Debugging with gdb

The gnu Source-Level Debugger Ninth Edition, for gdb version 7.2 PACKAGE (GDB)

Richard Stallman, Roland Pesch, Stan Shebs, et al.

(Send bugs and comments on gdb to http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/.) Debugging with gdb TEXinfo 2003-02-03.16

Published by the Free Software Foundation 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA ISBN 1-882114-77-9 Copyright c 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 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 FSFs 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.

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.

Table of Contents

ii

Debugging with gdb

Summary of gdb

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 executesor 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 aect its behavior. Make your program stop on specied conditions. Examine what has happened, when your program has stopped. Change things in your program, so you can experiment with correcting the eects 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 undened [Supported Languages], page undened . For more information, see undened [C and C++], page undened . Support for D is partial. For information on D, see undened [D], page undened . Support for Modula-2 is partial. For information on Modula-2, see undened [Modula2], page undened . Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, le 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.

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 programbut 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.

Free Software Needs Free Documentation

The biggest deciency in the free software community today is not in the softwareit 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

Debugging with gdb

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 termsno copying, no modication, source les not availablewhich exclude them from the free software world. That wasnt the rst 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 copiesthat in itself is ne. (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 modication 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 tooso they can provide accurate and clear documentation for the modied 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 modication is handled are acceptable. For example, requirements to preserve the original authors copyright notice, the distribution terms, or the list of authors, are ok. It is also no problem to require modied versions to include notice that they were modied. 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 dont obstruct the communitys 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 approvalyou dont 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 rmly that this is what you want. If the publisher you

Summary of gdb

are dealing with refuses, please try other publishers. If youre not sure whether a proposed license is free, write to licensing@gnu.org. 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 http://www.fsf.org/doc/other-free-books.html.

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 le 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 signicant 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-le 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

Debugging with gdb

Hikichi and Tomoyuki Hasei contributed Sony/News OS 3 support. David Johnson contributed Encore Umax support. Jyrki Kuoppala contributed Altos 3068 support. Je 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 Bualo 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, Je 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 xes and cleanups throughout gdb. The following people at the Hewlett-Packard Company contributed support for the PARISC 2.0 architecture, HP-UX 10.20, 10.30, and 11.0 (narrow mode), HPs implementation of kernel threads, HPs 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-specic information in this manual. DJ Delorie ported gdb to MS-DOS, for the DJGPP project. Robert Hoehne made signicant contributions to the DJGPP port.

Summary of gdb

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, Georey 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, Je Holcomb, Je 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 gdbs architecture vector. Many people including Andrew Cagney, Stephane Carrez, Randolph Chung, Nick Duek, 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 gdbs unwinder framework, this consisting of a fresh new design featuring frame IDs, independent frame sniers, and the sentinel frame. Mark Kettenis implemented the dwarf 2 unwinder, Je Johnston the libunwind unwinder, and Andrew Cagney the dummy, sentinel, tramp, and trad unwinders. The architecture-specic changes, each involving a complete rewrite of the architectures frame code, were carried out by Jim Blandy, Joel Brobecker, Kevin Buettner, Andrew Cagney, Stephane Carrez, Randolph Chung, Orjan Friberg, Richard Henderson, Daniel Jacobowitz, Je 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 sta of Xilinx, Inc., contributed support for the Xilinx MicroBlaze architecture.

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 1: A Sample gdb Session

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. In this sample session, we emphasize user input like this: input, to make it easier to pick out from the surrounding output. 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 denition within another stop working. In the following short m4 session, we dene a macro foo which expands to 0000; we then use the m4 built-in defn to dene bar as the same thing. However, when we change the open quote string to <QUOTE> and the close quote string to <UNQUOTE>, the same procedure fails to dene a new synonym baz:
$ cd gnu/m4 $ ./m4 dene(foo,0000) foo 0000 dene(bar,defn(foo)) bar 0000 changequote(<QUOTE>,<UNQUOTE>) dene(baz,defn(<QUOTE>foo<UNQUOTE>)) 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 7.2, Copyright 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc... (gdb)

gdb reads only enough symbol data to know where to nd the rest when needed; as a result, the rst prompt comes up very quickly. We now tell gdb to use a narrower display width than usual, so that examples t 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:

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) run Starting program: /work/Editorial/gdb/gnu/m4/m4 dene(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(<QUOTE>,<UNQUOTE>) 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 : nil, set_quotes((argc >= 2) ? TOKEN_DATA_TEXT(argv[1])\

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 "<QUOTE>", rq=0x34c88 "<UNQUOTE>") 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 "<QUOTE>", rq=0x34c88 "<UNQUOTE>") 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 rst 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);

Chapter 1: A Sample gdb Session

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 specied. We use the command p (print) to see their values.
(gdb) p lquote $1 = 0x35d40 "<QUOTE>" (gdb) p rquote $2 = 0x35d50 "<UNQUOTE>"

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 expressionand 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 x 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. dene(baz,defn(<QUOTE>foo<UNQUOTE>)) baz 0000

10

Debugging with gdb

Success! The new quotes now work just as well as the default ones. The problem seems to have been just the two typos dening 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 nished executing. We can end our gdb session with the gdb quit command.
(gdb) quit

Chapter 2: Getting In and Out of gdb

11

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.

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 eectively 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 le specied:
gdb program core

You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument, if you want to debug a running process:
gdb program 1234

would attach gdb to process 1234 (unless you also have a le named 1234; gdb does check for a core le rst). 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 le 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 gccs command-line arguments (see undened [Arguments], page undened ) to -O2 -c foo.c. You can run gdb without printing the front material, which describes gdbs non-warranty, by specifying -silent:
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 briey 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 dierence when the -x option is used.

12

Debugging with gdb

2.1.1 Choosing Files

When gdb starts, it reads any arguments other than options as specifying an executable le and core le (or process ID). This is the same as if the arguments were specied by the -se and -c (or -p) options respectively. (gdb reads the rst argument that does not have an associated option ag as equivalent to the -se option followed by that argument; and the second argument that does not have an associated option ag, if any, as equivalent to the -c/-p option followed by that argument.) If the second argument begins with a decimal digit, gdb will rst attempt to attach to it as a process, and if that fails, attempt to open it as a corele. If you have a corele whose name begins with a digit, you can prevent gdb from treating it as a pid by prexing it with ./, e.g. ./12345. If gdb has not been congured to included core le 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 ag option arguments with -- rather than -, though we illustrate the more usual convention.) -symbols file -s file Read symbol table from le le. -exec file -e file Use le le as the executable le to execute when appropriate, and for examining pure data in conjunction with a core dump. -se file Read symbol table from le le and use it as the executable le.

-core file -c file Use le le 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 le le. The contents of this le is evaluated exactly as the source command would. See undened [Command les], page undened . -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

-directory directory -d directory Add directory to the path to search for source and script les.

Chapter 2: Getting In and Out of gdb

13

-r -readnow

Read each symbol les 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.

2.1.2 Choosing Modes

You can run gdb in various alternative modesfor example, in batch mode or quiet mode. -nx -n Do not execute commands found in any initialization les. Normally, gdb executes the commands in these les after all the command options and arguments have been processed. See undened [Command Files], page undened .

-quiet -silent -q -batch

Quiet. Do not print the introductory and copyright messages. These messages are also suppressed in batch mode. Run in batch mode. Exit with status 0 after processing all the command les specied with -x (and all commands from initialization les, if not inhibited with -n). Exit with nonzero status if an error occurs in executing the gdb commands in the command les. Batch mode also disables pagination, sets unlimited terminal width and height see undened [Screen Size], page undened , and acts as if set confirm off were in eect (see undened [Messages/Warnings], page undened ). Batch mode may be useful for running gdb as a lter, 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 unaected). 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.

14

Debugging with gdb

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 eect. -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. -fullname -f gnu Emacs sets this option when it runs gdb as a subprocess. It tells gdb to output the full le 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 le 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. -epoch The Epoch Emacs-gdb interface sets this option when it runs gdb as a subprocess. It tells gdb to modify its print routines so as to allow Epoch to display values of expressions in a separate window.

-annotate level This option sets the annotation level inside gdb. Its eect is identical to using set annotate level (see undened [Annotations], page undened ). 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 (see undened [GDB/MI], page undened ). --args Change interpretation of command line so that arguments following the executable le 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.

Chapter 2: Getting In and Out of gdb

15

-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 programs 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 (see undened [gdb Text User Interface], page undened ). Alternatively, the Text User Interface can be enabled by invoking the program gdbtui. Do not use this option if you run gdb from Emacs (see undened [Using gdb under gnu Emacs], page undened ).

-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. See undened [Command Interpreters], page undened . --interpreter=mi (or --interpreter=mi2) causes gdb to use the gdb/mi interface (see undened [The gdb/mi Interface], page undened ) included since gdb version 6.0. The previous gdb/mi interface, included in gdb version 5.3 and selected with --interpreter=mi1, is deprecated. Earlier gdb/mi interfaces are no longer supported. -write Open the executable and core les for both reading and writing. This is equivalent to the set write on command inside gdb (see undened [Patching], page undened ).

-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.

2.1.3 What gdb Does During Startup

Heres the description of what gdb does during session startup: 1. Sets up the command interpreter as specied by the command line (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ). 2. Reads the system-wide init le (if --with-system-gdbinit was used when building gdb; see undened [System-wide conguration and settings], page undened ) and executes all the commands in that le. 3. Reads the init le (if any) in your home directory1 and executes all the commands in that le. 4. Processes command line options and operands.
1

On DOS/Windows systems, the home directory is the one pointed to by the HOME environment variable.

16

Debugging with gdb

5. Reads and executes the commands from init le (if any) in the current working directory. This is only done if the current directory is dierent from your home directory. Thus, you can have more than one init le, one generic in your home directory, and another, specic to the program you are debugging, in the directory where you invoke gdb. 6. Reads command les specied by the -x option. See undened [Command Files], page undened , for more details about gdb command les. 7. Reads the command history recorded in the history le. See undened [Command History], page undened , for more details about the command history and the les where gdb records it. Init les use the same syntax as command les (see undened [Command Files], page undened ) and are processed by gdb in the same way. The init le in your home directory can set options (such as set complaints) that aect subsequent processing of command line options and operands. Init les are not executed if you use the -nx option (see undened [Choosing Modes], page undened ). To display the list of init les loaded by gdb at startup, you can use gdb --help. The gdb init les are normally called .gdbinit. The DJGPP port of gdb uses the name gdb.ini, due to the limitations of le names imposed by DOS lesystems. The Windows ports of gdb use the standard name, but if they nd a gdb.ini le, they warn you about that and suggest to rename the le to the standard name.

2.2 Quitting gdb

quit [expression ] q To exit gdb, use the quit command (abbreviated q), or type an end-of-le 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 eect 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 (see undened [Debugging an Already-running Process], page undened ).

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 Invoke a standard shell to execute command string. If it exists, the environment variable SHELL determines which shell to run. Otherwise gdb uses the default shell (/bin/sh on Unix systems, COMMAND.COM on MS-DOS, etc.).

Chapter 2: Getting In and Out of gdb

17

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 specied arguments. This is equivalent to shell make make-args .

2.4 Logging Output

You may want to save the output of gdb commands to a le. There are several commands to control gdbs logging. set logging on Enable logging. set logging off Disable logging. set logging file file Change the name of the current logle. The default logle is gdb.txt. set logging overwrite [on|off] By default, gdb will append to the logle. Set overwrite if you want set logging on to overwrite the logle instead. set logging redirect [on|off] By default, gdb output will go to both the terminal and the logle. Set redirect if you want output to go only to the log le. show logging Show the current values of the logging settings.

18

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 3: gdb Commands

19

3 gdb Commands
You can abbreviate a gdb command to the rst few letters of the command name, if that abbreviation is unambiguous; and you can repeat certain gdb commands by typing just RET . You can also use the TAB key to get gdb to ll out the rest of a word in a command (or to show you the alternatives available, if there is more than one possibility).

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 dened 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 RET ) 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-dened commands can disable this feature; see undened [Dene], page undened . The list and x commands, when you repeat them with RET , construct new arguments rather than repeating exactly as typed. This permits easy scanning of source or memory. gdb can also use RET in another way: to partition lengthy output, in a way similar to the common utility more (see undened [Screen Size], page undened ). Since it is easy to press one RET 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 les (see undened [Command Files], page undened ). The Ctrl-o binding is useful for repeating a complex sequence of commands. This command accepts the current line, like RET , and then fetches the next line relative to the current line from the history for editing.

3.2 Command Completion

gdb can ll 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, and the names of symbols in your program. Press the TAB key whenever you want gdb to ll out the rest of a word. If there is only one possibility, gdb lls in the word, and waits for you to nish the command (or press RET to enter it). For example, if you type

20

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) info bre TAB

gdb lls in the rest of the word breakpoints, since that is the only info subcommand beginning with bre:
(gdb) info breakpoints

You can either press RET 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 rst place, you might as well just type RET 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 TAB , gdb sounds a bell. You can either supply more characters and try again, or just press TAB 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_ TAB gdb just sounds the bell. Typing TAB again displays all the function names in your program that begin with those characters, for example:
(gdb) b make_ TAB gdb sounds bell; press TAB 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 nish the command. If you just want to see the list of alternatives in the rst place, you can press M-? rather than pressing TAB twice. M-? means META ?. You can type this either by holding down a key designated as the META shift on your keyboard (if there is one) while typing ?, or as ESC followed by ?. 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. The most likely situation where you might need this is in typing the name of a C++ function. This is because C++ allows function overloading (multiple denitions of the same function, distinguished by argument type). For example, when you want to set a breakpoint you may 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). 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 TAB or M-? to request word completion:
(gdb) b bubble( M-? bubble(double,double) (gdb) b bubble( bubble(int,int)

In some cases, gdb can tell that completing a name requires using quotes. When this happens, gdb inserts the quote for you (while completing as much as it can) if you do not type the quote in the rst place:

Chapter 3: gdb Commands

21

(gdb) b bub TAB gdb alters your input line to the following, and rings a bell: (gdb) b bubble(

In general, gdb can tell that a quote is needed (and inserts it) if you have not yet started typing the argument list when you ask for completion on an overloaded symbol. For more information about overloaded functions, see undened [C++ Expressions], page undened . You can use the command set overload-resolution off to disable overload resolution; see undened [gdb Features for C++], page undened . When completing in an expression which looks up a eld in a structure, gdb also tries1 to limit completions to the eld names available in the type of the left-hand-side:
(gdb) p gdb_stdout.M-? magic to_delete to_fputs to_data to_flush to_isatty to_put to_read to_rewind to_write

This is because the gdb_stdout is a variable of the type struct ui_file that is dened in gdb sources as follows:
struct ui_file { int *magic; ui_file_flush_ftype *to_flush; ui_file_write_ftype *to_write; 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; }

3.3 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 -- 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
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.

22

Debugging with gdb

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. For example, here is the help display for the class status:
(gdb) help status Status inquiries. List of commands: info -- Generic command for showing things about the program being debugged show -- 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. apropos args The apropos command searches through all of the gdb commands, and their documentation, for the regular expression specied in args. It prints out all matches found. For example:
apropos reload

results in:
set symbol-reloading -- Set dynamic symbol table reloading multiple times in one run show symbol-reloading -- Show dynamic symbol table reloading multiple times in one run

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:

Chapter 3: gdb Commands

23

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 Index point to all the sub-commands. See undened [Index], page undened . 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. 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 $. 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.

set show

Here are three 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.

24

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

25

4 Running Programs Under gdb

When you run a program under gdb, you must rst 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 programs input and output, debug an already running process, or kill a child process.

4.1 Compiling for Debugging

In order to debug a program eectively, you need to generate debugging information when you compile it. This debugging information is stored in the object le; 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 undened [Optimized Code], page undened . 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 (see undened [Macros], page undened ). Most compilers do not include information about preprocessor macros in the debugging information if you specify the -g ag alone, because this information is rather large. Version 3.1 and later of gcc, the gnu C compiler, provides macro information if you specify the options -gdwarf-2 and -g3; the former option requests debugging information in the Dwarf 2 format, and the latter requests extra information. In the future, we hope to nd more compact ways to represent macro information, so that it can be included with -g alone.

4.2 Starting your Program

run r Use the run command to start your program under gdb. You must rst specify the program name (except on VxWorks) with an argument to gdb (see undened [Getting In and Out of gdb], page undened ), or by using the file or exec-file command (see undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened ).

26

Debugging with gdb

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 rst (see undened [load], page undened ). The execution of a program is aected 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 aect 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. See undened [Your Programs Arguments], page undened . 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 aect your program. See undened [Your Programs Environment], page undened . The working directory. Your program inherits its working directory from gdb. You can set the gdb working directory with the cd command in gdb. See undened [Your Programs Working Directory], page undened . 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 dierent device for your program. See undened [Your Programs Input and Output], page undened . 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. See undened [Stopping and Continuing], page undened , 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. See undened [Examining Data], page undened . If the modication time of your symbol le 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.

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

27

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 specic 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, insert breakpoints in your elaboration code before running your program.

set exec-wrapper wrapper show exec-wrapper unset exec-wrapper When exec-wrapper is set, the specied 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 shells 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 disable-randomization set disable-randomization on This option (enabled by default in gdb) will turn o 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.

28

Debugging with gdb

This feature is implemented only 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. The virtual address space randomization is implemented only on gnu/Linux. It protects the programs against some 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.

4.3 Your Programs Arguments

The arguments to your program can be specied 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) species what shell gdb uses. If you do not dene 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.

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

29

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.

4.4 Your Programs 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 modied 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 only, not for gdb itself. 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.)

30

Debugging with gdb

unset environment varname Remove variable varname from the environment to be passed to your program. This is dierent from set env varname =; unset environment removes the variable from the environment, rather than assigning it an empty value. 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 lesuch as .cshrc for C-shell, or .bashrc for BASH any variables you set in that le aect your program. You may wish to move setting of environment variables to les that are only run when you sign on, such as .login or .profile.

4.5 Your Programs Working Directory

Each time you start your program with run, it inherits its working directory from the current working directory of gdb. The gdb working directory is initially whatever it inherited from its parent process (typically the shell), but you can specify a new working directory in gdb with the cd command. The gdb working directory also serves as a default for the commands that specify les for gdb to operate on. See undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened . cd directory Set the gdb working directory to directory. pwd Print the gdb working directory.

It is generally impossible to nd 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 is congured with the /proc support, you can use the info proc command (see undened [SVR4 Process Information], page undened ) to nd out the current working directory of the debuggee.

4.6 Your Programs 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 programs input and/or output using shell redirection with the run command. For example,
run > outfile

starts your program, diverting its output to the le outfile.

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

31

Another way to specify where your program should do input and output is with the tty command. This command accepts a le name as argument, and causes this le 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 commands eect on the input/output device, but not its eect on the controlling terminal. When you use the tty command or redirect input in the run command, only the input for your program is aected. 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 /dev/ttyb Set the tty for the program being debugged to /dev/ttyb. show inferior-tty Show the current tty for the program being debugged.

4.7 Debugging an Already-running Process

attach process-id This command attaches to a running processone that was started outside gdb. (info files shows your active targets.) The command takes as argument a process ID. The usual way to nd 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 RET 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 nds the program running in the process rst by looking in the current working directory, then (if the program is not found) by using the source le search path (see undened [Specifying Source Directories], page undened ). You can also use the file command to load the program. See undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened . The rst thing gdb does after arranging to debug the specied 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 nished debugging the attached process, you can use the detach command to release it from gdb control. Detaching the process continues its

32

Debugging with gdb

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 RET 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 conrmation if you try to do either of these things; you can control whether or not you need to conrm by using the set confirm command (see undened [Optional Warnings and Messages], page undened ).

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 le 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 le while it is running in a process. In this case, when you next type run, gdb notices that the le has changed, and reads the symbol table again (while trying to preserve your current breakpoint settings).

4.9 Debugging Multiple Inferiors 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). In the most general case, you can have multiple threads of execution in each of multiple processes, launched from multiple executables. 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 identiers that are dierent from process ids. Usually each inferior will also have its own distinct address space, although some embedded targets may have several inferiors running in dierent parts of a single address space. Each inferior may in turn have multiple threads running in it. To nd out what inferiors exist at any moment, use info inferiors: info inferiors Print a list of all inferiors currently being managed by gdb. gdb displays for each inferior (in this order): 1. the inferior number assigned by gdb 2. the target systems inferior identier

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

33

3. 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 2 process 2307 * 1 process 3401 Executable hello goodbye

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 rst eld of the info inferiors display. 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-inferior command. add-inferior [ -copies n ] [ -exec executable ] Adds n inferiors to be run using executable as the executable. n defaults to 1. If no executable is specied, 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. clone-inferior [ -copies n ] [ infno ] Adds n inferiors ready to execute the same program as inferior infno. n defaults to 1. 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 * 1 process 29964 (gdb) clone-inferior Added inferior 2. 1 inferiors added. (gdb) info inferiors Num Description 2 <null> * 1 process 29964 Executable helloworld

Executable helloworld helloworld

You can now simply switch focus to inferior 2 and run it. remove-inferior infno Removes the inferior infno. It is not possible to remove an inferior that is running with this command. For those, use the kill or detach command rst. 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 inferior command:

34

Debugging with gdb

detach inferior infno Detach from the inferior identied by gdb inferior number infno. Note that the inferiors entry still stays on the list of inferiors shown by info inferiors, but its Description will show <null>. kill inferior infno Kill the inferior identied by gdb inferior number infno. Note that the inferiors entry still stays on the list of inferiors shown by info inferiors, but its Description will show <null>. After the successful completion of a command such as detach, detach inferior, kill or kill inferior, or after a normal process exit, the inferior is still valid and listed with info inferiors, ready to be restarted. To be notied when inferiors are started or exit under gdbs 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. Occasionaly, 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 isnt suitable to display in tabular form. For example, the list of inferiors bound to the program space.
(gdb) maint info program-spaces Id Executable 2 goodbye Bound inferiors: ID 1 (process 21561)

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

35

* 1

hello

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.

4.10 Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads

In some operating systems, such as HP-UX and Solaris, a single program may have more than one thread of execution. The precise semantics of threads dier from one operating system to another, but in general the threads of a single program are akin to multiple processesexcept 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 notication of new threads thread threadno , a command to switch among threads info threads, a command to inquire about existing threads thread apply [threadno ] [all ] args , a command to apply a command to a list of threads thread-specic 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 isnt compatible with the program. Warning: These facilities are not yet available on every gdb conguration where the operating system supports threads. If your gdb does not support threads, these commands have no eect. For example, a system without thread support shows no output from info threads, and always rejects the thread command, like this:
(gdb) info threads (gdb) thread 1 Thread ID 1 not known. Use the "info threads" command to see the IDs of currently known threads.

The gdb thread debugging facility allows you to observe all threads while your program runsbut 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.

36

Debugging with gdb

Whenever gdb detects a new thread in your program, it displays the target systems identication for the thread with a message in the form [New systag ]. systag is a thread identier whose form varies depending on the particular system. For example, on gnu/Linux, you might see
[New Thread 46912507313328 (LWP 25582)]

when gdb notices a new thread. In contrast, on an SGI system, the systag is simply something like process 368, with no further qualier. For debugging purposes, gdb associates its own thread numberalways a single integerwith each thread in your program. info threads Display a summary of all threads currently in your program. gdb displays for each thread (in this order): 1. the thread number assigned by gdb 2. the target systems thread identier (systag) 3. 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 3 process 35 thread 27 2 process 35 thread 23 * 1 process 35 thread 13 at threadtest.c:68 0x34e5 in sigpause () 0x34e5 in sigpause () main (argc=1, argv=0x7ffffff8)

On HP-UX systems: For debugging purposes, gdb associates its own thread numbera small integer assigned in thread-creation orderwith each thread in your program. Whenever gdb detects a new thread in your program, it displays both gdbs thread number and the target systems identication for the thread with a message in the form [New systag ]. systag is a thread identier whose form varies depending on the particular system. For example, on HP-UX, you see
[New thread 2 (system thread 26594)]

when gdb notices a new thread. info threads Display a summary of all threads currently in your program. gdb displays for each thread (in this order): 1. the thread number assigned by gdb 2. the target systems thread identier (systag) 3. 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 * 3 system thread 26607 worker (wptr=0x7b09c318 "@") \ at quicksort.c:137

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

37

2 system thread 26606

0x7b0030d8 in __ksleep () \ from /usr/lib/libc.2 0x7b003498 in _brk () \ from /usr/lib/libc.2

1 system thread 27905

On Solaris, you can display more information about user threads with a Solaris-specic command: maint info sol-threads Display info on Solaris user threads. thread threadno Make thread number threadno the current thread. The command argument threadno is the internal gdb thread number, as shown in the rst eld of the info threads display. gdb responds by displaying the system identier of the thread you selected, and its current stack frame summary:
(gdb) thread 2 [Switching to process 35 thread 23] 0x34e5 in sigpause ()

As with the [New ...] message, the form of the text after Switching to depends on your systems conventions for identifying threads. The debugger convenience variable $_thread contains the number of the current thread. You may nd this useful in writing breakpoint conditional expressions, command scripts, and so forth. See See undened [Convenience Variables], page undened , for general information on convenience variables. thread apply [threadno ] [all ] command The thread apply command allows you to apply the named command to one or more threads. Specify the numbers of the threads that you want aected with the command argument threadno. It can be a single thread number, one of the numbers shown in the rst eld of the info threads display; or it could be a range of thread numbers, as in 2-4. To apply a command to all threads, type thread apply all command . 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. See undened [Stopping and Starting Multi-thread Programs], page undened , for more information about how gdb behaves when you stop and start programs with multiple threads.

38

Debugging with gdb

See undened [Setting Watchpoints], page undened , 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 an empty list. 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 nd libthread_db. If that fails, gdb will continue with default system shared library directories, and nally the directory from which libpthread was loaded in the inferior process. For any libthread_db library gdb nds 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.

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 isnt 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 le exists, so that the delay need not occur when you dont 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 (see undened [Attach], page undened ). 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. Currently, the only platforms with this feature are HP-UX (11.x and later only?) and gnu/Linux (kernel version 2.5.60 and later). 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.

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

39

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 child The original process is debugged after a fork. The child process runs unimpeded. This is the default. 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. 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.

off

show detach-on-fork Show whether detach-on-fork mode is on/o. If you choose to set detach-on-fork mode o, 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 (see undened [Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs], page undened ). To quit debugging one of the forked processes, you can either detach from it by using the detach inferior command (allowing it to run independently), or kill it using the kill inferior command. See undened [Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs], page undened . If you ask to debug a child process and a vfork is followed by an exec, gdb executes the new target up to the rst 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 processs 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.

40

Debugging with gdb

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 <null> prog1 (gdb) run process 12020 is executing new program: prog2 Program exited normally. (gdb) info inferiors Id Description Executable * 2 <null> prog2 1 <null> prog1

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 <null> prog1 (gdb) run process 12020 is executing new program: prog2 Program exited normally. (gdb) info inferiors Id Description Executable * 1 <null> prog2

You can use the catch command to make gdb stop whenever a fork, vfork, or exec call is made. See undened [Setting Catchpoints], page undened .

4.12 Setting a Bookmark to Return to Later

On certain operating systems1 , gdb is able to save a snapshot of a programs state, called a checkpoint, and come back to it later. Returning to a checkpoint eectively 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. Eectively, it is like going back in time to the moment when the checkpoint was saved.
1

Currently, only gnu/Linux.

Chapter 4: Running Programs Under gdb

41

Thus, if youre stepping thru a program and you think youre 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 programs 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 aected 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 identied by checkpoint-id. Returning to a previously saved checkpoint will restore the user state of the program being debugged, plus a signicant subset of the system (OS) state, including le pointers. It wont un-write data from a le, but it will rewind the le pointer to the previous location, so that the previously written data can be overwritten. For les 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 buers, but they cannot be pushed back into the serial pipeline, ready to be received again. Similarly, the actual contents of les 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 dierent execution path this time. Finally, there is one bit of internal program state that will be dierent when you return to a checkpoint the programs process id. Each checkpoint will have a unique process id

42

Debugging with gdb

(or pid), and each will be dierent from the programs 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 Benet of Using Checkpoints

On some systems such as gnu/Linux, address space randomization is performed on new processes for security reasons. This makes it dicult 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 eects of address randomization and your symbols will all stay in the same place.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

43

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 nd 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 programbut 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.

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 ner detail whether your program stops. You can set breakpoints with the break command and its variants (see undened [Setting Breakpoints], page undened ), 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. There is a minor limitation on HP-UX systems: you must wait until the executable is run in order to set breakpoints in shared library routines that are not called directly by the program (for example, routines that are arguments in a pthread_create call). 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 dierent command to set watchpoints (see undened [Setting Watchpoints], page undened ), 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. See undened [Automatic Display], page undened . 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 dierent command to set a catchpoint (see undened [Setting Catchpoints], page undened ), 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 undened [Signals], page undened .) 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 eect on your program until you enable it again.

44

Debugging with gdb

Some gdb commands accept a range of breakpoints on which to operate. A breakpoint range is either a single breakpoint number, like 5, or two such numbers, in increasing order, separated by a hyphen, like 5-7. When a breakpoint range is given to a command, all breakpoints in that range are operated on.

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 youve set most recently; see undened [Convenience Variables], page undened , 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. (See undened [Specify Location], page undened , 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 specied 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. See undened [Ambiguous Expressions], page undened , for a discussion of that situation. It is also possible to insert a breakpoint that will stop the program only if a specic thread (see undened [Thread-Specic Breakpoints], page undened ) or a specic task (see undened [Ada Tasks], page undened ) 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 (see undened [Examining the Stack], page undened ). 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 eect of a finish command in the frame inside the selected frameexcept 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 rst 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 nonzerothat is, if cond evaluates as true. ... stands for one of the possible arguments described above (or no argument) specifying where to break. See undened [Break Conditions], page undened , for more information on breakpoint conditions.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

45

tbreak args Set a breakpoint enabled only for one stop. 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 rst time your program stops there. See undened [Disabling Breakpoints], page undened . hbreak args Set a hardware-assisted breakpoint. 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 (see undened [Disabling Breakpoints], page undened ). See undened [Break Conditions], page undened . For remote targets, you can restrict the number of hardware breakpoints gdb will use, see undened [set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit], page undened . thbreak args Set a hardware-assisted breakpoint enabled only for one stop. 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 rst time your program stops there. Also, like the hbreak command, the breakpoint requires hardware support and some target hardware may not have this support. See undened [Disabling Breakpoints], page undened . See also undened [Break Conditions], page undened . 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. The syntax of the regular expression is the standard one used with tools like grep. Note that this is dierent from the syntax used by shells, so for instance foo* matches all functions that include an fo followed by zero or more os. 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 .

46

Debugging with gdb

rbreak file :regex If rbreak is called with a lename qualication, it limits the search for functions matching the given regular expression to the specied le. This can be used, for example, to set breakpoints on every function in a given le:
(gdb) rbreak file.c:.

The colon separating the lename qualier from the regex may optionally be surrounded by spaces. info breakpoints [n ] info break [n ] Print a table of all breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints set and not deleted. Optional argument n means print information only about the specied breakpoint (or watchpoint or catchpoint). 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 eld will contain <PENDING>. Such breakpoint wont re 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 <MULTIPLE> in this eldsee below for details. Where the breakpoint is in the source for your program, as a le 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.

What

If a breakpoint is conditional, info break shows the condition on the line following the aected breakpoint; breakpoint commands, if any, are listed after that. A pending breakpoint is allowed to have a condition specied 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 (see undened [Examining Memory], page undened ). 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

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

47

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. 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 (see undened [Break Conditions], page undened ). It is possible that a breakpoint corresponds to several locations in your program. Examples of this situation are: For a C++ constructor, the gcc compiler generates several instances of the function body, used in dierent 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 locations1 . A breakpoint with multiple locations is displayed in the breakpoint table using several rowsone header row, followed by one row for each breakpoint location. The header row has <MULTIPLE> 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 1 Type Disp Enb breakpoint keep y stop only if i==1 breakpoint already hit 1 y y Address What <MULTIPLE> time 0x080486a2 in void foo<int>() at t.cc:8 0x080486ca in void foo<double>() at t.cc:8

1.1 1.2

Each location can be individually enabled or disabled by passing breakpointnumber.location-number as argument to the enable and disable commands. Note that you cannot delete the individual locations from the list, you can only delete the entire list of locations that belong to their parent breakpoint (with the delete num command, where num is the number of the parent breakpoint, 1 in the above example). Disabling or enabling the parent breakpoint (see undened [Disabling], page undened ) aects all of the locations that belong to that breakpoint. Its 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 breakpointbreakpoint 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
1

As of this writing, multiple-location breakpoints work only if theres line number information for all the locations. This means that they will generally not work in system libraries, unless you have debug info with line numbers for them.

48

Debugging with gdb

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 dier 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 specication to an address: set breakpoint pending auto This is the default behavior. When gdb cannot nd 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 aect any pending breakpoints previously created. show breakpoint pending Show the current behavior setting for creating pending breakpoints. The settings above only aect 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 modied only when the program is resumed. As soon as the program stops, gdb restores the original instructions. This behaviour guards against

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

49

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. 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 removed. set breakpoint always-inserted auto This is the default mode. If gdb is controlling the inferior in non-stop mode (see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened ), gdb behaves as if breakpoint always-inserted mode is on. If gdb is controlling the inferior in all-stop mode, gdb behaves as if breakpoint always-inserted mode is o. 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 (see undened [maint info breakpoints], page undened ).

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 specied 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 programs native language (see undened [Languages], page undened ). 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 variables

50

Debugging with gdb

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 HP-UX, PowerPC, gnu/Linux and most other x86-based targets, gdb includes support for hardware watchpoints, which do not slow down the running of your program. watch expr [thread threadnum ] 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 threadnum ] clause, gdb breaks only when the thread identied by threadnum 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. rwatch expr [thread threadnum ] Set a watchpoint that will break when the value of expr is read by the program. awatch expr [thread threadnum ] Set a watchpoint that will break when expr is either read from or written into by the program. info watchpoints This command prints a list of watchpoints, using the same format as info break (see undened [Set Breaks], page undened ). 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-hwwatchpoints 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.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

51

For remote targets, you can restrict the number of hardware watchpoints gdb will use, see undened [set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit], page undened . 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 dont 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 nds 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 oating-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. Thats 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 dened. 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 condent that the expression can only change due to the current threads activity (and if you are also condent that no other thread can become current), then you can use software watchpoints as usual. However, gdb may not notice when a non-current threads

52

Debugging with gdb

activity changes the expression. (Hardware watchpoints, in contrast, watch an expression in all threads.) See undened [set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit], page undened .

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. event can be any of the following: throw catch exception An Ada exception being raised. If an exception name is specied at the end of the command (eg catch exception Program_Error), the debugger will stop only when this specic exception is raised. Otherwise, the debugger stops execution when any Ada exception is raised. When inserting an exception catchpoint on a user-dened exception whose name is identical to one of the exceptions dened by the language, the fully qualied name must be used as the exception name. Otherwise, gdb will assume that it should stop on the pre-dened exception rather than the user-dened one. For instance, assuming an exception called Constraint_Error is dened in package Pck, then the command to use to catch such exceptions is catch exception Pck.Constraint_Error. exception unhandled An exception that was raised but is not handled by the program. assert exec A failed Ada assertion. A call to exec. This is currently only available for HP-UX and gnu/Linux. The throwing of a C++ exception. The catching of a C++ exception.

syscall syscall [name | number ] ... 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 specied, 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

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

53

Unix systems, you can nd 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 (see undened [command completion], page undened ) to list the available choices. You may also specify the system call numerically. A syscalls number is the value passed to the OSs 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 gdbs database does not have the complete list of syscalls on your system (e.g., because gdb lags behind the OS upgrades). The example below illustrates how this command works if you dont 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 le, so gdb nds 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 ()

54

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) c Continuing. Program exited normally. (gdb)

However, there can be situations when there is no corresponding name in XML le for that syscall number. In this case, gdb prints a warning message saying that it was not able to nd 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 congure gdb using the --without-expat option, it will not be able to display syscall names. Also, if your architecture does not have an XML le 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 le 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 syscalls names. fork vfork A call to fork. This is currently only available for HP-UX and gnu/Linux. A call to vfork. This is currently only available for HP-UX and gnu/Linux.

tcatch event Set a catchpoint that is enabled only for one stop. The catchpoint is automatically deleted after the rst time the event is caught. Use the info break command to list the current catchpoints. There are currently some limitations to C++ exception handling (catch throw and catch catch) in gdb: If you call a function interactively, gdb normally returns control to you when the function has nished 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

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

55

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. You cannot raise an exception interactively. You cannot install an exception handler interactively. Sometimes catch is not the best way to debug exception handling: if you need to know exactly where an exception is raised, it is better to stop before the exception handler is called, since that way you can see the stack before any unwinding takes place. If you set a breakpoint in an exception handler instead, it may not be easy to nd out where the exception was raised. To stop just before an exception handler is called, you need some knowledge of the implementation. In the case of gnu C++, exceptions are raised by calling a library function named __raise_exception which has the following ANSI C interface:
/* addr is where the exception identifier is stored. id is the exception identifier. */ void __raise_exception (void **addr, void *id);

To make the debugger catch all exceptions before any stack unwinding takes place, set a breakpoint on __raise_exception (see undened [Breakpoints; Watchpoints; and Exceptions], page undened ). With a conditional breakpoint (see undened [Break Conditions], page undened ) that depends on the value of id, you can stop your program when a specic exception is raised. You can use multiple conditional breakpoints to stop your program when any of a number of exceptions are raised.

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 rst 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 (see undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened ). 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 specied location. See undened [Specify Location], page undened , for the various forms of location; the most useful ones are listed below:

56

Debugging with gdb

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 specied linenum of the specied lename. delete [breakpoints] [range ...] Delete the breakpoints, watchpoints, or catchpoints of the breakpoint ranges specied as arguments. If no argument is specied, delete all breakpoints (gdb asks conrmation, unless you have set confirm off). You can abbreviate this command as d.

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 aects all of its locations. A breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint can have any of four dierent 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 eect on your program. Enabled once. The breakpoint stops your program, but 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] [range ...] Disable the specied breakpointsor all breakpoints, if none are listed. A disabled breakpoint has no eect 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] [range ...] Enable the specied breakpoints (or all dened breakpoints). They become eective once again in stopping your program.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

57

enable [breakpoints] once range ... Enable the specied breakpoints temporarily. gdb disables any of these breakpoints immediately after stopping your program. enable [breakpoints] delete range ... Enable the specied 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 (see undened [Setting Breakpoints], page undened ), 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 undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened .)

5.1.6 Break Conditions

The simplest sort of breakpoint breaks every time your program reaches a specied place. You can also specify a condition for a breakpoint. A condition is just a Boolean expression in your programming language (see undened [Expressions], page undened ). 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 violatedthat 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 anyhowbut 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 eects, 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 eects are completely predictable unless there is another enabled breakpoint at the same address. (In that case, gdb might see the other breakpoint rst and stop your program without checking the condition of this one.) Note that breakpoint commands are usually more convenient and exible than break conditions for the purpose of performing side eects when a breakpoint is reached (see undened [Breakpoint Command Lists], page undened ). Break conditions can be specied when a breakpoint is set, by using if in the arguments to the break command. See undened [Setting Breakpoints], page undened . 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

58

Debugging with gdb

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. See undened [Expressions], page undened . 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 eect. 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 programs 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. See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . 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 eect of the ignore count with a condition such as $foo-- <= 0 using a debugger convenience variable that is decremented each time. See undened [Convenience Variables], page undened . Ignore counts apply to breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints.

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.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

59

commands [range ...] ... 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 (see undened [Ambiguous Expressions], page undened ). Pressing RET 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 breakpointwhich could have its own command list, leading to ambiguities about which list to execute. If the rst 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 specic 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. See undened [Commands for Controlled Output], page undened . 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

60

Debugging with gdb

set x = y + 4 cont end

5.1.8 How to save breakpoints to a le

To save breakpoint denitions to a le use the save breakpoints command. save breakpoints [filename ] This command saves all current breakpoint denitions together with their commands and ignore counts, into a le filename suitable for use in a later debugging session. This includes all types of breakpoints (breakpoints, watchpoints, catchpoints, tracepoints). To read the saved breakpoint denitions, use the source command (see undened [Command Files], page undened ). 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 denitions are simply a sequence of gdb commands that recreate the breakpoints, you can edit the le in your favorite editing program, and remove the breakpoint denitions youre not interested in, or that can no longer be recreated.

5.1.9 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 hardwareassisted breakpoints and watchpoints, and then continue.

5.1.10 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 breakpoints 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 breakpoints address to the rst in the bundle. It is not uncommon for optimized code to have bundles which contain instructions from dierent source statements, thus it may happen that a breakpoints address will be adjusted from one source statement to another. Since this adjustment may signicantly alter gdbs

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

61

breakpoint related behavior from what the user expects, a warning is printed when the breakpoint is rst set and also when the breakpoint is hit. A warning like the one below is printed when setting a breakpoint thats been subject to address adjustment:
warning: Breakpoint address adjusted from 0x00010414 to 0x00010410.

Such warnings are printed both for user settable and gdbs internal breakpoints. If you see one of these warnings, you should verify that a breakpoint set at the adjusted address will have the desired aect. 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 sucient 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.

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. See undened [Signals], page undened .) 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 eect is like that of ignore (see undened [Break Conditions], page undened ). 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 dierent place, you can use return (see undened [Returning from a Function], page undened ) to go back to the calling function; or jump (see undened [Continuing at a Dierent Address], page undened ) to go to an arbitrary location in your program.

62

Debugging with gdb

A typical technique for using stepping is to set a breakpoint (see undened [Breakpoints; Watchpoints; and Catchpoints], page undened ) 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 dierent 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 rst 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 dierent 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 rst 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 rst instruction of a function which contains no debug line information rather than stepping over it.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

63

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 (see undened [Returning from a Function], page undened ). 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) {

until u

This happened because, for execution eciency, 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 statementnot 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 specied location is reached, or the current stack frame returns. location is any of the forms described in un-

64

Debugging with gdb

dened [Specify Location], page undened . This form of the command uses temporary breakpoints, and hence is quicker than until without an argument. The specied 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 95 { 96 97 98 99 100 factorial (int value) if (value > 1) { value *= factorial (value - 1); } return (value); }

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 undened [Specify Location], page undened . 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 doesnt 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. See undened [Automatic Display], page undened . 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.

5.3 Signals
A signal is an asynchronous event that can happen in a program. The operating system denes 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 o (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 specied in advance some other way to handle the

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

65

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 programs 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 dened types of signals. info signals sig Similar, but print information only about the specied signal number. info handle is an alias for info signals. handle signal [keywords ...] Change the way gdb handles signal signal. 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 stop print noprint pass noignore gdb should not stop your program when this signal happens. It may still print a message telling you that the signal has come in. gdb should stop your program when this signal happens. This implies the print keyword as well. gdb should print a message when this signal happens. gdb should not mention the occurrence of the signal at all. This implies the nostop keyword as well. 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. gdb should not allow your program to see this signal. nopass and ignore are synonyms.

nopass ignore

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 eect for the signal in question

66

Debugging with gdb

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. See undened [Giving your Program a Signal], page undened . 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 dened in the signal.h system header. Heres 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.

5.4 Stopping and Starting Multi-thread Programs

gdb supports debugging programs with multiple threads (see undened [Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads], page undened ). There are two modes of controlling

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

67

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.

5.4.1 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 targets 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 nd 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 rst 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 gdbs default behavior by locking the OS scheduler to allow only a single thread to run. set scheduler-locking mode Set the scheduler locking 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 only rarely (or never) get a chance to run when you step. They are more likely to run when you next over a function call, 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. 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

68

Debugging with gdb

that forks and you want to hold the parent stopped (so that, for instance, it doesnt 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.

5.4.2 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:
# Enable the async interface. set target-async 1 # 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.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

69

show non-stop Show the current non-stop enablement setting. Note these commands only reect whether non-stop mode is enabled, not whether the currently-executing program is being run in non-stop mode. In particular, the set nonstop 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 gdbs background execution commands (see undened [Background Execution], page undened ) to run some threads in the background while you continue to examine or step others from gdb. The MI execution commands (see undened [GDB/MI Program Execution], page undened ) 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 doesnt automatically make that thread current, as it does in all-stop mode. This is because the thread stop notications are asynchronous with respect to gdbs command interpreter, and it would be confusing if gdb unexpectedly changed to a dierent thread just as you entered a command to operate on the previously current thread.

5.4.3 Background Execution

gdbs 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. You need to explicitly enable asynchronous mode before you can use background execution commands. You can use these commands to manipulate the asynchronous mode setting: set target-async on Enable asynchronous mode. set target-async off Disable asynchronous mode. show target-async Show the current target-async setting.

70

Debugging with gdb

If the target doesnt 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 attach step stepi next nexti continue finish until See undened [Starting your Program], page undened . See undened [Debugging an Already-running Process], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened .

Background execution is especially useful in conjunction with non-stop mode for debugging programs with multiple threads; see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened . 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 nishes. 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.

5.4.4 Thread-Specic Breakpoints

When your program has multiple threads (see undened [Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads], page undened ), you can choose whether to set breakpoints on all threads, or on a particular thread. break linespec thread threadno break linespec thread threadno if ... linespec species source lines; there are several ways of writing them (see undened [Specify Location], page undened ), but the eect is always to specify some source line. Use the qualier thread threadno with a breakpoint command to specify that you only want gdb to stop the program when a particular thread reaches

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

71

this breakpoint. threadno is one of the numeric thread identiers assigned by gdb, shown in the rst column of the info threads display. If you do not specify thread threadno when you set a breakpoint, the breakpoint applies to all threads of your program. You can use the thread qualier on conditional breakpoints as well; in this case, place thread threadno before or after the breakpoint condition, like this:
(gdb) break frik.c:13 thread 28 if bartab > lim

5.4.5 Interrupted System Calls

There is an unfortunate side eect 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 dierent 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 specication. But gdb does cause your multi-threaded program to behave dierently 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.

5.4.6 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 debuggers 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 maywrite-memory, then breakpoints that work by writing trap instructions into the code stream will still not be able to be placed.

72

Debugging with gdb

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 o. 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 aects all breakpoints, including internal breakpoints dened 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 aects 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 aects 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.

Chapter 5: Stopping and Continuing

73

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 eect, nor will Ctrl-c. It defaults to on. show may-interrupt Show the current permission to interrupt or stop the program.

74

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 6: Running programs backward

75

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 eects of that code should be undone, and all variables should be returned to their prior values1 . 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 dierent 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
1

Note that some side eects 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 consistant state, but gdb accepts whatever it is given.

76

Debugging with gdb

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 unexecuted without stopping. Starting from the rst line of a function, reversenext 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 caller2 . 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. Aected 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.

Unless the code is too heavily optimized.

Chapter 7: Recording Inferiors Execution and Replaying It

77

7 Recording Inferiors 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 (see undened [Reverse Execution], page undened ), 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 dont 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. For architecture environments that support process record and replay, gdb provides the following commands: target record This command starts the process record and replay target. The process record and replay target can only debug a process that is already running. Therefore, you need rst to start the process with the run or start commands, and then start the recording with the target record command. Both record and rec are aliases of target record. Displaced stepping (see undened [displaced stepping], page undened ) will be automatically disabled when process record and replay target is started. Thats because the process record and replay target doesnt support displaced stepping. If the inferior is in the non-stop mode (see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened ) or in the asynchronous execution mode (see undened [Background Execution], page undened ), the process record and replay target cannot be started because it doesnt 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 nal 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

78

Debugging with gdb

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 save filename Save the execution log to a le filename . Default lename is gdb_record.process_id , where process id is the process ID of the inferior. record restore filename Restore the execution log from a le filename . File must have been created with record save. set record insn-number-max limit Set the limit of instructions to be recorded. 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 zero, gdb will never delete recorded instructions from the execution log. The number of recorded instructions is unlimited in this case. show record insn-number-max Show the limit of instructions to be recorded. set record stop-at-limit Control the behavior when the number of recorded instructions reaches the limit. If ON (the default), gdb will stop when the limit is reached for the rst 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 stop-at-limit Show the current setting of stop-at-limit. set record memory-query Control the behavior when gdb is unable to record memory changes caused by an instruction. If ON, gdb will query whether to stop the inferior in that case.

Chapter 7: Recording Inferiors Execution and Replaying It

79

If this option is OFF (the default), gdb will automatically ignore the eect 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 aect the replay results. show record memory-query Show the current setting of memory-query. info record Show various statistics about the state of process record and its in-memory execution log buer, 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. 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.

80

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 8: Examining the Stack

81

8 Examining the Stack

When your program has stopped, the rst 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. See undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened . When your program stops, gdb automatically selects the currently executing frame and describes it briey, similar to the frame command (see undened [Information about a Frame], page undened ).

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 functions 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 identied 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 (see undened [Registers], page undened ) while execution is going on in that frame. gdb assigns numbers to all existing stack frames, starting with zero for the innermost frame, one for the frame that called it, and so on upward. These numbers do not really exist in your program; they are assigned by gdb to give you a way of designating stack frames in gdb commands. Some compilers provide a way to compile functions so that they operate without stack frames. (For example, the gcc option
-fomit-frame-pointer

82

Debugging with gdb

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. frame args The frame command allows you to move from one stack frame to another, and to print the stack frame you select. args may be either the address of the frame or the stack frame number. Without an argument, frame prints the current stack frame. select-frame The select-frame command allows you to move from one stack frame to another without printing the frame. This is the silent version of frame.

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. backtrace bt Print a backtrace of the entire stack: one line per frame for all frames in the stack. You can stop the backtrace at any time by typing the system interrupt character, normally Ctrl-c. backtrace n bt n Similar, but print only the innermost n frames. backtrace -n bt -n Similar, but print only the outermost n frames. backtrace full bt full bt full n bt full -n Print the values of the local variables also. n species the number of frames to print, as described above. 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 (see undened [Threads], page undened ). 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.

Chapter 8: Examining the Stack

83

Each line in the backtrace shows the frame number and the function name. The program counter value is also shownunless you use set print address off. The backtrace also shows the source le 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.
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...) #0

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 undened [Print Settings], page undened for more details on how to congure the way function parameter values are 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 doesnt store those arguments in the stack frame. gdb has no way of displaying such arguments in stack frames other than the innermost one. Heres what such a backtrace might look like:
m4_traceon (obs=0x24eb0, argc=1, argv=0x2b8c8) at builtin.c:993 #1 0x6e38 in expand_macro (sym=<value optimized out>) at macro.c:242 #2 0x6840 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=<value optimized out>, td=0xf7fffb08) at macro.c:71 (More stack frames follow...) #0

The values of arguments that were not saved in their stack frames are shown as <value optimized out>. 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 pointa place where system libraries and startup code transition into user code. For C this is main1 . When gdb nds the entry function in a backtrace it will terminate the backtrace, to avoid tracing into highly systemspecic (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.
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.

84

Debugging with gdb

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 Limit the backtrace to n levels. A value of zero means unlimited. show backtrace limit Display the current limit on backtrace levels.

8.3 Selecting a Frame

Most commands for examining the stack and other data in your program work on whichever stack frame is selected at the moment. Here are the commands for selecting a stack frame; all of them nish by printing a brief description of the stack frame just selected. frame n fn Select frame number n. Recall that frame zero is the innermost (currently executing) frame, frame one is the frame that called the innermost one, and so on. The highest-numbered frame is the one for main.

frame addr f addr Select the frame at address addr. This is useful mainly if the chaining of stack frames has been damaged by a bug, making it impossible for gdb to assign numbers properly to all frames. In addition, this can be useful when your program has multiple stacks and switches between them. On the SPARC architecture, frame needs two addresses to select an arbitrary frame: a frame pointer and a stack pointer. On the MIPS and Alpha architecture, it needs two addresses: a stack pointer and a program counter. On the 29k architecture, it needs three addresses: a register stack pointer, a program counter, and a memory stack pointer.

Chapter 8: Examining the Stack

85

up n

Move n frames up the stack. For positive numbers n, this advances toward the outermost frame, to higher frame numbers, to frames that have existed longer. n defaults to one. Move n frames down the stack. For positive numbers n, this advances toward the innermost frame, to lower frame numbers, to frames that were created more recently. n defaults to one. You may abbreviate down as do.

down n

All of these commands end by printing two lines of output describing the frame. The rst line shows the frame number, the function name, the arguments, and the source le and line number of execution in that frame. The second line shows the text of that source line. For example:
(gdb) up #1 0x22f0 in main (argc=1, argv=0xf7fffbf4, env=0xf7fffbfc) at env.c:10 10 read_input_file (argv[i]);

After such a printout, the list command with no arguments prints ten lines centered on the point of execution in the frame. You can also edit the program at the point of execution with your favorite editing program by typing edit. See undened [Printing Source Lines], page undened , for details. up-silently n down-silently n These two commands are variants of up and down, respectively; they dier in that they do their work silently, without causing display of the new frame. They are intended primarily for use in gdb command scripts, where the output might be unnecessary and distracting.

8.4 Information About a Frame

There are several other commands to print information about the selected stack frame. frame f When used without any argument, this command does not change which frame is selected, but prints a brief description of the currently selected stack frame. It can be abbreviated f. With an argument, this command is used to select a stack frame. See undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened .

info frame info f This command prints a verbose description of the selected stack frame, including: the address of the frame the address of the next frame down (called by this frame) the address of the next frame up (caller of this frame) the language in which the source code corresponding to this frame is written the address of the frames arguments the address of the frames local variables

86

Debugging with gdb

the program counter saved in it (the address of execution in the caller frame) which registers were saved in the frame The verbose description is useful when something has gone wrong that has made the stack format fail to t the usual conventions. info frame addr info f addr Print a verbose description of the frame at address addr, without selecting that frame. The selected frame remains unchanged by this command. This requires the same kind of address (more than one for some architectures) that you specify in the frame command. See undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened . info args Print the arguments of the selected frame, each on a separate line. info locals Print the local variables of the selected frame, each on a separate line. These are all variables (declared either static or automatic) accessible at the point of execution of the selected frame. info catch Print a list of all the exception handlers that are active in the current stack frame at the current point of execution. To see other exception handlers, visit the associated frame (using the up, down, or frame commands); then type info catch. See undened [Setting Catchpoints], page undened .

Chapter 9: Examining Source Files

87

9 Examining Source Files

gdb can print parts of your programs source, since the debugging information recorded in the program tells gdb what source les were used to build it. When your program stops, gdb spontaneously prints the line where it stopped. Likewise, when you select a stack frame (see undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened ), gdb prints the line where execution in that frame has stopped. You can print other portions of source les by explicit command. If you use gdb through its gnu Emacs interface, you may prefer to use Emacs facilities to view source; see undened [Using gdb under gnu Emacs], page undened .

9.1 Printing Source Lines

To print lines from a source le, use the list command (abbreviated l). By default, ten lines are printed. There are several ways to specify what part of the le you want to print; see undened [Specify Location], page undened , for the full list. Here are the forms of the list command most commonly used: list linenum Print lines centered around line number linenum in the current source le. list function Print lines centered around the beginning of function function. list Print more lines. If the last lines printed were printed with a list command, this prints lines following the last lines printed; however, if the last line printed was a solitary line printed as part of displaying a stack frame (see undened [Examining the Stack], page undened ), this prints lines centered around that line. Print lines just before the lines last printed.

list -

By default, gdb prints ten source lines with any of these forms of the list command. You can change this using set listsize: set listsize count Make the list command display count source lines (unless the list argument explicitly species some other number). show listsize Display the number of lines that list prints. Repeating a list command with RET discards the argument, so it is equivalent to typing just list. This is more useful than listing the same lines again. An exception is made for an argument of -; that argument is preserved in repetition so that each repetition moves up in the source le. In general, the list command expects you to supply zero, one or two linespecs. Linespecs specify source lines; there are several ways of writing them (see undened [Specify Location], page undened ), but the eect is always to specify some source line. Here is a complete description of the possible arguments for list:

88

Debugging with gdb

list linespec Print lines centered around the line specied by linespec. list first,last Print lines from rst to last. Both arguments are linespecs. When a list command has two linespecs, and the source le of the second linespec is omitted, this refers to the same source le as the rst linespec. list ,last Print lines ending with last. list first, Print lines starting with rst. list + list list Print lines just after the lines last printed. Print lines just before the lines last printed. As described in the preceding table.

9.2 Specifying a Location

Several gdb commands accept arguments that specify a location of your programs code. Since gdb is a source-level debugger, a location usually species some line in the source code; for that reason, locations are also known as linespecs. Here are all the dierent ways of specifying a code location that gdb understands: linenum -offset +offset Species the line number linenum of the current source le. Species the line oset lines before or after the current line. For the list command, the current line is the last one printed; for the breakpoint commands, this is the line at which execution stopped in the currently selected stack frame (see undened [Frames], page undened , for a description of stack frames.) When used as the second of the two linespecs in a list command, this species the line oset lines up or down from the rst linespec.

filename :linenum Species the line linenum in the source le lename. function Species the line that begins the body of the function function. For example, in C, this is the line with the open brace.

filename :function Species the line that begins the body of the function function in the le lename. You only need the le name with a function name to avoid ambiguity when there are identically named functions in dierent source les. *address Species the program address address. For line-oriented commands, such as list and edit, this species a source line that contains address. For break and other breakpoint oriented commands, this can be used to set breakpoints in parts of your program which do not have debugging information or source les.

Chapter 9: Examining Source Files

89

Here address may be any expression valid in the current working language (see undened [Languages], page undened ) that species a code address. In addition, as a convenience, gdb extends the semantics of expressions used in locations to cover the situations that frequently happen during debugging. Here are the various forms of address: expression Any expression valid in the current working language. funcaddr An address of a function or procedure derived from its name. In C, C++, Java, Objective-C, Fortran, minimal, and assembly, this is simply the functions name function (and actually a special case of a valid expression). In Pascal and Modula-2, this is &function . In Ada, this is function Address (although the Pascal form also works). This form species the address of the functions rst instruction, before the stack frame and arguments have been set up. filename ::funcaddr Like funcaddr above, but also species the name of the source le explicitly. This is useful if the name of the function does not specify the function unambiguously, e.g., if there are several functions with identical names in dierent source les.

9.3 Editing Source Files

To edit the lines in a source le, use the edit command. The editing program of your choice is invoked with the current line set to the active line in the program. Alternatively, there are several ways to specify what part of the le you want to print if you want to see other parts of the program: edit location Edit the source le specied by location. Editing starts at that location, e.g., at the specied source line of the specied le. See undened [Specify Location], page undened , for all the possible forms of the location argument; here are the forms of the edit command most commonly used: edit number Edit the current source le with number as the active line number. edit function Edit the le containing function at the beginning of its denition.

90

Debugging with gdb

9.3.1 Choosing your Editor

You can customize gdb to use any editor you want1 . By default, it is /bin/ex, but you can change this by setting the environment variable EDITOR before using gdb. For example, to congure gdb to use the vi editor, you could use these commands with the sh shell:
EDITOR=/usr/bin/vi export EDITOR gdb ...

or in the csh shell,

setenv EDITOR /usr/bin/vi gdb ...

9.4 Searching Source Files

There are two commands for searching through the current source le for a regular expression. forward-search regexp search regexp The command forward-search regexp checks each line, starting with the one following the last line listed, for a match for regexp. It lists the line that is found. You can use the synonym search regexp or abbreviate the command name as fo. reverse-search regexp The command reverse-search regexp checks each line, starting with the one before the last line listed and going backward, for a match for regexp. It lists the line that is found. You can abbreviate this command as rev.

9.5 Specifying Source Directories

Executable programs sometimes do not record the directories of the source les from which they were compiled, just the names. Even when they do, the directories could be moved between the compilation and your debugging session. gdb has a list of directories to search for source les; this is called the source path. Each time gdb wants a source le, it tries all the directories in the list, in the order they are present in the list, until it nds a le with the desired name. For example, suppose an executable references the le /usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c, and our source path is /mnt/cross. The le is rst looked up literally; if this fails, /mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c is tried; if this fails, /mnt/cross/foo.c is opened; if this fails, an error message is printed. gdb does not look up the parts of the source le name, such as /mnt/cross/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c. Likewise, the subdirectories of the source path are not searched: if the source path is /mnt/cross, and the binary refers to foo.c, gdb would not nd it under /mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib.
1

The only restriction is that your editor (say ex), recognizes the following command-line syntax: ex +number file The optional numeric value +number species the number of the line in the le where to start editing.

Chapter 9: Examining Source Files

91

Plain le names, relative le names with leading directories, le names containing dots, etc. are all treated as described above; for instance, if the source path is /mnt/cross, and the source le is recorded as ../lib/foo.c, gdb would rst try ../lib/foo.c, then /mnt/cross/../lib/foo.c, and after that/mnt/cross/foo.c. Note that the executable search path is not used to locate the source les. Whenever you reset or rearrange the source path, gdb clears out any information it has cached about where source les are found and where each line is in the le. When you start gdb, its source path includes only cdir and cwd, in that order. To add other directories, use the directory command. The search path is used to nd both program source les and gdb script les (read using the -command option and source command). In addition to the source path, gdb provides a set of commands that manage a list of source path substitution rules. A substitution rule species how to rewrite source directories stored in the programs debug information in case the sources were moved to a dierent directory between compilation and debugging. A rule is made of two strings, the rst specifying what needs to be rewritten in the path, and the second specifying how it should be rewritten. In undened [set substitute-path], page undened , we name these two parts from and to respectively. gdb does a simple string replacement of from with to at the start of the directory part of the source le name, and uses that result instead of the original le name to look up the sources. Using the previous example, suppose the foo-1.0 tree has been moved from /usr/src to /mnt/cross, then you can tell gdb to replace /usr/src in all source path names with /mnt/cross. The rst lookup will then be /mnt/cross/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c in place of the original location of /usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c. To dene a source path substitution rule, use the set substitute-path command (see undened [set substitutepath], page undened ). To avoid unexpected substitution results, a rule is applied only if the from part of the directory name ends at a directory separator. For instance, a rule substituting /usr/source into /mnt/cross will be applied to /usr/source/foo-1.0 but not to /usr/sourceware/foo-2.0. And because the substitution is applied only at the beginning of the directory name, this rule will not be applied to /root/usr/source/baz.c either. In many cases, you can achieve the same result using the directory command. However, set substitute-path can be more ecient in the case where the sources are organized in a complex tree with multiple subdirectories. With the directory command, you need to add each subdirectory of your project. If you moved the entire tree while preserving its internal organization, then set substitute-path allows you to direct the debugger to all the sources with one single command. set substitute-path is also more than just a shortcut command. The source path is only used if the le at the original location no longer exists. On the other hand, set substitute-path modies the debugger behavior to look at the rewritten location instead. So, if for any reason a source le that is not relevant to your executable is located at the original location, a substitution rule is the only method available to point gdb at the new location.

92

Debugging with gdb

You can congure a default source path substitution rule by conguring gdb with the --with-relocated-sources=dir option. The dir should be the name of a directory under gdbs congured prex (set with --prefix or --exec-prefix), and directory names in debug information under dir will be adjusted automatically if the installed gdb is moved to a new location. This is useful if gdb, libraries or executables with debug information and corresponding source code are being moved together. directory dirname ... dir dirname ... Add directory dirname to the front of the source path. Several directory names may be given to this command, separated by : (; on MS-DOS and MSWindows, where : usually appears as part of absolute le names) or whitespace. You may specify a directory that is already in the source path; this moves it forward, so gdb searches it sooner. You can use the string $cdir to refer to the compilation directory (if one is recorded), and $cwd to refer to the current working directory. $cwd is not the same as .the former tracks the current working directory as it changes during your gdb session, while the latter is immediately expanded to the current directory at the time you add an entry to the source path. directory Reset the source path to its default value ($cdir:$cwd on Unix systems). This requires conrmation. show directories Print the source path: show which directories it contains. set substitute-path from to Dene a source path substitution rule, and add it at the end of the current list of existing substitution rules. If a rule with the same from was already dened, then the old rule is also deleted. For example, if the le /foo/bar/baz.c was moved to /mnt/cross/baz.c, then the command
(gdb) set substitute-path /usr/src /mnt/cross

will tell gdb to replace /usr/src with /mnt/cross, which will allow gdb to nd the le baz.c even though it was moved. In the case when more than one substitution rule have been dened, the rules are evaluated one by one in the order where they have been dened. The rst one matching, if any, is selected to perform the substitution. For instance, if we had entered the following commands:
(gdb) set substitute-path /usr/src/include /mnt/include (gdb) set substitute-path /usr/src /mnt/src

gdb would then rewrite /usr/src/include/defs.h into /mnt/include/defs.h by using the rst rule. However, it would use the second rule to rewrite /usr/src/lib/foo.c into /mnt/src/lib/foo.c.

Chapter 9: Examining Source Files

93

unset substitute-path [path] If a path is specied, search the current list of substitution rules for a rule that would rewrite that path. Delete that rule if found. A warning is emitted by the debugger if no rule could be found. If no path is specied, then all substitution rules are deleted. show substitute-path [path] If a path is specied, then print the source path substitution rule which would rewrite that path, if any. If no path is specied, then print all existing source path substitution rules. If your source path is cluttered with directories that are no longer of interest, gdb may sometimes cause confusion by nding the wrong versions of source. You can correct the situation as follows: 1. Use directory with no argument to reset the source path to its default value. 2. Use directory with suitable arguments to reinstall the directories you want in the source path. You can add all the directories in one command.

9.6 Source and Machine Code

You can use the command info line to map source lines to program addresses (and vice versa), and the command disassemble to display a range of addresses as machine instructions. You can use the command set disassemble-next-line to set whether to disassemble next source line when execution stops. When run under gnu Emacs mode, the info line command causes the arrow to point to the line specied. Also, info line prints addresses in symbolic form as well as hex. info line linespec Print the starting and ending addresses of the compiled code for source line linespec. You can specify source lines in any of the ways documented in undened [Specify Location], page undened . For example, we can use info line to discover the location of the object code for the rst line of function m4_changequote:
(gdb) info line m4_changequote Line 895 of "builtin.c" starts at pc 0x634c and ends at 0x6350.

We can also inquire (using *addr as the form for linespec) what source line covers a particular address:
(gdb) info line *0x63ff Line 926 of "builtin.c" starts at pc 0x63e4 and ends at 0x6404.

After info line, the default address for the x command is changed to the starting address of the line, so that x/i is sucient to begin examining the machine code (see undened [Examining Memory], page undened ). Also, this address is saved as the value of the convenience variable $_ (see undened [Convenience Variables], page undened ).

94

Debugging with gdb

disassemble disassemble /m disassemble /r This specialized command dumps a range of memory as machine instructions. It can also print mixed source+disassembly by specifying the /m modier and print the raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form by specifying the /r. The default memory range is the function surrounding the program counter of the selected frame. A single argument to this command is a program counter value; gdb dumps the function surrounding this value. When two arguments are given, they should be separated by a comma, possibly surrounded by whitespace. The arguments specify a range of addresses to dump, in one of two forms: start,end the addresses from start (inclusive) to end (exclusive) start,+length the addresses from start (inclusive) to start +length (exclusive). When 2 arguments are specied, the name of the function is also printed (since there could be several functions in the given range). The argument(s) can be any expression yielding a numeric value, such as 0x32c4, &main+10 or $pc - 8. If the range of memory being disassembled contains current program counter, the instruction at that location is shown with a => marker. The following example shows the disassembly of a range of addresses of HP PA-RISC 2.0 code:
(gdb) disas 0x32c4, 0x32e4 Dump of assembler code from 0x32c4 to 0x32e4: 0x32c4 <main+204>: addil 0,dp 0x32c8 <main+208>: ldw 0x22c(sr0,r1),r26 0x32cc <main+212>: ldil 0x3000,r31 0x32d0 <main+216>: ble 0x3f8(sr4,r31) 0x32d4 <main+220>: ldo 0(r31),rp 0x32d8 <main+224>: addil -0x800,dp 0x32dc <main+228>: ldo 0x588(r1),r26 0x32e0 <main+232>: ldil 0x3000,r31 End of assembler dump.

Here is an example showing mixed source+assembly for Intel x86, when the program is stopped just after function prologue:
(gdb) disas /m main Dump of assembler code 5 { 0x08048330 <+0>: 0x08048331 <+1>: 0x08048333 <+3>: 0x08048336 <+6>: 0x08048339 <+9>: for function main: push mov sub and sub %ebp %esp,%ebp $0x8,%esp $0xfffffff0,%esp $0x10,%esp

6 printf ("Hello.\n"); => 0x0804833c <+12>: movl $0x8048440,(%esp) 0x08048343 <+19>: call 0x8048284 <puts@plt>

Chapter 9: Examining Source Files

95

7 8

return 0; } 0x08048348 <+24>: 0x0804834d <+29>: 0x0804834e <+30>:

mov leave ret

$0x0,%eax

End of assembler dump.

Here is another example showing raw instructions in hex for AMD x86-64,
(gdb) disas /r 0x400281,+10 Dump of assembler code from 0x400281 to 0x40028b: 0x0000000000400281: 38 36 cmp %dh,(%rsi) 0x0000000000400283: 2d 36 34 2e 73 sub $0x732e3436,%eax 0x0000000000400288: 6f outsl %ds:(%rsi),(%dx) 0x0000000000400289: 2e 32 00 xor %cs:(%rax),%al End of assembler dump.

Some architectures have more than one commonly-used set of instruction mnemonics or other syntax. For programs that were dynamically linked and use shared libraries, instructions that call functions or branch to locations in the shared libraries might show a seemingly bogus locationits actually a location of the relocation table. On some architectures, gdb might be able to resolve these to actual function names. set disassembly-flavor instruction-set Select the instruction set to use when disassembling the program via the disassemble or x/i commands. Currently this command is only dened for the Intel x86 family. You can set instruction-set to either intel or att. The default is att, the AT&T avor used by default by Unix assemblers for x86-based targets. show disassembly-flavor Show the current setting of the disassembly avor. set disassemble-next-line show disassemble-next-line Control whether or not gdb will disassemble the next source line or instruction when execution stops. If ON, gdb will display disassembly of the next source line when execution of the program being debugged stops. This is in addition to displaying the source line itself, which gdb always does if possible. If the next source line cannot be displayed for some reason (e.g., if gdb cannot nd the source le, or theres no line info in the debug info), gdb will display disassembly of the next instruction instead of showing the next source line. If AUTO, gdb will display disassembly of next instruction only if the source line cannot be displayed. This setting causes gdb to display some feedback when you step through a function with no line info or whose source le is unavailable. The default is OFF, which means never display the disassembly of the next line or instruction.

96

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 10: Examining Data

97

10 Examining Data
The usual way to examine data in your program is with the print command (abbreviated p), or its synonym inspect. It evaluates and prints the value of an expression of the language your program is written in (see undened [Using gdb with Dierent Languages], page undened ). It may also print the expression using a Python-based pretty-printer (see undened [Pretty Printing], page undened ). print expr print /f expr expr is an expression (in the source language). By default the value of expr is printed in a format appropriate to its data type; you can choose a dierent format by specifying /f , where f is a letter specifying the format; see undened [Output Formats], page undened . print print /f If you omit expr, gdb displays the last value again (from the value history; see undened [Value History], page undened ). This allows you to conveniently inspect the same value in an alternative format.

A more low-level way of examining data is with the x command. It examines data in memory at a specied address and prints it in a specied format. See undened [Examining Memory], page undened . If you are interested in information about types, or about how the elds of a struct or a class are declared, use the ptype exp command rather than print. See undened [Examining the Symbol Table], page undened .

10.1 Expressions
print and many other gdb commands accept an expression and compute its value. Any kind of constant, variable or operator dened by the programming language you are using is valid in an expression in gdb. This includes conditional expressions, function calls, casts, and string constants. It also includes preprocessor macros, if you compiled your program to include this information; see undened [Compilation], page undened . gdb supports array constants in expressions input by the user. The syntax is {element, element. . . }. For example, you can use the command print {1, 2, 3} to create an array of three integers. If you pass an array to a function or assign it to a program variable, gdb copies the array to memory that is malloced in the target program. Because C is so widespread, most of the expressions shown in examples in this manual are in C. See undened [Using gdb with Dierent Languages], page undened , for information on how to use expressions in other languages. In this section, we discuss operators that you can use in gdb expressions regardless of your programming language. Casts are supported in all languages, not just in C, because it is so useful to cast a number into a pointer in order to examine a structure at that address in memory. gdb supports these operators, in addition to those common to programming languages:

98

Debugging with gdb

@ ::

@ is a binary operator for treating parts of memory as arrays. See undened [Articial Arrays], page undened , for more information. :: allows you to specify a variable in terms of the le or function where it is dened. See undened [Program Variables], page undened .

{type } addr Refers to an object of type type stored at address addr in memory. addr may be any expression whose value is an integer or pointer (but parentheses are required around binary operators, just as in a cast). This construct is allowed regardless of what kind of data is normally supposed to reside at addr.

10.2 Ambiguous Expressions

Expressions can sometimes contain some ambiguous elements. For instance, some programming languages (notably Ada, C++ and Objective-C) permit a single function name to be dened several times, for application in dierent contexts. This is called overloading. Another example involving Ada is generics. A generic package is similar to C++ templates and is typically instantiated several times, resulting in the same function name being dened in dierent contexts. In some cases and depending on the language, it is possible to adjust the expression to remove the ambiguity. For instance in C++, you can specify the signature of the function you want to break on, as in break function (types ). In Ada, using the fully qualied name of your function often makes the expression unambiguous as well. When an ambiguity that needs to be resolved is detected, the debugger has the capability to display a menu of numbered choices for each possibility, and then waits for the selection with the prompt >. The rst option is always [0] cancel, and typing 0 RET aborts the current command. If the command in which the expression was used allows more than one choice to be selected, the next option in the menu is [1] all, and typing 1 RET selects all possible choices. For example, the following session excerpt shows an attempt to set a breakpoint at the overloaded symbol String::after. We choose three particular denitions of that function name:
(gdb) b String::after [0] cancel [1] all [2] file:String.cc; line number:867 [3] file:String.cc; line number:860 [4] file:String.cc; line number:875 [5] file:String.cc; line number:853 [6] file:String.cc; line number:846 [7] file:String.cc; line number:735 > 2 4 6 Breakpoint 1 at 0xb26c: file String.cc, line 867. Breakpoint 2 at 0xb344: file String.cc, line 875. Breakpoint 3 at 0xafcc: file String.cc, line 846. Multiple breakpoints were set. Use the "delete" command to delete unwanted breakpoints. (gdb)

Chapter 10: Examining Data

99

set multiple-symbols mode This option allows you to adjust the debugger behavior when an expression is ambiguous. By default, mode is set to all. If the command with which the expression is used allows more than one choice, then gdb automatically selects all possible choices. For instance, inserting a breakpoint on a function using an ambiguous name results in a breakpoint inserted on each possible match. However, if a unique choice must be made, then gdb uses the menu to help you disambiguate the expression. For instance, printing the address of an overloaded function will result in the use of the menu. When mode is set to ask, the debugger always uses the menu when an ambiguity is detected. Finally, when mode is set to cancel, the debugger reports an error due to the ambiguity and the command is aborted. show multiple-symbols Show the current value of the multiple-symbols setting.

10.3 Program Variables

The most common kind of expression to use is the name of a variable in your program. Variables in expressions are understood in the selected stack frame (see undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened ); they must be either: global (or le-static) or visible according to the scope rules of the programming language from the point of execution in that frame This means that in the function
foo (a) int a; { bar (a); { int b = test (); bar (b); } }

you can examine and use the variable a whenever your program is executing within the function foo, but you can only use or examine the variable b while your program is executing inside the block where b is declared. There is an exception: you can refer to a variable or function whose scope is a single source le even if the current execution point is not in this le. But it is possible to have more than one such variable or function with the same name (in dierent source les). If that happens, referring to that name has unpredictable eects. If you wish, you can specify a static variable in a particular function or le, using the colon-colon (::) notation:

100

Debugging with gdb

file ::variable function ::variable

Here le or function is the name of the context for the static variable. In the case of le names, you can use quotes to make sure gdb parses the le name as a single wordfor example, to print a global value of x dened in f2.c:
(gdb) p f2.c::x

This use of :: is very rarely in conict with the very similar use of the same notation in C++. gdb also supports use of the C++ scope resolution operator in gdb expressions. Warning: Occasionally, a local variable may appear to have the wrong value at certain points in a functionjust after entry to a new scope, and just before exit. You may see this problem when you are stepping by machine instructions. This is because, on most machines, it takes more than one instruction to set up a stack frame (including local variable denitions); if you are stepping by machine instructions, variables may appear to have the wrong values until the stack frame is completely built. On exit, it usually also takes more than one machine instruction to destroy a stack frame; after you begin stepping through that group of instructions, local variable denitions may be gone. This may also happen when the compiler does signicant optimizations. To be sure of always seeing accurate values, turn o all optimization when compiling. Another possible eect of compiler optimizations is to optimize unused variables out of existence, or assign variables to registers (as opposed to memory addresses). Depending on the support for such cases oered by the debug info format used by the compiler, gdb might not be able to display values for such local variables. If that happens, gdb will print a message like this:
No symbol "foo" in current context.

To solve such problems, either recompile without optimizations, or use a dierent debug info format, if the compiler supports several such formats. For example, gcc, the gnu C/C++ compiler, usually supports the -gstabs+ option. -gstabs+ produces debug info in a format that is superior to formats such as COFF. You may be able to use DWARF 2 (-gdwarf-2), which is also an eective form for debug info. See section Options for Debugging Your Program or GCC in Using the gnu Compiler Collection (GCC). See undened [C and C++], page undened , for more information about debug info formats that are best suited to C++ programs. If you ask to print an object whose contents are unknown to gdb, e.g., because its data type is not completely specied by the debug information, gdb will say <incomplete type>. See undened [Symbols], page undened , for more about this. Strings are identied as arrays of char values without specied signedness. Arrays of either signed char or unsigned char get printed as arrays of 1 byte sized integers. fsigned-char or -funsigned-char gcc options have no eect as gdb denes literal string type "char" as char without a sign. For program code
char var0[] = "A"; signed char var1[] = "A";

You get during debugging

(gdb) print var0 $1 = "A"

Chapter 10: Examining Data

101

(gdb) print var1 $2 = {65 A, 0 \0}

10.4 Articial Arrays

It is often useful to print out several successive objects of the same type in memory; a section of an array, or an array of dynamically determined size for which only a pointer exists in the program. You can do this by referring to a contiguous span of memory as an articial array, using the binary operator @. The left operand of @ should be the rst element of the desired array and be an individual object. The right operand should be the desired length of the array. The result is an array value whose elements are all of the type of the left argument. The rst element is actually the left argument; the second element comes from bytes of memory immediately following those that hold the rst element, and so on. Here is an example. If a program says
int *array = (int *) malloc (len * sizeof (int));

you can print the contents of array with

p *array@len

The left operand of @ must reside in memory. Array values made with @ in this way behave just like other arrays in terms of subscripting, and are coerced to pointers when used in expressions. Articial arrays most often appear in expressions via the value history (see undened [Value History], page undened ), after printing one out. Another way to create an articial array is to use a cast. This re-interprets a value as if it were an array. The value need not be in memory:
(gdb) p/x (short[2])0x12345678 $1 = {0x1234, 0x5678}

As a convenience, if you leave the array length out (as in (type [])value ) gdb calculates the size to ll the value (as sizeof(value )/sizeof(type ):
(gdb) p/x (short[])0x12345678 $2 = {0x1234, 0x5678}

Sometimes the articial array mechanism is not quite enough; in moderately complex data structures, the elements of interest may not actually be adjacentfor example, if you are interested in the values of pointers in an array. One useful work-around in this situation is to use a convenience variable (see undened [Convenience Variables], page undened ) as a counter in an expression that prints the rst interesting value, and then repeat that expression via RET . For instance, suppose you have an array dtab of pointers to structures, and you are interested in the values of a eld fv in each structure. Here is an example of what you might type:
set $i = 0 p dtab[$i++]->fv
RET RET

...

102

Debugging with gdb

10.5 Output Formats

By default, gdb prints a value according to its data type. Sometimes this is not what you want. For example, you might want to print a number in hex, or a pointer in decimal. Or you might want to view data in memory at a certain address as a character string or as an instruction. To do these things, specify an output format when you print a value. The simplest use of output formats is to say how to print a value already computed. This is done by starting the arguments of the print command with a slash and a format letter. The format letters supported are: x d u o t a Regard the bits of the value as an integer, and print the integer in hexadecimal. Print as integer in signed decimal. Print as integer in unsigned decimal. Print as integer in octal. Print as integer in binary. The letter t stands for two.1 Print as an address, both absolute in hexadecimal and as an oset from the nearest preceding symbol. You can use this format used to discover where (in what function) an unknown address is located:
(gdb) p/a 0x54320 $3 = 0x54320 <_initialize_vx+396>

The command info symbol 0x54320 yields similar results. See undened [Symbols], page undened . c Regard as an integer and print it as a character constant. This prints both the numerical value and its character representation. The character representation is replaced with the octal escape \nnn for characters outside the 7-bit ascii range. Without this format, gdb displays char, unsigned char, and signed char data as character constants. Single-byte members of vectors are displayed as integer data. Regard the bits of the value as a oating point number and print using typical oating point syntax. Regard as a string, if possible. With this format, pointers to single-byte data are displayed as null-terminated strings and arrays of single-byte data are displayed as xed-length strings. Other values are displayed in their natural types. Without this format, gdb displays pointers to and arrays of char, unsigned char, and signed char as strings. Single-byte members of a vector are displayed as an integer array. Print using the raw formatting. By default, gdb will use a Python-based pretty-printer, if one is available (see undened [Pretty Printing], page undened ). This typically results in a higher-level display of the values contents. The r format bypasses any Python pretty-printer which might exist.
1

f s

b cannot be used because these format letters are also used with the x command, where b stands for byte; see undened [Examining Memory], page undened .

Chapter 10: Examining Data

103

For example, to print the program counter in hex (see undened [Registers], page undened ), type
p/x $pc

Note that no space is required before the slash; this is because command names in gdb cannot contain a slash. To reprint the last value in the value history with a dierent format, you can use the print command with just a format and no expression. For example, p/x reprints the last value in hex.

10.6 Examining Memory

You can use the command x (for examine) to examine memory in any of several formats, independently of your programs data types. x/nfu addr x addr x Use the x command to examine memory. n, f, and u are all optional parameters that specify how much memory to display and how to format it; addr is an expression giving the address where you want to start displaying memory. If you use defaults for nfu, you need not type the slash /. Several commands set convenient defaults for addr. n, the repeat count The repeat count is a decimal integer; the default is 1. It species how much memory (counting by units u) to display. f, the display format The display format is one of the formats used by print (x, d, u, o, t, a, c, f, s), and in addition i (for machine instructions). The default is x (hexadecimal) initially. The default changes each time you use either x or print. u, the unit size The unit size is any of b h w g Bytes. Halfwords (two bytes). Words (four bytes). This is the initial default. Giant words (eight bytes).

Each time you specify a unit size with x, that size becomes the default unit the next time you use x. For the i format, the unit size is ignored and is normally not written. For the s format, the unit size defaults to b, unless it is explicitly given. Use x /hs to display 16-bit char strings and x /ws to display 32-bit strings. The next use of x /s will again display 8-bit strings. Note that the results depend on the programming language of the current compilation unit. If the language is C, the s modier will use the UTF-16 encoding while

104

Debugging with gdb

w will use UTF-32. The encoding is set by the programming language and cannot be altered. addr, starting display address addr is the address where you want gdb to begin displaying memory. The expression need not have a pointer value (though it may); it is always interpreted as an integer address of a byte of memory. See undened [Expressions], page undened , for more information on expressions. The default for addr is usually just after the last address examinedbut several other commands also set the default address: info breakpoints (to the address of the last breakpoint listed), info line (to the starting address of a line), and print (if you use it to display a value from memory). For example, x/3uh 0x54320 is a request to display three halfwords (h) of memory, formatted as unsigned decimal integers (u), starting at address 0x54320. x/4xw $sp prints the four words (w) of memory above the stack pointer (here, $sp; see undened [Registers], page undened ) in hexadecimal (x). Since the letters indicating unit sizes are all distinct from the letters specifying output formats, you do not have to remember whether unit size or format comes rst; either order works. The output specications 4xw and 4wx mean exactly the same thing. (However, the count n must come rst; wx4 does not work.) Even though the unit size u is ignored for the formats s and i, you might still want to use a count n; for example, 3i species that you want to see three machine instructions, including any operands. For convenience, especially when used with the display command, the i format also prints branch delay slot instructions, if any, beyond the count specied, which immediately follow the last instruction that is within the count. The command disassemble gives an alternative way of inspecting machine instructions; see undened [Source and Machine Code], page undened . All the defaults for the arguments to x are designed to make it easy to continue scanning memory with minimal specications each time you use x. For example, after you have inspected three machine instructions with x/3i addr , you can inspect the next seven with just x/7. If you use RET to repeat the x command, the repeat count n is used again; the other arguments default as for successive uses of x. When examining machine instructions, the instruction at current program counter is shown with a => marker. For example:
(gdb) x/5i $pc-6 0x804837f <main+11>: 0x8048381 <main+13>: 0x8048382 <main+14>: => 0x8048385 <main+17>: 0x804838c <main+24>: mov push sub movl call %esp,%ebp %ecx $0x4,%esp $0x8048460,(%esp) 0x80482d4 <puts@plt>

The addresses and contents printed by the x command are not saved in the value history because there is often too much of them and they would get in the way. Instead, gdb makes these values available for subsequent use in expressions as values of the convenience variables $_ and $__. After an x command, the last address examined is available for use in expressions in the convenience variable $_. The contents of that address, as examined, are available in the convenience variable $__.

Chapter 10: Examining Data

105

If the x command has a repeat count, the address and contents saved are from the last memory unit printed; this is not the same as the last address printed if several units were printed on the last line of output. When you are debugging a program running on a remote target machine (see undened [Remote Debugging], page undened ), you may wish to verify the programs image in the remote machines memory against the executable le you downloaded to the target. The compare-sections command is provided for such situations. compare-sections [section-name ] Compare the data of a loadable section section-name in the executable le of the program being debugged with the same section in the remote machines memory, and report any mismatches. With no arguments, compares all loadable sections. This commands availability depends on the targets support for the "qCRC" remote request.

10.7 Automatic Display

If you nd that you want to print the value of an expression frequently (to see how it changes), you might want to add it to the automatic display list so that gdb prints its value each time your program stops. Each expression added to the list is given a number to identify it; to remove an expression from the list, you specify that number. The automatic display looks like this:
2: foo = 38 3: bar[5] = (struct hack *) 0x3804

This display shows item numbers, expressions and their current values. As with displays you request manually using x or print, you can specify the output format you prefer; in fact, display decides whether to use print or x depending your format specicationit uses x if you specify either the i or s format, or a unit size; otherwise it uses print. display expr Add the expression expr to the list of expressions to display each time your program stops. See undened [Expressions], page undened . display does not repeat if you press RET again after using it. display/fmt expr For fmt specifying only a display format and not a size or count, add the expression expr to the auto-display list but arrange to display it each time in the specied format fmt. See undened [Output Formats], page undened . display/fmt addr For fmt i or s, or including a unit-size or a number of units, add the expression addr as a memory address to be examined each time your program stops. Examining means in eect doing x/fmt addr . See undened [Examining Memory], page undened . For example, display/i $pc can be helpful, to see the machine instruction about to be executed each time execution stops ($pc is a common name for the program counter; see undened [Registers], page undened ).

106

Debugging with gdb

undisplay dnums ... delete display dnums ... Remove item numbers dnums from the list of expressions to display. undisplay does not repeat if you press RET after using it. (Otherwise you would just get the error No display number ....) disable display dnums ... Disable the display of item numbers dnums. A disabled display item is not printed automatically, but is not forgotten. It may be enabled again later. enable display dnums ... Enable display of item numbers dnums. It becomes eective once again in auto display of its expression, until you specify otherwise. display Display the current values of the expressions on the list, just as is done when your program stops.

info display Print the list of expressions previously set up to display automatically, each one with its item number, but without showing the values. This includes disabled expressions, which are marked as such. It also includes expressions which would not be displayed right now because they refer to automatic variables not currently available. If a display expression refers to local variables, then it does not make sense outside the lexical context for which it was set up. Such an expression is disabled when execution enters a context where one of its variables is not dened. For example, if you give the command display last_char while inside a function with an argument last_char, gdb displays this argument while your program continues to stop inside that function. When it stops elsewherewhere there is no variable last_charthe display is disabled automatically. The next time your program stops where last_char is meaningful, you can enable the display expression once again.

10.8 Print Settings

gdb provides the following ways to control how arrays, structures, and symbols are printed. These settings are useful for debugging programs in any language: set print address set print address on gdb prints memory addresses showing the location of stack traces, structure values, pointer values, breakpoints, and so forth, even when it also displays the contents of those addresses. The default is on. For example, this is what a stack frame display looks like with set print address on:
(gdb) f #0 set_quotes (lq=0x34c78 "<<", rq=0x34c88 ">>") at input.c:530 530 if (lquote != def_lquote)

Chapter 10: Examining Data

107

set print address off Do not print addresses when displaying their contents. For example, this is the same stack frame displayed with set print address off:
(gdb) set print addr off (gdb) f #0 set_quotes (lq="<<", rq=">>") at input.c:530 530 if (lquote != def_lquote)

You can use set print address off to eliminate all machine dependent displays from the gdb interface. For example, with print address off, you should get the same text for backtraces on all machineswhether or not they involve pointer arguments. show print address Show whether or not addresses are to be printed. When gdb prints a symbolic address, it normally prints the closest earlier symbol plus an oset. If that symbol does not uniquely identify the address (for example, it is a name whose scope is a single source le), you may need to clarify. One way to do this is with info line, for example info line *0x4537. Alternately, you can set gdb to print the source le and line number when it prints a symbolic address: set print symbol-filename on Tell gdb to print the source le name and line number of a symbol in the symbolic form of an address. set print symbol-filename off Do not print source le name and line number of a symbol. This is the default. show print symbol-filename Show whether or not gdb will print the source le name and line number of a symbol in the symbolic form of an address. Another situation where it is helpful to show symbol lenames and line numbers is when disassembling code; gdb shows you the line number and source le that corresponds to each instruction. Also, you may wish to see the symbolic form only if the address being printed is reasonably close to the closest earlier symbol: set print max-symbolic-offset max-offset Tell gdb to only display the symbolic form of an address if the oset between the closest earlier symbol and the address is less than max-oset. The default is 0, which tells gdb to always print the symbolic form of an address if any symbol precedes it. show print max-symbolic-offset Ask how large the maximum oset is that gdb prints in a symbolic address. If you have a pointer and you are not sure where it points, try set print symbol-filename on. Then you can determine the name and source le location of the variable where it points, using p/a pointer . This interprets the address in symbolic form. For example, here gdb shows that a variable ptt points at another variable t, dened in hi2.c:

108

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) set print symbol-filename on (gdb) p/a ptt $4 = 0xe008 <t in hi2.c>

Warning: For pointers that point to a local variable, p/a does not show the symbol name and lename of the referent, even with the appropriate set print options turned on. Other settings control how dierent kinds of objects are printed: set print array set print array on Pretty print arrays. This format is more convenient to read, but uses more space. The default is o. set print array off Return to compressed format for arrays. show print array Show whether compressed or pretty format is selected for displaying arrays. set print array-indexes set print array-indexes on Print the index of each element when displaying arrays. May be more convenient to locate a given element in the array or quickly nd the index of a given element in that printed array. The default is o. set print array-indexes off Stop printing element indexes when displaying arrays. show print array-indexes Show whether the index of each element is printed when displaying arrays. set print elements number-of-elements Set a limit on how many elements of an array gdb will print. If gdb is printing a large array, it stops printing after it has printed the number of elements set by the set print elements command. This limit also applies to the display of strings. When gdb starts, this limit is set to 200. Setting number-of-elements to zero means that the printing is unlimited. show print elements Display the number of elements of a large array that gdb will print. If the number is 0, then the printing is unlimited. set print frame-arguments value This command allows to control how the values of arguments are printed when the debugger prints a frame (see undened [Frames], page undened ). The possible values are: all scalars The values of all arguments are printed. Print the value of an argument only if it is a scalar. The value of more complex arguments such as arrays, structures, unions, etc, is replaced by .... This is the default. Here is an example where only scalar arguments are shown:

Chapter 10: Examining Data

109

#1

0x08048361 in call_me (i=3, s=..., ss=0xbf8d508c, u=..., e=green) at frame-args.c:23

none

None of the argument values are printed. Instead, the value of each argument is replaced by .... In this case, the example above now becomes:
#1 0x08048361 in call_me (i=..., s=..., ss=..., u=..., e=...) at frame-args.c:23

By default, only scalar arguments are printed. This command can be used to congure the debugger to print the value of all arguments, regardless of their type. However, it is often advantageous to not print the value of more complex parameters. For instance, it reduces the amount of information printed in each frame, making the backtrace more readable. Also, it improves performance when displaying Ada frames, because the computation of large arguments can sometimes be CPU-intensive, especially in large applications. Setting print frame-arguments to scalars (the default) or none avoids this computation, thus speeding up the display of each Ada frame. show print frame-arguments Show how the value of arguments should be displayed when printing a frame. set print repeats Set the threshold for suppressing display of repeated array elements. When the number of consecutive identical elements of an array exceeds the threshold, gdb prints the string "<repeats n times>", where n is the number of identical repetitions, instead of displaying the identical elements themselves. Setting the threshold to zero will cause all elements to be individually printed. The default threshold is 10. show print repeats Display the current threshold for printing repeated identical elements. set print null-stop Cause gdb to stop printing the characters of an array when the rst null is encountered. This is useful when large arrays actually contain only short strings. The default is o. show print null-stop Show whether gdb stops printing an array on the rst null character. set print pretty on Cause gdb to print structures in an indented format with one member per line, like this:
$1 = { next = 0x0, flags = { sweet = 1, sour = 1 }, meat = 0x54 "Pork" }

set print pretty off Cause gdb to print structures in a compact format, like this:

110

Debugging with gdb

$1 = {next = 0x0, flags = {sweet = 1, sour = 1}, \ meat = 0x54 "Pork"}

This is the default format. show print pretty Show which format gdb is using to print structures. set print sevenbit-strings on Print using only seven-bit characters; if this option is set, gdb displays any eight-bit characters (in strings or character values) using the notation \nnn. This setting is best if you are working in English (ascii) and you use the highorder bit of characters as a marker or meta bit. set print sevenbit-strings off Print full eight-bit characters. This allows the use of more international character sets, and is the default. show print sevenbit-strings Show whether or not gdb is printing only seven-bit characters. set print union on Tell gdb to print unions which are contained in structures and other unions. This is the default setting. set print union off Tell gdb not to print unions which are contained in structures and other unions. gdb will print "{...}" instead. show print union Ask gdb whether or not it will print unions which are contained in structures and other unions. For example, given the declarations
typedef enum {Tree, Bug} Species; typedef enum {Big_tree, Acorn, Seedling} Tree_forms; typedef enum {Caterpillar, Cocoon, Butterfly} Bug_forms; struct thing { Species it; union { Tree_forms tree; Bug_forms bug; } form; }; struct thing foo = {Tree, {Acorn}};

with set print union on in eect p foo would print

$1 = {it = Tree, form = {tree = Acorn, bug = Cocoon}}

and with set print union off in eect it would print

$1 = {it = Tree, form = {...}}

set print union aects programs written in C-like languages and in Pascal.

Chapter 10: Examining Data

111

These settings are of interest when debugging C++ programs: set print demangle set print demangle on Print C++ names in their source form rather than in the encoded (mangled) form passed to the assembler and linker for type-safe linkage. The default is on. show print demangle Show whether C++ names are printed in mangled or demangled form. set print asm-demangle set print asm-demangle on Print C++ names in their source form rather than their mangled form, even in assembler code printouts such as instruction disassemblies. The default is o. show print asm-demangle Show whether C++ names in assembly listings are printed in mangled or demangled form. set demangle-style style Choose among several encoding schemes used by dierent compilers to represent C++ names. The choices for style are currently: auto gnu hp lucid arm Allow gdb to choose a decoding style by inspecting your program. Decode based on the gnu C++ compiler (g++) encoding algorithm. This is the default. Decode based on the HP ANSI C++ (aCC) encoding algorithm. Decode based on the Lucid C++ compiler (lcc) encoding algorithm. Decode using the algorithm in the C++ Annotated Reference Manual. Warning: this setting alone is not sucient to allow debugging cfront-generated executables. gdb would require further enhancement to permit that.

If you omit style, you will see a list of possible formats. show demangle-style Display the encoding style currently in use for decoding C++ symbols. set print object set print object on When displaying a pointer to an object, identify the actual (derived) type of the object rather than the declared type, using the virtual function table. set print object off Display only the declared type of objects, without reference to the virtual function table. This is the default setting. show print object Show whether actual, or declared, object types are displayed.

112

Debugging with gdb

set print static-members set print static-members on Print static members when displaying a C++ object. The default is on. set print static-members off Do not print static members when displaying a C++ object. show print static-members Show whether C++ static members are printed or not. set print pascal_static-members set print pascal_static-members on Print static members when displaying a Pascal object. The default is on. set print pascal_static-members off Do not print static members when displaying a Pascal object. show print pascal_static-members Show whether Pascal static members are printed or not. set print vtbl set print vtbl on Pretty print C++ virtual function tables. The default is o. (The vtbl commands do not work on programs compiled with the HP ANSI C++ compiler (aCC).) set print vtbl off Do not pretty print C++ virtual function tables. show print vtbl Show whether C++ virtual function tables are pretty printed, or not.

10.9 Pretty Printing

gdb provides a mechanism to allow pretty-printing of values using Python code. It greatly simplies the display of complex objects. This mechanism works for both MI and the CLI. For example, here is how a C++ std::string looks without a pretty-printer:
(gdb) print s $1 = { static npos = 4294967295, _M_dataplus = { <std::allocator<char>> = { <__gnu_cxx::new_allocator<char>> = { <No data fields>}, <No data fields> }, members of std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>, std::allocator<char> >::_Alloc_hider: _M_p = 0x804a014 "abcd" } }

With a pretty-printer for std::string only the contents are printed:

Chapter 10: Examining Data

113

(gdb) print s $2 = "abcd"

For implementing pretty printers for new types you should read the Python API details (see undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened ).

10.10 Value History

Values printed by the print command are saved in the gdb value history. This allows you to refer to them in other expressions. Values are kept until the symbol table is re-read or discarded (for example with the file or symbol-file commands). When the symbol table changes, the value history is discarded, since the values may contain pointers back to the types dened in the symbol table. The values printed are given history numbers by which you can refer to them. These are successive integers starting with one. print shows you the history number assigned to a value by printing $num = before the value; here num is the history number. To refer to any previous value, use $ followed by the values history number. The way print labels its output is designed to remind you of this. Just $ refers to the most recent value in the history, and $$ refers to the value before that. $$n refers to the nth value from the end; $$2 is the value just prior to $$, $$1 is equivalent to $$, and $$0 is equivalent to $. For example, suppose you have just printed a pointer to a structure and want to see the contents of the structure. It suces to type
p *$

If you have a chain of structures where the component next points to the next one, you can print the contents of the next one with this:
p *$.next

You can print successive links in the chain by repeating this commandwhich you can do by just typing RET . Note that the history records values, not expressions. If the value of x is 4 and you type these commands:
print x set x=5

then the value recorded in the value history by the print command remains 4 even though the value of x has changed. show values Print the last ten values in the value history, with their item numbers. This is like p $$9 repeated ten times, except that show values does not change the history. show values n Print ten history values centered on history item number n. show values + Print ten history values just after the values last printed. If no more values are available, show values + produces no display. Pressing
RET

to repeat show values n has exactly the same eect as show values +.

114

Debugging with gdb

10.11 Convenience Variables

gdb provides convenience variables that you can use within gdb to hold on to a value and refer to it later. These variables exist entirely within gdb; they are not part of your program, and setting a convenience variable has no direct eect on further execution of your program. That is why you can use them freely. Convenience variables are prexed with $. Any name preceded by $ can be used for a convenience variable, unless it is one of the predened machine-specic register names (see undened [Registers], page undened ). (Value history references, in contrast, are numbers preceded by $. See undened [Value History], page undened .) You can save a value in a convenience variable with an assignment expression, just as you would set a variable in your program. For example:
set $foo = *object_ptr

would save in $foo the value contained in the object pointed to by object_ptr. Using a convenience variable for the rst time creates it, but its value is void until you assign a new value. You can alter the value with another assignment at any time. Convenience variables have no xed types. You can assign a convenience variable any type of value, including structures and arrays, even if that variable already has a value of a dierent type. The convenience variable, when used as an expression, has the type of its current value. show convenience Print a list of convenience variables used so far, and their values. Abbreviated show conv. init-if-undefined $variable = expression Set a convenience variable if it has not already been set. This is useful for user-dened commands that keep some state. It is similar, in concept, to using local static variables with initializers in C (except that convenience variables are global). It can also be used to allow users to override default values used in a command script. If the variable is already dened then the expression is not evaluated so any side-eects do not occur. One of the ways to use a convenience variable is as a counter to be incremented or a pointer to be advanced. For example, to print a eld from successive elements of an array of structures:
set $i = 0 print bar[$i++]->contents

Repeat that command by typing RET . Some convenience variables are created automatically by gdb and given values likely to be useful. $_ The variable $_ is automatically set by the x command to the last address examined (see undened [Examining Memory], page undened ). Other commands which provide a default address for x to examine also set $_ to that address; these commands include info line and info breakpoint. The type

Chapter 10: Examining Data

115

of $_ is void * except when set by the x command, in which case it is a pointer to the type of $__. $__ The variable $__ is automatically set by the x command to the value found in the last address examined. Its type is chosen to match the format in which the data was printed. The variable $_exitcode is automatically set to the exit code when the program being debugged terminates. $_sdata The variable $_sdata contains extra collected static tracepoint data. See undened [Tracepoint Action Lists], page undened . Note that $_sdata could be empty, if not inspecting a trace buer, or if extra static tracepoint data has not been collected. The variable $_siginfo contains extra signal information (see undened [extra signal information], page undened ). Note that $_siginfo could be empty, if the application has not yet received any signals. For example, it will be empty before you execute the run command. $_tlb The variable $_tlb is automatically set when debugging applications running on MS-Windows in native mode or connected to gdbserver that supports the qGetTIBAddr request. See undened [General Query Packets], page undened . This variable contains the address of the thread information block.

$_exitcode

$_siginfo

On HP-UX systems, if you refer to a function or variable name that begins with a dollar sign, gdb searches for a user or system name rst, before it searches for a convenience variable. gdb also supplies some convenience functions. These have a syntax similar to convenience variables. A convenience function can be used in an expression just like an ordinary function; however, a convenience function is implemented internally to gdb. help function Print a list of all convenience functions.

10.12 Registers
You can refer to machine register contents, in expressions, as variables with names starting with $. The names of registers are dierent for each machine; use info registers to see the names used on your machine. info registers Print the names and values of all registers except oating-point and vector registers (in the selected stack frame). info all-registers Print the names and values of all registers, including oating-point and vector registers (in the selected stack frame).

116

Debugging with gdb

info registers regname ... Print the relativized value of each specied register regname. As discussed in detail below, register values are normally relative to the selected stack frame. regname may be any register name valid on the machine you are using, with or without the initial $. gdb has four standard register names that are available (in expressions) on most machineswhenever they do not conict with an architectures canonical mnemonics for registers. The register names $pc and $sp are used for the program counter register and the stack pointer. $fp is used for a register that contains a pointer to the current stack frame, and $ps is used for a register that contains the processor status. For example, you could print the program counter in hex with
p/x $pc

or print the instruction to be executed next with

x/i $pc

or add four to the stack pointer2 with

set $sp += 4

Whenever possible, these four standard register names are available on your machine even though the machine has dierent canonical mnemonics, so long as there is no conict. The info registers command shows the canonical names. For example, on the SPARC, info registers displays the processor status register as $psr but you can also refer to it as $ps; and on x86-based machines $ps is an alias for the eflags register. gdb always considers the contents of an ordinary register as an integer when the register is examined in this way. Some machines have special registers which can hold nothing but oating point; these registers are considered to have oating point values. There is no way to refer to the contents of an ordinary register as oating point value (although you can print it as a oating point value with print/f $regname ). Some registers have distinct raw and virtual data formats. This means that the data format in which the register contents are saved by the operating system is not the same one that your program normally sees. For example, the registers of the 68881 oating point coprocessor are always saved in extended (raw) format, but all C programs expect to work with double (virtual) format. In such cases, gdb normally works with the virtual format only (the format that makes sense for your program), but the info registers command prints the data in both formats. Some machines have special registers whose contents can be interpreted in several dierent ways. For example, modern x86-based machines have SSE and MMX registers that can hold several values packed together in several dierent formats. gdb refers to such registers in struct notation:
(gdb) print $xmm1 $1 = { v4_float = {0, 3.43859137e-038, 1.54142831e-044, 1.821688e-044}, v2_double = {9.92129282474342e-303, 2.7585945287983262e-313},
2

This is a way of removing one word from the stack, on machines where stacks grow downward in memory (most machines, nowadays). This assumes that the innermost stack frame is selected; setting $sp is not allowed when other stack frames are selected. To pop entire frames o the stack, regardless of machine architecture, use return; see undened [Returning from a Function], page undened .

Chapter 10: Examining Data

117

v16_int8 = "\000\000\000\000\3706;\001\v\000\000\000\r\000\000", v8_int16 = {0, 0, 14072, 315, 11, 0, 13, 0}, v4_int32 = {0, 20657912, 11, 13}, v2_int64 = {88725056443645952, 55834574859}, uint128 = 0x0000000d0000000b013b36f800000000 }

To set values of such registers, you need to tell gdb which view of the register you wish to change, as if you were assigning value to a struct member:
(gdb) set $xmm1.uint128 = 0x000000000000000000000000FFFFFFFF

Normally, register values are relative to the selected stack frame (see undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened ). This means that you get the value that the register would contain if all stack frames farther in were exited and their saved registers restored. In order to see the true contents of hardware registers, you must select the innermost frame (with frame 0). However, gdb must deduce where registers are saved, from the machine code generated by your compiler. If some registers are not saved, or if gdb is unable to locate the saved registers, the selected stack frame makes no dierence.

10.13 Floating Point Hardware

Depending on the conguration, gdb may be able to give you more information about the status of the oating point hardware. info float Display hardware-dependent information about the oating point unit. The exact contents and layout vary depending on the oating point chip. Currently, info float is supported on the ARM and x86 machines.

10.14 Vector Unit

Depending on the conguration, gdb may be able to give you more information about the status of the vector unit. info vector Display information about the vector unit. The exact contents and layout vary depending on the hardware.

10.15 Operating System Auxiliary Information

gdb provides interfaces to useful OS facilities that can help you debug your program. When gdb runs on a Posix system (such as GNU or Unix machines), it interfaces with the inferior via the ptrace system call. The operating system creates a special sata structure, called struct user, for this interface. You can use the command info udot to display the contents of this data structure.

118

Debugging with gdb

info udot Display the contents of the struct user maintained by the OS kernel for the program being debugged. gdb displays the contents of struct user as a list of hex numbers, similar to the examine command. Some operating systems supply an auxiliary vector to programs at startup. This is akin to the arguments and environment that you specify for a program, but contains a systemdependent variety of binary values that tell system libraries important details about the hardware, operating system, and process. Each values purpose is identied by an integer tag; the meanings are well-known but system-specic. Depending on the conguration and operating system facilities, gdb may be able to show you this information. For remote targets, this functionality may further depend on the remote stubs support of the qXfer:auxv:read packet, see undened [qXfer auxiliary vector read], page undened . info auxv Display the auxiliary vector of the inferior, which can be either a live process or a core dump le. gdb prints each tag value numerically, and also shows names and text descriptions for recognized tags. Some values in the vector are numbers, some bit masks, and some pointers to strings or other data. gdb displays each value in the most appropriate form for a recognized tag, and in hexadecimal for an unrecognized tag. On some targets, gdb can access operating-system-specic information and display it to user, without interpretation. For remote targets, this functionality depends on the remote stubs support of the qXfer:osdata:read packet, see undened [qXfer osdata read], page undened . info os List the types of OS information available for the target. If the target does not return a list of possible types, this command will report an error.

info os processes Display the list of processes on the target. For each process, gdb prints the process identier, the name of the user, and the command corresponding to the process.

10.16 Memory Region Attributes

Memory region attributes allow you to describe special handling required by regions of your targets memory. gdb uses attributes to determine whether to allow certain types of memory accesses; whether to use specic width accesses; and whether to cache target memory. By default the description of memory regions is fetched from the target (if the current target supports this), but the user can override the fetched regions. Dened memory regions can be individually enabled and disabled. When a memory region is disabled, gdb uses the default attributes when accessing memory in that region. Similarly, if no memory regions have been dened, gdb uses the default attributes when accessing all memory. When a memory region is dened, it is given a number to identify it; to enable, disable, or remove a memory region, you specify that number.

Chapter 10: Examining Data

119

mem lower upper attributes ... Dene a memory region bounded by lower and upper with attributes attributes . . . , and add it to the list of regions monitored by gdb. Note that upper == 0 is a special case: it is treated as the targets maximum memory address. (0x on 16 bit targets, 0x on 32 bit targets, etc.) mem auto Discard any user changes to the memory regions and use target-supplied regions, if available, or no regions if the target does not support.

delete mem nums ... Remove memory regions nums . . . from the list of regions monitored by gdb. disable mem nums ... Disable monitoring of memory regions nums . . . . A disabled memory region is not forgotten. It may be enabled again later. enable mem nums ... Enable monitoring of memory regions nums . . . . info mem Print a table of all dened memory regions, with the following columns for each region: Memory Region Number Enabled or Disabled. Enabled memory regions are marked with y. Disabled memory regions are marked with n. Lo Address The address dening the inclusive lower bound of the memory region. Hi Address The address dening the exclusive upper bound of the memory region. Attributes The list of attributes set for this memory region.

10.16.1 Attributes 10.16.1.1 Memory Access Mode

The access mode attributes set whether gdb may make read or write accesses to a memory region. While these attributes prevent gdb from performing invalid memory accesses, they do nothing to prevent the target system, I/O DMA, etc. from accessing memory. ro wo rw Memory is read only. Memory is write only. Memory is read/write. This is the default.

120

Debugging with gdb

10.16.1.2 Memory Access Size

The access size attribute tells gdb to use specic sized accesses in the memory region. Often memory mapped device registers require specic sized accesses. If no access size attribute is specied, gdb may use accesses of any size. 8 16 32 64 Use 8 bit memory accesses. Use 16 bit memory accesses. Use 32 bit memory accesses. Use 64 bit memory accesses.

10.16.1.3 Data Cache

The data cache attributes set whether gdb will cache target memory. While this generally improves performance by reducing debug protocol overhead, it can lead to incorrect results because gdb does not know about volatile variables or memory mapped device registers. cache nocache Enable gdb to cache target memory. Disable gdb from caching target memory. This is the default.

10.16.2 Memory Access Checking

gdb can be instructed to refuse accesses to memory that is not explicitly described. This can be useful if accessing such regions has undesired eects for a specic target, or to provide better error checking. The following commands control this behaviour. set mem inaccessible-by-default [on|off] If on is specied, make gdb treat memory not explicitly described by the memory ranges as non-existent and refuse accesses to such memory. The checks are only performed if theres at least one memory range dened. If off is specied, make gdb treat the memory not explicitly described by the memory ranges as RAM. The default value is on. show mem inaccessible-by-default Show the current handling of accesses to unknown memory.

10.17 Copy Between Memory and a File

You can use the commands dump, append, and restore to copy data between target memory and a le. The dump and append commands write data to a le, and the restore command reads data from a le back into the inferiors memory. Files may be in binary, Motorola S-record, Intel hex, or Tektronix Hex format; however, gdb can only append to binary les.

Chapter 10: Examining Data

121

dump [format ] memory filename start_addr end_addr dump [format ] value filename expr Dump the contents of memory from start addr to end addr, or the value of expr, to lename in the given format. The format parameter may be any one of: binary ihex srec tekhex Raw binary form. Intel hex format. Motorola S-record format. Tektronix Hex format.

gdb uses the same denitions of these formats as the gnu binary utilities, like objdump and objcopy. If format is omitted, gdb dumps the data in raw binary form. append [binary] memory filename start_addr end_addr append [binary] value filename expr Append the contents of memory from start addr to end addr, or the value of expr, to the le lename, in raw binary form. (gdb can only append data to les in raw binary form.) restore filename [binary] bias start end Restore the contents of le lename into memory. The restore command can automatically recognize any known bfd le format, except for raw binary. To restore a raw binary le you must specify the optional keyword binary after the lename. If bias is non-zero, its value will be added to the addresses contained in the le. Binary les always start at address zero, so they will be restored at address bias. Other bfd les have a built-in location; they will be restored at oset bias from that location. If start and/or end are non-zero, then only data between le oset start and le oset end will be restored. These osets are relative to the addresses in the le, before the bias argument is applied.

10.18 How to Produce a Core File from Your Program

A core le or core dump is a le that records the memory image of a running process and its process status (register values etc.). Its primary use is post-mortem debugging of a program that crashed while it ran outside a debugger. A program that crashes automatically produces a core le, unless this feature is disabled by the user. See undened [Files], page undened , for information on invoking gdb in the post-mortem debugging mode. Occasionally, you may wish to produce a core le of the program you are debugging in order to preserve a snapshot of its state. gdb has a special command for that.

122

Debugging with gdb

generate-core-file [file ] gcore [file ] Produce a core dump of the inferior process. The optional argument le species the le name where to put the core dump. If not specied, the le name defaults to core.pid , where pid is the inferior process ID. Note that this command is implemented only for some systems (as of this writing, gnu/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Unixware, and S390).

10.19 Character Sets

If the program you are debugging uses a dierent character set to represent characters and strings than the one gdb uses itself, gdb can automatically translate between the character sets for you. The character set gdb uses we call the host character set; the one the inferior program uses we call the target character set. For example, if you are running gdb on a gnu/Linux system, which uses the ISO Latin 1 character set, but you are using gdbs remote protocol (see undened [Remote Debugging], page undened ) to debug a program running on an IBM mainframe, which uses the ebcdic character set, then the host character set is Latin-1, and the target character set is ebcdic. If you give gdb the command set target-charset EBCDIC-US, then gdb translates between ebcdic and Latin 1 as you print character or string values, or use character and string literals in expressions. gdb has no way to automatically recognize which character set the inferior program uses; you must tell it, using the set target-charset command, described below. Here are the commands for controlling gdbs character set support: set target-charset charset Set the current target character set to charset. To display the list of supported target character sets, type set target-charset TAB TAB . set host-charset charset Set the current host character set to charset. By default, gdb uses a host character set appropriate to the system it is running on; you can override that default using the set host-charset command. On some systems, gdb cannot automatically determine the appropriate host character set. In this case, gdb uses UTF-8. gdb can only use certain character sets as its host character set. If you type set target-charset TAB TAB , gdb will list the host character sets it supports. set charset charset Set the current host and target character sets to charset. As above, if you type set charset TAB TAB , gdb will list the names of the character sets that can be used for both host and target. show charset Show the names of the current host and target character sets.

Chapter 10: Examining Data

123

show host-charset Show the name of the current host character set. show target-charset Show the name of the current target character set. set target-wide-charset charset Set the current targets wide character set to charset. This is the character set used by the targets wchar_t type. To display the list of supported wide character sets, type set target-wide-charset TAB TAB . show target-wide-charset Show the name of the current targets wide character set. Here is an example of gdbs character set support in action. Assume that the following source code has been placed in the le charset-test.c:
#include <stdio.h> char ascii_hello[] = {72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 119, 111, 114, 108, 100, 33, 10, 0}; char ibm1047_hello[] = {200, 133, 147, 147, 150, 107, 64, 166, 150, 153, 147, 132, 90, 37, 0}; main () { printf ("Hello, world!\n"); }

In this program, ascii_hello and ibm1047_hello are arrays containing the string Hello, world! followed by a newline, encoded in the ascii and ibm1047 character sets. We compile the program, and invoke the debugger on it:
$ gcc -g charset-test.c -o charset-test $ gdb -nw charset-test GNU gdb 2001-12-19-cvs Copyright 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc. ... (gdb)

We can use the show charset command to see what character sets gdb is currently using to interpret and display characters and strings:
(gdb) show charset The current host and target character set is ISO-8859-1. (gdb)

For the sake of printing this manual, lets use ascii as our initial character set:
(gdb) set charset ASCII (gdb) show charset The current host and target character set is ASCII. (gdb)

Lets assume that ascii is indeed the correct character set for our host system in other words, lets assume that if gdb prints characters using the ascii character set, our terminal will display them properly. Since our current target character set is also ascii, the contents of ascii_hello print legibly:

124

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) print ascii_hello $1 = 0x401698 "Hello, world!\n" (gdb) print ascii_hello[0] $2 = 72 H (gdb)

gdb uses the target character set for character and string literals you use in expressions:
(gdb) print + $3 = 43 + (gdb)

The ascii character set uses the number 43 to encode the + character. gdb relies on the user to tell it which character set the target program uses. If we print ibm1047_hello while our target character set is still ascii, we get jibberish:
(gdb) print ibm1047_hello $4 = 0x4016a8 "\310\205\223\223\226k@\246\226\231\223\204Z%" (gdb) print ibm1047_hello[0] $5 = 200 \310 (gdb)

If we invoke the set target-charset followed by sets it supports:

(gdb) set target-charset ASCII EBCDIC-US IBM1047 (gdb) set target-charset ISO-8859-1

TAB TAB

, gdb tells us the character

We can select ibm1047 as our target character set, and examine the programs strings again. Now the ascii string is wrong, but gdb translates the contents of ibm1047_hello from the target character set, ibm1047, to the host character set, ascii, and they display correctly:
(gdb) set target-charset IBM1047 (gdb) show charset The current host character set is ASCII. The current target character set is IBM1047. (gdb) print ascii_hello $6 = 0x401698 "\110\145%%?\054\040\167?\162%\144\041\012" (gdb) print ascii_hello[0] $7 = 72 \110 (gdb) print ibm1047_hello $8 = 0x4016a8 "Hello, world!\n" (gdb) print ibm1047_hello[0] $9 = 200 H (gdb)

As above, gdb uses the target character set for character and string literals you use in expressions:
(gdb) print + $10 = 78 + (gdb)

The ibm1047 character set uses the number 78 to encode the + character.

10.20 Caching Data of Remote Targets

gdb caches data exchanged between the debugger and a remote target (see undened [Remote Debugging], page undened ). Such caching generally improves performance,

Chapter 10: Examining Data

125

because it reduces the overhead of the remote protocol by bundling memory reads and writes into large chunks. Unfortunately, simply caching everything would lead to incorrect results, since gdb does not necessarily know anything about volatile values, memory-mapped I/O addresses, etc. Furthermore, in non-stop mode (see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened ) memory can be changed while a gdb command is executing. Therefore, by default, gdb only caches data known to be on the stack3 . Other regions of memory can be explicitly marked as cacheable; see see undened [Memory Region Attributes], page undened . set remotecache on set remotecache off This option no longer does anything; it exists for compatibility with old scripts. show remotecache Show the current state of the obsolete remotecache ag. set stack-cache on set stack-cache off Enable or disable caching of stack accesses. When ON, use caching. By default, this option is ON. show stack-cache Show the current state of data caching for memory accesses. info dcache [line] Print the information about the data cache performance. The information displayed includes the dcache width and depth, and for each cache line, its number, address, and how many times it was referenced. This command is useful for debugging the data cache operation. If a line number is specied, the contents of that line will be printed in hex.

10.21 Search Memory

Memory can be searched for a particular sequence of bytes with the find command. find [/sn ] start_addr, +len, val1 [, val2, ...] find [/sn ] start_addr, end_addr, val1 [, val2, ...] Search memory for the sequence of bytes specied by val1, val2, etc. The search begins at address start addr and continues for either len bytes or through to end addr inclusive. s and n are optional parameters. They may be specied in either order, apart or together. s, search query size The size of each search query value. b h
3

bytes halfwords (two bytes)

In non-stop mode, it is moderately rare for a running thread to modify the stack of a stopped thread in a way that would interfere with a backtrace, and caching of stack reads provides a signicant speed up of remote backtraces.

126

Debugging with gdb

w g

words (four bytes) giant words (eight bytes)

All values are interpreted in the current language. This means, for example, that if the current source language is C/C++ then searching for the string hello includes the trailing \0. If the value size is not specied, it is taken from the values type in the current language. This is useful when one wants to specify the search pattern as a mixture of types. Note that this means, for example, that in the case of C-like languages a search for an untyped 0x42 will search for (int) 0x42 which is typically four bytes. n, maximum number of nds The maximum number of matches to print. The default is to print all nds. You can use strings as search values. Quote them with double-quotes ("). The string value is copied into the search pattern byte by byte, regardless of the endianness of the target and the size specication. The address of each match found is printed as well as a count of the number of matches found. The address of the last value found is stored in convenience variable $_. A count of the number of matches is stored in $numfound. For example, if stopped at the printf in this function:
void hello () { static char hello[] = "hello-hello"; static struct { char c; short s; int i; } __attribute__ ((packed)) mixed = { c, 0x1234, 0x87654321 }; printf ("%s\n", hello); }

you get during debugging:

(gdb) find &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), "hello" 0x804956d <hello.1620+6> 1 pattern found (gdb) find &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), h, e, l, l, o 0x8049567 <hello.1620> 0x804956d <hello.1620+6> 2 patterns found (gdb) find /b1 &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), h, 0x65, l 0x8049567 <hello.1620> 1 pattern found (gdb) find &mixed, +sizeof(mixed), (char) c, (short) 0x1234, (int) 0x87654321 0x8049560 <mixed.1625> 1 pattern found (gdb) print $numfound $1 = 1 (gdb) print $_ $2 = (void *) 0x8049560

Chapter 11: Debugging Optimized Code

127

11 Debugging Optimized Code

Almost all compilers support optimization. With optimization disabled, the compiler generates assembly code that corresponds directly to your source code, in a simplistic way. As the compiler applies more powerful optimizations, the generated assembly code diverges from your original source code. With help from debugging information generated by the compiler, gdb can map from the running program back to constructs from your original source. gdb is more accurate with optimization disabled. If you can recompile without optimization, it is easier to follow the progress of your program during debugging. But, there are many cases where you may need to debug an optimized version. When you debug a program compiled with -g -O, remember that the optimizer has rearranged your code; the debugger shows you what is really there. Do not be too surprised when the execution path does not exactly match your source le! An extreme example: if you dene a variable, but never use it, gdb never sees that variablebecause the compiler optimizes it out of existence. Some things do not work as well with -g -O as with just -g, particularly on machines with instruction scheduling. If in doubt, recompile with -g alone, and if this xes the problem, please report it to us as a bug (including a test case!). See undened [Variables], page undened , for more information about debugging optimized code.

11.1 Inline Functions

Inlining is an optimization that inserts a copy of the function body directly at each call site, instead of jumping to a shared routine. gdb displays inlined functions just like non-inlined functions. They appear in backtraces. You can view their arguments and local variables, step into them with step, skip them with next, and escape from them with finish. You can check whether a function was inlined by using the info frame command. For gdb to support inlined functions, the compiler must record information about inlining in the debug information gcc using the dwarf 2 format does this, and several other compilers do also. gdb only supports inlined functions when using dwarf 2. Versions of gcc before 4.1 do not emit two required attributes (DW_AT_call_file and DW_AT_call_line); gdb does not display inlined function calls with earlier versions of gcc. It instead displays the arguments and local variables of inlined functions as local variables in the caller. The body of an inlined function is directly included at its call site; unlike a non-inlined function, there are no instructions devoted to the call. gdb still pretends that the call site and the start of the inlined function are dierent instructions. Stepping to the call site shows the call site, and then stepping again shows the rst line of the inlined function, even though no additional instructions are executed. This makes source-level debugging much clearer; you can see both the context of the call and then the eect of the call. Only stepping by a single instruction using stepi or nexti does not do this; single instruction steps always show the inlined body. There are some ways that gdb does not pretend that inlined function calls are the same as normal calls:

128

Debugging with gdb

You cannot set breakpoints on inlined functions. gdb either reports that there is no symbol with that name, or else sets the breakpoint only on non-inlined copies of the function. This limitation will be removed in a future version of gdb; until then, set a breakpoint by line number on the rst line of the inlined function instead. Setting breakpoints at the call site of an inlined function may not work, because the call site does not contain any code. gdb may incorrectly move the breakpoint to the next line of the enclosing function, after the call. This limitation will be removed in a future version of gdb; until then, set a breakpoint on an earlier line or inside the inlined function instead. gdb cannot locate the return value of inlined calls after using the finish command. This is a limitation of compiler-generated debugging information; after finish, you can step to the next line and print a variable where your program stored the return value.

Chapter 12: C Preprocessor Macros

129

12 C Preprocessor Macros
Some languages, such as C and C++, provide a way to dene and invoke preprocessor macros which expand into strings of tokens. gdb can evaluate expressions containing macro invocations, show the result of macro expansion, and show a macros denition, including where it was dened. You may need to compile your program specially to provide gdb with information about preprocessor macros. Most compilers do not include macros in their debugging information, even when you compile with the -g ag. See undened [Compilation], page undened . A program may dene a macro at one point, remove that denition later, and then provide a dierent denition after that. Thus, at dierent points in the program, a macro may have dierent denitions, or have no denition at all. If there is a current stack frame, gdb uses the macros in scope at that frames source code line. Otherwise, gdb uses the macros in scope at the current listing location; see undened [List], page undened . Whenever gdb evaluates an expression, it always expands any macro invocations present in the expression. gdb also provides the following commands for working with macros explicitly. macro expand expression macro exp expression Show the results of expanding all preprocessor macro invocations in expression. Since gdb simply expands macros, but does not parse the result, expression need not be a valid expression; it can be any string of tokens. macro expand-once expression macro exp1 expression (This command is not yet implemented.) Show the results of expanding those preprocessor macro invocations that appear explicitly in expression. Macro invocations appearing in that expansion are left unchanged. This command allows you to see the eect of a particular macro more clearly, without being confused by further expansions. Since gdb simply expands macros, but does not parse the result, expression need not be a valid expression; it can be any string of tokens. info macro macro Show the denition of the macro named macro, and describe the source location or compiler command-line where that denition was established. macro define macro replacement-list macro define macro (arglist ) replacement-list Introduce a denition for a preprocessor macro named macro, invocations of which are replaced by the tokens given in replacement-list. The rst form of this command denes an object-like macro, which takes no arguments; the second form denes a function-like macro, which takes the arguments given in arglist. A denition introduced by this command is in scope in every expression evaluated in gdb, until it is removed with the macro undef command, described below. The denition overrides all denitions for macro present in the program being debugged, as well as any previous user-supplied denition.

130

Debugging with gdb

macro undef macro Remove any user-supplied denition for the macro named macro. This command only aects denitions provided with the macro define command, described above; it cannot remove denitions present in the program being debugged. macro list List all the macros dened using the macro define command. Here is a transcript showing the above commands in action. First, we show our source les:
$ cat sample.c #include <stdio.h> #include "sample.h" #define M 42 #define ADD(x) (M + x) main () { #define N 28 printf ("Hello, world!\n"); #undef N printf ("Were so creative.\n"); #define N 1729 printf ("Goodbye, world!\n"); } $ cat sample.h #define Q < $

Now, we compile the program using the gnu C compiler, gcc. We pass the -gdwarf-2 and -g3 ags to ensure the compiler includes information about preprocessor macros in the debugging information.
$ gcc -gdwarf-2 -g3 sample.c -o sample $

Now, we start gdb on our sample program:

$ gdb -nw sample GNU gdb 2002-05-06-cvs Copyright 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc. GDB is free software, ... (gdb)

We can expand macros and examine their denitions, even when the program is not running. gdb uses the current listing position to decide which macro denitions are in scope:
(gdb) list main 3 4 #define M 42 5 #define ADD(x) (M + x) 6 7 main () 8 { 9 #define N 28 10 printf ("Hello, world!\n"); 11 #undef N

Chapter 12: C Preprocessor Macros

131

12 printf ("Were so creative.\n"); (gdb) info macro ADD Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:5 #define ADD(x) (M + x) (gdb) info macro Q Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.h:1 included at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:2 #define Q < (gdb) macro expand ADD(1) expands to: (42 + 1) (gdb) macro expand-once ADD(1) expands to: once (M + 1) (gdb)

In the example above, note that macro expand-once expands only the macro invocation explicit in the original text the invocation of ADD but does not expand the invocation of the macro M, which was introduced by ADD. Once the program is running, gdb uses the macro denitions in force at the source line of the current stack frame:
(gdb) break main Breakpoint 1 at 0x8048370: file sample.c, line 10. (gdb) run Starting program: /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample Breakpoint 1, main () at sample.c:10 10 printf ("Hello, world!\n"); (gdb)

At line 10, the denition of the macro N at line 9 is in force:

(gdb) info macro N Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:9 #define N 28 (gdb) macro expand N Q M expands to: 28 < 42 (gdb) print N Q M $1 = 1 (gdb)

As we step over directives that remove Ns denition, and then give it a new denition, gdb nds the denition (or lack thereof) in force at each point:
(gdb) next Hello, world! 12 printf ("Were so creative.\n"); (gdb) info macro N The symbol N has no definition as a C/C++ preprocessor macro at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:12 (gdb) next Were so creative. 14 printf ("Goodbye, world!\n"); (gdb) info macro N Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:13 #define N 1729 (gdb) macro expand N Q M expands to: 1729 < 42 (gdb) print N Q M $2 = 0 (gdb)

132

Debugging with gdb

In addition to source les, macros can be dened on the compilation command line using the -Dname =value syntax. For macros dened in such a way, gdb displays the location of their denition as line zero of the source le submitted to the compiler.
(gdb) info macro __STDC__ Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:0 -D__STDC__=1 (gdb)

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

133

13 Tracepoints
In some applications, it is not feasible for the debugger to interrupt the programs execution long enough for the developer to learn anything helpful about its behavior. If the programs correctness depends on its real-time behavior, delays introduced by a debugger might cause the program to change its behavior drastically, or perhaps fail, even when the code itself is correct. It is useful to be able to observe the programs behavior without interrupting it. Using gdbs trace and collect commands, you can specify locations in the program, called tracepoints, and arbitrary expressions to evaluate when those tracepoints are reached. Later, using the tfind command, you can examine the values those expressions had when the program hit the tracepoints. The expressions may also denote objects in memory structures or arrays, for examplewhose values gdb should record; while visiting a particular tracepoint, you may inspect those objects as if they were in memory at that moment. However, because gdb records these values without interacting with you, it can do so quickly and unobtrusively, hopefully not disturbing the programs behavior. The tracepoint facility is currently available only for remote targets. See undened [Targets], page undened . In addition, your remote target must know how to collect trace data. This functionality is implemented in the remote stub; however, none of the stubs distributed with gdb support tracepoints as of this writing. The format of the remote packets used to implement tracepoints are described in undened [Tracepoint Packets], page undened . It is also possible to get trace data from a le, in a manner reminiscent of coreles; you specify the lename, and use tfind to search through the le. See undened [Trace Files], page undened , for more details. This chapter describes the tracepoint commands and features.

13.1 Commands to Set Tracepoints

Before running such a trace experiment, an arbitrary number of tracepoints can be set. A tracepoint is actually a special type of breakpoint (see undened [Set Breaks], page undened ), so you can manipulate it using standard breakpoint commands. For instance, as with breakpoints, tracepoint numbers are successive integers starting from one, and many of the commands associated with tracepoints take the tracepoint number as their argument, to identify which tracepoint to work on. For each tracepoint, you can specify, in advance, some arbitrary set of data that you want the target to collect in the trace buer when it hits that tracepoint. The collected data can include registers, local variables, or global data. Later, you can use gdb commands to examine the values these data had at the time the tracepoint was hit. Tracepoints do not support every breakpoint feature. Ignore counts on tracepoints have no eect, and tracepoints cannot run gdb commands when they are hit. Tracepoints may not be thread-specic either. Some targets may support fast tracepoints, which are inserted in a dierent way (such as with a jump instead of a trap), that is faster but possibly restricted in where they may be installed.

134

Debugging with gdb

Regular and fast tracepoints are dynamic tracing facilities, meaning that they can be used to insert tracepoints at (almost) any location in the target. Some targets may also support controlling static tracepoints from gdb. With static tracing, a set of instrumentation points, also known as markers, are embedded in the target program, and can be activated or deactivated by name or address. These are usually placed at locations which facilitate investigating what the target is actually doing. gdbs support for static tracing includes being able to list instrumentation points, and attach them with gdb dened high level tracepoints that expose the whole range of convenience of gdbs tracepoints support. Namelly, support for collecting registers values and values of global or local (to the instrumentation point) variables; tracepoint conditions and trace state variables. The act of installing a gdb static tracepoint on an instrumentation point, or marker, is referred to as probing a static tracepoint marker. gdbserver supports tracepoints on some target systems. See undened [Tracepoints support in gdbserver], page undened . This section describes commands to set tracepoints and associated conditions and actions.

13.1.1 Create and Delete Tracepoints

trace location The trace command is very similar to the break command. Its argument location can be a source line, a function name, or an address in the target program. See undened [Specify Location], page undened . The trace command denes a tracepoint, which is a point in the target program where the debugger will briey stop, collect some data, and then allow the program to continue. Setting a tracepoint or changing its actions doesnt take eect until the next tstart command, and once a trace experiment is running, further changes will not have any eect until the next trace experiment starts. Here are some examples of using the trace command:
(gdb) trace foo.c:121 (gdb) trace +2 (gdb) trace my function // a source file and line number // 2 lines forward // first source line of function

(gdb) trace *my function // EXACT start address of function (gdb) trace *0x2117c4 // an address

You can abbreviate trace as tr. trace location if cond Set a tracepoint with condition cond; evaluate the expression cond each time the tracepoint is reached, and collect data only if the value is nonzerothat is, if cond evaluates as true. See undened [Tracepoint Conditions], page undened , for more information on tracepoint conditions. ftrace location [ if cond ] The ftrace command sets a fast tracepoint. For targets that support them, fast tracepoints will use a more ecient but possibly less general technique to

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

135

trigger data collection, such as a jump instruction instead of a trap, or some sort of hardware support. It may not be possible to create a fast tracepoint at the desired location, in which case the command will exit with an explanatory message. gdb handles arguments to ftrace exactly as for trace. strace location [ if cond ] The strace command sets a static tracepoint. For targets that support it, setting a static tracepoint probes a static instrumentation point, or marker, found at location. It may not be possible to set a static tracepoint at the desired location, in which case the command will exit with an explanatory message. gdb handles arguments to strace exactly as for trace, with the addition that the user can also specify -m marker as location. This probes the marker identied by the marker string identier. This identier depends on the static tracepoint backend library your program is using. You can nd all the marker identiers in the ID eld of the info static-tracepoint-markers command output. See undened [Listing Static Tracepoint Markers], page undened . For example, in the following small program using the UST tracing engine:
main () { trace_mark(ust, bar33, "str %s", "FOOBAZ"); }

the marker id is composed of joining the rst two arguments to the trace_mark call with a slash, which translates to:
(gdb) info static-tracepoint-markers Cnt Enb ID Address What 1 n ust/bar33 0x0000000000400ddc in main at stexample.c:22 Data: "str %s" [etc...]

so you may probe the marker above with:

(gdb) strace -m ust/bar33

Static tracepoints accept an extra collect action collect $_sdata. This collects arbitrary user data passed in the probe point call to the tracing library. In the UST example above, youll see that the third argument to trace_mark is a printf-like format string. The user data is then the result of running that formating string against the following arguments. Note that info statictracepoint-markers command output lists that format string in the Data: eld. You can inspect this data when analyzing the trace buer, by printing the $ sdata variable like any other variable available to gdb. See undened [Tracepoint Action Lists], page undened . The convenience variable $tpnum records the tracepoint number of the most recently set tracepoint.

136

Debugging with gdb

delete tracepoint [num ] Permanently delete one or more tracepoints. With no argument, the default is to delete all tracepoints. Note that the regular delete command can remove tracepoints also. Examples:
(gdb) delete trace 1 2 3 // remove three tracepoints (gdb) delete trace // remove all tracepoints

You can abbreviate this command as del tr.

13.1.2 Enable and Disable Tracepoints

These commands are deprecated; they are equivalent to plain disable and enable. disable tracepoint [num ] Disable tracepoint num, or all tracepoints if no argument num is given. A disabled tracepoint will have no eect during the next trace experiment, but it is not forgotten. You can re-enable a disabled tracepoint using the enable tracepoint command. enable tracepoint [num ] Enable tracepoint num, or all tracepoints. The enabled tracepoints will become eective the next time a trace experiment is run.

13.1.3 Tracepoint Passcounts

passcount [n [num ]] Set the passcount of a tracepoint. The passcount is a way to automatically stop a trace experiment. If a tracepoints passcount is n, then the trace experiment will be automatically stopped on the nth time that tracepoint is hit. If the tracepoint number num is not specied, the passcount command sets the passcount of the most recently dened tracepoint. If no passcount is given, the trace experiment will run until stopped explicitly by the user. Examples:
(gdb) passcount 5 2 // Stop on the 5th execution of // tracepoint 2 (gdb) passcount 12 (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) trace foo pass 3 trace bar pass 2 trace baz pass 1 // Stop on the 12th execution of the // most recently defined tracepoint.

// Stop tracing when foo has been // executed 3 times OR when bar has // been executed 2 times // OR when baz has been executed 1 time.

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

137

13.1.4 Tracepoint Conditions

The simplest sort of tracepoint collects data every time your program reaches a specied place. You can also specify a condition for a tracepoint. A condition is just a Boolean expression in your programming language (see undened [Expressions], page undened ). A tracepoint with a condition evaluates the expression each time your program reaches it, and data collection happens only if the condition is true. Tracepoint conditions can be specied when a tracepoint is set, by using if in the arguments to the trace command. See undened [Setting Tracepoints], page undened . They can also be set or changed at any time with the condition command, just as with breakpoints. Unlike breakpoint conditions, gdb does not actually evaluate the conditional expression itself. Instead, gdb encodes the expression into an agent expression (see undened [Agent Expressions], page undened suitable for execution on the target, independently of gdb. Global variables become raw memory locations, locals become stack accesses, and so forth. For instance, suppose you have a function that is usually called frequently, but should not be called after an error has occurred. You could use the following tracepoint command to collect data about calls of that function that happen while the error code is propagating through the program; an unconditional tracepoint could end up collecting thousands of useless trace frames that you would have to search through.
(gdb) trace normal_operation if errcode > 0

13.1.5 Trace State Variables

A trace state variable is a special type of variable that is created and managed by target-side code. The syntax is the same as that for GDBs convenience variables (a string prexed with $), but they are stored on the target. They must be created explicitly, using a tvariable command. They are always 64-bit signed integers. Trace state variables are remembered by gdb, and downloaded to the target along with tracepoint information when the trace experiment starts. There are no intrinsic limits on the number of trace state variables, beyond memory limitations of the target. Although trace state variables are managed by the target, you can use them in print commands and expressions as if they were convenience variables; gdb will get the current value from the target while the trace experiment is running. Trace state variables share the same namespace as other $ variables, which means that you cannot have trace state variables with names like $23 or $pc, nor can you have a trace state variable and a convenience variable with the same name. tvariable $name [ = expression ] The tvariable command creates a new trace state variable named $name , and optionally gives it an initial value of expression. expression is evaluated when this command is entered; the result will be converted to an integer if possible, otherwise gdb will report an error. A subsequent tvariable command specifying the same name does not create a variable, but instead assigns the supplied initial value to the existing variable of that name, overwriting any previous initial value. The default initial value is 0.

138

Debugging with gdb

info tvariables List all the trace state variables along with their initial values. Their current values may also be displayed, if the trace experiment is currently running. delete tvariable [ $name ... ] Delete the given trace state variables, or all of them if no arguments are specied.

13.1.6 Tracepoint Action Lists

actions [num ] This command will prompt for a list of actions to be taken when the tracepoint is hit. If the tracepoint number num is not specied, this command sets the actions for the one that was most recently dened (so that you can dene a tracepoint and then say actions without bothering about its number). You specify the actions themselves on the following lines, one action at a time, and terminate the actions list with a line containing just end. So far, the only dened actions are collect, teval, and while-stepping. actions is actually equivalent to commands (see undened [Breakpoint Command Lists], page undened ), except that only the dened actions are allowed; any other gdb command is rejected. To remove all actions from a tracepoint, type actions num and follow it immediately with end.
(gdb) collect data // collect some data (gdb) while-stepping 5 // single-step 5 times, collect data (gdb) end // signals the end of actions.

In the following example, the action list begins with collect commands indicating the things to be collected when the tracepoint is hit. Then, in order to single-step and collect additional data following the tracepoint, a whilestepping command is used, followed by the list of things to be collected after each step in a sequence of single steps. The while-stepping command is terminated by its own separate end command. Lastly, the action list is terminated by an end command.
(gdb) trace foo (gdb) actions Enter actions for tracepoint 1, one per line: > collect bar,baz > collect $regs > while-stepping 12 > collect $pc, arr[i] > end end

collect expr1, expr2, ... Collect values of the given expressions when the tracepoint is hit. This command accepts a comma-separated list of any valid expressions. In addition to global, static, or local variables, the following special arguments are supported:

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

139

$regs $args $locals $_sdata

Collect all registers. Collect all function arguments. Collect all local variables. Collect static tracepoint marker specic data. Only available for static tracepoints. See undened [Tracepoint Action Lists], page undened . On the UST static tracepoints library backend, an instrumentation point resembles a printf function call. The tracing library is able to collect user specied data formatted to a character string using the format provided by the programmer that instrumented the program. Other backends have similar mechanisms. Heres an example of a UST marker call:
const char master_name[] = "$your_name"; trace_mark(channel1, marker1, "hello %s", master_name)

In this case, collecting $_sdata collects the string hello $yourname. When analyzing the trace buer, you can inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to gdb. You can give several consecutive collect commands, each one with a single argument, or one collect command with several arguments separated by commas; the eect is the same. The command info scope (see undened [Symbols], page undened ) is particularly useful for guring out what data to collect. teval expr1, expr2, ... Evaluate the given expressions when the tracepoint is hit. This command accepts a comma-separated list of expressions. The results are discarded, so this is mainly useful for assigning values to trace state variables (see undened [Trace State Variables], page undened ) without adding those values to the trace buer, as would be the case if the collect action were used. while-stepping n Perform n single-step instruction traces after the tracepoint, collecting new data after each step. The while-stepping command is followed by the list of what to collect while stepping (followed by its own end command):
> while-stepping 12 > collect $regs, myglobal > end >

Note that $pc is not automatically collected by while-stepping; you need to explicitly collect that register if you need it. You may abbreviate whilestepping as ws or stepping. set default-collect expr1, expr2, ... This variable is a list of expressions to collect at each tracepoint hit. It is eectively an additional collect action prepended to every tracepoint action list. The expressions are parsed individually for each tracepoint, so for instance a variable named xyz may be interpreted as a global for one tracepoint, and a local for another, as appropriate to the tracepoints location.

140

Debugging with gdb

show default-collect Show the list of expressions that are collected by default at each tracepoint hit.

13.1.7 Listing Tracepoints

info tracepoints [num ] Display information about the tracepoint num. If you dont specify a tracepoint number, displays information about all the tracepoints dened so far. The format is similar to that used for info breakpoints; in fact, info tracepoints is the same command, simply restricting itself to tracepoints. A tracepoints listing may include additional information specic to tracing: its passcount as given by the passcount n command
(gdb) info trace Num Type Disp Enb Address What 1 tracepoint keep y 0x0804ab57 in foo() at main.cxx:7 while-stepping 20 collect globfoo, $regs end collect globfoo2 end pass count 1200 (gdb)

This command can be abbreviated info tp.

13.1.8 Listing Static Tracepoint Markers

info static-tracepoint-markers Display information about all static tracepoint markers dened in the program. For each marker, the following columns are printed: Count ID An incrementing counter, output to help readability. This is not a stable identier. The marker ID, as reported by the target.

Enabled or Disabled Probed markers are tagged with y. n identies marks that are not enabled. Address What Where the marker is in your program, as a memory address. Where the marker is in the source for your program, as a le and line number. If the debug information included in the program does not allow gdb to locate the source of the marker, this column will be left blank.

In addition, the following information may be printed for each marker: Data User data passed to the tracing library by the marker call. In the UST backend, this is the format string passed as argument to the marker call.

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

141

Static tracepoints probing the marker The list of static tracepoints attached to the marker.
(gdb) info static-tracepoint-markers Cnt ID Enb Address What 1 ust/bar2 y 0x0000000000400e1a in main at stexample.c:25 Data: number1 %d number2 %d Probed by static tracepoints: #2 2 ust/bar33 n 0x0000000000400c87 in main at stexample.c:24 Data: str %s (gdb)

13.1.9 Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments

tstart This command takes no arguments. It starts the trace experiment, and begins collecting data. This has the side eect of discarding all the data collected in the trace buer during the previous trace experiment. This command takes no arguments. It ends the trace experiment, and stops collecting data. Note: a trace experiment and data collection may stop automatically if any tracepoints passcount is reached (see undened [Tracepoint Passcounts], page undened ), or if the trace buer becomes full. This command displays the status of the current trace data collection.

tstop

tstatus

Here is an example of the commands we described so far:

(gdb) trace gdb c test (gdb) actions Enter actions for tracepoint #1, one per line. > collect $regs,$locals,$args > while-stepping 11 > collect $regs > end > end (gdb) tstart [time passes ...] (gdb) tstop

You can choose to continue running the trace experiment even if gdb disconnects from the target, voluntarily or involuntarily. For commands such as detach, the debugger will ask what you want to do with the trace. But for unexpected terminations (gdb crash, network outage), it would be unfortunate to lose hard-won trace data, so the variable disconnected-tracing lets you decide whether the trace should continue running without gdb. set disconnected-tracing on set disconnected-tracing off Choose whether a tracing run should continue to run if gdb has disconnected from the target. Note that detach or quit will ask you directly what to do about a running trace no matter what this variables setting, so the variable is mainly useful for handling unexpected situations, such as loss of the network. show disconnected-tracing Show the current choice for disconnected tracing.

142

Debugging with gdb

When you reconnect to the target, the trace experiment may or may not still be running; it might have lled the trace buer in the meantime, or stopped for one of the other reasons. If it is running, it will continue after reconnection. Upon reconnection, the target will upload information about the tracepoints in eect. gdb will then compare that information to the set of tracepoints currently dened, and attempt to match them up, allowing for the possibility that the numbers may have changed due to creation and deletion in the meantime. If one of the targets tracepoints does not match any in gdb, the debugger will create a new tracepoint, so that you have a number with which to specify that tracepoint. This matching-up process is necessarily heuristic, and it may result in useless tracepoints being created; you may simply delete them if they are of no use. If your target agent supports a circular trace buer, then you can run a trace experiment indenitely without lling the trace buer; when space runs out, the agent deletes alreadycollected trace frames, oldest rst, until there is enough room to continue collecting. This is especially useful if your tracepoints are being hit too often, and your trace gets terminated prematurely because the buer is full. To ask for a circular trace buer, simply set circular_trace_buffer to on. You can set this at any time, including during tracing; if the agent can do it, it will change buer handling on the y, otherwise it will not take eect until the next run. set circular-trace-buffer on set circular-trace-buffer off Choose whether a tracing run should use a linear or circular buer for trace data. A linear buer will not lose any trace data, but may ll up prematurely, while a circular buer will discard old trace data, but it will have always room for the latest tracepoint hits. show circular-trace-buffer Show the current choice for the trace buer. Note that this may not match the agents current buer handling, nor is it guaranteed to match the setting that might have been in eect during a past run, for instance if you are looking at frames from a trace le.

13.1.10 Tracepoint Restrictions

There are a number of restrictions on the use of tracepoints. As described above, tracepoint data gathering occurs on the target without interaction from gdb. Thus the full capabilities of the debugger are not available during data gathering, and then at data examination time, you will be limited by only having what was collected. The following items describe some common problems, but it is not exhaustive, and you may run into additional diculties not mentioned here. Tracepoint expressions are intended to gather objects (lvalues). Thus the full exibility of GDBs expression evaluator is not available. You cannot call functions, cast objects to aggregate types, access convenience variables or modify values (except by assignment to trace state variables). Some language features may implicitly call functions (for instance Objective-C elds with accessors), and therefore cannot be collected either.

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

143

Collection of local variables, either individually or in bulk with $locals or $args, during while-stepping may behave erratically. The stepping action may enter a new scope (for instance by stepping into a function), or the location of the variable may change (for instance it is loaded into a register). The tracepoint data recorded uses the location information for the variables that is correct for the tracepoint location. When the tracepoint is created, it is not possible, in general, to determine where the steps of a while-stepping sequence will advance the programparticularly if a conditional branch is stepped. Collection of an incompletely-initialized or partially-destroyed object may result in something that gdb cannot display, or displays in a misleading way. When gdb displays a pointer to character it automatically dereferences the pointer to also display characters of the string being pointed to. However, collecting the pointer during tracing does not automatically collect the string. You need to explicitly dereference the pointer and provide size information if you want to collect not only the pointer, but the memory pointed to. For example, *ptr@50 can be used to collect the 50 element array pointed to by ptr. It is not possible to collect a complete stack backtrace at a tracepoint. Instead, you may collect the registers and a few hundred bytes from the stack pointer with something like *$esp@300 (adjust to use the name of the actual stack pointer register on your target architecture, and the amount of stack you wish to capture). Then the backtrace command will show a partial backtrace when using a trace frame. The number of stack frames that can be examined depends on the sizes of the frames in the collected stack. Note that if you ask for a block so large that it goes past the bottom of the stack, the target agent may report an error trying to read from an invalid address. If you do not collect registers at a tracepoint, gdb can infer that the value of $pc must be the same as the address of the tracepoint and use that when you are looking at a trace frame for that tracepoint. However, this cannot work if the tracepoint has multiple locations (for instance if it was set in a function that was inlined), or if it has a while-stepping loop. In those cases gdb will warn you that it cant infer $pc, and default it to zero.

13.2 Using the Collected Data

After the tracepoint experiment ends, you use gdb commands for examining the trace data. The basic idea is that each tracepoint collects a trace snapshot every time it is hit and another snapshot every time it single-steps. All these snapshots are consecutively numbered from zero and go into a buer, and you can examine them later. The way you examine them is to focus on a specic trace snapshot. When the remote stub is focused on a trace snapshot, it will respond to all gdb requests for memory and registers by reading from the buer which belongs to that snapshot, rather than from real memory or registers of the program being debugged. This means that all gdb commands (print, info registers, backtrace, etc.) will behave as if we were currently debugging the program state as it was when the tracepoint occurred. Any requests for data that are not in the buer will fail.

144

Debugging with gdb

13.2.1 tfind n
The basic command for selecting a trace snapshot from the buer is tfind n , which nds trace snapshot number n, counting from zero. If no argument n is given, the next snapshot is selected. Here are the various forms of using the tfind command. tfind start Find the rst snapshot in the buer. This is a synonym for tfind 0 (since 0 is the number of the rst snapshot). tfind none Stop debugging trace snapshots, resume live debugging. tfind end Same as tfind none. tfind tfind No argument means nd the next trace snapshot. Find the previous trace snapshot before the current one. This permits retracing earlier steps.

tfind tracepoint num Find the next snapshot associated with tracepoint num. Search proceeds forward from the last examined trace snapshot. If no argument num is given, it means nd the next snapshot collected for the same tracepoint as the current snapshot. tfind pc addr Find the next snapshot associated with the value addr of the program counter. Search proceeds forward from the last examined trace snapshot. If no argument addr is given, it means nd the next snapshot with the same value of PC as the current snapshot. tfind outside addr1, addr2 Find the next snapshot whose PC is outside the given range of addresses (exclusive). tfind range addr1, addr2 Find the next snapshot whose PC is between addr1 and addr2 (inclusive). tfind line [file :]n Find the next snapshot associated with the source line n. If the optional argument le is given, refer to line n in that source le. Search proceeds forward from the last examined trace snapshot. If no argument n is given, it means nd the next line other than the one currently being examined; thus saying tfind line repeatedly can appear to have the same eect as stepping from line to line in a live debugging session. The default arguments for the tfind commands are specically designed to make it easy to scan through the trace buer. For instance, tfind with no argument selects the next trace snapshot, and tfind - with no argument selects the previous trace snapshot. So, by giving one tfind command, and then simply hitting RET repeatedly you can examine all the trace snapshots in order. Or, by saying tfind - and then hitting RET repeatedly you

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

145

can examine the snapshots in reverse order. The tfind line command with no argument selects the snapshot for the next source line executed. The tfind pc command with no argument selects the next snapshot with the same program counter (PC) as the current frame. The tfind tracepoint command with no argument selects the next trace snapshot collected by the same tracepoint as the current one. In addition to letting you scan through the trace buer manually, these commands make it easy to construct gdb scripts that scan through the trace buer and print out whatever collected data you are interested in. Thus, if we want to examine the PC, FP, and SP registers from each trace frame in the buer, we can say this:
(gdb) tnd start (gdb) while ($trace frame != -1) > printf "Frame %d, PC = %08X, SP = %08X, FP = %08X\n", \ $trace_frame, $pc, $sp, $fp > tfind > end Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame Frame 0, PC = 0020DC64, SP = 0030BF3C, FP = 0030BF44 1, PC = 0020DC6C, SP = 0030BF38, FP = 0030BF44 2, PC = 0020DC70, SP = 0030BF34, FP = 0030BF44 3, PC = 0020DC74, SP = 0030BF30, FP = 0030BF44 4, PC = 0020DC78, SP = 0030BF2C, FP = 0030BF44 5, PC = 0020DC7C, SP = 0030BF28, FP = 0030BF44 6, PC = 0020DC80, SP = 0030BF24, FP = 0030BF44 7, PC = 0020DC84, SP = 0030BF20, FP = 0030BF44 8, PC = 0020DC88, SP = 0030BF1C, FP = 0030BF44 9, PC = 0020DC8E, SP = 0030BF18, FP = 0030BF44 10, PC = 00203F6C, SP = 0030BE3C, FP = 0030BF14

Or, if we want to examine the variable X at each source line in the buer:
(gdb) tnd start (gdb) while ($trace frame != -1) > printf "Frame %d, X == %d\n", $trace_frame, X > tfind line > end Frame 0, X = 1 Frame 7, X = 2 Frame 13, X = 255

13.2.2 tdump
This command takes no arguments. It prints all the data collected at the current trace snapshot.
(gdb) trace 444 (gdb) actions Enter actions for tracepoint #2, one per line: > collect $regs, $locals, $args, gdb_long_test > end (gdb) tstart (gdb) tnd line 444 #0 gdb_test (p1=0x11, p2=0x22, p3=0x33, p4=0x44, p5=0x55, p6=0x66) at gdb_test.c:444

146

Debugging with gdb

444

printp( "%s: arguments = 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X\n", )

(gdb) tdump Data collected at tracepoint 2, trace frame 1: d0 0xc4aa0085 -995491707 d1 0x18 24 d2 0x80 128 d3 0x33 51 d4 0x71aea3d 119204413 d5 0x22 34 d6 0xe0 224 d7 0x380035 3670069 a0 0x19e24a 1696330 a1 0x3000668 50333288 a2 0x100 256 a3 0x322000 3284992 a4 0x3000698 50333336 a5 0x1ad3cc 1758156 fp 0x30bf3c 0x30bf3c sp 0x30bf34 0x30bf34 ps 0x0 0 pc 0x20b2c8 0x20b2c8 fpcontrol 0x0 0 fpstatus 0x0 0 fpiaddr 0x0 0 p = 0x20e5b4 "gdb-test" p1 = (void *) 0x11 p2 = (void *) 0x22 p3 = (void *) 0x33 p4 = (void *) 0x44 p5 = (void *) 0x55 p6 = (void *) 0x66 gdb_long_test = 17 \021 (gdb)

tdump works by scanning the tracepoints current collection actions and printing the value of each expression listed. So tdump can fail, if after a run, you change the tracepoints actions to mention variables that were not collected during the run. Also, for tracepoints with while-stepping loops, tdump uses the collected value of $pc to distinguish between trace frames that were collected at the tracepoint hit, and frames that were collected while stepping. This allows it to correctly choose whether to display the basic list of collections, or the collections from the body of the while-stepping loop. However, if $pc was not collected, then tdump will always attempt to dump using the basic collection list, and may fail if a while-stepping frame does not include all the same data that is collected at the tracepoint hit.

13.2.3 save tracepoints filename

This command saves all current tracepoint denitions together with their actions and passcounts, into a le filename suitable for use in a later debugging session. To read the saved tracepoint denitions, use the source command (see undened [Command Files], page undened ). The save-tracepoints command is a deprecated alias for save tracepoints

Chapter 13: Tracepoints

147

13.3 Convenience Variables for Tracepoints

(int) $trace_frame The current trace snapshot (a.k.a. frame) number, or -1 if no snapshot is selected. (int) $tracepoint The tracepoint for the current trace snapshot. (int) $trace_line The line number for the current trace snapshot. (char []) $trace_file The source le for the current trace snapshot. (char []) $trace_func The name of the function containing $tracepoint. Note: $trace_file is not suitable for use in printf, use output instead. Heres a simple example of using these convenience variables for stepping through all the trace snapshots and printing some of their data. Note that these are not the same as trace state variables, which are managed by the target.
(gdb) tnd start (gdb) while $trace frame != -1 > output $trace_file > printf ", line %d (tracepoint #%d)\n", $trace_line, $tracepoint > tfind > end

13.4 Using Trace Files

In some situations, the target running a trace experiment may no longer be available; perhaps it crashed, or the hardware was needed for a dierent activity. To handle these cases, you can arrange to dump the trace data into a le, and later use that le as a source of trace data, via the target tfile command. tsave [ -r ] filename Save the trace data to lename. By default, this command assumes that lename refers to the host lesystem, so if necessary gdb will copy raw trace data up from the target and then save it. If the target supports it, you can also supply the optional argument -r (remote) to direct the target to save the data directly into lename in its own lesystem, which may be more ecient if the trace buer is very large. (Note, however, that target tfile can only read from les accessible to the host.) target tfile filename Use the le named lename as a source of trace data. Commands that examine data work as they do with a live target, but it is not possible to run any new trace experiments. tstatus will report the state of the trace run at the moment the data was saved, as well as the current trace frame you are examining. lename must be on a lesystem accessible to the host.

148

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 14: Debugging Programs That Use Overlays

149

14 Debugging Programs That Use Overlays

If your program is too large to t completely in your target systems memory, you can sometimes use overlays to work around this problem. gdb provides some support for debugging programs that use overlays.

14.1 How Overlays Work

Suppose you have a computer whose instruction address space is only 64 kilobytes long, but which has much more memory which can be accessed by other means: special instructions, segment registers, or memory management hardware, for example. Suppose further that you want to adapt a program which is larger than 64 kilobytes to run on this system. One solution is to identify modules of your program which are relatively independent, and need not call each other directly; call these modules overlays. Separate the overlays from the main program, and place their machine code in the larger memory. Place your main program in instruction memory, but leave at least enough space there to hold the largest overlay as well. Now, to call a function located in an overlay, you must rst copy that overlays machine code from the large memory into the space set aside for it in the instruction memory, and then jump to its entry point there.
Data Address Space +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | program | | variables | | and heap | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ Instruction Larger Address Space Address Space +-----------+ +-----------+ | | | | +-----------+ +-----------+<-- overlay 1 | main | .----| overlay 1 | load address | program | | +-----------+ | | | | | | | | +-----------+<-- overlay 2 +-----------+ | | | load address | | | .-| overlay 2 | | | | | | | mapped --->+-----------+ | | +-----------+ address | | | | | | | overlay | <- | | | | area | <--- +-----------+<-- overlay 3 | | <---. | | load address +-----------+ --| overlay 3 | | | | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ | | +-----------+ A code overlay

The diagram (see undened [A code overlay], page undened ) shows a system with separate data and instruction address spaces. To map an overlay, the program copies its code from the larger address space to the instruction address space. Since the overlays shown here all use the same mapped address, only one may be mapped at a time. For a system with a single address space for data and instructions, the diagram would be similar,

150

Debugging with gdb

except that the program variables and heap would share an address space with the main program and the overlay area. An overlay loaded into instruction memory and ready for use is called a mapped overlay; its mapped address is its address in the instruction memory. An overlay not present (or only partially present) in instruction memory is called unmapped; its load address is its address in the larger memory. The mapped address is also called the virtual memory address, or VMA; the load address is also called the load memory address, or LMA. Unfortunately, overlays are not a completely transparent way to adapt a program to limited instruction memory. They introduce a new set of global constraints you must keep in mind as you design your program: Before calling or returning to a function in an overlay, your program must make sure that overlay is actually mapped. Otherwise, the call or return will transfer control to the right address, but in the wrong overlay, and your program will probably crash. If the process of mapping an overlay is expensive on your system, you will need to choose your overlays carefully to minimize their eect on your programs performance. The executable le you load onto your system must contain each overlays instructions, appearing at the overlays load address, not its mapped address. However, each overlays instructions must be relocated and its symbols dened as if the overlay were at its mapped address. You can use GNU linker scripts to specify dierent load and relocation addresses for pieces of your program; see section Overlay Description in Using ld: the GNU linker. The procedure for loading executable les onto your system must be able to load their contents into the larger address space as well as the instruction and data spaces. The overlay system described above is rather simple, and could be improved in many ways: If your system has suitable bank switch registers or memory management hardware, you could use those facilities to make an overlays load area contents simply appear at their mapped address in instruction space. This would probably be faster than copying the overlay to its mapped area in the usual way. If your overlays are small enough, you could set aside more than one overlay area, and have more than one overlay mapped at a time. You can use overlays to manage data, as well as instructions. In general, data overlays are even less transparent to your design than code overlays: whereas code overlays only require care when you call or return to functions, data overlays require care every time you access the data. Also, if you change the contents of a data overlay, you must copy its contents back out to its load address before you can copy a dierent data overlay into the same mapped area.

14.2 Overlay Commands

To use gdbs overlay support, each overlay in your program must correspond to a separate section of the executable le. The sections virtual memory address and load memory address must be the overlays mapped and load addresses. Identifying overlays with sections

Chapter 14: Debugging Programs That Use Overlays

151

allows gdb to determine the appropriate address of a function or variable, depending on whether the overlay is mapped or not. gdbs overlay commands all start with the word overlay; you can abbreviate this as ov or ovly. The commands are: overlay off Disable gdbs overlay support. When overlay support is disabled, gdb assumes that all functions and variables are always present at their mapped addresses. By default, gdbs overlay support is disabled. overlay manual Enable manual overlay debugging. In this mode, gdb relies on you to tell it which overlays are mapped, and which are not, using the overlay map-overlay and overlay unmap-overlay commands described below. overlay map-overlay overlay overlay map overlay Tell gdb that overlay is now mapped; overlay must be the name of the object le section containing the overlay. When an overlay is mapped, gdb assumes it can nd the overlays functions and variables at their mapped addresses. gdb assumes that any other overlays whose mapped ranges overlap that of overlay are now unmapped. overlay unmap-overlay overlay overlay unmap overlay Tell gdb that overlay is no longer mapped; overlay must be the name of the object le section containing the overlay. When an overlay is unmapped, gdb assumes it can nd the overlays functions and variables at their load addresses. overlay auto Enable automatic overlay debugging. In this mode, gdb consults a data structure the overlay manager maintains in the inferior to see which overlays are mapped. For details, see undened [Automatic Overlay Debugging], page undened . overlay load-target overlay load Re-read the overlay table from the inferior. Normally, gdb re-reads the table gdb automatically each time the inferior stops, so this command should only be necessary if you have changed the overlay mapping yourself using gdb. This command is only useful when using automatic overlay debugging. overlay list-overlays overlay list Display a list of the overlays currently mapped, along with their mapped addresses, load addresses, and sizes. Normally, when gdb prints a code address, it includes the name of the function the address falls in:
(gdb) print main $3 = {int ()} 0x11a0 <main>

152

Debugging with gdb

When overlay debugging is enabled, gdb recognizes code in unmapped overlays, and prints the names of unmapped functions with asterisks around them. For example, if foo is a function in an unmapped overlay, gdb prints it this way:
(gdb) overlay list No sections are mapped. (gdb) print foo $5 = {int (int)} 0x100000 <*foo*>

When foos overlay is mapped, gdb prints the functions name normally:
(gdb) overlay list Section .ov.foo.text, loaded at 0x100000 - 0x100034, mapped at 0x1016 - 0x104a (gdb) print foo $6 = {int (int)} 0x1016 <foo>

When overlay debugging is enabled, gdb can nd the correct address for functions and variables in an overlay, whether or not the overlay is mapped. This allows most gdb commands, like break and disassemble, to work normally, even on unmapped code. However, gdbs breakpoint support has some limitations: You can set breakpoints in functions in unmapped overlays, as long as gdb can write to the overlay at its load address. gdb can not set hardware or simulator-based breakpoints in unmapped overlays. However, if you set a breakpoint at the end of your overlay manager (and tell gdb which overlays are now mapped, if you are using manual overlay management), gdb will re-set its breakpoints properly.

14.3 Automatic Overlay Debugging

gdb can automatically track which overlays are mapped and which are not, given some simple co-operation from the overlay manager in the inferior. If you enable automatic overlay debugging with the overlay auto command (see undened [Overlay Commands], page undened ), gdb looks in the inferiors memory for certain variables describing the current state of the overlays. Here are the variables your overlay manager must dene to support gdbs automatic overlay debugging: _ovly_table: This variable must be an array of the following structures:
struct { /* The overlays mapped address. unsigned long vma; */

/* The size of the overlay, in bytes. unsigned long size; /* The overlays load address. unsigned long lma; */

*/

/* Non-zero if the overlay is currently mapped; zero otherwise. */ unsigned long mapped;

Chapter 14: Debugging Programs That Use Overlays

153

_novlys:

This variable must be a four-byte signed integer, holding the total number of elements in _ovly_table.

To decide whether a particular overlay is mapped or not, gdb looks for an entry in _ovly_table whose vma and lma members equal the VMA and LMA of the overlays section in the executable le. When gdb nds a matching entry, it consults the entrys mapped member to determine whether the overlay is currently mapped. In addition, your overlay manager may dene a function called _ovly_debug_event. If this function is dened, gdb will silently set a breakpoint there. If the overlay manager then calls this function whenever it has changed the overlay table, this will enable gdb to accurately keep track of which overlays are in program memory, and update any breakpoints that may be set in overlays. This will allow breakpoints to work even if the overlays are kept in ROM or other non-writable memory while they are not being executed.

14.4 Overlay Sample Program

When linking a program which uses overlays, you must place the overlays at their load addresses, while relocating them to run at their mapped addresses. To do this, you must write a linker script (see section Overlay Description in Using ld: the GNU linker). Unfortunately, since linker scripts are specic to a particular host system, target architecture, and target memory layout, this manual cannot provide portable sample code demonstrating gdbs overlay support. However, the gdb source distribution does contain an overlaid program, with linker scripts for a few systems, as part of its test suite. The program consists of the following les from gdb/testsuite/gdb.base: overlays.c The main program le. ovlymgr.c A simple overlay manager, used by overlays.c. foo.c bar.c baz.c grbx.c d10v.ld m32r.ld

Overlay modules, loaded and used by overlays.c. Linker scripts for linking the test program on the d10v-elf and m32r-elf targets.
-g -g -g -g -g -g -g -c overlays.c -c ovlymgr.c -c foo.c -c bar.c -c baz.c -c grbx.c overlays.o ovlymgr.o foo.o bar.o \

You can build the test program using the d10v-elf GCC cross-compiler like this:
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ d10v-elf-gcc d10v-elf-gcc d10v-elf-gcc d10v-elf-gcc d10v-elf-gcc d10v-elf-gcc d10v-elf-gcc

154

Debugging with gdb

baz.o grbx.o -Wl,-Td10v.ld -o overlays

The build process is identical for any other architecture, except that you must substitute the appropriate compiler and linker script for the target system for d10v-elf-gcc and d10v.ld.

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

155

15 Using gdb with Dierent Languages

Although programming languages generally have common aspects, they are rarely expressed in the same manner. For instance, in ANSI C, dereferencing a pointer p is accomplished by *p, but in Modula-2, it is accomplished by p^. Values can also be represented (and displayed) dierently. Hex numbers in C appear as 0x1ae, while in Modula-2 they appear as 1AEH. Language-specic information is built into gdb for some languages, allowing you to express operations like the above in your programs native language, and allowing gdb to output values in a manner consistent with the syntax of your programs native language. The language you use to build expressions is called the working language.

15.1 Switching Between Source Languages

There are two ways to control the working languageeither have gdb set it automatically, or select it manually yourself. You can use the set language command for either purpose. On startup, gdb defaults to setting the language automatically. The working language is used to determine how expressions you type are interpreted, how values are printed, etc. In addition to the working language, every source le that gdb knows about has its own working language. For some object le formats, the compiler might indicate which language a particular source le is in. However, most of the time gdb infers the language from the name of the le. The language of a source le controls whether C++ names are demangledthis way backtrace can show each frame appropriately for its own language. There is no way to set the language of a source le from within gdb, but you can set the language associated with a lename extension. See undened [Displaying the Language], page undened . This is most commonly a problem when you use a program, such as cfront or f2c, that generates C but is written in another language. In that case, make the program use #line directives in its C output; that way gdb will know the correct language of the source code of the original program, and will display that source code, not the generated C code.

15.1.1 List of Filename Extensions and Languages

If a source le name ends in one of the following extensions, then gdb infers that its language is the one indicated. .ada .ads .adb .a .c

Ada source le. C source le

156

Debugging with gdb

.C .cc .cp .cpp .cxx .c++ .d .m .f .F .mod .s .S

C++ source le D source le Objective-C source le Fortran source le Modula-2 source le Assembler source le. This actually behaves almost like C, but gdb does not skip over function prologues when stepping.

In addition, you may set the language associated with a lename extension. See undened [Displaying the Language], page undened .

15.1.2 Setting the Working Language

If you allow gdb to set the language automatically, expressions are interpreted the same way in your debugging session and your program. If you wish, you may set the language manually. To do this, issue the command set language lang , where lang is the name of a language, such as c or modula-2. For a list of the supported languages, type set language. Setting the language manually prevents gdb from updating the working language automatically. This can lead to confusion if you try to debug a program when the working language is not the same as the source language, when an expression is acceptable to both languagesbut means dierent things. For instance, if the current source le were written in C, and gdb was parsing Modula-2, a command such as:
print a = b + c

might not have the eect you intended. In C, this means to add b and c and place the result in a. The result printed would be the value of a. In Modula-2, this means to compare a to the result of b+c, yielding a BOOLEAN value.

15.1.3 Having gdb Infer the Source Language

To have gdb set the working language automatically, use set language local or set language auto. gdb then infers the working language. That is, when your program stops in a frame (usually by encountering a breakpoint), gdb sets the working language to the language recorded for the function in that frame. If the language for a frame is unknown (that is, if the function or block corresponding to the frame was dened in a source le that does not have a recognized extension), the current working language is not changed, and gdb issues a warning.

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

157

This may not seem necessary for most programs, which are written entirely in one source language. However, program modules and libraries written in one source language can be used by a main program written in a dierent source language. Using set language auto in this case frees you from having to set the working language manually.

15.2 Displaying the Language

The following commands help you nd out which language is the working language, and also what language source les were written in. show language Display the current working language. This is the language you can use with commands such as print to build and compute expressions that may involve variables in your program. info frame Display the source language for this frame. This language becomes the working language if you use an identier from this frame. See undened [Information about a Frame], page undened , to identify the other information listed here. info source Display the source language of this source le. See undened [Examining the Symbol Table], page undened , to identify the other information listed here. In unusual circumstances, you may have source les with extensions not in the standard list. You can then set the extension associated with a language explicitly: set extension-language ext language Tell gdb that source les with extension ext are to be assumed as written in the source language language. info extensions List all the lename extensions and the associated languages.

15.3 Type and Range Checking

Warning: In this release, the gdb commands for type and range checking are included, but they do not yet have any eect. This section documents the intended facilities. Some languages are designed to guard you against making seemingly common errors through a series of compile- and run-time checks. These include checking the type of arguments to functions and operators, and making sure mathematical overows are caught at run time. Checks such as these help to ensure a programs correctness once it has been compiled by eliminating type mismatches, and providing active checks for range errors when your program is running. gdb can check for conditions like the above if you wish. Although gdb does not check the statements in your program, it can check expressions entered directly into gdb for evaluation via the print command, for example. As with the working language, gdb can also decide

158

Debugging with gdb

whether or not to check automatically based on your programs source language. See undened [Supported Languages], page undened , for the default settings of supported languages.

15.3.1 An Overview of Type Checking

Some languages, such as Modula-2, are strongly typed, meaning that the arguments to operators and functions have to be of the correct type, otherwise an error occurs. These checks prevent type mismatch errors from ever causing any run-time problems. For example,
1 + 2 3 but

error

1 + 2.3

The second example fails because the CARDINAL 1 is not type-compatible with the REAL 2.3. For the expressions you use in gdb commands, you can tell the gdb type checker to skip checking; to treat any mismatches as errors and abandon the expression; or to only issue warnings when type mismatches occur, but evaluate the expression anyway. When you choose the last of these, gdb evaluates expressions like the second example above, but also issues a warning. Even if you turn type checking o, there may be other reasons related to type that prevent gdb from evaluating an expression. For instance, gdb does not know how to add an int and a struct foo. These particular type errors have nothing to do with the language in use, and usually arise from expressions, such as the one described above, which make little sense to evaluate anyway. Each language denes to what degree it is strict about type. For instance, both Modula2 and C require the arguments to arithmetical operators to be numbers. In C, enumerated types and pointers can be represented as numbers, so that they are valid arguments to mathematical operators. See undened [Supported Languages], page undened , for further details on specic languages. gdb provides some additional commands for controlling the type checker: set check type auto Set type checking on or o based on the current working language. See undened [Supported Languages], page undened , for the default settings for each language. set check type on set check type off Set type checking on or o, overriding the default setting for the current working language. Issue a warning if the setting does not match the language default. If any type mismatches occur in evaluating an expression while type checking is on, gdb prints a message and aborts evaluation of the expression. set check type warn Cause the type checker to issue warnings, but to always attempt to evaluate the expression. Evaluating the expression may still be impossible for other reasons. For example, gdb cannot add numbers and structures.

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

159

show type Show the current setting of the type checker, and whether or not gdb is setting it automatically.

15.3.2 An Overview of Range Checking

In some languages (such as Modula-2), it is an error to exceed the bounds of a type; this is enforced with run-time checks. Such range checking is meant to ensure program correctness by making sure computations do not overow, or indices on an array element access do not exceed the bounds of the array. For expressions you use in gdb commands, you can tell gdb to treat range errors in one of three ways: ignore them, always treat them as errors and abandon the expression, or issue warnings but evaluate the expression anyway. A range error can result from numerical overow, from exceeding an array index bound, or when you type a constant that is not a member of any type. Some languages, however, do not treat overows as an error. In many implementations of C, mathematical overow causes the result to wrap around to lower valuesfor example, if m is the largest integer value, and s is the smallest, then
m + 1 s

This, too, is specic to individual languages, and in some cases specic to individual compilers or machines. See undened [Supported Languages], page undened , for further details on specic languages. gdb provides some additional commands for controlling the range checker: set check range auto Set range checking on or o based on the current working language. See undened [Supported Languages], page undened , for the default settings for each language. set check range on set check range off Set range checking on or o, overriding the default setting for the current working language. A warning is issued if the setting does not match the language default. If a range error occurs and range checking is on, then a message is printed and evaluation of the expression is aborted. set check range warn Output messages when the gdb range checker detects a range error, but attempt to evaluate the expression anyway. Evaluating the expression may still be impossible for other reasons, such as accessing memory that the process does not own (a typical example from many Unix systems). show range Show the current setting of the range checker, and whether or not it is being set automatically by gdb.

160

Debugging with gdb

15.4 Supported Languages

gdb supports C, C++, D, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, Pascal, assembly, Modula-2, and Ada. Some gdb features may be used in expressions regardless of the language you use: the gdb @ and :: operators, and the {type}addr construct (see undened [Expressions], page undened ) can be used with the constructs of any supported language. The following sections detail to what degree each source language is supported by gdb. These sections are not meant to be language tutorials or references, but serve only as a reference guide to what the gdb expression parser accepts, and what input and output formats should look like for dierent languages. There are many good books written on each of these languages; please look to these for a language reference or tutorial.

15.4.1 C and C++

Since C and C++ are so closely related, many features of gdb apply to both languages. Whenever this is the case, we discuss those languages together. The C++ debugging facilities are jointly implemented by the C++ compiler and gdb. Therefore, to debug your C++ code eectively, you must compile your C++ programs with a supported C++ compiler, such as gnu g++, or the HP ANSI C++ compiler (aCC). For best results when using gnu C++, use the DWARF 2 debugging format; if it doesnt work on your system, try the stabs+ debugging format. You can select those formats explicitly with the g++ command-line options -gdwarf-2 and -gstabs+. See section Options for Debugging Your Program or GCC in Using the gnu Compiler Collection (GCC).

15.4.1.1 C and C++ Operators

Operators must be dened on values of specic types. For instance, + is dened on numbers, but not on structures. Operators are often dened on groups of types. For the purposes of C and C++, the following denitions hold: Integral types include int with any of its storage-class speciers; char; enum; and, for C++, bool. Floating-point types include float, double, and long double (if supported by the target platform). Pointer types include all types dened as (type *). Scalar types include all of the above. The following operators are supported. They are listed here in order of increasing precedence: , The comma or sequencing operator. Expressions in a comma-separated list are evaluated from left to right, with the result of the entire expression being the last expression evaluated. Assignment. The value of an assignment expression is the value assigned. Dened on scalar types.

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

161

op =

Used in an expression of the form a op = b , and translated to a = a op b . op = and = have the same precedence. op is any one of the operators |, ^, &, <<, >>, +, -, *, /, %. The ternary operator. a ? b : c can be thought of as: if a then b else c. a should be of an integral type. Logical or. Dened on integral types. Logical and. Dened on integral types. Bitwise or. Dened on integral types. Bitwise exclusive-or. Dened on integral types. Bitwise and. Dened on integral types. Equality and inequality. Dened on scalar types. The value of these expressions is 0 for false and non-zero for true. Less than, greater than, less than or equal, greater than or equal. Dened on scalar types. The value of these expressions is 0 for false and non-zero for true.

?: || && | ^ & ==, != <, >, <=, >=

<<, >> @ +, *, /, % ++, --

left shift, and right shift. Dened on integral types. The gdb articial array operator (see undened [Expressions], page undened ). Addition and subtraction. Dened on integral types, oating-point types and pointer types. Multiplication, division, and modulus. Multiplication and division are dened on integral and oating-point types. Modulus is dened on integral types. Increment and decrement. When appearing before a variable, the operation is performed before the variable is used in an expression; when appearing after it, the variables value is used before the operation takes place. Pointer dereferencing. Dened on pointer types. Same precedence as ++. Address operator. Dened on variables. Same precedence as ++. For debugging C++, gdb implements a use of & beyond what is allowed in the C++ language itself: you can use &(&ref ) to examine the address where a C++ reference variable (declared with &ref ) is stored. Negative. Dened on integral and oating-point types. Same precedence as ++. Logical negation. Dened on integral types. Same precedence as ++. Bitwise complement operator. Dened on integral types. Same precedence as ++. Structure member, and pointer-to-structure member. For convenience, gdb regards the two as equivalent, choosing whether to dereference a pointer based on the stored type information. Dened on struct and union data. Dereferences of pointers to members.

* &

! ~ ., ->

.*, ->*

162

Debugging with gdb

[] () :: ::

Array indexing. a [i ] is dened as *(a +i ). Same precedence as ->. Function parameter list. Same precedence as ->. C++ scope resolution operator. Dened on struct, union, and class types. Doubled colons also represent the gdb scope operator (see undened [Expressions], page undened ). Same precedence as ::, above.

If an operator is redened in the user code, gdb usually attempts to invoke the redened version instead of using the operators predened meaning.

15.4.1.2 C and C++ Constants

gdb allows you to express the constants of C and C++ in the following ways: Integer constants are a sequence of digits. Octal constants are specied by a leading 0 (i.e. zero), and hexadecimal constants by a leading 0x or 0X. Constants may also end with a letter l, specifying that the constant should be treated as a long value. Floating point constants are a sequence of digits, followed by a decimal point, followed by a sequence of digits, and optionally followed by an exponent. An exponent is of the form: e[[+]|-]nnn , where nnn is another sequence of digits. The + is optional for positive exponents. A oating-point constant may also end with a letter f or F, specifying that the constant should be treated as being of the float (as opposed to the default double) type; or with a letter l or L, which species a long double constant. Enumerated constants consist of enumerated identiers, or their integral equivalents. Character constants are a single character surrounded by single quotes (), or a numberthe ordinal value of the corresponding character (usually its ascii value). Within quotes, the single character may be represented by a letter or by escape sequences, which are of the form \nnn , where nnn is the octal representation of the characters ordinal value; or of the form \x , where x is a predened special characterfor example, \n for newline. String constants are a sequence of character constants surrounded by double quotes ("). Any valid character constant (as described above) may appear. Double quotes within the string must be preceded by a backslash, so for instance "a\"bc" is a string of ve characters. Pointer constants are an integral value. You can also write pointers to constants using the C operator &. Array constants are comma-separated lists surrounded by braces { and }; for example, {1,2,3} is a three-element array of integers, {{1,2}, {3,4}, {5,6}} is a three-by-two array, and {&"hi", &"there", &"fred"} is a three-element array of pointers.

15.4.1.3 C++ Expressions

gdb expression handling can interpret most C++ expressions. Warning: gdb can only debug C++ code if you use the proper compiler and the proper debug format. Currently, gdb works best when debugging C++

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

163

code that is compiled with gcc 2.95.3 or with gcc 3.1 or newer, using the options -gdwarf-2 or -gstabs+. DWARF 2 is preferred over stabs+. Most congurations of gcc emit either DWARF 2 or stabs+ as their default debug format, so you usually dont need to specify a debug format explicitly. Other compilers and/or debug formats are likely to work badly or not at all when using gdb to debug C++ code. 1. Member function calls are allowed; you can use expressions like
count = aml->GetOriginal(x, y)

2. While a member function is active (in the selected stack frame), your expressions have the same namespace available as the member function; that is, gdb allows implicit references to the class instance pointer this following the same rules as C++. 3. You can call overloaded functions; gdb resolves the function call to the right denition, with some restrictions. gdb does not perform overload resolution involving user-dened type conversions, calls to constructors, or instantiations of templates that do not exist in the program. It also cannot handle ellipsis argument lists or default arguments. It does perform integral conversions and promotions, oating-point promotions, arithmetic conversions, pointer conversions, conversions of class objects to base classes, and standard conversions such as those of functions or arrays to pointers; it requires an exact match on the number of function arguments. Overload resolution is always performed, unless you have specied set overloadresolution off. See undened [gdb Features for C++], page undened . You must specify set overload-resolution off in order to use an explicit function signature to call an overloaded function, as in
p foo(char,int)(x, 13)

The gdb command-completion facility can simplify this; see undened [Command Completion], page undened . 4. gdb understands variables declared as C++ references; you can use them in expressions just as you do in C++ sourcethey are automatically dereferenced. In the parameter list shown when gdb displays a frame, the values of reference variables are not displayed (unlike other variables); this avoids clutter, since references are often used for large structures. The address of a reference variable is always shown, unless you have specied set print address off. 5. gdb supports the C++ name resolution operator ::your expressions can use it just as expressions in your program do. Since one scope may be dened in another, you can use :: repeatedly if necessary, for example in an expression like scope1 ::scope2 ::name . gdb also allows resolving name scope by reference to source les, in both C and C++ debugging (see undened [Program Variables], page undened ). In addition, when used with HPs C++ compiler, gdb supports calling virtual functions correctly, printing out virtual bases of objects, calling functions in a base subobject, casting objects, and invoking user-dened operators.

164

Debugging with gdb

15.4.1.4 C and C++ Defaults

If you allow gdb to set type and range checking automatically, they both default to off whenever the working language changes to C or C++. This happens regardless of whether you or gdb selects the working language. If you allow gdb to set the language automatically, it recognizes source les whose names end with .c, .C, or .cc, etc, and when gdb enters code compiled from one of these les, it sets the working language to C or C++. See undened [Having gdb Infer the Source Language], page undened , for further details.

15.4.1.5 C and C++ Type and Range Checks

By default, when gdb parses C or C++ expressions, type checking is not used. However, if you turn type checking on, gdb considers two variables type equivalent if: The two variables are structured and have the same structure, union, or enumerated tag. The two variables have the same type name, or types that have been declared equivalent through typedef. Range checking, if turned on, is done on mathematical operations. Array indices are not checked, since they are often used to index a pointer that is not itself an array.

15.4.1.6 gdb and C

The set print union and show print union commands apply to the union type. When set to on, any union that is inside a struct or class is also printed. Otherwise, it appears as {...}. The @ operator aids in the debugging of dynamic arrays, formed with pointers and a memory allocation function. See undened [Expressions], page undened .

15.4.1.7 gdb Features for C++

Some gdb commands are particularly useful with C++, and some are designed specically for use with C++. Here is a summary: breakpoint menus When you want a breakpoint in a function whose name is overloaded, gdb has the capability to display a menu of possible breakpoint locations to help you specify which function denition you want. See undened [Ambiguous Expressions], page undened . rbreak regex Setting breakpoints using regular expressions is helpful for setting breakpoints on overloaded functions that are not members of any special classes. See undened [Setting Breakpoints], page undened .

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

165

catch throw catch catch Debug C++ exception handling using these commands. See undened [Setting Catchpoints], page undened . ptype typename Print inheritance relationships as well as other information for type typename. See undened [Examining the Symbol Table], page undened . set print demangle show print demangle set print asm-demangle show print asm-demangle Control whether C++ symbols display in their source form, both when displaying code as C++ source and when displaying disassemblies. See undened [Print Settings], page undened . set print object show print object Choose whether to print derived (actual) or declared types of objects. See undened [Print Settings], page undened . set print vtbl show print vtbl Control the format for printing virtual function tables. See undened [Print Settings], page undened . (The vtbl commands do not work on programs compiled with the HP ANSI C++ compiler (aCC).) set overload-resolution on Enable overload resolution for C++ expression evaluation. The default is on. For overloaded functions, gdb evaluates the arguments and searches for a function whose signature matches the argument types, using the standard C++ conversion rules (see undened [C++ Expressions], page undened , for details). If it cannot nd a match, it emits a message. set overload-resolution off Disable overload resolution for C++ expression evaluation. For overloaded functions that are not class member functions, gdb chooses the rst function of the specied name that it nds in the symbol table, whether or not its arguments are of the correct type. For overloaded functions that are class member functions, gdb searches for a function whose signature exactly matches the argument types. show overload-resolution Show the current setting of overload resolution. Overloaded symbol names You can specify a particular denition of an overloaded symbol, using the same notation that is used to declare such symbols in C++: type symbol (types ) rather than just symbol. You can also use the gdb command-line word completion facilities to list the available choices, or to nish the type list for you.

166

Debugging with gdb

See undened [Command Completion], page undened , for details on how to do this.

15.4.1.8 Decimal Floating Point format

gdb can examine, set and perform computations with numbers in decimal oating point format, which in the C language correspond to the _Decimal32, _Decimal64 and _Decimal128 types as specied by the extension to support decimal oating-point arithmetic. There are two encodings in use, depending on the architecture: BID (Binary Integer Decimal) for x86 and x86-64, and DPD (Densely Packed Decimal) for PowerPC. gdb will use the appropriate encoding for the congured target. Because of a limitation in libdecnumber, the library used by gdb to manipulate decimal oating point numbers, it is not possible to convert (using a cast, for example) integers wider than 32-bit to decimal oat. In addition, in order to imitate gdbs behaviour with binary oating point computations, error checking in decimal oat operations ignores underow, overow and divide by zero exceptions. In the PowerPC architecture, gdb provides a set of pseudo-registers to inspect _Decimal128 values stored in oating point registers. See undened [PowerPC], page undened for more details.

15.4.2 D
gdb can be used to debug programs written in D and compiled with GDC, LDC or DMD compilers. Currently gdb supports only one D specic feature dynamic arrays.

15.4.3 Objective-C
This section provides information about some commands and command options that are useful for debugging Objective-C code. See also undened [Symbols], page undened , and undened [Symbols], page undened , for a few more commands specic to Objective-C support.

15.4.3.1 Method Names in Commands

The following commands have been extended to accept Objective-C method names as line specications: clear break info line jump list A fully qualied Objective-C method name is specied as

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

167

-[Class methodName ]

where the minus sign is used to indicate an instance method and a plus sign (not shown) is used to indicate a class method. The class name Class and method name methodName are enclosed in brackets, similar to the way messages are specied in Objective-C source code. For example, to set a breakpoint at the create instance method of class Fruit in the program currently being debugged, enter:
break -[Fruit create]

To list ten program lines around the initialize class method, enter:
list +[NSText initialize]

In the current version of gdb, the plus or minus sign is required. In future versions of gdb, the plus or minus sign will be optional, but you can use it to narrow the search. It is also possible to specify just a method name:
break create

You must specify the complete method name, including any colons. If your programs source les contain more than one create method, youll be presented with a numbered list of classes that implement that method. Indicate your choice by number, or type 0 to exit if none apply. As another example, to clear a breakpoint established at the makeKeyAndOrderFront: method of the NSWindow class, enter:
clear -[NSWindow makeKeyAndOrderFront:]

15.4.3.2 The Print Command With Objective-C

The print command has also been extended to accept methods. For example:
print -[object hash]

will tell gdb to send the hash message to object and print the result. Also, an additional command has been added, print-object or po for short, which is meant to print the description of an object. However, this command may only work with certain Objective-C libraries that have a particular hook function, _NSPrintForDebugger, dened.

15.4.4 Fortran
gdb can be used to debug programs written in Fortran, but it currently supports only the features of Fortran 77 language. Some Fortran compilers (gnu Fortran 77 and Fortran 95 compilers among them) append an underscore to the names of variables and functions. When you debug programs compiled by those compilers, you will need to refer to variables and functions with a trailing underscore.

15.4.4.1 Fortran Operators and Expressions

Operators must be dened on values of specic types. For instance, + is dened on numbers, but not on characters or other non- arithmetic types. Operators are often dened on groups of types.

168

Debugging with gdb

** : %

The exponentiation operator. It raises the rst operand to the power of the second one. The range operator. Normally used in the form of array(low:high) to represent a section of array. The access component operator. Normally used to access elements in derived types. Also suitable for unions. As unions arent part of regular Fortran, this can only happen when accessing a register that uses a gdbarch-dened union type.

15.4.4.2 Fortran Defaults

Fortran symbols are usually case-insensitive, so gdb by default uses case-insensitive matches for Fortran symbols. You can change that with the set case-insensitive command, see undened [Symbols], page undened , for the details.

15.4.4.3 Special Fortran Commands

gdb has some commands to support Fortran-specic features, such as displaying common blocks. info common [common-name ] This command prints the values contained in the Fortran COMMON block whose name is common-name. With no argument, the names of all COMMON blocks visible at the current program location are printed.

15.4.5 Pascal
Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, le variables, or nested functions does not currently work. gdb does not support entering expressions, printing values, or similar features using Pascal syntax. The Pascal-specic command set print pascal_static-members controls whether static members of Pascal objects are displayed. See undened [Print Settings], page undened .

15.4.6 Modula-2
The extensions made to gdb to support Modula-2 only support output from the gnu Modula-2 compiler (which is currently being developed). Other Modula-2 compilers are not currently supported, and attempting to debug executables produced by them is most likely to give an error as gdb reads in the executables symbol table.

15.4.6.1 Operators
Operators must be dened on values of specic types. For instance, + is dened on numbers, but not on structures. Operators are often dened on groups of types. For the purposes of Modula-2, the following denitions hold:

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

169

Integral types consist of INTEGER, CARDINAL, and their subranges. Character types consist of CHAR and its subranges. Floating-point types consist of REAL. Pointer types consist of anything declared as POINTER TO type . Scalar types consist of all of the above. Set types consist of SET and BITSET types. Boolean types consist of BOOLEAN.

The following operators are supported, and appear in order of increasing precedence: , := <, > <=, >= =, <>, # Function argument or array index separator. Assignment. The value of var := value is value. Less than, greater than on integral, oating-point, or enumerated types. Less than or equal to, greater than or equal to on integral, oating-point and enumerated types, or set inclusion on set types. Same precedence as <. Equality and two ways of expressing inequality, valid on scalar types. Same precedence as <. In gdb scripts, only <> is available for inequality, since # conicts with the script comment character. Set membership. Dened on set types and the types of their members. Same precedence as <. Boolean disjunction. Dened on boolean types. Boolean conjunction. Dened on boolean types. The gdb articial array operator (see undened [Expressions], page undened ). Addition and subtraction on integral and oating-point types, or union and dierence on set types. Multiplication on integral and oating-point types, or set intersection on set types. Division on oating-point types, or symmetric set dierence on set types. Same precedence as *. Integer division and remainder. Dened on integral types. Same precedence as *. Negative. Dened on INTEGER and REAL data. Pointer dereferencing. Dened on pointer types. Boolean negation. Dened on boolean types. Same precedence as ^. RECORD eld selector. Dened on RECORD data. Same precedence as ^. Array indexing. Dened on ARRAY data. Same precedence as ^. Procedure argument list. Dened on PROCEDURE objects. Same precedence as ^.

IN OR AND, & @ +, * / DIV, MOD ^ NOT . [] ()

170

Debugging with gdb

::, .

gdb and Modula-2 scope operators. Warning: Set expressions and their operations are not yet supported, so gdb treats the use of the operator IN, or the use of operators +, -, *, /, =, , <>, #, <=, and >= on sets as an error.

15.4.6.2 Built-in Functions and Procedures

Modula-2 also makes available several built-in procedures and functions. In describing these, the following metavariables are used: a c i m represents an ARRAY variable. represents a CHAR constant or variable. represents a variable or constant of integral type. represents an identier that belongs to a set. Generally used in the same function with the metavariable s. The type of s should be SET OF mtype (where mtype is the type of m). represents a variable or constant of integral or oating-point type. represents a variable or constant of oating-point type. represents a type. represents a variable. represents a variable or constant of one of many types. See the explanation of the function for details. All Modula-2 built-in procedures also return a result, described below. ABS(n ) CAP(c ) CHR(i ) DEC(v ) Returns the absolute value of n. If c is a lower case letter, it returns its upper case equivalent, otherwise it returns its argument. Returns the character whose ordinal value is i. Decrements the value in the variable v by one. Returns the new value.

n r t v x

DEC(v,i ) Decrements the value in the variable v by i. Returns the new value. EXCL(m,s ) Removes the element m from the set s. Returns the new set. FLOAT(i ) Returns the oating point equivalent of the integer i. HIGH(a ) INC(v ) Returns the index of the last member of a. Increments the value in the variable v by one. Returns the new value.

INC(v,i ) Increments the value in the variable v by i. Returns the new value. INCL(m,s ) Adds the element m to the set s if it is not already there. Returns the new set. MAX(t ) Returns the maximum value of the type t.

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

171

MIN(t ) ODD(i ) ORD(x )

Returns the minimum value of the type t. Returns boolean TRUE if i is an odd number. Returns the ordinal value of its argument. For example, the ordinal value of a character is its ascii value (on machines supporting the ascii character set). x must be of an ordered type, which include integral, character and enumerated types. Returns the size of its argument. x can be a variable or a type.

SIZE(x )

TRUNC(r ) Returns the integral part of r. TSIZE(x ) Returns the size of its argument. x can be a variable or a type. VAL(t,i ) Returns the member of the type t whose ordinal value is i. Warning: Sets and their operations are not yet supported, so gdb treats the use of procedures INCL and EXCL as an error.

15.4.6.3 Constants
gdb allows you to express the constants of Modula-2 in the following ways: Integer constants are simply a sequence of digits. When used in an expression, a constant is interpreted to be type-compatible with the rest of the expression. Hexadecimal integers are specied by a trailing H, and octal integers by a trailing B. Floating point constants appear as a sequence of digits, followed by a decimal point and another sequence of digits. An optional exponent can then be specied, in the form E[+|-]nnn , where [+|-]nnn is the desired exponent. All of the digits of the oating point constant must be valid decimal (base 10) digits. Character constants consist of a single character enclosed by a pair of like quotes, either single () or double ("). They may also be expressed by their ordinal value (their ascii value, usually) followed by a C. String constants consist of a sequence of characters enclosed by a pair of like quotes, either single () or double ("). Escape sequences in the style of C are also allowed. See undened [C and C++ Constants], page undened , for a brief explanation of escape sequences. Enumerated constants consist of an enumerated identier. Boolean constants consist of the identiers TRUE and FALSE. Pointer constants consist of integral values only. Set constants are not yet supported.

15.4.6.4 Modula-2 Types

Currently gdb can print the following data types in Modula-2 syntax: array types, record types, set types, pointer types, procedure types, enumerated types, subrange types and base types. You can also print the contents of variables declared using these type. This section gives a number of simple source code examples together with sample gdb sessions. The rst example contains the following section of code:

172

Debugging with gdb

VAR s: SET OF CHAR ; r: [20..40] ;

and you can request gdb to interrogate the type and value of r and s.
(gdb) print s {A..C, Z} (gdb) ptype s SET OF CHAR (gdb) print r 21 (gdb) ptype r [20..40]

Likewise if your source code declares s as:

VAR s: SET [A..Z] ;

then you may query the type of s by:

(gdb) ptype s type = SET [A..Z]

Note that at present you cannot interactively manipulate set expressions using the debugger. The following example shows how you might declare an array in Modula-2 and how you can interact with gdb to print its type and contents:
VAR s: ARRAY [-10..10] OF CHAR ; (gdb) ptype s ARRAY [-10..10] OF CHAR

Note that the array handling is not yet complete and although the type is printed correctly, expression handling still assumes that all arrays have a lower bound of zero and not -10 as in the example above. Here are some more type related Modula-2 examples:
TYPE colour = (blue, red, yellow, green) ; t = [blue..yellow] ; VAR s: t ; BEGIN s := blue ;

The gdb interaction shows how you can query the data type and value of a variable.
(gdb) print s $1 = blue (gdb) ptype t type = [blue..yellow]

In this example a Modula-2 array is declared and its contents displayed. Observe that the contents are written in the same way as their C counterparts.
VAR s: ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL ; BEGIN s[1] := 1 ; (gdb) print s $1 = {1, 0, 0, 0, 0} (gdb) ptype s

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

173

type = ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL

The Modula-2 language interface to gdb also understands pointer types as shown in this example:
VAR s: POINTER TO ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL ; BEGIN NEW(s) ; s^[1] := 1 ;

and you can request that gdb describes the type of s.

(gdb) ptype s type = POINTER TO ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL

gdb handles compound types as we can see in this example. Here we combine array types, record types, pointer types and subrange types:
TYPE foo = RECORD f1: CARDINAL ; f2: CHAR ; f3: myarray ; END ; myarray = ARRAY myrange OF CARDINAL ; myrange = [-2..2] ; VAR s: POINTER TO ARRAY myrange OF foo ;

and you can ask gdb to describe the type of s as shown below.
(gdb) ptype s type = POINTER TO ARRAY [-2..2] OF foo = RECORD f1 : CARDINAL; f2 : CHAR; f3 : ARRAY [-2..2] OF CARDINAL; END

15.4.6.5 Modula-2 Defaults

If type and range checking are set automatically by gdb, they both default to on whenever the working language changes to Modula-2. This happens regardless of whether you or gdb selected the working language. If you allow gdb to set the language automatically, then entering code compiled from a le whose name ends with .mod sets the working language to Modula-2. See undened [Having gdb Infer the Source Language], page undened , for further details.

15.4.6.6 Deviations from Standard Modula-2

A few changes have been made to make Modula-2 programs easier to debug. This is done primarily via loosening its type strictness: Unlike in standard Modula-2, pointer constants can be formed by integers. This allows you to modify pointer variables during debugging. (In standard Modula-2, the actual address contained in a pointer variable is hidden from you; it can only be modied through direct assignment to another pointer variable or expression that returned a pointer.)

174

Debugging with gdb

C escape sequences can be used in strings and characters to represent non-printable characters. gdb prints out strings with these escape sequences embedded. Single nonprintable characters are printed using the CHR(nnn ) format. The assignment operator (:=) returns the value of its right-hand argument. All built-in procedures both modify and return their argument.

15.4.6.7 Modula-2 Type and Range Checks

Warning: in this release, gdb does not yet perform type or range checking. gdb considers two Modula-2 variables type equivalent if: They are of types that have been declared equivalent via a TYPE t1 = t2 statement They have been declared on the same line. (Note: This is true of the gnu Modula-2 compiler, but it may not be true of other compilers.) As long as type checking is enabled, any attempt to combine variables whose types are not equivalent is an error. Range checking is done on all mathematical operations, assignment, array index bounds, and all built-in functions and procedures.

15.4.6.8 The Scope Operators :: and .

There are a few subtle dierences between the Modula-2 scope operator (.) and the gdb scope operator (::). The two have similar syntax:
module . id scope :: id

where scope is the name of a module or a procedure, module the name of a module, and id is any declared identier within your program, except another module. Using the :: operator makes gdb search the scope specied by scope for the identier id. If it is not found in the specied scope, then gdb searches all scopes enclosing the one specied by scope. Using the . operator makes gdb search the current scope for the identier specied by id that was imported from the denition module specied by module. With this operator, it is an error if the identier id was not imported from denition module module, or if id is not an identier in module.

15.4.6.9 gdb and Modula-2

Some gdb commands have little use when debugging Modula-2 programs. Five subcommands of set print and show print apply specically to C and C++: vtbl, demangle, asm-demangle, object, and union. The rst four apply to C++, and the last to the C union type, which has no direct analogue in Modula-2. The @ operator (see undened [Expressions], page undened ), while available with any language, is not useful with Modula-2. Its intent is to aid the debugging of dynamic arrays, which cannot be created in Modula-2 as they can in C or C++. However, because

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

175

an address can be specied by an integral constant, the construct {type }adrexp is still useful. In gdb scripts, the Modula-2 inequality operator # is interpreted as the beginning of a comment. Use <> instead.

15.4.7 Ada
The extensions made to gdb for Ada only support output from the gnu Ada (GNAT) compiler. Other Ada compilers are not currently supported, and attempting to debug executables produced by them is most likely to be dicult.

15.4.7.1 Introduction
The Ada mode of gdb supports a fairly large subset of Ada expression syntax, with some extensions. The philosophy behind the design of this subset is That gdb should provide basic literals and access to operations for arithmetic, dereferencing, eld selection, indexing, and subprogram calls, leaving more sophisticated computations to subprograms written into the program (which therefore may be called from gdb). That type safety and strict adherence to Ada language restrictions are not particularly important to the gdb user. That brevity is important to the gdb user. Thus, for brevity, the debugger acts as if all names declared in user-written packages are directly visible, even if they are not visible according to Ada rules, thus making it unnecessary to fully qualify most names with their packages, regardless of context. Where this causes ambiguity, gdb asks the users intent. The debugger will start in Ada mode if it detects an Ada main program. As for other languages, it will enter Ada mode when stopped in a program that was translated from an Ada source le. While in Ada mode, you may use -- for comments. This is useful mostly for documenting command les. The standard gdb comment (#) still works at the beginning of a line in Ada mode, but not in the middle (to allow based literals). The debugger supports limited overloading. Given a subprogram call in which the function symbol has multiple denitions, it will use the number of actual parameters and some information about their types to attempt to narrow the set of denitions. It also makes very limited use of context, preferring procedures to functions in the context of the call command, and functions to procedures elsewhere.

15.4.7.2 Omissions from Ada

Here are the notable omissions from the subset: Only a subset of the attributes are supported: First, Last, and Length on array objects (not on types and subtypes).

176

Debugging with gdb

Min and Max. Pos and Val. Tag. Range on array objects (not subtypes), but only as the right operand of the membership (in) operator. Access, Unchecked_Access, and Unrestricted_Access (a GNAT extension). Address. The names in Characters.Latin_1 are not available and concatenation is not implemented. Thus, escape characters in strings are not currently available. Equality tests (= and /=) on arrays test for bitwise equality of representations. They will generally work correctly for strings and arrays whose elements have integer or enumeration types. They may not work correctly for arrays whose element types have user-dened equality, for arrays of real values (in particular, IEEE-conformant oating point, because of negative zeroes and NaNs), and for arrays whose elements contain unused bits with indeterminate values. The other component-by-component array operations (and, or, xor, not, and relational tests other than equality) are not implemented. There is limited support for array and record aggregates. They are permitted only on the right sides of assignments, as in these examples:
(gdb) (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) (gdb) set set set set set set An_Array := (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) An_Array := (1, others => 0) An_Array := (0|4 => 1, 1..3 => 2, 5 => 6) A_2D_Array := ((1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6), (7, 8, 9)) A_Record := (1, "Peter", True); A_Record := (Name => "Peter", Id => 1, Alive => True)

Changing a discriminants value by assigning an aggregate has an undened eect if that discriminant is used within the record. However, you can rst modify discriminants by directly assigning to them (which normally would not be allowed in Ada), and then performing an aggregate assignment. For example, given a variable A_Rec declared to have a type such as:
type Rec (Len : Small_Integer := 0) is record Id : Integer; Vals : IntArray (1 .. Len); end record;

you can assign a value with a dierent size of Vals with two assignments:
(gdb) set A_Rec.Len := 4 (gdb) set A_Rec := (Id => 42, Vals => (1, 2, 3, 4))

As this example also illustrates, gdb is very loose about the usual rules concerning aggregates. You may leave out some of the components of an array or record aggregate (such as the Len component in the assignment to A_Rec above); they will retain their original values upon assignment. You may freely use dynamic values as indices in component associations. You may even use overlapping or redundant component associations, although which component values are assigned in such cases is not dened. Calls to dispatching subprograms are not implemented. The overloading algorithm is much more limited (i.e., less selective) than that of real Ada. It makes only limited use of the context in which a subexpression appears to

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

177

resolve its meaning, and it is much looser in its rules for allowing type matches. As a result, some function calls will be ambiguous, and the user will be asked to choose the proper resolution. The new operator is not implemented. Entry calls are not implemented. Aside from printing, arithmetic operations on the native VAX oating-point formats are not supported. It is not possible to slice a packed array. The names True and False, when not part of a qualied name, are interpreted as if implicitly prexed by Standard, regardless of context. Should your program redene these names in a package or procedure (at best a dubious practice), you will have to use fully qualied names to access their new denitions.

15.4.7.3 Additions to Ada

As it does for other languages, gdb makes certain generic extensions to Ada (see undened [Expressions], page undened ): If the expression E is a variable residing in memory (typically a local variable or array element) and N is a positive integer, then E @N displays the values of E and the N-1 adjacent variables following it in memory as an array. In Ada, this operator is generally not necessary, since its prime use is in displaying parts of an array, and slicing will usually do this in Ada. However, there are occasional uses when debugging programs in which certain debugging information has been optimized away. B ::var means the variable named var that appears in function or le B. When B is a le name, you must typically surround it in single quotes. The expression {type } addr means the variable of type type that appears at address addr. A name starting with $ is a convenience variable (see undened [Convenience Vars], page undened ) or a machine register (see undened [Registers], page undened ). In addition, gdb provides a few other shortcuts and outright additions specic to Ada: The assignment statement is allowed as an expression, returning its right-hand operand as its value. Thus, you may enter
(gdb) set x := y + 3 (gdb) print A(tmp := y + 1)

The semicolon is allowed as an operator, returning as its value the value of its righthand operand. This allows, for example, complex conditional breaks:
(gdb) break f (gdb) condition 1 (report(i); k += 1; A(k) > 100)

Rather than use catenation and symbolic character names to introduce special characters into strings, one may instead use a special bracket notation, which is also used to print strings. A sequence of characters of the form ["XX "] within a string or character literal denotes the (single) character whose numeric encoding is XX in hexadecimal. The sequence of characters ["""] also denotes a single quotation mark in strings. For example,

178

Debugging with gdb

"One line.["0a"]Next line.["0a"]"

contains an ASCII newline character (Ada.Characters.Latin_1.LF) after each period. The subtype used as a prex for the attributes Pos, Min, and Max is optional (and is ignored in any case). For example, it is valid to write
(gdb) print max(x, y)

When printing arrays, gdb uses positional notation when the array has a lower bound of 1, and uses a modied named notation otherwise. For example, a one-dimensional array of three integers with a lower bound of 3 might print as
(3 => 10, 17, 1)

That is, in contrast to valid Ada, only the rst component has a => clause. You may abbreviate attributes in expressions with any unique, multi-character subsequence of their names (an exact match gets preference). For example, you may use alen, agth, or alh in place of alength. Since Ada is case-insensitive, the debugger normally maps identiers you type to lower case. The GNAT compiler uses upper-case characters for some of its internal identiers, which are normally of no interest to users. For the rare occasions when you actually have to look at them, enclose them in angle brackets to avoid the lower-case mapping. For example,
(gdb) print <JMPBUF_SAVE>[0]

Printing an object of class-wide type or dereferencing an access-to-class-wide value will display all the components of the objects specic type (as indicated by its run-time tag). Likewise, component selection on such a value will operate on the specic type of the object.

15.4.7.4 Stopping at the Very Beginning

It is sometimes necessary to debug the program during elaboration, and before reaching the main procedure. As dened in the Ada Reference Manual, the elaboration code is invoked from a procedure called adainit. To run your program up to the beginning of elaboration, simply use the following two commands: tbreak adainit and run.

15.4.7.5 Extensions for Ada Tasks

Support for Ada tasks is analogous to that for threads (see undened [Threads], page undened ). gdb provides the following task-related commands: info tasks This command shows a list of current Ada tasks, as in the following example:
(gdb) info tasks ID TID P-ID Pri State Name 1 8088000 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task 2 80a4000 1 15 Accept Statement b 3 809a800 1 15 Child Activation Wait a * 4 80ae800 3 15 Runnable c

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

179

In this listing, the asterisk before the last task indicates it to be the task currently being inspected. ID TID P-ID Pri State Represents gdbs internal task number. The Ada task ID. The parents task ID (gdbs internal task number). The base priority of the task. Current state of the task. Unactivated The task has been created but has not been activated. It cannot be executing. Runnable The task is not blocked for any reason known to Ada. (It may be waiting for a mutex, though.) It is conceptually "executing" in normal mode. The task is terminated, in the sense of ARM 9.3 (5). Any dependents that were waiting on terminate alternatives have been awakened and have terminated themselves. Child Activation Wait The task is waiting for created tasks to complete activation. Accept Statement The task is waiting on an accept or selective wait statement. Waiting on entry call The task is waiting on an entry call. Async Select Wait The task is waiting to start the abortable part of an asynchronous select statement. Delay Sleep The task is waiting on a select statement with only a delay alternative open. Child Termination Wait The task is sleeping having completed a master within itself, and is waiting for the tasks dependent on that master to become terminated or waiting on a terminate Phase. Wait Child in Term Alt The task is sleeping waiting for tasks on terminate alternatives to nish terminating.

Terminated

180

Debugging with gdb

Accepting RV with taskno The task is accepting a rendez-vous with the task taskno. Name Name of the task in the program.

info task taskno This command shows detailled informations on the specied task, as in the following example:

(gdb) info tasks ID TID P-ID Pri State 1 8077880 0 15 Child Activation Wait * 2 807c468 1 15 Runnable (gdb) info task 2 Ada Task: 0x807c468 Name: task_1 Thread: 0x807f378 Parent: 1 (main_task) Base Priority: 15 State: Runnable

Name main_task task_1

task

This command prints the ID of the current task.

(gdb) info tasks ID TID P-ID Pri State 1 8077870 0 15 Child Activation Wait * 2 807c458 1 15 Runnable (gdb) task [Current task is 2]

Name main_task t

task taskno This command is like the thread threadno command (see undened [Threads], page undened ). It switches the context of debugging from the current task to the given task.

(gdb) info tasks ID TID P-ID Pri State Name 1 8077870 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task * 2 807c458 1 15 Runnable t (gdb) task 1 [Switching to task 1] #0 0x8067726 in pthread_cond_wait () (gdb) bt #0 0x8067726 in pthread_cond_wait () #1 0x8056714 in system.os_interface.pthread_cond_wait () #2 0x805cb63 in system.task_primitives.operations.sleep () #3 0x806153e in system.tasking.stages.activate_tasks () #4 0x804aacc in un () at un.adb:5

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

181

break linespec task taskno break linespec task taskno if ... These commands are like the break ... thread ... command (see undened [Thread Stops], page undened ). linespec species source lines, as described in undened [Specify Location], page undened . Use the qualier task taskno with a breakpoint command to specify that you only want gdb to stop the program when a particular Ada task reaches this breakpoint. taskno is one of the numeric task identiers assigned by gdb, shown in the rst column of the info tasks display. If you do not specify task taskno when you set a breakpoint, the breakpoint applies to all tasks of your program. You can use the task qualier on conditional breakpoints as well; in this case, place task taskno before the breakpoint condition (before the if). For example,

(gdb) info tasks ID TID P-ID Pri State Name 1 140022020 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task 2 140045060 1 15 Accept/Select Wait t2 3 140044840 1 15 Runnable t1 * 4 140056040 1 15 Runnable t3 (gdb) b 15 task 2 Breakpoint 5 at 0x120044cb0: file test_task_debug.adb, line 15. (gdb) cont Continuing. task # 1 running task # 2 running Breakpoint 5, test_task_debug () at test_task_debug.adb:15 15 flush; (gdb) info tasks ID TID P-ID Pri State Name 1 140022020 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task * 2 140045060 1 15 Runnable t2 3 140044840 1 15 Runnable t1 4 140056040 1 15 Delay Sleep t3

15.4.7.6 Tasking Support when Debugging Core Files

When inspecting a core le, as opposed to debugging a live program, tasking support may be limited or even unavailable, depending on the platform being used. For instance, on x86-linux, the list of tasks is available, but task switching is not supported. On Tru64, however, task switching will work as usual. On certain platforms, including Tru64, the debugger needs to perform some memory writes in order to provide Ada tasking support. When inspecting a core le, this means that the core le must be opened with read-write privileges, using the command "set write on" (see undened [Patching], page undened ). Under these circumstances, you should make a backup copy of the core le before inspecting it with gdb.

182

Debugging with gdb

15.4.7.7 Known Peculiarities of Ada Mode

Besides the omissions listed previously (see undened [Omissions from Ada], page undened ), we know of several problems with and limitations of Ada mode in gdb, some of which will be xed with planned future releases of the debugger and the GNU Ada compiler. Currently, the debugger has insucient information to determine whether certain pointers represent pointers to objects or the objects themselves. Thus, the user may have to tack an extra .all after an expression to get it printed properly. Static constants that the compiler chooses not to materialize as objects in storage are invisible to the debugger. Named parameter associations in function argument lists are ignored (the argument lists are treated as positional). Many useful library packages are currently invisible to the debugger. Fixed-point arithmetic, conversions, input, and output is carried out using oatingpoint arithmetic, and may give results that only approximate those on the host machine. The GNAT compiler never generates the prex Standard for any of the standard symbols dened by the Ada language. gdb knows about this: it will strip the prex from names when you use it, and will never look for a name you have so qualied among local symbols, nor match against symbols in other packages or subprograms. If you have dened entities anywhere in your program other than parameters and local variables whose simple names match names in Standard, GNATs lack of qualication here can cause confusion. When this happens, you can usually resolve the confusion by qualifying the problematic names with package Standard explicitly. Older versions of the compiler sometimes generate erroneous debugging information, resulting in the debugger incorrectly printing the value of aected entities. In some cases, the debugger is able to work around an issue automatically. In other cases, the debugger is able to work around the issue, but the work-around has to be specically enabled. set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on Congure GDB to strictly follow the GNAT encoding when computing the value of Ada entities, particularly when PAD and PAD___XVS types are involved (see ada/exp_dbug.ads in the GCC sources for a complete description of the encoding used by the GNAT compiler). This is the default. set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS off This is related to the encoding using by the GNAT compiler. If gdb sometimes prints the wrong value for certain entities, changing ada trust-PAD-over-XVS to off activates a work-around which may x the issue. It is always safe to set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS to off, but this incurs a slight performance penalty, so it is recommended to leave this setting to on unless necessary.

15.5 Unsupported Languages

In addition to the other fully-supported programming languages, gdb also provides a pseudo-language, called minimal. It does not represent a real programming language, but

Chapter 15: Using gdb with Dierent Languages

183

provides a set of capabilities close to what the C or assembly languages provide. This should allow most simple operations to be performed while debugging an application that uses a language currently not supported by gdb. If the language is set to auto, gdb will automatically select this language if the current frame corresponds to an unsupported language.

184

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 16: Examining the Symbol Table

185

16 Examining the Symbol Table

The commands described in this chapter allow you to inquire about the symbols (names of variables, functions and types) dened in your program. This information is inherent in the text of your program and does not change as your program executes. gdb nds it in your programs symbol table, in the le indicated when you started gdb (see undened [Choosing Files], page undened ), or by one of the le-management commands (see undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened ). Occasionally, you may need to refer to symbols that contain unusual characters, which gdb ordinarily treats as word delimiters. The most frequent case is in referring to static variables in other source les (see undened [Program Variables], page undened ). File names are recorded in object les as debugging symbols, but gdb would ordinarily parse a typical le name, like foo.c, as the three words foo . c. To allow gdb to recognize foo.c as a single symbol, enclose it in single quotes; for example,
p foo.c::x

looks up the value of x in the scope of the le foo.c. set case-sensitive on set case-sensitive off set case-sensitive auto Normally, when gdb looks up symbols, it matches their names with case sensitivity determined by the current source language. Occasionally, you may wish to control that. The command set case-sensitive lets you do that by specifying on for case-sensitive matches or off for case-insensitive ones. If you specify auto, case sensitivity is reset to the default suitable for the source language. The default is case-sensitive matches for all languages except for Fortran, for which the default is case-insensitive matches. show case-sensitive This command shows the current setting of case sensitivity for symbols lookups. info address symbol Describe where the data for symbol is stored. For a register variable, this says which register it is kept in. For a non-register local variable, this prints the stack-frame oset at which the variable is always stored. Note the contrast with print &symbol , which does not work at all for a register variable, and for a stack local variable prints the exact address of the current instantiation of the variable. info symbol addr Print the name of a symbol which is stored at the address addr. If no symbol is stored exactly at addr, gdb prints the nearest symbol and an oset from it:
(gdb) info symbol 0x54320 _initialize_vx + 396 in section .text

This is the opposite of the info address command. You can use it to nd out the name of a variable or a function given its address. For dynamically linked executables, the name of executable or shared library containing the symbol is also printed:

186

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) info symbol 0x400225 _start + 5 in section .text of /tmp/a.out (gdb) info symbol 0x2aaaac2811cf __read_nocancel + 6 in section .text of /usr/lib64/libc.so.6

whatis [arg ] Print the data type of arg, which can be either an expression or a data type. With no argument, print the data type of $, the last value in the value history. If arg is an expression, it is not actually evaluated, and any side-eecting operations (such as assignments or function calls) inside it do not take place. If arg is a type name, it may be the name of a type or typedef, or for C code it may have the form class class-name , struct struct-tag , union union-tag or enum enum-tag . See undened [Expressions], page undened . ptype [arg ] ptype accepts the same arguments as whatis, but prints a detailed description of the type, instead of just the name of the type. See undened [Expressions], page undened . For example, for this variable declaration:
struct complex {double real; double imag;} v;

the two commands give this output:

(gdb) whatis v type = struct complex (gdb) ptype v type = struct complex { double real; double imag; }

As with whatis, using ptype without an argument refers to the type of $, the last value in the value history. Sometimes, programs use opaque data types or incomplete specications of complex data structure. If the debug information included in the program does not allow gdb to display a full declaration of the data type, it will say <incomplete type>. For example, given these declarations:
struct foo; struct foo *fooptr;

but no denition for struct foo itself, gdb will say:

(gdb) ptype foo $1 = <incomplete type>

Incomplete type is C terminology for data types that are not completely specied. info types regexp info types Print a brief description of all types whose names match the regular expression regexp (or all types in your program, if you supply no argument). Each complete typename is matched as though it were a complete line; thus, i type value gives information on all types in your program whose names include the string value, but i type ^value$ gives information only on types whose complete name is value.

Chapter 16: Examining the Symbol Table

187

This command diers from ptype in two ways: rst, like whatis, it does not print a detailed description; second, it lists all source les where a type is dened. info scope location List all the variables local to a particular scope. This command accepts a location argumenta function name, a source line, or an address preceded by a *, and prints all the variables local to the scope dened by that location. (See undened [Specify Location], page undened , for details about supported forms of location.) For example:
(gdb) info scope command line handler Scope for command_line_handler: Symbol rl is an argument at stack/frame offset 8, length 4. Symbol linebuffer is in static storage at address 0x150a18, length 4. Symbol linelength is in static storage at address 0x150a1c, length 4. Symbol p is a local variable in register $esi, length 4. Symbol p1 is a local variable in register $ebx, length 4. Symbol nline is a local variable in register $edx, length 4. Symbol repeat is a local variable at frame offset -8, length 4.

This command is especially useful for determining what data to collect during a trace experiment, see undened [Tracepoint Actions], page undened . info source Show information about the current source lethat is, the source le for the function containing the current point of execution: the name of the source le, and the directory containing it, the directory it was compiled in, its length, in lines, which programming language it is written in, whether the executable includes debugging information for that le, and if so, what format the information is in (e.g., STABS, Dwarf 2, etc.), and whether the debugging information includes information about preprocessor macros. info sources Print the names of all source les in your program for which there is debugging information, organized into two lists: les whose symbols have already been read, and les whose symbols will be read when needed. info functions Print the names and data types of all dened functions. info functions regexp Print the names and data types of all dened functions whose names contain a match for regular expression regexp. Thus, info fun step nds all functions whose names include step; info fun ^step nds those whose names start with step. If a function name contains characters that conict with the regular expression language (e.g. operator*()), they may be quoted with a backslash.

188

Debugging with gdb

info variables Print the names and data types of all variables that are dened outside of functions (i.e. excluding local variables). info variables regexp Print the names and data types of all variables (except for local variables) whose names contain a match for regular expression regexp. info classes info classes regexp Display all Objective-C classes in your program, or (with the regexp argument) all those matching a particular regular expression. info selectors info selectors regexp Display all Objective-C selectors in your program, or (with the regexp argument) all those matching a particular regular expression. Some systems allow individual object les that make up your program to be replaced without stopping and restarting your program. For example, in VxWorks you can simply recompile a defective object le and keep on running. If you are running on one of these systems, you can allow gdb to reload the symbols for automatically relinked modules: set symbol-reloading on Replace symbol denitions for the corresponding source le when an object le with a particular name is seen again. set symbol-reloading off Do not replace symbol denitions when encountering object les of the same name more than once. This is the default state; if you are not running on a system that permits automatic relinking of modules, you should leave symbol-reloading o, since otherwise gdb may discard symbols when linking large programs, that may contain several modules (from dierent directories or libraries) with the same name. show symbol-reloading Show the current on or off setting. set opaque-type-resolution on Tell gdb to resolve opaque types. An opaque type is a type declared as a pointer to a struct, class, or unionfor example, struct MyType *that is used in one source le although the full declaration of struct MyType is in another source le. The default is on. A change in the setting of this subcommand will not take eect until the next time symbols for a le are loaded. set opaque-type-resolution off Tell gdb not to resolve opaque types. In this case, the type is printed as follows:
{<no data fields>}

Chapter 16: Examining the Symbol Table

189

show opaque-type-resolution Show whether opaque types are resolved or not. maint print symbols filename maint print psymbols filename maint print msymbols filename Write a dump of debugging symbol data into the le lename. These commands are used to debug the gdb symbol-reading code. Only symbols with debugging data are included. If you use maint print symbols, gdb includes all the symbols for which it has already collected full details: that is, lename reects symbols for only those les whose symbols gdb has read. You can use the command info sources to nd out which les these are. If you use maint print psymbols instead, the dump shows information about symbols that gdb only knows partiallythat is, symbols dened in les that gdb has skimmed, but not yet read completely. Finally, maint print msymbols dumps just the minimal symbol information required for each object le from which gdb has read some symbols. See undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened , for a discussion of how gdb reads symbols (in the description of symbolfile). maint info symtabs [ regexp ] maint info psymtabs [ regexp ] List the struct symtab or struct partial_symtab structures whose names match regexp. If regexp is not given, list them all. The output includes expressions which you can copy into a gdb debugging this one to examine a particular structure in more detail. For example:
(gdb) maint info psymtabs dwarf2read { objfile /home/gnu/build/gdb/gdb ((struct objfile *) 0x82e69d0) { psymtab /home/gnu/src/gdb/dwarf2read.c ((struct partial_symtab *) 0x8474b10) readin no fullname (null) text addresses 0x814d3c8 -- 0x8158074 globals (* (struct partial_symbol **) 0x8507a08 @ 9) statics (* (struct partial_symbol **) 0x40e95b78 @ 2882) dependencies (none) } } (gdb) maint info symtabs (gdb)

We see that there is one partial symbol table whose lename contains the string dwarf2read, belonging to the gdb executable; and we see that gdb has not read in any symtabs yet at all. If we set a breakpoint on a function, that will cause gdb to read the symtab for the compilation unit containing that function:
(gdb) break dwarf2_psymtab_to_symtab Breakpoint 1 at 0x814e5da: file /home/gnu/src/gdb/dwarf2read.c, line 1574. (gdb) maint info symtabs { objfile /home/gnu/build/gdb/gdb ((struct objfile *) 0x82e69d0) { symtab /home/gnu/src/gdb/dwarf2read.c

190

Debugging with gdb

((struct symtab *) 0x86c1f38) dirname (null) fullname (null) blockvector ((struct blockvector *) 0x86c1bd0) (primary) linetable ((struct linetable *) 0x8370fa0) debugformat DWARF 2 } } (gdb)

Chapter 17: Altering Execution

191

17 Altering Execution
Once you think you have found an error in your program, you might want to nd out for certain whether correcting the apparent error would lead to correct results in the rest of the run. You can nd the answer by experiment, using the gdb features for altering execution of the program. For example, you can store new values into variables or memory locations, give your program a signal, restart it at a dierent address, or even return prematurely from a function.

17.1 Assignment to Variables

To alter the value of a variable, evaluate an assignment expression. See undened [Expressions], page undened . For example,
print x=4

stores the value 4 into the variable x, and then prints the value of the assignment expression (which is 4). See undened [Using gdb with Dierent Languages], page undened , for more information on operators in supported languages. If you are not interested in seeing the value of the assignment, use the set command instead of the print command. set is really the same as print except that the expressions value is not printed and is not put in the value history (see undened [Value History], page undened ). The expression is evaluated only for its eects. If the beginning of the argument string of the set command appears identical to a set subcommand, use the set variable command instead of just set. This command is identical to set except for its lack of subcommands. For example, if your program has a variable width, you get an error if you try to set a new value with just set width=13, because gdb has the command set width:
(gdb) whatis width type = double (gdb) p width $4 = 13 (gdb) set width=47 Invalid syntax in expression.

The invalid expression, of course, is =47. In order to actually set the programs variable width, use
(gdb) set var width=47

Because the set command has many subcommands that can conict with the names of program variables, it is a good idea to use the set variable command instead of just set. For example, if your program has a variable g, you run into problems if you try to set a new value with just set g=4, because gdb has the command set gnutarget, abbreviated set g:

192

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) whatis g type = double (gdb) p g $1 = 1 (gdb) set g=4 (gdb) p g $2 = 1 (gdb) r The program being debugged has been started already. Start it from the beginning? (y or n) y Starting program: /home/smith/cc_progs/a.out "/home/smith/cc_progs/a.out": cant open to read symbols: Invalid bfd target. (gdb) show g The current BFD target is "=4".

The program variable g did not change, and you silently set the gnutarget to an invalid value. In order to set the variable g, use
(gdb) set var g=4

gdb allows more implicit conversions in assignments than C; you can freely store an integer value into a pointer variable or vice versa, and you can convert any structure to any other structure that is the same length or shorter. To store values into arbitrary places in memory, use the {...} construct to generate a value of specied type at a specied address (see undened [Expressions], page undened ). For example, {int}0x83040 refers to memory location 0x83040 as an integer (which implies a certain size and representation in memory), and
set {int}0x83040 = 4

stores the value 4 into that memory location.

17.2 Continuing at a Dierent Address

Ordinarily, when you continue your program, you do so at the place where it stopped, with the continue command. You can instead continue at an address of your own choosing, with the following commands: jump linespec jump location Resume execution at line linespec or at address given by location. Execution stops again immediately if there is a breakpoint there. See undened [Specify Location], page undened , for a description of the dierent forms of linespec and location. It is common practice to use the tbreak command in conjunction with jump. See undened [Setting Breakpoints], page undened . The jump command does not change the current stack frame, or the stack pointer, or the contents of any memory location or any register other than the program counter. If line linespec is in a dierent function from the one currently executing, the results may be bizarre if the two functions expect dierent patterns of arguments or of local variables. For this reason, the jump command requests conrmation if the specied line is not in the function currently executing. However, even bizarre results are predictable if you are well acquainted with the machine-language code of your program.

Chapter 17: Altering Execution

193

On many systems, you can get much the same eect as the jump command by storing a new value into the register $pc. The dierence is that this does not start your program running; it only changes the address of where it will run when you continue. For example,
set $pc = 0x485

makes the next continue command or stepping command execute at address 0x485, rather than at the address where your program stopped. See undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened . The most common occasion to use the jump command is to back upperhaps with more breakpoints setover a portion of a program that has already executed, in order to examine its execution in more detail.

17.3 Giving your Program a Signal

signal signal Resume execution where your program stopped, but immediately give it the signal signal. signal can be the name or the number of a signal. For example, on many systems signal 2 and signal SIGINT are both ways of sending an interrupt signal. Alternatively, if signal is zero, continue execution without giving a signal. This is useful when your program stopped on account of a signal and would ordinary see the signal when resumed with the continue command; signal 0 causes it to resume without a signal. signal does not repeat when you press RET a second time after executing the command. Invoking the signal command is not the same as invoking the kill utility from the shell. Sending a signal with kill causes gdb to decide what to do with the signal depending on the signal handling tables (see undened [Signals], page undened ). The signal command passes the signal directly to your program.

17.4 Returning from a Function

return return expression You can cancel execution of a function call with the return command. If you give an expression argument, its value is used as the functions return value. When you use return, gdb discards the selected stack frame (and all frames within it). You can think of this as making the discarded frame return prematurely. If you wish to specify a value to be returned, give that value as the argument to return. This pops the selected stack frame (see undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened ), and any other frames inside of it, leaving its caller as the innermost remaining frame. That frame becomes selected. The specied value is stored in the registers used for returning values of functions. The return command does not resume execution; it leaves the program stopped in the state that would exist if the function had just returned. In contrast, the finish command

194

Debugging with gdb

(see undened [Continuing and Stepping], page undened ) resumes execution until the selected stack frame returns naturally. gdb needs to know how the expression argument should be set for the inferior. The concrete registers assignment depends on the OS ABI and the type being returned by the selected stack frame. For example it is common for OS ABI to return oating point values in FPU registers while integer values in CPU registers. Still some ABIs return even oating point values in CPU registers. Larger integer widths (such as long long int) also have specic placement rules. gdb already knows the OS ABI from its current target so it needs to nd out also the type being returned to make the assignment into the right register(s). Normally, the selected stack frame has debug info. gdb will always use the debug info instead of the implicit type of expression when the debug info is available. For example, if you type return -1, and the function in the current stack frame is declared to return a long long int, gdb transparently converts the implicit int value of -1 into a long long int:
Breakpoint 1, func () at gdb.base/return-nodebug.c:29 29 return 31; (gdb) return -1 Make func return now? (y or n) y #0 0x004004f6 in main () at gdb.base/return-nodebug.c:43 43 printf ("result=%lld\n", func ()); (gdb)

However, if the selected stack frame does not have a debug info, e.g., if the function was compiled without debug info, gdb has to nd out the type to return from user. Specifying a dierent type by mistake may set the value in dierent inferior registers than the caller code expects. For example, typing return -1 with its implicit type int would set only a part of a long long int result for a debug info less function (on 32-bit architectures). Therefore the user is required to specify the return type by an appropriate cast explicitly:
Breakpoint 2, 0x0040050b in func () (gdb) return -1 Return value type not available for selected stack frame. Please use an explicit cast of the value to return. (gdb) return (long long int) -1 Make selected stack frame return now? (y or n) y #0 0x00400526 in main () (gdb)

17.5 Calling Program Functions

print expr Evaluate the expression expr and display the resulting value. expr may include calls to functions in the program being debugged. call expr Evaluate the expression expr without displaying void returned values. You can use this variant of the print command if you want to execute a function from your program that does not return anything (a.k.a. a void function), but without cluttering the output with void returned values that gdb will otherwise print. If the result is not void, it is printed and saved in the value history.

Chapter 17: Altering Execution

195

It is possible for the function you call via the print or call command to generate a signal (e.g., if theres a bug in the function, or if you passed it incorrect arguments). What happens in that case is controlled by the set unwindonsignal command. Similarly, with a C++ program it is possible for the function you call via the print or call command to generate an exception that is not handled due to the constraints of the dummy frame. In this case, any exception that is raised in the frame, but has an out-of-frame exception handler will not be found. GDB builds a dummy-frame for the inferior function call, and the unwinder cannot seek for exception handlers outside of this dummy-frame. What happens in that case is controlled by the set unwind-on-terminating-exception command. set unwindonsignal Set unwinding of the stack if a signal is received while in a function that gdb called in the program being debugged. If set to on, gdb unwinds the stack it created for the call and restores the context to what it was before the call. If set to o (the default), gdb stops in the frame where the signal was received. show unwindonsignal Show the current setting of stack unwinding in the functions called by gdb. set unwind-on-terminating-exception Set unwinding of the stack if a C++ exception is raised, but left unhandled while in a function that gdb called in the program being debugged. If set to on (the default), gdb unwinds the stack it created for the call and restores the context to what it was before the call. If set to o, gdb the exception is delivered to the default C++ exception handler and the inferior terminated. show unwind-on-terminating-exception Show the current setting of stack unwinding in the functions called by gdb. Sometimes, a function you wish to call is actually a weak alias for another function. In such case, gdb might not pick up the type information, including the types of the function arguments, which causes gdb to call the inferior function incorrectly. As a result, the called function will function erroneously and may even crash. A solution to that is to use the name of the aliased function instead.

17.6 Patching Programs

By default, gdb opens the le containing your programs executable code (or the corele) read-only. This prevents accidental alterations to machine code; but it also prevents you from intentionally patching your programs binary. If youd like to be able to patch the binary, you can specify that explicitly with the set write command. For example, you might want to turn on internal debugging ags, or even to make emergency repairs. set write on set write off If you specify set write on, gdb opens executable and core les for both reading and writing; if you specify set write off (the default), gdb opens them read-only.

196

Debugging with gdb

If you have already loaded a le, you must load it again (using the exec-file or core-file command) after changing set write, for your new setting to take eect. show write Display whether executable les and core les are opened for writing as well as reading.

Chapter 18: gdb Files

197

18 gdb Files
gdb needs to know the le name of the program to be debugged, both in order to read its symbol table and in order to start your program. To debug a core dump of a previous run, you must also tell gdb the name of the core dump le.

18.1 Commands to Specify Files

You may want to specify executable and core dump le names. The usual way to do this is at start-up time, using the arguments to gdbs start-up commands (see undened [Getting In and Out of gdb], page undened ). Occasionally it is necessary to change to a dierent le during a gdb session. Or you may run gdb and forget to specify a le you want to use. Or you are debugging a remote target via gdbserver (see undened [Using the gdbserver Program], page undened ). In these situations the gdb commands to specify new les are useful. file filename Use lename as the program to be debugged. It is read for its symbols and for the contents of pure memory. It is also the program executed when you use the run command. If you do not specify a directory and the le is not found in the gdb working directory, gdb uses the environment variable PATH as a list of directories to search, just as the shell does when looking for a program to run. You can change the value of this variable, for both gdb and your program, using the path command. You can load unlinked object .o les into gdb using the file command. You will not be able to run an object le, but you can disassemble functions and inspect variables. Also, if the underlying BFD functionality supports it, you could use gdb -write to patch object les using this technique. Note that gdb can neither interpret nor modify relocations in this case, so branches and some initialized variables will appear to go to the wrong place. But this feature is still handy from time to time. file file with no argument makes gdb discard any information it has on both executable le and the symbol table.

exec-file [ filename ] Specify that the program to be run (but not the symbol table) is found in lename. gdb searches the environment variable PATH if necessary to locate your program. Omitting lename means to discard information on the executable le. symbol-file [ filename ] Read symbol table information from le lename. PATH is searched when necessary. Use the file command to get both symbol table and program to run from the same le. symbol-file with no argument clears out gdb information on your programs symbol table.

198

Debugging with gdb

The symbol-file command causes gdb to forget the contents of some breakpoints and auto-display expressions. This is because they may contain pointers to the internal data recording symbols and data types, which are part of the old symbol table data being discarded inside gdb. symbol-file does not repeat if you press RET again after executing it once. When gdb is congured for a particular environment, it understands debugging information in whatever format is the standard generated for that environment; you may use either a gnu compiler, or other compilers that adhere to the local conventions. Best results are usually obtained from gnu compilers; for example, using gcc you can generate debugging information for optimized code. For most kinds of object les, with the exception of old SVR3 systems using COFF, the symbol-file command does not normally read the symbol table in full right away. Instead, it scans the symbol table quickly to nd which source les and which symbols are present. The details are read later, one source le at a time, as they are needed. The purpose of this two-stage reading strategy is to make gdb start up faster. For the most part, it is invisible except for occasional pauses while the symbol table details for a particular source le are being read. (The set verbose command can turn these pauses into messages if desired. See undened [Optional Warnings and Messages], page undened .) We have not implemented the two-stage strategy for COFF yet. When the symbol table is stored in COFF format, symbol-file reads the symbol table data in full right away. Note that stabs-in-COFF still does the two-stage strategy, since the debug info is actually in stabs format. symbol-file [ -readnow ] filename file [ -readnow ] filename You can override the gdb two-stage strategy for reading symbol tables by using the -readnow option with any of the commands that load symbol table information, if you want to be sure gdb has the entire symbol table available. core-file [filename ] core Specify the whereabouts of a core dump le to be used as the contents of memory. Traditionally, core les contain only some parts of the address space of the process that generated them; gdb can access the executable le itself for other parts. core-file with no argument species that no core le is to be used. Note that the core le is ignored when your program is actually running under gdb. So, if you have been running your program and you wish to debug a core le instead, you must kill the subprocess in which the program is running. To do this, use the kill command (see undened [Killing the Child Process], page undened ). add-symbol-file filename address add-symbol-file filename address [ -readnow ] add-symbol-file filename -ssection address ... The add-symbol-file command reads additional symbol table information from the le lename. You would use this command when lename has been

Chapter 18: gdb Files

199

dynamically loaded (by some other means) into the program that is running. address should be the memory address at which the le has been loaded; gdb cannot gure this out for itself. You can additionally specify an arbitrary number of -ssection address pairs, to give an explicit section name and base address for that section. You can specify any address as an expression. The symbol table of the le lename is added to the symbol table originally read with the symbol-file command. You can use the add-symbol-file command any number of times; the new symbol data thus read keeps adding to the old. To discard all old symbol data instead, use the symbol-file command without any arguments. Although lename is typically a shared library le, an executable le, or some other object le which has been fully relocated for loading into a process, you can also load symbolic information from relocatable .o les, as long as: the les symbolic information refers only to linker symbols dened in that le, not to symbols dened by other object les, every section the les symbolic information refers to has actually been loaded into the inferior, as it appears in the le, and you can determine the address at which every section was loaded, and provide these to the add-symbol-file command. Some embedded operating systems, like Sun Chorus and VxWorks, can load relocatable les into an already running program; such systems typically make the requirements above easy to meet. However, its important to recognize that many native systems use complex link procedures (.linkonce section factoring and C++ constructor table assembly, for example) that make the requirements dicult to meet. In general, one cannot assume that using add-symbol-file to read a relocatable object les symbolic information will have the same eect as linking the relocatable object le into the program in the normal way. add-symbol-file does not repeat if you press
RET

after using it.

add-symbol-file-from-memory address Load symbols from the given address in a dynamically loaded object le whose image is mapped directly into the inferiors memory. For example, the Linux kernel maps a syscall DSO into each processs address space; this DSO provides kernel-specic code for some system calls. The argument can be any expression whose evaluation yields the address of the les shared object le header. For this command to work, you must have used symbol-file or exec-file commands in advance. add-shared-symbol-files library-file assf library-file The add-shared-symbol-files command can currently be used only in the Cygwin build of gdb on MS-Windows OS, where it is an alias for the dllsymbols command (see undened [Cygwin Native], page undened ). gdb automatically looks for shared libraries, however if gdb does not nd yours, you can invoke add-shared-symbol-files. It takes one argument: the shared librarys le name. assf is a shorthand alias for add-shared-symbol-files.

200

Debugging with gdb

section section addr The section command changes the base address of the named section of the exec le to addr. This can be used if the exec le does not contain section addresses, (such as in the a.out format), or when the addresses specied in the le itself are wrong. Each section must be changed separately. The info files command, described below, lists all the sections and their addresses. info files info target info files and info target are synonymous; both print the current target (see undened [Specifying a Debugging Target], page undened ), including the names of the executable and core dump les currently in use by gdb, and the les from which symbols were loaded. The command help target lists all possible targets rather than current ones. maint info sections Another command that can give you extra information about program sections is maint info sections. In addition to the section information displayed by info files, this command displays the ags and le oset of each section in the executable and core dump les. In addition, maint info sections provides the following command options (which may be arbitrarily combined): ALLOBJ sections Display sections for all loaded object les, including shared libraries. Display info only for named sections.

section-flags Display info only for sections for which section-ags are true. The section ags that gdb currently knows about are: ALLOC Section will have space allocated in the process when loaded. Set for all sections except those containing debug information. Section will be loaded from the le into the child process memory. Set for pre-initialized code and data, clear for .bss sections. Section needs to be relocated before loading. Section cannot be modied by the child process. Section contains executable code only. Section contains data only (no executable code). Section will reside in ROM.

LOAD

RELOC READONLY CODE DATA ROM

CONSTRUCTOR Section contains data for constructor/destructor lists. HAS_CONTENTS Section is not empty.

Chapter 18: gdb Files

201

NEVER_LOAD An instruction to the linker to not output the section. COFF_SHARED_LIBRARY A notication to the linker that the section contains COFF shared library information. IS_COMMON Section contains common symbols. set trust-readonly-sections on Tell gdb that readonly sections in your object le really are read-only (i.e. that their contents will not change). In that case, gdb can fetch values from these sections out of the object le, rather than from the target program. For some targets (notably embedded ones), this can be a signicant enhancement to debugging performance. The default is o. set trust-readonly-sections off Tell gdb not to trust readonly sections. This means that the contents of the section might change while the program is running, and must therefore be fetched from the target when needed. show trust-readonly-sections Show the current setting of trusting readonly sections. All le-specifying commands allow both absolute and relative le names as arguments. gdb always converts the le name to an absolute le name and remembers it that way. gdb supports gnu/Linux, MS-Windows, HP-UX, SunOS, SVr4, Irix, and IBM RS/6000 AIX shared libraries. On MS-Windows gdb must be linked with the Expat library to support shared libraries. See undened [Expat], page undened . gdb automatically loads symbol denitions from shared libraries when you use the run command, or when you examine a core le. (Before you issue the run command, gdb does not understand references to a function in a shared library, howeverunless you are debugging a core le). On HP-UX, if the program loads a library explicitly, gdb automatically loads the symbols at the time of the shl_load call. There are times, however, when you may wish to not automatically load symbol denitions from shared libraries, such as when they are particularly large or there are many of them. To control the automatic loading of shared library symbols, use the commands: set auto-solib-add mode If mode is on, symbols from all shared object libraries will be loaded automatically when the inferior begins execution, you attach to an independently started inferior, or when the dynamic linker informs gdb that a new library has been loaded. If mode is off, symbols must be loaded manually, using the sharedlibrary command. The default value is on.

202

Debugging with gdb

If your program uses lots of shared libraries with debug info that takes large amounts of memory, you can decrease the gdb memory footprint by preventing it from automatically loading the symbols from shared libraries. To that end, type set auto-solib-add off before running the inferior, then load each library whose debug symbols you do need with sharedlibrary regexp , where regexp is a regular expression that matches the libraries whose symbols you want to be loaded. show auto-solib-add Display the current autoloading mode. To explicitly load shared library symbols, use the sharedlibrary command: info share regex info sharedlibrary regex Print the names of the shared libraries which are currently loaded that match regex. If regex is omitted then print all shared libraries that are loaded. sharedlibrary regex share regex Load shared object library symbols for les matching a Unix regular expression. As with les loaded automatically, it only loads shared libraries required by your program for a core le or after typing run. If regex is omitted all shared libraries required by your program are loaded. nosharedlibrary Unload all shared object library symbols. This discards all symbols that have been loaded from all shared libraries. Symbols from shared libraries that were loaded by explicit user requests are not discarded. Sometimes you may wish that gdb stops and gives you control when any of shared library events happen. Use the set stop-on-solib-events command for this: set stop-on-solib-events This command controls whether gdb should give you control when the dynamic linker noties it about some shared library event. The most common event of interest is loading or unloading of a new shared library. show stop-on-solib-events Show whether gdb stops and gives you control when shared library events happen. Shared libraries are also supported in many cross or remote debugging congurations. gdb needs to have access to the targets libraries; this can be accomplished either by providing copies of the libraries on the host system, or by asking gdb to automatically retrieve the libraries from the target. If copies of the target libraries are provided, they need to be the same as the target libraries, although the copies on the target can be stripped as long as the copies on the host are not. For remote debugging, you need to tell gdb where the target libraries are, so that it can load the correct copiesotherwise, it may try to load the hosts libraries. gdb has two variables to specify the search directories for target libraries.

Chapter 18: gdb Files

203

set sysroot path Use path as the system root for the program being debugged. Any absolute shared library paths will be prexed with path; many runtime loaders store the absolute paths to the shared library in the target programs memory. If you use set sysroot to nd shared libraries, they need to be laid out in the same way that they are on the target, with e.g. a /lib and /usr/lib hierarchy under path. If path starts with the sequence remote:, gdb will retrieve the target libraries from the remote system. This is only supported when using a remote target that supports the remote get command (see undened [Sending les to a remote system], page undened ). The part of path following the initial remote: (if present) is used as system root prex on the remote le system.1 For targets with an MS-DOS based lesystem, such as MS-Windows and SymbianOS, gdb tries prexing a few variants of the target absolute le name with path. But rst, on Unix hosts, gdb converts all backslash directory separators into forward slashes, because the backslash is not a directory separator on Unix:
c:\foo\bar.dll c:/foo/bar.dll

Then, gdb attempts prexing the target le name with path, and looks for the resulting le name in the host le system:
c:/foo/bar.dll /path/to/sysroot/c:/foo/bar.dll

If that does not nd the shared library, gdb tries removing the : character from the drive spec, both for convenience, and, for the case of the host le system not supporting le names with colons:
c:/foo/bar.dll /path/to/sysroot/c/foo/bar.dll

This makes it possible to have a system root that mirrors a target with more than one drive. E.g., you may want to setup your local copies of the target system shared libraries like so (note c vs z):
/path/to/sysroot/c/sys/bin/foo.dll /path/to/sysroot/c/sys/bin/bar.dll /path/to/sysroot/z/sys/bin/bar.dll

and point the system root at /path/to/sysroot, so that gdb can nd the correct copies of both c:\sys\bin\foo.dll, and z:\sys\bin\bar.dll. If that still does not nd the shared library, gdb tries removing the whole drive spec from the target le name:
c:/foo/bar.dll /path/to/sysroot/foo/bar.dll

This last lookup makes it possible to not care about the drive name, if you dont want or need to. The set solib-absolute-prefix command is an alias for set sysroot. You can set the default system root by using the congure-time --with-sysroot option. If the system root is inside gdbs congured binary prex (set with --prefix or --exec-prefix), then the default system root will be updated automatically if the installed gdb is moved to a new location.
1

If you want to specify a local system root using a directory that happens to be named remote:, you need to use some equivalent variant of the name like ./remote:.

204

Debugging with gdb

show sysroot Display the current shared library prex. set solib-search-path path If this variable is set, path is a colon-separated list of directories to search for shared libraries. solib-search-path is used after sysroot fails to locate the library, or if the path to the library is relative instead of absolute. If you want to use solib-search-path instead of sysroot, be sure to set sysroot to a nonexistent directory to prevent gdb from nding your hosts libraries. sysroot is preferred; setting it to a nonexistent directory may interfere with automatic loading of shared library symbols. show solib-search-path Display the current shared library search path. set target-file-system-kind kind Set assumed le system kind for target reported le names. Shared library le names as reported by the target system may not make sense as is on the system gdb is running on. For example, when remote debugging a target that has MS-DOS based le system semantics, from a Unix host, the target may be reporting to gdb a list of loaded shared libraries with le names such as c:\Windows\kernel32.dll. On Unix hosts, theres no concept of drive letters, so the c:\ prex is not normally understood as indicating an absolute le name, and neither is the backslash normally considered a directory separator character. In that case, the native le system would interpret this whole absolute le name as a relative le name with no directory components. This would make it impossible to point gdb at a copy of the remote targets shared libraries on the host using set sysroot, and impractical with set solib-search-path. Setting target-file-system-kind to dos-based tells gdb to interpret such le names similarly to how the target would, and to map them to le names valid on gdbs native le system semantics. The value of kind can be "auto", in addition to one of the supported le system kinds. In that case, gdb tries to determine the appropriate le system variant based on the current targets operating system (see undened [Conguring the Current ABI], page undened ). The supported le system settings are: unix Instruct gdb to assume the target le system is of Unix kind. Only le names starting the forward slash (/) character are considered absolute, and the directory separator character is also the forward slash. Instruct gdb to assume the target le system is DOS based. File names starting with either a forward slash, or a drive letter followed by a colon (e.g., c:), are considered absolute, and both the slash (/) and the backslash (\\) characters are considered directory separators. auto Instruct gdb to use the le system kind associated with the target operating system (see undened [Conguring the Current ABI], page undened ). This is the default.

dos-based

Chapter 18: gdb Files

205

18.2 Debugging Information in Separate Files

gdb allows you to put a programs debugging information in a le separate from the executable itself, in a way that allows gdb to nd and load the debugging information automatically. Since debugging information can be very largesometimes larger than the executable code itselfsome systems distribute debugging information for their executables in separate les, which users can install only when they need to debug a problem. gdb supports two ways of specifying the separate debug info le: The executable contains a debug link that species the name of the separate debug info le. The separate debug les name is usually executable.debug, where executable is the name of the corresponding executable le without leading directories (e.g., ls.debug for /usr/bin/ls). In addition, the debug link species a 32-bit Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) checksum for the debug le, which gdb uses to validate that the executable and the debug le came from the same build. The executable contains a build ID, a unique bit string that is also present in the corresponding debug info le. (This is supported only on some operating systems, notably those which use the ELF format for binary les and the gnu Binutils.) For more details about this feature, see the description of the --build-id command-line option in section Command Line Options in The GNU Linker. The debug info les name is not specied explicitly by the build ID, but can be computed from the build ID, see below. Depending on the way the debug info le is specied, gdb uses two dierent methods of looking for the debug le: For the debug link method, gdb looks up the named le in the directory of the executable le, then in a subdirectory of that directory named .debug, and nally under the global debug directory, in a subdirectory whose name is identical to the leading directories of the executables absolute le name. For the build ID method, gdb looks in the .build-id subdirectory of the global debug directory for a le named nn /nnnnnnnn.debug, where nn are the rst 2 hex characters of the build ID bit string, and nnnnnnnn are the rest of the bit string. (Real build ID strings are 32 or more hex characters, not 10.) So, for example, suppose you ask gdb to debug /usr/bin/ls, which has a debug link that species the le ls.debug, and a build ID whose value in hex is abcdef1234. If the global debug directory is /usr/lib/debug, then gdb will look for the following debug information les, in the indicated order: /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/ab/cdef1234.debug /usr/bin/ls.debug /usr/bin/.debug/ls.debug /usr/lib/debug/usr/bin/ls.debug. You can set the global debugging info directorys name, and view the name gdb is currently using.

206

Debugging with gdb

set debug-file-directory directories Set the directories which gdb searches for separate debugging information les to directory. Multiple directory components can be set concatenating them by a directory separator. show debug-file-directory Show the directories gdb searches for separate debugging information les. A debug link is a special section of the executable le named .gnu_debuglink. The section must contain: A lename, with any leading directory components removed, followed by a zero byte, zero to three bytes of padding, as needed to reach the next four-byte boundary within the section, and a four-byte CRC checksum, stored in the same endianness used for the executable le itself. The checksum is computed on the debugging information les full contents by the function given below, passing zero as the crc argument. Any executable le format can carry a debug link, as long as it can contain a section named .gnu_debuglink with the contents described above. The build ID is a special section in the executable le (and in other ELF binary les that gdb may consider). This section is often named .note.gnu.build-id, but that name is not mandatory. It contains unique identication for the built lesthe ID remains the same across multiple builds of the same build tree. The default algorithm SHA1 produces 160 bits (40 hexadecimal characters) of the content for the build ID string. The same section with an identical value is present in the original built binary with symbols, in its stripped variant, and in the separate debugging information le. The debugging information le itself should be an ordinary executable, containing a full set of linker symbols, sections, and debugging information. The sections of the debugging information le should have the same names, addresses, and sizes as the original le, but they need not contain any datamuch like a .bss section in an ordinary executable. The gnu binary utilities (Binutils) package includes the objcopy utility that can produce the separated executable / debugging information le pairs using the following commands:
objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.debug strip -g foo

These commands remove the debugging information from the executable le foo and place it in the le foo.debug. You can use the rst, second or both methods to link the two les: The debug link method needs the following additional command to also leave behind a debug link in foo:
objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.debug foo

Ulrich Dreppers elfutils package, starting with version 0.53, contains a version of the strip command such that the command strip foo -f foo.debug has the same functionality as the two objcopy commands and the ln -s command above, together. Build ID gets embedded into the main executable using ld --build-id or the gcc counterpart gcc -Wl,--build-id. Build ID support plus compatibility xes for debug les separation are present in gnu binary utilities (Binutils) package since version 2.18.

Chapter 18: gdb Files

207

The CRC used in .gnu_debuglink is the CRC-32 dened in IEEE 802.3 using the polynomial: x32 + x26 + x23 + x22 + x16 + x12 + x11 + x10 + x8 + x7 + x5 + x4 + x2 + x + 1 The function is computed byte at a time, taking the least signicant bit of each byte rst. The initial pattern 0xffffffff is used, to ensure leading zeros aect the CRC and the nal result is inverted to ensure trailing zeros also aect the CRC. Note: This is the same CRC polynomial as used in handling the Remote Serial Protocol qCRC packet (see undened [gdb Remote Serial Protocol], page undened ). However in the case of the Remote Serial Protocol, the CRC is computed most signicant bit rst, and the result is not inverted, so trailing zeros have no eect on the CRC value. To complete the description, we show below the code of the function which produces the CRC used in .gnu_debuglink. Inverting the initially supplied crc argument means that an initial call to this function passing in zero will start computing the CRC using 0xffffffff.
unsigned long gnu_debuglink_crc32 (unsigned long crc, unsigned char *buf, size_t len) { static const unsigned long crc32_table[256] = { 0x00000000, 0x77073096, 0xee0e612c, 0x990951ba, 0x706af48f, 0xe963a535, 0x9e6495a3, 0x0edb8832, 0xe0d5e91e, 0x97d2d988, 0x09b64c2b, 0x7eb17cbd, 0x90bf1d91, 0x1db71064, 0x6ab020f2, 0xf3b97148, 0x1adad47d, 0x6ddde4eb, 0xf4d4b551, 0x83d385c7, 0x646ba8c0, 0xfd62f97a, 0x8a65c9ec, 0x14015c4f, 0xfa0f3d63, 0x8d080df5, 0x3b6e20c8, 0x4c69105e, 0xa2677172, 0x3c03e4d1, 0x4b04d447, 0xd20d85fd, 0x35b5a8fa, 0x42b2986c, 0xdbbbc9d6, 0xacbcf940, 0x45df5c75, 0xdcd60dcf, 0xabd13d59, 0x26d930ac, 0xc8d75180, 0xbfd06116, 0x21b4f4b5, 0x56b3c423, 0xb8bda50f, 0x2802b89e, 0x5f058808, 0xc60cd9b2, 0x2f6f7c87, 0x58684c11, 0xc1611dab, 0xb6662d3d, 0x01db7106, 0x98d220bc, 0xefd5102a, 0x71b18589, 0x9fbfe4a5, 0xe8b8d433, 0x7807c9a2, 0x0f00f934, 0xe10e9818, 0x7f6a0dbb, 0x086d3d2d, 0x91646c97, 0x6b6b51f4, 0x1c6c6162, 0x856530d8, 0xf262004e, 0x1b01a57b, 0x8208f4c1, 0xf50fc457, 0x65b0d9c6, 0x8bbeb8ea, 0xfcb9887c, 0x62dd1ddf, 0x15da2d49, 0xfbd44c65, 0x4db26158, 0x3ab551ce, 0xa3bc0074, 0x4adfa541, 0x3dd895d7, 0xa4d1c46d, 0xd3d6f4fb, 0x346ed9fc, 0xad678846, 0xda60b8d0, 0x44042d73, 0xaa0a4c5f, 0xdd0d7cc9, 0x5005713c, 0x270241aa, 0xc90c2086, 0x5768b525, 0x206f85b3, 0xb966d409, 0x5edef90e, 0x29d9c998, 0xb0d09822, 0xc7d7a8b4, 0x2eb40d81, 0xb7bd5c3b, 0xc0ba6cad, 0xedb88320, 0x03b6e20c, 0x74b1d29a, 0xead54739, 0x9dd277af, 0x73dc1683, 0xe3630b12, 0x94643b84, 0x0d6d6a3e, 0xe40ecf0b, 0x9309ff9d, 0x0a00ae27, 0x7d079eb1, 0x8708a3d2, 0x1e01f268, 0x6906c2fe, 0xf762575d, 0x196c3671, 0x6e6b06e7, 0xfed41b76, 0x89d32be0, 0x67dd4acc, 0xf9b9df6f, 0x8ebeeff9, 0x17b7be43, 0xd6d6a3e8, 0xa1d1937e, 0x38d8c2c4, 0x4fdff252, 0xa6bc5767, 0x3fb506dd, 0x48b2364b, 0xd80d2bda,

0x076dc419, 0x79dcb8a4, 0xe7b82d07, 0x84be41de, 0x136c9856, 0x63066cd9, 0xd56041e4, 0xa50ab56b, 0x32d86ce3, 0x51de003a, 0xcfba9599, 0xb10be924, 0x76dc4190, 0x06b6b51f, 0x9609a88e, 0xe6635c01, 0x6c0695ed, 0x12b7e950, 0x8cd37cf3, 0xd4bb30e2, 0x4369e96a, 0x33031de5, 0xbe0b1010, 0xce61e49f, 0x59b33d17, 0x9abfb3b6, 0x04db2615, 0x7a6a5aa8, 0xf00f9344, 0x806567cb, 0x10da7a5a, 0x60b08ed5, 0xd1bb67f1, 0xaf0a1b4c,

208

Debugging with gdb

0x36034af6, 0x41047a60, 0x4669be79, 0xcb61b38c, 0xcc0c7795, 0xbb0b4703, 0xb2bd0b28, 0x2bb45a92, 0x2cd99e8b, 0x5bdeae1d, 0x026d930a, 0x9c0906a9, 0x95bf4a82, 0xe2b87a14, 0xe5d5be0d, 0x7cdcefb7, 0x68ddb3f8, 0x1fda836e, 0x18b74777, 0x88085ae6, 0x8f659eff, 0xf862ae69, 0xd70dd2ee, 0x4e048354, 0x4969474d, 0x3e6e77db, 0x37d83bf0, 0xa9bcae53, 0xbdbdf21c, 0xcabac28a, 0xcdd70693, 0x54de5729, 0x5d681b02, 0x2a6f2b94, 0x2d02ef8d }; unsigned char *end;

0xdf60efc3, 0xbc66831a, 0x220216b9, 0x5cb36a04, 0x9b64c2b0, 0xeb0e363f, 0x7bb12bae, 0x0bdbdf21, 0x81be16cd, 0xff0f6a70, 0x616bffd3, 0x3903b3c2, 0xaed16a4a, 0xdebb9ec5, 0x53b39330, 0x23d967bf, 0xb40bbe37,

0xa867df55, 0x256fd2a0, 0x5505262f, 0xc2d7ffa7, 0xec63f226, 0x72076785, 0x0cb61b38, 0x86d3d2d4, 0xf6b9265b, 0x66063bca, 0x166ccf45, 0xa7672661, 0xd9d65adc, 0x47b2cf7f, 0x24b4a3a6, 0xb3667a2e, 0xc30c8ea1,

0x316e8eef, 0x5268e236, 0xc5ba3bbe, 0xb5d0cf31, 0x756aa39c, 0x05005713, 0x92d28e9b, 0xf1d4e242, 0x6fb077e1, 0x11010b5c, 0xa00ae278, 0xd06016f7, 0x40df0b66, 0x30b5ffe9, 0xbad03605, 0xc4614ab8, 0x5a05df1b,

crc = ~crc & 0xffffffff; for (end = buf + len; buf < end; ++buf) crc = crc32_table[(crc ^ *buf) & 0xff] ^ (crc >> 8); return ~crc & 0xffffffff; }

This computation does not apply to the build ID method.

18.3 Errors Reading Symbol Files

While reading a symbol le, gdb occasionally encounters problems, such as symbol types it does not recognize, or known bugs in compiler output. By default, gdb does not notify you of such problems, since they are relatively common and primarily of interest to people debugging compilers. If you are interested in seeing information about ill-constructed symbol tables, you can either ask gdb to print only one message about each such type of problem, no matter how many times the problem occurs; or you can ask gdb to print more messages, to see how many times the problems occur, with the set complaints command (see undened [Optional Warnings and Messages], page undened ). The messages currently printed, and their meanings, include: inner block not inside outer block in symbol The symbol information shows where symbol scopes begin and end (such as at the start of a function or a block of statements). This error indicates that an inner scope block is not fully contained in its outer scope blocks. gdb circumvents the problem by treating the inner block as if it had the same scope as the outer block. In the error message, symbol may be shown as (dont know) if the outer block is not a function. block at address out of order The symbol information for symbol scope blocks should occur in order of increasing addresses. This error indicates that it does not do so.

Chapter 18: gdb Files

209

gdb does not circumvent this problem, and has trouble locating symbols in the source le whose symbols it is reading. (You can often determine what source le is aected by specifying set verbose on. See undened [Optional Warnings and Messages], page undened .) bad block start address patched The symbol information for a symbol scope block has a start address smaller than the address of the preceding source line. This is known to occur in the SunOS 4.1.1 (and earlier) C compiler. gdb circumvents the problem by treating the symbol scope block as starting on the previous source line. bad string table offset in symbol n Symbol number n contains a pointer into the string table which is larger than the size of the string table. gdb circumvents the problem by considering the symbol to have the name foo, which may cause other problems if many symbols end up with this name. unknown symbol type 0xnn The symbol information contains new data types that gdb does not yet know how to read. 0xnn is the symbol type of the uncomprehended information, in hexadecimal. gdb circumvents the error by ignoring this symbol information. This usually allows you to debug your program, though certain symbols are not accessible. If you encounter such a problem and feel like debugging it, you can debug gdb with itself, breakpoint on complain, then go up to the function read_dbx_symtab and examine *bufp to see the symbol. stub type has NULL name gdb could not nd the full denition for a struct or class. const/volatile indicator missing (ok if using g++ v1.x), got... The symbol information for a C++ member function is missing some information that recent versions of the compiler should have output for it. info mismatch between compiler and debugger gdb could not parse a type specication output by the compiler.

18.4 GDB Data Files

gdb will sometimes read an auxiliary data le. These les are kept in a directory known as the data directory. You can set the data directorys name, and view the name gdb is currently using. set data-directory directory Set the directory which gdb searches for auxiliary data les to directory. show data-directory Show the directory gdb searches for auxiliary data les.

210

Debugging with gdb

You can set the default data directory by using the congure-time --with-gdb-datadir option. If the data directory is inside gdbs congured binary prex (set with --prefix or --exec-prefix), then the default data directory will be updated automatically if the installed gdb is moved to a new location.

Chapter 19: Specifying a Debugging Target

211

19 Specifying a Debugging Target

A target is the execution environment occupied by your program. Often, gdb runs in the same host environment as your program; in that case, the debugging target is specied as a side eect when you use the file or core commands. When you need more exibilityfor example, running gdb on a physically separate host, or controlling a standalone system over a serial port or a realtime system over a TCP/IP connectionyou can use the target command to specify one of the target types congured for gdb (see undened [Commands for Managing Targets], page undened ). It is possible to build gdb for several dierent target architectures. When gdb is built like that, you can choose one of the available architectures with the set architecture command. set architecture arch This command sets the current target architecture to arch. The value of arch can be "auto", in addition to one of the supported architectures. show architecture Show the current target architecture. set processor processor These are alias commands for, respectively, set architecture and show architecture.

19.1 Active Targets

There are three classes of targets: processes, core les, and executable les. gdb can work concurrently on up to three active targets, one in each class. This allows you to (for example) start a process and inspect its activity without abandoning your work on a core le. For example, if you execute gdb a.out, then the executable le a.out is the only active target. If you designate a core le as wellpresumably from a prior run that crashed and coredumpedthen gdb has two active targets and uses them in tandem, looking rst in the corele target, then in the executable le, to satisfy requests for memory addresses. (Typically, these two classes of target are complementary, since core les contain only a programs read-write memoryvariables and so onplus machine status, while executable les contain only the program text and initialized data.) When you type run, your executable le becomes an active process target as well. When a process target is active, all gdb commands requesting memory addresses refer to that target; addresses in an active core le or executable le target are obscured while the process target is active. Use the core-file and exec-file commands to select a new core le or executable target (see undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened ). To specify as a target a process that is already running, use the attach command (see undened [Debugging an Already-running Process], page undened ).

212

Debugging with gdb

19.2 Commands for Managing Targets

target type parameters Connects the gdb host environment to a target machine or process. A target is typically a protocol for talking to debugging facilities. You use the argument type to specify the type or protocol of the target machine. Further parameters are interpreted by the target protocol, but typically include things like device names or host names to connect with, process numbers, and baud rates. The target command does not repeat if you press RET again after executing the command. help target Displays the names of all targets available. To display targets currently selected, use either info target or info files (see undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened ). help target name Describe a particular target, including any parameters necessary to select it. set gnutarget args gdb uses its own library BFD to read your les. gdb knows whether it is reading an executable, a core, or a .o le; however, you can specify the le format with the set gnutarget command. Unlike most target commands, with gnutarget the target refers to a program, not a machine. Warning: To specify a le format with set gnutarget, you must know the actual BFD name. See undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened . show gnutarget Use the show gnutarget command to display what le format gnutarget is set to read. If you have not set gnutarget, gdb will determine the le format for each le automatically, and show gnutarget displays The current BDF target is "auto". Here are some common targets (available, or not, depending on the GDB conguration): target exec program An executable le. target exec program is the same as exec-file program . target core filename A core dump le. target core filename is the same as core-file filename . target remote medium A remote system connected to gdb via a serial line or network connection. This command tells gdb to use its own remote protocol over medium for debugging. See undened [Remote Debugging], page undened . For example, if you have a board connected to /dev/ttya on the machine running gdb, you could say:

Chapter 19: Specifying a Debugging Target

213

target remote /dev/ttya

target remote supports the load command. This is only useful if you have some other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it somewhere in memory where it wont get clobbered by the download. target sim [simargs ] ... Builtin CPU simulator. gdb includes simulators for most architectures. In general,
target sim load run

works; however, you cannot assume that a specic memory map, device drivers, or even basic I/O is available, although some simulators do provide these. For info about any processor-specic simulator details, see the appropriate section in undened [Embedded Processors], page undened . Some congurations may include these targets as well: target nrom dev NetROM ROM emulator. This target only supports downloading. Dierent targets are available on dierent congurations of gdb; your conguration may have more or fewer targets. Many remote targets require you to download the executables code once youve successfully established a connection. You may wish to control various aspects of this process. set hash This command controls whether a hash mark # is displayed while downloading a le to the remote monitor. If on, a hash mark is displayed after each S-record is successfully downloaded to the monitor.

show hash Show the current status of displaying the hash mark. set debug monitor Enable or disable display of communications messages between gdb and the remote monitor. show debug monitor Show the current status of displaying communications between gdb and the remote monitor. load filename Depending on what remote debugging facilities are congured into gdb, the load command may be available. Where it exists, it is meant to make lename (an executable) available for debugging on the remote systemby downloading, or dynamic linking, for example. load also records the lename symbol table in gdb, like the add-symbol-file command. If your gdb does not have a load command, attempting to execute it gets the error message You cant do that when your target is ... The le is loaded at whatever address is specied in the executable. For some object le formats, you can specify the load address when you link the program; for other formats, like a.out, the object le format species a xed address.

214

Debugging with gdb

Depending on the remote side capabilities, gdb may be able to load programs into ash memory. load does not repeat if you press RET again after using it.

19.3 Choosing Target Byte Order

Some types of processors, such as the MIPS, PowerPC, and Renesas SH, oer the ability to run either big-endian or little-endian byte orders. Usually the executable or symbol will include a bit to designate the endian-ness, and you will not need to worry about which to use. However, you may still nd it useful to adjust gdbs idea of processor endian-ness manually. set endian big Instruct gdb to assume the target is big-endian. set endian little Instruct gdb to assume the target is little-endian. set endian auto Instruct gdb to use the byte order associated with the executable. show endian Display gdbs current idea of the target byte order. Note that these commands merely adjust interpretation of symbolic data on the host, and that they have absolutely no eect on the target system.

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

215

20 Debugging Remote Programs

If you are trying to debug a program running on a machine that cannot run gdb in the usual way, it is often useful to use remote debugging. For example, you might use remote debugging on an operating system kernel, or on a small system which does not have a general purpose operating system powerful enough to run a full-featured debugger. Some congurations of gdb have special serial or TCP/IP interfaces to make this work with particular debugging targets. In addition, gdb comes with a generic serial protocol (specic to gdb, but not specic to any particular target system) which you can use if you write the remote stubsthe code that runs on the remote system to communicate with gdb. Other remote targets may be available in your conguration of gdb; use help target to list them.

20.1 Connecting to a Remote Target

On the gdb host machine, you will need an unstripped copy of your program, since gdb needs symbol and debugging information. Start up gdb as usual, using the name of the local copy of your program as the rst argument. gdb can communicate with the target over a serial line, or over an ip network using tcp or udp. In each case, gdb uses the same protocol for debugging your program; only the medium carrying the debugging packets varies. The target remote command establishes a connection to the target. Its arguments indicate which medium to use: target remote serial-device Use serial-device to communicate with the target. For example, to use a serial line connected to the device named /dev/ttyb:
target remote /dev/ttyb

If youre using a serial line, you may want to give gdb the --baud option, or use the set remotebaud command (see undened [Remote Conguration], page undened ) before the target command. target remote host :port target remote tcp:host :port Debug using a tcp connection to port on host. The host may be either a host name or a numeric ip address; port must be a decimal number. The host could be the target machine itself, if it is directly connected to the net, or it might be a terminal server which in turn has a serial line to the target. For example, to connect to port 2828 on a terminal server named manyfarms:
target remote manyfarms:2828

If your remote target is actually running on the same machine as your debugger session (e.g. a simulator for your target running on the same host), you can omit the hostname. For example, to connect to port 1234 on your local machine:
target remote :1234

Note that the colon is still required here.

216

Debugging with gdb

target remote udp:host :port Debug using udp packets to port on host. For example, to connect to udp port 2828 on a terminal server named manyfarms:
target remote udp:manyfarms:2828

When using a udp connection for remote debugging, you should keep in mind that the U stands for Unreliable. udp can silently drop packets on busy or unreliable networks, which will cause havoc with your debugging session. target remote | command Run command in the background and communicate with it using a pipe. The command is a shell command, to be parsed and expanded by the systems command shell, /bin/sh; it should expect remote protocol packets on its standard input, and send replies on its standard output. You could use this to run a stand-alone simulator that speaks the remote debugging protocol, to make net connections using programs like ssh, or for other similar tricks. If command closes its standard output (perhaps by exiting), gdb will try to send it a SIGTERM signal. (If the program has already exited, this will have no eect.) Once the connection has been established, you can use all the usual commands to examine and change data. The remote program is already running; you can use step and continue, and you do not need to use run. Whenever gdb is waiting for the remote program, if you type the interrupt character (often Ctrl-c), gdb attempts to stop the program. This may or may not succeed, depending in part on the hardware and the serial drivers the remote system uses. If you type the interrupt character once again, gdb displays this prompt:
Interrupted while waiting for the program. Give up (and stop debugging it)? (y or n)

If you type y, gdb abandons the remote debugging session. (If you decide you want to try again later, you can use target remote again to connect once more.) If you type n, gdb goes back to waiting. detach When you have nished debugging the remote program, you can use the detach command to release it from gdb control. Detaching from the target normally resumes its execution, but the results will depend on your particular remote stub. After the detach command, gdb is free to connect to another target. The disconnect command behaves like detach, except that the target is generally not resumed. It will wait for gdb (this instance or another one) to connect and continue debugging. After the disconnect command, gdb is again free to connect to another target. monitor cmd This command allows you to send arbitrary commands directly to the remote monitor. Since gdb doesnt care about the commands it sends like this, this command is the way to extend gdbyou can add new commands that only the external monitor will understand and implement.

disconnect

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

217

20.2 Sending les to a remote system

Some remote targets oer the ability to transfer les over the same connection used to communicate with gdb. This is convenient for targets accessible through other means, e.g. gnu/Linux systems running gdbserver over a network interface. For other targets, e.g. embedded devices with only a single serial port, this may be the only way to upload or download les. Not all remote targets support these commands. remote put hostfile targetfile Copy le hostle from the host system (the machine running gdb) to targetle on the target system. remote get targetfile hostfile Copy le targetle from the target system to hostle on the host system. remote delete targetfile Delete targetle from the target system.

20.3 Using the gdbserver Program

gdbserver is a control program for Unix-like systems, which allows you to connect your program with a remote gdb via target remotebut without linking in the usual debugging stub. gdbserver is not a complete replacement for the debugging stubs, because it requires essentially the same operating-system facilities that gdb itself does. In fact, a system that can run gdbserver to connect to a remote gdb could also run gdb locally! gdbserver is sometimes useful nevertheless, because it is a much smaller program than gdb itself. It is also easier to port than all of gdb, so you may be able to get started more quickly on a new system by using gdbserver. Finally, if you develop code for real-time systems, you may nd that the tradeos involved in real-time operation make it more convenient to do as much development work as possible on another system, for example by cross-compiling. You can use gdbserver to make a similar choice for debugging. gdb and gdbserver communicate via either a serial line or a TCP connection, using the standard gdb remote serial protocol. Warning: gdbserver does not have any built-in security. Do not run gdbserver connected to any public network; a gdb connection to gdbserver provides access to the target system with the same privileges as the user running gdbserver.

20.3.1 Running gdbserver

Run gdbserver on the target system. You need a copy of the program you want to debug, including any libraries it requires. gdbserver does not need your programs symbol table, so you can strip the program if necessary to save space. gdb on the host system does all the symbol handling.

218

Debugging with gdb

To use the server, you must tell it how to communicate with gdb; the name of your program; and the arguments for your program. The usual syntax is:
target> gdbserver comm program [ args ... ]

comm is either a device name (to use a serial line) or a TCP hostname and portnumber. For example, to debug Emacs with the argument foo.txt and communicate with gdb over the serial port /dev/com1:
target> gdbserver /dev/com1 emacs foo.txt

gdbserver waits passively for the host gdb to communicate with it. To use a TCP connection instead of a serial line:
target> gdbserver host:2345 emacs foo.txt

The only dierence from the previous example is the rst argument, specifying that you are communicating with the host gdb via TCP. The host:2345 argument means that gdbserver is to expect a TCP connection from machine host to local TCP port 2345. (Currently, the host part is ignored.) You can choose any number you want for the port number as long as it does not conict with any TCP ports already in use on the target system (for example, 23 is reserved for telnet).1 You must use the same port number with the host gdb target remote command.

20.3.1.1 Attaching to a Running Program

On some targets, gdbserver can also attach to running programs. This is accomplished via the --attach argument. The syntax is:
target> gdbserver --attach comm pid

pid is the process ID of a currently running process. It isnt necessary to point gdbserver at a binary for the running process. You can debug processes by name instead of process ID if your target has the pidof utility:
target> gdbserver --attach comm pidof program

In case more than one copy of program is running, or program has multiple threads, most versions of pidof support the -s option to only return the rst process ID.

20.3.1.2 Multi-Process Mode for gdbserver

When you connect to gdbserver using target remote, gdbserver debugs the specied program only once. When the program exits, or you detach from it, gdb closes the connection and gdbserver exits. If you connect using target extended-remote, gdbserver enters multi-process mode. When the debugged program exits, or you detach from it, gdb stays connected to gdbserver even though no program is running. The run and attach commands instruct gdbserver to run or attach to a new program. The run command uses set remote exec-file (see undened [set remote exec-le], page undened ) to select the program to run. Command
1

If you choose a port number that conicts with another service, gdbserver prints an error message and exits.

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

219

line arguments are supported, except for wildcard expansion and I/O redirection (see undened [Arguments], page undened ). To start gdbserver without supplying an initial command to run or process ID to attach, use the --multi command line option. Then you can connect using target extendedremote and start the program you want to debug. gdbserver does not automatically exit in multi-process mode. You can terminate it by using monitor exit (see undened [Monitor Commands for gdbserver], page undened ).

20.3.1.3 Other Command-Line Arguments for gdbserver

The --debug option tells gdbserver to display extra status information about the debugging process. The --remote-debug option tells gdbserver to display remote protocol debug output. These options are intended for gdbserver development and for bug reports to the developers. The --wrapper option species a wrapper to launch programs for debugging. The option should be followed by the name of the wrapper, then any command-line arguments to pass to the wrapper, then -- indicating the end of the wrapper arguments. gdbserver runs the specied wrapper program with a combined command line including the wrapper arguments, then the name of the program to debug, then any arguments to the program. The wrapper runs until it executes your program, and then gdb gains 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 gdbservers environment:
$ gdbserver --wrapper env LD_PRELOAD=libtest.so -- :2222 ./testprog

20.3.2 Connecting to gdbserver

Run gdb on the host system. First make sure you have the necessary symbol les. Load symbols for your application using the file command before you connect. Use set sysroot to locate target libraries (unless your gdb was compiled with the correct sysroot using --with-sysroot). The symbol le and target libraries must exactly match the executable and libraries on the target, with one exception: the les on the host system should not be stripped, even if the les on the target system are. Mismatched or missing les will lead to confusing results during debugging. On gnu/Linux targets, mismatched or missing les may also prevent gdbserver from debugging multi-threaded programs. Connect to your target (see undened [Connecting to a Remote Target], page undened ). For TCP connections, you must start up gdbserver prior to using the target remote command. Otherwise you may get an error whose text depends on the host system, but which usually looks something like Connection refused. Dont use the load command in gdb when using gdbserver, since the program is already on the target.

220

Debugging with gdb

20.3.3 Monitor Commands for gdbserver

During a gdb session using gdbserver, you can use the monitor command to send special requests to gdbserver. Here are the available commands. monitor help List the available monitor commands. monitor set debug 0 monitor set debug 1 Disable or enable general debugging messages. monitor set remote-debug 0 monitor set remote-debug 1 Disable or enable specic debugging messages associated with the remote protocol (see undened [Remote Protocol], page undened ). monitor set libthread-db-search-path [PATH] When this command is issued, path is a colon-separated list of directories to search for libthread_db (see undened [set libthread-db-search-path], page undened ). If you omit path, libthread-db-search-path will be reset to an empty list. monitor exit Tell gdbserver to exit immediately. This command should be followed by disconnect to close the debugging session. gdbserver will detach from any attached processes and kill any processes it created. Use monitor exit to terminate gdbserver at the end of a multi-process mode debug session.

20.3.4 Tracepoints support in gdbserver

On some targets, gdbserver supports tracepoints, fast tracepoints and static tracepoints. For fast or static tracepoints to work, a special library called the in-process agent (IPA), must be loaded in the inferior process. This library is built and distributed as an integral part of gdbserver. In addition, support for static tracepoints requires building the in-process agent library with static tracepoints support. At present, the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust) tracing engine is supported. This support is automatically available if UST development headers are found in the standard include path when gdbserver is built, or if gdbserver was explicitly congured using --with-ust to point at such headers. You can explicitly disable the support using --with-ust=no. There are several ways to load the in-process agent in your program: Specifying it as dependency at link time You can link your program dynamically with the in-process agent library. On most systems, this is accomplished by adding -linproctrace to the link command. Using the systems preloading mechanisms You can force loading the in-process agent at startup time by using your systems support for preloading shared libraries. Many Unixes support the concept

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

221

of preloading user dened libraries. In most cases, you do that by specifying LD_PRELOAD=libinproctrace.so in the environment. See also the description of gdbservers --wrapper command line option. Using gdb to force loading the agent at run time On some systems, you can force the inferior to load a shared library, by calling a dynamic loader function in the inferior that takes care of dynamically looking up and loading a shared library. On most Unix systems, the function is dlopen. Youll use the call command for that. For example:
(gdb) call dlopen ("libinproctrace.so", ...)

Note that on most Unix systems, for the dlopen function to be available, the program needs to be linked with -ldl. On systems that have a userspace dynamic loader, like most Unix systems, when you connect to gdbserver using target remote, youll nd that the program is stopped at the dynamic loaders entry point, and no shared library has been loaded in the programs address space yet, including the in-process agent. In that case, before being able to use any of the fast or static tracepoints features, you need to let the loader run and load the shared libraries. The simplest way to do that is to run the program to the main procedure. E.g., if debugging a C or C++ program, start gdbserver like so:
$ gdbserver :9999 myprogram

Start GDB and connect to gdbserver like so, and run to main:
$ gdb myprogram (gdb) target remote myhost:9999 0x00007f215893ba60 in ?? () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (gdb) b main (gdb) continue

The in-process tracing agent library should now be loaded into the process; you can conrm it with the info sharedlibrary command, which will list libinproctrace.so as loaded in the process. You are now ready to install fast tracepoints, list static tracepoint markers, probe static tracepoints markers, and start tracing.

20.4 Remote Conguration

This section documents the conguration options available when debugging remote programs. For the options related to the File I/O extensions of the remote protocol, see undened [system], page undened . set remoteaddresssize bits Set the maximum size of address in a memory packet to the specied number of bits. gdb will mask o the address bits above that number, when it passes addresses to the remote target. The default value is the number of bits in the targets address. show remoteaddresssize Show the current value of remote address size in bits. set remotebaud n Set the baud rate for the remote serial I/O to n baud. The value is used to set the speed of the serial port used for debugging remote targets.

222

Debugging with gdb

show remotebaud Show the current speed of the remote connection. set remotebreak If set to on, gdb sends a BREAK signal to the remote when you type Ctrl-c to interrupt the program running on the remote. If set to o, gdb sends the Ctrl-C character instead. The default is o, since most remote systems expect to see Ctrl-C as the interrupt signal. show remotebreak Show whether gdb sends BREAK or Ctrl-C to interrupt the remote program. set remoteflow on set remoteflow off Enable or disable hardware ow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port used to communicate to the remote target. show remoteflow Show the current setting of hardware ow control. set remotelogbase base Set the base (a.k.a. radix) of logging serial protocol communications to base. Supported values of base are: ascii, octal, and hex. The default is ascii. show remotelogbase Show the current setting of the radix for logging remote serial protocol. set remotelogfile file Record remote serial communications on the named le. The default is not to record at all. show remotelogfile. Show the current setting of the le name on which to record the serial communications. set remotetimeout num Set the timeout limit to wait for the remote target to respond to num seconds. The default is 2 seconds. show remotetimeout Show the current number of seconds to wait for the remote target responses. set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit limit set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit limit Restrict gdb to using limit remote hardware breakpoint or watchpoints. A limit of -1, the default, is treated as unlimited. set remote exec-file filename show remote exec-file Select the le used for run with target extended-remote. This should be set to a lename valid on the target system. If it is not set, the target will use a default lename (e.g. the last program run).

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

223

set remote interrupt-sequence Allow the user to select one of Ctrl-C, a BREAK or BREAK-g as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution. Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal followed by character g. show interrupt-sequence Show which of Ctrl-C, BREAK or BREAK-g is sent by gdb to interrupt the remote program. BREAK-g is BREAK signal followed by g and also known as Magic SysRq g. set remote interrupt-on-connect Specify whether interrupt-sequence is sent to remote target when gdb connects to it. This is mostly needed when you debug Linux kernel. Linux kernel expects BREAK followed by g which is known as Magic SysRq g in order to connect gdb. show interrupt-on-connect Show whether interrupt-sequence is sent to remote target when gdb connects to it. set tcp auto-retry on Enable auto-retry for remote TCP connections. This is useful if the remote debugging agent is launched in parallel with gdb; there is a race condition because the agent may not become ready to accept the connection before gdb attempts to connect. When auto-retry is enabled, if the initial attempt to connect fails, gdb reattempts to establish the connection using the timeout specied by set tcp connect-timeout. set tcp auto-retry off Do not auto-retry failed TCP connections. show tcp auto-retry Show the current auto-retry setting. set tcp connect-timeout seconds Set the timeout for establishing a TCP connection to the remote target to seconds. The timeout aects both polling to retry failed connections (enabled by set tcp auto-retry on) and waiting for connections that are merely slow to complete, and represents an approximate cumulative value. show tcp connect-timeout Show the current connection timeout setting. The gdb remote protocol autodetects the packets supported by your debugging stub. If you need to override the autodetection, you can use these commands to enable or disable individual packets. Each packet can be set to on (the remote target supports this packet), off (the remote target does not support this packet), or auto (detect remote target support for this packet). They all default to auto. For more information about each packet, see undened [Remote Protocol], page undened . During normal use, you should not have to use any of these commands. If you do, that may be a bug in your remote debugging stub, or a bug in gdb. You may want to report the problem to the gdb developers.

224

Debugging with gdb

For each packet name, the command to enable or disable the packet is set remote name -packet. The available settings are: Command Name fetch-register set-register binary-download read-aux-vector symbol-lookup Remote Packet p P X qXfer:auxv:read qSymbol Related Features info registers set load, set info auxv Detecting threads attach Stepping or resuming multiple threads run break hbreak watch rwatch awatch set architecture info sharedlibrary info mem print $_sdata info spu info spu print $_siginfo multiple

attach verbose-resume

vAttach vCont

run software-breakpoint hardware-breakpoint write-watchpoint read-watchpoint access-watchpoint target-features library-info

vRun Z0 Z1 Z2 Z3 Z4 qXfer:features:read qXfer:libraries:read

memory-map read-sdata-object read-spu-object write-spu-object read-siginfo-object

qXfer:memory-map:read qXfer:sdata:read qXfer:spu:read qXfer:spu:write qXfer:siginfo:read

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

225

write-siginfo-object threads get-thread-localstorage-address get-threadinformation-blockaddress search-memory supported-packets

qXfer:siginfo:write qXfer:threads:read qGetTLSAddr

set $_siginfo info threads Displaying __thread variables Display MSWindows Thread Information Block. find Remote munications parameters handle signal remote get, remote put remote get, remote put remote get, remote put remote get, remote put remote delete Packet acknowledgment info os Querying process state. remote attach com-

qGetTIBAddr

qSearch:memory qSupported

pass-signals hostio-close-packet

QPassSignals vFile:close

hostio-open-packet

vFile:open

hostio-pread-packet

vFile:pread

hostio-pwrite-packet

vFile:pwrite

hostio-unlink-packet noack-packet

vFile:unlink QStartNoAckMode

osdata query-attached

qXfer:osdata:read qAttached

20.5 Implementing a Remote Stub

The stub les provided with gdb implement the target side of the communication protocol, and the gdb side is implemented in the gdb source le remote.c. Normally, you

226

Debugging with gdb

can simply allow these subroutines to communicate, and ignore the details. (If youre implementing your own stub le, you can still ignore the details: start with one of the existing stub les. sparc-stub.c is the best organized, and therefore the easiest to read.) To debug a program running on another machine (the debugging target machine), you must rst arrange for all the usual prerequisites for the program to run by itself. For example, for a C program, you need: 1. A startup routine to set up the C runtime environment; these usually have a name like crt0. The startup routine may be supplied by your hardware supplier, or you may have to write your own. 2. A C subroutine library to support your programs subroutine calls, notably managing input and output. 3. A way of getting your program to the other machinefor example, a download program. These are often supplied by the hardware manufacturer, but you may have to write your own from hardware documentation. The next step is to arrange for your program to use a serial port to communicate with the machine where gdb is running (the host machine). In general terms, the scheme looks like this: On the host, gdb already understands how to use this protocol; when everything else is set up, you can simply use the target remote command (see undened [Specifying a Debugging Target], page undened ). On the target, you must link with your program a few special-purpose subroutines that implement the gdb remote serial protocol. The le containing these subroutines is called a debugging stub. On certain remote targets, you can use an auxiliary program gdbserver instead of linking a stub into your program. See undened [Using the gdbserver Program], page undened , for details. The debugging stub is specic to the architecture of the remote machine; for example, use sparc-stub.c to debug programs on sparc boards. These working remote stubs are distributed with gdb: i386-stub.c For Intel 386 and compatible architectures. m68k-stub.c For Motorola 680x0 architectures. sh-stub.c For Renesas SH architectures. sparc-stub.c For sparc architectures. sparcl-stub.c For Fujitsu sparclite architectures. The README le in the gdb distribution may list other recently added stubs.

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

227

20.5.1 What the Stub Can Do for You

The debugging stub for your architecture supplies these three subroutines: set_debug_traps This routine arranges for handle_exception to run when your program stops. You must call this subroutine explicitly near the beginning of your program. handle_exception This is the central workhorse, but your program never calls it explicitlythe setup code arranges for handle_exception to run when a trap is triggered. handle_exception takes control when your program stops during execution (for example, on a breakpoint), and mediates communications with gdb on the host machine. This is where the communications protocol is implemented; handle_exception acts as the gdb representative on the target machine. It begins by sending summary information on the state of your program, then continues to execute, retrieving and transmitting any information gdb needs, until you execute a gdb command that makes your program resume; at that point, handle_exception returns control to your own code on the target machine. breakpoint Use this auxiliary subroutine to make your program contain a breakpoint. Depending on the particular situation, this may be the only way for gdb to get control. For instance, if your target machine has some sort of interrupt button, you wont need to call this; pressing the interrupt button transfers control to handle_exceptionin eect, to gdb. On some machines, simply receiving characters on the serial port may also trigger a trap; again, in that situation, you dont need to call breakpoint from your own programsimply running target remote from the host gdb session gets control. Call breakpoint if none of these is true, or if you simply want to make certain your program stops at a predetermined point for the start of your debugging session.

20.5.2 What You Must Do for the Stub

The debugging stubs that come with gdb are set up for a particular chip architecture, but they have no information about the rest of your debugging target machine. First of all you need to tell the stub how to communicate with the serial port. int getDebugChar() Write this subroutine to read a single character from the serial port. It may be identical to getchar for your target system; a dierent name is used to allow you to distinguish the two if you wish. void putDebugChar(int) Write this subroutine to write a single character to the serial port. It may be identical to putchar for your target system; a dierent name is used to allow you to distinguish the two if you wish.

228

Debugging with gdb

If you want gdb to be able to stop your program while it is running, you need to use an interrupt-driven serial driver, and arrange for it to stop when it receives a ^C (\003, the control-C character). That is the character which gdb uses to tell the remote system to stop. Getting the debugging target to return the proper status to gdb probably requires changes to the standard stub; one quick and dirty way is to just execute a breakpoint instruction (the dirty part is that gdb reports a SIGTRAP instead of a SIGINT). Other routines you need to supply are: void exceptionHandler (int exception_number, void *exception_address ) Write this function to install exception address in the exception handling tables. You need to do this because the stub does not have any way of knowing what the exception handling tables on your target system are like (for example, the processors table might be in rom, containing entries which point to a table in ram). exception number is the exception number which should be changed; its meaning is architecture-dependent (for example, dierent numbers might represent divide by zero, misaligned access, etc). When this exception occurs, control should be transferred directly to exception address, and the processor state (stack, registers, and so on) should be just as it is when a processor exception occurs. So if you want to use a jump instruction to reach exception address, it should be a simple jump, not a jump to subroutine. For the 386, exception address should be installed as an interrupt gate so that interrupts are masked while the handler runs. The gate should be at privilege level 0 (the most privileged level). The sparc and 68k stubs are able to mask interrupts themselves without help from exceptionHandler. void flush_i_cache() On sparc and sparclite only, write this subroutine to ush the instruction cache, if any, on your target machine. If there is no instruction cache, this subroutine may be a no-op. On target machines that have instruction caches, gdb requires this function to make certain that the state of your program is stable. You must also make sure this library routine is available: void *memset(void *, int, int) This is the standard library function memset that sets an area of memory to a known value. If you have one of the free versions of libc.a, memset can be found there; otherwise, you must either obtain it from your hardware manufacturer, or write your own. If you do not use the GNU C compiler, you may need other standard library subroutines as well; this varies from one stub to another, but in general the stubs are likely to use any of the common library subroutines which gcc generates as inline code.

20.5.3 Putting it All Together

In summary, when your program is ready to debug, you must follow these steps.

Chapter 20: Debugging Remote Programs

229

1. Make sure you have dened the supporting low-level routines (see undened [What You Must Do for the Stub], page undened ): getDebugChar, putDebugChar, flush_i_cache, memset, exceptionHandler. 2. Insert these lines near the top of your program:
set_debug_traps(); breakpoint();

3. For the 680x0 stub only, you need to provide a variable called exceptionHook. Normally you just use:
void (*exceptionHook)() = 0;

4. 5. 6. 7.

but if before calling set_debug_traps, you set it to point to a function in your program, that function is called when gdb continues after stopping on a trap (for example, bus error). The function indicated by exceptionHook is called with one parameter: an int which is the exception number. Compile and link together: your program, the gdb debugging stub for your target architecture, and the supporting subroutines. Make sure you have a serial connection between your target machine and the gdb host, and identify the serial port on the host. Download your program to your target machine (or get it there by whatever means the manufacturer provides), and start it. Start gdb on the host, and connect to the target (see undened [Connecting to a Remote Target], page undened ).

230

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

231

21 Conguration-Specic Information
While nearly all gdb commands are available for all native and cross versions of the debugger, there are some exceptions. This chapter describes things that are only available in certain congurations. There are three major categories of congurations: native congurations, where the host and target are the same, embedded operating system congurations, which are usually the same for several dierent processor architectures, and bare embedded processors, which are quite dierent from each other.

21.1 Native
This section describes details specic to particular native congurations.

21.1.1 HP-UX
On HP-UX systems, if you refer to a function or variable name that begins with a dollar sign, gdb searches for a user or system name rst, before it searches for a convenience variable.

21.1.2 BSD libkvm Interface

BSD-derived systems (FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD) have a kernel memory interface that provides a uniform interface for accessing kernel virtual memory images, including live systems and crash dumps. gdb uses this interface to allow you to debug live kernels and kernel crash dumps on many native BSD congurations. This is implemented as a special kvm debugging target. For debugging a live system, load the currently running kernel into gdb and connect to the kvm target:
(gdb) target kvm

For debugging crash dumps, provide the le name of the crash dump as an argument:
(gdb) target kvm /var/crash/bsd.0

Once connected to the kvm target, the following commands are available: kvm pcb kvm proc Set current context from the Process Control Block (PCB) address. Set current context from proc address. This command isnt available on modern FreeBSD systems.

21.1.3 SVR4 Process Information

Many versions of SVR4 and compatible systems provide a facility called /proc that can be used to examine the image of a running process using le-system subroutines. If gdb is congured for an operating system with this facility, the command info proc is available to report information about the process running your program, or about any process running on your system. info proc works only on SVR4 systems that include the procfs code. This includes, as of this writing, gnu/Linux, OSF/1 (Digital Unix), Solaris, Irix, and Unixware, but not HP-UX, for example.

232

Debugging with gdb

info proc info proc process-id Summarize available information about any running process. If a process ID is specied by process-id, display information about that process; otherwise display information about the program being debugged. The summary includes the debugged process ID, the command line used to invoke it, its current working directory, and its executable les absolute le name. On some systems, process-id can be of the form [pid ]/tid which species a certain thread ID within a process. If the optional pid part is missing, it means a thread from the process being debugged (the leading / still needs to be present, or else gdb will interpret the number as a process ID rather than a thread ID). info proc mappings Report the memory address space ranges accessible in the program, with information on whether the process has read, write, or execute access rights to each range. On gnu/Linux systems, each memory range includes the object le which is mapped to that range, instead of the memory access rights to that range. info proc stat info proc status These subcommands are specic to gnu/Linux systems. They show the processrelated information, including the user ID and group ID; how many threads are there in the process; its virtual memory usage; the signals that are pending, blocked, and ignored; its TTY; its consumption of system and user time; its stack size; its nice value; etc. For more information, see the proc man page (type man 5 proc from your shell prompt). info proc all Show all the information about the process described under all of the above info proc subcommands. set procfs-trace This command enables and disables tracing of procfs API calls. show procfs-trace Show the current state of procfs API call tracing. set procfs-file file Tell gdb to write procfs API trace to the named le. gdb appends the trace info to the previous contents of the le. The default is to display the trace on the standard output. show procfs-file Show the le to which procfs API trace is written.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

233

proc-trace-entry proc-trace-exit proc-untrace-entry proc-untrace-exit These commands enable and disable tracing of entries into and exits from the syscall interface. info pidlist For QNX Neutrino only, this command displays the list of all the processes and all the threads within each process. info meminfo For QNX Neutrino only, this command displays the list of all mapinfos.

21.1.4 Features for Debugging djgpp Programs

djgpp is a port of the gnu development tools to MS-DOS and MS-Windows. djgpp programs are 32-bit protected-mode programs that use the DPMI (DOS Protected-Mode Interface) API to run on top of real-mode DOS systems and their emulations. gdb supports native debugging of djgpp programs, and denes a few commands specic to the djgpp port. This subsection describes those commands. info dos This is a prex of djgpp-specic commands which print information about the target system and important OS structures.

info dos sysinfo This command displays assorted information about the underlying platform: the CPU type and features, the OS version and avor, the DPMI version, and the available conventional and DPMI memory. info dos gdt info dos ldt info dos idt These 3 commands display entries from, respectively, Global, Local, and Interrupt Descriptor Tables (GDT, LDT, and IDT). The descriptor tables are data structures which store a descriptor for each segment that is currently in use. The segments selector is an index into a descriptor table; the table entry for that index holds the descriptors base address and limit, and its attributes and access rights. A typical djgpp program uses 3 segments: a code segment, a data segment (used for both data and the stack), and a DOS segment (which allows access to DOS/BIOS data structures and absolute addresses in conventional memory). However, the DPMI host will usually dene additional segments in order to support the DPMI environment. These commands allow to display entries from the descriptor tables. Without an argument, all entries from the specied table are displayed. An argument, which should be an integer expression, means display a single entry whose index is given by the argument. For example, heres a convenient way to display information about the debugged programs data segment:

234

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) info dos ldt $ds 0x13f: base=0x11970000 limit=0x0009ffff 32-Bit Data (Read/Write, Exp-up)

This comes in handy when you want to see whether a pointer is outside the data segments limit (i.e. garbled). info dos pde info dos pte These two commands display entries from, respectively, the Page Directory and the Page Tables. Page Directories and Page Tables are data structures which control how virtual memory addresses are mapped into physical addresses. A Page Table includes an entry for every page of memory that is mapped into the programs address space; there may be several Page Tables, each one holding up to 4096 entries. A Page Directory has up to 4096 entries, one each for every Page Table that is currently in use. Without an argument, info dos pde displays the entire Page Directory, and info dos pte displays all the entries in all of the Page Tables. An argument, an integer expression, given to the info dos pde command means display only that entry from the Page Directory table. An argument given to the info dos pte command means display entries from a single Page Table, the one pointed to by the specied entry in the Page Directory. These commands are useful when your program uses DMA (Direct Memory Access), which needs physical addresses to program the DMA controller. These commands are supported only with some DPMI servers. info dos address-pte addr This command displays the Page Table entry for a specied linear address. The argument addr is a linear address which should already have the appropriate segments base address added to it, because this command accepts addresses which may belong to any segment. For example, heres how to display the Page Table entry for the page where a variable i is stored:
(gdb) info dos address-pte __djgpp_base_address + (char *)&i Page Table entry for address 0x11a00d30: Base=0x02698000 Dirty Acc. Not-Cached Write-Back Usr Read-Write +0xd30

This says that i is stored at oset 0xd30 from the page whose physical base address is 0x02698000, and shows all the attributes of that page. Note that you must cast the addresses of variables to a char *, since otherwise the value of __djgpp_base_address, the base address of all variables and functions in a djgpp program, will be added using the rules of C pointer arithmetics: if i is declared an int, gdb will add 4 times the value of __djgpp_base_address to the address of i. Heres another example, it displays the Page Table entry for the transfer buer:
(gdb) info dos address-pte *((unsigned *)&_go32_info_block + 3) Page Table entry for address 0x29110: Base=0x00029000 Dirty Acc. Not-Cached Write-Back Usr Read-Write +0x110

(The + 3 oset is because the transfer buers address is the 3rd member of the _go32_info_block structure.) The output clearly shows that this DPMI server maps the addresses in conventional memory 1:1, i.e. the physical (0x00029000 + 0x110) and linear (0x29110) addresses are identical.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

235

This command is supported only with some DPMI servers. In addition to native debugging, the DJGPP port supports remote debugging via a serial data link. The following commands are specic to remote serial debugging in the DJGPP port of gdb. set com1base addr This command sets the base I/O port address of the COM1 serial port. set com1irq irq This command sets the Interrupt Request (IRQ) line to use for the COM1 serial port. There are similar commands set com2base, set com3irq, etc. for setting the port address and the IRQ lines for the other 3 COM ports. The related commands show com1base, show com1irq etc. display the current settings of the base address and the IRQ lines used by the COM ports. info serial This command prints the status of the 4 DOS serial ports. For each port, it prints whether its active or not, its I/O base address and IRQ number, whether it uses a 16550-style FIFO, its baudrate, and the counts of various errors encountered so far.

21.1.5 Features for Debugging MS Windows PE Executables

gdb supports native debugging of MS Windows programs, including DLLs with and without symbolic debugging information. MS-Windows programs that call SetConsoleMode to switch o the special meaning of the Ctrl-C keystroke cannot be interrupted by typing C-c. For this reason, gdb on MSWindows supports C- BREAK as an alternative interrupt key sequence, which can be used to interrupt the debuggee even if it ignores C-c. There are various additional Cygwin-specic commands, described in this section. Working with DLLs that have no debugging symbols is described in undened [Non-debug DLL Symbols], page undened . info w32 This is a prex of MS Windows-specic commands which print information about the target system and important OS structures.

info w32 selector This command displays information returned by the Win32 API GetThreadSelectorEntry function. It takes an optional argument that is evaluated to a long value to give the information about this given selector. Without argument, this command displays information about the six segment registers. info w32 thread-information-block This command displays thread specic information stored in the Thread Information Block (readable on the X86 CPU family using $fs selector for 32-bit programs and $gs for 64-bit programs).

236

Debugging with gdb

info dll

This is a Cygwin-specic alias of info shared.

dll-symbols This command loads symbols from a dll similarly to add-sym command but without the need to specify a base address. set cygwin-exceptions mode If mode is on, gdb will break on exceptions that happen inside the Cygwin DLL. If mode is off, gdb will delay recognition of exceptions, and may ignore some exceptions which seem to be caused by internal Cygwin DLL bookkeeping. This option is meant primarily for debugging the Cygwin DLL itself; the default value is off to avoid annoying gdb users with false SIGSEGV signals. show cygwin-exceptions Displays whether gdb will break on exceptions that happen inside the Cygwin DLL itself. set new-console mode If mode is on the debuggee will be started in a new console on next start. If mode is off, the debuggee will be started in the same console as the debugger. show new-console Displays whether a new console is used when the debuggee is started. set new-group mode This boolean value controls whether the debuggee should start a new group or stay in the same group as the debugger. This aects the way the Windows OS handles Ctrl-C. show new-group Displays current value of new-group boolean. set debugevents This boolean value adds debug output concerning kernel events related to the debuggee seen by the debugger. This includes events that signal thread and process creation and exit, DLL loading and unloading, console interrupts, and debugging messages produced by the Windows OutputDebugString API call. set debugexec This boolean value adds debug output concerning execute events (such as resume thread) seen by the debugger. set debugexceptions This boolean value adds debug output concerning exceptions in the debuggee seen by the debugger. set debugmemory This boolean value adds debug output concerning debuggee memory reads and writes by the debugger. set shell This boolean values species whether the debuggee is called via a shell or directly (default value is on). show shell Displays if the debuggee will be started with a shell.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

237

21.1.5.1 Support for DLLs without Debugging Symbols

Very often on windows, some of the DLLs that your program relies on do not include symbolic debugging information (for example, kernel32.dll). When gdb doesnt recognize any debugging symbols in a DLL, it relies on the minimal amount of symbolic information contained in the DLLs export table. This section describes working with such symbols, known internally to gdb as minimal symbols. Note that before the debugged program has started execution, no DLLs will have been loaded. The easiest way around this problem is simply to start the program either by setting a breakpoint or letting the program run once to completion. It is also possible to force gdb to load a particular DLL before starting the executable see the shared library information in undened [Files], page undened , or the dll-symbols command in undened [Cygwin Native], page undened . Currently, explicitly loading symbols from a DLL with no debugging information will cause the symbol names to be duplicated in gdbs lookup table, which may adversely aect symbol lookup performance.

21.1.5.2 DLL Name Prexes

In keeping with the naming conventions used by the Microsoft debugging tools, DLL export symbols are made available with a prex based on the DLL name, for instance KERNEL32!CreateFileA. The plain name is also entered into the symbol table, so CreateFileA is often sucient. In some cases there will be name clashes within a program (particularly if the executable itself includes full debugging symbols) necessitating the use of the fully qualied name when referring to the contents of the DLL. Use single-quotes around the name to avoid the exclamation mark (!) being interpreted as a language operator. Note that the internal name of the DLL may be all upper-case, even though the le name of the DLL is lower-case, or vice-versa. Since symbols within gdb are case-sensitive this may cause some confusion. If in doubt, try the info functions and info variables commands or even maint print msymbols (see undened [Symbols], page undened ). Heres an example:
(gdb) info function CreateFileA All functions matching regular expression "CreateFileA": Non-debugging symbols: 0x77e885f4 CreateFileA 0x77e885f4 KERNEL32!CreateFileA (gdb) info function ! All functions matching regular expression "!": Non-debugging symbols: 0x6100114c cygwin1!__assert 0x61004034 cygwin1!_dll_crt0@0 0x61004240 cygwin1!dll_crt0(per_process *) [etc...]

238

Debugging with gdb

21.1.5.3 Working with Minimal Symbols

Symbols extracted from a DLLs export table do not contain very much type information. All that gdb can do is guess whether a symbol refers to a function or variable depending on the linker section that contains the symbol. Also note that the actual contents of the memory contained in a DLL are not available unless the program is running. This means that you cannot examine the contents of a variable or disassemble a function within a DLL without a running program. Variables are generally treated as pointers and dereferenced automatically. For this reason, it is often necessary to prex a variable name with the address-of operator (&) and provide explicit type information in the command. Heres an example of the type of problem:
(gdb) print cygwin1!__argv $1 = 268572168 (gdb) x cygwin1!__argv 0x10021610: "\230y\""

And two possible solutions:

(gdb) print ((char **)cygwin1!__argv)[0] $2 = 0x22fd98 "/cygdrive/c/mydirectory/myprogram" (gdb) x/2x &cygwin1!__argv 0x610c0aa8 <cygwin1!__argv>: 0x10021608 0x00000000 (gdb) x/x 0x10021608 0x10021608: 0x0022fd98 (gdb) x/s 0x0022fd98 0x22fd98: "/cygdrive/c/mydirectory/myprogram"

Setting a break point within a DLL is possible even before the program starts execution. However, under these circumstances, gdb cant examine the initial instructions of the function in order to skip the functions frame set-up code. You can work around this by using *& to set the breakpoint at a raw memory address:
(gdb) break *&python22!PyOS_Readline Breakpoint 1 at 0x1e04eff0

The author of these extensions is not entirely convinced that setting a break point within a shared DLL like kernel32.dll is completely safe.

21.1.6 Commands Specic to gnu Hurd Systems

This subsection describes gdb commands specic to the gnu Hurd native debugging. set signals set sigs This command toggles the state of inferior signal interception by gdb. Mach exceptions, such as breakpoint traps, are not aected by this command. sigs is a shorthand alias for signals. show signals show sigs Show the current state of intercepting inferiors signals.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

239

set signal-thread set sigthread This command tells gdb which thread is the libc signal thread. That thread is run when a signal is delivered to a running process. set sigthread is the shorthand alias of set signal-thread. show signal-thread show sigthread These two commands show which thread will run when the inferior is delivered a signal. set stopped This commands tells gdb that the inferior process is stopped, as with the SIGSTOP signal. The stopped process can be continued by delivering a signal to it. show stopped This command shows whether gdb thinks the debuggee is stopped. set exceptions Use this command to turn o trapping of exceptions in the inferior. When exception trapping is o, neither breakpoints nor single-stepping will work. To restore the default, set exception trapping on. show exceptions Show the current state of trapping exceptions in the inferior. set task pause This command toggles task suspension when gdb has control. Setting it to on takes eect immediately, and the task is suspended whenever gdb gets control. Setting it to o will take eect the next time the inferior is continued. If this option is set to o, you can use set thread default pause on or set thread pause on (see below) to pause individual threads. show task pause Show the current state of task suspension. set task detach-suspend-count This command sets the suspend count the task will be left with when gdb detaches from it. show task detach-suspend-count Show the suspend count the task will be left with when detaching. set task exception-port set task excp This command sets the task exception port to which gdb will forward exceptions. The argument should be the value of the send rights of the task. set task excp is a shorthand alias. set noninvasive This command switches gdb to a mode that is the least invasive as far as interfering with the inferior is concerned. This is the same as using set task pause, set exceptions, and set signals to values opposite to the defaults.

240

Debugging with gdb

info info info info info info info

send-rights receive-rights port-rights port-sets dead-names ports psets These commands display information about, respectively, send rights, receive rights, port rights, port sets, and dead names of a task. There are also shorthand aliases: info ports for info port-rights and info psets for info portsets.

set thread pause This command toggles current thread suspension when gdb has control. Setting it to on takes eect immediately, and the current thread is suspended whenever gdb gets control. Setting it to o will take eect the next time the inferior is continued. Normally, this command has no eect, since when gdb has control, the whole task is suspended. However, if you used set task pause off (see above), this command comes in handy to suspend only the current thread. show thread pause This command shows the state of current thread suspension. set thread run This command sets whether the current thread is allowed to run. show thread run Show whether the current thread is allowed to run. set thread detach-suspend-count This command sets the suspend count gdb will leave on a thread when detaching. This number is relative to the suspend count found by gdb when it notices the thread; use set thread takeover-suspend-count to force it to an absolute value. show thread detach-suspend-count Show the suspend count gdb will leave on the thread when detaching. set thread exception-port set thread excp Set the thread exception port to which to forward exceptions. This overrides the port set by set task exception-port (see above). set thread excp is the shorthand alias. set thread takeover-suspend-count Normally, gdbs thread suspend counts are relative to the value gdb nds when it notices each thread. This command changes the suspend counts to be absolute instead. set thread default show thread default Each of the above set thread commands has a set thread default counterpart (e.g., set thread default pause, set thread default exception-port,

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

241

etc.). The thread default variety of commands sets the default thread properties for all threads; you can then change the properties of individual threads with the non-default commands.

21.1.7 QNX Neutrino

gdb provides the following commands specic to the QNX Neutrino target: set debug nto-debug When set to on, enables debugging messages specic to the QNX Neutrino support. show debug nto-debug Show the current state of QNX Neutrino messages.

21.1.8 Darwin
gdb provides the following commands specic to the Darwin target: set debug darwin num When set to a non zero value, enables debugging messages specic to the Darwin support. Higher values produce more verbose output. show debug darwin Show the current state of Darwin messages. set debug mach-o num When set to a non zero value, enables debugging messages while gdb is reading Darwin object les. (Mach-O is the le format used on Darwin for object and executable les.) Higher values produce more verbose output. This is a command to diagnose problems internal to gdb and should not be needed in normal usage. show debug mach-o Show the current state of Mach-O le messages. set mach-exceptions on set mach-exceptions off On Darwin, faults are rst reported as a Mach exception and are then mapped to a Posix signal. Use this command to turn on trapping of Mach exceptions in the inferior. This might be sometimes useful to better understand the cause of a fault. The default is o. show mach-exceptions Show the current state of exceptions trapping.

21.2 Embedded Operating Systems

This section describes congurations involving the debugging of embedded operating systems that are available for several dierent architectures. gdb includes the ability to debug programs running on various real-time operating systems.

242

Debugging with gdb

21.2.1 Using gdb with VxWorks

target vxworks machinename A VxWorks system, attached via TCP/IP. The argument machinename is the target systems machine name or IP address. On VxWorks, load links lename dynamically on the current target system as well as adding its symbols in gdb. gdb enables developers to spawn and debug tasks running on networked VxWorks targets from a Unix host. Already-running tasks spawned from the VxWorks shell can also be debugged. gdb uses code that runs on both the Unix host and on the VxWorks target. The program gdb is installed and executed on the Unix host. (It may be installed with the name vxgdb, to distinguish it from a gdb for debugging programs on the host itself.) VxWorks-timeout args All VxWorks-based targets now support the option vxworks-timeout. This option is set by the user, and args represents the number of seconds gdb waits for responses to rpcs. You might use this if your VxWorks target is a slow software simulator or is on the far side of a thin network line. The following information on connecting to VxWorks was current when this manual was produced; newer releases of VxWorks may use revised procedures. To use gdb with VxWorks, you must rebuild your VxWorks kernel to include the remote debugging interface routines in the VxWorks library rdb.a. To do this, dene INCLUDE_ RDB in the VxWorks conguration le configAll.h and rebuild your VxWorks kernel. The resulting kernel contains rdb.a, and spawns the source debugging task tRdbTask when VxWorks is booted. For more information on conguring and remaking VxWorks, see the manufacturers manual. Once you have included rdb.a in your VxWorks system image and set your Unix execution search path to nd gdb, you are ready to run gdb. From your Unix host, run gdb (or vxgdb, depending on your installation). gdb comes up showing the prompt:
(vxgdb)

21.2.1.1 Connecting to VxWorks

The gdb command target lets you connect to a VxWorks target on the network. To connect to a target whose host name is tt, type:
(vxgdb) target vxworks tt

gdb displays messages like these:

Attaching remote machine across net... Connected to tt.

gdb then attempts to read the symbol tables of any object modules loaded into the VxWorks target since it was last booted. gdb locates these les by searching the directories listed in the command search path (see undened [Your Programs Environment], page undened ); if it fails to nd an object le, it displays a message such as:

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

243

prog.o: No such file or directory.

When this happens, add the appropriate directory to the search path with the gdb command path, and execute the target command again.

21.2.1.2 VxWorks Download

If you have connected to the VxWorks target and you want to debug an object that has not yet been loaded, you can use the gdb load command to download a le from Unix to VxWorks incrementally. The object le given as an argument to the load command is actually opened twice: rst by the VxWorks target in order to download the code, then by gdb in order to read the symbol table. This can lead to problems if the current working directories on the two systems dier. If both systems have NFS mounted the same lesystems, you can avoid these problems by using absolute paths. Otherwise, it is simplest to set the working directory on both systems to the directory in which the object le resides, and then to reference the le by its name, without any path. For instance, a program prog.o may reside in vxpath /vw/demo/rdb in VxWorks and in hostpath /vw/demo/rdb on the host. To load this program, type this on VxWorks:
-> cd "vxpath /vw/demo/rdb"

Then, in gdb, type:

(vxgdb) cd hostpath /vw/demo/rdb (vxgdb) load prog.o

gdb displays a response similar to this:

Reading symbol data from wherever/vw/demo/rdb/prog.o... done.

You can also use the load command to reload an object module after editing and recompiling the corresponding source le. Note that this makes gdb delete all currently-dened breakpoints, auto-displays, and convenience variables, and to clear the value history. (This is necessary in order to preserve the integrity of debuggers data structures that reference the target systems symbol table.)

21.2.1.3 Running Tasks

You can also attach to an existing task using the attach command as follows:
(vxgdb) attach task

where task is the VxWorks hexadecimal task ID. The task can be running or suspended when you attach to it. Running tasks are suspended at the time of attachment.

21.3 Embedded Processors

This section goes into details specic to particular embedded congurations. Whenever a specic embedded processor has a simulator, gdb allows to send an arbitrary command to the simulator. sim command Send an arbitrary command string to the simulator. Consult the documentation for the specic simulator in use for information about acceptable commands.

244

Debugging with gdb

21.3.1 ARM
target rdi dev ARM Angel monitor, via RDI library interface to ADP protocol. You may use this target to communicate with both boards running the Angel monitor, or with the EmbeddedICE JTAG debug device. target rdp dev ARM Demon monitor. gdb provides the following ARM-specic commands: set arm disassembler This commands selects from a list of disassembly styles. The "std" style is the standard style. show arm disassembler Show the current disassembly style. set arm apcs32 This command toggles ARM operation mode between 32-bit and 26-bit. show arm apcs32 Display the current usage of the ARM 32-bit mode. set arm fpu fputype This command sets the ARM oating-point unit (FPU) type. The argument fputype can be one of these: auto softfpa fpa softvfp vfp Determine the FPU type by querying the OS ABI. Software FPU, with mixed-endian doubles on little-endian ARM processors. GCC-compiled FPA co-processor. Software FPU with pure-endian doubles. VFP co-processor.

show arm fpu Show the current type of the FPU. set arm abi This command forces gdb to use the specied ABI. show arm abi Show the currently used ABI. set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto) gdb uses the symbol table, when available, to determine whether instructions are ARM or Thumb. This command controls gdbs default behavior when the symbol table is not available. The default is auto, which causes gdb to use the current execution mode (from the T bit in the CPSR register). show arm fallback-mode Show the current fallback instruction mode.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

245

set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto) This command overrides use of the symbol table to determine whether instructions are ARM or Thumb. The default is auto, which causes gdb to use the symbol table and then the setting of set arm fallback-mode. show arm force-mode Show the current forced instruction mode. set debug arm Toggle whether to display ARM-specic debugging messages from the ARM target support subsystem. show debug arm Show whether ARM-specic debugging messages are enabled. The following commands are available when an ARM target is debugged using the RDI interface: rdilogfile [file ] Set the lename for the ADP (Angel Debugger Protocol) packet log. With an argument, sets the log le to the specied le. With no argument, show the current log le name. The default log le is rdi.log. rdilogenable [arg ] Control logging of ADP packets. With an argument of 1 or "yes" enables logging, with an argument 0 or "no" disables it. With no arguments displays the current setting. When logging is enabled, ADP packets exchanged between gdb and the RDI target device are logged to a le. set rdiromatzero Tell gdb whether the target has ROM at address 0. If on, vector catching is disabled, so that zero address can be used. If o (the default), vector catching is enabled. For this command to take eect, it needs to be invoked prior to the target rdi command. show rdiromatzero Show the current setting of ROM at zero address. set rdiheartbeat Enable or disable RDI heartbeat packets. It is not recommended to turn on this option, since it confuses ARM and EPI JTAG interface, as well as the Angel monitor. show rdiheartbeat Show the setting of RDI heartbeat packets. target sim [simargs ] ... The gdb ARM simulator accepts the following optional arguments. --swi-support=type Tell the simulator which SWI interfaces to support. type may be a comma separated list of the following values. The default value is all.

246

Debugging with gdb

none demon angel redboot all

21.3.2 Renesas M32R/D and M32R/SDI

target m32r dev Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor. target m32rsdi dev Renesas M32R SDI server, connected via parallel port to the board. The following gdb commands are specic to the M32R monitor: set download-path path Set the default path for nding downloadable srec les. show download-path Show the default path for downloadable srec les. set board-address addr Set the IP address for the M32R-EVA target board. show board-address Show the current IP address of the target board. set server-address addr Set the IP address for the download server, which is the gdbs host machine. show server-address Display the IP address of the download server. upload [file ] Upload the specied srec le via the monitors Ethernet upload capability. If no le argument is given, the current executable le is uploaded. tload [file ] Test the upload command. The following commands are available for M32R/SDI: sdireset sdistatus This command shows the SDI connection status. debug_chaos Instructs the remote that M32R/Chaos debugging is to be used. use_debug_dma Instructs the remote to use the DEBUG DMA method of accessing memory. This command resets the SDI connection.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

247

use_mon_code Instructs the remote to use the MON CODE method of accessing memory. use_ib_break Instructs the remote to set breakpoints by IB break. use_dbt_break Instructs the remote to set breakpoints by DBT.

21.3.3 M68k
The Motorola m68k conguration includes ColdFire support, and a target command for the following ROM monitor. target dbug dev dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire.

21.3.4 MicroBlaze
The MicroBlaze is a soft-core processor supported on various Xilinx FPGAs, such as Spartan or Virtex series. Boards with these processors usually have JTAG ports which connect to a host system running the Xilinx Embedded Development Kit (EDK) or Software Development Kit (SDK). This host system is used to download the conguration bitstream to the target FPGA. The Xilinx Microprocessor Debugger (XMD) program communicates with the target board using the JTAG interface and presents a gdbserver interface to the board. By default xmd uses port 1234. (While it is possible to change this default port, it requires the use of undocumented xmd commands. Contact Xilinx support if you need to do this.) Use these GDB commands to connect to the MicroBlaze target processor. target remote :1234 Use this command to connect to the target if you are running gdb on the same system as xmd. target remote xmd-host :1234 Use this command to connect to the target if it is connected to xmd running on a dierent system named xmd-host. load Use this command to download a program to the MicroBlaze target.

set debug microblaze n Enable MicroBlaze-specic debugging messages if non-zero. show debug microblaze n Show MicroBlaze-specic debugging level.

21.3.5 MIPS Embedded

gdb can use the MIPS remote debugging protocol to talk to a MIPS board attached to a serial line. This is available when you congure gdb with --target=mips-idt-ecoff.

248

Debugging with gdb

Use these gdb commands to specify the connection to your target board: target mips port To run a program on the board, start up gdb with the name of your program as the argument. To connect to the board, use the command target mips port , where port is the name of the serial port connected to the board. If the program has not already been downloaded to the board, you may use the load command to download it. You can then use all the usual gdb commands. For example, this sequence connects to the target board through a serial port, and loads and runs a program called prog through the debugger:
host$ gdb prog gdb is free software and ... (gdb) target mips /dev/ttyb (gdb) load prog (gdb) run

target mips hostname :portnumber On some gdb host congurations, you can specify a TCP connection (for instance, to a serial line managed by a terminal concentrator) instead of a serial port, using the syntax hostname :portnumber . target pmon port PMON ROM monitor. target ddb port NECs DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300. target lsi port LSI variant of PMON. target r3900 dev Densan DVE-R3900 ROM monitor for Toshiba R3900 Mips. target array dev Array Tech LSI33K RAID controller board. gdb also supports these special commands for MIPS targets: set mipsfpu double set mipsfpu single set mipsfpu none set mipsfpu auto show mipsfpu If your target board does not support the MIPS oating point coprocessor, you should use the command set mipsfpu none (if you need this, you may wish to put the command in your gdb init le). This tells gdb how to nd the return value of functions which return oating point values. It also allows gdb to avoid saving the oating point registers when calling functions on the board. If you are using a oating point coprocessor with only single precision oating point support, as on the r4650 processor, use the command set mipsfpu single. The default double precision oating point coprocessor may be selected using set mipsfpu double.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

249

In previous versions the only choices were double precision or no oating point, so set mipsfpu on will select double precision and set mipsfpu off will select no oating point. As usual, you can inquire about the mipsfpu variable with show mipsfpu. set timeout seconds set retransmit-timeout seconds show timeout show retransmit-timeout You can control the timeout used while waiting for a packet, in the MIPS remote protocol, with the set timeout seconds command. The default is 5 seconds. Similarly, you can control the timeout used while waiting for an acknowledgment of a packet with the set retransmit-timeout seconds command. The default is 3 seconds. You can inspect both values with show timeout and show retransmit-timeout. (These commands are only available when gdb is congured for --target=mips-idt-ecoff.) The timeout set by set timeout does not apply when gdb is waiting for your program to stop. In that case, gdb waits forever because it has no way of knowing how long the program is going to run before stopping. set syn-garbage-limit num Limit the maximum number of characters gdb should ignore when it tries to synchronize with the remote target. The default is 10 characters. Setting the limit to -1 means theres no limit. show syn-garbage-limit Show the current limit on the number of characters to ignore when trying to synchronize with the remote system. set monitor-prompt prompt Tell gdb to expect the specied prompt string from the remote monitor. The default depends on the target: pmon target PMON ddb target NEC010 lsi target PMON> show monitor-prompt Show the current strings gdb expects as the prompt from the remote monitor. set monitor-warnings Enable or disable monitor warnings about hardware breakpoints. This has eect only for the lsi target. When on, gdb will display warning messages whose codes are returned by the lsi PMON monitor for breakpoint commands. show monitor-warnings Show the current setting of printing monitor warnings. pmon command This command allows sending an arbitrary command string to the monitor. The monitor must be in debug mode for this to work.

250

Debugging with gdb

21.3.6 OpenRISC 1000

See OR1k Architecture document (www.opencores.org) for more information about platform and commands. target jtag jtag://host :port Connects to remote JTAG server. JTAG remote server can be either an or1ksim or JTAG server, connected via parallel port to the board. Example: target jtag jtag://localhost:9999 or1ksim command If connected to or1ksim OpenRISC 1000 Architectural Simulator, proprietary commands can be executed. info or1k spr Displays spr groups. info or1k spr group info or1k spr groupno Displays register names in selected group. info info info info spr spr spr spr or1k or1k or1k or1k spr group register spr register spr groupno registerno spr registerno Shows information about specied spr register.

group register value register value groupno registerno value registerno value Writes value to specied spr register.

Some implementations of OpenRISC 1000 Architecture also have hardware trace. It is very similar to gdb trace, except it does not interfere with normal program execution and is thus much faster. Hardware breakpoints/watchpoint triggers can be set using: $LEA/$LDATA Load eective address/data $SEA/$SDATA Store eective address/data $AEA/$ADATA Access eective address ($SEA or $LEA) or data ($SDATA/$LDATA) $FETCH Fetch data

When triggered, it can capture low level data, like: PC, LSEA, LDATA, SDATA, READSPR, WRITESPR, INSTR. htrace commands:

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

251

hwatch conditional Set hardware watchpoint on combination of Load/Store Eective Address(es) or Data. For example: hwatch ($LEA == my_var) && ($LDATA < 50) || ($SEA == my_var) && ($SDATA >= 50) hwatch ($LEA == my_var) && ($LDATA < 50) || ($SEA == my_var) && ($SDATA >= 50) htrace info Display information about current HW trace conguration. htrace trigger conditional Set starting criteria for HW trace. htrace qualifier conditional Set acquisition qualier for HW trace. htrace stop conditional Set HW trace stopping criteria. htrace record [data ]* Selects the data to be recorded, when qualier is met and HW trace was triggered. htrace enable htrace disable Enables/disables the HW trace. htrace rewind [filename ] Clears currently recorded trace data. If lename is specied, new trace le is made and any newly collected data will be written there. htrace print [start [len ]] Prints trace buer, using current record conguration. htrace mode continuous Set continuous trace mode. htrace mode suspend Set suspend trace mode.

21.3.7 PowerPC Embedded

gdb supports using the DVC (Data Value Compare) register to implement in hardware simple hardware watchpoint conditions of the form:
(gdb) watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE \ if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION

The DVC register will be automatically used whenever gdb detects such pattern in a condition expression. This feature is available in native gdb running on a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or newer. gdb provides the following PowerPC-specic commands:

252

Debugging with gdb

set powerpc soft-float show powerpc soft-float Force gdb to use (or not use) a software oating point calling convention. By default, gdb selects the calling convention based on the selected architecture and the provided executable le. set powerpc vector-abi show powerpc vector-abi Force gdb to use the specied calling convention for vector arguments and return values. The valid options are auto; generic, to avoid vector registers even if they are present; altivec, to use AltiVec registers; and spe to use SPE registers. By default, gdb selects the calling convention based on the selected architecture and the provided executable le. target dink32 dev DINK32 ROM monitor. target ppcbug dev target ppcbug1 dev PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC. target sds dev SDS monitor, running on a PowerPC board (such as Motorolas ADS). The following commands specic to the SDS protocol are supported by gdb: set sdstimeout nsec Set the timeout for SDS protocol reads to be nsec seconds. The default is 2 seconds. show sdstimeout Show the current value of the SDS timeout. sds command Send the specied command string to the SDS monitor.

21.3.8 HP PA Embedded
target op50n dev OP50N monitor, running on an OKI HPPA board. target w89k dev W89K monitor, running on a Winbond HPPA board.

21.3.9 Tsqware Sparclet

gdb enables developers to debug tasks running on Sparclet targets from a Unix host. gdb uses code that runs on both the Unix host and on the Sparclet target. The program gdb is installed and executed on the Unix host. remotetimeout args gdb supports the option remotetimeout. This option is set by the user, and args represents the number of seconds gdb waits for responses.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

253

When compiling for debugging, include the options -g to get debug information and -Ttext to relocate the program to where you wish to load it on the target. You may also want to add the options -n or -N in order to reduce the size of the sections. Example:
sparclet-aout-gcc prog.c -Ttext 0x12010000 -g -o prog -N

You can use objdump to verify that the addresses are what you intended:
sparclet-aout-objdump --headers --syms prog

Once you have set your Unix execution search path to nd gdb, you are ready to run gdb. From your Unix host, run gdb (or sparclet-aout-gdb, depending on your installation). gdb comes up showing the prompt:
(gdbslet)

21.3.9.1 Setting File to Debug

The gdb command file lets you choose with program to debug.
(gdbslet) file prog

gdb then attempts to read the symbol table of prog. gdb locates the le by searching the directories listed in the command search path. If the le was compiled with debug information (option -g), source les will be searched as well. gdb locates the source les by searching the directories listed in the directory search path (see undened [Your Programs Environment], page undened ). If it fails to nd a le, it displays a message such as:
prog: No such file or directory.

When this happens, add the appropriate directories to the search paths with the gdb commands path and dir, and execute the target command again.

21.3.9.2 Connecting to Sparclet

The gdb command target lets you connect to a Sparclet target. To connect to a target on serial port ttya, type:
(gdbslet) target sparclet /dev/ttya Remote target sparclet connected to /dev/ttya main () at ../prog.c:3

gdb displays messages like these:

Connected to ttya.

21.3.9.3 Sparclet Download

Once connected to the Sparclet target, you can use the gdb load command to download the le from the host to the target. The le name and load oset should be given as arguments to the load command. Since the le format is aout, the program must be loaded to the starting address. You can use objdump to nd out what this value is. The load oset is an oset which is added to the VMA (virtual memory address) of each of the les sections. For instance, if the program prog was linked to text address 0x1201000, with data at 0x12010160 and bss at 0x12010170, in gdb, type:

254

Debugging with gdb

(gdbslet) load prog 0x12010000 Loading section .text, size 0xdb0 vma 0x12010000

If the code is loaded at a dierent address then what the program was linked to, you may need to use the section and add-symbol-file commands to tell gdb where to map the symbol table.

21.3.9.4 Running and Debugging

You can now begin debugging the task using gdbs execution control commands, b, step, run, etc. See the gdb manual for the list of commands.
(gdbslet) b main Breakpoint 1 at 0x12010000: file prog.c, line 3. (gdbslet) run Starting program: prog Breakpoint 1, main (argc=1, argv=0xeffff21c) at prog.c:3 3 char *symarg = 0; (gdbslet) step 4 char *execarg = "hello!"; (gdbslet)

21.3.10 Fujitsu Sparclite

target sparclite dev Fujitsu sparclite boards, used only for the purpose of loading. You must use an additional command to debug the program. For example: target remote dev using gdb standard remote protocol.

21.3.11 Zilog Z8000

When congured for debugging Zilog Z8000 targets, gdb includes a Z8000 simulator. For the Z8000 family, target sim simulates either the Z8002 (the unsegmented variant of the Z8000 architecture) or the Z8001 (the segmented variant). The simulator recognizes which architecture is appropriate by inspecting the object code. target sim args Debug programs on a simulated CPU. If the simulator supports setup options, specify them via args. After specifying this target, you can debug programs for the simulated CPU in the same style as programs for your host computer; use the file command to load a new program image, the run command to run your program, and so on. As well as making available all the usual machine registers (see undened [Registers], page undened ), the Z8000 simulator provides three additional items of information as specially named registers: cycles insts time Counts clock-ticks in the simulator. Counts instructions run in the simulator. Execution time in 60ths of a second.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

255

You can refer to these values in gdb expressions with the usual conventions; for example, b fputc if $cycles>5000 sets a conditional breakpoint that suspends only after at least 5000 simulated clock ticks.

21.3.12 Atmel AVR

When congured for debugging the Atmel AVR, gdb supports the following AVR-specic commands: info io_registers This command displays information about the AVR I/O registers. For each register, gdb prints its number and value.

21.3.13 CRIS
When congured for debugging CRIS, gdb provides the following CRIS-specic commands: set cris-version ver Set the current CRIS version to ver, either 10 or 32. The CRIS version aects register names and sizes. This command is useful in case autodetection of the CRIS version fails. show cris-version Show the current CRIS version. set cris-dwarf2-cfi Set the usage of DWARF-2 CFI for CRIS debugging. The default is on. Change to off when using gcc-cris whose version is below R59. show cris-dwarf2-cfi Show the current state of using DWARF-2 CFI. set cris-mode mode Set the current CRIS mode to mode. It should only be changed when debugging in guru mode, in which case it should be set to guru (the default is normal). show cris-mode Show the current CRIS mode.

21.3.14 Renesas Super-H

For the Renesas Super-H processor, gdb provides these commands: regs Show the values of all Super-H registers.

set sh calling-convention convention Set the calling-convention used when calling functions from gdb. Allowed values are gcc, which is the default setting, and renesas. With the gcc setting, functions are called using the gcc calling convention. If the DWARF-2 information of the called function species that the function follows the Renesas

256

Debugging with gdb

calling convention, the function is called using the Renesas calling convention. If the calling convention is set to renesas, the Renesas calling convention is always used, regardless of the DWARF-2 information. This can be used to override the default of gcc if debug information is missing, or the compiler does not emit the DWARF-2 calling convention entry for a function. show sh calling-convention Show the current calling convention setting.

21.4 Architectures
This section describes characteristics of architectures that aect all uses of gdb with the architecture, both native and cross.

21.4.1 x86 Architecture-specic Issues

set struct-convention mode Set the convention used by the inferior to return structs and unions from functions to mode. Possible values of mode are "pcc", "reg", and "default" (the default). "default" or "pcc" means that structs are returned on the stack, while "reg" means that a struct or a union whose size is 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes will be returned in a register. show struct-convention Show the current setting of the convention to return structs from functions.

21.4.2 A29K
set rstack_high_address address On AMD 29000 family processors, registers are saved in a separate register stack. There is no way for gdb to determine the extent of this stack. Normally, gdb just assumes that the stack is large enough. This may result in gdb referencing memory locations that do not exist. If necessary, you can get around this problem by specifying the ending address of the register stack with the set rstack_high_address command. The argument should be an address, which you probably want to precede with 0x to specify in hexadecimal. show rstack_high_address Display the current limit of the register stack, on AMD 29000 family processors.

21.4.3 Alpha
See the following section.

21.4.4 MIPS
Alpha- and MIPS-based computers use an unusual stack frame, which sometimes requires gdb to search backward in the object code to nd the beginning of a function.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

257

To improve response time (especially for embedded applications, where gdb may be restricted to a slow serial line for this search) you may want to limit the size of this search, using one of these commands: set heuristic-fence-post limit Restrict gdb to examining at most limit bytes in its search for the beginning of a function. A value of 0 (the default) means there is no limit. However, except for 0, the larger the limit the more bytes heuristic-fence-post must search and therefore the longer it takes to run. You should only need to use this command when debugging a stripped executable. show heuristic-fence-post Display the current limit. These commands are available only when gdb is congured for debugging programs on Alpha or MIPS processors. Several MIPS-specic commands are available when debugging MIPS programs: set mips abi arg Tell gdb which MIPS ABI is used by the inferior. Possible values of arg are: auto o32 o64 n32 n64 eabi32 eabi64 auto show mips abi Show the MIPS ABI used by gdb to debug the inferior. set mipsfpu show mipsfpu See undened [MIPS Embedded], page undened . set mips mask-address arg This command determines whether the most-signicant 32 bits of 64-bit MIPS addresses are masked o. The argument arg can be on, off, or auto. The latter is the default setting, which lets gdb determine the correct value. show mips mask-address Show whether the upper 32 bits of MIPS addresses are masked o or not. set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs This command controls compatibility with 64-bit MIPS targets that transfer data in 32-bit quantities. If you have an old MIPS 64 target that transfers 32 The default ABI associated with the current binary (this is the default).

258

Debugging with gdb

bits for some registers, like sr and fsr, and 64 bits for other registers, set this option to on. show remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs Show the current setting of compatibility with older MIPS 64 targets. set debug mips This command turns on and o debugging messages for the MIPS-specic target code in gdb. show debug mips Show the current setting of MIPS debugging messages.

21.4.5 HPPA
When gdb is debugging the HP PA architecture, it provides the following special commands: set debug hppa This command determines whether HPPA architecture-specic debugging messages are to be displayed. show debug hppa Show whether HPPA debugging messages are displayed. maint print unwind address This command displays the contents of the unwind table entry at the given address.

21.4.6 Cell Broadband Engine SPU architecture

When gdb is debugging the Cell Broadband Engine SPU architecture, it provides the following special commands: info spu event Display SPU event facility status. Shows current event mask and pending event status. info spu signal Display SPU signal notication facility status. Shows pending signal-control word and signal notication mode of both signal notication channels. info spu mailbox Display SPU mailbox facility status. Shows all pending entries, in order of processing, in each of the SPU Write Outbound, SPU Write Outbound Interrupt, and SPU Read Inbound mailboxes. info spu dma Display MFC DMA status. Shows all pending commands in the MFC DMA queue. For each entry, opcode, tag, class IDs, eective and local store addresses and transfer size are shown.

Chapter 21: Conguration-Specic Information

259

info spu proxydma Display MFC Proxy-DMA status. Shows all pending commands in the MFC Proxy-DMA queue. For each entry, opcode, tag, class IDs, eective and local store addresses and transfer size are shown. When gdb is debugging a combined PowerPC/SPU application on the Cell Broadband Engine, it provides in addition the following special commands: set spu stop-on-load arg Set whether to stop for new SPE threads. When set to on, gdb will give control to the user when a new SPE thread enters its main function. The default is off. show spu stop-on-load Show whether to stop for new SPE threads. set spu auto-flush-cache arg Set whether to automatically ush the software-managed cache. When set to on, gdb will automatically cause the SPE software-managed cache to be ushed whenever SPE execution stops. This provides a consistent view of PowerPC memory that is accessed via the cache. If an application does not use the software-managed cache, this option has no eect. show spu auto-flush-cache Show whether to automatically ush the software-managed cache.

21.4.7 PowerPC
When gdb is debugging the PowerPC architecture, it provides a set of pseudo-registers to enable inspection of 128-bit wide Decimal Floating Point numbers stored in the oating point registers. These values must be stored in two consecutive registers, always starting at an even register like f0 or f2. The pseudo-registers go from $dl0 through $dl15, and are formed by joining the even/odd register pairs f0 and f1 for $dl0, f2 and f3 for $dl1 and so on. For POWER7 processors, gdb provides a set of pseudo-registers, the 64-bit wide Extended Floating Point Registers (f32 through f63).

260

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 22: Controlling gdb

261

22 Controlling gdb
You can alter the way gdb interacts with you by using the set command. For commands controlling how gdb displays data, see undened [Print Settings], page undened . Other settings are described here.

22.1 Prompt
gdb indicates its readiness to read a command by printing a string called the prompt. This string is normally (gdb). You can change the prompt string with the set prompt command. For instance, when debugging gdb with gdb, it is useful to change the prompt in one of the gdb sessions so that you can always tell which one you are talking to. Note: set prompt does not add a space for you after the prompt you set. This allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or a prompt that does not. set prompt newprompt Directs gdb to use newprompt as its prompt string henceforth. show prompt Prints a line of the form: Gdbs prompt is: your-prompt

22.2 Command Editing

gdb reads its input commands via the Readline interface. This gnu library provides consistent behavior for programs which provide a command line interface to the user. Advantages are gnu Emacs-style or vi-style inline editing of commands, csh-like history substitution, and a storage and recall of command history across debugging sessions. You may control the behavior of command line editing in gdb with the command set. set editing set editing on Enable command line editing (enabled by default). set editing off Disable command line editing. show editing Show whether command line editing is enabled. See undened [Command Line Editing], page undened , for more details about the Readline interface. Users unfamiliar with gnu Emacs or vi are encouraged to read that chapter.

262

Debugging with gdb

22.3 Command History

gdb can keep track of the commands you type during your debugging sessions, so that you can be certain of precisely what happened. Use these commands to manage the gdb command history facility. gdb uses the gnu History library, a part of the Readline package, to provide the history facility. See undened [Using History Interactively], page undened , for the detailed description of the History library. To issue a command to gdb without aecting certain aspects of the state which is seen by users, prex it with server (see undened [Server Prex], page undened ). This means that this command will not aect the command history, nor will it aect gdbs notion of which command to repeat if RET is pressed on a line by itself. The server prex does not aect the recording of values into the value history; to print a value without recording it into the value history, use the output command instead of the print command. Here is the description of gdb commands related to command history. set history filename fname Set the name of the gdb command history le to fname. This is the le where gdb reads an initial command history list, and where it writes the command history from this session when it exits. You can access this list through history expansion or through the history command editing characters listed below. This le defaults to the value of the environment variable GDBHISTFILE, or to ./.gdb_history (./_gdb_history on MS-DOS) if this variable is not set. set history save set history save on Record command history in a le, whose name may be specied with the set history filename command. By default, this option is disabled. set history save off Stop recording command history in a le. set history size size Set the number of commands which gdb keeps in its history list. This defaults to the value of the environment variable HISTSIZE, or to 256 if this variable is not set. History expansion assigns special meaning to the character !. See undened [Event Designators], page undened , for more details. Since ! is also the logical not operator in C, history expansion is o by default. If you decide to enable history expansion with the set history expansion on command, you may sometimes need to follow ! (when it is used as logical not, in an expression) with a space or a tab to prevent it from being expanded. The readline history facilities do not attempt substitution on the strings != and !(, even when history expansion is enabled. The commands to control history expansion are:

Chapter 22: Controlling gdb

263

set history expansion on set history expansion Enable history expansion. History expansion is o by default. set history expansion off Disable history expansion. show show show show show history history filename history save history size history expansion These commands display the state of the gdb history parameters. history by itself displays all four states.

show

show commands Display the last ten commands in the command history. show commands n Print ten commands centered on command number n. show commands + Print ten commands just after the commands last printed.

22.4 Screen Size

Certain commands to gdb may produce large amounts of information output to the screen. To help you read all of it, gdb pauses and asks you for input at the end of each page of output. Type RET when you want to continue the output, or q to discard the remaining output. Also, the screen width setting determines when to wrap lines of output. Depending on what is being printed, gdb tries to break the line at a readable place, rather than simply letting it overow onto the following line. Normally gdb knows the size of the screen from the terminal driver software. For example, on Unix gdb uses the termcap data base together with the value of the TERM environment variable and the stty rows and stty cols settings. If this is not correct, you can override it with the set height and set width commands: set height lpp show height set width cpl show width These set commands specify a screen height of lpp lines and a screen width of cpl characters. The associated show commands display the current settings. If you specify a height of zero lines, gdb does not pause during output no matter how long the output is. This is useful if output is to a le or to an editor buer. Likewise, you can specify set width 0 to prevent gdb from wrapping its output.

264

Debugging with gdb

set pagination on set pagination off Turn the output pagination on or o; the default is on. Turning pagination o is the alternative to set height 0. Note that running gdb with the --batch option (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ) also automatically disables pagination. show pagination Show the current pagination mode.

22.5 Numbers
You can always enter numbers in octal, decimal, or hexadecimal in gdb by the usual conventions: octal numbers begin with 0, decimal numbers end with ., and hexadecimal numbers begin with 0x. Numbers that neither begin with 0 or 0x, nor end with a . are, by default, entered in base 10; likewise, the default display for numberswhen no particular format is speciedis base 10. You can change the default base for both input and output with the commands described below. set input-radix base Set the default base for numeric input. Supported choices for base are decimal 8, 10, or 16. base must itself be specied either unambiguously or using the current input radix; for example, any of
set input-radix 012 set input-radix 10. set input-radix 0xa

sets the input base to decimal. On the other hand, set input-radix 10 leaves the input radix unchanged, no matter what it was, since 10, being without any leading or trailing signs of its base, is interpreted in the current radix. Thus, if the current radix is 16, 10 is interpreted in hex, i.e. as 16 decimal, which doesnt change the radix. set output-radix base Set the default base for numeric display. Supported choices for base are decimal 8, 10, or 16. base must itself be specied either unambiguously or using the current input radix. show input-radix Display the current default base for numeric input. show output-radix Display the current default base for numeric display. set radix [base ] show radix These commands set and show the default base for both input and output of numbers. set radix sets the radix of input and output to the same base; without an argument, it resets the radix back to its default value of 10.

Chapter 22: Controlling gdb

265

22.6 Conguring the Current ABI

gdb can determine the ABI (Application Binary Interface) of your application automatically. However, sometimes you need to override its conclusions. Use these commands to manage gdbs view of the current ABI. One gdb conguration can debug binaries for multiple operating system targets, either via remote debugging or native emulation. gdb will autodetect the OS ABI (Operating System ABI) in use, but you can override its conclusion using the set osabi command. One example where this is useful is in debugging of binaries which use an alternate C library (e.g. uClibc for gnu/Linux) which does not have the same identifying marks that the standard C library for your platform provides. show osabi Show the OS ABI currently in use. set osabi With no argument, show the list of registered available OS ABIs. set osabi abi Set the current OS ABI to abi. Generally, the way that an argument of type float is passed to a function depends on whether the function is prototyped. For a prototyped (i.e. ANSI/ISO style) function, float arguments are passed unchanged, according to the architectures convention for float. For unprototyped (i.e. K&R style) functions, float arguments are rst promoted to type double and then passed. Unfortunately, some forms of debug information do not reliably indicate whether a function is prototyped. If gdb calls a function that is not marked as prototyped, it consults set coerce-float-to-double. set coerce-float-to-double set coerce-float-to-double on Arguments of type float will be promoted to double when passed to an unprototyped function. This is the default setting. set coerce-float-to-double off Arguments of type float will be passed directly to unprototyped functions. show coerce-float-to-double Show the current setting of promoting float to double. gdb needs to know the ABI used for your programs C++ objects. The correct C++ ABI depends on which C++ compiler was used to build your application. gdb only fully supports programs with a single C++ ABI; if your program contains code using multiple C++ ABIs or if gdb can not identify your programs ABI correctly, you can tell gdb which ABI to use. Currently supported ABIs include gnu-v2, for g++ versions before 3.0, gnu-v3, for g++ versions 3.0 and later, and hpaCC for the HP ANSI C++ compiler. Other C++ compilers may use the gnu-v2 or gnu-v3 ABIs as well. The default setting is auto. show cp-abi Show the C++ ABI currently in use.

266

Debugging with gdb

set cp-abi With no argument, show the list of supported C++ ABIs. set cp-abi abi set cp-abi auto Set the current C++ ABI to abi, or return to automatic detection.

22.7 Optional Warnings and Messages

By default, gdb is silent about its inner workings. If you are running on a slow machine, you may want to use the set verbose command. This makes gdb tell you when it does a lengthy internal operation, so you will not think it has crashed. Currently, the messages controlled by set verbose are those which announce that the symbol table for a source le is being read; see symbol-file in undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened . set verbose on Enables gdb output of certain informational messages. set verbose off Disables gdb output of certain informational messages. show verbose Displays whether set verbose is on or o. By default, if gdb encounters bugs in the symbol table of an object le, it is silent; but if you are debugging a compiler, you may nd this information useful (see undened [Errors Reading Symbol Files], page undened ). set complaints limit Permits gdb to output limit complaints about each type of unusual symbols before becoming silent about the problem. Set limit to zero to suppress all complaints; set it to a large number to prevent complaints from being suppressed. show complaints Displays how many symbol complaints gdb is permitted to produce. By default, gdb is cautious, and asks what sometimes seems to be a lot of stupid questions to conrm certain commands. For example, if you try to run a program which is already running:
(gdb) run The program being debugged has been started already. Start it from the beginning? (y or n)

If you are willing to uninchingly face the consequences of your own commands, you can disable this feature: set confirm off Disables conrmation requests. Note that running gdb with the --batch option (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ) also automatically disables conrmation requests.

Chapter 22: Controlling gdb

267

set confirm on Enables conrmation requests (the default). show confirm Displays state of conrmation requests. If you need to debug user-dened commands or sourced les you may nd it useful to enable command tracing. In this mode each command will be printed as it is executed, prexed with one or more + symbols, the quantity denoting the call depth of each command. set trace-commands on Enable command tracing. set trace-commands off Disable command tracing. show trace-commands Display the current state of command tracing.

22.8 Optional Messages about Internal Happenings

gdb has commands that enable optional debugging messages from various gdb subsystems; normally these commands are of interest to gdb maintainers, or when reporting a bug. This section documents those commands. set exec-done-display Turns on or o the notication of asynchronous commands completion. When on, gdb will print a message when an asynchronous command nishes its execution. The default is o. show exec-done-display Displays the current setting of asynchronous command completion notication. set debug arch Turns on or o display of gdbarch debugging info. The default is o show debug arch Displays the current state of displaying gdbarch debugging info. set debug aix-thread Display debugging messages about inner workings of the AIX thread module. show debug aix-thread Show the current state of AIX thread debugging info display. set debug dwarf2-die Dump DWARF2 DIEs after they are read in. The value is the number of nesting levels to print. A value of zero turns o the display. show debug dwarf2-die Show the current state of DWARF2 DIE debugging.

268

Debugging with gdb

set debug displaced Turns on or o display of gdb debugging info for the displaced stepping support. The default is o. show debug displaced Displays the current state of displaying gdb debugging info related to displaced stepping. set debug event Turns on or o display of gdb event debugging info. The default is o. show debug event Displays the current state of displaying gdb event debugging info. set debug expression Turns on or o display of debugging info about gdb expression parsing. The default is o. show debug expression Displays the current state of displaying debugging info about gdb expression parsing. set debug frame Turns on or o display of gdb frame debugging info. The default is o. show debug frame Displays the current state of displaying gdb frame debugging info. set debug gnu-nat Turns on or o debugging messages from the gnu/Hurd debug support. show debug gnu-nat Show the current state of gnu/Hurd debugging messages. set debug infrun Turns on or o display of gdb debugging info for running the inferior. The default is o. infrun.c contains GDBs runtime state machine used for implementing operations such as single-stepping the inferior. show debug infrun Displays the current state of gdb inferior debugging. set debug lin-lwp Turns on or o debugging messages from the Linux LWP debug support. show debug lin-lwp Show the current state of Linux LWP debugging messages. set debug lin-lwp-async Turns on or o debugging messages from the Linux LWP async debug support. show debug lin-lwp-async Show the current state of Linux LWP async debugging messages. set debug observer Turns on or o display of gdb observer debugging. This includes info such as the notication of observable events.

Chapter 22: Controlling gdb

269

show debug observer Displays the current state of observer debugging. set debug overload Turns on or o display of gdb C++ overload debugging info. This includes info such as ranking of functions, etc. The default is o. show debug overload Displays the current state of displaying gdb C++ overload debugging info. set debug parser Turns on or o the display of expression parser debugging output. Internally, this sets the yydebug variable in the expression parser. See section Tracing Your Parser in Bison, for details. The default is o. show debug parser Show the current state of expression parser debugging. set debug remote Turns on or o display of reports on all packets sent back and forth across the serial line to the remote machine. The info is printed on the gdb standard output stream. The default is o. show debug remote Displays the state of display of remote packets. set debug serial Turns on or o display of gdb serial debugging info. The default is o. show debug serial Displays the current state of displaying gdb serial debugging info. set debug solib-frv Turns on or o debugging messages for FR-V shared-library code. show debug solib-frv Display the current state of FR-V shared-library code debugging messages. set debug target Turns on or o display of gdb target debugging info. This info includes what is going on at the target level of GDB, as it happens. The default is 0. Set it to 1 to track events, and to 2 to also track the value of large memory transfers. Changes to this ag do not take eect until the next time you connect to a target or use the run command. show debug target Displays the current state of displaying gdb target debugging info. set debug timestamp Turns on or o display of timestamps with gdb debugging info. When enabled, seconds and microseconds are displayed before each debugging message. show debug timestamp Displays the current state of displaying timestamps with gdb debugging info.

270

Debugging with gdb

set debugvarobj Turns on or o display of gdb variable object debugging info. The default is o. show debugvarobj Displays the current state of displaying gdb variable object debugging info. set debug xml Turns on or o debugging messages for built-in XML parsers. show debug xml Displays the current state of XML debugging messages.

22.9 Other Miscellaneous Settings

set interactive-mode If on, forces gdb to operate interactively. If off, forces gdb to operate noninteractively, If auto (the default), gdb guesses which mode to use, based on whether the debugger was started in a terminal or not. In the vast majority of cases, the debugger should be able to guess correctly which mode should be used. But this setting can be useful in certain specic cases, such as running a MinGW gdb inside a cygwin window. show interactive-mode Displays whether the debugger is operating in interactive mode or not.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

271

23 Extending gdb
gdb provides two mechanisms for extension. The rst is based on composition of gdb commands, and the second is based on the Python scripting language. To facilitate the use of these extensions, gdb is capable of evaluating the contents of a le. When doing so, gdb can recognize which scripting language is being used by looking at the lename extension. Files with an unrecognized lename extension are always treated as a gdb Command Files. See undened [Command les], page undened . You can control how gdb evaluates these les with the following setting: set script-extension off All scripts are always evaluated as gdb Command Files. set script-extension soft The debugger determines the scripting language based on lename extension. If this scripting language is supported, gdb evaluates the script using that language. Otherwise, it evaluates the le as a gdb Command File. set script-extension strict The debugger determines the scripting language based on lename extension, and evaluates the script using that language. If the language is not supported, then the evaluation fails. show script-extension Display the current value of the script-extension option.

23.1 Canned Sequences of Commands

Aside from breakpoint commands (see undened [Breakpoint Command Lists], page undened ), gdb provides two ways to store sequences of commands for execution as a unit: user-dened commands and command les.

23.1.1 User-dened Commands

A user-dened command is a sequence of gdb commands to which you assign a new name as a command. This is done with the define command. User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace. Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0...$arg9. A trivial example:
define adder print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2 end

To execute the command use:

adder 1 2 3

This denes the command adder, which prints the sum of its three arguments. Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables, use complex expressions, or even perform inferior functions calls. In addition, $argc may be used to nd out how many arguments have been passed. This expands to a number in the range 0. . . 10.

272

Debugging with gdb

define adder if $argc == 2 print $arg0 + $arg1 end if $argc == 3 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2 end end

define commandname Dene a command named commandname. If there is already a command by that name, you are asked to conrm that you want to redene it. commandname may be a bare command name consisting of letters, numbers, dashes, and underscores. It may also start with any predened prex command. For example, define target my-target creates a user-dened target my-target command. The denition of the command is made up of other gdb command lines, which are given following the define command. The end of these commands is marked by a line containing end. document commandname Document the user-dened command commandname, so that it can be accessed by help. The command commandname must already be dened. This command reads lines of documentation just as define reads the lines of the command denition, ending with end. After the document command is nished, help on command commandname displays the documentation you have written. You may use the document command again to change the documentation of a command. Redening the command with define does not change the documentation. dont-repeat Used inside a user-dened command, this tells gdb that this command should not be repeated when the user hits RET (see undened [Command Syntax], page undened ). help user-defined List all user-dened commands, with the rst line of the documentation (if any) for each. show user show user commandname Display the gdb commands used to dene commandname (but not its documentation). If no commandname is given, display the denitions for all user-dened commands. show max-user-call-depth set max-user-call-depth The value of max-user-call-depth controls how many recursion levels are allowed in user-dened commands before gdb suspects an innite recursion and aborts the command.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

273

In addition to the above commands, user-dened commands frequently use control ow commands, described in undened [Command Files], page undened . When user-dened commands are executed, the commands of the denition are not printed. An error in any command stops execution of the user-dened command. If used interactively, commands that would ask for conrmation proceed without asking when used inside a user-dened command. Many gdb commands that normally print messages to say what they are doing omit the messages when used in a user-dened command.

23.1.2 User-dened Command Hooks

You may dene hooks, which are a special kind of user-dened command. Whenever you run the command foo, if the user-dened command hook-foo exists, it is executed (with no arguments) before that command. A hook may also be dened which is run after the command you executed. Whenever you run the command foo, if the user-dened command hookpost-foo exists, it is executed (with no arguments) after that command. Post-execution hooks may exist simultaneously with pre-execution hooks, for the same command. It is valid for a hook to call the command which it hooks. If this occurs, the hook is not re-executed, thereby avoiding innite recursion. In addition, a pseudo-command, stop exists. Dening (hook-stop) makes the associated commands execute every time execution stops in your program: before breakpoint commands are run, displays are printed, or the stack frame is printed. For example, to ignore SIGALRM signals while single-stepping, but treat them normally during normal execution, you could dene:
define hook-stop handle SIGALRM nopass end define hook-run handle SIGALRM pass end define hook-continue handle SIGALRM pass end

As a further example, to hook at the beginning and end of the echo command, and to add extra text to the beginning and end of the message, you could dene:
define hook-echo echo <<<--end define hookpost-echo echo --->>>\n end (gdb) echo Hello World <<<---Hello World--->>> (gdb)

274

Debugging with gdb

You can dene a hook for any single-word command in gdb, but not for command aliases; you should dene a hook for the basic command name, e.g. backtrace rather than bt. You can hook a multi-word command by adding hook- or hookpost- to the last word of the command, e.g. define target hook-remote to add a hook to target remote. If an error occurs during the execution of your hook, execution of gdb commands stops and gdb issues a prompt (before the command that you actually typed had a chance to run). If you try to dene a hook which does not match any known command, you get a warning from the define command.

23.1.3 Command Files

A command le for gdb is a text le made of lines that are gdb commands. Comments (lines starting with #) may also be included. An empty line in a command le does nothing; it does not mean to repeat the last command, as it would from the terminal. You can request the execution of a command le with the source command. Note that the source command is also used to evaluate scripts that are not Command Files. The exact behavior can be congured using the script-extension setting. See undened [Extending GDB], page undened . source [-s] [-v] filename Execute the command le lename. The lines in a command le are generally executed sequentially, unless the order of execution is changed by one of the ow-control commands described below. The commands are not printed as they are executed. An error in any command terminates execution of the command le and control is returned to the console. gdb rst searches for lename in the current directory. If the le is not found there, and lename does not specify a directory, then gdb also looks for the le on the source search path (specied with the directory command); except that $cdir is not searched because the compilation directory is not relevant to scripts. If -s is specied, then gdb searches for lename on the search path even if lename species a directory. The search is done by appending lename to each element of the search path. So, for example, if lename is mylib/myscript and the search path contains /home/user then gdb will look for the script /home/user/mylib/myscript. The search is also done if lename is an absolute path. For example, if lename is /tmp/myscript and the search path contains /home/user then gdb will look for the script /home/user/tmp/myscript. For DOS-like systems, if lename contains a drive specication, it is stripped before concatenation. For example, if lename is d:myscript and the search path contains c:/tmp then gdb will look for the script c:/tmp/myscript. If -v, for verbose mode, is given then gdb displays each command as it is executed. The option must be given before lename, and is interpreted as part of the lename anywhere else. Commands that would ask for conrmation if used interactively proceed without asking when used in a command le. Many gdb commands that normally print messages to say what they are doing omit the messages when called from command les.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

275

gdb also accepts command input from standard input. In this mode, normal output goes to standard output and error output goes to standard error. Errors in a command le supplied on standard input do not terminate execution of the command leexecution continues with the next command.
gdb < cmds > log 2>&1

(The syntax above will vary depending on the shell used.) This example will execute commands from the le cmds. All output and errors would be directed to log. Since commands stored on command les tend to be more general than commands typed interactively, they frequently need to deal with complicated situations, such as dierent or unexpected values of variables and symbols, changes in how the program being debugged is built, etc. gdb provides a set of ow-control commands to deal with these complexities. Using these commands, you can write complex scripts that loop over data structures, execute commands conditionally, etc. if else This command allows to include in your script conditionally executed commands. The if command takes a single argument, which is an expression to evaluate. It is followed by a series of commands that are executed only if the expression is true (its value is nonzero). There can then optionally be an else line, followed by a series of commands that are only executed if the expression was false. The end of the list is marked by a line containing end. This command allows to write loops. Its syntax is similar to if: the command takes a single argument, which is an expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to execute, one per line, terminated by an end. These commands are called the body of the loop. The commands in the body of while are executed repeatedly as long as the expression evaluates to true. This command exits the while loop in whose body it is included. Execution of the script continues after that whiles end line. loop_continue This command skips the execution of the rest of the body of commands in the while loop in whose body it is included. Execution branches to the beginning of the while loop, where it evaluates the controlling expression. end Terminate the block of commands that are the body of if, else, or while ow-control commands.

while

loop_break

23.1.4 Commands for Controlled Output

During the execution of a command le or a user-dened command, normal gdb output is suppressed; the only output that appears is what is explicitly printed by the commands in the denition. This section describes three commands useful for generating exactly the output you want. echo text Print text. Nonprinting characters can be included in text using C escape sequences, such as \n to print a newline. No newline is printed unless you specify

276

Debugging with gdb

one. In addition to the standard C escape sequences, a backslash followed by a space stands for a space. This is useful for displaying a string with spaces at the beginning or the end, since leading and trailing spaces are otherwise trimmed from all arguments. To print and foo = , use the command echo \ and foo = \ . A backslash at the end of text can be used, as in C, to continue the command onto subsequent lines. For example,
echo This is some text\n\ which is continued\n\ onto several lines.\n

produces the same output as

echo This is some text\n echo which is continued\n echo onto several lines.\n

output expression Print the value of expression and nothing but that value: no newlines, no $nn = . The value is not entered in the value history either. See undened [Expressions], page undened , for more information on expressions. output/fmt expression Print the value of expression in format fmt. You can use the same formats as for print. See undened [Output Formats], page undened , for more information. printf template, expressions ... Print the values of one or more expressions under the control of the string template. To print several values, make expressions be a comma-separated list of individual expressions, which may be either numbers or pointers. Their values are printed as specied by template, exactly as a C program would do by executing the code below:
printf (template, expressions ...);

As in C printf, ordinary characters in template are printed verbatim, while conversion specication introduced by the % character cause subsequent expressions to be evaluated, their values converted and formatted according to type and style information encoded in the conversion specications, and then printed. For example, you can print two values in hex like this:
printf "foo, bar-foo = 0x%x, 0x%x\n", foo, bar-foo

printf supports all the standard C conversion specications, including the ags and modiers between the % character and the conversion letter, with the following exceptions: The argument-ordering modiers, such as 2$, are not supported. The modier * is not supported for specifying precision or width. The ag (for separation of digits into groups according to LC_NUMERIC) is not supported. The type modiers hh, j, t, and z are not supported.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

277

The conversion letter n (as in %n) is not supported. The conversion letters a and A are not supported. Note that the ll type modier is supported only if the underlying C implementation used to build gdb supports the long long int type, and the L type modier is supported only if long double type is available. As in C, printf supports simple backslash-escape sequences, such as \n, \t, \\, \", \a, and \f, that consist of backslash followed by a single character. Octal and hexadecimal escape sequences are not supported. Additionally, printf supports conversion specications for DFP (Decimal Floating Point) types using the following length modiers together with a oating point specier. letters: H for printing Decimal32 types. D for printing Decimal64 types. DD for printing Decimal128 types. If the underlying C implementation used to build gdb has support for the three length modiers for DFP types, other modiers such as width and precision will also be available for gdb to use. In case there is no such C support, no additional modiers will be available and the value will be printed in the standard way. Heres an example of printing DFP types using the above conversion letters:
printf "D32: %Hf - D64: %Df - D128: %DDf\n",1.2345df,1.2E10dd,1.2E1dl

eval template, expressions ... Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control of the string template to a command line, and call it.

23.2 Scripting gdb using Python

You can script gdb using the Python programming language. This feature is available only if gdb was congured using --with-python. Python scripts used by gdb should be installed in data-directory /python, where data-directory is the data directory as determined at gdb startup (see undened [Data Files], page undened ). This directory, known as the python directory, is automatically added to the Python Search Path in order to allow the Python interpreter to locate all scripts installed at this location.

23.2.1 Python Commands

gdb provides one command for accessing the Python interpreter, and one related setting: python [code ] The python command can be used to evaluate Python code. If given an argument, the python command will evaluate the argument as a Python command. For example:

278

Debugging with gdb

(gdb) python print 23 23

If you do not provide an argument to python, it will act as a multi-line command, like define. In this case, the Python script is made up of subsequent command lines, given after the python command. This command list is terminated using a line containing end. For example:
(gdb) python Type python script End with a line saying just "end". >print 23 >end 23

maint set python print-stack By default, gdb will print a stack trace when an error occurs in a Python script. This can be controlled using maint set python print-stack: if on, the default, then Python stack printing is enabled; if off, then Python stack printing is disabled. It is also possible to execute a Python script from the gdb interpreter: source script-name The script name must end with .py and gdb must be congured to recognize the script language based on lename extension using the script-extension setting. See undened [Extending GDB], page undened . python execfile ("script-name") This method is based on the execfile Python built-in function, and thus is always available.

23.2.2 Python API

At startup, gdb overrides Pythons sys.stdout and sys.stderr to print using gdbs output-paging streams. A Python program which outputs to one of these streams may have its output interrupted by the user (see undened [Screen Size], page undened ). In this situation, a Python KeyboardInterrupt exception is thrown.

23.2.2.1 Basic Python

gdb introduces a new Python module, named gdb. All methods and classes added by gdb are placed in this module. gdb automatically imports the gdb module for use in all scripts evaluated by the python command.

PYTHONDIR

[Variable] A string containing the python directory (see undened [Python], page undened ).

execute command [from tty] [to string]

[Function] Evaluate command, a string, as a gdb CLI command. If a GDB exception happens while command runs, it is translated as described in undened [Exception Handling], page undened .

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

279

from tty species whether gdb ought to consider this command as having originated from the user invoking it interactively. It must be a boolean value. If omitted, it defaults to False. By default, any output produced by command is sent to gdbs standard output. If the to string parameter is True, then output will be collected by gdb.execute and returned as a string. The default is False, in which case the return value is None. If to string is True, the gdb virtual terminal will be temporarily set to unlimited width and height, and its pagination will be disabled; see undened [Screen Size], page undened .

breakpoints

[Function] Return a sequence holding all of gdbs breakpoints. See undened [Breakpoints In Python], page undened , for more information. [Function] Return the value of a gdb parameter. parameter is a string naming the parameter to look up; parameter may contain spaces if the parameter has a multi-part name. For example, print object is a valid parameter name.

parameter parameter

If the named parameter does not exist, this function throws a RuntimeError. Otherwise, the parameters value is converted to a Python value of the appropriate type, and returned.

history number

[Function] Return a value from gdbs value history (see undened [Value History], page undened ). number indicates which history element to return. If number is negative, then gdb will take its absolute value and count backward from the last element (i.e., the most recent element) to nd the value to return. If number is zero, then gdb will return the most recent element. If the element specied by number doesnt exist in the value history, a RuntimeError exception will be raised. If no exception is raised, the return value is always an instance of gdb.Value (see undened [Values From Inferior], page undened ).

parse and eval expression

[Function] Parse expression as an expression in the current language, evaluate it, and return the result as a gdb.Value. expression must be a string.

This function can be useful when implementing a new command (see undened [Commands In Python], page undened ), as it provides a way to parse the commands argument as an expression. It is also useful simply to compute values, for example, it is the only way to get the value of a convenience variable (see undened [Convenience Vars], page undened ) as a gdb.Value.

write string

[Function] Print a string to gdbs paginated standard output stream. Writing to sys.stdout or sys.stderr will automatically call this function.

280

Debugging with gdb

ush

[Function] Flush gdbs paginated standard output stream. Flushing sys.stdout or sys.stderr will automatically call this function. [Function] Return the name of the current target character set (see undened [Character Sets], page undened ). This diers from gdb.parameter(target-charset) in that auto is never returned. [Function] Return the name of the current target wide character set (see undened [Character Sets], page undened ). This diers from gdb.parameter(target-widecharset) in that auto is never returned.

target charset

target wide charset

23.2.2.2 Exception Handling

When executing the python command, Python exceptions uncaught within the Python code are translated to calls to gdb error-reporting mechanism. If the command that called python does not handle the error, gdb will terminate it and print an error message containing the Python exception name, the associated value, and the Python call stack backtrace at the point where the exception was raised. Example:
(gdb) python print foo Traceback (most recent call last): File "<string>", line 1, in <module> NameError: name foo is not defined

gdb errors that happen in gdb commands invoked by Python code are converted to Python RuntimeError exceptions. User interrupt (via C-c or by typing q at a pagination prompt) is translated to a Python KeyboardInterrupt exception. If you catch these exceptions in your Python code, your exception handler will see RuntimeError or KeyboardInterrupt as the exception type, the gdb error message as its value, and the Python call stack backtrace at the Python statement closest to where the gdb error occured as the traceback. When implementing gdb commands in Python via gdb.Command, it is useful to be able to throw an exception that doesnt cause a traceback to be printed. For example, the user may have invoked the command incorrectly. Use the gdb.GdbError exception to handle this case. Example:
(gdb) python >class HelloWorld (gdb.Command): > """Greet the whole world.""" > def __init__ (self): > super (HelloWorld, self).__init__ ("hello-world", gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE) > def invoke (self, args, from_tty): > argv = gdb.string_to_argv (args) > if len (argv) != 0: > raise gdb.GdbError ("hello-world takes no arguments") > print "Hello, World!" >HelloWorld () >end (gdb) hello-world 42 hello-world takes no arguments

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

281

23.2.2.3 Values From Inferior

gdb provides values it obtains from the inferior program in an object of type gdb.Value. gdb uses this object for its internal bookkeeping of the inferiors values, and for fetching values when necessary. Inferior values that are simple scalars can be used directly in Python expressions that are valid for the values data type. Heres an example for an integer or oating-point value some_val:
bar = some_val + 2

As result of this, bar will also be a gdb.Value object whose values are of the same type as those of some_val. Inferior values that are structures or instances of some class can be accessed using the Python dictionary syntax. For example, if some_val is a gdb.Value instance holding a structure, you can access its foo element with:
bar = some_val[foo]

Again, bar will also be a gdb.Value object. The following attributes are provided:

address

[Instance Variable of Value] If this object is addressable, this read-only attribute holds a gdb.Value object representing the address. Otherwise, this attribute holds None. [Instance Variable of Value] This read-only boolean attribute is true if the compiler optimized out this value, thus it is not available for fetching from the inferior. [Instance Variable of Value] The type of this gdb.Value. The value of this attribute is a gdb.Type object.

is optimized out

type

The following methods are provided:

cast type

[Method on Value] Return a new instance of gdb.Value that is the result of casting this instance to the type described by type, which must be a gdb.Type object. If the cast cannot be performed for some reason, this method throws an exception. [Method on Value] For pointer data types, this method returns a new gdb.Value object whose contents is the object pointed to by the pointer. For example, if foo is a C pointer to an int, declared in your C program as
int *foo;

dereference

then you can use the corresponding gdb.Value to access what foo points to like this:
bar = foo.dereference ()

The result bar will be a gdb.Value object holding the value pointed to by foo.

282

Debugging with gdb

string [encoding] [errors] [length]

[Method on Value] If this gdb.Value represents a string, then this method converts the contents to a Python string. Otherwise, this method will throw an exception. Strings are recognized in a language-specic way; whether a given gdb.Value represents a string is determined by the current language. For C-like languages, a value is a string if it is a pointer to or an array of characters or ints. The string is assumed to be terminated by a zero of the appropriate width. However if the optional length argument is given, the string will be converted to that given length, ignoring any embedded zeros that the string may contain. If the optional encoding argument is given, it must be a string naming the encoding of the string in the gdb.Value, such as "ascii", "iso-8859-6" or "utf-8". It accepts the same encodings as the corresponding argument to Pythons string.decode method, and the Python codec machinery will be used to convert the string. If encoding is not given, or if encoding is the empty string, then either the target-charset (see undened [Character Sets], page undened ) will be used, or a language-specic encoding will be used, if the current language is able to supply one. The optional errors argument is the same as the corresponding argument to Pythons string.decode method. If the optional length argument is given, the string will be fetched and converted to the given length.

lazy string [encoding] [length]

[Method on Value] If this gdb.Value represents a string, then this method converts the contents to a gdb.LazyString (see undened [Lazy Strings In Python], page undened ). Otherwise, this method will throw an exception. If the optional encoding argument is given, it must be a string naming the encoding of the gdb.LazyString. Some examples are: ascii, iso-8859-6 or utf-8. If the encoding argument is an encoding that gdb does recognize, gdb will raise an error. When a lazy string is printed, the gdb encoding machinery is used to convert the string during printing. If the optional encoding argument is not provided, or is an empty string, gdb will automatically select the encoding most suitable for the string type. For further information on encoding in gdb please see undened [Character Sets], page undened . If the optional length argument is given, the string will be fetched and encoded to the length of characters specied. If the length argument is not provided, the string will be fetched and encoded until a null of appropriate width is found.

23.2.2.4 Types In Python

gdb represents types from the inferior using the class gdb.Type. The following type-related functions are available in the gdb module:

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

283

lookup type name [block]

[Function] This function looks up a type by name. name is the name of the type to look up. It must be a string. If block is given, then name is looked up in that scope. Otherwise, it is searched for globally. Ordinarily, this function will return an instance of gdb.Type. If the named type cannot be found, it will throw an exception.

An instance of Type has the following attributes:

code

[Instance Variable of Type] The type code for this type. The type code will be one of the TYPE_CODE_ constants dened below. [Instance Variable of Type] The size of this type, in target char units. Usually, a targets char type will be an 8-bit byte. However, on some unusual platforms, this type may have a dierent size. [Instance Variable of Type] The tag name for this type. The tag name is the name after struct, union, or enum in C and C++; not all languages have this concept. If this type has no tag name, then None is returned.

sizeof

tag

The following methods are provided:

elds

[Method on Type] For structure and union types, this method returns the elds. Range types have two elds, the minimum and maximum values. Enum types have one eld per enum constant. Function and method types have one eld per parameter. The base types of C++ classes are also represented as elds. If the type has no elds, or does not t into one of these categories, an empty sequence will be returned. Each eld is an object, with some pre-dened attributes: bitpos This attribute is not available for static elds (as in C++ or Java). For non-static elds, the value is the bit position of the eld. The name of the eld, or None for anonymous elds. This is True if the eld is articial, usually meaning that it was provided by the compiler and not the user. This attribute is always provided, and is False if the eld is not articial.

name artificial

is_base_class This is True if the eld represents a base class of a C++ structure. This attribute is always provided, and is False if the eld is not a base class of the type that is the argument of fields, or if that type was not a C++ class.

284

Debugging with gdb

bitsize

If the eld is packed, or is a biteld, then this will have a nonzero value, which is the size of the eld in bits. Otherwise, this will be zero; in this case the elds size is given by its type. The type of the eld. This is usually an instance of Type, but it can be None in some situations.

type

const

[Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type object which represents a const-qualied variant of this type. [Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type object which represents a volatile-qualied variant of this type. [Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type object which represents an unqualied variant of this type. That is, the result is neither const nor volatile. [Method on Type] Return a Python Tuple object that contains two elements: the low bound of the argument type and the high bound of that type. If the type does not have a range, gdb will raise a RuntimeError exception. [Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type object which represents a reference to this type. [Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type object which represents a pointer to this type.

volatile

unqualied

range

reference pointer

strip typedefs

[Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type that represents the real type, after removing all layers of typedefs. [Method on Type] Return a new gdb.Type object which represents the target type of this type. For a pointer type, the target type is the type of the pointed-to object. For an array type (meaning C-like arrays), the target type is the type of the elements of the array. For a function or method type, the target type is the type of the return value. For a complex type, the target type is the type of the elements. For a typedef, the target type is the aliased type. If the type does not have a target, this method will throw an exception.

target

template argument n [block]

[Method on Type] If this gdb.Type is an instantiation of a template, this will return a new gdb.Type which represents the type of the nth template argument. If this gdb.Type is not a template type, this will throw an exception. Ordinarily, only C++ code will have template types.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

285

If block is given, then name is looked up in that scope. Otherwise, it is searched for globally. Each type has a code, which indicates what category this type falls into. The available type categories are represented by constants dened in the gdb module: TYPE_CODE_PTR The type is a pointer. TYPE_CODE_ARRAY The type is an array. TYPE_CODE_STRUCT The type is a structure. TYPE_CODE_UNION The type is a union. TYPE_CODE_ENUM The type is an enum. TYPE_CODE_FLAGS A bit ags type, used for things such as status registers. TYPE_CODE_FUNC The type is a function. TYPE_CODE_INT The type is an integer type. TYPE_CODE_FLT A oating point type. TYPE_CODE_VOID The special type void. TYPE_CODE_SET A Pascal set type. TYPE_CODE_RANGE A range type, that is, an integer type with bounds. TYPE_CODE_STRING A string type. Note that this is only used for certain languages with languagedened string types; C strings are not represented this way. TYPE_CODE_BITSTRING A string of bits. TYPE_CODE_ERROR An unknown or erroneous type. TYPE_CODE_METHOD A method type, as found in C++ or Java. TYPE_CODE_METHODPTR A pointer-to-member-function.

286

Debugging with gdb

TYPE_CODE_MEMBERPTR A pointer-to-member. TYPE_CODE_REF A reference type. TYPE_CODE_CHAR A character type. TYPE_CODE_BOOL A boolean type. TYPE_CODE_COMPLEX A complex oat type. TYPE_CODE_TYPEDEF A typedef to some other type. TYPE_CODE_NAMESPACE A C++ namespace. TYPE_CODE_DECFLOAT A decimal oating point type. TYPE_CODE_INTERNAL_FUNCTION A function internal to gdb. This is the type used to represent convenience functions.

23.2.2.5 Pretty Printing API

An example output is provided (see undened [Pretty Printing], page undened ). A pretty-printer is just an object that holds a value and implements a specic interface, dened here.

children (self)

[Operation on pretty printer] gdb will call this method on a pretty-printer to compute the children of the prettyprinters value. This method must return an object conforming to the Python iterator protocol. Each item returned by the iterator must be a tuple holding two elements. The rst element is the name of the child; the second element is the childs value. The value can be any Python object which is convertible to a gdb value. This method is optional. If it does not exist, gdb will act as though the value has no children.

display hint (self)

[Operation on pretty printer] The CLI may call this method and use its result to change the formatting of a value. The result will also be supplied to an MI consumer as a displayhint attribute of the variable being printed. This method is optional. If it does exist, this method must return a string. Some display hints are predened by gdb:

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

287

array map string

Indicate that the object being printed is array-like. The CLI uses this to respect parameters such as set print elements and set print array. Indicate that the object being printed is map-like, and that the children of this value can be assumed to alternate between keys and values. Indicate that the object being printed is string-like. If the printers to_ string method returns a Python string of some kind, then gdb will call its internal language-specic string-printing function to format the string. For the CLI this means adding quotation marks, possibly escaping some characters, respecting set print elements, and the like.

to string (self)

[Operation on pretty printer] gdb will call this method to display the string representation of the value passed to the objects constructor. When printing from the CLI, if the to_string method exists, then gdb will prepend its result to the values returned by children. Exactly how this formatting is done is dependent on the display hint, and may change as more hints are added. Also, depending on the print settings (see undened [Print Settings], page undened ), the CLI may print just the result of to_string in a stack trace, omitting the result of children. If this method returns a string, it is printed verbatim. Otherwise, if this method returns an instance of gdb.Value, then gdb prints this value. This may result in a call to another pretty-printer. If instead the method returns a Python value which is convertible to a gdb.Value, then gdb performs the conversion and prints the resulting value. Again, this may result in a call to another pretty-printer. Python scalars (integers, oats, and booleans) and strings are convertible to gdb.Value; other types are not. Finally, if this method returns None then no further operations are peformed in this method and nothing is printed. If the result is not one of these types, an exception is raised.

gdb provides a function which can be used to look up the default pretty-printer for a gdb.Value:

default visualizer value

[Function] This function takes a gdb.Value object as an argument. If a pretty-printer for this value exists, then it is returned. If no such printer exists, then this returns None.

23.2.2.6 Selecting Pretty-Printers

The Python list gdb.pretty_printers contains an array of functions or callable objects that have been registered via addition as a pretty-printer. Each gdb.Progspace contains a pretty_printers attribute. Each gdb.Objfile also contains a pretty_printers attribute. A function on one of these lists is passed a single gdb.Value argument and should return a pretty-printer object conforming to the interface denition above (see undened [Pretty

288

Debugging with gdb

Printing API], page undened ). If a function cannot create a pretty-printer for the value, it should return None. gdb rst checks the pretty_printers attribute of each gdb.Objfile in the current program space and iteratively calls each enabled function (see undened [Disabling PrettyPrinters], page undened ) in the list for that gdb.Objfile until it receives a pretty-printer object. If no pretty-printer is found in the objle lists, gdb then searches the pretty-printer list of the current program space, calling each enabled function until an object is returned. After these lists have been exhausted, it tries the global gdb.pretty_printers list, again calling each enabled function until an object is returned. The order in which the objles are searched is not specied. For a given list, functions are always invoked from the head of the list, and iterated over sequentially until the end of the list, or a printer object is returned. Here is an example showing how a std::string printer might be written:
class StdStringPrinter: "Print a std::string" def __init__ (self, val): self.val = val def to_string (self): return self.val[_M_dataplus][_M_p] def display_hint (self): return string

And here is an example showing how a lookup function for the printer example above might be written.
def str_lookup_function (val): lookup_tag = val.type.tag regex = re.compile ("^std::basic_string<char,.*>$") if lookup_tag == None: return None if regex.match (lookup_tag): return StdStringPrinter (val) return None

The example lookup function extracts the values type, and attempts to match it to a type that it can pretty-print. If it is a type the printer can pretty-print, it will return a printer object. If not, it returns None. We recommend that you put your core pretty-printers into a Python package. If your pretty-printers are for use with a library, we further recommend embedding a version number into the package name. This practice will enable gdb to load multiple versions of your pretty-printers at the same time, because they will have dierent names. You should write auto-loaded code (see undened [Auto-loading], page undened ) such that it can be evaluated multiple times without changing its meaning. An ideal autoload le will consist solely of imports of your printer modules, followed by a call to a register pretty-printers with the current objle. Taken as a whole, this approach will scale nicely to multiple inferiors, each potentially using a dierent library version. Embedding a version number in the Python package name

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

289

will ensure that gdb is able to load both sets of printers simultaneously. Then, because the search for pretty-printers is done by objle, and because your auto-loaded code took care to register your librarys printers with a specic objle, gdb will nd the correct printers for the specic version of the library used by each inferior. To continue the std::string example (see undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened ), this code might appear in gdb.libstdcxx.v6:
def register_printers (objfile): objfile.pretty_printers.add (str_lookup_function)

And then the corresponding contents of the auto-load le would be:

import gdb.libstdcxx.v6 gdb.libstdcxx.v6.register_printers (gdb.current_objfile ())

23.2.2.7 Disabling Pretty-Printers

For various reasons a pretty-printer may not work. For example, the underlying data structure may have changed and the pretty-printer is out of date. The consequences of a broken pretty-printer are severe enough that gdb provides support for enabling and disabling individual printers. For example, if print frame-arguments is on, a backtrace can become highly illegible if any argument is printed with a broken printer. Pretty-printers are enabled and disabled by attaching an enabled attribute to the registered function or callable object. If this attribute is present and its value is False, the printer is disabled, otherwise the printer is enabled.

23.2.2.8 Inferiors In Python

Programs which are being run under gdb are called inferiors (see undened [Inferiors and Programs], page undened ). Python scripts can access information about and manipulate inferiors controlled by gdb via objects of the gdb.Inferior class. The following inferior-related functions are available in the gdb module:

inferiors
Return a tuple containing all inferior objects. A gdb.Inferior object has the following attributes:

[Function]

num
ID of inferior, as assigned by GDB.

[Instance Variable of Inferior] [Instance Variable of Inferior] Process ID of the inferior, as assigned by the underlying operating system. [Instance Variable of Inferior] Boolean signaling whether the inferior was created using attach, or started by gdb itself.

pid

was attached

A gdb.Inferior object has the following methods:

290

Debugging with gdb

threads

[Method on Inferior] This method returns a tuple holding all the threads which are valid when it is called. If there are no valid threads, the method will return an empty tuple.

read memory address length

[Method on Inferior] Read length bytes of memory from the inferior, starting at address. Returns a buer object, which behaves much like an array or a string. It can be modied and given to the gdb.write_memory function. [Method on Inferior] Write the contents of buer to the inferior, starting at address. The buer parameter must be a Python object which supports the buer protocol, i.e., a string, an array or the object returned from gdb.read_memory. If given, length determines the number of bytes from buer to be written. [Method on Inferior] Search a region of the inferior memory starting at address with the given length using the search pattern supplied in pattern. The pattern parameter must be a Python object which supports the buer protocol, i.e., a string, an array or the object returned from gdb.read_memory. Returns a Python Long containing the address where the pattern was found, or None if the pattern could not be found.

write memory address buer [length]

search memory address length pattern

23.2.2.9 Threads In Python

Python scripts can access information about, and manipulate inferior threads controlled by gdb, via objects of the gdb.InferiorThread class. The following thread-related functions are available in the gdb module:

selected thread

[Function] This function returns the thread object for the selected thread. If there is no selected thread, this will return None.

A gdb.InferiorThread object has the following attributes:

num ptid

[Instance Variable of InferiorThread] ID of the thread, as assigned by GDB. [Instance Variable of InferiorThread] ID of the thread, as assigned by the operating system. This attribute is a tuple containing three integers. The rst is the Process ID (PID); the second is the Lightweight Process ID (LWPID), and the third is the Thread ID (TID). Either the LWPID or TID may be 0, which indicates that the operating system does not use that identier.

A gdb.InferiorThread object has the following methods:

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

291

switch

[Method on InferiorThread] This changes gdbs currently selected thread to the one represented by this object. [Method on InferiorThread] Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is stopped. [Method on InferiorThread] Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is running. [Method on InferiorThread] Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is exited.

is stopped is running is exited

23.2.2.10 Commands In Python

You can implement new gdb CLI commands in Python. A CLI command is implemented using an instance of the gdb.Command class, most commonly using a subclass.

init

[Method on Command] name command class [completer class] [prex] The object initializer for Command registers the new command with gdb. This initializer is normally invoked from the subclass own __init__ method. name is the name of the command. If name consists of multiple words, then the initial words are looked for as prex commands. In this case, if one of the prex commands does not exist, an exception is raised. There is no support for multi-line commands. command class should be one of the COMMAND_ constants dened below. This argument tells gdb how to categorize the new command in the help system.

completer class is an optional argument. If given, it should be one of the COMPLETE_ constants dened below. This argument tells gdb how to perform completion for this command. If not given, gdb will attempt to complete using the objects complete method (see below); if no such method is found, an error will occur when completion is attempted. prex is an optional argument. If True, then the new command is a prex command; sub-commands of this command may be registered. The help text for the new command is taken from the Python documentation string for the commands class, if there is one. If no documentation string is provided, the default value This command is not documented. is used.

dont repeat

[Method on Command] By default, a gdb command is repeated when the user enters a blank line at the command prompt. A command can suppress this behavior by invoking the dont_ repeat method. This is similar to the user command dont-repeat, see undened [Dene], page undened . [Method on Command]

invoke argument from tty

This method is called by gdb when this command is invoked.

292

Debugging with gdb

argument is a string. It is the argument to the command, after leading and trailing whitespace has been stripped. from tty is a boolean argument. When true, this means that the command was entered by the user at the terminal; when false it means that the command came from elsewhere. If this method throws an exception, it is turned into a gdb error call. Otherwise, the return value is ignored. To break argument up into an argv-like string use gdb.string_to_argv. This function behaves identically to gdbs internal argument lexer buildargv. It is recommended to use this for consistency. Arguments are separated by spaces and may be quoted. Example:
print gdb.string_to_argv ("1 2\ \\\"3 4 \"5 \"6 7\"") [1, 2 "3, 4 "5, "6 7"]

complete text word

[Method on Command] This method is called by gdb when the user attempts completion on this command. All forms of completion are handled by this method, that is, the TAB and M-? key bindings (see undened [Completion], page undened ), and the complete command (see undened [Help], page undened ). The arguments text and word are both strings. text holds the complete command line up to the cursors location. word holds the last word of the command line; this is computed using a word-breaking heuristic. The complete method can return several values: If the return value is a sequence, the contents of the sequence are used as the completions. It is up to complete to ensure that the contents actually do complete the word. A zero-length sequence is allowed, it means that there were no completions available. Only string elements of the sequence are used; other elements in the sequence are ignored. If the return value is one of the COMPLETE_ constants dened below, then the corresponding gdb-internal completion function is invoked, and its result is used. All other results are treated as though there were no available completions.

When a new command is registered, it must be declared as a member of some general class of commands. This is used to classify top-level commands in the on-line help system; note that prex commands are not listed under their own category but rather that of their top-level command. The available classications are represented by constants dened in the gdb module: COMMAND_NONE The command does not belong to any particular class. A command in this category will not be displayed in any of the help categories. COMMAND_RUNNING The command is related to running the inferior. For example, start, step, and continue are in this category. Type help running at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

293

COMMAND_DATA The command is related to data or variables. For example, call, find, and print are in this category. Type help data at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_STACK The command has to do with manipulation of the stack. For example, backtrace, frame, and return are in this category. Type help stack at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_FILES This class is used for le-related commands. For example, file, list and section are in this category. Type help files at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_SUPPORT This should be used for support facilities, generally meaning things that are useful to the user when interacting with gdb, but not related to the state of the inferior. For example, help, make, and shell are in this category. Type help support at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_STATUS The command is an info-related command, that is, related to the state of gdb itself. For example, info, macro, and show are in this category. Type help status at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_BREAKPOINTS The command has to do with breakpoints. For example, break, clear, and delete are in this category. Type help breakpoints at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_TRACEPOINTS The command has to do with tracepoints. For example, trace, actions, and tfind are in this category. Type help tracepoints at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_OBSCURE The command is only used in unusual circumstances, or is not of general interest to users. For example, checkpoint, fork, and stop are in this category. Type help obscure at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. COMMAND_MAINTENANCE The command is only useful to gdb maintainers. The maintenance and flushregs commands are in this category. Type help internals at the gdb prompt to see a list of commands in this category. A new command can use a predened completion function, either by specifying it via an argument at initialization, or by returning it from the complete method. These predened completion constants are all dened in the gdb module: COMPLETE_NONE This constant means that no completion should be done.

294

Debugging with gdb

COMPLETE_FILENAME This constant means that lename completion should be performed. COMPLETE_LOCATION This constant means that location completion should be done. See undened [Specify Location], page undened . COMPLETE_COMMAND This constant means that completion should examine gdb command names. COMPLETE_SYMBOL This constant means that completion should be done using symbol names as the source. The following code snippet shows how a trivial CLI command can be implemented in Python:
class HelloWorld (gdb.Command): """Greet the whole world.""" def __init__ (self): super (HelloWorld, self).__init__ ("hello-world", gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE) def invoke (self, arg, from_tty): print "Hello, World!" HelloWorld ()

The last line instantiates the class, and is necessary to trigger the registration of the command with gdb. Depending on how the Python code is read into gdb, you may need to import the gdb module explicitly.

23.2.2.11 Parameters In Python

You can implement new gdb parameters using Python. A new parameter is implemented as an instance of the gdb.Parameter class. Parameters are exposed to the user via the set and show commands. See undened [Help], page undened . There are many parameters that already exist and can be set in gdb. Two examples are: set follow fork and set charset. Setting these parameters inuences certain behavior in gdb. Similarly, you can dene parameters that can be used to inuence behavior in custom Python scripts and commands.

init

name command-class parameter-class [Method on Parameter] [enum-sequence] The object initializer for Parameter registers the new parameter with gdb. This initializer is normally invoked from the subclass own __init__ method. name is the name of the new parameter. If name consists of multiple words, then the initial words are looked for as prex parameters. An example of this can be illustrated with the set print set of parameters. If name is print foo, then print will be searched as the prex parameter. In this case the parameter can subsequently be accessed in gdb as set print foo.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

295

If name consists of multiple words, and no prex parameter group can be found, an exception is raised. command-class should be one of the COMMAND_ constants (see undened [Commands In Python], page undened ). This argument tells gdb how to categorize the new parameter in the help system. parameter-class should be one of the PARAM_ constants dened below. This argument tells gdb the type of the new parameter; this information is used for input validation and completion. If parameter-class is PARAM_ENUM, then enum-sequence must be a sequence of strings. These strings represent the possible values for the parameter. If parameter-class is not PARAM_ENUM, then the presence of a fourth argument will cause an exception to be thrown. The help text for the new parameter is taken from the Python documentation string for the parameters class, if there is one. If there is no documentation string, a default value is used.

set doc

[Instance Variable of Parameter] If this attribute exists, and is a string, then its value is used as the help text for this parameters set command. The value is examined when Parameter.__init__ is invoked; subsequent changes have no eect. [Instance Variable of Parameter] If this attribute exists, and is a string, then its value is used as the help text for this parameters show command. The value is examined when Parameter.__init__ is invoked; subsequent changes have no eect.

show doc

value

[Instance Variable of Parameter] The value attribute holds the underlying value of the parameter. It can be read and assigned to just as any other attribute. gdb does validation when assignments are made.

When a new parameter is dened, its type must be specied. The available types are represented by constants dened in the gdb module: PARAM_BOOLEAN The value is a plain boolean. The Python boolean values, True and False are the only valid values. PARAM_AUTO_BOOLEAN The value has three possible states: true, false, and auto. In Python, true and false are represented using boolean constants, and auto is represented using None. PARAM_UINTEGER The value is an unsigned integer. The value of 0 should be interpreted to mean unlimited. PARAM_INTEGER The value is a signed integer. The value of 0 should be interpreted to mean unlimited.

296

Debugging with gdb

PARAM_STRING The value is a string. When the user modies the string, any escape sequences, such as \t, \f, and octal escapes, are translated into corresponding characters and encoded into the current host charset. PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE The value is a string. When the user modies the string, escapes are passed through untranslated. PARAM_OPTIONAL_FILENAME The value is a either a lename (a string), or None. PARAM_FILENAME The value is a lename. This is just like PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE, but uses le names for completion. PARAM_ZINTEGER The value is an integer. This is like PARAM_INTEGER, except 0 is interpreted as itself. PARAM_ENUM The value is a string, which must be one of a collection string constants provided when the parameter is created.

23.2.2.12 Writing new convenience functions

You can implement new convenience functions (see undened [Convenience Vars], page undened ) in Python. A convenience function is an instance of a subclass of the class gdb.Function.

init

name [Method on Function] The initializer for Function registers the new function with gdb. The argument name is the name of the function, a string. The function will be visible to the user as a convenience variable of type internal function, whose name is the same as the given name. The documentation for the new function is taken from the documentation string for the new class. [Method on Function] When a convenience function is evaluated, its arguments are converted to instances of gdb.Value, and then the functions invoke method is called. Note that gdb does not predetermine the arity of convenience functions. Instead, all available arguments are passed to invoke, following the standard Python calling convention. In particular, a convenience function can have default values for parameters without ill eect. The return value of this method is used as its value in the enclosing expression. If an ordinary Python value is returned, it is converted to a gdb.Value following the usual rules.

invoke *args

The following code snippet shows how a trivial convenience function can be implemented in Python:

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

297

class Greet (gdb.Function): """Return string to greet someone. Takes a name as argument.""" def __init__ (self): super (Greet, self).__init__ ("greet") def invoke (self, name): return "Hello, %s!" % name.string () Greet ()

The last line instantiates the class, and is necessary to trigger the registration of the function with gdb. Depending on how the Python code is read into gdb, you may need to import the gdb module explicitly.

23.2.2.13 Program Spaces In Python

A program space, or progspace, represents a symbolic view of an address space. It consists of all of the objles of the program. See undened [Objles In Python], page undened . See undened [Inferiors and Programs], page undened , for more details about program spaces. The following progspace-related functions are available in the gdb module:

current progspace

[Function] This function returns the program space of the currently selected inferior. See undened [Inferiors and Programs], page undened . [Function]

progspaces
Return a sequence of all the progspaces currently known to gdb. Each progspace is represented by an instance of the gdb.Progspace class.

lename
The le name of the progspace as a string.

[Instance Variable of Progspace]

pretty printers

[Instance Variable of Progspace] The pretty_printers attribute is a list of functions. It is used to look up prettyprinters. A Value is passed to each function in order; if the function returns None, then the search continues. Otherwise, the return value should be an object which is used to format the value. See undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened , for more information.

23.2.2.14 Objles In Python

gdb loads symbols for an inferior from various symbol-containing les (see undened [Files], page undened ). These include the primary executable le, any shared libraries used by the inferior, and any separate debug info les (see undened [Separate Debug Files], page undened ). gdb calls these symbol-containing les objles. The following objle-related functions are available in the gdb module:

298

Debugging with gdb

current objle

[Function] When auto-loading a Python script (see undened [Auto-loading], page undened ), gdb sets the current objle to the corresponding objle. This function returns the current objle. If there is no current objle, this function returns None. [Function] Return a sequence of all the objles current known to gdb. See undened [Objles In Python], page undened .

objles

Each objle is represented by an instance of the gdb.Objfile class.

lename
The le name of the objle as a string.

[Instance Variable of Objle]

pretty printers

[Instance Variable of Objle] The pretty_printers attribute is a list of functions. It is used to look up prettyprinters. A Value is passed to each function in order; if the function returns None, then the search continues. Otherwise, the return value should be an object which is used to format the value. See undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened , for more information.

23.2.2.15 Accessing inferior stack frames from Python.

When the debugged program stops, gdb is able to analyze its call stack (see undened [Stack frames], page undened ). The gdb.Frame class represents a frame in the stack. A gdb.Frame object is only valid while its corresponding frame exists in the inferiors stack. If you try to use an invalid frame object, gdb will throw a RuntimeError exception. Two gdb.Frame objects can be compared for equality with the == operator, like:
(gdb) python print gdb.newest_frame() == gdb.selected_frame () True

The following frame-related functions are available in the gdb module:

selected frame

[Function] Return the selected frame object. (see undened [Selecting a Frame], page undened ).

frame stop reason string reason

[Function] Return a string explaining the reason why gdb stopped unwinding frames, as expressed by the given reason code (an integer, see the unwind_stop_reason method further down in this section).

A gdb.Frame object has the following methods:

is valid

[Method on Frame] Returns true if the gdb.Frame object is valid, false if not. A frame object can become invalid if the frame it refers to doesnt exist anymore in the inferior. All gdb.Frame methods will throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is called.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

299

name type

[Method on Frame] Returns the function name of the frame, or None if it cant be obtained. [Method on Frame] Returns the type of the frame. The value can be one of gdb.NORMAL_FRAME, gdb.DUMMY_FRAME, gdb.SIGTRAMP_FRAME or gdb.SENTINEL_FRAME.

unwind stop reason

[Method on Frame] Return an integer representing the reason why its not possible to nd more frames toward the outermost frame. Use gdb.frame_stop_reason_ string to convert the value returned by this function to a string. [Method on Frame]

pc
Returns the frames resume address.

block
Return the frames code block. page undened .

[Method on Frame] See undened [Blocks In Python],

function

[Method on Frame] Return the symbol for the function corresponding to this frame. See undened [Symbols In Python], page undened . [Method on Frame] [Method on Frame] Return the frame that called this frame.

older newer
Return the frame called by this frame.

nd sal

[Method on Frame] Return the frames symtab and line object. See undened [Symbol Tables In Python], page undened . [Method on Frame] Return the value of variable in this frame. If the optional argument block is provided, search for the variable from that block; otherwise start at the frames current block (which is determined by the frames current program counter). variable must be a string or a gdb.Symbol object. block must be a gdb.Block object. [Method on Frame] Set this frame to be the selected frame. See undened [Examining the Stack], page undened .

read var variable [block]

select

23.2.2.16 Accessing frame blocks from Python.

Within each frame, gdb maintains information on each block stored in that frame. These blocks are organized hierarchically, and are represented individually in Python as a

300

Debugging with gdb

gdb.Block. Please see undened [Frames In Python], page undened , for a more indepth discussion on frames. Furthermore, see undened [Examining the Stack], page undened , for more detailed technical information on gdbs book-keeping of the stack. The following block-related functions are available in the gdb module:

block for pc pc

[Function] Return the gdb.Block containing the given pc value. If the block cannot be found for the pc value specied, the function will return None.

A gdb.Block object has the following attributes:

start end

[Instance Variable of Block] The start address of the block. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Block] The end address of the block. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Block] The name of the block represented as a gdb.Symbol. If the block is not named, then this attribute holds None. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Block] The block containing this block. If this parent block does not exist, this attribute holds None. This attribute is not writable.

function

superblock

23.2.2.17 Python representation of Symbols.

gdb represents every variable, function and type as an entry in a symbol table. See undened [Examining the Symbol Table], page undened . Similarly, Python represents these symbols in gdb with the gdb.Symbol object. The following symbol-related functions are available in the gdb module:

lookup symbol name [block] [domain]

[Function] This function searches for a symbol by name. The search scope can be restricted to the parameters dened in the optional domain and block arguments. name is the name of the symbol. It must be a string. The optional block argument restricts the search to symbols visible in that block. The block argument must be a gdb.Block object. The optional domain argument restricts the search to the domain type. The domain argument must be a domain constant dened in the gdb module and described later in this chapter.

A gdb.Symbol object has the following attributes:

symtab

[Instance Variable of Symbol] The symbol table in which the symbol appears. This attribute is represented as a gdb.Symtab object. See undened [Symbol Tables In Python], page undened . This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Symbol] The name of the symbol as a string. This attribute is not writable.

name

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

301

linkage name

[Instance Variable of Symbol] The name of the symbol, as used by the linker (i.e., may be mangled). This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Symbol] The name of the symbol in a form suitable for output. This is either name or linkage_name, depending on whether the user asked gdb to display demangled or mangled names.

print name

addr class

[Instance Variable of Symbol] The address class of the symbol. This classies how to nd the value of a symbol. Each address class is a constant dened in the gdb module and described later in this chapter. [Instance Variable of Symbol] True if the symbol is an argument of a function. [Instance Variable of Symbol] True if the symbol is a constant.

is argument is constant is function is variable

[Instance Variable of Symbol] True if the symbol is a function or a method. [Instance Variable of Symbol] True if the symbol is a variable.

The available domain categories in gdb.Symbol are represented as constants in the gdb module: SYMBOL_UNDEF_DOMAIN This is used when a domain has not been discovered or none of the following domains apply. This usually indicates an error either in the symbol information or in gdbs handling of symbols. SYMBOL_VAR_DOMAIN This domain contains variables, function names, typedef names and enum type values. SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN This domain holds struct, union and enum type names. SYMBOL_LABEL_DOMAIN This domain contains names of labels (for gotos). SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN This domain holds a subset of the SYMBOLS_VAR_DOMAIN; it contains everything minus functions and types. SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN This domain contains all functions. SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN This domain contains all types.

302

Debugging with gdb

The available address class categories in gdb.Symbol are represented as constants in the gdb module: SYMBOL_LOC_UNDEF If this is returned by address class, it indicates an error either in the symbol information or in gdbs handling of symbols. SYMBOL_LOC_CONST Value is constant int. SYMBOL_LOC_STATIC Value is at a xed address. SYMBOL_LOC_REGISTER Value is in a register. SYMBOL_LOC_ARG Value is an argument. This value is at the oset stored within the symbol inside the frames argument list. SYMBOL_LOC_REF_ARG Value address is stored in the frames argument list. Just like LOC_ARG except that the values address is stored at the oset, not the value itself. SYMBOL_LOC_REGPARM_ADDR Value is a specied register. Just like LOC_REGISTER except the register holds the address of the argument instead of the argument itself. SYMBOL_LOC_LOCAL Value is a local variable. SYMBOL_LOC_TYPEDEF Value not used. Symbols in the domain SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN all have this class. SYMBOL_LOC_BLOCK Value is a block. SYMBOL_LOC_CONST_BYTES Value is a byte-sequence. SYMBOL_LOC_UNRESOLVED Value is at a xed address, but the address of the variable has to be determined from the minimal symbol table whenever the variable is referenced. SYMBOL_LOC_OPTIMIZED_OUT The value does not actually exist in the program. SYMBOL_LOC_COMPUTED The values address is a computed location.

23.2.2.18 Symbol table representation in Python.

Access to symbol table data maintained by gdb on the inferior is exposed to Python via two objects: gdb.Symtab_and_line and gdb.Symtab. Symbol table and line data for a

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

303

frame is returned from the find_sal method in gdb.Frame object. See undened [Frames In Python], page undened . For more information on gdbs symbol table management, see undened [Examining the Symbol Table], page undened , for more information. A gdb.Symtab_and_line object has the following attributes:

symtab

[Instance Variable of Symtab and line] The symbol table object (gdb.Symtab) for this frame. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Symtab and line] Indicates the current program counter address. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Symtab and line] Indicates the current line number for this object. This attribute is not writable.

pc

line

A gdb.Symtab object has the following attributes:

lename objle

[Instance Variable of Symtab] The symbol tables source lename. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Symtab] The symbol tables backing object le. See undened [Objles In Python], page undened . This attribute is not writable.

The following methods are provided:

fullname

[Method on Symtab] Return the symbol tables source absolute le name.

23.2.2.19 Manipulating breakpoints using Python

Python code can manipulate breakpoints via the gdb.Breakpoint class.

init

spec [type] [wp class] [Method on Breakpoint] Create a new breakpoint. spec is a string naming the location of the breakpoint, or an expression that denes a watchpoint. The contents can be any location recognized by the break command, or in the case of a watchpoint, by the watch command. The optional type denotes the breakpoint to create from the types dened later in this chapter. This argument can be either: BP_BREAKPOINT or BP_WATCHPOINT. type defaults to BP_BREAKPOINT. The optional wp class argument denes the class of watchpoint to create, if type is dened as BP_WATCHPOINT. If a watchpoint class is not provided, it is assumed to be a WP WRITE class.

The available watchpoint types represented by constants are dened in the gdb module: WP_READ WP_WRITE Read only watchpoint. Write only watchpoint.

304

Debugging with gdb

WP_ACCESS Read/Write watchpoint.

is valid

[Method on Breakpoint] Return True if this Breakpoint object is valid, False otherwise. A Breakpoint object can become invalid if the user deletes the breakpoint. In this case, the object still exists, but the underlying breakpoint does not. In the cases of watchpoint scope, the watchpoint remains valid even if execution of the inferior leaves the scope of that watchpoint. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute is True if the breakpoint is enabled, and False otherwise. This attribute is writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute is True if the breakpoint is silent, and False otherwise. This attribute is writable. Note that a breakpoint can also be silent if it has commands and the rst command is silent. This is not reported by the silent attribute. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] If the breakpoint is thread-specic, this attribute holds the thread id. If the breakpoint is not thread-specic, this attribute is None. This attribute is writable.

enabled

silent

thread

task

[Instance Variable of Breakpoint] If the breakpoint is Ada task-specic, this attribute holds the Ada task id. If the breakpoint is not task-specic (or the underlying language is not Ada), this attribute is None. This attribute is writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the ignore count for the breakpoint, an integer. This attribute is writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the breakpoints number the identier used by the user to manipulate the breakpoint. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the breakpoints type the identier used to determine the actual breakpoint type or use-case. This attribute is not writable.

ignore count

number

type

The available types are represented by constants dened in the gdb module: BP_BREAKPOINT Normal code breakpoint. BP_WATCHPOINT Watchpoint breakpoint. BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT Hardware assisted watchpoint.

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

305

BP_READ_WATCHPOINT Hardware assisted read watchpoint. BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT Hardware assisted access watchpoint.

hit count

[Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the hit count for the breakpoint, an integer. This attribute is writable, but currently it can only be set to zero. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the location of the breakpoint, as specied by the user. It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have a location (that is, it is a watchpoint) the attributes value is None. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds a breakpoint expression, as specied by the user. It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have an expression (the breakpoint is not a watchpoint) the attributes value is None. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the condition of the breakpoint, as specied by the user. It is a string. If there is no condition, this attributes value is None. This attribute is writable. [Instance Variable of Breakpoint] This attribute holds the commands attached to the breakpoint. If there are commands, this attributes value is a string holding all the commands, separated by newlines. If there are no commands, this attribute is None. This attribute is not writable.

location

expression

condition

commands

23.2.2.20 Python representation of lazy strings.

A lazy string is a string whose contents is not retrieved or encoded until it is needed. A gdb.LazyString is represented in gdb as an address that points to a region of memory, an encoding that will be used to encode that region of memory, and a length to delimit the region of memory that represents the string. The dierence between a gdb.LazyString and a string wrapped within a gdb.Value is that a gdb.LazyString will be treated dierently by gdb when printing. A gdb.LazyString is retrieved and encoded during printing, while a gdb.Value wrapping a string is immediately retrieved and encoded on creation. A gdb.LazyString object has the following functions:

value

[Method on LazyString] Convert the gdb.LazyString to a gdb.Value. This value will point to the string in memory, but will lose all the delayed retrieval, encoding and handling that gdb applies to a gdb.LazyString. [Instance Variable of LazyString] This attribute holds the address of the string. This attribute is not writable.

address

306

Debugging with gdb

length

[Instance Variable of LazyString] This attribute holds the length of the string in characters. If the length is -1, then the string will be fetched and encoded up to the rst null of appropriate width. This attribute is not writable. [Instance Variable of LazyString] This attribute holds the encoding that will be applied to the string when the string is printed by gdb. If the encoding is not set, or contains an empty string, then gdb will select the most appropriate encoding when the string is printed. This attribute is not writable.

encoding

type

[Instance Variable of LazyString] This attribute holds the type that is represented by the lazy strings type. For a lazy string this will always be a pointer type. To resolve this to the lazy strings character type, use the types target method. See undened [Types In Python], page undened . This attribute is not writable.

23.2.3 Auto-loading
When a new object le is read (for example, due to the file command, or because the inferior has loaded a shared library), gdb will look for Python support scripts in several ways: objfile-gdb.py and .debug_gdb_scripts section. The auto-loading feature is useful for supplying application-specic debugging commands and scripts. Auto-loading can be enabled or disabled. maint set python auto-load [yes|no] Enable or disable the Python auto-loading feature. maint show python auto-load Show whether Python auto-loading is enabled or disabled. When reading an auto-loaded le, gdb sets the current objle. This is available via the gdb.current_objfile function (see undened [Objles In Python], page undened ). This can be useful for registering objle-specic pretty-printers.

23.2.3.1 The objfile-gdb.py le

When a new object le is read, gdb looks for a le named objfile-gdb.py, where objle is the object les real name, formed by ensuring that the le name is absolute, following all symlinks, and resolving . and .. components. If this le exists and is readable, gdb will evaluate it as a Python script. If this le does not exist, and if the parameter debug-file-directory is set (see undened [Separate Debug Files], page undened ), then gdb will look for real-name in all of the directories mentioned in the value of debug-file-directory. Finally, if this le does not exist, then gdb will look for a le named datadirectory /python/auto-load/real-name , where data-directory is gdbs data directory

Chapter 23: Extending gdb

307

(available via show data-directory, see undened [Data Files], page undened ), and real-name is the object les real name, as described above. gdb does not track which les it has already auto-loaded this way. gdb will load the associated script every time the corresponding objle is opened. So your -gdb.py le should be careful to avoid errors if it is evaluated more than once.

23.2.3.2 The .debug_gdb_scripts section

For systems using le formats like ELF and COFF, when gdb loads a new object le it will look for a special section named .debug_gdb_scripts. If this section exists, its contents is a list of names of scripts to load. gdb will look for each specied script le rst in the current directory and then along the source search path (see undened [Specifying Source Directories], page undened ), except that $cdir is not searched, since the compilation directory is not relevant to scripts. Entries can be placed in section .debug_gdb_scripts with, for example, this GCC macro: /* Note: The "MS" section flags are to remove duplicates. */ #define DEFINE_GDB_SCRIPT(script_name) \ asm("\ .pushsection \".debug_gdb_scripts\", \"MS\",@progbits,1\n\ .byte 1\n\ .asciz \"" script_name "\"\n\ .popsection \n\ "); Then one can reference the macro in a header or source le like this: DEFINE_GDB_SCRIPT ("my-app-scripts.py") The script name may include directories if desired. If the macro is put in a header, any application or library using this header will get a reference to the specied script.

23.2.3.3 Which avor to choose?

Given the multiple ways of auto-loading Python scripts, it might not always be clear which one to choose. This section provides some guidance. Benets of the -gdb.py way: Can be used with le formats that dont support multiple sections. Ease of nding scripts for public libraries. Scripts specied in the .debug_gdb_scripts section are searched for in the source search path. For publicly installed libraries, e.g., libstdc++, there typically isnt a source directory in which to nd the script. Doesnt require source code additions. Benets of the .debug_gdb_scripts way:

308

Debugging with gdb

Works with static linking. Scripts for libraries done the -gdb.py way require an objle to trigger their loading. When an application is statically linked the only objle available is the executable, and it is cumbersome to attach all the scripts from all the input libraries to the executables -gdb.py script. Works with classes that are entirely inlined. Some classes can be entirely inlined, and thus there may not be an associated shared library to attach a -gdb.py script to. Scripts neednt be copied out of the source tree. In some circumstances, apps can be built out of large collections of internal libraries, and the build infrastructure necessary to install the -gdb.py scripts in a place where gdb can nd them is cumbersome. It may be easier to specify the scripts in the .debug_gdb_scripts section as relative paths, and add a path to the top of the source tree to the source search path.

Chapter 24: Command Interpreters

309

24 Command Interpreters
gdb supports multiple command interpreters, and some command infrastructure to allow users or user interface writers to switch between interpreters or run commands in other interpreters. gdb currently supports two command interpreters, the console interpreter (sometimes called the command-line interpreter or cli) and the machine interface interpreter (or gdb/mi). This manual describes both of these interfaces in great detail. By default, gdb will start with the console interpreter. However, the user may choose to start gdb with another interpreter by specifying the -i or --interpreter startup options. Dened interpreters include: console The traditional console or command-line interpreter. This is the most often used interpreter with gdb. With no interpreter specied at runtime, gdb will use this interpreter. The newest gdb/mi interface (currently mi2). Used primarily by programs wishing to use gdb as a backend for a debugger GUI or an IDE. For more information, see undened [The gdb/mi Interface], page undened . The current gdb/mi interface. The gdb/mi interface included in gdb 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3.

mi

mi2 mi1

The interpreter being used by gdb may not be dynamically switched at runtime. Although possible, this could lead to a very precarious situation. Consider an IDE using gdb/mi. If a user enters the command "interpreter-set console" in a console view, gdb would switch to using the console interpreter, rendering the IDE inoperable! Although you may only choose a single interpreter at startup, you may execute commands in any interpreter from the current interpreter using the appropriate command. If you are running the console interpreter, simply use the interpreter-exec command:
interpreter-exec mi "-data-list-register-names"

gdb/mi has a similar command, although it is only available in versions of gdb which support gdb/mi version 2 (or greater).

310

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 25: gdb Text User Interface

311

25 gdb Text User Interface

The gdb Text User Interface (TUI) is a terminal interface which uses the curses library to show the source le, the assembly output, the program registers and gdb commands in separate text windows. The TUI mode is supported only on platforms where a suitable version of the curses library is available. The TUI mode is enabled by default when you invoke gdb as either gdbtui or gdb -tui. You can also switch in and out of TUI mode while gdb runs by using various TUI commands and key bindings, such as C-x C-a. See undened [TUI Key Bindings], page undened .

25.1 TUI Overview

In TUI mode, gdb can display several text windows: command source assembly register This window is the gdb command window with the gdb prompt and the gdb output. The gdb input is still managed using readline. The source window shows the source le of the program. The current line and active breakpoints are displayed in this window. The assembly window shows the disassembly output of the program. This window shows the processor registers. Registers are highlighted when their values change.

The source and assembly windows show the current program position by highlighting the current line and marking it with a > marker. Breakpoints are indicated with two markers. The rst marker indicates the breakpoint type: B b H h Breakpoint which was hit at least once. Breakpoint which was never hit. Hardware breakpoint which was hit at least once. Hardware breakpoint which was never hit. The second marker indicates whether the breakpoint is enabled or not: + Breakpoint is enabled. Breakpoint is disabled.

The source, assembly and register windows are updated when the current thread changes, when the frame changes, or when the program counter changes. These windows are not all visible at the same time. The command window is always visible. The others can be arranged in several layouts: source only, assembly only, source and assembly, source and registers, or

312

Debugging with gdb

assembly and registers. A status line above the command window shows the following information: target process function Indicates the current gdb target. (see undened [Specifying a Debugging Target], page undened ). Gives the current process or thread number. When no process is being debugged, this eld is set to No process. Gives the current function name for the selected frame. The name is demangled if demangling is turned on (see undened [Print Settings], page undened ). When there is no symbol corresponding to the current program counter, the string ?? is displayed. Indicates the current line number for the selected frame. When the current line number is not known, the string ?? is displayed. Indicates the current program counter address.

line pc

25.2 TUI Key Bindings

The TUI installs several key bindings in the readline keymaps (see undened [Command Line Editing], page undened ). The following key bindings are installed for both TUI mode and the gdb standard mode. C-x C-a C-x a C-x A

Enter or leave the TUI mode. When leaving the TUI mode, the curses window management stops and gdb operates using its standard mode, writing on the terminal directly. When reentering the TUI mode, control is given back to the curses windows. The screen is then refreshed. Use a TUI layout with only one window. The layout will either be source or assembly. When the TUI mode is not active, it will switch to the TUI mode. Think of this key binding as the Emacs C-x 1 binding. Use a TUI layout with at least two windows. When the current layout already has two windows, the next layout with two windows is used. When a new layout is chosen, one window will always be common to the previous layout and the new one. Think of it as the Emacs C-x 2 binding. Change the active window. The TUI associates several key bindings (like scrolling and arrow keys) with the active window. This command gives the focus to the next TUI window. Think of it as the Emacs C-x o binding. Switch in and out of the TUI SingleKey mode that binds single keys to gdb commands (see undened [TUI Single Key Mode], page undened ).

C-x 1

C-x 2

C-x o

C-x s

The following key bindings only work in the TUI mode:

Chapter 25: gdb Text User Interface

313

PgUp PgDn Up Down Left Right

Scroll the active window one page up. Scroll the active window one page down. Scroll the active window one line up. Scroll the active window one line down. Scroll the active window one column left. Scroll the active window one column right. Refresh the screen.

C-L

Because the arrow keys scroll the active window in the TUI mode, they are not available for their normal use by readline unless the command window has the focus. When another window is active, you must use other readline key bindings such as C-p, C-n, C-b and C-f to control the command window.

25.3 TUI Single Key Mode

The TUI also provides a SingleKey mode, which binds several frequently used gdb commands to single keys. Type C-x s to switch into this mode, where the following key bindings are used: c d f n q r s u v w continue down nish next exit the SingleKey mode. run step up info locals where

Other keys temporarily switch to the gdb command prompt. The key that was pressed is inserted in the editing buer so that it is possible to type most gdb commands without interaction with the TUI SingleKey mode. Once the command is entered the TUI SingleKey mode is restored. The only way to permanently leave this mode is by typing q or C-x s.

314

Debugging with gdb

25.4 TUI-specic Commands

The TUI has specic commands to control the text windows. These commands are always available, even when gdb is not in the TUI mode. When gdb is in the standard mode, most of these commands will automatically switch to the TUI mode. Note that if gdbs stdout is not connected to a terminal, or gdb has been started with the machine interface interpreter (see undened [The gdb/mi Interface], page undened ), most of these commands will fail with an error, because it would not be possible or desirable to enable curses window management. info win List and give the size of all displayed windows.

layout next Display the next layout. layout prev Display the previous layout. layout src Display the source window only. layout asm Display the assembly window only. layout split Display the source and assembly window. layout regs Display the register window together with the source or assembly window. focus next Make the next window active for scrolling. focus prev Make the previous window active for scrolling. focus src Make the source window active for scrolling. focus asm Make the assembly window active for scrolling. focus regs Make the register window active for scrolling. focus cmd Make the command window active for scrolling. refresh Refresh the screen. This is similar to typing C-L.

tui reg float Show the oating point registers in the register window. tui reg general Show the general registers in the register window. tui reg next Show the next register group. The list of register groups as well as their order is target specic. The predened register groups are the following: general, float, system, vector, all, save, restore.

Chapter 25: gdb Text User Interface

315

tui reg system Show the system registers in the register window. update Update the source window and the current execution point.

winheight name +count winheight name -count Change the height of the window name by count lines. Positive counts increase the height, while negative counts decrease it. tabset nchars Set the width of tab stops to be nchars characters.

25.5 TUI Conguration Variables

Several conguration variables control the appearance of TUI windows. set tui border-kind kind Select the border appearance for the source, assembly and register windows. The possible values are the following: space ascii acs Use a space character to draw the border. Use ascii characters +, - and | to draw the border. Use the Alternate Character Set to draw the border. The border is drawn using character line graphics if the terminal supports them.

set tui border-mode mode set tui active-border-mode mode Select the display attributes for the borders of the inactive windows or the active window. The mode can be one of the following: normal standout reverse half Use normal attributes to display the border. Use standout mode. Use reverse video mode. Use half bright mode.

half-standout Use half bright and standout mode. bold Use extra bright or bold mode.

bold-standout Use extra bright or bold and standout mode.

316

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 26: Using gdb under gnu Emacs

317

26 Using gdb under gnu Emacs

A special interface allows you to use gnu Emacs to view (and edit) the source les for the program you are debugging with gdb. To use this interface, use the command M-x gdb in Emacs. Give the executable le you want to debug as an argument. This command starts gdb as a subprocess of Emacs, with input and output through a newly created Emacs buer. Running gdb under Emacs can be just like running gdb normally except for two things: All terminal input and output goes through an Emacs buer, called the GUD buer. This applies both to gdb commands and their output, and to the input and output done by the program you are debugging. This is useful because it means that you can copy the text of previous commands and input them again; you can even use parts of the output in this way. All the facilities of Emacs Shell mode are available for interacting with your program. In particular, you can send signals the usual wayfor example, C-c C-c for an interrupt, C-c C-z for a stop. gdb displays source code through Emacs. Each time gdb displays a stack frame, Emacs automatically nds the source le for that frame and puts an arrow (=>) at the left margin of the current line. Emacs uses a separate buer for source display, and splits the screen to show both your gdb session and the source. Explicit gdb list or search commands still produce output as usual, but you probably have no reason to use them from Emacs. We call this text command mode. Emacs 22.1, and later, also uses a graphical mode, enabled by default, which provides further buers that can control the execution and describe the state of your program. See section GDB Graphical Interface in The gnu Emacs Manual. If you specify an absolute le name when prompted for the M-x gdb argument, then Emacs sets your current working directory to where your program resides. If you only specify the le name, then Emacs sets your current working directory to to the directory associated with the previous buer. In this case, gdb may nd your program by searching your environments PATH variable, but on some operating systems it might not nd the source. So, although the gdb input and output session proceeds normally, the auxiliary buer does not display the current source and line of execution. The initial working directory of gdb is printed on the top line of the GUD buer and this serves as a default for the commands that specify les for gdb to operate on. See undened [Commands to Specify Files], page undened . By default, M-x gdb calls the program called gdb. If you need to call gdb by a dierent name (for example, if you keep several congurations around, with dierent names) you can customize the Emacs variable gud-gdb-command-name to run the one you want. In the GUD buer, you can use these special Emacs commands in addition to the standard Shell mode commands: C-h m Describe the features of Emacs GUD Mode.

318

Debugging with gdb

C-c C-s C-c C-n

Execute to another source line, like the gdb step command; also update the display window to show the current le and location. Execute to next source line in this function, skipping all function calls, like the gdb next command. Then update the display window to show the current le and location. Execute one instruction, like the gdb stepi command; update display window accordingly. Execute until exit from the selected stack frame, like the gdb finish command. Continue execution of your program, like the gdb continue command. Go up the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument (see section Numeric Arguments in The gnu Emacs Manual), like the gdb up command. Go down the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument, like the gdb down command.

C-c C-i C-c C-f C-c C-r C-c < C-c >

In any source le, the Emacs command C-x SPC (gud-break) tells gdb to set a breakpoint on the source line point is on. In text command mode, if you type M-x speedbar, Emacs displays a separate frame which shows a backtrace when the GUD buer is current. Move point to any frame in the stack and type RET to make it become the current frame and display the associated source in the source buer. Alternatively, click Mouse-2 to make the selected frame become the current one. In graphical mode, the speedbar displays watch expressions. If you accidentally delete the source-display buer, an easy way to get it back is to type the command f in the gdb buer, to request a frame display; when you run under Emacs, this recreates the source buer if necessary to show you the context of the current frame. The source les displayed in Emacs are in ordinary Emacs buers which are visiting the source les in the usual way. You can edit the les with these buers if you wish; but keep in mind that gdb communicates with Emacs in terms of line numbers. If you add or delete lines from the text, the line numbers that gdb knows cease to correspond properly with the code. A more detailed description of Emacs interaction with gdb is given in the Emacs manual (see section Debuggers in The gnu Emacs Manual).

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

319

27 The gdb/mi Interface

Function and Purpose
gdb/mi is a line based machine oriented text interface to gdb and is activated by specifying using the --interpreter command line option (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ). It is specically intended to support the development of systems which use the debugger as just one small component of a larger system. This chapter is a specication of the gdb/mi interface. It is written in the form of a reference manual. Note that gdb/mi is still under construction, so some of the features described below are incomplete and subject to change (see undened [gdb/mi Development and Front Ends], page undened ).

Notation and Terminology

This chapter uses the following notation: | separates two alternatives. [ something ] indicates that something is optional: it may or may not be given. ( group )* means that group inside the parentheses may repeat zero or more times. ( group )+ means that group inside the parentheses may repeat one or more times. "string " means a literal string.

27.1 gdb/mi General Design

Interaction of a GDB/MI frontend with gdb involves three partscommands sent to gdb, responses to those commands and notications. Each command results in exactly one response, indicating either successful completion of the command, or an error. For the commands that do not resume the target, the response contains the requested information. For the commands that resume the target, the response only indicates whether the target was successfully resumed. Notications is the mechanism for reporting changes in the state of the target, or in gdb state, that cannot conveniently be associated with a command and reported as part of that command response. The important examples of notications are: Exec notications. These are used to report changes in target statewhen a target is resumed, or stopped. It would not be feasible to include this information in response of resuming commands, because one resume commands can result in multiple events in dierent threads. Also, quite some time may pass before any event happens in the target, while a frontend needs to know whether the resuming command itself was successfully executed.

320

Debugging with gdb

Console output, and status notications. Console output notications are used to report output of CLI commands, as well as diagnostics for other commands. Status notications are used to report the progress of a long-running operation. Naturally, including this information in command response would mean no output is produced until the command is nished, which is undesirable. General notications. Commands may have various side eects on the gdb or target state beyond their ocial purpose. For example, a command may change the selected thread. Although such changes can be included in command response, using notication allows for more orthogonal frontend design. Theres no guarantee that whenever an MI command reports an error, gdb or the target are in any specic state, and especially, the state is not reverted to the state before the MI command was processed. Therefore, whenever an MI command results in an error, we recommend that the frontend refreshes all the information shown in the user interface.

27.1.1 Context management

In most cases when gdb accesses the target, this access is done in context of a specic thread and frame (see undened [Frames], page undened ). Often, even when accessing global data, the target requires that a thread be specied. The CLI interface maintains the selected thread and frame, and supplies them to target on each command. This is convenient, because a command line user would not want to specify that information explicitly on each command, and because user interacts with gdb via a single terminal, so no confusion is possible as to what thread and frame are the current ones. In the case of MI, the concept of selected thread and frame is less useful. First, a frontend can easily remember this information itself. Second, a graphical frontend can have more than one window, each one used for debugging a dierent thread, and the frontend might want to access additional threads for internal purposes. This increases the risk that by relying on implicitly selected thread, the frontend may be operating on a wrong one. Therefore, each MI command should explicitly specify which thread and frame to operate on. To make it possible, each MI command accepts the --thread and --frame options, the value to each is gdb identier for thread and frame to operate on. Usually, each top-level window in a frontend allows the user to select a thread and a frame, and remembers the user selection for further operations. However, in some cases gdb may suggest that the current thread be changed. For example, when stopping on a breakpoint it is reasonable to switch to the thread where breakpoint is hit. For another example, if the user issues the CLI thread command via the frontend, it is desirable to change the frontends selected thread to the one specied by user. gdb communicates the suggestion to change current thread using the =thread-selected notication. No such notication is available for the selected frame at the moment. Note that historically, MI shares the selected thread with CLI, so frontends used the -thread-select to execute commands in the right context. However, getting this to work right is cumbersome. The simplest way is for frontend to emit -thread-select command before every command. This doubles the number of commands that need to be sent. The alternative approach is to suppress -thread-select if the selected thread in gdb is supposed to be identical to the thread the frontend wants to operate on. However, getting this

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

321

optimization right can be tricky. In particular, if the frontend sends several commands to gdb, and one of the commands changes the selected thread, then the behaviour of subsequent commands will change. So, a frontend should either wait for response from such problematic commands, or explicitly add -thread-select for all subsequent commands. No frontend is known to do this exactly right, so it is suggested to just always pass the --thread and --frame options.

27.1.2 Asynchronous command execution and non-stop mode

On some targets, gdb is capable of processing MI commands even while the target is running. This is called asynchronous command execution (see undened [Background Execution], page undened ). The frontend may specify a preferrence for asynchronous execution using the -gdb-set target-async 1 command, which should be emitted before either running the executable or attaching to the target. After the frontend has started the executable or attached to the target, it can nd if asynchronous execution is enabled using the -list-target-features command. Even if gdb can accept a command while target is running, many commands that access the target do not work when the target is running. Therefore, asynchronous command execution is most useful when combined with non-stop mode (see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened ). Then, it is possible to examine the state of one thread, while other threads are running. When a given thread is running, MI commands that try to access the target in the context of that thread may not work, or may work only on some targets. In particular, commands that try to operate on threads stack will not work, on any target. Commands that read memory, or modify breakpoints, may work or not work, depending on the target. Note that even commands that operate on global state, such as print, set, and breakpoint commands, still access the target in the context of a specic thread, so frontend should try to nd a stopped thread and perform the operation on that thread (using the --thread option). Which commands will work in the context of a running thread is highly target dependent. However, the two commands -exec-interrupt, to stop a thread, and -thread-info, to nd the state of a thread, will always work.

27.1.3 Thread groups

gdb may be used to debug several processes at the same time. On some platfroms, gdb may support debugging of several hardware systems, each one having several cores with several dierent processes running on each core. This section describes the MI mechanism to support such debugging scenarios. The key observation is that regardless of the structure of the target, MI can have a global list of threads, because most commands that accept the --thread option do not need to know what process that thread belongs to. Therefore, it is not necessary to introduce neither additional --process option, nor an notion of the current process in the MI interface. The only strictly new feature that is required is the ability to nd how the threads are grouped into processes.

322

Debugging with gdb

To allow the user to discover such grouping, and to support arbitrary hierarchy of machines/cores/processes, MI introduces the concept of a thread group. Thread group is a collection of threads and other thread groups. A thread group always has a string identier, a type, and may have additional attributes specic to the type. A new command, -listthread-groups, returns the list of top-level thread groups, which correspond to processes that gdb is debugging at the moment. By passing an identier of a thread group to the -list-thread-groups command, it is possible to obtain the members of specic thread group. To allow the user to easily discover processes, and other objects, he wishes to debug, a concept of available thread group is introduced. Available thread group is an thread group that gdb is not debugging, but that can be attached to, using the -targetattach command. The list of available top-level thread groups can be obtained using -list-thread-groups --available. In general, the content of a thread group may be only retrieved only after attaching to that thread group. Thread groups are related to inferiors (see undened [Inferiors and Programs], page undened ). Each inferior corresponds to a thread group of a special type process, and some additional operations are permitted on such thread groups.

27.2 gdb/mi Command Syntax

27.2.1 gdb/mi Input Syntax
command cli-command | mi-command cli-command [ token ] cli-command nl , where cli-command is any existing gdb CLI command. mi-command [ token ] "-" operation ( " " option )* [ " --" ] ( " " parameter )* nl token option "-" parameter [ " " parameter ] parameter non-blank-sequence | c-string operation any of the operations described in this chapter non-blank-sequence anything, provided it doesnt contain special characters such as "-", nl, """ and of course " " c-string """ seven-bit-iso-c-string-content """ "any sequence of digits"

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

323

nl

CR | CR-LF

Notes: The CLI commands are still handled by the mi interpreter; their output is described below. The token , when present, is passed back when the command nishes. Some mi commands accept optional arguments as part of the parameter list. Each option is identied by a leading - (dash) and may be followed by an optional argument parameter. Options occur rst in the parameter list and can be delimited from normal parameters using -- (this is useful when some parameters begin with a dash). Pragmatics: We want easy access to the existing CLI syntax (for debugging). We want it to be easy to spot a mi operation.

27.2.2 gdb/mi Output Syntax

The output from gdb/mi consists of zero or more out-of-band records followed, optionally, by a single result record. This result record is for the most recent command. The sequence of output records is terminated by (gdb). If an input command was prexed with a token then the corresponding output for that command will also be prexed by that same token. output ( out-of-band-record )* [ result-record ] "(gdb)" nl result-record [ token ] "^" result-class ( "," result )* nl out-of-band-record async-record | stream-record async-record exec-async-output | status-async-output | notify-async-output exec-async-output [ token ] "*" async-output status-async-output [ token ] "+" async-output notify-async-output [ token ] "=" async-output async-output async-class ( "," result )* nl result-class "done" | "running" | "connected" | "error" | "exit" async-class "stopped" | others (where others will be added depending on the needsthis is still in development).

324

Debugging with gdb

result variable "=" value variable string value const tuple list const | tuple | list c-string "{}" | "{" result ( "," result )* "}" "[]" | "[" value ( "," value )* "]" | "[" result ( "," result )* "]"

stream-record console-stream-output | target-stream-output | log-stream-output console-stream-output "~" c-string target-stream-output "@" c-string log-stream-output "&" c-string nl token CR | CR-LF any sequence of digits.

Notes: All output sequences end in a single line containing a period. The token is from the corresponding request. Note that for all async output, while the token is allowed by the grammar and may be output by future versions of gdb for select async output messages, it is generally omitted. Frontends should treat all async output as reporting general changes in the state of the target and there should be no need to associate async output to any prior command. status-async-output contains on-going status information about the progress of a slow operation. It can be discarded. All status output is prexed by +. exec-async-output contains asynchronous state change on the target (stopped, started, disappeared). All async output is prexed by *. notify-async-output contains supplementary information that the client should handle (e.g., a new breakpoint information). All notify output is prexed by =. console-stream-output is output that should be displayed as is in the console. It is the textual response to a CLI command. All the console output is prexed by ~. target-stream-output is the output produced by the target program. All the target output is prexed by @. log-stream-output is output text coming from gdbs internals, for instance messages that should be displayed as part of an error log. All the log output is prexed by &. New gdb/mi commands should only output lists containing values. See undened [gdb/mi Stream Records], page undened , for more details about the various output records.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

325

27.3 gdb/mi Compatibility with CLI

For the developers convenience CLI commands can be entered directly, but there may be some unexpected behaviour. For example, commands that query the user will behave as if the user replied yes, breakpoint command lists are not executed and some CLI commands, such as if, when and define, prompt for further input with >, which is not valid MI output. This feature may be removed at some stage in the future and it is recommended that front ends use the -interpreter-exec command (see undened [-interpreter-exec], page undened ).

27.4 gdb/mi Development and Front Ends

The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the program being debugged to the user is called a front end. Although gdb/mi is still incomplete, it is currently being used by a variety of front ends to gdb. This makes it dicult to introduce new functionality without breaking existing usage. This section tries to minimize the problems by describing how the protocol might change. Some changes in MI need not break a carefully designed front end, and for these the MI version will remain unchanged. The following is a list of changes that may occur within one level, so front ends should parse MI output in a way that can handle them: New MI commands may be added. New elds may be added to the output of any MI command. The range of values for elds with specied values, e.g., in_scope (see undened [-var-update], page undened ) may be extended. If the changes are likely to break front ends, the MI version level will be increased by one. This will allow the front end to parse the output according to the MI version. Apart from mi0, new versions of gdb will not support old versions of MI and it will be the responsibility of the front end to work with the new one. The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your front end is to make your project known to gdb developers and follow development on gdb@sourceware.org and gdb-patches@sourceware.org.

27.5 gdb/mi Output Records

27.5.1 gdb/mi Result Records
In addition to a number of out-of-band notications, the response to a gdb/mi command includes one of the following result indications: "^done" [ "," results ] The synchronous operation was successful, results are the return values.

326

Debugging with gdb

"^running" This result record is equivalent to ^done. Historically, it was output instead of ^done if the command has resumed the target. This behaviour is maintained for backward compatibility, but all frontends should treat ^done and ^running identically and rely on the *running output record to determine which threads are resumed. "^connected" gdb has connected to a remote target. "^error" "," c-string The operation failed. The c-string contains the corresponding error message. "^exit" gdb has terminated.

27.5.2 gdb/mi Stream Records

gdb internally maintains a number of output streams: the console, the target, and the log. The output intended for each of these streams is funneled through the gdb/mi interface using stream records. Each stream record begins with a unique prex character which identies its stream (see undened [gdb/mi Output Syntax], page undened ). In addition to the prex, each stream record contains a string-output . This is either raw text (with an implicit new line) or a quoted C string (which does not contain an implicit newline). "~" string-output The console output stream contains text that should be displayed in the CLI console window. It contains the textual responses to CLI commands. "@" string-output The target output stream contains any textual output from the running target. This is only present when GDBs event loop is truly asynchronous, which is currently only the case for remote targets. "&" string-output The log stream contains debugging messages being produced by gdbs internals.

27.5.3 gdb/mi Async Records

Async records are used to notify the gdb/mi client of additional changes that have occurred. Those changes can either be a consequence of gdb/mi commands (e.g., a breakpoint modied) or a result of target activity (e.g., target stopped). The following is the list of possible async records: *running,thread-id="thread " The target is now running. The thread eld tells which specic thread is now running, and can be all if all threads are running. The frontend should assume that no interaction with a running thread is possible after this notication is produced. The frontend should not assume that this notication is output only once for any command. gdb may emit this notication several times, either for

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

327

dierent threads, because it cannot resume all threads together, or even for a single thread, if the thread must be stepped though some code before letting it run freely. *stopped,reason="reason ",thread-id="id ",stopped-threads="stopped ",core="core " The target has stopped. The reason eld can have one of the following values: breakpoint-hit A breakpoint was reached. watchpoint-trigger A watchpoint was triggered. read-watchpoint-trigger A read watchpoint was triggered. access-watchpoint-trigger An access watchpoint was triggered. function-finished An -exec-nish or similar CLI command was accomplished. location-reached An -exec-until or similar CLI command was accomplished. watchpoint-scope A watchpoint has gone out of scope. end-stepping-range An -exec-next, -exec-next-instruction, -exec-step, -exec-stepinstruction or similar CLI command was accomplished. exited-signalled The inferior exited because of a signal. exited The inferior exited. exited-normally The inferior exited normally. signal-received A signal was received by the inferior. The id eld identies the thread that directly caused the stop for example by hitting a breakpoint. Depending on whether all-stop mode is in eect (see undened [All-Stop Mode], page undened ), gdb may either stop all threads, or only the thread that directly triggered the stop. If all threads are stopped, the stopped eld will have the value of "all". Otherwise, the value of the stopped eld will be a list of thread identiers. Presently, this list will always include a single thread, but frontend should be prepared to see several threads in the list. The core eld reports the processor core on which the stop event has happened. This eld may be absent if such information is not available. =thread-group-added,id="id " =thread-group-removed,id="id " A thread group was either added or removed. The id eld contains the gdb identier of the thread group. When a thread group is added, it generally might

328

Debugging with gdb

not be associated with a running process. When a thread group is removed, its id becomes invalid and cannot be used in any way. =thread-group-started,id="id ",pid="pid " A thread group became associated with a running program, either because the program was just started or the thread group was attached to a program. The id eld contains the gdb identier of the thread group. The pid eld contains process identier, specic to the operating system. =thread-group-exited,id="id " A thread group is no longer associated with a running program, either because the program has exited, or because it was detached from. The id eld contains the gdb identier of the thread group. =thread-created,id="id ",group-id="gid " =thread-exited,id="id ",group-id="gid " A thread either was created, or has exited. The id eld contains the gdb identier of the thread. The gid eld identies the thread group this thread belongs to. =thread-selected,id="id " Informs that the selected thread was changed as result of the last command. This notication is not emitted as result of -thread-select command but is emitted whenever an MI command that is not documented to change the selected thread actually changes it. In particular, invoking, directly or indirectly (via user-dened command), the CLI thread command, will generate this notication. We suggest that in response to this notication, front ends highlight the selected thread and cause subsequent commands to apply to that thread. =library-loaded,... Reports that a new library le was loaded by the program. This notication has 4 eldsid, target-name, host-name, and symbols-loaded. The id eld is an opaque identier of the library. For remote debugging case, target-name and host-name elds give the name of the library le on the target, and on the host respectively. For native debugging, both those elds have the same value. The symbols-loaded eld reports if the debug symbols for this library are loaded. The thread-group eld, if present, species the id of the thread group in whose context the library was loaded. If the eld is absent, it means the library was loaded in the context of all present thread groups. =library-unloaded,... Reports that a library was unloaded by the program. This notication has 3 eldsid, target-name and host-name with the same meaning as for the =library-loaded notication. The thread-group eld, if present, species the id of the thread group in whose context the library was unloaded. If the eld is absent, it means the library was unloaded in the context of all present thread groups.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

329

27.5.4 gdb/mi Frame Information

Response from many MI commands includes an information about stack frame. This information is a tuple that may have the following elds: level func addr file line from The level of the stack frame. The innermost frame has the level of zero. This eld is always present. The name of the function corresponding to the frame. This eld may be absent if gdb is unable to determine the function name. The code address for the frame. This eld is always present. The name of the source les that correspond to the frames code address. This eld may be absent. The source line corresponding to the frames code address. This eld may be absent. The name of the binary le (either executable or shared library) the corresponds to the frames code address. This eld may be absent.

27.5.5 gdb/mi Thread Information

Whenever gdb has to report an information about a thread, it uses a tuple with the following elds: id target-id Target-specic string identifying the thread. This eld is always present. details state core Additional information about the thread provided by the target. It is supposed to be human-readable and not interpreted by the frontend. This eld is optional. Either stopped or running, depending on whether the thread is presently running. This eld is always present. The value of this eld is an integer number of the processor core the thread was last seen on. This eld is optional. The numeric id assigned to the thread by gdb. This eld is always present.

27.6 Simple Examples of gdb/mi Interaction

This subsection presents several simple examples of interaction using the gdb/mi interface. In these examples, -> means that the following line is passed to gdb/mi as input, while <- means the output received from gdb/mi. Note the line breaks shown in the examples are here only for readability, they dont appear in the real output.

330

Debugging with gdb

Setting a Breakpoint
Setting a breakpoint generates synchronous output which contains detailed information of the breakpoint.
-> -break-insert main <- ^done,bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep", enabled="y",addr="0x08048564",func="main",file="myprog.c", fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="68",times="0"} <- (gdb)

Program Execution
Program execution generates asynchronous records and MI gives the reason that execution stopped.
-> <<<-exec-run ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",thread-id="0", frame={addr="0x08048564",func="main", args=[{name="argc",value="1"},{name="argv",value="0xbfc4d4d4"}], file="myprog.c",fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="68"} (gdb) -exec-continue ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="exited-normally" (gdb)

<-> <<<<-

Quitting gdb
Quitting gdb just prints the result class ^exit.
-> (gdb) <- -gdb-exit <- ^exit

Please note that ^exit is printed immediately, but it might take some time for gdb to actually exit. During that time, gdb performs necessary cleanups, including killing programs being debugged or disconnecting from debug hardware, so the frontend should wait till gdb exits and should only forcibly kill gdb if it fails to exit in reasonable time.

A Bad Command
Heres what happens if you pass a non-existent command:
-> -rubbish <- ^error,msg="Undefined MI command: rubbish" <- (gdb)

27.7 gdb/mi Command Description Format

The remaining sections describe blocks of commands. Each block of commands is laid out in a fashion similar to this section.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

331

Motivation
The motivation for this collection of commands.

Introduction
A brief introduction to this collection of commands as a whole.

Commands
For each command in the block, the following is described:

Synopsis
-command args ...

Result
gdb Command
The corresponding gdb CLI command(s), if any.

Example
Example(s) formatted for readability. Some of the described commands have not been implemented yet and these are labeled N.A. (not available).

27.8 gdb/mi Breakpoint Commands

This section documents gdb/mi commands for manipulating breakpoints.

The -break-after Command Synopsis

-break-after number count

The breakpoint number number is not in eect until it has been hit count times. To see how this is reected in the output of the -break-list command, see the description of the -break-list command below.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is ignore.

332

Debugging with gdb

Example
(gdb) -break-insert main ^done,bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep", enabled="y",addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c", fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",line="5",times="0"} (gdb) -break-after 1 3 ~ ^done (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c", line="5",times="0",ignore="3"}]} (gdb)

The -break-commands Command Synopsis

-break-commands number [ command1 ... commandN ]

Species the CLI commands that should be executed when breakpoint number is hit. The parameters command1 to commandN are the commands. If no command is specied, any previously-set commands are cleared. See undened [Break Commands], page undened . Typical use of this functionality is tracing a program, that is, printing of values of some variables whenever breakpoint is hit and then continuing.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is commands.

Example
(gdb) -break-insert main ^done,bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep", enabled="y",addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c", fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",line="5",times="0"} (gdb) -break-commands 1 "print v" "continue" ^done (gdb)

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

333

The -break-condition Command Synopsis

-break-condition number expr

Breakpoint number will stop the program only if the condition in expr is true. The condition becomes part of the -break-list output (see the description of the -break-list command below).

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is condition.

Example
(gdb) -break-condition 1 1 ^done (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c", line="5",cond="1",times="0",ignore="3"}]} (gdb)

The -break-delete Command Synopsis

-break-delete ( breakpoint )+

Delete the breakpoint(s) whose number(s) are specied in the argument list. This is obviously reected in the breakpoint list.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is delete.

Example
(gdb) -break-delete 1

334

Debugging with gdb

^done (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="0",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[]} (gdb)

The -break-disable Command Synopsis

-break-disable ( breakpoint )+

Disable the named breakpoint(s). The eld enabled in the break list is now set to n for the named breakpoint(s).

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is disable.

Example
(gdb) -break-disable 2 ^done (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="n", addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c", line="5",times="0"}]} (gdb)

The -break-enable Command Synopsis

-break-enable ( breakpoint )+

Enable (previously disabled) breakpoint(s).

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

335

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is enable.

Example
(gdb) -break-enable 2 ^done (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c", line="5",times="0"}]} (gdb)

The -break-info Command Synopsis

-break-info breakpoint

Get information about a single breakpoint.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is info break breakpoint .

Example
N.A.

The -break-insert Command Synopsis

-break-insert [ -t ] [ -h ] [ -f ] [ -d ] [ -a ] [ -c condition ] [ -i ignore-count ] [ -p thread ] [ location ]

If specied, location, can be one of: function

336

Debugging with gdb

lename:linenum lename:function *address The possible optional parameters of this command are: -t -h Insert a temporary breakpoint. Insert a hardware breakpoint.

-c condition Make the breakpoint conditional on condition. -i ignore-count Initialize the ignore-count. -f If location cannot be parsed (for example if it refers to unknown les or functions), create a pending breakpoint. Without this ag, gdb will report an error, and wont create a breakpoint, if location cannot be parsed. Create a disabled breakpoint. Create a tracepoint. See undened [Tracepoints], page undened . When this parameter is used together with -h, a fast tracepoint is created.

-d -a

Result
The result is in the form:
^done,bkpt={number="number ",type="type ",disp="del"|"keep", enabled="y"|"n",addr="hex ",func="funcname ",file="filename ", fullname="full_filename ",line="lineno ",[thread="threadno,] times="times "}

where number is the gdb number for this breakpoint, funcname is the name of the function where the breakpoint was inserted, lename is the name of the source le which contains this function, lineno is the source line number within that le and times the number of times that the breakpoint has been hit (always 0 for -break-insert but may be greater for -break-info or -break-list which use the same output). Note: this format is open to change.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb commands are break, tbreak, hbreak, thbreak, and rbreak.

Example
(gdb) -break-insert main ^done,bkpt={number="1",addr="0x0001072c",file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c,line="4",times="0"} (gdb) -break-insert -t foo

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

337

^done,bkpt={number="2",addr="0x00010774",file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c,line="11",times="0"} (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x0001072c", func="main",file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c,"line="4",times="0"}, bkpt={number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="del",enabled="y", addr="0x00010774",func="foo",file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c",line="11",times="0"}]} (gdb) -break-insert -r foo.* ~int foo(int, int); ^done,bkpt={number="3",addr="0x00010774",file="recursive2.c, "fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c",line="11",times="0"} (gdb)

The -break-list Command Synopsis

-break-list

Displays the list of inserted breakpoints, showing the following elds: Number Type number of the breakpoint type of the breakpoint: breakpoint or watchpoint

Disposition should the breakpoint be deleted or disabled when it is hit: keep or nokeep Enabled Address What Times is the breakpoint enabled or no: y or n memory location at which the breakpoint is set logical location of the breakpoint, expressed by function name, le name, line number number of times the breakpoint has been hit

If there are no breakpoints or watchpoints, the BreakpointTable body eld is an empty list.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is info break.

338

Debugging with gdb

Example
(gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",line="5",times="0"}, bkpt={number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x00010114",func="foo",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c", line="13",times="0"}]} (gdb)

Heres an example of the result when there are no breakpoints:

(gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="0",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[]} (gdb)

The -break-passcount Command Synopsis

-break-passcount tracepoint-number passcount

Set the passcount for tracepoint tracepoint-number to passcount. If the breakpoint referred to by tracepoint-number is not a tracepoint, error is emitted. This corresponds to CLI command passcount.

The -break-watch Command Synopsis

-break-watch [ -a | -r ]

Create a watchpoint. With the -a option it will create an access watchpoint, i.e., a watchpoint that triggers either on a read from or on a write to the memory location. With the -r option, the watchpoint created is a read watchpoint, i.e., it will trigger only when the memory location is accessed for reading. Without either of the options, the watchpoint created is a regular watchpoint, i.e., it will trigger when the memory location is accessed for writing. See undened [Setting Watchpoints], page undened .

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

339

Note that -break-list will report a single list of watchpoints and breakpoints inserted.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb commands are watch, awatch, and rwatch.

Example
Setting a watchpoint on a variable in the main function:
(gdb) -break-watch x ^done,wpt={number="2",exp="x"} (gdb) -exec-continue ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="watchpoint-trigger",wpt={number="2",exp="x"}, value={old="-268439212",new="55"}, frame={func="main",args=[],file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="5"} (gdb)

Setting a watchpoint on a variable local to a function. gdb will stop the program execution twice: rst for the variable changing value, then for the watchpoint going out of scope.
(gdb) -break-watch C ^done,wpt={number="5",exp="C"} (gdb) -exec-continue ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="watchpoint-trigger", wpt={number="5",exp="C"},value={old="-276895068",new="3"}, frame={func="callee4",args=[], file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="13"} (gdb) -exec-continue ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="watchpoint-scope",wpnum="5", frame={func="callee3",args=[{name="strarg", value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}], file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="18"} (gdb)

Listing breakpoints and watchpoints, at dierent points in the program execution. Note that once the watchpoint goes out of scope, it is deleted.
(gdb) -break-watch C ^done,wpt={number="2",exp="C"} (gdb) -break-list

340

Debugging with gdb

^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x00010734",func="callee4", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c"line="8",times="1"}, bkpt={number="2",type="watchpoint",disp="keep", enabled="y",addr="",what="C",times="0"}]} (gdb) -exec-continue ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="watchpoint-trigger",wpt={number="2",exp="C"}, value={old="-276895068",new="3"}, frame={func="callee4",args=[], file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="13"} (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x00010734",func="callee4", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8",times="1"}, bkpt={number="2",type="watchpoint",disp="keep", enabled="y",addr="",what="C",times="-5"}]} (gdb) -exec-continue ^running ^done,reason="watchpoint-scope",wpnum="2", frame={func="callee3",args=[{name="strarg", value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}], file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="18"} (gdb) -break-list ^done,BreakpointTable={nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6", hdr=[{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"}, {width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"}, {width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"}, {width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"}, {width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"}, {width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"}], body=[bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x00010734",func="callee4", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8",

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

341

times="1"}]} (gdb)

27.9 gdb/mi Program Context

The -exec-arguments Command Synopsis
-exec-arguments args

Set the inferior program arguments, to be used in the next -exec-run.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is set args.

Example
(gdb) -exec-arguments -v word ^done (gdb)

The -environment-cd Command Synopsis

-environment-cd pathdir

Set gdbs working directory.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is cd.

Example
(gdb) -environment-cd /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb ^done (gdb)

The -environment-directory Command

342

Debugging with gdb

Synopsis
-environment-directory [ -r ] [ pathdir ]+

Add directories pathdir to beginning of search path for source les. If the -r option is used, the search path is reset to the default search path. If directories pathdir are supplied in addition to the -r option, the search path is rst reset and then addition occurs as normal. Multiple directories may be specied, separated by blanks. Specifying multiple directories in a single command results in the directories added to the beginning of the search path in the same order they were presented in the command. If blanks are needed as part of a directory name, double-quotes should be used around the name. In the command output, the path will show up separated by the system directory-separator character. The directory-separator character must not be used in any directory name. If no directories are specied, the current search path is displayed.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is dir.

Example
(gdb) -environment-directory /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb ^done,source-path="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb:$cdir:$cwd" (gdb) -environment-directory "" ^done,source-path="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb:$cdir:$cwd" (gdb) -environment-directory -r /home/jjohnstn/src/gdb /usr/src ^done,source-path="/home/jjohnstn/src/gdb:/usr/src:$cdir:$cwd" (gdb) -environment-directory -r ^done,source-path="$cdir:$cwd" (gdb)

The -environment-path Command Synopsis

-environment-path [ -r ] [ pathdir ]+

Add directories pathdir to beginning of search path for object les. If the -r option is used, the search path is reset to the original search path that existed at gdb start-up. If directories pathdir are supplied in addition to the -r option, the search path is rst reset and then addition occurs as normal. Multiple directories may be specied, separated by blanks. Specifying multiple directories in a single command results in the directories added to the beginning of the search path in the same order they were presented in the command. If blanks are needed as part of a directory name, double-quotes should be used around the name. In the command output, the path will show up separated by the system directory-separator character. The directory-separator character must not be used in any directory name. If no directories are specied, the current path is displayed.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

343

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is path.

Example
(gdb) -environment-path ^done,path="/usr/bin" (gdb) -environment-path /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/ppc-eabi/gdb /bin ^done,path="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/ppc-eabi/gdb:/bin:/usr/bin" (gdb) -environment-path -r /usr/local/bin ^done,path="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin" (gdb)

The -environment-pwd Command Synopsis

-environment-pwd

Show the current working directory.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is pwd.

Example
(gdb) -environment-pwd ^done,cwd="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb" (gdb)

27.10 gdb/mi Thread Commands

The -thread-info Command Synopsis
-thread-info [ thread-id ]

Reports information about either a specic thread, if the thread-id parameter is present, or about all threads. When printing information about all threads, also reports the current thread.

344

Debugging with gdb

gdb Command
The info thread command prints the same information about all threads.

Example
-thread-info ^done,threads=[ {id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90 (LWP 21257)", frame={level="0",addr="0xffffe410",func="__kernel_vsyscall",args=[]},state="running"}, {id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e156b0 (LWP 21254)", frame={level="0",addr="0x0804891f",func="foo",args=[{name="i",value="10"}], file="/tmp/a.c",fullname="/tmp/a.c",line="158"},state="running"}], current-thread-id="1" (gdb)

The state eld may have the following values: stopped running The thread is stopped. Frame information is available for stopped threads. The thread is running. Theres no frame information for running threads.

The -thread-list-ids Command

Synopsis
-thread-list-ids

Produces a list of the currently known gdb thread ids. At the end of the list it also prints the total number of such threads. This command is retained for historical reasons, the -thread-info command should be used instead.

gdb Command
Part of info threads supplies the same information.

Example
(gdb) -thread-list-ids ^done,thread-ids={thread-id="3",thread-id="2",thread-id="1"}, current-thread-id="1",number-of-threads="3" (gdb)

The -thread-select Command

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

345

Synopsis
-thread-select threadnum

Make threadnum the current thread. It prints the number of the new current thread, and the topmost frame for that thread. This command is deprecated in favor of explicitly using the --thread option to each command.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is thread.

Example
(gdb) -exec-next ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",thread-id="2",line="187", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.threads/linux-dp.c" (gdb) -thread-list-ids ^done, thread-ids={thread-id="3",thread-id="2",thread-id="1"}, number-of-threads="3" (gdb) -thread-select 3 ^done,new-thread-id="3", frame={level="0",func="vprintf", args=[{name="format",value="0x8048e9c \"%*s%c %d %c\\n\""}, {name="arg",value="0x2"}],file="vprintf.c",line="31"} (gdb)

27.11 gdb/mi Program Execution

These are the asynchronous commands which generate the out-of-band record *stopped. Currently gdb only really executes asynchronously with remote targets and this interaction is mimicked in other cases.

The -exec-continue Command Synopsis

-exec-continue [--reverse] [--all|--thread-group N]

Resumes the execution of the inferior program, which will continue to execute until it reaches a debugger stop event. If the --reverse option is specied, execution resumes in reverse until it reaches a stop event. Stop events may include breakpoints or watchpoints

346

Debugging with gdb

signals or exceptions the end of the process (or its beginning under --reverse) the end or beginning of a replay log if one is being used. In all-stop mode (see undened [All-Stop Mode], page undened ), may resume only one thread, or all threads, depending on the value of the scheduler-locking variable. If --all is specied, all threads (in all inferiors) will be resumed. The --all option is ignored in all-stop mode. If the --thread-group options is specied, then all threads in that thread group are resumed.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb corresponding is continue.

Example
-exec-continue ^running (gdb) @Hello world *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="2",frame={ func="foo",args=[],file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/hello.c", line="13"} (gdb)

The -exec-finish Command Synopsis

-exec-finish [--reverse]

Resumes the execution of the inferior program until the current function is exited. Displays the results returned by the function. If the --reverse option is specied, resumes the reverse execution of the inferior program until the point where current function was called.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is finish.

Example
Function returning void.
-exec-finish ^running (gdb) @hello from foo *stopped,reason="function-finished",frame={func="main",args=[], file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/hello.c",line="7"}

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

347

(gdb)

Function returning other than void. The name of the internal gdb variable storing the result is printed, together with the value itself.
-exec-finish ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="function-finished",frame={addr="0x000107b0",func="foo", args=[{name="a",value="1"],{name="b",value="9"}}, file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, gdb-result-var="$1",return-value="0" (gdb)

The -exec-interrupt Command Synopsis

-exec-interrupt [--all|--thread-group N]

Interrupts the background execution of the target. Note how the token associated with the stop message is the one for the execution command that has been interrupted. The token for the interrupt itself only appears in the ^done output. If the user is trying to interrupt a non-running program, an error message will be printed. Note that when asynchronous execution is enabled, this command is asynchronous just like other execution commands. That is, rst the ^done response will be printed, and the target stop will be reported after that using the *stopped notication. In non-stop mode, only the context thread is interrupted by default. All threads (in all inferiors) will be interrupted if the --all option is specied. If the --thread-group option is specied, all threads in that group will be interrupted.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is interrupt.

Example
(gdb) 111-exec-continue 111^running (gdb) 222-exec-interrupt 222^done (gdb) 111*stopped,signal-name="SIGINT",signal-meaning="Interrupt", frame={addr="0x00010140",func="foo",args=[],file="try.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",line="13"} (gdb) (gdb) -exec-interrupt ^error,msg="mi_cmd_exec_interrupt: Inferior not executing." (gdb)

348

Debugging with gdb

The -exec-jump Command Synopsis

-exec-jump location

Resumes execution of the inferior program at the location specied by parameter. See undened [Specify Location], page undened , for a description of the dierent forms of location.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is jump.

Example
-exec-jump foo.c:10 *running,thread-id="all" ^running

The -exec-next Command Synopsis

-exec-next [--reverse]

Resumes execution of the inferior program, stopping when the beginning of the next source line is reached. If the --reverse option is specied, resumes reverse execution of the inferior program, stopping at the beginning of the previous source line. If you issue this command on the rst line of a function, it will take you back to the caller of that function, to the source line where the function was called.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is next.

Example
-exec-next ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",line="8",file="hello.c" (gdb)

The -exec-next-instruction Command

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

349

Synopsis
-exec-next-instruction [--reverse]

Executes one machine instruction. If the instruction is a function call, continues until the function returns. If the program stops at an instruction in the middle of a source line, the address will be printed as well. If the --reverse option is specied, resumes reverse execution of the inferior program, stopping at the previous instruction. If the previously executed instruction was a return from another function, it will continue to execute in reverse until the call to that function (from the current stack frame) is reached.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is nexti.

Example
(gdb) -exec-next-instruction ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range", addr="0x000100d4",line="5",file="hello.c" (gdb)

The -exec-return Command Synopsis

-exec-return

Makes current function return immediately. Doesnt execute the inferior. Displays the new current frame.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is return.

Example
(gdb) 200-break-insert callee4 200^done,bkpt={number="1",addr="0x00010734", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8"} (gdb) 000-exec-run 000^running (gdb)

350

Debugging with gdb

000*stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1", frame={func="callee4",args=[], file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8"} (gdb) 205-break-delete 205^done (gdb) 111-exec-return 111^done,frame={level="0",func="callee3", args=[{name="strarg", value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}], file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="18"} (gdb)

The -exec-run Command Synopsis

-exec-run [--all | --thread-group N]

Starts execution of the inferior from the beginning. The inferior executes until either a breakpoint is encountered or the program exits. In the latter case the output will include an exit code, if the program has exited exceptionally. When no option is specied, the current inferior is started. If the --thread-group option is specied, it should refer to a thread group of type process, and that thread group will be started. If the --all option is specied, then all inferiors will be started.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is run.

Examples
(gdb) -break-insert main ^done,bkpt={number="1",addr="0x0001072c",file="recursive2.c",line="4"} (gdb) -exec-run ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1", frame={func="main",args=[],file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="4"} (gdb)

Program exited normally:

(gdb) -exec-run ^running (gdb) x = 55

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

351

*stopped,reason="exited-normally" (gdb)

Program exited exceptionally:

(gdb) -exec-run ^running (gdb) x = 55 *stopped,reason="exited",exit-code="01" (gdb)

Another way the program can terminate is if it receives a signal such as SIGINT. In this case, gdb/mi displays this:
(gdb) *stopped,reason="exited-signalled",signal-name="SIGINT", signal-meaning="Interrupt"

The -exec-step Command Synopsis

-exec-step [--reverse]

Resumes execution of the inferior program, stopping when the beginning of the next source line is reached, if the next source line is not a function call. If it is, stop at the rst instruction of the called function. If the --reverse option is specied, resumes reverse execution of the inferior program, stopping at the beginning of the previously executed source line.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is step.

Example
Stepping into a function:
-exec-step ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range", frame={func="foo",args=[{name="a",value="10"}, {name="b",value="0"}],file="recursive2.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="11"} (gdb)

Regular stepping:
-exec-step ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",line="14",file="recursive2.c" (gdb)

352

Debugging with gdb

The -exec-step-instruction Command Synopsis

-exec-step-instruction [--reverse]

Resumes the inferior which executes one machine instruction. If the --reverse option is specied, resumes reverse execution of the inferior program, stopping at the previously executed instruction. The output, once gdb has stopped, will vary depending on whether we have stopped in the middle of a source line or not. In the former case, the address at which the program stopped will be printed as well.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is stepi.

Example
(gdb) -exec-step-instruction ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range", frame={func="foo",args=[],file="try.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",line="10"} (gdb) -exec-step-instruction ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range", frame={addr="0x000100f4",func="foo",args=[],file="try.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",line="10"} (gdb)

The -exec-until Command Synopsis

-exec-until [ location ]

Executes the inferior until the location specied in the argument is reached. If there is no argument, the inferior executes until a source line greater than the current one is reached. The reason for stopping in this case will be location-reached.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is until.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

353

Example
(gdb) -exec-until recursive2.c:6 ^running (gdb) x = 55 *stopped,reason="location-reached",frame={func="main",args=[], file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="6"} (gdb)

27.12 gdb/mi Stack Manipulation Commands

The -stack-info-frame Command Synopsis
-stack-info-frame

Get info on the selected frame.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is info frame or frame (without arguments).

Example
(gdb) -stack-info-frame ^done,frame={level="1",addr="0x0001076c",func="callee3", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="17"} (gdb)

The -stack-info-depth Command Synopsis

-stack-info-depth [ max-depth ]

Return the depth of the stack. If the integer argument max-depth is specied, do not count beyond max-depth frames.

gdb Command
Theres no equivalent gdb command.

354

Debugging with gdb

Example
For a stack with frame levels 0 through 11:
(gdb) -stack-info-depth ^done,depth="12" (gdb) -stack-info-depth ^done,depth="4" (gdb) -stack-info-depth ^done,depth="12" (gdb) -stack-info-depth ^done,depth="11" (gdb) -stack-info-depth ^done,depth="12" (gdb)

12

11

13

The -stack-list-arguments Command Synopsis

-stack-list-arguments print-values [ low-frame high-frame ]

Display a list of the arguments for the frames between low-frame and high-frame (inclusive). If low-frame and high-frame are not provided, list the arguments for the whole call stack. If the two arguments are equal, show the single frame at the corresponding level. It is an error if low-frame is larger than the actual number of frames. On the other hand, high-frame may be larger than the actual number of frames, in which case only existing frames will be returned. If print-values is 0 or --no-values, print only the names of the variables; if it is 1 or --all-values, print also their values; and if it is 2 or --simple-values, print the name, type and value for simple data types, and the name and type for arrays, structures and unions. Use of this command to obtain arguments in a single frame is deprecated in favor of the -stack-list-variables command.

gdb Command
gdb does not have an equivalent command. gdbtk has a gdb_get_args command which partially overlaps with the functionality of -stack-list-arguments.

Example
(gdb) -stack-list-frames ^done,

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

355

stack=[ frame={level="0",addr="0x00010734",func="callee4", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8"}, frame={level="1",addr="0x0001076c",func="callee3", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="17"}, frame={level="2",addr="0x0001078c",func="callee2", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="22"}, frame={level="3",addr="0x000107b4",func="callee1", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="27"}, frame={level="4",addr="0x000107e0",func="main", file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c", fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="32"}] (gdb) -stack-list-arguments 0 ^done, stack-args=[ frame={level="0",args=[]}, frame={level="1",args=[name="strarg"]}, frame={level="2",args=[name="intarg",name="strarg"]}, frame={level="3",args=[name="intarg",name="strarg",name="fltarg"]}, frame={level="4",args=[]}] (gdb) -stack-list-arguments 1 ^done, stack-args=[ frame={level="0",args=[]}, frame={level="1", args=[{name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}]}, frame={level="2",args=[ {name="intarg",value="2"}, {name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}]}, {frame={level="3",args=[ {name="intarg",value="2"}, {name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}, {name="fltarg",value="3.5"}]}, frame={level="4",args=[]}] (gdb) -stack-list-arguments 0 2 2 ^done,stack-args=[frame={level="2",args=[name="intarg",name="strarg"]}] (gdb) -stack-list-arguments 1 2 2 ^done,stack-args=[frame={level="2", args=[{name="intarg",value="2"}, {name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""}]}] (gdb)

The -stack-list-frames Command Synopsis

-stack-list-frames [ low-frame high-frame ]

List the frames currently on the stack. For each frame it displays the following info:

356

Debugging with gdb

level addr func file line

The frame number, 0 being the topmost frame, i.e., the innermost function. The $pc value for that frame. Function name. File name of the source le where the function lives. Line number corresponding to the $pc.

If invoked without arguments, this command prints a backtrace for the whole stack. If given two integer arguments, it shows the frames whose levels are between the two arguments (inclusive). If the two arguments are equal, it shows the single frame at the corresponding level. It is an error if low-frame is larger than the actual number of frames. On the other hand, high-frame may be larger than the actual number of frames, in which case only existing frames will be returned.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb commands are backtrace and where.

Example
Full stack backtrace:
(gdb) -stack-list-frames ^done,stack= [frame={level="0",addr="0x0001076c",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="11"}, frame={level="1",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="2",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="3",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="4",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="5",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="6",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="7",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="8",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="9",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="10",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="11",addr="0x00010738",func="main", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="4"}] (gdb)

Show frames between low frame and high frame:

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

357

(gdb) -stack-list-frames 3 5 ^done,stack= [frame={level="3",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="4",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}, frame={level="5",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}] (gdb)

Show a single frame:

(gdb) -stack-list-frames 3 3 ^done,stack= [frame={level="3",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo", file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"}] (gdb)

The -stack-list-locals Command Synopsis

-stack-list-locals print-values

Display the local variable names for the selected frame. If print-values is 0 or --novalues, print only the names of the variables; if it is 1 or --all-values, print also their values; and if it is 2 or --simple-values, print the name, type and value for simple data types, and the name and type for arrays, structures and unions. In this last case, a frontend can immediately display the value of simple data types and create variable objects for other data types when the user wishes to explore their values in more detail. This command is deprecated in favor of the -stack-list-variables command.

gdb Command
info locals in gdb, gdb_get_locals in gdbtk.

Example
(gdb) -stack-list-locals 0 ^done,locals=[name="A",name="B",name="C"] (gdb) -stack-list-locals --all-values ^done,locals=[{name="A",value="1"},{name="B",value="2"}, {name="C",value="{1, 2, 3}"}] -stack-list-locals --simple-values ^done,locals=[{name="A",type="int",value="1"}, {name="B",type="int",value="2"},{name="C",type="int [3]"}] (gdb)

The -stack-list-variables Command

358

Debugging with gdb

Synopsis
-stack-list-variables print-values

Display the names of local variables and function arguments for the selected frame. If print-values is 0 or --no-values, print only the names of the variables; if it is 1 or --allvalues, print also their values; and if it is 2 or --simple-values, print the name, type and value for simple data types, and the name and type for arrays, structures and unions.

Example
(gdb) -stack-list-variables --thread 1 --frame 0 --all-values ^done,variables=[{name="x",value="11"},{name="s",value="{a = 1, b = 2}"}] (gdb)

The -stack-select-frame Command Synopsis

-stack-select-frame framenum

Change the selected frame. Select a dierent frame framenum on the stack. This command in deprecated in favor of passing the --frame option to every command.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb commands are frame, up, down, select-frame, up-silent, and down-silent.

Example
(gdb) -stack-select-frame 2 ^done (gdb)

27.13 gdb/mi Variable Objects

Introduction to Variable Objects
Variable objects are "object-oriented" MI interface for examining and changing values of expressions. Unlike some other MI interfaces that work with expressions, variable objects are specically designed for simple and ecient presentation in the frontend. A variable object is identied by string name. When a variable object is created, the frontend species the expression for that variable object. The expression can be a simple variable, or it can be an arbitrary complex expression, and can even involve CPU registers. After creating a

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

359

variable object, the frontend can invoke other variable object operationsfor example to obtain or change the value of a variable object, or to change display format. Variable objects have hierarchical tree structure. Any variable object that corresponds to a composite type, such as structure in C, has a number of child variable objects, for example corresponding to each element of a structure. A child variable object can itself have children, recursively. Recursion ends when we reach leaf variable objects, which always have built-in types. Child variable objects are created only by explicit request, so if a frontend is not interested in the children of a particular variable object, no child will be created. For a leaf variable object it is possible to obtain its value as a string, or set the value from a string. String value can be also obtained for a non-leaf variable object, but its generally a string that only indicates the type of the object, and does not list its contents. Assignment to a non-leaf variable object is not allowed. A frontend does not need to read the values of all variable objects each time the program stops. Instead, MI provides an update command that lists all variable objects whose values has changed since the last update operation. This considerably reduces the amount of data that must be transferred to the frontend. As noted above, children variable objects are created on demand, and only leaf variable objects have a real value. As result, gdb will read target memory only for leaf variables that frontend has created. The automatic update is not always desirable. For example, a frontend might want to keep a value of some expression for future reference, and never update it. For another example, fetching memory is relatively slow for embedded targets, so a frontend might want to disable automatic update for the variables that are either not visible on the screen, or closed. This is possible using so called frozen variable objects. Such variable objects are never implicitly updated. Variable objects can be either xed or oating. For the xed variable object, the expression is parsed when the variable object is created, including associating identiers to specic variables. The meaning of expression never changes. For a oating variable object the values of variables whose names appear in the expressions are re-evaluated every time in the context of the current frame. Consider this example:
void do_work(...) { struct work_state state; if (...) do_work(...); }

If a xed variable object for the state variable is created in this function, and we enter the recursive call, the the variable object will report the value of state in the top-level do_work invocation. On the other hand, a oating variable object will report the value of state in the current frame. If an expression specied when creating a xed variable object refers to a local variable, the variable object becomes bound to the thread and frame in which the variable object is created. When such variable object is updated, gdb makes sure that the thread/frame combination the variable object is bound to still exists, and re-evaluates the variable object in context of that thread/frame. The following is the complete set of gdb/mi operations dened to access this functionality:

360

Debugging with gdb

Operation -enable-pretty-printing -var-create -var-delete -var-set-format -var-show-format -var-info-num-children -var-list-children -var-info-type -var-info-expression

Description

enable Python-based pretty-printing create a variable object delete the variable object and/or its children set the display format of this variable show the display format of this variable tells how many children this object has return a list of the objects children show the type of this variable object print parent-relative expression that this variable object represents -var-info-path-expression print full expression that this variable object represents -var-show-attributes is this variable editable? does it exist here? -var-evaluate-expression get the value of this variable -var-assign set the value of this variable -var-update update the variable and its children -var-set-frozen set frozeness attribute -var-set-update-range set range of children to display on update In the next subsection we describe each operation in detail and suggest how it can be used.

Description And Use of Operations on Variable Objects The -enable-pretty-printing Command

-enable-pretty-printing

gdb allows Python-based visualizers to aect the output of the MI variable object commands. However, because there was no way to implement this in a fully backwardcompatible way, a front end must request that this functionality be enabled. Once enabled, this feature cannot be disabled. Note that if Python support has not been compiled into gdb, this command will still succeed (and do nothing). This feature is currently (as of gdb 7.0) experimental, and may work dierently in future versions of gdb.

The -var-create Command Synopsis

-var-create {name | "-"} {frame-addr | "*" | "@"} expression

This operation creates a variable object, which allows the monitoring of a variable, the result of an expression, a memory cell or a CPU register.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

361

The name parameter is the string by which the object can be referenced. It must be unique. If - is specied, the varobj system will generate a string varNNNNNN automatically. It will be unique provided that one does not specify name of that format. The command fails if a duplicate name is found. The frame under which the expression should be evaluated can be specied by frameaddr. A * indicates that the current frame should be used. A @ indicates that a oating variable object must be created. expression is any expression valid on the current language set (must not begin with a *), or one of the following: *addr , where addr is the address of a memory cell *addr-addr a memory address range (TBD) $regname a CPU register name A varobjs contents may be provided by a Python-based pretty-printer. In this case the varobj is known as a dynamic varobj. Dynamic varobjs have slightly dierent semantics in some cases. If the -enable-pretty-printing command is not sent, then gdb will never create a dynamic varobj. This ensures backward compatibility for existing clients.

Result
This operation returns attributes of the newly-created varobj. These are: name numchild The number of children of the varobj. This number is not necessarily reliable for a dynamic varobj. Instead, you must examine the has_more attribute. value type The varobjs scalar value. For a varobj whose type is some sort of aggregate (e.g., a struct), or for a dynamic varobj, this value will not be interesting. The varobjs type. This is a string representation of the type, as would be printed by the gdb CLI. The name of the varobj.

thread-id If a variable object is bound to a specic thread, then this is the threads identier. has_more For a dynamic varobj, this indicates whether there appear to be any children available. For a non-dynamic varobj, this will be 0. dynamic This attribute will be present and have the value 1 if the varobj is a dynamic varobj. If the varobj is not a dynamic varobj, then this attribute will not be present.

displayhint A dynamic varobj can supply a display hint to the front end. The value comes directly from the Python pretty-printer objects display_hint method. See undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened .

362

Debugging with gdb

Typical output will look like this:

name="name ",numchild="N ",type="type ",thread-id="M ", has_more="has_more "

The -var-delete Command

Synopsis
-var-delete [ -c ] name

Deletes a previously created variable object and all of its children. With the -c option, just deletes the children. Returns an error if the object name is not found.

The -var-set-format Command

Synopsis
-var-set-format name format-spec

Sets the output format for the value of the object name to be format-spec. The syntax for the format-spec is as follows:
format-spec {binary | decimal | hexadecimal | octal | natural}

The natural format is the default format choosen automatically based on the variable type (like decimal for an int, hex for pointers, etc.). For a variable with children, the format is set only on the variable itself, and the children are not aected.

The -var-show-format Command

Synopsis
-var-show-format name

Returns the format used to display the value of the object name.
format format-spec

The -var-info-num-children Command

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

363

Synopsis
-var-info-num-children name

Returns the number of children of a variable object name:

numchild=n

Note that this number is not completely reliable for a dynamic varobj. It will return the current number of children, but more children may be available.

The -var-list-children Command Synopsis

-var-list-children [print-values ] name [from to ]

Return a list of the children of the specied variable object and create variable objects for them, if they do not already exist. With a single argument or if print-values has a value of 0 or --no-values, print only the names of the variables; if print-values is 1 or --all-values, also print their values; and if it is 2 or --simple-values print the name and value for simple data types and just the name for arrays, structures and unions. from and to, if specied, indicate the range of children to report. If from or to is less than zero, the range is reset and all children will be reported. Otherwise, children starting at from (zero-based) and up to and excluding to will be reported. If a child range is requested, it will only aect the current call to -var-list-children, but not future calls to -var-update. For this, you must instead use -var-set-updaterange. The intent of this approach is to enable a front end to implement any update approach it likes; for example, scrolling a view may cause the front end to request more children with -var-list-children, and then the front end could call -var-set-updaterange with a dierent range to ensure that future updates are restricted to just the visible items. For each child the following results are returned: name exp Name of the variable object created for this child. The expression to be shown to the user by the front end to designate this child. For example this may be the name of a structure member. For a dynamic varobj, this value cannot be used to form an expression. There is no way to do this at all with a dynamic varobj. For C/C++ structures there are several pseudo children returned to designate access qualiers. For these pseudo children exp is public, private, or protected. In this case the type and value are not present. A dynamic varobj will not report the access qualifying pseudo-children, regardless of the language. This information is not available at all with a dynamic varobj. Number of children this child has. For a dynamic varobj, this will be 0. The type of the child.

numchild type

364

Debugging with gdb

value thread-id frozen

If values were requested, this is the value. If this variable object is associated with a thread, this is the thread id. Otherwise this result is not present. If the variable object is frozen, this variable will be present with a value of 1.

The result may have its own attributes: displayhint A dynamic varobj can supply a display hint to the front end. The value comes directly from the Python pretty-printer objects display_hint method. See undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened . has_more This is an integer attribute which is nonzero if there are children remaining after the end of the selected range.

Example
(gdb) -var-list-children n ^done,numchild=n,children=[child={name=name,exp=exp, numchild=n,type=type },(repeats N times)] (gdb) -var-list-children --all-values n ^done,numchild=n,children=[child={name=name,exp=exp, numchild=n,value=value,type=type },(repeats N times)]

The -var-info-type Command Synopsis

-var-info-type name

Returns the type of the specied variable name. The type is returned as a string in the same format as it is output by the gdb CLI:
type=typename

The -var-info-expression Command Synopsis

-var-info-expression name

Returns a string that is suitable for presenting this variable object in user interface. The string is generally not valid expression in the current language, and cannot be evaluated. For example, if a is an array, and variable object A was created for a, then well get this output:

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

365

(gdb) -var-info-expression A.1 ^done,lang="C",exp="1"

Here, the values of lang can be {"C" | "C++" | "Java"}. Note that the output of the -var-list-children command also includes those expressions, so the -var-info-expression command is of limited use.

The -var-info-path-expression Command Synopsis

-var-info-path-expression name

Returns an expression that can be evaluated in the current context and will yield the same value that a variable object has. Compare this with the -var-info-expression command, which result can be used only for UI presentation. Typical use of the -varinfo-path-expression command is creating a watchpoint from a variable object. This command is currently not valid for children of a dynamic varobj, and will give an error when invoked on one. For example, suppose C is a C++ class, derived from class Base, and that the Base class has a member called m_size. Assume a variable c is has the type of C and a variable object C was created for variable c. Then, well get this output:
(gdb) -var-info-path-expression C.Base.public.m_size ^done,path_expr=((Base)c).m_size)

The -var-show-attributes Command Synopsis

-var-show-attributes name

List attributes of the specied variable object name:

status=attr [ ( ,attr )* ]

where attr is { { editable | noneditable } | TBD }.

The -var-evaluate-expression Command Synopsis

-var-evaluate-expression [-f format-spec ] name

Evaluates the expression that is represented by the specied variable object and returns its value as a string. The format of the string can be specied with the -f option. The possible values of this option are the same as for -var-set-format (see undened [var-set-format], page undened ). If the -f option is not specied, the current display format will be used. The current display format can be changed using the -var-set-format command.

366

Debugging with gdb

value=value

Note that one must invoke -var-list-children for a variable before the value of a child variable can be evaluated.

The -var-assign Command Synopsis

-var-assign name expression

Assigns the value of expression to the variable object specied by name. The object must be editable. If the variables value is altered by the assign, the variable will show up in any subsequent -var-update list.

Example
(gdb) -var-assign var1 3 ^done,value="3" (gdb) -var-update * ^done,changelist=[{name="var1",in_scope="true",type_changed="false"}] (gdb)

The -var-update Command Synopsis

-var-update [print-values ] {name | "*"}

Reevaluate the expressions corresponding to the variable object name and all its direct and indirect children, and return the list of variable objects whose values have changed; name must be a root variable object. Here, changed means that the result of -varevaluate-expression before and after the -var-update is dierent. If * is used as the variable object names, all existing variable objects are updated, except for frozen ones (see undened [-var-set-frozen], page undened ). The option print-values determines whether both names and values, or just names are printed. The possible values of this option are the same as for -var-list-children (see undened [-var-list-children], page undened ). It is recommended to use the --all-values option, to reduce the number of MI commands needed on each program stop. With the * parameter, if a variable object is bound to a currently running thread, it will not be updated, without any diagnostic. If -var-set-update-range was previously used on a varobj, then only the selected range of children will be reported. -var-update reports all the changed varobjs in a tuple named changelist. Each item in the change list is itself a tuple holding: name The name of the varobj.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

367

value in_scope

If values were requested for this update, then this eld will be present and will hold the value of the varobj. This eld is a string which may take one of three values: "true" "false" The variable objects current value is valid. The variable object does not currently hold a valid value but it may hold one in the future if its associated expression comes back into scope. The variable object no longer holds a valid value. This can occur when the executable le being debugged has changed, either through recompilation or by using the gdb file command. The front end should normally choose to delete these variable objects. In the future new values may be added to this list so the front should be prepared for this possibility. See undened [GDB/MI Development and Front Ends], page undened .

"invalid"

type_changed This is only present if the varobj is still valid. If the type changed, then this will be the string true; otherwise it will be false. new_type If the varobjs type changed, then this eld will be present and will hold the new type. new_num_children For a dynamic varobj, if the number of children changed, or if the type changed, this will be the new number of children. The numchild eld in other varobj responses is generally not valid for a dynamic varobj it will show the number of children that gdb knows about, but because dynamic varobjs lazily instantiate their children, this will not reect the number of children which may be available. The new_num_children attribute only reports changes to the number of children known by gdb. This is the only way to detect whether an update has removed children (which necessarily can only happen at the end of the update range). displayhint The display hint, if any. has_more This is an integer value, which will be 1 if there are more children available outside the varobjs update range. dynamic This attribute will be present and have the value 1 if the varobj is a dynamic varobj. If the varobj is not a dynamic varobj, then this attribute will not be present.

368

Debugging with gdb

new_children If new children were added to a dynamic varobj within the selected update range (as set by -var-set-update-range), then they will be listed in this attribute.

Example
(gdb) -var-assign var1 3 ^done,value="3" (gdb) -var-update --all-values var1 ^done,changelist=[{name="var1",value="3",in_scope="true", type_changed="false"}] (gdb)

The -var-set-frozen Command

Synopsis
-var-set-frozen name flag

Set the frozenness ag on the variable object name. The ag parameter should be either 1 to make the variable frozen or 0 to make it unfrozen. If a variable object is frozen, then neither itself, nor any of its children, are implicitly updated by -var-update of a parent variable or by -var-update *. Only -var-update of the variable itself will update its value and values of its children. After a variable object is unfrozen, it is implicitly updated by all subsequent -var-update operations. Unfreezing a variable does not update it, only subsequent -var-update does.

Example
(gdb) -var-set-frozen V 1 ^done (gdb)

The -var-set-update-range command

Synopsis
-var-set-update-range name from to

Set the range of children to be returned by future invocations of -var-update. from and to indicate the range of children to report. If from or to is less than zero, the range is reset and all children will be reported. Otherwise, children starting at from (zero-based) and up to and excluding to will be reported.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

369

Example
(gdb) -var-set-update-range V 1 2 ^done

The -var-set-visualizer command

Synopsis
-var-set-visualizer name visualizer

Set a visualizer for the variable object name. visualizer is the visualizer to use. The special value None means to disable any visualizer in use. If not None, visualizer must be a Python expression. This expression must evaluate to a callable object which accepts a single argument. gdb will call this object with the value of the varobj name as an argument (this is done so that the same Python prettyprinting code can be used for both the CLI and MI). When called, this object must return an object which conforms to the pretty-printing interface (see undened [Pretty Printing API], page undened ). The pre-dened function gdb.default_visualizer may be used to select a visualizer by following the built-in process (see undened [Selecting Pretty-Printers], page undened ). This is done automatically when a varobj is created, and so ordinarily is not needed. This feature is only available if Python support is enabled. The MI command -listfeatures (see undened [GDB/MI Miscellaneous Commands], page undened ) can be used to check this.

Example
Resetting the visualizer:
(gdb) -var-set-visualizer V None ^done

Reselecting the default (type-based) visualizer:

(gdb) -var-set-visualizer V gdb.default_visualizer ^done

Suppose SomeClass is a visualizer class. A lambda expression can be used to instantiate this class for a varobj:
(gdb) -var-set-visualizer V "lambda val: SomeClass()" ^done

370

Debugging with gdb

27.14 gdb/mi Data Manipulation

This section describes the gdb/mi commands that manipulate data: examine memory and registers, evaluate expressions, etc.

The -data-disassemble Command Synopsis

-data-disassemble [ -s start-addr -e end-addr ] | [ -f filename -l linenum [ -n lines ] ] -- mode

Where: start-addr is the beginning address (or $pc) end-addr is the end address filename is the name of the le to disassemble linenum is the line number to disassemble around lines is the number of disassembly lines to be produced. If it is -1, the whole function will be disassembled, in case no end-addr is specied. If end-addr is specied as a non-zero value, and lines is lower than the number of disassembly lines between start-addr and end-addr, only lines lines are displayed; if lines is higher than the number of lines between start-addr and end-addr, only the lines up to end-addr are displayed. is either 0 (meaning only disassembly) or 1 (meaning mixed source and disassembly).

mode

Result
The output for each instruction is composed of four elds: Address Func-name Oset Instruction Note that whatever included in the instruction eld, is not manipulated directly by gdb/mi, i.e., it is not possible to adjust its format.

gdb Command
Theres no direct mapping from this command to the CLI.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

371

Example
Disassemble from the current value of $pc to $pc + 20:
(gdb) -data-disassemble -s $pc -e "$pc + 20" -- 0 ^done, asm_insns=[ {address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4", inst="mov 2, %o0"}, {address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8", inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"}, {address="0x000107c8",func-name="main",offset="12", inst="or %o2, 0x140, %o1\t! 0x11940 <_lib_version+8>"}, {address="0x000107cc",func-name="main",offset="16", inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"}, {address="0x000107d0",func-name="main",offset="20", inst="or %o2, 0x168, %o4\t! 0x11968 <_lib_version+48>"}] (gdb)

Disassemble the whole main function. Line 32 is part of main.

-data-disassemble -f basics.c -l 32 -- 0 ^done,asm_insns=[ {address="0x000107bc",func-name="main",offset="0", inst="save %sp, -112, %sp"}, {address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4", inst="mov 2, %o0"}, {address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8", inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"}, [...] {address="0x0001081c",func-name="main",offset="96",inst="ret "}, {address="0x00010820",func-name="main",offset="100",inst="restore "}] (gdb)

Disassemble 3 instructions from the start of main:

(gdb) -data-disassemble -f basics.c -l 32 -n 3 -- 0 ^done,asm_insns=[ {address="0x000107bc",func-name="main",offset="0", inst="save %sp, -112, %sp"}, {address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4", inst="mov 2, %o0"}, {address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8", inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"}] (gdb)

Disassemble 3 instructions from the start of main in mixed mode:

(gdb) -data-disassemble -f basics.c -l 32 -n 3 -- 1 ^done,asm_insns=[ src_and_asm_line={line="31", file="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb/ \ testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line_asm_insn=[ {address="0x000107bc",func-name="main",offset="0", inst="save %sp, -112, %sp"}]}, src_and_asm_line={line="32", file="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb/ \ testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line_asm_insn=[ {address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4",

372

Debugging with gdb

inst="mov 2, %o0"}, {address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8", inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"}]}] (gdb)

The -data-evaluate-expression Command Synopsis

-data-evaluate-expression expr

Evaluate expr as an expression. The expression could contain an inferior function call. The function call will execute synchronously. If the expression contains spaces, it must be enclosed in double quotes.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb commands are print, output, and call. In gdbtk only, theres a corresponding gdb_eval command.

Example
In the following example, the numbers that precede the commands are the tokens described in undened [gdb/mi Command Syntax], page undened . Notice how gdb/mi returns the same tokens in its output.
211-data-evaluate-expression 211^done,value="1" (gdb) 311-data-evaluate-expression 311^done,value="0xefffeb7c" (gdb) 411-data-evaluate-expression 411^done,value="4" (gdb) 511-data-evaluate-expression 511^done,value="4" (gdb) A

&A

A+3

"A + 3"

The -data-list-changed-registers Command Synopsis

-data-list-changed-registers

Display a list of the registers that have changed.

gdb Command
gdb doesnt have a direct analog for this command; gdbtk has the corresponding command gdb_changed_register_list.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

373

Example
On a PPC MBX board:
(gdb) -exec-continue ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",frame={ func="main",args=[],file="try.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c", line="5"} (gdb) -data-list-changed-registers ^done,changed-registers=["0","1","2","4","5","6","7","8","9", "10","11","13","14","15","16","17","18","19","20","21","22","23", "24","25","26","27","28","30","31","64","65","66","67","69"] (gdb)

The -data-list-register-names Command Synopsis

-data-list-register-names [ ( regno )+ ]

Show a list of register names for the current target. If no arguments are given, it shows a list of the names of all the registers. If integer numbers are given as arguments, it will print a list of the names of the registers corresponding to the arguments. To ensure consistency between a register name and its number, the output list may include empty register names.

gdb Command
gdb does not have a command which corresponds to -data-list-register-names. In gdbtk there is a corresponding command gdb_regnames.

Example
For the PPC MBX board:
(gdb) -data-list-register-names ^done,register-names=["r0","r1","r2","r3","r4","r5","r6","r7", "r8","r9","r10","r11","r12","r13","r14","r15","r16","r17","r18", "r19","r20","r21","r22","r23","r24","r25","r26","r27","r28","r29", "r30","r31","f0","f1","f2","f3","f4","f5","f6","f7","f8","f9", "f10","f11","f12","f13","f14","f15","f16","f17","f18","f19","f20", "f21","f22","f23","f24","f25","f26","f27","f28","f29","f30","f31", "", "pc","ps","cr","lr","ctr","xer"] (gdb) -data-list-register-names 1 2 3 ^done,register-names=["r1","r2","r3"] (gdb)

374

Debugging with gdb

The -data-list-register-values Command Synopsis

-data-list-register-values fmt [ ( regno )*]

Display the registers contents. fmt is the format according to which the registers contents are to be returned, followed by an optional list of numbers specifying the registers to display. A missing list of numbers indicates that the contents of all the registers must be returned. Allowed formats for fmt are: x o t d r N Hexadecimal Octal Binary Decimal Raw Natural

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb commands are info reg, info all-reg, and (in gdbtk) gdb_fetch_registers.

Example
For a PPC MBX board (note: line breaks are for readability only, they dont appear in the actual output):
(gdb) -data-list-register-values r 64 65 ^done,register-values=[{number="64",value="0xfe00a300"}, {number="65",value="0x00029002"}] (gdb) -data-list-register-values x ^done,register-values=[{number="0",value="0xfe0043c8"}, {number="1",value="0x3fff88"},{number="2",value="0xfffffffe"}, {number="3",value="0x0"},{number="4",value="0xa"}, {number="5",value="0x3fff68"},{number="6",value="0x3fff58"}, {number="7",value="0xfe011e98"},{number="8",value="0x2"}, {number="9",value="0xfa202820"},{number="10",value="0xfa202808"}, {number="11",value="0x1"},{number="12",value="0x0"}, {number="13",value="0x4544"},{number="14",value="0xffdfffff"}, {number="15",value="0xffffffff"},{number="16",value="0xfffffeff"}, {number="17",value="0xefffffed"},{number="18",value="0xfffffffe"}, {number="19",value="0xffffffff"},{number="20",value="0xffffffff"}, {number="21",value="0xffffffff"},{number="22",value="0xfffffff7"}, {number="23",value="0xffffffff"},{number="24",value="0xffffffff"}, {number="25",value="0xffffffff"},{number="26",value="0xfffffffb"},

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

375

{number="27",value="0xffffffff"},{number="28",value="0xf7bfffff"}, {number="29",value="0x0"},{number="30",value="0xfe010000"}, {number="31",value="0x0"},{number="32",value="0x0"}, {number="33",value="0x0"},{number="34",value="0x0"}, {number="35",value="0x0"},{number="36",value="0x0"}, {number="37",value="0x0"},{number="38",value="0x0"}, {number="39",value="0x0"},{number="40",value="0x0"}, {number="41",value="0x0"},{number="42",value="0x0"}, {number="43",value="0x0"},{number="44",value="0x0"}, {number="45",value="0x0"},{number="46",value="0x0"}, {number="47",value="0x0"},{number="48",value="0x0"}, {number="49",value="0x0"},{number="50",value="0x0"}, {number="51",value="0x0"},{number="52",value="0x0"}, {number="53",value="0x0"},{number="54",value="0x0"}, {number="55",value="0x0"},{number="56",value="0x0"}, {number="57",value="0x0"},{number="58",value="0x0"}, {number="59",value="0x0"},{number="60",value="0x0"}, {number="61",value="0x0"},{number="62",value="0x0"}, {number="63",value="0x0"},{number="64",value="0xfe00a300"}, {number="65",value="0x29002"},{number="66",value="0x202f04b5"}, {number="67",value="0xfe0043b0"},{number="68",value="0xfe00b3e4"}, {number="69",value="0x20002b03"}] (gdb)

The -data-read-memory Command Synopsis

-data-read-memory [ -o byte-offset ] address word-format word-size nr-rows nr-cols [ aschar ]

where: address An expression specifying the address of the rst memory word to be read. Complex expressions containing embedded white space should be quoted using the C convention. word-format The format to be used to print the memory words. The notation is the same as for gdbs print command (see undened [Output Formats], page undened ). word-size The size of each memory word in bytes. nr-rows The number of rows in the output table. nr-cols The number of columns in the output table. aschar If present, indicates that each row should include an ascii dump. The value of aschar is used as a padding character when a byte is not a member of the printable ascii character set (printable ascii characters are those whose code is between 32 and 126, inclusively).

376

Debugging with gdb

byte-offset An oset to add to the address before fetching memory. This command displays memory contents as a table of nr-rows by nr-cols words, each word being word-size bytes. In total, nr-rows * nr-cols * word-size bytes are read (returned as total-bytes). Should less than the requested number of bytes be returned by the target, the missing words are identied using N/A. The number of bytes read from the target is returned in nr-bytes and the starting address used to read memory in addr. The address of the next/previous row or page is available in next-row and prev-row, next-page and prev-page.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is x. gdbtk has gdb_get_mem memory read command.

Example
Read six bytes of memory starting at bytes+6 but then oset by -6 bytes. Format as three rows of two columns. One byte per word. Display each word in hex.
(gdb) 9-data-read-memory -o -6 -- bytes+6 x 1 3 2 9^done,addr="0x00001390",nr-bytes="6",total-bytes="6", next-row="0x00001396",prev-row="0x0000138e",next-page="0x00001396", prev-page="0x0000138a",memory=[ {addr="0x00001390",data=["0x00","0x01"]}, {addr="0x00001392",data=["0x02","0x03"]}, {addr="0x00001394",data=["0x04","0x05"]}] (gdb)

Read two bytes of memory starting at address shorts + 64 and display as a single word formatted in decimal.
(gdb) 5-data-read-memory shorts+64 d 2 1 1 5^done,addr="0x00001510",nr-bytes="2",total-bytes="2", next-row="0x00001512",prev-row="0x0000150e", next-page="0x00001512",prev-page="0x0000150e",memory=[ {addr="0x00001510",data=["128"]}] (gdb)

Read thirty two bytes of memory starting at bytes+16 and format as eight rows of four columns. Include a string encoding with x used as the non-printable character.
(gdb) 4-data-read-memory bytes+16 x 1 8 4 x 4^done,addr="0x000013a0",nr-bytes="32",total-bytes="32", next-row="0x000013c0",prev-row="0x0000139c", next-page="0x000013c0",prev-page="0x00001380",memory=[ {addr="0x000013a0",data=["0x10","0x11","0x12","0x13"],ascii="xxxx"}, {addr="0x000013a4",data=["0x14","0x15","0x16","0x17"],ascii="xxxx"}, {addr="0x000013a8",data=["0x18","0x19","0x1a","0x1b"],ascii="xxxx"}, {addr="0x000013ac",data=["0x1c","0x1d","0x1e","0x1f"],ascii="xxxx"}, {addr="0x000013b0",data=["0x20","0x21","0x22","0x23"],ascii=" !\"#"}, {addr="0x000013b4",data=["0x24","0x25","0x26","0x27"],ascii="$%&"},

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

377

{addr="0x000013b8",data=["0x28","0x29","0x2a","0x2b"],ascii="()*+"}, {addr="0x000013bc",data=["0x2c","0x2d","0x2e","0x2f"],ascii=",-./"}] (gdb)

27.15 gdb/mi Tracepoint Commands

The commands dened in this section implement MI support for tracepoints. For detailed introduction, see undened [Tracepoints], page undened .

The -trace-find Command Synopsis

-trace-find mode [parameters ...]

Find a trace frame using criteria dened by mode and parameters. The following table lists permissible modes and their parameters. For details of operation, see undened [tnd], page undened . none No parameters are required. Stops examining trace frames.

frame-number An integer is required as parameter. Selects tracepoint frame with that index. tracepoint-number An integer is required as parameter. Finds next trace frame that corresponds to tracepoint with the specied number. pc An address is required as parameter. Finds next trace frame that corresponds to any tracepoint at the specied address.

pc-inside-range Two addresses are required as parameters. Finds next trace frame that corresponds to a tracepoint at an address inside the specied range. Both bounds are considered to be inside the range. pc-outside-range Two addresses are required as parameters. Finds next trace frame that corresponds to a tracepoint at an address outside the specied range. Both bounds are considered to be inside the range. line Line specication is required as parameter. See undened [Specify Location], page undened . Finds next trace frame that corresponds to a tracepoint at the specied location.

If none was passed as mode, the response does not have elds. Otherwise, the response may have the following elds: found This eld has either 0 or 1 as the value, depending on whether a matching tracepoint was found.

378

Debugging with gdb

traceframe The index of the found traceframe. This eld is present i the found eld has value of 1. tracepoint The index of the found tracepoint. This eld is present i the found eld has value of 1. frame The information about the frame corresponding to the found trace frame. This eld is present only if a trace frame was found. See undened [GDB/MI Frame Information], page undened , for description of this eld.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tfind.

-trace-dene-variable Synopsis
-trace-define-variable name [ value ]

Create trace variable name if it does not exist. If value is specied, sets the initial value of the specied trace variable to that value. Note that the name should start with the $ character.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tvariable.

-trace-list-variables Synopsis
-trace-list-variables

Return a table of all dened trace variables. Each element of the table has the following elds: name initial current The name of the trace variable. This eld is always present. The initial value. This is a 64-bit signed integer. This eld is always present. The value the trace variable has at the moment. This is a 64-bit signed integer. This eld is absent i current value is not dened, for example if the trace was never run, or is presently running.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tvariables.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

379

Example
(gdb) -trace-list-variables ^done,trace-variables={nr_rows="1",nr_cols="3", hdr=[{width="15",alignment="-1",col_name="name",colhdr="Name"}, {width="11",alignment="-1",col_name="initial",colhdr="Initial"}, {width="11",alignment="-1",col_name="current",colhdr="Current"}], body=[variable={name="$trace_timestamp",initial="0"} variable={name="$foo",initial="10",current="15"}]} (gdb)

-trace-save Synopsis
-trace-save [-r ] filename

Saves the collected trace data to lename. Without the -r option, the data is downloaded from the target and saved in a local le. With the -r option the target is asked to perform the save.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tsave.

-trace-start Synopsis
-trace-start

Starts a tracing experiments. The result of this command does not have any elds.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tstart.

-trace-status Synopsis
-trace-status

Obtains the status of a tracing experiment. The result may include the following elds: supported May have a value of either 0, when no tracing operations are supported, 1, when all tracing operations are supported, or file when examining trace

380

Debugging with gdb

le. In the latter case, examining of trace frame is possible but new tracing experiement cannot be started. This eld is always present. running May have a value of either 0 or 1 depending on whether tracing experiement is in progress on target. This eld is present if supported eld is not 0.

stop-reason Report the reason why the tracing was stopped last time. This eld may be absent i tracing was never stopped on target yet. The value of request means the tracing was stopped as result of the -trace-stop command. The value of overflow means the tracing buer is full. The value of disconnection means tracing was automatically stopped when gdb has disconnected. The value of passcount means tracing was stopped when a tracepoint was passed a maximal number of times for that tracepoint. This eld is present if supported eld is not 0. stopping-tracepoint The number of tracepoint whose passcount as exceeded. This eld is present i the stop-reason eld has the value of passcount. frames frames-created The frames eld is a count of the total number of trace frames in the trace buer, while frames-created is the total created during the run, including ones that were discarded, such as when a circular trace buer lled up. Both elds are optional. buffer-size buffer-free These elds tell the current size of the tracing buer and the remaining space. These elds are optional. circular The value of the circular trace buer ag. 1 means that the trace buer is circular and old trace frames will be discarded if necessary to make room, 0 means that the trace buer is linear and may ll up. disconnected The value of the disconnected tracing ag. 1 means that tracing will continue after gdb disconnects, 0 means that the trace run will stop.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tstatus.

-trace-stop Synopsis
-trace-stop

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

381

Stops a tracing experiment. The result of this command has the same elds as -tracestatus, except that the supported and running elds are not output.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is tstop.

27.16 gdb/mi Symbol Query Commands

The -symbol-list-lines Command Synopsis
-symbol-list-lines filename

Print the list of lines that contain code and their associated program addresses for the given source lename. The entries are sorted in ascending PC order.

gdb Command
There is no corresponding gdb command.

Example
(gdb) -symbol-list-lines basics.c ^done,lines=[{pc="0x08048554",line="7"},{pc="0x0804855a",line="8"}] (gdb)

27.17 gdb/mi File Commands

This section describes the GDB/MI commands to specify executable le names and to read in and obtain symbol table information.

The -file-exec-and-symbols Command Synopsis

-file-exec-and-symbols file

Specify the executable le to be debugged. This le is the one from which the symbol table is also read. If no le is specied, the command clears the executable and symbol information. If breakpoints are set when using this command with no arguments, gdb will produce error messages. Otherwise, no output is produced, except a completion notication.

382

Debugging with gdb

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is file.

Example
(gdb) -file-exec-and-symbols /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/TRUNK/mbx/hello.mbx ^done (gdb)

The -file-exec-file Command Synopsis

-file-exec-file file

Specify the executable le to be debugged. Unlike -file-exec-and-symbols, the symbol table is not read from this le. If used without argument, gdb clears the information about the executable le. No output is produced, except a completion notication.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is exec-file.

Example
(gdb) -file-exec-file /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/TRUNK/mbx/hello.mbx ^done (gdb)

The -file-list-exec-source-file Command Synopsis

-file-list-exec-source-file

List the line number, the current source le, and the absolute path to the current source le for the current executable. The macro information eld has a value of 1 or 0 depending on whether or not the le includes preprocessor macro information.

gdb Command
The gdb equivalent is info source

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

383

Example
(gdb) 123-file-list-exec-source-file 123^done,line="1",file="foo.c",fullname="/home/bar/foo.c,macro-info="1" (gdb)

The -file-list-exec-source-files Command Synopsis

-file-list-exec-source-files

List the source les for the current executable. It will always output the lename, but only when gdb can nd the absolute le name of a source le, will it output the fullname.

gdb Command
The gdb equivalent is info sources. gdb_listfiles. gdbtk has an analogous command

Example
(gdb) -file-list-exec-source-files ^done,files=[ {file=foo.c,fullname=/home/foo.c}, {file=/home/bar.c,fullname=/home/bar.c}, {file=gdb_could_not_find_fullpath.c}] (gdb)

The -file-symbol-file Command Synopsis

-file-symbol-file file

Read symbol table info from the specied le argument. When used without arguments, clears gdbs symbol table info. No output is produced, except for a completion notication.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is symbol-file.

Example
(gdb) -file-symbol-file /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/TRUNK/mbx/hello.mbx ^done (gdb)

384

Debugging with gdb

27.18 gdb/mi Target Manipulation Commands

The -target-attach Command Synopsis
-target-attach pid | gid | file

Attach to a process pid or a le le outside of gdb, or a thread group gid. If attaching to a thread group, the id previously returned by -list-thread-groups --available must be used.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is attach.

Example
(gdb) -target-attach 34 =thread-created,id="1" *stopped,thread-id="1",frame={addr="0xb7f7e410",func="bar",args=[]} ^done (gdb)

The -target-detach Command Synopsis

-target-detach [ pid | gid ]

Detach from the remote target which normally resumes its execution. If either pid or gid is specied, detaches from either the specied process, or specied thread group. Theres no output.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is detach.

Example
(gdb) -target-detach ^done (gdb)

The -target-disconnect Command

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

385

Synopsis
-target-disconnect

Disconnect from the remote target. Theres no output and the target is generally not resumed.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is disconnect.

Example
(gdb) -target-disconnect ^done (gdb)

The -target-download Command Synopsis

-target-download

Loads the executable onto the remote target. It prints out an update message every half second, which includes the elds: section The name of the section. section-sent The size of what has been sent so far for that section. section-size The size of the section. total-sent The total size of what was sent so far (the current and the previous sections). total-size The size of the overall executable to download. Each message is sent as status record (see undened [gdb/mi Output Syntax], page undened ). In addition, it prints the name and size of the sections, as they are downloaded. These messages include the following elds: section The name of the section. section-size The size of the section. total-size The size of the overall executable to download. At the end, a summary is printed.

386

Debugging with gdb

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is load.

Example
Note: each status message appears on a single line. Here the messages have been broken down so that they can t onto a page.
(gdb) -target-download +download,{section=".text",section-size="6668",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="512",section-size="6668", total-sent="512",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="1024",section-size="6668", total-sent="1024",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="1536",section-size="6668", total-sent="1536",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="2048",section-size="6668", total-sent="2048",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="2560",section-size="6668", total-sent="2560",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="3072",section-size="6668", total-sent="3072",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="3584",section-size="6668", total-sent="3584",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="4096",section-size="6668", total-sent="4096",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="4608",section-size="6668", total-sent="4608",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="5120",section-size="6668", total-sent="5120",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="5632",section-size="6668", total-sent="5632",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="6144",section-size="6668", total-sent="6144",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".text",section-sent="6656",section-size="6668", total-sent="6656",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".init",section-size="28",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".fini",section-size="28",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-size="3156",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-sent="512",section-size="3156", total-sent="7236",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-sent="1024",section-size="3156", total-sent="7748",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-sent="1536",section-size="3156", total-sent="8260",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-sent="2048",section-size="3156", total-sent="8772",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-sent="2560",section-size="3156", total-sent="9284",total-size="9880"} +download,{section=".data",section-sent="3072",section-size="3156", total-sent="9796",total-size="9880"} ^done,address="0x10004",load-size="9880",transfer-rate="6586", write-rate="429" (gdb)

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

387

gdb Command
No equivalent.

Example
N.A.

The -target-select Command Synopsis

-target-select type parameters ...

Connect gdb to the remote target. This command takes two args: type The type of target, for instance remote, etc. parameters Device names, host names and the like. See undened [Commands for Managing Targets], page undened , for more details. The output is a connection notication, followed by the address at which the target program is, in the following form:
^connected,addr="address ",func="function name ", args=[arg list ]

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is target.

Example
(gdb) -target-select remote /dev/ttya ^connected,addr="0xfe00a300",func="??",args=[] (gdb)

27.19 gdb/mi File Transfer Commands

The -target-file-put Command Synopsis
-target-file-put hostfile targetfile

Copy le hostle from the host system (the machine running gdb) to targetle on the target system.

388

Debugging with gdb

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is remote put.

Example
(gdb) -target-file-put localfile remotefile ^done (gdb)

The -target-file-get Command Synopsis

-target-file-get targetfile hostfile

Copy le targetle from the target system to hostle on the host system.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is remote get.

Example
(gdb) -target-file-get remotefile localfile ^done (gdb)

The -target-file-delete Command Synopsis

-target-file-delete targetfile

Delete targetle from the target system.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is remote delete.

Example
(gdb) -target-file-delete remotefile ^done (gdb)

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

389

27.20 Miscellaneous gdb/mi Commands

The -gdb-exit Command Synopsis
-gdb-exit

Exit gdb immediately.

gdb Command
Approximately corresponds to quit.

Example
(gdb) -gdb-exit ^exit

The -gdb-set Command Synopsis

-gdb-set

Set an internal gdb variable.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is set.

Example
(gdb) -gdb-set $foo=3 ^done (gdb)

The -gdb-show Command Synopsis

-gdb-show

Show the current value of a gdb variable.

390

Debugging with gdb

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is show.

Example
(gdb) -gdb-show annotate ^done,value="0" (gdb)

The -gdb-version Command Synopsis

-gdb-version

Show version information for gdb. Used mostly in testing.

gdb Command
The gdb equivalent is show version. gdb by default shows this information when you start an interactive session.

Example
(gdb) -gdb-version ~GNU gdb 5.2.1 ~Copyright 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. ~GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and ~you are welcome to change it and/or 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. ~This GDB was configured as "--host=sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1 --target=ppc-eabi". ^done (gdb)

The -list-features Command

Returns a list of particular features of the MI protocol that this version of gdb implements. A feature can be a command, or a new eld in an output of some command, or even an important bugx. While a frontend can sometimes detect presence of a feature at runtime, it is easier to perform detection at debugger startup. The command returns a list of strings, with each string naming an available feature. Each returned string is just a name, it does not have any internal structure. The list of possible feature names is given below.

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

391

Example output:
(gdb) -list-features ^done,result=["feature1","feature2"]

The current list of features is: frozen-varobjs Indicates presence of the -var-set-frozen command, as well as possible presense of the frozen eld in the output of -varobj-create. pending-breakpoints Indicates presence of the -f option to the -break-insert command. python Indicates presence of Python scripting support, Python-based pretty-printing commands, and possible presence of the display_hint eld in the output of -var-list-children

thread-info Indicates presence of the -thread-info command.

The -list-target-features Command

Returns a list of particular features that are supported by the target. Those features aect the permitted MI commands, but unlike the features reported by the -list-features command, the features depend on which target GDB is using at the moment. Whenever a target can change, due to commands such as -target-select, -target-attach or exec-run, the list of target features may change, and the frontend should obtain it again. Example output:
(gdb) -list-features ^done,result=["async"]

The current list of features is: async reverse Indicates that the target is capable of asynchronous command execution, which means that gdb will accept further commands while the target is running. Indicates that the target is capable of reverse execution. See undened [Reverse Execution], page undened , for more information.

The -list-thread-groups Command Synopsis

-list-thread-groups [ --available ] [ --recurse 1 ] [ group ... ]

Lists thread groups (see undened [Thread groups], page undened ). When a single thread group is passed as the argument, lists the children of that group. When several thread group are passed, lists information about those thread groups. Without any parameters, lists information about all top-level thread groups. Normally, thread groups that are being debugged are reported. With the --available option, gdb reports thread groups available on the target.

392

Debugging with gdb

The output of this command may have either a threads result or a groups result. The thread result has a list of tuples as value, with each tuple describing a thread (see undened [GDB/MI Thread Information], page undened ). The groups result has a list of tuples as value, each tuple describing a thread group. If top-level groups are requested (that is, no parameter is passed), or when several groups are passed, the output always has a groups result. The format of the group result is described below. To reduce the number of roundtrips its possible to list thread groups together with their children, by passing the --recurse option and the recursion depth. Presently, only recursion depth of 1 is permitted. If this option is present, then every reported thread group will also include its children, either as group or threads eld. In general, any combination of option and parameters is permitted, with the following caveats: When a single thread group is passed, the output will typically be the threads result. Because threads may not contain anything, the recurse option will be ignored. When the --available option is passed, limited information may be available. In particular, the list of threads of a process might be inaccessible. Further, specifying specic thread groups might not give any performance advantage over listing all thread groups. The frontend should assume that -list-thread-groups --available is always an expensive operation and cache the results. The groups result is a list of tuples, where each tuple may have the following elds: id Identier of the thread group. This eld is always present. The identier is an opaque string; frontends should not try to convert it to an integer, even though it might look like one. The type of the thread group. At present, only process is a valid type. The target-specic process identier. This eld is only present for thread groups of type process and only if the process exists.

type pid

num_children The number of children this thread group has. This eld may be absent for an available thread group. threads This eld has a list of tuples as value, each tuple describing a thread. It may be present if the --recurse option is specied, and its actually possible to obtain the threads. This eld is a list of integers, each identifying a core that one thread of the group is running on. This eld may be absent if such information is not available. The name of the executable le that corresponds to this thread group. The eld is only present for thread groups of type process, and only if there is a corresponding executable le.

cores executable

Example
gdb -list-thread-groups

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

393

^done,groups=[{id="17",type="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2"}] -list-thread-groups 17 ^done,threads=[{id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90 (LWP 21257)", frame={level="0",addr="0xffffe410",func="__kernel_vsyscall",args=[]},state="running"}, {id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e156b0 (LWP 21254)", frame={level="0",addr="0x0804891f",func="foo",args=[{name="i",value="10"}], file="/tmp/a.c",fullname="/tmp/a.c",line="158"},state="running"}]] -list-thread-groups --available ^done,groups=[{id="17",type="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2",cores=[1,2]}] -list-thread-groups --available --recurse 1 ^done,groups=[{id="17", types="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2",cores=[1,2], threads=[{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[1]}, {id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[2]}]},..] -list-thread-groups --available --recurse 1 17 18 ^done,groups=[{id="17", types="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2",cores=[1,2], threads=[{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[1]}, {id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[2]}]},...]

The -add-inferior Command

Synopsis
-add-inferior

Creates a new inferior (see undened [Inferiors and Programs], page undened ). The created inferior is not associated with any executable. Such association may be established with the -file-exec-and-symbols command (see undened [GDB/MI File Commands], page undened ). The command response has a single eld, thread-group, whose value is the identier of the thread group corresponding to the new inferior.

Example
gdb -add-inferior ^done,thread-group="i3"

The -interpreter-exec Command

Synopsis
-interpreter-exec interpreter command

Execute the specied command in the given interpreter.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is interpreter-exec.

394

Debugging with gdb

Example
(gdb) -interpreter-exec console "break main" &"During symbol reading, couldnt parse type; debugger out of date?.\n" &"During symbol reading, bad structure-type format.\n" ~"Breakpoint 1 at 0x8074fc6: file ../../src/gdb/main.c, line 743.\n" ^done (gdb)

The -inferior-tty-set Command Synopsis

-inferior-tty-set /dev/pts/1

Set terminal for future runs of the program being debugged.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is set inferior-tty /dev/pts/1.

Example
(gdb) -inferior-tty-set /dev/pts/1 ^done (gdb)

The -inferior-tty-show Command Synopsis

-inferior-tty-show

Show terminal for future runs of program being debugged.

gdb Command
The corresponding gdb command is show inferior-tty.

Example
(gdb) -inferior-tty-set /dev/pts/1 ^done (gdb) -inferior-tty-show ^done,inferior_tty_terminal="/dev/pts/1" (gdb)

Chapter 27: The gdb/mi Interface

395

The -enable-timings Command Synopsis

-enable-timings [yes | no]

Toggle the printing of the wallclock, user and system times for an MI command as a eld in its output. This command is to help frontend developers optimize the performance of their code. No argument is equivalent to yes.

gdb Command
No equivalent.

Example
(gdb) -enable-timings ^done (gdb) -break-insert main ^done,bkpt={number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y", addr="0x080484ed",func="main",file="myprog.c", fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="73",times="0"}, time={wallclock="0.05185",user="0.00800",system="0.00000"} (gdb) -enable-timings no ^done (gdb) -exec-run ^running (gdb) *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",thread-id="0", frame={addr="0x080484ed",func="main",args=[{name="argc",value="1"}, {name="argv",value="0xbfb60364"}],file="myprog.c", fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="73"} (gdb)

396

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 28: gdb Annotations

397

28 gdb Annotations
This chapter describes annotations in gdb. Annotations were designed to interface gdb to graphical user interfaces or other similar programs which want to interact with gdb at a relatively high level. The annotation mechanism has largely been superseded by gdb/mi (see undened [GDB/MI], page undened ).

28.1 What is an Annotation?

Annotations start with a newline character, two control-z characters, and the name of the annotation. If there is no additional information associated with this annotation, the name of the annotation is followed immediately by a newline. If there is additional information, the name of the annotation is followed by a space, the additional information, and a newline. The additional information cannot contain newline characters. Any output not beginning with a newline and two control-z characters denotes literal output from gdb. Currently there is no need for gdb to output a newline followed by two control-z characters, but if there was such a need, the annotations could be extended with an escape annotation which means those three characters as output. The annotation level, which is specied using the --annotate command line option (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ), controls how much information gdb prints together with its prompt, values of expressions, source lines, and other types of output. Level 0 is for no annotations, 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 annotations have been made obsolete (see section Limitations of the Annotation Interface in GDBs Obsolete Annotations). set annotate level The gdb command set annotate sets the level of annotations to the specied level. show annotate Show the current annotation level. This chapter describes level 3 annotations. A simple example of starting up gdb with annotations is:
$ gdb --annotate=3 GNU gdb 6.0 Copyright 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc. GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are welcome to change it and/or 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. This GDB was configured as "i386-pc-linux-gnu" ^Z^Zpre-prompt (gdb)

398

Debugging with gdb

^Z^Zprompt quit ^Z^Zpost-prompt $

Here quit is input to gdb; the rest is output from gdb. The three lines beginning ^Z^Z (where ^Z denotes a control-z character) are annotations; the rest is output from gdb.

28.2 The Server Prex

If you prex a command with server then it will not aect the command history, nor will it aect gdbs notion of which command to repeat if RET is pressed on a line by itself. This means that commands can be run behind a users back by a front-end in a transparent manner. The server prex does not aect the recording of values into the value history; to print a value without recording it into the value history, use the output command instead of the print command. Using this prex also disables conrmation requests (see undened [conrmation requests], page undened ).

28.3 Annotation for gdb Input

When gdb prompts for input, it annotates this fact so it is possible to know when to send output, when the output from a given command is over, etc. Dierent kinds of input each have a dierent input type. Each input type has three annotations: a pre- annotation, which denotes the beginning of any prompt which is being output, a plain annotation, which denotes the end of the prompt, and then a post- annotation which denotes the end of any echo which may (or may not) be associated with the input. For example, the prompt input type features the following annotations:
^Z^Zpre-prompt ^Z^Zprompt ^Z^Zpost-prompt

The input types are prompt commands When gdb is prompting for a command (the main gdb prompt). When gdb prompts for a set of commands, like in the commands command. The annotations are repeated for each command which is input.

overload-choice When gdb wants the user to select between various overloaded functions. query When gdb wants the user to conrm a potentially dangerous operation. prompt-for-continue When gdb is asking the user to press return to continue. Note: Dont expect this to work well; instead use set height 0 to disable prompting. This is because the counting of lines is buggy in the presence of annotations.

Chapter 28: gdb Annotations

399

28.4 Errors
^Z^Zquit

This annotation occurs right before gdb responds to an interrupt.

^Z^Zerror

This annotation occurs right before gdb responds to an error. Quit and error annotations indicate that any annotations which gdb was in the middle of may end abruptly. For example, if a value-history-begin annotation is followed by a error, one cannot expect to receive the matching value-history-end. One cannot expect not to receive it either, however; an error annotation does not necessarily mean that gdb is immediately returning all the way to the top level. A quit or error annotation may be preceded by
^Z^Zerror-begin

Any output between that and the quit or error annotation is the error message. Warning messages are not yet annotated.

28.5 Invalidation Notices

The following annotations say that certain pieces of state may have changed. ^Z^Zframes-invalid The frames (for example, output from the backtrace command) may have changed. ^Z^Zbreakpoints-invalid The breakpoints may have changed. For example, the user just added or deleted a breakpoint.

28.6 Running the Program

When the program starts executing due to a gdb command such as step or continue,
^Z^Zstarting

is output. When the program stops,

^Z^Zstopped

is output. Before the stopped annotation, a variety of annotations describe how the program stopped. ^Z^Zexited exit-status The program exited, and exit-status is the exit status (zero for successful exit, otherwise nonzero). ^Z^Zsignalled The program exited with a signal. After the ^Z^Zsignalled, the annotation continues:

400

Debugging with gdb

intro-text ^Z^Zsignal-name name ^Z^Zsignal-name-end middle-text ^Z^Zsignal-string string ^Z^Zsignal-string-end end-text

where name is the name of the signal, such as SIGILL or SIGSEGV, and string is the explanation of the signal, such as Illegal Instruction or Segmentation fault. intro-text, middle-text, and end-text are for the users benet and have no particular format. ^Z^Zsignal The syntax of this annotation is just like signalled, but gdb is just saying that the program received the signal, not that it was terminated with it. ^Z^Zbreakpoint number The program hit breakpoint number number. ^Z^Zwatchpoint number The program hit watchpoint number number.

28.7 Displaying Source

The following annotation is used instead of displaying source code:
^Z^Zsource filename :line :character :middle :addr

where lename is an absolute le name indicating which source le, line is the line number within that le (where 1 is the rst line in the le), character is the character position within the le (where 0 is the rst character in the le) (for most debug formats this will necessarily point to the beginning of a line), middle is middle if addr is in the middle of the line, or beg if addr is at the beginning of the line, and addr is the address in the target program associated with the source which is being displayed. addr is in the form 0x followed by one or more lowercase hex digits (note that this does not depend on the language).

Chapter 29: JIT Compilation Interface

401

29 JIT Compilation Interface

This chapter documents gdbs just-in-time (JIT) compilation interface. A JIT compiler is a program or library that generates native executable code at runtime and executes it, usually in order to achieve good performance while maintaining platform independence. Programs that use JIT compilation are normally dicult to debug because portions of their code are generated at runtime, instead of being loaded from object les, which is where gdb normally nds the programs symbols and debug information. In order to debug programs that use JIT compilation, gdb has an interface that allows the program to register in-memory symbol les with gdb at runtime. If you are using gdb to debug a program that uses this interface, then it should work transparently so long as you have not stripped the binary. If you are developing a JIT compiler, then the interface is documented in the rest of this chapter. At this time, the only known client of this interface is the LLVM JIT. Broadly speaking, the JIT interface mirrors the dynamic loader interface. The JIT compiler communicates with gdb by writing data into a global variable and calling a fuction at a well-known symbol. When gdb attaches, it reads a linked list of symbol les from the global variable to nd existing code, and puts a breakpoint in the function so that it can nd out about additional code.

29.1 JIT Declarations

These are the relevant struct declarations that a C program should include to implement the interface:
typedef enum { JIT_NOACTION = 0, JIT_REGISTER_FN, JIT_UNREGISTER_FN } jit_actions_t; struct jit_code_entry { struct jit_code_entry *next_entry; struct jit_code_entry *prev_entry; const char *symfile_addr; uint64_t symfile_size; }; struct jit_descriptor { uint32_t version; /* This type should be jit_actions_t, but we use uint32_t to be explicit about the bitwidth. */ uint32_t action_flag; struct jit_code_entry *relevant_entry; struct jit_code_entry *first_entry; }; /* GDB puts a breakpoint in this function. */ void __attribute__((noinline)) __jit_debug_register_code() { };

402

Debugging with gdb

/* Make sure to specify the version statically, because the debugger may check the version before we can set it. */ struct jit_descriptor __jit_debug_descriptor = { 1, 0, 0, 0 };

If the JIT is multi-threaded, then it is important that the JIT synchronize any modications to this global data properly, which can easily be done by putting a global mutex around modications to these structures.

29.2 Registering Code

To register code with gdb, the JIT should follow this protocol: Generate an object le in memory with symbols and other desired debug information. The le must include the virtual addresses of the sections. Create a code entry for the le, which gives the start and size of the symbol le. Add it to the linked list in the JIT descriptor. Point the relevant entry eld of the descriptor at the entry. Set action_flag to JIT_REGISTER and call __jit_debug_register_code. When gdb is attached and the breakpoint res, gdb uses the relevant_entry pointer so it doesnt have to walk the list looking for new code. However, the linked list must still be maintained in order to allow gdb to attach to a running process and still nd the symbol les.

29.3 Unregistering Code

If code is freed, then the JIT should use the following protocol: Remove the code entry corresponding to the code from the linked list. Point the relevant_entry eld of the descriptor at the code entry. Set action_flag to JIT_UNREGISTER and call __jit_debug_register_code. If the JIT frees or recompiles code without unregistering it, then gdb and the JIT will leak the memory used for the associated symbol les.

Chapter 30: Reporting Bugs in gdb

403

30 Reporting Bugs in gdb

Your bug reports play an essential role in making gdb reliable. Reporting a bug may help you by bringing a solution to your problem, or it may not. But in any case the principal function of a bug report is to help the entire community by making the next version of gdb work better. Bug reports are your contribution to the maintenance of gdb. In order for a bug report to serve its purpose, you must include the information that enables us to x the bug.

30.1 Have You Found a Bug?

If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: If the debugger gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a gdb bug. Reliable debuggers never crash. If gdb produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug. (Note that if youre cross debugging, the problem may also be somewhere in the connection to the target.) If gdb does not produce an error message for invalid input, that is a bug. However, you should note that your idea of invalid input might be our idea of an extension or support for traditional practice. If you are an experienced user of debugging tools, your suggestions for improvement of gdb are welcome in any case.

30.2 How to Report Bugs

A number of companies and individuals oer support for gnu products. If you obtained gdb from a support organization, we recommend you contact that organization rst. You can nd contact information for many support companies and individuals in the le etc/SERVICE in the gnu Emacs distribution. DEFAULTIn any event, we also recommend that you submit bug reports for gdb. The preferred method is to submit them directly using gdbs Bugs web page. Alternatively, the e-mail gateway can be used. Do not send bug reports to info-gdb, or to help-gdb, or to any newsgroups. Most users of gdb do not want to receive bug reports. Those that do have arranged to receive bug-gdb. The mailing list bug-gdb has a newsgroup gnu.gdb.bug which serves as a repeater. The mailing list and the newsgroup carry exactly the same messages. Often people think of posting bug reports to the newsgroup instead of mailing them. This appears to work, but it has one problem which can be crucial: a newsgroup posting often lacks a mail path back to the sender. Thus, if we need to ask for more information, we may be unable to reach you. For this reason, it is better to send bug reports to the mailing list. DEFAULT The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this: report all the facts. If you are not sure whether to state a fact or leave it out, state it!

404

Debugging with gdb

Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the problem and assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might assume that the name of the variable you use in an example does not matter. Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where that name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name were dierent, the contents of that location would fool the debugger into doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it safe and give a specic, complete example. That is the easiest thing for you to do, and the most helpful. Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to x the bug. It may be that the bug has been reported previously, but neither you nor we can know that unless your bug report is complete and self-contained. Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, Does this ring a bell? Those bug reports are useless, and we urge everyone to refuse to respond to them except to chide the sender to report bugs properly. To enable us to x the bug, you should include all these things: The version of gdb. gdb announces it if you start with no arguments; you can also print it at any time using show version. Without this, we will not know whether there is any point in looking for the bug in the current version of gdb. The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and version number. What compiler (and its version) was used to compile gdbe.g. gcc2.8.1. What compiler (and its version) was used to compile the program you are debugging e.g. gcc2.8.1, or HP92453-01 A.10.32.03 HP C Compiler. For gcc, you can say gcc --version to get this information; for other compilers, see the documentation for those compilers. The command arguments you gave the compiler to compile your example and observe the bug. For example, did you use -O? To guarantee you will not omit something important, list them all. A copy of the Makele (or the output from make) is sucient. If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong and then we might not encounter the bug. A complete input script, and all necessary source les, that will reproduce the bug. A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is incorrect. For example, It gets a fatal signal. Of course, if the bug is that gdb gets a fatal signal, then we will certainly notice it. But if the bug is incorrect output, we might not notice unless it is glaringly wrong. You might as well not give us a chance to make a mistake. Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still say so explicitly. Suppose something strange is going on, such as, your copy of gdb is out of synch, or you have encountered a bug in the C library on your system. (This has happened!) Your copy might crash and ours would not. If you told us to expect a crash, then when ours fails to crash, we would know that the bug was not happening for us. If you had not told us to expect a crash, then we would not be able to draw any conclusion from our observations.

Chapter 30: Reporting Bugs in gdb

405

To collect all this information, you can use a session recording program such as script, which is available on many Unix systems. Just run your gdb session inside script and then include the typescript le with your bug report. Another way to record a gdb session is to run gdb inside Emacs and then save the entire buer to a le. If you wish to suggest changes to the gdb source, send us context dis. If you even discuss something in the gdb source, refer to it by context, not by line number. The line numbers in our development sources will not match those in your sources. Your line numbers would convey no useful information to us. Here are some things that are not necessary: A description of the envelope of the bug. Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating which changes to the input le will make the bug go away and which changes will not aect it. This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we will nd the bug is by running a single example under the debugger with breakpoints, not by pure deduction from a series of examples. We recommend that you save your time for something else. Of course, if you can nd a simpler example to report instead of the original one, that is a convenience for us. Errors in the output will be easier to spot, running under the debugger will take less time, and so on. However, simplication is not vital; if you do not want to do this, report the bug anyway and send us the entire test case you used. A patch for the bug. A patch for the bug does help us if it is a good one. But do not omit the necessary information, such as the test case, on the assumption that a patch is all we need. We might see problems with your patch and decide to x the problem another way, or we might not understand it at all. Sometimes with a program as complicated as gdb it is very hard to construct an example that will make the program follow a certain path through the code. If you do not send us the example, we will not be able to construct one, so we will not be able to verify that the bug is xed. And if we cannot understand what bug you are trying to x, or why your patch should be an improvement, we will not install it. A test case will help us to understand. A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on. Such guesses are usually wrong. Even we cannot guess right about such things without rst using the debugger to nd the facts.

406

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

407

31 Command Line Editing

This chapter describes the basic features of the gnu command line editing interface.

31.1 Introduction to Line Editing

The following paragraphs describe the notation used to represent keystrokes. The text C-k is read as Control-K and describes the character produced when the k key is pressed while the Control key is depressed. The text M-k is read as Meta-K and describes the character produced when the Meta key (if you have one) is depressed, and the k key is pressed. The Meta key is labeled ALT on many keyboards. On keyboards with two keys labeled ALT (usually to either side of the space bar), the ALT on the left side is generally set to work as a Meta key. The ALT key on the right may also be congured to work as a Meta key or may be congured as some other modier, such as a Compose key for typing accented characters. If you do not have a Meta or ALT key, or another key working as a Meta key, the identical keystroke can be generated by typing ESC rst, and then typing k . Either process is known as metafying the k key. The text M-C-k is read as Meta-Control-k and describes the character produced by metafying C-k. In addition, several keys have their own names. Specically, DEL , ESC , LFD , SPC , RET , and TAB all stand for themselves when seen in this text, or in an init le (see undened [Readline Init File], page undened ). If your keyboard lacks a LFD key, typing C-j will produce the desired character. The RET key may be labeled Return or Enter on some keyboards.

31.2 Readline Interaction

Often during an interactive session you type in a long line of text, only to notice that the rst word on the line is misspelled. The Readline library gives you a set of commands for manipulating the text as you type it in, allowing you to just x your typo, and not forcing you to retype the majority of the line. Using these editing commands, you move the cursor to the place that needs correction, and delete or insert the text of the corrections. Then, when you are satised with the line, you simply press RET . You do not have to be at the end of the line to press RET ; the entire line is accepted regardless of the location of the cursor within the line.

31.2.1 Readline Bare Essentials

In order to enter characters into the line, simply type them. The typed character appears where the cursor was, and then the cursor moves one space to the right. If you mistype a character, you can use your erase character to back up and delete the mistyped character. Sometimes you may mistype a character, and not notice the error until you have typed several other characters. In that case, you can type C-b to move the cursor to the left, and then correct your mistake. Afterwards, you can move the cursor to the right with C-f.

408

Debugging with gdb

When you add text in the middle of a line, you will notice that characters to the right of the cursor are pushed over to make room for the text that you have inserted. Likewise, when you delete text behind the cursor, characters to the right of the cursor are pulled back to ll in the blank space created by the removal of the text. A list of the bare essentials for editing the text of an input line follows. C-b C-f
DEL

Move back one character. Move forward one character. or

Backspace

Delete the character to the left of the cursor. C-d Delete the character underneath the cursor.

Printing characters Insert the character into the line at the cursor. C-_ or C-x C-u Undo the last editing command. You can undo all the way back to an empty line. (Depending on your conguration, the Backspace key be set to delete the character to the left of the cursor and the DEL key set to delete the character underneath the cursor, like C-d, rather than the character to the left of the cursor.)

31.2.2 Readline Movement Commands

The above table describes the most basic keystrokes that you need in order to do editing of the input line. For your convenience, many other commands have been added in addition to C-b, C-f, C-d, and DEL . Here are some commands for moving more rapidly about the line. C-a C-e M-f M-b C-l Move to the start of the line. Move to the end of the line. Move forward a word, where a word is composed of letters and digits. Move backward a word. Clear the screen, reprinting the current line at the top.

Notice how C-f moves forward a character, while M-f moves forward a word. It is a loose convention that control keystrokes operate on characters while meta keystrokes operate on words.

31.2.3 Readline Killing Commands

Killing text means to delete the text from the line, but to save it away for later use, usually by yanking (re-inserting) it back into the line. (Cut and paste are more recent jargon for kill and yank.) If the description for a command says that it kills text, then you can be sure that you can get the text back in a dierent (or the same) place later.

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

409

When you use a kill command, the text is saved in a kill-ring. Any number of consecutive kills save all of the killed text together, so that when you yank it back, you get it all. The kill ring is not line specic; the text that you killed on a previously typed line is available to be yanked back later, when you are typing another line. Here is the list of commands for killing text. C-k M-d M- DEL Kill the text from the current cursor position to the end of the line. Kill from the cursor to the end of the current word, or, if between words, to the end of the next word. Word boundaries are the same as those used by M-f. Kill from the cursor the start of the current word, or, if between words, to the start of the previous word. Word boundaries are the same as those used by M-b. Kill from the cursor to the previous whitespace. This is dierent than M- DEL because the word boundaries dier.

C-w

Here is how to yank the text back into the line. Yanking means to copy the mostrecently-killed text from the kill buer. C-y M-y Yank the most recently killed text back into the buer at the cursor. Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top. You can only do this if the prior command is C-y or M-y.

31.2.4 Readline Arguments

You can pass numeric arguments to Readline commands. Sometimes the argument acts as a repeat count, other times it is the sign of the argument that is signicant. If you pass a negative argument to a command which normally acts in a forward direction, that command will act in a backward direction. For example, to kill text back to the start of the line, you might type M-- C-k. The general way to pass numeric arguments to a command is to type meta digits before the command. If the rst digit typed is a minus sign (-), then the sign of the argument will be negative. Once you have typed one meta digit to get the argument started, you can type the remainder of the digits, and then the command. For example, to give the C-d command an argument of 10, you could type M-1 0 C-d, which will delete the next ten characters on the input line.

31.2.5 Searching for Commands in the History

Readline provides commands for searching through the command history for lines containing a specied string. There are two search modes: incremental and non-incremental. Incremental searches begin before the user has nished typing the search string. As each character of the search string is typed, Readline displays the next entry from the history matching the string typed so far. An incremental search requires only as many characters as needed to nd the desired history entry. To search backward in the history for a particular string, type C-r. Typing C-s searches forward through the history. The characters present in the value of the isearch-terminators variable are used to terminate an incremental

410

Debugging with gdb

search. If that variable has not been assigned a value, the ESC and C-J characters will terminate an incremental search. C-g will abort an incremental search and restore the original line. When the search is terminated, the history entry containing the search string becomes the current line. To nd other matching entries in the history list, type C-r or C-s as appropriate. This will search backward or forward in the history for the next entry matching the search string typed so far. Any other key sequence bound to a Readline command will terminate the search and execute that command. For instance, a RET will terminate the search and accept the line, thereby executing the command from the history list. A movement command will terminate the search, make the last line found the current line, and begin editing. Readline remembers the last incremental search string. If two C-rs are typed without any intervening characters dening a new search string, any remembered search string is used. Non-incremental searches read the entire search string before starting to search for matching history lines. The search string may be typed by the user or be part of the contents of the current line.

31.3 Readline Init File

Although the Readline library comes with a set of Emacs-like keybindings installed by default, it is possible to use a dierent set of keybindings. Any user can customize programs that use Readline by putting commands in an inputrc le, conventionally in his home directory. The name of this le is taken from the value of the environment variable INPUTRC. If that variable is unset, the default is ~/.inputrc. When a program which uses the Readline library starts up, the init le is read, and the key bindings are set. In addition, the C-x C-r command re-reads this init le, thus incorporating any changes that you might have made to it.

31.3.1 Readline Init File Syntax

There are only a few basic constructs allowed in the Readline init le. Blank lines are ignored. Lines beginning with a # are comments. Lines beginning with a $ indicate conditional constructs (see undened [Conditional Init Constructs], page undened ). Other lines denote variable settings and key bindings. Variable Settings You can modify the run-time behavior of Readline by altering the values of variables in Readline using the set command within the init le. The syntax is simple: set variable value Here, for example, is how to change from the default Emacs-like key binding to use vi line editing commands: set editing-mode vi

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

411

Variable names and values, where appropriate, are recognized without regard to case. Unrecognized variable names are ignored. Boolean variables (those that can be set to on or o) are set to on if the value is null or empty, on (case-insensitive), or 1. Any other value results in the variable being set to o. A great deal of run-time behavior is changeable with the following variables. bell-style Controls what happens when Readline wants to ring the terminal bell. If set to none, Readline never rings the bell. If set to visible, Readline uses a visible bell if one is available. If set to audible (the default), Readline attempts to ring the terminals bell. bind-tty-special-chars If set to on, Readline attempts to bind the control characters treated specially by the kernels terminal driver to their Readline equivalents. comment-begin The string to insert at the beginning of the line when the insertcomment command is executed. The default value is "#". completion-ignore-case If set to on, Readline performs lename matching and completion in a case-insensitive fashion. The default value is off. completion-query-items The number of possible completions that determines when the user is asked whether the list of possibilities should be displayed. If the number of possible completions is greater than this value, Readline will ask the user whether or not he wishes to view them; otherwise, they are simply listed. This variable must be set to an integer value greater than or equal to 0. A negative value means Readline should never ask. The default limit is 100. convert-meta If set to on, Readline will convert characters with the eighth bit set to an ascii key sequence by stripping the eighth bit and prexing an ESC character, converting them to a meta-prexed key sequence. The default value is on. disable-completion If set to On, Readline will inhibit word completion. Completion characters will be inserted into the line as if they had been mapped to self-insert. The default is off. editing-mode The editing-mode variable controls which default set of key bindings is used. By default, Readline starts up in Emacs editing mode, where the keystrokes are most similar to Emacs. This variable can be set to either emacs or vi.

412

Debugging with gdb

enable-keypad When set to on, Readline will try to enable the application keypad when it is called. Some systems need this to enable the arrow keys. The default is off. expand-tilde If set to on, tilde expansion is performed when Readline attempts word completion. The default is off. history-preserve-point If set to on, the history code attempts to place point at the same location on each history line retrieved with previous-history or next-history. The default is off. horizontal-scroll-mode This variable can be set to either on or off. Setting it to on means that the text of the lines being edited will scroll horizontally on a single screen line when they are longer than the width of the screen, instead of wrapping onto a new screen line. By default, this variable is set to off. input-meta If set to on, Readline will enable eight-bit input (it will not clear the eighth bit in the characters it reads), regardless of what the terminal claims it can support. The default value is off. The name meta-flag is a synonym for this variable. isearch-terminators The string of characters that should terminate an incremental search without subsequently executing the character as a command (see undened [Searching], page undened ). If this variable has not been given a value, the characters ESC and C-J will terminate an incremental search. keymap Sets Readlines idea of the current keymap for key binding commands. Acceptable keymap names are emacs, emacs-standard, emacs-meta, emacs-ctlx, vi, vi-move, vi-command, and vi-insert. vi is equivalent to vi-command; emacs is equivalent to emacs-standard. The default value is emacs. The value of the editing-mode variable also aects the default keymap.

mark-directories If set to on, completed directory names have a slash appended. The default is on. mark-modified-lines This variable, when set to on, causes Readline to display an asterisk (*) at the start of history lines which have been modied. This variable is off by default.

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

413

mark-symlinked-directories If set to on, completed names which are symbolic links to directories have a slash appended (subject to the value of markdirectories). The default is off. match-hidden-files This variable, when set to on, causes Readline to match les whose names begin with a . (hidden les) when performing lename completion, unless the leading . is supplied by the user in the lename to be completed. This variable is on by default. output-meta If set to on, Readline will display characters with the eighth bit set directly rather than as a meta-prexed escape sequence. The default is off. page-completions If set to on, Readline uses an internal more-like pager to display a screenful of possible completions at a time. This variable is on by default. print-completions-horizontally If set to on, Readline will display completions with matches sorted horizontally in alphabetical order, rather than down the screen. The default is off. show-all-if-ambiguous This alters the default behavior of the completion functions. If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing the bell. The default value is off. show-all-if-unmodified This alters the default behavior of the completion functions in a fashion similar to show-all-if-ambiguous. If set to on, words which have more than one possible completion without any possible partial completion (the possible completions dont share a common prex) cause the matches to be listed immediately instead of ringing the bell. The default value is off. visible-stats If set to on, a character denoting a les type is appended to the lename when listing possible completions. The default is off. Key Bindings The syntax for controlling key bindings in the init le is simple. First you need to nd the name of the command that you want to change. The following sections contain tables of the command name, the default keybinding, if any, and a short description of what the command does. Once you know the name of the command, simply place on a line in the init le the name of the key you wish to bind the command to, a colon, and then

414

Debugging with gdb

the name of the command. The name of the key can be expressed in dierent ways, depending on what you nd most comfortable. In addition to command names, readline allows keys to be bound to a string that is inserted when the key is pressed (a macro). keyname: function-name or macro keyname is the name of a key spelled out in English. For example: Control-u: universal-argument Meta-Rubout: backward-kill-word Control-o: "> output" In the above example, C-u is bound to the function universalargument, M-DEL is bound to the function backward-kill-word, and C-o is bound to run the macro expressed on the right hand side (that is, to insert the text > output into the line). A number of symbolic character names are recognized while processing this key binding syntax: DEL, ESC, ESCAPE, LFD, NEWLINE, RET, RETURN, RUBOUT, SPACE, SPC, and TAB. "keyseq": function-name or macro keyseq diers from keyname above in that strings denoting an entire key sequence can be specied, by placing the key sequence in double quotes. Some gnu Emacs style key escapes can be used, as in the following example, but the special character names are not recognized. "\C-u": universal-argument "\C-x\C-r": re-read-init-file "\e[11~": "Function Key 1" In the above example, C-u is again bound to the function universal-argument (just as it was in the rst example), C-x C-r is bound to the function re-read-init-file, and ESC [ 1 1 ~ is bound to insert the text Function Key 1. The following gnu Emacs style escape sequences are available when specifying key sequences: \C\M\e \\ \" \ control prex meta prex an escape character backslash " , a double quotation mark

, a single quote or apostrophe

In addition to the gnu Emacs style escape sequences, a second set of backslash escapes is available: \a alert (bell)

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

415

\b \d \f \n \r \t \v \nnn \xHH

backspace delete form feed newline carriage return horizontal tab vertical tab the eight-bit character whose value is the octal value nnn (one to three digits) the eight-bit character whose value is the hexadecimal value HH (one or two hex digits)

When entering the text of a macro, single or double quotes must be used to indicate a macro denition. Unquoted text is assumed to be a function name. In the macro body, the backslash escapes described above are expanded. Backslash will quote any other character in the macro text, including " and . For example, the following binding will make C-x \ insert a single \ into the line: "\C-x\\": "\\"

31.3.2 Conditional Init Constructs

Readline implements a facility similar in spirit to the conditional compilation features of the C preprocessor which allows key bindings and variable settings to be performed as the result of tests. There are four parser directives used. $if The $if construct allows bindings to be made based on the editing mode, the terminal being used, or the application using Readline. The text of the test extends to the end of the line; no characters are required to isolate it. mode The mode= form of the $if directive is used to test whether Readline is in emacs or vi mode. This may be used in conjunction with the set keymap command, for instance, to set bindings in the emacsstandard and emacs-ctlx keymaps only if Readline is starting out in emacs mode. The term= form may be used to include terminal-specic key bindings, perhaps to bind the key sequences output by the terminals function keys. The word on the right side of the = is tested against both the full name of the terminal and the portion of the terminal name before the rst -. This allows sun to match both sun and sun-cmd, for instance.

term

application The application construct is used to include application-specic settings. Each program using the Readline library sets the application name, and you can test for a particular value. This could be used to

416

Debugging with gdb

bind key sequences to functions useful for a specic program. For instance, the following command adds a key sequence that quotes the current or previous word in Bash: $if Bash # Quote the current or previous word "\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\"" $endif $endif $else $include This command, as seen in the previous example, terminates an $if command. Commands in this branch of the $if directive are executed if the test fails. This directive takes a single lename as an argument and reads commands and bindings from that le. For example, the following directive reads from /etc/inputrc: $include /etc/inputrc

31.3.3 Sample Init File

Here is an example of an inputrc le. This illustrates key binding, variable assignment, and conditional syntax.

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

417

# This file controls the behaviour of line input editing for # programs that use the GNU Readline library. Existing # programs include FTP, Bash, and GDB. # # You can re-read the inputrc file with C-x C-r. # Lines beginning with # are comments. # # First, include any systemwide bindings and variable # assignments from /etc/Inputrc $include /etc/Inputrc # # Set various bindings for emacs mode. set editing-mode emacs $if mode=emacs Meta-Control-h: # # Arrow keys # #"\M-OD": #"\M-OC": #"\M-OA": #"\M-OB": # # Arrow keys # "\M-[D": "\M-[C": "\M-[A": "\M-[B": # # Arrow keys # #"\M-\C-OD": #"\M-\C-OC": #"\M-\C-OA": #"\M-\C-OB": # # Arrow keys # #"\M-\C-[D": #"\M-\C-[C": backward-kill-word Text after the function name is ignored

in keypad mode backward-char forward-char previous-history next-history in ANSI mode backward-char forward-char previous-history next-history in 8 bit keypad mode backward-char forward-char previous-history next-history in 8 bit ANSI mode backward-char forward-char

418

Debugging with gdb

#"\M-\C-[A": #"\M-\C-[B": C-q: quoted-insert $endif

previous-history next-history

# An old-style binding. TAB: complete

This happens to be the default.

# Macros that are convenient for shell interaction $if Bash # edit the path "\C-xp": "PATH=${PATH}\e\C-e\C-a\ef\C-f" # prepare to type a quoted word -# insert open and close double quotes # and move to just after the open quote "\C-x\"": "\"\"\C-b" # insert a backslash (testing backslash escapes # in sequences and macros) "\C-x\\": "\\" # Quote the current or previous word "\C-xq": "\eb\"\ef\"" # Add a binding to refresh the line, which is unbound "\C-xr": redraw-current-line # Edit variable on current line. "\M-\C-v": "\C-a\C-k$\C-y\M-\C-e\C-a\C-y=" $endif # use a visible bell if one is available set bell-style visible # dont strip characters to 7 bits when reading set input-meta on # allow iso-latin1 characters to be inserted rather # than converted to prefix-meta sequences set convert-meta off # display characters with the eighth bit set directly # rather than as meta-prefixed characters set output-meta on # if there are more than 150 possible completions for # a word, ask the user if he wants to see all of them set completion-query-items 150

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

419

# For FTP $if Ftp "\C-xg": "get \M-?" "\C-xt": "put \M-?" "\M-.": yank-last-arg $endif

31.4 Bindable Readline Commands

This section describes Readline commands that may be bound to key sequences. Command names without an accompanying key sequence are unbound by default. In the following descriptions, point refers to the current cursor position, and mark refers to a cursor position saved by the set-mark command. The text between the point and mark is referred to as the region.

31.4.1 Commands For Moving

beginning-of-line (C-a) Move to the start of the current line. end-of-line (C-e) Move to the end of the line. forward-char (C-f) Move forward a character. backward-char (C-b) Move back a character. forward-word (M-f) Move forward to the end of the next word. Words are composed of letters and digits. backward-word (M-b) Move back to the start of the current or previous word. Words are composed of letters and digits. clear-screen (C-l) Clear the screen and redraw the current line, leaving the current line at the top of the screen. redraw-current-line () Refresh the current line. By default, this is unbound.

31.4.2 Commands For Manipulating The History

accept-line (Newline or Return) Accept the line regardless of where the cursor is. If this line is non-empty, it may be added to the history list for future recall with add_history(). If this line is a modied history line, the history line is restored to its original state.

420

Debugging with gdb

previous-history (C-p) Move back through the history list, fetching the previous command. next-history (C-n) Move forward through the history list, fetching the next command. beginning-of-history (M-<) Move to the rst line in the history. end-of-history (M->) Move to the end of the input history, i.e., the line currently being entered. reverse-search-history (C-r) Search backward starting at the current line and moving up through the history as necessary. This is an incremental search. forward-search-history (C-s) Search forward starting at the current line and moving down through the the history as necessary. This is an incremental search. non-incremental-reverse-search-history (M-p) Search backward starting at the current line and moving up through the history as necessary using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the user. non-incremental-forward-search-history (M-n) Search forward starting at the current line and moving down through the the history as necessary using a non-incremental search for a string supplied by the user. history-search-forward () Search forward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line and the point. This is a non-incremental search. By default, this command is unbound. history-search-backward () Search backward through the history for the string of characters between the start of the current line and the point. This is a non-incremental search. By default, this command is unbound. yank-nth-arg (M-C-y) Insert the rst argument to the previous command (usually the second word on the previous line) at point. With an argument n, insert the nth word from the previous command (the words in the previous command begin with word 0). A negative argument inserts the nth word from the end of the previous command. Once the argument n is computed, the argument is extracted as if the !n history expansion had been specied. yank-last-arg (M-. or M-_) Insert last argument to the previous command (the last word of the previous history entry). With an argument, behave exactly like yank-nth-arg. Successive calls to yank-last-arg move back through the history list, inserting the last argument of each line in turn. The history expansion facilities are used to extract the last argument, as if the !$ history expansion had been specied.

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

421

31.4.3 Commands For Changing Text

delete-char (C-d) Delete the character at point. If point is at the beginning of the line, there are no characters in the line, and the last character typed was not bound to delete-char, then return eof. backward-delete-char (Rubout) Delete the character behind the cursor. A numeric argument means to kill the characters instead of deleting them. forward-backward-delete-char () Delete the character under the cursor, unless the cursor is at the end of the line, in which case the character behind the cursor is deleted. By default, this is not bound to a key. quoted-insert (C-q or C-v) Add the next character typed to the line verbatim. This is how to insert key sequences like C-q, for example. tab-insert (M- TAB ) Insert a tab character. self-insert (a, b, A, 1, !, ...) Insert yourself. transpose-chars (C-t) Drag the character before the cursor forward over the character at the cursor, moving the cursor forward as well. If the insertion point is at the end of the line, then this transposes the last two characters of the line. Negative arguments have no eect. transpose-words (M-t) Drag the word before point past the word after point, moving point past that word as well. If the insertion point is at the end of the line, this transposes the last two words on the line. upcase-word (M-u) Uppercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, uppercase the previous word, but do not move the cursor. downcase-word (M-l) Lowercase the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, lowercase the previous word, but do not move the cursor. capitalize-word (M-c) Capitalize the current (or following) word. With a negative argument, capitalize the previous word, but do not move the cursor. overwrite-mode () Toggle overwrite mode. With an explicit positive numeric argument, switches to overwrite mode. With an explicit non-positive numeric argument, switches to

422

Debugging with gdb

insert mode. This command aects only emacs mode; vi mode does overwrite dierently. Each call to readline() starts in insert mode. In overwrite mode, characters bound to self-insert replace the text at point rather than pushing the text to the right. Characters bound to backwarddelete-char replace the character before point with a space. By default, this command is unbound.

31.4.4 Killing And Yanking

kill-line (C-k) Kill the text from point to the end of the line. backward-kill-line (C-x Rubout) Kill backward to the beginning of the line. unix-line-discard (C-u) Kill backward from the cursor to the beginning of the current line. kill-whole-line () Kill all characters on the current line, no matter where point is. By default, this is unbound. kill-word (M-d) Kill from point to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word. Word boundaries are the same as forward-word. backward-kill-word (M- DEL ) Kill the word behind point. Word boundaries are the same as backward-word. unix-word-rubout (C-w) Kill the word behind point, using white space as a word boundary. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. unix-filename-rubout () Kill the word behind point, using white space and the slash character as the word boundaries. The killed text is saved on the kill-ring. delete-horizontal-space () Delete all spaces and tabs around point. By default, this is unbound. kill-region () Kill the text in the current region. By default, this command is unbound. copy-region-as-kill () Copy the text in the region to the kill buer, so it can be yanked right away. By default, this command is unbound. copy-backward-word () Copy the word before point to the kill buer. The word boundaries are the same as backward-word. By default, this command is unbound. copy-forward-word () Copy the word following point to the kill buer. The word boundaries are the same as forward-word. By default, this command is unbound.

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

423

yank (C-y) Yank the top of the kill ring into the buer at point. yank-pop (M-y) Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top. You can only do this if the prior command is yank or yank-pop.

31.4.5 Specifying Numeric Arguments

digit-argument (M-0, M-1, ... M--) Add this digit to the argument already accumulating, or start a new argument. M-- starts a negative argument. universal-argument () This is another way to specify an argument. If this command is followed by one or more digits, optionally with a leading minus sign, those digits dene the argument. If the command is followed by digits, executing universal-argument again ends the numeric argument, but is otherwise ignored. As a special case, if this command is immediately followed by a character that is neither a digit or minus sign, the argument count for the next command is multiplied by four. The argument count is initially one, so executing this function the rst time makes the argument count four, a second time makes the argument count sixteen, and so on. By default, this is not bound to a key.

31.4.6 Letting Readline Type For You

complete ( TAB ) Attempt to perform completion on the text before point. The actual completion performed is application-specic. The default is lename completion. possible-completions (M-?) List the possible completions of the text before point. insert-completions (M-*) Insert all completions of the text before point that would have been generated by possible-completions. menu-complete () Similar to complete, but replaces the word to be completed with a single match from the list of possible completions. Repeated execution of menu-complete steps through the list of possible completions, inserting each match in turn. At the end of the list of completions, the bell is rung (subject to the setting of bell-style) and the original text is restored. An argument of n moves n positions forward in the list of matches; a negative argument may be used to move backward through the list. This command is intended to be bound to TAB , but is unbound by default. delete-char-or-list () Deletes the character under the cursor if not at the beginning or end of the line (like delete-char). If at the end of the line, behaves identically to possiblecompletions. This command is unbound by default.

424

Debugging with gdb

31.4.7 Keyboard Macros

start-kbd-macro (C-x () Begin saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro. end-kbd-macro (C-x )) Stop saving the characters typed into the current keyboard macro and save the denition. call-last-kbd-macro (C-x e) Re-execute the last keyboard macro dened, by making the characters in the macro appear as if typed at the keyboard.

31.4.8 Some Miscellaneous Commands

re-read-init-file (C-x C-r) Read in the contents of the inputrc le, and incorporate any bindings or variable assignments found there. abort (C-g) Abort the current editing command and ring the terminals bell (subject to the setting of bell-style). do-uppercase-version (M-a, M-b, M-x, ...) If the metaed character x is lowercase, run the command that is bound to the corresponding uppercase character. prefix-meta ( ESC ) Metafy the next character typed. This is for keyboards without a meta key. Typing ESC f is equivalent to typing M-f. undo (C-_ or C-x C-u) Incremental undo, separately remembered for each line. revert-line (M-r) Undo all changes made to this line. This is like executing the undo command enough times to get back to the beginning. tilde-expand (M-~) Perform tilde expansion on the current word. set-mark (C-@) Set the mark to the point. If a numeric argument is supplied, the mark is set to that position. exchange-point-and-mark (C-x C-x) Swap the point with the mark. The current cursor position is set to the saved position, and the old cursor position is saved as the mark. character-search (C-]) A character is read and point is moved to the next occurrence of that character. A negative count searches for previous occurrences.

Chapter 31: Command Line Editing

425

character-search-backward (M-C-]) A character is read and point is moved to the previous occurrence of that character. A negative count searches for subsequent occurrences. insert-comment (M-#) Without a numeric argument, the value of the comment-begin variable is inserted at the beginning of the current line. If a numeric argument is supplied, this command acts as a toggle: if the characters at the beginning of the line do not match the value of comment-begin, the value is inserted, otherwise the characters in comment-begin are deleted from the beginning of the line. In either case, the line is accepted as if a newline had been typed. dump-functions () Print all of the functions and their key bindings to the Readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc le. This command is unbound by default. dump-variables () Print all of the settable variables and their values to the Readline output stream. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc le. This command is unbound by default. dump-macros () Print all of the Readline key sequences bound to macros and the strings they output. If a numeric argument is supplied, the output is formatted in such a way that it can be made part of an inputrc le. This command is unbound by default. emacs-editing-mode (C-e) When in vi command mode, this causes a switch to emacs editing mode. vi-editing-mode (M-C-j) When in emacs editing mode, this causes a switch to vi editing mode.

31.5 Readline vi Mode

While the Readline library does not have a full set of vi editing functions, it does contain enough to allow simple editing of the line. The Readline vi mode behaves as specied in the posix 1003.2 standard. In order to switch interactively between emacs and vi editing modes, use the command M-C-j (bound to emacs-editing-mode when in vi mode and to vi-editing-mode in emacs mode). The Readline default is emacs mode. When you enter a line in vi mode, you are already placed in insertion mode, as if you had typed an i. Pressing ESC switches you into command mode, where you can edit the text of the line with the standard vi movement keys, move to previous history lines with k and subsequent lines with j, and so forth.

426

Debugging with gdb

Chapter 32: Using History Interactively

427

32 Using History Interactively

This chapter describes how to use the gnu History Library interactively, from a users standpoint. It should be considered a users guide. For information on using the gnu History Library in other programs, see the gnu Readline Library Manual.

32.1 History Expansion

The History library provides a history expansion feature that is similar to the history expansion provided by csh. This section describes the syntax used to manipulate the history information. History expansions introduce words from the history list into the input stream, making it easy to repeat commands, insert the arguments to a previous command into the current input line, or x errors in previous commands quickly. History expansion takes place in two parts. The rst is to determine which line from the history list should be used during substitution. The second is to select portions of that line for inclusion into the current one. The line selected from the history is called the event, and the portions of that line that are acted upon are called words. Various modiers are available to manipulate the selected words. The line is broken into words in the same fashion that Bash does, so that several words surrounded by quotes are considered one word. History expansions are introduced by the appearance of the history expansion character, which is ! by default.

32.1.1 Event Designators

An event designator is a reference to a command line entry in the history list. ! !n !-n !! !string Start a history substitution, except when followed by a space, tab, the end of the line, or =. Refer to command line n. Refer to the command n lines back. Refer to the previous command. This is a synonym for !-1. Refer to the most recent command starting with string.

!?string [?] Refer to the most recent command containing string. The trailing ? may be omitted if the string is followed immediately by a newline. ^string1 ^string2 ^ Quick Substitution. Repeat the last command, replacing string1 with string2. Equivalent to !!:s/string1 /string2 /. !# The entire command line typed so far.

428

Debugging with gdb

32.1.2 Word Designators

Word designators are used to select desired words from the event. A : separates the event specication from the word designator. It may be omitted if the word designator begins with a ^, $, *, -, or %. Words are numbered from the beginning of the line, with the rst word being denoted by 0 (zero). Words are inserted into the current line separated by single spaces. For example, !! !!:$ !fi:2 designates the preceding command. When you type this, the preceding command is repeated in toto. designates the last argument of the preceding command. This may be shortened to !$. designates the second argument of the most recent command starting with the letters fi.

Here are the word designators: 0 (zero) n ^ $ % x-y * The 0th word. For many applications, this is the command word. The nth word. The rst argument; that is, word 1. The last argument. The word matched by the most recent ?string ? search. A range of words; -y abbreviates 0-y . All of the words, except the 0th. This is a synonym for 1-$. It is not an error to use * if there is just one word in the event; the empty string is returned in that case. Abbreviates x-$ Abbreviates x-$ like x *, but omits the last word.

x* x-

If a word designator is supplied without an event specication, the previous command is used as the event.

32.1.3 Modiers
After the optional word designator, you can add a sequence of one or more of the following modiers, each preceded by a :. h t r e p Remove a trailing pathname component, leaving only the head. Remove all leading pathname components, leaving the tail. Remove a trailing sux of the form .suffix , leaving the basename. Remove all but the trailing sux. Print the new command but do not execute it.

Chapter 32: Using History Interactively

429

s/old /new / Substitute new for the rst occurrence of old in the event line. Any delimiter may be used in place of /. The delimiter may be quoted in old and new with a single backslash. If & appears in new, it is replaced by old. A single backslash will quote the &. The nal delimiter is optional if it is the last character on the input line. & g a G Repeat the previous substitution. Cause changes to be applied over the entire event line. Used in conjunction with s, as in gs/old /new /, or with &. Apply the following s modier once to each word in the event.

430

Debugging with gdb

Appendix A: Formatting Documentation

431

Appendix A Formatting Documentation

The gdb 4 release includes an already-formatted reference card, ready for printing with PostScript or Ghostscript, in the gdb subdirectory of the main source directory1 . If you can use PostScript or Ghostscript with your printer, you can print the reference card immediately with refcard.ps. The release also includes the source for the reference card. You can format it, using TEX, by typing:
make refcard.dvi

The gdb reference card is designed to print in landscape mode on US letter size paper; that is, on a sheet 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches high. You will need to specify this form of printing as an option to your dvi output program. All the documentation for gdb comes as part of the machine-readable distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which is a documentation system that uses a single source le to produce both on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the Info formatting commands to create the on-line version of the documentation and TEX (or texi2roff) to typeset the printed version. gdb includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info version of this manual in the gdb subdirectory. The main Info le is gdb-7.2/gdb/gdb.info, and it refers to subordinate les matching gdb.info* in the same directory. If necessary, you can print out these les, or read them with any editor; but they are easier to read using the info subsystem in gnu Emacs or the standalone info program, available as part of the gnu Texinfo distribution. If you want to format these Info les yourself, you need one of the Info formatting programs, such as texinfo-format-buffer or makeinfo. If you have makeinfo installed, and are in the top level gdb source directory (gdb-7.2, in the case of version 7.2), you can make the Info le by typing:
cd gdb make gdb.info

If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need TEX, a program to print its dvi output les, and texinfo.tex, the Texinfo denitions le. TEX is a typesetting program; it does not print les directly, but produces output les called dvi les. To print a typeset document, you need a program to print dvi les. If your system has TEX installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise command to use depends on your system; lpr -d is common; another (for PostScript devices) is dvips. The dvi print command may require a le name without any extension or a .dvi extension. TEX also requires a macro denitions le called texinfo.tex. This le tells TEX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo format. On its own, TEX cannot either read or typeset a Texinfo le. texinfo.tex is distributed with GDB and is located in the gdb-version-number /texinfo directory. If you have TEX and a dvi printer program installed, you can typeset and print this manual. First switch to the gdb subdirectory of the main source directory (for example, to gdb-7.2/gdb) and type:
1

In gdb-7.2/gdb/refcard.ps of the version 7.2 release.

432

Debugging with gdb

make gdb.dvi

Then give gdb.dvi to your dvi printing program.

Appendix B: Installing gdb

433

Appendix B Installing gdb

B.1 Requirements for Building gdb
Building gdb requires various tools and packages to be available. Other packages will be used only if they are found.

Tools/Packages Necessary for Building gdb

ISO C90 compiler gdb is written in ISO C90. It should be buildable with any working C90 compiler, e.g. GCC.

Tools/Packages Optional for Building gdb

Expat gdb can use the Expat XML parsing library. This library may be included with your operating system distribution; if it is not, you can get the latest version from http://expat.sourceforge.net. The configure script will search for this library in several standard locations; if it is installed in an unusual path, you can use the --with-libexpat-prefix option to specify its location. Expat is used for: Remote protocol memory maps (see undened [Memory Map Format], page undened ) Target descriptions (see undened [Target Descriptions], page undened ) Remote shared library lists (see undened [Library List Format], page undened ) MS-Windows shared libraries (see undened [Shared Libraries], page undened ) gdb will use the zlib library, if available, to read compressed debug sections. Some linkers, such as GNU gold, are capable of producing binaries with compressed debug sections. If gdb is compiled with zlib, it will be able to read the debug information in such binaries. The zlib library is likely included with your operating system distribution; if it is not, you can get the latest version from http://zlib.net. gdbs features related to character sets (see undened [Character Sets], page undened ) require a functioning iconv implementation. If you are on a GNU system, then this is provided by the GNU C Library. Some other systems also provide a working iconv. On systems with iconv, you can install GNU Libiconv. If you have previously installed Libiconv, you can use the --with-libiconv-prefix option to congure.

zlib

iconv

434

Debugging with gdb

gdbs top-level configure and Makefile will arrange to build Libiconv if a directory named libiconv appears in the top-most source directory. If Libiconv is built this way, and if the operating system does not provide a suitable iconv implementation, then the just-built library will automatically be used by gdb. One easy way to set this up is to download GNU Libiconv, unpack it, and then rename the directory holding the Libiconv source code to libiconv.

B.2 Invoking the gdb configure Script

gdb comes with a configure script that automates the process of preparing gdb for installation; you can then use make to build the gdb program.1 The gdb distribution includes all the source code you need for gdb in a single directory, whose name is usually composed by appending the version number to gdb. For example, the gdb version 7.2 distribution is in the gdb-7.2 directory. That directory contains: gdb-7.2/configure (and supporting les) script for conguring gdb and all its supporting libraries gdb-7.2/gdb the source specic to gdb itself gdb-7.2/bfd source for the Binary File Descriptor library gdb-7.2/include gnu include les gdb-7.2/libiberty source for the -liberty free software library gdb-7.2/opcodes source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers gdb-7.2/readline source for the gnu command-line interface gdb-7.2/glob source for the gnu lename pattern-matching subroutine gdb-7.2/mmalloc source for the gnu memory-mapped malloc package The simplest way to congure and build gdb is to run configure from the gdb-version-number source directory, which in this example is the gdb-7.2 directory. First switch to the gdb-version-number source directory if you are not already in it; then run configure. Pass the identier for the platform on which gdb will run as an argument. For example:
1

If you have a more recent version of gdb than 7.2, look at the README le in the sources; we may have improved the installation procedures since publishing this manual.

Appendix B: Installing gdb

435

cd gdb-7.2 ./configure host make

where host is an identier such as sun4 or decstation, that identies the platform where gdb will run. (You can often leave o host; configure tries to guess the correct value by examining your system.) Running configure host and then running make builds the bfd, readline, mmalloc, and libiberty libraries, then gdb itself. The congured source les, and the binaries, are left in the corresponding source directories. configure is a Bourne-shell (/bin/sh) script; if your system does not recognize this automatically when you run a dierent shell, you may need to run sh on it explicitly:
sh configure host

If you run configure from a directory that contains source directories for multiple libraries or programs, such as the gdb-7.2 source directory for version 7.2, configure creates conguration les for every directory level underneath (unless you tell it not to, with the --norecursion option). You should run the configure script from the top directory in the source tree, the gdb-version-number directory. If you run configure from one of the subdirectories, you will congure only that subdirectory. That is usually not what you want. In particular, if you run the rst configure from the gdb subdirectory of the gdb-version-number directory, you will omit the conguration of bfd, readline, and other sibling directories of the gdb subdirectory. This leads to build errors about missing include les such as bfd/bfd.h. You can install gdb anywhere; it has no hardwired paths. However, you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by the SHELL environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember that gdb uses the shell to start your programsome systems refuse to let gdb debug child processes whose programs are not readable.

B.3 Compiling gdb in Another Directory

If you want to run gdb versions for several host or target machines, you need a dierent gdb compiled for each combination of host and target. configure is designed to make this easy by allowing you to generate each conguration in a separate subdirectory, rather than in the source directory. If your make program handles the VPATH feature (gnu make does), running make in each of these directories builds the gdb program specied there. To build gdb in a separate directory, run configure with the --srcdir option to specify where to nd the source. (You also need to specify a path to nd configure itself from your working directory. If the path to configure would be the same as the argument to --srcdir, you can leave out the --srcdir option; it is assumed.) For example, with version 7.2, you can build gdb in a separate directory for a Sun 4 like this:
cd gdb-7.2 mkdir ../gdb-sun4 cd ../gdb-sun4 ../gdb-7.2/configure sun4 make

436

Debugging with gdb

When configure builds a conguration using a remote source directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In the example, youd nd the Sun 4 library libiberty.a in the directory gdb-sun4/libiberty, and gdb itself in gdb-sun4/gdb. Make sure that your path to the configure script has just one instance of gdb in it. If your path to configure looks like ../gdb-7.2/gdb/configure, you are conguring only one subdirectory of gdb, not the whole package. This leads to build errors about missing include les such as bfd/bfd.h. One popular reason to build several gdb congurations in separate directories is to congure gdb for cross-compiling (where gdb runs on one machinethe hostwhile debugging programs that run on another machinethe target). You specify a cross-debugging target by giving the --target=target option to configure. When you run make to build a program or library, you must run it in a congured directorywhatever directory you were in when you called configure (or one of its subdirectories). The Makefile that configure generates in each source directory also runs recursively. If you type make in a source directory such as gdb-7.2 (or in a separate congured directory congured with --srcdir=dirname /gdb-7.2), you will build all the required libraries, and then build GDB. When you have multiple hosts or targets congured in separate directories, you can run make on them in parallel (for example, if they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere with each other.

B.4 Specifying Names for Hosts and Targets

The specications used for hosts and targets in the configure script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short predened aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes three pieces of information in the following pattern:
architecture-vendor-os

For example, you can use the alias sun4 as a host argument, or as the value for target in a --target=target option. The equivalent full name is sparc-sun-sunos4. The configure script accompanying gdb does not provide any query facility to list all supported host and target names or aliases. configure calls the Bourne shell script config.sub to map abbreviations to full names; you can read the script, if you wish, or you can use it to test your guesses on abbreviationsfor example:
% sh config.sub i386-linux i386-pc-linux-gnu % sh config.sub alpha-linux alpha-unknown-linux-gnu % sh config.sub hp9k700 hppa1.1-hp-hpux % sh config.sub sun4 sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1 % sh config.sub sun3 m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1 % sh config.sub i986v Invalid configuration i986v: machine i986v not recognized

Appendix B: Installing gdb

437

config.sub is also distributed in the gdb source directory (gdb-7.2, for version 7.2).

B.5 configure Options

Here is a summary of the configure options and arguments that are most often useful for building gdb. configure also has several other options not listed here. See Info le configure.info, node What Configure Does, for a full explanation of configure.
configure [--help] [--prefix=dir ] [--exec-prefix=dir ] [--srcdir=dirname ] [--norecursion] [--rm] [--target=target ] host

You may introduce options with a single - rather than -- if you prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use --. --help Display a quick summary of how to invoke configure.

--prefix=dir Congure the source to install programs and les under directory dir . --exec-prefix=dir Congure the source to install programs under directory dir . --srcdir=dirname Warning: using this option requires gnu make, or another make that implements the VPATH feature. Use this option to make congurations in directories separate from the gdb source directories. Among other things, you can use this to build (or maintain) several congurations simultaneously, in separate directories. configure writes conguration-specic les in the current directory, but arranges for them to use the source in the directory dirname. configure creates directories under the working directory in parallel to the source directories below dirname. --norecursion Congure only the directory level where configure is executed; do not propagate conguration to subdirectories. --target=target Congure gdb for cross-debugging programs running on the specied target. Without this option, gdb is congured to debug programs that run on the same machine (host) as gdb itself. There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available targets. host ... Congure gdb to run on the specied host. There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available hosts. There are many other options available as well, but they are generally needed for special purposes only.

438

Debugging with gdb

B.6 System-wide conguration and settings

gdb can be congured to have a system-wide init le; this le will be read and executed at startup (see undened [What gdb does during startup], page undened ). Here is the corresponding congure option: --with-system-gdbinit=file Specify that the default location of the system-wide init le is le. If gdb has been congured with the option --prefix=$prefix, it may be subject to relocation. Two possible cases: If the default location of this init le contains $prefix, it will be subject to relocation. Suppose that the congure options are --prefix=$prefix --with-system-gdbinit=$prefix/etc/gdbinit; if gdb is moved from $prefix to $install, the system init le is looked for as $install/etc/gdbinit instead of $prefix/etc/gdbinit. By contrast, if the default location does not contain the prex, it will not be relocated. E.g. if gdb has been congured with --prefix=/usr/local --with-system-gdbinit=/usr/share/gdb/gdbinit, then gdb will always look for /usr/share/gdb/gdbinit, wherever gdb is installed.

Appendix C: Maintenance Commands

439

Appendix C Maintenance Commands

In addition to commands intended for gdb users, gdb includes a number of commands intended for gdb developers, that are not documented elsewhere in this manual. These commands are provided here for reference. (For commands that turn on debugging messages, see undened [Debugging Output], page undened .) maint agent expression maint agent-eval expression Translate the given expression into remote agent bytecodes. This command is useful for debugging the Agent Expression mechanism (see undened [Agent Expressions], page undened ). The agent version produces an expression useful for data collection, such as by tracepoints, while maint agent-eval produces an expression that evaluates directly to a result. For instance, a collection expression for globa + globb will include bytecodes to record four bytes of memory at each of the addresses of globa and globb, while discarding the result of the addition, while an evaluation expression will do the addition and return the sum. maint info breakpoints Using the same format as info breakpoints, display both the breakpoints youve set explicitly, and those gdb is using for internal purposes. Internal breakpoints are shown with negative breakpoint numbers. The type column identies what kind of breakpoint is shown: breakpoint Normal, explicitly set breakpoint. watchpoint Normal, explicitly set watchpoint. longjmp Internal breakpoint, used to handle correctly stepping through longjmp calls.

longjmp resume Internal breakpoint at the target of a longjmp. until finish Temporary internal breakpoint used by the gdb until command. Temporary internal breakpoint used by the gdb finish command.

shlib events Shared library events. set displaced-stepping show displaced-stepping Control whether or not gdb will do displaced stepping if the target supports it. Displaced stepping is a way to single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the inferior, by executing an out-of-line copy of the instruction that was originally at the breakpoint location. It is also known as out-of-line singlestepping.

440

Debugging with gdb

set displaced-stepping on If the target architecture supports it, gdb will use displaced stepping to step over breakpoints. set displaced-stepping off gdb will not use displaced stepping to step over breakpoints, even if such is supported by the target architecture. set displaced-stepping auto This is the default mode. gdb will use displaced stepping only if non-stop mode is active (see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened ) and the target architecture supports displaced stepping. maint check-symtabs Check the consistency of psymtabs and symtabs. maint cplus first_component name Print the rst C++ class/namespace component of name. maint cplus namespace Print the list of possible C++ namespaces. maint demangle name Demangle a C++ or Objective-C mangled name. maint deprecate command [replacement ] maint undeprecate command Deprecate or undeprecate the named command. Deprecated commands cause gdb to issue a warning when you use them. The optional argument replacement says which newer command should be used in favor of the deprecated one; if it is given, gdb will mention the replacement as part of the warning. maint dump-me Cause a fatal signal in the debugger and force it to dump its core. This is supported only on systems which support aborting a program with the SIGQUIT signal. maint internal-error [message-text ] maint internal-warning [message-text ] Cause gdb to call the internal function internal_error or internal_warning and hence behave as though an internal error or internal warning has been detected. In addition to reporting the internal problem, these functions give the user the opportunity to either quit gdb or create a core le of the current gdb session. These commands take an optional parameter message-text that is used as the text of the error or warning message. Heres an example of using internal-error:
(gdb) maint internal-error testing, 1, 2 .../maint.c:121: internal-error: testing, 1, 2 A problem internal to GDB has been detected. Further debugging may prove unreliable.

Appendix C: Maintenance Commands

441

Quit this debugging session? (y or n) n Create a core file? (y or n) n (gdb)

maint maint maint maint

set internal-error action [ask|yes|no] show internal-error action set internal-warning action [ask|yes|no] show internal-warning action When gdb reports an internal problem (error or warning) it gives the user the opportunity to both quit gdb and create a core le of the current gdb session. These commands let you override the default behaviour for each particular action, described in the table below. quit You can specify that gdb should always (yes) or never (no) quit. The default is to ask the user what to do.

corefile You can specify that gdb should always (yes) or never (no) create a core le. The default is to ask the user what to do. maint packet text If gdb is talking to an inferior via the serial protocol, then this command sends the string text to the inferior, and displays the response packet. gdb supplies the initial $ character, the terminating # character, and the checksum. maint print architecture [file ] Print the entire architecture conguration. The optional argument le names the le where the output goes. maint print c-tdesc Print the current target description (see undened [Target Descriptions], page undened ) as a C source le. The created source le can be used in gdb when an XML parser is not available to parse the description. maint print dummy-frames Prints the contents of gdbs internal dummy-frame stack.
(gdb) b add ... (gdb) print add(2,3) Breakpoint 2, add (a=2, b=3) at ... 58 return (a + b); The program being debugged stopped while in a function called from GDB. ... (gdb) maint print dummy-frames 0x1a57c80: pc=0x01014068 fp=0x0200bddc sp=0x0200bdd6 top=0x0200bdd4 id={stack=0x200bddc,code=0x101405c} call_lo=0x01014000 call_hi=0x01014001 (gdb)

Takes an optional le parameter.

442

Debugging with gdb

maint maint maint maint

print registers [file ] print raw-registers [file ] print cooked-registers [file ] print register-groups [file ] Print gdbs internal register data structures. The command maint print raw-registers includes the contents of the raw register cache; the command maint print cooked-registers includes the (cooked) value of all registers, including registers which arent available on the target nor visible to user; and the command maint print register-groups includes the groups that each register is a member of. See section Registers in gdb Internals. These commands take an optional parameter, a le name to which to write the information.

maint print reggroups [file ] Print gdbs internal register group data structures. The optional argument le tells to what le to write the information. The register groups info looks like this:
(gdb) maint Group general float all vector system save restore print reggroups Type user user user user user internal internal

flushregs This command forces gdb to ush its internal register cache. maint print objfiles Print a dump of all known object les. For each object le, this command prints its name, address in memory, and all of its psymtabs and symtabs. maint print section-scripts [regexp ] Print a dump of scripts specied in the .debug_gdb_section section. If regexp is specied, only print scripts loaded by object les matching regexp. For each script, this command prints its name as specied in the objle, and the full path if known. See undened [.debug gdb scripts section], page undened . maint print statistics This command prints, for each object le in the program, various data about that object le followed by the byte cache (bcache) statistics for the object le. The objle data includes the number of minimal, partial, full, and stabs symbols, the number of types dened by the objle, the number of as yet unexpanded psym tables, the number of line tables and string tables, and the amount of memory used by the various tables. The bcache statistics include the counts, sizes, and counts of duplicates of all and unique objects, max, average, and median entry size, total memory used and its overhead and savings, and various measures of the hash table size and chain lengths.

Appendix C: Maintenance Commands

443

maint print target-stack A target is an interface between the debugger and a particular kind of le or process. Targets can be stacked in strata, so that more than one target can potentially respond to a request. In particular, memory accesses will walk down the stack of targets until they nd a target that is interested in handling that particular address. This command prints a short description of each layer that was pushed on the target stack, starting from the top layer down to the bottom one. maint print type expr Print the type chain for a type specied by expr. The argument can be either a type name or a symbol. If it is a symbol, the type of that symbol is described. The type chain produced by this command is a recursive denition of the data type as stored in gdbs data structures, including its ags and contained types. maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble Control the behavior of info address when using DWARF debugging information. The default is off, which means that gdb should try to describe a variables location in an easily readable format. When on, gdb will instead display the DWARF location expression in an assembly-like format. Note that some locations are too complex for gdb to describe simply; in this case you will always see the disassembly form. Here is an example of the resulting disassembly:
(gdb) info addr argc Symbol "argc" is a complex DWARF expression: 1: DW_OP_fbreg 0

For more information on these expressions, see the DWARF standard. maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age Control the DWARF 2 compilation unit cache. In object les with inter-compilation-unit references, such as those produced by the GCC option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups, the DWARF 2 reader needs to frequently refer to previously read compilation units. This setting controls how long a compilation unit will remain in the cache if it is not referenced. A higher limit means that cached compilation units will be stored in memory longer, and more total memory will be used. Setting it to zero disables caching, which will slow down gdb startup, but reduce memory consumption. maint set profile maint show profile Control proling of gdb. Proling will be disabled until you use the maint set profile command to enable it. When you enable proling, the system will begin collecting timing and execution count data; when you disable proling or exit gdb, the results will be written to a log le. Remember that if you use proling, gdb will

444

Debugging with gdb

overwrite the proling log le (often called gmon.out). If you have a record of important proling data in a gmon.out le, be sure to move it to a safe location. Conguring with --enable-profiling arranges for gdb to be compiled with the -pg compiler option. maint set show-debug-regs maint show show-debug-regs Control whether to show variables that mirror the hardware debug registers. Use ON to enable, OFF to disable. If enabled, the debug registers values are shown when gdb inserts or removes a hardware breakpoint or watchpoint, and when the inferior triggers a hardware-assisted breakpoint or watchpoint. maint set show-all-tib maint show show-all-tib Control whether to show all non zero areas within a 1k block starting at thread local base, when using the info w32 thread-information-block command. maint space Control whether to display memory usage for each command. If set to a nonzero value, gdb will display how much memory each command took, following the commands own output. This can also be requested by invoking gdb with the --statistics command-line switch (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ). maint time Control whether to display the execution time for each command. If set to a nonzero value, gdb will display how much time it took to execute each command, following the commands own output. The time is not printed for the commands that run the target, since theres no mechanism currently to compute how much time was spend by gdb and how much time was spend by the program been debugged. its not possibly currently This can also be requested by invoking gdb with the --statistics command-line switch (see undened [Mode Options], page undened ). maint translate-address [section ] addr Find the symbol stored at the location specied by the address addr and an optional section name section. If found, gdb prints the name of the closest symbol and an oset from the symbols location to the specied address. This is similar to the info address command (see undened [Symbols], page undened ), except that this command also allows to nd symbols in other sections. If section was not specied, the section in which the symbol was found is also printed. For dynamically linked executables, the name of executable or shared library containing the symbol is printed as well. The following command is useful for non-interactive invocations of gdb, such as in the test suite. set watchdog nsec Set the maximum number of seconds gdb will wait for the target operation to nish. If this time expires, gdb reports and error and the command is aborted.

Appendix C: Maintenance Commands

445

show watchdog Show the current setting of the target wait timeout.

446

Debugging with gdb

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

447

Appendix D gdb Remote Serial Protocol

D.1 Overview
There may be occasions when you need to know something about the protocolfor example, if there is only one serial port to your target machine, you might want your program to do something special if it recognizes a packet meant for gdb. In the examples below, -> and <- are used to indicate transmitted and received data, respectively. All gdb commands and responses (other than acknowledgments and notications, see undened [Notication Packets], page undened ) are sent as a packet. A packet is introduced with the character $, the actual packet-data, and the terminating character # followed by a two-digit checksum:
$packet-data #checksum

The two-digit checksum is computed as the modulo 256 sum of all characters between the leading $ and the trailing # (an eight bit unsigned checksum). Implementors should note that prior to gdb 5.0 the protocol specication also included an optional two-digit sequence-id:
$sequence-id :packet-data #checksum

That sequence-id was appended to the acknowledgment. gdb has never output sequenceids. Stubs that handle packets added since gdb 5.0 must not accept sequence-id. When either the host or the target machine receives a packet, the rst response expected is an acknowledgment: either + (to indicate the package was received correctly) or - (to request retransmission):
-> $packet-data #checksum <- +

The +/- acknowledgments can be disabled once a connection is established. See undened [Packet Acknowledgment], page undened , for details. The host (gdb) sends commands, and the target (the debugging stub incorporated in your program) sends a response. In the case of step and continue commands, the response is only sent when the operation has completed, and the target has again stopped all threads in all attached processes. This is the default all-stop mode behavior, but the remote protocol also supports gdbs non-stop execution mode; see undened [Remote Non-Stop], page undened , for details. packet-data consists of a sequence of characters with the exception of # and $ (see X packet for additional exceptions). Fields within the packet should be separated using , ; or :. Except where otherwise noted all numbers are represented in hex with leading zeros suppressed. Implementors should note that prior to gdb 5.0, the character : could not appear as the third character in a packet (as it would potentially conict with the sequence-id). Binary data in most packets is encoded either as two hexadecimal digits per byte of binary data. This allowed the traditional remote protocol to work over connections which

448

Debugging with gdb

were only seven-bit clean. Some packets designed more recently assume an eight-bit clean connection, and use a more ecient encoding to send and receive binary data. The binary data representation uses 7d (ascii }) as an escape character. Any escaped byte is transmitted as the escape character followed by the original character XORed with 0x20. For example, the byte 0x7d would be transmitted as the two bytes 0x7d 0x5d. The bytes 0x23 (ascii #), 0x24 (ascii $), and 0x7d (ascii }) must always be escaped. Responses sent by the stub must also escape 0x2a (ascii *), so that it is not interpreted as the start of a run-length encoded sequence (described next). Response data can be run-length encoded to save space. Run-length encoding replaces runs of identical characters with one instance of the repeated character, followed by a * and a repeat count. The repeat count is itself sent encoded, to avoid binary characters in data: a value of n is sent as n +29. For a repeat count greater or equal to 3, this produces a printable ascii character, e.g. a space (ascii code 32) for a repeat count of 3. (This is because run-length encoding starts to win for counts 3 or more.) Thus, for example, 0* is a run-length encoding of 0000: the space character after * means repeat the leading 0 32 - 29 = 3 more times. The printable characters # and $ or with a numeric value greater than 126 must not be used. Runs of six repeats (#) or seven repeats ($) can be expanded using a repeat count of only ve ("). For example, 00000000 can be encoded as 0*"00. The error response returned for some packets includes a two character error number. That number is not well dened. For any command not supported by the stub, an empty response ($#00) should be returned. That way it is possible to extend the protocol. A newer gdb can tell if a packet is supported based on that response. A stub is required to support the g, G, m, M, c, and s commands. All other commands are optional.

D.2 Packets
The following table provides a complete list of all currently dened commands and their corresponding response data. See undened [File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension], page undened , for details about the File I/O extension of the remote protocol. Each packets description has a template showing the packets overall syntax, followed by an explanation of the packets meaning. We include spaces in some of the templates for clarity; these are not part of the packets syntax. No gdb packet uses spaces to separate its components. For example, a template like foo bar baz describes a packet beginning with the three ASCII bytes foo, followed by a bar, followed directly by a baz. gdb does not transmit a space character between the foo and the bar, or between the bar and the baz. Several packets and replies include a thread-id eld to identify a thread. Normally these are positive numbers with a target-specic interpretation, formatted as big-endian hex strings. A thread-id can also be a literal -1 to indicate all threads, or 0 to pick any thread. In addition, the remote protocol supports a multiprocess feature in which the thread-id syntax is extended to optionally include both process and thread ID elds, as ppid.tid .

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

449

The pid (process) and tid (thread) components each have the format described above: a positive number with target-specic interpretation formatted as a big-endian hex string, literal -1 to indicate all processes or threads (respectively), or 0 to indicate an arbitrary process or thread. Specifying just a process, as ppid , is equivalent to ppid.-1. It is an error to specify all processes but a specic thread, such as p-1.tid . Note that the p prex is not used for those packets and replies explicitly documented to include a process ID, rather than a thread-id. The multiprocess thread-id syntax extensions are only used if both gdb and the stub report support for the multiprocess feature using qSupported. See undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened , for more information. Note that all packet forms beginning with an upper- or lower-case letter, other than those described here, are reserved for future use. Here are the packet descriptions. ! Enable extended mode. In extended mode, the remote server is made persistent. The R packet is used to restart the program being debugged. Reply: OK ? The remote target both supports and has enabled extended mode.

Indicate the reason the target halted. The reply is the same as for step and continue. This packet has a special interpretation when the target is in non-stop mode; see undened [Remote Non-Stop], page undened . Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications.

A arglen,argnum,arg,... Initialized argv[] array passed into program. arglen species the number of bytes in the hex encoded byte stream arg. See gdbserver for more details. Reply: OK E NN b baud The arguments were set. An error occurred.

(Dont use this packet; its behavior is not well-dened.) Change the serial line speed to baud. JTC: When does the transport layer state change? When its received, or after the ACK is transmitted. In either case, there are problems if the command or the acknowledgment packet is dropped. Stan: If people really wanted to add something like this, and get it working for the rst time, they ought to modify ser-unix.c to send some kind of out-ofband message to a specially-setup stub and have the switch happen "in between" packets, so that from remote protocols point of view, nothing actually happened.

B addr,mode Set (mode is S) or clear (mode is C) a breakpoint at addr. Dont use this packet. Use the Z and z packets instead (see undened [insert breakpoint or watchpoint packet], page undened ).

450

Debugging with gdb

bc

Backward continue. Execute the target system in reverse. No parameter. See undened [Reverse Execution], page undened , for more information. Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications. Backward single step. Execute one instruction in reverse. No parameter. See undened [Reverse Execution], page undened , for more information. Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications. Continue. addr is address to resume. If addr is omitted, resume at current address. Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications.

bs

c [addr ]

C sig [;addr ] Continue with signal sig (hex signal number). If ;addr is omitted, resume at same address. Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications. d Toggle debug ag. Dont use this packet; instead, dene a general set packet (see undened [General Query Packets], page undened ). The rst form of the packet is used to detach gdb from the remote system. It is sent to the remote target before gdb disconnects via the detach command. The second form, including a process ID, is used when multiprocess protocol extensions are enabled (see undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened ), to detach only a specic process. The pid is specied as a big-endian hex string. Reply: OK E NN for success for an error

D D;pid

F RC,EE,CF ;XX A reply from gdb to an F packet sent by the target. This is part of the FileI/O protocol extension. See undened [File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension], page undened , for the specication. g Read general registers. Reply: XX... Each byte of register data is described by two hex digits. The bytes with the register are transmitted in target byte order. The size of each register and their position within the g packet are determined by the gdb internal gdbarch functions DEPRECATED_REGISTER_RAW_ SIZE and gdbarch_register_name. The specication of several standard g packets is specied below.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

451

E NN G XX...

for an error.

Write general registers. See undened [read registers packet], page undened , for a description of the XX. . . data. Reply: OK E NN for success for an error

H c thread-id Set thread for subsequent operations (m, M, g, G, et.al.). c depends on the operation to be performed: it should be c for step and continue operations, g for other operations. The thread designator thread-id has the format and interpretation described in undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . Reply: OK E NN for success for an error

i [addr [,nnn ]] Step the remote target by a single clock cycle. If ,nnn is present, cycle step nnn cycles. If addr is present, cycle step starting at that address. I k Signal, then cycle step. See undened [step with signal packet], page undened . See undened [cycle step packet], page undened . Kill request. FIXME: There is no description of how to operate when a specic thread context has been selected (i.e. does k kill only that thread?).

m addr,length Read length bytes of memory starting at address addr. Note that addr may not be aligned to any particular boundary. The stub need not use any particular size or alignment when gathering data from memory for the response; even if addr is word-aligned and length is a multiple of the word size, the stub is free to use byte accesses, or not. For this reason, this packet may not be suitable for accessing memory-mapped I/O devices. Reply: XX... Memory contents; each byte is transmitted as a two-digit hexadecimal number. The reply may contain fewer bytes than requested if the server was able to read only part of the region of memory. NN is errno

E NN

M addr,length :XX... Write length bytes of memory starting at address addr. XX. . . is the data; each byte is transmitted as a two-digit hexadecimal number. Reply: OK for success

452

Debugging with gdb

E NN p n

for an error (this includes the case where only part of the data was written).

Read the value of register n; n is in hex. See undened [read registers packet], page undened , for a description of how the returned register value is encoded. Reply: XX... E NN the registers value for an error Indicating an unrecognized query.

P n...=r... Write register n. . . with value r. . . . The register number n is in hexadecimal, and r. . . contains two hex digits for each byte in the register (target byte order). Reply: OK E NN for success for an error

q name params ... Q name params ... General query (q) and set (Q). These packets are described fully in undened [General Query Packets], page undened . r R XX Reset the entire system. Dont use this packet; use the R packet instead. Restart the program being debugged. XX, while needed, is ignored. This packet is only available in extended mode (see undened [extended mode], page undened ). The R packet has no reply. Single step. addr is the address at which to resume. If addr is omitted, resume at same address. Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications.

s [addr ]

S sig [;addr ] Step with signal. This is analogous to the C packet, but requests a single-step, rather than a normal resumption of execution. Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications. t addr :PP,MM Search backwards starting at address addr for a match with pattern PP and mask MM. PP and MM are 4 bytes. addr must be at least 3 digits. T thread-id Find out if the thread thread-id is alive. See undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . Reply:

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

453

OK E NN v

thread is still alive thread is dead

Packets starting with v are identied by a multi-letter name, up to the rst ; or ? (or the end of the packet).

vAttach;pid Attach to a new process with the specied process ID pid. The process ID is a hexadecimal integer identifying the process. In all-stop mode, all threads in the attached process are stopped; in non-stop mode, it may be attached without being stopped if that is supported by the target. This packet is only available in extended mode (see undened [extended mode], page undened ). Reply: E nn for an error

Any stop packet for success in all-stop mode (see undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened ) OK for success in non-stop mode (see undened [Remote Non-Stop], page undened )

vCont[;action [:thread-id ]]... Resume the inferior, specifying dierent actions for each thread. If an action is specied with no thread-id, then it is applied to any threads that dont have a specic action specied; if no default action is specied then other threads should remain stopped in all-stop mode and in their current state in non-stop mode. Specifying multiple default actions is an error; specifying no actions is also an error. Thread IDs are specied using the syntax described in undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . Currently supported actions are: c C sig s S sig t Continue. Continue with signal sig. The signal sig should be two hex digits. Step. Step with signal sig. The signal sig should be two hex digits. Stop.

The optional argument addr normally associated with the c, C, s, and S packets is not supported in vCont. The t action is only relevant in non-stop mode (see undened [Remote NonStop], page undened ) and may be ignored by the stub otherwise. A stop reply should be generated for any aected thread not already stopped. When a thread is stopped by means of a t action, the corresponding stop reply should indicate that the thread has stopped with signal 0, regardless of whether the target uses some other signal as an implementation detail.

454

Debugging with gdb

Reply: See undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened , for the reply specications. vCont? Request a list of actions supported by the vCont packet. Reply: vCont[;action ...] The vCont packet is supported. Each action is a supported command in the vCont packet. The vCont packet is not supported.

vFile:operation :parameter ... Perform a le operation on the target system. For details, see undened [Host I/O Packets], page undened . vFlashErase:addr,length Direct the stub to erase length bytes of ash starting at addr. The region may enclose any number of ash blocks, but its start and end must fall on block boundaries, as indicated by the ash block size appearing in the memory map (see undened [Memory Map Format], page undened ). gdb groups ash memory programming operations together, and sends a vFlashDone request after each group; the stub is allowed to delay erase operation until the vFlashDone packet is received. The stub must support vCont if it reports support for multiprocess extensions (see undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened ). Note that in this case vCont actions can be specied to apply to all threads in a process by using the ppid.-1 form of the thread-id. Reply: OK E NN for success for an error

vFlashWrite:addr :XX... Direct the stub to write data to ash address addr. The data is passed in binary form using the same encoding as for the X packet (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ). The memory ranges specied by vFlashWrite packets preceding a vFlashDone packet must not overlap, and must appear in order of increasing addresses (although vFlashErase packets for higher addresses may already have been received; the ordering is guaranteed only between vFlashWrite packets). If a packet writes to an address that was neither erased by a preceding vFlashErase packet nor by some other target-specic method, the results are unpredictable. Reply: OK for success

E.memtype for vFlashWrite addressing non-ash memory E NN for an error

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

455

vFlashDone Indicate to the stub that ash programming operation is nished. The stub is permitted to delay or batch the eects of a group of vFlashErase and vFlashWrite packets until a vFlashDone packet is received. The contents of the aected regions of ash memory are unpredictable until the vFlashDone request is completed. vKill;pid Kill the process with the specied process ID. pid is a hexadecimal integer identifying the process. This packet is used in preference to k when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported; see undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened . Reply: E nn OK for an error for success

vRun;filename [;argument ]... Run the program lename, passing it each argument on its command line. The le and arguments are hex-encoded strings. If lename is an empty string, the stub may use a default program (e.g. the last program run). The program is created in the stopped state. This packet is only available in extended mode (see undened [extended mode], page undened ). Reply: E nn for an error

Any stop packet for success (see undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened ) vStopped In non-stop mode (see undened [Remote Non-Stop], page undened ), acknowledge a previous stop reply and prompt for the stub to report another one. Reply: Any stop packet if there is another unreported stop event (see undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened ) OK if there are no unreported stop events

X addr,length :XX... Write data to memory, where the data is transmitted in binary. addr is address, length is number of bytes, XX ... is binary data (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ). Reply: OK E NN for success for an error

456

Debugging with gdb

z type,addr,kind Z type,addr,kind Insert (Z) or remove (z) a type breakpoint or watchpoint starting at address address of kind kind. Each breakpoint and watchpoint packet type is documented separately. Implementation notes: A remote target shall return an empty string for an unrecognized breakpoint or watchpoint packet type. A remote target shall support either both or neither of a given Ztype ... and ztype ... packet pair. To avoid potential problems with duplicate packets, the operations should be implemented in an idempotent way. z0,addr,kind Z0,addr,kind Insert (Z0) or remove (z0) a memory breakpoint at address addr of type kind. A memory breakpoint is implemented by replacing the instruction at addr with a software breakpoint or trap instruction. The kind is target-specic and typically indicates the size of the breakpoint in bytes that should be inserted. E.g., the arm and mips can insert either a 2 or 4 byte breakpoint. Some architectures have additional meanings for kind; see undened [Architecture-Specic Protocol Details], page undened . Implementation note: It is possible for a target to copy or move code that contains memory breakpoints (e.g., when implementing overlays). The behavior of this packet, in the presence of such a target, is not dened. Reply: OK E NN success not supported for an error

z1,addr,kind Z1,addr,kind Insert (Z1) or remove (z1) a hardware breakpoint at address addr. A hardware breakpoint is implemented using a mechanism that is not dependant on being able to modify the targets memory. kind has the same meaning as in Z0 packets. Implementation note: A hardware breakpoint is not aected by code movement. Reply: OK E NN success not supported for an error

z2,addr,kind Z2,addr,kind Insert (Z2) or remove (z2) a write watchpoint at addr. kind is interpreted as the number of bytes to watch.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

457

Reply: OK E NN success not supported for an error

z3,addr,kind Z3,addr,kind Insert (Z3) or remove (z3) a read watchpoint at addr. kind is interpreted as the number of bytes to watch. Reply: OK E NN success not supported for an error

z4,addr,kind Z4,addr,kind Insert (Z4) or remove (z4) an access watchpoint at addr. kind is interpreted as the number of bytes to watch. Reply: OK E NN success not supported for an error

D.3 Stop Reply Packets

The C, c, S, s, vCont, vAttach, vRun, vStopped, and ? packets can receive any of the below as a reply. Except for ? and vStopped, that reply is only returned when the target halts. In the below the exact meaning of signal number is dened by the header include/gdb/signals.h in the gdb source code. As in the description of request packets, we include spaces in the reply templates for clarity; these are not part of the reply packets syntax. No gdb stop reply packet uses spaces to separate its components. S AA The program received signal number AA (a two-digit hexadecimal number). This is equivalent to a T response with no n:r pairs.

T AA n1 :r1 ;n2 :r2 ;... The program received signal number AA (a two-digit hexadecimal number). This is equivalent to an S response, except that the n :r pairs can carry values of important registers and other information directly in the stop reply packet, reducing round-trip latency. Single-step and breakpoint traps are reported this way. Each n :r pair is interpreted as follows: If n is a hexadecimal number, it is a register number, and the corresponding r gives that registers value. r is a series of bytes in target byte order, with each byte given by a two-digit hex number.

458

Debugging with gdb

If n is thread, then r is the thread-id of the stopped thread, as specied in undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . If n is core, then r is the hexadecimal number of the core on which the stop event was detected. If n is a recognized stop reason, it describes a more specic event that stopped the target. The currently dened stop reasons are listed below. aa should be 05, the trap signal. At most one stop reason should be present. Otherwise, gdb should ignore this n :r pair and go on to the next; this allows us to extend the protocol in the future. The currently dened stop reasons are: watch rwatch awatch library

The packet indicates a watchpoint hit, and r is the data address, in hex. The packet indicates that the loaded libraries have changed. gdb should use qXfer:libraries:read to fetch a new list of loaded libraries. r is ignored.

replaylog The packet indicates that the target cannot continue replaying logged execution events, because it has reached the end (or the beginning when executing backward) of the log. The value of r will be either begin or end. See undened [Reverse Execution], page undened , for more information. W AA W AA ; process:pid The process exited, and AA is the exit status. This is only applicable to certain targets. The second form of the response, including the process ID of the exited process, can be used only when gdb has reported support for multiprocess protocol extensions; see undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened . The pid is formatted as a big-endian hex string. X AA X AA ; process:pid The process terminated with signal AA. The second form of the response, including the process ID of the terminated process, can be used only when gdb has reported support for multiprocess protocol extensions; see undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened . The pid is formatted as a big-endian hex string. O XX ... XX ... is hex encoding of ascii data, to be written as the programs console output. This can happen at any time while the program is running and the debugger should continue to wait for W, T, etc. This reply is not permitted in non-stop mode.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

459

F call-id,parameter ... call-id is the identier which says which host system call should be called. This is just the name of the function. Translation into the correct system call is only applicable as its dened in gdb. See undened [File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension], page undened , for a list of implemented system calls. parameter ... is a list of parameters as dened for this very system call. The target replies with this packet when it expects gdb to call a host system call on behalf of the target. gdb replies with an appropriate F packet and keeps up waiting for the next reply packet from the target. The latest C, c, S or s action is expected to be continued. See undened [File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension], page undened , for more details.

D.4 General Query Packets

Packets starting with q are general query packets; packets starting with Q are general set packets. General query and set packets are a semi-unied form for retrieving and sending information to and from the stub. The initial letter of a query or set packet is followed by a name indicating what sort of thing the packet applies to. For example, gdb may use a qSymbol packet to exchange symbol denitions with the stub. These packet names follow some conventions: The name must not contain commas, colons or semicolons. Most gdb query and set packets have a leading upper case letter. The names of custom vendor packets should use a company prex, in lower case, followed by a period. For example, packets designed at the Acme Corporation might begin with qacme.foo (for querying foos) or Qacme.bar (for setting bars). The name of a query or set packet should be separated from any parameters by a :; the parameters themselves should be separated by , or ;. Stubs must be careful to match the full packet name, and check for a separator or the end of the packet, in case two packet names share a common prex. New packets should not begin with qC, qP, or qL1 . Like the descriptions of the other packets, each description here has a template showing the packets overall syntax, followed by an explanation of the packets meaning. We include spaces in some of the templates for clarity; these are not part of the packets syntax. No gdb packet uses spaces to separate its components. Here are the currently dened query and set packets: QAllow:op :val ... Specify which operations gdb expects to request of the target, as a semicolonseparated list of operation name and value pairs. Possible values for op include WriteReg, WriteMem, InsertBreak, InsertTrace, InsertFastTrace, and Stop. val is either 0, indicating that gdb will not request the operation, or 1, indicating that it may. (The target can then use this to set up its
1

The qP and qL packets predate these conventions, and have arguments without any terminator for the packet name; we suspect they are in widespread use in places that are dicult to upgrade. The qC packet has no arguments, but some existing stubs (e.g. RedBoot) are known to not check for the end of the packet.

460

Debugging with gdb

own internals optimally, for instance if the debugger never expects to insert breakpoints, it may not need to install its own trap handler.) qC Return the current thread ID. Reply: QC thread-id Where thread-id is a thread ID as documented in undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . (anything else) Any other reply implies the old thread ID. qCRC:addr,length Compute the CRC checksum of a block of memory using CRC-32 dened in IEEE 802.3. The CRC is computed byte at a time, taking the most signicant bit of each byte rst. The initial pattern code 0xffffffff is used to ensure leading zeros aect the CRC. Note: This is the same CRC used in validating separate debug les (see undened [Debugging Information in Separate Files], page undened ). However the algorithm is slightly dierent. When validating separate debug les, the CRC is computed taking the least signicant bit of each byte rst, and the nal result is inverted to detect trailing zeros. Reply: E NN C crc32 An error (such as memory fault) The specied memory regions checksum is crc32.

qfThreadInfo qsThreadInfo Obtain a list of all active thread IDs from the target (OS). Since there may be too many active threads to t into one reply packet, this query works iteratively: it may require more than one query/reply sequence to obtain the entire list of threads. The rst query of the sequence will be the qfThreadInfo query; subsequent queries in the sequence will be the qsThreadInfo query. NOTE: This packet replaces the qL query (see below). Reply: m thread-id A single thread ID m thread-id,thread-id ... a comma-separated list of thread IDs l (lower case letter L) denotes end of list.

In response to each query, the target will reply with a list of one or more thread IDs, separated by commas. gdb will respond to each reply with a request for more thread ids (using the qs form of the query), until the target responds with l (lower-case ell, for last). Refer to undened [thread-id syntax], page undened , for the format of the thread-id elds.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

461

qGetTLSAddr:thread-id,offset,lm Fetch the address associated with thread local storage specied by thread-id, oset, and lm. thread-id is the thread ID associated with the thread for which to fetch the TLS address. See undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . oset is the (big endian, hex encoded) oset associated with the thread local variable. (This oset is obtained from the debug information associated with the variable.) lm is the (big endian, hex encoded) OS/ABI-specic encoding of the the load module associated with the thread local storage. For example, a gnu/Linux system will pass the link map address of the shared object associated with the thread local storage under consideration. Other operating environments may choose to represent the load module dierently, so the precise meaning of this parameter will vary. Reply: XX ... E nn Hex encoded (big endian) bytes representing the address of the thread local storage requested. An error occurred. nn are hex digits. An empty reply indicates that qGetTLSAddr is not supported by the stub.

qGetTIBAddr:thread-id Fetch address of the Windows OS specic Thread Information Block. thread-id is the thread ID associated with the thread. Reply: XX ... E nn Hex encoded (big endian) bytes representing the linear address of the thread information block. An error occured. This means that either the thread was not found, or the address could not be retrieved. An empty reply indicates that qGetTIBAddr is not supported by the stub.

qL startflag threadcount nextthread Obtain thread information from RTOS. Where: startag (one hex digit) is one to indicate the rst query and zero to indicate a subsequent query; threadcount (two hex digits) is the maximum number of threads the response packet can contain; and nextthread (eight hex digits), for subsequent queries (startag is zero), is returned in the response as argthread. Dont use this packet; use the qfThreadInfo query instead (see above). Reply: qM count done argthread thread ... Where: count (two hex digits) is the number of threads being returned; done (one hex digit) is zero to indicate more threads

462

Debugging with gdb

and one indicates no further threads; argthreadid (eight hex digits) is nextthread from the request packet; thread. . . is a sequence of thread IDs from the target. threadid (eight hex digits). See remote.c:parse_threadlist_response(). qOffsets Get section osets that the target used when relocating the downloaded image. Reply: Text=xxx ;Data=yyy [;Bss=zzz ] Relocate the Text section by xxx from its original address. Relocate the Data section by yyy from its original address. If the object le format provides segment information (e.g. elf PT_LOAD program headers), gdb will relocate entire segments by the supplied osets. Note: while a Bss oset may be included in the response, gdb ignores this and instead applies the Data oset to the Bss section. TextSeg=xxx [;DataSeg=yyy ] Relocate the rst segment of the object le, which conventionally contains program code, to a starting address of xxx. If DataSeg is specied, relocate the second segment, which conventionally contains modiable data, to a starting address of yyy. gdb will report an error if the object le does not contain segment information, or does not contain at least as many segments as mentioned in the reply. Extra segments are kept at xed osets relative to the last relocated segment. qP mode thread-id Returns information on thread-id. Where: mode is a hex encoded 32 bit mode; thread-id is a thread ID (see undened [thread-id syntax], page undened ). Dont use this packet; use the qThreadExtraInfo query instead (see below). Reply: see remote.c:remote_unpack_thread_info_response(). QNonStop:1 QNonStop:0 Enter non-stop (QNonStop:1) or all-stop (QNonStop:0) mode. See undened [Remote Non-Stop], page undened , for more information. Reply: OK E nn The request succeeded. An error occurred. nn are hex digits. An empty reply indicates that QNonStop is not supported by the stub.

This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). Use of this packet is controlled by the set non-stop command; see undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened .

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

463

QPassSignals: signal [;signal ]... Each listed signal should be passed directly to the inferior process. Signals are numbered identically to continue packets and stop replies (see undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened ). Each signal list item should be strictly greater than the previous item. These signals do not need to stop the inferior, or be reported to gdb. All other signals should be reported to gdb. Multiple QPassSignals packets do not combine; any earlier QPassSignals list is completely replaced by the new list. This packet improves performance when using handle signal nostop noprint pass. Reply: OK E nn The request succeeded. An error occurred. nn are hex digits. An empty reply indicates that QPassSignals is not supported by the stub.

Use of this packet is controlled by the set remote pass-signals command (see undened [Remote Conguration], page undened ). This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qRcmd,command command (hex encoded) is passed to the local interpreter for execution. Invalid commands should be reported using the output string. Before the nal result packet, the target may also respond with a number of intermediate Ooutput console output packets. Implementors should note that providing access to a stubss interpreter may have security implications. Reply: OK OUTPUT E NN A command response with no output. A command response with the hex encoded output string OUTPUT. Indicate a badly formed request. An empty reply indicates that qRcmd is not recognized.

(Note that the qRcmd packets name is separated from the command by a ,, not a :, contrary to the naming conventions above. Please dont use this packet as a model for new packets.) qSearch:memory:address ;length ;search-pattern Search length bytes at address for search-pattern. address and length are encoded in hex. search-pattern is a sequence of bytes, hex encoded. Reply: 0 The pattern was not found.

1,address The pattern was found at address.

464

Debugging with gdb

E NN

A badly formed request or an error was encountered while searching memory. An empty reply indicates that qSearch:memory is not recognized.

QStartNoAckMode Request that the remote stub disable the normal +/- protocol acknowledgments (see undened [Packet Acknowledgment], page undened ). Reply: OK The stub has switched to no-acknowledgment mode. gdb acknowledges this reponse, but neither the stub nor gdb shall send or expect further +/- acknowledgments in the current connection. An empty reply indicates that the stub does not support no-acknowledgment mode.

qSupported [:gdbfeature [;gdbfeature ]... ] Tell the remote stub about features supported by gdb, and query the stub for features it supports. This packet allows gdb and the remote stub to take advantage of each others features. qSupported also consolidates multiple feature probes at startup, to improve gdb performancea single larger packet performs better than multiple smaller probe packets on high-latency links. Some features may enable behavior which must not be on by default, e.g. because it would confuse older clients or stubs. Other features may describe packets which could be automatically probed for, but are not. These features must be reported before gdb will use them. This default unsupported behavior is not appropriate for all packets, but it helps to keep the initial connection time under control with new versions of gdb which support increasing numbers of packets. Reply: stubfeature [;stubfeature ]... The stub supports or does not support each returned stubfeature, depending on the form of each stubfeature (see below for the possible forms). An empty reply indicates that qSupported is not recognized, or that no features needed to be reported to gdb.

The allowed forms for each feature (either a gdbfeature in the qSupported packet, or a stubfeature in the response) are: name =value The remote protocol feature name is supported, and associated with the specied value. The format of value depends on the feature, but it must not include a semicolon. name + name- The remote protocol feature name is supported, and does not need an associated value. The remote protocol feature name is not supported.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

465

name ?

The remote protocol feature name may be supported, and gdb should auto-detect support in some other way when it is needed. This form will not be used for gdbfeature notications, but may be used for stubfeature responses.

Whenever the stub receives a qSupported request, the supplied set of gdb features should override any previous request. This allows gdb to put the stub in a known state, even if the stub had previously been communicating with a dierent version of gdb. The following values of gdbfeature (for the packet sent by gdb) are dened: multiprocess This feature indicates whether gdb supports multiprocess extensions to the remote protocol. gdb does not use such extensions unless the stub also reports that it supports them by including multiprocess+ in its qSupported reply. See undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened , for details. xmlRegisters This feature indicates that gdb supports the XML target description. If the stub sees xmlRegisters= with target specic strings separated by a comma, it will report register description. qRelocInsn This feature indicates whether gdb supports the qRelocInsn packet (see undened [Relocate instruction reply packet], page undened ). Stubs should ignore any unknown values for gdbfeature. Any gdb which sends a qSupported packet supports receiving packets of unlimited length (earlier versions of gdb may reject overly long responses). Additional values for gdbfeature may be dened in the future to let the stub take advantage of new features in gdb, e.g. incompatible improvements in the remote protocolthe multiprocess feature is an example of such a feature. The stubs reply should be independent of the gdbfeature entries sent by gdb; rst gdb describes all the features it supports, and then the stub replies with all the features it supports. Similarly, gdb will silently ignore unrecognized stub feature responses, as long as each response uses one of the standard forms. Some features are ags. A stub which supports a ag feature should respond with a + form response. Other features require values, and the stub should respond with an = form response. Each feature has a default value, which gdb will use if qSupported is not available or if the feature is not mentioned in the qSupported response. The default values are xed; a stub is free to omit any feature responses that match the defaults. Not all features can be probed, but for those which can, the probing mechanism is useful: in some cases, a stubs internal architecture may not allow the protocol layer to know some information about the underlying target in advance. This is especially common in stubs which may be congured for multiple targets.

466

Debugging with gdb

These are the currently dened stub features and their properties: Feature Name PacketSize qXfer:auxv:read qXfer:features:read qXfer:libraries:read qXfer:memory-map:read qXfer:sdata:read qXfer:spu:read qXfer:spu:write qXfer:siginfo:read qXfer:siginfo:write qXfer:threads:read QNonStop QPassSignals QStartNoAckMode multiprocess ConditionalTracepoints ReverseContinue ReverseStep TracepointSource QAllow Value Required Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No Default - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Probe Allowed No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No

These are the currently dened stub features, in more detail: PacketSize=bytes The remote stub can accept packets up to at least bytes in length. gdb will send packets up to this size for bulk transfers, and will never send larger packets. This is a limit on the data characters in the packet, including the frame and checksum. There is no trailing NUL byte in a remote protocol packet; if the stub stores packets in a NUL-terminated format, it should allow an extra byte in its buer for the NUL. If this stub feature is not supported, gdb guesses based on the size of the g packet response.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

467

qXfer:auxv:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:auxv:read packet (see undened [qXfer auxiliary vector read], page undened ). qXfer:features:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:features:read packet (see undened [qXfer target description read], page undened ). qXfer:libraries:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:libraries:read packet (see undened [qXfer library list read], page undened ). qXfer:memory-map:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:memory-map:read packet (see undened [qXfer memory map read], page undened ). qXfer:sdata:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:sdata:read packet (see undened [qXfer sdata read], page undened ). qXfer:spu:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:spu:read packet (see undened [qXfer spu read], page undened ). qXfer:spu:write The remote stub understands the qXfer:spu:write packet (see undened [qXfer spu write], page undened ). qXfer:siginfo:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:siginfo:read packet (see undened [qXfer siginfo read], page undened ). qXfer:siginfo:write The remote stub understands the qXfer:siginfo:write packet (see undened [qXfer siginfo write], page undened ). qXfer:threads:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:threads:read packet (see undened [qXfer threads read], page undened ). QNonStop The remote stub understands the QNonStop packet (see undened [QNonStop], page undened ). QPassSignals The remote stub understands the QPassSignals packet (see undened [QPassSignals], page undened ). QStartNoAckMode The remote stub understands the QStartNoAckMode packet and prefers to operate in no-acknowledgment mode. See undened [Packet Acknowledgment], page undened . multiprocess

468

Debugging with gdb

The remote stub understands the multiprocess extensions to the remote protocol syntax. The multiprocess extensions aect the syntax of thread IDs in both packets and replies (see undened [thread-id syntax], page undened ), and add process IDs to the D packet and W and X replies. Note that reporting this feature indicates support for the syntactic extensions only, not that the stub necessarily supports debugging of more than one process at a time. The stub must not use multiprocess extensions in packet replies unless gdb has also indicated it supports them in its qSupported request. qXfer:osdata:read The remote stub understands the qXfer:osdata:read packet ((see undened [qXfer osdata read], page undened ). ConditionalTracepoints The remote stub accepts and implements conditional expressions dened for tracepoints (see undened [Tracepoint Conditions], page undened ). ReverseContinue The remote stub accepts and implements the reverse continue packet (see undened [bc], page undened ). ReverseStep The remote stub accepts and implements the reverse step packet (see undened [bs], page undened ). TracepointSource The remote stub understands the QTDPsrc packet that supplies the source form of tracepoint denitions. QAllow The remote stub understands the QAllow packet.

StaticTracepoint The remote stub supports static tracepoints. qSymbol:: Notify the target that gdb is prepared to serve symbol lookup requests. Accept requests from the target for the values of symbols. Reply: OK The target does not need to look up any (more) symbols.

qSymbol:sym_name The target requests the value of symbol sym name (hex encoded). gdb may provide the value by using the qSymbol:sym_value :sym_name message, described below. qSymbol:sym_value :sym_name Set the value of sym name to sym value. sym name (hex encoded) is the name of a symbol whose value the target has previously requested.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

469

sym value (hex) is the value for symbol sym name. If gdb cannot supply a value for sym name, then this eld will be empty. Reply: OK The target does not need to look up any (more) symbols. qSymbol:sym_name The target requests the value of a new symbol sym name (hex encoded). gdb will continue to supply the values of symbols (if available), until the target ceases to request them. qTBuffer QTBuffer QTDisconnected QTDP QTDPsrc QTDV qTfP qTfV QTFrame See undened [Tracepoint Packets], page undened . qThreadExtraInfo,thread-id Obtain a printable string description of a threads attributes from the target OS. thread-id is a thread ID; see undened [thread-id syntax], page undened . This string may contain anything that the target OS thinks is interesting for gdb to tell the user about the thread. The string is displayed in gdbs info threads display. Some examples of possible thread extra info strings are Runnable, or Blocked on Mutex. Reply: XX ... Where XX ... is a hex encoding of ascii data, comprising the printable string containing the extra information about the threads attributes.

(Note that the qThreadExtraInfo packets name is separated from the command by a ,, not a :, contrary to the naming conventions above. Please dont use this packet as a model for new packets.) QTSave qTsP qTsV QTStart QTStop QTinit QTro qTStatus qTV qTfSTM qTsSTM qTSTMat See undened [Tracepoint Packets], page undened .

470

Debugging with gdb

qXfer:object :read:annex :offset,length Read uninterpreted bytes from the targets special data area identied by the keyword object. Request length bytes starting at oset bytes into the data. The content and encoding of annex is specic to object; it can supply additional details about what data to access. Here are the specic requests of this form dened so far. All qXfer:object :read:... requests use the same reply formats, listed below. qXfer:auxv:read::offset,length Access the targets auxiliary vector. See undened [OS Information], page undened . Note annex must be empty. This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:features:read:annex :offset,length Access the target description. See undened [Target Descriptions], page undened . The annex species which XML document to access. The main description is always loaded from the target.xml annex. This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:libraries:read:annex :offset,length Access the targets list of loaded libraries. See undened [Library List Format], page undened . The annex part of the generic qXfer packet must be empty (see undened [qXfer read], page undened ). Targets which maintain a list of libraries in the programs memory do not need to implement this packet; it is designed for platforms where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries. This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:memory-map:read::offset,length Access the targets memory-map. See undened [Memory Map Format], page undened . The annex part of the generic qXfer packet must be empty (see undened [qXfer read], page undened ). This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:sdata:read::offset,length Read contents of the extra collected static tracepoint marker information. The annex part of the generic qXfer packet must be

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

471

empty (see undened [qXfer read], page undened ). See undened [Tracepoint Action Lists], page undened . This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:siginfo:read::offset,length Read contents of the extra signal information on the target system. The annex part of the generic qXfer packet must be empty (see undened [qXfer read], page undened ). This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:spu:read:annex :offset,length Read contents of an spufs le on the target system. The annex species which le to read; it must be of the form id /name , where id species an SPU context ID in the target process, and name identifes the spufs le in that context to be accessed. This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:threads:read::offset,length Access the list of threads on target. See undened [Thread List Format], page undened . The annex part of the generic qXfer packet must be empty (see undened [qXfer read], page undened ). This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:osdata:read::offset,length Access the targets operating system information. See undened [Operating System Information], page undened . Reply: m data Data data (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ) has been read from the target. There may be more data at a higher address (although it is permitted to return m even for the last valid block of data, as long as at least one byte of data was read). data may have fewer bytes than the length in the request. Data data (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ) has been read from the target. There is no more data to be read. data may have fewer bytes than the length in the request. The oset in the request is at the end of the data. There is no more data to be read.

l data

472

Debugging with gdb

E00 E nn

The request was malformed, or annex was invalid. The oset was invalid, or there was an error encountered reading the data. nn is a hex-encoded errno value. An empty reply indicates the object string was not recognized by the stub, or that the object does not support reading.

qXfer:object :write:annex :offset :data ... Write uninterpreted bytes into the targets special data area identied by the keyword object, starting at oset bytes into the data. data. . . is the binaryencoded data (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ) to be written. The content and encoding of annex is specic to object; it can supply additional details about what data to access. Here are the specic requests of this form dened so far. All qXfer:object :write:... requests use the same reply formats, listed below. qXfer:siginfo:write::offset :data ... Write data to the extra signal information on the target system. The annex part of the generic qXfer packet must be empty (see undened [qXfer write], page undened ). This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). qXfer:spu:write:annex :offset :data ... Write data to an spufs le on the target system. The annex species which le to write; it must be of the form id /name , where id species an SPU context ID in the target process, and name identifes the spufs le in that context to be accessed. This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it, by supplying an appropriate qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). Reply: nn E00 E nn nn (hex encoded) is the number of bytes written. This may be fewer bytes than supplied in the request. The request was malformed, or annex was invalid. The oset was invalid, or there was an error encountered writing the data. nn is a hex-encoded errno value. An empty reply indicates the object string was not recognized by the stub, or that the object does not support writing.

qXfer:object :operation :... Requests of this form may be added in the future. When a stub does not recognize the object keyword, or its support for object does not recognize the operation keyword, the stub must respond with an empty packet.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

473

qAttached:pid Return an indication of whether the remote server attached to an existing process or created a new process. When the multiprocess protocol extensions are supported (see undened [multiprocess extensions], page undened ), pid is an integer in hexadecimal format identifying the target process. Otherwise, gdb will omit the pid eld and the query packet will be simplied as qAttached. This query is used, for example, to know whether the remote process should be detached or killed when a gdb session is ended with the quit command. Reply: 1 0 E NN The remote server attached to an existing process. The remote server created a new process. A badly formed request or an error was encountered.

D.5 Architecture-Specic Protocol Details

This section describes how the remote protocol is applied to specic target architectures. Also see undened [Standard Target Features], page undened , for details of XML target descriptions for each architecture.

D.5.1 ARM D.5.1.1 Breakpoint Kinds

These breakpoint kinds are dened for the Z0 and Z1 packets. 2 3 4 16-bit Thumb mode breakpoint. 32-bit Thumb mode (Thumb-2) breakpoint. 32-bit ARM mode breakpoint.

D.5.2 MIPS D.5.2.1 Register Packet Format

The following g/G packets have previously been dened. In the below, some thirty-two bit registers are transferred as sixty-four bits. Those registers should be zero/sign extended (which?) to ll the space allocated. Register bytes are transferred in target byte order. The two nibbles within a register byte are transferred most-signicant - least-signicant. MIPS32 All registers are transferred as thirty-two bit quantities in the order: 32 generalpurpose; sr; lo; hi; bad; cause; pc; 32 oating-point registers; fsr; r; fp.

474

Debugging with gdb

MIPS64 All registers are transferred as sixty-four bit quantities (including thirty-two bit registers such as sr). The ordering is the same as MIPS32.

D.6 Tracepoint Packets

Here we describe the packets gdb uses to implement tracepoints (see undened [Tracepoints], page undened ). QTDP:n :addr :ena :step :pass [:Fflen ][:Xlen,bytes ][-] Create a new tracepoint, number n, at addr. If ena is E, then the tracepoint is enabled; if it is D, then the tracepoint is disabled. step is the tracepoints step count, and pass is its pass count. If an F is present, then the tracepoint is to be a fast tracepoint, and the en is the number of bytes that the target should copy elsewhere to make room for the tracepoint. If an X is present, it introduces a tracepoint condition, which consists of a hexadecimal length, followed by a comma and hex-encoded bytes, in a manner similar to action encodings as described below. If the trailing - is present, further QTDP packets will follow to specify this tracepoints actions. Replies: OK The packet was understood and carried out.

qRelocInsn See undened [Relocate instruction reply packet], page undened . The packet was not recognized.

QTDP:-n :addr :[S]action ...[-] Dene actions to be taken when a tracepoint is hit. n and addr must be the same as in the initial QTDP packet for this tracepoint. This packet may only be sent immediately after another QTDP packet that ended with a -. If the trailing - is present, further QTDP packets will follow, specifying more actions for this tracepoint. In the series of action packets for a given tracepoint, at most one can have an S before its rst action. If such a packet is sent, it and the following packets dene while-stepping actions. Any prior packets dene ordinary actions that is, those taken when the tracepoint is rst hit. If no action packet has an S, then all the packets in the series specify ordinary tracepoint actions. The action ... portion of the packet is a series of actions, concatenated without separators. Each action has one of the following forms: R mask Collect the registers whose bits are set in mask. mask is a hexadecimal number whose ith bit is set if register number i should be collected. (The least signicant bit is numbered zero.) Note that mask may be any number of digits long; it may not t in a 32-bit word.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

475

M basereg,offset,len Collect len bytes of memory starting at the address in register number basereg, plus oset. If basereg is -1, then the range has a xed address: oset is the address of the lowest byte to collect. The basereg, oset, and len parameters are all unsigned hexadecimal values (the -1 value for basereg is a special case). X len,expr Evaluate expr, whose length is len, and collect memory as it directs. expr is an agent expression, as described in undened [Agent Expressions], page undened . Each byte of the expression is encoded as a two-digit hex number in the packet; len is the number of bytes in the expression (and thus one-half the number of hex digits in the packet). Any number of actions may be packed together in a single QTDP packet, as long as the packet does not exceed the maximum packet length (400 bytes, for many stubs). There may be only one R action per tracepoint, and it must precede any M or X actions. Any registers referred to by M and X actions must be collected by a preceding R action. (The while-stepping actions are treated as if they were attached to a separate tracepoint, as far as these restrictions are concerned.) Replies: OK The packet was understood and carried out. qRelocInsn See undened [Relocate instruction reply packet], page undened . The packet was not recognized. QTDPsrc:n :addr :type :start :slen :bytes Specify a source string of tracepoint n at address addr. This is useful to get accurate reproduction of the tracepoints originally downloaded at the beginning of the trace run. type is the name of the tracepoint part, such as cond for the tracepoints conditional expression (see below for a list of types), while bytes is the string, encoded in hexadecimal. start is the oset of the bytes within the overall source string, while slen is the total length of the source string. This is intended for handling source strings that are longer than will t in a single packet. The available string types are at for the location, cond for the conditional, and cmd for an action command. gdb sends a separate packet for each command in the action list, in the same order in which the commands are stored in the list. The target does not need to do anything with source strings except report them back as part of the replies to the qTfP/qTsP query packets. Although this packet is optional, and gdb will only send it if the target replies with TracepointSource See undened [General Query Packets], page undened , it makes both disconnected tracing and trace les much easier to use.

476

Debugging with gdb

Otherwise the user must be careful that the tracepoints in eect while looking at trace frames are identical to the ones in eect during the trace run; even a small discrepancy could cause tdump not to work, or a particular trace frame not be found. QTDV:n :value Create a new trace state variable, number n, with an initial value of value, which is a 64-bit signed integer. Both n and value are encoded as hexadecimal values. gdb has the option of not using this packet for initial values of zero; the target should simply create the trace state variables as they are mentioned in expressions. QTFrame:n Select the nth tracepoint frame from the buer, and use the register and memory contents recorded there to answer subsequent request packets from gdb. A successful reply from the stub indicates that the stub has found the requested frame. The response is a series of parts, concatenated without separators, describing the frame we selected. Each part has one of the following forms: F f The selected frame is number n in the trace frame buer; f is a hexadecimal number. If f is -1, then there was no frame matching the criteria in the request packet. The selected trace frame records a hit of tracepoint number t; t is a hexadecimal number.

T t

QTFrame:pc:addr Like QTFrame:n , but select the rst tracepoint frame after the currently selected frame whose PC is addr; addr is a hexadecimal number. QTFrame:tdp:t Like QTFrame:n , but select the rst tracepoint frame after the currently selected frame that is a hit of tracepoint t; t is a hexadecimal number. QTFrame:range:start :end Like QTFrame:n , but select the rst tracepoint frame after the currently selected frame whose PC is between start (inclusive) and end (inclusive); start and end are hexadecimal numbers. QTFrame:outside:start :end Like QTFrame:range:start :end , but select the rst frame outside the given range of addresses (exclusive). QTStart Begin the tracepoint experiment. Begin collecting data from tracepoint hits in the trace frame buer. This packet supports the qRelocInsn reply (see undened [Relocate instruction reply packet], page undened ). End the tracepoint experiment. Stop collecting trace frames. Clear the table of tracepoints, and empty the trace frame buer.

QTStop QTinit

QTro:start1,end1 :start2,end2 :... Establish the given ranges of memory as transparent. The stub will answer requests for these ranges from memorys current contents, if they were not collected as part of the tracepoint hit.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

477

gdb uses this to mark read-only regions of memory, like those containing program code. Since these areas never change, they should still have the same contents they did when the tracepoint was hit, so theres no reason for the stub to refuse to provide their contents. QTDisconnected:value Set the choice to what to do with the tracing run when gdb disconnects from the target. A value of 1 directs the target to continue the tracing run, while 0 tells the target to stop tracing if gdb is no longer in the picture. qTStatus Ask the stub if there is a trace experiment running right now. The reply has the form: Trunning [;field ]... running is a single digit 1 if the trace is presently running, or 0 if not. It is followed by semicolon-separated optional elds that an agent may use to report additional status. If the trace is not running, the agent may report any of several explanations as one of the optional elds: tnotrun:0 No trace has been run yet. tstop:0 tfull:0 The trace was stopped by a user-originated stop command. The trace stopped because the trace buer lled up.

tdisconnected:0 The trace stopped because gdb disconnected from the target. tpasscount:tpnum The trace stopped because tracepoint tpnum exceeded its pass count. terror:text :tpnum The trace stopped because tracepoint tpnum had an error. The string text is available to describe the nature of the error (for instance, a divide by zero in the condition expression). text is hex encoded. tunknown:0 The trace stopped for some other reason. Additional optional elds supply statistical and other information. Although not required, they are extremely useful for users monitoring the progress of a trace run. If a trace has stopped, and these numbers are reported, they must reect the state of the just-stopped trace. tframes:n The number of trace frames in the buer. tcreated:n The total number of trace frames created during the run. This may be larger than the trace frame count, if the buer is circular.

478

Debugging with gdb

tsize:n The total size of the trace buer, in bytes. tfree:n The number of bytes still unused in the buer. circular:n The value of the circular trace buer ag. 1 means that the trace buer is circular and old trace frames will be discarded if necessary to make room, 0 means that the trace buer is linear and may ll up. disconn:n The value of the disconnected tracing ag. 1 means that tracing will continue after gdb disconnects, 0 means that the trace run will stop. qTV:var Ask the stub for the value of the trace state variable number var. Replies: Vvalue The value of the variable is value. This will be the current value of the variable if the user is examining a running target, or a saved value if the variable was collected in the trace frame that the user is looking at. Note that multiple requests may result in dierent reply values, such as when requesting values while the program is running. The value of the variable is unknown. This would occur, for example, if the user is examining a trace frame in which the requested variable was not collected.

qTfP qTsP

These packets request data about tracepoints that are being used by the target. gdb sends qTfP to get the rst piece of data, and multiple qTsP to get additional pieces. Replies to these packets generally take the form of the QTDP packets that dene tracepoints. (FIXME add detailed syntax) These packets request data about trace state variables that are on the target. gdb sends qTfV to get the rst vari of data, and multiple qTsV to get additional variables. Replies to these packets follow the syntax of the QTDV packets that dene trace state variables. These packets request data about static tracepoint markers that exist in the target program. gdb sends qTfSTM to get the rst piece of data, and multiple qTsSTM to get additional pieces. Replies to these packets take the following form: Reply: m address :id :extra A single marker m address :id :extra,address :id :extra ... a comma-separated list of markers

qTfV qTsV

qTfSTM qTsSTM

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

479

l E nn

(lower case letter L) denotes end of list. An error occurred. nn are hex digits. An empty reply indicates that the request is not supported by the stub.

address is encoded in hex. id and extra are strings encoded in hex. In response to each query, the target will reply with a list of one or more markers, separated by commas. gdb will respond to each reply with a request for more markers (using the qs form of the query), until the target responds with l (lower-case ell, for last). qTSTMat:address This packets requests data about static tracepoint markers in the target program at address. Replies to this packet follow the syntax of the qTfSTM and qTsSTM packets that list static tracepoint markers. QTSave:filename This packet directs the target to save trace data to the le name lename in the targets lesystem. lename is encoded as a hex string; the interpretation of the le name (relative vs absolute, wild cards, etc) is up to the target. qTBuffer:offset,len Return up to len bytes of the current contents of trace buer, starting at oset. The trace buer is treated as if it were a contiguous collection of traceframes, as per the trace le format. The reply consists as many hex-encoded bytes as the target can deliver in a packet; it is not an error to return fewer than were asked for. A reply consisting of just l indicates that no bytes are available. QTBuffer:circular:value This packet directs the target to use a circular trace buer if value is 1, or a linear buer if the value is 0.

D.6.1 Relocate instruction reply packet

When installing fast tracepoints in memory, the target may need to relocate the instruction currently at the tracepoint address to a dierent address in memory. For most instructions, a simple copy is enough, but, for example, call instructions that implicitly push the return address on the stack, and relative branches or other PC-relative instructions require oset adjustment, so that the eect of executing the instruction at a dierent address is the same as if it had executed in the original location. In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may also respond with a number of intermediate qRelocInsn request packets before the nal result packet, to have gdb handle this relocation operation. If a packet supports this mechanism, its documentation will explicitly say so. See for example the above descriptions for the QTStart and QTDP packets. The format of the request is: qRelocInsn:from ;to This requests gdb to copy instruction at address from to address to, possibly adjusted so that executing the instruction at to has the same eect as executing

480

Debugging with gdb

it at from. gdb writes the adjusted instruction to target memory starting at to. Replies: qRelocInsn:adjusted_size Informs the stub the relocation is complete. adjusted size is the length in bytes of resulting relocated instruction sequence. E NN A badly formed request was detected, or an error was encountered while relocating the instruction.

D.7 Host I/O Packets

The Host I/O packets allow gdb to perform I/O operations on the far side of a remote link. For example, Host I/O is used to upload and download les to a remote target with its own lesystem. Host I/O uses the same constant values and data structure layout as the target-initiated File-I/O protocol. However, the Host I/O packets are structured dierently. The target-initiated protocol relies on target memory to store parameters and buers. Host I/O requests are initiated by gdb, and the targets memory is not involved. See undened [File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension], page undened , for more details on the target-initiated protocol. The Host I/O request packets all encode a single operation along with its arguments. They have this format: vFile:operation : parameter ... operation is the name of the particular request; the target should compare the entire packet name up to the second colon when checking for a supported operation. The format of parameter depends on the operation. Numbers are always passed in hexadecimal. Negative numbers have an explicit minus sign (i.e. twos complement is not used). Strings (e.g. lenames) are encoded as a series of hexadecimal bytes. The last argument to a system call may be a buer of escaped binary data (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ). The valid responses to Host I/O packets are: F result [, errno ] [; attachment ] result is the integer value returned by this operation, usually non-negative for success and -1 for errors. If an error has occured, errno will be included in the result. errno will have a value dened by the File-I/O protocol (see undened [Errno Values], page undened ). For operations which return data, attachment supplies the data as a binary buer. Binary buers in response packets are escaped in the normal way (see undened [Binary Data], page undened ). See the individual packet documentation for the interpretation of result and attachment. An empty response indicates that this operation is not recognized. These are the supported Host I/O operations:

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

481

vFile:open: pathname, flags, mode Open a le at pathname and return a le descriptor for it, or return -1 if an error occurs. pathname is a string, ags is an integer indicating a mask of open ags (see undened [Open Flags], page undened ), and mode is an integer indicating a mask of mode bits to use if the le is created (see undened [mode t Values], page undened ). See undened [open], page undened , for details of the open ags and mode values. vFile:close: fd Close the open le corresponding to fd and return 0, or -1 if an error occurs. vFile:pread: fd, count, offset Read data from the open le corresponding to fd. Up to count bytes will be read from the le, starting at oset relative to the start of the le. The target may read fewer bytes; common reasons include packet size limits and an endof-le condition. The number of bytes read is returned. Zero should only be returned for a successful read at the end of the le, or if count was zero. The data read should be returned as a binary attachment on success. If zero bytes were read, the response should include an empty binary attachment (i.e. a trailing semicolon). The return value is the number of target bytes read; the binary attachment may be longer if some characters were escaped. vFile:pwrite: fd, offset, data Write data (a binary buer) to the open le corresponding to fd. Start the write at oset from the start of the le. Unlike many write system calls, there is no separate count argument; the length of data in the packet is used. vFile:write returns the number of bytes written, which may be shorter than the length of data, or -1 if an error occurred. vFile:unlink: pathname Delete the le at pathname on the target. Return 0, or -1 if an error occurs. pathname is a string.

D.8 Interrupts
When a program on the remote target is running, gdb may attempt to interrupt it by sending a Ctrl-C, BREAK or a BREAK followed by g, control of which is specied via gdbs interrupt-sequence. The precise meaning of BREAK is dened by the transport mechanism and may, in fact, be undened. gdb does not currently dene a BREAK mechanism for any of the network interfaces except for TCP, in which case gdb sends the telnet BREAK sequence. Ctrl-C, on the other hand, is dened and implemented for all transport mechanisms. It is represented by sending the single byte 0x03 without any of the usual packet overhead described in the Overview section (see undened [Overview], page undened ). When a 0x03 byte is transmitted as part of a packet, it is considered to be packet data and does not represent an interrupt. E.g., an X packet (see undened [X packet], page undened ), used for binary downloads, may include an unescaped 0x03 as part of its packet.

482

Debugging with gdb

BREAK followed by g is also known as Magic SysRq g. When Linux kernel receives this sequence from serial port, it stops execution and connects to gdb. Stubs are not required to recognize these interrupt mechanisms and the precise meaning associated with receipt of the interrupt is implementation dened. If the target supports debugging of multiple threads and/or processes, it should attempt to interrupt all currentlyexecuting threads and processes. If the stub is successful at interrupting the running program, it should send one of the stop reply packets (see undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened ) to gdb as a result of successfully stopping the program in all-stop mode, and a stop reply for each stopped thread in non-stop mode. Interrupts received while the program is stopped are discarded.

D.9 Notication Packets

The gdb remote serial protocol includes notications, packets that require no acknowledgment. Both the GDB and the stub may send notications (although the only notications dened at present are sent by the stub). Notications carry information without incurring the round-trip latency of an acknowledgment, and so are useful for low-impact communications where occasional packet loss is not a problem. A notication packet has the form % data # checksum , where data is the content of the notication, and checksum is a checksum of data, computed and formatted as for ordinary gdb packets. A notications data never contains $, % or # characters. Upon receiving a notication, the recipient sends no + or - to acknowledge the notications receipt or to report its corruption. Every notications data begins with a name, which contains no colon characters, followed by a colon character. Recipients should silently ignore corrupted notications and notications they do not understand. Recipients should restart timeout periods on receipt of a well-formed notication, whether or not they understand it. Senders should only send the notications described here when this protocol description species that they are permitted. In the future, we may extend the protocol to permit existing notications in new contexts; this rule helps older senders avoid confusing newer recipients. (Older versions of gdb ignore bytes received until they see the $ byte that begins an ordinary packet, so new stubs may transmit notications without fear of confusing older clients. There are no notications dened for gdb to send at the moment, but we assume that most older stubs would ignore them, as well.) The following notication packets from the stub to gdb are dened: Stop: reply Report an asynchronous stop event in non-stop mode. The reply has the form of a stop reply, as described in undened [Stop Reply Packets], page undened . Refer to undened [Remote Non-Stop], page undened , for information on how these notications are acknowledged by gdb.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

483

D.10 Remote Protocol Support for Non-Stop Mode

gdbs remote protocol supports non-stop debugging of multi-threaded programs, as described in undened [Non-Stop Mode], page undened . If the stub supports non-stop mode, it should report that to gdb by including QNonStop+ in its qSupported response (see undened [qSupported], page undened ). gdb typically sends a QNonStop packet only when establishing a new connection with the stub. Entering non-stop mode does not alter the state of any currently-running threads, but targets must stop all threads in any already-attached processes when entering all-stop mode. gdb uses the ? packet as necessary to probe the target state after a mode change. In non-stop mode, when an attached process encounters an event that would otherwise be reported with a stop reply, it uses the asynchronous notication mechanism (see undened [Notication Packets], page undened ) to inform gdb. In contrast to all-stop mode, where all threads in all processes are stopped when a stop reply is sent, in non-stop mode only the thread reporting the stop event is stopped. That is, when reporting a S or T response to indicate completion of a step operation, hitting a breakpoint, or a fault, only the aected thread is stopped; any other still-running threads continue to run. When reporting a W or X response, all running threads belonging to other attached processes continue to run. Only one stop reply notication at a time may be pending; if additional stop events occur before gdb has acknowledged the previous notication, they must be queued by the stub for later synchronous transmission in response to vStopped packets from gdb. Because the notication mechanism is unreliable, the stub is permitted to resend a stop reply notication if it believes gdb may not have received it. gdb ignores additional stop reply notications received before it has nished processing a previous notication and the stub has completed sending any queued stop events. Otherwise, gdb must be prepared to receive a stop reply notication at any time. Specifically, they may appear when gdb is not otherwise reading input from the stub, or when gdb is expecting to read a normal synchronous response or a +/- acknowledgment to a packet it has sent. Notication packets are distinct from any other communication from the stub so there is no ambiguity. After receiving a stop reply notication, gdb shall acknowledge it by sending a vStopped packet (see undened [vStopped packet], page undened ) as a regular, synchronous request to the stub. Such acknowledgment is not required to happen immediately, as gdb is permitted to send other, unrelated packets to the stub rst, which the stub should process normally. Upon receiving a vStopped packet, if the stub has other queued stop events to report to gdb, it shall respond by sending a normal stop reply response. gdb shall then send another vStopped packet to solicit further responses; again, it is permitted to send other, unrelated packets as well which the stub should process normally. If the stub receives a vStopped packet and there are no additional stop events to report, the stub shall return an OK response. At this point, if further stop events occur, the stub shall send a new stop reply notication, gdb shall accept the notication, and the process shall be repeated.

484

Debugging with gdb

In non-stop mode, the target shall respond to the ? packet as follows. First, any incomplete stop reply notication/vStopped sequence in progress is abandoned. The target must begin a new sequence reporting stop events for all stopped threads, whether or not it has previously reported those events to gdb. The rst stop reply is sent as a synchronous reply to the ? packet, and subsequent stop replies are sent as responses to vStopped packets using the mechanism described above. The target must not send asynchronous stop reply notications until the sequence is complete. If all threads are running when the target receives the ? packet, or if the target is not attached to any process, it shall respond OK.

D.11 Packet Acknowledgment

By default, when either the host or the target machine receives a packet, the rst response expected is an acknowledgment: either + (to indicate the package was received correctly) or - (to request retransmission). This mechanism allows the gdb remote protocol to operate over unreliable transport mechanisms, such as a serial line. In cases where the transport mechanism is itself reliable (such as a pipe or TCP connection), the +/- acknowledgments are redundant. It may be desirable to disable them in that case to reduce communication overhead, or for other reasons. This can be accomplished by means of the QStartNoAckMode packet; see undened [QStartNoAckMode], page undened . When in no-acknowledgment mode, neither the stub nor gdb shall send or expect +/- protocol acknowledgments. The packet and response format still includes the normal checksum, as described in undened [Overview], page undened , but the checksum may be ignored by the receiver. If the stub supports QStartNoAckMode and prefers to operate in no-acknowledgment mode, it should report that to gdb by including QStartNoAckMode+ in its response to qSupported; see undened [qSupported], page undened . If gdb also supports QStartNoAckMode and it has not been disabled via the set remote noack-packet off command (see undened [Remote Conguration], page undened ), gdb may then send a QStartNoAckMode packet to the stub. Only then may the stub actually turn o packet acknowledgments. gdb sends a nal + acknowledgment of the stubs OK response, which can be safely ignored by the stub. Note that set remote noack-packet command only aects negotiation between gdb and the stub when subsequent connections are made; it does not aect the protocol acknowledgment state for any current connection. Since +/- acknowledgments are enabled by default when a new connection is established, there is also no protocol request to reenable the acknowledgments for the current connection, once disabled.

D.12 Examples
Example sequence of a target being re-started. Notice how the restart does not get any direct output:
-> R00 <- + target restarts

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

485

-> <<->

? + T001:1234123412341234 +

Example sequence of a target being stepped by a single instruction:

-> G1445... <- + -> s <- + time passes <- T001:1234123412341234 -> + -> g <- + <- 1455... -> +

D.13 File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension

D.13.1 File-I/O Overview
The File I/O remote protocol extension (short: File-I/O) allows the target to use the hosts le system and console I/O to perform various system calls. System calls on the target system are translated into a remote protocol packet to the host system, which then performs the needed actions and returns a response packet to the target system. This simulates le system operations even on targets that lack le systems. The protocol is dened to be independent of both the host and target systems. It uses its own internal representation of datatypes and values. Both gdb and the targets gdb stub are responsible for translating the system-dependent value representations into the internal protocol representations when data is transmitted. The communication is synchronous. A system call is possible only when gdb is waiting for a response from the C, c, S or s packets. While gdb handles the request for a system call, the target is stopped to allow deterministic access to the targets memory. Therefore File-I/O is not interruptible by target signals. On the other hand, it is possible to interrupt File-I/O by a user interrupt (Ctrl-C) within gdb. The targets request to perform a host system call does not nish the latest C, c, S or s action. That means, after nishing the system call, the target returns to continuing the previous activity (continue, step). No additional continue or step request from gdb is required.
(gdb) continue <- target requests system call X target is stopped, gdb executes system call -> gdb returns result ... target continues, gdb returns to wait for the target <- target hits breakpoint and sends a Txx packet

The protocol only supports I/O on the console and to regular les on the host le system. Character or block special devices, pipes, named pipes, sockets or any other communication method on the host system are not supported by this protocol.

486

Debugging with gdb

File I/O is not supported in non-stop mode.

D.13.2 Protocol Basics

The File-I/O protocol uses the F packet as the request as well as reply packet. Since a File-I/O system call can only occur when gdb is waiting for a response from the continuing or stepping target, the File-I/O request is a reply that gdb has to expect as a result of a previous C, c, S or s packet. This F packet contains all information needed to allow gdb to call the appropriate host system call: A unique identier for the requested system call. All parameters to the system call. Pointers are given as addresses in the target memory address space. Pointers to strings are given as pointer/length pair. Numerical values are given as they are. Numerical control ags are given in a protocol-specic representation. At this point, gdb has to perform the following actions. If the parameters include pointer values to data needed as input to a system call, gdb requests this data from the target with a standard m packet request. This additional communication has to be expected by the target implementation and is handled as any other m packet. gdb translates all value from protocol representation to host representation as needed. Datatypes are coerced into the host types. gdb calls the system call. It then coerces datatypes back to protocol representation. If the system call is expected to return data in buer space specied by pointer parameters to the call, the data is transmitted to the target using a M or X packet. This packet has to be expected by the target implementation and is handled as any other M or X packet. Eventually gdb replies with another F packet which contains all necessary information for the target to continue. This at least contains Return value. errno, if has been changed by the system call. Ctrl-C ag. After having done the needed type and value coercion, the target continues the latest continue or step action.

D.13.3 The F Request Packet

The F request packet has the following format: Fcall-id,parameter... call-id is the identier to indicate the host system call to be called. This is just the name of the function. parameter. . . are the parameters to the system call. Parameters are hexadecimal integer values, either the actual values in case of scalar datatypes, pointers

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

487

to target buer space in case of compound datatypes and unspecied memory areas, or pointer/length pairs in case of string parameters. These are appended to the call-id as a comma-delimited list. All values are transmitted in ASCII string representation, pointer/length pairs separated by a slash.

D.13.4 The F Reply Packet

The F reply packet has the following format: Fretcode,errno,Ctrl-C flag ;call-specific attachment retcode is the return code of the system call as hexadecimal value. errno is the errno set by the call, in protocol-specic representation. This parameter can be omitted if the call was successful. Ctrl-C ag is only sent if the user requested a break. In this case, errno must be sent as well, even if the call was successful. The Ctrl-C ag itself consists of the character C:
F0,0,C

or, if the call was interrupted before the host call has been performed:
F-1,4,C

assuming 4 is the protocol-specic representation of EINTR.

D.13.5 The Ctrl-C Message

If the Ctrl-C ag is set in the gdb reply packet (see undened [The F Reply Packet], page undened ), the target should behave as if it had gotten a break message. The meaning for the target is system call interrupted by SIGINT. Consequentially, the target should actually stop (as with a break message) and return to gdb with a T02 packet. Its important for the target to know in which state the system call was interrupted. There are two possible cases: The system call hasnt been performed on the host yet. The system call on the host has been nished. These two states can be distinguished by the target by the value of the returned errno. If its the protocol representation of EINTR, the system call hasnt been performed. This is equivalent to the EINTR handling on POSIX systems. In any other case, the target may presume that the system call has been nished successfully or not and should behave as if the break message arrived right after the system call. gdb must behave reliably. If the system call has not been called yet, gdb may send the F reply immediately, setting EINTR as errno in the packet. If the system call on the host has been nished before the user requests a break, the full action must be nished by gdb. This requires sending M or X packets as necessary. The F packet may only be sent when either nothing has happened or the full action has been completed.

488

Debugging with gdb

D.13.6 Console I/O

By default and if not explicitly closed by the target system, the le descriptors 0, 1 and 2 are connected to the gdb console. Output on the gdb console is handled as any other le output operation (write(1, ...) or write(2, ...)). Console input is handled by gdb so that after the target read request from le descriptor 0 all following typing is buered until either one of the following conditions is met: The user types Ctrl-c. The behaviour is as explained above, and the read system call is treated as nished. The user presses RET . This is treated as end of input with a trailing newline. The user types Ctrl-d. This is treated as end of input. No trailing character (neither newline nor Ctrl-D) is appended to the input. If the user has typed more characters than t in the buer given to the read call, the trailing characters are buered in gdb until either another read(0, ...) is requested by the target, or debugging is stopped at the users request.

D.13.7 List of Supported Calls open

Synopsis:
int open(const char *pathname, int flags); int open(const char *pathname, int flags, mode_t mode);

Request:

Fopen,pathptr /len,flags,mode ags is the bitwise OR of the following values: O_CREAT O_EXCL O_TRUNC O_APPEND O_RDONLY O_WRONLY O_RDWR If the le does not exist it will be created. The host rules apply as far as le ownership and time stamps are concerned. When used with O_CREAT, if the le already exists it is an error and open() fails. If the le already exists and the open mode allows writing (O_RDWR or O_WRONLY is given) it will be truncated to zero length. The le is opened in append mode. The le is opened for reading only. The le is opened for writing only. The le is opened for reading and writing.

Other bits are silently ignored. mode is the bitwise OR of the following values: S_IRUSR S_IWUSR User has read permission. User has write permission.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

489

S_IRGRP S_IWGRP S_IROTH S_IWOTH

Group has read permission. Group has write permission. Others have read permission. Others have write permission.

Other bits are silently ignored. Return value: open returns the new le descriptor or -1 if an error occurred. Errors: EEXIST EISDIR EACCES pathname already exists and O_CREAT and O_EXCL were used. pathname refers to a directory. The requested access is not allowed.

ENAMETOOLONG pathname was too long. ENOENT ENODEV EROFS EFAULT ENOSPC EMFILE ENFILE EINTR A directory component in pathname does not exist. pathname refers to a device, pipe, named pipe or socket. pathname refers to a le on a read-only lesystem and write access was requested. pathname is an invalid pointer value. No space on device to create the le. The process already has the maximum number of les open. The limit on the total number of les open on the system has been reached. The call was interrupted by the user.

close
Synopsis:
int close(int fd);

Request:

Fclose,fd

Return value: close returns zero on success, or -1 if an error occurred. Errors: EBADF EINTR fd isnt a valid open le descriptor. The call was interrupted by the user.

490

Debugging with gdb

read
Synopsis:
int read(int fd, void *buf, unsigned int count);

Request:

Fread,fd,bufptr,count

Return value: On success, the number of bytes read is returned. Zero indicates end of le. If count is zero, read returns zero as well. On error, -1 is returned. Errors: EBADF EFAULT EINTR fd is not a valid le descriptor or is not open for reading. bufptr is an invalid pointer value. The call was interrupted by the user.

write
Synopsis:
int write(int fd, const void *buf, unsigned int count);

Request:

Fwrite,fd,bufptr,count

Return value: On success, the number of bytes written are returned. Zero indicates nothing was written. On error, -1 is returned. Errors: EBADF EFAULT EFBIG ENOSPC EINTR fd is not a valid le descriptor or is not open for writing. bufptr is an invalid pointer value. An attempt was made to write a le that exceeds the host-specic maximum le size allowed. No space on device to write the data. The call was interrupted by the user.

lseek
Synopsis:
long lseek (int fd, long offset, int flag);

Request:

Flseek,fd,offset,flag ag is one of: SEEK_SET SEEK_CUR SEEK_END The oset is set to oset bytes. The oset is set to its current location plus oset bytes. The oset is set to the size of the le plus oset bytes.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

491

Return value: On success, the resulting unsigned oset in bytes from the beginning of the le is returned. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned. Errors: EBADF ESPIPE EINVAL EINTR fd is not a valid open le descriptor. fd is associated with the gdb console. ag is not a proper value. The call was interrupted by the user.

rename
Synopsis:
int rename(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);

Request:

Frename,oldpathptr /len,newpathptr /len

Return value: On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned. Errors: EISDIR EEXIST EBUSY EINVAL ENOTDIR newpath is an existing directory, but oldpath is not a directory. newpath is a non-empty directory. oldpath or newpath is a directory that is in use by some process. An attempt was made to make a directory a subdirectory of itself. A component used as a directory in oldpath or new path is not a directory. Or oldpath is a directory and newpath exists but is not a directory. oldpathptr or newpathptr are invalid pointer values. No access to the le or the path of the le.

EFAULT EACCES

ENAMETOOLONG oldpath or newpath was too long. ENOENT EROFS ENOSPC EINTR A directory component in oldpath or newpath does not exist. The le is on a read-only lesystem. The device containing the le has no room for the new directory entry. The call was interrupted by the user.

492

Debugging with gdb

unlink
Synopsis:
int unlink(const char *pathname);

Request:

Funlink,pathnameptr /len

Return value: On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned. Errors: EACCES EPERM EBUSY EFAULT No access to the le or the path of the le. The system does not allow unlinking of directories. The le pathname cannot be unlinked because its being used by another process. pathnameptr is an invalid pointer value.

ENAMETOOLONG pathname was too long. ENOENT ENOTDIR EROFS EINTR A directory component in pathname does not exist. A component of the path is not a directory. The le is on a read-only lesystem. The call was interrupted by the user.

stat/fstat
Synopsis:
int stat(const char *pathname, struct stat *buf); int fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf);

Request:

Fstat,pathnameptr /len,bufptr Ffstat,fd,bufptr

Return value: On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned. Errors: EBADF ENOENT ENOTDIR EFAULT EACCES fd is not a valid open le. A directory component in pathname does not exist or the path is an empty string. A component of the path is not a directory. pathnameptr is an invalid pointer value. No access to the le or the path of the le.

ENAMETOOLONG pathname was too long. EINTR The call was interrupted by the user.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

493

gettimeofday
Synopsis:
int gettimeofday(struct timeval *tv, void *tz);

Request:

Fgettimeofday,tvptr,tzptr

Return value: On success, 0 is returned, -1 otherwise. Errors: EINVAL EFAULT tz is a non-NULL pointer. tvptr and/or tzptr is an invalid pointer value.

isatty
Synopsis:
int isatty(int fd);

Request:

Fisatty,fd

Return value: Returns 1 if fd refers to the gdb console, 0 otherwise. Errors: EINTR The call was interrupted by the user.

Note that the isatty call is treated as a special case: it returns 1 to the target if the le descriptor is attached to the gdb console, 0 otherwise. Implementing through system calls would require implementing ioctl and would be more complex than needed.

system
Synopsis:
int system(const char *command);

Request:

Fsystem,commandptr /len

Return value: If len is zero, the return value indicates whether a shell is available. A zero return value indicates a shell is not available. For non-zero len, the value returned is -1 on error and the return status of the command otherwise. Only the exit status of the command is returned, which is extracted from the hosts system return value by calling WEXITSTATUS(retval). In case /bin/sh could not be executed, 127 is returned. Errors: EINTR The call was interrupted by the user.

494

Debugging with gdb

gdb takes over the full task of calling the necessary host calls to perform the system call. The return value of system on the host is simplied before its returned to the target. Any termination signal information from the child process is discarded, and the return value consists entirely of the exit status of the called command. Due to security concerns, the system call is by default refused by gdb. The user has to allow this call explicitly with the set remote system-call-allowed 1 command. set remote system-call-allowed Control whether to allow the system calls in the File I/O protocol for the remote target. The default is zero (disabled). show remote system-call-allowed Show whether the system calls are allowed in the File I/O protocol.

D.13.8 Protocol-specic Representation of Datatypes Integral Datatypes

The integral datatypes used in the system calls are int, unsigned int, long, unsigned long, mode_t, and time_t. int, unsigned int, mode_t and time_t are implemented as 32 bit values in this protocol. long and unsigned long are implemented as 64 bit types. See undened [Limits], page undened , for corresponding MIN and MAX values (similar to those in limits.h) to allow range checking on host and target. time_t datatypes are dened as seconds since the Epoch. All integral datatypes transferred as part of a memory read or write of a structured datatype e.g. a struct stat have to be given in big endian byte order.

Pointer Values
Pointers to target data are transmitted as they are. An exception is made for pointers to buers for which the length isnt transmitted as part of the function call, namely strings. Strings are transmitted as a pointer/length pair, both as hex values, e.g.
1aaf/12

which is a pointer to data of length 18 bytes at position 0x1aaf. The length is dened as the full string length in bytes, including the trailing null byte. For example, the string "hello world" at address 0x123456 is transmitted as
123456/d

Memory Transfer
Structured data which is transferred using a memory read or write (for example, a struct stat) is expected to be in a protocol-specic format with all scalar multibyte datatypes being big endian. Translation to this representation needs to be done both by the target before the F packet is sent, and by gdb before it transfers memory to the target. Transferred pointers to structured data should point to the already-coerced data at any time.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

495

struct stat
The buer of type struct stat used by the target and gdb is dened as follows:
struct stat { unsigned int unsigned int mode_t unsigned int unsigned int unsigned int unsigned int unsigned long unsigned long unsigned long time_t time_t time_t }; st_dev; st_ino; st_mode; st_nlink; st_uid; st_gid; st_rdev; st_size; st_blksize; st_blocks; st_atime; st_mtime; st_ctime; /* /* /* /* /* /* /* /* /* /* /* /* /* device */ inode */ protection */ number of hard links */ user ID of owner */ group ID of owner */ device type (if inode device) */ total size, in bytes */ blocksize for filesystem I/O */ number of blocks allocated */ time of last access */ time of last modification */ time of last change */

The integral datatypes conform to the denitions given in the appropriate section (see undened [Integral Datatypes], page undened , for details) so this structure is of size 64 bytes. The values of several elds have a restricted meaning and/or range of values. st_dev st_ino st_mode st_uid st_gid st_rdev st_atime st_mtime st_ctime A value of 0 represents a le, 1 the console. No valid meaning for the target. Transmitted unchanged. Valid mode bits are described in undened [Constants], page undened . Any other bits have currently no meaning for the target.

No valid meaning for the target. Transmitted unchanged.

These values have a host and le system dependent accuracy. Especially on Windows hosts, the le system may not support exact timing values.

The target gets a struct stat of the above representation and is responsible for coercing it to the target representation before continuing. Note that due to size dierences between the host, target, and protocol representations of struct stat members, these members could eventually get truncated on the target.

struct timeval
The buer of type struct timeval used by the File-I/O protocol is dened as follows:
struct timeval { time_t tv_sec; /* second */ long tv_usec; /* microsecond */ };

The integral datatypes conform to the denitions given in the appropriate section (see undened [Integral Datatypes], page undened , for details) so this structure is of size 8 bytes.

496

Debugging with gdb

D.13.9 Constants
The following values are used for the constants inside of the protocol. gdb and target are responsible for translating these values before and after the call as needed.

Open Flags
All values are given in hexadecimal representation.
O_RDONLY O_WRONLY O_RDWR O_APPEND O_CREAT O_TRUNC O_EXCL 0x0 0x1 0x2 0x8 0x200 0x400 0x800

mode t Values
All values are given in octal representation.
S_IFREG S_IFDIR S_IRUSR S_IWUSR S_IXUSR S_IRGRP S_IWGRP S_IXGRP S_IROTH S_IWOTH S_IXOTH 0100000 040000 0400 0200 0100 040 020 010 04 02 01

Errno Values
All values are given in decimal representation.
EPERM ENOENT EINTR EBADF EACCES EFAULT EBUSY EEXIST ENODEV ENOTDIR EISDIR EINVAL ENFILE EMFILE EFBIG ENOSPC ESPIPE EROFS ENAMETOOLONG 1 2 4 9 13 14 16 17 19 20 21 22 23 24 27 28 29 30 91

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

497

EUNKNOWN

9999

EUNKNOWN is used as a fallback error value if a host system returns any error value not in the list of supported error numbers.

Lseek Flags
SEEK_SET SEEK_CUR SEEK_END 0 1 2

Limits
All values are given in decimal representation.
INT_MIN INT_MAX UINT_MAX LONG_MIN LONG_MAX ULONG_MAX -2147483648 2147483647 4294967295 -9223372036854775808 9223372036854775807 18446744073709551615

D.13.10 File-I/O Examples

Example sequence of a write call, le descriptor 3, buer is at target address 0x1234, 6 bytes should be written:
<- Fwrite,3,1234,6 request memory read from target -> m1234,6 <- XXXXXX return "6 bytes written" -> F6

Example sequence of a read call, le descriptor 3, buer is at target address 0x1234, 6 bytes should be read:
<- Fread,3,1234,6 request memory write to target -> X1234,6:XXXXXX return "6 bytes read" -> F6

Example sequence of a read call, call fails on the host due to invalid le descriptor (EBADF):
<- Fread,3,1234,6 -> F-1,9

Example sequence of a read call, user presses Ctrl-c before syscall on host is called:
<- Fread,3,1234,6 -> F-1,4,C <- T02

Example sequence of a read call, user presses Ctrl-c after syscall on host is called:
<- Fread,3,1234,6 -> X1234,6:XXXXXX <- T02

498

Debugging with gdb

D.14 Library List Format

On some platforms, a dynamic loader (e.g. ld.so) runs in the same process as your application to manage libraries. In this case, gdb can use the loaders symbol table and normal memory operations to maintain a list of shared libraries. On other platforms, the operating system manages loaded libraries. gdb can not retrieve the list of currently loaded libraries through memory operations, so it uses the qXfer:libraries:read packet (see undened [qXfer library list read], page undened ) instead. The remote stub queries the targets operating system and reports which libraries are loaded. The qXfer:libraries:read packet returns an XML document which lists loaded libraries and their osets. Each library has an associated name and one or more segment or section base addresses, which report where the library was loaded in memory. For the common case of libraries that are fully linked binaries, the library should have a list of segments. If the target supports dynamic linking of a relocatable object le, its library XML element should instead include a list of allocated sections. The segment or section bases are start addresses, not relocation osets; they do not depend on the librarys link-time base addresses. gdb must be linked with the Expat library to support XML library lists. See undened [Expat], page undened . A simple memory map, with one loaded library relocated by a single oset, looks like this:
<library-list> <library name="/lib/libc.so.6"> <segment address="0x10000000"/> </library> </library-list>

Another simple memory map, with one loaded library with three allocated sections (.text, .data, .bss), looks like this:
<library-list> <library name="sharedlib.o"> <section address="0x10000000"/> <section address="0x20000000"/> <section address="0x30000000"/> </library> </library-list>

The format of a library list is described by this DTD:

<!-- library-list: Root <!ELEMENT library-list <!ATTLIST library-list <!ELEMENT library <!ATTLIST library <!ELEMENT segment <!ATTLIST segment <!ELEMENT section <!ATTLIST section element with versioning --> (library)*> version CDATA #FIXED "1.0"> (segment*, section*)> name CDATA #REQUIRED> EMPTY> address CDATA #REQUIRED> EMPTY> address CDATA #REQUIRED>

In addition, segments and section descriptors cannot be mixed within a single library element, and you must supply at least one segment or section for each library.

Appendix D: gdb Remote Serial Protocol

499

D.15 Memory Map Format

To be able to write into ash memory, gdb needs to obtain a memory map from the target. This section describes the format of the memory map. The memory map is obtained using the qXfer:memory-map:read (see undened [qXfer memory map read], page undened ) packet and is an XML document that lists memory regions. gdb must be linked with the Expat library to support XML memory maps. See undened [Expat], page undened . The top-level structure of the document is shown below:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE memory-map PUBLIC "+//IDN gnu.org//DTD GDB Memory Map V1.0//EN" "http://sourceware.org/gdb/gdb-memory-map.dtd"> <memory-map> region... </memory-map>

Each region can be either: A region of RAM starting at addr and extending for length bytes from there:
<memory type="ram" start="addr " length="length "/>

A region of read-only memory:

<memory type="rom" start="addr " length="length "/>

A region of ash memory, with erasure blocks blocksize bytes in length:

<memory type="flash" start="addr " length="length "> <property name="blocksize">blocksize </property> </memory>

Regions must not overlap. gdb assumes that areas of memory not covered by the memory map are RAM, and uses the ordinary M and X packets to write to addresses in such ranges. The formal DTD for memory map format is given below:
<!-- ................................................... <!-- Memory Map XML DTD ................................ <!-- File: memory-map.dtd .............................. <!-- .................................... .............. <!-- memory-map.dtd --> <!-- memory-map: Root element with versioning --> <!ELEMENT memory-map (memory | property)> <!ATTLIST memory-map version CDATA #FIXED "1.0.0"> <!ELEMENT memory (property)> <!-- memory: Specifies a memory region, and its type, or device. --> <!ATTLIST memory type CDATA #REQUIRED start CDATA #REQUIRED length CDATA #REQUIRED device CDATA #IMPLIED> <!-- property: Generic attribute tag --> <!ELEMENT property (#PCDATA | property)*> <!ATTLIST property name CDATA #REQUIRED> --> --> --> -->

500

Debugging with gdb

D.16 Thread List Format

To eciently update the list of threads and their attributes, gdb issues the qXfer:threads:read packet (see undened [qXfer threads read], page undened ) and obtains the XML document with the following structure:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <threads> <thread id="id" core="0"> ... description ... </thread> </threads>

Each thread element must have the id attribute that identies the thread (see undened [thread-id syntax], page undened ). The core attribute, if present, species which processor core the thread was last executing on. The content of the of thread element is interpreted as human-readable auxilliary information.

Appendix E: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

501

Appendix E The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

In some applications, it is not feasible for the debugger to interrupt the programs execution long enough for the developer to learn anything helpful about its behavior. If the programs correctness depends on its real-time behavior, delays introduced by a debugger might cause the program to fail, even when the code itself is correct. It is useful to be able to observe the programs behavior without interrupting it. Using GDBs trace and collect commands, the user can specify locations in the program, and arbitrary expressions to evaluate when those locations are reached. Later, using the tfind command, she can examine the values those expressions had when the program hit the trace points. The expressions may also denote objects in memory structures or arrays, for example whose values GDB should record; while visiting a particular tracepoint, the user may inspect those objects as if they were in memory at that moment. However, because GDB records these values without interacting with the user, it can do so quickly and unobtrusively, hopefully not disturbing the programs behavior. When GDB is debugging a remote target, the GDB agent code running on the target computes the values of the expressions itself. To avoid having a full symbolic expression evaluator on the agent, GDB translates expressions in the source language into a simpler bytecode language, and then sends the bytecode to the agent; the agent then executes the bytecode, and records the values for GDB to retrieve later. The bytecode language is simple; there are forty-odd opcodes, the bulk of which are the usual vocabulary of C operands (addition, subtraction, shifts, and so on) and various sizes of literals and memory reference operations. The bytecode interpreter operates strictly on machine-level values various sizes of integers and oating point numbers and requires no information about types or symbols; thus, the interpreters internal data structures are simple, and each bytecode requires only a few native machine instructions to implement it. The interpreter is small, and strict limits on the memory and time required to evaluate an expression are easy to determine, making it suitable for use by the debugging agent in real-time applications.

E.1 General Bytecode Design

The agent represents bytecode expressions as an array of bytes. Each instruction is one byte long (thus the term bytecode). Some instructions are followed by operand bytes; for example, the goto instruction is followed by a destination for the jump. The bytecode interpreter is a stack-based machine; most instructions pop their operands o the stack, perform some operation, and push the result back on the stack for the next instruction to consume. Each element of the stack may contain either a integer or a oating point value; these values are as many bits wide as the largest integer that can be directly manipulated in the source language. Stack elements carry no record of their type; bytecode could push a value as an integer, then pop it as a oating point value. However, GDB will not generate code which does this. In C, one might dene the type of a stack element as follows: union agent_val { LONGEST l;

502

Debugging with gdb

DOUBLEST d; }; where LONGEST and DOUBLEST are typedef names for the largest integer and oating point types on the machine. By the time the bytecode interpreter reaches the end of the expression, the value of the expression should be the only value left on the stack. For tracing applications, trace bytecodes in the expression will have recorded the necessary data, and the value on the stack may be discarded. For other applications, like conditional breakpoints, the value may be useful. Separate from the stack, the interpreter has two registers: pc start The address of the next bytecode to execute. The address of the start of the bytecode expression, necessary for interpreting the goto and if_goto instructions.

Neither of these registers is directly visible to the bytecode language itself, but they are useful for dening the meanings of the bytecode operations. There are no instructions to perform side eects on the running program, or call the programs functions; we assume that these expressions are only used for unobtrusive debugging, not for patching the running code. Most bytecode instructions do not distinguish between the various sizes of values, and operate on full-width values; the upper bits of the values are simply ignored, since they do not usually make a dierence to the value computed. The exceptions to this rule are: memory reference instructions (refn) There are distinct instructions to fetch dierent word sizes from memory. Once on the stack, however, the values are treated as full-size integers. They may need to be sign-extended; the ext instruction exists for this purpose. the sign-extension instruction (ext n) These clearly need to know which portion of their operand is to be extended to occupy the full length of the word. If the interpreter is unable to evaluate an expression completely for some reason (a memory location is inaccessible, or a divisor is zero, for example), we say that interpretation terminates with an error. This means that the problem is reported back to the interpreters caller in some helpful way. In general, code using agent expressions should assume that they may attempt to divide by zero, fetch arbitrary memory locations, and misbehave in other ways. Even complicated C expressions compile to a few bytecode instructions; for example, the expression x + y * z would typically produce code like the following, assuming that x and y live in registers, and z is a global variable holding a 32-bit int: reg 1 reg 2 const32 address of z ref32 ext 32 mul

Appendix E: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

503

add end In detail, these mean: reg 1 reg 2 Push the value of register 1 (presumably holding x) onto the stack. Push the value of register 2 (holding y).

const32 address of z Push the address of z onto the stack. ref32 ext 32 mul add end Fetch a 32-bit word from the address at the top of the stack; replace the address on the stack with the value. Thus, we replace the address of z with zs value. Sign-extend the value on the top of the stack from 32 bits to full length. This is necessary because z is a signed integer. Pop the top two numbers on the stack, multiply them, and push their product. Now the top of the stack contains the value of the expression y * z. Pop the top two numbers, add them, and push the sum. Now the top of the stack contains the value of x + y * z. Stop executing; the value left on the stack top is the value to be recorded.

E.2 Bytecode Descriptions

Each bytecode description has the following form: add (0x02): a b a+b Pop the top two stack items, a and b, as integers; push their sum, as an integer. In this example, add is the name of the bytecode, and (0x02) is the one-byte value used to encode the bytecode, in hexadecimal. The phrase a b a+b shows the stack before and after the bytecode executes. Beforehand, the stack must contain at least two values, a and b; since the top of the stack is to the right, b is on the top of the stack, and a is underneath it. After execution, the bytecode will have popped a and b from the stack, and replaced them with a single value, a+b. There may be other values on the stack below those shown, but the bytecode aects only those shown. Here is another example: const8 (0x22) n: n Push the 8-bit integer constant n on the stack, without sign extension. In this example, the bytecode const8 takes an operand n directly from the bytecode stream; the operand follows the const8 bytecode itself. We write any such operands immediately after the name of the bytecode, before the colon, and describe the exact encoding of the operand in the bytecode stream in the body of the bytecode description. For the const8 bytecode, there are no stack items given before the ; this simply means that the bytecode consumes no values from the stack. If a bytecode consumes no values, or produces no values, the list on either side of the may be empty. If a value is written as a, b, or n, then the bytecode treats it as an integer. If a value is written is addr, then the bytecode treats it as an address.

504

Debugging with gdb

We do not fully describe the oating point operations here; although this design can be extended in a clean way to handle oating point values, they are not of immediate interest to the customer, so we avoid describing them, to save time. float (0x01): Prex for oating-point bytecodes. Not implemented yet. add (0x02): a b a+b Pop two integers from the stack, and push their sum, as an integer. sub (0x03): a b a-b Pop two integers from the stack, subtract the top value from the next-to-top value, and push the dierence. mul (0x04): a b a*b Pop two integers from the stack, multiply them, and push the product on the stack. Note that, when one multiplies two n-bit numbers yielding another n-bit number, it is irrelevant whether the numbers are signed or not; the results are the same. div_signed (0x05): a b a/b Pop two signed integers from the stack; divide the next-to-top value by the top value, and push the quotient. If the divisor is zero, terminate with an error. div_unsigned (0x06): a b a/b Pop two unsigned integers from the stack; divide the next-to-top value by the top value, and push the quotient. If the divisor is zero, terminate with an error. rem_signed (0x07): a b a modulo b Pop two signed integers from the stack; divide the next-to-top value by the top value, and push the remainder. If the divisor is zero, terminate with an error. rem_unsigned (0x08): a b a modulo b Pop two unsigned integers from the stack; divide the next-to-top value by the top value, and push the remainder. If the divisor is zero, terminate with an error. lsh (0x09): a b a<<b Pop two integers from the stack; let a be the next-to-top value, and b be the top value. Shift a left by b bits, and push the result. rsh_signed (0x0a): a b (signed)a>>b Pop two integers from the stack; let a be the next-to-top value, and b be the top value. Shift a right by b bits, inserting copies of the top bit at the high end, and push the result. rsh_unsigned (0x0b): a b a>>b Pop two integers from the stack; let a be the next-to-top value, and b be the top value. Shift a right by b bits, inserting zero bits at the high end, and push the result. log_not (0x0e): a !a Pop an integer from the stack; if it is zero, push the value one; otherwise, push the value zero.

Appendix E: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

505

bit_and (0x0f): a b a&b Pop two integers from the stack, and push their bitwise and. bit_or (0x10): a b a|b Pop two integers from the stack, and push their bitwise or. bit_xor (0x11): a b a^b Pop two integers from the stack, and push their bitwise exclusive-or. bit_not (0x12): a ~a Pop an integer from the stack, and push its bitwise complement. equal (0x13): a b a=b Pop two integers from the stack; if they are equal, push the value one; otherwise, push the value zero. less_signed (0x14): a b a<b Pop two signed integers from the stack; if the next-to-top value is less than the top value, push the value one; otherwise, push the value zero. less_unsigned (0x15): a b a<b Pop two unsigned integers from the stack; if the next-to-top value is less than the top value, push the value one; otherwise, push the value zero. ext (0x16) n: a a, sign-extended from n bits Pop an unsigned value from the stack; treating it as an n-bit twos-complement value, extend it to full length. This means that all bits to the left of bit n-1 (where the least signicant bit is bit 0) are set to the value of bit n-1. Note that n may be larger than or equal to the width of the stack elements of the bytecode engine; in this case, the bytecode should have no eect. The number of source bits to preserve, n, is encoded as a single byte unsigned integer following the ext bytecode. zero_ext (0x2a) n: a a, zero-extended from n bits Pop an unsigned value from the stack; zero all but the bottom n bits. This means that all bits to the left of bit n-1 (where the least signicant bit is bit 0) are set to the value of bit n-1. The number of source bits to preserve, n, is encoded as a single byte unsigned integer following the zero_ext bytecode. ref8 (0x17): addr a ref16 (0x18): addr a ref32 (0x19): addr a ref64 (0x1a): addr a Pop an address addr from the stack. For bytecode refn, fetch an n-bit value from addr, using the natural target endianness. Push the fetched value as an unsigned integer. Note that addr may not be aligned in any particular way; the refn bytecodes should operate correctly for any address. If attempting to access memory at addr would cause a processor exception of some sort, terminate with an error.

506

Debugging with gdb

ref_float (0x1b): addr d ref_double (0x1c): addr d ref_long_double (0x1d): addr d l_to_d (0x1e): a d d_to_l (0x1f): d a Not implemented yet. dup (0x28): a => a a Push another copy of the stacks top element. swap (0x2b): a b => b a Exchange the top two items on the stack. pop (0x29): a => Discard the top value on the stack. if_goto (0x20) oset: a Pop an integer o the stack; if it is non-zero, branch to the given oset in the bytecode string. Otherwise, continue to the next instruction in the bytecode stream. In other words, if a is non-zero, set the pc register to start + oset. Thus, an oset of zero denotes the beginning of the expression. The oset is stored as a sixteen-bit unsigned value, stored immediately following the if_goto bytecode. It is always stored most signicant byte rst, regardless of the targets normal endianness. The oset is not guaranteed to fall at any particular alignment within the bytecode stream; thus, on machines where fetching a 16-bit on an unaligned address raises an exception, you should fetch the oset one byte at a time. goto (0x21) oset: Branch unconditionally to oset; in other words, set the pc register to start + oset. The oset is stored in the same way as for the if_goto bytecode. const8 (0x22) n: n const16 (0x23) n: n const32 (0x24) n: n const64 (0x25) n: n Push the integer constant n on the stack, without sign extension. To produce a small negative value, push a small twos-complement value, and then sign-extend it using the ext bytecode. The constant n is stored in the appropriate number of bytes following the constb bytecode. The constant n is always stored most signicant byte rst, regardless of the targets normal endianness. The constant is not guaranteed to fall at any particular alignment within the bytecode stream; thus, on machines where fetching a 16-bit on an unaligned address raises an exception, you should fetch n one byte at a time. reg (0x26) n: a Push the value of register number n, without sign extension. The registers are numbered following GDBs conventions.

Appendix E: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

507

The register number n is encoded as a 16-bit unsigned integer immediately following the reg bytecode. It is always stored most signicant byte rst, regardless of the targets normal endianness. The register number is not guaranteed to fall at any particular alignment within the bytecode stream; thus, on machines where fetching a 16-bit on an unaligned address raises an exception, you should fetch the register number one byte at a time. getv (0x2c) n: v Push the value of trace state variable number n, without sign extension. The variable number n is encoded as a 16-bit unsigned integer immediately following the getv bytecode. It is always stored most signicant byte rst, regardless of the targets normal endianness. The variable number is not guaranteed to fall at any particular alignment within the bytecode stream; thus, on machines where fetching a 16-bit on an unaligned address raises an exception, you should fetch the register number one byte at a time. setv (0x2d) n: v Set trace state variable number n to the value found on the top of the stack. The stack is unchanged, so that the value is readily available if the assignment is part of a larger expression. The handling of n is as described for getv. trace (0x0c): addr size Record the contents of the size bytes at addr in a trace buer, for later retrieval by GDB. trace_quick (0x0d) size: addr addr Record the contents of the size bytes at addr in a trace buer, for later retrieval by GDB. size is a single byte unsigned integer following the trace opcode. This bytecode is equivalent to the sequence dup const8 size trace, but we provide it anyway to save space in bytecode strings. trace16 (0x30) size: addr addr Identical to trace quick, except that size is a 16-bit big-endian unsigned integer, not a single byte. This should probably have been named trace_quick16, for consistency. tracev (0x2e) n: a Record the value of trace state variable number n in the trace buer. The handling of n is as described for getv. end (0x27): Stop executing bytecode; the result should be the top element of the stack. If the purpose of the expression was to compute an lvalue or a range of memory, then the next-to-top of the stack is the lvalues address, and the top of the stack is the lvalues size, in bytes.

E.3 Using Agent Expressions

Agent expressions can be used in several dierent ways by gdb, and the debugger can generate dierent bytecode sequences as appropriate.

508

Debugging with gdb

One possibility is to do expression evaluation on the target rather than the host, such as for the conditional of a conditional tracepoint. In such a case, gdb compiles the source expression into a bytecode sequence that simply gets values from registers or memory, does arithmetic, and returns a result. Another way to use agent expressions is for tracepoint data collection. gdb generates a dierent bytecode sequence for collection; in addition to bytecodes that do the calculation, gdb adds trace bytecodes to save the pieces of memory that were used. The user selects trace points in the programs code at which GDB should collect data. The user species expressions to evaluate at each trace point. These expressions may denote objects in memory, in which case those objects contents are recorded as the program runs, or computed values, in which case the values themselves are recorded. GDB transmits the tracepoints and their associated expressions to the GDB agent, running on the debugging target. The agent arranges to be notied when a trace point is hit. When execution on the target reaches a trace point, the agent evaluates the expressions associated with that trace point, and records the resulting values and memory ranges. Later, when the user selects a given trace event and inspects the objects and expression values recorded, GDB talks to the agent to retrieve recorded data as necessary to meet the users requests. If the user asks to see an object whose contents have not been recorded, GDB reports an error.

E.4 Varying Target Capabilities

Some targets dont support oating-point, and some would rather not have to deal with long long operations. Also, dierent targets will have dierent stack sizes, and dierent bytecode buer lengths. Thus, GDB needs a way to ask the target about itself. We havent worked out the details yet, but in general, GDB should be able to send the target a packet asking it to describe itself. The reply should be a packet whose length is explicit, so we can add new information to the packet in future revisions of the agent, without confusing old versions of GDB, and it should contain a version number. It should contain at least the following information: whether oating point is supported whether long long is supported maximum acceptable size of bytecode stack maximum acceptable length of bytecode expressions which registers are actually available for collection whether the target supports disabled tracepoints

E.5 Rationale
Some of the design decisions apparent above are arguable.

Appendix E: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

509

What about stack overow/underow? GDB should be able to query the target to discover its stack size. Given that information, GDB can determine at translation time whether a given expression will overow the stack. But this spec isnt about what kinds of error-checking GDB ought to do. Why are you doing everything in LONGEST? Speed isnt important, but agent code size is; using LONGEST brings in a bunch of support code to do things like division, etc. So this is a serious concern. First, note that you dont need dierent bytecodes for dierent operand sizes. You can generate code without knowing how big the stack elements actually are on the target. If the target only supports 32-bit ints, and you dont send any 64-bit bytecodes, everything just works. The observation here is that the MIPS and the Alpha have only xed-size registers, and you can still get Cs semantics even though most instructions only operate on full-sized words. You just need to make sure everything is properly sign-extended at the right times. So there is no need for 32- and 64-bit variants of the bytecodes. Just implement everything using the largest size you support. GDB should certainly check to see what sizes the target supports, so the user can get an error earlier, rather than later. But this information is not necessary for correctness. Why dont you have > or <= operators? I want to keep the interpreter small, and we dont need them. We can combine the less_ opcodes with log_not, and swap the order of the operands, yielding all four asymmetrical comparison operators. For example, (x <= y) is ! (x > y), which is ! (y < x). Why do you have log_not? Why do you have ext? Why do you have zero_ext? These are all easily synthesized from other instructions, but I expect them to be used frequently, and theyre simple, so I include them to keep bytecode strings short. log_not is equivalent to const8 0 equal; its used in half the relational operators. ext n is equivalent to const8 s-n lsh const8 s-n rsh_signed, where s is the size of the stack elements; it follows refm and reg bytecodes when the value should be signed. See the next bulleted item. zero_ext n is equivalent to constm mask log_and; its used whenever we push the value of a register, because we cant assume the upper bits of the register arent garbage. Why not have sign-extending variants of the ref operators? Because that would double the number of ref operators, and we need the ext bytecode anyway for accessing bitelds.

510

Debugging with gdb

Why not have constant-address variants of the ref operators? Because that would double the number of ref operators again, and const32 address ref32 is only one byte longer. Why do the refn operators have to support unaligned fetches? GDB will generate bytecode that fetches multi-byte values at unaligned addresses whenever the executables debugging information tells it to. Furthermore, GDB does not know the value the pointer will have when GDB generates the bytecode, so it cannot determine whether a particular fetch will be aligned or not. In particular, structure bitelds may be several bytes long, but follow no alignment rules; members of packed structures are not necessarily aligned either. In general, there are many cases where unaligned references occur in correct C code, either at the programmers explicit request, or at the compilers discretion. Thus, it is simpler to make the GDB agent bytecodes work correctly in all circumstances than to make GDB guess in each case whether the compiler did the usual thing. Why are there no side-eecting operators? Because our current client doesnt want them? Thats a cheap answer. I think the real answer is that Im afraid of implementing function calls. We should re-visit this issue after the present contract is delivered. Why arent the goto ops PC-relative? The interpreter has the base address around anyway for PC bounds checking, and it seemed simpler. Why is there only one oset size for the goto ops? Osets are currently sixteen bits. Im not happy with this situation either: Suppose we have multiple branch ops with dierent oset sizes. As I generate code left-to-right, all my jumps are forward jumps (there are no loops in expressions), so I never know the target when I emit the jump opcode. Thus, I have to either always assume the largest oset size, or do jump relaxation on the code after I generate it, which seems like a big waste of time. I can imagine a reasonable expression being longer than 256 bytes. I cant imagine one being longer than 64k. Thus, we need 16-bit osets. This kind of reasoning is so bogus, but relaxation is pathetic. The other approach would be to generate code right-to-left. Then Id always know my oset size. That might be fun. Where is the function call bytecode? When we add side-eects, we should add this. Why does the reg bytecode take a 16-bit register number? Intels IA-64 architecture has 128 general-purpose registers, and 128 oatingpoint registers, and Im sure it has some random control registers. Why do we need trace and trace_quick? Because GDB needs to record all the memory contents and registers an expression touches. If the user wants to evaluate an expression x->y->z, the agent must record the values of x and x->y as well as the value of x->y->z.

Appendix E: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism

511

Dont the trace bytecodes make the interpreter less general? They do mean that the interpreter contains special-purpose code, but that doesnt mean the interpreter can only be used for that purpose. If an expression doesnt use the trace bytecodes, they dont get in its way. Why doesnt trace_quick consume its arguments the way everything else does? In general, you do want your operators to consume their arguments; its consistent, and generally reduces the amount of stack rearrangement necessary. However, trace_quick is a kludge to save space; it only exists so we neednt write dup const8 SIZE trace before every memory reference. Therefore, its okay for it not to consume its arguments; its meant for a specic context in which we know exactly what it should do with the stack. If were going to have a kludge, it should be an eective kludge. Why does trace16 exist? That opcode was added by the customer that contracted Cygnus for the data tracing work. I personally think it is unnecessary; objects that large will be quite rare, so it is okay to use dup const16 size trace in those cases. Whatever we decide to do with trace16, we should at least leave opcode 0x30 reserved, to remain compatible with the customer who added it.

512

Debugging with gdb

Appendix F: Trace File Format

513

Appendix F Trace File Format

The trace le comes in three parts: a header, a textual description section, and a trace frame section with binary data. The header has the form \x7fTRACE0\n. The rst byte is 0x7f so as to indicate that the le contains binary data, while the 0 is a version number that may have dierent values in the future. The description section consists of multiple lines of ascii text separated by newline characters (0xa). The lines may include a variety of optional descriptive or context-setting information, such as tracepoint denitions or register set size. gdb will ignore any line that it does not recognize. An empty line marks the end of this section. The trace frame section consists of a number of consecutive frames. Each frame begins with a two-byte tracepoint number, followed by a four-byte size giving the amount of data in the frame. The data in the frame consists of a number of blocks, each introduced by a character indicating its type (at least register, memory, and trace state variable). The data in this section is raw binary, not a hexadecimal or other encoding; its endianness matches the targets endianness. R bytes Register block. The number and ordering of bytes matches that of a g packet in the remote protocol. Note that these are the actual bytes, in target order and gdb register order, not a hexadecimal encoding.

M address length bytes... Memory block. This is a contiguous block of memory, at the 8-byte address address, with a 2-byte length length, followed by length bytes. V number value Trace state variable block. This records the 8-byte signed value value of trace state variable numbered number. Future enhancements of the trace le format may include additional types of blocks.

514

Debugging with gdb

Appendix G: Target Descriptions

515

Appendix G Target Descriptions

Warning: target descriptions are still under active development, and the contents and format may change between gdb releases. The format is expected to stabilize in the future. One of the challenges of using gdb to debug embedded systems is that there are so many minor variants of each processor architecture in use. It is common practice for vendors to start with a standard processor core ARM, PowerPC, or MIPS, for example and then make changes to adapt it to a particular market niche. Some architectures have hundreds of variants, available from dozens of vendors. This leads to a number of problems: With so many dierent customized processors, it is dicult for the gdb maintainers to keep up with the changes. Since individual variants may have short lifetimes or limited audiences, it may not be worthwhile to carry information about every variant in the gdb source tree. When gdb does support the architecture of the embedded system at hand, the task of nding the correct architecture name to give the set architecture command can be error-prone. To address these problems, the gdb remote protocol allows a target system to not only identify itself to gdb, but to actually describe its own features. This lets gdb support processor variants it has never seen before to the extent that the descriptions are accurate, and that gdb understands them. gdb must be linked with the Expat library to support XML target descriptions. See undened [Expat], page undened .

G.1 Retrieving Descriptions

Target descriptions can be read from the target automatically, or specied by the user manually. The default behavior is to read the description from the target. gdb retrieves it via the remote protocol using qXfer requests (see undened [General Query Packets], page undened ). The annex in the qXfer packet will be target.xml. The contents of the target.xml annex are an XML document, of the form described in undened [Target Description Format], page undened . Alternatively, you can specify a le to read for the target description. If a le is set, the target will not be queried. The commands to specify a le are: set tdesc filename path Read the target description from path. unset tdesc filename Do not read the XML target description from a le. gdb will use the description supplied by the current target. show tdesc filename Show the lename to read for a target description, if any.

516

Debugging with gdb

G.2 Target Description Format

A target description annex is an XML document which complies with the Document Type Denition provided in the gdb sources in gdb/features/gdb-target.dtd. This means you can use generally available tools like xmllint to check that your feature descriptions are well-formed and valid. However, to help people unfamiliar with XML write descriptions for their targets, we also describe the grammar here. Target descriptions can identify the architecture of the remote target and (for some architectures) provide information about custom register sets. They can also identify the OS ABI of the remote target. gdb can use this information to autocongure for your target, or to warn you if you connect to an unsupported target. Here is a simple target description:
<target version="1.0"> <architecture>i386:x86-64</architecture> </target>

This minimal description only says that the target uses the x86-64 architecture. A target description has the following overall form, with [ ] marking optional elements and . . . marking repeatable elements. The elements are explained further below.
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE target SYSTEM "gdb-target.dtd"> <target version="1.0"> [architecture ] [osabi ] [compatible ] [feature ...] </target>

The description is generally insensitive to whitespace and line breaks, under the usual common-sense rules. The XML version declaration and document type declaration can generally be omitted (gdb does not require them), but specifying them may be useful for XML validation tools. The version attribute for <target> may also be omitted, but we recommend including it; if future versions of gdb use an incompatible revision of gdb-target.dtd, they will detect and report the version mismatch.

G.2.1 Inclusion
It can sometimes be valuable to split a target description up into several dierent annexes, either for organizational purposes, or to share les between dierent possible target descriptions. You can divide a description into multiple les by replacing any element of the target description with an inclusion directive of the form:
<xi:include href="document "/>

When gdb encounters an element of this form, it will retrieve the named XML document, and replace the inclusion directive with the contents of that document. If the current description was read using qXfer, then so will be the included document; document will be interpreted as the name of an annex. If the current description was read from a le, gdb will look for document as a le in the same directory where it found the original description.

Appendix G: Target Descriptions

517

G.2.2 Architecture
An <architecture> element has this form:
<architecture>arch </architecture>

arch is one of the architectures from the set accepted by set architecture (see undened [Specifying a Debugging Target], page undened ).

G.2.3 OS ABI
This optional eld was introduced in gdb version 7.0. Previous versions of gdb ignore it. An <osabi> element has this form:
<osabi>abi-name </osabi>

abi-name is an OS ABI name from the same selection accepted by set osabi (see undened [Conguring the Current ABI], page undened ).

G.2.4 Compatible Architecture

This optional eld was introduced in gdb version 7.0. Previous versions of gdb ignore it. A <compatible> element has this form:
<compatible>arch </compatible>

arch is one of the architectures from the set accepted by set architecture (see undened [Specifying a Debugging Target], page undened ). A <compatible> element is used to specify that the target is able to run binaries in some other than the main target architecture given by the <architecture> element. For example, on the Cell Broadband Engine, the main architecture is powerpc:common or powerpc:common64, but the system is able to run binaries in the spu architecture as well. The way to describe this capability with <compatible> is as follows:
<architecture>powerpc:common</architecture> <compatible>spu</compatible>

G.2.5 Features
Each <feature> describes some logical portion of the target system. Features are currently used to describe available CPU registers and the types of their contents. A <feature> element has this form:
<feature name="name "> [type ...] reg ... </feature>

Each features name should be unique within the description. The name of a feature does not matter unless gdb has some special knowledge of the contents of that feature; if it does, the feature should have its standard name. See undened [Standard Target Features], page undened .

518

Debugging with gdb

G.2.6 Types
Any registers value is a collection of bits which gdb must interpret. The default interpretation is a twos complement integer, but other types can be requested by name in the register description. Some predened types are provided by gdb (see undened [Predened Target Types], page undened ), and the description can dene additional composite types. Each type element must have an id attribute, which gives a unique (within the containing <feature>) name to the type. Types must be dened before they are used. Some targets oer vector registers, which can be treated as arrays of scalar elements. These types are written as <vector> elements, specifying the array element type, type, and the number of elements, count:
<vector id="id " type="type " count="count "/>

If a registers value is usefully viewed in multiple ways, dene it with a union type containing the useful representations. The <union> element contains one or more <field> elements, each of which has a name and a type:
<union id="id "> <field name="name " type="type "/> ... </union>

If a registers value is composed from several separate values, dene it with a structure type. There are two forms of the <struct> element; a <struct> element must either contain only bitelds or contain no bitelds. If the structure contains only bitelds, its total size in bytes must be specied, each biteld must have an explicit start and end, and bitelds are automatically assigned an integer type. The elds start should be less than or equal to its end, and zero represents the least signicant bit.
<struct id="id " size="size "> <field name="name " start="start " end="end "/> ... </struct>

If the structure contains no bitelds, then each eld has an explicit type, and no implicit padding is added.
<struct id="id "> <field name="name " type="type "/> ... </struct>

If a registers value is a series of single-bit ags, dene it with a ags type. The <flags> element has an explicit size and contains one or more <field> elements. Each eld has a name, a start, and an end. Only single-bit ags are supported.
<flags id="id " size="size "> <field name="name " start="start " end="end "/> ... </flags>

G.2.7 Registers
Each register is represented as an element with this form:

Appendix G: Target Descriptions

519

<reg name="name " bitsize="size " [regnum="num "] [save-restore="save-restore "] [type="type "] [group="group "]/>

The components are as follows: name bitsize regnum The registers name; it must be unique within the target description. The registers size, in bits. The registers number. If omitted, a registers number is one greater than that of the previous register (either in the current feature or in a preceeding feature); the rst register in the target description defaults to zero. This register number is used to read or write the register; e.g. it is used in the remote p and P packets, and registers appear in the g and G packets in order of increasing register number. Whether the register should be preserved across inferior function calls; this must be either yes or no. The default is yes, which is appropriate for most registers except for some system control registers; this is not related to the targets ABI. type The type of the register. type may be a predened type, a type dened in the current feature, or one of the special types int and float. int is an integer type of the correct size for bitsize, and float is a oating point type (in the architectures normal oating point format) of the correct size for bitsize. The default is int. The register group to which this register belongs. group must be either general, float, or vector. If no group is specied, gdb will not display the register in info registers.

save-restore

group

G.3 Predened Target Types

Type denitions in the self-description can build up composite types from basic building blocks, but can not dene fundamental types. Instead, standard identiers are provided by gdb for the fundamental types. The currently supported types are: int8 int16 int32 int64 int128 uint8 uint16 uint32 uint64 uint128

Signed integer types holding the specied number of bits.

Unsigned integer types holding the specied number of bits.

520

Debugging with gdb

code_ptr data_ptr

Pointers to unspecied code and data. The program counter and any dedicated return address register may be marked as code pointers; printing a code pointer converts it into a symbolic address. The stack pointer and any dedicated address registers may be marked as data pointers.

ieee_single Single precision IEEE oating point. ieee_double Double precision IEEE oating point. arm_fpa_ext The 12-byte extended precision format used by ARM FPA registers. i387_ext The 10-byte extended precision format used by x87 registers.

i386_eflags 32bit eflags register used by x86. i386_mxcsr 32bit mxcsr register used by x86.

G.4 Standard Target Features

A target description must contain either no registers or all the targets registers. If the description contains no registers, then gdb will assume a default register layout, selected based on the architecture. If the description contains any registers, the default layout will not be used; the standard registers must be described in the target description, in such a way that gdb can recognize them. This is accomplished by giving specic names to feature elements which contain standard registers. gdb will look for features with those names and verify that they contain the expected registers; if any known feature is missing required registers, or if any required feature is missing, gdb will reject the target description. You can add additional registers to any of the standard features gdb will display them just as if they were added to an unrecognized feature. This section lists the known features and their expected contents. Sample XML documents for these features are included in the gdb source tree, in the directory gdb/features. Names recognized by gdb should include the name of the company or organization which selected the name, and the overall architecture to which the feature applies; so e.g. the feature containing ARM core registers is named org.gnu.gdb.arm.core. The names of registers are not case sensitive for the purpose of recognizing standard features, but gdb will only display registers using the capitalization used in the description.

G.4.1 ARM Features

The org.gnu.gdb.arm.core feature is required for ARM targets. It should contain registers r0 through r13, sp, lr, pc, and cpsr.

Appendix G: Target Descriptions

521

The org.gnu.gdb.arm.fpa feature is optional. If present, it should contain registers f0 through f7 and fps. The org.gnu.gdb.xscale.iwmmxt feature is optional. If present, it should contain at least registers wR0 through wR15 and wCGR0 through wCGR3. The wCID, wCon, wCSSF, and wCASF registers are optional. The org.gnu.gdb.arm.vfp feature is optional. If present, it should contain at least registers d0 through d15. If they are present, d16 through d31 should also be included. gdb will synthesize the single-precision registers from halves of the double-precision registers. The org.gnu.gdb.arm.neon feature is optional. It does not need to contain registers; it instructs gdb to display the VFP double-precision registers as vectors and to synthesize the quad-precision registers from pairs of double-precision registers. If this feature is present, org.gnu.gdb.arm.vfp must also be present and include 32 double-precision registers.

G.4.2 i386 Features

The org.gnu.gdb.i386.core feature is required for i386/amd64 targets. It should describe the following registers: eax through edi plus eip for i386 rax through r15 plus rip for amd64 eflags, cs, ss, ds, es, fs, gs st0 through st7 fctrl, fstat, ftag, fiseg, fioff, foseg, fooff and fop The register sets may be dierent, depending on the target. The org.gnu.gdb.i386.sse feature is optional. It should describe registers: xmm0 through xmm7 for i386 xmm0 through xmm15 for amd64 mxcsr The org.gnu.gdb.i386.avx feature is optional and requires the org.gnu.gdb.i386.sse feature. It should describe the upper 128 bits of ymm registers: ymm0h through ymm7h for i386 ymm0h through ymm15h for amd64 The org.gnu.gdb.i386.linux feature is optional. It should describe a single register, orig_eax.

G.4.3 MIPS Features

The org.gnu.gdb.mips.cpu feature is required for MIPS targets. It should contain registers r0 through r31, lo, hi, and pc. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target.

522

Debugging with gdb

The org.gnu.gdb.mips.cp0 feature is also required. It should contain at least the status, badvaddr, and cause registers. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target. The org.gnu.gdb.mips.fpu feature is currently required, though it may be optional in a future version of gdb. It should contain registers f0 through f31, fcsr, and fir. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target. The org.gnu.gdb.mips.linux feature is optional. It should contain a single register, restart, which is used by the Linux kernel to control restartable syscalls.

G.4.4 M68K Features

org.gnu.gdb.m68k.core org.gnu.gdb.coldfire.core org.gnu.gdb.fido.core One of those features must be always present. The feature that is present determines which avor of m68k is used. The feature that is present should contain registers d0 through d7, a0 through a5, fp, sp, ps and pc. org.gnu.gdb.coldfire.fp This feature is optional. If present, it should contain registers fp0 through fp7, fpcontrol, fpstatus and fpiaddr.

G.4.5 PowerPC Features

The org.gnu.gdb.power.core feature is required for PowerPC targets. It should contain registers r0 through r31, pc, msr, cr, lr, ctr, and xer. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target. The org.gnu.gdb.power.fpu feature is optional. It should contain registers f0 through f31 and fpscr. The org.gnu.gdb.power.altivec feature is optional. It should contain registers vr0 through vr31, vscr, and vrsave. The org.gnu.gdb.power.vsx feature is optional. It should contain registers vs0h through vs31h. gdb will combine these registers with the oating point registers (f0 through f31) and the altivec registers (vr0 through vr31) to present the 128-bit wide registers vs0 through vs63, the set of vector registers for POWER7. The org.gnu.gdb.power.spe feature is optional. It should contain registers ev0h through ev31h, acc, and spefscr. SPE targets should provide 32-bit registers in org.gnu.gdb.power.core and provide the upper halves in ev0h through ev31h. gdb will combine these to present registers ev0 through ev31 to the user.

Appendix H: Operating System Information

523

Appendix H Operating System Information

Users of gdb often wish to obtain information about the state of the operating system running on the targetfor example the list of processes, or the list of open les. This section describes the mechanism that makes it possible. This mechanism is similar to the target features mechanism (see undened [Target Descriptions], page undened ), but focuses on a dierent aspect of target. Operating system information is retrived from the target via the remote protocol, using qXfer requests (see undened [qXfer osdata read], page undened ). The object name in the request should be osdata, and the annex identies the data to be fetched.

H.1 Process list

When requesting the process list, the annex eld in the qXfer request should be processes. The returned data is an XML document. The formal syntax of this document is dened in gdb/features/osdata.dtd. An example document is:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE target SYSTEM "osdata.dtd"> <osdata type="processes"> <item> <column name="pid">1</column> <column name="user">root</column> <column name="command">/sbin/init</column> <column name="cores">1,2,3</column> </item> </osdata>

Each item should include a column whose name is pid. The value of that column should identify the process on the target. The user and command columns are optional, and will be displayed by gdb. The cores column, if present, should contain a comma-separated list of cores that this process is running on. Target may provide additional columns, which gdb currently ignores.

524

Debugging with gdb

Appendix I: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

525

Appendix I

GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

Version 3, 29 June 2007 Copyright c 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. http://fsf.org/ Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.

Preamble
The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works. The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed to take away your freedom to share and change the works. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change all versions of a programto make sure it remains free software for all its users. We, the Free Software Foundation, use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it applies also to any other work released this way by its authors. You can apply it to your programs, too. When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs, and that you know you can do these things. To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you these rights or asking you to surrender the rights. Therefore, you have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom of others. For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must pass on to the recipients the same freedoms that you received. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights. Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps: (1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) oer you this License giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it. For the developers and authors protection, the GPL clearly explains that there is no warranty for this free software. For both users and authors sake, the GPL requires that modied versions be marked as changed, so that their problems will not be attributed erroneously to authors of previous versions. Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run modied versions of the software inside them, although the manufacturer can do so. This is fundamentally incompatible with the aim of protecting users freedom to change the software. The systematic pattern of such abuse occurs in the area of products for individuals to use, which is precisely where it is most unacceptable. Therefore, we have designed this version of the GPL to prohibit the practice for those products. If such problems arise substantially in other domains, we stand ready to extend this provision to those domains in future versions of the GPL, as needed to protect the freedom of users.

526

Debugging with gdb

Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents. States should not allow patents to restrict development and use of software on general-purpose computers, but in those that do, we wish to avoid the special danger that patents applied to a free program could make it eectively proprietary. To prevent this, the GPL assures that patents cannot be used to render the program non-free. The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modication follow.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

0. Denitions. This License refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License. Copyright also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds of works, such as semiconductor masks. The Program refers to any copyrightable work licensed under this License. Each licensee is addressed as you. Licensees and recipients may be individuals or organizations. To modify a work means to copy from or adapt all or part of the work in a fashion requiring copyright permission, other than the making of an exact copy. The resulting work is called a modied version of the earlier work or a work based on the earlier work. A covered work means either the unmodied Program or a work based on the Program. To propagate a work means to do anything with it that, without permission, would make you directly or secondarily liable for infringement under applicable copyright law, except executing it on a computer or modifying a private copy. Propagation includes copying, distribution (with or without modication), making available to the public, and in some countries other activities as well. To convey a work means any kind of propagation that enables other parties to make or receive copies. Mere interaction with a user through a computer network, with no transfer of a copy, is not conveying. An interactive user interface displays Appropriate Legal Notices to the extent that it includes a convenient and prominently visible feature that (1) displays an appropriate copyright notice, and (2) tells the user that there is no warranty for the work (except to the extent that warranties are provided), that licensees may convey the work under this License, and how to view a copy of this License. If the interface presents a list of user commands or options, such as a menu, a prominent item in the list meets this criterion. 1. Source Code. The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for making modications to it. Object code means any non-source form of a work. A Standard Interface means an interface that either is an ocial standard dened by a recognized standards body, or, in the case of interfaces specied for a particular programming language, one that is widely used among developers working in that language.

Appendix I: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

527

The System Libraries of an executable work include anything, other than the work as a whole, that (a) is included in the normal form of packaging a Major Component, but which is not part of that Major Component, and (b) serves only to enable use of the work with that Major Component, or to implement a Standard Interface for which an implementation is available to the public in source code form. A Major Component, in this context, means a major essential component (kernel, window system, and so on) of the specic operating system (if any) on which the executable work runs, or a compiler used to produce the work, or an object code interpreter used to run it. The Corresponding Source for a work in object code form means all the source code needed to generate, install, and (for an executable work) run the object code and to modify the work, including scripts to control those activities. However, it does not include the works System Libraries, or general-purpose tools or generally available free programs which are used unmodied in performing those activities but which are not part of the work. For example, Corresponding Source includes interface denition les associated with source les for the work, and the source code for shared libraries and dynamically linked subprograms that the work is specically designed to require, such as by intimate data communication or control ow between those subprograms and other parts of the work. The Corresponding Source need not include anything that users can regenerate automatically from other parts of the Corresponding Source. The Corresponding Source for a work in source code form is that same work. 2. Basic Permissions. All rights granted under this License are granted for the term of copyright on the Program, and are irrevocable provided the stated conditions are met. This License explicitly arms your unlimited permission to run the unmodied Program. The output from running a covered work is covered by this License only if the output, given its content, constitutes a covered work. This License acknowledges your rights of fair use or other equivalent, as provided by copyright law. You may make, run and propagate covered works that you do not convey, without conditions so long as your license otherwise remains in force. You may convey covered works to others for the sole purpose of having them make modications exclusively for you, or provide you with facilities for running those works, provided that you comply with the terms of this License in conveying all material for which you do not control copyright. Those thus making or running the covered works for you must do so exclusively on your behalf, under your direction and control, on terms that prohibit them from making any copies of your copyrighted material outside their relationship with you. Conveying under any other circumstances is permitted solely under the conditions stated below. Sublicensing is not allowed; section 10 makes it unnecessary. 3. Protecting Users Legal Rights From Anti-Circumvention Law. No covered work shall be deemed part of an eective technological measure under any applicable law fullling obligations under article 11 of the WIPO copyright treaty adopted on 20 December 1996, or similar laws prohibiting or restricting circumvention of such measures.

528

Debugging with gdb

When you convey a covered work, you waive any legal power to forbid circumvention of technological measures to the extent such circumvention is eected by exercising rights under this License with respect to the covered work, and you disclaim any intention to limit operation or modication of the work as a means of enforcing, against the works users, your or third parties legal rights to forbid circumvention of technological measures. 4. Conveying Verbatim Copies. You may convey verbatim copies of the Programs source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice; keep intact all notices stating that this License and any non-permissive terms added in accord with section 7 apply to the code; keep intact all notices of the absence of any warranty; and give all recipients a copy of this License along with the Program. You may charge any price or no price for each copy that you convey, and you may oer support or warranty protection for a fee. 5. Conveying Modied Source Versions. You may convey a work based on the Program, or the modications to produce it from the Program, in the form of source code under the terms of section 4, provided that you also meet all of these conditions: a. The work must carry prominent notices stating that you modied it, and giving a relevant date. b. The work must carry prominent notices stating that it is released under this License and any conditions added under section 7. This requirement modies the requirement in section 4 to keep intact all notices. c. You must license the entire work, as a whole, under this License to anyone who comes into possession of a copy. This License will therefore apply, along with any applicable section 7 additional terms, to the whole of the work, and all its parts, regardless of how they are packaged. This License gives no permission to license the work in any other way, but it does not invalidate such permission if you have separately received it. d. If the work has interactive user interfaces, each must display Appropriate Legal Notices; however, if the Program has interactive interfaces that do not display Appropriate Legal Notices, your work need not make them do so. A compilation of a covered work with other separate and independent works, which are not by their nature extensions of the covered work, and which are not combined with it such as to form a larger program, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an aggregate if the compilation and its resulting copyright are not used to limit the access or legal rights of the compilations users beyond what the individual works permit. Inclusion of a covered work in an aggregate does not cause this License to apply to the other parts of the aggregate. 6. Conveying Non-Source Forms. You may convey a covered work in object code form under the terms of sections 4 and 5, provided that you also convey the machine-readable Corresponding Source under the terms of this License, in one of these ways:

Appendix I: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

529

a. Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by the Corresponding Source xed on a durable physical medium customarily used for software interchange. b. Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by a written oer, valid for at least three years and valid for as long as you oer spare parts or customer support for that product model, to give anyone who possesses the object code either (1) a copy of the Corresponding Source for all the software in the product that is covered by this License, on a durable physical medium customarily used for software interchange, for a price no more than your reasonable cost of physically performing this conveying of source, or (2) access to copy the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge. c. Convey individual copies of the object code with a copy of the written oer to provide the Corresponding Source. This alternative is allowed only occasionally and noncommercially, and only if you received the object code with such an oer, in accord with subsection 6b. d. Convey the object code by oering access from a designated place (gratis or for a charge), and oer equivalent access to the Corresponding Source in the same way through the same place at no further charge. You need not require recipients to copy the Corresponding Source along with the object code. If the place to copy the object code is a network server, the Corresponding Source may be on a dierent server (operated by you or a third party) that supports equivalent copying facilities, provided you maintain clear directions next to the object code saying where to nd the Corresponding Source. Regardless of what server hosts the Corresponding Source, you remain obligated to ensure that it is available for as long as needed to satisfy these requirements. e. Convey the object code using peer-to-peer transmission, provided you inform other peers where the object code and Corresponding Source of the work are being oered to the general public at no charge under subsection 6d. A separable portion of the object code, whose source code is excluded from the Corresponding Source as a System Library, need not be included in conveying the object code work. A User Product is either (1) a consumer product, which means any tangible personal property which is normally used for personal, family, or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for incorporation into a dwelling. In determining whether a product is a consumer product, doubtful cases shall be resolved in favor of coverage. For a particular product received by a particular user, normally used refers to a typical or common use of that class of product, regardless of the status of the particular user or of the way in which the particular user actually uses, or expects or is expected to use, the product. A product is a consumer product regardless of whether the product has substantial commercial, industrial or non-consumer uses, unless such uses represent the only signicant mode of use of the product. Installation Information for a User Product means any methods, procedures, authorization keys, or other information required to install and execute modied versions of a covered work in that User Product from a modied version of its Corresponding Source.

530

Debugging with gdb

The information must suce to ensure that the continued functioning of the modied object code is in no case prevented or interfered with solely because modication has been made. If you convey an object code work under this section in, or with, or specically for use in, a User Product, and the conveying occurs as part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a xed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the Corresponding Source conveyed under this section must be accompanied by the Installation Information. But this requirement does not apply if neither you nor any third party retains the ability to install modied object code on the User Product (for example, the work has been installed in ROM). The requirement to provide Installation Information does not include a requirement to continue to provide support service, warranty, or updates for a work that has been modied or installed by the recipient, or for the User Product in which it has been modied or installed. Access to a network may be denied when the modication itself materially and adversely aects the operation of the network or violates the rules and protocols for communication across the network. Corresponding Source conveyed, and Installation Information provided, in accord with this section must be in a format that is publicly documented (and with an implementation available to the public in source code form), and must require no special password or key for unpacking, reading or copying. 7. Additional Terms. Additional permissions are terms that supplement the terms of this License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions. Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent that they are valid under applicable law. If additional permissions apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by this License without regard to the additional permissions. When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of it. (Additional permissions may be written to require their own removal in certain cases when you modify the work.) You may place additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work, for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission. Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders of that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms: a. Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability dierently from the terms of sections 15 and 16 of this License; or b. Requiring preservation of specied reasonable legal notices or author attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices displayed by works containing it; or c. Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material, or requiring that modied versions of such material be marked in reasonable ways as dierent from the original version; or

Appendix I: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

531

d. Limiting the use for publicity purposes of names of licensors or authors of the material; or e. Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some trade names, trademarks, or service marks; or f. Requiring indemnication of licensors and authors of that material by anyone who conveys the material (or modied versions of it) with contractual assumptions of liability to the recipient, for any liability that these contractual assumptions directly impose on those licensors and authors. All other non-permissive additional terms are considered further restrictions within the meaning of section 10. If the Program as you received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is governed by this License along with a term that is a further restriction, you may remove that term. If a license document contains a further restriction but permits relicensing or conveying under this License, you may add to a covered work material governed by the terms of that license document, provided that the further restriction does not survive such relicensing or conveying. If you add terms to a covered work in accord with this section, you must place, in the relevant source les, a statement of the additional terms that apply to those les, or a notice indicating where to nd the applicable terms. Additional terms, permissive or non-permissive, may be stated in the form of a separately written license, or stated as exceptions; the above requirements apply either way. 8. Termination. You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to propagate or modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third paragraph of section 11). However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and nally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation. Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder noties you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the rst time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice. Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, you do not qualify to receive new licenses for the same material under section 10. 9. Acceptance Not Required for Having Copies. You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run a copy of the Program. Ancillary propagation of a covered work occurring solely as a consequence of using peer-to-peer transmission to receive a copy likewise does not require acceptance.

532

Debugging with gdb

However, nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or modify any covered work. These actions infringe copyright if you do not accept this License. Therefore, by modifying or propagating a covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so. 10. Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients. Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and propagate that work, subject to this License. You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License. An entity transaction is a transaction transferring control of an organization, or substantially all assets of one, or subdividing an organization, or merging organizations. If propagation of a covered work results from an entity transaction, each party to that transaction who receives a copy of the work also receives whatever licenses to the work the partys predecessor in interest had or could give under the previous paragraph, plus a right to possession of the Corresponding Source of the work from the predecessor in interest, if the predecessor has it or can get it with reasonable eorts. You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the rights granted or armed under this License. For example, you may not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation (including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, oering for sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it. 11. Patents. A contributor is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based. The work thus licensed is called the contributors contributor version. A contributors essential patent claims are all patent claims owned or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version, but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a consequence of further modication of the contributor version. For purposes of this denition, control includes the right to grant patent sublicenses in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License. Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free patent license under the contributors essential patent claims, to make, use, sell, oer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and propagate the contents of its contributor version. In the following three paragraphs, a patent license is any express agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent (such as an express permission to practice a patent or covenant not to sue for patent infringement). To grant such a patent license to a party means to make such an agreement or commitment not to enforce a patent against the party. If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a patent license, and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a publicly available network server or other readily accessible means, then you must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so

Appendix I: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

533

available, or (2) arrange to deprive yourself of the benet of the patent license for this particular work, or (3) arrange, in a manner consistent with the requirements of this License, to extend the patent license to downstream recipients. Knowingly relying means you have actual knowledge that, but for the patent license, your conveying the covered work in a country, or your recipients use of the covered work in a country, would infringe one or more identiable patents in that country that you have reason to believe are valid. If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify or convey a specic copy of the covered work, then the patent license you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered work and works based on it. A patent license is discriminatory if it does not include within the scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are specically granted under this License. You may not convey a covered work if you are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties who would receive the covered work from you, a discriminatory patent license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by you (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily for and in connection with specic products or compilations that contain the covered work, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007. Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law. 12. No Surrender of Others Freedom. If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License. If you cannot convey a covered work so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a consequence you may not convey it at all. For example, if you agree to terms that obligate you to collect a royalty for further conveying from those to whom you convey the Program, the only way you could satisfy both those terms and this License would be to refrain entirely from conveying the Program. 13. Use with the GNU Aero General Public License. Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed under version 3 of the GNU Aero General Public License into a single combined work, and to convey the resulting work. The terms of this License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work, but the special requirements of the GNU Aero General Public License, section 13, concerning interaction through a network will apply to the combination as such. 14. Revised Versions of this License.

534

Debugging with gdb

The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions of the GNU General Public License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may dier in detail to address new problems or concerns. Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program species that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public License or any later version applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program species that a proxy can decide which future versions of the GNU General Public License can be used, that proxys public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Program. Later license versions may give you additional or dierent permissions. However, no additional obligations are imposed on any author or copyright holder as a result of your choosing to follow a later version. 15. Disclaimer of Warranty. THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU. SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. 16. Limitation of Liability. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 17. Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16. If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided above cannot be given local legal eect according to their terms, reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a copy of the Program in return for a fee.

Appendix I: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE

535

END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms. To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source le to most eectively state the exclusion of warranty; and each le should have at least the copyright line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
one line to give the programs name and a brief idea of what it does. Copyright (C) year name of author This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail. If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
program Copyright (C) year name of author This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type show w. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type show c for details.

The hypothetical commands show w and show c should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, your programs commands might be dierent; for a GUI interface, you would use an about box. You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school, if any, to sign a copyright disclaimer for the program, if necessary. For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/. The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License. But rst, please read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-not-lgpl.html.

536

Debugging with gdb

Appendix J: GNU Free Documentation License

537

Appendix J

GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008 c 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Copyright http://fsf.org/ Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. 0. PREAMBLE The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the eective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modications made by others. This License is a kind of copyleft, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software. We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference. 1. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The Document, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as you. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law. A Modied Version of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modications and/or translated into another language. A Secondary Section is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Documents overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them. The Invariant Sections are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released

538

Debugging with gdb

under this License. If a section does not t the above denition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none. The Cover Texts are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words. A Transparent copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specication is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent le format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modication by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not Transparent is called Opaque. Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ascii without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTEX input format, sgml or xml using a publicly available dtd, and standard-conforming simple html, PostScript or pdf designed for human modication. Examples of transparent image formats include png, xcf and jpg. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, sgml or xml for which the dtd and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated html, PostScript or pdf produced by some word processors for output purposes only. The Title Page means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, Title Page means the text near the most prominent appearance of the works title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text. The publisher means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document to the public. A section Entitled XYZ means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specic section name mentioned below, such as Acknowledgements, Dedications, Endorsements, or History.) To Preserve the Title of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a section Entitled XYZ according to this denition. The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no eect on the meaning of this License. 2. VERBATIM COPYING

Appendix J: GNU Free Documentation License

539

You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3. You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies. 3. COPYING IN QUANTITY If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Documents license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects. If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to t legibly, you should put the rst ones listed (as many as t reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages. If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public. It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document. 4. MODIFICATIONS You may copy and distribute a Modied Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modied Version under precisely this License, with the Modied Version lling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modication of the Modied Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modied Version: A. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any,

540

Debugging with gdb

be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission. B. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modications in the Modied Version, together with at least ve of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than ve), unless they release you from this requirement. C. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modied Version, as the publisher. D. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document. E. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modications adjacent to the other copyright notices. F. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modied Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below. G. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Documents license notice. H. Include an unaltered copy of this License. I. Preserve the section Entitled History, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modied Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled History in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modied Version as stated in the previous sentence. J. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the History section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission. K. For any section Entitled Acknowledgements or Dedications, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein. L. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles. M. Delete any section Entitled Endorsements. Such a section may not be included in the Modied Version. N. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled Endorsements or to conict in title with any Invariant Section. O. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers. If the Modied Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their

Appendix J: GNU Free Documentation License

541

titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modied Versions license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles. You may add a section Entitled Endorsements, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modied Version by various partiesfor example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative denition of a standard. You may add a passage of up to ve words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modied Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one. The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modied Version. 5. COMBINING DOCUMENTS You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms dened in section 4 above for modied versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodied, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers. The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but dierent contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work. In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled History in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled History; likewise combine any sections Entitled Acknowledgements, and any sections Entitled Dedications. You must delete all sections Entitled Endorsements. 6. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects. You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

542

Debugging with gdb

7. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an aggregate if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilations users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document. If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Documents Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate. 8. TRANSLATION Translation is considered a kind of modication, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail. If a section in the Document is Entitled Acknowledgements, Dedications, or History, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title. 9. TERMINATION You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and nally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation. Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder noties you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the rst time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice. Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does not give you any rights to use it.

Appendix J: GNU Free Documentation License

543

10. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may dier in detail to address new problems or concerns. See http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/. Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document species that a particular numbered version of this License or any later version applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specied version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document species that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be used, that proxys public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document. 11. RELICENSING Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site (or MMC Site) means any World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A Massive Multiauthor Collaboration (or MMC) contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site. CC-BY-SA means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-prot corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco, California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license published by that same organization. Incorporate means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part of another Document. An MMC is eligible for relicensing if it is licensed under this License, and if all works that were rst published under this License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008. The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1, 2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

544

Debugging with gdb

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:
Copyright (C) year your name. 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 no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the with. . . Texts. line with this:
with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts being list.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation. If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.

Index

545

Index
(Index is nonexistent)

546

Debugging with gdb

The body of this manual is set in cmr10 at 10.95pt, with headings in cmb10 at 10.95pt and examples in cmtt10 at 10.95pt. cmti10 at 10.95pt, cmb10 at 10.95pt, and cmsl10 at 10.95pt are used for emphasis.