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This is gdb.info, produced by makeinfo version 6.5 from gdb.texinfo.
Copyright (C) 1988-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free
Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and
with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify
this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
developing GNU and promoting software freedom."
INFO-DIR-SECTION Software development
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Gdb: (gdb). The GNU debugger.
* gdbserver: (gdb) Server. The GNU debugging server.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
This file documents the GNU debugger GDB.
This is the Tenth Edition, of 'Debugging with GDB: the GNU
Source-Level Debugger' for GDB (GDB) Version 9.2.
Copyright (C) 1988-2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free
Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and
with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify
this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
developing GNU and promoting software freedom."

File: gdb.info, Node: Frame Apply, Next: Frame Filter Management, Prev: Frame Info, Up: Stack
8.5 Applying a Command to Several Frames.
=========================================
'frame apply [all | COUNT | -COUNT | level LEVEL...] [OPTION]... COMMAND'
The 'frame apply' command allows you to apply the named COMMAND to
one or more frames.
'all'
Specify 'all' to apply COMMAND to all frames.
'COUNT'
Use COUNT to apply COMMAND to the innermost COUNT frames,
where COUNT is a positive number.
'-COUNT'
Use -COUNT to apply COMMAND to the outermost COUNT frames,
where COUNT is a positive number.
'level'
Use 'level' to apply COMMAND to the set of frames identified
by the LEVEL list. LEVEL is a frame level or a range of frame
levels as LEVEL1-LEVEL2. The frame level is the number shown
in the first field of the 'backtrace' command output. E.g.,
'2-4 6-8 3' indicates to apply COMMAND for the frames at
levels 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and then again on frame at level 3.
Note that the frames on which 'frame apply' applies a command are
also influenced by the 'set backtrace' settings such as 'set
backtrace past-main' and 'set backtrace limit N'. *Note
Backtraces: Backtrace.
The 'frame apply' command also supports a number of options that
allow overriding relevant 'set backtrace' settings:
'-past-main [on|off]'
Whether backtraces should continue past 'main'. Related
setting: *note set backtrace past-main::.
'-past-entry [on|off]'
Whether backtraces should continue past the entry point of a
program. Related setting: *note set backtrace past-entry::.
By default, GDB displays some frame information before the output
produced by COMMAND, and an error raised during the execution of a
COMMAND will abort 'frame apply'. The following options can be
used to fine-tune these behaviors:
'-c'
The flag '-c', which stands for 'continue', causes any errors
in COMMAND to be displayed, and the execution of 'frame apply'
then continues.
'-s'
The flag '-s', which stands for 'silent', causes any errors or
empty output produced by a COMMAND to be silently ignored.
That is, the execution continues, but the frame information
and errors are not printed.
'-q'
The flag '-q' ('quiet') disables printing the frame
information.
The following example shows how the flags '-c' and '-s' are working
when applying the command 'p j' to all frames, where variable 'j'
can only be successfully printed in the outermost '#1 main' frame.
(gdb) frame apply all p j
#0 some_function (i=5) at fun.c:4
No symbol "j" in current context.
(gdb) frame apply all -c p j
#0 some_function (i=5) at fun.c:4
No symbol "j" in current context.
#1 0x565555fb in main (argc=1, argv=0xffffd2c4) at fun.c:11
$1 = 5
(gdb) frame apply all -s p j
#1 0x565555fb in main (argc=1, argv=0xffffd2c4) at fun.c:11
$2 = 5
(gdb)
By default, 'frame apply', prints the frame location information
before the command output:
(gdb) frame apply all p $sp
#0 some_function (i=5) at fun.c:4
$4 = (void *) 0xffffd1e0
#1 0x565555fb in main (argc=1, argv=0xffffd2c4) at fun.c:11
$5 = (void *) 0xffffd1f0
(gdb)
If the flag '-q' is given, no frame information is printed:
(gdb) frame apply all -q p $sp
$12 = (void *) 0xffffd1e0
$13 = (void *) 0xffffd1f0
(gdb)
'faas COMMAND'
Shortcut for 'frame apply all -s COMMAND'. Applies COMMAND on all
frames, ignoring errors and empty output.
It can for example be used to print a local variable or a function
argument without knowing the frame where this variable or argument
is, using:
(gdb) faas p some_local_var_i_do_not_remember_where_it_is
The 'faas' command accepts the same options as the 'frame apply'
command. *Note frame apply::.
Note that the command 'tfaas COMMAND' applies COMMAND on all frames
of all threads. See *Note Threads: Threads.

File: gdb.info, Node: Frame Filter Management, Prev: Frame Apply, Up: Stack
8.6 Management of Frame Filters.
================================
Frame filters are Python based utilities to manage and decorate the
output of frames. *Note Frame Filter API::, for further information.
Managing frame filters is performed by several commands available
within GDB, detailed here.
'info frame-filter'
Print a list of installed frame filters from all dictionaries,
showing their name, priority and enabled status.
'disable frame-filter FILTER-DICTIONARY FILTER-NAME'
Disable a frame filter in the dictionary matching FILTER-DICTIONARY
and FILTER-NAME. The FILTER-DICTIONARY may be 'all', 'global',
'progspace', or the name of the object file where the frame filter
dictionary resides. When 'all' is specified, all frame filters
across all dictionaries are disabled. The FILTER-NAME is the name
of the frame filter and is used when 'all' is not the option for
FILTER-DICTIONARY. A disabled frame-filter is not deleted, it may
be enabled again later.
'enable frame-filter FILTER-DICTIONARY FILTER-NAME'
Enable a frame filter in the dictionary matching FILTER-DICTIONARY
and FILTER-NAME. The FILTER-DICTIONARY may be 'all', 'global',
'progspace' or the name of the object file where the frame filter
dictionary resides. When 'all' is specified, all frame filters
across all dictionaries are enabled. The FILTER-NAME is the name
of the frame filter and is used when 'all' is not the option for
FILTER-DICTIONARY.
Example:
(gdb) info frame-filter
global frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
1000 No PrimaryFunctionFilter
100 Yes Reverse
progspace /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
100 Yes ProgspaceFilter
objfile /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
999 Yes BuildProgramFilter
(gdb) disable frame-filter /build/test BuildProgramFilter
(gdb) info frame-filter
global frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
1000 No PrimaryFunctionFilter
100 Yes Reverse
progspace /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
100 Yes ProgspaceFilter
objfile /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
999 No BuildProgramFilter
(gdb) enable frame-filter global PrimaryFunctionFilter
(gdb) info frame-filter
global frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
1000 Yes PrimaryFunctionFilter
100 Yes Reverse
progspace /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
100 Yes ProgspaceFilter
objfile /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
999 No BuildProgramFilter
'set frame-filter priority FILTER-DICTIONARY FILTER-NAME PRIORITY'
Set the PRIORITY of a frame filter in the dictionary matching
FILTER-DICTIONARY, and the frame filter name matching FILTER-NAME.
The FILTER-DICTIONARY may be 'global', 'progspace' or the name of
the object file where the frame filter dictionary resides. The
PRIORITY is an integer.
'show frame-filter priority FILTER-DICTIONARY FILTER-NAME'
Show the PRIORITY of a frame filter in the dictionary matching
FILTER-DICTIONARY, and the frame filter name matching FILTER-NAME.
The FILTER-DICTIONARY may be 'global', 'progspace' or the name of
the object file where the frame filter dictionary resides.
Example:
(gdb) info frame-filter
global frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
1000 Yes PrimaryFunctionFilter
100 Yes Reverse
progspace /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
100 Yes ProgspaceFilter
objfile /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
999 No BuildProgramFilter
(gdb) set frame-filter priority global Reverse 50
(gdb) info frame-filter
global frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
1000 Yes PrimaryFunctionFilter
50 Yes Reverse
progspace /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
100 Yes ProgspaceFilter
objfile /build/test frame-filters:
Priority Enabled Name
999 No BuildProgramFilter

File: gdb.info, Node: Source, Next: Data, Prev: Stack, Up: Top
9 Examining Source Files
************************
GDB can print parts of your program's source, since the debugging
information recorded in the program tells GDB what source files were
used to build it. When your program stops, GDB spontaneously prints the
line where it stopped. Likewise, when you select a stack frame (*note
Selecting a Frame: Selection.), GDB prints the line where execution in
that frame has stopped. You can print other portions of source files by
explicit command.
If you use GDB through its GNU Emacs interface, you may prefer to use
Emacs facilities to view source; see *note Using GDB under GNU Emacs:
Emacs.
* Menu:
* List:: Printing source lines
* Specify Location:: How to specify code locations
* Edit:: Editing source files
* Search:: Searching source files
* Source Path:: Specifying source directories
* Machine Code:: Source and machine code

File: gdb.info, Node: List, Next: Specify Location, Up: Source
9.1 Printing Source Lines
=========================
To print lines from a source file, use the 'list' command (abbreviated
'l'). By default, ten lines are printed. There are several ways to
specify what part of the file you want to print; see *note Specify
Location::, 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 file.
'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 (*note Examining the Stack:
Stack.), this prints lines centered around that line.
'list -'
Print lines just before the lines last printed.
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'
'set listsize unlimited'
Make the 'list' command display COUNT source lines (unless the
'list' argument explicitly specifies some other number). Setting
COUNT to 'unlimited' or 0 means there's no limit.
'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 file.
In general, the 'list' command expects you to supply zero, one or two
"locations". Locations specify source lines; there are several ways of
writing them (*note Specify Location::), but the effect is always to
specify some source line.
Here is a complete description of the possible arguments for 'list':
'list LOCATION'
Print lines centered around the line specified by LOCATION.
'list FIRST,LAST'
Print lines from FIRST to LAST. Both arguments are locations.
When a 'list' command has two locations, and the source file of the
second location is omitted, this refers to the same source file as
the first location.
'list ,LAST'
Print lines ending with LAST.
'list FIRST,'
Print lines starting with FIRST.
'list +'
Print lines just after the lines last printed.
'list -'
Print lines just before the lines last printed.
'list'
As described in the preceding table.

File: gdb.info, Node: Specify Location, Next: Edit, Prev: List, Up: Source
9.2 Specifying a Location
=========================
* Menu:
* Linespec Locations:: Linespec locations
* Explicit Locations:: Explicit locations
* Address Locations:: Address locations
Several GDB commands accept arguments that specify a location of your
program's code. Since GDB is a source-level debugger, a location
usually specifies some line in the source code. Locations may be
specified using three different formats: linespec locations, explicit
locations, or address locations.

File: gdb.info, Node: Linespec Locations, Next: Explicit Locations, Up: Specify Location
9.2.1 Linespec Locations
------------------------
A "linespec" is a colon-separated list of source location parameters
such as file name, function name, etc. Here are all the different ways
of specifying a linespec:
'LINENUM'
Specifies the line number LINENUM of the current source file.
'-OFFSET'
'+OFFSET'
Specifies the line OFFSET 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" (*note Frames:
Frames, for a description of stack frames.) When used as the
second of the two linespecs in a 'list' command, this specifies the
line OFFSET lines up or down from the first linespec.
'FILENAME:LINENUM'
Specifies the line LINENUM in the source file FILENAME. If
FILENAME is a relative file name, then it will match any source
file name with the same trailing components. For example, if
FILENAME is 'gcc/expr.c', then it will match source file name of
'/build/trunk/gcc/expr.c', but not '/build/trunk/libcpp/expr.c' or
'/build/trunk/gcc/x-expr.c'.
'FUNCTION'
Specifies the line that begins the body of the function FUNCTION.
For example, in C, this is the line with the open brace.
By default, in C++ and Ada, FUNCTION is interpreted as specifying
all functions named FUNCTION in all scopes. For C++, this means in
all namespaces and classes. For Ada, this means in all packages.
For example, assuming a program with C++ symbols named 'A::B::func'
and 'B::func', both commands 'break func' and 'break B::func' set a
breakpoint on both symbols.
Commands that accept a linespec let you override this with the
'-qualified' option. For example, 'break -qualified func' sets a
breakpoint on a free-function named 'func' ignoring any C++ class
methods and namespace functions called 'func'.
*Note Explicit Locations::.
'FUNCTION:LABEL'
Specifies the line where LABEL appears in FUNCTION.
'FILENAME:FUNCTION'
Specifies the line that begins the body of the function FUNCTION in
the file FILENAME. You only need the file name with a function
name to avoid ambiguity when there are identically named functions
in different source files.
'LABEL'
Specifies the line at which the label named LABEL appears in the
function corresponding to the currently selected stack frame. If
there is no current selected stack frame (for instance, if the
inferior is not running), then GDB will not search for a label.
'-pstap|-probe-stap [OBJFILE:[PROVIDER:]]NAME'
The GNU/Linux tool 'SystemTap' provides a way for applications to
embed static probes. *Note Static Probe Points::, for more
information on finding and using static probes. This form of
linespec specifies the location of such a static probe.
If OBJFILE is given, only probes coming from that shared library or
executable matching OBJFILE as a regular expression are considered.
If PROVIDER is given, then only probes from that provider are
considered. If several probes match the spec, GDB will insert a
breakpoint at each one of those probes.

File: gdb.info, Node: Explicit Locations, Next: Address Locations, Prev: Linespec Locations, Up: Specify Location
9.2.2 Explicit Locations
------------------------
"Explicit locations" allow the user to directly specify the source
location's parameters using option-value pairs.
Explicit locations are useful when several functions, labels, or file
names have the same name (base name for files) in the program's sources.
In these cases, explicit locations point to the source line you meant
more accurately and unambiguously. Also, using explicit locations might
be faster in large programs.
For example, the linespec 'foo:bar' may refer to a function 'bar'
defined in the file named 'foo' or the label 'bar' in a function named
'foo'. GDB must search either the file system or the symbol table to
know.
The list of valid explicit location options is summarized in the
following table:
'-source FILENAME'
The value specifies the source file name. To differentiate between
files with the same base name, prepend as many directories as is
necessary to uniquely identify the desired file, e.g.,
'foo/bar/baz.c'. Otherwise GDB will use the first file it finds
with the given base name. This option requires the use of either
'-function' or '-line'.
'-function FUNCTION'
The value specifies the name of a function. Operations on function
locations unmodified by other options (such as '-label' or '-line')
refer to the line that begins the body of the function. In C, for
example, this is the line with the open brace.
By default, in C++ and Ada, FUNCTION is interpreted as specifying
all functions named FUNCTION in all scopes. For C++, this means in
all namespaces and classes. For Ada, this means in all packages.
For example, assuming a program with C++ symbols named 'A::B::func'
and 'B::func', both commands 'break -function func' and
'break -function B::func' set a breakpoint on both symbols.
You can use the '-qualified' flag to override this (see below).
'-qualified'
This flag makes GDB interpret a function name specified with
'-function' as a complete fully-qualified name.
For example, assuming a C++ program with symbols named 'A::B::func'
and 'B::func', the 'break -qualified -function B::func' command
sets a breakpoint on 'B::func', only.
(Note: the '-qualified' option can precede a linespec as well
(*note Linespec Locations::), so the particular example above could
be simplified as 'break -qualified B::func'.)
'-label LABEL'
The value specifies the name of a label. When the function name is
not specified, the label is searched in the function of the
currently selected stack frame.
'-line NUMBER'
The value specifies a line offset for the location. The offset may
either be absolute ('-line 3') or relative ('-line +3'), depending
on the command. When specified without any other options, the line
offset is relative to the current line.
Explicit location options may be abbreviated by omitting any
non-unique trailing characters from the option name, e.g.,
'break -s main.c -li 3'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Address Locations, Prev: Explicit Locations, Up: Specify Location
9.2.3 Address Locations
-----------------------
"Address locations" indicate a specific program address. They have the
generalized form *ADDRESS.
For line-oriented commands, such as 'list' and 'edit', this specifies
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
files.
Here ADDRESS may be any expression valid in the current working
language (*note working language: Languages.) that specifies a code
address. In addition, as a convenience, GDB extends the semantics of
expressions used in locations to cover several situations that
frequently occur 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++, Objective-C, Fortran, minimal, and assembly, this is simply
the function's 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 specifies the address of the function's first
instruction, before the stack frame and arguments have been set up.
''FILENAME':FUNCADDR'
Like FUNCADDR above, but also specifies the name of the source file
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 different source files.

File: gdb.info, Node: Edit, Next: Search, Prev: Specify Location, Up: Source
9.3 Editing Source Files
========================
To edit the lines in a source file, 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 file you want to print if you want to see other
parts of the program:
'edit LOCATION'
Edit the source file specified by 'location'. Editing starts at
that LOCATION, e.g., at the specified source line of the specified
file. *Note Specify Location::, 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 file with NUMBER as the active line
number.
'edit FUNCTION'
Edit the file containing FUNCTION at the beginning of its
definition.
9.3.1 Choosing your Editor
--------------------------
You can customize GDB to use any editor you want (1). By default, it is
'/bin/ex', but you can change this by setting the environment variable
'EDITOR' before using GDB. For example, to configure 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 ...
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) The only restriction is that your editor (say 'ex'), recognizes
the following command-line syntax:
ex +NUMBER file
The optional numeric value +NUMBER specifies the number of the line
in the file where to start editing.

File: gdb.info, Node: Search, Next: Source Path, Prev: Edit, Up: Source
9.4 Searching Source Files
==========================
There are two commands for searching through the current source file 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'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Source Path, Next: Machine Code, Prev: Search, Up: Source
9.5 Specifying Source Directories
=================================
Executable programs sometimes do not record the directories of the
source files 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
files; this is called the "source path". Each time GDB wants a source
file, it tries all the directories in the list, in the order they are
present in the list, until it finds a file with the desired name.
For example, suppose an executable references the file
'/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c', does not record a compilation directory,
and the "source path" is '/mnt/cross'. GDB would look for the source
file in the following locations:
1. '/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
2. '/mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
3. '/mnt/cross/foo.c'
If the source file is not present at any of the above locations then
an error is printed. GDB does not look up the parts of the source file
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 find it
under '/mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib'.
Plain file names, relative file names with leading directories, file
names containing dots, etc. are all treated as described above, except
that non-absolute file names are not looked up literally. If the
"source path" is '/mnt/cross', the source file is recorded as
'../lib/foo.c', and no compilation directory is recorded, then GDB will
search in the following locations:
1. '/mnt/cross/../lib/foo.c'
2. '/mnt/cross/foo.c'
The "source path" will always include two special entries '$cdir' and
'$cwd', these refer to the compilation directory (if one is recorded)
and the current working directory respectively.
'$cdir' causes GDB to search within the compilation directory, if one
is recorded in the debug information. If no compilation directory is
recorded in the debug information then '$cdir' is ignored.
'$cwd' is not the same as '.'--the former tracks the current working
directory as it changes during your GDB session, while the latter is
immediately expanded to the current directory at the time you add an
entry to the source path.
If a compilation directory is recorded in the debug information, and
GDB has not found the source file after the first search using "source
path", then GDB will combine the compilation directory and the filename,
and then search for the source file again using the "source path".
For example, if the executable records the source file as
'/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c', the compilation directory is recorded as
'/project/build', and the "source path" is '/mnt/cross:$cdir:$cwd' while
the current working directory of the GDB session is '/home/user', then
GDB will search for the source file in the following locations:
1. '/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
2. '/mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
3. '/project/build/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
4. '/home/user/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
5. '/mnt/cross/project/build/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
6. '/project/build/project/build/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
7. '/home/user/project/build/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c'
8. '/mnt/cross/foo.c'
9. '/project/build/foo.c'
10. '/home/user/foo.c'
If the file name in the previous example had been recorded in the
executable as a relative path rather than an absolute path, then the
first look up would not have occurred, but all of the remaining steps
would be similar.
When searching for source files on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, where
absolute paths start with a drive letter (e.g. 'C:/project/foo.c'), GDB
will remove the drive letter from the file name before appending it to a
search directory from "source path"; for instance if the executable
references the source file 'C:/project/foo.c' and "source path" is set
to 'D:/mnt/cross', then GDB will search in the following locations for
the source file:
1. 'C:/project/foo.c'
2. 'D:/mnt/cross/project/foo.c'
3. 'D:/mnt/cross/foo.c'
Note that the executable search path is _not_ used to locate the
source files.
Whenever you reset or rearrange the source path, GDB clears out any
information it has cached about where source files are found and where
each line is in the file.
When you start GDB, its source path includes only '$cdir' and '$cwd',
in that order. To add other directories, use the 'directory' command.
The search path is used to find both program source files and GDB
script files (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"
specifies how to rewrite source directories stored in the program's
debug information in case the sources were moved to a different
directory between compilation and debugging. A rule is made of two
strings, the first specifying what needs to be rewritten in the path,
and the second specifying how it should be rewritten. In *note set
substitute-path::, 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 file name, and uses that result instead of
the original file 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 first 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 define a source path
substitution rule, use the 'set substitute-path' command (*note set
substitute-path::).
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 efficient 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 file at the original location no longer
exists. On the other hand, 'set substitute-path' modifies the debugger
behavior to look at the rewritten location instead. So, if for any
reason a source file 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.
You can configure a default source path substitution rule by
configuring GDB with the '--with-relocated-sources=DIR' option. The DIR
should be the name of a directory under GDB's configured prefix (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 MS-Windows, where ':' usually appears as part of
absolute file names) or whitespace. You may specify a directory
that is already in the source path; this moves it forward, so GDB
searches it sooner.
The special strings '$cdir' (to refer to the compilation directory,
if one is recorded), and '$cwd' (to refer to the current working
directory) can also be included in the list of directories DIRNAME.
Though these will already be in the source path they will be moved
forward in the list so GDB searches them sooner.
'directory'
Reset the source path to its default value ('$cdir:$cwd' on Unix
systems). This requires confirmation.
'set directories PATH-LIST'
Set the source path to PATH-LIST. '$cdir:$cwd' are added if
missing.
'show directories'
Print the source path: show which directories it contains.
'set substitute-path FROM TO'
Define 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 defined, then the old rule is also
deleted.
For example, if the file '/foo/bar/baz.c' was moved to
'/mnt/cross/baz.c', then the command
(gdb) set substitute-path /foo/bar /mnt/cross
will tell GDB to replace '/foo/bar' with '/mnt/cross', which will
allow GDB to find the file 'baz.c' even though it was moved.
In the case when more than one substitution rule have been defined,
the rules are evaluated one by one in the order where they have
been defined. The first 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 first rule. However, it would
use the second rule to rewrite '/usr/src/lib/foo.c' into
'/mnt/src/lib/foo.c'.
'unset substitute-path [path]'
If a path is specified, 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 specified, then all substitution rules are deleted.
'show substitute-path [path]'
If a path is specified, then print the source path substitution
rule which would rewrite that path, if any.
If no path is specified, 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 finding 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Machine Code, Prev: Source Path, Up: Source
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 specified. Also,
'info line' prints addresses in symbolic form as well as hex.
'info line'
'info line LOCATION'
Print the starting and ending addresses of the compiled code for
source line LOCATION. You can specify source lines in any of the
ways documented in *note Specify Location::. With no LOCATION
information about the current source line is printed.
For example, we can use 'info line' to discover the location of the
object code for the first line of function 'm4_changequote':
(gdb) info line m4_changequote
Line 895 of "builtin.c" starts at pc 0x634c <m4_changequote> and \
ends at 0x6350 <m4_changequote+4>.
We can also inquire (using '*ADDR' as the form for LOCATION) what source
line covers a particular address:
(gdb) info line *0x63ff
Line 926 of "builtin.c" starts at pc 0x63e4 <m4_changequote+152> and \
ends at 0x6404 <m4_changequote+184>.
After 'info line', the default address for the 'x' command is changed
to the starting address of the line, so that 'x/i' is sufficient to
begin examining the machine code (*note Examining Memory: Memory.).
Also, this address is saved as the value of the convenience variable
'$_' (*note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars.).
After 'info line', using 'info line' again without specifying a
location will display information about the next source line.
'disassemble'
'disassemble /m'
'disassemble /s'
'disassemble /r'
This specialized command dumps a range of memory as machine
instructions. It can also print mixed source+disassembly by
specifying the '/m' or '/s' modifier and print the raw instructions
in hex as well as in symbolic form by specifying the '/r' modifier.
The default memory range is the function surrounding the program
counter of the selected frame. A single argument to this command
is a program counter value; GDB dumps the function surrounding this
value. When two arguments are given, they should be separated by a
comma, possibly surrounded by whitespace. The arguments specify a
range of addresses to dump, in one of two forms:
'START,END'
the addresses from START (inclusive) to END (exclusive)
'START,+LENGTH'
the addresses from START (inclusive) to 'START+LENGTH'
(exclusive).
When 2 arguments are specified, the name of the function is also
printed (since there could be several functions in the given
range).
The argument(s) can be any expression yielding a numeric value,
such as '0x32c4', '&main+10' or '$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 with
'/m' or '/s', when the program is stopped just after function prologue
in a non-optimized function with no inline code.
(gdb) disas /m main
Dump of assembler code for function main:
5 {
0x08048330 <+0>: push %ebp
0x08048331 <+1>: mov %esp,%ebp
0x08048333 <+3>: sub $0x8,%esp
0x08048336 <+6>: and $0xfffffff0,%esp
0x08048339 <+9>: sub $0x10,%esp
6 printf ("Hello.\n");
=> 0x0804833c <+12>: movl $0x8048440,(%esp)
0x08048343 <+19>: call 0x8048284 <puts@plt>
7 return 0;
8 }
0x08048348 <+24>: mov $0x0,%eax
0x0804834d <+29>: leave
0x0804834e <+30>: ret
End of assembler dump.
The '/m' option is deprecated as its output is not useful when there
is either inlined code or re-ordered code. The '/s' option is the
preferred choice. Here is an example for AMD x86-64 showing the
difference between '/m' output and '/s' output. This example has one
inline function defined in a header file, and the code is compiled with
'-O2' optimization. Note how the '/m' output is missing the disassembly
of several instructions that are present in the '/s' output.
'foo.h':
int
foo (int a)
{
if (a < 0)
return a * 2;
if (a == 0)
return 1;
return a + 10;
}
'foo.c':
#include "foo.h"
volatile int x, y;
int
main ()
{
x = foo (y);
return 0;
}
(gdb) disas /m main
Dump of assembler code for function main:
5 {
6 x = foo (y);
0x0000000000400400 <+0>: mov 0x200c2e(%rip),%eax # 0x601034 <y>
0x0000000000400417 <+23>: mov %eax,0x200c13(%rip) # 0x601030 <x>
7 return 0;
8 }
0x000000000040041d <+29>: xor %eax,%eax
0x000000000040041f <+31>: retq
0x0000000000400420 <+32>: add %eax,%eax
0x0000000000400422 <+34>: jmp 0x400417 <main+23>
End of assembler dump.
(gdb) disas /s main
Dump of assembler code for function main:
foo.c:
5 {
6 x = foo (y);
0x0000000000400400 <+0>: mov 0x200c2e(%rip),%eax # 0x601034 <y>
foo.h:
4 if (a < 0)
0x0000000000400406 <+6>: test %eax,%eax
0x0000000000400408 <+8>: js 0x400420 <main+32>
6 if (a == 0)
7 return 1;
8 return a + 10;
0x000000000040040a <+10>: lea 0xa(%rax),%edx
0x000000000040040d <+13>: test %eax,%eax
0x000000000040040f <+15>: mov $0x1,%eax
0x0000000000400414 <+20>: cmovne %edx,%eax
foo.c:
6 x = foo (y);
0x0000000000400417 <+23>: mov %eax,0x200c13(%rip) # 0x601030 <x>
7 return 0;
8 }
0x000000000040041d <+29>: xor %eax,%eax
0x000000000040041f <+31>: retq
foo.h:
5 return a * 2;
0x0000000000400420 <+32>: add %eax,%eax
0x0000000000400422 <+34>: jmp 0x400417 <main+23>
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.
Addresses cannot be specified as a location (*note Specify
Location::). So, for example, if you want to disassemble function 'bar'
in file 'foo.c', you must type 'disassemble 'foo.c'::bar' and not
'disassemble foo.c:bar'.
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 location--it's actually a
location of the relocation table. On some architectures, GDB might be
able to resolve these to actual function names.
'set disassembler-options OPTION1[,OPTION2...]'
This command controls the passing of target specific information to
the disassembler. For a list of valid options, please refer to the
'-M'/'--disassembler-options' section of the 'objdump' manual
and/or the output of 'objdump --help' (*note objdump:
(binutils)objdump.). The default value is the empty string.
If it is necessary to specify more than one disassembler option,
then multiple options can be placed together into a comma separated
list. Currently this command is only supported on targets ARM,
MIPS, PowerPC and S/390.
'show disassembler-options'
Show the current setting of the disassembler options.
'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 defined for the Intel x86 family.
You can set INSTRUCTION-SET to either 'intel' or 'att'. The
default is 'att', the AT&T flavor used by default by Unix
assemblers for x86-based targets.
'show disassembly-flavor'
Show the current setting of the disassembly flavor.
'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 find the source file, or there's 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 file
is unavailable. The default is OFF, which means never display the
disassembly of the next line or instruction.

File: gdb.info, Node: Data, Next: Optimized Code, Prev: Source, Up: Top
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 (*note Using GDB with Different Languages: Languages.). It
may also print the expression using a Python-based pretty-printer (*note
Pretty Printing::).
'print [[OPTIONS] --] EXPR'
'print [[OPTIONS] --] /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 different format by specifying '/F', where F is a
letter specifying the format; see *note Output Formats: Output
Formats.
The 'print' command supports a number of options that allow
overriding relevant global print settings as set by 'set print'
subcommands:
'-address [on|off]'
Set printing of addresses. Related setting: *note set print
address::.
'-array [on|off]'
Pretty formatting of arrays. Related setting: *note set print
array::.
'-array-indexes [on|off]'
Set printing of array indexes. Related setting: *note set
print array-indexes::.
'-elements NUMBER-OF-ELEMENTS|unlimited'
Set limit on string chars or array elements to print. The
value 'unlimited' causes there to be no limit. Related
setting: *note set print elements::.
'-max-depth DEPTH|unlimited'
Set the threshold after which nested structures are replaced
with ellipsis. Related setting: *note set print max-depth::.
'-null-stop [on|off]'
Set printing of char arrays to stop at first null char.
Related setting: *note set print null-stop::.
'-object [on|off]'
Set printing C++ virtual function tables. Related setting:
*note set print object::.
'-pretty [on|off]'
Set pretty formatting of structures. Related setting: *note
set print pretty::.
'-raw-values [on|off]'
Set whether to print values in raw form, bypassing any
pretty-printers for that value. Related setting: *note set
print raw-values::.
'-repeats NUMBER-OF-REPEATS|unlimited'
Set threshold for repeated print elements. 'unlimited' causes
all elements to be individually printed. Related setting:
*note set print repeats::.
'-static-members [on|off]'
Set printing C++ static members. Related setting: *note set
print static-members::.
'-symbol [on|off]'
Set printing of symbol names when printing pointers. Related
setting: *note set print symbol::.
'-union [on|off]'
Set printing of unions interior to structures. Related
setting: *note set print union::.
'-vtbl [on|off]'
Set printing of C++ virtual function tables. Related setting:
*note set print vtbl::.
Because the 'print' command accepts arbitrary expressions which may
look like options (including abbreviations), if you specify any
command option, then you must use a double dash ('--') to mark the
end of option processing.
For example, this prints the value of the '-p' expression:
(gdb) print -p
While this repeats the last value in the value history (see below)
with the '-pretty' option in effect:
(gdb) print -p --
Here is an example including both on option and an expression:
(gdb) print -pretty -- *myptr
$1 = {
next = 0x0,
flags = {
sweet = 1,
sour = 1
},
meat = 0x54 "Pork"
}
'print [OPTIONS]'
'print [OPTIONS] /F'
If you omit EXPR, GDB displays the last value again (from the
"value history"; *note Value History: Value History.). 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 specified address and prints it in a
specified format. *Note Examining Memory: Memory.
If you are interested in information about types, or about how the
fields of a struct or a class are declared, use the 'ptype EXP' command
rather than 'print'. *Note Examining the Symbol Table: Symbols.
Another way of examining values of expressions and type information
is through the Python extension command 'explore' (available only if the
GDB build is configured with '--with-python'). It offers an interactive
way to start at the highest level (or, the most abstract level) of the
data type of an expression (or, the data type itself) and explore all
the way down to leaf scalar values/fields embedded in the higher level
data types.
'explore ARG'
ARG is either an expression (in the source language), or a type
visible in the current context of the program being debugged.
The working of the 'explore' command can be illustrated with an
example. If a data type 'struct ComplexStruct' is defined in your C
program as
struct SimpleStruct
{
int i;
double d;
};
struct ComplexStruct
{
struct SimpleStruct *ss_p;
int arr[10];
};
followed by variable declarations as
struct SimpleStruct ss = { 10, 1.11 };
struct ComplexStruct cs = { &ss, { 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 } };
then, the value of the variable 'cs' can be explored using the 'explore'
command as follows.
(gdb) explore cs
The value of `cs' is a struct/class of type `struct ComplexStruct' with
the following fields:
ss_p = <Enter 0 to explore this field of type `struct SimpleStruct *'>
arr = <Enter 1 to explore this field of type `int [10]'>
Enter the field number of choice:
Since the fields of 'cs' are not scalar values, you are being prompted
to chose the field you want to explore. Let's say you choose the field
'ss_p' by entering '0'. Then, since this field is a pointer, you will
be asked if it is pointing to a single value. From the declaration of
'cs' above, it is indeed pointing to a single value, hence you enter
'y'. If you enter 'n', then you will be asked if it were pointing to an
array of values, in which case this field will be explored as if it were
an array.
`cs.ss_p' is a pointer to a value of type `struct SimpleStruct'
Continue exploring it as a pointer to a single value [y/n]: y
The value of `*(cs.ss_p)' is a struct/class of type `struct
SimpleStruct' with the following fields:
i = 10 .. (Value of type `int')
d = 1.1100000000000001 .. (Value of type `double')
Press enter to return to parent value:
If the field 'arr' of 'cs' was chosen for exploration by entering '1'
earlier, then since it is as array, you will be prompted to enter the
index of the element in the array that you want to explore.
`cs.arr' is an array of `int'.
Enter the index of the element you want to explore in `cs.arr': 5
`(cs.arr)[5]' is a scalar value of type `int'.
(cs.arr)[5] = 4
Press enter to return to parent value:
In general, at any stage of exploration, you can go deeper towards
the leaf values by responding to the prompts appropriately, or hit the
return key to return to the enclosing data structure (the higher level
data structure).
Similar to exploring values, you can use the 'explore' command to
explore types. Instead of specifying a value (which is typically a
variable name or an expression valid in the current context of the
program being debugged), you specify a type name. If you consider the
same example as above, your can explore the type 'struct ComplexStruct'
by passing the argument 'struct ComplexStruct' to the 'explore' command.
(gdb) explore struct ComplexStruct
By responding to the prompts appropriately in the subsequent interactive
session, you can explore the type 'struct ComplexStruct' in a manner
similar to how the value 'cs' was explored in the above example.
The 'explore' command also has two sub-commands, 'explore value' and
'explore type'. The former sub-command is a way to explicitly specify
that value exploration of the argument is being invoked, while the
latter is a way to explicitly specify that type exploration of the
argument is being invoked.
'explore value EXPR'
This sub-command of 'explore' explores the value of the expression
EXPR (if EXPR is an expression valid in the current context of the
program being debugged). The behavior of this command is identical
to that of the behavior of the 'explore' command being passed the
argument EXPR.
'explore type ARG'
This sub-command of 'explore' explores the type of ARG (if ARG is a
type visible in the current context of program being debugged), or
the type of the value/expression ARG (if ARG is an expression valid
in the current context of the program being debugged). If ARG is a
type, then the behavior of this command is identical to that of the
'explore' command being passed the argument ARG. If ARG is an
expression, then the behavior of this command will be identical to
that of the 'explore' command being passed the type of ARG as the
argument.
* Menu:
* Expressions:: Expressions
* Ambiguous Expressions:: Ambiguous Expressions
* Variables:: Program variables
* Arrays:: Artificial arrays
* Output Formats:: Output formats
* Memory:: Examining memory
* Auto Display:: Automatic display
* Print Settings:: Print settings
* Pretty Printing:: Python pretty printing
* Value History:: Value history
* Convenience Vars:: Convenience variables
* Convenience Funs:: Convenience functions
* Registers:: Registers
* Floating Point Hardware:: Floating point hardware
* Vector Unit:: Vector Unit
* OS Information:: Auxiliary data provided by operating system
* Memory Region Attributes:: Memory region attributes
* Dump/Restore Files:: Copy between memory and a file
* Core File Generation:: Cause a program dump its core
* Character Sets:: Debugging programs that use a different
character set than GDB does
* Caching Target Data:: Data caching for targets
* Searching Memory:: Searching memory for a sequence of bytes
* Value Sizes:: Managing memory allocated for values

File: gdb.info, Node: Expressions, Next: Ambiguous Expressions, Up: Data
10.1 Expressions
================
'print' and many other GDB commands accept an expression and compute its
value. Any kind of constant, variable or operator defined 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 *note Compilation::.
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 'malloc'ed in the target program.
Because C is so widespread, most of the expressions shown in examples
in this manual are in C. *Note Using GDB with Different Languages:
Languages, 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:
'@'
'@' is a binary operator for treating parts of memory as arrays.
*Note Artificial Arrays: Arrays, for more information.
'::'
'::' allows you to specify a variable in terms of the file or
function where it is defined. *Note Program Variables: Variables.
'{TYPE} ADDR'
Refers to an object of type TYPE stored at address ADDR in memory.
The address 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Ambiguous Expressions, Next: Variables, Prev: Expressions, Up: Data
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 defined several times, for
application in different 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 defined in different 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 qualified 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
first 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 definitions 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)
'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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Variables, Next: Arrays, Prev: Ambiguous Expressions, Up: Data
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
(*note Selecting a Frame: Selection.); they must be either:
* global (or file-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 file even if the current execution point is not
in this file. But it is possible to have more than one such variable or
function with the same name (in different source files). If that
happens, referring to that name has unpredictable effects. If you wish,
you can specify a static variable in a particular function or file by
using the colon-colon ('::') notation:
FILE::VARIABLE
FUNCTION::VARIABLE
Here FILE or FUNCTION is the name of the context for the static
VARIABLE. In the case of file names, you can use quotes to make sure
GDB parses the file name as a single word--for example, to print a
global value of 'x' defined in 'f2.c':
(gdb) p 'f2.c'::x
The '::' notation is normally used for referring to static variables,
since you typically disambiguate uses of local variables in functions by
selecting the appropriate frame and using the simple name of the
variable. However, you may also use this notation to refer to local
variables in frames enclosing the selected frame:
void
foo (int a)
{
if (a < 10)
bar (a);
else
process (a); /* Stop here */
}
int
bar (int a)
{
foo (a + 5);
}
For example, if there is a breakpoint at the commented line, here is
what you might see when the program stops after executing the call
'bar(0)':
(gdb) p a
$1 = 10
(gdb) p bar::a
$2 = 5
(gdb) up 2
#2 0x080483d0 in foo (a=5) at foobar.c:12
(gdb) p a
$3 = 5
(gdb) p bar::a
$4 = 0
These uses of '::' are very rarely in conflict with the very similar
use of the same notation in C++. When they are in conflict, the C++
meaning takes precedence; however, this can be overridden by quoting the
file or function name with single quotes.
For example, suppose the program is stopped in a method of a class
that has a field named 'includefile', and there is also an include file
named 'includefile' that defines a variable, 'some_global'.
(gdb) p includefile
$1 = 23
(gdb) p includefile::some_global
A syntax error in expression, near `'.
(gdb) p 'includefile'::some_global
$2 = 27
_Warning:_ Occasionally, a local variable may appear to have the
wrong value at certain points in a function--just 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
definitions); 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 definitions may be gone.
This may also happen when the compiler does significant
optimizations. To be sure of always seeing accurate values, turn off
all optimization when compiling.
Another possible effect 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
offered 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 different debug info format, if the compiler supports several such
formats. *Note Compilation::, for more information on choosing compiler
options. *Note C and C++: C, 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 specified by the debug
information, GDB will say '<incomplete type>'. *Note incomplete type:
Symbols, for more about this.
If you try to examine or use the value of a (global) variable for
which GDB has no type information, e.g., because the program includes no
debug information, GDB displays an error message. *Note unknown type:
Symbols, for more about unknown types. If you cast the variable to its
declared type, GDB gets the variable's value using the cast-to type as
the variable's type. For example, in a C program:
(gdb) p var
'var' has unknown type; cast it to its declared type
(gdb) p (float) var
$1 = 3.14
If you append '@entry' string to a function parameter name you get
its value at the time the function got called. If the value is not
available an error message is printed. Entry values are available only
with some compilers. Entry values are normally also printed at the
function parameter list according to *note set print entry-values::.
Breakpoint 1, d (i=30) at gdb.base/entry-value.c:29
29 i++;
(gdb) next
30 e (i);
(gdb) print i
$1 = 31
(gdb) print i@entry
$2 = 30
Strings are identified as arrays of 'char' values without specified
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 effect as GDB defines 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"
(gdb) print var1
$2 = {65 'A', 0 '\0'}

File: gdb.info, Node: Arrays, Next: Output Formats, Prev: Variables, Up: Data
10.4 Artificial 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
"artificial array", using the binary operator '@'. The left operand of
'@' should be the first 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 first element is actually the left
argument; the second element comes from bytes of memory immediately
following those that hold the first 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.
Artificial arrays most often appear in expressions via the value history
(*note Value History: Value History.), after printing one out.
Another way to create an artificial 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 fill the value (as
'sizeof(VALUE)/sizeof(TYPE)':
(gdb) p/x (short[])0x12345678
$2 = {0x1234, 0x5678}
Sometimes the artificial array mechanism is not quite enough; in
moderately complex data structures, the elements of interest may not
actually be adjacent--for 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 (*note Convenience Variables: Convenience
Vars.) as a counter in an expression that prints the first 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 field 'fv' in each structure. Here is an
example of what you might type:
set $i = 0
p dtab[$i++]->fv
<RET>
<RET>
...

File: gdb.info, Node: Output Formats, Next: Memory, Prev: Arrays, Up: Data
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'
Regard the bits of the value as an integer, and print the integer
in hexadecimal.
'd'
Print as integer in signed decimal.
'u'
Print as integer in unsigned decimal.
'o'
Print as integer in octal.
't'
Print as integer in binary. The letter 't' stands for "two". (1)
'a'
Print as an address, both absolute in hexadecimal and as an offset
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. *Note
info symbol: Symbols.
'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.
'f'
Regard the bits of the value as a floating point number and print
using typical floating point syntax.
's'
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 fixed-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.
'z'
Like 'x' formatting, the value is treated as an integer and printed
as hexadecimal, but leading zeros are printed to pad the value to
the size of the integer type.
'r'
Print using the 'raw' formatting. By default, GDB will use a
Python-based pretty-printer, if one is available (*note Pretty
Printing::). This typically results in a higher-level display of
the value's contents. The 'r' format bypasses any Python
pretty-printer which might exist.
For example, to print the program counter in hex (*note Registers::),
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 different
format, you can use the 'print' command with just a format and no
expression. For example, 'p/x' reprints the last value in hex.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) 'b' cannot be used because these format letters are also used
with the 'x' command, where 'b' stands for "byte"; see *note Examining
Memory: Memory.

File: gdb.info, Node: Memory, Next: Auto Display, Prev: Output Formats, Up: Data
10.6 Examining Memory
=====================
You can use the command 'x' (for "examine") to examine memory in any of
several formats, independently of your program's 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
specifies how much memory (counting by units U) to display. If a
negative number is specified, memory is examined backward from
ADDR.
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'
Bytes.
'h'
Halfwords (two bytes).
'w'
Words (four bytes). This is the initial default.
'g'
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' modifier will use the UTF-16 encoding while '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.
*Note Expressions: Expressions, for more information on
expressions. The default for ADDR is usually just after the last
address examined--but 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'; *note Registers: Registers.) in
hexadecimal ('x').
You can also specify a negative repeat count to examine memory
backward from the given address. For example, 'x/-3uh 0x54320' prints
three halfwords ('h') at '0x54314', '0x54328', and '0x5431c'.
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 first; either order works. The output
specifications '4xw' and '4wx' mean exactly the same thing. (However,
the count N must come first; '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' specifies 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 specified, which immediately follow the last instruction that is
within the count. The command 'disassemble' gives an alternative way of
inspecting machine instructions; see *note Source and Machine Code:
Machine Code.
If a negative repeat count is specified for the formats 's' or 'i',
the command displays null-terminated strings or instructions before the
given address as many as the absolute value of the given number. For
the 'i' format, we use line number information in the debug info to
accurately locate instruction boundaries while disassembling backward.
If line info is not available, the command stops examining memory with
an error message.
All the defaults for the arguments to 'x' are designed to make it
easy to continue scanning memory with minimal specifications 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>: mov %esp,%ebp
0x8048381 <main+13>: push %ecx
0x8048382 <main+14>: sub $0x4,%esp
=> 0x8048385 <main+17>: movl $0x8048460,(%esp)
0x804838c <main+24>: call 0x80482d4 <puts@plt>
The addresses and contents printed by the 'x' command are not saved
in the value history because there is often too much of them and they
would get in the way. Instead, GDB makes these values available for
subsequent use in expressions as values of the convenience variables
'$_' 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 '$__'.
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.
Most targets have an addressable memory unit size of 8 bits. This
means that to each memory address are associated 8 bits of data. Some
targets, however, have other addressable memory unit sizes. Within GDB
and this document, the term "addressable memory unit" (or "memory unit"
for short) is used when explicitly referring to a chunk of data of that
size. The word "byte" is used to refer to a chunk of data of 8 bits,
regardless of the addressable memory unit size of the target. For most
systems, addressable memory unit is a synonym of byte.
When you are debugging a program running on a remote target machine
(*note Remote Debugging::), you may wish to verify the program's image
in the remote machine's memory against the executable file you
downloaded to the target. Or, on any target, you may want to check
whether the program has corrupted its own read-only sections. The
'compare-sections' command is provided for such situations.
'compare-sections [SECTION-NAME|-r]'
Compare the data of a loadable section SECTION-NAME in the
executable file of the program being debugged with the same section
in the target machine's memory, and report any mismatches. With no
arguments, compares all loadable sections. With an argument of
'-r', compares all loadable read-only sections.
Note: for remote targets, this command can be accelerated if the
target supports computing the CRC checksum of a block of memory
(*note qCRC packet::).

File: gdb.info, Node: Auto Display, Next: Print Settings, Prev: Memory, Up: Data
10.7 Automatic Display
======================
If you find 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 specification--it 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. *Note Expressions: Expressions.
'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 specified format FMT. *Note Output
Formats: Output Formats.
'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 effect doing 'x/FMT
ADDR'. *Note Examining Memory: Memory.
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; *note Registers: Registers.).
'undisplay DNUMS...'
'delete display DNUMS...'
Remove items from the list of expressions to display. Specify the
numbers of the displays that you want affected with the command
argument DNUMS. It can be a single display number, one of the
numbers shown in the first field of the 'info display' display; or
it could be a range of display numbers, as in '2-4'.
'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. Specify the numbers of the displays that you
want affected with the command argument DNUMS. It can be a single
display number, one of the numbers shown in the first field of the
'info display' display; or it could be a range of display numbers,
as in '2-4'.
'enable display DNUMS...'
Enable display of item numbers DNUMS. It becomes effective once
again in auto display of its expression, until you specify
otherwise. Specify the numbers of the displays that you want
affected with the command argument DNUMS. It can be a single
display number, one of the numbers shown in the first field of the
'info display' display; or it could be a range of display numbers,
as in '2-4'.
'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 defined. 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 elsewhere--where there is no variable
'last_char'--the display is disabled automatically. The next time your
program stops where 'last_char' is meaningful, you can enable the
display expression once again.

File: gdb.info, Node: Print Settings, Next: Pretty Printing, Prev: Auto Display, Up: Data
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)
'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 machines--whether 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 offset. If that symbol does not uniquely
identify the address (for example, it is a name whose scope is a single
source file), 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 file and line number when it prints a symbolic address:
'set print symbol-filename on'
Tell GDB to print the source file name and line number of a symbol
in the symbolic form of an address.
'set print symbol-filename off'
Do not print source file name and line number of a symbol. This is
the default.
'show print symbol-filename'
Show whether or not GDB will print the source file name and line
number of a symbol in the symbolic form of an address.
Another situation where it is helpful to show symbol filenames and
line numbers is when disassembling code; GDB shows you the line number
and source file 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'
'set print max-symbolic-offset unlimited'
Tell GDB to only display the symbolic form of an address if the
offset between the closest earlier symbol and the address is less
than MAX-OFFSET. The default is 'unlimited', which tells GDB to
always print the symbolic form of an address if any symbol precedes
it. Zero is equivalent to 'unlimited'.
'show print max-symbolic-offset'
Ask how large the maximum offset 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
file 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', defined in
'hi2.c':
(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 filename of the referent, even with
the appropriate 'set print' options turned on.
You can also enable '/a'-like formatting all the time using 'set
print symbol on':
'set print symbol on'
Tell GDB to print the symbol corresponding to an address, if one
exists.
'set print symbol off'
Tell GDB not to print the symbol corresponding to an address. In
this mode, GDB will still print the symbol corresponding to
pointers to functions. This is the default.
'show print symbol'
Show whether GDB will display the symbol corresponding to an
address.
Other settings control how different 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 off.
'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
find the index of a given element in that printed array. The
default is off.
'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 print elements unlimited'
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 'unlimited' or zero means that the number of elements to print
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 (*note Frames::). The
possible values are:
'all'
The values of all arguments are printed.
'scalars'
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:
#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
'presence'
Only the presence of arguments is indicated by '...'. The
'...' are not printed for function without any arguments.
None of the argument names and values are printed. In this
case, the example above now becomes:
#1 0x08048361 in call_me (...) at frame-args.c:23
By default, only scalar arguments are printed. This command can be
used to configure 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), 'none'
or 'presence' 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 raw-frame-arguments on'
Print frame arguments in raw, non pretty-printed, form.
'set print raw-frame-arguments off'
Print frame arguments in pretty-printed form, if there is a
pretty-printer for the value (*note Pretty Printing::), otherwise
print the value in raw form. This is the default.
'show print raw-frame-arguments'
Show whether to print frame arguments in raw form.
'set print entry-values VALUE'
Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some
cases GDB can determine the value of function argument which was
passed by the function caller, even if the value was modified
inside the called function and therefore is different. With
optimized code, the current value could be unavailable, but the
entry value may still be known.
The default value is 'default' (see below for its description).
Older GDB behaved as with the setting 'no'. Compilers not
supporting this feature will behave in the 'default' setting the
same way as with the 'no' setting.
This functionality is currently supported only by DWARF 2 debugging
format and the compiler has to produce 'DW_TAG_call_site' tags.
With GCC, you need to specify '-O -g' during compilation, to get
this information.
The VALUE parameter can be one of the following:
'no'
Print only actual parameter values, never print values from
function entry point.
#0 equal (val=5)
#0 different (val=6)
#0 lost (val=<optimized out>)
#0 born (val=10)
#0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
'only'
Print only parameter values from function entry point. The
actual parameter values are never printed.
#0 equal (val@entry=5)
#0 different (val@entry=5)
#0 lost (val@entry=5)
#0 born (val@entry=<optimized out>)
#0 invalid (val@entry=<optimized out>)
'preferred'
Print only parameter values from function entry point. If
value from function entry point is not known while the actual
value is known, print the actual value for such parameter.
#0 equal (val@entry=5)
#0 different (val@entry=5)
#0 lost (val@entry=5)
#0 born (val=10)
#0 invalid (val@entry=<optimized out>)
'if-needed'
Print actual parameter values. If actual parameter value is
not known while value from function entry point is known,
print the entry point value for such parameter.
#0 equal (val=5)
#0 different (val=6)
#0 lost (val@entry=5)
#0 born (val=10)
#0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
'both'
Always print both the actual parameter value and its value
from function entry point, even if values of one or both are
not available due to compiler optimizations.
#0 equal (val=5, val@entry=5)
#0 different (val=6, val@entry=5)
#0 lost (val=<optimized out>, val@entry=5)
#0 born (val=10, val@entry=<optimized out>)
#0 invalid (val=<optimized out>, val@entry=<optimized out>)
'compact'
Print the actual parameter value if it is known and also its
value from function entry point if it is known. If neither is
known, print for the actual value '<optimized out>'. If not
in MI mode (*note GDB/MI::) and if both values are known and
identical, print the shortened 'param=param@entry=VALUE'
notation.
#0 equal (val=val@entry=5)
#0 different (val=6, val@entry=5)
#0 lost (val@entry=5)
#0 born (val=10)
#0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
'default'
Always print the actual parameter value. Print also its value
from function entry point, but only if it is known. If not in
MI mode (*note GDB/MI::) and if both values are known and
identical, print the shortened 'param=param@entry=VALUE'
notation.
#0 equal (val=val@entry=5)
#0 different (val=6, val@entry=5)
#0 lost (val=<optimized out>, val@entry=5)
#0 born (val=10)
#0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
For analysis messages on possible failures of frame argument values
at function entry resolution see *note set debug entry-values::.
'show print entry-values'
Show the method being used for printing of frame argument values at
function entry.
'set print frame-info VALUE'
This command allows to control the information printed when the
debugger prints a frame. See *note Frames::, *note Backtrace::,
for a general explanation about frames and frame information. Note
that some other settings (such as 'set print frame-arguments' and
'set print address') are also influencing if and how some frame
information is displayed. In particular, the frame program counter
is never printed if 'set print address' is off.
The possible values for 'set print frame-info' are:
'short-location'
Print the frame level, the program counter (if not at the
beginning of the location source line), the function, the
function arguments.
'location'
Same as 'short-location' but also print the source file and
source line number.
'location-and-address'
Same as 'location' but print the program counter even if
located at the beginning of the location source line.
'source-line'
Print the program counter (if not at the beginning of the
location source line), the line number and the source line.
'source-and-location'
Print what 'location' and 'source-line' are printing.
'auto'
The information printed for a frame is decided automatically
by the GDB command that prints a frame. For example, 'frame'
prints the information printed by 'source-and-location' while
'stepi' will switch between 'source-line' and
'source-and-location' depending on the program counter. The
default value is 'auto'.
'set print repeats NUMBER-OF-REPEATS'
'set print repeats unlimited'
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 'unlimited' or 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 max-depth DEPTH'
'set print max-depth unlimited'
Set the threshold after which nested structures are replaced with
ellipsis, this can make visualising deeply nested structures
easier.
For example, given this C code
typedef struct s1 { int a; } s1;
typedef struct s2 { s1 b; } s2;
typedef struct s3 { s2 c; } s3;
typedef struct s4 { s3 d; } s4;
s4 var = { { { { 3 } } } };
The following table shows how different values of DEPTH will effect
how 'var' is printed by GDB:
DEPTH setting Result of 'p var'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
unlimited '$1 = {d = {c = {b = {a = 3}}}}'
'0' '$1 = {...}'
'1' '$1 = {d = {...}}'
'2' '$1 = {d = {c = {...}}}'
'3' '$1 = {d = {c = {b = {...}}}}'
'4' '$1 = {d = {c = {b = {a = 3}}}}'
To see the contents of structures that have been hidden the user
can either increase the print max-depth, or they can print the
elements of the structure that are visible, for example
(gdb) set print max-depth 2
(gdb) p var
$1 = {d = {c = {...}}}
(gdb) p var.d
$2 = {c = {b = {...}}}
(gdb) p var.d.c
$3 = {b = {a = 3}}
The pattern used to replace nested structures varies based on
language, for most languages '{...}' is used, but Fortran uses
'(...)'.
'show print max-depth'
Display the current threshold after which nested structures are
replaces with ellipsis.
'set print null-stop'
Cause GDB to stop printing the characters of an array when the
first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large arrays
actually contain only short strings. The default is off.
'show print null-stop'
Show whether GDB stops printing an array on the first 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:
$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 raw-values on'
Print values in raw form, without applying the pretty printers for
the value.
'set print raw-values off'
Print values in pretty-printed form, if there is a pretty-printer
for the value (*note Pretty Printing::), otherwise print the value
in raw form.
The default setting is "off".
'show print raw-values'
Show whether to print values in raw form.
'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 high-order 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 effect 'p foo' would print
$1 = {it = Tree, form = {tree = Acorn, bug = Cocoon}}
and with 'set print union off' in effect it would print
$1 = {it = Tree, form = {...}}
'set print union' affects programs written in C-like languages and
in Pascal.
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 off.
'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 different compilers
to represent C++ names. If you omit STYLE, you will see a list of
possible formats. The default value is AUTO, which lets GDB choose
a decoding style by inspecting your program.
'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. Note that the virtual function table
is required--this feature can only work for objects that have
run-time type identification; a single virtual method in the
object's declared type is sufficient. Note that this setting is
also taken into account when working with variable objects via MI
(*note GDB/MI::).
'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.
'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 off.
(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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Pretty Printing, Next: Value History, Prev: Print Settings, Up: Data
10.9 Pretty Printing
====================
GDB provides a mechanism to allow pretty-printing of values using Python
code. It greatly simplifies the display of complex objects. This
mechanism works for both MI and the CLI.
* Menu:
* Pretty-Printer Introduction:: Introduction to pretty-printers
* Pretty-Printer Example:: An example pretty-printer
* Pretty-Printer Commands:: Pretty-printer commands

File: gdb.info, Node: Pretty-Printer Introduction, Next: Pretty-Printer Example, Up: Pretty Printing
10.9.1 Pretty-Printer Introduction
----------------------------------
When GDB prints a value, it first sees if there is a pretty-printer
registered for the value. If there is then GDB invokes the
pretty-printer to print the value. Otherwise the value is printed
normally.
Pretty-printers are normally named. This makes them easy to manage.
The 'info pretty-printer' command will list all the installed
pretty-printers with their names. If a pretty-printer can handle
multiple data types, then its "subprinters" are the printers for the
individual data types. Each such subprinter has its own name. The
format of the name is PRINTER-NAME;SUBPRINTER-NAME.
Pretty-printers are installed by "registering" them with GDB.
Typically they are automatically loaded and registered when the
corresponding debug information is loaded, thus making them available
without having to do anything special.
There are three places where a pretty-printer can be registered.
* Pretty-printers registered globally are available when debugging
all inferiors.
* Pretty-printers registered with a program space are available only
when debugging that program. *Note Progspaces In Python::, for
more details on program spaces in Python.
* Pretty-printers registered with an objfile are loaded and unloaded
with the corresponding objfile (e.g., shared library). *Note
Objfiles In Python::, for more details on objfiles in Python.
*Note Selecting Pretty-Printers::, for further information on how
pretty-printers are selected,
*Note Writing a Pretty-Printer::, for implementing pretty printers
for new types.

File: gdb.info, Node: Pretty-Printer Example, Next: Pretty-Printer Commands, Prev: Pretty-Printer Introduction, Up: Pretty Printing
10.9.2 Pretty-Printer 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:
(gdb) print s
$2 = "abcd"

File: gdb.info, Node: Pretty-Printer Commands, Prev: Pretty-Printer Example, Up: Pretty Printing
10.9.3 Pretty-Printer Commands
------------------------------
'info pretty-printer [OBJECT-REGEXP [NAME-REGEXP]]'
Print the list of installed pretty-printers. This includes
disabled pretty-printers, which are marked as such.
OBJECT-REGEXP is a regular expression matching the objects whose
pretty-printers to list. Objects can be 'global', the program
space's file (*note Progspaces In Python::), and the object files
within that program space (*note Objfiles In Python::). *Note
Selecting Pretty-Printers::, for details on how GDB looks up a
printer from these three objects.
NAME-REGEXP is a regular expression matching the name of the
printers to list.
'disable pretty-printer [OBJECT-REGEXP [NAME-REGEXP]]'
Disable pretty-printers matching OBJECT-REGEXP and NAME-REGEXP. A
disabled pretty-printer is not forgotten, it may be enabled again
later.
'enable pretty-printer [OBJECT-REGEXP [NAME-REGEXP]]'
Enable pretty-printers matching OBJECT-REGEXP and NAME-REGEXP.
Example:
Suppose we have three pretty-printers installed: one from library1.so
named 'foo' that prints objects of type 'foo', and another from
library2.so named 'bar' that prints two types of objects, 'bar1' and
'bar2'.
(gdb) info pretty-printer
library1.so:
foo
library2.so:
bar
bar1
bar2
(gdb) info pretty-printer library2
library2.so:
bar
bar1
bar2
(gdb) disable pretty-printer library1
1 printer disabled
2 of 3 printers enabled
(gdb) info pretty-printer
library1.so:
foo [disabled]
library2.so:
bar
bar1
bar2
(gdb) disable pretty-printer library2 bar;bar1
1 printer disabled
1 of 3 printers enabled
(gdb) info pretty-printer library2
library1.so:
foo [disabled]
library2.so:
bar
bar1 [disabled]
bar2
(gdb) disable pretty-printer library2 bar
1 printer disabled
0 of 3 printers enabled
(gdb) info pretty-printer library2
library1.so:
foo [disabled]
library2.so:
bar [disabled]
bar1 [disabled]
bar2
Note that for 'bar' the entire printer can be disabled, as can each
individual subprinter.
Printing values and frame arguments is done by default using the
enabled pretty printers.
The print option '-raw-values' and GDB setting 'set print raw-values'
(*note set print raw-values::) can be used to print values without
applying the enabled pretty printers.
Similarly, the backtrace option '-raw-frame-arguments' and GDB
setting 'set print raw-frame-arguments' (*note set print
raw-frame-arguments::) can be used to ignore the enabled pretty printers
when printing frame argument values.

File: gdb.info, Node: Value History, Next: Convenience Vars, Prev: Pretty Printing, Up: Data
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 defined 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 value's
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 '$$0' is equivalent to '$'.
For example, suppose you have just printed a pointer to a structure
and want to see the contents of the structure. It suffices to type
p *$
If you have a chain of structures where the component 'next' points
to the next one, you can print the contents of the next one with this:
p *$.next
You can print successive links in the chain by repeating this
command--which you can do by just typing <RET>.
Note that the history records values, not expressions. If the value
of 'x' is 4 and you type these commands:
print x
set x=5
then the value recorded in the value history by the 'print' command
remains 4 even though the value of 'x' has changed.
'show values'
Print the last ten values in the value history, with their item
numbers. This is like 'p $$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 effect
as 'show values +'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Convenience Vars, Next: Convenience Funs, Prev: Value History, Up: Data
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 effect on further execution of your program.
That is why you can use them freely.
Convenience variables are prefixed with '$'. Any name preceded by
'$' can be used for a convenience variable, unless it is one of the
predefined machine-specific register names (*note Registers:
Registers.). (Value history references, in contrast, are _numbers_
preceded by '$'. *Note Value History: Value History.)
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 first 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 fixed 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 different 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, as well as a list of the convenience functions.
Abbreviated 'show conv'.
'init-if-undefined $VARIABLE = EXPRESSION'
Set a convenience variable if it has not already been set. This is
useful for user-defined 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 defined then the expression is not
evaluated so any side-effects 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 field
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 (*note Examining Memory: Memory.). Other
commands which provide a default address for 'x' to examine also
set '$_' to that address; these commands include 'info line' and
'info breakpoint'. The type of '$_' is 'void *' except when set by
the 'x' command, in which case it is a pointer to the type of
'$__'.
'$__'
The variable '$__' is automatically set by the 'x' command to the
value found in the last address examined. Its type is chosen to
match the format in which the data was printed.
'$_exitcode'
When the program being debugged terminates normally, GDB
automatically sets this variable to the exit code of the program,
and resets '$_exitsignal' to 'void'.
'$_exitsignal'
When the program being debugged dies due to an uncaught signal, GDB
automatically sets this variable to that signal's number, and
resets '$_exitcode' to 'void'.
To distinguish between whether the program being debugged has
exited (i.e., '$_exitcode' is not 'void') or signalled (i.e.,
'$_exitsignal' is not 'void'), the convenience function '$_isvoid'
can be used (*note Convenience Functions: Convenience Funs.). For
example, considering the following source code:
#include <signal.h>
int
main (int argc, char *argv[])
{
raise (SIGALRM);
return 0;
}
A valid way of telling whether the program being debugged has
exited or signalled would be:
(gdb) define has_exited_or_signalled
Type commands for definition of ``has_exited_or_signalled''.
End with a line saying just ``end''.
>if $_isvoid ($_exitsignal)
>echo The program has exited\n
>else
>echo The program has signalled\n
>end
>end
(gdb) run
Starting program:
Program terminated with signal SIGALRM, Alarm clock.
The program no longer exists.
(gdb) has_exited_or_signalled
The program has signalled
As can be seen, GDB correctly informs that the program being
debugged has signalled, since it calls 'raise' and raises a
'SIGALRM' signal. If the program being debugged had not called
'raise', then GDB would report a normal exit:
(gdb) has_exited_or_signalled
The program has exited
'$_exception'
The variable '$_exception' is set to the exception object being
thrown at an exception-related catchpoint. *Note Set
Catchpoints::.
'$_ada_exception'
The variable '$_ada_exception' is set to the address of the
exception being caught or thrown at an Ada exception-related
catchpoint. *Note Set Catchpoints::.
'$_probe_argc'
'$_probe_arg0...$_probe_arg11'
Arguments to a static probe. *Note Static Probe Points::.
'$_sdata'
The variable '$_sdata' contains extra collected static tracepoint
data. *Note Tracepoint Action Lists: Tracepoint Actions. Note
that '$_sdata' could be empty, if not inspecting a trace buffer, or
if extra static tracepoint data has not been collected.
'$_siginfo'
The variable '$_siginfo' contains extra signal information (*note
extra signal information::). 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 '$_tlb' is automatically set when debugging
applications running on MS-Windows in native mode or connected to
gdbserver that supports the 'qGetTIBAddr' request. *Note General
Query Packets::. This variable contains the address of the thread
information block.
'$_inferior'
The number of the current inferior. *Note Debugging Multiple
Inferiors and Programs: Inferiors and Programs.
'$_thread'
The thread number of the current thread. *Note thread numbers::.
'$_gthread'
The global number of the current thread. *Note global thread
numbers::.
'$_gdb_major'
'$_gdb_minor'
The major and minor version numbers of the running GDB.
Development snapshots and pretest versions have their minor version
incremented by one; thus, GDB pretest 9.11.90 will produce the
value 12 for '$_gdb_minor'. These variables allow you to write
scripts that work with different versions of GDB without errors
caused by features unavailable in some of those versions.
'$_shell_exitcode'
'$_shell_exitsignal'
GDB commands such as 'shell' and '|' are launching shell commands.
When a launched command terminates, GDB automatically maintains the
variables '$_shell_exitcode' and '$_shell_exitsignal' according to
the exit status of the last launched command. These variables are
set and used similarly to the variables '$_exitcode' and
'$_exitsignal'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Convenience Funs, Next: Registers, Prev: Convenience Vars, Up: Data
10.12 Convenience Functions
===========================
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.
These functions do not require GDB to be configured with 'Python'
support, which means that they are always available.
'$_isvoid (EXPR)'
Return one if the expression EXPR is 'void'. Otherwise it returns
zero.
A 'void' expression is an expression where the type of the result
is 'void'. For example, you can examine a convenience variable
(see *note Convenience Variables: Convenience Vars.) to check
whether it is 'void':
(gdb) print $_exitcode
$1 = void
(gdb) print $_isvoid ($_exitcode)
$2 = 1
(gdb) run
Starting program: ./a.out
[Inferior 1 (process 29572) exited normally]
(gdb) print $_exitcode
$3 = 0
(gdb) print $_isvoid ($_exitcode)
$4 = 0
In the example above, we used '$_isvoid' to check whether
'$_exitcode' is 'void' before and after the execution of the
program being debugged. Before the execution there is no exit code
to be examined, therefore '$_exitcode' is 'void'. After the
execution the program being debugged returned zero, therefore
'$_exitcode' is zero, which means that it is not 'void' anymore.
The 'void' expression can also be a call of a function from the
program being debugged. For example, given the following function:
void
foo (void)
{
}
The result of calling it inside GDB is 'void':
(gdb) print foo ()
$1 = void
(gdb) print $_isvoid (foo ())
$2 = 1
(gdb) set $v = foo ()
(gdb) print $v
$3 = void
(gdb) print $_isvoid ($v)
$4 = 1
'$_gdb_setting_str (SETTING)'
Return the value of the GDB SETTING as a string. SETTING is any
setting that can be used in a 'set' or 'show' command (*note
Controlling GDB::).
(gdb) show print frame-arguments
Printing of non-scalar frame arguments is "scalars".
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting_str("print frame-arguments")
$1 = "scalars"
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting_str("height")
$2 = "30"
(gdb)
'$_gdb_setting (SETTING)'
Return the value of the GDB SETTING. The type of the returned
value depends on the setting.
The value type for boolean and auto boolean settings is 'int'. The
boolean values 'off' and 'on' are converted to the integer values
'0' and '1'. The value 'auto' is converted to the value '-1'.
The value type for integer settings is either 'unsigned int' or
'int', depending on the setting.
Some integer settings accept an 'unlimited' value. Depending on
the setting, the 'set' command also accepts the value '0' or the
value '-1' as a synonym for 'unlimited'. For example, 'set height
unlimited' is equivalent to 'set height 0'.
Some other settings that accept the 'unlimited' value use the value
'0' to literally mean zero. For example, 'set history size 0'
indicates to not record any GDB commands in the command history.
For such settings, '-1' is the synonym for 'unlimited'.
See the documentation of the corresponding 'set' command for the
numerical value equivalent to 'unlimited'.
The '$_gdb_setting' function converts the unlimited value to a '0'
or a '-1' value according to what the 'set' command uses.
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting_str("height")
$1 = "30"
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting("height")
$2 = 30
(gdb) set height unlimited
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting_str("height")
$3 = "unlimited"
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting("height")
$4 = 0
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting_str("history size")
$5 = "unlimited"
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting("history size")
$6 = -1
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting_str("disassemble-next-line")
$7 = "auto"
(gdb) p $_gdb_setting("disassemble-next-line")
$8 = -1
(gdb)
Other setting types (enum, filename, optional filename, string,
string noescape) are returned as string values.
'$_gdb_maint_setting_str (SETTING)'
Like the '$_gdb_setting_str' function, but works with 'maintenance
set' variables.
'$_gdb_maint_setting (SETTING)'
Like the '$_gdb_setting' function, but works with 'maintenance set'
variables.
The following functions require GDB to be configured with 'Python'
support.
'$_memeq(BUF1, BUF2, LENGTH)'
Returns one if the LENGTH bytes at the addresses given by BUF1 and
BUF2 are equal. Otherwise it returns zero.
'$_regex(STR, REGEX)'
Returns one if the string STR matches the regular expression REGEX.
Otherwise it returns zero. The syntax of the regular expression is
that specified by 'Python''s regular expression support.
'$_streq(STR1, STR2)'
Returns one if the strings STR1 and STR2 are equal. Otherwise it
returns zero.
'$_strlen(STR)'
Returns the length of string STR.
'$_caller_is(NAME[, NUMBER_OF_FRAMES])'
Returns one if the calling function's name is equal to NAME.
Otherwise it returns zero.
If the optional argument NUMBER_OF_FRAMES is provided, it is the
number of frames up in the stack to look. The default is 1.
Example:
(gdb) backtrace
#0 bottom_func ()
at testsuite/gdb.python/py-caller-is.c:21
#1 0x00000000004005a0 in middle_func ()
at testsuite/gdb.python/py-caller-is.c:27
#2 0x00000000004005ab in top_func ()
at testsuite/gdb.python/py-caller-is.c:33
#3 0x00000000004005b6 in main ()
at testsuite/gdb.python/py-caller-is.c:39
(gdb) print $_caller_is ("middle_func")
$1 = 1
(gdb) print $_caller_is ("top_func", 2)
$1 = 1
'$_caller_matches(REGEXP[, NUMBER_OF_FRAMES])'
Returns one if the calling function's name matches the regular
expression REGEXP. Otherwise it returns zero.
If the optional argument NUMBER_OF_FRAMES is provided, it is the
number of frames up in the stack to look. The default is 1.
'$_any_caller_is(NAME[, NUMBER_OF_FRAMES])'
Returns one if any calling function's name is equal to NAME.
Otherwise it returns zero.
If the optional argument NUMBER_OF_FRAMES is provided, it is the
number of frames up in the stack to look. The default is 1.
This function differs from '$_caller_is' in that this function
checks all stack frames from the immediate caller to the frame
specified by NUMBER_OF_FRAMES, whereas '$_caller_is' only checks
the frame specified by NUMBER_OF_FRAMES.
'$_any_caller_matches(REGEXP[, NUMBER_OF_FRAMES])'
Returns one if any calling function's name matches the regular
expression REGEXP. Otherwise it returns zero.
If the optional argument NUMBER_OF_FRAMES is provided, it is the
number of frames up in the stack to look. The default is 1.
This function differs from '$_caller_matches' in that this function
checks all stack frames from the immediate caller to the frame
specified by NUMBER_OF_FRAMES, whereas '$_caller_matches' only
checks the frame specified by NUMBER_OF_FRAMES.
'$_as_string(VALUE)'
Return the string representation of VALUE.
This function is useful to obtain the textual label (enumerator) of
an enumeration value. For example, assuming the variable NODE is
of an enumerated type:
(gdb) printf "Visiting node of type %s\n", $_as_string(node)
Visiting node of type NODE_INTEGER
'$_cimag(VALUE)'
'$_creal(VALUE)'
Return the imaginary ('$_cimag') or real ('$_creal') part of the
complex number VALUE.
The type of the imaginary or real part depends on the type of the
complex number, e.g., using '$_cimag' on a 'float complex' will
return an imaginary part of type 'float'.
GDB provides the ability to list and get help on convenience
functions.
'help function'
Print a list of all convenience functions.

File: gdb.info, Node: Registers, Next: Floating Point Hardware, Prev: Convenience Funs, Up: Data
10.13 Registers
===============
You can refer to machine register contents, in expressions, as variables
with names starting with '$'. The names of registers are different for
each machine; use 'info registers' to see the names used on your
machine.
'info registers'
Print the names and values of all registers except floating-point
and vector registers (in the selected stack frame).
'info all-registers'
Print the names and values of all registers, including
floating-point and vector registers (in the selected stack frame).
'info registers REGGROUP ...'
Print the name and value of the registers in each of the specified
REGGROUPs. The REGGROUP can be any of those returned by 'maint
print reggroups' (*note Maintenance Commands::).
'info registers REGNAME ...'
Print the "relativized" value of each specified register REGNAME.
As discussed in detail below, register values are normally relative
to the selected stack frame. The REGNAME may be any register name
valid on the machine you are using, with or without the initial
'$'.
GDB has four "standard" register names that are available (in
expressions) on most machines--whenever they do not conflict with an
architecture's 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 pointer(1) with
set $sp += 4
Whenever possible, these four standard register names are available
on your machine even though the machine has different canonical
mnemonics, so long as there is no conflict. The 'info registers'
command shows the canonical names. For example, on the SPARC, 'info
registers' displays the processor status register as '$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 floating point; these
registers are considered to have floating point values. There is no way
to refer to the contents of an ordinary register as floating point value
(although you can _print_ it as a floating 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 floating 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 different ways. For example, modern x86-based
machines have SSE and MMX registers that can hold several values packed
together in several different 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},
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
(*note Selecting a Frame: Selection.). 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').
Usually ABIs reserve some registers as not needed to be saved by the
callee (a.k.a.: "caller-saved", "call-clobbered" or "volatile"
registers). It may therefore not be possible for GDB to know the value
a register had before the call (in other words, in the outer frame), if
the register value has since been changed by the callee. GDB tries to
deduce where the inner frame saved ("callee-saved") registers, from the
debug info, unwind info, or the machine code generated by your compiler.
If some register is not saved, and GDB knows the register is
"caller-saved" (via its own knowledge of the ABI, or because the
debug/unwind info explicitly says the register's value is undefined),
GDB displays '<not saved>' as the register's value. With targets that
GDB has no knowledge of the register saving convention, if a register
was not saved by the callee, then its value and location in the outer
frame are assumed to be the same of the inner frame. This is usually
harmless, because if the register is call-clobbered, the caller either
does not care what is in the register after the call, or has code to
restore the value that it does care about. Note, however, that if you
change such a register in the outer frame, you may also be affecting the
inner frame. Also, the more "outer" the frame is you're looking at, the
more likely a call-clobbered register's value is to be wrong, in the
sense that it doesn't actually represent the value the register had just
before the call.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) 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 off
the stack, regardless of machine architecture, use 'return'; see *note
Returning from a Function: Returning.

File: gdb.info, Node: Floating Point Hardware, Next: Vector Unit, Prev: Registers, Up: Data
10.14 Floating Point Hardware
=============================
Depending on the configuration, GDB may be able to give you more
information about the status of the floating point hardware.
'info float'
Display hardware-dependent information about the floating point
unit. The exact contents and layout vary depending on the floating
point chip. Currently, 'info float' is supported on the ARM and
x86 machines.

File: gdb.info, Node: Vector Unit, Next: OS Information, Prev: Floating Point Hardware, Up: Data
10.15 Vector Unit
=================
Depending on the configuration, 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: OS Information, Next: Memory Region Attributes, Prev: Vector Unit, Up: Data
10.16 Operating System Auxiliary Information
============================================
GDB provides interfaces to useful OS facilities that can help you debug
your program.
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 system-dependent variety of binary values
that tell system libraries important details about the hardware,
operating system, and process. Each value's purpose is identified by an
integer tag; the meanings are well-known but system-specific. Depending
on the configuration and operating system facilities, GDB may be able to
show you this information. For remote targets, this functionality may
further depend on the remote stub's support of the 'qXfer:auxv:read'
packet, see *note qXfer auxiliary vector read::.
'info auxv'
Display the auxiliary vector of the inferior, which can be either a
live process or a core dump file. 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-specific information
and show it to you. The types of information available will differ
depending on the type of operating system running on the target. The
mechanism used to fetch the data is described in *note Operating System
Information::. For remote targets, this functionality depends on the
remote stub's support of the 'qXfer:osdata:read' packet, see *note qXfer
osdata read::.
'info os INFOTYPE'
Display OS information of the requested type.
On GNU/Linux, the following values of INFOTYPE are valid:
'cpus'
Display the list of all CPUs/cores. For each CPU/core, GDB
prints the available fields from /proc/cpuinfo. For each
supported architecture different fields are available. Two
common entries are processor which gives CPU number and
bogomips; a system constant that is calculated during kernel
initialization.
'files'
Display the list of open file descriptors on the target. For
each file descriptor, GDB prints the identifier of the process
owning the descriptor, the command of the owning process, the
value of the descriptor, and the target of the descriptor.
'modules'
Display the list of all loaded kernel modules on the target.
For each module, GDB prints the module name, the size of the
module in bytes, the number of times the module is used, the
dependencies of the module, the status of the module, and the
address of the loaded module in memory.
'msg'
Display the list of all System V message queues on the target.
For each message queue, GDB prints the message queue key, the
message queue identifier, the access permissions, the current
number of bytes on the queue, the current number of messages
on the queue, the processes that last sent and received a
message on the queue, the user and group of the owner and
creator of the message queue, the times at which a message was
last sent and received on the queue, and the time at which the
message queue was last changed.
'processes'
Display the list of processes on the target. For each
process, GDB prints the process identifier, the name of the
user, the command corresponding to the process, and the list
of processor cores that the process is currently running on.
(To understand what these properties mean, for this and the
following info types, please consult the general GNU/Linux
documentation.)
'procgroups'
Display the list of process groups on the target. For each
process, GDB prints the identifier of the process group that
it belongs to, the command corresponding to the process group
leader, the process identifier, and the command line of the
process. The list is sorted first by the process group
identifier, then by the process identifier, so that processes
belonging to the same process group are grouped together and
the process group leader is listed first.
'semaphores'
Display the list of all System V semaphore sets on the target.
For each semaphore set, GDB prints the semaphore set key, the
semaphore set identifier, the access permissions, the number
of semaphores in the set, the user and group of the owner and
creator of the semaphore set, and the times at which the
semaphore set was operated upon and changed.
'shm'
Display the list of all System V shared-memory regions on the
target. For each shared-memory region, GDB prints the region
key, the shared-memory identifier, the access permissions, the
size of the region, the process that created the region, the
process that last attached to or detached from the region, the
current number of live attaches to the region, and the times
at which the region was last attached to, detach from, and
changed.
'sockets'
Display the list of Internet-domain sockets on the target.
For each socket, GDB prints the address and port of the local
and remote endpoints, the current state of the connection, the
creator of the socket, the IP address family of the socket,
and the type of the connection.
'threads'
Display the list of threads running on the target. For each
thread, GDB prints the identifier of the process that the
thread belongs to, the command of the process, the thread
identifier, and the processor core that it is currently
running on. The main thread of a process is not listed.
'info os'
If INFOTYPE is omitted, then list the possible values for INFOTYPE
and the kind of OS information available for each INFOTYPE. If the
target does not return a list of possible types, this command will
report an error.

File: gdb.info, Node: Memory Region Attributes, Next: Dump/Restore Files, Prev: OS Information, Up: Data
10.17 Memory Region Attributes
==============================
"Memory region attributes" allow you to describe special handling
required by regions of your target's memory. GDB uses attributes to
determine whether to allow certain types of memory accesses; whether to
use specific 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.
Defined 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 defined, GDB uses the default attributes when accessing all memory.
When a memory region is defined, it is given a number to identify it;
to enable, disable, or remove a memory region, you specify that number.
'mem LOWER UPPER ATTRIBUTES...'
Define 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
target's maximum memory address. (0xffff on 16 bit targets,
0xffffffff 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 defined 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 defining the inclusive lower bound of the memory
region.
_Hi Address_
The address defining the exclusive upper bound of the memory
region.
_Attributes_
The list of attributes set for this memory region.
10.17.1 Attributes
------------------
10.17.1.1 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'
Memory is read only.
'wo'
Memory is write only.
'rw'
Memory is read/write. This is the default.
10.17.1.2 Memory Access Size
............................
The access size attribute tells GDB to use specific sized accesses in
the memory region. Often memory mapped device registers require
specific sized accesses. If no access size attribute is specified, GDB
may use accesses of any size.
'8'
Use 8 bit memory accesses.
'16'
Use 16 bit memory accesses.
'32'
Use 32 bit memory accesses.
'64'
Use 64 bit memory accesses.
10.17.1.3 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'
Enable GDB to cache target memory.
'nocache'
Disable GDB from caching target memory. This is the default.
10.17.2 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 effects for a specific target, or to provide better error
checking. The following commands control this behaviour.
'set mem inaccessible-by-default [on|off]'
If 'on' is specified, 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 there's at least
one memory range defined. If 'off' is specified, 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Dump/Restore Files, Next: Core File Generation, Prev: Memory Region Attributes, Up: Data
10.18 Copy Between Memory and a File
====================================
You can use the commands 'dump', 'append', and 'restore' to copy data
between target memory and a file. The 'dump' and 'append' commands
write data to a file, and the 'restore' command reads data from a file
back into the inferior's memory. Files may be in binary, Motorola
S-record, Intel hex, Tektronix Hex, or Verilog Hex format; however, GDB
can only append to binary files, and cannot read from Verilog Hex files.
'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 FILENAME in the given format.
The FORMAT parameter may be any one of:
'binary'
Raw binary form.
'ihex'
Intel hex format.
'srec'
Motorola S-record format.
'tekhex'
Tektronix Hex format.
'verilog'
Verilog Hex format.
GDB uses the same definitions 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 file FILENAME, in raw binary form. (GDB can
only append data to files in raw binary form.)
'restore FILENAME [binary] BIAS START END'
Restore the contents of file FILENAME into memory. The 'restore'
command can automatically recognize any known BFD file format,
except for raw binary. To restore a raw binary file you must
specify the optional keyword 'binary' after the filename.
If BIAS is non-zero, its value will be added to the addresses
contained in the file. Binary files always start at address zero,
so they will be restored at address BIAS. Other bfd files have a
built-in location; they will be restored at offset BIAS from that
location.
If START and/or END are non-zero, then only data between file
offset START and file offset END will be restored. These offsets
are relative to the addresses in the file, before the BIAS argument
is applied.

File: gdb.info, Node: Core File Generation, Next: Character Sets, Prev: Dump/Restore Files, Up: Data
10.19 How to Produce a Core File from Your Program
==================================================
A "core file" or "core dump" is a file 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 file, unless this feature is disabled by the user. *Note Files::,
for information on invoking GDB in the post-mortem debugging mode.
Occasionally, you may wish to produce a core file of the program you
are debugging in order to preserve a snapshot of its state. GDB has a
special command for that.
'generate-core-file [FILE]'
'gcore [FILE]'
Produce a core dump of the inferior process. The optional argument
FILE specifies the file name where to put the core dump. If not
specified, the file 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, and S390).
On GNU/Linux, this command can take into account the value of the
file '/proc/PID/coredump_filter' when generating the core dump
(*note set use-coredump-filter::), and by default honors the
'VM_DONTDUMP' flag for mappings where it is present in the file
'/proc/PID/smaps' (*note set dump-excluded-mappings::).
'set use-coredump-filter on'
'set use-coredump-filter off'
Enable or disable the use of the file '/proc/PID/coredump_filter'
when generating core dump files. This file is used by the Linux
kernel to decide what types of memory mappings will be dumped or
ignored when generating a core dump file. PID is the process ID of
a currently running process.
To make use of this feature, you have to write in the
'/proc/PID/coredump_filter' file a value, in hexadecimal, which is
a bit mask representing the memory mapping types. If a bit is set
in the bit mask, then the memory mappings of the corresponding
types will be dumped; otherwise, they will be ignored. This
configuration is inherited by child processes. For more
information about the bits that can be set in the
'/proc/PID/coredump_filter' file, please refer to the manpage of
'core(5)'.
By default, this option is 'on'. If this option is turned 'off',
GDB does not read the 'coredump_filter' file and instead uses the
same default value as the Linux kernel in order to decide which
pages will be dumped in the core dump file. This value is
currently '0x33', which means that bits '0' (anonymous private
mappings), '1' (anonymous shared mappings), '4' (ELF headers) and
'5' (private huge pages) are active. This will cause these memory
mappings to be dumped automatically.
'set dump-excluded-mappings on'
'set dump-excluded-mappings off'
If 'on' is specified, GDB will dump memory mappings marked with the
'VM_DONTDUMP' flag. This flag is represented in the file
'/proc/PID/smaps' with the acronym 'dd'.
The default value is 'off'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Character Sets, Next: Caching Target Data, Prev: Core File Generation, Up: Data
10.20 Character Sets
====================
If the program you are debugging uses a different 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 GDB's remote protocol
(*note Remote Debugging::) 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 GDB's 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 host-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.
'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 target's wide character set to CHARSET. This is
the character set used by the target's '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 target's wide character set.
Here is an example of GDB's character set support in action. Assume
that the following source code has been placed in the file
'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, let's use ASCII as our initial
character set:
(gdb) set charset ASCII
(gdb) show charset
The current host and target character set is `ASCII'.
(gdb)
Let's assume that ASCII is indeed the correct character set for our
host system -- in other words, let's 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:
(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 <TAB><TAB>, GDB
tells us the character sets it supports:
(gdb) set target-charset
ASCII EBCDIC-US IBM1047 ISO-8859-1
(gdb) set target-charset
We can select IBM1047 as our target character set, and examine the
program's 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Caching Target Data, Next: Searching Memory, Prev: Character Sets, Up: Data
10.21 Caching Data of Targets
=============================
GDB caches data exchanged between the debugger and a target. Each cache
is associated with the address space of the inferior. *Note Inferiors
and Programs::, about inferior and address space. Such caching
generally improves performance in remote debugging (*note Remote
Debugging::), 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 (*note Non-Stop
Mode::) memory can be changed _while_ a gdb command is executing.
Therefore, by default, GDB only caches data known to be on the stack(1)
or in the code segment. Other regions of memory can be explicitly
marked as cacheable; *note Memory Region Attributes::.
'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 flag.
'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.
'set code-cache on'
'set code-cache off'
Enable or disable caching of code segment accesses. When 'on', use
caching. By default, this option is 'on'. This improves
performance of disassembly in remote debugging.
'show code-cache'
Show the current state of target memory cache for code segment
accesses.
'info dcache [line]'
Print the information about the performance of data cache of the
current inferior's address space. 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 specified, the contents of that line will be
printed in hex.
'set dcache size SIZE'
Set maximum number of entries in dcache (dcache depth above).
'set dcache line-size LINE-SIZE'
Set number of bytes each dcache entry caches (dcache width above).
Must be a power of 2.
'show dcache size'
Show maximum number of dcache entries. *Note info dcache: Caching
Target Data.
'show dcache line-size'
Show default size of dcache lines.
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) 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 significant speed up
of remote backtraces.

File: gdb.info, Node: Searching Memory, Next: Value Sizes, Prev: Caching Target Data, Up: Data
10.22 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 specified 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 specified in either
order, apart or together.
S, search query size
The size of each search query value.
'b'
bytes
'h'
halfwords (two bytes)
'w'
words (four bytes)
'g'
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'. The
null terminator can be removed from searching by using casts, e.g.:
'{char[5]}"hello"'.
If the value size is not specified, it is taken from the value's
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 finds
The maximum number of matches to print. The default is to print
all finds.
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 specification.
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 &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), {char[5]}"hello"
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

File: gdb.info, Node: Value Sizes, Prev: Searching Memory, Up: Data
10.23 Value Sizes
=================
Whenever GDB prints a value memory will be allocated within GDB to hold
the contents of the value. It is possible in some languages with
dynamic typing systems, that an invalid program may indicate a value
that is incorrectly large, this in turn may cause GDB to try and
allocate an overly large amount of memory.
'set max-value-size BYTES'
'set max-value-size unlimited'
Set the maximum size of memory that GDB will allocate for the
contents of a value to BYTES, trying to display a value that
requires more memory than that will result in an error.
Setting this variable does not effect values that have already been
allocated within GDB, only future allocations.
There's a minimum size that 'max-value-size' can be set to in order
that GDB can still operate correctly, this minimum is currently 16
bytes.
The limit applies to the results of some subexpressions as well as
to complete expressions. For example, an expression denoting a
simple integer component, such as 'x.y.z', may fail if the size of
X.Y is dynamic and exceeds BYTES. On the other hand, GDB is
sometimes clever; the expression 'A[i]', where A is an array
variable with non-constant size, will generally succeed regardless
of the bounds on A, as long as the component size is less than
BYTES.
The default value of 'max-value-size' is currently 64k.
'show max-value-size'
Show the maximum size of memory, in bytes, that GDB will allocate
for the contents of a value.

File: gdb.info, Node: Optimized Code, Next: Macros, Prev: Data, Up: Top
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 file! An extreme example: if you define a
variable, but never use it, GDB never sees that variable--because 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 fixes the problem, please report
it to us as a bug (including a test case!). *Note Variables::, for more
information about debugging optimized code.
* Menu:
* Inline Functions:: How GDB presents inlining
* Tail Call Frames:: GDB analysis of jumps to functions

File: gdb.info, Node: Inline Functions, Next: Tail Call Frames, Up: 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 different instructions. Stepping to the call site
shows the call site, and then stepping again shows the first 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 effect 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:
* 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Tail Call Frames, Prev: Inline Functions, Up: Optimized Code
11.2 Tail Call Frames
=====================
Function 'B' can call function 'C' in its very last statement. In
unoptimized compilation the call of 'C' is immediately followed by
return instruction at the end of 'B' code. Optimizing compiler may
replace the call and return in function 'B' into one jump to function
'C' instead. Such use of a jump instruction is called "tail call".
During execution of function 'C', there will be no indication in the
function call stack frames that it was tail-called from 'B'. If
function 'A' regularly calls function 'B' which tail-calls function 'C',
then GDB will see 'A' as the caller of 'C'. However, in some cases GDB
can determine that 'C' was tail-called from 'B', and it will then create
fictitious call frame for that, with the return address set up as if 'B'
called 'C' normally.
This functionality is currently supported only by DWARF 2 debugging
format and the compiler has to produce 'DW_TAG_call_site' tags. With
GCC, you need to specify '-O -g' during compilation, to get this
information.
'info frame' command (*note Frame Info::) will indicate the tail call
frame kind by text 'tail call frame' such as in this sample GDB output:
(gdb) x/i $pc - 2
0x40066b <b(int, double)+11>: jmp 0x400640 <c(int, double)>
(gdb) info frame
Stack level 1, frame at 0x7fffffffda30:
rip = 0x40066d in b (amd64-entry-value.cc:59); saved rip 0x4004c5
tail call frame, caller of frame at 0x7fffffffda30
source language c++.
Arglist at unknown address.
Locals at unknown address, Previous frame's sp is 0x7fffffffda30
The detection of all the possible code path executions can find them
ambiguous. There is no execution history stored (possible *note Reverse
Execution:: is never used for this purpose) and the last known caller
could have reached the known callee by multiple different jump
sequences. In such case GDB still tries to show at least all the
unambiguous top tail callers and all the unambiguous bottom tail calees,
if any.
'set debug entry-values'
When set to on, enables printing of analysis messages for both
frame argument values at function entry and tail calls. It will
show all the possible valid tail calls code paths it has
considered. It will also print the intersection of them with the
final unambiguous (possibly partial or even empty) code path
result.
'show debug entry-values'
Show the current state of analysis messages printing for both frame
argument values at function entry and tail calls.
The analysis messages for tail calls can for example show why the
virtual tail call frame for function 'c' has not been recognized (due to
the indirect reference by variable 'x'):
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (void);
void (*x) (void) = c;
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (void) { x++; }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (void) { a (); }
int main (void) { x (); return 0; }
Breakpoint 1, DW_OP_entry_value resolving cannot find
DW_TAG_call_site 0x40039a in main
a () at t.c:3
3 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (void) { x++; }
(gdb) bt
#0 a () at t.c:3
#1 0x000000000040039a in main () at t.c:5
Another possibility is an ambiguous virtual tail call frames
resolution:
int i;
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) f (void) { i++; }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) e (void) { f (); }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) d (void) { f (); }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (void) { d (); }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) b (void)
{ if (i) c (); else e (); }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (void) { b (); }
int main (void) { a (); return 0; }
tailcall: initial: 0x4004d2(a) 0x4004ce(b) 0x4004b2(c) 0x4004a2(d)
tailcall: compare: 0x4004d2(a) 0x4004cc(b) 0x400492(e)
tailcall: reduced: 0x4004d2(a) |
(gdb) bt
#0 f () at t.c:2
#1 0x00000000004004d2 in a () at t.c:8
#2 0x0000000000400395 in main () at t.c:9
Frames #0 and #2 are real, #1 is a virtual tail call frame. The code
can have possible execution paths 'main->a->b->c->d->f' or
'main->a->b->e->f', GDB cannot find which one from the inferior state.
'initial:' state shows some random possible calling sequence GDB has
found. It then finds another possible calling sequence - that one is
prefixed by 'compare:'. The non-ambiguous intersection of these two is
printed as the 'reduced:' calling sequence. That one could have many
further 'compare:' and 'reduced:' statements as long as there remain any
non-ambiguous sequence entries.
For the frame of function 'b' in both cases there are different
possible '$pc' values ('0x4004cc' or '0x4004ce'), therefore this frame
is also ambiguous. The only non-ambiguous frame is the one for function
'a', therefore this one is displayed to the user while the ambiguous
frames are omitted.
There can be also reasons why printing of frame argument values at
function entry may fail:
int v;
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (int i) { v++; }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (int i);
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) b (int i) { a (i); }
static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (int i)
{ if (i) b (i - 1); else c (0); }
int main (void) { a (5); return 0; }
(gdb) bt
#0 c (i=i@entry=0) at t.c:2
#1 0x0000000000400428 in a (DW_OP_entry_value resolving has found
function "a" at 0x400420 can call itself via tail calls
i=<optimized out>) at t.c:6
#2 0x000000000040036e in main () at t.c:7
GDB cannot find out from the inferior state if and how many times did
function 'a' call itself (via function 'b') as these calls would be tail
calls. Such tail calls would modify the 'i' variable, therefore GDB
cannot be sure the value it knows would be right - GDB prints
'<optimized out>' instead.

File: gdb.info, Node: Macros, Next: Tracepoints, Prev: Optimized Code, Up: Top
12 C Preprocessor Macros
************************
Some languages, such as C and C++, provide a way to define 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 macro's definition, including where it was
defined.
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' flag. *Note Compilation::.
A program may define a macro at one point, remove that definition
later, and then provide a different definition after that. Thus, at
different points in the program, a macro may have different definitions,
or have no definition at all. If there is a current stack frame, GDB
uses the macros in scope at that frame's source code line. Otherwise,
GDB uses the macros in scope at the current listing location; see *note
List::.
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
effect 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 [-a|-all] [--] MACRO'
Show the current definition or all definitions of the named MACRO,
and describe the source location or compiler command-line where
that definition was established. The optional double dash is to
signify the end of argument processing and the beginning of MACRO
for non C-like macros where the macro may begin with a hyphen.
'info macros LOCATION'
Show all macro definitions that are in effect at the location
specified by LOCATION, and describe the source location or compiler
command-line where those definitions were established.
'macro define MACRO REPLACEMENT-LIST'
'macro define MACRO(ARGLIST) REPLACEMENT-LIST'
Introduce a definition for a preprocessor macro named MACRO,
invocations of which are replaced by the tokens given in
REPLACEMENT-LIST. The first form of this command defines an
"object-like" macro, which takes no arguments; the second form
defines a "function-like" macro, which takes the arguments given in
ARGLIST.
A definition 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 definition overrides all
definitions for MACRO present in the program being debugged, as
well as any previous user-supplied definition.
'macro undef MACRO'
Remove any user-supplied definition for the macro named MACRO.
This command only affects definitions provided with the 'macro
define' command, described above; it cannot remove definitions
present in the program being debugged.
'macro list'
List all the macros defined using the 'macro define' command.
Here is a transcript showing the above commands in action. First, we
show our source files:
$ 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 ("We're 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'(1) _and_ '-g3' flags 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 definitions, even when the
program is not running. GDB uses the current listing position to decide
which macro definitions 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
12 printf ("We're 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 definitions 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 definition 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 'N''s definition, and then
give it a new definition, GDB finds the definition (or lack thereof) in
force at each point:
(gdb) next
Hello, world!
12 printf ("We're 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
We're 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)
In addition to source files, macros can be defined on the compilation
command line using the '-DNAME=VALUE' syntax. For macros defined in
such a way, GDB displays the location of their definition as line zero
of the source file submitted to the compiler.
(gdb) info macro __STDC__
Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:0
-D__STDC__=1
(gdb)
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) This is the minimum. Recent versions of GCC support '-gdwarf-3'
and '-gdwarf-4'; we recommend always choosing the most recent version of
DWARF.

File: gdb.info, Node: Tracepoints, Next: Overlays, Prev: Macros, Up: Top
13 Tracepoints
**************
In some applications, it is not feasible for the debugger to interrupt
the program's execution long enough for the developer to learn anything
helpful about its behavior. If the program's 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
program's behavior without interrupting it.
Using GDB's '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 example--whose 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 program's behavior.
The tracepoint facility is currently available only for remote
targets. *Note Targets::. 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 *note Tracepoint Packets::.
It is also possible to get trace data from a file, in a manner
reminiscent of corefiles; you specify the filename, and use 'tfind' to
search through the file. *Note Trace Files::, for more details.
This chapter describes the tracepoint commands and features.
* Menu:
* Set Tracepoints::
* Analyze Collected Data::
* Tracepoint Variables::
* Trace Files::

File: gdb.info, Node: Set Tracepoints, Next: Analyze Collected Data, Up: Tracepoints
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 (*note Set Breaks::), 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 buffer 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 effect, and tracepoints cannot run GDB commands
when they are hit. Tracepoints may not be thread-specific either.
Some targets may support "fast tracepoints", which are inserted in a
different way (such as with a jump instead of a trap), that is faster
but possibly restricted in where they may be installed.
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. GDB's support for static tracing includes being able to
list instrumentation points, and attach them with GDB defined high level
tracepoints that expose the whole range of convenience of GDB's
tracepoints support. Namely, 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. *Note
Tracepoints support in 'gdbserver': Server.
This section describes commands to set tracepoints and associated
conditions and actions.
* Menu:
* Create and Delete Tracepoints::
* Enable and Disable Tracepoints::
* Tracepoint Passcounts::
* Tracepoint Conditions::
* Trace State Variables::
* Tracepoint Actions::
* Listing Tracepoints::
* Listing Static Tracepoint Markers::
* Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments::
* Tracepoint Restrictions::

File: gdb.info, Node: Create and Delete Tracepoints, Next: Enable and Disable Tracepoints, Up: Set Tracepoints
13.1.1 Create and Delete Tracepoints
------------------------------------
'trace LOCATION'
The 'trace' command is very similar to the 'break' command. Its
argument LOCATION can be any valid location. *Note Specify
Location::. The 'trace' command defines a tracepoint, which is a
point in the target program where the debugger will briefly stop,
collect some data, and then allow the program to continue. Setting
a tracepoint or changing its actions takes effect immediately if
the remote stub supports the 'InstallInTrace' feature (*note
install tracepoint in tracing::). If remote stub doesn't support
the 'InstallInTrace' feature, all these changes don't take effect
until the next 'tstart' command, and once a trace experiment is
running, further changes will not have any effect until the next
trace experiment starts. In addition, GDB supports "pending
tracepoints"--tracepoints whose address is not yet resolved. (This
is similar to pending breakpoints.) Pending tracepoints are not
downloaded to the target and not installed until they are resolved.
The resolution of pending tracepoints requires GDB support--when
debugging with the remote target, and GDB disconnects from the
remote stub (*note disconnected tracing::), pending tracepoints can
not be resolved (and downloaded to the remote stub) while GDB is
disconnected.
Here are some examples of using the 'trace' command:
(gdb) trace foo.c:121 // a source file and line number
(gdb) trace +2 // 2 lines forward
(gdb) trace my_function // 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 nonzero--that is, if COND evaluates as true. *Note
Tracepoint Conditions: Tracepoint Conditions, 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 efficient but
possibly less general technique to 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'.
On 32-bit x86-architecture systems, fast tracepoints normally need
to be placed at an instruction that is 5 bytes or longer, but can
be placed at 4-byte instructions if the low 64K of memory of the
target program is available to install trampolines. Some Unix-type
systems, such as GNU/Linux, exclude low addresses from the
program's address space; but for instance with the Linux kernel it
is possible to let GDB use this area by doing a 'sysctl' command to
set the 'mmap_min_addr' kernel parameter, as in
sudo sysctl -w vm.mmap_min_addr=32768
which sets the low address to 32K, which leaves plenty of room for
trampolines. The minimum address should be set to a page boundary.
'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 identified by the MARKER string identifier.
This identifier depends on the static tracepoint backend library
your program is using. You can find all the marker identifiers in
the 'ID' field of the 'info static-tracepoint-markers' command
output. *Note Listing Static Tracepoint Markers: Listing Static
Tracepoint Markers. 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 first 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,
you'll see that the third argument to 'trace_mark' is a printf-like
format string. The user data is then the result of running that
formatting string against the following arguments. Note that 'info
static-tracepoint-markers' command output lists that format string
in the 'Data:' field.
You can inspect this data when analyzing the trace buffer, by
printing the $_sdata variable like any other variable available to
GDB. *Note Tracepoint Action Lists: Tracepoint Actions.
The convenience variable '$tpnum' records the tracepoint number of
the most recently set tracepoint.
'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'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Enable and Disable Tracepoints, Next: Tracepoint Passcounts, Prev: Create and Delete Tracepoints, Up: Set Tracepoints
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 effect during a trace
experiment, but it is not forgotten. You can re-enable a disabled
tracepoint using the 'enable tracepoint' command. If the command
is issued during a trace experiment and the debug target has
support for disabling tracepoints during a trace experiment, then
the change will be effective immediately. Otherwise, it will be
applied to the next trace experiment.
'enable tracepoint [NUM]'
Enable tracepoint NUM, or all tracepoints. If this command is
issued during a trace experiment and the debug target supports
enabling tracepoints during a trace experiment, then the enabled
tracepoints will become effective immediately. Otherwise, they
will become effective the next time a trace experiment is run.

File: gdb.info, Node: Tracepoint Passcounts, Next: Tracepoint Conditions, Prev: Enable and Disable Tracepoints, Up: Set Tracepoints
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 tracepoint's passcount
is N, then the trace experiment will be automatically stopped on
the N'th time that tracepoint is hit. If the tracepoint number NUM
is not specified, the 'passcount' command sets the passcount of the
most recently defined 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 // Stop on the 12th execution of the
// most recently defined tracepoint.
(gdb) trace foo
(gdb) pass 3
(gdb) trace bar
(gdb) pass 2
(gdb) trace baz
(gdb) pass 1 // 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Tracepoint Conditions, Next: Trace State Variables, Prev: Tracepoint Passcounts, Up: Set Tracepoints
13.1.4 Tracepoint Conditions
----------------------------
The simplest sort of tracepoint collects data every time your program
reaches a specified place. You can also specify a "condition" for a
tracepoint. A condition is just a Boolean expression in your
programming language (*note Expressions: Expressions.). 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 specified when a tracepoint is set, by
using 'if' in the arguments to the 'trace' command. *Note Setting
Tracepoints: Create and Delete Tracepoints. 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 (*note Agent Expressions::) suitable for execution
on the target, independently of GDB. Global variables become raw memory
locations, locals become stack accesses, and so forth.
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

File: gdb.info, Node: Trace State Variables, Next: Tracepoint Actions, Prev: Tracepoint Conditions, Up: Set Tracepoints
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
GDB's convenience variables (a string prefixed 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.
The 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.
'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 specified.

File: gdb.info, Node: Tracepoint Actions, Next: Listing Tracepoints, Prev: Trace State Variables, Up: Set Tracepoints
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 specified,
this command sets the actions for the one that was most recently
defined (so that you can define 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 defined actions are 'collect', 'teval', and
'while-stepping'.
'actions' is actually equivalent to 'commands' (*note Breakpoint
Command Lists: Break Commands.), except that only the defined
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 'while-stepping' 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 $pc, arr[i]
> end
end
'collect[/MODS] EXPR1, EXPR2, ...'
Collect values of the given expressions when the tracepoint is hit.
This command accepts a comma-separated list of any valid
expressions. In addition to global, static, or local variables,
the following special arguments are supported:
'$regs'
Collect all registers.
'$args'
Collect all function arguments.
'$locals'
Collect all local variables.
'$_ret'
Collect the return address. This is helpful if you want to
see more of a backtrace.
_Note:_ The return address location can not always be reliably
determined up front, and the wrong address / registers may end
up collected instead. On some architectures the reliability
is higher for tracepoints at function entry, while on others
it's the opposite. When this happens, backtracing will stop
because the return address is found unavailable (unless
another collect rule happened to match it).
'$_probe_argc'
Collects the number of arguments from the static probe at
which the tracepoint is located. *Note Static Probe Points::.
'$_probe_argN'
N is an integer between 0 and 11. Collects the Nth argument
from the static probe at which the tracepoint is located.
*Note Static Probe Points::.
'$_sdata'
Collect static tracepoint marker specific data. Only
available for static tracepoints. *Note Tracepoint Action
Lists: Tracepoint Actions. On the UST static tracepoints
library backend, an instrumentation point resembles a 'printf'
function call. The tracing library is able to collect user
specified data formatted to a character string using the
format provided by the programmer that instrumented the
program. Other backends have similar mechanisms. Here's 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
$yourname'. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can inspect
'$_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 effect is the same.
The optional MODS changes the usual handling of the arguments. 's'
requests that pointers to chars be handled as strings, in
particular collecting the contents of the memory being pointed at,
up to the first zero. The upper bound is by default the value of
the 'print elements' variable; if 's' is followed by a decimal
number, that is the upper bound instead. So for instance
'collect/s25 mystr' collects as many as 25 characters at 'mystr'.
The command 'info scope' (*note info scope: Symbols.) is
particularly useful for figuring 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 (*note Trace State Variables::) without
adding those values to the trace buffer, 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 'while-stepping' as 'ws' or 'stepping'.
'set default-collect EXPR1, EXPR2, ...'
This variable is a list of expressions to collect at each
tracepoint hit. It is effectively 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 tracepoint's location.
'show default-collect'
Show the list of expressions that are collected by default at each
tracepoint hit.

File: gdb.info, Node: Listing Tracepoints, Next: Listing Static Tracepoint Markers, Prev: Tracepoint Actions, Up: Set Tracepoints
13.1.7 Listing Tracepoints
--------------------------
'info tracepoints [NUM...]'
Display information about the tracepoint NUM. If you don't specify
a tracepoint number, displays information about all the tracepoints
defined 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 tracepoint's listing may include additional information specific
to tracing:
* its passcount as given by the 'passcount N' command
* the state about installed on target of each location
(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
2 tracepoint keep y <MULTIPLE>
collect $eip
2.1 y 0x0804859c in func4 at change-loc.h:35
installed on target
2.2 y 0xb7ffc480 in func4 at change-loc.h:35
installed on target
2.3 y <PENDING> set_tracepoint
3 tracepoint keep y 0x080485b1 in foo at change-loc.c:29
not installed on target
(gdb)
This command can be abbreviated 'info tp'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Listing Static Tracepoint Markers, Next: Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments, Prev: Listing Tracepoints, Up: Set Tracepoints
13.1.8 Listing Static Tracepoint Markers
----------------------------------------
'info static-tracepoint-markers'
Display information about all static tracepoint markers defined in
the program.
For each marker, the following columns are printed:
_Count_
An incrementing counter, output to help readability. This is
not a stable identifier.
_ID_
The marker ID, as reported by the target.
_Enabled or Disabled_
Probed markers are tagged with 'y'. 'n' identifies marks that
are not enabled.
_Address_
Where the marker is in your program, as a memory address.
_What_
Where the marker is in the source for your program, as a file
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.
_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)

File: gdb.info, Node: Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments, Next: Tracepoint Restrictions, Prev: Listing Static Tracepoint Markers, Up: Set Tracepoints
13.1.9 Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments
----------------------------------------------
'tstart'
This command starts the trace experiment, and begins collecting
data. It has the side effect of discarding all the data collected
in the trace buffer during the previous trace experiment. If any
arguments are supplied, they are taken as a note and stored with
the trace experiment's state. The notes may be arbitrary text, and
are especially useful with disconnected tracing in a multi-user
context; the notes can explain what the trace is doing, supply user
contact information, and so forth.
'tstop'
This command stops the trace experiment. If any arguments are
supplied, they are recorded with the experiment as a note. This is
useful if you are stopping a trace started by someone else, for
instance if the trace is interfering with the system's behavior and
needs to be stopped quickly.
*Note*: a trace experiment and data collection may stop
automatically if any tracepoint's passcount is reached (*note
Tracepoint Passcounts::), or if the trace buffer becomes full.
'tstatus'
This command displays the status of the current trace data
collection.
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 variable's 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.
When you reconnect to the target, the trace experiment may or may not
still be running; it might have filled the trace buffer 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 effect. GDB will then compare that information to the
set of tracepoints currently defined, 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 target's
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 buffer", then you can
run a trace experiment indefinitely without filling the trace buffer;
when space runs out, the agent deletes already-collected trace frames,
oldest first, 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 buffer is full. To
ask for a circular trace buffer, 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 buffer handling on the fly, otherwise it
will not take effect 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 buffer
for trace data. A linear buffer will not lose any trace data, but
may fill up prematurely, while a circular buffer 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 buffer. Note that this may
not match the agent's current buffer handling, nor is it guaranteed
to match the setting that might have been in effect during a past
run, for instance if you are looking at frames from a trace file.
'set trace-buffer-size N'
'set trace-buffer-size unlimited'
Request that the target use a trace buffer of N bytes. Not all
targets will honor the request; they may have a compiled-in size
for the trace buffer, or some other limitation. Set to a value of
'unlimited' or '-1' to let the target use whatever size it likes.
This is also the default.
'show trace-buffer-size'
Show the current requested size for the trace buffer. Note that
this will only match the actual size if the target supports
size-setting, and was able to handle the requested size. For
instance, if the target can only change buffer size between runs,
this variable will not reflect the change until the next run
starts. Use 'tstatus' to get a report of the actual buffer size.
'set trace-user TEXT'
'show trace-user'
'set trace-notes TEXT'
Set the trace run's notes.
'show trace-notes'
Show the trace run's notes.
'set trace-stop-notes TEXT'
Set the trace run's stop notes. The handling of the note is as for
'tstop' arguments; the set command is convenient way to fix a stop
note that is mistaken or incomplete.
'show trace-stop-notes'
Show the trace run's stop notes.

File: gdb.info, Node: Tracepoint Restrictions, Prev: Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments, Up: Set Tracepoints
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 difficulties not mentioned here.
* Tracepoint expressions are intended to gather objects (lvalues).
Thus the full flexibility of GDB's 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 fields with
accessors), and therefore cannot be collected either.
* 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
program--particularly 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
'*(unsigned char *)$esp@300' (adjust to use the name of the actual
stack pointer register on your target architecture, and the amount
of stack you wish to capture). Then the 'backtrace' command will
show a partial backtrace when using a trace frame. The number of
stack frames that can be examined depends on the sizes of the
frames in the collected stack. Note that if you ask for a block so
large that it goes past the bottom of the stack, the target agent
may report an error trying to read from an invalid address.
* If you do not collect registers at a tracepoint, GDB can infer that
the value of '$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 can't infer '$pc', and default it to
zero.

File: gdb.info, Node: Analyze Collected Data, Next: Tracepoint Variables, Prev: Set Tracepoints, Up: Tracepoints
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 buffer, and you can examine them later. The way you
examine them is to "focus" on a specific 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 buffer 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 buffer will fail.
* Menu:
* tfind:: How to select a trace snapshot
* tdump:: How to display all data for a snapshot
* save tracepoints:: How to save tracepoints for a future run

File: gdb.info, Node: tfind, Next: tdump, Up: Analyze Collected Data
13.2.1 'tfind N'
----------------
The basic command for selecting a trace snapshot from the buffer is
'tfind N', which finds 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 first snapshot in the buffer. This is a synonym for
'tfind 0' (since 0 is the number of the first snapshot).
'tfind none'
Stop debugging trace snapshots, resume _live_ debugging.
'tfind end'
Same as 'tfind none'.
'tfind'
No argument means find the next trace snapshot or find the first
one if no trace snapshot is selected.
'tfind -'
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 find 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 find 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 FILE is given, refer to line N in that source
file. Search proceeds forward from the last examined trace
snapshot. If no argument N is given, it means find the next line
other than the one currently being examined; thus saying 'tfind
line' repeatedly can appear to have the same effect as stepping
from line to line in a _live_ debugging session.
The default arguments for the 'tfind' commands are specifically
designed to make it easy to scan through the trace buffer. 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 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 buffer manually,
these commands make it easy to construct GDB scripts that scan through
the trace buffer 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 buffer, we can say this:
(gdb) tfind start
(gdb) while ($trace_frame != -1)
> printf "Frame %d, PC = %08X, SP = %08X, FP = %08X\n", \
$trace_frame, $pc, $sp, $fp
> tfind
> end
Frame 0, PC = 0020DC64, SP = 0030BF3C, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 1, PC = 0020DC6C, SP = 0030BF38, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 2, PC = 0020DC70, SP = 0030BF34, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 3, PC = 0020DC74, SP = 0030BF30, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 4, PC = 0020DC78, SP = 0030BF2C, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 5, PC = 0020DC7C, SP = 0030BF28, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 6, PC = 0020DC80, SP = 0030BF24, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 7, PC = 0020DC84, SP = 0030BF20, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 8, PC = 0020DC88, SP = 0030BF1C, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 9, PC = 0020DC8E, SP = 0030BF18, FP = 0030BF44
Frame 10, PC = 00203F6C, SP = 0030BE3C, FP = 0030BF14
Or, if we want to examine the variable 'X' at each source line in the
buffer:
(gdb) tfind start
(gdb) while ($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

File: gdb.info, Node: tdump, Next: save tracepoints, Prev: tfind, Up: Analyze Collected Data
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, $args, gdb_long_test
> end
(gdb) tstart
(gdb) tfind line 444
#0 gdb_test (p1=0x11, p2=0x22, p3=0x33, p4=0x44, p5=0x55, p6=0x66)
at gdb_test.c:444
444 printp( "%s: arguments = 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X\n", )
(gdb) tdump
Data collected at tracepoint 2, trace frame 1:
d0 0xc4aa0085 -995491707
d1 0x18 24
d2 0x80 128
d3 0x33 51
d4 0x71aea3d 119204413
d5 0x22 34
d6 0xe0 224
d7 0x380035 3670069
a0 0x19e24a 1696330
a1 0x3000668 50333288
a2 0x100 256
a3 0x322000 3284992
a4 0x3000698 50333336
a5 0x1ad3cc 1758156
fp 0x30bf3c 0x30bf3c
sp 0x30bf34 0x30bf34
ps 0x0 0
pc 0x20b2c8 0x20b2c8
fpcontrol 0x0 0
fpstatus 0x0 0
fpiaddr 0x0 0
p = 0x20e5b4 "gdb-test"
p1 = (void *) 0x11
p2 = (void *) 0x22
p3 = (void *) 0x33
p4 = (void *) 0x44
p5 = (void *) 0x55
p6 = (void *) 0x66
gdb_long_test = 17 '\021'
(gdb)
'tdump' works by scanning the tracepoint's current collection actions
and printing the value of each expression listed. So 'tdump' can fail,
if after a run, you change the tracepoint's actions to mention variables
that were not collected during the run.
Also, for tracepoints with 'while-stepping' loops, 'tdump' uses the
collected value of '$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.

File: gdb.info, Node: save tracepoints, Prev: tdump, Up: Analyze Collected Data
13.2.3 'save tracepoints FILENAME'
----------------------------------
This command saves all current tracepoint definitions together with
their actions and passcounts, into a file 'FILENAME' suitable for use in
a later debugging session. To read the saved tracepoint definitions,
use the 'source' command (*note Command Files::). The
'save-tracepoints' command is a deprecated alias for 'save tracepoints'

File: gdb.info, Node: Tracepoint Variables, Next: Trace Files, Prev: Analyze Collected Data, Up: Tracepoints
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 file 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.
Here's 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) tfind start
(gdb) while $trace_frame != -1
> output $trace_file
> printf ", line %d (tracepoint #%d)\n", $trace_line, $tracepoint
> tfind
> end

File: gdb.info, Node: Trace Files, Prev: Tracepoint Variables, Up: Tracepoints
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
different activity. To handle these cases, you can arrange to dump the
trace data into a file, and later use that file as a source of trace
data, via the 'target tfile' command.
'tsave [ -r ] FILENAME'
'tsave [-ctf] DIRNAME'
Save the trace data to FILENAME. By default, this command assumes
that FILENAME refers to the host filesystem, 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
FILENAME in its own filesystem, which may be more efficient if the
trace buffer is very large. (Note, however, that 'target tfile'
can only read from files accessible to the host.) By default, this
command will save trace frame in tfile format. You can supply the
optional argument '-ctf' to save data in CTF format. The "Common
Trace Format" (CTF) is proposed as a trace format that can be
shared by multiple debugging and tracing tools. Please go to
'http://www.efficios.com/ctf' to get more information.
'target tfile FILENAME'
'target ctf DIRNAME'
Use the file named FILENAME or directory named DIRNAME 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. Both FILENAME and DIRNAME must be on a
filesystem accessible to the host.
(gdb) target ctf ctf.ctf
(gdb) tfind
Found trace frame 0, tracepoint 2
39 ++a; /* set tracepoint 1 here */
(gdb) tdump
Data collected at tracepoint 2, trace frame 0:
i = 0
a = 0
b = 1 '\001'
c = {"123", "456", "789", "123", "456", "789"}
d = {{{a = 1, b = 2}, {a = 3, b = 4}}, {{a = 5, b = 6}, {a = 7, b = 8}}}
(gdb) p b
$1 = 1

File: gdb.info, Node: Overlays, Next: Languages, Prev: Tracepoints, Up: Top
14 Debugging Programs That Use Overlays
***************************************
If your program is too large to fit completely in your target system's
memory, you can sometimes use "overlays" to work around this problem.
GDB provides some support for debugging programs that use overlays.
* Menu:
* How Overlays Work:: A general explanation of overlays.
* Overlay Commands:: Managing overlays in GDB.
* Automatic Overlay Debugging:: GDB can find out which overlays are
mapped by asking the inferior.
* Overlay Sample Program:: A sample program using overlays.

File: gdb.info, Node: How Overlays Work, Next: Overlay Commands, Up: 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 first copy
that overlay's 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 Instruction Larger
Address Space Address Space Address Space
+-----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+
| | | | | |
+-----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+<-- overlay 1
| program | | main | .----| overlay 1 | load address
| variables | | program | | +-----------+
| and heap | | | | | |
+-----------+ | | | +-----------+<-- overlay 2
| | +-----------+ | | | load address
+-----------+ | | | .-| overlay 2 |
| | | | | |
mapped --->+-----------+ | | +-----------+
address | | | | | |
| overlay | <-' | | |
| area | <---' +-----------+<-- overlay 3
| | <---. | | load address
+-----------+ `--| overlay 3 |
| | | |
+-----------+ | |
+-----------+
| |
+-----------+
A code overlay
The diagram (*note A code overlay::) 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, 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
effect on your program's performance.
* The executable file you load onto your system must contain each
overlay's instructions, appearing at the overlay's load address,
not its mapped address. However, each overlay's instructions must
be relocated and its symbols defined as if the overlay were at its
mapped address. You can use GNU linker scripts to specify
different load and relocation addresses for pieces of your program;
see *note (ld.info)Overlay Description::.
* The procedure for loading executable files 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
overlay's 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 different data overlay into the same
mapped area.

File: gdb.info, Node: Overlay Commands, Next: Automatic Overlay Debugging, Prev: How Overlays Work, Up: Overlays
14.2 Overlay Commands
=====================
To use GDB's overlay support, each overlay in your program must
correspond to a separate section of the executable file. The section's
virtual memory address and load memory address must be the overlay's
mapped and load addresses. Identifying overlays with sections allows
GDB to determine the appropriate address of a function or variable,
depending on whether the overlay is mapped or not.
GDB's overlay commands all start with the word 'overlay'; you can
abbreviate this as 'ov' or 'ovly'. The commands are:
'overlay off'
Disable GDB's overlay support. When overlay support is disabled,
GDB assumes that all functions and variables are always present at
their mapped addresses. By default, GDB's 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 file section containing the overlay. When an overlay is
mapped, GDB assumes it can find the overlay's 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 file section containing the overlay. When an overlay
is unmapped, GDB assumes it can find the overlay's 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 *note Automatic
Overlay Debugging::.
'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>
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 'foo''s overlay is mapped, GDB prints the function's 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 find 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, GDB's 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Automatic Overlay Debugging, Next: Overlay Sample Program, Prev: Overlay Commands, Up: Overlays
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 (*note Overlay Commands::), GDB looks in the inferior's memory
for certain variables describing the current state of the overlays.
Here are the variables your overlay manager must define to support
GDB's automatic overlay debugging:
'_ovly_table':
This variable must be an array of the following structures:
struct
{
/* The overlay's mapped address. */
unsigned long vma;
/* The size of the overlay, in bytes. */
unsigned long size;
/* The overlay's load address. */
unsigned long lma;
/* Non-zero if the overlay is currently mapped;
zero otherwise. */
unsigned long mapped;
}
'_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 overlay's section in the executable file. When GDB
finds a matching entry, it consults the entry's 'mapped' member to
determine whether the overlay is currently mapped.
In addition, your overlay manager may define a function called
'_ovly_debug_event'. If this function is defined, 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Overlay Sample Program, Prev: Automatic Overlay Debugging, Up: Overlays
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 (*note
(ld.info)Overlay Description::). Unfortunately, since linker scripts
are specific to a particular host system, target architecture, and
target memory layout, this manual cannot provide portable sample code
demonstrating GDB's 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 files from
'gdb/testsuite/gdb.base':
'overlays.c'
The main program file.
'ovlymgr.c'
A simple overlay manager, used by 'overlays.c'.
'foo.c'
'bar.c'
'baz.c'
'grbx.c'
Overlay modules, loaded and used by 'overlays.c'.
'd10v.ld'
'm32r.ld'
Linker scripts for linking the test program on the 'd10v-elf' and
'm32r-elf' targets.
You can build the test program using the 'd10v-elf' GCC
cross-compiler like this:
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c overlays.c
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c ovlymgr.c
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c foo.c
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c bar.c
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c baz.c
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c grbx.c
$ d10v-elf-gcc -g overlays.o ovlymgr.o foo.o bar.o \
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'.

File: gdb.info, Node: Languages, Next: Symbols, Prev: Overlays, Up: Top
15 Using GDB with Different 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)
differently. Hex numbers in C appear as '0x1ae', while in Modula-2 they
appear as '1AEH'.
Language-specific information is built into GDB for some languages,
allowing you to express operations like the above in your program's
native language, and allowing GDB to output values in a manner
consistent with the syntax of your program's native language. The
language you use to build expressions is called the "working language".
* Menu:
* Setting:: Switching between source languages
* Show:: Displaying the language
* Checks:: Type and range checks
* Supported Languages:: Supported languages
* Unsupported Languages:: Unsupported languages

File: gdb.info, Node: Setting, Next: Show, Up: Languages
15.1 Switching Between Source Languages
=======================================
There are two ways to control the working language--either 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 file that GDB knows
about has its own working language. For some object file formats, the
compiler might indicate which language a particular source file is in.
However, most of the time GDB infers the language from the name of the
file. The language of a source file controls whether C++ names are
demangled--this way 'backtrace' can show each frame appropriately for
its own language. There is no way to set the language of a source file
from within GDB, but you can set the language associated with a filename
extension. *Note Displaying the Language: Show.
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.
* Menu:
* Filenames:: Filename extensions and languages.
* Manually:: Setting the working language manually
* Automatically:: Having GDB infer the source language

File: gdb.info, Node: Filenames, Next: Manually, Up: Setting
15.1.1 List of Filename Extensions and Languages
------------------------------------------------
If a source file name ends in one of the following extensions, then GDB
infers that its language is the one indicated.
'.ada'
'.ads'
'.adb'
'.a'
Ada source file.
'.c'
C source file
'.C'
'.cc'
'.cp'
'.cpp'
'.cxx'
'.c++'
C++ source file
'.d'
D source file
'.m'
Objective-C source file
'.f'
'.F'
Fortran source file
'.mod'
Modula-2 source file
'.s'
'.S'
Assembler source file. 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 filename
extension. *Note Displaying the Language: Show.

File: gdb.info, Node: Manually, Next: Automatically, Prev: Filenames, Up: Setting
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 languages--but means
different things. For instance, if the current source file were written
in C, and GDB was parsing Modula-2, a command such as:
print a = b + c
might not have the effect 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Automatically, Prev: Manually, Up: Setting
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
defined in a source file that does not have a recognized extension), the
current working language is not changed, and GDB issues a warning.
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 different source language. Using 'set language auto' in this case
frees you from having to set the working language manually.

File: gdb.info, Node: Show, Next: Checks, Prev: Setting, Up: Languages
15.2 Displaying the Language
============================
The following commands help you find out which language is the working
language, and also what language source files 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 identifier from this frame.
*Note Information about a Frame: Frame Info, to identify the other
information listed here.
'info source'
Display the source language of this source file. *Note Examining
the Symbol Table: Symbols, to identify the other information listed
here.
In unusual circumstances, you may have source files 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 files with extension EXT are to be assumed as
written in the source language LANGUAGE.
'info extensions'
List all the filename extensions and the associated languages.

File: gdb.info, Node: Checks, Next: Supported Languages, Prev: Show, Up: Languages
15.3 Type and Range Checking
============================
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 overflows are caught at run time. Checks such as
these help to ensure a program's correctness once it has been compiled
by eliminating type mismatches and providing active checks for range
errors when your program is running.
By default GDB checks for these errors according to the rules of the
current source language. 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.
* Menu:
* Type Checking:: An overview of type checking
* Range Checking:: An overview of range checking

File: gdb.info, Node: Type Checking, Next: Range Checking, Up: Checks
15.3.1 An Overview of Type Checking
-----------------------------------
Some languages, such as C and C++, 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,
int klass::my_method(char *b) { return b ? 1 : 2; }
(gdb) print obj.my_method (0)
$1 = 2
but
(gdb) print obj.my_method (0x1234)
Cannot resolve method klass::my_method to any overloaded instance
The second example fails because in C++ the integer constant '0x1234'
is not type-compatible with the pointer parameter type.
For the expressions you use in GDB commands, you can tell GDB to not
enforce strict type checking or to treat any mismatches as errors and
abandon the expression; When type checking is disabled, GDB successfully
evaluates expressions like the second example above.
Even if type checking is off, 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 which make little sense to evaluate anyway.
GDB provides some additional commands for controlling type checking:
'set check type on'
'set check type off'
Set strict type checking on or off. If any type mismatches occur
in evaluating an expression while type checking is on, GDB prints a
message and aborts evaluation of the expression.
'show check type'
Show the current setting of type checking and whether GDB is
enforcing strict type checking rules.

File: gdb.info, Node: Range Checking, Prev: Type Checking, Up: Checks
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 overflow, 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 overflow, 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 overflows as an error.
In many implementations of C, mathematical overflow causes the result to
"wrap around" to lower values--for example, if M is the largest integer
value, and S is the smallest, then
M + 1 => S
This, too, is specific to individual languages, and in some cases
specific to individual compilers or machines. *Note Supported
Languages: Supported Languages, for further details on specific
languages.
GDB provides some additional commands for controlling the range
checker:
'set check range auto'
Set range checking on or off based on the current working language.
*Note Supported Languages: Supported Languages, for the default
settings for each language.
'set check range on'
'set check range off'
Set range checking on or off, 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Supported Languages, Next: Unsupported Languages, Prev: Checks, Up: Languages
15.4 Supported Languages
========================
GDB supports C, C++, D, Go, Objective-C, Fortran, OpenCL C, Pascal,
Rust, 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 (*note Expressions:
Expressions.) 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 different languages. There are many good books written on each
of these languages; please look to these for a language reference or
tutorial.
* Menu:
* C:: C and C++
* D:: D
* Go:: Go
* Objective-C:: Objective-C
* OpenCL C:: OpenCL C
* Fortran:: Fortran
* Pascal:: Pascal
* Rust:: Rust
* Modula-2:: Modula-2
* Ada:: Ada

File: gdb.info, Node: C, Next: D, Up: Supported Languages
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 effectively, you
must compile your C++ programs with a supported C++ compiler, such as
GNU 'g++', or the HP ANSI C++ compiler ('aCC').
* Menu:
* C Operators:: C and C++ operators
* C Constants:: C and C++ constants
* C Plus Plus Expressions:: C++ expressions
* C Defaults:: Default settings for C and C++
* C Checks:: C and C++ type and range checks
* Debugging C:: GDB and C
* Debugging C Plus Plus:: GDB features for C++
* Decimal Floating Point:: Numbers in Decimal Floating Point format

File: gdb.info, Node: C Operators, Next: C Constants, Up: C
15.4.1.1 C and C++ Operators
............................
Operators must be defined on values of specific types. For instance,
'+' is defined on numbers, but not on structures. Operators are often
defined on groups of types.
For the purposes of C and C++, the following definitions hold:
* _Integral types_ include 'int' with any of its storage-class
specifiers; '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 defined 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. Defined on scalar types.
'OP='
Used in an expression of the form 'A OP= B', and translated to
'A = A OP B'. 'OP=' and '=' have the same precedence. The operator
OP is any one of the operators '|', '^', '&', '<<', '>>', '+', '-',
'*', '/', '%'.
'?:'
The ternary operator. 'A ? B : C' can be thought of as: if A then
B else C. The argument A should be of an integral type.
'||'
Logical OR. Defined on integral types.
'&&'
Logical AND. Defined on integral types.
'|'
Bitwise OR. Defined on integral types.
'^'
Bitwise exclusive-OR. Defined on integral types.
'&'
Bitwise AND. Defined on integral types.
'==, !='
Equality and inequality. Defined 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.
Defined on scalar types. The value of these expressions is 0 for
false and non-zero for true.
'<<, >>'
left shift, and right shift. Defined on integral types.
'@'
The GDB "artificial array" operator (*note Expressions:
Expressions.).
'+, -'
Addition and subtraction. Defined on integral types,
floating-point types and pointer types.
'*, /, %'
Multiplication, division, and modulus. Multiplication and division
are defined on integral and floating-point types. Modulus is
defined 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 variable's value is used
before the operation takes place.
'*'
Pointer dereferencing. Defined on pointer types. Same precedence
as '++'.
'&'
Address operator. Defined 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. Defined on integral and floating-point types. Same
precedence as '++'.
'!'
Logical negation. Defined on integral types. Same precedence as
'++'.
'~'
Bitwise complement operator. Defined 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.
Defined on 'struct' and 'union' data.
'.*, ->*'
Dereferences of pointers to members.
'[]'
Array indexing. 'A[I]' is defined as '*(A+I)'. Same precedence as
'->'.
'()'
Function parameter list. Same precedence as '->'.
'::'
C++ scope resolution operator. Defined on 'struct', 'union', and
'class' types.
'::'
Doubled colons also represent the GDB scope operator (*note
Expressions: Expressions.). Same precedence as '::', above.
If an operator is redefined in the user code, GDB usually attempts to
invoke the redefined version instead of using the operator's predefined
meaning.

File: gdb.info, Node: C Constants, Next: C Plus Plus Expressions, Prev: C Operators, Up: C
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
specified 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 floating-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
specifies a 'long double' constant.
* Enumerated constants consist of enumerated identifiers, or their
integral equivalents.
* Character constants are a single character surrounded by single
quotes ('''), or a number--the 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 character's ordinal value; or of the form '\X', where 'X' is
a predefined special character--for example, '\n' for newline.
Wide character constants can be written by prefixing a character
constant with 'L', as in C. For example, 'L'x'' is the wide form of
'x'. The target wide character set is used when computing the
value of this constant (*note Character Sets::).
* 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\"b'c"' is a string of
five characters.
Wide string constants can be written by prefixing a string constant
with 'L', as in C. The target wide character set is used when
computing the value of this constant (*note Character Sets::).
* 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.

File: gdb.info, Node: C Plus Plus Expressions, Next: C Defaults, Prev: C Constants, Up: C
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++ code that is compiled with the most recent
version of GCC possible. The DWARF debugging format is preferred;
GCC defaults to this on most popular platforms. Other compilers
and/or debug formats are likely to work badly or not at all when
using GDB to debug C++ code. *Note Compilation::.
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++. 'using'
declarations in the current scope are also respected by GDB.
3. You can call overloaded functions; GDB resolves the function call
to the right definition, with some restrictions. GDB does not
perform overload resolution involving user-defined 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, floating-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 specified
'set overload-resolution off'. *Note GDB Features for C++:
Debugging C Plus Plus.
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 *note
Command Completion: Completion.
4. GDB understands variables declared as C++ lvalue or rvalue
references; you can use them in expressions just as you do in C++
source--they 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 specified '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 defined 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 files, in both C and C++ debugging (*note
Program Variables: Variables.).
6. GDB performs argument-dependent lookup, following the C++
specification.

File: gdb.info, Node: C Defaults, Next: C Checks, Prev: C Plus Plus Expressions, Up: C
15.4.1.4 C and C++ Defaults
...........................
If you allow GDB to set range checking automatically, it defaults 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 files whose names end with '.c', '.C', or '.cc', etc, and when
GDB enters code compiled from one of these files, it sets the working
language to C or C++. *Note Having GDB Infer the Source Language:
Automatically, for further details.

File: gdb.info, Node: C Checks, Next: Debugging C, Prev: C Defaults, Up: C
15.4.1.5 C and C++ Type and Range Checks
........................................
By default, when GDB parses C or C++ expressions, strict type checking
is used. However, if you turn type checking off, GDB will allow certain
non-standard conversions, such as promoting integer constants to
pointers.
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.

File: gdb.info, Node: Debugging C, Next: Debugging C Plus Plus, Prev: C Checks, Up: C
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. *Note Expressions:
Expressions.

File: gdb.info, Node: Debugging C Plus Plus, Next: Decimal Floating Point, Prev: Debugging C, Up: C
15.4.1.7 GDB Features for C++
.............................
Some GDB commands are particularly useful with C++, and some are
designed specifically 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 definition you want.
*Note Ambiguous Expressions: Ambiguous Expressions.
'rbreak REGEX'
Setting breakpoints using regular expressions is helpful for
setting breakpoints on overloaded functions that are not members of
any special classes. *Note Setting Breakpoints: Set Breaks.
'catch throw'
'catch rethrow'
'catch catch'
Debug C++ exception handling using these commands. *Note Setting
Catchpoints: Set Catchpoints.
'ptype TYPENAME'
Print inheritance relationships as well as other information for
type TYPENAME. *Note Examining the Symbol Table: Symbols.
'info vtbl EXPRESSION.'
The 'info vtbl' command can be used to display the virtual method
tables of the object computed by EXPRESSION. This shows one entry
per virtual table; there may be multiple virtual tables when
multiple inheritance is in use.
'demangle NAME'
Demangle NAME. *Note Symbols::, for a more complete description of
the 'demangle' command.
'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.
*Note Print Settings: Print Settings.
'set print object'
'show print object'
Choose whether to print derived (actual) or declared types of
objects. *Note Print Settings: Print Settings.
'set print vtbl'
'show print vtbl'
Control the format for printing virtual function tables. *Note
Print Settings: Print Settings. (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 *note
C++ Expressions: C Plus Plus Expressions, for details). If it
cannot find 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 first function of the specified name that it finds 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 definition 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 finish the type list for you. *Note
Command Completion: Completion, for details on how to do this.
'Breakpoints in functions with ABI tags'
The GNU C++ compiler introduced the notion of ABI "tags", which
correspond to changes in the ABI of a type, function, or variable
that would not otherwise be reflected in a mangled name. See
<https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2015/02/05/gcc5-and-the-c11-abi/>
for more detail.
The ABI tags are visible in C++ demangled names. For example, a
function that returns a std::string:
std::string function(int);
when compiled for the C++11 ABI is marked with the 'cxx11' ABI tag,
and GDB displays the symbol like this:
function[abi:cxx11](int)
You can set a breakpoint on such functions simply as if they had no
tag. For example:
(gdb) b function(int)
Breakpoint 2 at 0x40060d: file main.cc, line 10.
(gdb) info breakpoints
Num Type Disp Enb Address What
1 breakpoint keep y 0x0040060d in function[abi:cxx11](int)
at main.cc:10
On the rare occasion you need to disambiguate between different ABI
tags, you can do so by simply including the ABI tag in the function
name, like:
(gdb) b ambiguous[abi:other_tag](int)

File: gdb.info, Node: Decimal Floating Point, Prev: Debugging C Plus Plus, Up: C
15.4.1.8 Decimal Floating Point format
......................................
GDB can examine, set and perform computations with numbers in decimal
floating point format, which in the C language correspond to the
'_Decimal32', '_Decimal64' and '_Decimal128' types as specified by the
extension to support decimal floating-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 and S/390. GDB will use the appropriate encoding
for the configured target.
Because of a limitation in 'libdecnumber', the library used by GDB to
manipulate decimal floating point numbers, it is not possible to convert
(using a cast, for example) integers wider than 32-bit to decimal float.
In addition, in order to imitate GDB's behaviour with binary floating
point computations, error checking in decimal float operations ignores
underflow, overflow and divide by zero exceptions.
In the PowerPC architecture, GDB provides a set of pseudo-registers
to inspect '_Decimal128' values stored in floating point registers. See
*note PowerPC: PowerPC. for more details.

File: gdb.info, Node: D, Next: Go, Prev: C, Up: Supported Languages
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 specific
feature -- dynamic arrays.

File: gdb.info, Node: Go, Next: Objective-C, Prev: D, Up: Supported Languages
15.4.3 Go
---------
GDB can be used to debug programs written in Go and compiled with
'gccgo' or '6g' compilers.
Here is a summary of the Go-specific features and restrictions:
'The current Go package'
The name of the current package does not need to be specified when
specifying global variables and functions.
For example, given the program:
package main
var myglob = "Shall we?"
func main () {
// ...
}
When stopped inside 'main' either of these work:
(gdb) p myglob
(gdb) p main.myglob
'Builtin Go types'
The 'string' type is recognized by GDB and is printed as a string.
'Builtin Go functions'
The GDB expression parser recognizes the 'unsafe.Sizeof' function
and handles it internally.
'Restrictions on Go expressions'
All Go operators are supported except '&^'. The Go '_' "blank
identifier" is not supported. Automatic dereferencing of pointers
is not supported.

File: gdb.info, Node: Objective-C, Next: OpenCL C, Prev: Go, Up: Supported Languages
15.4.4 Objective-C
------------------
This section provides information about some commands and command
options that are useful for debugging Objective-C code. See also *note
info classes: Symbols, and *note info selectors: Symbols, for a few more
commands specific to Objective-C support.
* Menu:
* Method Names in Commands::
* The Print Command with Objective-C::

File: gdb.info, Node: Method Names in Commands, Next: The Print Command with Objective-C, Up: Objective-C
15.4.4.1 Method Names in Commands
.................................
The following commands have been extended to accept Objective-C method
names as line specifications:
* 'clear'
* 'break'
* 'info line'
* 'jump'
* 'list'
A fully qualified Objective-C method name is specified as
-[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 specified 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 program's source files contain more than one 'create' method,
you'll 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:]

File: gdb.info, Node: The Print Command with Objective-C, Prev: Method Names in Commands, Up: Objective-C
15.4.4.2 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', defined.

File: gdb.info, Node: OpenCL C, Next: Fortran, Prev: Objective-C, Up: Supported Languages
15.4.5 OpenCL C
---------------
This section provides information about GDBs OpenCL C support.
* Menu:
* OpenCL C Datatypes::
* OpenCL C Expressions::
* OpenCL C Operators::

File: gdb.info, Node: OpenCL C Datatypes, Next: OpenCL C Expressions, Up: OpenCL C
15.4.5.1 OpenCL C Datatypes
...........................
GDB supports the builtin scalar and vector datatypes specified by OpenCL
1.1. In addition the half- and double-precision floating point data
types of the 'cl_khr_fp16' and 'cl_khr_fp64' OpenCL extensions are also
known to GDB.

File: gdb.info, Node: OpenCL C Expressions, Next: OpenCL C Operators, Prev: OpenCL C Datatypes, Up: OpenCL C
15.4.5.2 OpenCL C Expressions
.............................
GDB supports accesses to vector components including the access as
lvalue where possible. Since OpenCL C is based on C99 most C
expressions supported by GDB can be used as well.

File: gdb.info, Node: OpenCL C Operators, Prev: OpenCL C Expressions, Up: OpenCL C
15.4.5.3 OpenCL C Operators
...........................
GDB supports the operators specified by OpenCL 1.1 for scalar and vector
data types.

File: gdb.info, Node: Fortran, Next: Pascal, Prev: OpenCL C, Up: Supported Languages
15.4.6 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.
* Menu:
* Fortran Operators:: Fortran operators and expressions
* Fortran Defaults:: Default settings for Fortran
* Special Fortran Commands:: Special GDB commands for Fortran

File: gdb.info, Node: Fortran Operators, Next: Fortran Defaults, Up: Fortran
15.4.6.1 Fortran Operators and Expressions
..........................................
Operators must be defined on values of specific types. For instance,
'+' is defined on numbers, but not on characters or other non-
arithmetic types. Operators are often defined on groups of types.
'**'
The exponentiation operator. It raises the first 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 aren't part of
regular Fortran, this can only happen when accessing a register
that uses a gdbarch-defined union type.
'::'
The scope operator. Normally used to access variables in modules
or to set breakpoints on subroutines nested in modules or in other
subroutines (internal subroutines).

File: gdb.info, Node: Fortran Defaults, Next: Special Fortran Commands, Prev: Fortran Operators, Up: Fortran
15.4.6.2 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 *note Symbols::, for the
details.

File: gdb.info, Node: Special Fortran Commands, Prev: Fortran Defaults, Up: Fortran
15.4.6.3 Special Fortran Commands
.................................
GDB has some commands to support Fortran-specific 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.
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