instruction at the current program counter value. This instruction can appear multiple times in the trace and the current position marker will be printed every time. To omit the current position marker, specify the '/p' modifier. To better align the printed instructions when the trace contains instructions from more than one function, the function name may be omitted by specifying the '/f' modifier. Speculatively executed instructions are prefixed with '?'. This feature is not available for all recording formats. There are several ways to specify what part of the execution log to disassemble: 'record instruction-history INSN' Disassembles ten instructions starting from instruction number INSN. 'record instruction-history INSN, +/-N' Disassembles N instructions around instruction number INSN. If N is preceded with '+', disassembles N instructions after instruction number INSN. If N is preceded with '-', disassembles N instructions before instruction number INSN. 'record instruction-history' Disassembles ten more instructions after the last disassembly. 'record instruction-history -' Disassembles ten more instructions before the last disassembly. 'record instruction-history BEGIN, END' Disassembles instructions beginning with instruction number BEGIN until instruction number END. The instruction number END is included. This command may not be available for all recording methods. 'set record instruction-history-size SIZE' 'set record instruction-history-size unlimited' Define how many instructions to disassemble in the 'record instruction-history' command. The default value is 10. A SIZE of 'unlimited' means unlimited instructions. 'show record instruction-history-size' Show how many instructions to disassemble in the 'record instruction-history' command. 'record function-call-history' Prints the execution history at function granularity. For each sequence of instructions that belong to the same function, it prints the name of that function, the source lines for this instruction sequence (if the '/l' modifier is specified), and the instructions numbers that form the sequence (if the '/i' modifier is specified). The function names are indented to reflect the call stack depth if the '/c' modifier is specified. The '/l', '/i', and '/c' modifiers can be given together. (gdb) list 1, 10 1 void foo (void) 2 { 3 } 4 5 void bar (void) 6 { 7 ... 8 foo (); 9 ... 10 } (gdb) record function-call-history /ilc 1 bar inst 1,4 at foo.c:6,8 2 foo inst 5,10 at foo.c:2,3 3 bar inst 11,13 at foo.c:9,10 By default, ten functions are printed. This can be changed using the 'set record function-call-history-size' command. Functions are printed in execution order. There are several ways to specify what to print: 'record function-call-history FUNC' Prints ten functions starting from function number FUNC. 'record function-call-history FUNC, +/-N' Prints N functions around function number FUNC. If N is preceded with '+', prints N functions after function number FUNC. If N is preceded with '-', prints N functions before function number FUNC. 'record function-call-history' Prints ten more functions after the last ten-function print. 'record function-call-history -' Prints ten more functions before the last ten-function print. 'record function-call-history BEGIN, END' Prints functions beginning with function number BEGIN until function number END. The function number END is included. This command may not be available for all recording methods. 'set record function-call-history-size SIZE' 'set record function-call-history-size unlimited' Define how many functions to print in the 'record function-call-history' command. The default value is 10. A size of 'unlimited' means unlimited functions. 'show record function-call-history-size' Show how many functions to print in the 'record function-call-history' command.  File: gdb.info, Node: Stack, Next: Source, Prev: Process Record and Replay, Up: Top 8 Examining the Stack ********************* When your program has stopped, the first thing you need to know is where it stopped and how it got there. Each time your program performs a function call, information about the call is generated. That information includes the location of the call in your program, the arguments of the call, and the local variables of the function being called. The information is saved in a block of data called a "stack frame". The stack frames are allocated in a region of memory called the "call stack". When your program stops, the GDB commands for examining the stack allow you to see all of this information. One of the stack frames is "selected" by GDB and many GDB commands refer implicitly to the selected frame. In particular, whenever you ask GDB for the value of a variable in your program, the value is found in the selected frame. There are special GDB commands to select whichever frame you are interested in. *Note Selecting a Frame: Selection. When your program stops, GDB automatically selects the currently executing frame and describes it briefly, similar to the 'frame' command (*note Information about a Frame: Frame Info.). * Menu: * Frames:: Stack frames * Backtrace:: Backtraces * Selection:: Selecting a frame * Frame Info:: Information on a frame * Frame Apply:: Applying a command to several frames * Frame Filter Management:: Managing frame filters  File: gdb.info, Node: Frames, Next: Backtrace, Up: Stack 8.1 Stack Frames ================ The call stack is divided up into contiguous pieces called "stack frames", or "frames" for short; each frame is the data associated with one call to one function. The frame contains the arguments given to the function, the function's local variables, and the address at which the function is executing. When your program is started, the stack has only one frame, that of the function 'main'. This is called the "initial" frame or the "outermost" frame. Each time a function is called, a new frame is made. Each time a function returns, the frame for that function invocation is eliminated. If a function is recursive, there can be many frames for the same function. The frame for the function in which execution is actually occurring is called the "innermost" frame. This is the most recently created of all the stack frames that still exist. Inside your program, stack frames are identified by their addresses. A stack frame consists of many bytes, each of which has its own address; each kind of computer has a convention for choosing one byte whose address serves as the address of the frame. Usually this address is kept in a register called the "frame pointer register" (*note $fp: Registers.) while execution is going on in that frame. GDB labels each existing stack frame with a "level", a number that is zero for the innermost frame, one for the frame that called it, and so on upward. These level numbers give you a way of designating stack frames in GDB commands. The terms "frame number" and "frame level" can be used interchangeably to describe this number. Some compilers provide a way to compile functions so that they operate without stack frames. (For example, the GCC option '-fomit-frame-pointer' generates functions without a frame.) This is occasionally done with heavily used library functions to save the frame setup time. GDB has limited facilities for dealing with these function invocations. If the innermost function invocation has no stack frame, GDB nevertheless regards it as though it had a separate frame, which is numbered zero as usual, allowing correct tracing of the function call chain. However, GDB has no provision for frameless functions elsewhere in the stack.  File: gdb.info, Node: Backtrace, Next: Selection, Prev: Frames, Up: Stack 8.2 Backtraces ============== A backtrace is a summary of how your program got where it is. It shows one line per frame, for many frames, starting with the currently executing frame (frame zero), followed by its caller (frame one), and on up the stack. To print a backtrace of the entire stack, use the 'backtrace' command, or its alias 'bt'. This command will print one line per frame for frames in the stack. By default, all stack frames are printed. You can stop the backtrace at any time by typing the system interrupt character, normally 'Ctrl-c'. 'backtrace [OPTION]... [QUALIFIER]... [COUNT]' 'bt [OPTION]... [QUALIFIER]... [COUNT]' Print the backtrace of the entire stack. The optional COUNT can be one of the following: 'N' 'N' Print only the innermost N frames, where N is a positive number. '-N' '-N' Print only the outermost N frames, where N is a positive number. Options: '-full' Print the values of the local variables also. This can be combined with the optional COUNT to limit the number of frames shown. '-no-filters' Do not run Python frame filters on this backtrace. *Note Frame Filter API::, for more information. Additionally use *note disable frame-filter all:: to turn off all frame filters. This is only relevant when GDB has been configured with 'Python' support. '-hide' A Python frame filter might decide to "elide" some frames. Normally such elided frames are still printed, but they are indented relative to the filtered frames that cause them to be elided. The '-hide' option causes elided frames to not be printed at all. The 'backtrace' command also supports a number of options that allow overriding relevant global print settings as set by 'set backtrace' and 'set print' subcommands: '-past-main [on|off]' Set whether backtraces should continue past 'main'. Related setting: *note set backtrace past-main::. '-past-entry [on|off]' Set whether backtraces should continue past the entry point of a program. Related setting: *note set backtrace past-entry::. '-entry-values no|only|preferred|if-needed|both|compact|default' Set printing of function arguments at function entry. Related setting: *note set print entry-values::. '-frame-arguments all|scalars|none' Set printing of non-scalar frame arguments. Related setting: *note set print frame-arguments::. '-raw-frame-arguments [on|off]' Set whether to print frame arguments in raw form. Related setting: *note set print raw-frame-arguments::. '-frame-info auto|source-line|location|source-and-location|location-and-address|short-location' Set printing of frame information. Related setting: *note set print frame-info::. The optional QUALIFIER is maintained for backward compatibility. It can be one of the following: 'full' Equivalent to the '-full' option. 'no-filters' Equivalent to the '-no-filters' option. 'hide' Equivalent to the '-hide' option. The names 'where' and 'info stack' (abbreviated 'info s') are additional aliases for 'backtrace'. In a multi-threaded program, GDB by default shows the backtrace only for the current thread. To display the backtrace for several or all of the threads, use the command 'thread apply' (*note thread apply: Threads.). For example, if you type 'thread apply all backtrace', GDB will display the backtrace for all the threads; this is handy when you debug a core dump of a multi-threaded program. Each line in the backtrace shows the frame number and the function name. The program counter value is also shown--unless you use 'set print address off'. The backtrace also shows the source file name and line number, as well as the arguments to the function. The program counter value is omitted if it is at the beginning of the code for that line number. Here is an example of a backtrace. It was made with the command 'bt 3', so it shows the innermost three frames. #0 m4_traceon (obs=0x24eb0, argc=1, argv=0x2b8c8) at builtin.c:993 #1 0x6e38 in expand_macro (sym=0x2b600, data=...) at macro.c:242 #2 0x6840 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=177664, td=0xf7fffb08) at macro.c:71 (More stack frames follow...) The display for frame zero does not begin with a program counter value, indicating that your program has stopped at the beginning of the code for line '993' of 'builtin.c'. The value of parameter 'data' in frame 1 has been replaced by '...'. By default, GDB prints the value of a parameter only if it is a scalar (integer, pointer, enumeration, etc). See command 'set print frame-arguments' in *note Print Settings:: for more details on how to configure the way function parameter values are printed. The command 'set print frame-info' (*note Print Settings::) controls what frame information is printed. If your program was compiled with optimizations, some compilers will optimize away arguments passed to functions if those arguments are never used after the call. Such optimizations generate code that passes arguments through registers, but doesn't store those arguments in the stack frame. GDB has no way of displaying such arguments in stack frames other than the innermost one. Here's what such a backtrace might look like: #0 m4_traceon (obs=0x24eb0, argc=1, argv=0x2b8c8) at builtin.c:993 #1 0x6e38 in expand_macro (sym=) at macro.c:242 #2 0x6840 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=, td=0xf7fffb08) at macro.c:71 (More stack frames follow...) The values of arguments that were not saved in their stack frames are shown as ''. If you need to display the values of such optimized-out arguments, either deduce that from other variables whose values depend on the one you are interested in, or recompile without optimizations. Most programs have a standard user entry point--a place where system libraries and startup code transition into user code. For C this is 'main'(1). When GDB finds the entry function in a backtrace it will terminate the backtrace, to avoid tracing into highly system-specific (and generally uninteresting) code. If you need to examine the startup code, or limit the number of levels in a backtrace, you can change this behavior: 'set backtrace past-main' 'set backtrace past-main on' Backtraces will continue past the user entry point. 'set backtrace past-main off' Backtraces will stop when they encounter the user entry point. This is the default. 'show backtrace past-main' Display the current user entry point backtrace policy. 'set backtrace past-entry' 'set backtrace past-entry on' Backtraces will continue past the internal entry point of an application. This entry point is encoded by the linker when the application is built, and is likely before the user entry point 'main' (or equivalent) is called. 'set backtrace past-entry off' Backtraces will stop when they encounter the internal entry point of an application. This is the default. 'show backtrace past-entry' Display the current internal entry point backtrace policy. 'set backtrace limit N' 'set backtrace limit 0' 'set backtrace limit unlimited' Limit the backtrace to N levels. A value of 'unlimited' or zero means unlimited levels. 'show backtrace limit' Display the current limit on backtrace levels. You can control how file names are displayed. 'set filename-display' 'set filename-display relative' Display file names relative to the compilation directory. This is the default. 'set filename-display basename' Display only basename of a filename. 'set filename-display absolute' Display an absolute filename. 'show filename-display' Show the current way to display filenames. ---------- Footnotes ---------- (1) Note that embedded programs (the so-called "free-standing" environment) are not required to have a 'main' function as the entry point. They could even have multiple entry points.