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1 perry 1 gdb
2 !!!gdb
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 OPTIONS
7 SEE ALSO
8 COPYING
9 ----
10 !!NAME
11
12
13 gdb - The GNU Debugger
14 !!SYNOPSIS
15
16
17 __gdb__
18
19
20 [[__-help__] [[__-nx__] [[__-q__] [[__-batch__]
21 [[__-cd=__''dir''] [[__-f__] [[__-b__ ''bps'']
22 [[__-tty=__''dev''] [[__-s__ ''symfile'']
23 [[__-e__ ''prog''] [[__-se__ ''prog''] [[__-c__
24 ''core''] [[__-x__ ''cmds''] [[__-d__ ''dir'']
25 [[''prog''[[''core''|''procID]]''
26 !!DESCRIPTION
27
28
29 The purpose of a debugger such as GDB is to allow you to see
30 what is going on ``inside'' another program while it
31 executes--or what another program was doing at the moment it
32 crashed.
33
34
35 GDB can do four main kinds of things (plus other things in
36 support of these) to help you catch bugs in the
37 act:
38
39
40 Start your program, specifying anything that might affect
41 its behavior.
42
43
44 Make your program stop on specified conditions.
45
46
47 Examine what has happened, when your program has
48 stopped.
49
50
51 Change things in your program, so you can experiment with
52 correcting the effects of one bug and go on to learn about
53 another.
54
55
56 You can use GDB to debug programs written in C, C++, and
57 Modula-2. Fortran support will be added when a GNU Fortran
58 compiler is ready.
59
60
61 GDB is invoked with the shell command __gdb__. Once
62 started, it reads commands from the terminal until you tell
63 it to exit with the GDB command __quit__. You can get
64 online help from __gdb__ itself by using the command
65 __help__.
66
67
68 You can run __gdb__ with no arguments or options; but the
69 most usual way to start GDB is with one argument or two,
70 specifying an executable program as the
71 argument:
72
73
74 gdb program
75
76
77 You can also start with both an executable program and a
78 core file specified:
79
80
81 gdb program core
82
83
84 You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument,
85 if you want to debug a running process:
86
87
88 gdb program 1234
89
90
91 would attach GDB to process __1234__ (unless you also
92 have a file named `__1234__'; GDB does check for a core
93 file first).
94
95
96 Here are some of the most frequently needed GDB
97 commands:
98
99
100 __break__
101 [[''file''__:__]''function''
102
103
104 Set a breakpoint at ''function'' (in
105 ''file'').
106
107
108 __run__ [[''arglist'']
109
110
111 Start your program (with ''arglist'', if
112 specified).
113
114
115 __bt__
116
117
118 Backtrace: display the program stack.
119
120
121 __print__ ''expr''
122
123
124 Display the value of an expression.
125
126
127 __c__
128
129
130 Continue running your program (after stopping, e.g. at a
131 breakpoint).
132
133
134 __next__
135
136
137 Execute next program line (after stopping); step ''over''
138 any function calls in the line.
139
140
141 __step__
142
143
144 Execute next program line (after stopping); step ''into''
145 any function calls in the line.
146
147
148 __help__ [[''name'']
149
150
151 Show information about GDB command ''name'', or general
152 information about using GDB.
153
154
155 __quit__
156
157
158 Exit from GDB.
159
160
161 For full details on GDB, see ''Using GDB: A Guide to the
162 GNU Source-Level Debugger'', by Richard M. Stallman and
163 Roland H. Pesch. The same text is available online as the
164 __gdb__ entry in the __info__ program.
165 !!OPTIONS
166
167
168 Any arguments other than options specify an executable file
169 and core file (or process ID); that is, the first argument
170 encountered with no associated option flag is equivalent to
171 a `__-se__' option, and the second, if any, is equivalent
172 to a `__-c__' option if it's the name of a file. Many
173 options have both long and short forms; both are shown here.
174 The long forms are also recognized if you truncate them, so
175 long as enough of the option is present to be unambiguous.
176 (If you prefer, you can flag option arguments with
177 `__+__' rather than `__-__', though we illustrate the
178 more usual convention.)
179
180
181 All the options and command line arguments you give are
182 processed in sequential order. The order makes a difference
183 when the `__-x__' option is used.
184
185
186 __-help__
187
188
189 __-h__
190
191
192 List all options, with brief explanations.
193
194
195 __-symbols=__''file''
196
197
198 __-s__ ''file''
199
200
201 Read symbol table from file ''file''.
202
203
204 __-write__
205
206
207 Enable writing into executable and core files.
208
209
210 __-exec=__''file''
211
212
213 __-e__ ''file''
214
215
216 Use file ''file'' as the executable file to execute when
217 appropriate, and for examining pure data in conjunction with
218 a core dump.
219
220
221 __-se=__''file''
222
223
224 Read symbol table from file ''file'' and use it as the
225 executable file.
226
227
228 __-core=__''file''
229
230
231 __-c__ ''file''
232
233
234 Use file ''file'' as a core dump to examine.
235
236
237 __-command=__''file''
238
239
240 __-x__ ''file''
241
242
243 Execute GDB commands from file ''file''.
244
245
246 __-directory=__''directory''
247
248
249 __-d__ ''directory''
250
251
252 Add ''directory'' to the path to search for source
253 files.
254
255
256 __-nx__
257
258
259 __-n__
260
261
262 Do not execute commands from any `__.gdbinit__'
263 initialization files. Normally, the commands in these files
264 are executed after all the command options and arguments
265 have been processed.
266
267
268 __-quiet__
269
270
271 __-q__
272
273
274 ``Quiet''. Do not print the introductory and copyright
275 messages. These messages are also suppressed in batch
276 mode.
277
278
279 __-batch__
280
281
282 Run in batch mode. Exit with status __0__ after
283 processing all the command files specified with `__-x__'
284 (and `__.gdbinit__', if not inhibited). Exit with nonzero
285 status if an error occurs in executing the GDB commands in
286 the command files.
287
288
289 Batch mode may be useful for running GDB as a filter, for
290 example to download and run a program on another computer;
291 in order to make this more useful, the message
292
293
294 Program exited normally.
295
296
297 (which is ordinarily issued whenever a program running under
298 GDB control terminates) is not issued when running in batch
299 mode.
300
301
302 __-cd=__''directory''
303
304
305 Run GDB using ''directory'' as its working directory,
306 instead of the current directory.
307
308
309 __-fullname__
310
311
312 __-f__
313
314
315 Emacs sets this option when it runs GDB as a subprocess. It
316 tells GDB to output the full file name and line number in a
317 standard, recognizable fashion each time a stack frame is
318 displayed (which includes each time the program stops). This
319 recognizable format looks like two ` __32__' characters,
320 followed by the file name, line number and character
321 position separated by colons, and a newline. The
322 Emacs-to-GDB interface program uses the two ` __32__'
323 characters as a signal to display the source code for the
324 frame.
325
326
327 __-b__ ''bps''
328
329
330 Set the line speed (baud rate or bits per second) of any
331 serial interface used by GDB for remote
332 debugging.
333
334
335 __-tty=__''device''
336
337
338 Run using ''device'' for your program's standard input
339 and output.
340 !!SEE ALSO
341
342
343 `__gdb__' entry in __info__; ''Using GDB: A Guide to
344 the GNU Source-Level Debugger'', Richard M. Stallman and
345 Roland H. Pesch, July 1991.
346 !!COPYING
347
348
349 Copyright (c) 1991 Free Software Foundation,
350 Inc.
351
352
353 Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies
354 of this manual provided the copyright notice and this
355 permission notice are preserved on all copies.
356
357
358 Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified
359 versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim
360 copying, provided that the entire resulting derived work is
361 distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical
362 to this one.
363
364
365 Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of
366 this manual into another language, under the above
367 conditions for modified versions, except that this
368 permission notice may be included in translations approved
369 by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original
370 English.
371 ----
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