2012-02-14 Stan Shebs <stan@codesourcery.com>
[binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / doc / gdb.texinfo
1 \input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
2 @c Copyright (C) 1988-1996, 1998-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
3 @c
4 @c %**start of header
5 @c makeinfo ignores cmds prev to setfilename, so its arg cannot make use
6 @c of @set vars. However, you can override filename with makeinfo -o.
7 @setfilename gdb.info
8 @c
9 @include gdb-cfg.texi
10 @c
11 @settitle Debugging with @value{GDBN}
12 @setchapternewpage odd
13 @c %**end of header
14
15 @iftex
16 @c @smallbook
17 @c @cropmarks
18 @end iftex
19
20 @finalout
21 @syncodeindex ky cp
22 @syncodeindex tp cp
23
24 @c readline appendices use @vindex, @findex and @ftable,
25 @c annotate.texi and gdbmi use @findex.
26 @syncodeindex vr cp
27 @syncodeindex fn cp
28
29 @c !!set GDB manual's edition---not the same as GDB version!
30 @c This is updated by GNU Press.
31 @set EDITION Tenth
32
33 @c !!set GDB edit command default editor
34 @set EDITOR /bin/ex
35
36 @c THIS MANUAL REQUIRES TEXINFO 4.0 OR LATER.
37
38 @c This is a dir.info fragment to support semi-automated addition of
39 @c manuals to an info tree.
40 @dircategory Software development
41 @direntry
42 * Gdb: (gdb). The GNU debugger.
43 @end direntry
44
45 @copying
46 Copyright @copyright{} 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996,
47 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
48 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
49
50 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
51 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
52 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
53 Invariant Sections being ``Free Software'' and ``Free Software Needs
54 Free Documentation'', with the Front-Cover Texts being ``A GNU Manual,''
55 and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.
56
57 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You are free to copy and modify
58 this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
59 developing GNU and promoting software freedom.''
60 @end copying
61
62 @ifnottex
63 This file documents the @sc{gnu} debugger @value{GDBN}.
64
65 This is the @value{EDITION} Edition, of @cite{Debugging with
66 @value{GDBN}: the @sc{gnu} Source-Level Debugger} for @value{GDBN}
67 @ifset VERSION_PACKAGE
68 @value{VERSION_PACKAGE}
69 @end ifset
70 Version @value{GDBVN}.
71
72 @insertcopying
73 @end ifnottex
74
75 @titlepage
76 @title Debugging with @value{GDBN}
77 @subtitle The @sc{gnu} Source-Level Debugger
78 @sp 1
79 @subtitle @value{EDITION} Edition, for @value{GDBN} version @value{GDBVN}
80 @ifset VERSION_PACKAGE
81 @sp 1
82 @subtitle @value{VERSION_PACKAGE}
83 @end ifset
84 @author Richard Stallman, Roland Pesch, Stan Shebs, et al.
85 @page
86 @tex
87 {\parskip=0pt
88 \hfill (Send bugs and comments on @value{GDBN} to @value{BUGURL}.)\par
89 \hfill {\it Debugging with @value{GDBN}}\par
90 \hfill \TeX{}info \texinfoversion\par
91 }
92 @end tex
93
94 @vskip 0pt plus 1filll
95 Published by the Free Software Foundation @*
96 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor,
97 Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA@*
98 ISBN 978-0-9831592-3-0 @*
99
100 @insertcopying
101 @end titlepage
102 @page
103
104 @ifnottex
105 @node Top, Summary, (dir), (dir)
106
107 @top Debugging with @value{GDBN}
108
109 This file describes @value{GDBN}, the @sc{gnu} symbolic debugger.
110
111 This is the @value{EDITION} Edition, for @value{GDBN}
112 @ifset VERSION_PACKAGE
113 @value{VERSION_PACKAGE}
114 @end ifset
115 Version @value{GDBVN}.
116
117 Copyright (C) 1988-2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
118
119 This edition of the GDB manual is dedicated to the memory of Fred
120 Fish. Fred was a long-standing contributor to GDB and to Free
121 software in general. We will miss him.
122
123 @menu
124 * Summary:: Summary of @value{GDBN}
125 * Sample Session:: A sample @value{GDBN} session
126
127 * Invocation:: Getting in and out of @value{GDBN}
128 * Commands:: @value{GDBN} commands
129 * Running:: Running programs under @value{GDBN}
130 * Stopping:: Stopping and continuing
131 * Reverse Execution:: Running programs backward
132 * Process Record and Replay:: Recording inferior's execution and replaying it
133 * Stack:: Examining the stack
134 * Source:: Examining source files
135 * Data:: Examining data
136 * Optimized Code:: Debugging optimized code
137 * Macros:: Preprocessor Macros
138 * Tracepoints:: Debugging remote targets non-intrusively
139 * Overlays:: Debugging programs that use overlays
140
141 * Languages:: Using @value{GDBN} with different languages
142
143 * Symbols:: Examining the symbol table
144 * Altering:: Altering execution
145 * GDB Files:: @value{GDBN} files
146 * Targets:: Specifying a debugging target
147 * Remote Debugging:: Debugging remote programs
148 * Configurations:: Configuration-specific information
149 * Controlling GDB:: Controlling @value{GDBN}
150 * Extending GDB:: Extending @value{GDBN}
151 * Interpreters:: Command Interpreters
152 * TUI:: @value{GDBN} Text User Interface
153 * Emacs:: Using @value{GDBN} under @sc{gnu} Emacs
154 * GDB/MI:: @value{GDBN}'s Machine Interface.
155 * Annotations:: @value{GDBN}'s annotation interface.
156 * JIT Interface:: Using the JIT debugging interface.
157
158 * GDB Bugs:: Reporting bugs in @value{GDBN}
159
160 @ifset SYSTEM_READLINE
161 * Command Line Editing: (rluserman). Command Line Editing
162 * Using History Interactively: (history). Using History Interactively
163 @end ifset
164 @ifclear SYSTEM_READLINE
165 * Command Line Editing:: Command Line Editing
166 * Using History Interactively:: Using History Interactively
167 @end ifclear
168 * In Memoriam:: In Memoriam
169 * Formatting Documentation:: How to format and print @value{GDBN} documentation
170 * Installing GDB:: Installing GDB
171 * Maintenance Commands:: Maintenance Commands
172 * Remote Protocol:: GDB Remote Serial Protocol
173 * Agent Expressions:: The GDB Agent Expression Mechanism
174 * Target Descriptions:: How targets can describe themselves to
175 @value{GDBN}
176 * Operating System Information:: Getting additional information from
177 the operating system
178 * Trace File Format:: GDB trace file format
179 * Index Section Format:: .gdb_index section format
180 * Copying:: GNU General Public License says
181 how you can copy and share GDB
182 * GNU Free Documentation License:: The license for this documentation
183 * Index:: Index
184 @end menu
185
186 @end ifnottex
187
188 @contents
189
190 @node Summary
191 @unnumbered Summary of @value{GDBN}
192
193 The purpose of a debugger such as @value{GDBN} is to allow you to see what is
194 going on ``inside'' another program while it executes---or what another
195 program was doing at the moment it crashed.
196
197 @value{GDBN} can do four main kinds of things (plus other things in support of
198 these) to help you catch bugs in the act:
199
200 @itemize @bullet
201 @item
202 Start your program, specifying anything that might affect its behavior.
203
204 @item
205 Make your program stop on specified conditions.
206
207 @item
208 Examine what has happened, when your program has stopped.
209
210 @item
211 Change things in your program, so you can experiment with correcting the
212 effects of one bug and go on to learn about another.
213 @end itemize
214
215 You can use @value{GDBN} to debug programs written in C and C@t{++}.
216 For more information, see @ref{Supported Languages,,Supported Languages}.
217 For more information, see @ref{C,,C and C++}.
218
219 Support for D is partial. For information on D, see
220 @ref{D,,D}.
221
222 @cindex Modula-2
223 Support for Modula-2 is partial. For information on Modula-2, see
224 @ref{Modula-2,,Modula-2}.
225
226 Support for OpenCL C is partial. For information on OpenCL C, see
227 @ref{OpenCL C,,OpenCL C}.
228
229 @cindex Pascal
230 Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, file variables, or
231 nested functions does not currently work. @value{GDBN} does not support
232 entering expressions, printing values, or similar features using Pascal
233 syntax.
234
235 @cindex Fortran
236 @value{GDBN} can be used to debug programs written in Fortran, although
237 it may be necessary to refer to some variables with a trailing
238 underscore.
239
240 @value{GDBN} can be used to debug programs written in Objective-C,
241 using either the Apple/NeXT or the GNU Objective-C runtime.
242
243 @menu
244 * Free Software:: Freely redistributable software
245 * Contributors:: Contributors to GDB
246 @end menu
247
248 @node Free Software
249 @unnumberedsec Free Software
250
251 @value{GDBN} is @dfn{free software}, protected by the @sc{gnu}
252 General Public License
253 (GPL). The GPL gives you the freedom to copy or adapt a licensed
254 program---but every person getting a copy also gets with it the
255 freedom to modify that copy (which means that they must get access to
256 the source code), and the freedom to distribute further copies.
257 Typical software companies use copyrights to limit your freedoms; the
258 Free Software Foundation uses the GPL to preserve these freedoms.
259
260 Fundamentally, the General Public License is a license which says that
261 you have these freedoms and that you cannot take these freedoms away
262 from anyone else.
263
264 @unnumberedsec Free Software Needs Free Documentation
265
266 The biggest deficiency in the free software community today is not in
267 the software---it is the lack of good free documentation that we can
268 include with the free software. Many of our most important
269 programs do not come with free reference manuals and free introductory
270 texts. Documentation is an essential part of any software package;
271 when an important free software package does not come with a free
272 manual and a free tutorial, that is a major gap. We have many such
273 gaps today.
274
275 Consider Perl, for instance. The tutorial manuals that people
276 normally use are non-free. How did this come about? Because the
277 authors of those manuals published them with restrictive terms---no
278 copying, no modification, source files not available---which exclude
279 them from the free software world.
280
281 That wasn't the first time this sort of thing happened, and it was far
282 from the last. Many times we have heard a GNU user eagerly describe a
283 manual that he is writing, his intended contribution to the community,
284 only to learn that he had ruined everything by signing a publication
285 contract to make it non-free.
286
287 Free documentation, like free software, is a matter of freedom, not
288 price. The problem with the non-free manual is not that publishers
289 charge a price for printed copies---that in itself is fine. (The Free
290 Software Foundation sells printed copies of manuals, too.) The
291 problem is the restrictions on the use of the manual. Free manuals
292 are available in source code form, and give you permission to copy and
293 modify. Non-free manuals do not allow this.
294
295 The criteria of freedom for a free manual are roughly the same as for
296 free software. Redistribution (including the normal kinds of
297 commercial redistribution) must be permitted, so that the manual can
298 accompany every copy of the program, both on-line and on paper.
299
300 Permission for modification of the technical content is crucial too.
301 When people modify the software, adding or changing features, if they
302 are conscientious they will change the manual too---so they can
303 provide accurate and clear documentation for the modified program. A
304 manual that leaves you no choice but to write a new manual to document
305 a changed version of the program is not really available to our
306 community.
307
308 Some kinds of limits on the way modification is handled are
309 acceptable. For example, requirements to preserve the original
310 author's copyright notice, the distribution terms, or the list of
311 authors, are ok. It is also no problem to require modified versions
312 to include notice that they were modified. Even entire sections that
313 may not be deleted or changed are acceptable, as long as they deal
314 with nontechnical topics (like this one). These kinds of restrictions
315 are acceptable because they don't obstruct the community's normal use
316 of the manual.
317
318 However, it must be possible to modify all the @emph{technical}
319 content of the manual, and then distribute the result in all the usual
320 media, through all the usual channels. Otherwise, the restrictions
321 obstruct the use of the manual, it is not free, and we need another
322 manual to replace it.
323
324 Please spread the word about this issue. Our community continues to
325 lose manuals to proprietary publishing. If we spread the word that
326 free software needs free reference manuals and free tutorials, perhaps
327 the next person who wants to contribute by writing documentation will
328 realize, before it is too late, that only free manuals contribute to
329 the free software community.
330
331 If you are writing documentation, please insist on publishing it under
332 the GNU Free Documentation License or another free documentation
333 license. Remember that this decision requires your approval---you
334 don't have to let the publisher decide. Some commercial publishers
335 will use a free license if you insist, but they will not propose the
336 option; it is up to you to raise the issue and say firmly that this is
337 what you want. If the publisher you are dealing with refuses, please
338 try other publishers. If you're not sure whether a proposed license
339 is free, write to @email{licensing@@gnu.org}.
340
341 You can encourage commercial publishers to sell more free, copylefted
342 manuals and tutorials by buying them, and particularly by buying
343 copies from the publishers that paid for their writing or for major
344 improvements. Meanwhile, try to avoid buying non-free documentation
345 at all. Check the distribution terms of a manual before you buy it,
346 and insist that whoever seeks your business must respect your freedom.
347 Check the history of the book, and try to reward the publishers that
348 have paid or pay the authors to work on it.
349
350 The Free Software Foundation maintains a list of free documentation
351 published by other publishers, at
352 @url{http://www.fsf.org/doc/other-free-books.html}.
353
354 @node Contributors
355 @unnumberedsec Contributors to @value{GDBN}
356
357 Richard Stallman was the original author of @value{GDBN}, and of many
358 other @sc{gnu} programs. Many others have contributed to its
359 development. This section attempts to credit major contributors. One
360 of the virtues of free software is that everyone is free to contribute
361 to it; with regret, we cannot actually acknowledge everyone here. The
362 file @file{ChangeLog} in the @value{GDBN} distribution approximates a
363 blow-by-blow account.
364
365 Changes much prior to version 2.0 are lost in the mists of time.
366
367 @quotation
368 @emph{Plea:} Additions to this section are particularly welcome. If you
369 or your friends (or enemies, to be evenhanded) have been unfairly
370 omitted from this list, we would like to add your names!
371 @end quotation
372
373 So that they may not regard their many labors as thankless, we
374 particularly thank those who shepherded @value{GDBN} through major
375 releases:
376 Andrew Cagney (releases 6.3, 6.2, 6.1, 6.0, 5.3, 5.2, 5.1 and 5.0);
377 Jim Blandy (release 4.18);
378 Jason Molenda (release 4.17);
379 Stan Shebs (release 4.14);
380 Fred Fish (releases 4.16, 4.15, 4.13, 4.12, 4.11, 4.10, and 4.9);
381 Stu Grossman and John Gilmore (releases 4.8, 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, and 4.4);
382 John Gilmore (releases 4.3, 4.2, 4.1, 4.0, and 3.9);
383 Jim Kingdon (releases 3.5, 3.4, and 3.3);
384 and Randy Smith (releases 3.2, 3.1, and 3.0).
385
386 Richard Stallman, assisted at various times by Peter TerMaat, Chris
387 Hanson, and Richard Mlynarik, handled releases through 2.8.
388
389 Michael Tiemann is the author of most of the @sc{gnu} C@t{++} support
390 in @value{GDBN}, with significant additional contributions from Per
391 Bothner and Daniel Berlin. James Clark wrote the @sc{gnu} C@t{++}
392 demangler. Early work on C@t{++} was by Peter TerMaat (who also did
393 much general update work leading to release 3.0).
394
395 @value{GDBN} uses the BFD subroutine library to examine multiple
396 object-file formats; BFD was a joint project of David V.
397 Henkel-Wallace, Rich Pixley, Steve Chamberlain, and John Gilmore.
398
399 David Johnson wrote the original COFF support; Pace Willison did
400 the original support for encapsulated COFF.
401
402 Brent Benson of Harris Computer Systems contributed DWARF 2 support.
403
404 Adam de Boor and Bradley Davis contributed the ISI Optimum V support.
405 Per Bothner, Noboyuki Hikichi, and Alessandro Forin contributed MIPS
406 support.
407 Jean-Daniel Fekete contributed Sun 386i support.
408 Chris Hanson improved the HP9000 support.
409 Noboyuki Hikichi and Tomoyuki Hasei contributed Sony/News OS 3 support.
410 David Johnson contributed Encore Umax support.
411 Jyrki Kuoppala contributed Altos 3068 support.
412 Jeff Law contributed HP PA and SOM support.
413 Keith Packard contributed NS32K support.
414 Doug Rabson contributed Acorn Risc Machine support.
415 Bob Rusk contributed Harris Nighthawk CX-UX support.
416 Chris Smith contributed Convex support (and Fortran debugging).
417 Jonathan Stone contributed Pyramid support.
418 Michael Tiemann contributed SPARC support.
419 Tim Tucker contributed support for the Gould NP1 and Gould Powernode.
420 Pace Willison contributed Intel 386 support.
421 Jay Vosburgh contributed Symmetry support.
422 Marko Mlinar contributed OpenRISC 1000 support.
423
424 Andreas Schwab contributed M68K @sc{gnu}/Linux support.
425
426 Rich Schaefer and Peter Schauer helped with support of SunOS shared
427 libraries.
428
429 Jay Fenlason and Roland McGrath ensured that @value{GDBN} and GAS agree
430 about several machine instruction sets.
431
432 Patrick Duval, Ted Goldstein, Vikram Koka and Glenn Engel helped develop
433 remote debugging. Intel Corporation, Wind River Systems, AMD, and ARM
434 contributed remote debugging modules for the i960, VxWorks, A29K UDI,
435 and RDI targets, respectively.
436
437 Brian Fox is the author of the readline libraries providing
438 command-line editing and command history.
439
440 Andrew Beers of SUNY Buffalo wrote the language-switching code, the
441 Modula-2 support, and contributed the Languages chapter of this manual.
442
443 Fred Fish wrote most of the support for Unix System Vr4.
444 He also enhanced the command-completion support to cover C@t{++} overloaded
445 symbols.
446
447 Hitachi America (now Renesas America), Ltd. sponsored the support for
448 H8/300, H8/500, and Super-H processors.
449
450 NEC sponsored the support for the v850, Vr4xxx, and Vr5xxx processors.
451
452 Mitsubishi (now Renesas) sponsored the support for D10V, D30V, and M32R/D
453 processors.
454
455 Toshiba sponsored the support for the TX39 Mips processor.
456
457 Matsushita sponsored the support for the MN10200 and MN10300 processors.
458
459 Fujitsu sponsored the support for SPARClite and FR30 processors.
460
461 Kung Hsu, Jeff Law, and Rick Sladkey added support for hardware
462 watchpoints.
463
464 Michael Snyder added support for tracepoints.
465
466 Stu Grossman wrote gdbserver.
467
468 Jim Kingdon, Peter Schauer, Ian Taylor, and Stu Grossman made
469 nearly innumerable bug fixes and cleanups throughout @value{GDBN}.
470
471 The following people at the Hewlett-Packard Company contributed
472 support for the PA-RISC 2.0 architecture, HP-UX 10.20, 10.30, and 11.0
473 (narrow mode), HP's implementation of kernel threads, HP's aC@t{++}
474 compiler, and the Text User Interface (nee Terminal User Interface):
475 Ben Krepp, Richard Title, John Bishop, Susan Macchia, Kathy Mann,
476 Satish Pai, India Paul, Steve Rehrauer, and Elena Zannoni. Kim Haase
477 provided HP-specific information in this manual.
478
479 DJ Delorie ported @value{GDBN} to MS-DOS, for the DJGPP project.
480 Robert Hoehne made significant contributions to the DJGPP port.
481
482 Cygnus Solutions has sponsored @value{GDBN} maintenance and much of its
483 development since 1991. Cygnus engineers who have worked on @value{GDBN}
484 fulltime include Mark Alexander, Jim Blandy, Per Bothner, Kevin
485 Buettner, Edith Epstein, Chris Faylor, Fred Fish, Martin Hunt, Jim
486 Ingham, John Gilmore, Stu Grossman, Kung Hsu, Jim Kingdon, John Metzler,
487 Fernando Nasser, Geoffrey Noer, Dawn Perchik, Rich Pixley, Zdenek
488 Radouch, Keith Seitz, Stan Shebs, David Taylor, and Elena Zannoni. In
489 addition, Dave Brolley, Ian Carmichael, Steve Chamberlain, Nick Clifton,
490 JT Conklin, Stan Cox, DJ Delorie, Ulrich Drepper, Frank Eigler, Doug
491 Evans, Sean Fagan, David Henkel-Wallace, Richard Henderson, Jeff
492 Holcomb, Jeff Law, Jim Lemke, Tom Lord, Bob Manson, Michael Meissner,
493 Jason Merrill, Catherine Moore, Drew Moseley, Ken Raeburn, Gavin
494 Romig-Koch, Rob Savoye, Jamie Smith, Mike Stump, Ian Taylor, Angela
495 Thomas, Michael Tiemann, Tom Tromey, Ron Unrau, Jim Wilson, and David
496 Zuhn have made contributions both large and small.
497
498 Andrew Cagney, Fernando Nasser, and Elena Zannoni, while working for
499 Cygnus Solutions, implemented the original @sc{gdb/mi} interface.
500
501 Jim Blandy added support for preprocessor macros, while working for Red
502 Hat.
503
504 Andrew Cagney designed @value{GDBN}'s architecture vector. Many
505 people including Andrew Cagney, Stephane Carrez, Randolph Chung, Nick
506 Duffek, Richard Henderson, Mark Kettenis, Grace Sainsbury, Kei
507 Sakamoto, Yoshinori Sato, Michael Snyder, Andreas Schwab, Jason
508 Thorpe, Corinna Vinschen, Ulrich Weigand, and Elena Zannoni, helped
509 with the migration of old architectures to this new framework.
510
511 Andrew Cagney completely re-designed and re-implemented @value{GDBN}'s
512 unwinder framework, this consisting of a fresh new design featuring
513 frame IDs, independent frame sniffers, and the sentinel frame. Mark
514 Kettenis implemented the @sc{dwarf 2} unwinder, Jeff Johnston the
515 libunwind unwinder, and Andrew Cagney the dummy, sentinel, tramp, and
516 trad unwinders. The architecture-specific changes, each involving a
517 complete rewrite of the architecture's frame code, were carried out by
518 Jim Blandy, Joel Brobecker, Kevin Buettner, Andrew Cagney, Stephane
519 Carrez, Randolph Chung, Orjan Friberg, Richard Henderson, Daniel
520 Jacobowitz, Jeff Johnston, Mark Kettenis, Theodore A. Roth, Kei
521 Sakamoto, Yoshinori Sato, Michael Snyder, Corinna Vinschen, and Ulrich
522 Weigand.
523
524 Christian Zankel, Ross Morley, Bob Wilson, and Maxim Grigoriev from
525 Tensilica, Inc.@: contributed support for Xtensa processors. Others
526 who have worked on the Xtensa port of @value{GDBN} in the past include
527 Steve Tjiang, John Newlin, and Scott Foehner.
528
529 Michael Eager and staff of Xilinx, Inc., contributed support for the
530 Xilinx MicroBlaze architecture.
531
532 @node Sample Session
533 @chapter A Sample @value{GDBN} Session
534
535 You can use this manual at your leisure to read all about @value{GDBN}.
536 However, a handful of commands are enough to get started using the
537 debugger. This chapter illustrates those commands.
538
539 @iftex
540 In this sample session, we emphasize user input like this: @b{input},
541 to make it easier to pick out from the surrounding output.
542 @end iftex
543
544 @c FIXME: this example may not be appropriate for some configs, where
545 @c FIXME...primary interest is in remote use.
546
547 One of the preliminary versions of @sc{gnu} @code{m4} (a generic macro
548 processor) exhibits the following bug: sometimes, when we change its
549 quote strings from the default, the commands used to capture one macro
550 definition within another stop working. In the following short @code{m4}
551 session, we define a macro @code{foo} which expands to @code{0000}; we
552 then use the @code{m4} built-in @code{defn} to define @code{bar} as the
553 same thing. However, when we change the open quote string to
554 @code{<QUOTE>} and the close quote string to @code{<UNQUOTE>}, the same
555 procedure fails to define a new synonym @code{baz}:
556
557 @smallexample
558 $ @b{cd gnu/m4}
559 $ @b{./m4}
560 @b{define(foo,0000)}
561
562 @b{foo}
563 0000
564 @b{define(bar,defn(`foo'))}
565
566 @b{bar}
567 0000
568 @b{changequote(<QUOTE>,<UNQUOTE>)}
569
570 @b{define(baz,defn(<QUOTE>foo<UNQUOTE>))}
571 @b{baz}
572 @b{Ctrl-d}
573 m4: End of input: 0: fatal error: EOF in string
574 @end smallexample
575
576 @noindent
577 Let us use @value{GDBN} to try to see what is going on.
578
579 @smallexample
580 $ @b{@value{GDBP} m4}
581 @c FIXME: this falsifies the exact text played out, to permit smallbook
582 @c FIXME... format to come out better.
583 @value{GDBN} is free software and you are welcome to distribute copies
584 of it under certain conditions; type "show copying" to see
585 the conditions.
586 There is absolutely no warranty for @value{GDBN}; type "show warranty"
587 for details.
588
589 @value{GDBN} @value{GDBVN}, Copyright 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc...
590 (@value{GDBP})
591 @end smallexample
592
593 @noindent
594 @value{GDBN} reads only enough symbol data to know where to find the
595 rest when needed; as a result, the first prompt comes up very quickly.
596 We now tell @value{GDBN} to use a narrower display width than usual, so
597 that examples fit in this manual.
598
599 @smallexample
600 (@value{GDBP}) @b{set width 70}
601 @end smallexample
602
603 @noindent
604 We need to see how the @code{m4} built-in @code{changequote} works.
605 Having looked at the source, we know the relevant subroutine is
606 @code{m4_changequote}, so we set a breakpoint there with the @value{GDBN}
607 @code{break} command.
608
609 @smallexample
610 (@value{GDBP}) @b{break m4_changequote}
611 Breakpoint 1 at 0x62f4: file builtin.c, line 879.
612 @end smallexample
613
614 @noindent
615 Using the @code{run} command, we start @code{m4} running under @value{GDBN}
616 control; as long as control does not reach the @code{m4_changequote}
617 subroutine, the program runs as usual:
618
619 @smallexample
620 (@value{GDBP}) @b{run}
621 Starting program: /work/Editorial/gdb/gnu/m4/m4
622 @b{define(foo,0000)}
623
624 @b{foo}
625 0000
626 @end smallexample
627
628 @noindent
629 To trigger the breakpoint, we call @code{changequote}. @value{GDBN}
630 suspends execution of @code{m4}, displaying information about the
631 context where it stops.
632
633 @smallexample
634 @b{changequote(<QUOTE>,<UNQUOTE>)}
635
636 Breakpoint 1, m4_changequote (argc=3, argv=0x33c70)
637 at builtin.c:879
638 879 if (bad_argc(TOKEN_DATA_TEXT(argv[0]),argc,1,3))
639 @end smallexample
640
641 @noindent
642 Now we use the command @code{n} (@code{next}) to advance execution to
643 the next line of the current function.
644
645 @smallexample
646 (@value{GDBP}) @b{n}
647 882 set_quotes((argc >= 2) ? TOKEN_DATA_TEXT(argv[1])\
648 : nil,
649 @end smallexample
650
651 @noindent
652 @code{set_quotes} looks like a promising subroutine. We can go into it
653 by using the command @code{s} (@code{step}) instead of @code{next}.
654 @code{step} goes to the next line to be executed in @emph{any}
655 subroutine, so it steps into @code{set_quotes}.
656
657 @smallexample
658 (@value{GDBP}) @b{s}
659 set_quotes (lq=0x34c78 "<QUOTE>", rq=0x34c88 "<UNQUOTE>")
660 at input.c:530
661 530 if (lquote != def_lquote)
662 @end smallexample
663
664 @noindent
665 The display that shows the subroutine where @code{m4} is now
666 suspended (and its arguments) is called a stack frame display. It
667 shows a summary of the stack. We can use the @code{backtrace}
668 command (which can also be spelled @code{bt}), to see where we are
669 in the stack as a whole: the @code{backtrace} command displays a
670 stack frame for each active subroutine.
671
672 @smallexample
673 (@value{GDBP}) @b{bt}
674 #0 set_quotes (lq=0x34c78 "<QUOTE>", rq=0x34c88 "<UNQUOTE>")
675 at input.c:530
676 #1 0x6344 in m4_changequote (argc=3, argv=0x33c70)
677 at builtin.c:882
678 #2 0x8174 in expand_macro (sym=0x33320) at macro.c:242
679 #3 0x7a88 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=209696, td=0xf7fffa30)
680 at macro.c:71
681 #4 0x79dc in expand_input () at macro.c:40
682 #5 0x2930 in main (argc=0, argv=0xf7fffb20) at m4.c:195
683 @end smallexample
684
685 @noindent
686 We step through a few more lines to see what happens. The first two
687 times, we can use @samp{s}; the next two times we use @code{n} to avoid
688 falling into the @code{xstrdup} subroutine.
689
690 @smallexample
691 (@value{GDBP}) @b{s}
692 0x3b5c 532 if (rquote != def_rquote)
693 (@value{GDBP}) @b{s}
694 0x3b80 535 lquote = (lq == nil || *lq == '\0') ? \
695 def_lquote : xstrdup(lq);
696 (@value{GDBP}) @b{n}
697 536 rquote = (rq == nil || *rq == '\0') ? def_rquote\
698 : xstrdup(rq);
699 (@value{GDBP}) @b{n}
700 538 len_lquote = strlen(rquote);
701 @end smallexample
702
703 @noindent
704 The last line displayed looks a little odd; we can examine the variables
705 @code{lquote} and @code{rquote} to see if they are in fact the new left
706 and right quotes we specified. We use the command @code{p}
707 (@code{print}) to see their values.
708
709 @smallexample
710 (@value{GDBP}) @b{p lquote}
711 $1 = 0x35d40 "<QUOTE>"
712 (@value{GDBP}) @b{p rquote}
713 $2 = 0x35d50 "<UNQUOTE>"
714 @end smallexample
715
716 @noindent
717 @code{lquote} and @code{rquote} are indeed the new left and right quotes.
718 To look at some context, we can display ten lines of source
719 surrounding the current line with the @code{l} (@code{list}) command.
720
721 @smallexample
722 (@value{GDBP}) @b{l}
723 533 xfree(rquote);
724 534
725 535 lquote = (lq == nil || *lq == '\0') ? def_lquote\
726 : xstrdup (lq);
727 536 rquote = (rq == nil || *rq == '\0') ? def_rquote\
728 : xstrdup (rq);
729 537
730 538 len_lquote = strlen(rquote);
731 539 len_rquote = strlen(lquote);
732 540 @}
733 541
734 542 void
735 @end smallexample
736
737 @noindent
738 Let us step past the two lines that set @code{len_lquote} and
739 @code{len_rquote}, and then examine the values of those variables.
740
741 @smallexample
742 (@value{GDBP}) @b{n}
743 539 len_rquote = strlen(lquote);
744 (@value{GDBP}) @b{n}
745 540 @}
746 (@value{GDBP}) @b{p len_lquote}
747 $3 = 9
748 (@value{GDBP}) @b{p len_rquote}
749 $4 = 7
750 @end smallexample
751
752 @noindent
753 That certainly looks wrong, assuming @code{len_lquote} and
754 @code{len_rquote} are meant to be the lengths of @code{lquote} and
755 @code{rquote} respectively. We can set them to better values using
756 the @code{p} command, since it can print the value of
757 any expression---and that expression can include subroutine calls and
758 assignments.
759
760 @smallexample
761 (@value{GDBP}) @b{p len_lquote=strlen(lquote)}
762 $5 = 7
763 (@value{GDBP}) @b{p len_rquote=strlen(rquote)}
764 $6 = 9
765 @end smallexample
766
767 @noindent
768 Is that enough to fix the problem of using the new quotes with the
769 @code{m4} built-in @code{defn}? We can allow @code{m4} to continue
770 executing with the @code{c} (@code{continue}) command, and then try the
771 example that caused trouble initially:
772
773 @smallexample
774 (@value{GDBP}) @b{c}
775 Continuing.
776
777 @b{define(baz,defn(<QUOTE>foo<UNQUOTE>))}
778
779 baz
780 0000
781 @end smallexample
782
783 @noindent
784 Success! The new quotes now work just as well as the default ones. The
785 problem seems to have been just the two typos defining the wrong
786 lengths. We allow @code{m4} exit by giving it an EOF as input:
787
788 @smallexample
789 @b{Ctrl-d}
790 Program exited normally.
791 @end smallexample
792
793 @noindent
794 The message @samp{Program exited normally.} is from @value{GDBN}; it
795 indicates @code{m4} has finished executing. We can end our @value{GDBN}
796 session with the @value{GDBN} @code{quit} command.
797
798 @smallexample
799 (@value{GDBP}) @b{quit}
800 @end smallexample
801
802 @node Invocation
803 @chapter Getting In and Out of @value{GDBN}
804
805 This chapter discusses how to start @value{GDBN}, and how to get out of it.
806 The essentials are:
807 @itemize @bullet
808 @item
809 type @samp{@value{GDBP}} to start @value{GDBN}.
810 @item
811 type @kbd{quit} or @kbd{Ctrl-d} to exit.
812 @end itemize
813
814 @menu
815 * Invoking GDB:: How to start @value{GDBN}
816 * Quitting GDB:: How to quit @value{GDBN}
817 * Shell Commands:: How to use shell commands inside @value{GDBN}
818 * Logging Output:: How to log @value{GDBN}'s output to a file
819 @end menu
820
821 @node Invoking GDB
822 @section Invoking @value{GDBN}
823
824 Invoke @value{GDBN} by running the program @code{@value{GDBP}}. Once started,
825 @value{GDBN} reads commands from the terminal until you tell it to exit.
826
827 You can also run @code{@value{GDBP}} with a variety of arguments and options,
828 to specify more of your debugging environment at the outset.
829
830 The command-line options described here are designed
831 to cover a variety of situations; in some environments, some of these
832 options may effectively be unavailable.
833
834 The most usual way to start @value{GDBN} is with one argument,
835 specifying an executable program:
836
837 @smallexample
838 @value{GDBP} @var{program}
839 @end smallexample
840
841 @noindent
842 You can also start with both an executable program and a core file
843 specified:
844
845 @smallexample
846 @value{GDBP} @var{program} @var{core}
847 @end smallexample
848
849 You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument, if you want
850 to debug a running process:
851
852 @smallexample
853 @value{GDBP} @var{program} 1234
854 @end smallexample
855
856 @noindent
857 would attach @value{GDBN} to process @code{1234} (unless you also have a file
858 named @file{1234}; @value{GDBN} does check for a core file first).
859
860 Taking advantage of the second command-line argument requires a fairly
861 complete operating system; when you use @value{GDBN} as a remote
862 debugger attached to a bare board, there may not be any notion of
863 ``process'', and there is often no way to get a core dump. @value{GDBN}
864 will warn you if it is unable to attach or to read core dumps.
865
866 You can optionally have @code{@value{GDBP}} pass any arguments after the
867 executable file to the inferior using @code{--args}. This option stops
868 option processing.
869 @smallexample
870 @value{GDBP} --args gcc -O2 -c foo.c
871 @end smallexample
872 This will cause @code{@value{GDBP}} to debug @code{gcc}, and to set
873 @code{gcc}'s command-line arguments (@pxref{Arguments}) to @samp{-O2 -c foo.c}.
874
875 You can run @code{@value{GDBP}} without printing the front material, which describes
876 @value{GDBN}'s non-warranty, by specifying @code{-silent}:
877
878 @smallexample
879 @value{GDBP} -silent
880 @end smallexample
881
882 @noindent
883 You can further control how @value{GDBN} starts up by using command-line
884 options. @value{GDBN} itself can remind you of the options available.
885
886 @noindent
887 Type
888
889 @smallexample
890 @value{GDBP} -help
891 @end smallexample
892
893 @noindent
894 to display all available options and briefly describe their use
895 (@samp{@value{GDBP} -h} is a shorter equivalent).
896
897 All options and command line arguments you give are processed
898 in sequential order. The order makes a difference when the
899 @samp{-x} option is used.
900
901
902 @menu
903 * File Options:: Choosing files
904 * Mode Options:: Choosing modes
905 * Startup:: What @value{GDBN} does during startup
906 @end menu
907
908 @node File Options
909 @subsection Choosing Files
910
911 When @value{GDBN} starts, it reads any arguments other than options as
912 specifying an executable file and core file (or process ID). This is
913 the same as if the arguments were specified by the @samp{-se} and
914 @samp{-c} (or @samp{-p}) options respectively. (@value{GDBN} reads the
915 first argument that does not have an associated option flag as
916 equivalent to the @samp{-se} option followed by that argument; and the
917 second argument that does not have an associated option flag, if any, as
918 equivalent to the @samp{-c}/@samp{-p} option followed by that argument.)
919 If the second argument begins with a decimal digit, @value{GDBN} will
920 first attempt to attach to it as a process, and if that fails, attempt
921 to open it as a corefile. If you have a corefile whose name begins with
922 a digit, you can prevent @value{GDBN} from treating it as a pid by
923 prefixing it with @file{./}, e.g.@: @file{./12345}.
924
925 If @value{GDBN} has not been configured to included core file support,
926 such as for most embedded targets, then it will complain about a second
927 argument and ignore it.
928
929 Many options have both long and short forms; both are shown in the
930 following list. @value{GDBN} also recognizes the long forms if you truncate
931 them, so long as enough of the option is present to be unambiguous.
932 (If you prefer, you can flag option arguments with @samp{--} rather
933 than @samp{-}, though we illustrate the more usual convention.)
934
935 @c NOTE: the @cindex entries here use double dashes ON PURPOSE. This
936 @c way, both those who look for -foo and --foo in the index, will find
937 @c it.
938
939 @table @code
940 @item -symbols @var{file}
941 @itemx -s @var{file}
942 @cindex @code{--symbols}
943 @cindex @code{-s}
944 Read symbol table from file @var{file}.
945
946 @item -exec @var{file}
947 @itemx -e @var{file}
948 @cindex @code{--exec}
949 @cindex @code{-e}
950 Use file @var{file} as the executable file to execute when appropriate,
951 and for examining pure data in conjunction with a core dump.
952
953 @item -se @var{file}
954 @cindex @code{--se}
955 Read symbol table from file @var{file} and use it as the executable
956 file.
957
958 @item -core @var{file}
959 @itemx -c @var{file}
960 @cindex @code{--core}
961 @cindex @code{-c}
962 Use file @var{file} as a core dump to examine.
963
964 @item -pid @var{number}
965 @itemx -p @var{number}
966 @cindex @code{--pid}
967 @cindex @code{-p}
968 Connect to process ID @var{number}, as with the @code{attach} command.
969
970 @item -command @var{file}
971 @itemx -x @var{file}
972 @cindex @code{--command}
973 @cindex @code{-x}
974 Execute commands from file @var{file}. The contents of this file is
975 evaluated exactly as the @code{source} command would.
976 @xref{Command Files,, Command files}.
977
978 @item -eval-command @var{command}
979 @itemx -ex @var{command}
980 @cindex @code{--eval-command}
981 @cindex @code{-ex}
982 Execute a single @value{GDBN} command.
983
984 This option may be used multiple times to call multiple commands. It may
985 also be interleaved with @samp{-command} as required.
986
987 @smallexample
988 @value{GDBP} -ex 'target sim' -ex 'load' \
989 -x setbreakpoints -ex 'run' a.out
990 @end smallexample
991
992 @item -directory @var{directory}
993 @itemx -d @var{directory}
994 @cindex @code{--directory}
995 @cindex @code{-d}
996 Add @var{directory} to the path to search for source and script files.
997
998 @item -r
999 @itemx -readnow
1000 @cindex @code{--readnow}
1001 @cindex @code{-r}
1002 Read each symbol file's entire symbol table immediately, rather than
1003 the default, which is to read it incrementally as it is needed.
1004 This makes startup slower, but makes future operations faster.
1005
1006 @end table
1007
1008 @node Mode Options
1009 @subsection Choosing Modes
1010
1011 You can run @value{GDBN} in various alternative modes---for example, in
1012 batch mode or quiet mode.
1013
1014 @table @code
1015 @item -nx
1016 @itemx -n
1017 @cindex @code{--nx}
1018 @cindex @code{-n}
1019 Do not execute commands found in any initialization files. Normally,
1020 @value{GDBN} executes the commands in these files after all the command
1021 options and arguments have been processed. @xref{Command Files,,Command
1022 Files}.
1023
1024 @item -quiet
1025 @itemx -silent
1026 @itemx -q
1027 @cindex @code{--quiet}
1028 @cindex @code{--silent}
1029 @cindex @code{-q}
1030 ``Quiet''. Do not print the introductory and copyright messages. These
1031 messages are also suppressed in batch mode.
1032
1033 @item -batch
1034 @cindex @code{--batch}
1035 Run in batch mode. Exit with status @code{0} after processing all the
1036 command files specified with @samp{-x} (and all commands from
1037 initialization files, if not inhibited with @samp{-n}). Exit with
1038 nonzero status if an error occurs in executing the @value{GDBN} commands
1039 in the command files. Batch mode also disables pagination, sets unlimited
1040 terminal width and height @pxref{Screen Size}, and acts as if @kbd{set confirm
1041 off} were in effect (@pxref{Messages/Warnings}).
1042
1043 Batch mode may be useful for running @value{GDBN} as a filter, for
1044 example to download and run a program on another computer; in order to
1045 make this more useful, the message
1046
1047 @smallexample
1048 Program exited normally.
1049 @end smallexample
1050
1051 @noindent
1052 (which is ordinarily issued whenever a program running under
1053 @value{GDBN} control terminates) is not issued when running in batch
1054 mode.
1055
1056 @item -batch-silent
1057 @cindex @code{--batch-silent}
1058 Run in batch mode exactly like @samp{-batch}, but totally silently. All
1059 @value{GDBN} output to @code{stdout} is prevented (@code{stderr} is
1060 unaffected). This is much quieter than @samp{-silent} and would be useless
1061 for an interactive session.
1062
1063 This is particularly useful when using targets that give @samp{Loading section}
1064 messages, for example.
1065
1066 Note that targets that give their output via @value{GDBN}, as opposed to
1067 writing directly to @code{stdout}, will also be made silent.
1068
1069 @item -return-child-result
1070 @cindex @code{--return-child-result}
1071 The return code from @value{GDBN} will be the return code from the child
1072 process (the process being debugged), with the following exceptions:
1073
1074 @itemize @bullet
1075 @item
1076 @value{GDBN} exits abnormally. E.g., due to an incorrect argument or an
1077 internal error. In this case the exit code is the same as it would have been
1078 without @samp{-return-child-result}.
1079 @item
1080 The user quits with an explicit value. E.g., @samp{quit 1}.
1081 @item
1082 The child process never runs, or is not allowed to terminate, in which case
1083 the exit code will be -1.
1084 @end itemize
1085
1086 This option is useful in conjunction with @samp{-batch} or @samp{-batch-silent},
1087 when @value{GDBN} is being used as a remote program loader or simulator
1088 interface.
1089
1090 @item -nowindows
1091 @itemx -nw
1092 @cindex @code{--nowindows}
1093 @cindex @code{-nw}
1094 ``No windows''. If @value{GDBN} comes with a graphical user interface
1095 (GUI) built in, then this option tells @value{GDBN} to only use the command-line
1096 interface. If no GUI is available, this option has no effect.
1097
1098 @item -windows
1099 @itemx -w
1100 @cindex @code{--windows}
1101 @cindex @code{-w}
1102 If @value{GDBN} includes a GUI, then this option requires it to be
1103 used if possible.
1104
1105 @item -cd @var{directory}
1106 @cindex @code{--cd}
1107 Run @value{GDBN} using @var{directory} as its working directory,
1108 instead of the current directory.
1109
1110 @item -data-directory @var{directory}
1111 @cindex @code{--data-directory}
1112 Run @value{GDBN} using @var{directory} as its data directory.
1113 The data directory is where @value{GDBN} searches for its
1114 auxiliary files. @xref{Data Files}.
1115
1116 @item -fullname
1117 @itemx -f
1118 @cindex @code{--fullname}
1119 @cindex @code{-f}
1120 @sc{gnu} Emacs sets this option when it runs @value{GDBN} as a
1121 subprocess. It tells @value{GDBN} to output the full file name and line
1122 number in a standard, recognizable fashion each time a stack frame is
1123 displayed (which includes each time your program stops). This
1124 recognizable format looks like two @samp{\032} characters, followed by
1125 the file name, line number and character position separated by colons,
1126 and a newline. The Emacs-to-@value{GDBN} interface program uses the two
1127 @samp{\032} characters as a signal to display the source code for the
1128 frame.
1129
1130 @item -epoch
1131 @cindex @code{--epoch}
1132 The Epoch Emacs-@value{GDBN} interface sets this option when it runs
1133 @value{GDBN} as a subprocess. It tells @value{GDBN} to modify its print
1134 routines so as to allow Epoch to display values of expressions in a
1135 separate window.
1136
1137 @item -annotate @var{level}
1138 @cindex @code{--annotate}
1139 This option sets the @dfn{annotation level} inside @value{GDBN}. Its
1140 effect is identical to using @samp{set annotate @var{level}}
1141 (@pxref{Annotations}). The annotation @var{level} controls how much
1142 information @value{GDBN} prints together with its prompt, values of
1143 expressions, source lines, and other types of output. Level 0 is the
1144 normal, level 1 is for use when @value{GDBN} is run as a subprocess of
1145 @sc{gnu} Emacs, level 3 is the maximum annotation suitable for programs
1146 that control @value{GDBN}, and level 2 has been deprecated.
1147
1148 The annotation mechanism has largely been superseded by @sc{gdb/mi}
1149 (@pxref{GDB/MI}).
1150
1151 @item --args
1152 @cindex @code{--args}
1153 Change interpretation of command line so that arguments following the
1154 executable file are passed as command line arguments to the inferior.
1155 This option stops option processing.
1156
1157 @item -baud @var{bps}
1158 @itemx -b @var{bps}
1159 @cindex @code{--baud}
1160 @cindex @code{-b}
1161 Set the line speed (baud rate or bits per second) of any serial
1162 interface used by @value{GDBN} for remote debugging.
1163
1164 @item -l @var{timeout}
1165 @cindex @code{-l}
1166 Set the timeout (in seconds) of any communication used by @value{GDBN}
1167 for remote debugging.
1168
1169 @item -tty @var{device}
1170 @itemx -t @var{device}
1171 @cindex @code{--tty}
1172 @cindex @code{-t}
1173 Run using @var{device} for your program's standard input and output.
1174 @c FIXME: kingdon thinks there is more to -tty. Investigate.
1175
1176 @c resolve the situation of these eventually
1177 @item -tui
1178 @cindex @code{--tui}
1179 Activate the @dfn{Text User Interface} when starting. The Text User
1180 Interface manages several text windows on the terminal, showing
1181 source, assembly, registers and @value{GDBN} command outputs
1182 (@pxref{TUI, ,@value{GDBN} Text User Interface}). Do not use this
1183 option if you run @value{GDBN} from Emacs (@pxref{Emacs, ,
1184 Using @value{GDBN} under @sc{gnu} Emacs}).
1185
1186 @c @item -xdb
1187 @c @cindex @code{--xdb}
1188 @c Run in XDB compatibility mode, allowing the use of certain XDB commands.
1189 @c For information, see the file @file{xdb_trans.html}, which is usually
1190 @c installed in the directory @code{/opt/langtools/wdb/doc} on HP-UX
1191 @c systems.
1192
1193 @item -interpreter @var{interp}
1194 @cindex @code{--interpreter}
1195 Use the interpreter @var{interp} for interface with the controlling
1196 program or device. This option is meant to be set by programs which
1197 communicate with @value{GDBN} using it as a back end.
1198 @xref{Interpreters, , Command Interpreters}.
1199
1200 @samp{--interpreter=mi} (or @samp{--interpreter=mi2}) causes
1201 @value{GDBN} to use the @dfn{@sc{gdb/mi} interface} (@pxref{GDB/MI, ,
1202 The @sc{gdb/mi} Interface}) included since @value{GDBN} version 6.0. The
1203 previous @sc{gdb/mi} interface, included in @value{GDBN} version 5.3 and
1204 selected with @samp{--interpreter=mi1}, is deprecated. Earlier
1205 @sc{gdb/mi} interfaces are no longer supported.
1206
1207 @item -write
1208 @cindex @code{--write}
1209 Open the executable and core files for both reading and writing. This
1210 is equivalent to the @samp{set write on} command inside @value{GDBN}
1211 (@pxref{Patching}).
1212
1213 @item -statistics
1214 @cindex @code{--statistics}
1215 This option causes @value{GDBN} to print statistics about time and
1216 memory usage after it completes each command and returns to the prompt.
1217
1218 @item -version
1219 @cindex @code{--version}
1220 This option causes @value{GDBN} to print its version number and
1221 no-warranty blurb, and exit.
1222
1223 @end table
1224
1225 @node Startup
1226 @subsection What @value{GDBN} Does During Startup
1227 @cindex @value{GDBN} startup
1228
1229 Here's the description of what @value{GDBN} does during session startup:
1230
1231 @enumerate
1232 @item
1233 Sets up the command interpreter as specified by the command line
1234 (@pxref{Mode Options, interpreter}).
1235
1236 @item
1237 @cindex init file
1238 Reads the system-wide @dfn{init file} (if @option{--with-system-gdbinit} was
1239 used when building @value{GDBN}; @pxref{System-wide configuration,
1240 ,System-wide configuration and settings}) and executes all the commands in
1241 that file.
1242
1243 @item
1244 Reads the init file (if any) in your home directory@footnote{On
1245 DOS/Windows systems, the home directory is the one pointed to by the
1246 @code{HOME} environment variable.} and executes all the commands in
1247 that file.
1248
1249 @item
1250 Processes command line options and operands.
1251
1252 @item
1253 Reads and executes the commands from init file (if any) in the current
1254 working directory. This is only done if the current directory is
1255 different from your home directory. Thus, you can have more than one
1256 init file, one generic in your home directory, and another, specific
1257 to the program you are debugging, in the directory where you invoke
1258 @value{GDBN}.
1259
1260 @item
1261 If the command line specified a program to debug, or a process to
1262 attach to, or a core file, @value{GDBN} loads any auto-loaded
1263 scripts provided for the program or for its loaded shared libraries.
1264 @xref{Auto-loading}.
1265
1266 If you wish to disable the auto-loading during startup,
1267 you must do something like the following:
1268
1269 @smallexample
1270 $ gdb -ex "set auto-load-scripts off" -ex "file myprogram"
1271 @end smallexample
1272
1273 The following does not work because the auto-loading is turned off too late:
1274
1275 @smallexample
1276 $ gdb -ex "set auto-load-scripts off" myprogram
1277 @end smallexample
1278
1279 @item
1280 Reads command files specified by the @samp{-x} option. @xref{Command
1281 Files}, for more details about @value{GDBN} command files.
1282
1283 @item
1284 Reads the command history recorded in the @dfn{history file}.
1285 @xref{Command History}, for more details about the command history and the
1286 files where @value{GDBN} records it.
1287 @end enumerate
1288
1289 Init files use the same syntax as @dfn{command files} (@pxref{Command
1290 Files}) and are processed by @value{GDBN} in the same way. The init
1291 file in your home directory can set options (such as @samp{set
1292 complaints}) that affect subsequent processing of command line options
1293 and operands. Init files are not executed if you use the @samp{-nx}
1294 option (@pxref{Mode Options, ,Choosing Modes}).
1295
1296 To display the list of init files loaded by gdb at startup, you
1297 can use @kbd{gdb --help}.
1298
1299 @cindex init file name
1300 @cindex @file{.gdbinit}
1301 @cindex @file{gdb.ini}
1302 The @value{GDBN} init files are normally called @file{.gdbinit}.
1303 The DJGPP port of @value{GDBN} uses the name @file{gdb.ini}, due to
1304 the limitations of file names imposed by DOS filesystems. The Windows
1305 ports of @value{GDBN} use the standard name, but if they find a
1306 @file{gdb.ini} file, they warn you about that and suggest to rename
1307 the file to the standard name.
1308
1309
1310 @node Quitting GDB
1311 @section Quitting @value{GDBN}
1312 @cindex exiting @value{GDBN}
1313 @cindex leaving @value{GDBN}
1314
1315 @table @code
1316 @kindex quit @r{[}@var{expression}@r{]}
1317 @kindex q @r{(@code{quit})}
1318 @item quit @r{[}@var{expression}@r{]}
1319 @itemx q
1320 To exit @value{GDBN}, use the @code{quit} command (abbreviated
1321 @code{q}), or type an end-of-file character (usually @kbd{Ctrl-d}). If you
1322 do not supply @var{expression}, @value{GDBN} will terminate normally;
1323 otherwise it will terminate using the result of @var{expression} as the
1324 error code.
1325 @end table
1326
1327 @cindex interrupt
1328 An interrupt (often @kbd{Ctrl-c}) does not exit from @value{GDBN}, but rather
1329 terminates the action of any @value{GDBN} command that is in progress and
1330 returns to @value{GDBN} command level. It is safe to type the interrupt
1331 character at any time because @value{GDBN} does not allow it to take effect
1332 until a time when it is safe.
1333
1334 If you have been using @value{GDBN} to control an attached process or
1335 device, you can release it with the @code{detach} command
1336 (@pxref{Attach, ,Debugging an Already-running Process}).
1337
1338 @node Shell Commands
1339 @section Shell Commands
1340
1341 If you need to execute occasional shell commands during your
1342 debugging session, there is no need to leave or suspend @value{GDBN}; you can
1343 just use the @code{shell} command.
1344
1345 @table @code
1346 @kindex shell
1347 @kindex !
1348 @cindex shell escape
1349 @item shell @var{command-string}
1350 @itemx !@var{command-string}
1351 Invoke a standard shell to execute @var{command-string}.
1352 Note that no space is needed between @code{!} and @var{command-string}.
1353 If it exists, the environment variable @code{SHELL} determines which
1354 shell to run. Otherwise @value{GDBN} uses the default shell
1355 (@file{/bin/sh} on Unix systems, @file{COMMAND.COM} on MS-DOS, etc.).
1356 @end table
1357
1358 The utility @code{make} is often needed in development environments.
1359 You do not have to use the @code{shell} command for this purpose in
1360 @value{GDBN}:
1361
1362 @table @code
1363 @kindex make
1364 @cindex calling make
1365 @item make @var{make-args}
1366 Execute the @code{make} program with the specified
1367 arguments. This is equivalent to @samp{shell make @var{make-args}}.
1368 @end table
1369
1370 @node Logging Output
1371 @section Logging Output
1372 @cindex logging @value{GDBN} output
1373 @cindex save @value{GDBN} output to a file
1374
1375 You may want to save the output of @value{GDBN} commands to a file.
1376 There are several commands to control @value{GDBN}'s logging.
1377
1378 @table @code
1379 @kindex set logging
1380 @item set logging on
1381 Enable logging.
1382 @item set logging off
1383 Disable logging.
1384 @cindex logging file name
1385 @item set logging file @var{file}
1386 Change the name of the current logfile. The default logfile is @file{gdb.txt}.
1387 @item set logging overwrite [on|off]
1388 By default, @value{GDBN} will append to the logfile. Set @code{overwrite} if
1389 you want @code{set logging on} to overwrite the logfile instead.
1390 @item set logging redirect [on|off]
1391 By default, @value{GDBN} output will go to both the terminal and the logfile.
1392 Set @code{redirect} if you want output to go only to the log file.
1393 @kindex show logging
1394 @item show logging
1395 Show the current values of the logging settings.
1396 @end table
1397
1398 @node Commands
1399 @chapter @value{GDBN} Commands
1400
1401 You can abbreviate a @value{GDBN} command to the first few letters of the command
1402 name, if that abbreviation is unambiguous; and you can repeat certain
1403 @value{GDBN} commands by typing just @key{RET}. You can also use the @key{TAB}
1404 key to get @value{GDBN} to fill out the rest of a word in a command (or to
1405 show you the alternatives available, if there is more than one possibility).
1406
1407 @menu
1408 * Command Syntax:: How to give commands to @value{GDBN}
1409 * Completion:: Command completion
1410 * Help:: How to ask @value{GDBN} for help
1411 @end menu
1412
1413 @node Command Syntax
1414 @section Command Syntax
1415
1416 A @value{GDBN} command is a single line of input. There is no limit on
1417 how long it can be. It starts with a command name, which is followed by
1418 arguments whose meaning depends on the command name. For example, the
1419 command @code{step} accepts an argument which is the number of times to
1420 step, as in @samp{step 5}. You can also use the @code{step} command
1421 with no arguments. Some commands do not allow any arguments.
1422
1423 @cindex abbreviation
1424 @value{GDBN} command names may always be truncated if that abbreviation is
1425 unambiguous. Other possible command abbreviations are listed in the
1426 documentation for individual commands. In some cases, even ambiguous
1427 abbreviations are allowed; for example, @code{s} is specially defined as
1428 equivalent to @code{step} even though there are other commands whose
1429 names start with @code{s}. You can test abbreviations by using them as
1430 arguments to the @code{help} command.
1431
1432 @cindex repeating commands
1433 @kindex RET @r{(repeat last command)}
1434 A blank line as input to @value{GDBN} (typing just @key{RET}) means to
1435 repeat the previous command. Certain commands (for example, @code{run})
1436 will not repeat this way; these are commands whose unintentional
1437 repetition might cause trouble and which you are unlikely to want to
1438 repeat. User-defined commands can disable this feature; see
1439 @ref{Define, dont-repeat}.
1440
1441 The @code{list} and @code{x} commands, when you repeat them with
1442 @key{RET}, construct new arguments rather than repeating
1443 exactly as typed. This permits easy scanning of source or memory.
1444
1445 @value{GDBN} can also use @key{RET} in another way: to partition lengthy
1446 output, in a way similar to the common utility @code{more}
1447 (@pxref{Screen Size,,Screen Size}). Since it is easy to press one
1448 @key{RET} too many in this situation, @value{GDBN} disables command
1449 repetition after any command that generates this sort of display.
1450
1451 @kindex # @r{(a comment)}
1452 @cindex comment
1453 Any text from a @kbd{#} to the end of the line is a comment; it does
1454 nothing. This is useful mainly in command files (@pxref{Command
1455 Files,,Command Files}).
1456
1457 @cindex repeating command sequences
1458 @kindex Ctrl-o @r{(operate-and-get-next)}
1459 The @kbd{Ctrl-o} binding is useful for repeating a complex sequence of
1460 commands. This command accepts the current line, like @key{RET}, and
1461 then fetches the next line relative to the current line from the history
1462 for editing.
1463
1464 @node Completion
1465 @section Command Completion
1466
1467 @cindex completion
1468 @cindex word completion
1469 @value{GDBN} can fill in the rest of a word in a command for you, if there is
1470 only one possibility; it can also show you what the valid possibilities
1471 are for the next word in a command, at any time. This works for @value{GDBN}
1472 commands, @value{GDBN} subcommands, and the names of symbols in your program.
1473
1474 Press the @key{TAB} key whenever you want @value{GDBN} to fill out the rest
1475 of a word. If there is only one possibility, @value{GDBN} fills in the
1476 word, and waits for you to finish the command (or press @key{RET} to
1477 enter it). For example, if you type
1478
1479 @c FIXME "@key" does not distinguish its argument sufficiently to permit
1480 @c complete accuracy in these examples; space introduced for clarity.
1481 @c If texinfo enhancements make it unnecessary, it would be nice to
1482 @c replace " @key" by "@key" in the following...
1483 @smallexample
1484 (@value{GDBP}) info bre @key{TAB}
1485 @end smallexample
1486
1487 @noindent
1488 @value{GDBN} fills in the rest of the word @samp{breakpoints}, since that is
1489 the only @code{info} subcommand beginning with @samp{bre}:
1490
1491 @smallexample
1492 (@value{GDBP}) info breakpoints
1493 @end smallexample
1494
1495 @noindent
1496 You can either press @key{RET} at this point, to run the @code{info
1497 breakpoints} command, or backspace and enter something else, if
1498 @samp{breakpoints} does not look like the command you expected. (If you
1499 were sure you wanted @code{info breakpoints} in the first place, you
1500 might as well just type @key{RET} immediately after @samp{info bre},
1501 to exploit command abbreviations rather than command completion).
1502
1503 If there is more than one possibility for the next word when you press
1504 @key{TAB}, @value{GDBN} sounds a bell. You can either supply more
1505 characters and try again, or just press @key{TAB} a second time;
1506 @value{GDBN} displays all the possible completions for that word. For
1507 example, you might want to set a breakpoint on a subroutine whose name
1508 begins with @samp{make_}, but when you type @kbd{b make_@key{TAB}} @value{GDBN}
1509 just sounds the bell. Typing @key{TAB} again displays all the
1510 function names in your program that begin with those characters, for
1511 example:
1512
1513 @smallexample
1514 (@value{GDBP}) b make_ @key{TAB}
1515 @exdent @value{GDBN} sounds bell; press @key{TAB} again, to see:
1516 make_a_section_from_file make_environ
1517 make_abs_section make_function_type
1518 make_blockvector make_pointer_type
1519 make_cleanup make_reference_type
1520 make_command make_symbol_completion_list
1521 (@value{GDBP}) b make_
1522 @end smallexample
1523
1524 @noindent
1525 After displaying the available possibilities, @value{GDBN} copies your
1526 partial input (@samp{b make_} in the example) so you can finish the
1527 command.
1528
1529 If you just want to see the list of alternatives in the first place, you
1530 can press @kbd{M-?} rather than pressing @key{TAB} twice. @kbd{M-?}
1531 means @kbd{@key{META} ?}. You can type this either by holding down a
1532 key designated as the @key{META} shift on your keyboard (if there is
1533 one) while typing @kbd{?}, or as @key{ESC} followed by @kbd{?}.
1534
1535 @cindex quotes in commands
1536 @cindex completion of quoted strings
1537 Sometimes the string you need, while logically a ``word'', may contain
1538 parentheses or other characters that @value{GDBN} normally excludes from
1539 its notion of a word. To permit word completion to work in this
1540 situation, you may enclose words in @code{'} (single quote marks) in
1541 @value{GDBN} commands.
1542
1543 The most likely situation where you might need this is in typing the
1544 name of a C@t{++} function. This is because C@t{++} allows function
1545 overloading (multiple definitions of the same function, distinguished
1546 by argument type). For example, when you want to set a breakpoint you
1547 may need to distinguish whether you mean the version of @code{name}
1548 that takes an @code{int} parameter, @code{name(int)}, or the version
1549 that takes a @code{float} parameter, @code{name(float)}. To use the
1550 word-completion facilities in this situation, type a single quote
1551 @code{'} at the beginning of the function name. This alerts
1552 @value{GDBN} that it may need to consider more information than usual
1553 when you press @key{TAB} or @kbd{M-?} to request word completion:
1554
1555 @smallexample
1556 (@value{GDBP}) b 'bubble( @kbd{M-?}
1557 bubble(double,double) bubble(int,int)
1558 (@value{GDBP}) b 'bubble(
1559 @end smallexample
1560
1561 In some cases, @value{GDBN} can tell that completing a name requires using
1562 quotes. When this happens, @value{GDBN} inserts the quote for you (while
1563 completing as much as it can) if you do not type the quote in the first
1564 place:
1565
1566 @smallexample
1567 (@value{GDBP}) b bub @key{TAB}
1568 @exdent @value{GDBN} alters your input line to the following, and rings a bell:
1569 (@value{GDBP}) b 'bubble(
1570 @end smallexample
1571
1572 @noindent
1573 In general, @value{GDBN} can tell that a quote is needed (and inserts it) if
1574 you have not yet started typing the argument list when you ask for
1575 completion on an overloaded symbol.
1576
1577 For more information about overloaded functions, see @ref{C Plus Plus
1578 Expressions, ,C@t{++} Expressions}. You can use the command @code{set
1579 overload-resolution off} to disable overload resolution;
1580 see @ref{Debugging C Plus Plus, ,@value{GDBN} Features for C@t{++}}.
1581
1582 @cindex completion of structure field names
1583 @cindex structure field name completion
1584 @cindex completion of union field names
1585 @cindex union field name completion
1586 When completing in an expression which looks up a field in a
1587 structure, @value{GDBN} also tries@footnote{The completer can be
1588 confused by certain kinds of invalid expressions. Also, it only
1589 examines the static type of the expression, not the dynamic type.} to
1590 limit completions to the field names available in the type of the
1591 left-hand-side:
1592
1593 @smallexample
1594 (@value{GDBP}) p gdb_stdout.@kbd{M-?}
1595 magic to_fputs to_rewind
1596 to_data to_isatty to_write
1597 to_delete to_put to_write_async_safe
1598 to_flush to_read
1599 @end smallexample
1600
1601 @noindent
1602 This is because the @code{gdb_stdout} is a variable of the type
1603 @code{struct ui_file} that is defined in @value{GDBN} sources as
1604 follows:
1605
1606 @smallexample
1607 struct ui_file
1608 @{
1609 int *magic;
1610 ui_file_flush_ftype *to_flush;
1611 ui_file_write_ftype *to_write;
1612 ui_file_write_async_safe_ftype *to_write_async_safe;
1613 ui_file_fputs_ftype *to_fputs;
1614 ui_file_read_ftype *to_read;
1615 ui_file_delete_ftype *to_delete;
1616 ui_file_isatty_ftype *to_isatty;
1617 ui_file_rewind_ftype *to_rewind;
1618 ui_file_put_ftype *to_put;
1619 void *to_data;
1620 @}
1621 @end smallexample
1622
1623
1624 @node Help
1625 @section Getting Help
1626 @cindex online documentation
1627 @kindex help
1628
1629 You can always ask @value{GDBN} itself for information on its commands,
1630 using the command @code{help}.
1631
1632 @table @code
1633 @kindex h @r{(@code{help})}
1634 @item help
1635 @itemx h
1636 You can use @code{help} (abbreviated @code{h}) with no arguments to
1637 display a short list of named classes of commands:
1638
1639 @smallexample
1640 (@value{GDBP}) help
1641 List of classes of commands:
1642
1643 aliases -- Aliases of other commands
1644 breakpoints -- Making program stop at certain points
1645 data -- Examining data
1646 files -- Specifying and examining files
1647 internals -- Maintenance commands
1648 obscure -- Obscure features
1649 running -- Running the program
1650 stack -- Examining the stack
1651 status -- Status inquiries
1652 support -- Support facilities
1653 tracepoints -- Tracing of program execution without
1654 stopping the program
1655 user-defined -- User-defined commands
1656
1657 Type "help" followed by a class name for a list of
1658 commands in that class.
1659 Type "help" followed by command name for full
1660 documentation.
1661 Command name abbreviations are allowed if unambiguous.
1662 (@value{GDBP})
1663 @end smallexample
1664 @c the above line break eliminates huge line overfull...
1665
1666 @item help @var{class}
1667 Using one of the general help classes as an argument, you can get a
1668 list of the individual commands in that class. For example, here is the
1669 help display for the class @code{status}:
1670
1671 @smallexample
1672 (@value{GDBP}) help status
1673 Status inquiries.
1674
1675 List of commands:
1676
1677 @c Line break in "show" line falsifies real output, but needed
1678 @c to fit in smallbook page size.
1679 info -- Generic command for showing things
1680 about the program being debugged
1681 show -- Generic command for showing things
1682 about the debugger
1683
1684 Type "help" followed by command name for full
1685 documentation.
1686 Command name abbreviations are allowed if unambiguous.
1687 (@value{GDBP})
1688 @end smallexample
1689
1690 @item help @var{command}
1691 With a command name as @code{help} argument, @value{GDBN} displays a
1692 short paragraph on how to use that command.
1693
1694 @kindex apropos
1695 @item apropos @var{args}
1696 The @code{apropos} command searches through all of the @value{GDBN}
1697 commands, and their documentation, for the regular expression specified in
1698 @var{args}. It prints out all matches found. For example:
1699
1700 @smallexample
1701 apropos reload
1702 @end smallexample
1703
1704 @noindent
1705 results in:
1706
1707 @smallexample
1708 @c @group
1709 set symbol-reloading -- Set dynamic symbol table reloading
1710 multiple times in one run
1711 show symbol-reloading -- Show dynamic symbol table reloading
1712 multiple times in one run
1713 @c @end group
1714 @end smallexample
1715
1716 @kindex complete
1717 @item complete @var{args}
1718 The @code{complete @var{args}} command lists all the possible completions
1719 for the beginning of a command. Use @var{args} to specify the beginning of the
1720 command you want completed. For example:
1721
1722 @smallexample
1723 complete i
1724 @end smallexample
1725
1726 @noindent results in:
1727
1728 @smallexample
1729 @group
1730 if
1731 ignore
1732 info
1733 inspect
1734 @end group
1735 @end smallexample
1736
1737 @noindent This is intended for use by @sc{gnu} Emacs.
1738 @end table
1739
1740 In addition to @code{help}, you can use the @value{GDBN} commands @code{info}
1741 and @code{show} to inquire about the state of your program, or the state
1742 of @value{GDBN} itself. Each command supports many topics of inquiry; this
1743 manual introduces each of them in the appropriate context. The listings
1744 under @code{info} and under @code{show} in the Index point to
1745 all the sub-commands. @xref{Index}.
1746
1747 @c @group
1748 @table @code
1749 @kindex info
1750 @kindex i @r{(@code{info})}
1751 @item info
1752 This command (abbreviated @code{i}) is for describing the state of your
1753 program. For example, you can show the arguments passed to a function
1754 with @code{info args}, list the registers currently in use with @code{info
1755 registers}, or list the breakpoints you have set with @code{info breakpoints}.
1756 You can get a complete list of the @code{info} sub-commands with
1757 @w{@code{help info}}.
1758
1759 @kindex set
1760 @item set
1761 You can assign the result of an expression to an environment variable with
1762 @code{set}. For example, you can set the @value{GDBN} prompt to a $-sign with
1763 @code{set prompt $}.
1764
1765 @kindex show
1766 @item show
1767 In contrast to @code{info}, @code{show} is for describing the state of
1768 @value{GDBN} itself.
1769 You can change most of the things you can @code{show}, by using the
1770 related command @code{set}; for example, you can control what number
1771 system is used for displays with @code{set radix}, or simply inquire
1772 which is currently in use with @code{show radix}.
1773
1774 @kindex info set
1775 To display all the settable parameters and their current
1776 values, you can use @code{show} with no arguments; you may also use
1777 @code{info set}. Both commands produce the same display.
1778 @c FIXME: "info set" violates the rule that "info" is for state of
1779 @c FIXME...program. Ck w/ GNU: "info set" to be called something else,
1780 @c FIXME...or change desc of rule---eg "state of prog and debugging session"?
1781 @end table
1782 @c @end group
1783
1784 Here are three miscellaneous @code{show} subcommands, all of which are
1785 exceptional in lacking corresponding @code{set} commands:
1786
1787 @table @code
1788 @kindex show version
1789 @cindex @value{GDBN} version number
1790 @item show version
1791 Show what version of @value{GDBN} is running. You should include this
1792 information in @value{GDBN} bug-reports. If multiple versions of
1793 @value{GDBN} are in use at your site, you may need to determine which
1794 version of @value{GDBN} you are running; as @value{GDBN} evolves, new
1795 commands are introduced, and old ones may wither away. Also, many
1796 system vendors ship variant versions of @value{GDBN}, and there are
1797 variant versions of @value{GDBN} in @sc{gnu}/Linux distributions as well.
1798 The version number is the same as the one announced when you start
1799 @value{GDBN}.
1800
1801 @kindex show copying
1802 @kindex info copying
1803 @cindex display @value{GDBN} copyright
1804 @item show copying
1805 @itemx info copying
1806 Display information about permission for copying @value{GDBN}.
1807
1808 @kindex show warranty
1809 @kindex info warranty
1810 @item show warranty
1811 @itemx info warranty
1812 Display the @sc{gnu} ``NO WARRANTY'' statement, or a warranty,
1813 if your version of @value{GDBN} comes with one.
1814
1815 @end table
1816
1817 @node Running
1818 @chapter Running Programs Under @value{GDBN}
1819
1820 When you run a program under @value{GDBN}, you must first generate
1821 debugging information when you compile it.
1822
1823 You may start @value{GDBN} with its arguments, if any, in an environment
1824 of your choice. If you are doing native debugging, you may redirect
1825 your program's input and output, debug an already running process, or
1826 kill a child process.
1827
1828 @menu
1829 * Compilation:: Compiling for debugging
1830 * Starting:: Starting your program
1831 * Arguments:: Your program's arguments
1832 * Environment:: Your program's environment
1833
1834 * Working Directory:: Your program's working directory
1835 * Input/Output:: Your program's input and output
1836 * Attach:: Debugging an already-running process
1837 * Kill Process:: Killing the child process
1838
1839 * Inferiors and Programs:: Debugging multiple inferiors and programs
1840 * Threads:: Debugging programs with multiple threads
1841 * Forks:: Debugging forks
1842 * Checkpoint/Restart:: Setting a @emph{bookmark} to return to later
1843 @end menu
1844
1845 @node Compilation
1846 @section Compiling for Debugging
1847
1848 In order to debug a program effectively, you need to generate
1849 debugging information when you compile it. This debugging information
1850 is stored in the object file; it describes the data type of each
1851 variable or function and the correspondence between source line numbers
1852 and addresses in the executable code.
1853
1854 To request debugging information, specify the @samp{-g} option when you run
1855 the compiler.
1856
1857 Programs that are to be shipped to your customers are compiled with
1858 optimizations, using the @samp{-O} compiler option. However, some
1859 compilers are unable to handle the @samp{-g} and @samp{-O} options
1860 together. Using those compilers, you cannot generate optimized
1861 executables containing debugging information.
1862
1863 @value{NGCC}, the @sc{gnu} C/C@t{++} compiler, supports @samp{-g} with or
1864 without @samp{-O}, making it possible to debug optimized code. We
1865 recommend that you @emph{always} use @samp{-g} whenever you compile a
1866 program. You may think your program is correct, but there is no sense
1867 in pushing your luck. For more information, see @ref{Optimized Code}.
1868
1869 Older versions of the @sc{gnu} C compiler permitted a variant option
1870 @w{@samp{-gg}} for debugging information. @value{GDBN} no longer supports this
1871 format; if your @sc{gnu} C compiler has this option, do not use it.
1872
1873 @value{GDBN} knows about preprocessor macros and can show you their
1874 expansion (@pxref{Macros}). Most compilers do not include information
1875 about preprocessor macros in the debugging information if you specify
1876 the @option{-g} flag alone. Version 3.1 and later of @value{NGCC},
1877 the @sc{gnu} C compiler, provides macro information if you are using
1878 the DWARF debugging format, and specify the option @option{-g3}.
1879
1880 @xref{Debugging Options,,Options for Debugging Your Program or GCC,
1881 gcc.info, Using the @sc{gnu} Compiler Collection (GCC)}, for more
1882 information on @value{NGCC} options affecting debug information.
1883
1884 You will have the best debugging experience if you use the latest
1885 version of the DWARF debugging format that your compiler supports.
1886 DWARF is currently the most expressive and best supported debugging
1887 format in @value{GDBN}.
1888
1889 @need 2000
1890 @node Starting
1891 @section Starting your Program
1892 @cindex starting
1893 @cindex running
1894
1895 @table @code
1896 @kindex run
1897 @kindex r @r{(@code{run})}
1898 @item run
1899 @itemx r
1900 Use the @code{run} command to start your program under @value{GDBN}.
1901 You must first specify the program name (except on VxWorks) with an
1902 argument to @value{GDBN} (@pxref{Invocation, ,Getting In and Out of
1903 @value{GDBN}}), or by using the @code{file} or @code{exec-file} command
1904 (@pxref{Files, ,Commands to Specify Files}).
1905
1906 @end table
1907
1908 If you are running your program in an execution environment that
1909 supports processes, @code{run} creates an inferior process and makes
1910 that process run your program. In some environments without processes,
1911 @code{run} jumps to the start of your program. Other targets,
1912 like @samp{remote}, are always running. If you get an error
1913 message like this one:
1914
1915 @smallexample
1916 The "remote" target does not support "run".
1917 Try "help target" or "continue".
1918 @end smallexample
1919
1920 @noindent
1921 then use @code{continue} to run your program. You may need @code{load}
1922 first (@pxref{load}).
1923
1924 The execution of a program is affected by certain information it
1925 receives from its superior. @value{GDBN} provides ways to specify this
1926 information, which you must do @emph{before} starting your program. (You
1927 can change it after starting your program, but such changes only affect
1928 your program the next time you start it.) This information may be
1929 divided into four categories:
1930
1931 @table @asis
1932 @item The @emph{arguments.}
1933 Specify the arguments to give your program as the arguments of the
1934 @code{run} command. If a shell is available on your target, the shell
1935 is used to pass the arguments, so that you may use normal conventions
1936 (such as wildcard expansion or variable substitution) in describing
1937 the arguments.
1938 In Unix systems, you can control which shell is used with the
1939 @code{SHELL} environment variable.
1940 @xref{Arguments, ,Your Program's Arguments}.
1941
1942 @item The @emph{environment.}
1943 Your program normally inherits its environment from @value{GDBN}, but you can
1944 use the @value{GDBN} commands @code{set environment} and @code{unset
1945 environment} to change parts of the environment that affect
1946 your program. @xref{Environment, ,Your Program's Environment}.
1947
1948 @item The @emph{working directory.}
1949 Your program inherits its working directory from @value{GDBN}. You can set
1950 the @value{GDBN} working directory with the @code{cd} command in @value{GDBN}.
1951 @xref{Working Directory, ,Your Program's Working Directory}.
1952
1953 @item The @emph{standard input and output.}
1954 Your program normally uses the same device for standard input and
1955 standard output as @value{GDBN} is using. You can redirect input and output
1956 in the @code{run} command line, or you can use the @code{tty} command to
1957 set a different device for your program.
1958 @xref{Input/Output, ,Your Program's Input and Output}.
1959
1960 @cindex pipes
1961 @emph{Warning:} While input and output redirection work, you cannot use
1962 pipes to pass the output of the program you are debugging to another
1963 program; if you attempt this, @value{GDBN} is likely to wind up debugging the
1964 wrong program.
1965 @end table
1966
1967 When you issue the @code{run} command, your program begins to execute
1968 immediately. @xref{Stopping, ,Stopping and Continuing}, for discussion
1969 of how to arrange for your program to stop. Once your program has
1970 stopped, you may call functions in your program, using the @code{print}
1971 or @code{call} commands. @xref{Data, ,Examining Data}.
1972
1973 If the modification time of your symbol file has changed since the last
1974 time @value{GDBN} read its symbols, @value{GDBN} discards its symbol
1975 table, and reads it again. When it does this, @value{GDBN} tries to retain
1976 your current breakpoints.
1977
1978 @table @code
1979 @kindex start
1980 @item start
1981 @cindex run to main procedure
1982 The name of the main procedure can vary from language to language.
1983 With C or C@t{++}, the main procedure name is always @code{main}, but
1984 other languages such as Ada do not require a specific name for their
1985 main procedure. The debugger provides a convenient way to start the
1986 execution of the program and to stop at the beginning of the main
1987 procedure, depending on the language used.
1988
1989 The @samp{start} command does the equivalent of setting a temporary
1990 breakpoint at the beginning of the main procedure and then invoking
1991 the @samp{run} command.
1992
1993 @cindex elaboration phase
1994 Some programs contain an @dfn{elaboration} phase where some startup code is
1995 executed before the main procedure is called. This depends on the
1996 languages used to write your program. In C@t{++}, for instance,
1997 constructors for static and global objects are executed before
1998 @code{main} is called. It is therefore possible that the debugger stops
1999 before reaching the main procedure. However, the temporary breakpoint
2000 will remain to halt execution.
2001
2002 Specify the arguments to give to your program as arguments to the
2003 @samp{start} command. These arguments will be given verbatim to the
2004 underlying @samp{run} command. Note that the same arguments will be
2005 reused if no argument is provided during subsequent calls to
2006 @samp{start} or @samp{run}.
2007
2008 It is sometimes necessary to debug the program during elaboration. In
2009 these cases, using the @code{start} command would stop the execution of
2010 your program too late, as the program would have already completed the
2011 elaboration phase. Under these circumstances, insert breakpoints in your
2012 elaboration code before running your program.
2013
2014 @kindex set exec-wrapper
2015 @item set exec-wrapper @var{wrapper}
2016 @itemx show exec-wrapper
2017 @itemx unset exec-wrapper
2018 When @samp{exec-wrapper} is set, the specified wrapper is used to
2019 launch programs for debugging. @value{GDBN} starts your program
2020 with a shell command of the form @kbd{exec @var{wrapper}
2021 @var{program}}. Quoting is added to @var{program} and its
2022 arguments, but not to @var{wrapper}, so you should add quotes if
2023 appropriate for your shell. The wrapper runs until it executes
2024 your program, and then @value{GDBN} takes control.
2025
2026 You can use any program that eventually calls @code{execve} with
2027 its arguments as a wrapper. Several standard Unix utilities do
2028 this, e.g.@: @code{env} and @code{nohup}. Any Unix shell script ending
2029 with @code{exec "$@@"} will also work.
2030
2031 For example, you can use @code{env} to pass an environment variable to
2032 the debugged program, without setting the variable in your shell's
2033 environment:
2034
2035 @smallexample
2036 (@value{GDBP}) set exec-wrapper env 'LD_PRELOAD=libtest.so'
2037 (@value{GDBP}) run
2038 @end smallexample
2039
2040 This command is available when debugging locally on most targets, excluding
2041 @sc{djgpp}, Cygwin, MS Windows, and QNX Neutrino.
2042
2043 @kindex set disable-randomization
2044 @item set disable-randomization
2045 @itemx set disable-randomization on
2046 This option (enabled by default in @value{GDBN}) will turn off the native
2047 randomization of the virtual address space of the started program. This option
2048 is useful for multiple debugging sessions to make the execution better
2049 reproducible and memory addresses reusable across debugging sessions.
2050
2051 This feature is implemented only on certain targets, including @sc{gnu}/Linux.
2052 On @sc{gnu}/Linux you can get the same behavior using
2053
2054 @smallexample
2055 (@value{GDBP}) set exec-wrapper setarch `uname -m` -R
2056 @end smallexample
2057
2058 @item set disable-randomization off
2059 Leave the behavior of the started executable unchanged. Some bugs rear their
2060 ugly heads only when the program is loaded at certain addresses. If your bug
2061 disappears when you run the program under @value{GDBN}, that might be because
2062 @value{GDBN} by default disables the address randomization on platforms, such
2063 as @sc{gnu}/Linux, which do that for stand-alone programs. Use @kbd{set
2064 disable-randomization off} to try to reproduce such elusive bugs.
2065
2066 On targets where it is available, virtual address space randomization
2067 protects the programs against certain kinds of security attacks. In these
2068 cases the attacker needs to know the exact location of a concrete executable
2069 code. Randomizing its location makes it impossible to inject jumps misusing
2070 a code at its expected addresses.
2071
2072 Prelinking shared libraries provides a startup performance advantage but it
2073 makes addresses in these libraries predictable for privileged processes by
2074 having just unprivileged access at the target system. Reading the shared
2075 library binary gives enough information for assembling the malicious code
2076 misusing it. Still even a prelinked shared library can get loaded at a new
2077 random address just requiring the regular relocation process during the
2078 startup. Shared libraries not already prelinked are always loaded at
2079 a randomly chosen address.
2080
2081 Position independent executables (PIE) contain position independent code
2082 similar to the shared libraries and therefore such executables get loaded at
2083 a randomly chosen address upon startup. PIE executables always load even
2084 already prelinked shared libraries at a random address. You can build such
2085 executable using @command{gcc -fPIE -pie}.
2086
2087 Heap (malloc storage), stack and custom mmap areas are always placed randomly
2088 (as long as the randomization is enabled).
2089
2090 @item show disable-randomization
2091 Show the current setting of the explicit disable of the native randomization of
2092 the virtual address space of the started program.
2093
2094 @end table
2095
2096 @node Arguments
2097 @section Your Program's Arguments
2098
2099 @cindex arguments (to your program)
2100 The arguments to your program can be specified by the arguments of the
2101 @code{run} command.
2102 They are passed to a shell, which expands wildcard characters and
2103 performs redirection of I/O, and thence to your program. Your
2104 @code{SHELL} environment variable (if it exists) specifies what shell
2105 @value{GDBN} uses. If you do not define @code{SHELL}, @value{GDBN} uses
2106 the default shell (@file{/bin/sh} on Unix).
2107
2108 On non-Unix systems, the program is usually invoked directly by
2109 @value{GDBN}, which emulates I/O redirection via the appropriate system
2110 calls, and the wildcard characters are expanded by the startup code of
2111 the program, not by the shell.
2112
2113 @code{run} with no arguments uses the same arguments used by the previous
2114 @code{run}, or those set by the @code{set args} command.
2115
2116 @table @code
2117 @kindex set args
2118 @item set args
2119 Specify the arguments to be used the next time your program is run. If
2120 @code{set args} has no arguments, @code{run} executes your program
2121 with no arguments. Once you have run your program with arguments,
2122 using @code{set args} before the next @code{run} is the only way to run
2123 it again without arguments.
2124
2125 @kindex show args
2126 @item show args
2127 Show the arguments to give your program when it is started.
2128 @end table
2129
2130 @node Environment
2131 @section Your Program's Environment
2132
2133 @cindex environment (of your program)
2134 The @dfn{environment} consists of a set of environment variables and
2135 their values. Environment variables conventionally record such things as
2136 your user name, your home directory, your terminal type, and your search
2137 path for programs to run. Usually you set up environment variables with
2138 the shell and they are inherited by all the other programs you run. When
2139 debugging, it can be useful to try running your program with a modified
2140 environment without having to start @value{GDBN} over again.
2141
2142 @table @code
2143 @kindex path
2144 @item path @var{directory}
2145 Add @var{directory} to the front of the @code{PATH} environment variable
2146 (the search path for executables) that will be passed to your program.
2147 The value of @code{PATH} used by @value{GDBN} does not change.
2148 You may specify several directory names, separated by whitespace or by a
2149 system-dependent separator character (@samp{:} on Unix, @samp{;} on
2150 MS-DOS and MS-Windows). If @var{directory} is already in the path, it
2151 is moved to the front, so it is searched sooner.
2152
2153 You can use the string @samp{$cwd} to refer to whatever is the current
2154 working directory at the time @value{GDBN} searches the path. If you
2155 use @samp{.} instead, it refers to the directory where you executed the
2156 @code{path} command. @value{GDBN} replaces @samp{.} in the
2157 @var{directory} argument (with the current path) before adding
2158 @var{directory} to the search path.
2159 @c 'path' is explicitly nonrepeatable, but RMS points out it is silly to
2160 @c document that, since repeating it would be a no-op.
2161
2162 @kindex show paths
2163 @item show paths
2164 Display the list of search paths for executables (the @code{PATH}
2165 environment variable).
2166
2167 @kindex show environment
2168 @item show environment @r{[}@var{varname}@r{]}
2169 Print the value of environment variable @var{varname} to be given to
2170 your program when it starts. If you do not supply @var{varname},
2171 print the names and values of all environment variables to be given to
2172 your program. You can abbreviate @code{environment} as @code{env}.
2173
2174 @kindex set environment
2175 @item set environment @var{varname} @r{[}=@var{value}@r{]}
2176 Set environment variable @var{varname} to @var{value}. The value
2177 changes for your program only, not for @value{GDBN} itself. @var{value} may
2178 be any string; the values of environment variables are just strings, and
2179 any interpretation is supplied by your program itself. The @var{value}
2180 parameter is optional; if it is eliminated, the variable is set to a
2181 null value.
2182 @c "any string" here does not include leading, trailing
2183 @c blanks. Gnu asks: does anyone care?
2184
2185 For example, this command:
2186
2187 @smallexample
2188 set env USER = foo
2189 @end smallexample
2190
2191 @noindent
2192 tells the debugged program, when subsequently run, that its user is named
2193 @samp{foo}. (The spaces around @samp{=} are used for clarity here; they
2194 are not actually required.)
2195
2196 @kindex unset environment
2197 @item unset environment @var{varname}
2198 Remove variable @var{varname} from the environment to be passed to your
2199 program. This is different from @samp{set env @var{varname} =};
2200 @code{unset environment} removes the variable from the environment,
2201 rather than assigning it an empty value.
2202 @end table
2203
2204 @emph{Warning:} On Unix systems, @value{GDBN} runs your program using
2205 the shell indicated
2206 by your @code{SHELL} environment variable if it exists (or
2207 @code{/bin/sh} if not). If your @code{SHELL} variable names a shell
2208 that runs an initialization file---such as @file{.cshrc} for C-shell, or
2209 @file{.bashrc} for BASH---any variables you set in that file affect
2210 your program. You may wish to move setting of environment variables to
2211 files that are only run when you sign on, such as @file{.login} or
2212 @file{.profile}.
2213
2214 @node Working Directory
2215 @section Your Program's Working Directory
2216
2217 @cindex working directory (of your program)
2218 Each time you start your program with @code{run}, it inherits its
2219 working directory from the current working directory of @value{GDBN}.
2220 The @value{GDBN} working directory is initially whatever it inherited
2221 from its parent process (typically the shell), but you can specify a new
2222 working directory in @value{GDBN} with the @code{cd} command.
2223
2224 The @value{GDBN} working directory also serves as a default for the commands
2225 that specify files for @value{GDBN} to operate on. @xref{Files, ,Commands to
2226 Specify Files}.
2227
2228 @table @code
2229 @kindex cd
2230 @cindex change working directory
2231 @item cd @var{directory}
2232 Set the @value{GDBN} working directory to @var{directory}.
2233
2234 @kindex pwd
2235 @item pwd
2236 Print the @value{GDBN} working directory.
2237 @end table
2238
2239 It is generally impossible to find the current working directory of
2240 the process being debugged (since a program can change its directory
2241 during its run). If you work on a system where @value{GDBN} is
2242 configured with the @file{/proc} support, you can use the @code{info
2243 proc} command (@pxref{SVR4 Process Information}) to find out the
2244 current working directory of the debuggee.
2245
2246 @node Input/Output
2247 @section Your Program's Input and Output
2248
2249 @cindex redirection
2250 @cindex i/o
2251 @cindex terminal
2252 By default, the program you run under @value{GDBN} does input and output to
2253 the same terminal that @value{GDBN} uses. @value{GDBN} switches the terminal
2254 to its own terminal modes to interact with you, but it records the terminal
2255 modes your program was using and switches back to them when you continue
2256 running your program.
2257
2258 @table @code
2259 @kindex info terminal
2260 @item info terminal
2261 Displays information recorded by @value{GDBN} about the terminal modes your
2262 program is using.
2263 @end table
2264
2265 You can redirect your program's input and/or output using shell
2266 redirection with the @code{run} command. For example,
2267
2268 @smallexample
2269 run > outfile
2270 @end smallexample
2271
2272 @noindent
2273 starts your program, diverting its output to the file @file{outfile}.
2274
2275 @kindex tty
2276 @cindex controlling terminal
2277 Another way to specify where your program should do input and output is
2278 with the @code{tty} command. This command accepts a file name as
2279 argument, and causes this file to be the default for future @code{run}
2280 commands. It also resets the controlling terminal for the child
2281 process, for future @code{run} commands. For example,
2282
2283 @smallexample
2284 tty /dev/ttyb
2285 @end smallexample
2286
2287 @noindent
2288 directs that processes started with subsequent @code{run} commands
2289 default to do input and output on the terminal @file{/dev/ttyb} and have
2290 that as their controlling terminal.
2291
2292 An explicit redirection in @code{run} overrides the @code{tty} command's
2293 effect on the input/output device, but not its effect on the controlling
2294 terminal.
2295
2296 When you use the @code{tty} command or redirect input in the @code{run}
2297 command, only the input @emph{for your program} is affected. The input
2298 for @value{GDBN} still comes from your terminal. @code{tty} is an alias
2299 for @code{set inferior-tty}.
2300
2301 @cindex inferior tty
2302 @cindex set inferior controlling terminal
2303 You can use the @code{show inferior-tty} command to tell @value{GDBN} to
2304 display the name of the terminal that will be used for future runs of your
2305 program.
2306
2307 @table @code
2308 @item set inferior-tty /dev/ttyb
2309 @kindex set inferior-tty
2310 Set the tty for the program being debugged to /dev/ttyb.
2311
2312 @item show inferior-tty
2313 @kindex show inferior-tty
2314 Show the current tty for the program being debugged.
2315 @end table
2316
2317 @node Attach
2318 @section Debugging an Already-running Process
2319 @kindex attach
2320 @cindex attach
2321
2322 @table @code
2323 @item attach @var{process-id}
2324 This command attaches to a running process---one that was started
2325 outside @value{GDBN}. (@code{info files} shows your active
2326 targets.) The command takes as argument a process ID. The usual way to
2327 find out the @var{process-id} of a Unix process is with the @code{ps} utility,
2328 or with the @samp{jobs -l} shell command.
2329
2330 @code{attach} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} a second time after
2331 executing the command.
2332 @end table
2333
2334 To use @code{attach}, your program must be running in an environment
2335 which supports processes; for example, @code{attach} does not work for
2336 programs on bare-board targets that lack an operating system. You must
2337 also have permission to send the process a signal.
2338
2339 When you use @code{attach}, the debugger finds the program running in
2340 the process first by looking in the current working directory, then (if
2341 the program is not found) by using the source file search path
2342 (@pxref{Source Path, ,Specifying Source Directories}). You can also use
2343 the @code{file} command to load the program. @xref{Files, ,Commands to
2344 Specify Files}.
2345
2346 The first thing @value{GDBN} does after arranging to debug the specified
2347 process is to stop it. You can examine and modify an attached process
2348 with all the @value{GDBN} commands that are ordinarily available when
2349 you start processes with @code{run}. You can insert breakpoints; you
2350 can step and continue; you can modify storage. If you would rather the
2351 process continue running, you may use the @code{continue} command after
2352 attaching @value{GDBN} to the process.
2353
2354 @table @code
2355 @kindex detach
2356 @item detach
2357 When you have finished debugging the attached process, you can use the
2358 @code{detach} command to release it from @value{GDBN} control. Detaching
2359 the process continues its execution. After the @code{detach} command,
2360 that process and @value{GDBN} become completely independent once more, and you
2361 are ready to @code{attach} another process or start one with @code{run}.
2362 @code{detach} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} again after
2363 executing the command.
2364 @end table
2365
2366 If you exit @value{GDBN} while you have an attached process, you detach
2367 that process. If you use the @code{run} command, you kill that process.
2368 By default, @value{GDBN} asks for confirmation if you try to do either of these
2369 things; you can control whether or not you need to confirm by using the
2370 @code{set confirm} command (@pxref{Messages/Warnings, ,Optional Warnings and
2371 Messages}).
2372
2373 @node Kill Process
2374 @section Killing the Child Process
2375
2376 @table @code
2377 @kindex kill
2378 @item kill
2379 Kill the child process in which your program is running under @value{GDBN}.
2380 @end table
2381
2382 This command is useful if you wish to debug a core dump instead of a
2383 running process. @value{GDBN} ignores any core dump file while your program
2384 is running.
2385
2386 On some operating systems, a program cannot be executed outside @value{GDBN}
2387 while you have breakpoints set on it inside @value{GDBN}. You can use the
2388 @code{kill} command in this situation to permit running your program
2389 outside the debugger.
2390
2391 The @code{kill} command is also useful if you wish to recompile and
2392 relink your program, since on many systems it is impossible to modify an
2393 executable file while it is running in a process. In this case, when you
2394 next type @code{run}, @value{GDBN} notices that the file has changed, and
2395 reads the symbol table again (while trying to preserve your current
2396 breakpoint settings).
2397
2398 @node Inferiors and Programs
2399 @section Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs
2400
2401 @value{GDBN} lets you run and debug multiple programs in a single
2402 session. In addition, @value{GDBN} on some systems may let you run
2403 several programs simultaneously (otherwise you have to exit from one
2404 before starting another). In the most general case, you can have
2405 multiple threads of execution in each of multiple processes, launched
2406 from multiple executables.
2407
2408 @cindex inferior
2409 @value{GDBN} represents the state of each program execution with an
2410 object called an @dfn{inferior}. An inferior typically corresponds to
2411 a process, but is more general and applies also to targets that do not
2412 have processes. Inferiors may be created before a process runs, and
2413 may be retained after a process exits. Inferiors have unique
2414 identifiers that are different from process ids. Usually each
2415 inferior will also have its own distinct address space, although some
2416 embedded targets may have several inferiors running in different parts
2417 of a single address space. Each inferior may in turn have multiple
2418 threads running in it.
2419
2420 To find out what inferiors exist at any moment, use @w{@code{info
2421 inferiors}}:
2422
2423 @table @code
2424 @kindex info inferiors
2425 @item info inferiors
2426 Print a list of all inferiors currently being managed by @value{GDBN}.
2427
2428 @value{GDBN} displays for each inferior (in this order):
2429
2430 @enumerate
2431 @item
2432 the inferior number assigned by @value{GDBN}
2433
2434 @item
2435 the target system's inferior identifier
2436
2437 @item
2438 the name of the executable the inferior is running.
2439
2440 @end enumerate
2441
2442 @noindent
2443 An asterisk @samp{*} preceding the @value{GDBN} inferior number
2444 indicates the current inferior.
2445
2446 For example,
2447 @end table
2448 @c end table here to get a little more width for example
2449
2450 @smallexample
2451 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
2452 Num Description Executable
2453 2 process 2307 hello
2454 * 1 process 3401 goodbye
2455 @end smallexample
2456
2457 To switch focus between inferiors, use the @code{inferior} command:
2458
2459 @table @code
2460 @kindex inferior @var{infno}
2461 @item inferior @var{infno}
2462 Make inferior number @var{infno} the current inferior. The argument
2463 @var{infno} is the inferior number assigned by @value{GDBN}, as shown
2464 in the first field of the @samp{info inferiors} display.
2465 @end table
2466
2467
2468 You can get multiple executables into a debugging session via the
2469 @code{add-inferior} and @w{@code{clone-inferior}} commands. On some
2470 systems @value{GDBN} can add inferiors to the debug session
2471 automatically by following calls to @code{fork} and @code{exec}. To
2472 remove inferiors from the debugging session use the
2473 @w{@code{remove-inferiors}} command.
2474
2475 @table @code
2476 @kindex add-inferior
2477 @item add-inferior [ -copies @var{n} ] [ -exec @var{executable} ]
2478 Adds @var{n} inferiors to be run using @var{executable} as the
2479 executable. @var{n} defaults to 1. If no executable is specified,
2480 the inferiors begins empty, with no program. You can still assign or
2481 change the program assigned to the inferior at any time by using the
2482 @code{file} command with the executable name as its argument.
2483
2484 @kindex clone-inferior
2485 @item clone-inferior [ -copies @var{n} ] [ @var{infno} ]
2486 Adds @var{n} inferiors ready to execute the same program as inferior
2487 @var{infno}. @var{n} defaults to 1. @var{infno} defaults to the
2488 number of the current inferior. This is a convenient command when you
2489 want to run another instance of the inferior you are debugging.
2490
2491 @smallexample
2492 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
2493 Num Description Executable
2494 * 1 process 29964 helloworld
2495 (@value{GDBP}) clone-inferior
2496 Added inferior 2.
2497 1 inferiors added.
2498 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
2499 Num Description Executable
2500 2 <null> helloworld
2501 * 1 process 29964 helloworld
2502 @end smallexample
2503
2504 You can now simply switch focus to inferior 2 and run it.
2505
2506 @kindex remove-inferiors
2507 @item remove-inferiors @var{infno}@dots{}
2508 Removes the inferior or inferiors @var{infno}@dots{}. It is not
2509 possible to remove an inferior that is running with this command. For
2510 those, use the @code{kill} or @code{detach} command first.
2511
2512 @end table
2513
2514 To quit debugging one of the running inferiors that is not the current
2515 inferior, you can either detach from it by using the @w{@code{detach
2516 inferior}} command (allowing it to run independently), or kill it
2517 using the @w{@code{kill inferiors}} command:
2518
2519 @table @code
2520 @kindex detach inferiors @var{infno}@dots{}
2521 @item detach inferior @var{infno}@dots{}
2522 Detach from the inferior or inferiors identified by @value{GDBN}
2523 inferior number(s) @var{infno}@dots{}. Note that the inferior's entry
2524 still stays on the list of inferiors shown by @code{info inferiors},
2525 but its Description will show @samp{<null>}.
2526
2527 @kindex kill inferiors @var{infno}@dots{}
2528 @item kill inferiors @var{infno}@dots{}
2529 Kill the inferior or inferiors identified by @value{GDBN} inferior
2530 number(s) @var{infno}@dots{}. Note that the inferior's entry still
2531 stays on the list of inferiors shown by @code{info inferiors}, but its
2532 Description will show @samp{<null>}.
2533 @end table
2534
2535 After the successful completion of a command such as @code{detach},
2536 @code{detach inferiors}, @code{kill} or @code{kill inferiors}, or after
2537 a normal process exit, the inferior is still valid and listed with
2538 @code{info inferiors}, ready to be restarted.
2539
2540
2541 To be notified when inferiors are started or exit under @value{GDBN}'s
2542 control use @w{@code{set print inferior-events}}:
2543
2544 @table @code
2545 @kindex set print inferior-events
2546 @cindex print messages on inferior start and exit
2547 @item set print inferior-events
2548 @itemx set print inferior-events on
2549 @itemx set print inferior-events off
2550 The @code{set print inferior-events} command allows you to enable or
2551 disable printing of messages when @value{GDBN} notices that new
2552 inferiors have started or that inferiors have exited or have been
2553 detached. By default, these messages will not be printed.
2554
2555 @kindex show print inferior-events
2556 @item show print inferior-events
2557 Show whether messages will be printed when @value{GDBN} detects that
2558 inferiors have started, exited or have been detached.
2559 @end table
2560
2561 Many commands will work the same with multiple programs as with a
2562 single program: e.g., @code{print myglobal} will simply display the
2563 value of @code{myglobal} in the current inferior.
2564
2565
2566 Occasionaly, when debugging @value{GDBN} itself, it may be useful to
2567 get more info about the relationship of inferiors, programs, address
2568 spaces in a debug session. You can do that with the @w{@code{maint
2569 info program-spaces}} command.
2570
2571 @table @code
2572 @kindex maint info program-spaces
2573 @item maint info program-spaces
2574 Print a list of all program spaces currently being managed by
2575 @value{GDBN}.
2576
2577 @value{GDBN} displays for each program space (in this order):
2578
2579 @enumerate
2580 @item
2581 the program space number assigned by @value{GDBN}
2582
2583 @item
2584 the name of the executable loaded into the program space, with e.g.,
2585 the @code{file} command.
2586
2587 @end enumerate
2588
2589 @noindent
2590 An asterisk @samp{*} preceding the @value{GDBN} program space number
2591 indicates the current program space.
2592
2593 In addition, below each program space line, @value{GDBN} prints extra
2594 information that isn't suitable to display in tabular form. For
2595 example, the list of inferiors bound to the program space.
2596
2597 @smallexample
2598 (@value{GDBP}) maint info program-spaces
2599 Id Executable
2600 2 goodbye
2601 Bound inferiors: ID 1 (process 21561)
2602 * 1 hello
2603 @end smallexample
2604
2605 Here we can see that no inferior is running the program @code{hello},
2606 while @code{process 21561} is running the program @code{goodbye}. On
2607 some targets, it is possible that multiple inferiors are bound to the
2608 same program space. The most common example is that of debugging both
2609 the parent and child processes of a @code{vfork} call. For example,
2610
2611 @smallexample
2612 (@value{GDBP}) maint info program-spaces
2613 Id Executable
2614 * 1 vfork-test
2615 Bound inferiors: ID 2 (process 18050), ID 1 (process 18045)
2616 @end smallexample
2617
2618 Here, both inferior 2 and inferior 1 are running in the same program
2619 space as a result of inferior 1 having executed a @code{vfork} call.
2620 @end table
2621
2622 @node Threads
2623 @section Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads
2624
2625 @cindex threads of execution
2626 @cindex multiple threads
2627 @cindex switching threads
2628 In some operating systems, such as HP-UX and Solaris, a single program
2629 may have more than one @dfn{thread} of execution. The precise semantics
2630 of threads differ from one operating system to another, but in general
2631 the threads of a single program are akin to multiple processes---except
2632 that they share one address space (that is, they can all examine and
2633 modify the same variables). On the other hand, each thread has its own
2634 registers and execution stack, and perhaps private memory.
2635
2636 @value{GDBN} provides these facilities for debugging multi-thread
2637 programs:
2638
2639 @itemize @bullet
2640 @item automatic notification of new threads
2641 @item @samp{thread @var{threadno}}, a command to switch among threads
2642 @item @samp{info threads}, a command to inquire about existing threads
2643 @item @samp{thread apply [@var{threadno}] [@var{all}] @var{args}},
2644 a command to apply a command to a list of threads
2645 @item thread-specific breakpoints
2646 @item @samp{set print thread-events}, which controls printing of
2647 messages on thread start and exit.
2648 @item @samp{set libthread-db-search-path @var{path}}, which lets
2649 the user specify which @code{libthread_db} to use if the default choice
2650 isn't compatible with the program.
2651 @end itemize
2652
2653 @quotation
2654 @emph{Warning:} These facilities are not yet available on every
2655 @value{GDBN} configuration where the operating system supports threads.
2656 If your @value{GDBN} does not support threads, these commands have no
2657 effect. For example, a system without thread support shows no output
2658 from @samp{info threads}, and always rejects the @code{thread} command,
2659 like this:
2660
2661 @smallexample
2662 (@value{GDBP}) info threads
2663 (@value{GDBP}) thread 1
2664 Thread ID 1 not known. Use the "info threads" command to
2665 see the IDs of currently known threads.
2666 @end smallexample
2667 @c FIXME to implementors: how hard would it be to say "sorry, this GDB
2668 @c doesn't support threads"?
2669 @end quotation
2670
2671 @cindex focus of debugging
2672 @cindex current thread
2673 The @value{GDBN} thread debugging facility allows you to observe all
2674 threads while your program runs---but whenever @value{GDBN} takes
2675 control, one thread in particular is always the focus of debugging.
2676 This thread is called the @dfn{current thread}. Debugging commands show
2677 program information from the perspective of the current thread.
2678
2679 @cindex @code{New} @var{systag} message
2680 @cindex thread identifier (system)
2681 @c FIXME-implementors!! It would be more helpful if the [New...] message
2682 @c included GDB's numeric thread handle, so you could just go to that
2683 @c thread without first checking `info threads'.
2684 Whenever @value{GDBN} detects a new thread in your program, it displays
2685 the target system's identification for the thread with a message in the
2686 form @samp{[New @var{systag}]}. @var{systag} is a thread identifier
2687 whose form varies depending on the particular system. For example, on
2688 @sc{gnu}/Linux, you might see
2689
2690 @smallexample
2691 [New Thread 0x41e02940 (LWP 25582)]
2692 @end smallexample
2693
2694 @noindent
2695 when @value{GDBN} notices a new thread. In contrast, on an SGI system,
2696 the @var{systag} is simply something like @samp{process 368}, with no
2697 further qualifier.
2698
2699 @c FIXME!! (1) Does the [New...] message appear even for the very first
2700 @c thread of a program, or does it only appear for the
2701 @c second---i.e.@: when it becomes obvious we have a multithread
2702 @c program?
2703 @c (2) *Is* there necessarily a first thread always? Or do some
2704 @c multithread systems permit starting a program with multiple
2705 @c threads ab initio?
2706
2707 @cindex thread number
2708 @cindex thread identifier (GDB)
2709 For debugging purposes, @value{GDBN} associates its own thread
2710 number---always a single integer---with each thread in your program.
2711
2712 @table @code
2713 @kindex info threads
2714 @item info threads @r{[}@var{id}@dots{}@r{]}
2715 Display a summary of all threads currently in your program. Optional
2716 argument @var{id}@dots{} is one or more thread ids separated by spaces, and
2717 means to print information only about the specified thread or threads.
2718 @value{GDBN} displays for each thread (in this order):
2719
2720 @enumerate
2721 @item
2722 the thread number assigned by @value{GDBN}
2723
2724 @item
2725 the target system's thread identifier (@var{systag})
2726
2727 @item
2728 the thread's name, if one is known. A thread can either be named by
2729 the user (see @code{thread name}, below), or, in some cases, by the
2730 program itself.
2731
2732 @item
2733 the current stack frame summary for that thread
2734 @end enumerate
2735
2736 @noindent
2737 An asterisk @samp{*} to the left of the @value{GDBN} thread number
2738 indicates the current thread.
2739
2740 For example,
2741 @end table
2742 @c end table here to get a little more width for example
2743
2744 @smallexample
2745 (@value{GDBP}) info threads
2746 Id Target Id Frame
2747 3 process 35 thread 27 0x34e5 in sigpause ()
2748 2 process 35 thread 23 0x34e5 in sigpause ()
2749 * 1 process 35 thread 13 main (argc=1, argv=0x7ffffff8)
2750 at threadtest.c:68
2751 @end smallexample
2752
2753 On Solaris, you can display more information about user threads with a
2754 Solaris-specific command:
2755
2756 @table @code
2757 @item maint info sol-threads
2758 @kindex maint info sol-threads
2759 @cindex thread info (Solaris)
2760 Display info on Solaris user threads.
2761 @end table
2762
2763 @table @code
2764 @kindex thread @var{threadno}
2765 @item thread @var{threadno}
2766 Make thread number @var{threadno} the current thread. The command
2767 argument @var{threadno} is the internal @value{GDBN} thread number, as
2768 shown in the first field of the @samp{info threads} display.
2769 @value{GDBN} responds by displaying the system identifier of the thread
2770 you selected, and its current stack frame summary:
2771
2772 @smallexample
2773 (@value{GDBP}) thread 2
2774 [Switching to thread 2 (Thread 0xb7fdab70 (LWP 12747))]
2775 #0 some_function (ignore=0x0) at example.c:8
2776 8 printf ("hello\n");
2777 @end smallexample
2778
2779 @noindent
2780 As with the @samp{[New @dots{}]} message, the form of the text after
2781 @samp{Switching to} depends on your system's conventions for identifying
2782 threads.
2783
2784 @vindex $_thread@r{, convenience variable}
2785 The debugger convenience variable @samp{$_thread} contains the number
2786 of the current thread. You may find this useful in writing breakpoint
2787 conditional expressions, command scripts, and so forth. See
2788 @xref{Convenience Vars,, Convenience Variables}, for general
2789 information on convenience variables.
2790
2791 @kindex thread apply
2792 @cindex apply command to several threads
2793 @item thread apply [@var{threadno} | all] @var{command}
2794 The @code{thread apply} command allows you to apply the named
2795 @var{command} to one or more threads. Specify the numbers of the
2796 threads that you want affected with the command argument
2797 @var{threadno}. It can be a single thread number, one of the numbers
2798 shown in the first field of the @samp{info threads} display; or it
2799 could be a range of thread numbers, as in @code{2-4}. To apply a
2800 command to all threads, type @kbd{thread apply all @var{command}}.
2801
2802 @kindex thread name
2803 @cindex name a thread
2804 @item thread name [@var{name}]
2805 This command assigns a name to the current thread. If no argument is
2806 given, any existing user-specified name is removed. The thread name
2807 appears in the @samp{info threads} display.
2808
2809 On some systems, such as @sc{gnu}/Linux, @value{GDBN} is able to
2810 determine the name of the thread as given by the OS. On these
2811 systems, a name specified with @samp{thread name} will override the
2812 system-give name, and removing the user-specified name will cause
2813 @value{GDBN} to once again display the system-specified name.
2814
2815 @kindex thread find
2816 @cindex search for a thread
2817 @item thread find [@var{regexp}]
2818 Search for and display thread ids whose name or @var{systag}
2819 matches the supplied regular expression.
2820
2821 As well as being the complement to the @samp{thread name} command,
2822 this command also allows you to identify a thread by its target
2823 @var{systag}. For instance, on @sc{gnu}/Linux, the target @var{systag}
2824 is the LWP id.
2825
2826 @smallexample
2827 (@value{GDBN}) thread find 26688
2828 Thread 4 has target id 'Thread 0x41e02940 (LWP 26688)'
2829 (@value{GDBN}) info thread 4
2830 Id Target Id Frame
2831 4 Thread 0x41e02940 (LWP 26688) 0x00000031ca6cd372 in select ()
2832 @end smallexample
2833
2834 @kindex set print thread-events
2835 @cindex print messages on thread start and exit
2836 @item set print thread-events
2837 @itemx set print thread-events on
2838 @itemx set print thread-events off
2839 The @code{set print thread-events} command allows you to enable or
2840 disable printing of messages when @value{GDBN} notices that new threads have
2841 started or that threads have exited. By default, these messages will
2842 be printed if detection of these events is supported by the target.
2843 Note that these messages cannot be disabled on all targets.
2844
2845 @kindex show print thread-events
2846 @item show print thread-events
2847 Show whether messages will be printed when @value{GDBN} detects that threads
2848 have started and exited.
2849 @end table
2850
2851 @xref{Thread Stops,,Stopping and Starting Multi-thread Programs}, for
2852 more information about how @value{GDBN} behaves when you stop and start
2853 programs with multiple threads.
2854
2855 @xref{Set Watchpoints,,Setting Watchpoints}, for information about
2856 watchpoints in programs with multiple threads.
2857
2858 @table @code
2859 @kindex set libthread-db-search-path
2860 @cindex search path for @code{libthread_db}
2861 @item set libthread-db-search-path @r{[}@var{path}@r{]}
2862 If this variable is set, @var{path} is a colon-separated list of
2863 directories @value{GDBN} will use to search for @code{libthread_db}.
2864 If you omit @var{path}, @samp{libthread-db-search-path} will be reset to
2865 its default value (@code{$sdir:$pdir} on @sc{gnu}/Linux and Solaris systems).
2866 Internally, the default value comes from the @code{LIBTHREAD_DB_SEARCH_PATH}
2867 macro.
2868
2869 On @sc{gnu}/Linux and Solaris systems, @value{GDBN} uses a ``helper''
2870 @code{libthread_db} library to obtain information about threads in the
2871 inferior process. @value{GDBN} will use @samp{libthread-db-search-path}
2872 to find @code{libthread_db}.
2873
2874 A special entry @samp{$sdir} for @samp{libthread-db-search-path}
2875 refers to the default system directories that are
2876 normally searched for loading shared libraries.
2877
2878 A special entry @samp{$pdir} for @samp{libthread-db-search-path}
2879 refers to the directory from which @code{libpthread}
2880 was loaded in the inferior process.
2881
2882 For any @code{libthread_db} library @value{GDBN} finds in above directories,
2883 @value{GDBN} attempts to initialize it with the current inferior process.
2884 If this initialization fails (which could happen because of a version
2885 mismatch between @code{libthread_db} and @code{libpthread}), @value{GDBN}
2886 will unload @code{libthread_db}, and continue with the next directory.
2887 If none of @code{libthread_db} libraries initialize successfully,
2888 @value{GDBN} will issue a warning and thread debugging will be disabled.
2889
2890 Setting @code{libthread-db-search-path} is currently implemented
2891 only on some platforms.
2892
2893 @kindex show libthread-db-search-path
2894 @item show libthread-db-search-path
2895 Display current libthread_db search path.
2896
2897 @kindex set debug libthread-db
2898 @kindex show debug libthread-db
2899 @cindex debugging @code{libthread_db}
2900 @item set debug libthread-db
2901 @itemx show debug libthread-db
2902 Turns on or off display of @code{libthread_db}-related events.
2903 Use @code{1} to enable, @code{0} to disable.
2904 @end table
2905
2906 @node Forks
2907 @section Debugging Forks
2908
2909 @cindex fork, debugging programs which call
2910 @cindex multiple processes
2911 @cindex processes, multiple
2912 On most systems, @value{GDBN} has no special support for debugging
2913 programs which create additional processes using the @code{fork}
2914 function. When a program forks, @value{GDBN} will continue to debug the
2915 parent process and the child process will run unimpeded. If you have
2916 set a breakpoint in any code which the child then executes, the child
2917 will get a @code{SIGTRAP} signal which (unless it catches the signal)
2918 will cause it to terminate.
2919
2920 However, if you want to debug the child process there is a workaround
2921 which isn't too painful. Put a call to @code{sleep} in the code which
2922 the child process executes after the fork. It may be useful to sleep
2923 only if a certain environment variable is set, or a certain file exists,
2924 so that the delay need not occur when you don't want to run @value{GDBN}
2925 on the child. While the child is sleeping, use the @code{ps} program to
2926 get its process ID. Then tell @value{GDBN} (a new invocation of
2927 @value{GDBN} if you are also debugging the parent process) to attach to
2928 the child process (@pxref{Attach}). From that point on you can debug
2929 the child process just like any other process which you attached to.
2930
2931 On some systems, @value{GDBN} provides support for debugging programs that
2932 create additional processes using the @code{fork} or @code{vfork} functions.
2933 Currently, the only platforms with this feature are HP-UX (11.x and later
2934 only?) and @sc{gnu}/Linux (kernel version 2.5.60 and later).
2935
2936 By default, when a program forks, @value{GDBN} will continue to debug
2937 the parent process and the child process will run unimpeded.
2938
2939 If you want to follow the child process instead of the parent process,
2940 use the command @w{@code{set follow-fork-mode}}.
2941
2942 @table @code
2943 @kindex set follow-fork-mode
2944 @item set follow-fork-mode @var{mode}
2945 Set the debugger response to a program call of @code{fork} or
2946 @code{vfork}. A call to @code{fork} or @code{vfork} creates a new
2947 process. The @var{mode} argument can be:
2948
2949 @table @code
2950 @item parent
2951 The original process is debugged after a fork. The child process runs
2952 unimpeded. This is the default.
2953
2954 @item child
2955 The new process is debugged after a fork. The parent process runs
2956 unimpeded.
2957
2958 @end table
2959
2960 @kindex show follow-fork-mode
2961 @item show follow-fork-mode
2962 Display the current debugger response to a @code{fork} or @code{vfork} call.
2963 @end table
2964
2965 @cindex debugging multiple processes
2966 On Linux, if you want to debug both the parent and child processes, use the
2967 command @w{@code{set detach-on-fork}}.
2968
2969 @table @code
2970 @kindex set detach-on-fork
2971 @item set detach-on-fork @var{mode}
2972 Tells gdb whether to detach one of the processes after a fork, or
2973 retain debugger control over them both.
2974
2975 @table @code
2976 @item on
2977 The child process (or parent process, depending on the value of
2978 @code{follow-fork-mode}) will be detached and allowed to run
2979 independently. This is the default.
2980
2981 @item off
2982 Both processes will be held under the control of @value{GDBN}.
2983 One process (child or parent, depending on the value of
2984 @code{follow-fork-mode}) is debugged as usual, while the other
2985 is held suspended.
2986
2987 @end table
2988
2989 @kindex show detach-on-fork
2990 @item show detach-on-fork
2991 Show whether detach-on-fork mode is on/off.
2992 @end table
2993
2994 If you choose to set @samp{detach-on-fork} mode off, then @value{GDBN}
2995 will retain control of all forked processes (including nested forks).
2996 You can list the forked processes under the control of @value{GDBN} by
2997 using the @w{@code{info inferiors}} command, and switch from one fork
2998 to another by using the @code{inferior} command (@pxref{Inferiors and
2999 Programs, ,Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs}).
3000
3001 To quit debugging one of the forked processes, you can either detach
3002 from it by using the @w{@code{detach inferiors}} command (allowing it
3003 to run independently), or kill it using the @w{@code{kill inferiors}}
3004 command. @xref{Inferiors and Programs, ,Debugging Multiple Inferiors
3005 and Programs}.
3006
3007 If you ask to debug a child process and a @code{vfork} is followed by an
3008 @code{exec}, @value{GDBN} executes the new target up to the first
3009 breakpoint in the new target. If you have a breakpoint set on
3010 @code{main} in your original program, the breakpoint will also be set on
3011 the child process's @code{main}.
3012
3013 On some systems, when a child process is spawned by @code{vfork}, you
3014 cannot debug the child or parent until an @code{exec} call completes.
3015
3016 If you issue a @code{run} command to @value{GDBN} after an @code{exec}
3017 call executes, the new target restarts. To restart the parent
3018 process, use the @code{file} command with the parent executable name
3019 as its argument. By default, after an @code{exec} call executes,
3020 @value{GDBN} discards the symbols of the previous executable image.
3021 You can change this behaviour with the @w{@code{set follow-exec-mode}}
3022 command.
3023
3024 @table @code
3025 @kindex set follow-exec-mode
3026 @item set follow-exec-mode @var{mode}
3027
3028 Set debugger response to a program call of @code{exec}. An
3029 @code{exec} call replaces the program image of a process.
3030
3031 @code{follow-exec-mode} can be:
3032
3033 @table @code
3034 @item new
3035 @value{GDBN} creates a new inferior and rebinds the process to this
3036 new inferior. The program the process was running before the
3037 @code{exec} call can be restarted afterwards by restarting the
3038 original inferior.
3039
3040 For example:
3041
3042 @smallexample
3043 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
3044 (gdb) info inferior
3045 Id Description Executable
3046 * 1 <null> prog1
3047 (@value{GDBP}) run
3048 process 12020 is executing new program: prog2
3049 Program exited normally.
3050 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
3051 Id Description Executable
3052 * 2 <null> prog2
3053 1 <null> prog1
3054 @end smallexample
3055
3056 @item same
3057 @value{GDBN} keeps the process bound to the same inferior. The new
3058 executable image replaces the previous executable loaded in the
3059 inferior. Restarting the inferior after the @code{exec} call, with
3060 e.g., the @code{run} command, restarts the executable the process was
3061 running after the @code{exec} call. This is the default mode.
3062
3063 For example:
3064
3065 @smallexample
3066 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
3067 Id Description Executable
3068 * 1 <null> prog1
3069 (@value{GDBP}) run
3070 process 12020 is executing new program: prog2
3071 Program exited normally.
3072 (@value{GDBP}) info inferiors
3073 Id Description Executable
3074 * 1 <null> prog2
3075 @end smallexample
3076
3077 @end table
3078 @end table
3079
3080 You can use the @code{catch} command to make @value{GDBN} stop whenever
3081 a @code{fork}, @code{vfork}, or @code{exec} call is made. @xref{Set
3082 Catchpoints, ,Setting Catchpoints}.
3083
3084 @node Checkpoint/Restart
3085 @section Setting a @emph{Bookmark} to Return to Later
3086
3087 @cindex checkpoint
3088 @cindex restart
3089 @cindex bookmark
3090 @cindex snapshot of a process
3091 @cindex rewind program state
3092
3093 On certain operating systems@footnote{Currently, only
3094 @sc{gnu}/Linux.}, @value{GDBN} is able to save a @dfn{snapshot} of a
3095 program's state, called a @dfn{checkpoint}, and come back to it
3096 later.
3097
3098 Returning to a checkpoint effectively undoes everything that has
3099 happened in the program since the @code{checkpoint} was saved. This
3100 includes changes in memory, registers, and even (within some limits)
3101 system state. Effectively, it is like going back in time to the
3102 moment when the checkpoint was saved.
3103
3104 Thus, if you're stepping thru a program and you think you're
3105 getting close to the point where things go wrong, you can save
3106 a checkpoint. Then, if you accidentally go too far and miss
3107 the critical statement, instead of having to restart your program
3108 from the beginning, you can just go back to the checkpoint and
3109 start again from there.
3110
3111 This can be especially useful if it takes a lot of time or
3112 steps to reach the point where you think the bug occurs.
3113
3114 To use the @code{checkpoint}/@code{restart} method of debugging:
3115
3116 @table @code
3117 @kindex checkpoint
3118 @item checkpoint
3119 Save a snapshot of the debugged program's current execution state.
3120 The @code{checkpoint} command takes no arguments, but each checkpoint
3121 is assigned a small integer id, similar to a breakpoint id.
3122
3123 @kindex info checkpoints
3124 @item info checkpoints
3125 List the checkpoints that have been saved in the current debugging
3126 session. For each checkpoint, the following information will be
3127 listed:
3128
3129 @table @code
3130 @item Checkpoint ID
3131 @item Process ID
3132 @item Code Address
3133 @item Source line, or label
3134 @end table
3135
3136 @kindex restart @var{checkpoint-id}
3137 @item restart @var{checkpoint-id}
3138 Restore the program state that was saved as checkpoint number
3139 @var{checkpoint-id}. All program variables, registers, stack frames
3140 etc.@: will be returned to the values that they had when the checkpoint
3141 was saved. In essence, gdb will ``wind back the clock'' to the point
3142 in time when the checkpoint was saved.
3143
3144 Note that breakpoints, @value{GDBN} variables, command history etc.
3145 are not affected by restoring a checkpoint. In general, a checkpoint
3146 only restores things that reside in the program being debugged, not in
3147 the debugger.
3148
3149 @kindex delete checkpoint @var{checkpoint-id}
3150 @item delete checkpoint @var{checkpoint-id}
3151 Delete the previously-saved checkpoint identified by @var{checkpoint-id}.
3152
3153 @end table
3154
3155 Returning to a previously saved checkpoint will restore the user state
3156 of the program being debugged, plus a significant subset of the system
3157 (OS) state, including file pointers. It won't ``un-write'' data from
3158 a file, but it will rewind the file pointer to the previous location,
3159 so that the previously written data can be overwritten. For files
3160 opened in read mode, the pointer will also be restored so that the
3161 previously read data can be read again.
3162
3163 Of course, characters that have been sent to a printer (or other
3164 external device) cannot be ``snatched back'', and characters received
3165 from eg.@: a serial device can be removed from internal program buffers,
3166 but they cannot be ``pushed back'' into the serial pipeline, ready to
3167 be received again. Similarly, the actual contents of files that have
3168 been changed cannot be restored (at this time).
3169
3170 However, within those constraints, you actually can ``rewind'' your
3171 program to a previously saved point in time, and begin debugging it
3172 again --- and you can change the course of events so as to debug a
3173 different execution path this time.
3174
3175 @cindex checkpoints and process id
3176 Finally, there is one bit of internal program state that will be
3177 different when you return to a checkpoint --- the program's process
3178 id. Each checkpoint will have a unique process id (or @var{pid}),
3179 and each will be different from the program's original @var{pid}.
3180 If your program has saved a local copy of its process id, this could
3181 potentially pose a problem.
3182
3183 @subsection A Non-obvious Benefit of Using Checkpoints
3184
3185 On some systems such as @sc{gnu}/Linux, address space randomization
3186 is performed on new processes for security reasons. This makes it
3187 difficult or impossible to set a breakpoint, or watchpoint, on an
3188 absolute address if you have to restart the program, since the
3189 absolute location of a symbol will change from one execution to the
3190 next.
3191
3192 A checkpoint, however, is an @emph{identical} copy of a process.
3193 Therefore if you create a checkpoint at (eg.@:) the start of main,
3194 and simply return to that checkpoint instead of restarting the
3195 process, you can avoid the effects of address randomization and
3196 your symbols will all stay in the same place.
3197
3198 @node Stopping
3199 @chapter Stopping and Continuing
3200
3201 The principal purposes of using a debugger are so that you can stop your
3202 program before it terminates; or so that, if your program runs into
3203 trouble, you can investigate and find out why.
3204
3205 Inside @value{GDBN}, your program may stop for any of several reasons,
3206 such as a signal, a breakpoint, or reaching a new line after a
3207 @value{GDBN} command such as @code{step}. You may then examine and
3208 change variables, set new breakpoints or remove old ones, and then
3209 continue execution. Usually, the messages shown by @value{GDBN} provide
3210 ample explanation of the status of your program---but you can also
3211 explicitly request this information at any time.
3212
3213 @table @code
3214 @kindex info program
3215 @item info program
3216 Display information about the status of your program: whether it is
3217 running or not, what process it is, and why it stopped.
3218 @end table
3219
3220 @menu
3221 * Breakpoints:: Breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints
3222 * Continuing and Stepping:: Resuming execution
3223 * Skipping Over Functions and Files::
3224 Skipping over functions and files
3225 * Signals:: Signals
3226 * Thread Stops:: Stopping and starting multi-thread programs
3227 @end menu
3228
3229 @node Breakpoints
3230 @section Breakpoints, Watchpoints, and Catchpoints
3231
3232 @cindex breakpoints
3233 A @dfn{breakpoint} makes your program stop whenever a certain point in
3234 the program is reached. For each breakpoint, you can add conditions to
3235 control in finer detail whether your program stops. You can set
3236 breakpoints with the @code{break} command and its variants (@pxref{Set
3237 Breaks, ,Setting Breakpoints}), to specify the place where your program
3238 should stop by line number, function name or exact address in the
3239 program.
3240
3241 On some systems, you can set breakpoints in shared libraries before
3242 the executable is run. There is a minor limitation on HP-UX systems:
3243 you must wait until the executable is run in order to set breakpoints
3244 in shared library routines that are not called directly by the program
3245 (for example, routines that are arguments in a @code{pthread_create}
3246 call).
3247
3248 @cindex watchpoints
3249 @cindex data breakpoints
3250 @cindex memory tracing
3251 @cindex breakpoint on memory address
3252 @cindex breakpoint on variable modification
3253 A @dfn{watchpoint} is a special breakpoint that stops your program
3254 when the value of an expression changes. The expression may be a value
3255 of a variable, or it could involve values of one or more variables
3256 combined by operators, such as @samp{a + b}. This is sometimes called
3257 @dfn{data breakpoints}. You must use a different command to set
3258 watchpoints (@pxref{Set Watchpoints, ,Setting Watchpoints}), but aside
3259 from that, you can manage a watchpoint like any other breakpoint: you
3260 enable, disable, and delete both breakpoints and watchpoints using the
3261 same commands.
3262
3263 You can arrange to have values from your program displayed automatically
3264 whenever @value{GDBN} stops at a breakpoint. @xref{Auto Display,,
3265 Automatic Display}.
3266
3267 @cindex catchpoints
3268 @cindex breakpoint on events
3269 A @dfn{catchpoint} is another special breakpoint that stops your program
3270 when a certain kind of event occurs, such as the throwing of a C@t{++}
3271 exception or the loading of a library. As with watchpoints, you use a
3272 different command to set a catchpoint (@pxref{Set Catchpoints, ,Setting
3273 Catchpoints}), but aside from that, you can manage a catchpoint like any
3274 other breakpoint. (To stop when your program receives a signal, use the
3275 @code{handle} command; see @ref{Signals, ,Signals}.)
3276
3277 @cindex breakpoint numbers
3278 @cindex numbers for breakpoints
3279 @value{GDBN} assigns a number to each breakpoint, watchpoint, or
3280 catchpoint when you create it; these numbers are successive integers
3281 starting with one. In many of the commands for controlling various
3282 features of breakpoints you use the breakpoint number to say which
3283 breakpoint you want to change. Each breakpoint may be @dfn{enabled} or
3284 @dfn{disabled}; if disabled, it has no effect on your program until you
3285 enable it again.
3286
3287 @cindex breakpoint ranges
3288 @cindex ranges of breakpoints
3289 Some @value{GDBN} commands accept a range of breakpoints on which to
3290 operate. A breakpoint range is either a single breakpoint number, like
3291 @samp{5}, or two such numbers, in increasing order, separated by a
3292 hyphen, like @samp{5-7}. When a breakpoint range is given to a command,
3293 all breakpoints in that range are operated on.
3294
3295 @menu
3296 * Set Breaks:: Setting breakpoints
3297 * Set Watchpoints:: Setting watchpoints
3298 * Set Catchpoints:: Setting catchpoints
3299 * Delete Breaks:: Deleting breakpoints
3300 * Disabling:: Disabling breakpoints
3301 * Conditions:: Break conditions
3302 * Break Commands:: Breakpoint command lists
3303 * Save Breakpoints:: How to save breakpoints in a file
3304 * Error in Breakpoints:: ``Cannot insert breakpoints''
3305 * Breakpoint-related Warnings:: ``Breakpoint address adjusted...''
3306 @end menu
3307
3308 @node Set Breaks
3309 @subsection Setting Breakpoints
3310
3311 @c FIXME LMB what does GDB do if no code on line of breakpt?
3312 @c consider in particular declaration with/without initialization.
3313 @c
3314 @c FIXME 2 is there stuff on this already? break at fun start, already init?
3315
3316 @kindex break
3317 @kindex b @r{(@code{break})}
3318 @vindex $bpnum@r{, convenience variable}
3319 @cindex latest breakpoint
3320 Breakpoints are set with the @code{break} command (abbreviated
3321 @code{b}). The debugger convenience variable @samp{$bpnum} records the
3322 number of the breakpoint you've set most recently; see @ref{Convenience
3323 Vars,, Convenience Variables}, for a discussion of what you can do with
3324 convenience variables.
3325
3326 @table @code
3327 @item break @var{location}
3328 Set a breakpoint at the given @var{location}, which can specify a
3329 function name, a line number, or an address of an instruction.
3330 (@xref{Specify Location}, for a list of all the possible ways to
3331 specify a @var{location}.) The breakpoint will stop your program just
3332 before it executes any of the code in the specified @var{location}.
3333
3334 When using source languages that permit overloading of symbols, such as
3335 C@t{++}, a function name may refer to more than one possible place to break.
3336 @xref{Ambiguous Expressions,,Ambiguous Expressions}, for a discussion of
3337 that situation.
3338
3339 It is also possible to insert a breakpoint that will stop the program
3340 only if a specific thread (@pxref{Thread-Specific Breakpoints})
3341 or a specific task (@pxref{Ada Tasks}) hits that breakpoint.
3342
3343 @item break
3344 When called without any arguments, @code{break} sets a breakpoint at
3345 the next instruction to be executed in the selected stack frame
3346 (@pxref{Stack, ,Examining the Stack}). In any selected frame but the
3347 innermost, this makes your program stop as soon as control
3348 returns to that frame. This is similar to the effect of a
3349 @code{finish} command in the frame inside the selected frame---except
3350 that @code{finish} does not leave an active breakpoint. If you use
3351 @code{break} without an argument in the innermost frame, @value{GDBN} stops
3352 the next time it reaches the current location; this may be useful
3353 inside loops.
3354
3355 @value{GDBN} normally ignores breakpoints when it resumes execution, until at
3356 least one instruction has been executed. If it did not do this, you
3357 would be unable to proceed past a breakpoint without first disabling the
3358 breakpoint. This rule applies whether or not the breakpoint already
3359 existed when your program stopped.
3360
3361 @item break @dots{} if @var{cond}
3362 Set a breakpoint with condition @var{cond}; evaluate the expression
3363 @var{cond} each time the breakpoint is reached, and stop only if the
3364 value is nonzero---that is, if @var{cond} evaluates as true.
3365 @samp{@dots{}} stands for one of the possible arguments described
3366 above (or no argument) specifying where to break. @xref{Conditions,
3367 ,Break Conditions}, for more information on breakpoint conditions.
3368
3369 @kindex tbreak
3370 @item tbreak @var{args}
3371 Set a breakpoint enabled only for one stop. @var{args} are the
3372 same as for the @code{break} command, and the breakpoint is set in the same
3373 way, but the breakpoint is automatically deleted after the first time your
3374 program stops there. @xref{Disabling, ,Disabling Breakpoints}.
3375
3376 @kindex hbreak
3377 @cindex hardware breakpoints
3378 @item hbreak @var{args}
3379 Set a hardware-assisted breakpoint. @var{args} are the same as for the
3380 @code{break} command and the breakpoint is set in the same way, but the
3381 breakpoint requires hardware support and some target hardware may not
3382 have this support. The main purpose of this is EPROM/ROM code
3383 debugging, so you can set a breakpoint at an instruction without
3384 changing the instruction. This can be used with the new trap-generation
3385 provided by SPARClite DSU and most x86-based targets. These targets
3386 will generate traps when a program accesses some data or instruction
3387 address that is assigned to the debug registers. However the hardware
3388 breakpoint registers can take a limited number of breakpoints. For
3389 example, on the DSU, only two data breakpoints can be set at a time, and
3390 @value{GDBN} will reject this command if more than two are used. Delete
3391 or disable unused hardware breakpoints before setting new ones
3392 (@pxref{Disabling, ,Disabling Breakpoints}).
3393 @xref{Conditions, ,Break Conditions}.
3394 For remote targets, you can restrict the number of hardware
3395 breakpoints @value{GDBN} will use, see @ref{set remote
3396 hardware-breakpoint-limit}.
3397
3398 @kindex thbreak
3399 @item thbreak @var{args}
3400 Set a hardware-assisted breakpoint enabled only for one stop. @var{args}
3401 are the same as for the @code{hbreak} command and the breakpoint is set in
3402 the same way. However, like the @code{tbreak} command,
3403 the breakpoint is automatically deleted after the
3404 first time your program stops there. Also, like the @code{hbreak}
3405 command, the breakpoint requires hardware support and some target hardware
3406 may not have this support. @xref{Disabling, ,Disabling Breakpoints}.
3407 See also @ref{Conditions, ,Break Conditions}.
3408
3409 @kindex rbreak
3410 @cindex regular expression
3411 @cindex breakpoints at functions matching a regexp
3412 @cindex set breakpoints in many functions
3413 @item rbreak @var{regex}
3414 Set breakpoints on all functions matching the regular expression
3415 @var{regex}. This command sets an unconditional breakpoint on all
3416 matches, printing a list of all breakpoints it set. Once these
3417 breakpoints are set, they are treated just like the breakpoints set with
3418 the @code{break} command. You can delete them, disable them, or make
3419 them conditional the same way as any other breakpoint.
3420
3421 The syntax of the regular expression is the standard one used with tools
3422 like @file{grep}. Note that this is different from the syntax used by
3423 shells, so for instance @code{foo*} matches all functions that include
3424 an @code{fo} followed by zero or more @code{o}s. There is an implicit
3425 @code{.*} leading and trailing the regular expression you supply, so to
3426 match only functions that begin with @code{foo}, use @code{^foo}.
3427
3428 @cindex non-member C@t{++} functions, set breakpoint in
3429 When debugging C@t{++} programs, @code{rbreak} is useful for setting
3430 breakpoints on overloaded functions that are not members of any special
3431 classes.
3432
3433 @cindex set breakpoints on all functions
3434 The @code{rbreak} command can be used to set breakpoints in
3435 @strong{all} the functions in a program, like this:
3436
3437 @smallexample
3438 (@value{GDBP}) rbreak .
3439 @end smallexample
3440
3441 @item rbreak @var{file}:@var{regex}
3442 If @code{rbreak} is called with a filename qualification, it limits
3443 the search for functions matching the given regular expression to the
3444 specified @var{file}. This can be used, for example, to set breakpoints on
3445 every function in a given file:
3446
3447 @smallexample
3448 (@value{GDBP}) rbreak file.c:.
3449 @end smallexample
3450
3451 The colon separating the filename qualifier from the regex may
3452 optionally be surrounded by spaces.
3453
3454 @kindex info breakpoints
3455 @cindex @code{$_} and @code{info breakpoints}
3456 @item info breakpoints @r{[}@var{n}@dots{}@r{]}
3457 @itemx info break @r{[}@var{n}@dots{}@r{]}
3458 Print a table of all breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints set and
3459 not deleted. Optional argument @var{n} means print information only
3460 about the specified breakpoint(s) (or watchpoint(s) or catchpoint(s)).
3461 For each breakpoint, following columns are printed:
3462
3463 @table @emph
3464 @item Breakpoint Numbers
3465 @item Type
3466 Breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint.
3467 @item Disposition
3468 Whether the breakpoint is marked to be disabled or deleted when hit.
3469 @item Enabled or Disabled
3470 Enabled breakpoints are marked with @samp{y}. @samp{n} marks breakpoints
3471 that are not enabled.
3472 @item Address
3473 Where the breakpoint is in your program, as a memory address. For a
3474 pending breakpoint whose address is not yet known, this field will
3475 contain @samp{<PENDING>}. Such breakpoint won't fire until a shared
3476 library that has the symbol or line referred by breakpoint is loaded.
3477 See below for details. A breakpoint with several locations will
3478 have @samp{<MULTIPLE>} in this field---see below for details.
3479 @item What
3480 Where the breakpoint is in the source for your program, as a file and
3481 line number. For a pending breakpoint, the original string passed to
3482 the breakpoint command will be listed as it cannot be resolved until
3483 the appropriate shared library is loaded in the future.
3484 @end table
3485
3486 @noindent
3487 If a breakpoint is conditional, @code{info break} shows the condition on
3488 the line following the affected breakpoint; breakpoint commands, if any,
3489 are listed after that. A pending breakpoint is allowed to have a condition
3490 specified for it. The condition is not parsed for validity until a shared
3491 library is loaded that allows the pending breakpoint to resolve to a
3492 valid location.
3493
3494 @noindent
3495 @code{info break} with a breakpoint
3496 number @var{n} as argument lists only that breakpoint. The
3497 convenience variable @code{$_} and the default examining-address for
3498 the @code{x} command are set to the address of the last breakpoint
3499 listed (@pxref{Memory, ,Examining Memory}).
3500
3501 @noindent
3502 @code{info break} displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3503 has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with the
3504 @code{ignore} command. You can ignore a large number of breakpoint
3505 hits, look at the breakpoint info to see how many times the breakpoint
3506 was hit, and then run again, ignoring one less than that number. This
3507 will get you quickly to the last hit of that breakpoint.
3508
3509 @noindent
3510 For a breakpoints with an enable count (xref) greater than 1,
3511 @code{info break} also displays that count.
3512
3513 @end table
3514
3515 @value{GDBN} allows you to set any number of breakpoints at the same place in
3516 your program. There is nothing silly or meaningless about this. When
3517 the breakpoints are conditional, this is even useful
3518 (@pxref{Conditions, ,Break Conditions}).
3519
3520 @cindex multiple locations, breakpoints
3521 @cindex breakpoints, multiple locations
3522 It is possible that a breakpoint corresponds to several locations
3523 in your program. Examples of this situation are:
3524
3525 @itemize @bullet
3526 @item
3527 Multiple functions in the program may have the same name.
3528
3529 @item
3530 For a C@t{++} constructor, the @value{NGCC} compiler generates several
3531 instances of the function body, used in different cases.
3532
3533 @item
3534 For a C@t{++} template function, a given line in the function can
3535 correspond to any number of instantiations.
3536
3537 @item
3538 For an inlined function, a given source line can correspond to
3539 several places where that function is inlined.
3540 @end itemize
3541
3542 In all those cases, @value{GDBN} will insert a breakpoint at all
3543 the relevant locations.
3544
3545 A breakpoint with multiple locations is displayed in the breakpoint
3546 table using several rows---one header row, followed by one row for
3547 each breakpoint location. The header row has @samp{<MULTIPLE>} in the
3548 address column. The rows for individual locations contain the actual
3549 addresses for locations, and show the functions to which those
3550 locations belong. The number column for a location is of the form
3551 @var{breakpoint-number}.@var{location-number}.
3552
3553 For example:
3554
3555 @smallexample
3556 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
3557 1 breakpoint keep y <MULTIPLE>
3558 stop only if i==1
3559 breakpoint already hit 1 time
3560 1.1 y 0x080486a2 in void foo<int>() at t.cc:8
3561 1.2 y 0x080486ca in void foo<double>() at t.cc:8
3562 @end smallexample
3563
3564 Each location can be individually enabled or disabled by passing
3565 @var{breakpoint-number}.@var{location-number} as argument to the
3566 @code{enable} and @code{disable} commands. Note that you cannot
3567 delete the individual locations from the list, you can only delete the
3568 entire list of locations that belong to their parent breakpoint (with
3569 the @kbd{delete @var{num}} command, where @var{num} is the number of
3570 the parent breakpoint, 1 in the above example). Disabling or enabling
3571 the parent breakpoint (@pxref{Disabling}) affects all of the locations
3572 that belong to that breakpoint.
3573
3574 @cindex pending breakpoints
3575 It's quite common to have a breakpoint inside a shared library.
3576 Shared libraries can be loaded and unloaded explicitly,
3577 and possibly repeatedly, as the program is executed. To support
3578 this use case, @value{GDBN} updates breakpoint locations whenever
3579 any shared library is loaded or unloaded. Typically, you would
3580 set a breakpoint in a shared library at the beginning of your
3581 debugging session, when the library is not loaded, and when the
3582 symbols from the library are not available. When you try to set
3583 breakpoint, @value{GDBN} will ask you if you want to set
3584 a so called @dfn{pending breakpoint}---breakpoint whose address
3585 is not yet resolved.
3586
3587 After the program is run, whenever a new shared library is loaded,
3588 @value{GDBN} reevaluates all the breakpoints. When a newly loaded
3589 shared library contains the symbol or line referred to by some
3590 pending breakpoint, that breakpoint is resolved and becomes an
3591 ordinary breakpoint. When a library is unloaded, all breakpoints
3592 that refer to its symbols or source lines become pending again.
3593
3594 This logic works for breakpoints with multiple locations, too. For
3595 example, if you have a breakpoint in a C@t{++} template function, and
3596 a newly loaded shared library has an instantiation of that template,
3597 a new location is added to the list of locations for the breakpoint.
3598
3599 Except for having unresolved address, pending breakpoints do not
3600 differ from regular breakpoints. You can set conditions or commands,
3601 enable and disable them and perform other breakpoint operations.
3602
3603 @value{GDBN} provides some additional commands for controlling what
3604 happens when the @samp{break} command cannot resolve breakpoint
3605 address specification to an address:
3606
3607 @kindex set breakpoint pending
3608 @kindex show breakpoint pending
3609 @table @code
3610 @item set breakpoint pending auto
3611 This is the default behavior. When @value{GDBN} cannot find the breakpoint
3612 location, it queries you whether a pending breakpoint should be created.
3613
3614 @item set breakpoint pending on
3615 This indicates that an unrecognized breakpoint location should automatically
3616 result in a pending breakpoint being created.
3617
3618 @item set breakpoint pending off
3619 This indicates that pending breakpoints are not to be created. Any
3620 unrecognized breakpoint location results in an error. This setting does
3621 not affect any pending breakpoints previously created.
3622
3623 @item show breakpoint pending
3624 Show the current behavior setting for creating pending breakpoints.
3625 @end table
3626
3627 The settings above only affect the @code{break} command and its
3628 variants. Once breakpoint is set, it will be automatically updated
3629 as shared libraries are loaded and unloaded.
3630
3631 @cindex automatic hardware breakpoints
3632 For some targets, @value{GDBN} can automatically decide if hardware or
3633 software breakpoints should be used, depending on whether the
3634 breakpoint address is read-only or read-write. This applies to
3635 breakpoints set with the @code{break} command as well as to internal
3636 breakpoints set by commands like @code{next} and @code{finish}. For
3637 breakpoints set with @code{hbreak}, @value{GDBN} will always use hardware
3638 breakpoints.
3639
3640 You can control this automatic behaviour with the following commands::
3641
3642 @kindex set breakpoint auto-hw
3643 @kindex show breakpoint auto-hw
3644 @table @code
3645 @item set breakpoint auto-hw on
3646 This is the default behavior. When @value{GDBN} sets a breakpoint, it
3647 will try to use the target memory map to decide if software or hardware
3648 breakpoint must be used.
3649
3650 @item set breakpoint auto-hw off
3651 This indicates @value{GDBN} should not automatically select breakpoint
3652 type. If the target provides a memory map, @value{GDBN} will warn when
3653 trying to set software breakpoint at a read-only address.
3654 @end table
3655
3656 @value{GDBN} normally implements breakpoints by replacing the program code
3657 at the breakpoint address with a special instruction, which, when
3658 executed, given control to the debugger. By default, the program
3659 code is so modified only when the program is resumed. As soon as
3660 the program stops, @value{GDBN} restores the original instructions. This
3661 behaviour guards against leaving breakpoints inserted in the
3662 target should gdb abrubptly disconnect. However, with slow remote
3663 targets, inserting and removing breakpoint can reduce the performance.
3664 This behavior can be controlled with the following commands::
3665
3666 @kindex set breakpoint always-inserted
3667 @kindex show breakpoint always-inserted
3668 @table @code
3669 @item set breakpoint always-inserted off
3670 All breakpoints, including newly added by the user, are inserted in
3671 the target only when the target is resumed. All breakpoints are
3672 removed from the target when it stops.
3673
3674 @item set breakpoint always-inserted on
3675 Causes all breakpoints to be inserted in the target at all times. If
3676 the user adds a new breakpoint, or changes an existing breakpoint, the
3677 breakpoints in the target are updated immediately. A breakpoint is
3678 removed from the target only when breakpoint itself is removed.
3679
3680 @cindex non-stop mode, and @code{breakpoint always-inserted}
3681 @item set breakpoint always-inserted auto
3682 This is the default mode. If @value{GDBN} is controlling the inferior
3683 in non-stop mode (@pxref{Non-Stop Mode}), gdb behaves as if
3684 @code{breakpoint always-inserted} mode is on. If @value{GDBN} is
3685 controlling the inferior in all-stop mode, @value{GDBN} behaves as if
3686 @code{breakpoint always-inserted} mode is off.
3687 @end table
3688
3689 @cindex negative breakpoint numbers
3690 @cindex internal @value{GDBN} breakpoints
3691 @value{GDBN} itself sometimes sets breakpoints in your program for
3692 special purposes, such as proper handling of @code{longjmp} (in C
3693 programs). These internal breakpoints are assigned negative numbers,
3694 starting with @code{-1}; @samp{info breakpoints} does not display them.
3695 You can see these breakpoints with the @value{GDBN} maintenance command
3696 @samp{maint info breakpoints} (@pxref{maint info breakpoints}).
3697
3698
3699 @node Set Watchpoints
3700 @subsection Setting Watchpoints
3701
3702 @cindex setting watchpoints
3703 You can use a watchpoint to stop execution whenever the value of an
3704 expression changes, without having to predict a particular place where
3705 this may happen. (This is sometimes called a @dfn{data breakpoint}.)
3706 The expression may be as simple as the value of a single variable, or
3707 as complex as many variables combined by operators. Examples include:
3708
3709 @itemize @bullet
3710 @item
3711 A reference to the value of a single variable.
3712
3713 @item
3714 An address cast to an appropriate data type. For example,
3715 @samp{*(int *)0x12345678} will watch a 4-byte region at the specified
3716 address (assuming an @code{int} occupies 4 bytes).
3717
3718 @item
3719 An arbitrarily complex expression, such as @samp{a*b + c/d}. The
3720 expression can use any operators valid in the program's native
3721 language (@pxref{Languages}).
3722 @end itemize
3723
3724 You can set a watchpoint on an expression even if the expression can
3725 not be evaluated yet. For instance, you can set a watchpoint on
3726 @samp{*global_ptr} before @samp{global_ptr} is initialized.
3727 @value{GDBN} will stop when your program sets @samp{global_ptr} and
3728 the expression produces a valid value. If the expression becomes
3729 valid in some other way than changing a variable (e.g.@: if the memory
3730 pointed to by @samp{*global_ptr} becomes readable as the result of a
3731 @code{malloc} call), @value{GDBN} may not stop until the next time
3732 the expression changes.
3733
3734 @cindex software watchpoints
3735 @cindex hardware watchpoints
3736 Depending on your system, watchpoints may be implemented in software or
3737 hardware. @value{GDBN} does software watchpointing by single-stepping your
3738 program and testing the variable's value each time, which is hundreds of
3739 times slower than normal execution. (But this may still be worth it, to
3740 catch errors where you have no clue what part of your program is the
3741 culprit.)
3742
3743 On some systems, such as HP-UX, PowerPC, @sc{gnu}/Linux and most other
3744 x86-based targets, @value{GDBN} includes support for hardware
3745 watchpoints, which do not slow down the running of your program.
3746
3747 @table @code
3748 @kindex watch
3749 @item watch @r{[}-l@r{|}-location@r{]} @var{expr} @r{[}thread @var{threadnum}@r{]} @r{[}mask @var{maskvalue}@r{]}
3750 Set a watchpoint for an expression. @value{GDBN} will break when the
3751 expression @var{expr} is written into by the program and its value
3752 changes. The simplest (and the most popular) use of this command is
3753 to watch the value of a single variable:
3754
3755 @smallexample
3756 (@value{GDBP}) watch foo
3757 @end smallexample
3758
3759 If the command includes a @code{@r{[}thread @var{threadnum}@r{]}}
3760 argument, @value{GDBN} breaks only when the thread identified by
3761 @var{threadnum} changes the value of @var{expr}. If any other threads
3762 change the value of @var{expr}, @value{GDBN} will not break. Note
3763 that watchpoints restricted to a single thread in this way only work
3764 with Hardware Watchpoints.
3765
3766 Ordinarily a watchpoint respects the scope of variables in @var{expr}
3767 (see below). The @code{-location} argument tells @value{GDBN} to
3768 instead watch the memory referred to by @var{expr}. In this case,
3769 @value{GDBN} will evaluate @var{expr}, take the address of the result,
3770 and watch the memory at that address. The type of the result is used
3771 to determine the size of the watched memory. If the expression's
3772 result does not have an address, then @value{GDBN} will print an
3773 error.
3774
3775 The @code{@r{[}mask @var{maskvalue}@r{]}} argument allows creation
3776 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this
3777 feature (e.g., PowerPC Embedded architecture, see @ref{PowerPC
3778 Embedded}.) A @dfn{masked watchpoint} specifies a mask in addition
3779 to an address to watch. The mask specifies that some bits of an address
3780 (the bits which are reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching
3781 the address accessed by the inferior against the watchpoint address.
3782 Thus, a masked watchpoint watches many addresses simultaneously---those
3783 addresses whose unmasked bits are identical to the unmasked bits in the
3784 watchpoint address. The @code{mask} argument implies @code{-location}.
3785 Examples:
3786
3787 @smallexample
3788 (@value{GDBP}) watch foo mask 0xffff00ff
3789 (@value{GDBP}) watch *0xdeadbeef mask 0xffffff00
3790 @end smallexample
3791
3792 @kindex rwatch
3793 @item rwatch @r{[}-l@r{|}-location@r{]} @var{expr} @r{[}thread @var{threadnum}@r{]} @r{[}mask @var{maskvalue}@r{]}
3794 Set a watchpoint that will break when the value of @var{expr} is read
3795 by the program.
3796
3797 @kindex awatch
3798 @item awatch @r{[}-l@r{|}-location@r{]} @var{expr} @r{[}thread @var{threadnum}@r{]} @r{[}mask @var{maskvalue}@r{]}
3799 Set a watchpoint that will break when @var{expr} is either read from
3800 or written into by the program.
3801
3802 @kindex info watchpoints @r{[}@var{n}@dots{}@r{]}
3803 @item info watchpoints @r{[}@var{n}@dots{}@r{]}
3804 This command prints a list of watchpoints, using the same format as
3805 @code{info break} (@pxref{Set Breaks}).
3806 @end table
3807
3808 If you watch for a change in a numerically entered address you need to
3809 dereference it, as the address itself is just a constant number which will
3810 never change. @value{GDBN} refuses to create a watchpoint that watches
3811 a never-changing value:
3812
3813 @smallexample
3814 (@value{GDBP}) watch 0x600850
3815 Cannot watch constant value 0x600850.
3816 (@value{GDBP}) watch *(int *) 0x600850
3817 Watchpoint 1: *(int *) 6293584
3818 @end smallexample
3819
3820 @value{GDBN} sets a @dfn{hardware watchpoint} if possible. Hardware
3821 watchpoints execute very quickly, and the debugger reports a change in
3822 value at the exact instruction where the change occurs. If @value{GDBN}
3823 cannot set a hardware watchpoint, it sets a software watchpoint, which
3824 executes more slowly and reports the change in value at the next
3825 @emph{statement}, not the instruction, after the change occurs.
3826
3827 @cindex use only software watchpoints
3828 You can force @value{GDBN} to use only software watchpoints with the
3829 @kbd{set can-use-hw-watchpoints 0} command. With this variable set to
3830 zero, @value{GDBN} will never try to use hardware watchpoints, even if
3831 the underlying system supports them. (Note that hardware-assisted
3832 watchpoints that were set @emph{before} setting
3833 @code{can-use-hw-watchpoints} to zero will still use the hardware
3834 mechanism of watching expression values.)
3835
3836 @table @code
3837 @item set can-use-hw-watchpoints
3838 @kindex set can-use-hw-watchpoints
3839 Set whether or not to use hardware watchpoints.
3840
3841 @item show can-use-hw-watchpoints
3842 @kindex show can-use-hw-watchpoints
3843 Show the current mode of using hardware watchpoints.
3844 @end table
3845
3846 For remote targets, you can restrict the number of hardware
3847 watchpoints @value{GDBN} will use, see @ref{set remote
3848 hardware-breakpoint-limit}.
3849
3850 When you issue the @code{watch} command, @value{GDBN} reports
3851
3852 @smallexample
3853 Hardware watchpoint @var{num}: @var{expr}
3854 @end smallexample
3855
3856 @noindent
3857 if it was able to set a hardware watchpoint.
3858
3859 Currently, the @code{awatch} and @code{rwatch} commands can only set
3860 hardware watchpoints, because accesses to data that don't change the
3861 value of the watched expression cannot be detected without examining
3862 every instruction as it is being executed, and @value{GDBN} does not do
3863 that currently. If @value{GDBN} finds that it is unable to set a
3864 hardware breakpoint with the @code{awatch} or @code{rwatch} command, it
3865 will print a message like this:
3866
3867 @smallexample
3868 Expression cannot be implemented with read/access watchpoint.
3869 @end smallexample
3870
3871 Sometimes, @value{GDBN} cannot set a hardware watchpoint because the
3872 data type of the watched expression is wider than what a hardware
3873 watchpoint on the target machine can handle. For example, some systems
3874 can only watch regions that are up to 4 bytes wide; on such systems you
3875 cannot set hardware watchpoints for an expression that yields a
3876 double-precision floating-point number (which is typically 8 bytes
3877 wide). As a work-around, it might be possible to break the large region
3878 into a series of smaller ones and watch them with separate watchpoints.
3879
3880 If you set too many hardware watchpoints, @value{GDBN} might be unable
3881 to insert all of them when you resume the execution of your program.
3882 Since the precise number of active watchpoints is unknown until such
3883 time as the program is about to be resumed, @value{GDBN} might not be
3884 able to warn you about this when you set the watchpoints, and the
3885 warning will be printed only when the program is resumed:
3886
3887 @smallexample
3888 Hardware watchpoint @var{num}: Could not insert watchpoint
3889 @end smallexample
3890
3891 @noindent
3892 If this happens, delete or disable some of the watchpoints.
3893
3894 Watching complex expressions that reference many variables can also
3895 exhaust the resources available for hardware-assisted watchpoints.
3896 That's because @value{GDBN} needs to watch every variable in the
3897 expression with separately allocated resources.
3898
3899 If you call a function interactively using @code{print} or @code{call},
3900 any watchpoints you have set will be inactive until @value{GDBN} reaches another
3901 kind of breakpoint or the call completes.
3902
3903 @value{GDBN} automatically deletes watchpoints that watch local
3904 (automatic) variables, or expressions that involve such variables, when
3905 they go out of scope, that is, when the execution leaves the block in
3906 which these variables were defined. In particular, when the program
3907 being debugged terminates, @emph{all} local variables go out of scope,
3908 and so only watchpoints that watch global variables remain set. If you
3909 rerun the program, you will need to set all such watchpoints again. One
3910 way of doing that would be to set a code breakpoint at the entry to the
3911 @code{main} function and when it breaks, set all the watchpoints.
3912
3913 @cindex watchpoints and threads
3914 @cindex threads and watchpoints
3915 In multi-threaded programs, watchpoints will detect changes to the
3916 watched expression from every thread.
3917
3918 @quotation
3919 @emph{Warning:} In multi-threaded programs, software watchpoints
3920 have only limited usefulness. If @value{GDBN} creates a software
3921 watchpoint, it can only watch the value of an expression @emph{in a
3922 single thread}. If you are confident that the expression can only
3923 change due to the current thread's activity (and if you are also
3924 confident that no other thread can become current), then you can use
3925 software watchpoints as usual. However, @value{GDBN} may not notice
3926 when a non-current thread's activity changes the expression. (Hardware
3927 watchpoints, in contrast, watch an expression in all threads.)
3928 @end quotation
3929
3930 @xref{set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit}.
3931
3932 @node Set Catchpoints
3933 @subsection Setting Catchpoints
3934 @cindex catchpoints, setting
3935 @cindex exception handlers
3936 @cindex event handling
3937
3938 You can use @dfn{catchpoints} to cause the debugger to stop for certain
3939 kinds of program events, such as C@t{++} exceptions or the loading of a
3940 shared library. Use the @code{catch} command to set a catchpoint.
3941
3942 @table @code
3943 @kindex catch
3944 @item catch @var{event}
3945 Stop when @var{event} occurs. @var{event} can be any of the following:
3946 @table @code
3947 @item throw
3948 @cindex stop on C@t{++} exceptions
3949 The throwing of a C@t{++} exception.
3950
3951 @item catch
3952 The catching of a C@t{++} exception.
3953
3954 @item exception
3955 @cindex Ada exception catching
3956 @cindex catch Ada exceptions
3957 An Ada exception being raised. If an exception name is specified
3958 at the end of the command (eg @code{catch exception Program_Error}),
3959 the debugger will stop only when this specific exception is raised.
3960 Otherwise, the debugger stops execution when any Ada exception is raised.
3961
3962 When inserting an exception catchpoint on a user-defined exception whose
3963 name is identical to one of the exceptions defined by the language, the
3964 fully qualified name must be used as the exception name. Otherwise,
3965 @value{GDBN} will assume that it should stop on the pre-defined exception
3966 rather than the user-defined one. For instance, assuming an exception
3967 called @code{Constraint_Error} is defined in package @code{Pck}, then
3968 the command to use to catch such exceptions is @kbd{catch exception
3969 Pck.Constraint_Error}.
3970
3971 @item exception unhandled
3972 An exception that was raised but is not handled by the program.
3973
3974 @item assert
3975 A failed Ada assertion.
3976
3977 @item exec
3978 @cindex break on fork/exec
3979 A call to @code{exec}. This is currently only available for HP-UX
3980 and @sc{gnu}/Linux.
3981
3982 @item syscall
3983 @itemx syscall @r{[}@var{name} @r{|} @var{number}@r{]} @dots{}
3984 @cindex break on a system call.
3985 A call to or return from a system call, a.k.a.@: @dfn{syscall}. A
3986 syscall is a mechanism for application programs to request a service
3987 from the operating system (OS) or one of the OS system services.
3988 @value{GDBN} can catch some or all of the syscalls issued by the
3989 debuggee, and show the related information for each syscall. If no
3990 argument is specified, calls to and returns from all system calls
3991 will be caught.
3992
3993 @var{name} can be any system call name that is valid for the
3994 underlying OS. Just what syscalls are valid depends on the OS. On
3995 GNU and Unix systems, you can find the full list of valid syscall
3996 names on @file{/usr/include/asm/unistd.h}.
3997
3998 @c For MS-Windows, the syscall names and the corresponding numbers
3999 @c can be found, e.g., on this URL:
4000 @c http://www.metasploit.com/users/opcode/syscalls.html
4001 @c but we don't support Windows syscalls yet.
4002
4003 Normally, @value{GDBN} knows in advance which syscalls are valid for
4004 each OS, so you can use the @value{GDBN} command-line completion
4005 facilities (@pxref{Completion,, command completion}) to list the
4006 available choices.
4007
4008 You may also specify the system call numerically. A syscall's
4009 number is the value passed to the OS's syscall dispatcher to
4010 identify the requested service. When you specify the syscall by its
4011 name, @value{GDBN} uses its database of syscalls to convert the name
4012 into the corresponding numeric code, but using the number directly
4013 may be useful if @value{GDBN}'s database does not have the complete
4014 list of syscalls on your system (e.g., because @value{GDBN} lags
4015 behind the OS upgrades).
4016
4017 The example below illustrates how this command works if you don't provide
4018 arguments to it:
4019
4020 @smallexample
4021 (@value{GDBP}) catch syscall
4022 Catchpoint 1 (syscall)
4023 (@value{GDBP}) r
4024 Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall
4025
4026 Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall 'close'), \
4027 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
4028 (@value{GDBP}) c
4029 Continuing.
4030
4031 Catchpoint 1 (returned from syscall 'close'), \
4032 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
4033 (@value{GDBP})
4034 @end smallexample
4035
4036 Here is an example of catching a system call by name:
4037
4038 @smallexample
4039 (@value{GDBP}) catch syscall chroot
4040 Catchpoint 1 (syscall 'chroot' [61])
4041 (@value{GDBP}) r
4042 Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall
4043
4044 Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall 'chroot'), \
4045 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
4046 (@value{GDBP}) c
4047 Continuing.
4048
4049 Catchpoint 1 (returned from syscall 'chroot'), \
4050 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
4051 (@value{GDBP})
4052 @end smallexample
4053
4054 An example of specifying a system call numerically. In the case
4055 below, the syscall number has a corresponding entry in the XML
4056 file, so @value{GDBN} finds its name and prints it:
4057
4058 @smallexample
4059 (@value{GDBP}) catch syscall 252
4060 Catchpoint 1 (syscall(s) 'exit_group')
4061 (@value{GDBP}) r
4062 Starting program: /tmp/catch-syscall
4063
4064 Catchpoint 1 (call to syscall 'exit_group'), \
4065 0xffffe424 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
4066 (@value{GDBP}) c
4067 Continuing.
4068
4069 Program exited normally.
4070 (@value{GDBP})
4071 @end smallexample
4072
4073 However, there can be situations when there is no corresponding name
4074 in XML file for that syscall number. In this case, @value{GDBN} prints
4075 a warning message saying that it was not able to find the syscall name,
4076 but the catchpoint will be set anyway. See the example below:
4077
4078 @smallexample
4079 (@value{GDBP}) catch syscall 764
4080 warning: The number '764' does not represent a known syscall.
4081 Catchpoint 2 (syscall 764)
4082 (@value{GDBP})
4083 @end smallexample
4084
4085 If you configure @value{GDBN} using the @samp{--without-expat} option,
4086 it will not be able to display syscall names. Also, if your
4087 architecture does not have an XML file describing its system calls,
4088 you will not be able to see the syscall names. It is important to
4089 notice that these two features are used for accessing the syscall
4090 name database. In either case, you will see a warning like this:
4091
4092 @smallexample
4093 (@value{GDBP}) catch syscall
4094 warning: Could not open "syscalls/i386-linux.xml"
4095 warning: Could not load the syscall XML file 'syscalls/i386-linux.xml'.
4096 GDB will not be able to display syscall names.
4097 Catchpoint 1 (syscall)
4098 (@value{GDBP})
4099 @end smallexample
4100
4101 Of course, the file name will change depending on your architecture and system.
4102
4103 Still using the example above, you can also try to catch a syscall by its
4104 number. In this case, you would see something like:
4105
4106 @smallexample
4107 (@value{GDBP}) catch syscall 252
4108 Catchpoint 1 (syscall(s) 252)
4109 @end smallexample
4110
4111 Again, in this case @value{GDBN} would not be able to display syscall's names.
4112
4113 @item fork
4114 A call to @code{fork}. This is currently only available for HP-UX
4115 and @sc{gnu}/Linux.
4116
4117 @item vfork
4118 A call to @code{vfork}. This is currently only available for HP-UX
4119 and @sc{gnu}/Linux.
4120
4121 @item load @r{[}regexp@r{]}
4122 @itemx unload @r{[}regexp@r{]}
4123 The loading or unloading of a shared library. If @var{regexp} is
4124 given, then the catchpoint will stop only if the regular expression
4125 matches one of the affected libraries.
4126
4127 @end table
4128
4129 @item tcatch @var{event}
4130 Set a catchpoint that is enabled only for one stop. The catchpoint is
4131 automatically deleted after the first time the event is caught.
4132
4133 @end table
4134
4135 Use the @code{info break} command to list the current catchpoints.
4136
4137 There are currently some limitations to C@t{++} exception handling
4138 (@code{catch throw} and @code{catch catch}) in @value{GDBN}:
4139
4140 @itemize @bullet
4141 @item
4142 If you call a function interactively, @value{GDBN} normally returns
4143 control to you when the function has finished executing. If the call
4144 raises an exception, however, the call may bypass the mechanism that
4145 returns control to you and cause your program either to abort or to
4146 simply continue running until it hits a breakpoint, catches a signal
4147 that @value{GDBN} is listening for, or exits. This is the case even if
4148 you set a catchpoint for the exception; catchpoints on exceptions are
4149 disabled within interactive calls.
4150
4151 @item
4152 You cannot raise an exception interactively.
4153
4154 @item
4155 You cannot install an exception handler interactively.
4156 @end itemize
4157
4158 @cindex raise exceptions
4159 Sometimes @code{catch} is not the best way to debug exception handling:
4160 if you need to know exactly where an exception is raised, it is better to
4161 stop @emph{before} the exception handler is called, since that way you
4162 can see the stack before any unwinding takes place. If you set a
4163 breakpoint in an exception handler instead, it may not be easy to find
4164 out where the exception was raised.
4165
4166 To stop just before an exception handler is called, you need some
4167 knowledge of the implementation. In the case of @sc{gnu} C@t{++}, exceptions are
4168 raised by calling a library function named @code{__raise_exception}
4169 which has the following ANSI C interface:
4170
4171 @smallexample
4172 /* @var{addr} is where the exception identifier is stored.
4173 @var{id} is the exception identifier. */
4174 void __raise_exception (void **addr, void *id);
4175 @end smallexample
4176
4177 @noindent
4178 To make the debugger catch all exceptions before any stack
4179 unwinding takes place, set a breakpoint on @code{__raise_exception}
4180 (@pxref{Breakpoints, ,Breakpoints; Watchpoints; and Exceptions}).
4181
4182 With a conditional breakpoint (@pxref{Conditions, ,Break Conditions})
4183 that depends on the value of @var{id}, you can stop your program when
4184 a specific exception is raised. You can use multiple conditional
4185 breakpoints to stop your program when any of a number of exceptions are
4186 raised.
4187
4188
4189 @node Delete Breaks
4190 @subsection Deleting Breakpoints
4191
4192 @cindex clearing breakpoints, watchpoints, catchpoints
4193 @cindex deleting breakpoints, watchpoints, catchpoints
4194 It is often necessary to eliminate a breakpoint, watchpoint, or
4195 catchpoint once it has done its job and you no longer want your program
4196 to stop there. This is called @dfn{deleting} the breakpoint. A
4197 breakpoint that has been deleted no longer exists; it is forgotten.
4198
4199 With the @code{clear} command you can delete breakpoints according to
4200 where they are in your program. With the @code{delete} command you can
4201 delete individual breakpoints, watchpoints, or catchpoints by specifying
4202 their breakpoint numbers.
4203
4204 It is not necessary to delete a breakpoint to proceed past it. @value{GDBN}
4205 automatically ignores breakpoints on the first instruction to be executed
4206 when you continue execution without changing the execution address.
4207
4208 @table @code
4209 @kindex clear
4210 @item clear
4211 Delete any breakpoints at the next instruction to be executed in the
4212 selected stack frame (@pxref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}). When
4213 the innermost frame is selected, this is a good way to delete a
4214 breakpoint where your program just stopped.
4215
4216 @item clear @var{location}
4217 Delete any breakpoints set at the specified @var{location}.
4218 @xref{Specify Location}, for the various forms of @var{location}; the
4219 most useful ones are listed below:
4220
4221 @table @code
4222 @item clear @var{function}
4223 @itemx clear @var{filename}:@var{function}
4224 Delete any breakpoints set at entry to the named @var{function}.
4225
4226 @item clear @var{linenum}
4227 @itemx clear @var{filename}:@var{linenum}
4228 Delete any breakpoints set at or within the code of the specified
4229 @var{linenum} of the specified @var{filename}.
4230 @end table
4231
4232 @cindex delete breakpoints
4233 @kindex delete
4234 @kindex d @r{(@code{delete})}
4235 @item delete @r{[}breakpoints@r{]} @r{[}@var{range}@dots{}@r{]}
4236 Delete the breakpoints, watchpoints, or catchpoints of the breakpoint
4237 ranges specified as arguments. If no argument is specified, delete all
4238 breakpoints (@value{GDBN} asks confirmation, unless you have @code{set
4239 confirm off}). You can abbreviate this command as @code{d}.
4240 @end table
4241
4242 @node Disabling
4243 @subsection Disabling Breakpoints
4244
4245 @cindex enable/disable a breakpoint
4246 Rather than deleting a breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint, you might
4247 prefer to @dfn{disable} it. This makes the breakpoint inoperative as if
4248 it had been deleted, but remembers the information on the breakpoint so
4249 that you can @dfn{enable} it again later.
4250
4251 You disable and enable breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints with
4252 the @code{enable} and @code{disable} commands, optionally specifying
4253 one or more breakpoint numbers as arguments. Use @code{info break} to
4254 print a list of all breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints if you
4255 do not know which numbers to use.
4256
4257 Disabling and enabling a breakpoint that has multiple locations
4258 affects all of its locations.
4259
4260 A breakpoint, watchpoint, or catchpoint can have any of several
4261 different states of enablement:
4262
4263 @itemize @bullet
4264 @item
4265 Enabled. The breakpoint stops your program. A breakpoint set
4266 with the @code{break} command starts out in this state.
4267 @item
4268 Disabled. The breakpoint has no effect on your program.
4269 @item
4270 Enabled once. The breakpoint stops your program, but then becomes
4271 disabled.
4272 @item
4273 Enabled for a count. The breakpoint stops your program for the next
4274 N times, then becomes disabled.
4275 @item
4276 Enabled for deletion. The breakpoint stops your program, but
4277 immediately after it does so it is deleted permanently. A breakpoint
4278 set with the @code{tbreak} command starts out in this state.
4279 @end itemize
4280
4281 You can use the following commands to enable or disable breakpoints,
4282 watchpoints, and catchpoints:
4283
4284 @table @code
4285 @kindex disable
4286 @kindex dis @r{(@code{disable})}
4287 @item disable @r{[}breakpoints@r{]} @r{[}@var{range}@dots{}@r{]}
4288 Disable the specified breakpoints---or all breakpoints, if none are
4289 listed. A disabled breakpoint has no effect but is not forgotten. All
4290 options such as ignore-counts, conditions and commands are remembered in
4291 case the breakpoint is enabled again later. You may abbreviate
4292 @code{disable} as @code{dis}.
4293
4294 @kindex enable
4295 @item enable @r{[}breakpoints@r{]} @r{[}@var{range}@dots{}@r{]}
4296 Enable the specified breakpoints (or all defined breakpoints). They
4297 become effective once again in stopping your program.
4298
4299 @item enable @r{[}breakpoints@r{]} once @var{range}@dots{}
4300 Enable the specified breakpoints temporarily. @value{GDBN} disables any
4301 of these breakpoints immediately after stopping your program.
4302
4303 @item enable @r{[}breakpoints@r{]} count @var{count} @var{range}@dots{}
4304 Enable the specified breakpoints temporarily. @value{GDBN} records
4305 @var{count} with each of the specified breakpoints, and decrements a
4306 breakpoint's count when it is hit. When any count reaches 0,
4307 @value{GDBN} disables that breakpoint. If a breakpoint has an ignore
4308 count (@pxref{Conditions, ,Break Conditions}), that will be
4309 decremented to 0 before @var{count} is affected.
4310
4311 @item enable @r{[}breakpoints@r{]} delete @var{range}@dots{}
4312 Enable the specified breakpoints to work once, then die. @value{GDBN}
4313 deletes any of these breakpoints as soon as your program stops there.
4314 Breakpoints set by the @code{tbreak} command start out in this state.
4315 @end table
4316
4317 @c FIXME: I think the following ``Except for [...] @code{tbreak}'' is
4318 @c confusing: tbreak is also initially enabled.
4319 Except for a breakpoint set with @code{tbreak} (@pxref{Set Breaks,
4320 ,Setting Breakpoints}), breakpoints that you set are initially enabled;
4321 subsequently, they become disabled or enabled only when you use one of
4322 the commands above. (The command @code{until} can set and delete a
4323 breakpoint of its own, but it does not change the state of your other
4324 breakpoints; see @ref{Continuing and Stepping, ,Continuing and
4325 Stepping}.)
4326
4327 @node Conditions
4328 @subsection Break Conditions
4329 @cindex conditional breakpoints
4330 @cindex breakpoint conditions
4331
4332 @c FIXME what is scope of break condition expr? Context where wanted?
4333 @c in particular for a watchpoint?
4334 The simplest sort of breakpoint breaks every time your program reaches a
4335 specified place. You can also specify a @dfn{condition} for a
4336 breakpoint. A condition is just a Boolean expression in your
4337 programming language (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}). A breakpoint with
4338 a condition evaluates the expression each time your program reaches it,
4339 and your program stops only if the condition is @emph{true}.
4340
4341 This is the converse of using assertions for program validation; in that
4342 situation, you want to stop when the assertion is violated---that is,
4343 when the condition is false. In C, if you want to test an assertion expressed
4344 by the condition @var{assert}, you should set the condition
4345 @samp{! @var{assert}} on the appropriate breakpoint.
4346
4347 Conditions are also accepted for watchpoints; you may not need them,
4348 since a watchpoint is inspecting the value of an expression anyhow---but
4349 it might be simpler, say, to just set a watchpoint on a variable name,
4350 and specify a condition that tests whether the new value is an interesting
4351 one.
4352
4353 Break conditions can have side effects, and may even call functions in
4354 your program. This can be useful, for example, to activate functions
4355 that log program progress, or to use your own print functions to
4356 format special data structures. The effects are completely predictable
4357 unless there is another enabled breakpoint at the same address. (In
4358 that case, @value{GDBN} might see the other breakpoint first and stop your
4359 program without checking the condition of this one.) Note that
4360 breakpoint commands are usually more convenient and flexible than break
4361 conditions for the
4362 purpose of performing side effects when a breakpoint is reached
4363 (@pxref{Break Commands, ,Breakpoint Command Lists}).
4364
4365 Break conditions can be specified when a breakpoint is set, by using
4366 @samp{if} in the arguments to the @code{break} command. @xref{Set
4367 Breaks, ,Setting Breakpoints}. They can also be changed at any time
4368 with the @code{condition} command.
4369
4370 You can also use the @code{if} keyword with the @code{watch} command.
4371 The @code{catch} command does not recognize the @code{if} keyword;
4372 @code{condition} is the only way to impose a further condition on a
4373 catchpoint.
4374
4375 @table @code
4376 @kindex condition
4377 @item condition @var{bnum} @var{expression}
4378 Specify @var{expression} as the break condition for breakpoint,
4379 watchpoint, or catchpoint number @var{bnum}. After you set a condition,
4380 breakpoint @var{bnum} stops your program only if the value of
4381 @var{expression} is true (nonzero, in C). When you use
4382 @code{condition}, @value{GDBN} checks @var{expression} immediately for
4383 syntactic correctness, and to determine whether symbols in it have
4384 referents in the context of your breakpoint. If @var{expression} uses
4385 symbols not referenced in the context of the breakpoint, @value{GDBN}
4386 prints an error message:
4387
4388 @smallexample
4389 No symbol "foo" in current context.
4390 @end smallexample
4391
4392 @noindent
4393 @value{GDBN} does
4394 not actually evaluate @var{expression} at the time the @code{condition}
4395 command (or a command that sets a breakpoint with a condition, like
4396 @code{break if @dots{}}) is given, however. @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}.
4397
4398 @item condition @var{bnum}
4399 Remove the condition from breakpoint number @var{bnum}. It becomes
4400 an ordinary unconditional breakpoint.
4401 @end table
4402
4403 @cindex ignore count (of breakpoint)
4404 A special case of a breakpoint condition is to stop only when the
4405 breakpoint has been reached a certain number of times. This is so
4406 useful that there is a special way to do it, using the @dfn{ignore
4407 count} of the breakpoint. Every breakpoint has an ignore count, which
4408 is an integer. Most of the time, the ignore count is zero, and
4409 therefore has no effect. But if your program reaches a breakpoint whose
4410 ignore count is positive, then instead of stopping, it just decrements
4411 the ignore count by one and continues. As a result, if the ignore count
4412 value is @var{n}, the breakpoint does not stop the next @var{n} times
4413 your program reaches it.
4414
4415 @table @code
4416 @kindex ignore
4417 @item ignore @var{bnum} @var{count}
4418 Set the ignore count of breakpoint number @var{bnum} to @var{count}.
4419 The next @var{count} times the breakpoint is reached, your program's
4420 execution does not stop; other than to decrement the ignore count, @value{GDBN}
4421 takes no action.
4422
4423 To make the breakpoint stop the next time it is reached, specify
4424 a count of zero.
4425
4426 When you use @code{continue} to resume execution of your program from a
4427 breakpoint, you can specify an ignore count directly as an argument to
4428 @code{continue}, rather than using @code{ignore}. @xref{Continuing and
4429 Stepping,,Continuing and Stepping}.
4430
4431 If a breakpoint has a positive ignore count and a condition, the
4432 condition is not checked. Once the ignore count reaches zero,
4433 @value{GDBN} resumes checking the condition.
4434
4435 You could achieve the effect of the ignore count with a condition such
4436 as @w{@samp{$foo-- <= 0}} using a debugger convenience variable that
4437 is decremented each time. @xref{Convenience Vars, ,Convenience
4438 Variables}.
4439 @end table
4440
4441 Ignore counts apply to breakpoints, watchpoints, and catchpoints.
4442
4443
4444 @node Break Commands
4445 @subsection Breakpoint Command Lists
4446
4447 @cindex breakpoint commands
4448 You can give any breakpoint (or watchpoint or catchpoint) a series of
4449 commands to execute when your program stops due to that breakpoint. For
4450 example, you might want to print the values of certain expressions, or
4451 enable other breakpoints.
4452
4453 @table @code
4454 @kindex commands
4455 @kindex end@r{ (breakpoint commands)}
4456 @item commands @r{[}@var{range}@dots{}@r{]}
4457 @itemx @dots{} @var{command-list} @dots{}
4458 @itemx end
4459 Specify a list of commands for the given breakpoints. The commands
4460 themselves appear on the following lines. Type a line containing just
4461 @code{end} to terminate the commands.
4462
4463 To remove all commands from a breakpoint, type @code{commands} and
4464 follow it immediately with @code{end}; that is, give no commands.
4465
4466 With no argument, @code{commands} refers to the last breakpoint,
4467 watchpoint, or catchpoint set (not to the breakpoint most recently
4468 encountered). If the most recent breakpoints were set with a single
4469 command, then the @code{commands} will apply to all the breakpoints
4470 set by that command. This applies to breakpoints set by
4471 @code{rbreak}, and also applies when a single @code{break} command
4472 creates multiple breakpoints (@pxref{Ambiguous Expressions,,Ambiguous
4473 Expressions}).
4474 @end table
4475
4476 Pressing @key{RET} as a means of repeating the last @value{GDBN} command is
4477 disabled within a @var{command-list}.
4478
4479 You can use breakpoint commands to start your program up again. Simply
4480 use the @code{continue} command, or @code{step}, or any other command
4481 that resumes execution.
4482
4483 Any other commands in the command list, after a command that resumes
4484 execution, are ignored. This is because any time you resume execution
4485 (even with a simple @code{next} or @code{step}), you may encounter
4486 another breakpoint---which could have its own command list, leading to
4487 ambiguities about which list to execute.
4488
4489 @kindex silent
4490 If the first command you specify in a command list is @code{silent}, the
4491 usual message about stopping at a breakpoint is not printed. This may
4492 be desirable for breakpoints that are to print a specific message and
4493 then continue. If none of the remaining commands print anything, you
4494 see no sign that the breakpoint was reached. @code{silent} is
4495 meaningful only at the beginning of a breakpoint command list.
4496
4497 The commands @code{echo}, @code{output}, and @code{printf} allow you to
4498 print precisely controlled output, and are often useful in silent
4499 breakpoints. @xref{Output, ,Commands for Controlled Output}.
4500
4501 For example, here is how you could use breakpoint commands to print the
4502 value of @code{x} at entry to @code{foo} whenever @code{x} is positive.
4503
4504 @smallexample
4505 break foo if x>0
4506 commands
4507 silent
4508 printf "x is %d\n",x
4509 cont
4510 end
4511 @end smallexample
4512
4513 One application for breakpoint commands is to compensate for one bug so
4514 you can test for another. Put a breakpoint just after the erroneous line
4515 of code, give it a condition to detect the case in which something
4516 erroneous has been done, and give it commands to assign correct values
4517 to any variables that need them. End with the @code{continue} command
4518 so that your program does not stop, and start with the @code{silent}
4519 command so that no output is produced. Here is an example:
4520
4521 @smallexample
4522 break 403
4523 commands
4524 silent
4525 set x = y + 4
4526 cont
4527 end
4528 @end smallexample
4529
4530 @node Save Breakpoints
4531 @subsection How to save breakpoints to a file
4532
4533 To save breakpoint definitions to a file use the @w{@code{save
4534 breakpoints}} command.
4535
4536 @table @code
4537 @kindex save breakpoints
4538 @cindex save breakpoints to a file for future sessions
4539 @item save breakpoints [@var{filename}]
4540 This command saves all current breakpoint definitions together with
4541 their commands and ignore counts, into a file @file{@var{filename}}
4542 suitable for use in a later debugging session. This includes all
4543 types of breakpoints (breakpoints, watchpoints, catchpoints,
4544 tracepoints). To read the saved breakpoint definitions, use the
4545 @code{source} command (@pxref{Command Files}). Note that watchpoints
4546 with expressions involving local variables may fail to be recreated
4547 because it may not be possible to access the context where the
4548 watchpoint is valid anymore. Because the saved breakpoint definitions
4549 are simply a sequence of @value{GDBN} commands that recreate the
4550 breakpoints, you can edit the file in your favorite editing program,
4551 and remove the breakpoint definitions you're not interested in, or
4552 that can no longer be recreated.
4553 @end table
4554
4555 @c @ifclear BARETARGET
4556 @node Error in Breakpoints
4557 @subsection ``Cannot insert breakpoints''
4558
4559 If you request too many active hardware-assisted breakpoints and
4560 watchpoints, you will see this error message:
4561
4562 @c FIXME: the precise wording of this message may change; the relevant
4563 @c source change is not committed yet (Sep 3, 1999).
4564 @smallexample
4565 Stopped; cannot insert breakpoints.
4566 You may have requested too many hardware breakpoints and watchpoints.
4567 @end smallexample
4568
4569 @noindent
4570 This message is printed when you attempt to resume the program, since
4571 only then @value{GDBN} knows exactly how many hardware breakpoints and
4572 watchpoints it needs to insert.
4573
4574 When this message is printed, you need to disable or remove some of the
4575 hardware-assisted breakpoints and watchpoints, and then continue.
4576
4577 @node Breakpoint-related Warnings
4578 @subsection ``Breakpoint address adjusted...''
4579 @cindex breakpoint address adjusted
4580
4581 Some processor architectures place constraints on the addresses at
4582 which breakpoints may be placed. For architectures thus constrained,
4583 @value{GDBN} will attempt to adjust the breakpoint's address to comply
4584 with the constraints dictated by the architecture.
4585
4586 One example of such an architecture is the Fujitsu FR-V. The FR-V is
4587 a VLIW architecture in which a number of RISC-like instructions may be
4588 bundled together for parallel execution. The FR-V architecture
4589 constrains the location of a breakpoint instruction within such a
4590 bundle to the instruction with the lowest address. @value{GDBN}
4591 honors this constraint by adjusting a breakpoint's address to the
4592 first in the bundle.
4593
4594 It is not uncommon for optimized code to have bundles which contain
4595 instructions from different source statements, thus it may happen that
4596 a breakpoint's address will be adjusted from one source statement to
4597 another. Since this adjustment may significantly alter @value{GDBN}'s
4598 breakpoint related behavior from what the user expects, a warning is
4599 printed when the breakpoint is first set and also when the breakpoint
4600 is hit.
4601
4602 A warning like the one below is printed when setting a breakpoint
4603 that's been subject to address adjustment:
4604
4605 @smallexample
4606 warning: Breakpoint address adjusted from 0x00010414 to 0x00010410.
4607 @end smallexample
4608
4609 Such warnings are printed both for user settable and @value{GDBN}'s
4610 internal breakpoints. If you see one of these warnings, you should
4611 verify that a breakpoint set at the adjusted address will have the
4612 desired affect. If not, the breakpoint in question may be removed and
4613 other breakpoints may be set which will have the desired behavior.
4614 E.g., it may be sufficient to place the breakpoint at a later
4615 instruction. A conditional breakpoint may also be useful in some
4616 cases to prevent the breakpoint from triggering too often.
4617
4618 @value{GDBN} will also issue a warning when stopping at one of these
4619 adjusted breakpoints:
4620
4621 @smallexample
4622 warning: Breakpoint 1 address previously adjusted from 0x00010414
4623 to 0x00010410.
4624 @end smallexample
4625
4626 When this warning is encountered, it may be too late to take remedial
4627 action except in cases where the breakpoint is hit earlier or more
4628 frequently than expected.
4629
4630 @node Continuing and Stepping
4631 @section Continuing and Stepping
4632
4633 @cindex stepping
4634 @cindex continuing
4635 @cindex resuming execution
4636 @dfn{Continuing} means resuming program execution until your program
4637 completes normally. In contrast, @dfn{stepping} means executing just
4638 one more ``step'' of your program, where ``step'' may mean either one
4639 line of source code, or one machine instruction (depending on what
4640 particular command you use). Either when continuing or when stepping,
4641 your program may stop even sooner, due to a breakpoint or a signal. (If
4642 it stops due to a signal, you may want to use @code{handle}, or use
4643 @samp{signal 0} to resume execution. @xref{Signals, ,Signals}.)
4644
4645 @table @code
4646 @kindex continue
4647 @kindex c @r{(@code{continue})}
4648 @kindex fg @r{(resume foreground execution)}
4649 @item continue @r{[}@var{ignore-count}@r{]}
4650 @itemx c @r{[}@var{ignore-count}@r{]}
4651 @itemx fg @r{[}@var{ignore-count}@r{]}
4652 Resume program execution, at the address where your program last stopped;
4653 any breakpoints set at that address are bypassed. The optional argument
4654 @var{ignore-count} allows you to specify a further number of times to
4655 ignore a breakpoint at this location; its effect is like that of
4656 @code{ignore} (@pxref{Conditions, ,Break Conditions}).
4657
4658 The argument @var{ignore-count} is meaningful only when your program
4659 stopped due to a breakpoint. At other times, the argument to
4660 @code{continue} is ignored.
4661
4662 The synonyms @code{c} and @code{fg} (for @dfn{foreground}, as the
4663 debugged program is deemed to be the foreground program) are provided
4664 purely for convenience, and have exactly the same behavior as
4665 @code{continue}.
4666 @end table
4667
4668 To resume execution at a different place, you can use @code{return}
4669 (@pxref{Returning, ,Returning from a Function}) to go back to the
4670 calling function; or @code{jump} (@pxref{Jumping, ,Continuing at a
4671 Different Address}) to go to an arbitrary location in your program.
4672
4673 A typical technique for using stepping is to set a breakpoint
4674 (@pxref{Breakpoints, ,Breakpoints; Watchpoints; and Catchpoints}) at the
4675 beginning of the function or the section of your program where a problem
4676 is believed to lie, run your program until it stops at that breakpoint,
4677 and then step through the suspect area, examining the variables that are
4678 interesting, until you see the problem happen.
4679
4680 @table @code
4681 @kindex step
4682 @kindex s @r{(@code{step})}
4683 @item step
4684 Continue running your program until control reaches a different source
4685 line, then stop it and return control to @value{GDBN}. This command is
4686 abbreviated @code{s}.
4687
4688 @quotation
4689 @c "without debugging information" is imprecise; actually "without line
4690 @c numbers in the debugging information". (gcc -g1 has debugging info but
4691 @c not line numbers). But it seems complex to try to make that
4692 @c distinction here.
4693 @emph{Warning:} If you use the @code{step} command while control is
4694 within a function that was compiled without debugging information,
4695 execution proceeds until control reaches a function that does have
4696 debugging information. Likewise, it will not step into a function which
4697 is compiled without debugging information. To step through functions
4698 without debugging information, use the @code{stepi} command, described
4699 below.
4700 @end quotation
4701
4702 The @code{step} command only stops at the first instruction of a source
4703 line. This prevents the multiple stops that could otherwise occur in
4704 @code{switch} statements, @code{for} loops, etc. @code{step} continues
4705 to stop if a function that has debugging information is called within
4706 the line. In other words, @code{step} @emph{steps inside} any functions
4707 called within the line.
4708
4709 Also, the @code{step} command only enters a function if there is line
4710 number information for the function. Otherwise it acts like the
4711 @code{next} command. This avoids problems when using @code{cc -gl}
4712 on MIPS machines. Previously, @code{step} entered subroutines if there
4713 was any debugging information about the routine.
4714
4715 @item step @var{count}
4716 Continue running as in @code{step}, but do so @var{count} times. If a
4717 breakpoint is reached, or a signal not related to stepping occurs before
4718 @var{count} steps, stepping stops right away.
4719
4720 @kindex next
4721 @kindex n @r{(@code{next})}
4722 @item next @r{[}@var{count}@r{]}
4723 Continue to the next source line in the current (innermost) stack frame.
4724 This is similar to @code{step}, but function calls that appear within
4725 the line of code are executed without stopping. Execution stops when
4726 control reaches a different line of code at the original stack level
4727 that was executing when you gave the @code{next} command. This command
4728 is abbreviated @code{n}.
4729
4730 An argument @var{count} is a repeat count, as for @code{step}.
4731
4732
4733 @c FIX ME!! Do we delete this, or is there a way it fits in with
4734 @c the following paragraph? --- Vctoria
4735 @c
4736 @c @code{next} within a function that lacks debugging information acts like
4737 @c @code{step}, but any function calls appearing within the code of the
4738 @c function are executed without stopping.
4739
4740 The @code{next} command only stops at the first instruction of a
4741 source line. This prevents multiple stops that could otherwise occur in
4742 @code{switch} statements, @code{for} loops, etc.
4743
4744 @kindex set step-mode
4745 @item set step-mode
4746 @cindex functions without line info, and stepping
4747 @cindex stepping into functions with no line info
4748 @itemx set step-mode on
4749 The @code{set step-mode on} command causes the @code{step} command to
4750 stop at the first instruction of a function which contains no debug line
4751 information rather than stepping over it.
4752
4753 This is useful in cases where you may be interested in inspecting the
4754 machine instructions of a function which has no symbolic info and do not
4755 want @value{GDBN} to automatically skip over this function.
4756
4757 @item set step-mode off
4758 Causes the @code{step} command to step over any functions which contains no
4759 debug information. This is the default.
4760
4761 @item show step-mode
4762 Show whether @value{GDBN} will stop in or step over functions without
4763 source line debug information.
4764
4765 @kindex finish
4766 @kindex fin @r{(@code{finish})}
4767 @item finish
4768 Continue running until just after function in the selected stack frame
4769 returns. Print the returned value (if any). This command can be
4770 abbreviated as @code{fin}.
4771
4772 Contrast this with the @code{return} command (@pxref{Returning,
4773 ,Returning from a Function}).
4774
4775 @kindex until
4776 @kindex u @r{(@code{until})}
4777 @cindex run until specified location
4778 @item until
4779 @itemx u
4780 Continue running until a source line past the current line, in the
4781 current stack frame, is reached. This command is used to avoid single
4782 stepping through a loop more than once. It is like the @code{next}
4783 command, except that when @code{until} encounters a jump, it
4784 automatically continues execution until the program counter is greater
4785 than the address of the jump.
4786
4787 This means that when you reach the end of a loop after single stepping
4788 though it, @code{until} makes your program continue execution until it
4789 exits the loop. In contrast, a @code{next} command at the end of a loop
4790 simply steps back to the beginning of the loop, which forces you to step
4791 through the next iteration.
4792
4793 @code{until} always stops your program if it attempts to exit the current
4794 stack frame.
4795
4796 @code{until} may produce somewhat counterintuitive results if the order
4797 of machine code does not match the order of the source lines. For
4798 example, in the following excerpt from a debugging session, the @code{f}
4799 (@code{frame}) command shows that execution is stopped at line
4800 @code{206}; yet when we use @code{until}, we get to line @code{195}:
4801
4802 @smallexample
4803 (@value{GDBP}) f
4804 #0 main (argc=4, argv=0xf7fffae8) at m4.c:206
4805 206 expand_input();
4806 (@value{GDBP}) until
4807 195 for ( ; argc > 0; NEXTARG) @{
4808 @end smallexample
4809
4810 This happened because, for execution efficiency, the compiler had
4811 generated code for the loop closure test at the end, rather than the
4812 start, of the loop---even though the test in a C @code{for}-loop is
4813 written before the body of the loop. The @code{until} command appeared
4814 to step back to the beginning of the loop when it advanced to this
4815 expression; however, it has not really gone to an earlier
4816 statement---not in terms of the actual machine code.
4817
4818 @code{until} with no argument works by means of single
4819 instruction stepping, and hence is slower than @code{until} with an
4820 argument.
4821
4822 @item until @var{location}
4823 @itemx u @var{location}
4824 Continue running your program until either the specified location is
4825 reached, or the current stack frame returns. @var{location} is any of
4826 the forms described in @ref{Specify Location}.
4827 This form of the command uses temporary breakpoints, and
4828 hence is quicker than @code{until} without an argument. The specified
4829 location is actually reached only if it is in the current frame. This
4830 implies that @code{until} can be used to skip over recursive function
4831 invocations. For instance in the code below, if the current location is
4832 line @code{96}, issuing @code{until 99} will execute the program up to
4833 line @code{99} in the same invocation of factorial, i.e., after the inner
4834 invocations have returned.
4835
4836 @smallexample
4837 94 int factorial (int value)
4838 95 @{
4839 96 if (value > 1) @{
4840 97 value *= factorial (value - 1);
4841 98 @}
4842 99 return (value);
4843 100 @}
4844 @end smallexample
4845
4846
4847 @kindex advance @var{location}
4848 @itemx advance @var{location}
4849 Continue running the program up to the given @var{location}. An argument is
4850 required, which should be of one of the forms described in
4851 @ref{Specify Location}.
4852 Execution will also stop upon exit from the current stack
4853 frame. This command is similar to @code{until}, but @code{advance} will
4854 not skip over recursive function calls, and the target location doesn't
4855 have to be in the same frame as the current one.
4856
4857
4858 @kindex stepi
4859 @kindex si @r{(@code{stepi})}
4860 @item stepi
4861 @itemx stepi @var{arg}
4862 @itemx si
4863 Execute one machine instruction, then stop and return to the debugger.
4864
4865 It is often useful to do @samp{display/i $pc} when stepping by machine
4866 instructions. This makes @value{GDBN} automatically display the next
4867 instruction to be executed, each time your program stops. @xref{Auto
4868 Display,, Automatic Display}.
4869
4870 An argument is a repeat count, as in @code{step}.
4871
4872 @need 750
4873 @kindex nexti
4874 @kindex ni @r{(@code{nexti})}
4875 @item nexti
4876 @itemx nexti @var{arg}
4877 @itemx ni
4878 Execute one machine instruction, but if it is a function call,
4879 proceed until the function returns.
4880
4881 An argument is a repeat count, as in @code{next}.
4882 @end table
4883
4884 @node Skipping Over Functions and Files
4885 @section Skipping Over Functions and Files
4886 @cindex skipping over functions and files
4887
4888 The program you are debugging may contain some functions which are
4889 uninteresting to debug. The @code{skip} comand lets you tell @value{GDBN} to
4890 skip a function or all functions in a file when stepping.
4891
4892 For example, consider the following C function:
4893
4894 @smallexample
4895 101 int func()
4896 102 @{
4897 103 foo(boring());
4898 104 bar(boring());
4899 105 @}
4900 @end smallexample
4901
4902 @noindent
4903 Suppose you wish to step into the functions @code{foo} and @code{bar}, but you
4904 are not interested in stepping through @code{boring}. If you run @code{step}
4905 at line 103, you'll enter @code{boring()}, but if you run @code{next}, you'll
4906 step over both @code{foo} and @code{boring}!
4907
4908 One solution is to @code{step} into @code{boring} and use the @code{finish}
4909 command to immediately exit it. But this can become tedious if @code{boring}
4910 is called from many places.
4911
4912 A more flexible solution is to execute @kbd{skip boring}. This instructs
4913 @value{GDBN} never to step into @code{boring}. Now when you execute
4914 @code{step} at line 103, you'll step over @code{boring} and directly into
4915 @code{foo}.
4916
4917 You can also instruct @value{GDBN} to skip all functions in a file, with, for
4918 example, @code{skip file boring.c}.
4919
4920 @table @code
4921 @kindex skip function
4922 @item skip @r{[}@var{linespec}@r{]}
4923 @itemx skip function @r{[}@var{linespec}@r{]}
4924 After running this command, the function named by @var{linespec} or the
4925 function containing the line named by @var{linespec} will be skipped over when
4926 stepping. @xref{Specify Location}.
4927
4928 If you do not specify @var{linespec}, the function you're currently debugging
4929 will be skipped.
4930
4931 (If you have a function called @code{file} that you want to skip, use
4932 @kbd{skip function file}.)
4933
4934 @kindex skip file
4935 @item skip file @r{[}@var{filename}@r{]}
4936 After running this command, any function whose source lives in @var{filename}
4937 will be skipped over when stepping.
4938
4939 If you do not specify @var{filename}, functions whose source lives in the file
4940 you're currently debugging will be skipped.
4941 @end table
4942
4943 Skips can be listed, deleted, disabled, and enabled, much like breakpoints.
4944 These are the commands for managing your list of skips:
4945
4946 @table @code
4947 @kindex info skip
4948 @item info skip @r{[}@var{range}@r{]}
4949 Print details about the specified skip(s). If @var{range} is not specified,
4950 print a table with details about all functions and files marked for skipping.
4951 @code{info skip} prints the following information about each skip:
4952
4953 @table @emph
4954 @item Identifier
4955 A number identifying this skip.
4956 @item Type
4957 The type of this skip, either @samp{function} or @samp{file}.
4958 @item Enabled or Disabled
4959 Enabled skips are marked with @samp{y}. Disabled skips are marked with @samp{n}.
4960 @item Address
4961 For function skips, this column indicates the address in memory of the function
4962 being skipped. If you've set a function skip on a function which has not yet
4963 been loaded, this field will contain @samp{<PENDING>}. Once a shared library
4964 which has the function is loaded, @code{info skip} will show the function's
4965 address here.
4966 @item What
4967 For file skips, this field contains the filename being skipped. For functions
4968 skips, this field contains the function name and its line number in the file
4969 where it is defined.
4970 @end table
4971
4972 @kindex skip delete
4973 @item skip delete @r{[}@var{range}@r{]}
4974 Delete the specified skip(s). If @var{range} is not specified, delete all
4975 skips.
4976
4977 @kindex skip enable
4978 @item skip enable @r{[}@var{range}@r{]}
4979 Enable the specified skip(s). If @var{range} is not specified, enable all
4980 skips.
4981
4982 @kindex skip disable
4983 @item skip disable @r{[}@var{range}@r{]}
4984 Disable the specified skip(s). If @var{range} is not specified, disable all
4985 skips.
4986
4987 @end table
4988
4989 @node Signals
4990 @section Signals
4991 @cindex signals
4992
4993 A signal is an asynchronous event that can happen in a program. The
4994 operating system defines the possible kinds of signals, and gives each
4995 kind a name and a number. For example, in Unix @code{SIGINT} is the
4996 signal a program gets when you type an interrupt character (often @kbd{Ctrl-c});
4997 @code{SIGSEGV} is the signal a program gets from referencing a place in
4998 memory far away from all the areas in use; @code{SIGALRM} occurs when
4999 the alarm clock timer goes off (which happens only if your program has
5000 requested an alarm).
5001
5002 @cindex fatal signals
5003 Some signals, including @code{SIGALRM}, are a normal part of the
5004 functioning of your program. Others, such as @code{SIGSEGV}, indicate
5005 errors; these signals are @dfn{fatal} (they kill your program immediately) if the
5006 program has not specified in advance some other way to handle the signal.
5007 @code{SIGINT} does not indicate an error in your program, but it is normally
5008 fatal so it can carry out the purpose of the interrupt: to kill the program.
5009
5010 @value{GDBN} has the ability to detect any occurrence of a signal in your
5011 program. You can tell @value{GDBN} in advance what to do for each kind of
5012 signal.
5013
5014 @cindex handling signals
5015 Normally, @value{GDBN} is set up to let the non-erroneous signals like
5016 @code{SIGALRM} be silently passed to your program
5017 (so as not to interfere with their role in the program's functioning)
5018 but to stop your program immediately whenever an error signal happens.
5019 You can change these settings with the @code{handle} command.
5020
5021 @table @code
5022 @kindex info signals
5023 @kindex info handle
5024 @item info signals
5025 @itemx info handle
5026 Print a table of all the kinds of signals and how @value{GDBN} has been told to
5027 handle each one. You can use this to see the signal numbers of all
5028 the defined types of signals.
5029
5030 @item info signals @var{sig}
5031 Similar, but print information only about the specified signal number.
5032
5033 @code{info handle} is an alias for @code{info signals}.
5034
5035 @kindex handle
5036 @item handle @var{signal} @r{[}@var{keywords}@dots{}@r{]}
5037 Change the way @value{GDBN} handles signal @var{signal}. @var{signal}
5038 can be the number of a signal or its name (with or without the
5039 @samp{SIG} at the beginning); a list of signal numbers of the form
5040 @samp{@var{low}-@var{high}}; or the word @samp{all}, meaning all the
5041 known signals. Optional arguments @var{keywords}, described below,
5042 say what change to make.
5043 @end table
5044
5045 @c @group
5046 The keywords allowed by the @code{handle} command can be abbreviated.
5047 Their full names are:
5048
5049 @table @code
5050 @item nostop
5051 @value{GDBN} should not stop your program when this signal happens. It may
5052 still print a message telling you that the signal has come in.
5053
5054 @item stop
5055 @value{GDBN} should stop your program when this signal happens. This implies
5056 the @code{print} keyword as well.
5057
5058 @item print
5059 @value{GDBN} should print a message when this signal happens.
5060
5061 @item noprint
5062 @value{GDBN} should not mention the occurrence of the signal at all. This
5063 implies the @code{nostop} keyword as well.
5064
5065 @item pass
5066 @itemx noignore
5067 @value{GDBN} should allow your program to see this signal; your program
5068 can handle the signal, or else it may terminate if the signal is fatal
5069 and not handled. @code{pass} and @code{noignore} are synonyms.
5070
5071 @item nopass
5072 @itemx ignore
5073 @value{GDBN} should not allow your program to see this signal.
5074 @code{nopass} and @code{ignore} are synonyms.
5075 @end table
5076 @c @end group
5077
5078 When a signal stops your program, the signal is not visible to the
5079 program until you
5080 continue. Your program sees the signal then, if @code{pass} is in
5081 effect for the signal in question @emph{at that time}. In other words,
5082 after @value{GDBN} reports a signal, you can use the @code{handle}
5083 command with @code{pass} or @code{nopass} to control whether your
5084 program sees that signal when you continue.
5085
5086 The default is set to @code{nostop}, @code{noprint}, @code{pass} for
5087 non-erroneous signals such as @code{SIGALRM}, @code{SIGWINCH} and
5088 @code{SIGCHLD}, and to @code{stop}, @code{print}, @code{pass} for the
5089 erroneous signals.
5090
5091 You can also use the @code{signal} command to prevent your program from
5092 seeing a signal, or cause it to see a signal it normally would not see,
5093 or to give it any signal at any time. For example, if your program stopped
5094 due to some sort of memory reference error, you might store correct
5095 values into the erroneous variables and continue, hoping to see more
5096 execution; but your program would probably terminate immediately as
5097 a result of the fatal signal once it saw the signal. To prevent this,
5098 you can continue with @samp{signal 0}. @xref{Signaling, ,Giving your
5099 Program a Signal}.
5100
5101 @cindex extra signal information
5102 @anchor{extra signal information}
5103
5104 On some targets, @value{GDBN} can inspect extra signal information
5105 associated with the intercepted signal, before it is actually
5106 delivered to the program being debugged. This information is exported
5107 by the convenience variable @code{$_siginfo}, and consists of data
5108 that is passed by the kernel to the signal handler at the time of the
5109 receipt of a signal. The data type of the information itself is
5110 target dependent. You can see the data type using the @code{ptype
5111 $_siginfo} command. On Unix systems, it typically corresponds to the
5112 standard @code{siginfo_t} type, as defined in the @file{signal.h}
5113 system header.
5114
5115 Here's an example, on a @sc{gnu}/Linux system, printing the stray
5116 referenced address that raised a segmentation fault.
5117
5118 @smallexample
5119 @group
5120 (@value{GDBP}) continue
5121 Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
5122 0x0000000000400766 in main ()
5123 69 *(int *)p = 0;
5124 (@value{GDBP}) ptype $_siginfo
5125 type = struct @{
5126 int si_signo;
5127 int si_errno;
5128 int si_code;
5129 union @{
5130 int _pad[28];
5131 struct @{...@} _kill;
5132 struct @{...@} _timer;
5133 struct @{...@} _rt;
5134 struct @{...@} _sigchld;
5135 struct @{...@} _sigfault;
5136 struct @{...@} _sigpoll;
5137 @} _sifields;
5138 @}
5139 (@value{GDBP}) ptype $_siginfo._sifields._sigfault
5140 type = struct @{
5141 void *si_addr;
5142 @}
5143 (@value{GDBP}) p $_siginfo._sifields._sigfault.si_addr
5144 $1 = (void *) 0x7ffff7ff7000
5145 @end group
5146 @end smallexample
5147
5148 Depending on target support, @code{$_siginfo} may also be writable.
5149
5150 @node Thread Stops
5151 @section Stopping and Starting Multi-thread Programs
5152
5153 @cindex stopped threads
5154 @cindex threads, stopped
5155
5156 @cindex continuing threads
5157 @cindex threads, continuing
5158
5159 @value{GDBN} supports debugging programs with multiple threads
5160 (@pxref{Threads,, Debugging Programs with Multiple Threads}). There
5161 are two modes of controlling execution of your program within the
5162 debugger. In the default mode, referred to as @dfn{all-stop mode},
5163 when any thread in your program stops (for example, at a breakpoint
5164 or while being stepped), all other threads in the program are also stopped by
5165 @value{GDBN}. On some targets, @value{GDBN} also supports
5166 @dfn{non-stop mode}, in which other threads can continue to run freely while
5167 you examine the stopped thread in the debugger.
5168
5169 @menu
5170 * All-Stop Mode:: All threads stop when GDB takes control
5171 * Non-Stop Mode:: Other threads continue to execute
5172 * Background Execution:: Running your program asynchronously
5173 * Thread-Specific Breakpoints:: Controlling breakpoints
5174 * Interrupted System Calls:: GDB may interfere with system calls
5175 * Observer Mode:: GDB does not alter program behavior
5176 @end menu
5177
5178 @node All-Stop Mode
5179 @subsection All-Stop Mode
5180
5181 @cindex all-stop mode
5182
5183 In all-stop mode, whenever your program stops under @value{GDBN} for any reason,
5184 @emph{all} threads of execution stop, not just the current thread. This
5185 allows you to examine the overall state of the program, including
5186 switching between threads, without worrying that things may change
5187 underfoot.
5188
5189 Conversely, whenever you restart the program, @emph{all} threads start
5190 executing. @emph{This is true even when single-stepping} with commands
5191 like @code{step} or @code{next}.
5192
5193 In particular, @value{GDBN} cannot single-step all threads in lockstep.
5194 Since thread scheduling is up to your debugging target's operating
5195 system (not controlled by @value{GDBN}), other threads may
5196 execute more than one statement while the current thread completes a
5197 single step. Moreover, in general other threads stop in the middle of a
5198 statement, rather than at a clean statement boundary, when the program
5199 stops.
5200
5201 You might even find your program stopped in another thread after
5202 continuing or even single-stepping. This happens whenever some other
5203 thread runs into a breakpoint, a signal, or an exception before the
5204 first thread completes whatever you requested.
5205
5206 @cindex automatic thread selection
5207 @cindex switching threads automatically
5208 @cindex threads, automatic switching
5209 Whenever @value{GDBN} stops your program, due to a breakpoint or a
5210 signal, it automatically selects the thread where that breakpoint or
5211 signal happened. @value{GDBN} alerts you to the context switch with a
5212 message such as @samp{[Switching to Thread @var{n}]} to identify the
5213 thread.
5214
5215 On some OSes, you can modify @value{GDBN}'s default behavior by
5216 locking the OS scheduler to allow only a single thread to run.
5217
5218 @table @code
5219 @item set scheduler-locking @var{mode}
5220 @cindex scheduler locking mode
5221 @cindex lock scheduler
5222 Set the scheduler locking mode. If it is @code{off}, then there is no
5223 locking and any thread may run at any time. If @code{on}, then only the
5224 current thread may run when the inferior is resumed. The @code{step}
5225 mode optimizes for single-stepping; it prevents other threads
5226 from preempting the current thread while you are stepping, so that
5227 the focus of debugging does not change unexpectedly.
5228 Other threads only rarely (or never) get a chance to run
5229 when you step. They are more likely to run when you @samp{next} over a
5230 function call, and they are completely free to run when you use commands
5231 like @samp{continue}, @samp{until}, or @samp{finish}. However, unless another
5232 thread hits a breakpoint during its timeslice, @value{GDBN} does not change
5233 the current thread away from the thread that you are debugging.
5234
5235 @item show scheduler-locking
5236 Display the current scheduler locking mode.
5237 @end table
5238
5239 @cindex resume threads of multiple processes simultaneously
5240 By default, when you issue one of the execution commands such as
5241 @code{continue}, @code{next} or @code{step}, @value{GDBN} allows only
5242 threads of the current inferior to run. For example, if @value{GDBN}
5243 is attached to two inferiors, each with two threads, the
5244 @code{continue} command resumes only the two threads of the current
5245 inferior. This is useful, for example, when you debug a program that
5246 forks and you want to hold the parent stopped (so that, for instance,
5247 it doesn't run to exit), while you debug the child. In other
5248 situations, you may not be interested in inspecting the current state
5249 of any of the processes @value{GDBN} is attached to, and you may want
5250 to resume them all until some breakpoint is hit. In the latter case,
5251 you can instruct @value{GDBN} to allow all threads of all the
5252 inferiors to run with the @w{@code{set schedule-multiple}} command.
5253
5254 @table @code
5255 @kindex set schedule-multiple
5256 @item set schedule-multiple
5257 Set the mode for allowing threads of multiple processes to be resumed
5258 when an execution command is issued. When @code{on}, all threads of
5259 all processes are allowed to run. When @code{off}, only the threads
5260 of the current process are resumed. The default is @code{off}. The
5261 @code{scheduler-locking} mode takes precedence when set to @code{on},
5262 or while you are stepping and set to @code{step}.
5263
5264 @item show schedule-multiple
5265 Display the current mode for resuming the execution of threads of
5266 multiple processes.
5267 @end table
5268
5269 @node Non-Stop Mode
5270 @subsection Non-Stop Mode
5271
5272 @cindex non-stop mode
5273
5274 @c This section is really only a place-holder, and needs to be expanded
5275 @c with more details.
5276
5277 For some multi-threaded targets, @value{GDBN} supports an optional
5278 mode of operation in which you can examine stopped program threads in
5279 the debugger while other threads continue to execute freely. This
5280 minimizes intrusion when debugging live systems, such as programs
5281 where some threads have real-time constraints or must continue to
5282 respond to external events. This is referred to as @dfn{non-stop} mode.
5283
5284 In non-stop mode, when a thread stops to report a debugging event,
5285 @emph{only} that thread is stopped; @value{GDBN} does not stop other
5286 threads as well, in contrast to the all-stop mode behavior. Additionally,
5287 execution commands such as @code{continue} and @code{step} apply by default
5288 only to the current thread in non-stop mode, rather than all threads as
5289 in all-stop mode. This allows you to control threads explicitly in
5290 ways that are not possible in all-stop mode --- for example, stepping
5291 one thread while allowing others to run freely, stepping
5292 one thread while holding all others stopped, or stepping several threads
5293 independently and simultaneously.
5294
5295 To enter non-stop mode, use this sequence of commands before you run
5296 or attach to your program:
5297
5298 @smallexample
5299 # Enable the async interface.
5300 set target-async 1
5301
5302 # If using the CLI, pagination breaks non-stop.
5303 set pagination off
5304
5305 # Finally, turn it on!
5306 set non-stop on
5307 @end smallexample
5308
5309 You can use these commands to manipulate the non-stop mode setting:
5310
5311 @table @code
5312 @kindex set non-stop
5313 @item set non-stop on
5314 Enable selection of non-stop mode.
5315 @item set non-stop off
5316 Disable selection of non-stop mode.
5317 @kindex show non-stop
5318 @item show non-stop
5319 Show the current non-stop enablement setting.
5320 @end table
5321
5322 Note these commands only reflect whether non-stop mode is enabled,
5323 not whether the currently-executing program is being run in non-stop mode.
5324 In particular, the @code{set non-stop} preference is only consulted when
5325 @value{GDBN} starts or connects to the target program, and it is generally
5326 not possible to switch modes once debugging has started. Furthermore,
5327 since not all targets support non-stop mode, even when you have enabled
5328 non-stop mode, @value{GDBN} may still fall back to all-stop operation by
5329 default.
5330
5331 In non-stop mode, all execution commands apply only to the current thread
5332 by default. That is, @code{continue} only continues one thread.
5333 To continue all threads, issue @code{continue -a} or @code{c -a}.
5334
5335 You can use @value{GDBN}'s background execution commands
5336 (@pxref{Background Execution}) to run some threads in the background
5337 while you continue to examine or step others from @value{GDBN}.
5338 The MI execution commands (@pxref{GDB/MI Program Execution}) are
5339 always executed asynchronously in non-stop mode.
5340
5341 Suspending execution is done with the @code{interrupt} command when
5342 running in the background, or @kbd{Ctrl-c} during foreground execution.
5343 In all-stop mode, this stops the whole process;
5344 but in non-stop mode the interrupt applies only to the current thread.
5345 To stop the whole program, use @code{interrupt -a}.
5346
5347 Other execution commands do not currently support the @code{-a} option.
5348
5349 In non-stop mode, when a thread stops, @value{GDBN} doesn't automatically make
5350 that thread current, as it does in all-stop mode. This is because the
5351 thread stop notifications are asynchronous with respect to @value{GDBN}'s
5352 command interpreter, and it would be confusing if @value{GDBN} unexpectedly
5353 changed to a different thread just as you entered a command to operate on the
5354 previously current thread.
5355
5356 @node Background Execution
5357 @subsection Background Execution
5358
5359 @cindex foreground execution
5360 @cindex background execution
5361 @cindex asynchronous execution
5362 @cindex execution, foreground, background and asynchronous
5363
5364 @value{GDBN}'s execution commands have two variants: the normal
5365 foreground (synchronous) behavior, and a background
5366 (asynchronous) behavior. In foreground execution, @value{GDBN} waits for
5367 the program to report that some thread has stopped before prompting for
5368 another command. In background execution, @value{GDBN} immediately gives
5369 a command prompt so that you can issue other commands while your program runs.
5370
5371 You need to explicitly enable asynchronous mode before you can use
5372 background execution commands. You can use these commands to
5373 manipulate the asynchronous mode setting:
5374
5375 @table @code
5376 @kindex set target-async
5377 @item set target-async on
5378 Enable asynchronous mode.
5379 @item set target-async off
5380 Disable asynchronous mode.
5381 @kindex show target-async
5382 @item show target-async
5383 Show the current target-async setting.
5384 @end table
5385
5386 If the target doesn't support async mode, @value{GDBN} issues an error
5387 message if you attempt to use the background execution commands.
5388
5389 To specify background execution, add a @code{&} to the command. For example,
5390 the background form of the @code{continue} command is @code{continue&}, or
5391 just @code{c&}. The execution commands that accept background execution
5392 are:
5393
5394 @table @code
5395 @kindex run&
5396 @item run
5397 @xref{Starting, , Starting your Program}.
5398
5399 @item attach
5400 @kindex attach&
5401 @xref{Attach, , Debugging an Already-running Process}.
5402
5403 @item step
5404 @kindex step&
5405 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, step}.
5406
5407 @item stepi
5408 @kindex stepi&
5409 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, stepi}.
5410
5411 @item next
5412 @kindex next&
5413 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, next}.
5414
5415 @item nexti
5416 @kindex nexti&
5417 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, nexti}.
5418
5419 @item continue
5420 @kindex continue&
5421 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, continue}.
5422
5423 @item finish
5424 @kindex finish&
5425 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, finish}.
5426
5427 @item until
5428 @kindex until&
5429 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, until}.
5430
5431 @end table
5432
5433 Background execution is especially useful in conjunction with non-stop
5434 mode for debugging programs with multiple threads; see @ref{Non-Stop Mode}.
5435 However, you can also use these commands in the normal all-stop mode with
5436 the restriction that you cannot issue another execution command until the
5437 previous one finishes. Examples of commands that are valid in all-stop
5438 mode while the program is running include @code{help} and @code{info break}.
5439
5440 You can interrupt your program while it is running in the background by
5441 using the @code{interrupt} command.
5442
5443 @table @code
5444 @kindex interrupt
5445 @item interrupt
5446 @itemx interrupt -a
5447
5448 Suspend execution of the running program. In all-stop mode,
5449 @code{interrupt} stops the whole process, but in non-stop mode, it stops
5450 only the current thread. To stop the whole program in non-stop mode,
5451 use @code{interrupt -a}.
5452 @end table
5453
5454 @node Thread-Specific Breakpoints
5455 @subsection Thread-Specific Breakpoints
5456
5457 When your program has multiple threads (@pxref{Threads,, Debugging
5458 Programs with Multiple Threads}), you can choose whether to set
5459 breakpoints on all threads, or on a particular thread.
5460
5461 @table @code
5462 @cindex breakpoints and threads
5463 @cindex thread breakpoints
5464 @kindex break @dots{} thread @var{threadno}
5465 @item break @var{linespec} thread @var{threadno}
5466 @itemx break @var{linespec} thread @var{threadno} if @dots{}
5467 @var{linespec} specifies source lines; there are several ways of
5468 writing them (@pxref{Specify Location}), but the effect is always to
5469 specify some source line.
5470
5471 Use the qualifier @samp{thread @var{threadno}} with a breakpoint command
5472 to specify that you only want @value{GDBN} to stop the program when a
5473 particular thread reaches this breakpoint. @var{threadno} is one of the
5474 numeric thread identifiers assigned by @value{GDBN}, shown in the first
5475 column of the @samp{info threads} display.
5476
5477 If you do not specify @samp{thread @var{threadno}} when you set a
5478 breakpoint, the breakpoint applies to @emph{all} threads of your
5479 program.
5480
5481 You can use the @code{thread} qualifier on conditional breakpoints as
5482 well; in this case, place @samp{thread @var{threadno}} before or
5483 after the breakpoint condition, like this:
5484
5485 @smallexample
5486 (@value{GDBP}) break frik.c:13 thread 28 if bartab > lim
5487 @end smallexample
5488
5489 @end table
5490
5491 @node Interrupted System Calls
5492 @subsection Interrupted System Calls
5493
5494 @cindex thread breakpoints and system calls
5495 @cindex system calls and thread breakpoints
5496 @cindex premature return from system calls
5497 There is an unfortunate side effect when using @value{GDBN} to debug
5498 multi-threaded programs. If one thread stops for a
5499 breakpoint, or for some other reason, and another thread is blocked in a
5500 system call, then the system call may return prematurely. This is a
5501 consequence of the interaction between multiple threads and the signals
5502 that @value{GDBN} uses to implement breakpoints and other events that
5503 stop execution.
5504
5505 To handle this problem, your program should check the return value of
5506 each system call and react appropriately. This is good programming
5507 style anyways.
5508
5509 For example, do not write code like this:
5510
5511 @smallexample
5512 sleep (10);
5513 @end smallexample
5514
5515 The call to @code{sleep} will return early if a different thread stops
5516 at a breakpoint or for some other reason.
5517
5518 Instead, write this:
5519
5520 @smallexample
5521 int unslept = 10;
5522 while (unslept > 0)
5523 unslept = sleep (unslept);
5524 @end smallexample
5525
5526 A system call is allowed to return early, so the system is still
5527 conforming to its specification. But @value{GDBN} does cause your
5528 multi-threaded program to behave differently than it would without
5529 @value{GDBN}.
5530
5531 Also, @value{GDBN} uses internal breakpoints in the thread library to
5532 monitor certain events such as thread creation and thread destruction.
5533 When such an event happens, a system call in another thread may return
5534 prematurely, even though your program does not appear to stop.
5535
5536 @node Observer Mode
5537 @subsection Observer Mode
5538
5539 If you want to build on non-stop mode and observe program behavior
5540 without any chance of disruption by @value{GDBN}, you can set
5541 variables to disable all of the debugger's attempts to modify state,
5542 whether by writing memory, inserting breakpoints, etc. These operate
5543 at a low level, intercepting operations from all commands.
5544
5545 When all of these are set to @code{off}, then @value{GDBN} is said to
5546 be @dfn{observer mode}. As a convenience, the variable
5547 @code{observer} can be set to disable these, plus enable non-stop
5548 mode.
5549
5550 Note that @value{GDBN} will not prevent you from making nonsensical
5551 combinations of these settings. For instance, if you have enabled
5552 @code{may-insert-breakpoints} but disabled @code{may-write-memory},
5553 then breakpoints that work by writing trap instructions into the code
5554 stream will still not be able to be placed.
5555
5556 @table @code
5557
5558 @kindex observer
5559 @item set observer on
5560 @itemx set observer off
5561 When set to @code{on}, this disables all the permission variables
5562 below (except for @code{insert-fast-tracepoints}), plus enables
5563 non-stop debugging. Setting this to @code{off} switches back to
5564 normal debugging, though remaining in non-stop mode.
5565
5566 @item show observer
5567 Show whether observer mode is on or off.
5568
5569 @kindex may-write-registers
5570 @item set may-write-registers on
5571 @itemx set may-write-registers off
5572 This controls whether @value{GDBN} will attempt to alter the values of
5573 registers, such as with assignment expressions in @code{print}, or the
5574 @code{jump} command. It defaults to @code{on}.
5575
5576 @item show may-write-registers
5577 Show the current permission to write registers.
5578
5579 @kindex may-write-memory
5580 @item set may-write-memory on
5581 @itemx set may-write-memory off
5582 This controls whether @value{GDBN} will attempt to alter the contents
5583 of memory, such as with assignment expressions in @code{print}. It
5584 defaults to @code{on}.
5585
5586 @item show may-write-memory
5587 Show the current permission to write memory.
5588
5589 @kindex may-insert-breakpoints
5590 @item set may-insert-breakpoints on
5591 @itemx set may-insert-breakpoints off
5592 This controls whether @value{GDBN} will attempt to insert breakpoints.
5593 This affects all breakpoints, including internal breakpoints defined
5594 by @value{GDBN}. It defaults to @code{on}.
5595
5596 @item show may-insert-breakpoints
5597 Show the current permission to insert breakpoints.
5598
5599 @kindex may-insert-tracepoints
5600 @item set may-insert-tracepoints on
5601 @itemx set may-insert-tracepoints off
5602 This controls whether @value{GDBN} will attempt to insert (regular)
5603 tracepoints at the beginning of a tracing experiment. It affects only
5604 non-fast tracepoints, fast tracepoints being under the control of
5605 @code{may-insert-fast-tracepoints}. It defaults to @code{on}.
5606
5607 @item show may-insert-tracepoints
5608 Show the current permission to insert tracepoints.
5609
5610 @kindex may-insert-fast-tracepoints
5611 @item set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on
5612 @itemx set may-insert-fast-tracepoints off
5613 This controls whether @value{GDBN} will attempt to insert fast
5614 tracepoints at the beginning of a tracing experiment. It affects only
5615 fast tracepoints, regular (non-fast) tracepoints being under the
5616 control of @code{may-insert-tracepoints}. It defaults to @code{on}.
5617
5618 @item show may-insert-fast-tracepoints
5619 Show the current permission to insert fast tracepoints.
5620
5621 @kindex may-interrupt
5622 @item set may-interrupt on
5623 @itemx set may-interrupt off
5624 This controls whether @value{GDBN} will attempt to interrupt or stop
5625 program execution. When this variable is @code{off}, the
5626 @code{interrupt} command will have no effect, nor will
5627 @kbd{Ctrl-c}. It defaults to @code{on}.
5628
5629 @item show may-interrupt
5630 Show the current permission to interrupt or stop the program.
5631
5632 @end table
5633
5634 @node Reverse Execution
5635 @chapter Running programs backward
5636 @cindex reverse execution
5637 @cindex running programs backward
5638
5639 When you are debugging a program, it is not unusual to realize that
5640 you have gone too far, and some event of interest has already happened.
5641 If the target environment supports it, @value{GDBN} can allow you to
5642 ``rewind'' the program by running it backward.
5643
5644 A target environment that supports reverse execution should be able
5645 to ``undo'' the changes in machine state that have taken place as the
5646 program was executing normally. Variables, registers etc.@: should
5647 revert to their previous values. Obviously this requires a great
5648 deal of sophistication on the part of the target environment; not
5649 all target environments can support reverse execution.
5650
5651 When a program is executed in reverse, the instructions that
5652 have most recently been executed are ``un-executed'', in reverse
5653 order. The program counter runs backward, following the previous
5654 thread of execution in reverse. As each instruction is ``un-executed'',
5655 the values of memory and/or registers that were changed by that
5656 instruction are reverted to their previous states. After executing
5657 a piece of source code in reverse, all side effects of that code
5658 should be ``undone'', and all variables should be returned to their
5659 prior values@footnote{
5660 Note that some side effects are easier to undo than others. For instance,
5661 memory and registers are relatively easy, but device I/O is hard. Some
5662 targets may be able undo things like device I/O, and some may not.
5663
5664 The contract between @value{GDBN} and the reverse executing target
5665 requires only that the target do something reasonable when
5666 @value{GDBN} tells it to execute backwards, and then report the
5667 results back to @value{GDBN}. Whatever the target reports back to
5668 @value{GDBN}, @value{GDBN} will report back to the user. @value{GDBN}
5669 assumes that the memory and registers that the target reports are in a
5670 consistant state, but @value{GDBN} accepts whatever it is given.
5671 }.
5672
5673 If you are debugging in a target environment that supports
5674 reverse execution, @value{GDBN} provides the following commands.
5675
5676 @table @code
5677 @kindex reverse-continue
5678 @kindex rc @r{(@code{reverse-continue})}
5679 @item reverse-continue @r{[}@var{ignore-count}@r{]}
5680 @itemx rc @r{[}@var{ignore-count}@r{]}
5681 Beginning at the point where your program last stopped, start executing
5682 in reverse. Reverse execution will stop for breakpoints and synchronous
5683 exceptions (signals), just like normal execution. Behavior of
5684 asynchronous signals depends on the target environment.
5685
5686 @kindex reverse-step
5687 @kindex rs @r{(@code{step})}
5688 @item reverse-step @r{[}@var{count}@r{]}
5689 Run the program backward until control reaches the start of a
5690 different source line; then stop it, and return control to @value{GDBN}.
5691
5692 Like the @code{step} command, @code{reverse-step} will only stop
5693 at the beginning of a source line. It ``un-executes'' the previously
5694 executed source line. If the previous source line included calls to
5695 debuggable functions, @code{reverse-step} will step (backward) into
5696 the called function, stopping at the beginning of the @emph{last}
5697 statement in the called function (typically a return statement).
5698
5699 Also, as with the @code{step} command, if non-debuggable functions are
5700 called, @code{reverse-step} will run thru them backward without stopping.
5701
5702 @kindex reverse-stepi
5703 @kindex rsi @r{(@code{reverse-stepi})}
5704 @item reverse-stepi @r{[}@var{count}@r{]}
5705 Reverse-execute one machine instruction. Note that the instruction
5706 to be reverse-executed is @emph{not} the one pointed to by the program
5707 counter, but the instruction executed prior to that one. For instance,
5708 if the last instruction was a jump, @code{reverse-stepi} will take you
5709 back from the destination of the jump to the jump instruction itself.
5710
5711 @kindex reverse-next
5712 @kindex rn @r{(@code{reverse-next})}
5713 @item reverse-next @r{[}@var{count}@r{]}
5714 Run backward to the beginning of the previous line executed in
5715 the current (innermost) stack frame. If the line contains function
5716 calls, they will be ``un-executed'' without stopping. Starting from
5717 the first line of a function, @code{reverse-next} will take you back
5718 to the caller of that function, @emph{before} the function was called,
5719 just as the normal @code{next} command would take you from the last
5720 line of a function back to its return to its caller
5721 @footnote{Unless the code is too heavily optimized.}.
5722
5723 @kindex reverse-nexti
5724 @kindex rni @r{(@code{reverse-nexti})}
5725 @item reverse-nexti @r{[}@var{count}@r{]}
5726 Like @code{nexti}, @code{reverse-nexti} executes a single instruction
5727 in reverse, except that called functions are ``un-executed'' atomically.
5728 That is, if the previously executed instruction was a return from
5729 another function, @code{reverse-nexti} will continue to execute
5730 in reverse until the call to that function (from the current stack
5731 frame) is reached.
5732
5733 @kindex reverse-finish
5734 @item reverse-finish
5735 Just as the @code{finish} command takes you to the point where the
5736 current function returns, @code{reverse-finish} takes you to the point
5737 where it was called. Instead of ending up at the end of the current
5738 function invocation, you end up at the beginning.
5739
5740 @kindex set exec-direction
5741 @item set exec-direction
5742 Set the direction of target execution.
5743 @itemx set exec-direction reverse
5744 @cindex execute forward or backward in time
5745 @value{GDBN} will perform all execution commands in reverse, until the
5746 exec-direction mode is changed to ``forward''. Affected commands include
5747 @code{step, stepi, next, nexti, continue, and finish}. The @code{return}
5748 command cannot be used in reverse mode.
5749 @item set exec-direction forward
5750 @value{GDBN} will perform all execution commands in the normal fashion.
5751 This is the default.
5752 @end table
5753
5754
5755 @node Process Record and Replay
5756 @chapter Recording Inferior's Execution and Replaying It
5757 @cindex process record and replay
5758 @cindex recording inferior's execution and replaying it
5759
5760 On some platforms, @value{GDBN} provides a special @dfn{process record
5761 and replay} target that can record a log of the process execution, and
5762 replay it later with both forward and reverse execution commands.
5763
5764 @cindex replay mode
5765 When this target is in use, if the execution log includes the record
5766 for the next instruction, @value{GDBN} will debug in @dfn{replay
5767 mode}. In the replay mode, the inferior does not really execute code
5768 instructions. Instead, all the events that normally happen during
5769 code execution are taken from the execution log. While code is not
5770 really executed in replay mode, the values of registers (including the
5771 program counter register) and the memory of the inferior are still
5772 changed as they normally would. Their contents are taken from the
5773 execution log.
5774
5775 @cindex record mode
5776 If the record for the next instruction is not in the execution log,
5777 @value{GDBN} will debug in @dfn{record mode}. In this mode, the
5778 inferior executes normally, and @value{GDBN} records the execution log
5779 for future replay.
5780
5781 The process record and replay target supports reverse execution
5782 (@pxref{Reverse Execution}), even if the platform on which the
5783 inferior runs does not. However, the reverse execution is limited in
5784 this case by the range of the instructions recorded in the execution
5785 log. In other words, reverse execution on platforms that don't
5786 support it directly can only be done in the replay mode.
5787
5788 When debugging in the reverse direction, @value{GDBN} will work in
5789 replay mode as long as the execution log includes the record for the
5790 previous instruction; otherwise, it will work in record mode, if the
5791 platform supports reverse execution, or stop if not.
5792
5793 For architecture environments that support process record and replay,
5794 @value{GDBN} provides the following commands:
5795
5796 @table @code
5797 @kindex target record
5798 @kindex record
5799 @kindex rec
5800 @item target record
5801 This command starts the process record and replay target. The process
5802 record and replay target can only debug a process that is already
5803 running. Therefore, you need first to start the process with the
5804 @kbd{run} or @kbd{start} commands, and then start the recording with
5805 the @kbd{target record} command.
5806
5807 Both @code{record} and @code{rec} are aliases of @code{target record}.
5808
5809 @cindex displaced stepping, and process record and replay
5810 Displaced stepping (@pxref{Maintenance Commands,, displaced stepping})
5811 will be automatically disabled when process record and replay target
5812 is started. That's because the process record and replay target
5813 doesn't support displaced stepping.
5814
5815 @cindex non-stop mode, and process record and replay
5816 @cindex asynchronous execution, and process record and replay
5817 If the inferior is in the non-stop mode (@pxref{Non-Stop Mode}) or in
5818 the asynchronous execution mode (@pxref{Background Execution}), the
5819 process record and replay target cannot be started because it doesn't
5820 support these two modes.
5821
5822 @kindex record stop
5823 @kindex rec s
5824 @item record stop
5825 Stop the process record and replay target. When process record and
5826 replay target stops, the entire execution log will be deleted and the
5827 inferior will either be terminated, or will remain in its final state.
5828
5829 When you stop the process record and replay target in record mode (at
5830 the end of the execution log), the inferior will be stopped at the
5831 next instruction that would have been recorded. In other words, if
5832 you record for a while and then stop recording, the inferior process
5833 will be left in the same state as if the recording never happened.
5834
5835 On the other hand, if the process record and replay target is stopped
5836 while in replay mode (that is, not at the end of the execution log,
5837 but at some earlier point), the inferior process will become ``live''
5838 at that earlier state, and it will then be possible to continue the
5839 usual ``live'' debugging of the process from that state.
5840
5841 When the inferior process exits, or @value{GDBN} detaches from it,
5842 process record and replay target will automatically stop itself.
5843
5844 @kindex record save
5845 @item record save @var{filename}
5846 Save the execution log to a file @file{@var{filename}}.
5847 Default filename is @file{gdb_record.@var{process_id}}, where
5848 @var{process_id} is the process ID of the inferior.
5849
5850 @kindex record restore
5851 @item record restore @var{filename}
5852 Restore the execution log from a file @file{@var{filename}}.
5853 File must have been created with @code{record save}.
5854
5855 @kindex set record insn-number-max
5856 @item set record insn-number-max @var{limit}
5857 Set the limit of instructions to be recorded. Default value is 200000.
5858
5859 If @var{limit} is a positive number, then @value{GDBN} will start
5860 deleting instructions from the log once the number of the record
5861 instructions becomes greater than @var{limit}. For every new recorded
5862 instruction, @value{GDBN} will delete the earliest recorded
5863 instruction to keep the number of recorded instructions at the limit.
5864 (Since deleting recorded instructions loses information, @value{GDBN}
5865 lets you control what happens when the limit is reached, by means of
5866 the @code{stop-at-limit} option, described below.)
5867
5868 If @var{limit} is zero, @value{GDBN} will never delete recorded
5869 instructions from the execution log. The number of recorded
5870 instructions is unlimited in this case.
5871
5872 @kindex show record insn-number-max
5873 @item show record insn-number-max
5874 Show the limit of instructions to be recorded.
5875
5876 @kindex set record stop-at-limit
5877 @item set record stop-at-limit
5878 Control the behavior when the number of recorded instructions reaches
5879 the limit. If ON (the default), @value{GDBN} will stop when the limit
5880 is reached for the first time and ask you whether you want to stop the
5881 inferior or continue running it and recording the execution log. If
5882 you decide to continue recording, each new recorded instruction will
5883 cause the oldest one to be deleted.
5884
5885 If this option is OFF, @value{GDBN} will automatically delete the
5886 oldest record to make room for each new one, without asking.
5887
5888 @kindex show record stop-at-limit
5889 @item show record stop-at-limit
5890 Show the current setting of @code{stop-at-limit}.
5891
5892 @kindex set record memory-query
5893 @item set record memory-query
5894 Control the behavior when @value{GDBN} is unable to record memory
5895 changes caused by an instruction. If ON, @value{GDBN} will query
5896 whether to stop the inferior in that case.
5897
5898 If this option is OFF (the default), @value{GDBN} will automatically
5899 ignore the effect of such instructions on memory. Later, when
5900 @value{GDBN} replays this execution log, it will mark the log of this
5901 instruction as not accessible, and it will not affect the replay
5902 results.
5903
5904 @kindex show record memory-query
5905 @item show record memory-query
5906 Show the current setting of @code{memory-query}.
5907
5908 @kindex info record
5909 @item info record
5910 Show various statistics about the state of process record and its
5911 in-memory execution log buffer, including:
5912
5913 @itemize @bullet
5914 @item
5915 Whether in record mode or replay mode.
5916 @item
5917 Lowest recorded instruction number (counting from when the current execution log started recording instructions).
5918 @item
5919 Highest recorded instruction number.
5920 @item
5921 Current instruction about to be replayed (if in replay mode).
5922 @item
5923 Number of instructions contained in the execution log.
5924 @item
5925 Maximum number of instructions that may be contained in the execution log.
5926 @end itemize
5927
5928 @kindex record delete
5929 @kindex rec del
5930 @item record delete
5931 When record target runs in replay mode (``in the past''), delete the
5932 subsequent execution log and begin to record a new execution log starting
5933 from the current address. This means you will abandon the previously
5934 recorded ``future'' and begin recording a new ``future''.
5935 @end table
5936
5937
5938 @node Stack
5939 @chapter Examining the Stack
5940
5941 When your program has stopped, the first thing you need to know is where it
5942 stopped and how it got there.
5943
5944 @cindex call stack
5945 Each time your program performs a function call, information about the call
5946 is generated.
5947 That information includes the location of the call in your program,
5948 the arguments of the call,
5949 and the local variables of the function being called.
5950 The information is saved in a block of data called a @dfn{stack frame}.
5951 The stack frames are allocated in a region of memory called the @dfn{call
5952 stack}.
5953
5954 When your program stops, the @value{GDBN} commands for examining the
5955 stack allow you to see all of this information.
5956
5957 @cindex selected frame
5958 One of the stack frames is @dfn{selected} by @value{GDBN} and many
5959 @value{GDBN} commands refer implicitly to the selected frame. In
5960 particular, whenever you ask @value{GDBN} for the value of a variable in
5961 your program, the value is found in the selected frame. There are
5962 special @value{GDBN} commands to select whichever frame you are
5963 interested in. @xref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}.
5964
5965 When your program stops, @value{GDBN} automatically selects the
5966 currently executing frame and describes it briefly, similar to the
5967 @code{frame} command (@pxref{Frame Info, ,Information about a Frame}).
5968
5969 @menu
5970 * Frames:: Stack frames
5971 * Backtrace:: Backtraces
5972 * Selection:: Selecting a frame
5973 * Frame Info:: Information on a frame
5974
5975 @end menu
5976
5977 @node Frames
5978 @section Stack Frames
5979
5980 @cindex frame, definition
5981 @cindex stack frame
5982 The call stack is divided up into contiguous pieces called @dfn{stack
5983 frames}, or @dfn{frames} for short; each frame is the data associated
5984 with one call to one function. The frame contains the arguments given
5985 to the function, the function's local variables, and the address at
5986 which the function is executing.
5987
5988 @cindex initial frame
5989 @cindex outermost frame
5990 @cindex innermost frame
5991 When your program is started, the stack has only one frame, that of the
5992 function @code{main}. This is called the @dfn{initial} frame or the
5993 @dfn{outermost} frame. Each time a function is called, a new frame is
5994 made. Each time a function returns, the frame for that function invocation
5995 is eliminated. If a function is recursive, there can be many frames for
5996 the same function. The frame for the function in which execution is
5997 actually occurring is called the @dfn{innermost} frame. This is the most
5998 recently created of all the stack frames that still exist.
5999
6000 @cindex frame pointer
6001 Inside your program, stack frames are identified by their addresses. A
6002 stack frame consists of many bytes, each of which has its own address; each
6003 kind of computer has a convention for choosing one byte whose
6004 address serves as the address of the frame. Usually this address is kept
6005 in a register called the @dfn{frame pointer register}
6006 (@pxref{Registers, $fp}) while execution is going on in that frame.
6007
6008 @cindex frame number
6009 @value{GDBN} assigns numbers to all existing stack frames, starting with
6010 zero for the innermost frame, one for the frame that called it,
6011 and so on upward. These numbers do not really exist in your program;
6012 they are assigned by @value{GDBN} to give you a way of designating stack
6013 frames in @value{GDBN} commands.
6014
6015 @c The -fomit-frame-pointer below perennially causes hbox overflow
6016 @c underflow problems.
6017 @cindex frameless execution
6018 Some compilers provide a way to compile functions so that they operate
6019 without stack frames. (For example, the @value{NGCC} option
6020 @smallexample
6021 @samp{-fomit-frame-pointer}
6022 @end smallexample
6023 generates functions without a frame.)
6024 This is occasionally done with heavily used library functions to save
6025 the frame setup time. @value{GDBN} has limited facilities for dealing
6026 with these function invocations. If the innermost function invocation
6027 has no stack frame, @value{GDBN} nevertheless regards it as though
6028 it had a separate frame, which is numbered zero as usual, allowing
6029 correct tracing of the function call chain. However, @value{GDBN} has
6030 no provision for frameless functions elsewhere in the stack.
6031
6032 @table @code
6033 @kindex frame@r{, command}
6034 @cindex current stack frame
6035 @item frame @var{args}
6036 The @code{frame} command allows you to move from one stack frame to another,
6037 and to print the stack frame you select. @var{args} may be either the
6038 address of the frame or the stack frame number. Without an argument,
6039 @code{frame} prints the current stack frame.
6040
6041 @kindex select-frame
6042 @cindex selecting frame silently
6043 @item select-frame
6044 The @code{select-frame} command allows you to move from one stack frame
6045 to another without printing the frame. This is the silent version of
6046 @code{frame}.
6047 @end table
6048
6049 @node Backtrace
6050 @section Backtraces
6051
6052 @cindex traceback
6053 @cindex call stack traces
6054 A backtrace is a summary of how your program got where it is. It shows one
6055 line per frame, for many frames, starting with the currently executing
6056 frame (frame zero), followed by its caller (frame one), and on up the
6057 stack.
6058
6059 @table @code
6060 @kindex backtrace
6061 @kindex bt @r{(@code{backtrace})}
6062 @item backtrace
6063 @itemx bt
6064 Print a backtrace of the entire stack: one line per frame for all
6065 frames in the stack.
6066
6067 You can stop the backtrace at any time by typing the system interrupt
6068 character, normally @kbd{Ctrl-c}.
6069
6070 @item backtrace @var{n}
6071 @itemx bt @var{n}
6072 Similar, but print only the innermost @var{n} frames.
6073
6074 @item backtrace -@var{n}
6075 @itemx bt -@var{n}
6076 Similar, but print only the outermost @var{n} frames.
6077
6078 @item backtrace full
6079 @itemx bt full
6080 @itemx bt full @var{n}
6081 @itemx bt full -@var{n}
6082 Print the values of the local variables also. @var{n} specifies the
6083 number of frames to print, as described above.
6084 @end table
6085
6086 @kindex where
6087 @kindex info stack
6088 The names @code{where} and @code{info stack} (abbreviated @code{info s})
6089 are additional aliases for @code{backtrace}.
6090
6091 @cindex multiple threads, backtrace
6092 In a multi-threaded program, @value{GDBN} by default shows the
6093 backtrace only for the current thread. To display the backtrace for
6094 several or all of the threads, use the command @code{thread apply}
6095 (@pxref{Threads, thread apply}). For example, if you type @kbd{thread
6096 apply all backtrace}, @value{GDBN} will display the backtrace for all
6097 the threads; this is handy when you debug a core dump of a
6098 multi-threaded program.
6099
6100 Each line in the backtrace shows the frame number and the function name.
6101 The program counter value is also shown---unless you use @code{set
6102 print address off}. The backtrace also shows the source file name and
6103 line number, as well as the arguments to the function. The program
6104 counter value is omitted if it is at the beginning of the code for that
6105 line number.
6106
6107 Here is an example of a backtrace. It was made with the command
6108 @samp{bt 3}, so it shows the innermost three frames.
6109
6110 @smallexample
6111 @group
6112 #0 m4_traceon (obs=0x24eb0, argc=1, argv=0x2b8c8)
6113 at builtin.c:993
6114 #1 0x6e38 in expand_macro (sym=0x2b600, data=...) at macro.c:242
6115 #2 0x6840 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=177664, td=0xf7fffb08)
6116 at macro.c:71
6117 (More stack frames follow...)
6118 @end group
6119 @end smallexample
6120
6121 @noindent
6122 The display for frame zero does not begin with a program counter
6123 value, indicating that your program has stopped at the beginning of the
6124 code for line @code{993} of @code{builtin.c}.
6125
6126 @noindent
6127 The value of parameter @code{data} in frame 1 has been replaced by
6128 @code{@dots{}}. By default, @value{GDBN} prints the value of a parameter
6129 only if it is a scalar (integer, pointer, enumeration, etc). See command
6130 @kbd{set print frame-arguments} in @ref{Print Settings} for more details
6131 on how to configure the way function parameter values are printed.
6132
6133 @cindex optimized out, in backtrace
6134 @cindex function call arguments, optimized out
6135 If your program was compiled with optimizations, some compilers will
6136 optimize away arguments passed to functions if those arguments are
6137 never used after the call. Such optimizations generate code that
6138 passes arguments through registers, but doesn't store those arguments
6139 in the stack frame. @value{GDBN} has no way of displaying such
6140 arguments in stack frames other than the innermost one. Here's what
6141 such a backtrace might look like:
6142
6143 @smallexample
6144 @group
6145 #0 m4_traceon (obs=0x24eb0, argc=1, argv=0x2b8c8)
6146 at builtin.c:993
6147 #1 0x6e38 in expand_macro (sym=<optimized out>) at macro.c:242
6148 #2 0x6840 in expand_token (obs=0x0, t=<optimized out>, td=0xf7fffb08)
6149 at macro.c:71
6150 (More stack frames follow...)
6151 @end group
6152 @end smallexample
6153
6154 @noindent
6155 The values of arguments that were not saved in their stack frames are
6156 shown as @samp{<optimized out>}.
6157
6158 If you need to display the values of such optimized-out arguments,
6159 either deduce that from other variables whose values depend on the one
6160 you are interested in, or recompile without optimizations.
6161
6162 @cindex backtrace beyond @code{main} function
6163 @cindex program entry point
6164 @cindex startup code, and backtrace
6165 Most programs have a standard user entry point---a place where system
6166 libraries and startup code transition into user code. For C this is
6167 @code{main}@footnote{
6168 Note that embedded programs (the so-called ``free-standing''
6169 environment) are not required to have a @code{main} function as the
6170 entry point. They could even have multiple entry points.}.
6171 When @value{GDBN} finds the entry function in a backtrace
6172 it will terminate the backtrace, to avoid tracing into highly
6173 system-specific (and generally uninteresting) code.
6174
6175 If you need to examine the startup code, or limit the number of levels
6176 in a backtrace, you can change this behavior:
6177
6178 @table @code
6179 @item set backtrace past-main
6180 @itemx set backtrace past-main on
6181 @kindex set backtrace
6182 Backtraces will continue past the user entry point.
6183
6184 @item set backtrace past-main off
6185 Backtraces will stop when they encounter the user entry point. This is the
6186 default.
6187
6188 @item show backtrace past-main
6189 @kindex show backtrace
6190 Display the current user entry point backtrace policy.
6191
6192 @item set backtrace past-entry
6193 @itemx set backtrace past-entry on
6194 Backtraces will continue past the internal entry point of an application.
6195 This entry point is encoded by the linker when the application is built,
6196 and is likely before the user entry point @code{main} (or equivalent) is called.
6197
6198 @item set backtrace past-entry off
6199 Backtraces will stop when they encounter the internal entry point of an
6200 application. This is the default.
6201
6202 @item show backtrace past-entry
6203 Display the current internal entry point backtrace policy.
6204
6205 @item set backtrace limit @var{n}
6206 @itemx set backtrace limit 0
6207 @cindex backtrace limit
6208 Limit the backtrace to @var{n} levels. A value of zero means
6209 unlimited.
6210
6211 @item show backtrace limit
6212 Display the current limit on backtrace levels.
6213 @end table
6214
6215 @node Selection
6216 @section Selecting a Frame
6217
6218 Most commands for examining the stack and other data in your program work on
6219 whichever stack frame is selected at the moment. Here are the commands for
6220 selecting a stack frame; all of them finish by printing a brief description
6221 of the stack frame just selected.
6222
6223 @table @code
6224 @kindex frame@r{, selecting}
6225 @kindex f @r{(@code{frame})}
6226 @item frame @var{n}
6227 @itemx f @var{n}
6228 Select frame number @var{n}. Recall that frame zero is the innermost
6229 (currently executing) frame, frame one is the frame that called the
6230 innermost one, and so on. The highest-numbered frame is the one for
6231 @code{main}.
6232
6233 @item frame @var{addr}
6234 @itemx f @var{addr}
6235 Select the frame at address @var{addr}. This is useful mainly if the
6236 chaining of stack frames has been damaged by a bug, making it
6237 impossible for @value{GDBN} to assign numbers properly to all frames. In
6238 addition, this can be useful when your program has multiple stacks and
6239 switches between them.
6240
6241 On the SPARC architecture, @code{frame} needs two addresses to
6242 select an arbitrary frame: a frame pointer and a stack pointer.
6243
6244 On the MIPS and Alpha architecture, it needs two addresses: a stack
6245 pointer and a program counter.
6246
6247 On the 29k architecture, it needs three addresses: a register stack
6248 pointer, a program counter, and a memory stack pointer.
6249
6250 @kindex up
6251 @item up @var{n}
6252 Move @var{n} frames up the stack. For positive numbers @var{n}, this
6253 advances toward the outermost frame, to higher frame numbers, to frames
6254 that have existed longer. @var{n} defaults to one.
6255
6256 @kindex down
6257 @kindex do @r{(@code{down})}
6258 @item down @var{n}
6259 Move @var{n} frames down the stack. For positive numbers @var{n}, this
6260 advances toward the innermost frame, to lower frame numbers, to frames
6261 that were created more recently. @var{n} defaults to one. You may
6262 abbreviate @code{down} as @code{do}.
6263 @end table
6264
6265 All of these commands end by printing two lines of output describing the
6266 frame. The first line shows the frame number, the function name, the
6267 arguments, and the source file and line number of execution in that
6268 frame. The second line shows the text of that source line.
6269
6270 @need 1000
6271 For example:
6272
6273 @smallexample
6274 @group
6275 (@value{GDBP}) up
6276 #1 0x22f0 in main (argc=1, argv=0xf7fffbf4, env=0xf7fffbfc)
6277 at env.c:10
6278 10 read_input_file (argv[i]);
6279 @end group
6280 @end smallexample
6281
6282 After such a printout, the @code{list} command with no arguments
6283 prints ten lines centered on the point of execution in the frame.
6284 You can also edit the program at the point of execution with your favorite
6285 editing program by typing @code{edit}.
6286 @xref{List, ,Printing Source Lines},
6287 for details.
6288
6289 @table @code
6290 @kindex down-silently
6291 @kindex up-silently
6292 @item up-silently @var{n}
6293 @itemx down-silently @var{n}
6294 These two commands are variants of @code{up} and @code{down},
6295 respectively; they differ in that they do their work silently, without
6296 causing display of the new frame. They are intended primarily for use
6297 in @value{GDBN} command scripts, where the output might be unnecessary and
6298 distracting.
6299 @end table
6300
6301 @node Frame Info
6302 @section Information About a Frame
6303
6304 There are several other commands to print information about the selected
6305 stack frame.
6306
6307 @table @code
6308 @item frame
6309 @itemx f
6310 When used without any argument, this command does not change which
6311 frame is selected, but prints a brief description of the currently
6312 selected stack frame. It can be abbreviated @code{f}. With an
6313 argument, this command is used to select a stack frame.
6314 @xref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}.
6315
6316 @kindex info frame
6317 @kindex info f @r{(@code{info frame})}
6318 @item info frame
6319 @itemx info f
6320 This command prints a verbose description of the selected stack frame,
6321 including:
6322
6323 @itemize @bullet
6324 @item
6325 the address of the frame
6326 @item
6327 the address of the next frame down (called by this frame)
6328 @item
6329 the address of the next frame up (caller of this frame)
6330 @item
6331 the language in which the source code corresponding to this frame is written
6332 @item
6333 the address of the frame's arguments
6334 @item
6335 the address of the frame's local variables
6336 @item
6337 the program counter saved in it (the address of execution in the caller frame)
6338 @item
6339 which registers were saved in the frame
6340 @end itemize
6341
6342 @noindent The verbose description is useful when
6343 something has gone wrong that has made the stack format fail to fit
6344 the usual conventions.
6345
6346 @item info frame @var{addr}
6347 @itemx info f @var{addr}
6348 Print a verbose description of the frame at address @var{addr}, without
6349 selecting that frame. The selected frame remains unchanged by this
6350 command. This requires the same kind of address (more than one for some
6351 architectures) that you specify in the @code{frame} command.
6352 @xref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}.
6353
6354 @kindex info args
6355 @item info args
6356 Print the arguments of the selected frame, each on a separate line.
6357
6358 @item info locals
6359 @kindex info locals
6360 Print the local variables of the selected frame, each on a separate
6361 line. These are all variables (declared either static or automatic)
6362 accessible at the point of execution of the selected frame.
6363
6364 @end table
6365
6366
6367 @node Source
6368 @chapter Examining Source Files
6369
6370 @value{GDBN} can print parts of your program's source, since the debugging
6371 information recorded in the program tells @value{GDBN} what source files were
6372 used to build it. When your program stops, @value{GDBN} spontaneously prints
6373 the line where it stopped. Likewise, when you select a stack frame
6374 (@pxref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}), @value{GDBN} prints the line where
6375 execution in that frame has stopped. You can print other portions of
6376 source files by explicit command.
6377
6378 If you use @value{GDBN} through its @sc{gnu} Emacs interface, you may
6379 prefer to use Emacs facilities to view source; see @ref{Emacs, ,Using
6380 @value{GDBN} under @sc{gnu} Emacs}.
6381
6382 @menu
6383 * List:: Printing source lines
6384 * Specify Location:: How to specify code locations
6385 * Edit:: Editing source files
6386 * Search:: Searching source files
6387 * Source Path:: Specifying source directories
6388 * Machine Code:: Source and machine code
6389 @end menu
6390
6391 @node List
6392 @section Printing Source Lines
6393
6394 @kindex list
6395 @kindex l @r{(@code{list})}
6396 To print lines from a source file, use the @code{list} command
6397 (abbreviated @code{l}). By default, ten lines are printed.
6398 There are several ways to specify what part of the file you want to
6399 print; see @ref{Specify Location}, for the full list.
6400
6401 Here are the forms of the @code{list} command most commonly used:
6402
6403 @table @code
6404 @item list @var{linenum}
6405 Print lines centered around line number @var{linenum} in the
6406 current source file.
6407
6408 @item list @var{function}
6409 Print lines centered around the beginning of function
6410 @var{function}.
6411
6412 @item list
6413 Print more lines. If the last lines printed were printed with a
6414 @code{list} command, this prints lines following the last lines
6415 printed; however, if the last line printed was a solitary line printed
6416 as part of displaying a stack frame (@pxref{Stack, ,Examining the
6417 Stack}), this prints lines centered around that line.
6418
6419 @item list -
6420 Print lines just before the lines last printed.
6421 @end table
6422
6423 @cindex @code{list}, how many lines to display
6424 By default, @value{GDBN} prints ten source lines with any of these forms of
6425 the @code{list} command. You can change this using @code{set listsize}:
6426
6427 @table @code
6428 @kindex set listsize
6429 @item set listsize @var{count}
6430 Make the @code{list} command display @var{count} source lines (unless
6431 the @code{list} argument explicitly specifies some other number).
6432
6433 @kindex show listsize
6434 @item show listsize
6435 Display the number of lines that @code{list} prints.
6436 @end table
6437
6438 Repeating a @code{list} command with @key{RET} discards the argument,
6439 so it is equivalent to typing just @code{list}. This is more useful
6440 than listing the same lines again. An exception is made for an
6441 argument of @samp{-}; that argument is preserved in repetition so that
6442 each repetition moves up in the source file.
6443
6444 In general, the @code{list} command expects you to supply zero, one or two
6445 @dfn{linespecs}. Linespecs specify source lines; there are several ways
6446 of writing them (@pxref{Specify Location}), but the effect is always
6447 to specify some source line.
6448
6449 Here is a complete description of the possible arguments for @code{list}:
6450
6451 @table @code
6452 @item list @var{linespec}
6453 Print lines centered around the line specified by @var{linespec}.
6454
6455 @item list @var{first},@var{last}
6456 Print lines from @var{first} to @var{last}. Both arguments are
6457 linespecs. When a @code{list} command has two linespecs, and the
6458 source file of the second linespec is omitted, this refers to
6459 the same source file as the first linespec.
6460
6461 @item list ,@var{last}
6462 Print lines ending with @var{last}.
6463
6464 @item list @var{first},
6465 Print lines starting with @var{first}.
6466
6467 @item list +
6468 Print lines just after the lines last printed.
6469
6470 @item list -
6471 Print lines just before the lines last printed.
6472
6473 @item list
6474 As described in the preceding table.
6475 @end table
6476
6477 @node Specify Location
6478 @section Specifying a Location
6479 @cindex specifying location
6480 @cindex linespec
6481
6482 Several @value{GDBN} commands accept arguments that specify a location
6483 of your program's code. Since @value{GDBN} is a source-level
6484 debugger, a location usually specifies some line in the source code;
6485 for that reason, locations are also known as @dfn{linespecs}.
6486
6487 Here are all the different ways of specifying a code location that
6488 @value{GDBN} understands:
6489
6490 @table @code
6491 @item @var{linenum}
6492 Specifies the line number @var{linenum} of the current source file.
6493
6494 @item -@var{offset}
6495 @itemx +@var{offset}
6496 Specifies the line @var{offset} lines before or after the @dfn{current
6497 line}. For the @code{list} command, the current line is the last one
6498 printed; for the breakpoint commands, this is the line at which
6499 execution stopped in the currently selected @dfn{stack frame}
6500 (@pxref{Frames, ,Frames}, for a description of stack frames.) When
6501 used as the second of the two linespecs in a @code{list} command,
6502 this specifies the line @var{offset} lines up or down from the first
6503 linespec.
6504
6505 @item @var{filename}:@var{linenum}
6506 Specifies the line @var{linenum} in the source file @var{filename}.
6507 If @var{filename} is a relative file name, then it will match any
6508 source file name with the same trailing components. For example, if
6509 @var{filename} is @samp{gcc/expr.c}, then it will match source file
6510 name of @file{/build/trunk/gcc/expr.c}, but not
6511 @file{/build/trunk/libcpp/expr.c} or @file{/build/trunk/gcc/x-expr.c}.
6512
6513 @item @var{function}
6514 Specifies the line that begins the body of the function @var{function}.
6515 For example, in C, this is the line with the open brace.
6516
6517 @item @var{function}:@var{label}
6518 Specifies the line where @var{label} appears in @var{function}.
6519
6520 @item @var{filename}:@var{function}
6521 Specifies the line that begins the body of the function @var{function}
6522 in the file @var{filename}. You only need the file name with a
6523 function name to avoid ambiguity when there are identically named
6524 functions in different source files.
6525
6526 @item @var{label}
6527 Specifies the line at which the label named @var{label} appears.
6528 @value{GDBN} searches for the label in the function corresponding to
6529 the currently selected stack frame. If there is no current selected
6530 stack frame (for instance, if the inferior is not running), then
6531 @value{GDBN} will not search for a label.
6532
6533 @item *@var{address}
6534 Specifies the program address @var{address}. For line-oriented
6535 commands, such as @code{list} and @code{edit}, this specifies a source
6536 line that contains @var{address}. For @code{break} and other
6537 breakpoint oriented commands, this can be used to set breakpoints in
6538 parts of your program which do not have debugging information or
6539 source files.
6540
6541 Here @var{address} may be any expression valid in the current working
6542 language (@pxref{Languages, working language}) that specifies a code
6543 address. In addition, as a convenience, @value{GDBN} extends the
6544 semantics of expressions used in locations to cover the situations
6545 that frequently happen during debugging. Here are the various forms
6546 of @var{address}:
6547
6548 @table @code
6549 @item @var{expression}
6550 Any expression valid in the current working language.
6551
6552 @item @var{funcaddr}
6553 An address of a function or procedure derived from its name. In C,
6554 C@t{++}, Java, Objective-C, Fortran, minimal, and assembly, this is
6555 simply the function's name @var{function} (and actually a special case
6556 of a valid expression). In Pascal and Modula-2, this is
6557 @code{&@var{function}}. In Ada, this is @code{@var{function}'Address}
6558 (although the Pascal form also works).
6559
6560 This form specifies the address of the function's first instruction,
6561 before the stack frame and arguments have been set up.
6562
6563 @item '@var{filename}'::@var{funcaddr}
6564 Like @var{funcaddr} above, but also specifies the name of the source
6565 file explicitly. This is useful if the name of the function does not
6566 specify the function unambiguously, e.g., if there are several
6567 functions with identical names in different source files.
6568 @end table
6569
6570 @end table
6571
6572
6573 @node Edit
6574 @section Editing Source Files
6575 @cindex editing source files
6576
6577 @kindex edit
6578 @kindex e @r{(@code{edit})}
6579 To edit the lines in a source file, use the @code{edit} command.
6580 The editing program of your choice
6581 is invoked with the current line set to
6582 the active line in the program.
6583 Alternatively, there are several ways to specify what part of the file you
6584 want to print if you want to see other parts of the program:
6585
6586 @table @code
6587 @item edit @var{location}
6588 Edit the source file specified by @code{location}. Editing starts at
6589 that @var{location}, e.g., at the specified source line of the
6590 specified file. @xref{Specify Location}, for all the possible forms
6591 of the @var{location} argument; here are the forms of the @code{edit}
6592 command most commonly used:
6593
6594 @table @code
6595 @item edit @var{number}
6596 Edit the current source file with @var{number} as the active line number.
6597
6598 @item edit @var{function}
6599 Edit the file containing @var{function} at the beginning of its definition.
6600 @end table
6601
6602 @end table
6603
6604 @subsection Choosing your Editor
6605 You can customize @value{GDBN} to use any editor you want
6606 @footnote{
6607 The only restriction is that your editor (say @code{ex}), recognizes the
6608 following command-line syntax:
6609 @smallexample
6610 ex +@var{number} file
6611 @end smallexample
6612 The optional numeric value +@var{number} specifies the number of the line in
6613 the file where to start editing.}.
6614 By default, it is @file{@value{EDITOR}}, but you can change this
6615 by setting the environment variable @code{EDITOR} before using
6616 @value{GDBN}. For example, to configure @value{GDBN} to use the
6617 @code{vi} editor, you could use these commands with the @code{sh} shell:
6618 @smallexample
6619 EDITOR=/usr/bin/vi
6620 export EDITOR
6621 gdb @dots{}
6622 @end smallexample
6623 or in the @code{csh} shell,
6624 @smallexample
6625 setenv EDITOR /usr/bin/vi
6626 gdb @dots{}
6627 @end smallexample
6628
6629 @node Search
6630 @section Searching Source Files
6631 @cindex searching source files
6632
6633 There are two commands for searching through the current source file for a
6634 regular expression.
6635
6636 @table @code
6637 @kindex search
6638 @kindex forward-search
6639 @item forward-search @var{regexp}
6640 @itemx search @var{regexp}
6641 The command @samp{forward-search @var{regexp}} checks each line,
6642 starting with the one following the last line listed, for a match for
6643 @var{regexp}. It lists the line that is found. You can use the
6644 synonym @samp{search @var{regexp}} or abbreviate the command name as
6645 @code{fo}.
6646
6647 @kindex reverse-search
6648 @item reverse-search @var{regexp}
6649 The command @samp{reverse-search @var{regexp}} checks each line, starting
6650 with the one before the last line listed and going backward, for a match
6651 for @var{regexp}. It lists the line that is found. You can abbreviate
6652 this command as @code{rev}.
6653 @end table
6654
6655 @node Source Path
6656 @section Specifying Source Directories
6657
6658 @cindex source path
6659 @cindex directories for source files
6660 Executable programs sometimes do not record the directories of the source
6661 files from which they were compiled, just the names. Even when they do,
6662 the directories could be moved between the compilation and your debugging
6663 session. @value{GDBN} has a list of directories to search for source files;
6664 this is called the @dfn{source path}. Each time @value{GDBN} wants a source file,
6665 it tries all the directories in the list, in the order they are present
6666 in the list, until it finds a file with the desired name.
6667
6668 For example, suppose an executable references the file
6669 @file{/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c}, and our source path is
6670 @file{/mnt/cross}. The file is first looked up literally; if this
6671 fails, @file{/mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c} is tried; if this
6672 fails, @file{/mnt/cross/foo.c} is opened; if this fails, an error
6673 message is printed. @value{GDBN} does not look up the parts of the
6674 source file name, such as @file{/mnt/cross/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c}.
6675 Likewise, the subdirectories of the source path are not searched: if
6676 the source path is @file{/mnt/cross}, and the binary refers to
6677 @file{foo.c}, @value{GDBN} would not find it under
6678 @file{/mnt/cross/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib}.
6679
6680 Plain file names, relative file names with leading directories, file
6681 names containing dots, etc.@: are all treated as described above; for
6682 instance, if the source path is @file{/mnt/cross}, and the source file
6683 is recorded as @file{../lib/foo.c}, @value{GDBN} would first try
6684 @file{../lib/foo.c}, then @file{/mnt/cross/../lib/foo.c}, and after
6685 that---@file{/mnt/cross/foo.c}.
6686
6687 Note that the executable search path is @emph{not} used to locate the
6688 source files.
6689
6690 Whenever you reset or rearrange the source path, @value{GDBN} clears out
6691 any information it has cached about where source files are found and where
6692 each line is in the file.
6693
6694 @kindex directory
6695 @kindex dir
6696 When you start @value{GDBN}, its source path includes only @samp{cdir}
6697 and @samp{cwd}, in that order.
6698 To add other directories, use the @code{directory} command.
6699
6700 The search path is used to find both program source files and @value{GDBN}
6701 script files (read using the @samp{-command} option and @samp{source} command).
6702
6703 In addition to the source path, @value{GDBN} provides a set of commands
6704 that manage a list of source path substitution rules. A @dfn{substitution
6705 rule} specifies how to rewrite source directories stored in the program's
6706 debug information in case the sources were moved to a different
6707 directory between compilation and debugging. A rule is made of
6708 two strings, the first specifying what needs to be rewritten in
6709 the path, and the second specifying how it should be rewritten.
6710 In @ref{set substitute-path}, we name these two parts @var{from} and
6711 @var{to} respectively. @value{GDBN} does a simple string replacement
6712 of @var{from} with @var{to} at the start of the directory part of the
6713 source file name, and uses that result instead of the original file
6714 name to look up the sources.
6715
6716 Using the previous example, suppose the @file{foo-1.0} tree has been
6717 moved from @file{/usr/src} to @file{/mnt/cross}, then you can tell
6718 @value{GDBN} to replace @file{/usr/src} in all source path names with
6719 @file{/mnt/cross}. The first lookup will then be
6720 @file{/mnt/cross/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c} in place of the original location
6721 of @file{/usr/src/foo-1.0/lib/foo.c}. To define a source path
6722 substitution rule, use the @code{set substitute-path} command
6723 (@pxref{set substitute-path}).
6724
6725 To avoid unexpected substitution results, a rule is applied only if the
6726 @var{from} part of the directory name ends at a directory separator.
6727 For instance, a rule substituting @file{/usr/source} into
6728 @file{/mnt/cross} will be applied to @file{/usr/source/foo-1.0} but
6729 not to @file{/usr/sourceware/foo-2.0}. And because the substitution
6730 is applied only at the beginning of the directory name, this rule will
6731 not be applied to @file{/root/usr/source/baz.c} either.
6732
6733 In many cases, you can achieve the same result using the @code{directory}
6734 command. However, @code{set substitute-path} can be more efficient in
6735 the case where the sources are organized in a complex tree with multiple
6736 subdirectories. With the @code{directory} command, you need to add each
6737 subdirectory of your project. If you moved the entire tree while
6738 preserving its internal organization, then @code{set substitute-path}
6739 allows you to direct the debugger to all the sources with one single
6740 command.
6741
6742 @code{set substitute-path} is also more than just a shortcut command.
6743 The source path is only used if the file at the original location no
6744 longer exists. On the other hand, @code{set substitute-path} modifies
6745 the debugger behavior to look at the rewritten location instead. So, if
6746 for any reason a source file that is not relevant to your executable is
6747 located at the original location, a substitution rule is the only
6748 method available to point @value{GDBN} at the new location.
6749
6750 @cindex @samp{--with-relocated-sources}
6751 @cindex default source path substitution
6752 You can configure a default source path substitution rule by
6753 configuring @value{GDBN} with the
6754 @samp{--with-relocated-sources=@var{dir}} option. The @var{dir}
6755 should be the name of a directory under @value{GDBN}'s configured
6756 prefix (set with @samp{--prefix} or @samp{--exec-prefix}), and
6757 directory names in debug information under @var{dir} will be adjusted
6758 automatically if the installed @value{GDBN} is moved to a new
6759 location. This is useful if @value{GDBN}, libraries or executables
6760 with debug information and corresponding source code are being moved
6761 together.
6762
6763 @table @code
6764 @item directory @var{dirname} @dots{}
6765 @item dir @var{dirname} @dots{}
6766 Add directory @var{dirname} to the front of the source path. Several
6767 directory names may be given to this command, separated by @samp{:}
6768 (@samp{;} on MS-DOS and MS-Windows, where @samp{:} usually appears as
6769 part of absolute file names) or
6770 whitespace. You may specify a directory that is already in the source
6771 path; this moves it forward, so @value{GDBN} searches it sooner.
6772
6773 @kindex cdir
6774 @kindex cwd
6775 @vindex $cdir@r{, convenience variable}
6776 @vindex $cwd@r{, convenience variable}
6777 @cindex compilation directory
6778 @cindex current directory
6779 @cindex working directory
6780 @cindex directory, current
6781 @cindex directory, compilation
6782 You can use the string @samp{$cdir} to refer to the compilation
6783 directory (if one is recorded), and @samp{$cwd} to refer to the current
6784 working directory. @samp{$cwd} is not the same as @samp{.}---the former
6785 tracks the current working directory as it changes during your @value{GDBN}
6786 session, while the latter is immediately expanded to the current
6787 directory at the time you add an entry to the source path.
6788
6789 @item directory
6790 Reset the source path to its default value (@samp{$cdir:$cwd} on Unix systems). This requires confirmation.
6791
6792 @c RET-repeat for @code{directory} is explicitly disabled, but since
6793 @c repeating it would be a no-op we do not say that. (thanks to RMS)
6794
6795 @item set directories @var{path-list}
6796 @kindex set directories
6797 Set the source path to @var{path-list}.
6798 @samp{$cdir:$cwd} are added if missing.
6799
6800 @item show directories
6801 @kindex show directories
6802 Print the source path: show which directories it contains.
6803
6804 @anchor{set substitute-path}
6805 @item set substitute-path @var{from} @var{to}
6806 @kindex set substitute-path
6807 Define a source path substitution rule, and add it at the end of the
6808 current list of existing substitution rules. If a rule with the same
6809 @var{from} was already defined, then the old rule is also deleted.
6810
6811 For example, if the file @file{/foo/bar/baz.c} was moved to
6812 @file{/mnt/cross/baz.c}, then the command
6813
6814 @smallexample
6815 (@value{GDBP}) set substitute-path /usr/src /mnt/cross
6816 @end smallexample
6817
6818 @noindent
6819 will tell @value{GDBN} to replace @samp{/usr/src} with
6820 @samp{/mnt/cross}, which will allow @value{GDBN} to find the file
6821 @file{baz.c} even though it was moved.
6822
6823 In the case when more than one substitution rule have been defined,
6824 the rules are evaluated one by one in the order where they have been
6825 defined. The first one matching, if any, is selected to perform
6826 the substitution.
6827
6828 For instance, if we had entered the following commands:
6829
6830 @smallexample
6831 (@value{GDBP}) set substitute-path /usr/src/include /mnt/include
6832 (@value{GDBP}) set substitute-path /usr/src /mnt/src
6833 @end smallexample
6834
6835 @noindent
6836 @value{GDBN} would then rewrite @file{/usr/src/include/defs.h} into
6837 @file{/mnt/include/defs.h} by using the first rule. However, it would
6838 use the second rule to rewrite @file{/usr/src/lib/foo.c} into
6839 @file{/mnt/src/lib/foo.c}.
6840
6841
6842 @item unset substitute-path [path]
6843 @kindex unset substitute-path
6844 If a path is specified, search the current list of substitution rules
6845 for a rule that would rewrite that path. Delete that rule if found.
6846 A warning is emitted by the debugger if no rule could be found.
6847
6848 If no path is specified, then all substitution rules are deleted.
6849
6850 @item show substitute-path [path]
6851 @kindex show substitute-path
6852 If a path is specified, then print the source path substitution rule
6853 which would rewrite that path, if any.
6854
6855 If no path is specified, then print all existing source path substitution
6856 rules.
6857
6858 @end table
6859
6860 If your source path is cluttered with directories that are no longer of
6861 interest, @value{GDBN} may sometimes cause confusion by finding the wrong
6862 versions of source. You can correct the situation as follows:
6863
6864 @enumerate
6865 @item
6866 Use @code{directory} with no argument to reset the source path to its default value.
6867
6868 @item
6869 Use @code{directory} with suitable arguments to reinstall the
6870 directories you want in the source path. You can add all the
6871 directories in one command.
6872 @end enumerate
6873
6874 @node Machine Code
6875 @section Source and Machine Code
6876 @cindex source line and its code address
6877
6878 You can use the command @code{info line} to map source lines to program
6879 addresses (and vice versa), and the command @code{disassemble} to display
6880 a range of addresses as machine instructions. You can use the command
6881 @code{set disassemble-next-line} to set whether to disassemble next
6882 source line when execution stops. When run under @sc{gnu} Emacs
6883 mode, the @code{info line} command causes the arrow to point to the
6884 line specified. Also, @code{info line} prints addresses in symbolic form as
6885 well as hex.
6886
6887 @table @code
6888 @kindex info line
6889 @item info line @var{linespec}
6890 Print the starting and ending addresses of the compiled code for
6891 source line @var{linespec}. You can specify source lines in any of
6892 the ways documented in @ref{Specify Location}.
6893 @end table
6894
6895 For example, we can use @code{info line} to discover the location of
6896 the object code for the first line of function
6897 @code{m4_changequote}:
6898
6899 @c FIXME: I think this example should also show the addresses in
6900 @c symbolic form, as they usually would be displayed.
6901 @smallexample
6902 (@value{GDBP}) info line m4_changequote
6903 Line 895 of "builtin.c" starts at pc 0x634c and ends at 0x6350.
6904 @end smallexample
6905
6906 @noindent
6907 @cindex code address and its source line
6908 We can also inquire (using @code{*@var{addr}} as the form for
6909 @var{linespec}) what source line covers a particular address:
6910 @smallexample
6911 (@value{GDBP}) info line *0x63ff
6912 Line 926 of "builtin.c" starts at pc 0x63e4 and ends at 0x6404.
6913 @end smallexample
6914
6915 @cindex @code{$_} and @code{info line}
6916 @cindex @code{x} command, default address
6917 @kindex x@r{(examine), and} info line
6918 After @code{info line}, the default address for the @code{x} command
6919 is changed to the starting address of the line, so that @samp{x/i} is
6920 sufficient to begin examining the machine code (@pxref{Memory,
6921 ,Examining Memory}). Also, this address is saved as the value of the
6922 convenience variable @code{$_} (@pxref{Convenience Vars, ,Convenience
6923 Variables}).
6924
6925 @table @code
6926 @kindex disassemble
6927 @cindex assembly instructions
6928 @cindex instructions, assembly
6929 @cindex machine instructions
6930 @cindex listing machine instructions
6931 @item disassemble
6932 @itemx disassemble /m
6933 @itemx disassemble /r
6934 This specialized command dumps a range of memory as machine
6935 instructions. It can also print mixed source+disassembly by specifying
6936 the @code{/m} modifier and print the raw instructions in hex as well as
6937 in symbolic form by specifying the @code{/r}.
6938 The default memory range is the function surrounding the
6939 program counter of the selected frame. A single argument to this
6940 command is a program counter value; @value{GDBN} dumps the function
6941 surrounding this value. When two arguments are given, they should
6942 be separated by a comma, possibly surrounded by whitespace. The
6943 arguments specify a range of addresses to dump, in one of two forms:
6944
6945 @table @code
6946 @item @var{start},@var{end}
6947 the addresses from @var{start} (inclusive) to @var{end} (exclusive)
6948 @item @var{start},+@var{length}
6949 the addresses from @var{start} (inclusive) to
6950 @code{@var{start}+@var{length}} (exclusive).
6951 @end table
6952
6953 @noindent
6954 When 2 arguments are specified, the name of the function is also
6955 printed (since there could be several functions in the given range).
6956
6957 The argument(s) can be any expression yielding a numeric value, such as
6958 @samp{0x32c4}, @samp{&main+10} or @samp{$pc - 8}.
6959
6960 If the range of memory being disassembled contains current program counter,
6961 the instruction at that location is shown with a @code{=>} marker.
6962 @end table
6963
6964 The following example shows the disassembly of a range of addresses of
6965 HP PA-RISC 2.0 code:
6966
6967 @smallexample
6968 (@value{GDBP}) disas 0x32c4, 0x32e4
6969 Dump of assembler code from 0x32c4 to 0x32e4:
6970 0x32c4 <main+204>: addil 0,dp
6971 0x32c8 <main+208>: ldw 0x22c(sr0,r1),r26
6972 0x32cc <main+212>: ldil 0x3000,r31
6973 0x32d0 <main+216>: ble 0x3f8(sr4,r31)
6974 0x32d4 <main+220>: ldo 0(r31),rp
6975 0x32d8 <main+224>: addil -0x800,dp
6976 0x32dc <main+228>: ldo 0x588(r1),r26
6977 0x32e0 <main+232>: ldil 0x3000,r31
6978 End of assembler dump.
6979 @end smallexample
6980
6981 Here is an example showing mixed source+assembly for Intel x86, when the
6982 program is stopped just after function prologue:
6983
6984 @smallexample
6985 (@value{GDBP}) disas /m main
6986 Dump of assembler code for function main:
6987 5 @{
6988 0x08048330 <+0>: push %ebp
6989 0x08048331 <+1>: mov %esp,%ebp
6990 0x08048333 <+3>: sub $0x8,%esp
6991 0x08048336 <+6>: and $0xfffffff0,%esp
6992 0x08048339 <+9>: sub $0x10,%esp
6993
6994 6 printf ("Hello.\n");
6995 => 0x0804833c <+12>: movl $0x8048440,(%esp)
6996 0x08048343 <+19>: call 0x8048284 <puts@@plt>
6997
6998 7 return 0;
6999 8 @}
7000 0x08048348 <+24>: mov $0x0,%eax
7001 0x0804834d <+29>: leave
7002 0x0804834e <+30>: ret
7003
7004 End of assembler dump.
7005 @end smallexample
7006
7007 Here is another example showing raw instructions in hex for AMD x86-64,
7008
7009 @smallexample
7010 (gdb) disas /r 0x400281,+10
7011 Dump of assembler code from 0x400281 to 0x40028b:
7012 0x0000000000400281: 38 36 cmp %dh,(%rsi)
7013 0x0000000000400283: 2d 36 34 2e 73 sub $0x732e3436,%eax
7014 0x0000000000400288: 6f outsl %ds:(%rsi),(%dx)
7015 0x0000000000400289: 2e 32 00 xor %cs:(%rax),%al
7016 End of assembler dump.
7017 @end smallexample
7018
7019 Some architectures have more than one commonly-used set of instruction
7020 mnemonics or other syntax.
7021
7022 For programs that were dynamically linked and use shared libraries,
7023 instructions that call functions or branch to locations in the shared
7024 libraries might show a seemingly bogus location---it's actually a
7025 location of the relocation table. On some architectures, @value{GDBN}
7026 might be able to resolve these to actual function names.
7027
7028 @table @code
7029 @kindex set disassembly-flavor
7030 @cindex Intel disassembly flavor
7031 @cindex AT&T disassembly flavor
7032 @item set disassembly-flavor @var{instruction-set}
7033 Select the instruction set to use when disassembling the
7034 program via the @code{disassemble} or @code{x/i} commands.
7035
7036 Currently this command is only defined for the Intel x86 family. You
7037 can set @var{instruction-set} to either @code{intel} or @code{att}.
7038 The default is @code{att}, the AT&T flavor used by default by Unix
7039 assemblers for x86-based targets.
7040
7041 @kindex show disassembly-flavor
7042 @item show disassembly-flavor
7043 Show the current setting of the disassembly flavor.
7044 @end table
7045
7046 @table @code
7047 @kindex set disassemble-next-line
7048 @kindex show disassemble-next-line
7049 @item set disassemble-next-line
7050 @itemx show disassemble-next-line
7051 Control whether or not @value{GDBN} will disassemble the next source
7052 line or instruction when execution stops. If ON, @value{GDBN} will
7053 display disassembly of the next source line when execution of the
7054 program being debugged stops. This is @emph{in addition} to
7055 displaying the source line itself, which @value{GDBN} always does if
7056 possible. If the next source line cannot be displayed for some reason
7057 (e.g., if @value{GDBN} cannot find the source file, or there's no line
7058 info in the debug info), @value{GDBN} will display disassembly of the
7059 next @emph{instruction} instead of showing the next source line. If
7060 AUTO, @value{GDBN} will display disassembly of next instruction only
7061 if the source line cannot be displayed. This setting causes
7062 @value{GDBN} to display some feedback when you step through a function
7063 with no line info or whose source file is unavailable. The default is
7064 OFF, which means never display the disassembly of the next line or
7065 instruction.
7066 @end table
7067
7068
7069 @node Data
7070 @chapter Examining Data
7071
7072 @cindex printing data
7073 @cindex examining data
7074 @kindex print
7075 @kindex inspect
7076 @c "inspect" is not quite a synonym if you are using Epoch, which we do not
7077 @c document because it is nonstandard... Under Epoch it displays in a
7078 @c different window or something like that.
7079 The usual way to examine data in your program is with the @code{print}
7080 command (abbreviated @code{p}), or its synonym @code{inspect}. It
7081 evaluates and prints the value of an expression of the language your
7082 program is written in (@pxref{Languages, ,Using @value{GDBN} with
7083 Different Languages}). It may also print the expression using a
7084 Python-based pretty-printer (@pxref{Pretty Printing}).
7085
7086 @table @code
7087 @item print @var{expr}
7088 @itemx print /@var{f} @var{expr}
7089 @var{expr} is an expression (in the source language). By default the
7090 value of @var{expr} is printed in a format appropriate to its data type;
7091 you can choose a different format by specifying @samp{/@var{f}}, where
7092 @var{f} is a letter specifying the format; see @ref{Output Formats,,Output
7093 Formats}.
7094
7095 @item print
7096 @itemx print /@var{f}
7097 @cindex reprint the last value
7098 If you omit @var{expr}, @value{GDBN} displays the last value again (from the
7099 @dfn{value history}; @pxref{Value History, ,Value History}). This allows you to
7100 conveniently inspect the same value in an alternative format.
7101 @end table
7102
7103 A more low-level way of examining data is with the @code{x} command.
7104 It examines data in memory at a specified address and prints it in a
7105 specified format. @xref{Memory, ,Examining Memory}.
7106
7107 If you are interested in information about types, or about how the
7108 fields of a struct or a class are declared, use the @code{ptype @var{exp}}
7109 command rather than @code{print}. @xref{Symbols, ,Examining the Symbol
7110 Table}.
7111
7112 @menu
7113 * Expressions:: Expressions
7114 * Ambiguous Expressions:: Ambiguous Expressions
7115 * Variables:: Program variables
7116 * Arrays:: Artificial arrays
7117 * Output Formats:: Output formats
7118 * Memory:: Examining memory
7119 * Auto Display:: Automatic display
7120 * Print Settings:: Print settings
7121 * Pretty Printing:: Python pretty printing
7122 * Value History:: Value history
7123 * Convenience Vars:: Convenience variables
7124 * Registers:: Registers
7125 * Floating Point Hardware:: Floating point hardware
7126 * Vector Unit:: Vector Unit
7127 * OS Information:: Auxiliary data provided by operating system
7128 * Memory Region Attributes:: Memory region attributes
7129 * Dump/Restore Files:: Copy between memory and a file
7130 * Core File Generation:: Cause a program dump its core
7131 * Character Sets:: Debugging programs that use a different
7132 character set than GDB does
7133 * Caching Remote Data:: Data caching for remote targets
7134 * Searching Memory:: Searching memory for a sequence of bytes
7135 @end menu
7136
7137 @node Expressions
7138 @section Expressions
7139
7140 @cindex expressions
7141 @code{print} and many other @value{GDBN} commands accept an expression and
7142 compute its value. Any kind of constant, variable or operator defined
7143 by the programming language you are using is valid in an expression in
7144 @value{GDBN}. This includes conditional expressions, function calls,
7145 casts, and string constants. It also includes preprocessor macros, if
7146 you compiled your program to include this information; see
7147 @ref{Compilation}.
7148
7149 @cindex arrays in expressions
7150 @value{GDBN} supports array constants in expressions input by
7151 the user. The syntax is @{@var{element}, @var{element}@dots{}@}. For example,
7152 you can use the command @code{print @{1, 2, 3@}} to create an array
7153 of three integers. If you pass an array to a function or assign it
7154 to a program variable, @value{GDBN} copies the array to memory that
7155 is @code{malloc}ed in the target program.
7156
7157 Because C is so widespread, most of the expressions shown in examples in
7158 this manual are in C. @xref{Languages, , Using @value{GDBN} with Different
7159 Languages}, for information on how to use expressions in other
7160 languages.
7161
7162 In this section, we discuss operators that you can use in @value{GDBN}
7163 expressions regardless of your programming language.
7164
7165 @cindex casts, in expressions
7166 Casts are supported in all languages, not just in C, because it is so
7167 useful to cast a number into a pointer in order to examine a structure
7168 at that address in memory.
7169 @c FIXME: casts supported---Mod2 true?
7170
7171 @value{GDBN} supports these operators, in addition to those common
7172 to programming languages:
7173
7174 @table @code
7175 @item @@
7176 @samp{@@} is a binary operator for treating parts of memory as arrays.
7177 @xref{Arrays, ,Artificial Arrays}, for more information.
7178
7179 @item ::
7180 @samp{::} allows you to specify a variable in terms of the file or
7181 function where it is defined. @xref{Variables, ,Program Variables}.
7182
7183 @cindex @{@var{type}@}
7184 @cindex type casting memory
7185 @cindex memory, viewing as typed object
7186 @cindex casts, to view memory
7187 @item @{@var{type}@} @var{addr}
7188 Refers to an object of type @var{type} stored at address @var{addr} in
7189 memory. @var{addr} may be any expression whose value is an integer or
7190 pointer (but parentheses are required around binary operators, just as in
7191 a cast). This construct is allowed regardless of what kind of data is
7192 normally supposed to reside at @var{addr}.
7193 @end table
7194
7195 @node Ambiguous Expressions
7196 @section Ambiguous Expressions
7197 @cindex ambiguous expressions
7198
7199 Expressions can sometimes contain some ambiguous elements. For instance,
7200 some programming languages (notably Ada, C@t{++} and Objective-C) permit
7201 a single function name to be defined several times, for application in
7202 different contexts. This is called @dfn{overloading}. Another example
7203 involving Ada is generics. A @dfn{generic package} is similar to C@t{++}
7204 templates and is typically instantiated several times, resulting in
7205 the same function name being defined in different contexts.
7206
7207 In some cases and depending on the language, it is possible to adjust
7208 the expression to remove the ambiguity. For instance in C@t{++}, you
7209 can specify the signature of the function you want to break on, as in
7210 @kbd{break @var{function}(@var{types})}. In Ada, using the fully
7211 qualified name of your function often makes the expression unambiguous
7212 as well.
7213
7214 When an ambiguity that needs to be resolved is detected, the debugger
7215 has the capability to display a menu of numbered choices for each
7216 possibility, and then waits for the selection with the prompt @samp{>}.
7217 The first option is always @samp{[0] cancel}, and typing @kbd{0 @key{RET}}
7218 aborts the current command. If the command in which the expression was
7219 used allows more than one choice to be selected, the next option in the
7220 menu is @samp{[1] all}, and typing @kbd{1 @key{RET}} selects all possible
7221 choices.
7222
7223 For example, the following session excerpt shows an attempt to set a
7224 breakpoint at the overloaded symbol @code{String::after}.
7225 We choose three particular definitions of that function name:
7226
7227 @c FIXME! This is likely to change to show arg type lists, at least
7228 @smallexample
7229 @group
7230 (@value{GDBP}) b String::after
7231 [0] cancel
7232 [1] all
7233 [2] file:String.cc; line number:867
7234 [3] file:String.cc; line number:860
7235 [4] file:String.cc; line number:875
7236 [5] file:String.cc; line number:853
7237 [6] file:String.cc; line number:846
7238 [7] file:String.cc; line number:735
7239 > 2 4 6
7240 Breakpoint 1 at 0xb26c: file String.cc, line 867.
7241 Breakpoint 2 at 0xb344: file String.cc, line 875.
7242 Breakpoint 3 at 0xafcc: file String.cc, line 846.
7243 Multiple breakpoints were set.
7244 Use the "delete" command to delete unwanted
7245 breakpoints.
7246 (@value{GDBP})
7247 @end group
7248 @end smallexample
7249
7250 @table @code
7251 @kindex set multiple-symbols
7252 @item set multiple-symbols @var{mode}
7253 @cindex multiple-symbols menu
7254
7255 This option allows you to adjust the debugger behavior when an expression
7256 is ambiguous.
7257
7258 By default, @var{mode} is set to @code{all}. If the command with which
7259 the expression is used allows more than one choice, then @value{GDBN}
7260 automatically selects all possible choices. For instance, inserting
7261 a breakpoint on a function using an ambiguous name results in a breakpoint
7262 inserted on each possible match. However, if a unique choice must be made,
7263 then @value{GDBN} uses the menu to help you disambiguate the expression.
7264 For instance, printing the address of an overloaded function will result
7265 in the use of the menu.
7266
7267 When @var{mode} is set to @code{ask}, the debugger always uses the menu
7268 when an ambiguity is detected.
7269
7270 Finally, when @var{mode} is set to @code{cancel}, the debugger reports
7271 an error due to the ambiguity and the command is aborted.
7272
7273 @kindex show multiple-symbols
7274 @item show multiple-symbols
7275 Show the current value of the @code{multiple-symbols} setting.
7276 @end table
7277
7278 @node Variables
7279 @section Program Variables
7280
7281 The most common kind of expression to use is the name of a variable
7282 in your program.
7283
7284 Variables in expressions are understood in the selected stack frame
7285 (@pxref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}); they must be either:
7286
7287 @itemize @bullet
7288 @item
7289 global (or file-static)
7290 @end itemize
7291
7292 @noindent or
7293
7294 @itemize @bullet
7295 @item
7296 visible according to the scope rules of the
7297 programming language from the point of execution in that frame
7298 @end itemize
7299
7300 @noindent This means that in the function
7301
7302 @smallexample
7303 foo (a)
7304 int a;
7305 @{
7306 bar (a);
7307 @{
7308 int b = test ();
7309 bar (b);
7310 @}
7311 @}
7312 @end smallexample
7313
7314 @noindent
7315 you can examine and use the variable @code{a} whenever your program is
7316 executing within the function @code{foo}, but you can only use or
7317 examine the variable @code{b} while your program is executing inside
7318 the block where @code{b} is declared.
7319
7320 @cindex variable name conflict
7321 There is an exception: you can refer to a variable or function whose
7322 scope is a single source file even if the current execution point is not
7323 in this file. But it is possible to have more than one such variable or
7324 function with the same name (in different source files). If that
7325 happens, referring to that name has unpredictable effects. If you wish,
7326 you can specify a static variable in a particular function or file by
7327 using the colon-colon (@code{::}) notation:
7328
7329 @cindex colon-colon, context for variables/functions
7330 @ifnotinfo
7331 @c info cannot cope with a :: index entry, but why deprive hard copy readers?
7332 @cindex @code{::}, context for variables/functions
7333 @end ifnotinfo
7334 @smallexample
7335 @var{file}::@var{variable}
7336 @var{function}::@var{variable}
7337 @end smallexample
7338
7339 @noindent
7340 Here @var{file} or @var{function} is the name of the context for the
7341 static @var{variable}. In the case of file names, you can use quotes to
7342 make sure @value{GDBN} parses the file name as a single word---for example,
7343 to print a global value of @code{x} defined in @file{f2.c}:
7344
7345 @smallexample
7346 (@value{GDBP}) p 'f2.c'::x
7347 @end smallexample
7348
7349 The @code{::} notation is normally used for referring to
7350 static variables, since you typically disambiguate uses of local variables
7351 in functions by selecting the appropriate frame and using the
7352 simple name of the variable. However, you may also use this notation
7353 to refer to local variables in frames enclosing the selected frame:
7354
7355 @smallexample
7356 void
7357 foo (int a)
7358 @{
7359 if (a < 10)
7360 bar (a);
7361 else
7362 process (a); /* Stop here */
7363 @}
7364
7365 int
7366 bar (int a)
7367 @{
7368 foo (a + 5);
7369 @}
7370 @end smallexample
7371
7372 @noindent
7373 For example, if there is a breakpoint at the commented line,
7374 here is what you might see
7375 when the program stops after executing the call @code{bar(0)}:
7376
7377 @smallexample
7378 (@value{GDBP}) p a
7379 $1 = 10
7380 (@value{GDBP}) p bar::a
7381 $2 = 5
7382 (@value{GDBP}) up 2
7383 #2 0x080483d0 in foo (a=5) at foobar.c:12
7384 (@value{GDBP}) p a
7385 $3 = 5
7386 (@value{GDBP}) p bar::a
7387 $4 = 0
7388 @end smallexample
7389
7390 @cindex C@t{++} scope resolution
7391 These uses of @samp{::} are very rarely in conflict with the very similar
7392 use of the same notation in C@t{++}. @value{GDBN} also supports use of the C@t{++}
7393 scope resolution operator in @value{GDBN} expressions.
7394 @c FIXME: Um, so what happens in one of those rare cases where it's in
7395 @c conflict?? --mew
7396
7397 @cindex wrong values
7398 @cindex variable values, wrong
7399 @cindex function entry/exit, wrong values of variables
7400 @cindex optimized code, wrong values of variables
7401 @quotation
7402 @emph{Warning:} Occasionally, a local variable may appear to have the
7403 wrong value at certain points in a function---just after entry to a new
7404 scope, and just before exit.
7405 @end quotation
7406 You may see this problem when you are stepping by machine instructions.
7407 This is because, on most machines, it takes more than one instruction to
7408 set up a stack frame (including local variable definitions); if you are
7409 stepping by machine instructions, variables may appear to have the wrong
7410 values until the stack frame is completely built. On exit, it usually
7411 also takes more than one machine instruction to destroy a stack frame;
7412 after you begin stepping through that group of instructions, local
7413 variable definitions may be gone.
7414
7415 This may also happen when the compiler does significant optimizations.
7416 To be sure of always seeing accurate values, turn off all optimization
7417 when compiling.
7418
7419 @cindex ``No symbol "foo" in current context''
7420 Another possible effect of compiler optimizations is to optimize
7421 unused variables out of existence, or assign variables to registers (as
7422 opposed to memory addresses). Depending on the support for such cases
7423 offered by the debug info format used by the compiler, @value{GDBN}
7424 might not be able to display values for such local variables. If that
7425 happens, @value{GDBN} will print a message like this:
7426
7427 @smallexample
7428 No symbol "foo" in current context.
7429 @end smallexample
7430
7431 To solve such problems, either recompile without optimizations, or use a
7432 different debug info format, if the compiler supports several such
7433 formats. @xref{Compilation}, for more information on choosing compiler
7434 options. @xref{C, ,C and C@t{++}}, for more information about debug
7435 info formats that are best suited to C@t{++} programs.
7436
7437 If you ask to print an object whose contents are unknown to
7438 @value{GDBN}, e.g., because its data type is not completely specified
7439 by the debug information, @value{GDBN} will say @samp{<incomplete
7440 type>}. @xref{Symbols, incomplete type}, for more about this.
7441
7442 If you append @kbd{@@entry} string to a function parameter name you get its
7443 value at the time the function got called. If the value is not available an
7444 error message is printed. Entry values are available only with some compilers.
7445 Entry values are normally also printed at the function parameter list according
7446 to @ref{set print entry-values}.
7447
7448 @smallexample
7449 Breakpoint 1, d (i=30) at gdb.base/entry-value.c:29
7450 29 i++;
7451 (gdb) next
7452 30 e (i);
7453 (gdb) print i
7454 $1 = 31
7455 (gdb) print i@@entry
7456 $2 = 30
7457 @end smallexample
7458
7459 Strings are identified as arrays of @code{char} values without specified
7460 signedness. Arrays of either @code{signed char} or @code{unsigned char} get
7461 printed as arrays of 1 byte sized integers. @code{-fsigned-char} or
7462 @code{-funsigned-char} @value{NGCC} options have no effect as @value{GDBN}
7463 defines literal string type @code{"char"} as @code{char} without a sign.
7464 For program code
7465
7466 @smallexample
7467 char var0[] = "A";
7468 signed char var1[] = "A";
7469 @end smallexample
7470
7471 You get during debugging
7472 @smallexample
7473 (gdb) print var0
7474 $1 = "A"
7475 (gdb) print var1
7476 $2 = @{65 'A', 0 '\0'@}
7477 @end smallexample
7478
7479 @node Arrays
7480 @section Artificial Arrays
7481
7482 @cindex artificial array
7483 @cindex arrays
7484 @kindex @@@r{, referencing memory as an array}
7485 It is often useful to print out several successive objects of the
7486 same type in memory; a section of an array, or an array of
7487 dynamically determined size for which only a pointer exists in the
7488 program.
7489
7490 You can do this by referring to a contiguous span of memory as an
7491 @dfn{artificial array}, using the binary operator @samp{@@}. The left
7492 operand of @samp{@@} should be the first element of the desired array
7493 and be an individual object. The right operand should be the desired length
7494 of the array. The result is an array value whose elements are all of
7495 the type of the left argument. The first element is actually the left
7496 argument; the second element comes from bytes of memory immediately
7497 following those that hold the first element, and so on. Here is an
7498 example. If a program says
7499
7500 @smallexample
7501 int *array = (int *) malloc (len * sizeof (int));
7502 @end smallexample
7503
7504 @noindent
7505 you can print the contents of @code{array} with
7506
7507 @smallexample
7508 p *array@@len
7509 @end smallexample
7510
7511 The left operand of @samp{@@} must reside in memory. Array values made
7512 with @samp{@@} in this way behave just like other arrays in terms of
7513 subscripting, and are coerced to pointers when used in expressions.
7514 Artificial arrays most often appear in expressions via the value history
7515 (@pxref{Value History, ,Value History}), after printing one out.
7516
7517 Another way to create an artificial array is to use a cast.
7518 This re-interprets a value as if it were an array.
7519 The value need not be in memory:
7520 @smallexample
7521 (@value{GDBP}) p/x (short[2])0x12345678
7522 $1 = @{0x1234, 0x5678@}
7523 @end smallexample
7524
7525 As a convenience, if you leave the array length out (as in
7526 @samp{(@var{type}[])@var{value}}) @value{GDBN} calculates the size to fill
7527 the value (as @samp{sizeof(@var{value})/sizeof(@var{type})}:
7528 @smallexample
7529 (@value{GDBP}) p/x (short[])0x12345678
7530 $2 = @{0x1234, 0x5678@}
7531 @end smallexample
7532
7533 Sometimes the artificial array mechanism is not quite enough; in
7534 moderately complex data structures, the elements of interest may not
7535 actually be adjacent---for example, if you are interested in the values
7536 of pointers in an array. One useful work-around in this situation is
7537 to use a convenience variable (@pxref{Convenience Vars, ,Convenience
7538 Variables}) as a counter in an expression that prints the first
7539 interesting value, and then repeat that expression via @key{RET}. For
7540 instance, suppose you have an array @code{dtab} of pointers to
7541 structures, and you are interested in the values of a field @code{fv}
7542 in each structure. Here is an example of what you might type:
7543
7544 @smallexample
7545 set $i = 0
7546 p dtab[$i++]->fv
7547 @key{RET}
7548 @key{RET}
7549 @dots{}
7550 @end smallexample
7551
7552 @node Output Formats
7553 @section Output Formats
7554
7555 @cindex formatted output
7556 @cindex output formats
7557 By default, @value{GDBN} prints a value according to its data type. Sometimes
7558 this is not what you want. For example, you might want to print a number
7559 in hex, or a pointer in decimal. Or you might want to view data in memory
7560 at a certain address as a character string or as an instruction. To do
7561 these things, specify an @dfn{output format} when you print a value.
7562
7563 The simplest use of output formats is to say how to print a value
7564 already computed. This is done by starting the arguments of the
7565 @code{print} command with a slash and a format letter. The format
7566 letters supported are:
7567
7568 @table @code
7569 @item x
7570 Regard the bits of the value as an integer, and print the integer in
7571 hexadecimal.
7572
7573 @item d
7574 Print as integer in signed decimal.
7575
7576 @item u
7577 Print as integer in unsigned decimal.
7578
7579 @item o
7580 Print as integer in octal.
7581
7582 @item t
7583 Print as integer in binary. The letter @samp{t} stands for ``two''.
7584 @footnote{@samp{b} cannot be used because these format letters are also
7585 used with the @code{x} command, where @samp{b} stands for ``byte'';
7586 see @ref{Memory,,Examining Memory}.}
7587
7588 @item a
7589 @cindex unknown address, locating
7590 @cindex locate address
7591 Print as an address, both absolute in hexadecimal and as an offset from
7592 the nearest preceding symbol. You can use this format used to discover
7593 where (in what function) an unknown address is located:
7594
7595 @smallexample
7596 (@value{GDBP}) p/a 0x54320
7597 $3 = 0x54320 <_initialize_vx+396>
7598 @end smallexample
7599
7600 @noindent
7601 The command @code{info symbol 0x54320} yields similar results.
7602 @xref{Symbols, info symbol}.
7603
7604 @item c
7605 Regard as an integer and print it as a character constant. This
7606 prints both the numerical value and its character representation. The
7607 character representation is replaced with the octal escape @samp{\nnn}
7608 for characters outside the 7-bit @sc{ascii} range.
7609
7610 Without this format, @value{GDBN} displays @code{char},
7611 @w{@code{unsigned char}}, and @w{@code{signed char}} data as character
7612 constants. Single-byte members of vectors are displayed as integer
7613 data.
7614
7615 @item f
7616 Regard the bits of the value as a floating point number and print
7617 using typical floating point syntax.
7618
7619 @item s
7620 @cindex printing strings
7621 @cindex printing byte arrays
7622 Regard as a string, if possible. With this format, pointers to single-byte
7623 data are displayed as null-terminated strings and arrays of single-byte data
7624 are displayed as fixed-length strings. Other values are displayed in their
7625 natural types.
7626
7627 Without this format, @value{GDBN} displays pointers to and arrays of
7628 @code{char}, @w{@code{unsigned char}}, and @w{@code{signed char}} as
7629 strings. Single-byte members of a vector are displayed as an integer
7630 array.
7631
7632 @item r
7633 @cindex raw printing
7634 Print using the @samp{raw} formatting. By default, @value{GDBN} will
7635 use a Python-based pretty-printer, if one is available (@pxref{Pretty
7636 Printing}). This typically results in a higher-level display of the
7637 value's contents. The @samp{r} format bypasses any Python
7638 pretty-printer which might exist.
7639 @end table
7640
7641 For example, to print the program counter in hex (@pxref{Registers}), type
7642
7643 @smallexample
7644 p/x $pc
7645 @end smallexample
7646
7647 @noindent
7648 Note that no space is required before the slash; this is because command
7649 names in @value{GDBN} cannot contain a slash.
7650
7651 To reprint the last value in the value history with a different format,
7652 you can use the @code{print} command with just a format and no
7653 expression. For example, @samp{p/x} reprints the last value in hex.
7654
7655 @node Memory
7656 @section Examining Memory
7657
7658 You can use the command @code{x} (for ``examine'') to examine memory in
7659 any of several formats, independently of your program's data types.
7660
7661 @cindex examining memory
7662 @table @code
7663 @kindex x @r{(examine memory)}
7664 @item x/@var{nfu} @var{addr}
7665 @itemx x @var{addr}
7666 @itemx x
7667 Use the @code{x} command to examine memory.
7668 @end table
7669
7670 @var{n}, @var{f}, and @var{u} are all optional parameters that specify how
7671 much memory to display and how to format it; @var{addr} is an
7672 expression giving the address where you want to start displaying memory.
7673 If you use defaults for @var{nfu}, you need not type the slash @samp{/}.
7674 Several commands set convenient defaults for @var{addr}.
7675
7676 @table @r
7677 @item @var{n}, the repeat count
7678 The repeat count is a decimal integer; the default is 1. It specifies
7679 how much memory (counting by units @var{u}) to display.
7680 @c This really is **decimal**; unaffected by 'set radix' as of GDB
7681 @c 4.1.2.
7682
7683 @item @var{f}, the display format
7684 The display format is one of the formats used by @code{print}
7685 (@samp{x}, @samp{d}, @samp{u}, @samp{o}, @samp{t}, @samp{a}, @samp{c},
7686 @samp{f}, @samp{s}), and in addition @samp{i} (for machine instructions).
7687 The default is @samp{x} (hexadecimal) initially. The default changes
7688 each time you use either @code{x} or @code{print}.
7689
7690 @item @var{u}, the unit size
7691 The unit size is any of
7692
7693 @table @code
7694 @item b
7695 Bytes.
7696 @item h
7697 Halfwords (two bytes).
7698 @item w
7699 Words (four bytes). This is the initial default.
7700 @item g
7701 Giant words (eight bytes).
7702 @end table
7703
7704 Each time you specify a unit size with @code{x}, that size becomes the
7705 default unit the next time you use @code{x}. For the @samp{i} format,
7706 the unit size is ignored and is normally not written. For the @samp{s} format,
7707 the unit size defaults to @samp{b}, unless it is explicitly given.
7708 Use @kbd{x /hs} to display 16-bit char strings and @kbd{x /ws} to display
7709 32-bit strings. The next use of @kbd{x /s} will again display 8-bit strings.
7710 Note that the results depend on the programming language of the
7711 current compilation unit. If the language is C, the @samp{s}
7712 modifier will use the UTF-16 encoding while @samp{w} will use
7713 UTF-32. The encoding is set by the programming language and cannot
7714 be altered.
7715
7716 @item @var{addr}, starting display address
7717 @var{addr} is the address where you want @value{GDBN} to begin displaying
7718 memory. The expression need not have a pointer value (though it may);
7719 it is always interpreted as an integer address of a byte of memory.
7720 @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}, for more information on expressions. The default for
7721 @var{addr} is usually just after the last address examined---but several
7722 other commands also set the default address: @code{info breakpoints} (to
7723 the address of the last breakpoint listed), @code{info line} (to the
7724 starting address of a line), and @code{print} (if you use it to display
7725 a value from memory).
7726 @end table
7727
7728 For example, @samp{x/3uh 0x54320} is a request to display three halfwords
7729 (@code{h}) of memory, formatted as unsigned decimal integers (@samp{u}),
7730 starting at address @code{0x54320}. @samp{x/4xw $sp} prints the four
7731 words (@samp{w}) of memory above the stack pointer (here, @samp{$sp};
7732 @pxref{Registers, ,Registers}) in hexadecimal (@samp{x}).
7733
7734 Since the letters indicating unit sizes are all distinct from the
7735 letters specifying output formats, you do not have to remember whether
7736 unit size or format comes first; either order works. The output
7737 specifications @samp{4xw} and @samp{4wx} mean exactly the same thing.
7738 (However, the count @var{n} must come first; @samp{wx4} does not work.)
7739
7740 Even though the unit size @var{u} is ignored for the formats @samp{s}
7741 and @samp{i}, you might still want to use a count @var{n}; for example,
7742 @samp{3i} specifies that you want to see three machine instructions,
7743 including any operands. For convenience, especially when used with
7744 the @code{display} command, the @samp{i} format also prints branch delay
7745 slot instructions, if any, beyond the count specified, which immediately
7746 follow the last instruction that is within the count. The command
7747 @code{disassemble} gives an alternative way of inspecting machine
7748 instructions; see @ref{Machine Code,,Source and Machine Code}.
7749
7750 All the defaults for the arguments to @code{x} are designed to make it
7751 easy to continue scanning memory with minimal specifications each time
7752 you use @code{x}. For example, after you have inspected three machine
7753 instructions with @samp{x/3i @var{addr}}, you can inspect the next seven
7754 with just @samp{x/7}. If you use @key{RET} to repeat the @code{x} command,
7755 the repeat count @var{n} is used again; the other arguments default as
7756 for successive uses of @code{x}.
7757
7758 When examining machine instructions, the instruction at current program
7759 counter is shown with a @code{=>} marker. For example:
7760
7761 @smallexample
7762 (@value{GDBP}) x/5i $pc-6
7763 0x804837f <main+11>: mov %esp,%ebp
7764 0x8048381 <main+13>: push %ecx
7765 0x8048382 <main+14>: sub $0x4,%esp
7766 => 0x8048385 <main+17>: movl $0x8048460,(%esp)
7767 0x804838c <main+24>: call 0x80482d4 <puts@@plt>
7768 @end smallexample
7769
7770 @cindex @code{$_}, @code{$__}, and value history
7771 The addresses and contents printed by the @code{x} command are not saved
7772 in the value history because there is often too much of them and they
7773 would get in the way. Instead, @value{GDBN} makes these values available for
7774 subsequent use in expressions as values of the convenience variables
7775 @code{$_} and @code{$__}. After an @code{x} command, the last address
7776 examined is available for use in expressions in the convenience variable
7777 @code{$_}. The contents of that address, as examined, are available in
7778 the convenience variable @code{$__}.
7779
7780 If the @code{x} command has a repeat count, the address and contents saved
7781 are from the last memory unit printed; this is not the same as the last
7782 address printed if several units were printed on the last line of output.
7783
7784 @cindex remote memory comparison
7785 @cindex verify remote memory image
7786 When you are debugging a program running on a remote target machine
7787 (@pxref{Remote Debugging}), you may wish to verify the program's image in the
7788 remote machine's memory against the executable file you downloaded to
7789 the target. The @code{compare-sections} command is provided for such
7790 situations.
7791
7792 @table @code
7793 @kindex compare-sections
7794 @item compare-sections @r{[}@var{section-name}@r{]}
7795 Compare the data of a loadable section @var{section-name} in the
7796 executable file of the program being debugged with the same section in
7797 the remote machine's memory, and report any mismatches. With no
7798 arguments, compares all loadable sections. This command's
7799 availability depends on the target's support for the @code{"qCRC"}
7800 remote request.
7801 @end table
7802
7803 @node Auto Display
7804 @section Automatic Display
7805 @cindex automatic display
7806 @cindex display of expressions
7807
7808 If you find that you want to print the value of an expression frequently
7809 (to see how it changes), you might want to add it to the @dfn{automatic
7810 display list} so that @value{GDBN} prints its value each time your program stops.
7811 Each expression added to the list is given a number to identify it;
7812 to remove an expression from the list, you specify that number.
7813 The automatic display looks like this:
7814
7815 @smallexample
7816 2: foo = 38
7817 3: bar[5] = (struct hack *) 0x3804
7818 @end smallexample
7819
7820 @noindent
7821 This display shows item numbers, expressions and their current values. As with
7822 displays you request manually using @code{x} or @code{print}, you can
7823 specify the output format you prefer; in fact, @code{display} decides
7824 whether to use @code{print} or @code{x} depending your format
7825 specification---it uses @code{x} if you specify either the @samp{i}
7826 or @samp{s} format, or a unit size; otherwise it uses @code{print}.
7827
7828 @table @code
7829 @kindex display
7830 @item display @var{expr}
7831 Add the expression @var{expr} to the list of expressions to display
7832 each time your program stops. @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}.
7833
7834 @code{display} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} again after using it.
7835
7836 @item display/@var{fmt} @var{expr}
7837 For @var{fmt} specifying only a display format and not a size or
7838 count, add the expression @var{expr} to the auto-display list but
7839 arrange to display it each time in the specified format @var{fmt}.
7840 @xref{Output Formats,,Output Formats}.
7841
7842 @item display/@var{fmt} @var{addr}
7843 For @var{fmt} @samp{i} or @samp{s}, or including a unit-size or a
7844 number of units, add the expression @var{addr} as a memory address to
7845 be examined each time your program stops. Examining means in effect
7846 doing @samp{x/@var{fmt} @var{addr}}. @xref{Memory, ,Examining Memory}.
7847 @end table
7848
7849 For example, @samp{display/i $pc} can be helpful, to see the machine
7850 instruction about to be executed each time execution stops (@samp{$pc}
7851 is a common name for the program counter; @pxref{Registers, ,Registers}).
7852
7853 @table @code
7854 @kindex delete display
7855 @kindex undisplay
7856 @item undisplay @var{dnums}@dots{}
7857 @itemx delete display @var{dnums}@dots{}
7858 Remove items from the list of expressions to display. Specify the
7859 numbers of the displays that you want affected with the command
7860 argument @var{dnums}. It can be a single display number, one of the
7861 numbers shown in the first field of the @samp{info display} display;
7862 or it could be a range of display numbers, as in @code{2-4}.
7863
7864 @code{undisplay} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} after using it.
7865 (Otherwise you would just get the error @samp{No display number @dots{}}.)
7866
7867 @kindex disable display
7868 @item disable display @var{dnums}@dots{}
7869 Disable the display of item numbers @var{dnums}. A disabled display
7870 item is not printed automatically, but is not forgotten. It may be
7871 enabled again later. Specify the numbers of the displays that you
7872 want affected with the command argument @var{dnums}. It can be a
7873 single display number, one of the numbers shown in the first field of
7874 the @samp{info display} display; or it could be a range of display
7875 numbers, as in @code{2-4}.
7876
7877 @kindex enable display
7878 @item enable display @var{dnums}@dots{}
7879 Enable display of item numbers @var{dnums}. It becomes effective once
7880 again in auto display of its expression, until you specify otherwise.
7881 Specify the numbers of the displays that you want affected with the
7882 command argument @var{dnums}. It can be a single display number, one
7883 of the numbers shown in the first field of the @samp{info display}
7884 display; or it could be a range of display numbers, as in @code{2-4}.
7885
7886 @item display
7887 Display the current values of the expressions on the list, just as is
7888 done when your program stops.
7889
7890 @kindex info display
7891 @item info display
7892 Print the list of expressions previously set up to display
7893 automatically, each one with its item number, but without showing the
7894 values. This includes disabled expressions, which are marked as such.
7895 It also includes expressions which would not be displayed right now
7896 because they refer to automatic variables not currently available.
7897 @end table
7898
7899 @cindex display disabled out of scope
7900 If a display expression refers to local variables, then it does not make
7901 sense outside the lexical context for which it was set up. Such an
7902 expression is disabled when execution enters a context where one of its
7903 variables is not defined. For example, if you give the command
7904 @code{display last_char} while inside a function with an argument
7905 @code{last_char}, @value{GDBN} displays this argument while your program
7906 continues to stop inside that function. When it stops elsewhere---where
7907 there is no variable @code{last_char}---the display is disabled
7908 automatically. The next time your program stops where @code{last_char}
7909 is meaningful, you can enable the display expression once again.
7910
7911 @node Print Settings
7912 @section Print Settings
7913
7914 @cindex format options
7915 @cindex print settings
7916 @value{GDBN} provides the following ways to control how arrays, structures,
7917 and symbols are printed.
7918
7919 @noindent
7920 These settings are useful for debugging programs in any language:
7921
7922 @table @code
7923 @kindex set print
7924 @item set print address
7925 @itemx set print address on
7926 @cindex print/don't print memory addresses
7927 @value{GDBN} prints memory addresses showing the location of stack
7928 traces, structure values, pointer values, breakpoints, and so forth,
7929 even when it also displays the contents of those addresses. The default
7930 is @code{on}. For example, this is what a stack frame display looks like with
7931 @code{set print address on}:
7932
7933 @smallexample
7934 @group
7935 (@value{GDBP}) f
7936 #0 set_quotes (lq=0x34c78 "<<", rq=0x34c88 ">>")
7937 at input.c:530
7938 530 if (lquote != def_lquote)
7939 @end group
7940 @end smallexample
7941
7942 @item set print address off
7943 Do not print addresses when displaying their contents. For example,
7944 this is the same stack frame displayed with @code{set print address off}:
7945
7946 @smallexample
7947 @group
7948 (@value{GDBP}) set print addr off
7949 (@value{GDBP}) f
7950 #0 set_quotes (lq="<<", rq=">>") at input.c:530
7951 530 if (lquote != def_lquote)
7952 @end group
7953 @end smallexample
7954
7955 You can use @samp{set print address off} to eliminate all machine
7956 dependent displays from the @value{GDBN} interface. For example, with
7957 @code{print address off}, you should get the same text for backtraces on
7958 all machines---whether or not they involve pointer arguments.
7959
7960 @kindex show print
7961 @item show print address
7962 Show whether or not addresses are to be printed.
7963 @end table
7964
7965 When @value{GDBN} prints a symbolic address, it normally prints the
7966 closest earlier symbol plus an offset. If that symbol does not uniquely
7967 identify the address (for example, it is a name whose scope is a single
7968 source file), you may need to clarify. One way to do this is with
7969 @code{info line}, for example @samp{info line *0x4537}. Alternately,
7970 you can set @value{GDBN} to print the source file and line number when
7971 it prints a symbolic address:
7972
7973 @table @code
7974 @item set print symbol-filename on
7975 @cindex source file and line of a symbol
7976 @cindex symbol, source file and line
7977 Tell @value{GDBN} to print the source file name and line number of a
7978 symbol in the symbolic form of an address.
7979
7980 @item set print symbol-filename off
7981 Do not print source file name and line number of a symbol. This is the
7982 default.
7983
7984 @item show print symbol-filename
7985 Show whether or not @value{GDBN} will print the source file name and
7986 line number of a symbol in the symbolic form of an address.
7987 @end table
7988
7989 Another situation where it is helpful to show symbol filenames and line
7990 numbers is when disassembling code; @value{GDBN} shows you the line
7991 number and source file that corresponds to each instruction.
7992
7993 Also, you may wish to see the symbolic form only if the address being
7994 printed is reasonably close to the closest earlier symbol:
7995
7996 @table @code
7997 @item set print max-symbolic-offset @var{max-offset}
7998 @cindex maximum value for offset of closest symbol
7999 Tell @value{GDBN} to only display the symbolic form of an address if the
8000 offset between the closest earlier symbol and the address is less than
8001 @var{max-offset}. The default is 0, which tells @value{GDBN}
8002 to always print the symbolic form of an address if any symbol precedes it.
8003
8004 @item show print max-symbolic-offset
8005 Ask how large the maximum offset is that @value{GDBN} prints in a
8006 symbolic address.
8007 @end table
8008
8009 @cindex wild pointer, interpreting
8010 @cindex pointer, finding referent
8011 If you have a pointer and you are not sure where it points, try
8012 @samp{set print symbol-filename on}. Then you can determine the name
8013 and source file location of the variable where it points, using
8014 @samp{p/a @var{pointer}}. This interprets the address in symbolic form.
8015 For example, here @value{GDBN} shows that a variable @code{ptt} points
8016 at another variable @code{t}, defined in @file{hi2.c}:
8017
8018 @smallexample
8019 (@value{GDBP}) set print symbol-filename on
8020 (@value{GDBP}) p/a ptt
8021 $4 = 0xe008 <t in hi2.c>
8022 @end smallexample
8023
8024 @quotation
8025 @emph{Warning:} For pointers that point to a local variable, @samp{p/a}
8026 does not show the symbol name and filename of the referent, even with
8027 the appropriate @code{set print} options turned on.
8028 @end quotation
8029
8030 Other settings control how different kinds of objects are printed:
8031
8032 @table @code
8033 @item set print array
8034 @itemx set print array on
8035 @cindex pretty print arrays
8036 Pretty print arrays. This format is more convenient to read,
8037 but uses more space. The default is off.
8038
8039 @item set print array off
8040 Return to compressed format for arrays.
8041
8042 @item show print array
8043 Show whether compressed or pretty format is selected for displaying
8044 arrays.
8045
8046 @cindex print array indexes
8047 @item set print array-indexes
8048 @itemx set print array-indexes on
8049 Print the index of each element when displaying arrays. May be more
8050 convenient to locate a given element in the array or quickly find the
8051 index of a given element in that printed array. The default is off.
8052
8053 @item set print array-indexes off
8054 Stop printing element indexes when displaying arrays.
8055
8056 @item show print array-indexes
8057 Show whether the index of each element is printed when displaying
8058 arrays.
8059
8060 @item set print elements @var{number-of-elements}
8061 @cindex number of array elements to print
8062 @cindex limit on number of printed array elements
8063 Set a limit on how many elements of an array @value{GDBN} will print.
8064 If @value{GDBN} is printing a large array, it stops printing after it has
8065 printed the number of elements set by the @code{set print elements} command.
8066 This limit also applies to the display of strings.
8067 When @value{GDBN} starts, this limit is set to 200.
8068 Setting @var{number-of-elements} to zero means that the printing is unlimited.
8069
8070 @item show print elements
8071 Display the number of elements of a large array that @value{GDBN} will print.
8072 If the number is 0, then the printing is unlimited.
8073
8074 @item set print frame-arguments @var{value}
8075 @kindex set print frame-arguments
8076 @cindex printing frame argument values
8077 @cindex print all frame argument values
8078 @cindex print frame argument values for scalars only
8079 @cindex do not print frame argument values
8080 This command allows to control how the values of arguments are printed
8081 when the debugger prints a frame (@pxref{Frames}). The possible
8082 values are:
8083
8084 @table @code
8085 @item all
8086 The values of all arguments are printed.
8087
8088 @item scalars
8089 Print the value of an argument only if it is a scalar. The value of more
8090 complex arguments such as arrays, structures, unions, etc, is replaced
8091 by @code{@dots{}}. This is the default. Here is an example where
8092 only scalar arguments are shown:
8093
8094 @smallexample
8095 #1 0x08048361 in call_me (i=3, s=@dots{}, ss=0xbf8d508c, u=@dots{}, e=green)
8096 at frame-args.c:23
8097 @end smallexample
8098
8099 @item none
8100 None of the argument values are printed. Instead, the value of each argument
8101 is replaced by @code{@dots{}}. In this case, the example above now becomes:
8102
8103 @smallexample
8104 #1 0x08048361 in call_me (i=@dots{}, s=@dots{}, ss=@dots{}, u=@dots{}, e=@dots{})
8105 at frame-args.c:23
8106 @end smallexample
8107 @end table
8108
8109 By default, only scalar arguments are printed. This command can be used
8110 to configure the debugger to print the value of all arguments, regardless
8111 of their type. However, it is often advantageous to not print the value
8112 of more complex parameters. For instance, it reduces the amount of
8113 information printed in each frame, making the backtrace more readable.
8114 Also, it improves performance when displaying Ada frames, because
8115 the computation of large arguments can sometimes be CPU-intensive,
8116 especially in large applications. Setting @code{print frame-arguments}
8117 to @code{scalars} (the default) or @code{none} avoids this computation,
8118 thus speeding up the display of each Ada frame.
8119
8120 @item show print frame-arguments
8121 Show how the value of arguments should be displayed when printing a frame.
8122
8123 @anchor{set print entry-values}
8124 @item set print entry-values @var{value}
8125 @kindex set print entry-values
8126 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
8127 @value{GDBN} can determine the value of function argument which was passed by
8128 the function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function
8129 and therefore is different. With optimized code, the current value could be
8130 unavailable, but the entry value may still be known.
8131
8132 The default value is @code{default} (see below for its description). Older
8133 @value{GDBN} behaved as with the setting @code{no}. Compilers not supporting
8134 this feature will behave in the @code{default} setting the same way as with the
8135 @code{no} setting.
8136
8137 This functionality is currently supported only by DWARF 2 debugging format and
8138 the compiler has to produce @samp{DW_TAG_GNU_call_site} tags. With
8139 @value{NGCC}, you need to specify @option{-O -g} during compilation, to get
8140 this information.
8141
8142 The @var{value} parameter can be one of the following:
8143
8144 @table @code
8145 @item no
8146 Print only actual parameter values, never print values from function entry
8147 point.
8148 @smallexample
8149 #0 equal (val=5)
8150 #0 different (val=6)
8151 #0 lost (val=<optimized out>)
8152 #0 born (val=10)
8153 #0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
8154 @end smallexample
8155
8156 @item only
8157 Print only parameter values from function entry point. The actual parameter
8158 values are never printed.
8159 @smallexample
8160 #0 equal (val@@entry=5)
8161 #0 different (val@@entry=5)
8162 #0 lost (val@@entry=5)
8163 #0 born (val@@entry=<optimized out>)
8164 #0 invalid (val@@entry=<optimized out>)
8165 @end smallexample
8166
8167 @item preferred
8168 Print only parameter values from function entry point. If value from function
8169 entry point is not known while the actual value is known, print the actual
8170 value for such parameter.
8171 @smallexample
8172 #0 equal (val@@entry=5)
8173 #0 different (val@@entry=5)
8174 #0 lost (val@@entry=5)
8175 #0 born (val=10)
8176 #0 invalid (val@@entry=<optimized out>)
8177 @end smallexample
8178
8179 @item if-needed
8180 Print actual parameter values. If actual parameter value is not known while
8181 value from function entry point is known, print the entry point value for such
8182 parameter.
8183 @smallexample
8184 #0 equal (val=5)
8185 #0 different (val=6)
8186 #0 lost (val@@entry=5)
8187 #0 born (val=10)
8188 #0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
8189 @end smallexample
8190
8191 @item both
8192 Always print both the actual parameter value and its value from function entry
8193 point, even if values of one or both are not available due to compiler
8194 optimizations.
8195 @smallexample
8196 #0 equal (val=5, val@@entry=5)
8197 #0 different (val=6, val@@entry=5)
8198 #0 lost (val=<optimized out>, val@@entry=5)
8199 #0 born (val=10, val@@entry=<optimized out>)
8200 #0 invalid (val=<optimized out>, val@@entry=<optimized out>)
8201 @end smallexample
8202
8203 @item compact
8204 Print the actual parameter value if it is known and also its value from
8205 function entry point if it is known. If neither is known, print for the actual
8206 value @code{<optimized out>}. If not in MI mode (@pxref{GDB/MI}) and if both
8207 values are known and identical, print the shortened
8208 @code{param=param@@entry=VALUE} notation.
8209 @smallexample
8210 #0 equal (val=val@@entry=5)
8211 #0 different (val=6, val@@entry=5)
8212 #0 lost (val@@entry=5)
8213 #0 born (val=10)
8214 #0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
8215 @end smallexample
8216
8217 @item default
8218 Always print the actual parameter value. Print also its value from function
8219 entry point, but only if it is known. If not in MI mode (@pxref{GDB/MI}) and
8220 if both values are known and identical, print the shortened
8221 @code{param=param@@entry=VALUE} notation.
8222 @smallexample
8223 #0 equal (val=val@@entry=5)
8224 #0 different (val=6, val@@entry=5)
8225 #0 lost (val=<optimized out>, val@@entry=5)
8226 #0 born (val=10)
8227 #0 invalid (val=<optimized out>)
8228 @end smallexample
8229 @end table
8230
8231 For analysis messages on possible failures of frame argument values at function
8232 entry resolution see @ref{set debug entry-values}.
8233
8234 @item show print entry-values
8235 Show the method being used for printing of frame argument values at function
8236 entry.
8237
8238 @item set print repeats
8239 @cindex repeated array elements
8240 Set the threshold for suppressing display of repeated array
8241 elements. When the number of consecutive identical elements of an
8242 array exceeds the threshold, @value{GDBN} prints the string
8243 @code{"<repeats @var{n} times>"}, where @var{n} is the number of
8244 identical repetitions, instead of displaying the identical elements
8245 themselves. Setting the threshold to zero will cause all elements to
8246 be individually printed. The default threshold is 10.
8247
8248 @item show print repeats
8249 Display the current threshold for printing repeated identical
8250 elements.
8251
8252 @item set print null-stop
8253 @cindex @sc{null} elements in arrays
8254 Cause @value{GDBN} to stop printing the characters of an array when the first
8255 @sc{null} is encountered. This is useful when large arrays actually
8256 contain only short strings.
8257 The default is off.
8258
8259 @item show print null-stop
8260 Show whether @value{GDBN} stops printing an array on the first
8261 @sc{null} character.
8262
8263 @item set print pretty on
8264 @cindex print structures in indented form
8265 @cindex indentation in structure display
8266 Cause @value{GDBN} to print structures in an indented format with one member
8267 per line, like this:
8268
8269 @smallexample
8270 @group
8271 $1 = @{
8272 next = 0x0,
8273 flags = @{
8274 sweet = 1,
8275 sour = 1
8276 @},
8277 meat = 0x54 "Pork"
8278 @}
8279 @end group
8280 @end smallexample
8281
8282 @item set print pretty off
8283 Cause @value{GDBN} to print structures in a compact format, like this:
8284
8285 @smallexample
8286 @group
8287 $1 = @{next = 0x0, flags = @{sweet = 1, sour = 1@}, \
8288 meat = 0x54 "Pork"@}
8289 @end group
8290 @end smallexample
8291
8292 @noindent
8293 This is the default format.
8294
8295 @item show print pretty
8296 Show which format @value{GDBN} is using to print structures.
8297
8298 @item set print sevenbit-strings on
8299 @cindex eight-bit characters in strings
8300 @cindex octal escapes in strings
8301 Print using only seven-bit characters; if this option is set,
8302 @value{GDBN} displays any eight-bit characters (in strings or
8303 character values) using the notation @code{\}@var{nnn}. This setting is
8304 best if you are working in English (@sc{ascii}) and you use the
8305 high-order bit of characters as a marker or ``meta'' bit.
8306
8307 @item set print sevenbit-strings off
8308 Print full eight-bit characters. This allows the use of more
8309 international character sets, and is the default.
8310
8311 @item show print sevenbit-strings
8312 Show whether or not @value{GDBN} is printing only seven-bit characters.
8313
8314 @item set print union on
8315 @cindex unions in structures, printing
8316 Tell @value{GDBN} to print unions which are contained in structures
8317 and other unions. This is the default setting.
8318
8319 @item set print union off
8320 Tell @value{GDBN} not to print unions which are contained in
8321 structures and other unions. @value{GDBN} will print @code{"@{...@}"}
8322 instead.
8323
8324 @item show print union
8325 Ask @value{GDBN} whether or not it will print unions which are contained in
8326 structures and other unions.
8327
8328 For example, given the declarations
8329
8330 @smallexample
8331 typedef enum @{Tree, Bug@} Species;
8332 typedef enum @{Big_tree, Acorn, Seedling@} Tree_forms;
8333 typedef enum @{Caterpillar, Cocoon, Butterfly@}
8334 Bug_forms;
8335
8336 struct thing @{
8337 Species it;
8338 union @{
8339 Tree_forms tree;
8340 Bug_forms bug;
8341 @} form;
8342 @};
8343
8344 struct thing foo = @{Tree, @{Acorn@}@};
8345 @end smallexample
8346
8347 @noindent
8348 with @code{set print union on} in effect @samp{p foo} would print
8349
8350 @smallexample
8351 $1 = @{it = Tree, form = @{tree = Acorn, bug = Cocoon@}@}
8352 @end smallexample
8353
8354 @noindent
8355 and with @code{set print union off} in effect it would print
8356
8357 @smallexample
8358 $1 = @{it = Tree, form = @{...@}@}
8359 @end smallexample
8360
8361 @noindent
8362 @code{set print union} affects programs written in C-like languages
8363 and in Pascal.
8364 @end table
8365
8366 @need 1000
8367 @noindent
8368 These settings are of interest when debugging C@t{++} programs:
8369
8370 @table @code
8371 @cindex demangling C@t{++} names
8372 @item set print demangle
8373 @itemx set print demangle on
8374 Print C@t{++} names in their source form rather than in the encoded
8375 (``mangled'') form passed to the assembler and linker for type-safe
8376 linkage. The default is on.
8377
8378 @item show print demangle
8379 Show whether C@t{++} names are printed in mangled or demangled form.
8380
8381 @item set print asm-demangle
8382 @itemx set print asm-demangle on
8383 Print C@t{++} names in their source form rather than their mangled form, even
8384 in assembler code printouts such as instruction disassemblies.
8385 The default is off.
8386
8387 @item show print asm-demangle
8388 Show whether C@t{++} names in assembly listings are printed in mangled
8389 or demangled form.
8390
8391 @cindex C@t{++} symbol decoding style
8392 @cindex symbol decoding style, C@t{++}
8393 @kindex set demangle-style
8394 @item set demangle-style @var{style}
8395 Choose among several encoding schemes used by different compilers to
8396 represent C@t{++} names. The choices for @var{style} are currently:
8397
8398 @table @code
8399 @item auto
8400 Allow @value{GDBN} to choose a decoding style by inspecting your program.
8401
8402 @item gnu
8403 Decode based on the @sc{gnu} C@t{++} compiler (@code{g++}) encoding algorithm.
8404 This is the default.
8405
8406 @item hp
8407 Decode based on the HP ANSI C@t{++} (@code{aCC}) encoding algorithm.
8408
8409 @item lucid
8410 Decode based on the Lucid C@t{++} compiler (@code{lcc}) encoding algorithm.
8411
8412 @item arm
8413 Decode using the algorithm in the @cite{C@t{++} Annotated Reference Manual}.
8414 @strong{Warning:} this setting alone is not sufficient to allow
8415 debugging @code{cfront}-generated executables. @value{GDBN} would
8416 require further enhancement to permit that.
8417
8418 @end table
8419 If you omit @var{style}, you will see a list of possible formats.
8420
8421 @item show demangle-style
8422 Display the encoding style currently in use for decoding C@t{++} symbols.
8423
8424 @item set print object
8425 @itemx set print object on
8426 @cindex derived type of an object, printing
8427 @cindex display derived types
8428 When displaying a pointer to an object, identify the @emph{actual}
8429 (derived) type of the object rather than the @emph{declared} type, using
8430 the virtual function table. Note that the virtual function table is
8431 required---this feature can only work for objects that have run-time
8432 type identification; a single virtual method in the object's declared
8433 type is sufficient.
8434
8435 @item set print object off
8436 Display only the declared type of objects, without reference to the
8437 virtual function table. This is the default setting.
8438
8439 @item show print object
8440 Show whether actual, or declared, object types are displayed.
8441
8442 @item set print static-members
8443 @itemx set print static-members on
8444 @cindex static members of C@t{++} objects
8445 Print static members when displaying a C@t{++} object. The default is on.
8446
8447 @item set print static-members off
8448 Do not print static members when displaying a C@t{++} object.
8449
8450 @item show print static-members
8451 Show whether C@t{++} static members are printed or not.
8452
8453 @item set print pascal_static-members
8454 @itemx set print pascal_static-members on
8455 @cindex static members of Pascal objects
8456 @cindex Pascal objects, static members display
8457 Print static members when displaying a Pascal object. The default is on.
8458
8459 @item set print pascal_static-members off
8460 Do not print static members when displaying a Pascal object.
8461
8462 @item show print pascal_static-members
8463 Show whether Pascal static members are printed or not.
8464
8465 @c These don't work with HP ANSI C++ yet.
8466 @item set print vtbl
8467 @itemx set print vtbl on
8468 @cindex pretty print C@t{++} virtual function tables
8469 @cindex virtual functions (C@t{++}) display
8470 @cindex VTBL display
8471 Pretty print C@t{++} virtual function tables. The default is off.
8472 (The @code{vtbl} commands do not work on programs compiled with the HP
8473 ANSI C@t{++} compiler (@code{aCC}).)
8474
8475 @item set print vtbl off
8476 Do not pretty print C@t{++} virtual function tables.
8477
8478 @item show print vtbl
8479 Show whether C@t{++} virtual function tables are pretty printed, or not.
8480 @end table
8481
8482 @node Pretty Printing
8483 @section Pretty Printing
8484
8485 @value{GDBN} provides a mechanism to allow pretty-printing of values using
8486 Python code. It greatly simplifies the display of complex objects. This
8487 mechanism works for both MI and the CLI.
8488
8489 @menu
8490 * Pretty-Printer Introduction:: Introduction to pretty-printers
8491 * Pretty-Printer Example:: An example pretty-printer
8492 * Pretty-Printer Commands:: Pretty-printer commands
8493 @end menu
8494
8495 @node Pretty-Printer Introduction
8496 @subsection Pretty-Printer Introduction
8497
8498 When @value{GDBN} prints a value, it first sees if there is a pretty-printer
8499 registered for the value. If there is then @value{GDBN} invokes the
8500 pretty-printer to print the value. Otherwise the value is printed normally.
8501
8502 Pretty-printers are normally named. This makes them easy to manage.
8503 The @samp{info pretty-printer} command will list all the installed
8504 pretty-printers with their names.
8505 If a pretty-printer can handle multiple data types, then its
8506 @dfn{subprinters} are the printers for the individual data types.
8507 Each such subprinter has its own name.
8508 The format of the name is @var{printer-name};@var{subprinter-name}.
8509
8510 Pretty-printers are installed by @dfn{registering} them with @value{GDBN}.
8511 Typically they are automatically loaded and registered when the corresponding
8512 debug information is loaded, thus making them available without having to
8513 do anything special.
8514
8515 There are three places where a pretty-printer can be registered.
8516
8517 @itemize @bullet
8518 @item
8519 Pretty-printers registered globally are available when debugging
8520 all inferiors.
8521
8522 @item
8523 Pretty-printers registered with a program space are available only
8524 when debugging that program.
8525 @xref{Progspaces In Python}, for more details on program spaces in Python.
8526
8527 @item
8528 Pretty-printers registered with an objfile are loaded and unloaded
8529 with the corresponding objfile (e.g., shared library).
8530 @xref{Objfiles In Python}, for more details on objfiles in Python.
8531 @end itemize
8532
8533 @xref{Selecting Pretty-Printers}, for further information on how
8534 pretty-printers are selected,
8535
8536 @xref{Writing a Pretty-Printer}, for implementing pretty printers
8537 for new types.
8538
8539 @node Pretty-Printer Example
8540 @subsection Pretty-Printer Example
8541
8542 Here is how a C@t{++} @code{std::string} looks without a pretty-printer:
8543
8544 @smallexample
8545 (@value{GDBP}) print s
8546 $1 = @{
8547 static npos = 4294967295,
8548 _M_dataplus = @{
8549 <std::allocator<char>> = @{
8550 <__gnu_cxx::new_allocator<char>> = @{
8551 <No data fields>@}, <No data fields>
8552 @},
8553 members of std::basic_string<char, std::char_traits<char>,
8554 std::allocator<char> >::_Alloc_hider:
8555 _M_p = 0x804a014 "abcd"
8556 @}
8557 @}
8558 @end smallexample
8559
8560 With a pretty-printer for @code{std::string} only the contents are printed:
8561
8562 @smallexample
8563 (@value{GDBP}) print s
8564 $2 = "abcd"
8565 @end smallexample
8566
8567 @node Pretty-Printer Commands
8568 @subsection Pretty-Printer Commands
8569 @cindex pretty-printer commands
8570
8571 @table @code
8572 @kindex info pretty-printer
8573 @item info pretty-printer [@var{object-regexp} [@var{name-regexp}]]
8574 Print the list of installed pretty-printers.
8575 This includes disabled pretty-printers, which are marked as such.
8576
8577 @var{object-regexp} is a regular expression matching the objects
8578 whose pretty-printers to list.
8579 Objects can be @code{global}, the program space's file
8580 (@pxref{Progspaces In Python}),
8581 and the object files within that program space (@pxref{Objfiles In Python}).
8582 @xref{Selecting Pretty-Printers}, for details on how @value{GDBN}
8583 looks up a printer from these three objects.
8584
8585 @var{name-regexp} is a regular expression matching the name of the printers
8586 to list.
8587
8588 @kindex disable pretty-printer
8589 @item disable pretty-printer [@var{object-regexp} [@var{name-regexp}]]
8590 Disable pretty-printers matching @var{object-regexp} and @var{name-regexp}.
8591 A disabled pretty-printer is not forgotten, it may be enabled again later.
8592
8593 @kindex enable pretty-printer
8594 @item enable pretty-printer [@var{object-regexp} [@var{name-regexp}]]
8595 Enable pretty-printers matching @var{object-regexp} and @var{name-regexp}.
8596 @end table
8597
8598 Example:
8599
8600 Suppose we have three pretty-printers installed: one from library1.so
8601 named @code{foo} that prints objects of type @code{foo}, and
8602 another from library2.so named @code{bar} that prints two types of objects,
8603 @code{bar1} and @code{bar2}.
8604
8605 @smallexample
8606 (gdb) info pretty-printer
8607 library1.so:
8608 foo
8609 library2.so:
8610 bar
8611 bar1
8612 bar2
8613 (gdb) info pretty-printer library2
8614 library2.so:
8615 bar
8616 bar1
8617 bar2
8618 (gdb) disable pretty-printer library1
8619 1 printer disabled
8620 2 of 3 printers enabled
8621 (gdb) info pretty-printer
8622 library1.so:
8623 foo [disabled]
8624 library2.so:
8625 bar
8626 bar1
8627 bar2
8628 (gdb) disable pretty-printer library2 bar:bar1
8629 1 printer disabled
8630 1 of 3 printers enabled
8631 (gdb) info pretty-printer library2
8632 library1.so:
8633 foo [disabled]
8634 library2.so:
8635 bar
8636 bar1 [disabled]
8637 bar2
8638 (gdb) disable pretty-printer library2 bar
8639 1 printer disabled
8640 0 of 3 printers enabled
8641 (gdb) info pretty-printer library2
8642 library1.so:
8643 foo [disabled]
8644 library2.so:
8645 bar [disabled]
8646 bar1 [disabled]
8647 bar2
8648 @end smallexample
8649
8650 Note that for @code{bar} the entire printer can be disabled,
8651 as can each individual subprinter.
8652
8653 @node Value History
8654 @section Value History
8655
8656 @cindex value history
8657 @cindex history of values printed by @value{GDBN}
8658 Values printed by the @code{print} command are saved in the @value{GDBN}
8659 @dfn{value history}. This allows you to refer to them in other expressions.
8660 Values are kept until the symbol table is re-read or discarded
8661 (for example with the @code{file} or @code{symbol-file} commands).
8662 When the symbol table changes, the value history is discarded,
8663 since the values may contain pointers back to the types defined in the
8664 symbol table.
8665
8666 @cindex @code{$}
8667 @cindex @code{$$}
8668 @cindex history number
8669 The values printed are given @dfn{history numbers} by which you can
8670 refer to them. These are successive integers starting with one.
8671 @code{print} shows you the history number assigned to a value by
8672 printing @samp{$@var{num} = } before the value; here @var{num} is the
8673 history number.
8674
8675 To refer to any previous value, use @samp{$} followed by the value's
8676 history number. The way @code{print} labels its output is designed to
8677 remind you of this. Just @code{$} refers to the most recent value in
8678 the history, and @code{$$} refers to the value before that.
8679 @code{$$@var{n}} refers to the @var{n}th value from the end; @code{$$2}
8680 is the value just prior to @code{$$}, @code{$$1} is equivalent to
8681 @code{$$}, and @code{$$0} is equivalent to @code{$}.
8682
8683 For example, suppose you have just printed a pointer to a structure and
8684 want to see the contents of the structure. It suffices to type
8685
8686 @smallexample
8687 p *$
8688 @end smallexample
8689
8690 If you have a chain of structures where the component @code{next} points
8691 to the next one, you can print the contents of the next one with this:
8692
8693 @smallexample
8694 p *$.next
8695 @end smallexample
8696
8697 @noindent
8698 You can print successive links in the chain by repeating this
8699 command---which you can do by just typing @key{RET}.
8700
8701 Note that the history records values, not expressions. If the value of
8702 @code{x} is 4 and you type these commands:
8703
8704 @smallexample
8705 print x
8706 set x=5
8707 @end smallexample
8708
8709 @noindent
8710 then the value recorded in the value history by the @code{print} command
8711 remains 4 even though the value of @code{x} has changed.
8712
8713 @table @code
8714 @kindex show values
8715 @item show values
8716 Print the last ten values in the value history, with their item numbers.
8717 This is like @samp{p@ $$9} repeated ten times, except that @code{show
8718 values} does not change the history.
8719
8720 @item show values @var{n}
8721 Print ten history values centered on history item number @var{n}.
8722
8723 @item show values +
8724 Print ten history values just after the values last printed. If no more
8725 values are available, @code{show values +} produces no display.
8726 @end table
8727
8728 Pressing @key{RET} to repeat @code{show values @var{n}} has exactly the
8729 same effect as @samp{show values +}.
8730
8731 @node Convenience Vars
8732 @section Convenience Variables
8733
8734 @cindex convenience variables
8735 @cindex user-defined variables
8736 @value{GDBN} provides @dfn{convenience variables} that you can use within
8737 @value{GDBN} to hold on to a value and refer to it later. These variables
8738 exist entirely within @value{GDBN}; they are not part of your program, and
8739 setting a convenience variable has no direct effect on further execution
8740 of your program. That is why you can use them freely.
8741
8742 Convenience variables are prefixed with @samp{$}. Any name preceded by
8743 @samp{$} can be used for a convenience variable, unless it is one of
8744 the predefined machine-specific register names (@pxref{Registers, ,Registers}).
8745 (Value history references, in contrast, are @emph{numbers} preceded
8746 by @samp{$}. @xref{Value History, ,Value History}.)
8747
8748 You can save a value in a convenience variable with an assignment
8749 expression, just as you would set a variable in your program.
8750 For example:
8751
8752 @smallexample
8753 set $foo = *object_ptr
8754 @end smallexample
8755
8756 @noindent
8757 would save in @code{$foo} the value contained in the object pointed to by
8758 @code{object_ptr}.
8759
8760 Using a convenience variable for the first time creates it, but its
8761 value is @code{void} until you assign a new value. You can alter the
8762 value with another assignment at any time.
8763
8764 Convenience variables have no fixed types. You can assign a convenience
8765 variable any type of value, including structures and arrays, even if
8766 that variable already has a value of a different type. The convenience
8767 variable, when used as an expression, has the type of its current value.
8768
8769 @table @code
8770 @kindex show convenience
8771 @cindex show all user variables
8772 @item show convenience
8773 Print a list of convenience variables used so far, and their values.
8774 Abbreviated @code{show conv}.
8775
8776 @kindex init-if-undefined
8777 @cindex convenience variables, initializing
8778 @item init-if-undefined $@var{variable} = @var{expression}
8779 Set a convenience variable if it has not already been set. This is useful
8780 for user-defined commands that keep some state. It is similar, in concept,
8781 to using local static variables with initializers in C (except that
8782 convenience variables are global). It can also be used to allow users to
8783 override default values used in a command script.
8784
8785 If the variable is already defined then the expression is not evaluated so
8786 any side-effects do not occur.
8787 @end table
8788
8789 One of the ways to use a convenience variable is as a counter to be
8790 incremented or a pointer to be advanced. For example, to print
8791 a field from successive elements of an array of structures:
8792
8793 @smallexample
8794 set $i = 0
8795 print bar[$i++]->contents
8796 @end smallexample
8797
8798 @noindent
8799 Repeat that command by typing @key{RET}.
8800
8801 Some convenience variables are created automatically by @value{GDBN} and given
8802 values likely to be useful.
8803
8804 @table @code
8805 @vindex $_@r{, convenience variable}
8806 @item $_
8807 The variable @code{$_} is automatically set by the @code{x} command to
8808 the last address examined (@pxref{Memory, ,Examining Memory}). Other
8809 commands which provide a default address for @code{x} to examine also
8810 set @code{$_} to that address; these commands include @code{info line}
8811 and @code{info breakpoint}. The type of @code{$_} is @code{void *}
8812 except when set by the @code{x} command, in which case it is a pointer
8813 to the type of @code{$__}.
8814
8815 @vindex $__@r{, convenience variable}
8816 @item $__
8817 The variable @code{$__} is automatically set by the @code{x} command
8818 to the value found in the last address examined. Its type is chosen
8819 to match the format in which the data was printed.
8820
8821 @item $_exitcode
8822 @vindex $_exitcode@r{, convenience variable}
8823 The variable @code{$_exitcode} is automatically set to the exit code when
8824 the program being debugged terminates.
8825
8826 @item $_sdata
8827 @vindex $_sdata@r{, inspect, convenience variable}
8828 The variable @code{$_sdata} contains extra collected static tracepoint
8829 data. @xref{Tracepoint Actions,,Tracepoint Action Lists}. Note that
8830 @code{$_sdata} could be empty, if not inspecting a trace buffer, or
8831 if extra static tracepoint data has not been collected.
8832
8833 @item $_siginfo
8834 @vindex $_siginfo@r{, convenience variable}
8835 The variable @code{$_siginfo} contains extra signal information
8836 (@pxref{extra signal information}). Note that @code{$_siginfo}
8837 could be empty, if the application has not yet received any signals.
8838 For example, it will be empty before you execute the @code{run} command.
8839
8840 @item $_tlb
8841 @vindex $_tlb@r{, convenience variable}
8842 The variable @code{$_tlb} is automatically set when debugging
8843 applications running on MS-Windows in native mode or connected to
8844 gdbserver that supports the @code{qGetTIBAddr} request.
8845 @xref{General Query Packets}.
8846 This variable contains the address of the thread information block.
8847
8848 @end table
8849
8850 On HP-UX systems, if you refer to a function or variable name that
8851 begins with a dollar sign, @value{GDBN} searches for a user or system
8852 name first, before it searches for a convenience variable.
8853
8854 @cindex convenience functions
8855 @value{GDBN} also supplies some @dfn{convenience functions}. These
8856 have a syntax similar to convenience variables. A convenience
8857 function can be used in an expression just like an ordinary function;
8858 however, a convenience function is implemented internally to
8859 @value{GDBN}.
8860
8861 @table @code
8862 @item help function
8863 @kindex help function
8864 @cindex show all convenience functions
8865 Print a list of all convenience functions.
8866 @end table
8867
8868 @node Registers
8869 @section Registers
8870
8871 @cindex registers
8872 You can refer to machine register contents, in expressions, as variables
8873 with names starting with @samp{$}. The names of registers are different
8874 for each machine; use @code{info registers} to see the names used on
8875 your machine.
8876
8877 @table @code
8878 @kindex info registers
8879 @item info registers
8880 Print the names and values of all registers except floating-point
8881 and vector registers (in the selected stack frame).
8882
8883 @kindex info all-registers
8884 @cindex floating point registers
8885 @item info all-registers
8886 Print the names and values of all registers, including floating-point
8887 and vector registers (in the selected stack frame).
8888
8889 @item info registers @var{regname} @dots{}
8890 Print the @dfn{relativized} value of each specified register @var{regname}.
8891 As discussed in detail below, register values are normally relative to
8892 the selected stack frame. @var{regname} may be any register name valid on
8893 the machine you are using, with or without the initial @samp{$}.
8894 @end table
8895
8896 @cindex stack pointer register
8897 @cindex program counter register
8898 @cindex process status register
8899 @cindex frame pointer register
8900 @cindex standard registers
8901 @value{GDBN} has four ``standard'' register names that are available (in
8902 expressions) on most machines---whenever they do not conflict with an
8903 architecture's canonical mnemonics for registers. The register names
8904 @code{$pc} and @code{$sp} are used for the program counter register and
8905 the stack pointer. @code{$fp} is used for a register that contains a
8906 pointer to the current stack frame, and @code{$ps} is used for a
8907 register that contains the processor status. For example,
8908 you could print the program counter in hex with
8909
8910 @smallexample
8911 p/x $pc
8912 @end smallexample
8913
8914 @noindent
8915 or print the instruction to be executed next with
8916
8917 @smallexample
8918 x/i $pc
8919 @end smallexample
8920
8921 @noindent
8922 or add four to the stack pointer@footnote{This is a way of removing
8923 one word from the stack, on machines where stacks grow downward in
8924 memory (most machines, nowadays). This assumes that the innermost
8925 stack frame is selected; setting @code{$sp} is not allowed when other
8926 stack frames are selected. To pop entire frames off the stack,
8927 regardless of machine architecture, use @code{return};
8928 see @ref{Returning, ,Returning from a Function}.} with
8929
8930 @smallexample
8931 set $sp += 4
8932 @end smallexample
8933
8934 Whenever possible, these four standard register names are available on
8935 your machine even though the machine has different canonical mnemonics,
8936 so long as there is no conflict. The @code{info registers} command
8937 shows the canonical names. For example, on the SPARC, @code{info
8938 registers} displays the processor status register as @code{$psr} but you
8939 can also refer to it as @code{$ps}; and on x86-based machines @code{$ps}
8940 is an alias for the @sc{eflags} register.
8941
8942 @value{GDBN} always considers the contents of an ordinary register as an
8943 integer when the register is examined in this way. Some machines have
8944 special registers which can hold nothing but floating point; these
8945 registers are considered to have floating point values. There is no way
8946 to refer to the contents of an ordinary register as floating point value
8947 (although you can @emph{print} it as a floating point value with
8948 @samp{print/f $@var{regname}}).
8949
8950 Some registers have distinct ``raw'' and ``virtual'' data formats. This
8951 means that the data format in which the register contents are saved by
8952 the operating system is not the same one that your program normally
8953 sees. For example, the registers of the 68881 floating point
8954 coprocessor are always saved in ``extended'' (raw) format, but all C
8955 programs expect to work with ``double'' (virtual) format. In such
8956 cases, @value{GDBN} normally works with the virtual format only (the format
8957 that makes sense for your program), but the @code{info registers} command
8958 prints the data in both formats.
8959
8960 @cindex SSE registers (x86)
8961 @cindex MMX registers (x86)
8962 Some machines have special registers whose contents can be interpreted
8963 in several different ways. For example, modern x86-based machines
8964 have SSE and MMX registers that can hold several values packed
8965 together in several different formats. @value{GDBN} refers to such
8966 registers in @code{struct} notation:
8967
8968 @smallexample
8969 (@value{GDBP}) print $xmm1
8970 $1 = @{
8971 v4_float = @{0, 3.43859137e-038, 1.54142831e-044, 1.821688e-044@},
8972 v2_double = @{9.92129282474342e-303, 2.7585945287983262e-313@},
8973 v16_int8 = "\000\000\000\000\3706;\001\v\000\000\000\r\000\000",
8974 v8_int16 = @{0, 0, 14072, 315, 11, 0, 13, 0@},
8975 v4_int32 = @{0, 20657912, 11, 13@},
8976 v2_int64 = @{88725056443645952, 55834574859@},
8977 uint128 = 0x0000000d0000000b013b36f800000000
8978 @}
8979 @end smallexample
8980
8981 @noindent
8982 To set values of such registers, you need to tell @value{GDBN} which
8983 view of the register you wish to change, as if you were assigning
8984 value to a @code{struct} member:
8985
8986 @smallexample
8987 (@value{GDBP}) set $xmm1.uint128 = 0x000000000000000000000000FFFFFFFF
8988 @end smallexample
8989
8990 Normally, register values are relative to the selected stack frame
8991 (@pxref{Selection, ,Selecting a Frame}). This means that you get the
8992 value that the register would contain if all stack frames farther in
8993 were exited and their saved registers restored. In order to see the
8994 true contents of hardware registers, you must select the innermost
8995 frame (with @samp{frame 0}).
8996
8997 However, @value{GDBN} must deduce where registers are saved, from the machine
8998 code generated by your compiler. If some registers are not saved, or if
8999 @value{GDBN} is unable to locate the saved registers, the selected stack
9000 frame makes no difference.
9001
9002 @node Floating Point Hardware
9003 @section Floating Point Hardware
9004 @cindex floating point
9005
9006 Depending on the configuration, @value{GDBN} may be able to give
9007 you more information about the status of the floating point hardware.
9008
9009 @table @code
9010 @kindex info float
9011 @item info float
9012 Display hardware-dependent information about the floating
9013 point unit. The exact contents and layout vary depending on the
9014 floating point chip. Currently, @samp{info float} is supported on
9015 the ARM and x86 machines.
9016 @end table
9017
9018 @node Vector Unit
9019 @section Vector Unit
9020 @cindex vector unit
9021
9022 Depending on the configuration, @value{GDBN} may be able to give you
9023 more information about the status of the vector unit.
9024
9025 @table @code
9026 @kindex info vector
9027 @item info vector
9028 Display information about the vector unit. The exact contents and
9029 layout vary depending on the hardware.
9030 @end table
9031
9032 @node OS Information
9033 @section Operating System Auxiliary Information
9034 @cindex OS information
9035
9036 @value{GDBN} provides interfaces to useful OS facilities that can help
9037 you debug your program.
9038
9039 @cindex @code{ptrace} system call
9040 @cindex @code{struct user} contents
9041 When @value{GDBN} runs on a @dfn{Posix system} (such as GNU or Unix
9042 machines), it interfaces with the inferior via the @code{ptrace}
9043 system call. The operating system creates a special sata structure,
9044 called @code{struct user}, for this interface. You can use the
9045 command @code{info udot} to display the contents of this data
9046 structure.
9047
9048 @table @code
9049 @item info udot
9050 @kindex info udot
9051 Display the contents of the @code{struct user} maintained by the OS
9052 kernel for the program being debugged. @value{GDBN} displays the
9053 contents of @code{struct user} as a list of hex numbers, similar to
9054 the @code{examine} command.
9055 @end table
9056
9057 @cindex auxiliary vector
9058 @cindex vector, auxiliary
9059 Some operating systems supply an @dfn{auxiliary vector} to programs at
9060 startup. This is akin to the arguments and environment that you
9061 specify for a program, but contains a system-dependent variety of
9062 binary values that tell system libraries important details about the
9063 hardware, operating system, and process. Each value's purpose is
9064 identified by an integer tag; the meanings are well-known but system-specific.
9065 Depending on the configuration and operating system facilities,
9066 @value{GDBN} may be able to show you this information. For remote
9067 targets, this functionality may further depend on the remote stub's
9068 support of the @samp{qXfer:auxv:read} packet, see
9069 @ref{qXfer auxiliary vector read}.
9070
9071 @table @code
9072 @kindex info auxv
9073 @item info auxv
9074 Display the auxiliary vector of the inferior, which can be either a
9075 live process or a core dump file. @value{GDBN} prints each tag value
9076 numerically, and also shows names and text descriptions for recognized
9077 tags. Some values in the vector are numbers, some bit masks, and some
9078 pointers to strings or other data. @value{GDBN} displays each value in the
9079 most appropriate form for a recognized tag, and in hexadecimal for
9080 an unrecognized tag.
9081 @end table
9082
9083 On some targets, @value{GDBN} can access operating-system-specific information
9084 and display it to user, without interpretation. For remote targets,
9085 this functionality depends on the remote stub's support of the
9086 @samp{qXfer:osdata:read} packet, see @ref{qXfer osdata read}.
9087
9088 @table @code
9089 @kindex info os
9090 @item info os
9091 List the types of OS information available for the target. If the
9092 target does not return a list of possible types, this command will
9093 report an error.
9094
9095 @kindex info os processes
9096 @item info os processes
9097 Display the list of processes on the target. For each process,
9098 @value{GDBN} prints the process identifier, the name of the user, and
9099 the command corresponding to the process.
9100 @end table
9101
9102 @node Memory Region Attributes
9103 @section Memory Region Attributes
9104 @cindex memory region attributes
9105
9106 @dfn{Memory region attributes} allow you to describe special handling
9107 required by regions of your target's memory. @value{GDBN} uses
9108 attributes to determine whether to allow certain types of memory
9109 accesses; whether to use specific width accesses; and whether to cache
9110 target memory. By default the description of memory regions is
9111 fetched from the target (if the current target supports this), but the
9112 user can override the fetched regions.
9113
9114 Defined memory regions can be individually enabled and disabled. When a
9115 memory region is disabled, @value{GDBN} uses the default attributes when
9116 accessing memory in that region. Similarly, if no memory regions have
9117 been defined, @value{GDBN} uses the default attributes when accessing
9118 all memory.
9119
9120 When a memory region is defined, it is given a number to identify it;
9121 to enable, disable, or remove a memory region, you specify that number.
9122
9123 @table @code
9124 @kindex mem
9125 @item mem @var{lower} @var{upper} @var{attributes}@dots{}
9126 Define a memory region bounded by @var{lower} and @var{upper} with
9127 attributes @var{attributes}@dots{}, and add it to the list of regions
9128 monitored by @value{GDBN}. Note that @var{upper} == 0 is a special
9129 case: it is treated as the target's maximum memory address.
9130 (0xffff on 16 bit targets, 0xffffffff on 32 bit targets, etc.)
9131
9132 @item mem auto
9133 Discard any user changes to the memory regions and use target-supplied
9134 regions, if available, or no regions if the target does not support.
9135
9136 @kindex delete mem
9137 @item delete mem @var{nums}@dots{}
9138 Remove memory regions @var{nums}@dots{} from the list of regions
9139 monitored by @value{GDBN}.
9140
9141 @kindex disable mem
9142 @item disable mem @var{nums}@dots{}
9143 Disable monitoring of memory regions @var{nums}@dots{}.
9144 A disabled memory region is not forgotten.
9145 It may be enabled again later.
9146
9147 @kindex enable mem
9148 @item enable mem @var{nums}@dots{}
9149 Enable monitoring of memory regions @var{nums}@dots{}.
9150
9151 @kindex info mem
9152 @item info mem
9153 Print a table of all defined memory regions, with the following columns
9154 for each region:
9155
9156 @table @emph
9157 @item Memory Region Number
9158 @item Enabled or Disabled.
9159 Enabled memory regions are marked with @samp{y}.
9160 Disabled memory regions are marked with @samp{n}.
9161
9162 @item Lo Address
9163 The address defining the inclusive lower bound of the memory region.
9164
9165 @item Hi Address
9166 The address defining the exclusive upper bound of the memory region.
9167
9168 @item Attributes
9169 The list of attributes set for this memory region.
9170 @end table
9171 @end table
9172
9173
9174 @subsection Attributes
9175
9176 @subsubsection Memory Access Mode
9177 The access mode attributes set whether @value{GDBN} may make read or
9178 write accesses to a memory region.
9179
9180 While these attributes prevent @value{GDBN} from performing invalid
9181 memory accesses, they do nothing to prevent the target system, I/O DMA,
9182 etc.@: from accessing memory.
9183
9184 @table @code
9185 @item ro
9186 Memory is read only.
9187 @item wo
9188 Memory is write only.
9189 @item rw
9190 Memory is read/write. This is the default.
9191 @end table
9192
9193 @subsubsection Memory Access Size
9194 The access size attribute tells @value{GDBN} to use specific sized
9195 accesses in the memory region. Often memory mapped device registers
9196 require specific sized accesses. If no access size attribute is
9197 specified, @value{GDBN} may use accesses of any size.
9198
9199 @table @code
9200 @item 8
9201 Use 8 bit memory accesses.
9202 @item 16
9203 Use 16 bit memory accesses.
9204 @item 32
9205 Use 32 bit memory accesses.
9206 @item 64
9207 Use 64 bit memory accesses.
9208 @end table
9209
9210 @c @subsubsection Hardware/Software Breakpoints
9211 @c The hardware/software breakpoint attributes set whether @value{GDBN}
9212 @c will use hardware or software breakpoints for the internal breakpoints
9213 @c used by the step, next, finish, until, etc. commands.
9214 @c
9215 @c @table @code
9216 @c @item hwbreak
9217 @c Always use hardware breakpoints
9218 @c @item swbreak (default)
9219 @c @end table
9220
9221 @subsubsection Data Cache
9222 The data cache attributes set whether @value{GDBN} will cache target
9223 memory. While this generally improves performance by reducing debug
9224 protocol overhead, it can lead to incorrect results because @value{GDBN}
9225 does not know about volatile variables or memory mapped device
9226 registers.
9227
9228 @table @code
9229 @item cache
9230 Enable @value{GDBN} to cache target memory.
9231 @item nocache
9232 Disable @value{GDBN} from caching target memory. This is the default.
9233 @end table
9234
9235 @subsection Memory Access Checking
9236 @value{GDBN} can be instructed to refuse accesses to memory that is
9237 not explicitly described. This can be useful if accessing such
9238 regions has undesired effects for a specific target, or to provide
9239 better error checking. The following commands control this behaviour.
9240
9241 @table @code
9242 @kindex set mem inaccessible-by-default
9243 @item set mem inaccessible-by-default [on|off]
9244 If @code{on} is specified, make @value{GDBN} treat memory not
9245 explicitly described by the memory ranges as non-existent and refuse accesses
9246 to such memory. The checks are only performed if there's at least one
9247 memory range defined. If @code{off} is specified, make @value{GDBN}
9248 treat the memory not explicitly described by the memory ranges as RAM.
9249 The default value is @code{on}.
9250 @kindex show mem inaccessible-by-default
9251 @item show mem inaccessible-by-default
9252 Show the current handling of accesses to unknown memory.
9253 @end table
9254
9255
9256 @c @subsubsection Memory Write Verification
9257 @c The memory write verification attributes set whether @value{GDBN}
9258 @c will re-reads data after each write to verify the write was successful.
9259 @c
9260 @c @table @code
9261 @c @item verify
9262 @c @item noverify (default)
9263 @c @end table
9264
9265 @node Dump/Restore Files
9266 @section Copy Between Memory and a File
9267 @cindex dump/restore files
9268 @cindex append data to a file
9269 @cindex dump data to a file
9270 @cindex restore data from a file
9271
9272 You can use the commands @code{dump}, @code{append}, and
9273 @code{restore} to copy data between target memory and a file. The
9274 @code{dump} and @code{append} commands write data to a file, and the
9275 @code{restore} command reads data from a file back into the inferior's
9276 memory. Files may be in binary, Motorola S-record, Intel hex, or
9277 Tektronix Hex format; however, @value{GDBN} can only append to binary
9278 files.
9279
9280 @table @code
9281
9282 @kindex dump
9283 @item dump @r{[}@var{format}@r{]} memory @var{filename} @var{start_addr} @var{end_addr}
9284 @itemx dump @r{[}@var{format}@r{]} value @var{filename} @var{expr}
9285 Dump the contents of memory from @var{start_addr} to @var{end_addr},
9286 or the value of @var{expr}, to @var{filename} in the given format.
9287
9288 The @var{format} parameter may be any one of:
9289 @table @code
9290 @item binary
9291 Raw binary form.
9292 @item ihex
9293 Intel hex format.
9294 @item srec
9295 Motorola S-record format.
9296 @item tekhex
9297 Tektronix Hex format.
9298 @end table
9299
9300 @value{GDBN} uses the same definitions of these formats as the
9301 @sc{gnu} binary utilities, like @samp{objdump} and @samp{objcopy}. If
9302 @var{format} is omitted, @value{GDBN} dumps the data in raw binary
9303 form.
9304
9305 @kindex append
9306 @item append @r{[}binary@r{]} memory @var{filename} @var{start_addr} @var{end_addr}
9307 @itemx append @r{[}binary@r{]} value @var{filename} @var{expr}
9308 Append the contents of memory from @var{start_addr} to @var{end_addr},
9309 or the value of @var{expr}, to the file @var{filename}, in raw binary form.
9310 (@value{GDBN} can only append data to files in raw binary form.)
9311
9312 @kindex restore
9313 @item restore @var{filename} @r{[}binary@r{]} @var{bias} @var{start} @var{end}
9314 Restore the contents of file @var{filename} into memory. The
9315 @code{restore} command can automatically recognize any known @sc{bfd}
9316 file format, except for raw binary. To restore a raw binary file you
9317 must specify the optional keyword @code{binary} after the filename.
9318
9319 If @var{bias} is non-zero, its value will be added to the addresses
9320 contained in the file. Binary files always start at address zero, so
9321 they will be restored at address @var{bias}. Other bfd files have
9322 a built-in location; they will be restored at offset @var{bias}
9323 from that location.
9324
9325 If @var{start} and/or @var{end} are non-zero, then only data between
9326 file offset @var{start} and file offset @var{end} will be restored.
9327 These offsets are relative to the addresses in the file, before
9328 the @var{bias} argument is applied.
9329
9330 @end table
9331
9332 @node Core File Generation
9333 @section How to Produce a Core File from Your Program
9334 @cindex dump core from inferior
9335
9336 A @dfn{core file} or @dfn{core dump} is a file that records the memory
9337 image of a running process and its process status (register values
9338 etc.). Its primary use is post-mortem debugging of a program that
9339 crashed while it ran outside a debugger. A program that crashes
9340 automatically produces a core file, unless this feature is disabled by
9341 the user. @xref{Files}, for information on invoking @value{GDBN} in
9342 the post-mortem debugging mode.
9343
9344 Occasionally, you may wish to produce a core file of the program you
9345 are debugging in order to preserve a snapshot of its state.
9346 @value{GDBN} has a special command for that.
9347
9348 @table @code
9349 @kindex gcore
9350 @kindex generate-core-file
9351 @item generate-core-file [@var{file}]
9352 @itemx gcore [@var{file}]
9353 Produce a core dump of the inferior process. The optional argument
9354 @var{file} specifies the file name where to put the core dump. If not
9355 specified, the file name defaults to @file{core.@var{pid}}, where
9356 @var{pid} is the inferior process ID.
9357
9358 Note that this command is implemented only for some systems (as of
9359 this writing, @sc{gnu}/Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Unixware, and S390).
9360 @end table
9361
9362 @node Character Sets
9363 @section Character Sets
9364 @cindex character sets
9365 @cindex charset
9366 @cindex translating between character sets
9367 @cindex host character set
9368 @cindex target character set
9369
9370 If the program you are debugging uses a different character set to
9371 represent characters and strings than the one @value{GDBN} uses itself,
9372 @value{GDBN} can automatically translate between the character sets for
9373 you. The character set @value{GDBN} uses we call the @dfn{host
9374 character set}; the one the inferior program uses we call the
9375 @dfn{target character set}.
9376
9377 For example, if you are running @value{GDBN} on a @sc{gnu}/Linux system, which
9378 uses the ISO Latin 1 character set, but you are using @value{GDBN}'s
9379 remote protocol (@pxref{Remote Debugging}) to debug a program
9380 running on an IBM mainframe, which uses the @sc{ebcdic} character set,
9381 then the host character set is Latin-1, and the target character set is
9382 @sc{ebcdic}. If you give @value{GDBN} the command @code{set
9383 target-charset EBCDIC-US}, then @value{GDBN} translates between
9384 @sc{ebcdic} and Latin 1 as you print character or string values, or use
9385 character and string literals in expressions.
9386
9387 @value{GDBN} has no way to automatically recognize which character set
9388 the inferior program uses; you must tell it, using the @code{set
9389 target-charset} command, described below.
9390
9391 Here are the commands for controlling @value{GDBN}'s character set
9392 support:
9393
9394 @table @code
9395 @item set target-charset @var{charset}
9396 @kindex set target-charset
9397 Set the current target character set to @var{charset}. To display the
9398 list of supported target character sets, type
9399 @kbd{@w{set target-charset @key{TAB}@key{TAB}}}.
9400
9401 @item set host-charset @var{charset}
9402 @kindex set host-charset
9403 Set the current host character set to @var{charset}.
9404
9405 By default, @value{GDBN} uses a host character set appropriate to the
9406 system it is running on; you can override that default using the
9407 @code{set host-charset} command. On some systems, @value{GDBN} cannot
9408 automatically determine the appropriate host character set. In this
9409 case, @value{GDBN} uses @samp{UTF-8}.
9410
9411 @value{GDBN} can only use certain character sets as its host character
9412 set. If you type @kbd{@w{set host-charset @key{TAB}@key{TAB}}},
9413 @value{GDBN} will list the host character sets it supports.
9414
9415 @item set charset @var{charset}
9416 @kindex set charset
9417 Set the current host and target character sets to @var{charset}. As
9418 above, if you type @kbd{@w{set charset @key{TAB}@key{TAB}}},
9419 @value{GDBN} will list the names of the character sets that can be used
9420 for both host and target.
9421
9422 @item show charset
9423 @kindex show charset
9424 Show the names of the current host and target character sets.
9425
9426 @item show host-charset
9427 @kindex show host-charset
9428 Show the name of the current host character set.
9429
9430 @item show target-charset
9431 @kindex show target-charset
9432 Show the name of the current target character set.
9433
9434 @item set target-wide-charset @var{charset}
9435 @kindex set target-wide-charset
9436 Set the current target's wide character set to @var{charset}. This is
9437 the character set used by the target's @code{wchar_t} type. To
9438 display the list of supported wide character sets, type
9439 @kbd{@w{set target-wide-charset @key{TAB}@key{TAB}}}.
9440
9441 @item show target-wide-charset
9442 @kindex show target-wide-charset
9443 Show the name of the current target's wide character set.
9444 @end table
9445
9446 Here is an example of @value{GDBN}'s character set support in action.
9447 Assume that the following source code has been placed in the file
9448 @file{charset-test.c}:
9449
9450 @smallexample
9451 #include <stdio.h>
9452
9453 char ascii_hello[]
9454 = @{72, 101, 108, 108, 111, 44, 32, 119,
9455 111, 114, 108, 100, 33, 10, 0@};
9456 char ibm1047_hello[]
9457 = @{200, 133, 147, 147, 150, 107, 64, 166,
9458 150, 153, 147, 132, 90, 37, 0@};
9459
9460 main ()
9461 @{
9462 printf ("Hello, world!\n");
9463 @}
9464 @end smallexample
9465
9466 In this program, @code{ascii_hello} and @code{ibm1047_hello} are arrays
9467 containing the string @samp{Hello, world!} followed by a newline,
9468 encoded in the @sc{ascii} and @sc{ibm1047} character sets.
9469
9470 We compile the program, and invoke the debugger on it:
9471
9472 @smallexample
9473 $ gcc -g charset-test.c -o charset-test
9474 $ gdb -nw charset-test
9475 GNU gdb 2001-12-19-cvs
9476 Copyright 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
9477 @dots{}
9478 (@value{GDBP})
9479 @end smallexample
9480
9481 We can use the @code{show charset} command to see what character sets
9482 @value{GDBN} is currently using to interpret and display characters and
9483 strings:
9484
9485 @smallexample
9486 (@value{GDBP}) show charset
9487 The current host and target character set is `ISO-8859-1'.
9488 (@value{GDBP})
9489 @end smallexample
9490
9491 For the sake of printing this manual, let's use @sc{ascii} as our
9492 initial character set:
9493 @smallexample
9494 (@value{GDBP}) set charset ASCII
9495 (@value{GDBP}) show charset
9496 The current host and target character set is `ASCII'.
9497 (@value{GDBP})
9498 @end smallexample
9499
9500 Let's assume that @sc{ascii} is indeed the correct character set for our
9501 host system --- in other words, let's assume that if @value{GDBN} prints
9502 characters using the @sc{ascii} character set, our terminal will display
9503 them properly. Since our current target character set is also
9504 @sc{ascii}, the contents of @code{ascii_hello} print legibly:
9505
9506 @smallexample
9507 (@value{GDBP}) print ascii_hello
9508 $1 = 0x401698 "Hello, world!\n"
9509 (@value{GDBP}) print ascii_hello[0]
9510 $2 = 72 'H'
9511 (@value{GDBP})
9512 @end smallexample
9513
9514 @value{GDBN} uses the target character set for character and string
9515 literals you use in expressions:
9516
9517 @smallexample
9518 (@value{GDBP}) print '+'
9519 $3 = 43 '+'
9520 (@value{GDBP})
9521 @end smallexample
9522
9523 The @sc{ascii} character set uses the number 43 to encode the @samp{+}
9524 character.
9525
9526 @value{GDBN} relies on the user to tell it which character set the
9527 target program uses. If we print @code{ibm1047_hello} while our target
9528 character set is still @sc{ascii}, we get jibberish:
9529
9530 @smallexample
9531 (@value{GDBP}) print ibm1047_hello
9532 $4 = 0x4016a8 "\310\205\223\223\226k@@\246\226\231\223\204Z%"
9533 (@value{GDBP}) print ibm1047_hello[0]
9534 $5 = 200 '\310'
9535 (@value{GDBP})
9536 @end smallexample
9537
9538 If we invoke the @code{set target-charset} followed by @key{TAB}@key{TAB},
9539 @value{GDBN} tells us the character sets it supports:
9540
9541 @smallexample
9542 (@value{GDBP}) set target-charset
9543 ASCII EBCDIC-US IBM1047 ISO-8859-1
9544 (@value{GDBP}) set target-charset
9545 @end smallexample
9546
9547 We can select @sc{ibm1047} as our target character set, and examine the
9548 program's strings again. Now the @sc{ascii} string is wrong, but
9549 @value{GDBN} translates the contents of @code{ibm1047_hello} from the
9550 target character set, @sc{ibm1047}, to the host character set,
9551 @sc{ascii}, and they display correctly:
9552
9553 @smallexample
9554 (@value{GDBP}) set target-charset IBM1047
9555 (@value{GDBP}) show charset
9556 The current host character set is `ASCII'.
9557 The current target character set is `IBM1047'.
9558 (@value{GDBP}) print ascii_hello
9559 $6 = 0x401698 "\110\145%%?\054\040\167?\162%\144\041\012"
9560 (@value{GDBP}) print ascii_hello[0]
9561 $7 = 72 '\110'
9562 (@value{GDBP}) print ibm1047_hello
9563 $8 = 0x4016a8 "Hello, world!\n"
9564 (@value{GDBP}) print ibm1047_hello[0]
9565 $9 = 200 'H'
9566 (@value{GDBP})
9567 @end smallexample
9568
9569 As above, @value{GDBN} uses the target character set for character and
9570 string literals you use in expressions:
9571
9572 @smallexample
9573 (@value{GDBP}) print '+'
9574 $10 = 78 '+'
9575 (@value{GDBP})
9576 @end smallexample
9577
9578 The @sc{ibm1047} character set uses the number 78 to encode the @samp{+}
9579 character.
9580
9581 @node Caching Remote Data
9582 @section Caching Data of Remote Targets
9583 @cindex caching data of remote targets
9584
9585 @value{GDBN} caches data exchanged between the debugger and a
9586 remote target (@pxref{Remote Debugging}). Such caching generally improves
9587 performance, because it reduces the overhead of the remote protocol by
9588 bundling memory reads and writes into large chunks. Unfortunately, simply
9589 caching everything would lead to incorrect results, since @value{GDBN}
9590 does not necessarily know anything about volatile values, memory-mapped I/O
9591 addresses, etc. Furthermore, in non-stop mode (@pxref{Non-Stop Mode})
9592 memory can be changed @emph{while} a gdb command is executing.
9593 Therefore, by default, @value{GDBN} only caches data
9594 known to be on the stack@footnote{In non-stop mode, it is moderately
9595 rare for a running thread to modify the stack of a stopped thread
9596 in a way that would interfere with a backtrace, and caching of
9597 stack reads provides a significant speed up of remote backtraces.}.
9598 Other regions of memory can be explicitly marked as
9599 cacheable; see @pxref{Memory Region Attributes}.
9600
9601 @table @code
9602 @kindex set remotecache
9603 @item set remotecache on
9604 @itemx set remotecache off
9605 This option no longer does anything; it exists for compatibility
9606 with old scripts.
9607
9608 @kindex show remotecache
9609 @item show remotecache
9610 Show the current state of the obsolete remotecache flag.
9611
9612 @kindex set stack-cache
9613 @item set stack-cache on
9614 @itemx set stack-cache off
9615 Enable or disable caching of stack accesses. When @code{ON}, use
9616 caching. By default, this option is @code{ON}.
9617
9618 @kindex show stack-cache
9619 @item show stack-cache
9620 Show the current state of data caching for memory accesses.
9621
9622 @kindex info dcache
9623 @item info dcache @r{[}line@r{]}
9624 Print the information about the data cache performance. The
9625 information displayed includes the dcache width and depth, and for
9626 each cache line, its number, address, and how many times it was
9627 referenced. This command is useful for debugging the data cache
9628 operation.
9629
9630 If a line number is specified, the contents of that line will be
9631 printed in hex.
9632
9633 @item set dcache size @var{size}
9634 @cindex dcache size
9635 @kindex set dcache size
9636 Set maximum number of entries in dcache (dcache depth above).
9637
9638 @item set dcache line-size @var{line-size}
9639 @cindex dcache line-size
9640 @kindex set dcache line-size
9641 Set number of bytes each dcache entry caches (dcache width above).
9642 Must be a power of 2.
9643
9644 @item show dcache size
9645 @kindex show dcache size
9646 Show maximum number of dcache entries. See also @ref{Caching Remote Data, info dcache}.
9647
9648 @item show dcache line-size
9649 @kindex show dcache line-size
9650 Show default size of dcache lines. See also @ref{Caching Remote Data, info dcache}.
9651
9652 @end table
9653
9654 @node Searching Memory
9655 @section Search Memory
9656 @cindex searching memory
9657
9658 Memory can be searched for a particular sequence of bytes with the
9659 @code{find} command.
9660
9661 @table @code
9662 @kindex find
9663 @item find @r{[}/@var{sn}@r{]} @var{start_addr}, +@var{len}, @var{val1} @r{[}, @var{val2}, @dots{}@r{]}
9664 @itemx find @r{[}/@var{sn}@r{]} @var{start_addr}, @var{end_addr}, @var{val1} @r{[}, @var{val2}, @dots{}@r{]}
9665 Search memory for the sequence of bytes specified by @var{val1}, @var{val2},
9666 etc. The search begins at address @var{start_addr} and continues for either
9667 @var{len} bytes or through to @var{end_addr} inclusive.
9668 @end table
9669
9670 @var{s} and @var{n} are optional parameters.
9671 They may be specified in either order, apart or together.
9672
9673 @table @r
9674 @item @var{s}, search query size
9675 The size of each search query value.
9676
9677 @table @code
9678 @item b
9679 bytes
9680 @item h
9681 halfwords (two bytes)
9682 @item w
9683 words (four bytes)
9684 @item g
9685 giant words (eight bytes)
9686 @end table
9687
9688 All values are interpreted in the current language.
9689 This means, for example, that if the current source language is C/C@t{++}
9690 then searching for the string ``hello'' includes the trailing '\0'.
9691
9692 If the value size is not specified, it is taken from the
9693 value's type in the current language.
9694 This is useful when one wants to specify the search
9695 pattern as a mixture of types.
9696 Note that this means, for example, that in the case of C-like languages
9697 a search for an untyped 0x42 will search for @samp{(int) 0x42}
9698 which is typically four bytes.
9699
9700 @item @var{n}, maximum number of finds
9701 The maximum number of matches to print. The default is to print all finds.
9702 @end table
9703
9704 You can use strings as search values. Quote them with double-quotes
9705 (@code{"}).
9706 The string value is copied into the search pattern byte by byte,
9707 regardless of the endianness of the target and the size specification.
9708
9709 The address of each match found is printed as well as a count of the
9710 number of matches found.
9711
9712 The address of the last value found is stored in convenience variable
9713 @samp{$_}.
9714 A count of the number of matches is stored in @samp{$numfound}.
9715
9716 For example, if stopped at the @code{printf} in this function:
9717
9718 @smallexample
9719 void
9720 hello ()
9721 @{
9722 static char hello[] = "hello-hello";
9723 static struct @{ char c; short s; int i; @}
9724 __attribute__ ((packed)) mixed
9725 = @{ 'c', 0x1234, 0x87654321 @};
9726 printf ("%s\n", hello);
9727 @}
9728 @end smallexample
9729
9730 @noindent
9731 you get during debugging:
9732
9733 @smallexample
9734 (gdb) find &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), "hello"
9735 0x804956d <hello.1620+6>
9736 1 pattern found
9737 (gdb) find &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), 'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o'
9738 0x8049567 <hello.1620>
9739 0x804956d <hello.1620+6>
9740 2 patterns found
9741 (gdb) find /b1 &hello[0], +sizeof(hello), 'h', 0x65, 'l'
9742 0x8049567 <hello.1620>
9743 1 pattern found
9744 (gdb) find &mixed, +sizeof(mixed), (char) 'c', (short) 0x1234, (int) 0x87654321
9745 0x8049560 <mixed.1625>
9746 1 pattern found
9747 (gdb) print $numfound
9748 $1 = 1
9749 (gdb) print $_
9750 $2 = (void *) 0x8049560
9751 @end smallexample
9752
9753 @node Optimized Code
9754 @chapter Debugging Optimized Code
9755 @cindex optimized code, debugging
9756 @cindex debugging optimized code
9757
9758 Almost all compilers support optimization. With optimization
9759 disabled, the compiler generates assembly code that corresponds
9760 directly to your source code, in a simplistic way. As the compiler
9761 applies more powerful optimizations, the generated assembly code
9762 diverges from your original source code. With help from debugging
9763 information generated by the compiler, @value{GDBN} can map from
9764 the running program back to constructs from your original source.
9765
9766 @value{GDBN} is more accurate with optimization disabled. If you
9767 can recompile without optimization, it is easier to follow the
9768 progress of your program during debugging. But, there are many cases
9769 where you may need to debug an optimized version.
9770
9771 When you debug a program compiled with @samp{-g -O}, remember that the
9772 optimizer has rearranged your code; the debugger shows you what is
9773 really there. Do not be too surprised when the execution path does not
9774 exactly match your source file! An extreme example: if you define a
9775 variable, but never use it, @value{GDBN} never sees that
9776 variable---because the compiler optimizes it out of existence.
9777
9778 Some things do not work as well with @samp{-g -O} as with just
9779 @samp{-g}, particularly on machines with instruction scheduling. If in
9780 doubt, recompile with @samp{-g} alone, and if this fixes the problem,
9781 please report it to us as a bug (including a test case!).
9782 @xref{Variables}, for more information about debugging optimized code.
9783
9784 @menu
9785 * Inline Functions:: How @value{GDBN} presents inlining
9786 * Tail Call Frames:: @value{GDBN} analysis of jumps to functions
9787 @end menu
9788
9789 @node Inline Functions
9790 @section Inline Functions
9791 @cindex inline functions, debugging
9792
9793 @dfn{Inlining} is an optimization that inserts a copy of the function
9794 body directly at each call site, instead of jumping to a shared
9795 routine. @value{GDBN} displays inlined functions just like
9796 non-inlined functions. They appear in backtraces. You can view their
9797 arguments and local variables, step into them with @code{step}, skip
9798 them with @code{next}, and escape from them with @code{finish}.
9799 You can check whether a function was inlined by using the
9800 @code{info frame} command.
9801
9802 For @value{GDBN} to support inlined functions, the compiler must
9803 record information about inlining in the debug information ---
9804 @value{NGCC} using the @sc{dwarf 2} format does this, and several
9805 other compilers do also. @value{GDBN} only supports inlined functions
9806 when using @sc{dwarf 2}. Versions of @value{NGCC} before 4.1
9807 do not emit two required attributes (@samp{DW_AT_call_file} and
9808 @samp{DW_AT_call_line}); @value{GDBN} does not display inlined
9809 function calls with earlier versions of @value{NGCC}. It instead
9810 displays the arguments and local variables of inlined functions as
9811 local variables in the caller.
9812
9813 The body of an inlined function is directly included at its call site;
9814 unlike a non-inlined function, there are no instructions devoted to
9815 the call. @value{GDBN} still pretends that the call site and the
9816 start of the inlined function are different instructions. Stepping to
9817 the call site shows the call site, and then stepping again shows
9818 the first line of the inlined function, even though no additional
9819 instructions are executed.
9820
9821 This makes source-level debugging much clearer; you can see both the
9822 context of the call and then the effect of the call. Only stepping by
9823 a single instruction using @code{stepi} or @code{nexti} does not do
9824 this; single instruction steps always show the inlined body.
9825
9826 There are some ways that @value{GDBN} does not pretend that inlined
9827 function calls are the same as normal calls:
9828
9829 @itemize @bullet
9830 @item
9831 You cannot set breakpoints on inlined functions. @value{GDBN}
9832 either reports that there is no symbol with that name, or else sets the
9833 breakpoint only on non-inlined copies of the function. This limitation
9834 will be removed in a future version of @value{GDBN}; until then,
9835 set a breakpoint by line number on the first line of the inlined
9836 function instead.
9837
9838 @item
9839 Setting breakpoints at the call site of an inlined function may not
9840 work, because the call site does not contain any code. @value{GDBN}
9841 may incorrectly move the breakpoint to the next line of the enclosing
9842 function, after the call. This limitation will be removed in a future
9843 version of @value{GDBN}; until then, set a breakpoint on an earlier line
9844 or inside the inlined function instead.
9845
9846 @item
9847 @value{GDBN} cannot locate the return value of inlined calls after
9848 using the @code{finish} command. This is a limitation of compiler-generated
9849 debugging information; after @code{finish}, you can step to the next line
9850 and print a variable where your program stored the return value.
9851
9852 @end itemize
9853
9854 @node Tail Call Frames
9855 @section Tail Call Frames
9856 @cindex tail call frames, debugging
9857
9858 Function @code{B} can call function @code{C} in its very last statement. In
9859 unoptimized compilation the call of @code{C} is immediately followed by return
9860 instruction at the end of @code{B} code. Optimizing compiler may replace the
9861 call and return in function @code{B} into one jump to function @code{C}
9862 instead. Such use of a jump instruction is called @dfn{tail call}.
9863
9864 During execution of function @code{C}, there will be no indication in the
9865 function call stack frames that it was tail-called from @code{B}. If function
9866 @code{A} regularly calls function @code{B} which tail-calls function @code{C},
9867 then @value{GDBN} will see @code{A} as the caller of @code{C}. However, in
9868 some cases @value{GDBN} can determine that @code{C} was tail-called from
9869 @code{B}, and it will then create fictitious call frame for that, with the
9870 return address set up as if @code{B} called @code{C} normally.
9871
9872 This functionality is currently supported only by DWARF 2 debugging format and
9873 the compiler has to produce @samp{DW_TAG_GNU_call_site} tags. With
9874 @value{NGCC}, you need to specify @option{-O -g} during compilation, to get
9875 this information.
9876
9877 @kbd{info frame} command (@pxref{Frame Info}) will indicate the tail call frame
9878 kind by text @code{tail call frame} such as in this sample @value{GDBN} output:
9879
9880 @smallexample
9881 (gdb) x/i $pc - 2
9882 0x40066b <b(int, double)+11>: jmp 0x400640 <c(int, double)>
9883 (gdb) info frame
9884 Stack level 1, frame at 0x7fffffffda30:
9885 rip = 0x40066d in b (amd64-entry-value.cc:59); saved rip 0x4004c5
9886 tail call frame, caller of frame at 0x7fffffffda30
9887 source language c++.
9888 Arglist at unknown address.
9889 Locals at unknown address, Previous frame's sp is 0x7fffffffda30
9890 @end smallexample
9891
9892 The detection of all the possible code path executions can find them ambiguous.
9893 There is no execution history stored (possible @ref{Reverse Execution} is never
9894 used for this purpose) and the last known caller could have reached the known
9895 callee by multiple different jump sequences. In such case @value{GDBN} still
9896 tries to show at least all the unambiguous top tail callers and all the
9897 unambiguous bottom tail calees, if any.
9898
9899 @table @code
9900 @anchor{set debug entry-values}
9901 @item set debug entry-values
9902 @kindex set debug entry-values
9903 When set to on, enables printing of analysis messages for both frame argument
9904 values at function entry and tail calls. It will show all the possible valid
9905 tail calls code paths it has considered. It will also print the intersection
9906 of them with the final unambiguous (possibly partial or even empty) code path
9907 result.
9908
9909 @item show debug entry-values
9910 @kindex show debug entry-values
9911 Show the current state of analysis messages printing for both frame argument
9912 values at function entry and tail calls.
9913 @end table
9914
9915 The analysis messages for tail calls can for example show why the virtual tail
9916 call frame for function @code{c} has not been recognized (due to the indirect
9917 reference by variable @code{x}):
9918
9919 @smallexample
9920 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (void);
9921 void (*x) (void) = c;
9922 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (void) @{ x++; @}
9923 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (void) @{ a (); @}
9924 int main (void) @{ x (); return 0; @}
9925
9926 Breakpoint 1, DW_OP_GNU_entry_value resolving cannot find
9927 DW_TAG_GNU_call_site 0x40039a in main
9928 a () at t.c:3
9929 3 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (void) @{ x++; @}
9930 (gdb) bt
9931 #0 a () at t.c:3
9932 #1 0x000000000040039a in main () at t.c:5
9933 @end smallexample
9934
9935 Another possibility is an ambiguous virtual tail call frames resolution:
9936
9937 @smallexample
9938 int i;
9939 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) f (void) @{ i++; @}
9940 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) e (void) @{ f (); @}
9941 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) d (void) @{ f (); @}
9942 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (void) @{ d (); @}
9943 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) b (void)
9944 @{ if (i) c (); else e (); @}
9945 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (void) @{ b (); @}
9946 int main (void) @{ a (); return 0; @}
9947
9948 tailcall: initial: 0x4004d2(a) 0x4004ce(b) 0x4004b2(c) 0x4004a2(d)
9949 tailcall: compare: 0x4004d2(a) 0x4004cc(b) 0x400492(e)
9950 tailcall: reduced: 0x4004d2(a) |
9951 (gdb) bt
9952 #0 f () at t.c:2
9953 #1 0x00000000004004d2 in a () at t.c:8
9954 #2 0x0000000000400395 in main () at t.c:9
9955 @end smallexample
9956
9957 @set CALLSEQ1A @code{main@value{ARROW}a@value{ARROW}b@value{ARROW}c@value{ARROW}d@value{ARROW}f}
9958 @set CALLSEQ2A @code{main@value{ARROW}a@value{ARROW}b@value{ARROW}e@value{ARROW}f}
9959
9960 @c Convert CALLSEQ#A to CALLSEQ#B depending on HAVE_MAKEINFO_CLICK.
9961 @ifset HAVE_MAKEINFO_CLICK
9962 @set ARROW @click{}
9963 @set CALLSEQ1B @clicksequence{@value{CALLSEQ1A}}
9964 @set CALLSEQ2B @clicksequence{@value{CALLSEQ2A}}
9965 @end ifset
9966 @ifclear HAVE_MAKEINFO_CLICK
9967 @set ARROW ->
9968 @set CALLSEQ1B @value{CALLSEQ1A}
9969 @set CALLSEQ2B @value{CALLSEQ2A}
9970 @end ifclear
9971
9972 Frames #0 and #2 are real, #1 is a virtual tail call frame.
9973 The code can have possible execution paths @value{CALLSEQ1B} or
9974 @value{CALLSEQ2B}, @value{GDBN} cannot find which one from the inferior state.
9975
9976 @code{initial:} state shows some random possible calling sequence @value{GDBN}
9977 has found. It then finds another possible calling sequcen - that one is
9978 prefixed by @code{compare:}. The non-ambiguous intersection of these two is
9979 printed as the @code{reduced:} calling sequence. That one could have many
9980 futher @code{compare:} and @code{reduced:} statements as long as there remain
9981 any non-ambiguous sequence entries.
9982
9983 For the frame of function @code{b} in both cases there are different possible
9984 @code{$pc} values (@code{0x4004cc} or @code{0x4004ce}), therefore this frame is
9985 also ambigous. The only non-ambiguous frame is the one for function @code{a},
9986 therefore this one is displayed to the user while the ambiguous frames are
9987 omitted.
9988
9989 There can be also reasons why printing of frame argument values at function
9990 entry may fail:
9991
9992 @smallexample
9993 int v;
9994 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) c (int i) @{ v++; @}
9995 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (int i);
9996 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) b (int i) @{ a (i); @}
9997 static void __attribute__((noinline, noclone)) a (int i)
9998 @{ if (i) b (i - 1); else c (0); @}
9999 int main (void) @{ a (5); return 0; @}
10000
10001 (gdb) bt
10002 #0 c (i=i@@entry=0) at t.c:2
10003 #1 0x0000000000400428 in a (DW_OP_GNU_entry_value resolving has found
10004 function "a" at 0x400420 can call itself via tail calls
10005 i=<optimized out>) at t.c:6
10006 #2 0x000000000040036e in main () at t.c:7
10007 @end smallexample
10008
10009 @value{GDBN} cannot find out from the inferior state if and how many times did
10010 function @code{a} call itself (via function @code{b}) as these calls would be
10011 tail calls. Such tail calls would modify thue @code{i} variable, therefore
10012 @value{GDBN} cannot be sure the value it knows would be right - @value{GDBN}
10013 prints @code{<optimized out>} instead.
10014
10015 @node Macros
10016 @chapter C Preprocessor Macros
10017
10018 Some languages, such as C and C@t{++}, provide a way to define and invoke
10019 ``preprocessor macros'' which expand into strings of tokens.
10020 @value{GDBN} can evaluate expressions containing macro invocations, show
10021 the result of macro expansion, and show a macro's definition, including
10022 where it was defined.
10023
10024 You may need to compile your program specially to provide @value{GDBN}
10025 with information about preprocessor macros. Most compilers do not
10026 include macros in their debugging information, even when you compile
10027 with the @option{-g} flag. @xref{Compilation}.
10028
10029 A program may define a macro at one point, remove that definition later,
10030 and then provide a different definition after that. Thus, at different
10031 points in the program, a macro may have different definitions, or have
10032 no definition at all. If there is a current stack frame, @value{GDBN}
10033 uses the macros in scope at that frame's source code line. Otherwise,
10034 @value{GDBN} uses the macros in scope at the current listing location;
10035 see @ref{List}.
10036
10037 Whenever @value{GDBN} evaluates an expression, it always expands any
10038 macro invocations present in the expression. @value{GDBN} also provides
10039 the following commands for working with macros explicitly.
10040
10041 @table @code
10042
10043 @kindex macro expand
10044 @cindex macro expansion, showing the results of preprocessor
10045 @cindex preprocessor macro expansion, showing the results of
10046 @cindex expanding preprocessor macros
10047 @item macro expand @var{expression}
10048 @itemx macro exp @var{expression}
10049 Show the results of expanding all preprocessor macro invocations in
10050 @var{expression}. Since @value{GDBN} simply expands macros, but does
10051 not parse the result, @var{expression} need not be a valid expression;
10052 it can be any string of tokens.
10053
10054 @kindex macro exp1
10055 @item macro expand-once @var{expression}
10056 @itemx macro exp1 @var{expression}
10057 @cindex expand macro once
10058 @i{(This command is not yet implemented.)} Show the results of
10059 expanding those preprocessor macro invocations that appear explicitly in
10060 @var{expression}. Macro invocations appearing in that expansion are
10061 left unchanged. This command allows you to see the effect of a
10062 particular macro more clearly, without being confused by further
10063 expansions. Since @value{GDBN} simply expands macros, but does not
10064 parse the result, @var{expression} need not be a valid expression; it
10065 can be any string of tokens.
10066
10067 @kindex info macro
10068 @cindex macro definition, showing
10069 @cindex definition of a macro, showing
10070 @cindex macros, from debug info
10071 @item info macro [-a|-all] [--] @var{macro}
10072 Show the current definition or all definitions of the named @var{macro},
10073 and describe the source location or compiler command-line where that
10074 definition was established. The optional double dash is to signify the end of
10075 argument processing and the beginning of @var{macro} for non C-like macros where
10076 the macro may begin with a hyphen.
10077
10078 @kindex info macros
10079 @item info macros @var{linespec}
10080 Show all macro definitions that are in effect at the location specified
10081 by @var{linespec}, and describe the source location or compiler
10082 command-line where those definitions were established.
10083
10084 @kindex macro define
10085 @cindex user-defined macros
10086 @cindex defining macros interactively
10087 @cindex macros, user-defined
10088 @item macro define @var{macro} @var{replacement-list}
10089 @itemx macro define @var{macro}(@var{arglist}) @var{replacement-list}
10090 Introduce a definition for a preprocessor macro named @var{macro},
10091 invocations of which are replaced by the tokens given in
10092 @var{replacement-list}. The first form of this command defines an
10093 ``object-like'' macro, which takes no arguments; the second form
10094 defines a ``function-like'' macro, which takes the arguments given in
10095 @var{arglist}.
10096
10097 A definition introduced by this command is in scope in every
10098 expression evaluated in @value{GDBN}, until it is removed with the
10099 @code{macro undef} command, described below. The definition overrides
10100 all definitions for @var{macro} present in the program being debugged,
10101 as well as any previous user-supplied definition.
10102
10103 @kindex macro undef
10104 @item macro undef @var{macro}
10105 Remove any user-supplied definition for the macro named @var{macro}.
10106 This command only affects definitions provided with the @code{macro
10107 define} command, described above; it cannot remove definitions present
10108 in the program being debugged.
10109
10110 @kindex macro list
10111 @item macro list
10112 List all the macros defined using the @code{macro define} command.
10113 @end table
10114
10115 @cindex macros, example of debugging with
10116 Here is a transcript showing the above commands in action. First, we
10117 show our source files:
10118
10119 @smallexample
10120 $ cat sample.c
10121 #include <stdio.h>
10122 #include "sample.h"
10123
10124 #define M 42
10125 #define ADD(x) (M + x)
10126
10127 main ()
10128 @{
10129 #define N 28
10130 printf ("Hello, world!\n");
10131 #undef N
10132 printf ("We're so creative.\n");
10133 #define N 1729
10134 printf ("Goodbye, world!\n");
10135 @}
10136 $ cat sample.h
10137 #define Q <
10138 $
10139 @end smallexample
10140
10141 Now, we compile the program using the @sc{gnu} C compiler,
10142 @value{NGCC}. We pass the @option{-gdwarf-2}@footnote{This is the
10143 minimum. Recent versions of @value{NGCC} support @option{-gdwarf-3}
10144 and @option{-gdwarf-4}; we recommend always choosing the most recent
10145 version of DWARF.} @emph{and} @option{-g3} flags to ensure the compiler
10146 includes information about preprocessor macros in the debugging
10147 information.
10148
10149 @smallexample
10150 $ gcc -gdwarf-2 -g3 sample.c -o sample
10151 $
10152 @end smallexample
10153
10154 Now, we start @value{GDBN} on our sample program:
10155
10156 @smallexample
10157 $ gdb -nw sample
10158 GNU gdb 2002-05-06-cvs
10159 Copyright 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
10160 GDB is free software, @dots{}
10161 (@value{GDBP})
10162 @end smallexample
10163
10164 We can expand macros and examine their definitions, even when the
10165 program is not running. @value{GDBN} uses the current listing position
10166 to decide which macro definitions are in scope:
10167
10168 @smallexample
10169 (@value{GDBP}) list main
10170 3
10171 4 #define M 42
10172 5 #define ADD(x) (M + x)
10173 6
10174 7 main ()
10175 8 @{
10176 9 #define N 28
10177 10 printf ("Hello, world!\n");
10178 11 #undef N
10179 12 printf ("We're so creative.\n");
10180 (@value{GDBP}) info macro ADD
10181 Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:5
10182 #define ADD(x) (M + x)
10183 (@value{GDBP}) info macro Q
10184 Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.h:1
10185 included at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:2
10186 #define Q <
10187 (@value{GDBP}) macro expand ADD(1)
10188 expands to: (42 + 1)
10189 (@value{GDBP}) macro expand-once ADD(1)
10190 expands to: once (M + 1)
10191 (@value{GDBP})
10192 @end smallexample
10193
10194 In the example above, note that @code{macro expand-once} expands only
10195 the macro invocation explicit in the original text --- the invocation of
10196 @code{ADD} --- but does not expand the invocation of the macro @code{M},
10197 which was introduced by @code{ADD}.
10198
10199 Once the program is running, @value{GDBN} uses the macro definitions in
10200 force at the source line of the current stack frame:
10201
10202 @smallexample
10203 (@value{GDBP}) break main
10204 Breakpoint 1 at 0x8048370: file sample.c, line 10.
10205 (@value{GDBP}) run
10206 Starting program: /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample
10207
10208 Breakpoint 1, main () at sample.c:10
10209 10 printf ("Hello, world!\n");
10210 (@value{GDBP})
10211 @end smallexample
10212
10213 At line 10, the definition of the macro @code{N} at line 9 is in force:
10214
10215 @smallexample
10216 (@value{GDBP}) info macro N
10217 Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:9
10218 #define N 28
10219 (@value{GDBP}) macro expand N Q M
10220 expands to: 28 < 42
10221 (@value{GDBP}) print N Q M
10222 $1 = 1
10223 (@value{GDBP})
10224 @end smallexample
10225
10226 As we step over directives that remove @code{N}'s definition, and then
10227 give it a new definition, @value{GDBN} finds the definition (or lack
10228 thereof) in force at each point:
10229
10230 @smallexample
10231 (@value{GDBP}) next
10232 Hello, world!
10233 12 printf ("We're so creative.\n");
10234 (@value{GDBP}) info macro N
10235 The symbol `N' has no definition as a C/C++ preprocessor macro
10236 at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:12
10237 (@value{GDBP}) next
10238 We're so creative.
10239 14 printf ("Goodbye, world!\n");
10240 (@value{GDBP}) info macro N
10241 Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:13
10242 #define N 1729
10243 (@value{GDBP}) macro expand N Q M
10244 expands to: 1729 < 42
10245 (@value{GDBP}) print N Q M
10246 $2 = 0
10247 (@value{GDBP})
10248 @end smallexample
10249
10250 In addition to source files, macros can be defined on the compilation command
10251 line using the @option{-D@var{name}=@var{value}} syntax. For macros defined in
10252 such a way, @value{GDBN} displays the location of their definition as line zero
10253 of the source file submitted to the compiler.
10254
10255 @smallexample
10256 (@value{GDBP}) info macro __STDC__
10257 Defined at /home/jimb/gdb/macros/play/sample.c:0
10258 -D__STDC__=1
10259 (@value{GDBP})
10260 @end smallexample
10261
10262
10263 @node Tracepoints
10264 @chapter Tracepoints
10265 @c This chapter is based on the documentation written by Michael
10266 @c Snyder, David Taylor, Jim Blandy, and Elena Zannoni.
10267
10268 @cindex tracepoints
10269 In some applications, it is not feasible for the debugger to interrupt
10270 the program's execution long enough for the developer to learn
10271 anything helpful about its behavior. If the program's correctness
10272 depends on its real-time behavior, delays introduced by a debugger
10273 might cause the program to change its behavior drastically, or perhaps
10274 fail, even when the code itself is correct. It is useful to be able
10275 to observe the program's behavior without interrupting it.
10276
10277 Using @value{GDBN}'s @code{trace} and @code{collect} commands, you can
10278 specify locations in the program, called @dfn{tracepoints}, and
10279 arbitrary expressions to evaluate when those tracepoints are reached.
10280 Later, using the @code{tfind} command, you can examine the values
10281 those expressions had when the program hit the tracepoints. The
10282 expressions may also denote objects in memory---structures or arrays,
10283 for example---whose values @value{GDBN} should record; while visiting
10284 a particular tracepoint, you may inspect those objects as if they were
10285 in memory at that moment. However, because @value{GDBN} records these
10286 values without interacting with you, it can do so quickly and
10287 unobtrusively, hopefully not disturbing the program's behavior.
10288
10289 The tracepoint facility is currently available only for remote
10290 targets. @xref{Targets}. In addition, your remote target must know
10291 how to collect trace data. This functionality is implemented in the
10292 remote stub; however, none of the stubs distributed with @value{GDBN}
10293 support tracepoints as of this writing. The format of the remote
10294 packets used to implement tracepoints are described in @ref{Tracepoint
10295 Packets}.
10296
10297 It is also possible to get trace data from a file, in a manner reminiscent
10298 of corefiles; you specify the filename, and use @code{tfind} to search
10299 through the file. @xref{Trace Files}, for more details.
10300
10301 This chapter describes the tracepoint commands and features.
10302
10303 @menu
10304 * Set Tracepoints::
10305 * Analyze Collected Data::
10306 * Tracepoint Variables::
10307 * Trace Files::
10308 @end menu
10309
10310 @node Set Tracepoints
10311 @section Commands to Set Tracepoints
10312
10313 Before running such a @dfn{trace experiment}, an arbitrary number of
10314 tracepoints can be set. A tracepoint is actually a special type of
10315 breakpoint (@pxref{Set Breaks}), so you can manipulate it using
10316 standard breakpoint commands. For instance, as with breakpoints,
10317 tracepoint numbers are successive integers starting from one, and many
10318 of the commands associated with tracepoints take the tracepoint number
10319 as their argument, to identify which tracepoint to work on.
10320
10321 For each tracepoint, you can specify, in advance, some arbitrary set
10322 of data that you want the target to collect in the trace buffer when
10323 it hits that tracepoint. The collected data can include registers,
10324 local variables, or global data. Later, you can use @value{GDBN}
10325 commands to examine the values these data had at the time the
10326 tracepoint was hit.
10327
10328 Tracepoints do not support every breakpoint feature. Ignore counts on
10329 tracepoints have no effect, and tracepoints cannot run @value{GDBN}
10330 commands when they are hit. Tracepoints may not be thread-specific
10331 either.
10332
10333 @cindex fast tracepoints
10334 Some targets may support @dfn{fast tracepoints}, which are inserted in
10335 a different way (such as with a jump instead of a trap), that is
10336 faster but possibly restricted in where they may be installed.
10337
10338 @cindex static tracepoints
10339 @cindex markers, static tracepoints
10340 @cindex probing markers, static tracepoints
10341 Regular and fast tracepoints are dynamic tracing facilities, meaning
10342 that they can be used to insert tracepoints at (almost) any location
10343 in the target. Some targets may also support controlling @dfn{static
10344 tracepoints} from @value{GDBN}. With static tracing, a set of
10345 instrumentation points, also known as @dfn{markers}, are embedded in
10346 the target program, and can be activated or deactivated by name or
10347 address. These are usually placed at locations which facilitate
10348 investigating what the target is actually doing. @value{GDBN}'s
10349 support for static tracing includes being able to list instrumentation
10350 points, and attach them with @value{GDBN} defined high level
10351 tracepoints that expose the whole range of convenience of
10352 @value{GDBN}'s tracepoints support. Namely, support for collecting
10353 registers values and values of global or local (to the instrumentation
10354 point) variables; tracepoint conditions and trace state variables.
10355 The act of installing a @value{GDBN} static tracepoint on an
10356 instrumentation point, or marker, is referred to as @dfn{probing} a
10357 static tracepoint marker.
10358
10359 @code{gdbserver} supports tracepoints on some target systems.
10360 @xref{Server,,Tracepoints support in @code{gdbserver}}.
10361
10362 This section describes commands to set tracepoints and associated
10363 conditions and actions.
10364
10365 @menu
10366 * Create and Delete Tracepoints::
10367 * Enable and Disable Tracepoints::
10368 * Tracepoint Passcounts::
10369 * Tracepoint Conditions::
10370 * Trace State Variables::
10371 * Tracepoint Actions::
10372 * Listing Tracepoints::
10373 * Listing Static Tracepoint Markers::
10374 * Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments::
10375 * Tracepoint Restrictions::
10376 @end menu
10377
10378 @node Create and Delete Tracepoints
10379 @subsection Create and Delete Tracepoints
10380
10381 @table @code
10382 @cindex set tracepoint
10383 @kindex trace
10384 @item trace @var{location}
10385 The @code{trace} command is very similar to the @code{break} command.
10386 Its argument @var{location} can be a source line, a function name, or
10387 an address in the target program. @xref{Specify Location}. The
10388 @code{trace} command defines a tracepoint, which is a point in the
10389 target program where the debugger will briefly stop, collect some
10390 data, and then allow the program to continue. Setting a tracepoint or
10391 changing its actions takes effect immediately if the remote stub
10392 supports the @samp{InstallInTrace} feature (@pxref{install tracepoint
10393 in tracing}).
10394 If remote stub doesn't support the @samp{InstallInTrace} feature, all
10395 these changes don't take effect until the next @code{tstart}
10396 command, and once a trace experiment is running, further changes will
10397 not have any effect until the next trace experiment starts. In addition,
10398 @value{GDBN} supports @dfn{pending tracepoints}---tracepoints whose
10399 address is not yet resolved. (This is similar to pending breakpoints.)
10400 Pending tracepoints are not downloaded to the target and not installed
10401 until they are resolved. The resolution of pending tracepoints requires
10402 @value{GDBN} support---when debugging with the remote target, and
10403 @value{GDBN} disconnects from the remote stub (@pxref{disconnected
10404 tracing}), pending tracepoints can not be resolved (and downloaded to
10405 the remote stub) while @value{GDBN} is disconnected.
10406
10407 Here are some examples of using the @code{trace} command:
10408
10409 @smallexample
10410 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace foo.c:121} // a source file and line number
10411
10412 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace +2} // 2 lines forward
10413
10414 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace my_function} // first source line of function
10415
10416 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace *my_function} // EXACT start address of function
10417
10418 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace *0x2117c4} // an address
10419 @end smallexample
10420
10421 @noindent
10422 You can abbreviate @code{trace} as @code{tr}.
10423
10424 @item trace @var{location} if @var{cond}
10425 Set a tracepoint with condition @var{cond}; evaluate the expression
10426 @var{cond} each time the tracepoint is reached, and collect data only
10427 if the value is nonzero---that is, if @var{cond} evaluates as true.
10428 @xref{Tracepoint Conditions, ,Tracepoint Conditions}, for more
10429 information on tracepoint conditions.
10430
10431 @item ftrace @var{location} [ if @var{cond} ]
10432 @cindex set fast tracepoint
10433 @cindex fast tracepoints, setting
10434 @kindex ftrace
10435 The @code{ftrace} command sets a fast tracepoint. For targets that
10436 support them, fast tracepoints will use a more efficient but possibly
10437 less general technique to trigger data collection, such as a jump
10438 instruction instead of a trap, or some sort of hardware support. It
10439 may not be possible to create a fast tracepoint at the desired
10440 location, in which case the command will exit with an explanatory
10441 message.
10442
10443 @value{GDBN} handles arguments to @code{ftrace} exactly as for
10444 @code{trace}.
10445
10446 On 32-bit x86-architecture systems, fast tracepoints normally need to
10447 be placed at an instruction that is 5 bytes or longer, but can be
10448 placed at 4-byte instructions if the low 64K of memory of the target
10449 program is available to install trampolines. Some Unix-type systems,
10450 such as @sc{gnu}/Linux, exclude low addresses from the program's
10451 address space; but for instance with the Linux kernel it is possible
10452 to let @value{GDBN} use this area by doing a @command{sysctl} command
10453 to set the @code{mmap_min_addr} kernel parameter, as in
10454
10455 @example
10456 sudo sysctl -w vm.mmap_min_addr=32768
10457 @end example
10458
10459 @noindent
10460 which sets the low address to 32K, which leaves plenty of room for
10461 trampolines. The minimum address should be set to a page boundary.
10462
10463 @item strace @var{location} [ if @var{cond} ]
10464 @cindex set static tracepoint
10465 @cindex static tracepoints, setting
10466 @cindex probe static tracepoint marker
10467 @kindex strace
10468 The @code{strace} command sets a static tracepoint. For targets that
10469 support it, setting a static tracepoint probes a static
10470 instrumentation point, or marker, found at @var{location}. It may not
10471 be possible to set a static tracepoint at the desired location, in
10472 which case the command will exit with an explanatory message.
10473
10474 @value{GDBN} handles arguments to @code{strace} exactly as for
10475 @code{trace}, with the addition that the user can also specify
10476 @code{-m @var{marker}} as @var{location}. This probes the marker
10477 identified by the @var{marker} string identifier. This identifier
10478 depends on the static tracepoint backend library your program is
10479 using. You can find all the marker identifiers in the @samp{ID} field
10480 of the @code{info static-tracepoint-markers} command output.
10481 @xref{Listing Static Tracepoint Markers,,Listing Static Tracepoint
10482 Markers}. For example, in the following small program using the UST
10483 tracing engine:
10484
10485 @smallexample
10486 main ()
10487 @{
10488 trace_mark(ust, bar33, "str %s", "FOOBAZ");
10489 @}
10490 @end smallexample
10491
10492 @noindent
10493 the marker id is composed of joining the first two arguments to the
10494 @code{trace_mark} call with a slash, which translates to:
10495
10496 @smallexample
10497 (@value{GDBP}) info static-tracepoint-markers
10498 Cnt Enb ID Address What
10499 1 n ust/bar33 0x0000000000400ddc in main at stexample.c:22
10500 Data: "str %s"
10501 [etc...]
10502 @end smallexample
10503
10504 @noindent
10505 so you may probe the marker above with:
10506
10507 @smallexample
10508 (@value{GDBP}) strace -m ust/bar33
10509 @end smallexample
10510
10511 Static tracepoints accept an extra collect action --- @code{collect
10512 $_sdata}. This collects arbitrary user data passed in the probe point
10513 call to the tracing library. In the UST example above, you'll see
10514 that the third argument to @code{trace_mark} is a printf-like format
10515 string. The user data is then the result of running that formating
10516 string against the following arguments. Note that @code{info
10517 static-tracepoint-markers} command output lists that format string in
10518 the @samp{Data:} field.
10519
10520 You can inspect this data when analyzing the trace buffer, by printing
10521 the $_sdata variable like any other variable available to
10522 @value{GDBN}. @xref{Tracepoint Actions,,Tracepoint Action Lists}.
10523
10524 @vindex $tpnum
10525 @cindex last tracepoint number
10526 @cindex recent tracepoint number
10527 @cindex tracepoint number
10528 The convenience variable @code{$tpnum} records the tracepoint number
10529 of the most recently set tracepoint.
10530
10531 @kindex delete tracepoint
10532 @cindex tracepoint deletion
10533 @item delete tracepoint @r{[}@var{num}@r{]}
10534 Permanently delete one or more tracepoints. With no argument, the
10535 default is to delete all tracepoints. Note that the regular
10536 @code{delete} command can remove tracepoints also.
10537
10538 Examples:
10539
10540 @smallexample
10541 (@value{GDBP}) @b{delete trace 1 2 3} // remove three tracepoints
10542
10543 (@value{GDBP}) @b{delete trace} // remove all tracepoints
10544 @end smallexample
10545
10546 @noindent
10547 You can abbreviate this command as @code{del tr}.
10548 @end table
10549
10550 @node Enable and Disable Tracepoints
10551 @subsection Enable and Disable Tracepoints
10552
10553 These commands are deprecated; they are equivalent to plain @code{disable} and @code{enable}.
10554
10555 @table @code
10556 @kindex disable tracepoint
10557 @item disable tracepoint @r{[}@var{num}@r{]}
10558 Disable tracepoint @var{num}, or all tracepoints if no argument
10559 @var{num} is given. A disabled tracepoint will have no effect during
10560 a trace experiment, but it is not forgotten. You can re-enable
10561 a disabled tracepoint using the @code{enable tracepoint} command.
10562 If the command is issued during a trace experiment and the debug target
10563 has support for disabling tracepoints during a trace experiment, then the
10564 change will be effective immediately. Otherwise, it will be applied to the
10565 next trace experiment.
10566
10567 @kindex enable tracepoint
10568 @item enable tracepoint @r{[}@var{num}@r{]}
10569 Enable tracepoint @var{num}, or all tracepoints. If this command is
10570 issued during a trace experiment and the debug target supports enabling
10571 tracepoints during a trace experiment, then the enabled tracepoints will
10572 become effective immediately. Otherwise, they will become effective the
10573 next time a trace experiment is run.
10574 @end table
10575
10576 @node Tracepoint Passcounts
10577 @subsection Tracepoint Passcounts
10578
10579 @table @code
10580 @kindex passcount
10581 @cindex tracepoint pass count
10582 @item passcount @r{[}@var{n} @r{[}@var{num}@r{]]}
10583 Set the @dfn{passcount} of a tracepoint. The passcount is a way to
10584 automatically stop a trace experiment. If a tracepoint's passcount is
10585 @var{n}, then the trace experiment will be automatically stopped on
10586 the @var{n}'th time that tracepoint is hit. If the tracepoint number
10587 @var{num} is not specified, the @code{passcount} command sets the
10588 passcount of the most recently defined tracepoint. If no passcount is
10589 given, the trace experiment will run until stopped explicitly by the
10590 user.
10591
10592 Examples:
10593
10594 @smallexample
10595 (@value{GDBP}) @b{passcount 5 2} // Stop on the 5th execution of
10596 @exdent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @code{// tracepoint 2}
10597
10598 (@value{GDBP}) @b{passcount 12} // Stop on the 12th execution of the
10599 @exdent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @code{// most recently defined tracepoint.}
10600 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace foo}
10601 (@value{GDBP}) @b{pass 3}
10602 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace bar}
10603 (@value{GDBP}) @b{pass 2}
10604 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace baz}
10605 (@value{GDBP}) @b{pass 1} // Stop tracing when foo has been
10606 @exdent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @code{// executed 3 times OR when bar has}
10607 @exdent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @code{// been executed 2 times}
10608 @exdent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @code{// OR when baz has been executed 1 time.}
10609 @end smallexample
10610 @end table
10611
10612 @node Tracepoint Conditions
10613 @subsection Tracepoint Conditions
10614 @cindex conditional tracepoints
10615 @cindex tracepoint conditions
10616
10617 The simplest sort of tracepoint collects data every time your program
10618 reaches a specified place. You can also specify a @dfn{condition} for
10619 a tracepoint. A condition is just a Boolean expression in your
10620 programming language (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}). A
10621 tracepoint with a condition evaluates the expression each time your
10622 program reaches it, and data collection happens only if the condition
10623 is true.
10624
10625 Tracepoint conditions can be specified when a tracepoint is set, by
10626 using @samp{if} in the arguments to the @code{trace} command.
10627 @xref{Create and Delete Tracepoints, ,Setting Tracepoints}. They can
10628 also be set or changed at any time with the @code{condition} command,
10629 just as with breakpoints.
10630
10631 Unlike breakpoint conditions, @value{GDBN} does not actually evaluate
10632 the conditional expression itself. Instead, @value{GDBN} encodes the
10633 expression into an agent expression (@pxref{Agent Expressions})
10634 suitable for execution on the target, independently of @value{GDBN}.
10635 Global variables become raw memory locations, locals become stack
10636 accesses, and so forth.
10637
10638 For instance, suppose you have a function that is usually called
10639 frequently, but should not be called after an error has occurred. You
10640 could use the following tracepoint command to collect data about calls
10641 of that function that happen while the error code is propagating
10642 through the program; an unconditional tracepoint could end up
10643 collecting thousands of useless trace frames that you would have to
10644 search through.
10645
10646 @smallexample
10647 (@value{GDBP}) @kbd{trace normal_operation if errcode > 0}
10648 @end smallexample
10649
10650 @node Trace State Variables
10651 @subsection Trace State Variables
10652 @cindex trace state variables
10653
10654 A @dfn{trace state variable} is a special type of variable that is
10655 created and managed by target-side code. The syntax is the same as
10656 that for GDB's convenience variables (a string prefixed with ``$''),
10657 but they are stored on the target. They must be created explicitly,
10658 using a @code{tvariable} command. They are always 64-bit signed
10659 integers.
10660
10661 Trace state variables are remembered by @value{GDBN}, and downloaded
10662 to the target along with tracepoint information when the trace
10663 experiment starts. There are no intrinsic limits on the number of
10664 trace state variables, beyond memory limitations of the target.
10665
10666 @cindex convenience variables, and trace state variables
10667 Although trace state variables are managed by the target, you can use
10668 them in print commands and expressions as if they were convenience
10669 variables; @value{GDBN} will get the current value from the target
10670 while the trace experiment is running. Trace state variables share
10671 the same namespace as other ``$'' variables, which means that you
10672 cannot have trace state variables with names like @code{$23} or
10673 @code{$pc}, nor can you have a trace state variable and a convenience
10674 variable with the same name.
10675
10676 @table @code
10677
10678 @item tvariable $@var{name} [ = @var{expression} ]
10679 @kindex tvariable
10680 The @code{tvariable} command creates a new trace state variable named
10681 @code{$@var{name}}, and optionally gives it an initial value of
10682 @var{expression}. @var{expression} is evaluated when this command is
10683 entered; the result will be converted to an integer if possible,
10684 otherwise @value{GDBN} will report an error. A subsequent
10685 @code{tvariable} command specifying the same name does not create a
10686 variable, but instead assigns the supplied initial value to the
10687 existing variable of that name, overwriting any previous initial
10688 value. The default initial value is 0.
10689
10690 @item info tvariables
10691 @kindex info tvariables
10692 List all the trace state variables along with their initial values.
10693 Their current values may also be displayed, if the trace experiment is
10694 currently running.
10695
10696 @item delete tvariable @r{[} $@var{name} @dots{} @r{]}
10697 @kindex delete tvariable
10698 Delete the given trace state variables, or all of them if no arguments
10699 are specified.
10700
10701 @end table
10702
10703 @node Tracepoint Actions
10704 @subsection Tracepoint Action Lists
10705
10706 @table @code
10707 @kindex actions
10708 @cindex tracepoint actions
10709 @item actions @r{[}@var{num}@r{]}
10710 This command will prompt for a list of actions to be taken when the
10711 tracepoint is hit. If the tracepoint number @var{num} is not
10712 specified, this command sets the actions for the one that was most
10713 recently defined (so that you can define a tracepoint and then say
10714 @code{actions} without bothering about its number). You specify the
10715 actions themselves on the following lines, one action at a time, and
10716 terminate the actions list with a line containing just @code{end}. So
10717 far, the only defined actions are @code{collect}, @code{teval}, and
10718 @code{while-stepping}.
10719
10720 @code{actions} is actually equivalent to @code{commands} (@pxref{Break
10721 Commands, ,Breakpoint Command Lists}), except that only the defined
10722 actions are allowed; any other @value{GDBN} command is rejected.
10723
10724 @cindex remove actions from a tracepoint
10725 To remove all actions from a tracepoint, type @samp{actions @var{num}}
10726 and follow it immediately with @samp{end}.
10727
10728 @smallexample
10729 (@value{GDBP}) @b{collect @var{data}} // collect some data
10730
10731 (@value{GDBP}) @b{while-stepping 5} // single-step 5 times, collect data
10732
10733 (@value{GDBP}) @b{end} // signals the end of actions.
10734 @end smallexample
10735
10736 In the following example, the action list begins with @code{collect}
10737 commands indicating the things to be collected when the tracepoint is
10738 hit. Then, in order to single-step and collect additional data
10739 following the tracepoint, a @code{while-stepping} command is used,
10740 followed by the list of things to be collected after each step in a
10741 sequence of single steps. The @code{while-stepping} command is
10742 terminated by its own separate @code{end} command. Lastly, the action
10743 list is terminated by an @code{end} command.
10744
10745 @smallexample
10746 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace foo}
10747 (@value{GDBP}) @b{actions}
10748 Enter actions for tracepoint 1, one per line:
10749 > collect bar,baz
10750 > collect $regs
10751 > while-stepping 12
10752 > collect $pc, arr[i]
10753 > end
10754 end
10755 @end smallexample
10756
10757 @kindex collect @r{(tracepoints)}
10758 @item collect@r{[}/@var{mods}@r{]} @var{expr1}, @var{expr2}, @dots{}
10759 Collect values of the given expressions when the tracepoint is hit.
10760 This command accepts a comma-separated list of any valid expressions.
10761 In addition to global, static, or local variables, the following
10762 special arguments are supported:
10763
10764 @table @code
10765 @item $regs
10766 Collect all registers.
10767
10768 @item $args
10769 Collect all function arguments.
10770
10771 @item $locals
10772 Collect all local variables.
10773
10774 @item $_ret
10775 Collect the return address. This is helpful if you want to see more
10776 of a backtrace.
10777
10778 @item $_sdata
10779 @vindex $_sdata@r{, collect}
10780 Collect static tracepoint marker specific data. Only available for
10781 static tracepoints. @xref{Tracepoint Actions,,Tracepoint Action
10782 Lists}. On the UST static tracepoints library backend, an
10783 instrumentation point resembles a @code{printf} function call. The
10784 tracing library is able to collect user specified data formatted to a
10785 character string using the format provided by the programmer that
10786 instrumented the program. Other backends have similar mechanisms.
10787 Here's an example of a UST marker call:
10788
10789 @smallexample
10790 const char master_name[] = "$your_name";
10791 trace_mark(channel1, marker1, "hello %s", master_name)
10792 @end smallexample
10793
10794 In this case, collecting @code{$_sdata} collects the string
10795 @samp{hello $yourname}. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
10796 inspect @samp{$_sdata} like any other variable available to
10797 @value{GDBN}.
10798 @end table
10799
10800 You can give several consecutive @code{collect} commands, each one
10801 with a single argument, or one @code{collect} command with several
10802 arguments separated by commas; the effect is the same.
10803
10804 The optional @var{mods} changes the usual handling of the arguments.
10805 @code{s} requests that pointers to chars be handled as strings, in
10806 particular collecting the contents of the memory being pointed at, up
10807 to the first zero. The upper bound is by default the value of the
10808 @code{print elements} variable; if @code{s} is followed by a decimal
10809 number, that is the upper bound instead. So for instance
10810 @samp{collect/s25 mystr} collects as many as 25 characters at
10811 @samp{mystr}.
10812
10813 The command @code{info scope} (@pxref{Symbols, info scope}) is
10814 particularly useful for figuring out what data to collect.
10815
10816 @kindex teval @r{(tracepoints)}
10817 @item teval @var{expr1}, @var{expr2}, @dots{}
10818 Evaluate the given expressions when the tracepoint is hit. This
10819 command accepts a comma-separated list of expressions. The results
10820 are discarded, so this is mainly useful for assigning values to trace
10821 state variables (@pxref{Trace State Variables}) without adding those
10822 values to the trace buffer, as would be the case if the @code{collect}
10823 action were used.
10824
10825 @kindex while-stepping @r{(tracepoints)}
10826 @item while-stepping @var{n}
10827 Perform @var{n} single-step instruction traces after the tracepoint,
10828 collecting new data after each step. The @code{while-stepping}
10829 command is followed by the list of what to collect while stepping
10830 (followed by its own @code{end} command):
10831
10832 @smallexample
10833 > while-stepping 12
10834 > collect $regs, myglobal
10835 > end
10836 >
10837 @end smallexample
10838
10839 @noindent
10840 Note that @code{$pc} is not automatically collected by
10841 @code{while-stepping}; you need to explicitly collect that register if
10842 you need it. You may abbreviate @code{while-stepping} as @code{ws} or
10843 @code{stepping}.
10844
10845 @item set default-collect @var{expr1}, @var{expr2}, @dots{}
10846 @kindex set default-collect
10847 @cindex default collection action
10848 This variable is a list of expressions to collect at each tracepoint
10849 hit. It is effectively an additional @code{collect} action prepended
10850 to every tracepoint action list. The expressions are parsed
10851 individually for each tracepoint, so for instance a variable named
10852 @code{xyz} may be interpreted as a global for one tracepoint, and a
10853 local for another, as appropriate to the tracepoint's location.
10854
10855 @item show default-collect
10856 @kindex show default-collect
10857 Show the list of expressions that are collected by default at each
10858 tracepoint hit.
10859
10860 @end table
10861
10862 @node Listing Tracepoints
10863 @subsection Listing Tracepoints
10864
10865 @table @code
10866 @kindex info tracepoints @r{[}@var{n}@dots{}@r{]}
10867 @kindex info tp @r{[}@var{n}@dots{}@r{]}
10868 @cindex information about tracepoints
10869 @item info tracepoints @r{[}@var{num}@dots{}@r{]}
10870 Display information about the tracepoint @var{num}. If you don't
10871 specify a tracepoint number, displays information about all the
10872 tracepoints defined so far. The format is similar to that used for
10873 @code{info breakpoints}; in fact, @code{info tracepoints} is the same
10874 command, simply restricting itself to tracepoints.
10875
10876 A tracepoint's listing may include additional information specific to
10877 tracing:
10878
10879 @itemize @bullet
10880 @item
10881 its passcount as given by the @code{passcount @var{n}} command
10882 @end itemize
10883
10884 @smallexample
10885 (@value{GDBP}) @b{info trace}
10886 Num Type Disp Enb Address What
10887 1 tracepoint keep y 0x0804ab57 in foo() at main.cxx:7
10888 while-stepping 20
10889 collect globfoo, $regs
10890 end
10891 collect globfoo2
10892 end
10893 pass count 1200
10894 (@value{GDBP})
10895 @end smallexample
10896
10897 @noindent
10898 This command can be abbreviated @code{info tp}.
10899 @end table
10900
10901 @node Listing Static Tracepoint Markers
10902 @subsection Listing Static Tracepoint Markers
10903
10904 @table @code
10905 @kindex info static-tracepoint-markers
10906 @cindex information about static tracepoint markers
10907 @item info static-tracepoint-markers
10908 Display information about all static tracepoint markers defined in the
10909 program.
10910
10911 For each marker, the following columns are printed:
10912
10913 @table @emph
10914 @item Count
10915 An incrementing counter, output to help readability. This is not a
10916 stable identifier.
10917 @item ID
10918 The marker ID, as reported by the target.
10919 @item Enabled or Disabled
10920 Probed markers are tagged with @samp{y}. @samp{n} identifies marks
10921 that are not enabled.
10922 @item Address
10923 Where the marker is in your program, as a memory address.
10924 @item What
10925 Where the marker is in the source for your program, as a file and line
10926 number. If the debug information included in the program does not
10927 allow @value{GDBN} to locate the source of the marker, this column
10928 will be left blank.
10929 @end table
10930
10931 @noindent
10932 In addition, the following information may be printed for each marker:
10933
10934 @table @emph
10935 @item Data
10936 User data passed to the tracing library by the marker call. In the
10937 UST backend, this is the format string passed as argument to the
10938 marker call.
10939 @item Static tracepoints probing the marker
10940 The list of static tracepoints attached to the marker.
10941 @end table
10942
10943 @smallexample
10944 (@value{GDBP}) info static-tracepoint-markers
10945 Cnt ID Enb Address What
10946 1 ust/bar2 y 0x0000000000400e1a in main at stexample.c:25
10947 Data: number1 %d number2 %d
10948 Probed by static tracepoints: #2
10949 2 ust/bar33 n 0x0000000000400c87 in main at stexample.c:24
10950 Data: str %s
10951 (@value{GDBP})
10952 @end smallexample
10953 @end table
10954
10955 @node Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments
10956 @subsection Starting and Stopping Trace Experiments
10957
10958 @table @code
10959 @kindex tstart [ @var{notes} ]
10960 @cindex start a new trace experiment
10961 @cindex collected data discarded
10962 @item tstart
10963 This command starts the trace experiment, and begins collecting data.
10964 It has the side effect of discarding all the data collected in the
10965 trace buffer during the previous trace experiment. If any arguments
10966 are supplied, they are taken as a note and stored with the trace
10967 experiment's state. The notes may be arbitrary text, and are
10968 especially useful with disconnected tracing in a multi-user context;
10969 the notes can explain what the trace is doing, supply user contact
10970 information, and so forth.
10971
10972 @kindex tstop [ @var{notes} ]
10973 @cindex stop a running trace experiment
10974 @item tstop
10975 This command stops the trace experiment. If any arguments are
10976 supplied, they are recorded with the experiment as a note. This is
10977 useful if you are stopping a trace started by someone else, for
10978 instance if the trace is interfering with the system's behavior and
10979 needs to be stopped quickly.
10980
10981 @strong{Note}: a trace experiment and data collection may stop
10982 automatically if any tracepoint's passcount is reached
10983 (@pxref{Tracepoint Passcounts}), or if the trace buffer becomes full.
10984
10985 @kindex tstatus
10986 @cindex status of trace data collection
10987 @cindex trace experiment, status of
10988 @item tstatus
10989 This command displays the status of the current trace data
10990 collection.
10991 @end table
10992
10993 Here is an example of the commands we described so far:
10994
10995 @smallexample
10996 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace gdb_c_test}
10997 (@value{GDBP}) @b{actions}
10998 Enter actions for tracepoint #1, one per line.
10999 > collect $regs,$locals,$args
11000 > while-stepping 11
11001 > collect $regs
11002 > end
11003 > end
11004 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tstart}
11005 [time passes @dots{}]
11006 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tstop}
11007 @end smallexample
11008
11009 @anchor{disconnected tracing}
11010 @cindex disconnected tracing
11011 You can choose to continue running the trace experiment even if
11012 @value{GDBN} disconnects from the target, voluntarily or
11013 involuntarily. For commands such as @code{detach}, the debugger will
11014 ask what you want to do with the trace. But for unexpected
11015 terminations (@value{GDBN} crash, network outage), it would be
11016 unfortunate to lose hard-won trace data, so the variable
11017 @code{disconnected-tracing} lets you decide whether the trace should
11018 continue running without @value{GDBN}.
11019
11020 @table @code
11021 @item set disconnected-tracing on
11022 @itemx set disconnected-tracing off
11023 @kindex set disconnected-tracing
11024 Choose whether a tracing run should continue to run if @value{GDBN}
11025 has disconnected from the target. Note that @code{detach} or
11026 @code{quit} will ask you directly what to do about a running trace no
11027 matter what this variable's setting, so the variable is mainly useful
11028 for handling unexpected situations, such as loss of the network.
11029
11030 @item show disconnected-tracing
11031 @kindex show disconnected-tracing
11032 Show the current choice for disconnected tracing.
11033
11034 @end table
11035
11036 When you reconnect to the target, the trace experiment may or may not
11037 still be running; it might have filled the trace buffer in the
11038 meantime, or stopped for one of the other reasons. If it is running,
11039 it will continue after reconnection.
11040
11041 Upon reconnection, the target will upload information about the
11042 tracepoints in effect. @value{GDBN} will then compare that
11043 information to the set of tracepoints currently defined, and attempt
11044 to match them up, allowing for the possibility that the numbers may
11045 have changed due to creation and deletion in the meantime. If one of
11046 the target's tracepoints does not match any in @value{GDBN}, the
11047 debugger will create a new tracepoint, so that you have a number with
11048 which to specify that tracepoint. This matching-up process is
11049 necessarily heuristic, and it may result in useless tracepoints being
11050 created; you may simply delete them if they are of no use.
11051
11052 @cindex circular trace buffer
11053 If your target agent supports a @dfn{circular trace buffer}, then you
11054 can run a trace experiment indefinitely without filling the trace
11055 buffer; when space runs out, the agent deletes already-collected trace
11056 frames, oldest first, until there is enough room to continue
11057 collecting. This is especially useful if your tracepoints are being
11058 hit too often, and your trace gets terminated prematurely because the
11059 buffer is full. To ask for a circular trace buffer, simply set
11060 @samp{circular-trace-buffer} to on. You can set this at any time,
11061 including during tracing; if the agent can do it, it will change
11062 buffer handling on the fly, otherwise it will not take effect until
11063 the next run.
11064
11065 @table @code
11066 @item set circular-trace-buffer on
11067 @itemx set circular-trace-buffer off
11068 @kindex set circular-trace-buffer
11069 Choose whether a tracing run should use a linear or circular buffer
11070 for trace data. A linear buffer will not lose any trace data, but may
11071 fill up prematurely, while a circular buffer will discard old trace
11072 data, but it will have always room for the latest tracepoint hits.
11073
11074 @item show circular-trace-buffer
11075 @kindex show circular-trace-buffer
11076 Show the current choice for the trace buffer. Note that this may not
11077 match the agent's current buffer handling, nor is it guaranteed to
11078 match the setting that might have been in effect during a past run,
11079 for instance if you are looking at frames from a trace file.
11080
11081 @end table
11082
11083 @table @code
11084 @item set trace-user @var{text}
11085 @kindex set trace-user
11086
11087 @item show trace-user
11088 @kindex show trace-user
11089
11090 @item set trace-notes @var{text}
11091 @kindex set trace-notes
11092 Set the trace run's notes.
11093
11094 @item show trace-notes
11095 @kindex show trace-notes
11096 Show the trace run's notes.
11097
11098 @item set trace-stop-notes @var{text}
11099 @kindex set trace-stop-notes
11100 Set the trace run's stop notes. The handling of the note is as for
11101 @code{tstop} arguments; the set command is convenient way to fix a
11102 stop note that is mistaken or incomplete.
11103
11104 @item show trace-stop-notes
11105 @kindex show trace-stop-notes
11106 Show the trace run's stop notes.
11107
11108 @end table
11109
11110 @node Tracepoint Restrictions
11111 @subsection Tracepoint Restrictions
11112
11113 @cindex tracepoint restrictions
11114 There are a number of restrictions on the use of tracepoints. As
11115 described above, tracepoint data gathering occurs on the target
11116 without interaction from @value{GDBN}. Thus the full capabilities of
11117 the debugger are not available during data gathering, and then at data
11118 examination time, you will be limited by only having what was
11119 collected. The following items describe some common problems, but it
11120 is not exhaustive, and you may run into additional difficulties not
11121 mentioned here.
11122
11123 @itemize @bullet
11124
11125 @item
11126 Tracepoint expressions are intended to gather objects (lvalues). Thus
11127 the full flexibility of GDB's expression evaluator is not available.
11128 You cannot call functions, cast objects to aggregate types, access
11129 convenience variables or modify values (except by assignment to trace
11130 state variables). Some language features may implicitly call
11131 functions (for instance Objective-C fields with accessors), and therefore
11132 cannot be collected either.
11133
11134 @item
11135 Collection of local variables, either individually or in bulk with
11136 @code{$locals} or @code{$args}, during @code{while-stepping} may
11137 behave erratically. The stepping action may enter a new scope (for
11138 instance by stepping into a function), or the location of the variable
11139 may change (for instance it is loaded into a register). The
11140 tracepoint data recorded uses the location information for the
11141 variables that is correct for the tracepoint location. When the
11142 tracepoint is created, it is not possible, in general, to determine
11143 where the steps of a @code{while-stepping} sequence will advance the
11144 program---particularly if a conditional branch is stepped.
11145
11146 @item
11147 Collection of an incompletely-initialized or partially-destroyed object
11148 may result in something that @value{GDBN} cannot display, or displays
11149 in a misleading way.
11150
11151 @item
11152 When @value{GDBN} displays a pointer to character it automatically
11153 dereferences the pointer to also display characters of the string
11154 being pointed to. However, collecting the pointer during tracing does
11155 not automatically collect the string. You need to explicitly
11156 dereference the pointer and provide size information if you want to
11157 collect not only the pointer, but the memory pointed to. For example,
11158 @code{*ptr@@50} can be used to collect the 50 element array pointed to
11159 by @code{ptr}.
11160
11161 @item
11162 It is not possible to collect a complete stack backtrace at a
11163 tracepoint. Instead, you may collect the registers and a few hundred
11164 bytes from the stack pointer with something like @code{*(unsigned char *)$esp@@300}
11165 (adjust to use the name of the actual stack pointer register on your
11166 target architecture, and the amount of stack you wish to capture).
11167 Then the @code{backtrace} command will show a partial backtrace when
11168 using a trace frame. The number of stack frames that can be examined
11169 depends on the sizes of the frames in the collected stack. Note that
11170 if you ask for a block so large that it goes past the bottom of the
11171 stack, the target agent may report an error trying to read from an
11172 invalid address.
11173
11174 @item
11175 If you do not collect registers at a tracepoint, @value{GDBN} can
11176 infer that the value of @code{$pc} must be the same as the address of
11177 the tracepoint and use that when you are looking at a trace frame
11178 for that tracepoint. However, this cannot work if the tracepoint has
11179 multiple locations (for instance if it was set in a function that was
11180 inlined), or if it has a @code{while-stepping} loop. In those cases
11181 @value{GDBN} will warn you that it can't infer @code{$pc}, and default
11182 it to zero.
11183
11184 @end itemize
11185
11186 @node Analyze Collected Data
11187 @section Using the Collected Data
11188
11189 After the tracepoint experiment ends, you use @value{GDBN} commands
11190 for examining the trace data. The basic idea is that each tracepoint
11191 collects a trace @dfn{snapshot} every time it is hit and another
11192 snapshot every time it single-steps. All these snapshots are
11193 consecutively numbered from zero and go into a buffer, and you can
11194 examine them later. The way you examine them is to @dfn{focus} on a
11195 specific trace snapshot. When the remote stub is focused on a trace
11196 snapshot, it will respond to all @value{GDBN} requests for memory and
11197 registers by reading from the buffer which belongs to that snapshot,
11198 rather than from @emph{real} memory or registers of the program being
11199 debugged. This means that @strong{all} @value{GDBN} commands
11200 (@code{print}, @code{info registers}, @code{backtrace}, etc.) will
11201 behave as if we were currently debugging the program state as it was
11202 when the tracepoint occurred. Any requests for data that are not in
11203 the buffer will fail.
11204
11205 @menu
11206 * tfind:: How to select a trace snapshot
11207 * tdump:: How to display all data for a snapshot
11208 * save tracepoints:: How to save tracepoints for a future run
11209 @end menu
11210
11211 @node tfind
11212 @subsection @code{tfind @var{n}}
11213
11214 @kindex tfind
11215 @cindex select trace snapshot
11216 @cindex find trace snapshot
11217 The basic command for selecting a trace snapshot from the buffer is
11218 @code{tfind @var{n}}, which finds trace snapshot number @var{n},
11219 counting from zero. If no argument @var{n} is given, the next
11220 snapshot is selected.
11221
11222 Here are the various forms of using the @code{tfind} command.
11223
11224 @table @code
11225 @item tfind start
11226 Find the first snapshot in the buffer. This is a synonym for
11227 @code{tfind 0} (since 0 is the number of the first snapshot).
11228
11229 @item tfind none
11230 Stop debugging trace snapshots, resume @emph{live} debugging.
11231
11232 @item tfind end
11233 Same as @samp{tfind none}.
11234
11235 @item tfind
11236 No argument means find the next trace snapshot.
11237
11238 @item tfind -
11239 Find the previous trace snapshot before the current one. This permits
11240 retracing earlier steps.
11241
11242 @item tfind tracepoint @var{num}
11243 Find the next snapshot associated with tracepoint @var{num}. Search
11244 proceeds forward from the last examined trace snapshot. If no
11245 argument @var{num} is given, it means find the next snapshot collected
11246 for the same tracepoint as the current snapshot.
11247
11248 @item tfind pc @var{addr}
11249 Find the next snapshot associated with the value @var{addr} of the
11250 program counter. Search proceeds forward from the last examined trace
11251 snapshot. If no argument @var{addr} is given, it means find the next
11252 snapshot with the same value of PC as the current snapshot.
11253
11254 @item tfind outside @var{addr1}, @var{addr2}
11255 Find the next snapshot whose PC is outside the given range of
11256 addresses (exclusive).
11257
11258 @item tfind range @var{addr1}, @var{addr2}
11259 Find the next snapshot whose PC is between @var{addr1} and
11260 @var{addr2} (inclusive).
11261
11262 @item tfind line @r{[}@var{file}:@r{]}@var{n}
11263 Find the next snapshot associated with the source line @var{n}. If
11264 the optional argument @var{file} is given, refer to line @var{n} in
11265 that source file. Search proceeds forward from the last examined
11266 trace snapshot. If no argument @var{n} is given, it means find the
11267 next line other than the one currently being examined; thus saying
11268 @code{tfind line} repeatedly can appear to have the same effect as
11269 stepping from line to line in a @emph{live} debugging session.
11270 @end table
11271
11272 The default arguments for the @code{tfind} commands are specifically
11273 designed to make it easy to scan through the trace buffer. For
11274 instance, @code{tfind} with no argument selects the next trace
11275 snapshot, and @code{tfind -} with no argument selects the previous
11276 trace snapshot. So, by giving one @code{tfind} command, and then
11277 simply hitting @key{RET} repeatedly you can examine all the trace
11278 snapshots in order. Or, by saying @code{tfind -} and then hitting
11279 @key{RET} repeatedly you can examine the snapshots in reverse order.
11280 The @code{tfind line} command with no argument selects the snapshot
11281 for the next source line executed. The @code{tfind pc} command with
11282 no argument selects the next snapshot with the same program counter
11283 (PC) as the current frame. The @code{tfind tracepoint} command with
11284 no argument selects the next trace snapshot collected by the same
11285 tracepoint as the current one.
11286
11287 In addition to letting you scan through the trace buffer manually,
11288 these commands make it easy to construct @value{GDBN} scripts that
11289 scan through the trace buffer and print out whatever collected data
11290 you are interested in. Thus, if we want to examine the PC, FP, and SP
11291 registers from each trace frame in the buffer, we can say this:
11292
11293 @smallexample
11294 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tfind start}
11295 (@value{GDBP}) @b{while ($trace_frame != -1)}
11296 > printf "Frame %d, PC = %08X, SP = %08X, FP = %08X\n", \
11297 $trace_frame, $pc, $sp, $fp
11298 > tfind
11299 > end
11300
11301 Frame 0, PC = 0020DC64, SP = 0030BF3C, FP = 0030BF44
11302 Frame 1, PC = 0020DC6C, SP = 0030BF38, FP = 0030BF44
11303 Frame 2, PC = 0020DC70, SP = 0030BF34, FP = 0030BF44
11304 Frame 3, PC = 0020DC74, SP = 0030BF30, FP = 0030BF44
11305 Frame 4, PC = 0020DC78, SP = 0030BF2C, FP = 0030BF44
11306 Frame 5, PC = 0020DC7C, SP = 0030BF28, FP = 0030BF44
11307 Frame 6, PC = 0020DC80, SP = 0030BF24, FP = 0030BF44
11308 Frame 7, PC = 0020DC84, SP = 0030BF20, FP = 0030BF44
11309 Frame 8, PC = 0020DC88, SP = 0030BF1C, FP = 0030BF44
11310 Frame 9, PC = 0020DC8E, SP = 0030BF18, FP = 0030BF44
11311 Frame 10, PC = 00203F6C, SP = 0030BE3C, FP = 0030BF14
11312 @end smallexample
11313
11314 Or, if we want to examine the variable @code{X} at each source line in
11315 the buffer:
11316
11317 @smallexample
11318 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tfind start}
11319 (@value{GDBP}) @b{while ($trace_frame != -1)}
11320 > printf "Frame %d, X == %d\n", $trace_frame, X
11321 > tfind line
11322 > end
11323
11324 Frame 0, X = 1
11325 Frame 7, X = 2
11326 Frame 13, X = 255
11327 @end smallexample
11328
11329 @node tdump
11330 @subsection @code{tdump}
11331 @kindex tdump
11332 @cindex dump all data collected at tracepoint
11333 @cindex tracepoint data, display
11334
11335 This command takes no arguments. It prints all the data collected at
11336 the current trace snapshot.
11337
11338 @smallexample
11339 (@value{GDBP}) @b{trace 444}
11340 (@value{GDBP}) @b{actions}
11341 Enter actions for tracepoint #2, one per line:
11342 > collect $regs, $locals, $args, gdb_long_test
11343 > end
11344
11345 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tstart}
11346
11347 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tfind line 444}
11348 #0 gdb_test (p1=0x11, p2=0x22, p3=0x33, p4=0x44, p5=0x55, p6=0x66)
11349 at gdb_test.c:444
11350 444 printp( "%s: arguments = 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X 0x%X\n", )
11351
11352 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tdump}
11353 Data collected at tracepoint 2, trace frame 1:
11354 d0 0xc4aa0085 -995491707
11355 d1 0x18 24
11356 d2 0x80 128
11357 d3 0x33 51
11358 d4 0x71aea3d 119204413
11359 d5 0x22 34
11360 d6 0xe0 224
11361 d7 0x380035 3670069
11362 a0 0x19e24a 1696330
11363 a1 0x3000668 50333288
11364 a2 0x100 256
11365 a3 0x322000 3284992
11366 a4 0x3000698 50333336
11367 a5 0x1ad3cc 1758156
11368 fp 0x30bf3c 0x30bf3c
11369 sp 0x30bf34 0x30bf34
11370 ps 0x0 0
11371 pc 0x20b2c8 0x20b2c8
11372 fpcontrol 0x0 0
11373 fpstatus 0x0 0
11374 fpiaddr 0x0 0
11375 p = 0x20e5b4 "gdb-test"
11376 p1 = (void *) 0x11
11377 p2 = (void *) 0x22
11378 p3 = (void *) 0x33
11379 p4 = (void *) 0x44
11380 p5 = (void *) 0x55
11381 p6 = (void *) 0x66
11382 gdb_long_test = 17 '\021'
11383
11384 (@value{GDBP})
11385 @end smallexample
11386
11387 @code{tdump} works by scanning the tracepoint's current collection
11388 actions and printing the value of each expression listed. So
11389 @code{tdump} can fail, if after a run, you change the tracepoint's
11390 actions to mention variables that were not collected during the run.
11391
11392 Also, for tracepoints with @code{while-stepping} loops, @code{tdump}
11393 uses the collected value of @code{$pc} to distinguish between trace
11394 frames that were collected at the tracepoint hit, and frames that were
11395 collected while stepping. This allows it to correctly choose whether
11396 to display the basic list of collections, or the collections from the
11397 body of the while-stepping loop. However, if @code{$pc} was not collected,
11398 then @code{tdump} will always attempt to dump using the basic collection
11399 list, and may fail if a while-stepping frame does not include all the
11400 same data that is collected at the tracepoint hit.
11401 @c This is getting pretty arcane, example would be good.
11402
11403 @node save tracepoints
11404 @subsection @code{save tracepoints @var{filename}}
11405 @kindex save tracepoints
11406 @kindex save-tracepoints
11407 @cindex save tracepoints for future sessions
11408
11409 This command saves all current tracepoint definitions together with
11410 their actions and passcounts, into a file @file{@var{filename}}
11411 suitable for use in a later debugging session. To read the saved
11412 tracepoint definitions, use the @code{source} command (@pxref{Command
11413 Files}). The @w{@code{save-tracepoints}} command is a deprecated
11414 alias for @w{@code{save tracepoints}}
11415
11416 @node Tracepoint Variables
11417 @section Convenience Variables for Tracepoints
11418 @cindex tracepoint variables
11419 @cindex convenience variables for tracepoints
11420
11421 @table @code
11422 @vindex $trace_frame
11423 @item (int) $trace_frame
11424 The current trace snapshot (a.k.a.@: @dfn{frame}) number, or -1 if no
11425 snapshot is selected.
11426
11427 @vindex $tracepoint
11428 @item (int) $tracepoint
11429 The tracepoint for the current trace snapshot.
11430
11431 @vindex $trace_line
11432 @item (int) $trace_line
11433 The line number for the current trace snapshot.
11434
11435 @vindex $trace_file
11436 @item (char []) $trace_file
11437 The source file for the current trace snapshot.
11438
11439 @vindex $trace_func
11440 @item (char []) $trace_func
11441 The name of the function containing @code{$tracepoint}.
11442 @end table
11443
11444 Note: @code{$trace_file} is not suitable for use in @code{printf},
11445 use @code{output} instead.
11446
11447 Here's a simple example of using these convenience variables for
11448 stepping through all the trace snapshots and printing some of their
11449 data. Note that these are not the same as trace state variables,
11450 which are managed by the target.
11451
11452 @smallexample
11453 (@value{GDBP}) @b{tfind start}
11454
11455 (@value{GDBP}) @b{while $trace_frame != -1}
11456 > output $trace_file
11457 > printf ", line %d (tracepoint #%d)\n", $trace_line, $tracepoint
11458 > tfind
11459 > end
11460 @end smallexample
11461
11462 @node Trace Files
11463 @section Using Trace Files
11464 @cindex trace files
11465
11466 In some situations, the target running a trace experiment may no
11467 longer be available; perhaps it crashed, or the hardware was needed
11468 for a different activity. To handle these cases, you can arrange to
11469 dump the trace data into a file, and later use that file as a source
11470 of trace data, via the @code{target tfile} command.
11471
11472 @table @code
11473
11474 @kindex tsave
11475 @item tsave [ -r ] @var{filename}
11476 Save the trace data to @var{filename}. By default, this command
11477 assumes that @var{filename} refers to the host filesystem, so if
11478 necessary @value{GDBN} will copy raw trace data up from the target and
11479 then save it. If the target supports it, you can also supply the
11480 optional argument @code{-r} (``remote'') to direct the target to save
11481 the data directly into @var{filename} in its own filesystem, which may be
11482 more efficient if the trace buffer is very large. (Note, however, that
11483 @code{target tfile} can only read from files accessible to the host.)
11484
11485 @kindex target tfile
11486 @kindex tfile
11487 @item target tfile @var{filename}
11488 Use the file named @var{filename} as a source of trace data. Commands
11489 that examine data work as they do with a live target, but it is not
11490 possible to run any new trace experiments. @code{tstatus} will report
11491 the state of the trace run at the moment the data was saved, as well
11492 as the current trace frame you are examining. @var{filename} must be
11493 on a filesystem accessible to the host.
11494
11495 @end table
11496
11497 @node Overlays
11498 @chapter Debugging Programs That Use Overlays
11499 @cindex overlays
11500
11501 If your program is too large to fit completely in your target system's
11502 memory, you can sometimes use @dfn{overlays} to work around this
11503 problem. @value{GDBN} provides some support for debugging programs that
11504 use overlays.
11505
11506 @menu
11507 * How Overlays Work:: A general explanation of overlays.
11508 * Overlay Commands:: Managing overlays in @value{GDBN}.
11509 * Automatic Overlay Debugging:: @value{GDBN} can find out which overlays are
11510 mapped by asking the inferior.
11511 * Overlay Sample Program:: A sample program using overlays.
11512 @end menu
11513
11514 @node How Overlays Work
11515 @section How Overlays Work
11516 @cindex mapped overlays
11517 @cindex unmapped overlays
11518 @cindex load address, overlay's
11519 @cindex mapped address
11520 @cindex overlay area
11521
11522 Suppose you have a computer whose instruction address space is only 64
11523 kilobytes long, but which has much more memory which can be accessed by
11524 other means: special instructions, segment registers, or memory
11525 management hardware, for example. Suppose further that you want to
11526 adapt a program which is larger than 64 kilobytes to run on this system.
11527
11528 One solution is to identify modules of your program which are relatively
11529 independent, and need not call each other directly; call these modules
11530 @dfn{overlays}. Separate the overlays from the main program, and place
11531 their machine code in the larger memory. Place your main program in
11532 instruction memory, but leave at least enough space there to hold the
11533 largest overlay as well.
11534
11535 Now, to call a function located in an overlay, you must first copy that
11536 overlay's machine code from the large memory into the space set aside
11537 for it in the instruction memory, and then jump to its entry point
11538 there.
11539
11540 @c NB: In the below the mapped area's size is greater or equal to the
11541 @c size of all overlays. This is intentional to remind the developer
11542 @c that overlays don't necessarily need to be the same size.
11543
11544 @smallexample
11545 @group
11546 Data Instruction Larger
11547 Address Space Address Space Address Space
11548 +-----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+
11549 | | | | | |
11550 +-----------+ +-----------+ +-----------+<-- overlay 1
11551 | program | | main | .----| overlay 1 | load address
11552 | variables | | program | | +-----------+
11553 | and heap | | | | | |
11554 +-----------+ | | | +-----------+<-- overlay 2
11555 | | +-----------+ | | | load address
11556 +-----------+ | | | .-| overlay 2 |
11557 | | | | | |
11558 mapped --->+-----------+ | | +-----------+
11559 address | | | | | |
11560 | overlay | <-' | | |
11561 | area | <---' +-----------+<-- overlay 3
11562 | | <---. | | load address
11563 +-----------+ `--| overlay 3 |
11564 | | | |
11565 +-----------+ | |
11566 +-----------+
11567 | |
11568 +-----------+
11569
11570 @anchor{A code overlay}A code overlay
11571 @end group
11572 @end smallexample
11573
11574 The diagram (@pxref{A code overlay}) shows a system with separate data
11575 and instruction address spaces. To map an overlay, the program copies
11576 its code from the larger address space to the instruction address space.
11577 Since the overlays shown here all use the same mapped address, only one
11578 may be mapped at a time. For a system with a single address space for
11579 data and instructions, the diagram would be similar, except that the
11580 program variables and heap would share an address space with the main
11581 program and the overlay area.
11582
11583 An overlay loaded into instruction memory and ready for use is called a
11584 @dfn{mapped} overlay; its @dfn{mapped address} is its address in the
11585 instruction memory. An overlay not present (or only partially present)
11586 in instruction memory is called @dfn{unmapped}; its @dfn{load address}
11587 is its address in the larger memory. The mapped address is also called
11588 the @dfn{virtual memory address}, or @dfn{VMA}; the load address is also
11589 called the @dfn{load memory address}, or @dfn{LMA}.
11590
11591 Unfortunately, overlays are not a completely transparent way to adapt a
11592 program to limited instruction memory. They introduce a new set of
11593 global constraints you must keep in mind as you design your program:
11594
11595 @itemize @bullet
11596
11597 @item
11598 Before calling or returning to a function in an overlay, your program
11599 must make sure that overlay is actually mapped. Otherwise, the call or
11600 return will transfer control to the right address, but in the wrong
11601 overlay, and your program will probably crash.
11602
11603 @item
11604 If the process of mapping an overlay is expensive on your system, you
11605 will need to choose your overlays carefully to minimize their effect on
11606 your program's performance.
11607
11608 @item
11609 The executable file you load onto your system must contain each
11610 overlay's instructions, appearing at the overlay's load address, not its
11611 mapped address. However, each overlay's instructions must be relocated
11612 and its symbols defined as if the overlay were at its mapped address.
11613 You can use GNU linker scripts to specify different load and relocation
11614 addresses for pieces of your program; see @ref{Overlay Description,,,
11615 ld.info, Using ld: the GNU linker}.
11616
11617 @item
11618 The procedure for loading executable files onto your system must be able
11619 to load their contents into the larger address space as well as the
11620 instruction and data spaces.
11621
11622 @end itemize
11623
11624 The overlay system described above is rather simple, and could be
11625 improved in many ways:
11626
11627 @itemize @bullet
11628
11629 @item
11630 If your system has suitable bank switch registers or memory management
11631 hardware, you could use those facilities to make an overlay's load area
11632 contents simply appear at their mapped address in instruction space.
11633 This would probably be faster than copying the overlay to its mapped
11634 area in the usual way.
11635
11636 @item
11637 If your overlays are small enough, you could set aside more than one
11638 overlay area, and have more than one overlay mapped at a time.
11639
11640 @item
11641 You can use overlays to manage data, as well as instructions. In
11642 general, data overlays are even less transparent to your design than
11643 code overlays: whereas code overlays only require care when you call or
11644 return to functions, data overlays require care every time you access
11645 the data. Also, if you change the contents of a data overlay, you
11646 must copy its contents back out to its load address before you can copy a
11647 different data overlay into the same mapped area.
11648
11649 @end itemize
11650
11651
11652 @node Overlay Commands
11653 @section Overlay Commands
11654
11655 To use @value{GDBN}'s overlay support, each overlay in your program must
11656 correspond to a separate section of the executable file. The section's
11657 virtual memory address and load memory address must be the overlay's
11658 mapped and load addresses. Identifying overlays with sections allows
11659 @value{GDBN} to determine the appropriate address of a function or
11660 variable, depending on whether the overlay is mapped or not.
11661
11662 @value{GDBN}'s overlay commands all start with the word @code{overlay};
11663 you can abbreviate this as @code{ov} or @code{ovly}. The commands are:
11664
11665 @table @code
11666 @item overlay off
11667 @kindex overlay
11668 Disable @value{GDBN}'s overlay support. When overlay support is
11669 disabled, @value{GDBN} assumes that all functions and variables are
11670 always present at their mapped addresses. By default, @value{GDBN}'s
11671 overlay support is disabled.
11672
11673 @item overlay manual
11674 @cindex manual overlay debugging
11675 Enable @dfn{manual} overlay debugging. In this mode, @value{GDBN}
11676 relies on you to tell it which overlays are mapped, and which are not,
11677 using the @code{overlay map-overlay} and @code{overlay unmap-overlay}
11678 commands described below.
11679
11680 @item overlay map-overlay @var{overlay}
11681 @itemx overlay map @var{overlay}
11682 @cindex map an overlay
11683 Tell @value{GDBN} that @var{overlay} is now mapped; @var{overlay} must
11684 be the name of the object file section containing the overlay. When an
11685 overlay is mapped, @value{GDBN} assumes it can find the overlay's
11686 functions and variables at their mapped addresses. @value{GDBN} assumes
11687 that any other overlays whose mapped ranges overlap that of
11688 @var{overlay} are now unmapped.
11689
11690 @item overlay unmap-overlay @var{overlay}
11691 @itemx overlay unmap @var{overlay}
11692 @cindex unmap an overlay
11693 Tell @value{GDBN} that @var{overlay} is no longer mapped; @var{overlay}
11694 must be the name of the object file section containing the overlay.
11695 When an overlay is unmapped, @value{GDBN} assumes it can find the
11696 overlay's functions and variables at their load addresses.
11697
11698 @item overlay auto
11699 Enable @dfn{automatic} overlay debugging. In this mode, @value{GDBN}
11700 consults a data structure the overlay manager maintains in the inferior
11701 to see which overlays are mapped. For details, see @ref{Automatic
11702 Overlay Debugging}.
11703
11704 @item overlay load-target
11705 @itemx overlay load
11706 @cindex reloading the overlay table
11707 Re-read the overlay table from the inferior. Normally, @value{GDBN}
11708 re-reads the table @value{GDBN} automatically each time the inferior
11709 stops, so this command should only be necessary if you have changed the
11710 overlay mapping yourself using @value{GDBN}. This command is only
11711 useful when using automatic overlay debugging.
11712
11713 @item overlay list-overlays
11714 @itemx overlay list
11715 @cindex listing mapped overlays
11716 Display a list of the overlays currently mapped, along with their mapped
11717 addresses, load addresses, and sizes.
11718
11719 @end table
11720
11721 Normally, when @value{GDBN} prints a code address, it includes the name
11722 of the function the address falls in:
11723
11724 @smallexample
11725 (@value{GDBP}) print main
11726 $3 = @{int ()@} 0x11a0 <main>
11727 @end smallexample
11728 @noindent
11729 When overlay debugging is enabled, @value{GDBN} recognizes code in
11730 unmapped overlays, and prints the names of unmapped functions with
11731 asterisks around them. For example, if @code{foo} is a function in an
11732 unmapped overlay, @value{GDBN} prints it this way:
11733
11734 @smallexample
11735 (@value{GDBP}) overlay list
11736 No sections are mapped.
11737 (@value{GDBP}) print foo
11738 $5 = @{int (int)@} 0x100000 <*foo*>
11739 @end smallexample
11740 @noindent
11741 When @code{foo}'s overlay is mapped, @value{GDBN} prints the function's
11742 name normally:
11743
11744 @smallexample
11745 (@value{GDBP}) overlay list
11746 Section .ov.foo.text, loaded at 0x100000 - 0x100034,
11747 mapped at 0x1016 - 0x104a
11748 (@value{GDBP}) print foo
11749 $6 = @{int (int)@} 0x1016 <foo>
11750 @end smallexample
11751
11752 When overlay debugging is enabled, @value{GDBN} can find the correct
11753 address for functions and variables in an overlay, whether or not the
11754 overlay is mapped. This allows most @value{GDBN} commands, like
11755 @code{break} and @code{disassemble}, to work normally, even on unmapped
11756 code. However, @value{GDBN}'s breakpoint support has some limitations:
11757
11758 @itemize @bullet
11759 @item
11760 @cindex breakpoints in overlays
11761 @cindex overlays, setting breakpoints in
11762 You can set breakpoints in functions in unmapped overlays, as long as
11763 @value{GDBN} can write to the overlay at its load address.
11764 @item
11765 @value{GDBN} can not set hardware or simulator-based breakpoints in
11766 unmapped overlays. However, if you set a breakpoint at the end of your
11767 overlay manager (and tell @value{GDBN} which overlays are now mapped, if
11768 you are using manual overlay management), @value{GDBN} will re-set its
11769 breakpoints properly.
11770 @end itemize
11771
11772
11773 @node Automatic Overlay Debugging
11774 @section Automatic Overlay Debugging
11775 @cindex automatic overlay debugging
11776
11777 @value{GDBN} can automatically track which overlays are mapped and which
11778 are not, given some simple co-operation from the overlay manager in the
11779 inferior. If you enable automatic overlay debugging with the
11780 @code{overlay auto} command (@pxref{Overlay Commands}), @value{GDBN}
11781 looks in the inferior's memory for certain variables describing the
11782 current state of the overlays.
11783
11784 Here are the variables your overlay manager must define to support
11785 @value{GDBN}'s automatic overlay debugging:
11786
11787 @table @asis
11788
11789 @item @code{_ovly_table}:
11790 This variable must be an array of the following structures:
11791
11792 @smallexample
11793 struct
11794 @{
11795 /* The overlay's mapped address. */
11796 unsigned long vma;
11797
11798 /* The size of the overlay, in bytes. */
11799 unsigned long size;
11800
11801 /* The overlay's load address. */
11802 unsigned long lma;
11803
11804 /* Non-zero if the overlay is currently mapped;
11805 zero otherwise. */
11806 unsigned long mapped;
11807 @}
11808 @end smallexample
11809
11810 @item @code{_novlys}:
11811 This variable must be a four-byte signed integer, holding the total
11812 number of elements in @code{_ovly_table}.
11813
11814 @end table
11815
11816 To decide whether a particular overlay is mapped or not, @value{GDBN}
11817 looks for an entry in @w{@code{_ovly_table}} whose @code{vma} and
11818 @code{lma} members equal the VMA and LMA of the overlay's section in the
11819 executable file. When @value{GDBN} finds a matching entry, it consults
11820 the entry's @code{mapped} member to determine whether the overlay is
11821 currently mapped.
11822
11823 In addition, your overlay manager may define a function called
11824 @code{_ovly_debug_event}. If this function is defined, @value{GDBN}
11825 will silently set a breakpoint there. If the overlay manager then
11826 calls this function whenever it has changed the overlay table, this
11827 will enable @value{GDBN} to accurately keep track of which overlays
11828 are in program memory, and update any breakpoints that may be set
11829 in overlays. This will allow breakpoints to work even if the
11830 overlays are kept in ROM or other non-writable memory while they
11831 are not being executed.
11832
11833 @node Overlay Sample Program
11834 @section Overlay Sample Program
11835 @cindex overlay example program
11836
11837 When linking a program which uses overlays, you must place the overlays
11838 at their load addresses, while relocating them to run at their mapped
11839 addresses. To do this, you must write a linker script (@pxref{Overlay
11840 Description,,, ld.info, Using ld: the GNU linker}). Unfortunately,
11841 since linker scripts are specific to a particular host system, target
11842 architecture, and target memory layout, this manual cannot provide
11843 portable sample code demonstrating @value{GDBN}'s overlay support.
11844
11845 However, the @value{GDBN} source distribution does contain an overlaid
11846 program, with linker scripts for a few systems, as part of its test
11847 suite. The program consists of the following files from
11848 @file{gdb/testsuite/gdb.base}:
11849
11850 @table @file
11851 @item overlays.c
11852 The main program file.
11853 @item ovlymgr.c
11854 A simple overlay manager, used by @file{overlays.c}.
11855 @item foo.c
11856 @itemx bar.c
11857 @itemx baz.c
11858 @itemx grbx.c
11859 Overlay modules, loaded and used by @file{overlays.c}.
11860 @item d10v.ld
11861 @itemx m32r.ld
11862 Linker scripts for linking the test program on the @code{d10v-elf}
11863 and @code{m32r-elf} targets.
11864 @end table
11865
11866 You can build the test program using the @code{d10v-elf} GCC
11867 cross-compiler like this:
11868
11869 @smallexample
11870 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c overlays.c
11871 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c ovlymgr.c
11872 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c foo.c
11873 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c bar.c
11874 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c baz.c
11875 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g -c grbx.c
11876 $ d10v-elf-gcc -g overlays.o ovlymgr.o foo.o bar.o \
11877 baz.o grbx.o -Wl,-Td10v.ld -o overlays
11878 @end smallexample
11879
11880 The build process is identical for any other architecture, except that
11881 you must substitute the appropriate compiler and linker script for the
11882 target system for @code{d10v-elf-gcc} and @code{d10v.ld}.
11883
11884
11885 @node Languages
11886 @chapter Using @value{GDBN} with Different Languages
11887 @cindex languages
11888
11889 Although programming languages generally have common aspects, they are
11890 rarely expressed in the same manner. For instance, in ANSI C,
11891 dereferencing a pointer @code{p} is accomplished by @code{*p}, but in
11892 Modula-2, it is accomplished by @code{p^}. Values can also be
11893 represented (and displayed) differently. Hex numbers in C appear as
11894 @samp{0x1ae}, while in Modula-2 they appear as @samp{1AEH}.
11895
11896 @cindex working language
11897 Language-specific information is built into @value{GDBN} for some languages,
11898 allowing you to express operations like the above in your program's
11899 native language, and allowing @value{GDBN} to output values in a manner
11900 consistent with the syntax of your program's native language. The
11901 language you use to build expressions is called the @dfn{working
11902 language}.
11903
11904 @menu
11905 * Setting:: Switching between source languages
11906 * Show:: Displaying the language
11907 * Checks:: Type and range checks
11908 * Supported Languages:: Supported languages
11909 * Unsupported Languages:: Unsupported languages
11910 @end menu
11911
11912 @node Setting
11913 @section Switching Between Source Languages
11914
11915 There are two ways to control the working language---either have @value{GDBN}
11916 set it automatically, or select it manually yourself. You can use the
11917 @code{set language} command for either purpose. On startup, @value{GDBN}
11918 defaults to setting the language automatically. The working language is
11919 used to determine how expressions you type are interpreted, how values
11920 are printed, etc.
11921
11922 In addition to the working language, every source file that
11923 @value{GDBN} knows about has its own working language. For some object
11924 file formats, the compiler might indicate which language a particular
11925 source file is in. However, most of the time @value{GDBN} infers the
11926 language from the name of the file. The language of a source file
11927 controls whether C@t{++} names are demangled---this way @code{backtrace} can
11928 show each frame appropriately for its own language. There is no way to
11929 set the language of a source file from within @value{GDBN}, but you can
11930 set the language associated with a filename extension. @xref{Show, ,
11931 Displaying the Language}.
11932
11933 This is most commonly a problem when you use a program, such
11934 as @code{cfront} or @code{f2c}, that generates C but is written in
11935 another language. In that case, make the
11936 program use @code{#line} directives in its C output; that way
11937 @value{GDBN} will know the correct language of the source code of the original
11938 program, and will display that source code, not the generated C code.
11939
11940 @menu
11941 * Filenames:: Filename extensions and languages.
11942 * Manually:: Setting the working language manually
11943 * Automatically:: Having @value{GDBN} infer the source language
11944 @end menu
11945
11946 @node Filenames
11947 @subsection List of Filename Extensions and Languages
11948
11949 If a source file name ends in one of the following extensions, then
11950 @value{GDBN} infers that its language is the one indicated.
11951
11952 @table @file
11953 @item .ada
11954 @itemx .ads
11955 @itemx .adb
11956 @itemx .a
11957 Ada source file.
11958
11959 @item .c
11960 C source file
11961
11962 @item .C
11963 @itemx .cc
11964 @itemx .cp
11965 @itemx .cpp
11966 @itemx .cxx
11967 @itemx .c++
11968 C@t{++} source file
11969
11970 @item .d
11971 D source file
11972
11973 @item .m
11974 Objective-C source file
11975
11976 @item .f
11977 @itemx .F
11978 Fortran source file
11979
11980 @item .mod
11981 Modula-2 source file
11982
11983 @item .s
11984 @itemx .S
11985 Assembler source file. This actually behaves almost like C, but
11986 @value{GDBN} does not skip over function prologues when stepping.
11987 @end table
11988
11989 In addition, you may set the language associated with a filename
11990 extension. @xref{Show, , Displaying the Language}.
11991
11992 @node Manually
11993 @subsection Setting the Working Language
11994
11995 If you allow @value{GDBN} to set the language automatically,
11996 expressions are interpreted the same way in your debugging session and
11997 your program.
11998
11999 @kindex set language
12000 If you wish, you may set the language manually. To do this, issue the
12001 command @samp{set language @var{lang}}, where @var{lang} is the name of
12002 a language, such as
12003 @code{c} or @code{modula-2}.
12004 For a list of the supported languages, type @samp{set language}.
12005
12006 Setting the language manually prevents @value{GDBN} from updating the working
12007 language automatically. This can lead to confusion if you try
12008 to debug a program when the working language is not the same as the
12009 source language, when an expression is acceptable to both
12010 languages---but means different things. For instance, if the current
12011 source file were written in C, and @value{GDBN} was parsing Modula-2, a
12012 command such as:
12013
12014 @smallexample
12015 print a = b + c
12016 @end smallexample
12017
12018 @noindent
12019 might not have the effect you intended. In C, this means to add
12020 @code{b} and @code{c} and place the result in @code{a}. The result
12021 printed would be the value of @code{a}. In Modula-2, this means to compare
12022 @code{a} to the result of @code{b+c}, yielding a @code{BOOLEAN} value.
12023
12024 @node Automatically
12025 @subsection Having @value{GDBN} Infer the Source Language
12026
12027 To have @value{GDBN} set the working language automatically, use
12028 @samp{set language local} or @samp{set language auto}. @value{GDBN}
12029 then infers the working language. That is, when your program stops in a
12030 frame (usually by encountering a breakpoint), @value{GDBN} sets the
12031 working language to the language recorded for the function in that
12032 frame. If the language for a frame is unknown (that is, if the function
12033 or block corresponding to the frame was defined in a source file that
12034 does not have a recognized extension), the current working language is
12035 not changed, and @value{GDBN} issues a warning.
12036
12037 This may not seem necessary for most programs, which are written
12038 entirely in one source language. However, program modules and libraries
12039 written in one source language can be used by a main program written in
12040 a different source language. Using @samp{set language auto} in this
12041 case frees you from having to set the working language manually.
12042
12043 @node Show
12044 @section Displaying the Language
12045
12046 The following commands help you find out which language is the
12047 working language, and also what language source files were written in.
12048
12049 @table @code
12050 @item show language
12051 @kindex show language
12052 Display the current working language. This is the
12053 language you can use with commands such as @code{print} to
12054 build and compute expressions that may involve variables in your program.
12055
12056 @item info frame
12057 @kindex info frame@r{, show the source language}
12058 Display the source language for this frame. This language becomes the
12059 working language if you use an identifier from this frame.
12060 @xref{Frame Info, ,Information about a Frame}, to identify the other
12061 information listed here.
12062
12063 @item info source
12064 @kindex info source@r{, show the source language}
12065 Display the source language of this source file.
12066 @xref{Symbols, ,Examining the Symbol Table}, to identify the other
12067 information listed here.
12068 @end table
12069
12070 In unusual circumstances, you may have source files with extensions
12071 not in the standard list. You can then set the extension associated
12072 with a language explicitly:
12073
12074 @table @code
12075 @item set extension-language @var{ext} @var{language}
12076 @kindex set extension-language
12077 Tell @value{GDBN} that source files with extension @var{ext} are to be
12078 assumed as written in the source language @var{language}.
12079
12080 @item info extensions
12081 @kindex info extensions
12082 List all the filename extensions and the associated languages.
12083 @end table
12084
12085 @node Checks
12086 @section Type and Range Checking
12087
12088 @quotation
12089 @emph{Warning:} In this release, the @value{GDBN} commands for type and range
12090 checking are included, but they do not yet have any effect. This
12091 section documents the intended facilities.
12092 @end quotation
12093 @c FIXME remove warning when type/range code added
12094
12095 Some languages are designed to guard you against making seemingly common
12096 errors through a series of compile- and run-time checks. These include
12097 checking the type of arguments to functions and operators, and making
12098 sure mathematical overflows are caught at run time. Checks such as
12099 these help to ensure a program's correctness once it has been compiled
12100 by eliminating type mismatches, and providing active checks for range
12101 errors when your program is running.
12102
12103 @value{GDBN} can check for conditions like the above if you wish.
12104 Although @value{GDBN} does not check the statements in your program,
12105 it can check expressions entered directly into @value{GDBN} for
12106 evaluation via the @code{print} command, for example. As with the
12107 working language, @value{GDBN} can also decide whether or not to check
12108 automatically based on your program's source language.
12109 @xref{Supported Languages, ,Supported Languages}, for the default
12110 settings of supported languages.
12111
12112 @menu
12113 * Type Checking:: An overview of type checking
12114 * Range Checking:: An overview of range checking
12115 @end menu
12116
12117 @cindex type checking
12118 @cindex checks, type
12119 @node Type Checking
12120 @subsection An Overview of Type Checking
12121
12122 Some languages, such as Modula-2, are strongly typed, meaning that the
12123 arguments to operators and functions have to be of the correct type,
12124 otherwise an error occurs. These checks prevent type mismatch
12125 errors from ever causing any run-time problems. For example,
12126
12127 @smallexample
12128 1 + 2 @result{} 3
12129 @exdent but
12130 @error{} 1 + 2.3
12131 @end smallexample
12132
12133 The second example fails because the @code{CARDINAL} 1 is not
12134 type-compatible with the @code{REAL} 2.3.
12135
12136 For the expressions you use in @value{GDBN} commands, you can tell the
12137 @value{GDBN} type checker to skip checking;
12138 to treat any mismatches as errors and abandon the expression;
12139 or to only issue warnings when type mismatches occur,
12140 but evaluate the expression anyway. When you choose the last of
12141 these, @value{GDBN} evaluates expressions like the second example above, but
12142 also issues a warning.
12143
12144 Even if you turn type checking off, there may be other reasons
12145 related to type that prevent @value{GDBN} from evaluating an expression.
12146 For instance, @value{GDBN} does not know how to add an @code{int} and
12147 a @code{struct foo}. These particular type errors have nothing to do
12148 with the language in use, and usually arise from expressions, such as
12149 the one described above, which make little sense to evaluate anyway.
12150
12151 Each language defines to what degree it is strict about type. For
12152 instance, both Modula-2 and C require the arguments to arithmetical
12153 operators to be numbers. In C, enumerated types and pointers can be
12154 represented as numbers, so that they are valid arguments to mathematical
12155 operators. @xref{Supported Languages, ,Supported Languages}, for further
12156 details on specific languages.
12157
12158 @value{GDBN} provides some additional commands for controlling the type checker:
12159
12160 @kindex set check type
12161 @kindex show check type
12162 @table @code
12163 @item set check type auto
12164 Set type checking on or off based on the current working language.
12165 @xref{Supported Languages, ,Supported Languages}, for the default settings for
12166 each language.
12167
12168 @item set check type on
12169 @itemx set check type off
12170 Set type checking on or off, overriding the default setting for the
12171 current working language. Issue a warning if the setting does not
12172 match the language default. If any type mismatches occur in
12173 evaluating an expression while type checking is on, @value{GDBN} prints a
12174 message and aborts evaluation of the expression.
12175
12176 @item set check type warn
12177 Cause the type checker to issue warnings, but to always attempt to
12178 evaluate the expression. Evaluating the expression may still
12179 be impossible for other reasons. For example, @value{GDBN} cannot add
12180 numbers and structures.
12181
12182 @item show type
12183 Show the current setting of the type checker, and whether or not @value{GDBN}
12184 is setting it automatically.
12185 @end table
12186
12187 @cindex range checking
12188 @cindex checks, range
12189 @node Range Checking
12190 @subsection An Overview of Range Checking
12191
12192 In some languages (such as Modula-2), it is an error to exceed the
12193 bounds of a type; this is enforced with run-time checks. Such range
12194 checking is meant to ensure program correctness by making sure
12195 computations do not overflow, or indices on an array element access do
12196 not exceed the bounds of the array.
12197
12198 For expressions you use in @value{GDBN} commands, you can tell
12199 @value{GDBN} to treat range errors in one of three ways: ignore them,
12200 always treat them as errors and abandon the expression, or issue
12201 warnings but evaluate the expression anyway.
12202
12203 A range error can result from numerical overflow, from exceeding an
12204 array index bound, or when you type a constant that is not a member
12205 of any type. Some languages, however, do not treat overflows as an
12206 error. In many implementations of C, mathematical overflow causes the
12207 result to ``wrap around'' to lower values---for example, if @var{m} is
12208 the largest integer value, and @var{s} is the smallest, then
12209
12210 @smallexample
12211 @var{m} + 1 @result{} @var{s}
12212 @end smallexample
12213
12214 This, too, is specific to individual languages, and in some cases
12215 specific to individual compilers or machines. @xref{Supported Languages, ,
12216 Supported Languages}, for further details on specific languages.
12217
12218 @value{GDBN} provides some additional commands for controlling the range checker:
12219
12220 @kindex set check range
12221 @kindex show check range
12222 @table @code
12223 @item set check range auto
12224 Set range checking on or off based on the current working language.
12225 @xref{Supported Languages, ,Supported Languages}, for the default settings for
12226 each language.
12227
12228 @item set check range on
12229 @itemx set check range off
12230 Set range checking on or off, overriding the default setting for the
12231 current working language. A warning is issued if the setting does not
12232 match the language default. If a range error occurs and range checking is on,
12233 then a message is printed and evaluation of the expression is aborted.
12234
12235 @item set check range warn
12236 Output messages when the @value{GDBN} range checker detects a range error,
12237 but attempt to evaluate the expression anyway. Evaluating the
12238 expression may still be impossible for other reasons, such as accessing
12239 memory that the process does not own (a typical example from many Unix
12240 systems).
12241
12242 @item show range
12243 Show the current setting of the range checker, and whether or not it is
12244 being set automatically by @value{GDBN}.
12245 @end table
12246
12247 @node Supported Languages
12248 @section Supported Languages
12249
12250 @value{GDBN} supports C, C@t{++}, D, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, OpenCL C, Pascal,
12251 assembly, Modula-2, and Ada.
12252 @c This is false ...
12253 Some @value{GDBN} features may be used in expressions regardless of the
12254 language you use: the @value{GDBN} @code{@@} and @code{::} operators,
12255 and the @samp{@{type@}addr} construct (@pxref{Expressions,
12256 ,Expressions}) can be used with the constructs of any supported
12257 language.
12258
12259 The following sections detail to what degree each source language is
12260 supported by @value{GDBN}. These sections are not meant to be language
12261 tutorials or references, but serve only as a reference guide to what the
12262 @value{GDBN} expression parser accepts, and what input and output
12263 formats should look like for different languages. There are many good
12264 books written on each of these languages; please look to these for a
12265 language reference or tutorial.
12266
12267 @menu
12268 * C:: C and C@t{++}
12269 * D:: D
12270 * Objective-C:: Objective-C
12271 * OpenCL C:: OpenCL C
12272 * Fortran:: Fortran
12273 * Pascal:: Pascal
12274 * Modula-2:: Modula-2
12275 * Ada:: Ada
12276 @end menu
12277
12278 @node C
12279 @subsection C and C@t{++}
12280
12281 @cindex C and C@t{++}
12282 @cindex expressions in C or C@t{++}
12283
12284 Since C and C@t{++} are so closely related, many features of @value{GDBN} apply
12285 to both languages. Whenever this is the case, we discuss those languages
12286 together.
12287
12288 @cindex C@t{++}
12289 @cindex @code{g++}, @sc{gnu} C@t{++} compiler
12290 @cindex @sc{gnu} C@t{++}
12291 The C@t{++} debugging facilities are jointly implemented by the C@t{++}
12292 compiler and @value{GDBN}. Therefore, to debug your C@t{++} code
12293 effectively, you must compile your C@t{++} programs with a supported
12294 C@t{++} compiler, such as @sc{gnu} @code{g++}, or the HP ANSI C@t{++}
12295 compiler (@code{aCC}).
12296
12297 @menu
12298 * C Operators:: C and C@t{++} operators
12299 * C Constants:: C and C@t{++} constants
12300 * C Plus Plus Expressions:: C@t{++} expressions
12301 * C Defaults:: Default settings for C and C@t{++}
12302 * C Checks:: C and C@t{++} type and range checks
12303 * Debugging C:: @value{GDBN} and C
12304 * Debugging C Plus Plus:: @value{GDBN} features for C@t{++}
12305 * Decimal Floating Point:: Numbers in Decimal Floating Point format
12306 @end menu
12307
12308 @node C Operators
12309 @subsubsection C and C@t{++} Operators
12310
12311 @cindex C and C@t{++} operators
12312
12313 Operators must be defined on values of specific types. For instance,
12314 @code{+} is defined on numbers, but not on structures. Operators are
12315 often defined on groups of types.
12316
12317 For the purposes of C and C@t{++}, the following definitions hold:
12318
12319 @itemize @bullet
12320
12321 @item
12322 @emph{Integral types} include @code{int} with any of its storage-class
12323 specifiers; @code{char}; @code{enum}; and, for C@t{++}, @code{bool}.
12324
12325 @item
12326 @emph{Floating-point types} include @code{float}, @code{double}, and
12327 @code{long double} (if supported by the target platform).
12328
12329 @item
12330 @emph{Pointer types} include all types defined as @code{(@var{type} *)}.
12331
12332 @item
12333 @emph{Scalar types} include all of the above.
12334
12335 @end itemize
12336
12337 @noindent
12338 The following operators are supported. They are listed here
12339 in order of increasing precedence:
12340
12341 @table @code
12342 @item ,
12343 The comma or sequencing operator. Expressions in a comma-separated list
12344 are evaluated from left to right, with the result of the entire
12345 expression being the last expression evaluated.
12346
12347 @item =
12348 Assignment. The value of an assignment expression is the value
12349 assigned. Defined on scalar types.
12350
12351 @item @var{op}=
12352 Used in an expression of the form @w{@code{@var{a} @var{op}= @var{b}}},
12353 and translated to @w{@code{@var{a} = @var{a op b}}}.
12354 @w{@code{@var{op}=}} and @code{=} have the same precedence.
12355 @var{op} is any one of the operators @code{|}, @code{^}, @code{&},
12356 @code{<<}, @code{>>}, @code{+}, @code{-}, @code{*}, @code{/}, @code{%}.
12357
12358 @item ?:
12359 The ternary operator. @code{@var{a} ? @var{b} : @var{c}} can be thought
12360 of as: if @var{a} then @var{b} else @var{c}. @var{a} should be of an
12361 integral type.
12362
12363 @item ||
12364 Logical @sc{or}. Defined on integral types.
12365
12366 @item &&
12367 Logical @sc{and}. Defined on integral types.
12368
12369 @item |
12370 Bitwise @sc{or}. Defined on integral types.
12371
12372 @item ^
12373 Bitwise exclusive-@sc{or}. Defined on integral types.
12374
12375 @item &
12376 Bitwise @sc{and}. Defined on integral types.
12377
12378 @item ==@r{, }!=
12379 Equality and inequality. Defined on scalar types. The value of these
12380 expressions is 0 for false and non-zero for true.
12381
12382 @item <@r{, }>@r{, }<=@r{, }>=
12383 Less than, greater than, less than or equal, greater than or equal.
12384 Defined on scalar types. The value of these expressions is 0 for false
12385 and non-zero for true.
12386
12387 @item <<@r{, }>>
12388 left shift, and right shift. Defined on integral types.
12389
12390 @item @@
12391 The @value{GDBN} ``artificial array'' operator (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}).
12392
12393 @item +@r{, }-
12394 Addition and subtraction. Defined on integral types, floating-point types and
12395 pointer types.
12396
12397 @item *@r{, }/@r{, }%
12398 Multiplication, division, and modulus. Multiplication and division are
12399 defined on integral and floating-point types. Modulus is defined on
12400 integral types.
12401
12402 @item ++@r{, }--
12403 Increment and decrement. When appearing before a variable, the
12404 operation is performed before the variable is used in an expression;
12405 when appearing after it, the variable's value is used before the
12406 operation takes place.
12407
12408 @item *
12409 Pointer dereferencing. Defined on pointer types. Same precedence as
12410 @code{++}.
12411
12412 @item &
12413 Address operator. Defined on variables. Same precedence as @code{++}.
12414
12415 For debugging C@t{++}, @value{GDBN} implements a use of @samp{&} beyond what is
12416 allowed in the C@t{++} language itself: you can use @samp{&(&@var{ref})}
12417 to examine the address
12418 where a C@t{++} reference variable (declared with @samp{&@var{ref}}) is
12419 stored.
12420
12421 @item -
12422 Negative. Defined on integral and floating-point types. Same
12423 precedence as @code{++}.
12424
12425 @item !
12426 Logical negation. Defined on integral types. Same precedence as
12427 @code{++}.
12428
12429 @item ~
12430 Bitwise complement operator. Defined on integral types. Same precedence as
12431 @code{++}.
12432
12433
12434 @item .@r{, }->
12435 Structure member, and pointer-to-structure member. For convenience,
12436 @value{GDBN} regards the two as equivalent, choosing whether to dereference a
12437 pointer based on the stored type information.
12438 Defined on @code{struct} and @code{union} data.
12439
12440 @item .*@r{, }->*
12441 Dereferences of pointers to members.
12442
12443 @item []
12444 Array indexing. @code{@var{a}[@var{i}]} is defined as
12445 @code{*(@var{a}+@var{i})}. Same precedence as @code{->}.
12446
12447 @item ()
12448 Function parameter list. Same precedence as @code{->}.
12449
12450 @item ::
12451 C@t{++} scope resolution operator. Defined on @code{struct}, @code{union},
12452 and @code{class} types.
12453
12454 @item ::
12455 Doubled colons also represent the @value{GDBN} scope operator
12456 (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}). Same precedence as @code{::},
12457 above.
12458 @end table
12459
12460 If an operator is redefined in the user code, @value{GDBN} usually
12461 attempts to invoke the redefined version instead of using the operator's
12462 predefined meaning.
12463
12464 @node C Constants
12465 @subsubsection C and C@t{++} Constants
12466
12467 @cindex C and C@t{++} constants
12468
12469 @value{GDBN} allows you to express the constants of C and C@t{++} in the
12470 following ways:
12471
12472 @itemize @bullet
12473 @item
12474 Integer constants are a sequence of digits. Octal constants are
12475 specified by a leading @samp{0} (i.e.@: zero), and hexadecimal constants
12476 by a leading @samp{0x} or @samp{0X}. Constants may also end with a letter
12477 @samp{l}, specifying that the constant should be treated as a
12478 @code{long} value.
12479
12480 @item
12481 Floating point constants are a sequence of digits, followed by a decimal
12482 point, followed by a sequence of digits, and optionally followed by an
12483 exponent. An exponent is of the form:
12484 @samp{@w{e@r{[[}+@r{]|}-@r{]}@var{nnn}}}, where @var{nnn} is another
12485 sequence of digits. The @samp{+} is optional for positive exponents.
12486 A floating-point constant may also end with a letter @samp{f} or
12487 @samp{F}, specifying that the constant should be treated as being of
12488 the @code{float} (as opposed to the default @code{double}) type; or with
12489 a letter @samp{l} or @samp{L}, which specifies a @code{long double}
12490 constant.
12491
12492 @item
12493 Enumerated constants consist of enumerated identifiers, or their
12494 integral equivalents.
12495
12496 @item
12497 Character constants are a single character surrounded by single quotes
12498 (@code{'}), or a number---the ordinal value of the corresponding character
12499 (usually its @sc{ascii} value). Within quotes, the single character may
12500 be represented by a letter or by @dfn{escape sequences}, which are of
12501 the form @samp{\@var{nnn}}, where @var{nnn} is the octal representation
12502 of the character's ordinal value; or of the form @samp{\@var{x}}, where
12503 @samp{@var{x}} is a predefined special character---for example,
12504 @samp{\n} for newline.
12505
12506 Wide character constants can be written by prefixing a character
12507 constant with @samp{L}, as in C. For example, @samp{L'x'} is the wide
12508 form of @samp{x}. The target wide character set is used when
12509 computing the value of this constant (@pxref{Character Sets}).
12510
12511 @item
12512 String constants are a sequence of character constants surrounded by
12513 double quotes (@code{"}). Any valid character constant (as described
12514 above) may appear. Double quotes within the string must be preceded by
12515 a backslash, so for instance @samp{"a\"b'c"} is a string of five
12516 characters.
12517
12518 Wide string constants can be written by prefixing a string constant
12519 with @samp{L}, as in C. The target wide character set is used when
12520 computing the value of this constant (@pxref{Character Sets}).
12521
12522 @item
12523 Pointer constants are an integral value. You can also write pointers
12524 to constants using the C operator @samp{&}.
12525
12526 @item
12527 Array constants are comma-separated lists surrounded by braces @samp{@{}
12528 and @samp{@}}; for example, @samp{@{1,2,3@}} is a three-element array of
12529 integers, @samp{@{@{1,2@}, @{3,4@}, @{5,6@}@}} is a three-by-two array,
12530 and @samp{@{&"hi", &"there", &"fred"@}} is a three-element array of pointers.
12531 @end itemize
12532
12533 @node C Plus Plus Expressions
12534 @subsubsection C@t{++} Expressions
12535
12536 @cindex expressions in C@t{++}
12537 @value{GDBN} expression handling can interpret most C@t{++} expressions.
12538
12539 @cindex debugging C@t{++} programs
12540 @cindex C@t{++} compilers
12541 @cindex debug formats and C@t{++}
12542 @cindex @value{NGCC} and C@t{++}
12543 @quotation
12544 @emph{Warning:} @value{GDBN} can only debug C@t{++} code if you use
12545 the proper compiler and the proper debug format. Currently,
12546 @value{GDBN} works best when debugging C@t{++} code that is compiled
12547 with the most recent version of @value{NGCC} possible. The DWARF
12548 debugging format is preferred; @value{NGCC} defaults to this on most
12549 popular platforms. Other compilers and/or debug formats are likely to
12550 work badly or not at all when using @value{GDBN} to debug C@t{++}
12551 code. @xref{Compilation}.
12552 @end quotation
12553
12554 @enumerate
12555
12556 @cindex member functions
12557 @item
12558 Member function calls are allowed; you can use expressions like
12559
12560 @smallexample
12561 count = aml->GetOriginal(x, y)
12562 @end smallexample
12563
12564 @vindex this@r{, inside C@t{++} member functions}
12565 @cindex namespace in C@t{++}
12566 @item
12567 While a member function is active (in the selected stack frame), your
12568 expressions have the same namespace available as the member function;
12569 that is, @value{GDBN} allows implicit references to the class instance
12570 pointer @code{this} following the same rules as C@t{++}. @code{using}
12571 declarations in the current scope are also respected by @value{GDBN}.
12572
12573 @cindex call overloaded functions
12574 @cindex overloaded functions, calling
12575 @cindex type conversions in C@t{++}
12576 @item
12577 You can call overloaded functions; @value{GDBN} resolves the function
12578 call to the right definition, with some restrictions. @value{GDBN} does not
12579 perform overload resolution involving user-defined type conversions,
12580 calls to constructors, or instantiations of templates that do not exist
12581 in the program. It also cannot handle ellipsis argument lists or
12582 default arguments.
12583
12584 It does perform integral conversions and promotions, floating-point
12585 promotions, arithmetic conversions, pointer conversions, conversions of
12586 class objects to base classes, and standard conversions such as those of
12587 functions or arrays to pointers; it requires an exact match on the
12588 number of function arguments.
12589
12590 Overload resolution is always performed, unless you have specified
12591 @code{set overload-resolution off}. @xref{Debugging C Plus Plus,
12592 ,@value{GDBN} Features for C@t{++}}.
12593
12594 You must specify @code{set overload-resolution off} in order to use an
12595 explicit function signature to call an overloaded function, as in
12596 @smallexample
12597 p 'foo(char,int)'('x', 13)
12598 @end smallexample
12599
12600 The @value{GDBN} command-completion facility can simplify this;
12601 see @ref{Completion, ,Command Completion}.
12602
12603 @cindex reference declarations
12604 @item
12605 @value{GDBN} understands variables declared as C@t{++} references; you can use
12606 them in expressions just as you do in C@t{++} source---they are automatically
12607 dereferenced.
12608
12609 In the parameter list shown when @value{GDBN} displays a frame, the values of
12610 reference variables are not displayed (unlike other variables); this
12611 avoids clutter, since references are often used for large structures.
12612 The @emph{address} of a reference variable is always shown, unless
12613 you have specified @samp{set print address off}.
12614
12615 @item
12616 @value{GDBN} supports the C@t{++} name resolution operator @code{::}---your
12617 expressions can use it just as expressions in your program do. Since
12618 one scope may be defined in another, you can use @code{::} repeatedly if
12619 necessary, for example in an expression like
12620 @samp{@var{scope1}::@var{scope2}::@var{name}}. @value{GDBN} also allows
12621 resolving name scope by reference to source files, in both C and C@t{++}
12622 debugging (@pxref{Variables, ,Program Variables}).
12623
12624 @item
12625 @value{GDBN} performs argument-dependent lookup, following the C@t{++}
12626 specification.
12627 @end enumerate
12628
12629 @node C Defaults
12630 @subsubsection C and C@t{++} Defaults
12631
12632 @cindex C and C@t{++} defaults
12633
12634 If you allow @value{GDBN} to set type and range checking automatically, they
12635 both default to @code{off} whenever the working language changes to
12636 C or C@t{++}. This happens regardless of whether you or @value{GDBN}
12637 selects the working language.
12638
12639 If you allow @value{GDBN} to set the language automatically, it
12640 recognizes source files whose names end with @file{.c}, @file{.C}, or
12641 @file{.cc}, etc, and when @value{GDBN} enters code compiled from one of
12642 these files, it sets the working language to C or C@t{++}.
12643 @xref{Automatically, ,Having @value{GDBN} Infer the Source Language},
12644 for further details.
12645
12646 @c Type checking is (a) primarily motivated by Modula-2, and (b)
12647 @c unimplemented. If (b) changes, it might make sense to let this node
12648 @c appear even if Mod-2 does not, but meanwhile ignore it. roland 16jul93.
12649
12650 @node C Checks
12651 @subsubsection C and C@t{++} Type and Range Checks
12652
12653 @cindex C and C@t{++} checks
12654
12655 By default, when @value{GDBN} parses C or C@t{++} expressions, type checking
12656 is not used. However, if you turn type checking on, @value{GDBN}
12657 considers two variables type equivalent if:
12658
12659 @itemize @bullet
12660 @item
12661 The two variables are structured and have the same structure, union, or
12662 enumerated tag.
12663
12664 @item
12665 The two variables have the same type name, or types that have been
12666 declared equivalent through @code{typedef}.
12667
12668 @ignore
12669 @c leaving this out because neither J Gilmore nor R Pesch understand it.
12670 @c FIXME--beers?
12671 @item
12672 The two @code{struct}, @code{union}, or @code{enum} variables are
12673 declared in the same declaration. (Note: this may not be true for all C
12674 compilers.)
12675 @end ignore
12676 @end itemize
12677
12678 Range checking, if turned on, is done on mathematical operations. Array
12679 indices are not checked, since they are often used to index a pointer
12680 that is not itself an array.
12681
12682 @node Debugging C
12683 @subsubsection @value{GDBN} and C
12684
12685 The @code{set print union} and @code{show print union} commands apply to
12686 the @code{union} type. When set to @samp{on}, any @code{union} that is
12687 inside a @code{struct} or @code{class} is also printed. Otherwise, it
12688 appears as @samp{@{...@}}.
12689
12690 The @code{@@} operator aids in the debugging of dynamic arrays, formed
12691 with pointers and a memory allocation function. @xref{Expressions,
12692 ,Expressions}.
12693
12694 @node Debugging C Plus Plus
12695 @subsubsection @value{GDBN} Features for C@t{++}
12696
12697 @cindex commands for C@t{++}
12698
12699 Some @value{GDBN} commands are particularly useful with C@t{++}, and some are
12700 designed specifically for use with C@t{++}. Here is a summary:
12701
12702 @table @code
12703 @cindex break in overloaded functions
12704 @item @r{breakpoint menus}
12705 When you want a breakpoint in a function whose name is overloaded,
12706 @value{GDBN} has the capability to display a menu of possible breakpoint
12707 locations to help you specify which function definition you want.
12708 @xref{Ambiguous Expressions,,Ambiguous Expressions}.
12709
12710 @cindex overloading in C@t{++}
12711 @item rbreak @var{regex}
12712 Setting breakpoints using regular expressions is helpful for setting
12713 breakpoints on overloaded functions that are not members of any special
12714 classes.
12715 @xref{Set Breaks, ,Setting Breakpoints}.
12716
12717 @cindex C@t{++} exception handling
12718 @item catch throw
12719 @itemx catch catch
12720 Debug C@t{++} exception handling using these commands. @xref{Set
12721 Catchpoints, , Setting Catchpoints}.
12722
12723 @cindex inheritance
12724 @item ptype @var{typename}
12725 Print inheritance relationships as well as other information for type
12726 @var{typename}.
12727 @xref{Symbols, ,Examining the Symbol Table}.
12728
12729 @cindex C@t{++} symbol display
12730 @item set print demangle
12731 @itemx show print demangle
12732 @itemx set print asm-demangle
12733 @itemx show print asm-demangle
12734 Control whether C@t{++} symbols display in their source form, both when
12735 displaying code as C@t{++} source and when displaying disassemblies.
12736 @xref{Print Settings, ,Print Settings}.
12737
12738 @item set print object
12739 @itemx show print object
12740 Choose whether to print derived (actual) or declared types of objects.
12741 @xref{Print Settings, ,Print Settings}.
12742
12743 @item set print vtbl
12744 @itemx show print vtbl
12745 Control the format for printing virtual function tables.
12746 @xref{Print Settings, ,Print Settings}.
12747 (The @code{vtbl} commands do not work on programs compiled with the HP
12748 ANSI C@t{++} compiler (@code{aCC}).)
12749
12750 @kindex set overload-resolution
12751 @cindex overloaded functions, overload resolution
12752 @item set overload-resolution on
12753 Enable overload resolution for C@t{++} expression evaluation. The default
12754 is on. For overloaded functions, @value{GDBN} evaluates the arguments
12755 and searches for a function whose signature matches the argument types,
12756 using the standard C@t{++} conversion rules (see @ref{C Plus Plus
12757 Expressions, ,C@t{++} Expressions}, for details).
12758 If it cannot find a match, it emits a message.
12759
12760 @item set overload-resolution off
12761 Disable overload resolution for C@t{++} expression evaluation. For
12762 overloaded functions that are not class member functions, @value{GDBN}
12763 chooses the first function of the specified name that it finds in the
12764 symbol table, whether or not its arguments are of the correct type. For
12765 overloaded functions that are class member functions, @value{GDBN}
12766 searches for a function whose signature @emph{exactly} matches the
12767 argument types.
12768
12769 @kindex show overload-resolution
12770 @item show overload-resolution
12771 Show the current setting of overload resolution.
12772
12773 @item @r{Overloaded symbol names}
12774 You can specify a particular definition of an overloaded symbol, using
12775 the same notation that is used to declare such symbols in C@t{++}: type
12776 @code{@var{symbol}(@var{types})} rather than just @var{symbol}. You can
12777 also use the @value{GDBN} command-line word completion facilities to list the
12778 available choices, or to finish the type list for you.
12779 @xref{Completion,, Command Completion}, for details on how to do this.
12780 @end table
12781
12782 @node Decimal Floating Point
12783 @subsubsection Decimal Floating Point format
12784 @cindex decimal floating point format
12785
12786 @value{GDBN} can examine, set and perform computations with numbers in
12787 decimal floating point format, which in the C language correspond to the
12788 @code{_Decimal32}, @code{_Decimal64} and @code{_Decimal128} types as
12789 specified by the extension to support decimal floating-point arithmetic.
12790
12791 There are two encodings in use, depending on the architecture: BID (Binary
12792 Integer Decimal) for x86 and x86-64, and DPD (Densely Packed Decimal) for
12793 PowerPC. @value{GDBN} will use the appropriate encoding for the configured
12794 target.
12795
12796 Because of a limitation in @file{libdecnumber}, the library used by @value{GDBN}
12797 to manipulate decimal floating point numbers, it is not possible to convert
12798 (using a cast, for example) integers wider than 32-bit to decimal float.
12799
12800 In addition, in order to imitate @value{GDBN}'s behaviour with binary floating
12801 point computations, error checking in decimal float operations ignores
12802 underflow, overflow and divide by zero exceptions.
12803
12804 In the PowerPC architecture, @value{GDBN} provides a set of pseudo-registers
12805 to inspect @code{_Decimal128} values stored in floating point registers.
12806 See @ref{PowerPC,,PowerPC} for more details.
12807
12808 @node D
12809 @subsection D
12810
12811 @cindex D
12812 @value{GDBN} can be used to debug programs written in D and compiled with
12813 GDC, LDC or DMD compilers. Currently @value{GDBN} supports only one D
12814 specific feature --- dynamic arrays.
12815
12816 @node Objective-C
12817 @subsection Objective-C
12818
12819 @cindex Objective-C
12820 This section provides information about some commands and command
12821 options that are useful for debugging Objective-C code. See also
12822 @ref{Symbols, info classes}, and @ref{Symbols, info selectors}, for a
12823 few more commands specific to Objective-C support.
12824
12825 @menu
12826 * Method Names in Commands::
12827 * The Print Command with Objective-C::
12828 @end menu
12829
12830 @node Method Names in Commands
12831 @subsubsection Method Names in Commands
12832
12833 The following commands have been extended to accept Objective-C method
12834 names as line specifications:
12835
12836 @kindex clear@r{, and Objective-C}
12837 @kindex break@r{, and Objective-C}
12838 @kindex info line@r{, and Objective-C}
12839 @kindex jump@r{, and Objective-C}
12840 @kindex list@r{, and Objective-C}
12841 @itemize
12842 @item @code{clear}
12843 @item @code{break}
12844 @item @code{info line}
12845 @item @code{jump}
12846 @item @code{list}
12847 @end itemize
12848
12849 A fully qualified Objective-C method name is specified as
12850
12851 @smallexample
12852 -[@var{Class} @var{methodName}]
12853 @end smallexample
12854
12855 where the minus sign is used to indicate an instance method and a
12856 plus sign (not shown) is used to indicate a class method. The class
12857 name @var{Class} and method name @var{methodName} are enclosed in
12858 brackets, similar to the way messages are specified in Objective-C
12859 source code. For example, to set a breakpoint at the @code{create}
12860 instance method of class @code{Fruit} in the program currently being
12861 debugged, enter:
12862
12863 @smallexample
12864 break -[Fruit create]
12865 @end smallexample
12866
12867 To list ten program lines around the @code{initialize} class method,
12868 enter:
12869
12870 @smallexample
12871 list +[NSText initialize]
12872 @end smallexample
12873
12874 In the current version of @value{GDBN}, the plus or minus sign is
12875 required. In future versions of @value{GDBN}, the plus or minus
12876 sign will be optional, but you can use it to narrow the search. It
12877 is also possible to specify just a method name:
12878
12879 @smallexample
12880 break create
12881 @end smallexample
12882
12883 You must specify the complete method name, including any colons. If
12884 your program's source files contain more than one @code{create} method,
12885 you'll be presented with a numbered list of classes that implement that
12886 method. Indicate your choice by number, or type @samp{0} to exit if
12887 none apply.
12888
12889 As another example, to clear a breakpoint established at the
12890 @code{makeKeyAndOrderFront:} method of the @code{NSWindow} class, enter:
12891
12892 @smallexample
12893 clear -[NSWindow makeKeyAndOrderFront:]
12894 @end smallexample
12895
12896 @node The Print Command with Objective-C
12897 @subsubsection The Print Command With Objective-C
12898 @cindex Objective-C, print objects
12899 @kindex print-object
12900 @kindex po @r{(@code{print-object})}
12901
12902 The print command has also been extended to accept methods. For example:
12903
12904 @smallexample
12905 print -[@var{object} hash]
12906 @end smallexample
12907
12908 @cindex print an Objective-C object description
12909 @cindex @code{_NSPrintForDebugger}, and printing Objective-C objects
12910 @noindent
12911 will tell @value{GDBN} to send the @code{hash} message to @var{object}
12912 and print the result. Also, an additional command has been added,
12913 @code{print-object} or @code{po} for short, which is meant to print
12914 the description of an object. However, this command may only work
12915 with certain Objective-C libraries that have a particular hook
12916 function, @code{_NSPrintForDebugger}, defined.
12917
12918 @node OpenCL C
12919 @subsection OpenCL C
12920
12921 @cindex OpenCL C
12922 This section provides information about @value{GDBN}s OpenCL C support.
12923
12924 @menu
12925 * OpenCL C Datatypes::
12926 * OpenCL C Expressions::
12927 * OpenCL C Operators::
12928 @end menu
12929
12930 @node OpenCL C Datatypes
12931 @subsubsection OpenCL C Datatypes
12932
12933 @cindex OpenCL C Datatypes
12934 @value{GDBN} supports the builtin scalar and vector datatypes specified
12935 by OpenCL 1.1. In addition the half- and double-precision floating point
12936 data types of the @code{cl_khr_fp16} and @code{cl_khr_fp64} OpenCL
12937 extensions are also known to @value{GDBN}.
12938
12939 @node OpenCL C Expressions
12940 @subsubsection OpenCL C Expressions
12941
12942 @cindex OpenCL C Expressions
12943 @value{GDBN} supports accesses to vector components including the access as
12944 lvalue where possible. Since OpenCL C is based on C99 most C expressions
12945 supported by @value{GDBN} can be used as well.
12946
12947 @node OpenCL C Operators
12948 @subsubsection OpenCL C Operators
12949
12950 @cindex OpenCL C Operators
12951 @value{GDBN} supports the operators specified by OpenCL 1.1 for scalar and
12952 vector data types.
12953
12954 @node Fortran
12955 @subsection Fortran
12956 @cindex Fortran-specific support in @value{GDBN}
12957
12958 @value{GDBN} can be used to debug programs written in Fortran, but it
12959 currently supports only the features of Fortran 77 language.
12960
12961 @cindex trailing underscore, in Fortran symbols
12962 Some Fortran compilers (@sc{gnu} Fortran 77 and Fortran 95 compilers
12963 among them) append an underscore to the names of variables and
12964 functions. When you debug programs compiled by those compilers, you
12965 will need to refer to variables and functions with a trailing
12966 underscore.
12967
12968 @menu
12969 * Fortran Operators:: Fortran operators and expressions
12970 * Fortran Defaults:: Default settings for Fortran
12971 * Special Fortran Commands:: Special @value{GDBN} commands for Fortran
12972 @end menu
12973
12974 @node Fortran Operators
12975 @subsubsection Fortran Operators and Expressions
12976
12977 @cindex Fortran operators and expressions
12978
12979 Operators must be defined on values of specific types. For instance,
12980 @code{+} is defined on numbers, but not on characters or other non-
12981 arithmetic types. Operators are often defined on groups of types.
12982
12983 @table @code
12984 @item **
12985 The exponentiation operator. It raises the first operand to the power
12986 of the second one.
12987
12988 @item :
12989 The range operator. Normally used in the form of array(low:high) to
12990 represent a section of array.
12991
12992 @item %
12993 The access component operator. Normally used to access elements in derived
12994 types. Also suitable for unions. As unions aren't part of regular Fortran,
12995 this can only happen when accessing a register that uses a gdbarch-defined
12996 union type.
12997 @end table
12998
12999 @node Fortran Defaults
13000 @subsubsection Fortran Defaults
13001
13002 @cindex Fortran Defaults
13003
13004 Fortran symbols are usually case-insensitive, so @value{GDBN} by
13005 default uses case-insensitive matches for Fortran symbols. You can
13006 change that with the @samp{set case-insensitive} command, see
13007 @ref{Symbols}, for the details.
13008
13009 @node Special Fortran Commands
13010 @subsubsection Special Fortran Commands
13011
13012 @cindex Special Fortran commands
13013
13014 @value{GDBN} has some commands to support Fortran-specific features,
13015 such as displaying common blocks.
13016
13017 @table @code
13018 @cindex @code{COMMON} blocks, Fortran
13019 @kindex info common
13020 @item info common @r{[}@var{common-name}@r{]}
13021 This command prints the values contained in the Fortran @code{COMMON}
13022 block whose name is @var{common-name}. With no argument, the names of
13023 all @code{COMMON} blocks visible at the current program location are
13024 printed.
13025 @end table
13026
13027 @node Pascal
13028 @subsection Pascal
13029
13030 @cindex Pascal support in @value{GDBN}, limitations
13031 Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, file variables, or
13032 nested functions does not currently work. @value{GDBN} does not support
13033 entering expressions, printing values, or similar features using Pascal
13034 syntax.
13035
13036 The Pascal-specific command @code{set print pascal_static-members}
13037 controls whether static members of Pascal objects are displayed.
13038 @xref{Print Settings, pascal_static-members}.
13039
13040 @node Modula-2
13041 @subsection Modula-2
13042
13043 @cindex Modula-2, @value{GDBN} support
13044
13045 The extensions made to @value{GDBN} to support Modula-2 only support
13046 output from the @sc{gnu} Modula-2 compiler (which is currently being
13047 developed). Other Modula-2 compilers are not currently supported, and
13048 attempting to debug executables produced by them is most likely
13049 to give an error as @value{GDBN} reads in the executable's symbol
13050 table.
13051
13052 @cindex expressions in Modula-2
13053 @menu
13054 * M2 Operators:: Built-in operators
13055 * Built-In Func/Proc:: Built-in functions and procedures
13056 * M2 Constants:: Modula-2 constants
13057 * M2 Types:: Modula-2 types
13058 * M2 Defaults:: Default settings for Modula-2
13059 * Deviations:: Deviations from standard Modula-2
13060 * M2 Checks:: Modula-2 type and range checks
13061 * M2 Scope:: The scope operators @code{::} and @code{.}
13062 * GDB/M2:: @value{GDBN} and Modula-2
13063 @end menu
13064
13065 @node M2 Operators
13066 @subsubsection Operators
13067 @cindex Modula-2 operators
13068
13069 Operators must be defined on values of specific types. For instance,
13070 @code{+} is defined on numbers, but not on structures. Operators are
13071 often defined on groups of types. For the purposes of Modula-2, the
13072 following definitions hold:
13073
13074 @itemize @bullet
13075
13076 @item
13077 @emph{Integral types} consist of @code{INTEGER}, @code{CARDINAL}, and
13078 their subranges.
13079
13080 @item
13081 @emph{Character types} consist of @code{CHAR} and its subranges.
13082
13083 @item
13084 @emph{Floating-point types} consist of @code{REAL}.
13085
13086 @item
13087 @emph{Pointer types} consist of anything declared as @code{POINTER TO
13088 @var{type}}.
13089
13090 @item
13091 @emph{Scalar types} consist of all of the above.
13092
13093 @item
13094 @emph{Set types} consist of @code{SET} and @code{BITSET} types.
13095
13096 @item
13097 @emph{Boolean types} consist of @code{BOOLEAN}.
13098 @end itemize
13099
13100 @noindent
13101 The following operators are supported, and appear in order of
13102 increasing precedence:
13103
13104 @table @code
13105 @item ,
13106 Function argument or array index separator.
13107
13108 @item :=
13109 Assignment. The value of @var{var} @code{:=} @var{value} is
13110 @var{value}.
13111
13112 @item <@r{, }>
13113 Less than, greater than on integral, floating-point, or enumerated
13114 types.
13115
13116 @item <=@r{, }>=
13117 Less than or equal to, greater than or equal to
13118 on integral, floating-point and enumerated types, or set inclusion on
13119 set types. Same precedence as @code{<}.
13120
13121 @item =@r{, }<>@r{, }#
13122 Equality and two ways of expressing inequality, valid on scalar types.
13123 Same precedence as @code{<}. In @value{GDBN} scripts, only @code{<>} is
13124 available for inequality, since @code{#} conflicts with the script
13125 comment character.
13126
13127 @item IN
13128 Set membership. Defined on set types and the types of their members.
13129 Same precedence as @code{<}.
13130
13131 @item OR
13132 Boolean disjunction. Defined on boolean types.
13133
13134 @item AND@r{, }&
13135 Boolean conjunction. Defined on boolean types.
13136
13137 @item @@
13138 The @value{GDBN} ``artificial array'' operator (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}).
13139
13140 @item +@r{, }-
13141 Addition and subtraction on integral and floating-point types, or union
13142 and difference on set types.
13143
13144 @item *
13145 Multiplication on integral and floating-point types, or set intersection
13146 on set types.
13147
13148 @item /
13149 Division on floating-point types, or symmetric set difference on set
13150 types. Same precedence as @code{*}.
13151
13152 @item DIV@r{, }MOD
13153 Integer division and remainder. Defined on integral types. Same
13154 precedence as @code{*}.
13155
13156 @item -
13157 Negative. Defined on @code{INTEGER} and @code{REAL} data.
13158
13159 @item ^
13160 Pointer dereferencing. Defined on pointer types.
13161
13162 @item NOT
13163 Boolean negation. Defined on boolean types. Same precedence as
13164 @code{^}.
13165
13166 @item .
13167 @code{RECORD} field selector. Defined on @code{RECORD} data. Same
13168 precedence as @code{^}.
13169
13170 @item []
13171 Array indexing. Defined on @code{ARRAY} data. Same precedence as @code{^}.
13172
13173 @item ()
13174 Procedure argument list. Defined on @code{PROCEDURE} objects. Same precedence
13175 as @code{^}.
13176
13177 @item ::@r{, }.
13178 @value{GDBN} and Modula-2 scope operators.
13179 @end table
13180
13181 @quotation
13182 @emph{Warning:} Set expressions and their operations are not yet supported, so @value{GDBN}
13183 treats the use of the operator @code{IN}, or the use of operators
13184 @code{+}, @code{-}, @code{*}, @code{/}, @code{=}, , @code{<>}, @code{#},
13185 @code{<=}, and @code{>=} on sets as an error.
13186 @end quotation
13187
13188
13189 @node Built-In Func/Proc
13190 @subsubsection Built-in Functions and Procedures
13191 @cindex Modula-2 built-ins
13192
13193 Modula-2 also makes available several built-in procedures and functions.
13194 In describing these, the following metavariables are used:
13195
13196 @table @var
13197
13198 @item a
13199 represents an @code{ARRAY} variable.
13200
13201 @item c
13202 represents a @code{CHAR} constant or variable.
13203
13204 @item i
13205 represents a variable or constant of integral type.
13206
13207 @item m
13208 represents an identifier that belongs to a set. Generally used in the
13209 same function with the metavariable @var{s}. The type of @var{s} should
13210 be @code{SET OF @var{mtype}} (where @var{mtype} is the type of @var{m}).
13211
13212 @item n
13213 represents a variable or constant of integral or floating-point type.
13214
13215 @item r
13216 represents a variable or constant of floating-point type.
13217
13218 @item t
13219 represents a type.
13220
13221 @item v
13222 represents a variable.
13223
13224 @item x
13225 represents a variable or constant of one of many types. See the
13226 explanation of the function for details.
13227 @end table
13228
13229 All Modula-2 built-in procedures also return a result, described below.
13230
13231 @table @code
13232 @item ABS(@var{n})
13233 Returns the absolute value of @var{n}.
13234
13235 @item CAP(@var{c})
13236 If @var{c} is a lower case letter, it returns its upper case
13237 equivalent, otherwise it returns its argument.
13238
13239 @item CHR(@var{i})
13240 Returns the character whose ordinal value is @var{i}.
13241
13242 @item DEC(@var{v})
13243 Decrements the value in the variable @var{v} by one. Returns the new value.
13244
13245 @item DEC(@var{v},@var{i})
13246 Decrements the value in the variable @var{v} by @var{i}. Returns the
13247 new value.
13248
13249 @item EXCL(@var{m},@var{s})
13250 Removes the element @var{m} from the set @var{s}. Returns the new
13251 set.
13252
13253 @item FLOAT(@var{i})
13254 Returns the floating point equivalent of the integer @var{i}.
13255
13256 @item HIGH(@var{a})
13257 Returns the index of the last member of @var{a}.
13258
13259 @item INC(@var{v})
13260 Increments the value in the variable @var{v} by one. Returns the new value.
13261
13262 @item INC(@var{v},@var{i})
13263 Increments the value in the variable @var{v} by @var{i}. Returns the
13264 new value.
13265
13266 @item INCL(@var{m},@var{s})
13267 Adds the element @var{m} to the set @var{s} if it is not already
13268 there. Returns the new set.
13269
13270 @item MAX(@var{t})
13271 Returns the maximum value of the type @var{t}.
13272
13273 @item MIN(@var{t})
13274 Returns the minimum value of the type @var{t}.
13275
13276 @item ODD(@var{i})
13277 Returns boolean TRUE if @var{i} is an odd number.
13278
13279 @item ORD(@var{x})
13280 Returns the ordinal value of its argument. For example, the ordinal
13281 value of a character is its @sc{ascii} value (on machines supporting the
13282 @sc{ascii} character set). @var{x} must be of an ordered type, which include
13283 integral, character and enumerated types.
13284
13285 @item SIZE(@var{x})
13286 Returns the size of its argument. @var{x} can be a variable or a type.
13287
13288 @item TRUNC(@var{r})
13289 Returns the integral part of @var{r}.
13290
13291 @item TSIZE(@var{x})
13292 Returns the size of its argument. @var{x} can be a variable or a type.
13293
13294 @item VAL(@var{t},@var{i})
13295 Returns the member of the type @var{t} whose ordinal value is @var{i}.
13296 @end table
13297
13298 @quotation
13299 @emph{Warning:} Sets and their operations are not yet supported, so
13300 @value{GDBN} treats the use of procedures @code{INCL} and @code{EXCL} as
13301 an error.
13302 @end quotation
13303
13304 @cindex Modula-2 constants
13305 @node M2 Constants
13306 @subsubsection Constants
13307
13308 @value{GDBN} allows you to express the constants of Modula-2 in the following
13309 ways:
13310
13311 @itemize @bullet
13312
13313 @item
13314 Integer constants are simply a sequence of digits. When used in an
13315 expression, a constant is interpreted to be type-compatible with the
13316 rest of the expression. Hexadecimal integers are specified by a
13317 trailing @samp{H}, and octal integers by a trailing @samp{B}.
13318
13319 @item
13320 Floating point constants appear as a sequence of digits, followed by a
13321 decimal point and another sequence of digits. An optional exponent can
13322 then be specified, in the form @samp{E@r{[}+@r{|}-@r{]}@var{nnn}}, where
13323 @samp{@r{[}+@r{|}-@r{]}@var{nnn}} is the desired exponent. All of the
13324 digits of the floating point constant must be valid decimal (base 10)
13325 digits.
13326
13327 @item
13328 Character constants consist of a single character enclosed by a pair of
13329 like quotes, either single (@code{'}) or double (@code{"}). They may
13330 also be expressed by their ordinal value (their @sc{ascii} value, usually)
13331 followed by a @samp{C}.
13332
13333 @item
13334 String constants consist of a sequence of characters enclosed by a
13335 pair of like quotes, either single (@code{'}) or double (@code{"}).
13336 Escape sequences in the style of C are also allowed. @xref{C
13337 Constants, ,C and C@t{++} Constants}, for a brief explanation of escape
13338 sequences.
13339
13340 @item
13341 Enumerated constants consist of an enumerated identifier.
13342
13343 @item
13344 Boolean constants consist of the identifiers @code{TRUE} and
13345 @code{FALSE}.
13346
13347 @item
13348 Pointer constants consist of integral values only.
13349
13350 @item
13351 Set constants are not yet supported.
13352 @end itemize
13353
13354 @node M2 Types
13355 @subsubsection Modula-2 Types
13356 @cindex Modula-2 types
13357
13358 Currently @value{GDBN} can print the following data types in Modula-2
13359 syntax: array types, record types, set types, pointer types, procedure
13360 types, enumerated types, subrange types and base types. You can also
13361 print the contents of variables declared using these type.
13362 This section gives a number of simple source code examples together with
13363 sample @value{GDBN} sessions.
13364
13365 The first example contains the following section of code:
13366
13367 @smallexample
13368 VAR
13369 s: SET OF CHAR ;
13370 r: [20..40] ;
13371 @end smallexample
13372
13373 @noindent
13374 and you can request @value{GDBN} to interrogate the type and value of
13375 @code{r} and @code{s}.
13376
13377 @smallexample
13378 (@value{GDBP}) print s
13379 @{'A'..'C', 'Z'@}
13380 (@value{GDBP}) ptype s
13381 SET OF CHAR
13382 (@value{GDBP}) print r
13383 21
13384 (@value{GDBP}) ptype r
13385 [20..40]
13386 @end smallexample
13387
13388 @noindent
13389 Likewise if your source code declares @code{s} as:
13390
13391 @smallexample
13392 VAR
13393 s: SET ['A'..'Z'] ;
13394 @end smallexample
13395
13396 @noindent
13397 then you may query the type of @code{s} by:
13398
13399 @smallexample
13400 (@value{GDBP}) ptype s
13401 type = SET ['A'..'Z']
13402 @end smallexample
13403
13404 @noindent
13405 Note that at present you cannot interactively manipulate set
13406 expressions using the debugger.
13407
13408 The following example shows how you might declare an array in Modula-2
13409 and how you can interact with @value{GDBN} to print its type and contents:
13410
13411 @smallexample
13412 VAR
13413 s: ARRAY [-10..10] OF CHAR ;
13414 @end smallexample
13415
13416 @smallexample
13417 (@value{GDBP}) ptype s
13418 ARRAY [-10..10] OF CHAR
13419 @end smallexample
13420
13421 Note that the array handling is not yet complete and although the type
13422 is printed correctly, expression handling still assumes that all
13423 arrays have a lower bound of zero and not @code{-10} as in the example
13424 above.
13425
13426 Here are some more type related Modula-2 examples:
13427
13428 @smallexample
13429 TYPE
13430 colour = (blue, red, yellow, green) ;
13431 t = [blue..yellow] ;
13432 VAR
13433 s: t ;
13434 BEGIN
13435 s := blue ;
13436 @end smallexample
13437
13438 @noindent
13439 The @value{GDBN} interaction shows how you can query the data type
13440 and value of a variable.
13441
13442 @smallexample
13443 (@value{GDBP}) print s
13444 $1 = blue
13445 (@value{GDBP}) ptype t
13446 type = [blue..yellow]
13447 @end smallexample
13448
13449 @noindent
13450 In this example a Modula-2 array is declared and its contents
13451 displayed. Observe that the contents are written in the same way as
13452 their @code{C} counterparts.
13453
13454 @smallexample
13455 VAR
13456 s: ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL ;
13457 BEGIN
13458 s[1] := 1 ;
13459 @end smallexample
13460
13461 @smallexample
13462 (@value{GDBP}) print s
13463 $1 = @{1, 0, 0, 0, 0@}
13464 (@value{GDBP}) ptype s
13465 type = ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL
13466 @end smallexample
13467
13468 The Modula-2 language interface to @value{GDBN} also understands
13469 pointer types as shown in this example:
13470
13471 @smallexample
13472 VAR
13473 s: POINTER TO ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL ;
13474 BEGIN
13475 NEW(s) ;
13476 s^[1] := 1 ;
13477 @end smallexample
13478
13479 @noindent
13480 and you can request that @value{GDBN} describes the type of @code{s}.
13481
13482 @smallexample
13483 (@value{GDBP}) ptype s
13484 type = POINTER TO ARRAY [1..5] OF CARDINAL
13485 @end smallexample
13486
13487 @value{GDBN} handles compound types as we can see in this example.
13488 Here we combine array types, record types, pointer types and subrange
13489 types:
13490
13491 @smallexample
13492 TYPE
13493 foo = RECORD
13494 f1: CARDINAL ;
13495 f2: CHAR ;
13496 f3: myarray ;
13497 END ;
13498
13499 myarray = ARRAY myrange OF CARDINAL ;
13500 myrange = [-2..2] ;
13501 VAR
13502 s: POINTER TO ARRAY myrange OF foo ;
13503 @end smallexample
13504
13505 @noindent
13506 and you can ask @value{GDBN} to describe the type of @code{s} as shown
13507 below.
13508
13509 @smallexample
13510 (@value{GDBP}) ptype s
13511 type = POINTER TO ARRAY [-2..2] OF foo = RECORD
13512 f1 : CARDINAL;
13513 f2 : CHAR;
13514 f3 : ARRAY [-2..2] OF CARDINAL;
13515 END
13516 @end smallexample
13517
13518 @node M2 Defaults
13519 @subsubsection Modula-2 Defaults
13520 @cindex Modula-2 defaults
13521
13522 If type and range checking are set automatically by @value{GDBN}, they
13523 both default to @code{on} whenever the working language changes to
13524 Modula-2. This happens regardless of whether you or @value{GDBN}
13525 selected the working language.
13526
13527 If you allow @value{GDBN} to set the language automatically, then entering
13528 code compiled from a file whose name ends with @file{.mod} sets the
13529 working language to Modula-2. @xref{Automatically, ,Having @value{GDBN}
13530 Infer the Source Language}, for further details.
13531
13532 @node Deviations
13533 @subsubsection Deviations from Standard Modula-2
13534 @cindex Modula-2, deviations from
13535
13536 A few changes have been made to make Modula-2 programs easier to debug.
13537 This is done primarily via loosening its type strictness:
13538
13539 @itemize @bullet
13540 @item
13541 Unlike in standard Modula-2, pointer constants can be formed by
13542 integers. This allows you to modify pointer variables during
13543 debugging. (In standard Modula-2, the actual address contained in a
13544 pointer variable is hidden from you; it can only be modified
13545 through direct assignment to another pointer variable or expression that
13546 returned a pointer.)
13547
13548 @item
13549 C escape sequences can be used in strings and characters to represent
13550 non-printable characters. @value{GDBN} prints out strings with these
13551 escape sequences embedded. Single non-printable characters are
13552 printed using the @samp{CHR(@var{nnn})} format.
13553
13554 @item
13555 The assignment operator (@code{:=}) returns the value of its right-hand
13556 argument.
13557
13558 @item
13559 All built-in procedures both modify @emph{and} return their argument.
13560 @end itemize
13561
13562 @node M2 Checks
13563 @subsubsection Modula-2 Type and Range Checks
13564 @cindex Modula-2 checks
13565
13566 @quotation
13567 @emph{Warning:} in this release, @value{GDBN} does not yet perform type or
13568 range checking.
13569 @end quotation
13570 @c FIXME remove warning when type/range checks added
13571
13572 @value{GDBN} considers two Modula-2 variables type equivalent if:
13573
13574 @itemize @bullet
13575 @item
13576 They are of types that have been declared equivalent via a @code{TYPE
13577 @var{t1} = @var{t2}} statement
13578
13579 @item
13580 They have been declared on the same line. (Note: This is true of the
13581 @sc{gnu} Modula-2 compiler, but it may not be true of other compilers.)
13582 @end itemize
13583
13584 As long as type checking is enabled, any attempt to combine variables
13585 whose types are not equivalent is an error.
13586
13587 Range checking is done on all mathematical operations, assignment, array
13588 index bounds, and all built-in functions and procedures.
13589
13590 @node M2 Scope
13591 @subsubsection The Scope Operators @code{::} and @code{.}
13592 @cindex scope
13593 @cindex @code{.}, Modula-2 scope operator
13594 @cindex colon, doubled as scope operator
13595 @ifinfo
13596 @vindex colon-colon@r{, in Modula-2}
13597 @c Info cannot handle :: but TeX can.
13598 @end ifinfo
13599 @ifnotinfo
13600 @vindex ::@r{, in Modula-2}
13601 @end ifnotinfo
13602
13603 There are a few subtle differences between the Modula-2 scope operator
13604 (@code{.}) and the @value{GDBN} scope operator (@code{::}). The two have
13605 similar syntax:
13606
13607 @smallexample
13608
13609 @var{module} . @var{id}
13610 @var{scope} :: @var{id}
13611 @end smallexample
13612
13613 @noindent
13614 where @var{scope} is the name of a module or a procedure,
13615 @var{module} the name of a module, and @var{id} is any declared
13616 identifier within your program, except another module.
13617
13618 Using the @code{::} operator makes @value{GDBN} search the scope
13619 specified by @var{scope} for the identifier @var{id}. If it is not
13620 found in the specified scope, then @value{GDBN} searches all scopes
13621 enclosing the one specified by @var{scope}.
13622
13623 Using the @code{.} operator makes @value{GDBN} search the current scope for
13624 the identifier specified by @var{id} that was imported from the
13625 definition module specified by @var{module}. With this operator, it is
13626 an error if the identifier @var{id} was not imported from definition
13627 module @var{module}, or if @var{id} is not an identifier in
13628 @var{module}.
13629
13630 @node GDB/M2
13631 @subsubsection @value{GDBN} and Modula-2
13632
13633 Some @value{GDBN} commands have little use when debugging Modula-2 programs.
13634 Five subcommands of @code{set print} and @code{show print} apply
13635 specifically to C and C@t{++}: @samp{vtbl}, @samp{demangle},
13636 @samp{asm-demangle}, @samp{object}, and @samp{union}. The first four
13637 apply to C@t{++}, and the last to the C @code{union} type, which has no direct
13638 analogue in Modula-2.
13639
13640 The @code{@@} operator (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}), while available
13641 with any language, is not useful with Modula-2. Its
13642 intent is to aid the debugging of @dfn{dynamic arrays}, which cannot be
13643 created in Modula-2 as they can in C or C@t{++}. However, because an
13644 address can be specified by an integral constant, the construct
13645 @samp{@{@var{type}@}@var{adrexp}} is still useful.
13646
13647 @cindex @code{#} in Modula-2
13648 In @value{GDBN} scripts, the Modula-2 inequality operator @code{#} is
13649 interpreted as the beginning of a comment. Use @code{<>} instead.
13650
13651 @node Ada
13652 @subsection Ada
13653 @cindex Ada
13654
13655 The extensions made to @value{GDBN} for Ada only support
13656 output from the @sc{gnu} Ada (GNAT) compiler.
13657 Other Ada compilers are not currently supported, and
13658 attempting to debug executables produced by them is most likely
13659 to be difficult.
13660
13661
13662 @cindex expressions in Ada
13663 @menu
13664 * Ada Mode Intro:: General remarks on the Ada syntax
13665 and semantics supported by Ada mode
13666 in @value{GDBN}.
13667 * Omissions from Ada:: Restrictions on the Ada expression syntax.
13668 * Additions to Ada:: Extensions of the Ada expression syntax.
13669 * Stopping Before Main Program:: Debugging the program during elaboration.
13670 * Ada Tasks:: Listing and setting breakpoints in tasks.
13671 * Ada Tasks and Core Files:: Tasking Support when Debugging Core Files
13672 * Ravenscar Profile:: Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar
13673 Profile
13674 * Ada Glitches:: Known peculiarities of Ada mode.
13675 @end menu
13676
13677 @node Ada Mode Intro
13678 @subsubsection Introduction
13679 @cindex Ada mode, general
13680
13681 The Ada mode of @value{GDBN} supports a fairly large subset of Ada expression
13682 syntax, with some extensions.
13683 The philosophy behind the design of this subset is
13684
13685 @itemize @bullet
13686 @item
13687 That @value{GDBN} should provide basic literals and access to operations for
13688 arithmetic, dereferencing, field selection, indexing, and subprogram calls,
13689 leaving more sophisticated computations to subprograms written into the
13690 program (which therefore may be called from @value{GDBN}).
13691
13692 @item
13693 That type safety and strict adherence to Ada language restrictions
13694 are not particularly important to the @value{GDBN} user.
13695
13696 @item
13697 That brevity is important to the @value{GDBN} user.
13698 @end itemize
13699
13700 Thus, for brevity, the debugger acts as if all names declared in
13701 user-written packages are directly visible, even if they are not visible
13702 according to Ada rules, thus making it unnecessary to fully qualify most
13703 names with their packages, regardless of context. Where this causes
13704 ambiguity, @value{GDBN} asks the user's intent.
13705
13706 The debugger will start in Ada mode if it detects an Ada main program.
13707 As for other languages, it will enter Ada mode when stopped in a program that
13708 was translated from an Ada source file.
13709
13710 While in Ada mode, you may use `@t{--}' for comments. This is useful
13711 mostly for documenting command files. The standard @value{GDBN} comment
13712 (@samp{#}) still works at the beginning of a line in Ada mode, but not in the
13713 middle (to allow based literals).
13714
13715 The debugger supports limited overloading. Given a subprogram call in which
13716 the function symbol has multiple definitions, it will use the number of
13717 actual parameters and some information about their types to attempt to narrow
13718 the set of definitions. It also makes very limited use of context, preferring
13719 procedures to functions in the context of the @code{call} command, and
13720 functions to procedures elsewhere.
13721
13722 @node Omissions from Ada
13723 @subsubsection Omissions from Ada
13724 @cindex Ada, omissions from
13725
13726 Here are the notable omissions from the subset:
13727
13728 @itemize @bullet
13729 @item
13730 Only a subset of the attributes are supported:
13731
13732 @itemize @minus
13733 @item
13734 @t{'First}, @t{'Last}, and @t{'Length}
13735 on array objects (not on types and subtypes).
13736
13737 @item
13738 @t{'Min} and @t{'Max}.
13739
13740 @item
13741 @t{'Pos} and @t{'Val}.
13742
13743 @item
13744 @t{'Tag}.
13745
13746 @item
13747 @t{'Range} on array objects (not subtypes), but only as the right
13748 operand of the membership (@code{in}) operator.
13749
13750 @item
13751 @t{'Access}, @t{'Unchecked_Access}, and
13752 @t{'Unrestricted_Access} (a GNAT extension).
13753
13754 @item
13755 @t{'Address}.
13756 @end itemize
13757
13758 @item
13759 The names in
13760 @code{Characters.Latin_1} are not available and
13761 concatenation is not implemented. Thus, escape characters in strings are
13762 not currently available.
13763
13764 @item
13765 Equality tests (@samp{=} and @samp{/=}) on arrays test for bitwise
13766 equality of representations. They will generally work correctly
13767 for strings and arrays whose elements have integer or enumeration types.
13768 They may not work correctly for arrays whose element
13769 types have user-defined equality, for arrays of real values
13770 (in particular, IEEE-conformant floating point, because of negative
13771 zeroes and NaNs), and for arrays whose elements contain unused bits with
13772 indeterminate values.
13773
13774 @item
13775 The other component-by-component array operations (@code{and}, @code{or},
13776 @code{xor}, @code{not}, and relational tests other than equality)
13777 are not implemented.
13778
13779 @item
13780 @cindex array aggregates (Ada)
13781 @cindex record aggregates (Ada)
13782 @cindex aggregates (Ada)
13783 There is limited support for array and record aggregates. They are
13784 permitted only on the right sides of assignments, as in these examples:
13785
13786 @smallexample
13787 (@value{GDBP}) set An_Array := (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
13788 (@value{GDBP}) set An_Array := (1, others => 0)
13789 (@value{GDBP}) set An_Array := (0|4 => 1, 1..3 => 2, 5 => 6)
13790 (@value{GDBP}) set A_2D_Array := ((1, 2, 3), (4, 5, 6), (7, 8, 9))
13791 (@value{GDBP}) set A_Record := (1, "Peter", True);
13792 (@value{GDBP}) set A_Record := (Name => "Peter", Id => 1, Alive => True)
13793 @end smallexample
13794
13795 Changing a
13796 discriminant's value by assigning an aggregate has an
13797 undefined effect if that discriminant is used within the record.
13798 However, you can first modify discriminants by directly assigning to
13799 them (which normally would not be allowed in Ada), and then performing an
13800 aggregate assignment. For example, given a variable @code{A_Rec}
13801 declared to have a type such as:
13802
13803 @smallexample
13804 type Rec (Len : Small_Integer := 0) is record
13805 Id : Integer;
13806 Vals : IntArray (1 .. Len);
13807 end record;
13808 @end smallexample
13809
13810 you can assign a value with a different size of @code{Vals} with two
13811 assignments:
13812
13813 @smallexample
13814 (@value{GDBP}) set A_Rec.Len := 4
13815 (@value{GDBP}) set A_Rec := (Id => 42, Vals => (1, 2, 3, 4))
13816 @end smallexample
13817
13818 As this example also illustrates, @value{GDBN} is very loose about the usual
13819 rules concerning aggregates. You may leave out some of the
13820 components of an array or record aggregate (such as the @code{Len}
13821 component in the assignment to @code{A_Rec} above); they will retain their
13822 original values upon assignment. You may freely use dynamic values as
13823 indices in component associations. You may even use overlapping or
13824 redundant component associations, although which component values are
13825 assigned in such cases is not defined.
13826
13827 @item
13828 Calls to dispatching subprograms are not implemented.
13829
13830 @item
13831 The overloading algorithm is much more limited (i.e., less selective)
13832 than that of real Ada. It makes only limited use of the context in
13833 which a subexpression appears to resolve its meaning, and it is much
13834 looser in its rules for allowing type matches. As a result, some
13835 function calls will be ambiguous, and the user will be asked to choose
13836 the proper resolution.
13837
13838 @item
13839 The @code{new} operator is not implemented.
13840
13841 @item
13842 Entry calls are not implemented.
13843
13844 @item
13845 Aside from printing, arithmetic operations on the native VAX floating-point
13846 formats are not supported.
13847
13848 @item
13849 It is not possible to slice a packed array.
13850
13851 @item
13852 The names @code{True} and @code{False}, when not part of a qualified name,
13853 are interpreted as if implicitly prefixed by @code{Standard}, regardless of
13854 context.
13855 Should your program
13856 redefine these names in a package or procedure (at best a dubious practice),
13857 you will have to use fully qualified names to access their new definitions.
13858 @end itemize
13859
13860 @node Additions to Ada
13861 @subsubsection Additions to Ada
13862 @cindex Ada, deviations from
13863
13864 As it does for other languages, @value{GDBN} makes certain generic
13865 extensions to Ada (@pxref{Expressions}):
13866
13867 @itemize @bullet
13868 @item
13869 If the expression @var{E} is a variable residing in memory (typically
13870 a local variable or array element) and @var{N} is a positive integer,
13871 then @code{@var{E}@@@var{N}} displays the values of @var{E} and the
13872 @var{N}-1 adjacent variables following it in memory as an array. In
13873 Ada, this operator is generally not necessary, since its prime use is
13874 in displaying parts of an array, and slicing will usually do this in
13875 Ada. However, there are occasional uses when debugging programs in
13876 which certain debugging information has been optimized away.
13877
13878 @item
13879 @code{@var{B}::@var{var}} means ``the variable named @var{var} that
13880 appears in function or file @var{B}.'' When @var{B} is a file name,
13881 you must typically surround it in single quotes.
13882
13883 @item
13884 The expression @code{@{@var{type}@} @var{addr}} means ``the variable of type
13885 @var{type} that appears at address @var{addr}.''
13886
13887 @item
13888 A name starting with @samp{$} is a convenience variable
13889 (@pxref{Convenience Vars}) or a machine register (@pxref{Registers}).
13890 @end itemize
13891
13892 In addition, @value{GDBN} provides a few other shortcuts and outright
13893 additions specific to Ada:
13894
13895 @itemize @bullet
13896 @item
13897 The assignment statement is allowed as an expression, returning
13898 its right-hand operand as its value. Thus, you may enter
13899
13900 @smallexample
13901 (@value{GDBP}) set x := y + 3
13902 (@value{GDBP}) print A(tmp := y + 1)
13903 @end smallexample
13904
13905 @item
13906 The semicolon is allowed as an ``operator,'' returning as its value
13907 the value of its right-hand operand.
13908 This allows, for example,
13909 complex conditional breaks:
13910
13911 @smallexample
13912 (@value{GDBP}) break f
13913 (@value{GDBP}) condition 1 (report(i); k += 1; A(k) > 100)
13914 @end smallexample
13915
13916 @item
13917 Rather than use catenation and symbolic character names to introduce special
13918 characters into strings, one may instead use a special bracket notation,
13919 which is also used to print strings. A sequence of characters of the form
13920 @samp{["@var{XX}"]} within a string or character literal denotes the
13921 (single) character whose numeric encoding is @var{XX} in hexadecimal. The
13922 sequence of characters @samp{["""]} also denotes a single quotation mark
13923 in strings. For example,
13924 @smallexample
13925 "One line.["0a"]Next line.["0a"]"
13926 @end smallexample
13927 @noindent
13928 contains an ASCII newline character (@code{Ada.Characters.Latin_1.LF})
13929 after each period.
13930
13931 @item
13932 The subtype used as a prefix for the attributes @t{'Pos}, @t{'Min}, and
13933 @t{'Max} is optional (and is ignored in any case). For example, it is valid
13934 to write
13935
13936 @smallexample
13937 (@value{GDBP}) print 'max(x, y)
13938 @end smallexample
13939
13940 @item
13941 When printing arrays, @value{GDBN} uses positional notation when the
13942 array has a lower bound of 1, and uses a modified named notation otherwise.
13943 For example, a one-dimensional array of three integers with a lower bound
13944 of 3 might print as
13945
13946 @smallexample
13947 (3 => 10, 17, 1)
13948 @end smallexample
13949
13950 @noindent
13951 That is, in contrast to valid Ada, only the first component has a @code{=>}
13952 clause.
13953
13954 @item
13955 You may abbreviate attributes in expressions with any unique,
13956 multi-character subsequence of
13957 their names (an exact match gets preference).
13958 For example, you may use @t{a'len}, @t{a'gth}, or @t{a'lh}
13959 in place of @t{a'length}.
13960
13961 @item
13962 @cindex quoting Ada internal identifiers
13963 Since Ada is case-insensitive, the debugger normally maps identifiers you type
13964 to lower case. The GNAT compiler uses upper-case characters for
13965 some of its internal identifiers, which are normally of no interest to users.
13966 For the rare occasions when you actually have to look at them,
13967 enclose them in angle brackets to avoid the lower-case mapping.
13968 For example,
13969 @smallexample
13970 (@value{GDBP}) print <JMPBUF_SAVE>[0]
13971 @end smallexample
13972
13973 @item
13974 Printing an object of class-wide type or dereferencing an
13975 access-to-class-wide value will display all the components of the object's
13976 specific type (as indicated by its run-time tag). Likewise, component
13977 selection on such a value will operate on the specific type of the
13978 object.
13979
13980 @end itemize
13981
13982 @node Stopping Before Main Program
13983 @subsubsection Stopping at the Very Beginning
13984
13985 @cindex breakpointing Ada elaboration code
13986 It is sometimes necessary to debug the program during elaboration, and
13987 before reaching the main procedure.
13988 As defined in the Ada Reference
13989 Manual, the elaboration code is invoked from a procedure called
13990 @code{adainit}. To run your program up to the beginning of
13991 elaboration, simply use the following two commands:
13992 @code{tbreak adainit} and @code{run}.
13993
13994 @node Ada Tasks
13995 @subsubsection Extensions for Ada Tasks
13996 @cindex Ada, tasking
13997
13998 Support for Ada tasks is analogous to that for threads (@pxref{Threads}).
13999 @value{GDBN} provides the following task-related commands:
14000
14001 @table @code
14002 @kindex info tasks
14003 @item info tasks
14004 This command shows a list of current Ada tasks, as in the following example:
14005
14006
14007 @smallexample
14008 @iftex
14009 @leftskip=0.5cm
14010 @end iftex
14011 (@value{GDBP}) info tasks
14012 ID TID P-ID Pri State Name
14013 1 8088000 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task
14014 2 80a4000 1 15 Accept Statement b
14015 3 809a800 1 15 Child Activation Wait a
14016 * 4 80ae800 3 15 Runnable c
14017
14018 @end smallexample
14019
14020 @noindent
14021 In this listing, the asterisk before the last task indicates it to be the
14022 task currently being inspected.
14023
14024 @table @asis
14025 @item ID
14026 Represents @value{GDBN}'s internal task number.
14027
14028 @item TID
14029 The Ada task ID.
14030
14031 @item P-ID
14032 The parent's task ID (@value{GDBN}'s internal task number).
14033
14034 @item Pri
14035 The base priority of the task.
14036
14037 @item State
14038 Current state of the task.
14039
14040 @table @code
14041 @item Unactivated
14042 The task has been created but has not been activated. It cannot be
14043 executing.
14044
14045 @item Runnable
14046 The task is not blocked for any reason known to Ada. (It may be waiting
14047 for a mutex, though.) It is conceptually "executing" in normal mode.
14048
14049 @item Terminated
14050 The task is terminated, in the sense of ARM 9.3 (5). Any dependents
14051 that were waiting on terminate alternatives have been awakened and have
14052 terminated themselves.
14053
14054 @item Child Activation Wait
14055 The task is waiting for created tasks to complete activation.
14056
14057 @item Accept Statement
14058 The task is waiting on an accept or selective wait statement.
14059
14060 @item Waiting on entry call
14061 The task is waiting on an entry call.
14062
14063 @item Async Select Wait
14064 The task is waiting to start the abortable part of an asynchronous
14065 select statement.
14066
14067 @item Delay Sleep
14068 The task is waiting on a select statement with only a delay
14069 alternative open.
14070
14071 @item Child Termination Wait
14072 The task is sleeping having completed a master within itself, and is
14073 waiting for the tasks dependent on that master to become terminated or
14074 waiting on a terminate Phase.
14075
14076 @item Wait Child in Term Alt
14077 The task is sleeping waiting for tasks on terminate alternatives to
14078 finish terminating.
14079
14080 @item Accepting RV with @var{taskno}
14081 The task is accepting a rendez-vous with the task @var{taskno}.
14082 @end table
14083
14084 @item Name
14085 Name of the task in the program.
14086
14087 @end table
14088
14089 @kindex info task @var{taskno}
14090 @item info task @var{taskno}
14091 This command shows detailled informations on the specified task, as in
14092 the following example:
14093 @smallexample
14094 @iftex
14095 @leftskip=0.5cm
14096 @end iftex
14097 (@value{GDBP}) info tasks
14098 ID TID P-ID Pri State Name
14099 1 8077880 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task
14100 * 2 807c468 1 15 Runnable task_1
14101 (@value{GDBP}) info task 2
14102 Ada Task: 0x807c468
14103 Name: task_1
14104 Thread: 0x807f378
14105 Parent: 1 (main_task)
14106 Base Priority: 15
14107 State: Runnable
14108 @end smallexample
14109
14110 @item task
14111 @kindex task@r{ (Ada)}
14112 @cindex current Ada task ID
14113 This command prints the ID of the current task.
14114
14115 @smallexample
14116 @iftex
14117 @leftskip=0.5cm
14118 @end iftex
14119 (@value{GDBP}) info tasks
14120 ID TID P-ID Pri State Name
14121 1 8077870 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task
14122 * 2 807c458 1 15 Runnable t
14123 (@value{GDBP}) task
14124 [Current task is 2]
14125 @end smallexample
14126
14127 @item task @var{taskno}
14128 @cindex Ada task switching
14129 This command is like the @code{thread @var{threadno}}
14130 command (@pxref{Threads}). It switches the context of debugging
14131 from the current task to the given task.
14132
14133 @smallexample
14134 @iftex
14135 @leftskip=0.5cm
14136 @end iftex
14137 (@value{GDBP}) info tasks
14138 ID TID P-ID Pri State Name
14139 1 8077870 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task
14140 * 2 807c458 1 15 Runnable t
14141 (@value{GDBP}) task 1
14142 [Switching to task 1]
14143 #0 0x8067726 in pthread_cond_wait ()
14144 (@value{GDBP}) bt
14145 #0 0x8067726 in pthread_cond_wait ()
14146 #1 0x8056714 in system.os_interface.pthread_cond_wait ()
14147 #2 0x805cb63 in system.task_primitives.operations.sleep ()
14148 #3 0x806153e in system.tasking.stages.activate_tasks ()
14149 #4 0x804aacc in un () at un.adb:5
14150 @end smallexample
14151
14152 @item break @var{linespec} task @var{taskno}
14153 @itemx break @var{linespec} task @var{taskno} if @dots{}
14154 @cindex breakpoints and tasks, in Ada
14155 @cindex task breakpoints, in Ada
14156 @kindex break @dots{} task @var{taskno}@r{ (Ada)}
14157 These commands are like the @code{break @dots{} thread @dots{}}
14158 command (@pxref{Thread Stops}).
14159 @var{linespec} specifies source lines, as described
14160 in @ref{Specify Location}.
14161
14162 Use the qualifier @samp{task @var{taskno}} with a breakpoint command
14163 to specify that you only want @value{GDBN} to stop the program when a
14164 particular Ada task reaches this breakpoint. @var{taskno} is one of the
14165 numeric task identifiers assigned by @value{GDBN}, shown in the first
14166 column of the @samp{info tasks} display.
14167
14168 If you do not specify @samp{task @var{taskno}} when you set a
14169 breakpoint, the breakpoint applies to @emph{all} tasks of your
14170 program.
14171
14172 You can use the @code{task} qualifier on conditional breakpoints as
14173 well; in this case, place @samp{task @var{taskno}} before the
14174 breakpoint condition (before the @code{if}).
14175
14176 For example,
14177
14178 @smallexample
14179 @iftex
14180 @leftskip=0.5cm
14181 @end iftex
14182 (@value{GDBP}) info tasks
14183 ID TID P-ID Pri State Name
14184 1 140022020 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task
14185 2 140045060 1 15 Accept/Select Wait t2
14186 3 140044840 1 15 Runnable t1
14187 * 4 140056040 1 15 Runnable t3
14188 (@value{GDBP}) b 15 task 2
14189 Breakpoint 5 at 0x120044cb0: file test_task_debug.adb, line 15.
14190 (@value{GDBP}) cont
14191 Continuing.
14192 task # 1 running
14193 task # 2 running
14194
14195 Breakpoint 5, test_task_debug () at test_task_debug.adb:15
14196 15 flush;
14197 (@value{GDBP}) info tasks
14198 ID TID P-ID Pri State Name
14199 1 140022020 0 15 Child Activation Wait main_task
14200 * 2 140045060 1 15 Runnable t2
14201 3 140044840 1 15 Runnable t1
14202 4 140056040 1 15 Delay Sleep t3
14203 @end smallexample
14204 @end table
14205
14206 @node Ada Tasks and Core Files
14207 @subsubsection Tasking Support when Debugging Core Files
14208 @cindex Ada tasking and core file debugging
14209
14210 When inspecting a core file, as opposed to debugging a live program,
14211 tasking support may be limited or even unavailable, depending on
14212 the platform being used.
14213 For instance, on x86-linux, the list of tasks is available, but task
14214 switching is not supported. On Tru64, however, task switching will work
14215 as usual.
14216
14217 On certain platforms, including Tru64, the debugger needs to perform some
14218 memory writes in order to provide Ada tasking support. When inspecting
14219 a core file, this means that the core file must be opened with read-write
14220 privileges, using the command @samp{"set write on"} (@pxref{Patching}).
14221 Under these circumstances, you should make a backup copy of the core
14222 file before inspecting it with @value{GDBN}.
14223
14224 @node Ravenscar Profile
14225 @subsubsection Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile
14226 @cindex Ravenscar Profile
14227
14228 The @dfn{Ravenscar Profile} is a subset of the Ada tasking features,
14229 specifically designed for systems with safety-critical real-time
14230 requirements.
14231
14232 @table @code
14233 @kindex set ravenscar task-switching on
14234 @cindex task switching with program using Ravenscar Profile
14235 @item set ravenscar task-switching on
14236 Allows task switching when debugging a program that uses the Ravenscar
14237 Profile. This is the default.
14238
14239 @kindex set ravenscar task-switching off
14240 @item set ravenscar task-switching off
14241 Turn off task switching when debugging a program that uses the Ravenscar
14242 Profile. This is mostly intended to disable the code that adds support
14243 for the Ravenscar Profile, in case a bug in either @value{GDBN} or in
14244 the Ravenscar runtime is preventing @value{GDBN} from working properly.
14245 To be effective, this command should be run before the program is started.
14246
14247 @kindex show ravenscar task-switching
14248 @item show ravenscar task-switching
14249 Show whether it is possible to switch from task to task in a program
14250 using the Ravenscar Profile.
14251
14252 @end table
14253
14254 @node Ada Glitches
14255 @subsubsection Known Peculiarities of Ada Mode
14256 @cindex Ada, problems
14257
14258 Besides the omissions listed previously (@pxref{Omissions from Ada}),
14259 we know of several problems with and limitations of Ada mode in
14260 @value{GDBN},
14261 some of which will be fixed with planned future releases of the debugger
14262 and the GNU Ada compiler.
14263
14264 @itemize @bullet
14265 @item
14266 Static constants that the compiler chooses not to materialize as objects in
14267 storage are invisible to the debugger.
14268
14269 @item
14270 Named parameter associations in function argument lists are ignored (the
14271 argument lists are treated as positional).
14272
14273 @item
14274 Many useful library packages are currently invisible to the debugger.
14275
14276 @item
14277 Fixed-point arithmetic, conversions, input, and output is carried out using
14278 floating-point arithmetic, and may give results that only approximate those on
14279 the host machine.
14280
14281 @item
14282 The GNAT compiler never generates the prefix @code{Standard} for any of
14283 the standard symbols defined by the Ada language. @value{GDBN} knows about
14284 this: it will strip the prefix from names when you use it, and will never
14285 look for a name you have so qualified among local symbols, nor match against
14286 symbols in other packages or subprograms. If you have
14287 defined entities anywhere in your program other than parameters and
14288 local variables whose simple names match names in @code{Standard},
14289 GNAT's lack of qualification here can cause confusion. When this happens,
14290 you can usually resolve the confusion
14291 by qualifying the problematic names with package
14292 @code{Standard} explicitly.
14293 @end itemize
14294
14295 Older versions of the compiler sometimes generate erroneous debugging
14296 information, resulting in the debugger incorrectly printing the value
14297 of affected entities. In some cases, the debugger is able to work
14298 around an issue automatically. In other cases, the debugger is able
14299 to work around the issue, but the work-around has to be specifically
14300 enabled.
14301
14302 @kindex set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
14303 @kindex show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
14304 @table @code
14305
14306 @item set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on
14307 Configure GDB to strictly follow the GNAT encoding when computing the
14308 value of Ada entities, particularly when @code{PAD} and @code{PAD___XVS}
14309 types are involved (see @code{ada/exp_dbug.ads} in the GCC sources for
14310 a complete description of the encoding used by the GNAT compiler).
14311 This is the default.
14312
14313 @item set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS off
14314 This is related to the encoding using by the GNAT compiler. If @value{GDBN}
14315 sometimes prints the wrong value for certain entities, changing @code{ada
14316 trust-PAD-over-XVS} to @code{off} activates a work-around which may fix
14317 the issue. It is always safe to set @code{ada trust-PAD-over-XVS} to
14318 @code{off}, but this incurs a slight performance penalty, so it is
14319 recommended to leave this setting to @code{on} unless necessary.
14320
14321 @end table
14322
14323 @node Unsupported Languages
14324 @section Unsupported Languages
14325
14326 @cindex unsupported languages
14327 @cindex minimal language
14328 In addition to the other fully-supported programming languages,
14329 @value{GDBN} also provides a pseudo-language, called @code{minimal}.
14330 It does not represent a real programming language, but provides a set
14331 of capabilities close to what the C or assembly languages provide.
14332 This should allow most simple operations to be performed while debugging
14333 an application that uses a language currently not supported by @value{GDBN}.
14334
14335 If the language is set to @code{auto}, @value{GDBN} will automatically
14336 select this language if the current frame corresponds to an unsupported
14337 language.
14338
14339 @node Symbols
14340 @chapter Examining the Symbol Table
14341
14342 The commands described in this chapter allow you to inquire about the
14343 symbols (names of variables, functions and types) defined in your
14344 program. This information is inherent in the text of your program and
14345 does not change as your program executes. @value{GDBN} finds it in your
14346 program's symbol table, in the file indicated when you started @value{GDBN}
14347 (@pxref{File Options, ,Choosing Files}), or by one of the
14348 file-management commands (@pxref{Files, ,Commands to Specify Files}).
14349
14350 @cindex symbol names
14351 @cindex names of symbols
14352 @cindex quoting names
14353 Occasionally, you may need to refer to symbols that contain unusual
14354 characters, which @value{GDBN} ordinarily treats as word delimiters. The
14355 most frequent case is in referring to static variables in other
14356 source files (@pxref{Variables,,Program Variables}). File names
14357 are recorded in object files as debugging symbols, but @value{GDBN} would
14358 ordinarily parse a typical file name, like @file{foo.c}, as the three words
14359 @samp{foo} @samp{.} @samp{c}. To allow @value{GDBN} to recognize
14360 @samp{foo.c} as a single symbol, enclose it in single quotes; for example,
14361
14362 @smallexample
14363 p 'foo.c'::x
14364 @end smallexample
14365
14366 @noindent
14367 looks up the value of @code{x} in the scope of the file @file{foo.c}.
14368
14369 @table @code
14370 @cindex case-insensitive symbol names
14371 @cindex case sensitivity in symbol names
14372 @kindex set case-sensitive
14373 @item set case-sensitive on
14374 @itemx set case-sensitive off
14375 @itemx set case-sensitive auto
14376 Normally, when @value{GDBN} looks up symbols, it matches their names
14377 with case sensitivity determined by the current source language.
14378 Occasionally, you may wish to control that. The command @code{set
14379 case-sensitive} lets you do that by specifying @code{on} for
14380 case-sensitive matches or @code{off} for case-insensitive ones. If
14381 you specify @code{auto}, case sensitivity is reset to the default
14382 suitable for the source language. The default is case-sensitive
14383 matches for all languages except for Fortran, for which the default is
14384 case-insensitive matches.
14385
14386 @kindex show case-sensitive
14387 @item show case-sensitive
14388 This command shows the current setting of case sensitivity for symbols
14389 lookups.
14390
14391 @kindex info address
14392 @cindex address of a symbol
14393 @item info address @var{symbol}
14394 Describe where the data for @var{symbol} is stored. For a register
14395 variable, this says which register it is kept in. For a non-register
14396 local variable, this prints the stack-frame offset at which the variable
14397 is always stored.
14398
14399 Note the contrast with @samp{print &@var{symbol}}, which does not work
14400 at all for a register variable, and for a stack local variable prints
14401 the exact address of the current instantiation of the variable.
14402
14403 @kindex info symbol
14404 @cindex symbol from address
14405 @cindex closest symbol and offset for an address
14406 @item info symbol @var{addr}
14407 Print the name of a symbol which is stored at the address @var{addr}.
14408 If no symbol is stored exactly at @var{addr}, @value{GDBN} prints the
14409 nearest symbol and an offset from it:
14410
14411 @smallexample
14412 (@value{GDBP}) info symbol 0x54320
14413 _initialize_vx + 396 in section .text
14414 @end smallexample
14415
14416 @noindent
14417 This is the opposite of the @code{info address} command. You can use
14418 it to find out the name of a variable or a function given its address.
14419
14420 For dynamically linked executables, the name of executable or shared
14421 library containing the symbol is also printed:
14422
14423 @smallexample
14424 (@value{GDBP}) info symbol 0x400225
14425 _start + 5 in section .text of /tmp/a.out
14426 (@value{GDBP}) info symbol 0x2aaaac2811cf
14427 __read_nocancel + 6 in section .text of /usr/lib64/libc.so.6
14428 @end smallexample
14429
14430 @kindex whatis
14431 @item whatis [@var{arg}]
14432 Print the data type of @var{arg}, which can be either an expression
14433 or a name of a data type. With no argument, print the data type of
14434 @code{$}, the last value in the value history.
14435
14436 If @var{arg} is an expression (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}), it
14437 is not actually evaluated, and any side-effecting operations (such as
14438 assignments or function calls) inside it do not take place.
14439
14440 If @var{arg} is a variable or an expression, @code{whatis} prints its
14441 literal type as it is used in the source code. If the type was
14442 defined using a @code{typedef}, @code{whatis} will @emph{not} print
14443 the data type underlying the @code{typedef}. If the type of the
14444 variable or the expression is a compound data type, such as
14445 @code{struct} or @code{class}, @code{whatis} never prints their
14446 fields or methods. It just prints the @code{struct}/@code{class}
14447 name (a.k.a.@: its @dfn{tag}). If you want to see the members of
14448 such a compound data type, use @code{ptype}.
14449
14450 If @var{arg} is a type name that was defined using @code{typedef},
14451 @code{whatis} @dfn{unrolls} only one level of that @code{typedef}.
14452 Unrolling means that @code{whatis} will show the underlying type used
14453 in the @code{typedef} declaration of @var{arg}. However, if that
14454 underlying type is also a @code{typedef}, @code{whatis} will not
14455 unroll it.
14456
14457 For C code, the type names may also have the form @samp{class
14458 @var{class-name}}, @samp{struct @var{struct-tag}}, @samp{union
14459 @var{union-tag}} or @samp{enum @var{enum-tag}}.
14460
14461 @kindex ptype
14462 @item ptype [@var{arg}]
14463 @code{ptype} accepts the same arguments as @code{whatis}, but prints a
14464 detailed description of the type, instead of just the name of the type.
14465 @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}.
14466
14467 Contrary to @code{whatis}, @code{ptype} always unrolls any
14468 @code{typedef}s in its argument declaration, whether the argument is
14469 a variable, expression, or a data type. This means that @code{ptype}
14470 of a variable or an expression will not print literally its type as
14471 present in the source code---use @code{whatis} for that. @code{typedef}s at
14472 the pointer or reference targets are also unrolled. Only @code{typedef}s of
14473 fields, methods and inner @code{class typedef}s of @code{struct}s,
14474 @code{class}es and @code{union}s are not unrolled even with @code{ptype}.
14475
14476 For example, for this variable declaration:
14477
14478 @smallexample
14479 typedef double real_t;
14480 struct complex @{ real_t real; double imag; @};
14481 typedef struct complex complex_t;
14482 complex_t var;
14483 real_t *real_pointer_var;
14484 @end smallexample
14485
14486 @noindent
14487 the two commands give this output:
14488
14489 @smallexample
14490 @group
14491 (@value{GDBP}) whatis var
14492 type = complex_t
14493 (@value{GDBP}) ptype var
14494 type = struct complex @{
14495 real_t real;
14496 double imag;
14497 @}
14498 (@value{GDBP}) whatis complex_t
14499 type = struct complex
14500 (@value{GDBP}) whatis struct complex
14501 type = struct complex
14502 (@value{GDBP}) ptype struct complex
14503 type = struct complex @{
14504 real_t real;
14505 double imag;
14506 @}
14507 (@value{GDBP}) whatis real_pointer_var
14508 type = real_t *
14509 (@value{GDBP}) ptype real_pointer_var
14510 type = double *
14511 @end group
14512 @end smallexample
14513
14514 @noindent
14515 As with @code{whatis}, using @code{ptype} without an argument refers to
14516 the type of @code{$}, the last value in the value history.
14517
14518 @cindex incomplete type
14519 Sometimes, programs use opaque data types or incomplete specifications
14520 of complex data structure. If the debug information included in the
14521 program does not allow @value{GDBN} to display a full declaration of
14522 the data type, it will say @samp{<incomplete type>}. For example,
14523 given these declarations:
14524
14525 @smallexample
14526 struct foo;
14527 struct foo *fooptr;
14528 @end smallexample
14529
14530 @noindent
14531 but no definition for @code{struct foo} itself, @value{GDBN} will say:
14532
14533 @smallexample
14534 (@value{GDBP}) ptype foo
14535 $1 = <incomplete type>
14536 @end smallexample
14537
14538 @noindent
14539 ``Incomplete type'' is C terminology for data types that are not
14540 completely specified.
14541
14542 @kindex info types
14543 @item info types @var{regexp}
14544 @itemx info types
14545 Print a brief description of all types whose names match the regular
14546 expression @var{regexp} (or all types in your program, if you supply
14547 no argument). Each complete typename is matched as though it were a
14548 complete line; thus, @samp{i type value} gives information on all
14549 types in your program whose names include the string @code{value}, but
14550 @samp{i type ^value$} gives information only on types whose complete
14551 name is @code{value}.
14552
14553 This command differs from @code{ptype} in two ways: first, like
14554 @code{whatis}, it does not print a detailed description; second, it
14555 lists all source files where a type is defined.
14556
14557 @kindex info scope
14558 @cindex local variables
14559 @item info scope @var{location}
14560 List all the variables local to a particular scope. This command
14561 accepts a @var{location} argument---a function name, a source line, or
14562 an address preceded by a @samp{*}, and prints all the variables local
14563 to the scope defined by that location. (@xref{Specify Location}, for
14564 details about supported forms of @var{location}.) For example:
14565
14566 @smallexample
14567 (@value{GDBP}) @b{info scope command_line_handler}
14568 Scope for command_line_handler:
14569 Symbol rl is an argument at stack/frame offset 8, length 4.
14570 Symbol linebuffer is in static storage at address 0x150a18, length 4.
14571 Symbol linelength is in static storage at address 0x150a1c, length 4.
14572 Symbol p is a local variable in register $esi, length 4.
14573 Symbol p1 is a local variable in register $ebx, length 4.
14574 Symbol nline is a local variable in register $edx, length 4.
14575 Symbol repeat is a local variable at frame offset -8, length 4.
14576 @end smallexample
14577
14578 @noindent
14579 This command is especially useful for determining what data to collect
14580 during a @dfn{trace experiment}, see @ref{Tracepoint Actions,
14581 collect}.
14582
14583 @kindex info source
14584 @item info source
14585 Show information about the current source file---that is, the source file for
14586 the function containing the current point of execution:
14587 @itemize @bullet
14588 @item
14589 the name of the source file, and the directory containing it,
14590 @item
14591 the directory it was compiled in,
14592 @item
14593 its length, in lines,
14594 @item
14595 which programming language it is written in,
14596 @item
14597 whether the executable includes debugging information for that file, and
14598 if so, what format the information is in (e.g., STABS, Dwarf 2, etc.), and
14599 @item
14600 whether the debugging information includes information about
14601 preprocessor macros.
14602 @end itemize
14603
14604
14605 @kindex info sources
14606 @item info sources
14607 Print the names of all source files in your program for which there is
14608 debugging information, organized into two lists: files whose symbols
14609 have already been read, and files whose symbols will be read when needed.
14610
14611 @kindex info functions
14612 @item info functions
14613 Print the names and data types of all defined functions.
14614
14615 @item info functions @var{regexp}
14616 Print the names and data types of all defined functions
14617 whose names contain a match for regular expression @var{regexp}.
14618 Thus, @samp{info fun step} finds all functions whose names
14619 include @code{step}; @samp{info fun ^step} finds those whose names
14620 start with @code{step}. If a function name contains characters
14621 that conflict with the regular expression language (e.g.@:
14622 @samp{operator*()}), they may be quoted with a backslash.
14623
14624 @kindex info variables
14625 @item info variables
14626 Print the names and data types of all variables that are defined
14627 outside of functions (i.e.@: excluding local variables).
14628
14629 @item info variables @var{regexp}
14630 Print the names and data types of all variables (except for local
14631 variables) whose names contain a match for regular expression
14632 @var{regexp}.
14633
14634 @kindex info classes
14635 @cindex Objective-C, classes and selectors
14636 @item info classes
14637 @itemx info classes @var{regexp}
14638 Display all Objective-C classes in your program, or
14639 (with the @var{regexp} argument) all those matching a particular regular
14640 expression.
14641
14642 @kindex info selectors
14643 @item info selectors
14644 @itemx info selectors @var{regexp}
14645 Display all Objective-C selectors in your program, or
14646 (with the @var{regexp} argument) all those matching a particular regular
14647 expression.
14648
14649 @ignore
14650 This was never implemented.
14651 @kindex info methods
14652 @item info methods
14653 @itemx info methods @var{regexp}
14654 The @code{info methods} command permits the user to examine all defined
14655 methods within C@t{++} program, or (with the @var{regexp} argument) a
14656 specific set of methods found in the various C@t{++} classes. Many
14657 C@t{++} classes provide a large number of methods. Thus, the output
14658 from the @code{ptype} command can be overwhelming and hard to use. The
14659 @code{info-methods} command filters the methods, printing only those
14660 which match the regular-expression @var{regexp}.
14661 @end ignore
14662
14663 @cindex reloading symbols
14664 Some systems allow individual object files that make up your program to
14665 be replaced without stopping and restarting your program. For example,
14666 in VxWorks you can simply recompile a defective object file and keep on
14667 running. If you are running on one of these systems, you can allow
14668 @value{GDBN} to reload the symbols for automatically relinked modules:
14669
14670 @table @code
14671 @kindex set symbol-reloading
14672 @item set symbol-reloading on
14673 Replace symbol definitions for the corresponding source file when an
14674 object file with a particular name is seen again.
14675
14676 @item set symbol-reloading off
14677 Do not replace symbol definitions when encountering object files of the
14678 same name more than once. This is the default state; if you are not
14679 running on a system that permits automatic relinking of modules, you
14680 should leave @code{symbol-reloading} off, since otherwise @value{GDBN}
14681 may discard symbols when linking large programs, that may contain
14682 several modules (from different directories or libraries) with the same
14683 name.
14684
14685 @kindex show symbol-reloading
14686 @item show symbol-reloading
14687 Show the current @code{on} or @code{off} setting.
14688 @end table
14689
14690 @cindex opaque data types
14691 @kindex set opaque-type-resolution
14692 @item set opaque-type-resolution on
14693 Tell @value{GDBN} to resolve opaque types. An opaque type is a type
14694 declared as a pointer to a @code{struct}, @code{class}, or
14695 @code{union}---for example, @code{struct MyType *}---that is used in one
14696 source file although the full declaration of @code{struct MyType} is in
14697 another source file. The default is on.
14698
14699 A change in the setting of this subcommand will not take effect until
14700 the next time symbols for a file are loaded.
14701
14702 @item set opaque-type-resolution off
14703 Tell @value{GDBN} not to resolve opaque types. In this case, the type
14704 is printed as follows:
14705 @smallexample
14706 @{<no data fields>@}
14707 @end smallexample
14708
14709 @kindex show opaque-type-resolution
14710 @item show opaque-type-resolution
14711 Show whether opaque types are resolved or not.
14712
14713 @kindex maint print symbols
14714 @cindex symbol dump
14715 @kindex maint print psymbols
14716 @cindex partial symbol dump
14717 @item maint print symbols @var{filename}
14718 @itemx maint print psymbols @var{filename}
14719 @itemx maint print msymbols @var{filename}
14720 Write a dump of debugging symbol data into the file @var{filename}.
14721 These commands are used to debug the @value{GDBN} symbol-reading code. Only
14722 symbols with debugging data are included. If you use @samp{maint print
14723 symbols}, @value{GDBN} includes all the symbols for which it has already
14724 collected full details: that is, @var{filename} reflects symbols for
14725 only those files whose symbols @value{GDBN} has read. You can use the
14726 command @code{info sources} to find out which files these are. If you
14727 use @samp{maint print psymbols} instead, the dump shows information about
14728 symbols that @value{GDBN} only knows partially---that is, symbols defined in
14729 files that @value{GDBN} has skimmed, but not yet read completely. Finally,
14730 @samp{maint print msymbols} dumps just the minimal symbol information
14731 required for each object file from which @value{GDBN} has read some symbols.
14732 @xref{Files, ,Commands to Specify Files}, for a discussion of how
14733 @value{GDBN} reads symbols (in the description of @code{symbol-file}).
14734
14735 @kindex maint info symtabs
14736 @kindex maint info psymtabs
14737 @cindex listing @value{GDBN}'s internal symbol tables
14738 @cindex symbol tables, listing @value{GDBN}'s internal
14739 @cindex full symbol tables, listing @value{GDBN}'s internal
14740 @cindex partial symbol tables, listing @value{GDBN}'s internal
14741 @item maint info symtabs @r{[} @var{regexp} @r{]}
14742 @itemx maint info psymtabs @r{[} @var{regexp} @r{]}
14743
14744 List the @code{struct symtab} or @code{struct partial_symtab}
14745 structures whose names match @var{regexp}. If @var{regexp} is not
14746 given, list them all. The output includes expressions which you can
14747 copy into a @value{GDBN} debugging this one to examine a particular
14748 structure in more detail. For example:
14749
14750 @smallexample
14751 (@value{GDBP}) maint info psymtabs dwarf2read
14752 @{ objfile /home/gnu/build/gdb/gdb
14753 ((struct objfile *) 0x82e69d0)
14754 @{ psymtab /home/gnu/src/gdb/dwarf2read.c
14755 ((struct partial_symtab *) 0x8474b10)
14756 readin no
14757 fullname (null)
14758 text addresses 0x814d3c8 -- 0x8158074
14759 globals (* (struct partial_symbol **) 0x8507a08 @@ 9)
14760 statics (* (struct partial_symbol **) 0x40e95b78 @@ 2882)
14761 dependencies (none)
14762 @}
14763 @}
14764 (@value{GDBP}) maint info symtabs
14765 (@value{GDBP})
14766 @end smallexample
14767 @noindent
14768 We see that there is one partial symbol table whose filename contains
14769 the string @samp{dwarf2read}, belonging to the @samp{gdb} executable;
14770 and we see that @value{GDBN} has not read in any symtabs yet at all.
14771 If we set a breakpoint on a function, that will cause @value{GDBN} to
14772 read the symtab for the compilation unit containing that function:
14773
14774 @smallexample
14775 (@value{GDBP}) break dwarf2_psymtab_to_symtab
14776 Breakpoint 1 at 0x814e5da: file /home/gnu/src/gdb/dwarf2read.c,
14777 line 1574.
14778 (@value{GDBP}) maint info symtabs
14779 @{ objfile /home/gnu/build/gdb/gdb
14780 ((struct objfile *) 0x82e69d0)
14781 @{ symtab /home/gnu/src/gdb/dwarf2read.c
14782 ((struct symtab *) 0x86c1f38)
14783 dirname (null)
14784 fullname (null)
14785 blockvector ((struct blockvector *) 0x86c1bd0) (primary)
14786 linetable ((struct linetable *) 0x8370fa0)
14787 debugformat DWARF 2
14788 @}
14789 @}
14790 (@value{GDBP})
14791 @end smallexample
14792 @end table
14793
14794
14795 @node Altering
14796 @chapter Altering Execution
14797
14798 Once you think you have found an error in your program, you might want to
14799 find out for certain whether correcting the apparent error would lead to
14800 correct results in the rest of the run. You can find the answer by
14801 experiment, using the @value{GDBN} features for altering execution of the
14802 program.
14803
14804 For example, you can store new values into variables or memory
14805 locations, give your program a signal, restart it at a different
14806 address, or even return prematurely from a function.
14807
14808 @menu
14809 * Assignment:: Assignment to variables
14810 * Jumping:: Continuing at a different address
14811 * Signaling:: Giving your program a signal
14812 * Returning:: Returning from a function
14813 * Calling:: Calling your program's functions
14814 * Patching:: Patching your program
14815 @end menu
14816
14817 @node Assignment
14818 @section Assignment to Variables
14819
14820 @cindex assignment
14821 @cindex setting variables
14822 To alter the value of a variable, evaluate an assignment expression.
14823 @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}. For example,
14824
14825 @smallexample
14826 print x=4
14827 @end smallexample
14828
14829 @noindent
14830 stores the value 4 into the variable @code{x}, and then prints the
14831 value of the assignment expression (which is 4).
14832 @xref{Languages, ,Using @value{GDBN} with Different Languages}, for more
14833 information on operators in supported languages.
14834
14835 @kindex set variable
14836 @cindex variables, setting
14837 If you are not interested in seeing the value of the assignment, use the
14838 @code{set} command instead of the @code{print} command. @code{set} is
14839 really the same as @code{print} except that the expression's value is
14840 not printed and is not put in the value history (@pxref{Value History,
14841 ,Value History}). The expression is evaluated only for its effects.
14842
14843 If the beginning of the argument string of the @code{set} command
14844 appears identical to a @code{set} subcommand, use the @code{set
14845 variable} command instead of just @code{set}. This command is identical
14846 to @code{set} except for its lack of subcommands. For example, if your
14847 program has a variable @code{width}, you get an error if you try to set
14848 a new value with just @samp{set width=13}, because @value{GDBN} has the
14849 command @code{set width}:
14850
14851 @smallexample
14852 (@value{GDBP}) whatis width
14853 type = double
14854 (@value{GDBP}) p width
14855 $4 = 13
14856 (@value{GDBP}) set width=47
14857 Invalid syntax in expression.
14858 @end smallexample
14859
14860 @noindent
14861 The invalid expression, of course, is @samp{=47}. In
14862 order to actually set the program's variable @code{width}, use
14863
14864 @smallexample
14865 (@value{GDBP}) set var width=47
14866 @end smallexample
14867
14868 Because the @code{set} command has many subcommands that can conflict
14869 with the names of program variables, it is a good idea to use the
14870 @code{set variable} command instead of just @code{set}. For example, if
14871 your program has a variable @code{g}, you run into problems if you try
14872 to set a new value with just @samp{set g=4}, because @value{GDBN} has
14873 the command @code{set gnutarget}, abbreviated @code{set g}:
14874
14875 @smallexample
14876 @group
14877 (@value{GDBP}) whatis g
14878 type = double
14879 (@value{GDBP}) p g
14880 $1 = 1
14881 (@value{GDBP}) set g=4
14882 (@value{GDBP}) p g
14883 $2 = 1
14884 (@value{GDBP}) r
14885 The program being debugged has been started already.
14886 Start it from the beginning? (y or n) y
14887 Starting program: /home/smith/cc_progs/a.out
14888 "/home/smith/cc_progs/a.out": can't open to read symbols:
14889 Invalid bfd target.
14890 (@value{GDBP}) show g
14891 The current BFD target is "=4".
14892 @end group
14893 @end smallexample
14894
14895 @noindent
14896 The program variable @code{g} did not change, and you silently set the
14897 @code{gnutarget} to an invalid value. In order to set the variable
14898 @code{g}, use
14899
14900 @smallexample
14901 (@value{GDBP}) set var g=4
14902 @end smallexample
14903
14904 @value{GDBN} allows more implicit conversions in assignments than C; you can
14905 freely store an integer value into a pointer variable or vice versa,
14906 and you can convert any structure to any other structure that is the
14907 same length or shorter.
14908 @comment FIXME: how do structs align/pad in these conversions?
14909 @comment /doc@cygnus.com 18dec1990
14910
14911 To store values into arbitrary places in memory, use the @samp{@{@dots{}@}}
14912 construct to generate a value of specified type at a specified address
14913 (@pxref{Expressions, ,Expressions}). For example, @code{@{int@}0x83040} refers
14914 to memory location @code{0x83040} as an integer (which implies a certain size
14915 and representation in memory), and
14916
14917 @smallexample
14918 set @{int@}0x83040 = 4
14919 @end smallexample
14920
14921 @noindent
14922 stores the value 4 into that memory location.
14923
14924 @node Jumping
14925 @section Continuing at a Different Address
14926
14927 Ordinarily, when you continue your program, you do so at the place where
14928 it stopped, with the @code{continue} command. You can instead continue at
14929 an address of your own choosing, with the following commands:
14930
14931 @table @code
14932 @kindex jump
14933 @item jump @var{linespec}
14934 @itemx jump @var{location}
14935 Resume execution at line @var{linespec} or at address given by
14936 @var{location}. Execution stops again immediately if there is a
14937 breakpoint there. @xref{Specify Location}, for a description of the
14938 different forms of @var{linespec} and @var{location}. It is common
14939 practice to use the @code{tbreak} command in conjunction with
14940 @code{jump}. @xref{Set Breaks, ,Setting Breakpoints}.
14941
14942 The @code{jump} command does not change the current stack frame, or
14943 the stack pointer, or the contents of any memory location or any
14944 register other than the program counter. If line @var{linespec} is in
14945 a different function from the one currently executing, the results may
14946 be bizarre if the two functions expect different patterns of arguments or
14947 of local variables. For this reason, the @code{jump} command requests
14948 confirmation if the specified line is not in the function currently
14949 executing. However, even bizarre results are predictable if you are
14950 well acquainted with the machine-language code of your program.
14951 @end table
14952
14953 @c Doesn't work on HP-UX; have to set $pcoqh and $pcoqt.
14954 On many systems, you can get much the same effect as the @code{jump}
14955 command by storing a new value into the register @code{$pc}. The
14956 difference is that this does not start your program running; it only
14957 changes the address of where it @emph{will} run when you continue. For
14958 example,
14959
14960 @smallexample
14961 set $pc = 0x485
14962 @end smallexample
14963
14964 @noindent
14965 makes the next @code{continue} command or stepping command execute at
14966 address @code{0x485}, rather than at the address where your program stopped.
14967 @xref{Continuing and Stepping, ,Continuing and Stepping}.
14968
14969 The most common occasion to use the @code{jump} command is to back
14970 up---perhaps with more breakpoints set---over a portion of a program
14971 that has already executed, in order to examine its execution in more
14972 detail.
14973
14974 @c @group
14975 @node Signaling
14976 @section Giving your Program a Signal
14977 @cindex deliver a signal to a program
14978
14979 @table @code
14980 @kindex signal
14981 @item signal @var{signal}
14982 Resume execution where your program stopped, but immediately give it the
14983 signal @var{signal}. @var{signal} can be the name or the number of a
14984 signal. For example, on many systems @code{signal 2} and @code{signal
14985 SIGINT} are both ways of sending an interrupt signal.
14986
14987 Alternatively, if @var{signal} is zero, continue execution without
14988 giving a signal. This is useful when your program stopped on account of
14989 a signal and would ordinary see the signal when resumed with the
14990 @code{continue} command; @samp{signal 0} causes it to resume without a
14991 signal.
14992
14993 @code{signal} does not repeat when you press @key{RET} a second time
14994 after executing the command.
14995 @end table
14996 @c @end group
14997
14998 Invoking the @code{signal} command is not the same as invoking the
14999 @code{kill} utility from the shell. Sending a signal with @code{kill}
15000 causes @value{GDBN} to decide what to do with the signal depending on
15001 the signal handling tables (@pxref{Signals}). The @code{signal} command
15002 passes the signal directly to your program.
15003
15004
15005 @node Returning
15006 @section Returning from a Function
15007
15008 @table @code
15009 @cindex returning from a function
15010 @kindex return
15011 @item return
15012 @itemx return @var{expression}
15013 You can cancel execution of a function call with the @code{return}
15014 command. If you give an
15015 @var{expression} argument, its value is used as the function's return
15016 value.
15017 @end table
15018
15019 When you use @code{return}, @value{GDBN} discards the selected stack frame
15020 (and all frames within it). You can think of this as making the
15021 discarded frame return prematurely. If you wish to specify a value to
15022 be returned, give that value as the argument to @code{return}.
15023
15024 This pops the selected stack frame (@pxref{Selection, ,Selecting a
15025 Frame}), and any other frames inside of it, leaving its caller as the
15026 innermost remaining frame. That frame becomes selected. The
15027 specified value is stored in the registers used for returning values
15028 of functions.
15029
15030 The @code{return} command does not resume execution; it leaves the
15031 program stopped in the state that would exist if the function had just
15032 returned. In contrast, the @code{finish} command (@pxref{Continuing
15033 and Stepping, ,Continuing and Stepping}) resumes execution until the
15034 selected stack frame returns naturally.
15035
15036 @value{GDBN} needs to know how the @var{expression} argument should be set for
15037 the inferior. The concrete registers assignment depends on the OS ABI and the
15038 type being returned by the selected stack frame. For example it is common for
15039 OS ABI to return floating point values in FPU registers while integer values in
15040 CPU registers. Still some ABIs return even floating point values in CPU
15041 registers. Larger integer widths (such as @code{long long int}) also have
15042 specific placement rules. @value{GDBN} already knows the OS ABI from its
15043 current target so it needs to find out also the type being returned to make the
15044 assignment into the right register(s).
15045
15046 Normally, the selected stack frame has debug info. @value{GDBN} will always
15047 use the debug info instead of the implicit type of @var{expression} when the
15048 debug info is available. For example, if you type @kbd{return -1}, and the
15049 function in the current stack frame is declared to return a @code{long long
15050 int}, @value{GDBN} transparently converts the implicit @code{int} value of -1
15051 into a @code{long long int}:
15052
15053 @smallexample
15054 Breakpoint 1, func () at gdb.base/return-nodebug.c:29
15055 29 return 31;
15056 (@value{GDBP}) return -1
15057 Make func return now? (y or n) y
15058 #0 0x004004f6 in main () at gdb.base/return-nodebug.c:43
15059 43 printf ("result=%lld\n", func ());
15060 (@value{GDBP})
15061 @end smallexample
15062
15063 However, if the selected stack frame does not have a debug info, e.g., if the
15064 function was compiled without debug info, @value{GDBN} has to find out the type
15065 to return from user. Specifying a different type by mistake may set the value
15066 in different inferior registers than the caller code expects. For example,
15067 typing @kbd{return -1} with its implicit type @code{int} would set only a part
15068 of a @code{long long int} result for a debug info less function (on 32-bit
15069 architectures). Therefore the user is required to specify the return type by
15070 an appropriate cast explicitly:
15071
15072 @smallexample
15073 Breakpoint 2, 0x0040050b in func ()
15074 (@value{GDBP}) return -1
15075 Return value type not available for selected stack frame.
15076 Please use an explicit cast of the value to return.
15077 (@value{GDBP}) return (long long int) -1
15078 Make selected stack frame return now? (y or n) y
15079 #0 0x00400526 in main ()
15080 (@value{GDBP})
15081 @end smallexample
15082
15083 @node Calling
15084 @section Calling Program Functions
15085
15086 @table @code
15087 @cindex calling functions
15088 @cindex inferior functions, calling
15089 @item print @var{expr}
15090 Evaluate the expression @var{expr} and display the resulting value.
15091 @var{expr} may include calls to functions in the program being
15092 debugged.
15093
15094 @kindex call
15095 @item call @var{expr}
15096 Evaluate the expression @var{expr} without displaying @code{void}
15097 returned values.
15098
15099 You can use this variant of the @code{print} command if you want to
15100 execute a function from your program that does not return anything
15101 (a.k.a.@: @dfn{a void function}), but without cluttering the output
15102 with @code{void} returned values that @value{GDBN} will otherwise
15103 print. If the result is not void, it is printed and saved in the
15104 value history.
15105 @end table
15106
15107 It is possible for the function you call via the @code{print} or
15108 @code{call} command to generate a signal (e.g., if there's a bug in
15109 the function, or if you passed it incorrect arguments). What happens
15110 in that case is controlled by the @code{set unwindonsignal} command.
15111
15112 Similarly, with a C@t{++} program it is possible for the function you
15113 call via the @code{print} or @code{call} command to generate an
15114 exception that is not handled due to the constraints of the dummy
15115 frame. In this case, any exception that is raised in the frame, but has
15116 an out-of-frame exception handler will not be found. GDB builds a
15117 dummy-frame for the inferior function call, and the unwinder cannot
15118 seek for exception handlers outside of this dummy-frame. What happens
15119 in that case is controlled by the
15120 @code{set unwind-on-terminating-exception} command.
15121
15122 @table @code
15123 @item set unwindonsignal
15124 @kindex set unwindonsignal
15125 @cindex unwind stack in called functions
15126 @cindex call dummy stack unwinding
15127 Set unwinding of the stack if a signal is received while in a function
15128 that @value{GDBN} called in the program being debugged. If set to on,
15129 @value{GDBN} unwinds the stack it created for the call and restores
15130 the context to what it was before the call. If set to off (the
15131 default), @value{GDBN} stops in the frame where the signal was
15132 received.
15133
15134 @item show unwindonsignal
15135 @kindex show unwindonsignal
15136 Show the current setting of stack unwinding in the functions called by
15137 @value{GDBN}.
15138
15139 @item set unwind-on-terminating-exception
15140 @kindex set unwind-on-terminating-exception
15141 @cindex unwind stack in called functions with unhandled exceptions
15142 @cindex call dummy stack unwinding on unhandled exception.
15143 Set unwinding of the stack if a C@t{++} exception is raised, but left
15144 unhandled while in a function that @value{GDBN} called in the program being
15145 debugged. If set to on (the default), @value{GDBN} unwinds the stack
15146 it created for the call and restores the context to what it was before
15147 the call. If set to off, @value{GDBN} the exception is delivered to
15148 the default C@t{++} exception handler and the inferior terminated.
15149
15150 @item show unwind-on-terminating-exception
15151 @kindex show unwind-on-terminating-exception
15152 Show the current setting of stack unwinding in the functions called by
15153 @value{GDBN}.
15154
15155 @end table
15156
15157 @cindex weak alias functions
15158 Sometimes, a function you wish to call is actually a @dfn{weak alias}
15159 for another function. In such case, @value{GDBN} might not pick up
15160 the type information, including the types of the function arguments,
15161 which causes @value{GDBN} to call the inferior function incorrectly.
15162 As a result, the called function will function erroneously and may
15163 even crash. A solution to that is to use the name of the aliased
15164 function instead.
15165
15166 @node Patching
15167 @section Patching Programs
15168
15169 @cindex patching binaries
15170 @cindex writing into executables
15171 @cindex writing into corefiles
15172
15173 By default, @value{GDBN} opens the file containing your program's
15174 executable code (or the corefile) read-only. This prevents accidental
15175 alterations to machine code; but it also prevents you from intentionally
15176 patching your program's binary.
15177
15178 If you'd like to be able to patch the binary, you can specify that
15179 explicitly with the @code{set write} command. For example, you might
15180 want to turn on internal debugging flags, or even to make emergency
15181 repairs.
15182
15183 @table @code
15184 @kindex set write
15185 @item set write on
15186 @itemx set write off
15187 If you specify @samp{set write on}, @value{GDBN} opens executable and
15188 core files for both reading and writing; if you specify @kbd{set write
15189 off} (the default), @value{GDBN} opens them read-only.
15190
15191 If you have already loaded a file, you must load it again (using the
15192 @code{exec-file} or @code{core-file} command) after changing @code{set
15193 write}, for your new setting to take effect.
15194
15195 @item show write
15196 @kindex show write
15197 Display whether executable files and core files are opened for writing
15198 as well as reading.
15199 @end table
15200
15201 @node GDB Files
15202 @chapter @value{GDBN} Files
15203
15204 @value{GDBN} needs to know the file name of the program to be debugged,
15205 both in order to read its symbol table and in order to start your
15206 program. To debug a core dump of a previous run, you must also tell
15207 @value{GDBN} the name of the core dump file.
15208
15209 @menu
15210 * Files:: Commands to specify files
15211 * Separate Debug Files:: Debugging information in separate files
15212 * Index Files:: Index files speed up GDB
15213 * Symbol Errors:: Errors reading symbol files
15214 * Data Files:: GDB data files
15215 @end menu
15216
15217 @node Files
15218 @section Commands to Specify Files
15219
15220 @cindex symbol table
15221 @cindex core dump file
15222
15223 You may want to specify executable and core dump file names. The usual
15224 way to do this is at start-up time, using the arguments to
15225 @value{GDBN}'s start-up commands (@pxref{Invocation, , Getting In and
15226 Out of @value{GDBN}}).
15227
15228 Occasionally it is necessary to change to a different file during a
15229 @value{GDBN} session. Or you may run @value{GDBN} and forget to
15230 specify a file you want to use. Or you are debugging a remote target
15231 via @code{gdbserver} (@pxref{Server, file, Using the @code{gdbserver}
15232 Program}). In these situations the @value{GDBN} commands to specify
15233 new files are useful.
15234
15235 @table @code
15236 @cindex executable file
15237 @kindex file
15238 @item file @var{filename}
15239 Use @var{filename} as the program to be debugged. It is read for its
15240 symbols and for the contents of pure memory. It is also the program
15241 executed when you use the @code{run} command. If you do not specify a
15242 directory and the file is not found in the @value{GDBN} working directory,
15243 @value{GDBN} uses the environment variable @code{PATH} as a list of
15244 directories to search, just as the shell does when looking for a program
15245 to run. You can change the value of this variable, for both @value{GDBN}
15246 and your program, using the @code{path} command.
15247
15248 @cindex unlinked object files
15249 @cindex patching object files
15250 You can load unlinked object @file{.o} files into @value{GDBN} using
15251 the @code{file} command. You will not be able to ``run'' an object
15252 file, but you can disassemble functions and inspect variables. Also,
15253 if the underlying BFD functionality supports it, you could use
15254 @kbd{gdb -write} to patch object files using this technique. Note
15255 that @value{GDBN} can neither interpret nor modify relocations in this
15256 case, so branches and some initialized variables will appear to go to
15257 the wrong place. But this feature is still handy from time to time.
15258
15259 @item file
15260 @code{file} with no argument makes @value{GDBN} discard any information it
15261 has on both executable file and the symbol table.
15262
15263 @kindex exec-file
15264 @item exec-file @r{[} @var{filename} @r{]}
15265 Specify that the program to be run (but not the symbol table) is found
15266 in @var{filename}. @value{GDBN} searches the environment variable @code{PATH}
15267 if necessary to locate your program. Omitting @var{filename} means to
15268 discard information on the executable file.
15269
15270 @kindex symbol-file
15271 @item symbol-file @r{[} @var{filename} @r{]}
15272 Read symbol table information from file @var{filename}. @code{PATH} is
15273 searched when necessary. Use the @code{file} command to get both symbol
15274 table and program to run from the same file.
15275
15276 @code{symbol-file} with no argument clears out @value{GDBN} information on your
15277 program's symbol table.
15278
15279 The @code{symbol-file} command causes @value{GDBN} to forget the contents of
15280 some breakpoints and auto-display expressions. This is because they may
15281 contain pointers to the internal data recording symbols and data types,
15282 which are part of the old symbol table data being discarded inside
15283 @value{GDBN}.
15284
15285 @code{symbol-file} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} again after
15286 executing it once.
15287
15288 When @value{GDBN} is configured for a particular environment, it
15289 understands debugging information in whatever format is the standard
15290 generated for that environment; you may use either a @sc{gnu} compiler, or
15291 other compilers that adhere to the local conventions.
15292 Best results are usually obtained from @sc{gnu} compilers; for example,
15293 using @code{@value{NGCC}} you can generate debugging information for
15294 optimized code.
15295
15296 For most kinds of object files, with the exception of old SVR3 systems
15297 using COFF, the @code{symbol-file} command does not normally read the
15298 symbol table in full right away. Instead, it scans the symbol table
15299 quickly to find which source files and which symbols are present. The
15300 details are read later, one source file at a time, as they are needed.
15301
15302 The purpose of this two-stage reading strategy is to make @value{GDBN}
15303 start up faster. For the most part, it is invisible except for
15304 occasional pauses while the symbol table details for a particular source
15305 file are being read. (The @code{set verbose} command can turn these
15306 pauses into messages if desired. @xref{Messages/Warnings, ,Optional
15307 Warnings and Messages}.)
15308
15309 We have not implemented the two-stage strategy for COFF yet. When the
15310 symbol table is stored in COFF format, @code{symbol-file} reads the
15311 symbol table data in full right away. Note that ``stabs-in-COFF''
15312 still does the two-stage strategy, since the debug info is actually
15313 in stabs format.
15314
15315 @kindex readnow
15316 @cindex reading symbols immediately
15317 @cindex symbols, reading immediately
15318 @item symbol-file @r{[} -readnow @r{]} @var{filename}
15319 @itemx file @r{[} -readnow @r{]} @var{filename}
15320 You can override the @value{GDBN} two-stage strategy for reading symbol
15321 tables by using the @samp{-readnow} option with any of the commands that
15322 load symbol table information, if you want to be sure @value{GDBN} has the
15323 entire symbol table available.
15324
15325 @c FIXME: for now no mention of directories, since this seems to be in
15326 @c flux. 13mar1992 status is that in theory GDB would look either in
15327 @c current dir or in same dir as myprog; but issues like competing
15328 @c GDB's, or clutter in system dirs, mean that in practice right now
15329 @c only current dir is used. FFish says maybe a special GDB hierarchy
15330 @c (eg rooted in val of env var GDBSYMS) could exist for mappable symbol
15331 @c files.
15332
15333 @kindex core-file
15334 @item core-file @r{[}@var{filename}@r{]}
15335 @itemx core
15336 Specify the whereabouts of a core dump file to be used as the ``contents
15337 of memory''. Traditionally, core files contain only some parts of the
15338 address space of the process that generated them; @value{GDBN} can access the
15339 executable file itself for other parts.
15340
15341 @code{core-file} with no argument specifies that no core file is
15342 to be used.
15343
15344 Note that the core file is ignored when your program is actually running
15345 under @value{GDBN}. So, if you have been running your program and you
15346 wish to debug a core file instead, you must kill the subprocess in which
15347 the program is running. To do this, use the @code{kill} command
15348 (@pxref{Kill Process, ,Killing the Child Process}).
15349
15350 @kindex add-symbol-file
15351 @cindex dynamic linking
15352 @item add-symbol-file @var{filename} @var{address}
15353 @itemx add-symbol-file @var{filename} @var{address} @r{[} -readnow @r{]}
15354 @itemx add-symbol-file @var{filename} @var{address} -s @var{section} @var{address} @dots{}
15355 The @code{add-symbol-file} command reads additional symbol table
15356 information from the file @var{filename}. You would use this command
15357 when @var{filename} has been dynamically loaded (by some other means)
15358 into the program that is running. @var{address} should be the memory
15359 address at which the file has been loaded; @value{GDBN} cannot figure
15360 this out for itself. You can additionally specify an arbitrary number
15361 of @samp{-s @var{section} @var{address}} pairs, to give an explicit
15362 section name and base address for that section. You can specify any
15363 @var{address} as an expression.
15364
15365 The symbol table of the file @var{filename} is added to the symbol table
15366 originally read with the @code{symbol-file} command. You can use the
15367 @code{add-symbol-file} command any number of times; the new symbol data
15368 thus read keeps adding to the old. To discard all old symbol data
15369 instead, use the @code{symbol-file} command without any arguments.
15370
15371 @cindex relocatable object files, reading symbols from
15372 @cindex object files, relocatable, reading symbols from
15373 @cindex reading symbols from relocatable object files
15374 @cindex symbols, reading from relocatable object files
15375 @cindex @file{.o} files, reading symbols from
15376 Although @var{filename} is typically a shared library file, an
15377 executable file, or some other object file which has been fully
15378 relocated for loading into a process, you can also load symbolic
15379 information from relocatable @file{.o} files, as long as:
15380
15381 @itemize @bullet
15382 @item
15383 the file's symbolic information refers only to linker symbols defined in
15384 that file, not to symbols defined by other object files,
15385 @item
15386 every section the file's symbolic information refers to has actually
15387 been loaded into the inferior, as it appears in the file, and
15388 @item
15389 you can determine the address at which every section was loaded, and
15390 provide these to the @code{add-symbol-file} command.
15391 @end itemize
15392
15393 @noindent
15394 Some embedded operating systems, like Sun Chorus and VxWorks, can load
15395 relocatable files into an already running program; such systems
15396 typically make the requirements above easy to meet. However, it's
15397 important to recognize that many native systems use complex link
15398 procedures (@code{.linkonce} section factoring and C@t{++} constructor table
15399 assembly, for example) that make the requirements difficult to meet. In
15400 general, one cannot assume that using @code{add-symbol-file} to read a
15401 relocatable object file's symbolic information will have the same effect
15402 as linking the relocatable object file into the program in the normal
15403 way.
15404
15405 @code{add-symbol-file} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} after using it.
15406
15407 @kindex add-symbol-file-from-memory
15408 @cindex @code{syscall DSO}
15409 @cindex load symbols from memory
15410 @item add-symbol-file-from-memory @var{address}
15411 Load symbols from the given @var{address} in a dynamically loaded
15412 object file whose image is mapped directly into the inferior's memory.
15413 For example, the Linux kernel maps a @code{syscall DSO} into each
15414 process's address space; this DSO provides kernel-specific code for
15415 some system calls. The argument can be any expression whose
15416 evaluation yields the address of the file's shared object file header.
15417 For this command to work, you must have used @code{symbol-file} or
15418 @code{exec-file} commands in advance.
15419
15420 @kindex add-shared-symbol-files
15421 @kindex assf
15422 @item add-shared-symbol-files @var{library-file}
15423 @itemx assf @var{library-file}
15424 The @code{add-shared-symbol-files} command can currently be used only
15425 in the Cygwin build of @value{GDBN} on MS-Windows OS, where it is an
15426 alias for the @code{dll-symbols} command (@pxref{Cygwin Native}).
15427 @value{GDBN} automatically looks for shared libraries, however if
15428 @value{GDBN} does not find yours, you can invoke
15429 @code{add-shared-symbol-files}. It takes one argument: the shared
15430 library's file name. @code{assf} is a shorthand alias for
15431 @code{add-shared-symbol-files}.
15432
15433 @kindex section
15434 @item section @var{section} @var{addr}
15435 The @code{section} command changes the base address of the named
15436 @var{section} of the exec file to @var{addr}. This can be used if the
15437 exec file does not contain section addresses, (such as in the
15438 @code{a.out} format), or when the addresses specified in the file
15439 itself are wrong. Each section must be changed separately. The
15440 @code{info files} command, described below, lists all the sections and
15441 their addresses.
15442
15443 @kindex info files
15444 @kindex info target
15445 @item info files
15446 @itemx info target
15447 @code{info files} and @code{info target} are synonymous; both print the
15448 current target (@pxref{Targets, ,Specifying a Debugging Target}),
15449 including the names of the executable and core dump files currently in
15450 use by @value{GDBN}, and the files from which symbols were loaded. The
15451 command @code{help target} lists all possible targets rather than
15452 current ones.
15453
15454 @kindex maint info sections
15455 @item maint info sections
15456 Another command that can give you extra information about program sections
15457 is @code{maint info sections}. In addition to the section information
15458 displayed by @code{info files}, this command displays the flags and file
15459 offset of each section in the executable and core dump files. In addition,
15460 @code{maint info sections} provides the following command options (which
15461 may be arbitrarily combined):
15462
15463 @table @code
15464 @item ALLOBJ
15465 Display sections for all loaded object files, including shared libraries.
15466 @item @var{sections}
15467 Display info only for named @var{sections}.
15468 @item @var{section-flags}
15469 Display info only for sections for which @var{section-flags} are true.
15470 The section flags that @value{GDBN} currently knows about are:
15471 @table @code
15472 @item ALLOC
15473 Section will have space allocated in the process when loaded.
15474 Set for all sections except those containing debug information.
15475 @item LOAD
15476 Section will be loaded from the file into the child process memory.
15477 Set for pre-initialized code and data, clear for @code{.bss} sections.
15478 @item RELOC
15479 Section needs to be relocated before loading.
15480 @item READONLY
15481 Section cannot be modified by the child process.
15482 @item CODE
15483 Section contains executable code only.
15484 @item DATA
15485 Section contains data only (no executable code).
15486 @item ROM
15487 Section will reside in ROM.
15488 @item CONSTRUCTOR
15489 Section contains data for constructor/destructor lists.
15490 @item HAS_CONTENTS
15491 Section is not empty.
15492 @item NEVER_LOAD
15493 An instruction to the linker to not output the section.
15494 @item COFF_SHARED_LIBRARY
15495 A notification to the linker that the section contains
15496 COFF shared library information.
15497 @item IS_COMMON
15498 Section contains common symbols.
15499 @end table
15500 @end table
15501 @kindex set trust-readonly-sections
15502 @cindex read-only sections
15503 @item set trust-readonly-sections on
15504 Tell @value{GDBN} that readonly sections in your object file
15505 really are read-only (i.e.@: that their contents will not change).
15506 In that case, @value{GDBN} can fetch values from these sections
15507 out of the object file, rather than from the target program.
15508 For some targets (notably embedded ones), this can be a significant
15509 enhancement to debugging performance.
15510
15511 The default is off.
15512
15513 @item set trust-readonly-sections off
15514 Tell @value{GDBN} not to trust readonly sections. This means that
15515 the contents of the section might change while the program is running,
15516 and must therefore be fetched from the target when needed.
15517
15518 @item show trust-readonly-sections
15519 Show the current setting of trusting readonly sections.
15520 @end table
15521
15522 All file-specifying commands allow both absolute and relative file names
15523 as arguments. @value{GDBN} always converts the file name to an absolute file
15524 name and remembers it that way.
15525
15526 @cindex shared libraries
15527 @anchor{Shared Libraries}
15528 @value{GDBN} supports @sc{gnu}/Linux, MS-Windows, HP-UX, SunOS, SVr4, Irix,
15529 and IBM RS/6000 AIX shared libraries.
15530
15531 On MS-Windows @value{GDBN} must be linked with the Expat library to support
15532 shared libraries. @xref{Expat}.
15533
15534 @value{GDBN} automatically loads symbol definitions from shared libraries
15535 when you use the @code{run} command, or when you examine a core file.
15536 (Before you issue the @code{run} command, @value{GDBN} does not understand
15537 references to a function in a shared library, however---unless you are
15538 debugging a core file).
15539
15540 On HP-UX, if the program loads a library explicitly, @value{GDBN}
15541 automatically loads the symbols at the time of the @code{shl_load} call.
15542
15543 @c FIXME: some @value{GDBN} release may permit some refs to undef
15544 @c FIXME...symbols---eg in a break cmd---assuming they are from a shared
15545 @c FIXME...lib; check this from time to time when updating manual
15546
15547 There are times, however, when you may wish to not automatically load
15548 symbol definitions from shared libraries, such as when they are
15549 particularly large or there are many of them.
15550
15551 To control the automatic loading of shared library symbols, use the
15552 commands:
15553
15554 @table @code
15555 @kindex set auto-solib-add
15556 @item set auto-solib-add @var{mode}
15557 If @var{mode} is @code{on}, symbols from all shared object libraries
15558 will be loaded automatically when the inferior begins execution, you
15559 attach to an independently started inferior, or when the dynamic linker
15560 informs @value{GDBN} that a new library has been loaded. If @var{mode}
15561 is @code{off}, symbols must be loaded manually, using the
15562 @code{sharedlibrary} command. The default value is @code{on}.
15563
15564 @cindex memory used for symbol tables
15565 If your program uses lots of shared libraries with debug info that
15566 takes large amounts of memory, you can decrease the @value{GDBN}
15567 memory footprint by preventing it from automatically loading the
15568 symbols from shared libraries. To that end, type @kbd{set
15569 auto-solib-add off} before running the inferior, then load each
15570 library whose debug symbols you do need with @kbd{sharedlibrary
15571 @var{regexp}}, where @var{regexp} is a regular expression that matches
15572 the libraries whose symbols you want to be loaded.
15573
15574 @kindex show auto-solib-add
15575 @item show auto-solib-add
15576 Display the current autoloading mode.
15577 @end table
15578
15579 @cindex load shared library
15580 To explicitly load shared library symbols, use the @code{sharedlibrary}
15581 command:
15582
15583 @table @code
15584 @kindex info sharedlibrary
15585 @kindex info share
15586 @item info share @var{regex}
15587 @itemx info sharedlibrary @var{regex}
15588 Print the names of the shared libraries which are currently loaded
15589 that match @var{regex}. If @var{regex} is omitted then print
15590 all shared libraries that are loaded.
15591
15592 @kindex sharedlibrary
15593 @kindex share
15594 @item sharedlibrary @var{regex}
15595 @itemx share @var{regex}
15596 Load shared object library symbols for files matching a
15597 Unix regular expression.
15598 As with files loaded automatically, it only loads shared libraries
15599 required by your program for a core file or after typing @code{run}. If
15600 @var{regex} is omitted all shared libraries required by your program are
15601 loaded.
15602
15603 @item nosharedlibrary
15604 @kindex nosharedlibrary
15605 @cindex unload symbols from shared libraries
15606 Unload all shared object library symbols. This discards all symbols
15607 that have been loaded from all shared libraries. Symbols from shared
15608 libraries that were loaded by explicit user requests are not
15609 discarded.
15610 @end table
15611
15612 Sometimes you may wish that @value{GDBN} stops and gives you control
15613 when any of shared library events happen. The best way to do this is
15614 to use @code{catch load} and @code{catch unload} (@pxref{Set
15615 Catchpoints}).
15616
15617 @value{GDBN} also supports the the @code{set stop-on-solib-events}
15618 command for this. This command exists for historical reasons. It is
15619 less useful than setting a catchpoint, because it does not allow for
15620 conditions or commands as a catchpoint does.
15621
15622 @table @code
15623 @item set stop-on-solib-events
15624 @kindex set stop-on-solib-events
15625 This command controls whether @value{GDBN} should give you control
15626 when the dynamic linker notifies it about some shared library event.
15627 The most common event of interest is loading or unloading of a new
15628 shared library.
15629
15630 @item show stop-on-solib-events
15631 @kindex show stop-on-solib-events
15632 Show whether @value{GDBN} stops and gives you control when shared
15633 library events happen.
15634 @end table
15635
15636 Shared libraries are also supported in many cross or remote debugging
15637 configurations. @value{GDBN} needs to have access to the target's libraries;
15638 this can be accomplished either by providing copies of the libraries
15639 on the host system, or by asking @value{GDBN} to automatically retrieve the
15640 libraries from the target. If copies of the target libraries are
15641 provided, they need to be the same as the target libraries, although the
15642 copies on the target can be stripped as long as the copies on the host are
15643 not.
15644
15645 @cindex where to look for shared libraries
15646 For remote debugging, you need to tell @value{GDBN} where the target
15647 libraries are, so that it can load the correct copies---otherwise, it
15648 may try to load the host's libraries. @value{GDBN} has two variables
15649 to specify the search directories for target libraries.
15650
15651 @table @code
15652 @cindex prefix for shared library file names
15653 @cindex system root, alternate
15654 @kindex set solib-absolute-prefix
15655 @kindex set sysroot
15656 @item set sysroot @var{path}
15657 Use @var{path} as the system root for the program being debugged. Any
15658 absolute shared library paths will be prefixed with @var{path}; many
15659 runtime loaders store the absolute paths to the shared library in the
15660 target program's memory. If you use @code{set sysroot} to find shared
15661 libraries, they need to be laid out in the same way that they are on
15662 the target, with e.g.@: a @file{/lib} and @file{/usr/lib} hierarchy
15663 under @var{path}.
15664
15665 If @var{path} starts with the sequence @file{remote:}, @value{GDBN} will
15666 retrieve the target libraries from the remote system. This is only
15667 supported when using a remote target that supports the @code{remote get}
15668 command (@pxref{File Transfer,,Sending files to a remote system}).
15669 The part of @var{path} following the initial @file{remote:}
15670 (if present) is used as system root prefix on the remote file system.
15671 @footnote{If you want to specify a local system root using a directory
15672 that happens to be named @file{remote:}, you need to use some equivalent
15673 variant of the name like @file{./remote:}.}
15674
15675 For targets with an MS-DOS based filesystem, such as MS-Windows and
15676 SymbianOS, @value{GDBN} tries prefixing a few variants of the target
15677 absolute file name with @var{path}. But first, on Unix hosts,
15678 @value{GDBN} converts all backslash directory separators into forward
15679 slashes, because the backslash is not a directory separator on Unix:
15680
15681 @smallexample
15682 c:\foo\bar.dll @result{} c:/foo/bar.dll
15683 @end smallexample
15684
15685 Then, @value{GDBN} attempts prefixing the target file name with
15686 @var{path}, and looks for the resulting file name in the host file
15687 system:
15688
15689 @smallexample
15690 c:/foo/bar.dll @result{} /path/to/sysroot/c:/foo/bar.dll
15691 @end smallexample
15692
15693 If that does not find the shared library, @value{GDBN} tries removing
15694 the @samp{:} character from the drive spec, both for convenience, and,
15695 for the case of the host file system not supporting file names with
15696 colons:
15697
15698 @smallexample
15699 c:/foo/bar.dll @result{} /path/to/sysroot/c/foo/bar.dll
15700 @end smallexample
15701
15702 This makes it possible to have a system root that mirrors a target
15703 with more than one drive. E.g., you may want to setup your local
15704 copies of the target system shared libraries like so (note @samp{c} vs
15705 @samp{z}):
15706
15707 @smallexample
15708 @file{/path/to/sysroot/c/sys/bin/foo.dll}
15709 @file{/path/to/sysroot/c/sys/bin/bar.dll}
15710 @file{/path/to/sysroot/z/sys/bin/bar.dll}
15711 @end smallexample
15712
15713 @noindent
15714 and point the system root at @file{/path/to/sysroot}, so that
15715 @value{GDBN} can find the correct copies of both
15716 @file{c:\sys\bin\foo.dll}, and @file{z:\sys\bin\bar.dll}.
15717
15718 If that still does not find the shared library, @value{GDBN} tries
15719 removing the whole drive spec from the target file name:
15720
15721 @smallexample
15722 c:/foo/bar.dll @result{} /path/to/sysroot/foo/bar.dll
15723 @end smallexample
15724
15725 This last lookup makes it possible to not care about the drive name,
15726 if you don't want or need to.
15727
15728 The @code{set solib-absolute-prefix} command is an alias for @code{set
15729 sysroot}.
15730
15731 @cindex default system root
15732 @cindex @samp{--with-sysroot}
15733 You can set the default system root by using the configure-time
15734 @samp{--with-sysroot} option. If the system root is inside
15735 @value{GDBN}'s configured binary prefix (set with @samp{--prefix} or
15736 @samp{--exec-prefix}), then the default system root will be updated
15737 automatically if the installed @value{GDBN} is moved to a new
15738 location.
15739
15740 @kindex show sysroot
15741 @item show sysroot
15742 Display the current shared library prefix.
15743
15744 @kindex set solib-search-path
15745 @item set solib-search-path @var{path}
15746 If this variable is set, @var{path} is a colon-separated list of
15747 directories to search for shared libraries. @samp{solib-search-path}
15748 is used after @samp{sysroot} fails to locate the library, or if the
15749 path to the library is relative instead of absolute. If you want to
15750 use @samp{solib-search-path} instead of @samp{sysroot}, be sure to set
15751 @samp{sysroot} to a nonexistent directory to prevent @value{GDBN} from
15752 finding your host's libraries. @samp{sysroot} is preferred; setting
15753 it to a nonexistent directory may interfere with automatic loading
15754 of shared library symbols.
15755
15756 @kindex show solib-search-path
15757 @item show solib-search-path
15758 Display the current shared library search path.
15759
15760 @cindex DOS file-name semantics of file names.
15761 @kindex set target-file-system-kind (unix|dos-based|auto)
15762 @kindex show target-file-system-kind
15763 @item set target-file-system-kind @var{kind}
15764 Set assumed file system kind for target reported file names.
15765
15766 Shared library file names as reported by the target system may not
15767 make sense as is on the system @value{GDBN} is running on. For
15768 example, when remote debugging a target that has MS-DOS based file
15769 system semantics, from a Unix host, the target may be reporting to
15770 @value{GDBN} a list of loaded shared libraries with file names such as
15771 @file{c:\Windows\kernel32.dll}. On Unix hosts, there's no concept of
15772 drive letters, so the @samp{c:\} prefix is not normally understood as
15773 indicating an absolute file name, and neither is the backslash
15774 normally considered a directory separator character. In that case,
15775 the native file system would interpret this whole absolute file name
15776 as a relative file name with no directory components. This would make
15777 it impossible to point @value{GDBN} at a copy of the remote target's
15778 shared libraries on the host using @code{set sysroot}, and impractical
15779 with @code{set solib-search-path}. Setting
15780 @code{target-file-system-kind} to @code{dos-based} tells @value{GDBN}
15781 to interpret such file names similarly to how the target would, and to
15782 map them to file names valid on @value{GDBN}'s native file system
15783 semantics. The value of @var{kind} can be @code{"auto"}, in addition
15784 to one of the supported file system kinds. In that case, @value{GDBN}
15785 tries to determine the appropriate file system variant based on the
15786 current target's operating system (@pxref{ABI, ,Configuring the
15787 Current ABI}). The supported file system settings are:
15788
15789 @table @code
15790 @item unix
15791 Instruct @value{GDBN} to assume the target file system is of Unix
15792 kind. Only file names starting the forward slash (@samp{/}) character
15793 are considered absolute, and the directory separator character is also
15794 the forward slash.
15795
15796 @item dos-based
15797 Instruct @value{GDBN} to assume the target file system is DOS based.
15798 File names starting with either a forward slash, or a drive letter
15799 followed by a colon (e.g., @samp{c:}), are considered absolute, and
15800 both the slash (@samp{/}) and the backslash (@samp{\\}) characters are
15801 considered directory separators.
15802
15803 @item auto
15804 Instruct @value{GDBN} to use the file system kind associated with the
15805 target operating system (@pxref{ABI, ,Configuring the Current ABI}).
15806 This is the default.
15807 @end table
15808 @end table
15809
15810 @cindex file name canonicalization
15811 @cindex base name differences
15812 When processing file names provided by the user, @value{GDBN}
15813 frequently needs to compare them to the file names recorded in the
15814 program's debug info. Normally, @value{GDBN} compares just the
15815 @dfn{base names} of the files as strings, which is reasonably fast
15816 even for very large programs. (The base name of a file is the last
15817 portion of its name, after stripping all the leading directories.)
15818 This shortcut in comparison is based upon the assumption that files
15819 cannot have more than one base name. This is usually true, but
15820 references to files that use symlinks or similar filesystem
15821 facilities violate that assumption. If your program records files
15822 using such facilities, or if you provide file names to @value{GDBN}
15823 using symlinks etc., you can set @code{basenames-may-differ} to
15824 @code{true} to instruct @value{GDBN} to completely canonicalize each
15825 pair of file names it needs to compare. This will make file-name
15826 comparisons accurate, but at a price of a significant slowdown.
15827
15828 @table @code
15829 @item set basenames-may-differ
15830 @kindex set basenames-may-differ
15831 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
15832
15833 @item show basenames-may-differ
15834 @kindex show basenames-may-differ
15835 Show whether a source file may have multiple base names.
15836 @end table
15837
15838 @node Separate Debug Files
15839 @section Debugging Information in Separate Files
15840 @cindex separate debugging information files
15841 @cindex debugging information in separate files
15842 @cindex @file{.debug} subdirectories
15843 @cindex debugging information directory, global
15844 @cindex global debugging information directory
15845 @cindex build ID, and separate debugging files
15846 @cindex @file{.build-id} directory
15847
15848 @value{GDBN} allows you to put a program's debugging information in a
15849 file separate from the executable itself, in a way that allows
15850 @value{GDBN} to find and load the debugging information automatically.
15851 Since debugging information can be very large---sometimes larger
15852 than the executable code itself---some systems distribute debugging
15853 information for their executables in separate files, which users can
15854 install only when they need to debug a problem.
15855
15856 @value{GDBN} supports two ways of specifying the separate debug info
15857 file:
15858
15859 @itemize @bullet
15860 @item
15861 The executable contains a @dfn{debug link} that specifies the name of
15862 the separate debug info file. The separate debug file's name is
15863 usually @file{@var{executable}.debug}, where @var{executable} is the
15864 name of the corresponding executable file without leading directories
15865 (e.g., @file{ls.debug} for @file{/usr/bin/ls}). In addition, the
15866 debug link specifies a 32-bit @dfn{Cyclic Redundancy Check} (CRC)
15867 checksum for the debug file, which @value{GDBN} uses to validate that
15868 the executable and the debug file came from the same build.
15869
15870 @item
15871 The executable contains a @dfn{build ID}, a unique bit string that is
15872 also present in the corresponding debug info file. (This is supported
15873 only on some operating systems, notably those which use the ELF format
15874 for binary files and the @sc{gnu} Binutils.) For more details about
15875 this feature, see the description of the @option{--build-id}
15876 command-line option in @ref{Options, , Command Line Options, ld.info,
15877 The GNU Linker}. The debug info file's name is not specified
15878 explicitly by the build ID, but can be computed from the build ID, see
15879 below.
15880 @end itemize
15881
15882 Depending on the way the debug info file is specified, @value{GDBN}
15883 uses two different methods of looking for the debug file:
15884
15885 @itemize @bullet
15886 @item
15887 For the ``debug link'' method, @value{GDBN} looks up the named file in
15888 the directory of the executable file, then in a subdirectory of that
15889 directory named @file{.debug}, and finally under the global debug
15890 directory, in a subdirectory whose name is identical to the leading
15891 directories of the executable's absolute file name.
15892
15893 @item
15894 For the ``build ID'' method, @value{GDBN} looks in the
15895 @file{.build-id} subdirectory of the global debug directory for a file
15896 named @file{@var{nn}/@var{nnnnnnnn}.debug}, where @var{nn} are the
15897 first 2 hex characters of the build ID bit string, and @var{nnnnnnnn}
15898 are the rest of the bit string. (Real build ID strings are 32 or more
15899 hex characters, not 10.)
15900 @end itemize
15901
15902 So, for example, suppose you ask @value{GDBN} to debug
15903 @file{/usr/bin/ls}, which has a debug link that specifies the
15904 file @file{ls.debug}, and a build ID whose value in hex is
15905 @code{abcdef1234}. If the global debug directory is
15906 @file{/usr/lib/debug}, then @value{GDBN} will look for the following
15907 debug information files, in the indicated order:
15908
15909 @itemize @minus
15910 @item
15911 @file{/usr/lib/debug/.build-id/ab/cdef1234.debug}
15912 @item
15913 @file{/usr/bin/ls.debug}
15914 @item
15915 @file{/usr/bin/.debug/ls.debug}
15916 @item
15917 @file{/usr/lib/debug/usr/bin/ls.debug}.
15918 @end itemize
15919
15920 You can set the global debugging info directory's name, and view the
15921 name @value{GDBN} is currently using.
15922
15923 @table @code
15924
15925 @kindex set debug-file-directory
15926 @item set debug-file-directory @var{directories}
15927 Set the directories which @value{GDBN} searches for separate debugging
15928 information files to @var{directory}. Multiple directory components can be set
15929 concatenating them by a directory separator.
15930
15931 @kindex show debug-file-directory
15932 @item show debug-file-directory
15933 Show the directories @value{GDBN} searches for separate debugging
15934 information files.
15935
15936 @end table
15937
15938 @cindex @code{.gnu_debuglink} sections
15939 @cindex debug link sections
15940 A debug link is a special section of the executable file named
15941 @code{.gnu_debuglink}. The section must contain:
15942
15943 @itemize
15944 @item
15945 A filename, with any leading directory components removed, followed by
15946 a zero byte,
15947 @item
15948 zero to three bytes of padding, as needed to reach the next four-byte
15949 boundary within the section, and
15950 @item
15951 a four-byte CRC checksum, stored in the same endianness used for the
15952 executable file itself. The checksum is computed on the debugging
15953 information file's full contents by the function given below, passing
15954 zero as the @var{crc} argument.
15955 @end itemize
15956
15957 Any executable file format can carry a debug link, as long as it can
15958 contain a section named @code{.gnu_debuglink} with the contents
15959 described above.
15960
15961 @cindex @code{.note.gnu.build-id} sections
15962 @cindex build ID sections
15963 The build ID is a special section in the executable file (and in other
15964 ELF binary files that @value{GDBN} may consider). This section is
15965 often named @code{.note.gnu.build-id}, but that name is not mandatory.
15966 It contains unique identification for the built files---the ID remains
15967 the same across multiple builds of the same build tree. The default
15968 algorithm SHA1 produces 160 bits (40 hexadecimal characters) of the
15969 content for the build ID string. The same section with an identical
15970 value is present in the original built binary with symbols, in its
15971 stripped variant, and in the separate debugging information file.
15972
15973 The debugging information file itself should be an ordinary
15974 executable, containing a full set of linker symbols, sections, and
15975 debugging information. The sections of the debugging information file
15976 should have the same names, addresses, and sizes as the original file,
15977 but they need not contain any data---much like a @code{.bss} section
15978 in an ordinary executable.
15979
15980 The @sc{gnu} binary utilities (Binutils) package includes the
15981 @samp{objcopy} utility that can produce
15982 the separated executable / debugging information file pairs using the
15983 following commands:
15984
15985 @smallexample
15986 @kbd{objcopy --only-keep-debug foo foo.debug}
15987 @kbd{strip -g foo}
15988 @end smallexample
15989
15990 @noindent
15991 These commands remove the debugging
15992 information from the executable file @file{foo} and place it in the file
15993 @file{foo.debug}. You can use the first, second or both methods to link the
15994 two files:
15995
15996 @itemize @bullet
15997 @item
15998 The debug link method needs the following additional command to also leave
15999 behind a debug link in @file{foo}:
16000
16001 @smallexample
16002 @kbd{objcopy --add-gnu-debuglink=foo.debug foo}
16003 @end smallexample
16004
16005 Ulrich Drepper's @file{elfutils} package, starting with version 0.53, contains
16006 a version of the @code{strip} command such that the command @kbd{strip foo -f
16007 foo.debug} has the same functionality as the two @code{objcopy} commands and
16008 the @code{ln -s} command above, together.
16009
16010 @item
16011 Build ID gets embedded into the main executable using @code{ld --build-id} or
16012 the @value{NGCC} counterpart @code{gcc -Wl,--build-id}. Build ID support plus
16013 compatibility fixes for debug files separation are present in @sc{gnu} binary
16014 utilities (Binutils) package since version 2.18.
16015 @end itemize
16016
16017 @noindent
16018
16019 @cindex CRC algorithm definition
16020 The CRC used in @code{.gnu_debuglink} is the CRC-32 defined in
16021 IEEE 802.3 using the polynomial:
16022
16023 @c TexInfo requires naked braces for multi-digit exponents for Tex
16024 @c output, but this causes HTML output to barf. HTML has to be set using
16025 @c raw commands. So we end up having to specify this equation in 2
16026 @c different ways!
16027 @ifhtml
16028 @display
16029 @html
16030 <em>x</em><sup>32</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>26</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>23</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>22</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>16</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>12</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>11</sup>
16031 + <em>x</em><sup>10</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>8</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>7</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>5</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>4</sup> + <em>x</em><sup>2</sup> + <em>x</em> + 1
16032 @end html
16033 @end display
16034 @end ifhtml
16035 @ifnothtml
16036 @display
16037 @math{x^{32} + x^{26} + x^{23} + x^{22} + x^{16} + x^{12} + x^{11}}
16038 @math{+ x^{10} + x^8 + x^7 + x^5 + x^4 + x^2 + x + 1}
16039 @end display
16040 @end ifnothtml
16041
16042 The function is computed byte at a time, taking the least
16043 significant bit of each byte first. The initial pattern
16044 @code{0xffffffff} is used, to ensure leading zeros affect the CRC and
16045 the final result is inverted to ensure trailing zeros also affect the
16046 CRC.
16047
16048 @emph{Note:} This is the same CRC polynomial as used in handling the
16049 @dfn{Remote Serial Protocol} @code{qCRC} packet (@pxref{Remote Protocol,
16050 , @value{GDBN} Remote Serial Protocol}). However in the
16051 case of the Remote Serial Protocol, the CRC is computed @emph{most}
16052 significant bit first, and the result is not inverted, so trailing
16053 zeros have no effect on the CRC value.
16054
16055 To complete the description, we show below the code of the function
16056 which produces the CRC used in @code{.gnu_debuglink}. Inverting the
16057 initially supplied @code{crc} argument means that an initial call to
16058 this function passing in zero will start computing the CRC using
16059 @code{0xffffffff}.
16060
16061 @kindex gnu_debuglink_crc32
16062 @smallexample
16063 unsigned long
16064 gnu_debuglink_crc32 (unsigned long crc,
16065 unsigned char *buf, size_t len)
16066 @{
16067 static const unsigned long crc32_table[256] =
16068 @{
16069 0x00000000, 0x77073096, 0xee0e612c, 0x990951ba, 0x076dc419,
16070 0x706af48f, 0xe963a535, 0x9e6495a3, 0x0edb8832, 0x79dcb8a4,
16071 0xe0d5e91e, 0x97d2d988, 0x09b64c2b, 0x7eb17cbd, 0xe7b82d07,
16072 0x90bf1d91, 0x1db71064, 0x6ab020f2, 0xf3b97148, 0x84be41de,
16073 0x1adad47d, 0x6ddde4eb, 0xf4d4b551, 0x83d385c7, 0x136c9856,
16074 0x646ba8c0, 0xfd62f97a, 0x8a65c9ec, 0x14015c4f, 0x63066cd9,
16075 0xfa0f3d63, 0x8d080df5, 0x3b6e20c8, 0x4c69105e, 0xd56041e4,
16076 0xa2677172, 0x3c03e4d1, 0x4b04d447, 0xd20d85fd, 0xa50ab56b,
16077 0x35b5a8fa, 0x42b2986c, 0xdbbbc9d6, 0xacbcf940, 0x32d86ce3,
16078 0x45df5c75, 0xdcd60dcf, 0xabd13d59, 0x26d930ac, 0x51de003a,
16079 0xc8d75180, 0xbfd06116, 0x21b4f4b5, 0x56b3c423, 0xcfba9599,
16080 0xb8bda50f, 0x2802b89e, 0x5f058808, 0xc60cd9b2, 0xb10be924,
16081 0x2f6f7c87, 0x58684c11, 0xc1611dab, 0xb6662d3d, 0x76dc4190,
16082 0x01db7106, 0x98d220bc, 0xefd5102a, 0x71b18589, 0x06b6b51f,
16083 0x9fbfe4a5, 0xe8b8d433, 0x7807c9a2, 0x0f00f934, 0x9609a88e,
16084 0xe10e9818, 0x7f6a0dbb, 0x086d3d2d, 0x91646c97, 0xe6635c01,
16085 0x6b6b51f4, 0x1c6c6162, 0x856530d8, 0xf262004e, 0x6c0695ed,
16086 0x1b01a57b, 0x8208f4c1, 0xf50fc457, 0x65b0d9c6, 0x12b7e950,
16087 0x8bbeb8ea, 0xfcb9887c, 0x62dd1ddf, 0x15da2d49, 0x8cd37cf3,
16088 0xfbd44c65, 0x4db26158, 0x3ab551ce, 0xa3bc0074, 0xd4bb30e2,
16089 0x4adfa541, 0x3dd895d7, 0xa4d1c46d, 0xd3d6f4fb, 0x4369e96a,
16090 0x346ed9fc, 0xad678846, 0xda60b8d0, 0x44042d73, 0x33031de5,
16091 0xaa0a4c5f, 0xdd0d7cc9, 0x5005713c, 0x270241aa, 0xbe0b1010,
16092 0xc90c2086, 0x5768b525, 0x206f85b3, 0xb966d409, 0xce61e49f,
16093 0x5edef90e, 0x29d9c998, 0xb0d09822, 0xc7d7a8b4, 0x59b33d17,
16094 0x2eb40d81, 0xb7bd5c3b, 0xc0ba6cad, 0xedb88320, 0x9abfb3b6,
16095 0x03b6e20c, 0x74b1d29a, 0xead54739, 0x9dd277af, 0x04db2615,
16096 0x73dc1683, 0xe3630b12, 0x94643b84, 0x0d6d6a3e, 0x7a6a5aa8,
16097 0xe40ecf0b, 0x9309ff9d, 0x0a00ae27, 0x7d079eb1, 0xf00f9344,
16098 0x8708a3d2, 0x1e01f268, 0x6906c2fe, 0xf762575d, 0x806567cb,
16099 0x196c3671, 0x6e6b06e7, 0xfed41b76, 0x89d32be0, 0x10da7a5a,
16100 0x67dd4acc, 0xf9b9df6f, 0x8ebeeff9, 0x17b7be43, 0x60b08ed5,
16101 0xd6d6a3e8, 0xa1d1937e, 0x38d8c2c4, 0x4fdff252, 0xd1bb67f1,
16102 0xa6bc5767, 0x3fb506dd, 0x48b2364b, 0xd80d2bda, 0xaf0a1b4c,
16103 0x36034af6, 0x41047a60, 0xdf60efc3, 0xa867df55, 0x316e8eef,
16104 0x4669be79, 0xcb61b38c, 0xbc66831a, 0x256fd2a0, 0x5268e236,
16105 0xcc0c7795, 0xbb0b4703, 0x220216b9, 0x5505262f, 0xc5ba3bbe,
16106 0xb2bd0b28, 0x2bb45a92, 0x5cb36a04, 0xc2d7ffa7, 0xb5d0cf31,
16107 0x2cd99e8b, 0x5bdeae1d, 0x9b64c2b0, 0xec63f226, 0x756aa39c,
16108 0x026d930a, 0x9c0906a9, 0xeb0e363f, 0x72076785, 0x05005713,
16109 0x95bf4a82, 0xe2b87a14, 0x7bb12bae, 0x0cb61b38, 0x92d28e9b,
16110 0xe5d5be0d, 0x7cdcefb7, 0x0bdbdf21, 0x86d3d2d4, 0xf1d4e242,
16111 0x68ddb3f8, 0x1fda836e, 0x81be16cd, 0xf6b9265b, 0x6fb077e1,
16112 0x18b74777, 0x88085ae6, 0xff0f6a70, 0x66063bca, 0x11010b5c,
16113 0x8f659eff, 0xf862ae69, 0x616bffd3, 0x166ccf45, 0xa00ae278,
16114 0xd70dd2ee, 0x4e048354, 0x3903b3c2, 0xa7672661, 0xd06016f7,
16115 0x4969474d, 0x3e6e77db, 0xaed16a4a, 0xd9d65adc, 0x40df0b66,
16116 0x37d83bf0, 0xa9bcae53, 0xdebb9ec5, 0x47b2cf7f, 0x30b5ffe9,
16117 0xbdbdf21c, 0xcabac28a, 0x53b39330, 0x24b4a3a6, 0xbad03605,
16118 0xcdd70693, 0x54de5729, 0x23d967bf, 0xb3667a2e, 0xc4614ab8,
16119 0x5d681b02, 0x2a6f2b94, 0xb40bbe37, 0xc30c8ea1, 0x5a05df1b,
16120 0x2d02ef8d
16121 @};
16122 unsigned char *end;
16123
16124 crc = ~crc & 0xffffffff;
16125 for (end = buf + len; buf < end; ++buf)
16126 crc = crc32_table[(crc ^ *buf) & 0xff] ^ (crc >> 8);
16127 return ~crc & 0xffffffff;
16128 @}
16129 @end smallexample
16130
16131 @noindent
16132 This computation does not apply to the ``build ID'' method.
16133
16134
16135 @node Index Files
16136 @section Index Files Speed Up @value{GDBN}
16137 @cindex index files
16138 @cindex @samp{.gdb_index} section
16139
16140 When @value{GDBN} finds a symbol file, it scans the symbols in the
16141 file in order to construct an internal symbol table. This lets most
16142 @value{GDBN} operations work quickly---at the cost of a delay early
16143 on. For large programs, this delay can be quite lengthy, so
16144 @value{GDBN} provides a way to build an index, which speeds up
16145 startup.
16146
16147 The index is stored as a section in the symbol file. @value{GDBN} can
16148 write the index to a file, then you can put it into the symbol file
16149 using @command{objcopy}.
16150
16151 To create an index file, use the @code{save gdb-index} command:
16152
16153 @table @code
16154 @item save gdb-index @var{directory}
16155 @kindex save gdb-index
16156 Create an index file for each symbol file currently known by
16157 @value{GDBN}. Each file is named after its corresponding symbol file,
16158 with @samp{.gdb-index} appended, and is written into the given
16159 @var{directory}.
16160 @end table
16161
16162 Once you have created an index file you can merge it into your symbol
16163 file, here named @file{symfile}, using @command{objcopy}:
16164
16165 @smallexample
16166 $ objcopy --add-section .gdb_index=symfile.gdb-index \
16167 --set-section-flags .gdb_index=readonly symfile symfile
16168 @end smallexample
16169
16170 There are currently some limitation on indices. They only work when
16171 for DWARF debugging information, not stabs. And, they do not
16172 currently work for programs using Ada.
16173
16174 @node Symbol Errors
16175 @section Errors Reading Symbol Files
16176
16177 While reading a symbol file, @value{GDBN} occasionally encounters problems,
16178 such as symbol types it does not recognize, or known bugs in compiler
16179 output. By default, @value{GDBN} does not notify you of such problems, since
16180 they are relatively common and primarily of interest to people
16181 debugging compilers. If you are interested in seeing information
16182 about ill-constructed symbol tables, you can either ask @value{GDBN} to print
16183 only one message about each such type of problem, no matter how many
16184 times the problem occurs; or you can ask @value{GDBN} to print more messages,
16185 to see how many times the problems occur, with the @code{set
16186 complaints} command (@pxref{Messages/Warnings, ,Optional Warnings and
16187 Messages}).
16188
16189 The messages currently printed, and their meanings, include:
16190
16191 @table @code
16192 @item inner block not inside outer block in @var{symbol}
16193
16194 The symbol information shows where symbol scopes begin and end
16195 (such as at the start of a function or a block of statements). This
16196 error indicates that an inner scope block is not fully contained
16197 in its outer scope blocks.
16198
16199 @value{GDBN} circumvents the problem by treating the inner block as if it had
16200 the same scope as the outer block. In the error message, @var{symbol}
16201 may be shown as ``@code{(don't know)}'' if the outer block is not a
16202 function.
16203
16204 @item block at @var{address} out of order
16205
16206 The symbol information for symbol scope blocks should occur in
16207 order of increasing addresses. This error indicates that it does not
16208 do so.
16209
16210 @value{GDBN} does not circumvent this problem, and has trouble
16211 locating symbols in the source file whose symbols it is reading. (You
16212 can often determine what source file is affected by specifying
16213 @code{set verbose on}. @xref{Messages/Warnings, ,Optional Warnings and
16214 Messages}.)
16215
16216 @item bad block start address patched
16217
16218 The symbol information for a symbol scope block has a start address
16219 smaller than the address of the preceding source line. This is known
16220 to occur in the SunOS 4.1.1 (and earlier) C compiler.
16221
16222 @value{GDBN} circumvents the problem by treating the symbol scope block as
16223 starting on the previous source line.
16224
16225 @item bad string table offset in symbol @var{n}
16226
16227 @cindex foo
16228 Symbol number @var{n} contains a pointer into the string table which is
16229 larger than the size of the string table.
16230
16231 @value{GDBN} circumvents the problem by considering the symbol to have the
16232 name @code{foo}, which may cause other problems if many symbols end up
16233 with this name.
16234
16235 @item unknown symbol type @code{0x@var{nn}}
16236
16237 The symbol information contains new data types that @value{GDBN} does
16238 not yet know how to read. @code{0x@var{nn}} is the symbol type of the
16239 uncomprehended information, in hexadecimal.
16240
16241 @value{GDBN} circumvents the error by ignoring this symbol information.
16242 This usually allows you to debug your program, though certain symbols
16243 are not accessible. If you encounter such a problem and feel like
16244 debugging it, you can debug @code{@value{GDBP}} with itself, breakpoint
16245 on @code{complain}, then go up to the function @code{read_dbx_symtab}
16246 and examine @code{*bufp} to see the symbol.
16247
16248 @item stub type has NULL name
16249
16250 @value{GDBN} could not find the full definition for a struct or class.
16251
16252 @item const/volatile indicator missing (ok if using g++ v1.x), got@dots{}
16253 The symbol information for a C@t{++} member function is missing some
16254 information that recent versions of the compiler should have output for
16255 it.
16256
16257 @item info mismatch between compiler and debugger
16258
16259 @value{GDBN} could not parse a type specification output by the compiler.
16260
16261 @end table
16262
16263 @node Data Files
16264 @section GDB Data Files
16265
16266 @cindex prefix for data files
16267 @value{GDBN} will sometimes read an auxiliary data file. These files
16268 are kept in a directory known as the @dfn{data directory}.
16269
16270 You can set the data directory's name, and view the name @value{GDBN}
16271 is currently using.
16272
16273 @table @code
16274 @kindex set data-directory
16275 @item set data-directory @var{directory}
16276 Set the directory which @value{GDBN} searches for auxiliary data files
16277 to @var{directory}.
16278
16279 @kindex show data-directory
16280 @item show data-directory
16281 Show the directory @value{GDBN} searches for auxiliary data files.
16282 @end table
16283
16284 @cindex default data directory
16285 @cindex @samp{--with-gdb-datadir}
16286 You can set the default data directory by using the configure-time
16287 @samp{--with-gdb-datadir} option. If the data directory is inside
16288 @value{GDBN}'s configured binary prefix (set with @samp{--prefix} or
16289 @samp{--exec-prefix}), then the default data directory will be updated
16290 automatically if the installed @value{GDBN} is moved to a new
16291 location.
16292
16293 The data directory may also be specified with the
16294 @code{--data-directory} command line option.
16295 @xref{Mode Options}.
16296
16297 @node Targets
16298 @chapter Specifying a Debugging Target
16299
16300 @cindex debugging target
16301 A @dfn{target} is the execution environment occupied by your program.
16302
16303 Often, @value{GDBN} runs in the same host environment as your program;
16304 in that case, the debugging target is specified as a side effect when
16305 you use the @code{file} or @code{core} commands. When you need more
16306 flexibility---for example, running @value{GDBN} on a physically separate
16307 host, or controlling a standalone system over a serial port or a
16308 realtime system over a TCP/IP connection---you can use the @code{target}
16309 command to specify one of the target types configured for @value{GDBN}
16310 (@pxref{Target Commands, ,Commands for Managing Targets}).
16311
16312 @cindex target architecture
16313 It is possible to build @value{GDBN} for several different @dfn{target
16314 architectures}. When @value{GDBN} is built like that, you can choose
16315 one of the available architectures with the @kbd{set architecture}
16316 command.
16317
16318 @table @code
16319 @kindex set architecture
16320 @kindex show architecture
16321 @item set architecture @var{arch}
16322 This command sets the current target architecture to @var{arch}. The
16323 value of @var{arch} can be @code{"auto"}, in addition to one of the
16324 supported architectures.
16325
16326 @item show architecture
16327 Show the current target architecture.
16328
16329 @item set processor
16330 @itemx processor
16331 @kindex set processor
16332 @kindex show processor
16333 These are alias commands for, respectively, @code{set architecture}
16334 and @code{show architecture}.
16335 @end table
16336
16337 @menu
16338 * Active Targets:: Active targets
16339 * Target Commands:: Commands for managing targets
16340 * Byte Order:: Choosing target byte order
16341 @end menu
16342
16343 @node Active Targets
16344 @section Active Targets
16345
16346 @cindex stacking targets
16347 @cindex active targets
16348 @cindex multiple targets
16349
16350 There are multiple classes of targets such as: processes, executable files or
16351 recording sessions. Core files belong to the process class, making core file
16352 and process mutually exclusive. Otherwise, @value{GDBN} can work concurrently
16353 on multiple active targets, one in each class. This allows you to (for
16354 example) start a process and inspect its activity, while still having access to
16355 the executable file after the process finishes. Or if you start process
16356 recording (@pxref{Reverse Execution}) and @code{reverse-step} there, you are
16357 presented a virtual layer of the recording target, while the process target
16358 remains stopped at the chronologically last point of the process execution.
16359
16360 Use the @code{core-file} and @code{exec-file} commands to select a new core
16361 file or executable target (@pxref{Files, ,Commands to Specify Files}). To
16362 specify as a target a process that is already running, use the @code{attach}
16363 command (@pxref{Attach, ,Debugging an Already-running Process}).
16364
16365 @node Target Commands
16366 @section Commands for Managing Targets
16367
16368 @table @code
16369 @item target @var{type} @var{parameters}
16370 Connects the @value{GDBN} host environment to a target machine or
16371 process. A target is typically a protocol for talking to debugging
16372 facilities. You use the argument @var{type} to specify the type or
16373 protocol of the target machine.
16374
16375 Further @var{parameters} are interpreted by the target protocol, but
16376 typically include things like device names or host names to connect
16377 with, process numbers, and baud rates.
16378
16379 The @code{target} command does not repeat if you press @key{RET} again
16380 after executing the command.
16381
16382 @kindex help target
16383 @item help target
16384 Displays the names of all targets available. To display targets
16385 currently selected, use either @code{info target} or @code{info files}
16386 (@pxref{Files, ,Commands to Specify Files}).
16387
16388 @item help target @var{name}
16389 Describe a particular target, including any parameters necessary to
16390 select it.
16391
16392 @kindex set gnutarget
16393 @item set gnutarget @var{args}
16394 @value{GDBN} uses its own library BFD to read your files. @value{GDBN}
16395 knows whether it is reading an @dfn{executable},
16396 a @dfn{core}, or a @dfn{.o} file; however, you can specify the file format
16397 with the @code{set gnutarget} command. Unlike most @code{target} commands,
16398 with @code{gnutarget} the @code{target} refers to a program, not a machine.
16399
16400 @quotation
16401 @emph{Warning:} To specify a file format with @code{set gnutarget},
16402 you must know the actual BFD name.
16403 @end quotation
16404
16405 @noindent
16406 @xref{Files, , Commands to Specify Files}.
16407
16408 @kindex show gnutarget
16409 @item show gnutarget
16410 Use the @code{show gnutarget} command to display what file format
16411 @code{gnutarget} is set to read. If you have not set @code{gnutarget},
16412 @value{GDBN} will determine the file format for each file automatically,
16413 and @code{show gnutarget} displays @samp{The current BDF target is "auto"}.
16414 @end table
16415
16416 @cindex common targets
16417 Here are some common targets (available, or not, depending on the GDB
16418 configuration):
16419
16420 @table @code
16421 @kindex target
16422 @item target exec @var{program}
16423 @cindex executable file target
16424 An executable file. @samp{target exec @var{program}} is the same as
16425 @samp{exec-file @var{program}}.
16426
16427 @item target core @var{filename}
16428 @cindex core dump file target
16429 A core dump file. @samp{target core @var{filename}} is the same as
16430 @samp{core-file @var{filename}}.
16431
16432 @item target remote @var{medium}
16433 @cindex remote target
16434 A remote system connected to @value{GDBN} via a serial line or network
16435 connection. This command tells @value{GDBN} to use its own remote
16436 protocol over @var{medium} for debugging. @xref{Remote Debugging}.
16437
16438 For example, if you have a board connected to @file{/dev/ttya} on the
16439 machine running @value{GDBN}, you could say:
16440
16441 @smallexample
16442 target remote /dev/ttya
16443 @end smallexample
16444
16445 @code{target remote} supports the @code{load} command. This is only
16446 useful if you have some other way of getting the stub to the target
16447 system, and you can put it somewhere in memory where it won't get
16448 clobbered by the download.
16449
16450 @item target sim @r{[}@var{simargs}@r{]} @dots{}
16451 @cindex built-in simulator target
16452 Builtin CPU simulator. @value{GDBN} includes simulators for most architectures.
16453 In general,
16454 @smallexample
16455 target sim
16456 load
16457 run
16458 @end smallexample
16459 @noindent
16460 works; however, you cannot assume that a specific memory map, device
16461 drivers, or even basic I/O is available, although some simulators do
16462 provide these. For info about any processor-specific simulator details,
16463 see the appropriate section in @ref{Embedded Processors, ,Embedded
16464 Processors}.
16465
16466 @end table
16467
16468 Some configurations may include these targets as well:
16469
16470 @table @code
16471
16472 @item target nrom @var{dev}
16473 @cindex NetROM ROM emulator target
16474 NetROM ROM emulator. This target only supports downloading.
16475
16476 @end table
16477
16478 Different targets are available on different configurations of @value{GDBN};
16479 your configuration may have more or fewer targets.
16480
16481 Many remote targets require you to download the executable's code once
16482 you've successfully established a connection. You may wish to control
16483 various aspects of this process.
16484
16485 @table @code
16486
16487 @item set hash
16488 @kindex set hash@r{, for remote monitors}
16489 @cindex hash mark while downloading
16490 This command controls whether a hash mark @samp{#} is displayed while
16491 downloading a file to the remote monitor. If on, a hash mark is
16492 displayed after each S-record is successfully downloaded to the
16493 monitor.
16494
16495 @item show hash
16496 @kindex show hash@r{, for remote monitors}
16497 Show the current status of displaying the hash mark.
16498
16499 @item set debug monitor
16500 @kindex set debug monitor
16501 @cindex display remote monitor communications
16502 Enable or disable display of communications messages between
16503 @value{GDBN} and the remote monitor.
16504
16505 @item show debug monitor
16506 @kindex show debug monitor
16507 Show the current status of displaying communications between
16508 @value{GDBN} and the remote monitor.
16509 @end table
16510
16511 @table @code
16512
16513 @kindex load @var{filename}
16514 @item load @var{filename}
16515 @anchor{load}
16516 Depending on what remote debugging facilities are configured into
16517 @value{GDBN}, the @code{load} command may be available. Where it exists, it
16518 is meant to make @var{filename} (an executable) available for debugging
16519 on the remote system---by downloading, or dynamic linking, for example.
16520 @code{load} also records the @var{filename} symbol table in @value{GDBN}, like
16521 the @code{add-symbol-file} command.
16522
16523 If your @value{GDBN} does not have a @code{load} command, attempting to
16524 execute it gets the error message ``@code{You can't do that when your
16525 target is @dots{}}''
16526
16527 The file is loaded at whatever address is specified in the executable.
16528 For some object file formats, you can specify the load address when you
16529 link the program; for other formats, like a.out, the object file format
16530 specifies a fixed address.
16531 @c FIXME! This would be a good place for an xref to the GNU linker doc.
16532
16533 Depending on the remote side capabilities, @value{GDBN} may be able to
16534 load programs into flash memory.
16535
16536 @code{load} does not repeat if you press @key{RET} again after using it.
16537 @end table
16538
16539 @node Byte Order
16540 @section Choosing Target Byte Order
16541
16542 @cindex choosing target byte order
16543 @cindex target byte order
16544
16545 Some types of processors, such as the MIPS, PowerPC, and Renesas SH,
16546 offer the ability to run either big-endian or little-endian byte
16547 orders. Usually the executable or symbol will include a bit to
16548 designate the endian-ness, and you will not need to worry about
16549 which to use. However, you may still find it useful to adjust
16550 @value{GDBN}'s idea of processor endian-ness manually.
16551
16552 @table @code
16553 @kindex set endian
16554 @item set endian big
16555 Instruct @value{GDBN} to assume the target is big-endian.
16556
16557 @item set endian little
16558 Instruct @value{GDBN} to assume the target is little-endian.
16559
16560 @item set endian auto
16561 Instruct @value{GDBN} to use the byte order associated with the
16562 executable.
16563
16564 @item show endian
16565 Display @value{GDBN}'s current idea of the target byte order.
16566
16567 @end table
16568
16569 Note that these commands merely adjust interpretation of symbolic
16570 data on the host, and that they have absolutely no effect on the
16571 target system.
16572
16573
16574 @node Remote Debugging
16575 @chapter Debugging Remote Programs
16576 @cindex remote debugging
16577
16578 If you are trying to debug a program running on a machine that cannot run
16579 @value{GDBN} in the usual way, it is often useful to use remote debugging.
16580 For example, you might use remote debugging on an operating system kernel,
16581 or on a small system which does not have a general purpose operating system
16582 powerful enough to run a full-featured debugger.
16583
16584 Some configurations of @value{GDBN} have special serial or TCP/IP interfaces
16585 to make this work with particular debugging targets. In addition,
16586 @value{GDBN} comes with a generic serial protocol (specific to @value{GDBN},
16587 but not specific to any particular target system) which you can use if you
16588 write the remote stubs---the code that runs on the remote system to
16589 communicate with @value{GDBN}.
16590
16591 Other remote targets may be available in your
16592 configuration of @value{GDBN}; use @code{help target} to list them.
16593
16594 @menu
16595 * Connecting:: Connecting to a remote target
16596 * File Transfer:: Sending files to a remote system
16597 * Server:: Using the gdbserver program
16598 * Remote Configuration:: Remote configuration
16599 * Remote Stub:: Implementing a remote stub
16600 @end menu
16601
16602 @node Connecting
16603 @section Connecting to a Remote Target
16604
16605 On the @value{GDBN} host machine, you will need an unstripped copy of
16606 your program, since @value{GDBN} needs symbol and debugging information.
16607 Start up @value{GDBN} as usual, using the name of the local copy of your
16608 program as the first argument.
16609
16610 @cindex @code{target remote}
16611 @value{GDBN} can communicate with the target over a serial line, or
16612 over an @acronym{IP} network using @acronym{TCP} or @acronym{UDP}. In
16613 each case, @value{GDBN} uses the same protocol for debugging your
16614 program; only the medium carrying the debugging packets varies. The
16615 @code{target remote} command establishes a connection to the target.
16616 Its arguments indicate which medium to use:
16617
16618 @table @code
16619
16620 @item target remote @var{serial-device}
16621 @cindex serial line, @code{target remote}
16622 Use @var{serial-device} to communicate with the target. For example,
16623 to use a serial line connected to the device named @file{/dev/ttyb}:
16624
16625 @smallexample
16626 target remote /dev/ttyb
16627 @end smallexample
16628
16629 If you're using a serial line, you may want to give @value{GDBN} the
16630 @w{@samp{--baud}} option, or use the @code{set remotebaud} command
16631 (@pxref{Remote Configuration, set remotebaud}) before the
16632 @code{target} command.
16633
16634 @item target remote @code{@var{host}:@var{port}}
16635 @itemx target remote @code{tcp:@var{host}:@var{port}}
16636 @cindex @acronym{TCP} port, @code{target remote}
16637 Debug using a @acronym{TCP} connection to @var{port} on @var{host}.
16638 The @var{host} may be either a host name or a numeric @acronym{IP}
16639 address; @var{port} must be a decimal number. The @var{host} could be
16640 the target machine itself, if it is directly connected to the net, or
16641 it might be a terminal server which in turn has a serial line to the
16642 target.
16643
16644 For example, to connect to port 2828 on a terminal server named
16645 @code{manyfarms}:
16646
16647 @smallexample
16648 target remote manyfarms:2828
16649 @end smallexample
16650
16651 If your remote target is actually running on the same machine as your
16652 debugger session (e.g.@: a simulator for your target running on the
16653 same host), you can omit the hostname. For example, to connect to
16654 port 1234 on your local machine:
16655
16656 @smallexample
16657 target remote :1234
16658 @end smallexample
16659 @noindent
16660
16661 Note that the colon is still required here.
16662
16663 @item target remote @code{udp:@var{host}:@var{port}}
16664 @cindex @acronym{UDP} port, @code{target remote}
16665 Debug using @acronym{UDP} packets to @var{port} on @var{host}. For example, to
16666 connect to @acronym{UDP} port 2828 on a terminal server named @code{manyfarms}:
16667
16668 @smallexample
16669 target remote udp:manyfarms:2828
16670 @end smallexample
16671
16672 When using a @acronym{UDP} connection for remote debugging, you should
16673 keep in mind that the `U' stands for ``Unreliable''. @acronym{UDP}
16674 can silently drop packets on busy or unreliable networks, which will
16675 cause havoc with your debugging session.
16676
16677 @item target remote | @var{command}
16678 @cindex pipe, @code{target remote} to
16679 Run @var{command} in the background and communicate with it using a
16680 pipe. The @var{command} is a shell command, to be parsed and expanded
16681 by the system's command shell, @code{/bin/sh}; it should expect remote
16682 protocol packets on its standard input, and send replies on its
16683 standard output. You could use this to run a stand-alone simulator
16684 that speaks the remote debugging protocol, to make net connections
16685 using programs like @code{ssh}, or for other similar tricks.
16686
16687 If @var{command} closes its standard output (perhaps by exiting),
16688 @value{GDBN} will try to send it a @code{SIGTERM} signal. (If the
16689 program has already exited, this will have no effect.)
16690
16691 @end table
16692
16693 Once the connection has been established, you can use all the usual
16694 commands to examine and change data. The remote program is already
16695 running; you can use @kbd{step} and @kbd{continue}, and you do not
16696 need to use @kbd{run}.
16697
16698 @cindex interrupting remote programs
16699 @cindex remote programs, interrupting
16700 Whenever @value{GDBN} is waiting for the remote program, if you type the
16701 interrupt character (often @kbd{Ctrl-c}), @value{GDBN} attempts to stop the
16702 program. This may or may not succeed, depending in part on the hardware
16703 and the serial drivers the remote system uses. If you type the
16704 interrupt character once again, @value{GDBN} displays this prompt:
16705
16706 @smallexample
16707 Interrupted while waiting for the program.
16708 Give up (and stop debugging it)? (y or n)
16709 @end smallexample
16710
16711 If you type @kbd{y}, @value{GDBN} abandons the remote debugging session.
16712 (If you decide you want to try again later, you can use @samp{target
16713 remote} again to connect once more.) If you type @kbd{n}, @value{GDBN}
16714 goes back to waiting.
16715
16716 @table @code
16717 @kindex detach (remote)
16718 @item detach
16719 When you have finished debugging the remote program, you can use the
16720 @code{detach} command to release it from @value{GDBN} control.
16721 Detaching from the target normally resumes its execution, but the results
16722 will depend on your particular remote stub. After the @code{detach}
16723 command, @value{GDBN} is free to connect to another target.
16724
16725 @kindex disconnect
16726 @item disconnect
16727 The @code{disconnect} command behaves like @code{detach}, except that
16728 the target is generally not resumed. It will wait for @value{GDBN}
16729 (this instance or another one) to connect and continue debugging. After
16730 the @code{disconnect} command, @value{GDBN} is again free to connect to
16731 another target.
16732
16733 @cindex send command to remote monitor
16734 @cindex extend @value{GDBN} for remote targets
16735 @cindex add new commands for external monitor
16736 @kindex monitor
16737 @item monitor @var{cmd}
16738 This command allows you to send arbitrary commands directly to the
16739 remote monitor. Since @value{GDBN} doesn't care about the commands it
16740 sends like this, this command is the way to extend @value{GDBN}---you
16741 can add new commands that only the external monitor will understand
16742 and implement.
16743 @end table
16744
16745 @node File Transfer
16746 @section Sending files to a remote system
16747 @cindex remote target, file transfer
16748 @cindex file transfer
16749 @cindex sending files to remote systems
16750
16751 Some remote targets offer the ability to transfer files over the same
16752 connection used to communicate with @value{GDBN}. This is convenient
16753 for targets accessible through other means, e.g.@: @sc{gnu}/Linux systems
16754 running @code{gdbserver} over a network interface. For other targets,
16755 e.g.@: embedded devices with only a single serial port, this may be
16756 the only way to upload or download files.
16757
16758 Not all remote targets support these commands.
16759
16760 @table @code
16761 @kindex remote put
16762 @item remote put @var{hostfile} @var{targetfile}
16763 Copy file @var{hostfile} from the host system (the machine running
16764 @value{GDBN}) to @var{targetfile} on the target system.
16765
16766 @kindex remote get
16767 @item remote get @var{targetfile} @var{hostfile}
16768 Copy file @var{targetfile} from the target system to @var{hostfile}
16769 on the host system.
16770
16771 @kindex remote delete
16772 @item remote delete @var{targetfile}
16773 Delete @var{targetfile} from the target system.
16774
16775 @end table
16776
16777 @node Server
16778 @section Using the @code{gdbserver} Program
16779
16780 @kindex gdbserver
16781 @cindex remote connection without stubs
16782 @code{gdbserver} is a control program for Unix-like systems, which
16783 allows you to connect your program with a remote @value{GDBN} via
16784 @code{target remote}---but without linking in the usual debugging stub.
16785
16786 @code{gdbserver} is not a complete replacement for the debugging stubs,
16787 because it requires essentially the same operating-system facilities
16788 that @value{GDBN} itself does. In fact, a system that can run
16789 @code{gdbserver} to connect to a remote @value{GDBN} could also run
16790 @value{GDBN} locally! @code{gdbserver} is sometimes useful nevertheless,
16791 because it is a much smaller program than @value{GDBN} itself. It is
16792 also easier to port than all of @value{GDBN}, so you may be able to get
16793 started more quickly on a new system by using @code{gdbserver}.
16794 Finally, if you develop code for real-time systems, you may find that
16795 the tradeoffs involved in real-time operation make it more convenient to
16796 do as much development work as possible on another system, for example
16797 by cross-compiling. You can use @code{gdbserver} to make a similar
16798 choice for debugging.
16799
16800 @value{GDBN} and @code{gdbserver} communicate via either a serial line
16801 or a TCP connection, using the standard @value{GDBN} remote serial
16802 protocol.
16803
16804 @quotation
16805 @emph{Warning:} @code{gdbserver} does not have any built-in security.
16806 Do not run @code{gdbserver} connected to any public network; a
16807 @value{GDBN} connection to @code{gdbserver} provides access to the
16808 target system with the same privileges as the user running
16809 @code{gdbserver}.
16810 @end quotation
16811
16812 @subsection Running @code{gdbserver}
16813 @cindex arguments, to @code{gdbserver}
16814 @cindex @code{gdbserver}, command-line arguments
16815
16816 Run @code{gdbserver} on the target system. You need a copy of the
16817 program you want to debug, including any libraries it requires.
16818 @code{gdbserver} does not need your program's symbol table, so you can
16819 strip the program if necessary to save space. @value{GDBN} on the host
16820 system does all the symbol handling.
16821
16822 To use the server, you must tell it how to communicate with @value{GDBN};
16823 the name of your program; and the arguments for your program. The usual
16824 syntax is:
16825
16826 @smallexample
16827 target> gdbserver @var{comm} @var{program} [ @var{args} @dots{} ]
16828 @end smallexample
16829
16830 @var{comm} is either a device name (to use a serial line), or a TCP
16831 hostname and portnumber, or @code{-} or @code{stdio} to use
16832 stdin/stdout of @code{gdbserver}.
16833 For example, to debug Emacs with the argument
16834 @samp{foo.txt} and communicate with @value{GDBN} over the serial port
16835 @file{/dev/com1}:
16836
16837 @smallexample
16838 target> gdbserver /dev/com1 emacs foo.txt
16839 @end smallexample
16840
16841 @code{gdbserver} waits passively for the host @value{GDBN} to communicate
16842 with it.
16843
16844 To use a TCP connection instead of a serial line:
16845
16846 @smallexample
16847 target> gdbserver host:2345 emacs foo.txt
16848 @end smallexample
16849
16850 The only difference from the previous example is the first argument,
16851 specifying that you are communicating with the host @value{GDBN} via
16852 TCP. The @samp{host:2345} argument means that @code{gdbserver} is to
16853 expect a TCP connection from machine @samp{host} to local TCP port 2345.
16854 (Currently, the @samp{host} part is ignored.) You can choose any number
16855 you want for the port number as long as it does not conflict with any
16856 TCP ports already in use on the target system (for example, @code{23} is
16857 reserved for @code{telnet}).@footnote{If you choose a port number that
16858 conflicts with another service, @code{gdbserver} prints an error message
16859 and exits.} You must use the same port number with the host @value{GDBN}
16860 @code{target remote} command.
16861
16862 The @code{stdio} connection is useful when starting @code{gdbserver}
16863 with ssh:
16864
16865 @smallexample
16866 (gdb) target remote | ssh -T hostname gdbserver - hello
16867 @end smallexample
16868
16869 The @samp{-T} option to ssh is provided because we don't need a remote pty,
16870 and we don't want escape-character handling. Ssh does this by default when
16871 a command is provided, the flag is provided to make it explicit.
16872 You could elide it if you want to.
16873
16874 Programs started with stdio-connected gdbserver have @file{/dev/null} for
16875 @code{stdin}, and @code{stdout},@code{stderr} are sent back to gdb for
16876 display through a pipe connected to gdbserver.
16877 Both @code{stdout} and @code{stderr} use the same pipe.
16878
16879 @subsubsection Attaching to a Running Program
16880 @cindex attach to a program, @code{gdbserver}
16881 @cindex @option{--attach}, @code{gdbserver} option
16882
16883 On some targets, @code{gdbserver} can also attach to running programs.
16884 This is accomplished via the @code{--attach} argument. The syntax is:
16885
16886 @smallexample
16887 target> gdbserver --attach @var{comm} @var{pid}
16888 @end smallexample
16889
16890 @var{pid} is the process ID of a currently running process. It isn't necessary
16891 to point @code{gdbserver} at a binary for the running process.
16892
16893 @pindex pidof
16894 You can debug processes by name instead of process ID if your target has the
16895 @code{pidof} utility:
16896
16897 @smallexample
16898 target> gdbserver --attach @var{comm} `pidof @var{program}`
16899 @end smallexample
16900
16901 In case more than one copy of @var{program} is running, or @var{program}
16902 has multiple threads, most versions of @code{pidof} support the
16903 @code{-s} option to only return the first process ID.
16904
16905 @subsubsection Multi-Process Mode for @code{gdbserver}
16906 @cindex @code{gdbserver}, multiple processes
16907 @cindex multiple processes with @code{gdbserver}
16908
16909 When you connect to @code{gdbserver} using @code{target remote},
16910 @code{gdbserver} debugs the specified program only once. When the
16911 program exits, or you detach from it, @value{GDBN} closes the connection
16912 and @code{gdbserver} exits.
16913
16914 If you connect using @kbd{target extended-remote}, @code{gdbserver}
16915 enters multi-process mode. When the debugged program exits, or you
16916 detach from it, @value{GDBN} stays connected to @code{gdbserver} even
16917 though no program is running. The @code{run} and @code{attach}
16918 commands instruct @code{gdbserver} to run or attach to a new program.
16919 The @code{run} command uses @code{set remote exec-file} (@pxref{set
16920 remote exec-file}) to select the program to run. Command line
16921 arguments are supported, except for wildcard expansion and I/O
16922 redirection (@pxref{Arguments}).
16923
16924 @cindex @option{--multi}, @code{gdbserver} option
16925 To start @code{gdbserver} without supplying an initial command to run
16926 or process ID to attach, use the @option{--multi} command line option.
16927 Then you can connect using @kbd{target extended-remote} and start
16928 the program you want to debug.
16929
16930 In multi-process mode @code{gdbserver} does not automatically exit unless you
16931 use the option @option{--once}. You can terminate it by using
16932 @code{monitor exit} (@pxref{Monitor Commands for gdbserver}). Note that the
16933 conditions under which @code{gdbserver} terminates depend on how @value{GDBN}
16934 connects to it (@kbd{target remote} or @kbd{target extended-remote}). The
16935 @option{--multi} option to @code{gdbserver} has no influence on that.
16936
16937 @subsubsection TCP port allocation lifecycle of @code{gdbserver}
16938
16939 This section applies only when @code{gdbserver} is run to listen on a TCP port.
16940
16941 @code{gdbserver} normally terminates after all of its debugged processes have
16942 terminated in @kbd{target remote} mode. On the other hand, for @kbd{target
16943 extended-remote}, @code{gdbserver} stays running even with no processes left.
16944 @value{GDBN} normally terminates the spawned debugged process on its exit,
16945 which normally also terminates @code{gdbserver} in the @kbd{target remote}
16946 mode. Therefore, when the connection drops unexpectedly, and @value{GDBN}
16947 cannot ask @code{gdbserver} to kill its debugged processes, @code{gdbserver}
16948 stays running even in the @kbd{target remote} mode.
16949
16950 When @code{gdbserver} stays running, @value{GDBN} can connect to it again later.
16951 Such reconnecting is useful for features like @ref{disconnected tracing}. For
16952 completeness, at most one @value{GDBN} can be connected at a time.
16953
16954 @cindex @option{--once}, @code{gdbserver} option
16955 By default, @code{gdbserver} keeps the listening TCP port open, so that
16956 additional connections are possible. However, if you start @code{gdbserver}
16957 with the @option{--once} option, it will stop listening for any further
16958 connection attempts after connecting to the first @value{GDBN} session. This
16959 means no further connections to @code{gdbserver} will be possible after the
16960 first one. It also means @code{gdbserver} will terminate after the first
16961 connection with remote @value{GDBN} has closed, even for unexpectedly closed
16962 connections and even in the @kbd{target extended-remote} mode. The
16963 @option{--once} option allows reusing the same port number for connecting to
16964 multiple instances of @code{gdbserver} running on the same host, since each
16965 instance closes its port after the first connection.
16966
16967 @subsubsection Other Command-Line Arguments for @code{gdbserver}
16968
16969 @cindex @option{--debug}, @code{gdbserver} option
16970 The @option{--debug} option tells @code{gdbserver} to display extra
16971 status information about the debugging process.
16972 @cindex @option{--remote-debug}, @code{gdbserver} option
16973 The @option{--remote-debug} option tells @code{gdbserver} to display
16974 remote protocol debug output. These options are intended for
16975 @code{gdbserver} development and for bug reports to the developers.
16976
16977 @cindex @option{--wrapper}, @code{gdbserver} option
16978 The @option{--wrapper} option specifies a wrapper to launch programs
16979 for debugging. The option should be followed by the name of the
16980 wrapper, then any command-line arguments to pass to the wrapper, then
16981 @kbd{--} indicating the end of the wrapper arguments.
16982
16983 @code{gdbserver} runs the specified wrapper program with a combined
16984 command line including the wrapper arguments, then the name of the
16985 program to debug, then any arguments to the program. The wrapper
16986 runs until it executes your program, and then @value{GDBN} gains control.
16987
16988 You can use any program that eventually calls @code{execve} with
16989 its arguments as a wrapper. Several standard Unix utilities do
16990 this, e.g.@: @code{env} and @code{nohup}. Any Unix shell script ending
16991 with @code{exec "$@@"} will also work.
16992
16993 For example, you can use @code{env} to pass an environment variable to
16994 the debugged program, without setting the variable in @code{gdbserver}'s
16995 environment:
16996
16997 @smallexample
16998 $ gdbserver --wrapper env LD_PRELOAD=libtest.so -- :2222 ./testprog
16999 @end smallexample
17000
17001 @subsection Connecting to @code{gdbserver}
17002
17003 Run @value{GDBN} on the host system.
17004
17005 First make sure you have the necessary symbol files. Load symbols for
17006 your application using the @code{file} command before you connect. Use
17007 @code{set sysroot} to locate target libraries (unless your @value{GDBN}
17008 was compiled with the correct sysroot using @code{--with-sysroot}).
17009
17010 The symbol file and target libraries must exactly match the executable
17011 and libraries on the target, with one exception: the files on the host
17012 system should not be stripped, even if the files on the target system
17013 are. Mismatched or missing files will lead to confusing results
17014 during debugging. On @sc{gnu}/Linux targets, mismatched or missing
17015 files may also prevent @code{gdbserver} from debugging multi-threaded
17016 programs.
17017
17018 Connect to your target (@pxref{Connecting,,Connecting to a Remote Target}).
17019 For TCP connections, you must start up @code{gdbserver} prior to using
17020 the @code{target remote} command. Otherwise you may get an error whose
17021 text depends on the host system, but which usually looks something like
17022 @samp{Connection refused}. Don't use the @code{load}
17023 command in @value{GDBN} when using @code{gdbserver}, since the program is
17024 already on the target.
17025
17026 @subsection Monitor Commands for @code{gdbserver}
17027 @cindex monitor commands, for @code{gdbserver}
17028 @anchor{Monitor Commands for gdbserver}
17029
17030 During a @value{GDBN} session using @code{gdbserver}, you can use the
17031 @code{monitor} command to send special requests to @code{gdbserver}.
17032 Here are the available commands.
17033
17034 @table @code
17035 @item monitor help
17036 List the available monitor commands.
17037
17038 @item monitor set debug 0
17039 @itemx monitor set debug 1
17040 Disable or enable general debugging messages.
17041
17042 @item monitor set remote-debug 0
17043 @itemx monitor set remote-debug 1
17044 Disable or enable specific debugging messages associated with the remote
17045 protocol (@pxref{Remote Protocol}).
17046
17047 @item monitor set libthread-db-search-path [PATH]
17048 @cindex gdbserver, search path for @code{libthread_db}
17049 When this command is issued, @var{path} is a colon-separated list of
17050 directories to search for @code{libthread_db} (@pxref{Threads,,set
17051 libthread-db-search-path}). If you omit @var{path},
17052 @samp{libthread-db-search-path} will be reset to its default value.
17053
17054 The special entry @samp{$pdir} for @samp{libthread-db-search-path} is
17055 not supported in @code{gdbserver}.
17056
17057 @item monitor exit
17058 Tell gdbserver to exit immediately. This command should be followed by
17059 @code{disconnect} to close the debugging session. @code{gdbserver} will
17060 detach from any attached processes and kill any processes it created.
17061 Use @code{monitor exit} to terminate @code{gdbserver} at the end
17062 of a multi-process mode debug session.
17063
17064 @end table
17065
17066 @subsection Tracepoints support in @code{gdbserver}
17067 @cindex tracepoints support in @code{gdbserver}
17068
17069 On some targets, @code{gdbserver} supports tracepoints, fast
17070 tracepoints and static tracepoints.
17071
17072 For fast or static tracepoints to work, a special library called the
17073 @dfn{in-process agent} (IPA), must be loaded in the inferior process.
17074 This library is built and distributed as an integral part of
17075 @code{gdbserver}. In addition, support for static tracepoints
17076 requires building the in-process agent library with static tracepoints
17077 support. At present, the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer,
17078 @url{http://lttng.org/ust}) tracing engine is supported. This support
17079 is automatically available if UST development headers are found in the
17080 standard include path when @code{gdbserver} is built, or if
17081 @code{gdbserver} was explicitly configured using @option{--with-ust}
17082 to point at such headers. You can explicitly disable the support
17083 using @option{--with-ust=no}.
17084
17085 There are several ways to load the in-process agent in your program:
17086
17087 @table @code
17088 @item Specifying it as dependency at link time
17089
17090 You can link your program dynamically with the in-process agent
17091 library. On most systems, this is accomplished by adding
17092 @code{-linproctrace} to the link command.
17093
17094 @item Using the system's preloading mechanisms
17095
17096 You can force loading the in-process agent at startup time by using
17097 your system's support for preloading shared libraries. Many Unixes
17098 support the concept of preloading user defined libraries. In most
17099 cases, you do that by specifying @code{LD_PRELOAD=libinproctrace.so}
17100 in the environment. See also the description of @code{gdbserver}'s
17101 @option{--wrapper} command line option.
17102
17103 @item Using @value{GDBN} to force loading the agent at run time
17104
17105 On some systems, you can force the inferior to load a shared library,
17106 by calling a dynamic loader function in the inferior that takes care
17107 of dynamically looking up and loading a shared library. On most Unix
17108 systems, the function is @code{dlopen}. You'll use the @code{call}
17109 command for that. For example:
17110
17111 @smallexample
17112 (@value{GDBP}) call dlopen ("libinproctrace.so", ...)
17113 @end smallexample
17114
17115 Note that on most Unix systems, for the @code{dlopen} function to be
17116 available, the program needs to be linked with @code{-ldl}.
17117 @end table
17118
17119 On systems that have a userspace dynamic loader, like most Unix
17120 systems, when you connect to @code{gdbserver} using @code{target
17121 remote}, you'll find that the program is stopped at the dynamic
17122 loader's entry point, and no shared library has been loaded in the
17123 program's address space yet, including the in-process agent. In that
17124 case, before being able to use any of the fast or static tracepoints
17125 features, you need to let the loader run and load the shared
17126 libraries. The simplest way to do that is to run the program to the
17127 main procedure. E.g., if debugging a C or C@t{++} program, start
17128 @code{gdbserver} like so:
17129
17130 @smallexample
17131 $ gdbserver :9999 myprogram
17132 @end smallexample
17133
17134 Start GDB and connect to @code{gdbserver} like so, and run to main:
17135
17136 @smallexample
17137 $ gdb myprogram
17138 (@value{GDBP}) target remote myhost:9999
17139 0x00007f215893ba60 in ?? () from /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
17140 (@value{GDBP}) b main
17141 (@value{GDBP}) continue
17142 @end smallexample
17143
17144 The in-process tracing agent library should now be loaded into the
17145 process; you can confirm it with the @code{info sharedlibrary}
17146 command, which will list @file{libinproctrace.so} as loaded in the
17147 process. You are now ready to install fast tracepoints, list static
17148 tracepoint markers, probe static tracepoints markers, and start
17149 tracing.
17150
17151 @node Remote Configuration
17152 @section Remote Configuration
17153
17154 @kindex set remote
17155 @kindex show remote
17156 This section documents the configuration options available when
17157 debugging remote programs. For the options related to the File I/O
17158 extensions of the remote protocol, see @ref{system,
17159 system-call-allowed}.
17160
17161 @table @code
17162 @item set remoteaddresssize @var{bits}
17163 @cindex address size for remote targets
17164 @cindex bits in remote address
17165 Set the maximum size of address in a memory packet to the specified
17166 number of bits. @value{GDBN} will mask off the address bits above
17167 that number, when it passes addresses to the remote target. The
17168 default value is the number of bits in the target's address.
17169
17170 @item show remoteaddresssize
17171 Show the current value of remote address size in bits.
17172
17173 @item set remotebaud @var{n}
17174 @cindex baud rate for remote targets
17175 Set the baud rate for the remote serial I/O to @var{n} baud. The
17176 value is used to set the speed of the serial port used for debugging
17177 remote targets.
17178
17179 @item show remotebaud
17180 Show the current speed of the remote connection.
17181
17182 @item set remotebreak
17183 @cindex interrupt remote programs
17184 @cindex BREAK signal instead of Ctrl-C
17185 @anchor{set remotebreak}
17186 If set to on, @value{GDBN} sends a @code{BREAK} signal to the remote
17187 when you type @kbd{Ctrl-c} to interrupt the program running
17188 on the remote. If set to off, @value{GDBN} sends the @samp{Ctrl-C}
17189 character instead. The default is off, since most remote systems
17190 expect to see @samp{Ctrl-C} as the interrupt signal.
17191
17192 @item show remotebreak
17193 Show whether @value{GDBN} sends @code{BREAK} or @samp{Ctrl-C} to
17194 interrupt the remote program.
17195
17196 @item set remoteflow on
17197 @itemx set remoteflow off
17198 @kindex set remoteflow
17199 Enable or disable hardware flow control (@code{RTS}/@code{CTS})
17200 on the serial port used to communicate to the remote target.
17201
17202 @item show remoteflow
17203 @kindex show remoteflow
17204 Show the current setting of hardware flow control.
17205
17206 @item set remotelogbase @var{base}
17207 Set the base (a.k.a.@: radix) of logging serial protocol
17208 communications to @var{base}. Supported values of @var{base} are:
17209 @code{ascii}, @code{octal}, and @code{hex}. The default is
17210 @code{ascii}.
17211
17212 @item show remotelogbase
17213 Show the current setting of the radix for logging remote serial
17214 protocol.
17215
17216 @item set remotelogfile @var{file}
17217 @cindex record serial communications on file
17218 Record remote serial communications on the named @var{file}. The
17219 default is not to record at all.
17220
17221 @item show remotelogfile.
17222 Show the current setting of the file name on which to record the
17223 serial communications.
17224
17225 @item set remotetimeout @var{num}
17226 @cindex timeout for serial communications
17227 @cindex remote timeout
17228 Set the timeout limit to wait for the remote target to respond to
17229 @var{num} seconds. The default is 2 seconds.
17230
17231 @item show remotetimeout
17232 Show the current number of seconds to wait for the remote target
17233 responses.
17234
17235 @cindex limit hardware breakpoints and watchpoints
17236 @cindex remote target, limit break- and watchpoints
17237 @anchor{set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit}
17238 @anchor{set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit}
17239 @item set remote hardware-watchpoint-limit @var{limit}
17240 @itemx set remote hardware-breakpoint-limit @var{limit}
17241 Restrict @value{GDBN} to using @var{limit} remote hardware breakpoint or
17242 watchpoints. A limit of -1, the default, is treated as unlimited.
17243
17244 @cindex limit hardware watchpoints length
17245 @cindex remote target, limit watchpoints length
17246 @anchor{set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit}
17247 @item set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit @var{limit}
17248 Restrict @value{GDBN} to using @var{limit} bytes for the maximum length of
17249 a remote hardware watchpoint. A limit of -1, the default, is treated
17250 as unlimited.
17251
17252 @item show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit
17253 Show the current limit (in bytes) of the maximum length of
17254 a remote hardware watchpoint.
17255
17256 @item set remote exec-file @var{filename}
17257 @itemx show remote exec-file
17258 @anchor{set remote exec-file}
17259 @cindex executable file, for remote target
17260 Select the file used for @code{run} with @code{target
17261 extended-remote}. This should be set to a filename valid on the
17262 target system. If it is not set, the target will use a default
17263 filename (e.g.@: the last program run).
17264
17265 @item set remote interrupt-sequence
17266 @cindex interrupt remote programs
17267 @cindex select Ctrl-C, BREAK or BREAK-g
17268 Allow the user to select one of @samp{Ctrl-C}, a @code{BREAK} or
17269 @samp{BREAK-g} as the
17270 sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
17271 @samp{Ctrl-C} is a default. Some system prefers @code{BREAK} which
17272 is high level of serial line for some certain time.
17273 Linux kernel prefers @samp{BREAK-g}, a.k.a Magic SysRq g.
17274 It is @code{BREAK} signal followed by character @code{g}.
17275
17276 @item show interrupt-sequence
17277 Show which of @samp{Ctrl-C}, @code{BREAK} or @code{BREAK-g}
17278 is sent by @value{GDBN} to interrupt the remote program.
17279 @code{BREAK-g} is BREAK signal followed by @code{g} and
17280 also known as Magic SysRq g.
17281
17282 @item set remote interrupt-on-connect
17283 @cindex send interrupt-sequence on start
17284 Specify whether interrupt-sequence is sent to remote target when
17285 @value{GDBN} connects to it. This is mostly needed when you debug
17286 Linux kernel. Linux kernel expects @code{BREAK} followed by @code{g}
17287 which is known as Magic SysRq g in order to connect @value{GDBN}.
17288
17289 @item show interrupt-on-connect
17290 Show whether interrupt-sequence is sent
17291 to remote target when @value{GDBN} connects to it.
17292
17293 @kindex set tcp
17294 @kindex show tcp
17295 @item set tcp auto-retry on
17296 @cindex auto-retry, for remote TCP target
17297 Enable auto-retry for remote TCP connections. This is useful if the remote
17298 debugging agent is launched in parallel with @value{GDBN}; there is a race
17299 condition because the agent may not become ready to accept the connection
17300 before @value{GDBN} attempts to connect. When auto-retry is
17301 enabled, if the initial attempt to connect fails, @value{GDBN} reattempts
17302 to establish the connection using the timeout specified by
17303 @code{set tcp connect-timeout}.
17304
17305 @item set tcp auto-retry off
17306 Do not auto-retry failed TCP connections.
17307
17308 @item show tcp auto-retry
17309 Show the current auto-retry setting.
17310
17311 @item set tcp connect-timeout @var{seconds}
17312 @cindex connection timeout, for remote TCP target
17313 @cindex timeout, for remote target connection
17314 Set the timeout for establishing a TCP connection to the remote target to
17315 @var{seconds}. The timeout affects both polling to retry failed connections
17316 (enabled by @code{set tcp auto-retry on}) and waiting for connections
17317 that are merely slow to complete, and represents an approximate cumulative
17318 value.
17319
17320 @item show tcp connect-timeout
17321 Show the current connection timeout setting.
17322 @end table
17323
17324 @cindex remote packets, enabling and disabling
17325 The @value{GDBN} remote protocol autodetects the packets supported by
17326 your debugging stub. If you need to override the autodetection, you
17327 can use these commands to enable or disable individual packets. Each
17328 packet can be set to @samp{on} (the remote target supports this
17329 packet), @samp{off} (the remote target does not support this packet),
17330 or @samp{auto} (detect remote target support for this packet). They
17331 all default to @samp{auto}. For more information about each packet,
17332 see @ref{Remote Protocol}.
17333
17334 During normal use, you should not have to use any of these commands.
17335 If you do, that may be a bug in your remote debugging stub, or a bug
17336 in @value{GDBN}. You may want to report the problem to the
17337 @value{GDBN} developers.
17338
17339 For each packet @var{name}, the command to enable or disable the
17340 packet is @code{set remote @var{name}-packet}. The available settings
17341 are:
17342
17343 @multitable @columnfractions 0.28 0.32 0.25
17344 @item Command Name
17345 @tab Remote Packet
17346 @tab Related Features
17347
17348 @item @code{fetch-register}
17349 @tab @code{p}
17350 @tab @code{info registers}
17351
17352 @item @code{set-register}
17353 @tab @code{P}
17354 @tab @code{set}
17355
17356 @item @code{binary-download}
17357 @tab @code{X}
17358 @tab @code{load}, @code{set}
17359
17360 @item @code{read-aux-vector}
17361 @tab @code{qXfer:auxv:read}
17362 @tab @code{info auxv}
17363
17364 @item @code{symbol-lookup}
17365 @tab @code{qSymbol}
17366 @tab Detecting multiple threads
17367
17368 @item @code{attach}
17369 @tab @code{vAttach}
17370 @tab @code{attach}
17371
17372 @item @code{verbose-resume}
17373 @tab @code{vCont}
17374 @tab Stepping or resuming multiple threads
17375
17376 @item @code{run}
17377 @tab @code{vRun}
17378 @tab @code{run}
17379
17380 @item @code{software-breakpoint}
17381 @tab @code{Z0}
17382 @tab @code{break}
17383
17384 @item @code{hardware-breakpoint}
17385 @tab @code{Z1}
17386 @tab @code{hbreak}
17387
17388 @item @code{write-watchpoint}
17389 @tab @code{Z2}
17390 @tab @code{watch}
17391
17392 @item @code{read-watchpoint}
17393 @tab @code{Z3}
17394 @tab @code{rwatch}
17395
17396 @item @code{access-watchpoint}
17397 @tab @code{Z4}
17398 @tab @code{awatch}
17399
17400 @item @code{target-features}
17401 @tab @code{qXfer:features:read}
17402 @tab @code{set architecture}
17403
17404 @item @code{library-info}
17405 @tab @code{qXfer:libraries:read}
17406 @tab @code{info sharedlibrary}
17407
17408 @item @code{memory-map}
17409 @tab @code{qXfer:memory-map:read}
17410 @tab @code{info mem}
17411
17412 @item @code{read-sdata-object}
17413 @tab @code{qXfer:sdata:read}
17414 @tab @code{print $_sdata}
17415
17416 @item @code{read-spu-object}
17417 @tab @code{qXfer:spu:read}
17418 @tab @code{info spu}
17419
17420 @item @code{write-spu-object}
17421 @tab @code{qXfer:spu:write}
17422 @tab @code{info spu}
17423
17424 @item @code{read-siginfo-object}
17425 @tab @code{qXfer:siginfo:read}
17426 @tab @code{print $_siginfo}
17427
17428 @item @code{write-siginfo-object}
17429 @tab @code{qXfer:siginfo:write}
17430 @tab @code{set $_siginfo}
17431
17432 @item @code{threads}
17433 @tab @code{qXfer:threads:read}
17434 @tab @code{info threads}
17435
17436 @item @code{get-thread-local-@*storage-address}
17437 @tab @code{qGetTLSAddr}
17438 @tab Displaying @code{__thread} variables
17439
17440 @item @code{get-thread-information-block-address}
17441 @tab @code{qGetTIBAddr}
17442 @tab Display MS-Windows Thread Information Block.
17443
17444 @item @code{search-memory}
17445 @tab @code{qSearch:memory}
17446 @tab @code{find}
17447
17448 @item @code{supported-packets}
17449 @tab @code{qSupported}
17450 @tab Remote communications parameters
17451
17452 @item @code{pass-signals}
17453 @tab @code{QPassSignals}
17454 @tab @code{handle @var{signal}}
17455
17456 @item @code{hostio-close-packet}
17457 @tab @code{vFile:close}
17458 @tab @code{remote get}, @code{remote put}
17459
17460 @item @code{hostio-open-packet}
17461 @tab @code{vFile:open}
17462 @tab @code{remote get}, @code{remote put}
17463
17464 @item @code{hostio-pread-packet}
17465 @tab @code{vFile:pread}
17466 @tab @code{remote get}, @code{remote put}
17467
17468 @item @code{hostio-pwrite-packet}
17469 @tab @code{vFile:pwrite}
17470 @tab @code{remote get}, @code{remote put}
17471
17472 @item @code{hostio-unlink-packet}
17473 @tab @code{vFile:unlink}
17474 @tab @code{remote delete}
17475
17476 @item @code{hostio-readlink-packet}
17477 @tab @code{vFile:readlink}
17478 @tab Host I/O
17479
17480 @item @code{noack-packet}
17481 @tab @code{QStartNoAckMode}
17482 @tab Packet acknowledgment
17483
17484 @item @code{osdata}
17485 @tab @code{qXfer:osdata:read}
17486 @tab @code{info os}
17487
17488 @item @code{query-attached}
17489 @tab @code{qAttached}
17490 @tab Querying remote process attach state.
17491
17492 @item @code{traceframe-info}
17493 @tab @code{qXfer:traceframe-info:read}
17494 @tab Traceframe info
17495
17496 @item @code{install-in-trace}
17497 @tab @code{InstallInTrace}
17498 @tab Install tracepoint in tracing
17499
17500 @item @code{disable-randomization}
17501 @tab @code{QDisableRandomization}
17502 @tab @code{set disable-randomization}
17503 @end multitable
17504
17505 @node Remote Stub
17506 @section Implementing a Remote Stub
17507
17508 @cindex debugging stub, example
17509 @cindex remote stub, example
17510 @cindex stub example, remote debugging
17511 The stub files provided with @value{GDBN} implement the target side of the
17512 communication protocol, and the @value{GDBN} side is implemented in the
17513 @value{GDBN} source file @file{remote.c}. Normally, you can simply allow
17514 these subroutines to communicate, and ignore the details. (If you're
17515 implementing your own stub file, you can still ignore the details: start
17516 with one of the existing stub files. @file{sparc-stub.c} is the best
17517 organized, and therefore the easiest to read.)
17518
17519 @cindex remote serial debugging, overview
17520 To debug a program running on another machine (the debugging
17521 @dfn{target} machine), you must first arrange for all the usual
17522 prerequisites for the program to run by itself. For example, for a C
17523 program, you need:
17524
17525 @enumerate
17526 @item
17527 A startup routine to set up the C runtime environment; these usually
17528 have a name like @file{crt0}. The startup routine may be supplied by
17529 your hardware supplier, or you may have to write your own.
17530
17531 @item
17532 A C subroutine library to support your program's
17533 subroutine calls, notably managing input and output.
17534
17535 @item
17536 A way of getting your program to the other machine---for example, a
17537 download program. These are often supplied by the hardware
17538 manufacturer, but you may have to write your own from hardware
17539 documentation.
17540 @end enumerate
17541
17542 The next step is to arrange for your program to use a serial port to
17543 communicate with the machine where @value{GDBN} is running (the @dfn{host}
17544 machine). In general terms, the scheme looks like this:
17545
17546 @table @emph
17547 @item On the host,
17548 @value{GDBN} already understands how to use this protocol; when everything
17549 else is set up, you can simply use the @samp{target remote} command
17550 (@pxref{Targets,,Specifying a Debugging Target}).
17551
17552 @item On the target,
17553 you must link with your program a few special-purpose subroutines that
17554 implement the @value{GDBN} remote serial protocol. The file containing these
17555 subroutines is called a @dfn{debugging stub}.
17556
17557 On certain remote targets, you can use an auxiliary program
17558 @code{gdbserver} instead of linking a stub into your program.
17559 @xref{Server,,Using the @code{gdbserver} Program}, for details.
17560 @end table
17561
17562 The debugging stub is specific to the architecture of the remote
17563 machine; for example, use @file{sparc-stub.c} to debug programs on
17564 @sc{sparc} boards.
17565
17566 @cindex remote serial stub list
17567 These working remote stubs are distributed with @value{GDBN}:
17568
17569 @table @code
17570
17571 @item i386-stub.c
17572 @cindex @file{i386-stub.c}
17573 @cindex Intel
17574 @cindex i386
17575 For Intel 386 and compatible architectures.
17576
17577 @item m68k-stub.c
17578 @cindex @file{m68k-stub.c}
17579 @cindex Motorola 680x0
17580 @cindex m680x0
17581 For Motorola 680x0 architectures.
17582
17583 @item sh-stub.c
17584 @cindex @file{sh-stub.c}
17585 @cindex Renesas
17586 @cindex SH
17587 For Renesas SH architectures.
17588
17589 @item sparc-stub.c
17590 @cindex @file{sparc-stub.c}
17591 @cindex Sparc
17592 For @sc{sparc} architectures.
17593
17594 @item sparcl-stub.c
17595 @cindex @file{sparcl-stub.c}
17596 @cindex Fujitsu
17597 @cindex SparcLite
17598 For Fujitsu @sc{sparclite} architectures.
17599
17600 @end table
17601
17602 The @file{README} file in the @value{GDBN} distribution may list other
17603 recently added stubs.
17604
17605 @menu
17606 * Stub Contents:: What the stub can do for you
17607 * Bootstrapping:: What you must do for the stub
17608 * Debug Session:: Putting it all together
17609 @end menu
17610
17611 @node Stub Contents
17612 @subsection What the Stub Can Do for You
17613
17614 @cindex remote serial stub
17615 The debugging stub for your architecture supplies these three
17616 subroutines:
17617
17618 @table @code
17619 @item set_debug_traps
17620 @findex set_debug_traps
17621 @cindex remote serial stub, initialization
17622 This routine arranges for @code{handle_exception} to run when your
17623 program stops. You must call this subroutine explicitly in your
17624 program's startup code.
17625
17626 @item handle_exception
17627 @findex handle_exception
17628 @cindex remote serial stub, main routine
17629 This is the central workhorse, but your program never calls it
17630 explicitly---the setup code arranges for @code{handle_exception} to
17631 run when a trap is triggered.
17632
17633 @code{handle_exception} takes control when your program stops during
17634 execution (for example, on a breakpoint), and mediates communications
17635 with @value{GDBN} on the host machine. This is where the communications
17636 protocol is implemented; @code{handle_exception} acts as the @value{GDBN}
17637 representative on the target machine. It begins by sending summary
17638 information on the state of your program, then continues to execute,
17639 retrieving and transmitting any information @value{GDBN} needs, until you
17640 execute a @value{GDBN} command that makes your program resume; at that point,
17641 @code{handle_exception} returns control to your own code on the target
17642 machine.
17643
17644 @item breakpoint
17645 @cindex @code{breakpoint} subroutine, remote
17646 Use this auxiliary subroutine to make your program contain a
17647 breakpoint. Depending on the particular situation, this may be the only
17648 way for @value{GDBN} to get control. For instance, if your target
17649 machine has some sort of interrupt button, you won't need to call this;
17650 pressing the interrupt button transfers control to
17651 @code{handle_exception}---in effect, to @value{GDBN}. On some machines,
17652 simply receiving characters on the serial port may also trigger a trap;
17653 again, in that situation, you don't need to call @code{breakpoint} from
17654 your own program---simply running @samp{target remote} from the host
17655 @value{GDBN} session gets control.
17656
17657 Call @code{breakpoint} if none of these is true, or if you simply want
17658 to make certain your program stops at a predetermined point for the
17659 start of your debugging session.
17660 @end table
17661
17662 @node Bootstrapping
17663 @subsection What You Must Do for the Stub
17664
17665 @cindex remote stub, support routines
17666 The debugging stubs that come with @value{GDBN} are set up for a particular
17667 chip architecture, but they have no information about the rest of your
17668 debugging target machine.
17669
17670 First of all you need to tell the stub how to communicate with the
17671 serial port.
17672
17673 @table @code
17674 @item int getDebugChar()
17675 @findex getDebugChar
17676 Write this subroutine to read a single character from the serial port.
17677 It may be identical to @code{getchar} for your target system; a
17678 different name is used to allow you to distinguish the two if you wish.
17679
17680 @item void putDebugChar(int)
17681 @findex putDebugChar
17682 Write this subroutine to write a single character to the serial port.
17683 It may be identical to @code{putchar} for your target system; a
17684 different name is used to allow you to distinguish the two if you wish.
17685 @end table
17686
17687 @cindex control C, and remote debugging
17688 @cindex interrupting remote targets
17689 If you want @value{GDBN} to be able to stop your program while it is
17690 running, you need to use an interrupt-driven serial driver, and arrange
17691 for it to stop when it receives a @code{^C} (@samp{\003}, the control-C
17692 character). That is the character which @value{GDBN} uses to tell the
17693 remote system to stop.
17694
17695 Getting the debugging target to return the proper status to @value{GDBN}
17696 probably requires changes to the standard stub; one quick and dirty way
17697 is to just execute a breakpoint instruction (the ``dirty'' part is that
17698 @value{GDBN} reports a @code{SIGTRAP} instead of a @code{SIGINT}).
17699
17700 Other routines you need to supply are:
17701
17702 @table @code
17703 @item void exceptionHandler (int @var{exception_number}, void *@var{exception_address})
17704 @findex exceptionHandler
17705 Write this function to install @var{exception_address} in the exception
17706 handling tables. You need to do this because the stub does not have any
17707 way of knowing what the exception handling tables on your target system
17708 are like (for example, the processor's table might be in @sc{rom},
17709 containing entries which point to a table in @sc{ram}).
17710 @var{exception_number} is the exception number which should be changed;
17711 its meaning is architecture-dependent (for example, different numbers
17712 might represent divide by zero, misaligned access, etc). When this
17713 exception occurs, control should be transferred directly to
17714 @var{exception_address}, and the processor state (stack, registers,
17715 and so on) should be just as it is when a processor exception occurs. So if
17716 you want to use a jump instruction to reach @var{exception_address}, it
17717 should be a simple jump, not a jump to subroutine.
17718
17719 For the 386, @var{exception_address} should be installed as an interrupt
17720 gate so that interrupts are masked while the handler runs. The gate
17721 should be at privilege level 0 (the most privileged level). The
17722 @sc{sparc} and 68k stubs are able to mask interrupts themselves without
17723 help from @code{exceptionHandler}.
17724
17725 @item void flush_i_cache()
17726 @findex flush_i_cache
17727 On @sc{sparc} and @sc{sparclite} only, write this subroutine to flush the
17728 instruction cache, if any, on your target machine. If there is no
17729 instruction cache, this subroutine may be a no-op.
17730
17731 On target machines that have instruction caches, @value{GDBN} requires this
17732 function to make certain that the state of your program is stable.
17733 @end table
17734
17735 @noindent
17736 You must also make sure this library routine is available:
17737
17738 @table @code
17739 @item void *memset(void *, int, int)
17740 @findex memset
17741 This is the standard library function @code{memset} that sets an area of
17742 memory to a known value. If you have one of the free versions of
17743 @code{libc.a}, @code{memset} can be found there; otherwise, you must
17744 either obtain it from your hardware manufacturer, or write your own.
17745 @end table
17746
17747 If you do not use the GNU C compiler, you may need other standard
17748 library subroutines as well; this varies from one stub to another,
17749 but in general the stubs are likely to use any of the common library
17750 subroutines which @code{@value{NGCC}} generates as inline code.
17751
17752
17753 @node Debug Session
17754 @subsection Putting it All Together
17755
17756 @cindex remote serial debugging summary
17757 In summary, when your program is ready to debug, you must follow these
17758 steps.
17759
17760 @enumerate
17761 @item
17762 Make sure you have defined the supporting low-level routines
17763 (@pxref{Bootstrapping,,What You Must Do for the Stub}):
17764 @display
17765 @code{getDebugChar}, @code{putDebugChar},
17766 @code{flush_i_cache}, @code{memset}, @code{exceptionHandler}.
17767 @end display
17768
17769 @item
17770 Insert these lines in your program's startup code, before the main
17771 procedure is called:
17772
17773 @smallexample
17774 set_debug_traps();
17775 breakpoint();
17776 @end smallexample
17777
17778 On some machines, when a breakpoint trap is raised, the hardware
17779 automatically makes the PC point to the instruction after the
17780 breakpoint. If your machine doesn't do that, you may need to adjust
17781 @code{handle_exception} to arrange for it to return to the instruction
17782 after the breakpoint on this first invocation, so that your program
17783 doesn't keep hitting the initial breakpoint instead of making
17784 progress.
17785
17786 @item
17787 For the 680x0 stub only, you need to provide a variable called
17788 @code{exceptionHook}. Normally you just use:
17789
17790 @smallexample
17791 void (*exceptionHook)() = 0;
17792 @end smallexample
17793
17794 @noindent
17795 but if before calling @code{set_debug_traps}, you set it to point to a
17796 function in your program, that function is called when
17797 @code{@value{GDBN}} continues after stopping on a trap (for example, bus
17798 error). The function indicated by @code{exceptionHook} is called with
17799 one parameter: an @code{int} which is the exception number.
17800
17801 @item
17802 Compile and link together: your program, the @value{GDBN} debugging stub for
17803 your target architecture, and the supporting subroutines.
17804
17805 @item
17806 Make sure you have a serial connection between your target machine and
17807 the @value{GDBN} host, and identify the serial port on the host.
17808
17809 @item
17810 @c The "remote" target now provides a `load' command, so we should
17811 @c document that. FIXME.
17812 Download your program to your target machine (or get it there by
17813 whatever means the manufacturer provides), and start it.
17814
17815 @item
17816 Start @value{GDBN} on the host, and connect to the target
17817 (@pxref{Connecting,,Connecting to a Remote Target}).
17818
17819 @end enumerate
17820
17821 @node Configurations
17822 @chapter Configuration-Specific Information
17823
17824 While nearly all @value{GDBN} commands are available for all native and
17825 cross versions of the debugger, there are some exceptions. This chapter
17826 describes things that are only available in certain configurations.
17827
17828 There are three major categories of configurations: native
17829 configurations, where the host and target are the same, embedded
17830 operating system configurations, which are usually the same for several
17831 different processor architectures, and bare embedded processors, which
17832 are quite different from each other.
17833
17834 @menu
17835 * Native::
17836 * Embedded OS::
17837 * Embedded Processors::
17838 * Architectures::
17839 @end menu
17840
17841 @node Native
17842 @section Native
17843
17844 This section describes details specific to particular native
17845 configurations.
17846
17847 @menu
17848 * HP-UX:: HP-UX
17849 * BSD libkvm Interface:: Debugging BSD kernel memory images
17850 * SVR4 Process Information:: SVR4 process information
17851 * DJGPP Native:: Features specific to the DJGPP port
17852 * Cygwin Native:: Features specific to the Cygwin port
17853 * Hurd Native:: Features specific to @sc{gnu} Hurd
17854 * Neutrino:: Features specific to QNX Neutrino
17855 * Darwin:: Features specific to Darwin
17856 @end menu
17857
17858 @node HP-UX
17859 @subsection HP-UX
17860
17861 On HP-UX systems, if you refer to a function or variable name that
17862 begins with a dollar sign, @value{GDBN} searches for a user or system
17863 name first, before it searches for a convenience variable.
17864
17865
17866 @node BSD libkvm Interface
17867 @subsection BSD libkvm Interface
17868
17869 @cindex libkvm
17870 @cindex kernel memory image
17871 @cindex kernel crash dump
17872
17873 BSD-derived systems (FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD) have a kernel memory
17874 interface that provides a uniform interface for accessing kernel virtual
17875 memory images, including live systems and crash dumps. @value{GDBN}
17876 uses this interface to allow you to debug live kernels and kernel crash
17877 dumps on many native BSD configurations. This is implemented as a
17878 special @code{kvm} debugging target. For debugging a live system, load
17879 the currently running kernel into @value{GDBN} and connect to the
17880 @code{kvm} target:
17881
17882 @smallexample
17883 (@value{GDBP}) @b{target kvm}
17884 @end smallexample
17885
17886 For debugging crash dumps, provide the file name of the crash dump as an
17887 argument:
17888
17889 @smallexample
17890 (@value{GDBP}) @b{target kvm /var/crash/bsd.0}
17891 @end smallexample
17892
17893 Once connected to the @code{kvm} target, the following commands are
17894 available:
17895
17896 @table @code
17897 @kindex kvm
17898 @item kvm pcb
17899 Set current context from the @dfn{Process Control Block} (PCB) address.
17900
17901 @item kvm proc
17902 Set current context from proc address. This command isn't available on
17903 modern FreeBSD systems.
17904 @end table
17905
17906 @node SVR4 Process Information
17907 @subsection SVR4 Process Information
17908 @cindex /proc
17909 @cindex examine process image
17910 @cindex process info via @file{/proc}
17911
17912 Many versions of SVR4 and compatible systems provide a facility called
17913 @samp{/proc} that can be used to examine the image of a running
17914 process using file-system subroutines. If @value{GDBN} is configured
17915 for an operating system with this facility, the command @code{info
17916 proc} is available to report information about the process running
17917 your program, or about any process running on your system. @code{info
17918 proc} works only on SVR4 systems that include the @code{procfs} code.
17919 This includes, as of this writing, @sc{gnu}/Linux, OSF/1 (Digital
17920 Unix), Solaris, Irix, and Unixware, but not HP-UX, for example.
17921
17922 @table @code
17923 @kindex info proc
17924 @cindex process ID
17925 @item info proc
17926 @itemx info proc @var{process-id}
17927 Summarize available information about any running process. If a
17928 process ID is specified by @var{process-id}, display information about
17929 that process; otherwise display information about the program being
17930 debugged. The summary includes the debugged process ID, the command
17931 line used to invoke it, its current working directory, and its
17932 executable file's absolute file name.
17933
17934 On some systems, @var{process-id} can be of the form
17935 @samp{[@var{pid}]/@var{tid}} which specifies a certain thread ID
17936 within a process. If the optional @var{pid} part is missing, it means
17937 a thread from the process being debugged (the leading @samp{/} still
17938 needs to be present, or else @value{GDBN} will interpret the number as
17939 a process ID rather than a thread ID).
17940
17941 @item info proc mappings
17942 @cindex memory address space mappings
17943 Report the memory address space ranges accessible in the program, with
17944 information on whether the process has read, write, or execute access
17945 rights to each range. On @sc{gnu}/Linux systems, each memory range
17946 includes the object file which is mapped to that range, instead of the
17947 memory access rights to that range.
17948
17949 @item info proc stat
17950 @itemx info proc status
17951 @cindex process detailed status information
17952 These subcommands are specific to @sc{gnu}/Linux systems. They show
17953 the process-related information, including the user ID and group ID;
17954 how many threads are there in the process; its virtual memory usage;
17955 the signals that are pending, blocked, and ignored; its TTY; its
17956 consumption of system and user time; its stack size; its @samp{nice}
17957 value; etc. For more information, see the @samp{proc} man page
17958 (type @kbd{man 5 proc} from your shell prompt).
17959
17960 @item info proc all
17961 Show all the information about the process described under all of the
17962 above @code{info proc} subcommands.
17963
17964 @ignore
17965 @comment These sub-options of 'info proc' were not included when
17966 @comment procfs.c was re-written. Keep their descriptions around
17967 @comment against the day when someone finds the time to put them back in.
17968 @kindex info proc times
17969 @item info proc times
17970 Starting time, user CPU time, and system CPU time for your program and
17971 its children.
17972
17973 @kindex info proc id
17974 @item info proc id
17975 Report on the process IDs related to your program: its own process ID,
17976 the ID of its parent, the process group ID, and the session ID.
17977 @end ignore
17978
17979 @item set procfs-trace
17980 @kindex set procfs-trace
17981 @cindex @code{procfs} API calls
17982 This command enables and disables tracing of @code{procfs} API calls.
17983
17984 @item show procfs-trace
17985 @kindex show procfs-trace
17986 Show the current state of @code{procfs} API call tracing.
17987
17988 @item set procfs-file @var{file}
17989 @kindex set procfs-file
17990 Tell @value{GDBN} to write @code{procfs} API trace to the named
17991 @var{file}. @value{GDBN} appends the trace info to the previous
17992 contents of the file. The default is to display the trace on the
17993 standard output.
17994
17995 @item show procfs-file
17996 @kindex show procfs-file
17997 Show the file to which @code{procfs} API trace is written.
17998
17999 @item proc-trace-entry
18000 @itemx proc-trace-exit
18001 @itemx proc-untrace-entry
18002 @itemx proc-untrace-exit
18003 @kindex proc-trace-entry
18004 @kindex proc-trace-exit
18005 @kindex proc-untrace-entry
18006 @kindex proc-untrace-exit
18007 These commands enable and disable tracing of entries into and exits
18008 from the @code{syscall} interface.
18009
18010 @item info pidlist
18011 @kindex info pidlist
18012 @cindex process list, QNX Neutrino
18013 For QNX Neutrino only, this command displays the list of all the
18014 processes and all the threads within each process.
18015
18016 @item info meminfo
18017 @kindex info meminfo
18018 @cindex mapinfo list, QNX Neutrino
18019 For QNX Neutrino only, this command displays the list of all mapinfos.
18020 @end table
18021
18022 @node DJGPP Native
18023 @subsection Features for Debugging @sc{djgpp} Programs
18024 @cindex @sc{djgpp} debugging
18025 @cindex native @sc{djgpp} debugging
18026 @cindex MS-DOS-specific commands
18027
18028 @cindex DPMI
18029 @sc{djgpp} is a port of the @sc{gnu} development tools to MS-DOS and
18030 MS-Windows. @sc{djgpp} programs are 32-bit protected-mode programs
18031 that use the @dfn{DPMI} (DOS Protected-Mode Interface) API to run on
18032 top of real-mode DOS systems and their emulations.
18033
18034 @value{GDBN} supports native debugging of @sc{djgpp} programs, and
18035 defines a few commands specific to the @sc{djgpp} port. This
18036 subsection describes those commands.
18037
18038 @table @code
18039 @kindex info dos
18040 @item info dos
18041 This is a prefix of @sc{djgpp}-specific commands which print
18042 information about the target system and important OS structures.
18043
18044 @kindex sysinfo
18045 @cindex MS-DOS system info
18046 @cindex free memory information (MS-DOS)
18047 @item info dos sysinfo
18048 This command displays assorted information about the underlying
18049 platform: the CPU type and features, the OS version and flavor, the
18050 DPMI version, and the available conventional and DPMI memory.
18051
18052 @cindex GDT
18053 @cindex LDT
18054 @cindex IDT
18055 @cindex segment descriptor tables
18056 @cindex descriptor tables display
18057 @item info dos gdt
18058 @itemx info dos ldt
18059 @itemx info dos idt
18060 These 3 commands display entries from, respectively, Global, Local,
18061 and Interrupt Descriptor Tables (GDT, LDT, and IDT). The descriptor
18062 tables are data structures which store a descriptor for each segment
18063 that is currently in use. The segment's selector is an index into a
18064 descriptor table; the table entry for that index holds the
18065 descriptor's base address and limit, and its attributes and access
18066 rights.
18067
18068 A typical @sc{djgpp} program uses 3 segments: a code segment, a data
18069 segment (used for both data and the stack), and a DOS segment (which
18070 allows access to DOS/BIOS data structures and absolute addresses in
18071 conventional memory). However, the DPMI host will usually define
18072 additional segments in order to support the DPMI environment.
18073
18074 @cindex garbled pointers
18075 These commands allow to display entries from the descriptor tables.
18076 Without an argument, all entries from the specified table are
18077 displayed. An argument, which should be an integer expression, means
18078 display a single entry whose index is given by the argument. For
18079 example, here's a convenient way to display information about the
18080 debugged program's data segment:
18081
18082 @smallexample
18083 @exdent @code{(@value{GDBP}) info dos ldt $ds}
18084 @exdent @code{0x13f: base=0x11970000 limit=0x0009ffff 32-Bit Data (Read/Write, Exp-up)}
18085 @end smallexample
18086
18087 @noindent
18088 This comes in handy when you want to see whether a pointer is outside
18089 the data segment's limit (i.e.@: @dfn{garbled}).
18090
18091 @cindex page tables display (MS-DOS)
18092 @item info dos pde
18093 @itemx info dos pte
18094 These two commands display entries from, respectively, the Page
18095 Directory and the Page Tables. Page Directories and Page Tables are
18096 data structures which control how virtual memory addresses are mapped
18097 into physical addresses. A Page Table includes an entry for every
18098 page of memory that is mapped into the program's address space; there
18099 may be several Page Tables, each one holding up to 4096 entries. A
18100 Page Directory has up to 4096 entries, one each for every Page Table
18101 that is currently in use.
18102
18103 Without an argument, @kbd{info dos pde} displays the entire Page
18104 Directory, and @kbd{info dos pte} displays all the entries in all of
18105 the Page Tables. An argument, an integer expression, given to the
18106 @kbd{info dos pde} command means display only that entry from the Page
18107 Directory table. An argument given to the @kbd{info dos pte} command
18108 means display entries from a single Page Table, the one pointed to by
18109 the specified entry in the Page Directory.
18110
18111 @cindex direct memory access (DMA) on MS-DOS
18112 These commands are useful when your program uses @dfn{DMA} (Direct
18113 Memory Access), which needs physical addresses to program the DMA
18114 controller.
18115
18116 These commands are supported only with some DPMI servers.
18117
18118 @cindex physical address from linear address
18119 @item info dos address-pte @var{addr}
18120 This command displays the Page Table entry for a specified linear
18121 address. The argument @var{addr} is a linear address which should
18122 already have the appropriate segment's base address added to it,
18123 because this command accepts addresses which may belong to @emph{any}
18124 segment. For example, here's how to display the Page Table entry for
18125 the page where a variable @code{i} is stored:
18126
18127 @smallexample
18128 @exdent @code{(@value{GDBP}) info dos address-pte __djgpp_base_address + (char *)&i}
18129 @exdent @code{Page Table entry for address 0x11a00d30:}
18130 @exdent @code{Base=0x02698000 Dirty Acc. Not-Cached Write-Back Usr Read-Write +0xd30}
18131 @end smallexample
18132
18133 @noindent
18134 This says that @code{i} is stored at offset @code{0xd30} from the page
18135 whose physical base address is @code{0x02698000}, and shows all the
18136 attributes of that page.
18137
18138 Note that you must cast the addresses of variables to a @code{char *},
18139 since otherwise the value of @code{__djgpp_base_address}, the base
18140 address of all variables and functions in a @sc{djgpp} program, will
18141 be added using the rules of C pointer arithmetics: if @code{i} is
18142 declared an @code{int}, @value{GDBN} will add 4 times the value of
18143 @code{__djgpp_base_address} to the address of @code{i}.
18144
18145 Here's another example, it displays the Page Table entry for the
18146 transfer buffer:
18147
18148 @smallexample
18149 @exdent @code{(@value{GDBP}) info dos address-pte *((unsigned *)&_go32_info_block + 3)}
18150 @exdent @code{Page Table entry for address 0x29110:}
18151 @exdent @code{Base=0x00029000 Dirty Acc. Not-Cached Write-Back Usr Read-Write +0x110}
18152 @end smallexample
18153
18154 @noindent
18155 (The @code{+ 3} offset is because the transfer buffer's address is the
18156 3rd member of the @code{_go32_info_block} structure.) The output
18157 clearly shows that this DPMI server maps the addresses in conventional
18158 memory 1:1, i.e.@: the physical (@code{0x00029000} + @code{0x110}) and
18159 linear (@code{0x29110}) addresses are identical.
18160
18161 This command is supported only with some DPMI servers.
18162 @end table
18163
18164 @cindex DOS serial data link, remote debugging
18165 In addition to native debugging, the DJGPP port supports remote
18166 debugging via a serial data link. The following commands are specific
18167 to remote serial debugging in the DJGPP port of @value{GDBN}.
18168
18169 @table @code
18170 @kindex set com1base
18171 @kindex set com1irq
18172 @kindex set com2base
18173 @kindex set com2irq
18174 @kindex set com3base
18175 @kindex set com3irq
18176 @kindex set com4base
18177 @kindex set com4irq
18178 @item set com1base @var{addr}
18179 This command sets the base I/O port address of the @file{COM1} serial
18180 port.
18181
18182 @item set com1irq @var{irq}
18183 This command sets the @dfn{Interrupt Request} (@code{IRQ}) line to use
18184 for the @file{COM1} serial port.
18185
18186 There are similar commands @samp{set com2base}, @samp{set com3irq},
18187 etc.@: for setting the port address and the @code{IRQ} lines for the
18188 other 3 COM ports.
18189
18190 @kindex show com1base
18191 @kindex show com1irq
18192 @kindex show com2base
18193 @kindex show com2irq
18194 @kindex show com3base
18195 @kindex show com3irq
18196 @kindex show com4base
18197 @kindex show com4irq
18198 The related commands @samp{show com1base}, @samp{show com1irq} etc.@:
18199 display the current settings of the base address and the @code{IRQ}
18200 lines used by the COM ports.
18201
18202 @item info serial
18203 @kindex info serial
18204 @cindex DOS serial port status
18205 This command prints the status of the 4 DOS serial ports. For each
18206 port, it prints whether it's active or not, its I/O base address and
18207 IRQ number, whether it uses a 16550-style FIFO, its baudrate, and the
18208 counts of various errors encountered so far.
18209 @end table
18210
18211
18212 @node Cygwin Native
18213 @subsection Features for Debugging MS Windows PE Executables
18214 @cindex MS Windows debugging
18215 @cindex native Cygwin debugging
18216 @cindex Cygwin-specific commands
18217
18218 @value{GDBN} supports native debugging of MS Windows programs, including
18219 DLLs with and without symbolic debugging information.
18220
18221 @cindex Ctrl-BREAK, MS-Windows
18222 @cindex interrupt debuggee on MS-Windows
18223 MS-Windows programs that call @code{SetConsoleMode} to switch off the
18224 special meaning of the @samp{Ctrl-C} keystroke cannot be interrupted
18225 by typing @kbd{C-c}. For this reason, @value{GDBN} on MS-Windows
18226 supports @kbd{C-@key{BREAK}} as an alternative interrupt key
18227 sequence, which can be used to interrupt the debuggee even if it
18228 ignores @kbd{C-c}.
18229
18230 There are various additional Cygwin-specific commands, described in
18231 this section. Working with DLLs that have no debugging symbols is
18232 described in @ref{Non-debug DLL Symbols}.
18233
18234 @table @code
18235 @kindex info w32
18236 @item info w32
18237 This is a prefix of MS Windows-specific commands which print
18238 information about the target system and important OS structures.
18239
18240 @item info w32 selector
18241 This command displays information returned by
18242 the Win32 API @code{GetThreadSelectorEntry} function.
18243 It takes an optional argument that is evaluated to
18244 a long value to give the information about this given selector.
18245 Without argument, this command displays information
18246 about the six segment registers.
18247
18248 @item info w32 thread-information-block
18249 This command displays thread specific information stored in the
18250 Thread Information Block (readable on the X86 CPU family using @code{$fs}
18251 selector for 32-bit programs and @code{$gs} for 64-bit programs).
18252
18253 @kindex info dll
18254 @item info dll
18255 This is a Cygwin-specific alias of @code{info shared}.
18256
18257 @kindex dll-symbols
18258 @item dll-symbols
18259 This command loads symbols from a dll similarly to
18260 add-sym command but without the need to specify a base address.
18261
18262 @kindex set cygwin-exceptions
18263 @cindex debugging the Cygwin DLL
18264 @cindex Cygwin DLL, debugging
18265 @item set cygwin-exceptions @var{mode}
18266 If @var{mode} is @code{on}, @value{GDBN} will break on exceptions that
18267 happen inside the Cygwin DLL. If @var{mode} is @code{off},
18268 @value{GDBN} will delay recognition of exceptions, and may ignore some
18269 exceptions which seem to be caused by internal Cygwin DLL
18270 ``bookkeeping''. This option is meant primarily for debugging the
18271 Cygwin DLL itself; the default value is @code{off} to avoid annoying
18272 @value{GDBN} users with false @code{SIGSEGV} signals.
18273
18274 @kindex show cygwin-exceptions
18275 @item show cygwin-exceptions
18276 Displays whether @value{GDBN} will break on exceptions that happen
18277 inside the Cygwin DLL itself.
18278
18279 @kindex set new-console
18280 @item set new-console @var{mode}
18281 If @var{mode} is @code{on} the debuggee will
18282 be started in a new console on next start.
18283 If @var{mode} is @code{off}, the debuggee will
18284 be started in the same console as the debugger.
18285
18286 @kindex show new-console
18287 @item show new-console
18288 Displays whether a new console is used
18289 when the debuggee is started.
18290
18291 @kindex set new-group
18292 @item set new-group @var{mode}
18293 This boolean value controls whether the debuggee should
18294 start a new group or stay in the same group as the debugger.
18295 This affects the way the Windows OS handles
18296 @samp{Ctrl-C}.
18297
18298 @kindex show new-group
18299 @item show new-group
18300 Displays current value of new-group boolean.
18301
18302 @kindex set debugevents
18303 @item set debugevents
18304 This boolean value adds debug output concerning kernel events related
18305 to the debuggee seen by the debugger. This includes events that
18306 signal thread and process creation and exit, DLL loading and
18307 unloading, console interrupts, and debugging messages produced by the
18308 Windows @code{OutputDebugString} API call.
18309
18310 @kindex set debugexec
18311 @item set debugexec
18312 This boolean value adds debug output concerning execute events
18313 (such as resume thread) seen by the debugger.
18314
18315 @kindex set debugexceptions
18316 @item set debugexceptions
18317 This boolean value adds debug output concerning exceptions in the
18318 debuggee seen by the debugger.
18319
18320 @kindex set debugmemory
18321 @item set debugmemory
18322 This boolean value adds debug output concerning debuggee memory reads
18323 and writes by the debugger.
18324
18325 @kindex set shell
18326 @item set shell
18327 This boolean values specifies whether the debuggee is called
18328 via a shell or directly (default value is on).
18329
18330 @kindex show shell
18331 @item show shell
18332 Displays if the debuggee will be started with a shell.
18333
18334 @end table
18335
18336 @menu
18337 * Non-debug DLL Symbols:: Support for DLLs without debugging symbols
18338 @end menu
18339
18340 @node Non-debug DLL Symbols
18341 @subsubsection Support for DLLs without Debugging Symbols
18342 @cindex DLLs with no debugging symbols
18343 @cindex Minimal symbols and DLLs
18344
18345 Very often on windows, some of the DLLs that your program relies on do
18346 not include symbolic debugging information (for example,
18347 @file{kernel32.dll}). When @value{GDBN} doesn't recognize any debugging
18348 symbols in a DLL, it relies on the minimal amount of symbolic
18349 information contained in the DLL's export table. This section
18350 describes working with such symbols, known internally to @value{GDBN} as
18351 ``minimal symbols''.
18352
18353 Note that before the debugged program has started execution, no DLLs
18354 will have been loaded. The easiest way around this problem is simply to
18355 start the program --- either by setting a breakpoint or letting the
18356 program run once to completion. It is also possible to force
18357 @value{GDBN} to load a particular DLL before starting the executable ---
18358 see the shared library information in @ref{Files}, or the
18359 @code{dll-symbols} command in @ref{Cygwin Native}. Currently,
18360 explicitly loading symbols from a DLL with no debugging information will
18361 cause the symbol names to be duplicated in @value{GDBN}'s lookup table,
18362 which may adversely affect symbol lookup performance.
18363
18364 @subsubsection DLL Name Prefixes
18365
18366 In keeping with the naming conventions used by the Microsoft debugging
18367 tools, DLL export symbols are made available with a prefix based on the
18368 DLL name, for instance @code{KERNEL32!CreateFileA}. The plain name is
18369 also entered into the symbol table, so @code{CreateFileA} is often
18370 sufficient. In some cases there will be name clashes within a program
18371 (particularly if the executable itself includes full debugging symbols)
18372 necessitating the use of the fully qualified name when referring to the
18373 contents of the DLL. Use single-quotes around the name to avoid the
18374 exclamation mark (``!'') being interpreted as a language operator.
18375
18376 Note that the internal name of the DLL may be all upper-case, even
18377 though the file name of the DLL is lower-case, or vice-versa. Since
18378 symbols within @value{GDBN} are @emph{case-sensitive} this may cause
18379 some confusion. If in doubt, try the @code{info functions} and
18380 @code{info variables} commands or even @code{maint print msymbols}
18381 (@pxref{Symbols}). Here's an example:
18382
18383 @smallexample
18384 (@value{GDBP}) info function CreateFileA
18385 All functions matching regular expression "CreateFileA":
18386
18387 Non-debugging symbols:
18388 0x77e885f4 CreateFileA
18389 0x77e885f4 KERNEL32!CreateFileA
18390 @end smallexample
18391
18392 @smallexample
18393 (@value{GDBP}) info function !
18394 All functions matching regular expression "!":
18395
18396 Non-debugging symbols:
18397 0x6100114c cygwin1!__assert
18398 0x61004034 cygwin1!_dll_crt0@@0
18399 0x61004240 cygwin1!dll_crt0(per_process *)
18400 [etc...]
18401 @end smallexample
18402
18403 @subsubsection Working with Minimal Symbols
18404
18405 Symbols extracted from a DLL's export table do not contain very much
18406 type information. All that @value{GDBN} can do is guess whether a symbol
18407 refers to a function or variable depending on the linker section that
18408 contains the symbol. Also note that the actual contents of the memory
18409 contained in a DLL are not available unless the program is running. This
18410 means that you cannot examine the contents of a variable or disassemble
18411 a function within a DLL without a running program.
18412
18413 Variables are generally treated as pointers and dereferenced
18414 automatically. For this reason, it is often necessary to prefix a
18415 variable name with the address-of operator (``&'') and provide explicit
18416 type information in the command. Here's an example of the type of
18417 problem:
18418
18419 @smallexample
18420 (@value{GDBP}) print 'cygwin1!__argv'
18421 $1 = 268572168
18422 @end smallexample
18423
18424 @smallexample
18425 (@value{GDBP}) x 'cygwin1!__argv'
18426 0x10021610: "\230y\""
18427 @end smallexample
18428
18429 And two possible solutions:
18430
18431 @smallexample
18432 (@value{GDBP}) print ((char **)'cygwin1!__argv')[0]
18433 $2 = 0x22fd98 "/cygdrive/c/mydirectory/myprogram"
18434 @end smallexample
18435
18436 @smallexample
18437 (@value{GDBP}) x/2x &'cygwin1!__argv'
18438 0x610c0aa8 <cygwin1!__argv>: 0x10021608 0x00000000
18439 (@value{GDBP}) x/x 0x10021608
18440 0x10021608: 0x0022fd98
18441 (@value{GDBP}) x/s 0x0022fd98
18442 0x22fd98: "/cygdrive/c/mydirectory/myprogram"
18443 @end smallexample
18444
18445 Setting a break point within a DLL is possible even before the program
18446 starts execution. However, under these circumstances, @value{GDBN} can't
18447 examine the initial instructions of the function in order to skip the
18448 function's frame set-up code. You can work around this by using ``*&''
18449 to set the breakpoint at a raw memory address:
18450
18451 @smallexample
18452 (@value{GDBP}) break *&'python22!PyOS_Readline'
18453 Breakpoint 1 at 0x1e04eff0
18454 @end smallexample
18455
18456 The author of these extensions is not entirely convinced that setting a
18457 break point within a shared DLL like @file{kernel32.dll} is completely
18458 safe.
18459
18460 @node Hurd Native
18461 @subsection Commands Specific to @sc{gnu} Hurd Systems
18462 @cindex @sc{gnu} Hurd debugging
18463
18464 This subsection describes @value{GDBN} commands specific to the
18465 @sc{gnu} Hurd native debugging.
18466
18467 @table @code
18468 @item set signals
18469 @itemx set sigs
18470 @kindex set signals@r{, Hurd command}
18471 @kindex set sigs@r{, Hurd command}
18472 This command toggles the state of inferior signal interception by
18473 @value{GDBN}. Mach exceptions, such as breakpoint traps, are not
18474 affected by this command. @code{sigs} is a shorthand alias for
18475 @code{signals}.
18476
18477 @item show signals
18478 @itemx show sigs
18479 @kindex show signals@r{, Hurd command}
18480 @kindex show sigs@r{, Hurd command}
18481 Show the current state of intercepting inferior's signals.
18482
18483 @item set signal-thread
18484 @itemx set sigthread
18485 @kindex set signal-thread
18486 @kindex set sigthread
18487 This command tells @value{GDBN} which thread is the @code{libc} signal
18488 thread. That thread is run when a signal is delivered to a running
18489 process. @code{set sigthread} is the shorthand alias of @code{set
18490 signal-thread}.
18491
18492 @item show signal-thread
18493 @itemx show sigthread
18494 @kindex show signal-thread
18495 @kindex show sigthread
18496 These two commands show which thread will run when the inferior is
18497 delivered a signal.
18498
18499 @item set stopped
18500 @kindex set stopped@r{, Hurd command}
18501 This commands tells @value{GDBN} that the inferior process is stopped,
18502 as with the @code{SIGSTOP} signal. The stopped process can be
18503 continued by delivering a signal to it.
18504
18505 @item show stopped
18506 @kindex show stopped@r{, Hurd command}
18507 This command shows whether @value{GDBN} thinks the debuggee is
18508 stopped.
18509
18510 @item set exceptions
18511 @kindex set exceptions@r{, Hurd command}
18512 Use this command to turn off trapping of exceptions in the inferior.
18513 When exception trapping is off, neither breakpoints nor
18514 single-stepping will work. To restore the default, set exception
18515 trapping on.
18516
18517 @item show exceptions
18518 @kindex show exceptions@r{, Hurd command}
18519 Show the current state of trapping exceptions in the inferior.
18520
18521 @item set task pause
18522 @kindex set task@r{, Hurd commands}
18523 @cindex task attributes (@sc{gnu} Hurd)
18524 @cindex pause current task (@sc{gnu} Hurd)
18525 This command toggles task suspension when @value{GDBN} has control.
18526 Setting it to on takes effect immediately, and the task is suspended
18527 whenever @value{GDBN} gets control. Setting it to off will take
18528 effect the next time the inferior is continued. If this option is set
18529 to off, you can use @code{set thread default pause on} or @code{set
18530 thread pause on} (see below) to pause individual threads.
18531
18532 @item show task pause
18533 @kindex show task@r{, Hurd commands}
18534 Show the current state of task suspension.
18535
18536 @item set task detach-suspend-count
18537 @cindex task suspend count
18538 @cindex detach from task, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18539 This command sets the suspend count the task will be left with when
18540 @value{GDBN} detaches from it.
18541
18542 @item show task detach-suspend-count
18543 Show the suspend count the task will be left with when detaching.
18544
18545 @item set task exception-port
18546 @itemx set task excp
18547 @cindex task exception port, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18548 This command sets the task exception port to which @value{GDBN} will
18549 forward exceptions. The argument should be the value of the @dfn{send
18550 rights} of the task. @code{set task excp} is a shorthand alias.
18551
18552 @item set noninvasive
18553 @cindex noninvasive task options
18554 This command switches @value{GDBN} to a mode that is the least
18555 invasive as far as interfering with the inferior is concerned. This
18556 is the same as using @code{set task pause}, @code{set exceptions}, and
18557 @code{set signals} to values opposite to the defaults.
18558
18559 @item info send-rights
18560 @itemx info receive-rights
18561 @itemx info port-rights
18562 @itemx info port-sets
18563 @itemx info dead-names
18564 @itemx info ports
18565 @itemx info psets
18566 @cindex send rights, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18567 @cindex receive rights, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18568 @cindex port rights, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18569 @cindex port sets, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18570 @cindex dead names, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18571 These commands display information about, respectively, send rights,
18572 receive rights, port rights, port sets, and dead names of a task.
18573 There are also shorthand aliases: @code{info ports} for @code{info
18574 port-rights} and @code{info psets} for @code{info port-sets}.
18575
18576 @item set thread pause
18577 @kindex set thread@r{, Hurd command}
18578 @cindex thread properties, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18579 @cindex pause current thread (@sc{gnu} Hurd)
18580 This command toggles current thread suspension when @value{GDBN} has
18581 control. Setting it to on takes effect immediately, and the current
18582 thread is suspended whenever @value{GDBN} gets control. Setting it to
18583 off will take effect the next time the inferior is continued.
18584 Normally, this command has no effect, since when @value{GDBN} has
18585 control, the whole task is suspended. However, if you used @code{set
18586 task pause off} (see above), this command comes in handy to suspend
18587 only the current thread.
18588
18589 @item show thread pause
18590 @kindex show thread@r{, Hurd command}
18591 This command shows the state of current thread suspension.
18592
18593 @item set thread run
18594 This command sets whether the current thread is allowed to run.
18595
18596 @item show thread run
18597 Show whether the current thread is allowed to run.
18598
18599 @item set thread detach-suspend-count
18600 @cindex thread suspend count, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18601 @cindex detach from thread, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18602 This command sets the suspend count @value{GDBN} will leave on a
18603 thread when detaching. This number is relative to the suspend count
18604 found by @value{GDBN} when it notices the thread; use @code{set thread
18605 takeover-suspend-count} to force it to an absolute value.
18606
18607 @item show thread detach-suspend-count
18608 Show the suspend count @value{GDBN} will leave on the thread when
18609 detaching.
18610
18611 @item set thread exception-port
18612 @itemx set thread excp
18613 Set the thread exception port to which to forward exceptions. This
18614 overrides the port set by @code{set task exception-port} (see above).
18615 @code{set thread excp} is the shorthand alias.
18616
18617 @item set thread takeover-suspend-count
18618 Normally, @value{GDBN}'s thread suspend counts are relative to the
18619 value @value{GDBN} finds when it notices each thread. This command
18620 changes the suspend counts to be absolute instead.
18621
18622 @item set thread default
18623 @itemx show thread default
18624 @cindex thread default settings, @sc{gnu} Hurd
18625 Each of the above @code{set thread} commands has a @code{set thread
18626 default} counterpart (e.g., @code{set thread default pause}, @code{set
18627 thread default exception-port}, etc.). The @code{thread default}
18628 variety of commands sets the default thread properties for all
18629 threads; you can then change the properties of individual threads with
18630 the non-default commands.
18631 @end table
18632
18633
18634 @node Neutrino
18635 @subsection QNX Neutrino
18636 @cindex QNX Neutrino
18637
18638 @value{GDBN} provides the following commands specific to the QNX
18639 Neutrino target:
18640
18641 @table @code
18642 @item set debug nto-debug
18643 @kindex set debug nto-debug
18644 When set to on, enables debugging messages specific to the QNX
18645 Neutrino support.
18646
18647 @item show debug nto-debug
18648 @kindex show debug nto-debug
18649 Show the current state of QNX Neutrino messages.
18650 @end table
18651
18652 @node Darwin
18653 @subsection Darwin
18654 @cindex Darwin
18655
18656 @value{GDBN} provides the following commands specific to the Darwin target:
18657
18658 @table @code
18659 @item set debug darwin @var{num}
18660 @kindex set debug darwin
18661 When set to a non zero value, enables debugging messages specific to
18662 the Darwin support. Higher values produce more verbose output.
18663
18664 @item show debug darwin
18665 @kindex show debug darwin
18666 Show the current state of Darwin messages.
18667
18668 @item set debug mach-o @var{num}
18669 @kindex set debug mach-o
18670 When set to a non zero value, enables debugging messages while
18671 @value{GDBN} is reading Darwin object files. (@dfn{Mach-O} is the
18672 file format used on Darwin for object and executable files.) Higher
18673 values produce more verbose output. This is a command to diagnose
18674 problems internal to @value{GDBN} and should not be needed in normal
18675 usage.
18676
18677 @item show debug mach-o
18678 @kindex show debug mach-o
18679 Show the current state of Mach-O file messages.
18680
18681 @item set mach-exceptions on
18682 @itemx set mach-exceptions off
18683 @kindex set mach-exceptions
18684 On Darwin, faults are first reported as a Mach exception and are then
18685 mapped to a Posix signal. Use this command to turn on trapping of
18686 Mach exceptions in the inferior. This might be sometimes useful to
18687 better understand the cause of a fault. The default is off.
18688
18689 @item show mach-exceptions
18690 @kindex show mach-exceptions
18691 Show the current state of exceptions trapping.
18692 @end table
18693
18694
18695 @node Embedded OS
18696 @section Embedded Operating Systems
18697
18698 This section describes configurations involving the debugging of
18699 embedded operating systems that are available for several different
18700 architectures.
18701
18702 @menu
18703 * VxWorks:: Using @value{GDBN} with VxWorks
18704 @end menu
18705
18706 @value{GDBN} includes the ability to debug programs running on
18707 various real-time operating systems.
18708
18709 @node VxWorks
18710 @subsection Using @value{GDBN} with VxWorks
18711
18712 @cindex VxWorks
18713
18714 @table @code
18715
18716 @kindex target vxworks
18717 @item target vxworks @var{machinename}
18718 A VxWorks system, attached via TCP/IP. The argument @var{machinename}
18719 is the target system's machine name or IP address.
18720
18721 @end table
18722
18723 On VxWorks, @code{load} links @var{filename} dynamically on the
18724 current target system as well as adding its symbols in @value{GDBN}.
18725
18726 @value{GDBN} enables developers to spawn and debug tasks running on networked
18727 VxWorks targets from a Unix host. Already-running tasks spawned from
18728 the VxWorks shell can also be debugged. @value{GDBN} uses code that runs on
18729 both the Unix host and on the VxWorks target. The program
18730 @code{@value{GDBP}} is installed and executed on the Unix host. (It may be
18731 installed with the name @code{vxgdb}, to distinguish it from a
18732 @value{GDBN} for debugging programs on the host itself.)
18733
18734 @table @code
18735 @item VxWorks-timeout @var{args}
18736 @kindex vxworks-timeout
18737 All VxWorks-based targets now support the option @code{vxworks-timeout}.
18738 This option is set by the user, and @var{args} represents the number of
18739 seconds @value{GDBN} waits for responses to rpc's. You might use this if
18740 your VxWorks target is a slow software simulator or is on the far side
18741 of a thin network line.
18742 @end table
18743
18744 The following information on connecting to VxWorks was current when
18745 this manual was produced; newer releases of VxWorks may use revised
18746 procedures.
18747
18748 @findex INCLUDE_RDB
18749 To use @value{GDBN} with VxWorks, you must rebuild your VxWorks kernel
18750 to include the remote debugging interface routines in the VxWorks
18751 library @file{rdb.a}. To do this, define @code{INCLUDE_RDB} in the
18752 VxWorks configuration file @file{configAll.h} and rebuild your VxWorks
18753 kernel. The resulting kernel contains @file{rdb.a}, and spawns the
18754 source debugging task @code{tRdbTask} when VxWorks is booted. For more
18755 information on configuring and remaking VxWorks, see the manufacturer's
18756 manual.
18757 @c VxWorks, see the @cite{VxWorks Programmer's Guide}.
18758
18759 Once you have included @file{rdb.a} in your VxWorks system image and set
18760 your Unix execution search path to find @value{GDBN}, you are ready to
18761 run @value{GDBN}. From your Unix host, run @code{@value{GDBP}} (or
18762 @code{vxgdb}, depending on your installation).
18763
18764 @value{GDBN} comes up showing the prompt:
18765
18766 @smallexample
18767 (vxgdb)
18768 @end smallexample
18769
18770 @menu
18771 * VxWorks Connection:: Connecting to VxWorks
18772 * VxWorks Download:: VxWorks download
18773 * VxWorks Attach:: Running tasks
18774 @end menu
18775
18776 @node VxWorks Connection
18777 @subsubsection Connecting to VxWorks
18778
18779 The @value{GDBN} command @code{target} lets you connect to a VxWorks target on the
18780 network. To connect to a target whose host name is ``@code{tt}'', type:
18781
18782 @smallexample
18783 (vxgdb) target vxworks tt
18784 @end smallexample
18785
18786 @need 750
18787 @value{GDBN} displays messages like these:
18788
18789 @smallexample
18790 Attaching remote machine across net...
18791 Connected to tt.
18792 @end smallexample
18793
18794 @need 1000
18795 @value{GDBN} then attempts to read the symbol tables of any object modules
18796 loaded into the VxWorks target since it was last booted. @value{GDBN} locates
18797 these files by searching the directories listed in the command search
18798 path (@pxref{Environment, ,Your Program's Environment}); if it fails
18799 to find an object file, it displays a message such as:
18800
18801 @smallexample
18802 prog.o: No such file or directory.
18803 @end smallexample
18804
18805 When this happens, add the appropriate directory to the search path with
18806 the @value{GDBN} command @code{path}, and execute the @code{target}
18807 command again.
18808
18809 @node VxWorks Download
18810 @subsubsection VxWorks Download
18811
18812 @cindex download to VxWorks
18813 If you have connected to the VxWorks target and you want to debug an
18814 object that has not yet been loaded, you can use the @value{GDBN}
18815 @code{load} command to download a file from Unix to VxWorks
18816 incrementally. The object file given as an argument to the @code{load}
18817 command is actually opened twice: first by the VxWorks target in order
18818 to download the code, then by @value{GDBN} in order to read the symbol
18819 table. This can lead to problems if the current working directories on
18820 the two systems differ. If both systems have NFS mounted the same
18821 filesystems, you can avoid these problems by using absolute paths.
18822 Otherwise, it is simplest to set the working directory on both systems
18823 to the directory in which the object file resides, and then to reference
18824 the file by its name, without any path. For instance, a program
18825 @file{prog.o} may reside in @file{@var{vxpath}/vw/demo/rdb} in VxWorks
18826 and in @file{@var{hostpath}/vw/demo/rdb} on the host. To load this
18827 program, type this on VxWorks:
18828
18829 @smallexample
18830 -> cd "@var{vxpath}/vw/demo/rdb"
18831 @end smallexample
18832
18833 @noindent
18834 Then, in @value{GDBN}, type:
18835
18836 @smallexample
18837 (vxgdb) cd @var{hostpath}/vw/demo/rdb
18838 (vxgdb) load prog.o
18839 @end smallexample
18840
18841 @value{GDBN} displays a response similar to this:
18842
18843 @smallexample
18844 Reading symbol data from wherever/vw/demo/rdb/prog.o... done.
18845 @end smallexample
18846
18847 You can also use the @code{load} command to reload an object module
18848 after editing and recompiling the corresponding source file. Note that
18849 this makes @value{GDBN} delete all currently-defined breakpoints,
18850 auto-displays, and convenience variables, and to clear the value
18851 history. (This is necessary in order to preserve the integrity of
18852 debugger's data structures that reference the target system's symbol
18853 table.)
18854
18855 @node VxWorks Attach
18856 @subsubsection Running Tasks
18857
18858 @cindex running VxWorks tasks
18859 You can also attach to an existing task using the @code{attach} command as
18860 follows:
18861
18862 @smallexample
18863 (vxgdb) attach @var{task}
18864 @end smallexample
18865
18866 @noindent
18867 where @var{task} is the VxWorks hexadecimal task ID. The task can be running
18868 or suspended when you attach to it. Running tasks are suspended at
18869 the time of attachment.
18870
18871 @node Embedded Processors
18872 @section Embedded Processors
18873
18874 This section goes into details specific to particular embedded
18875 configurations.
18876
18877 @cindex send command to simulator
18878 Whenever a specific embedded processor has a simulator, @value{GDBN}
18879 allows to send an arbitrary command to the simulator.
18880
18881 @table @code
18882 @item sim @var{command}
18883 @kindex sim@r{, a command}
18884 Send an arbitrary @var{command} string to the simulator. Consult the
18885 documentation for the specific simulator in use for information about
18886 acceptable commands.
18887 @end table
18888
18889
18890 @menu
18891 * ARM:: ARM RDI
18892 * M32R/D:: Renesas M32R/D
18893 * M68K:: Motorola M68K
18894 * MicroBlaze:: Xilinx MicroBlaze
18895 * MIPS Embedded:: MIPS Embedded
18896 * OpenRISC 1000:: OpenRisc 1000
18897 * PA:: HP PA Embedded
18898 * PowerPC Embedded:: PowerPC Embedded
18899 * Sparclet:: Tsqware Sparclet
18900 * Sparclite:: Fujitsu Sparclite
18901 * Z8000:: Zilog Z8000
18902 * AVR:: Atmel AVR
18903 * CRIS:: CRIS
18904 * Super-H:: Renesas Super-H
18905 @end menu
18906
18907 @node ARM
18908 @subsection ARM
18909 @cindex ARM RDI
18910
18911 @table @code
18912 @kindex target rdi
18913 @item target rdi @var{dev}
18914 ARM Angel monitor, via RDI library interface to ADP protocol. You may
18915 use this target to communicate with both boards running the Angel
18916 monitor, or with the EmbeddedICE JTAG debug device.
18917
18918 @kindex target rdp
18919 @item target rdp @var{dev}
18920 ARM Demon monitor.
18921
18922 @end table
18923
18924 @value{GDBN} provides the following ARM-specific commands:
18925
18926 @table @code
18927 @item set arm disassembler
18928 @kindex set arm
18929 This commands selects from a list of disassembly styles. The
18930 @code{"std"} style is the standard style.
18931
18932 @item show arm disassembler
18933 @kindex show arm
18934 Show the current disassembly style.
18935
18936 @item set arm apcs32
18937 @cindex ARM 32-bit mode
18938 This command toggles ARM operation mode between 32-bit and 26-bit.
18939
18940 @item show arm apcs32
18941 Display the current usage of the ARM 32-bit mode.
18942
18943 @item set arm fpu @var{fputype}
18944 This command sets the ARM floating-point unit (FPU) type. The
18945 argument @var{fputype} can be one of these:
18946
18947 @table @code
18948 @item auto
18949 Determine the FPU type by querying the OS ABI.
18950 @item softfpa
18951 Software FPU, with mixed-endian doubles on little-endian ARM
18952 processors.
18953 @item fpa
18954 GCC-compiled FPA co-processor.
18955 @item softvfp
18956 Software FPU with pure-endian doubles.
18957 @item vfp
18958 VFP co-processor.
18959 @end table
18960
18961 @item show arm fpu
18962 Show the current type of the FPU.
18963
18964 @item set arm abi
18965 This command forces @value{GDBN} to use the specified ABI.
18966
18967 @item show arm abi
18968 Show the currently used ABI.
18969
18970 @item set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
18971 @value{GDBN} uses the symbol table, when available, to determine
18972 whether instructions are ARM or Thumb. This command controls
18973 @value{GDBN}'s default behavior when the symbol table is not
18974 available. The default is @samp{auto}, which causes @value{GDBN} to
18975 use the current execution mode (from the @code{T} bit in the @code{CPSR}
18976 register).
18977
18978 @item show arm fallback-mode
18979 Show the current fallback instruction mode.
18980
18981 @item set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
18982 This command overrides use of the symbol table to determine whether
18983 instructions are ARM or Thumb. The default is @samp{auto}, which
18984 causes @value{GDBN} to use the symbol table and then the setting
18985 of @samp{set arm fallback-mode}.
18986
18987 @item show arm force-mode
18988 Show the current forced instruction mode.
18989
18990 @item set debug arm
18991 Toggle whether to display ARM-specific debugging messages from the ARM
18992 target support subsystem.
18993
18994 @item show debug arm
18995 Show whether ARM-specific debugging messages are enabled.
18996 @end table
18997
18998 The following commands are available when an ARM target is debugged
18999 using the RDI interface:
19000
19001 @table @code
19002 @item rdilogfile @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
19003 @kindex rdilogfile
19004 @cindex ADP (Angel Debugger Protocol) logging
19005 Set the filename for the ADP (Angel Debugger Protocol) packet log.
19006 With an argument, sets the log file to the specified @var{file}. With
19007 no argument, show the current log file name. The default log file is
19008 @file{rdi.log}.
19009
19010 @item rdilogenable @r{[}@var{arg}@r{]}
19011 @kindex rdilogenable
19012 Control logging of ADP packets. With an argument of 1 or @code{"yes"}
19013 enables logging, with an argument 0 or @code{"no"} disables it. With
19014 no arguments displays the current setting. When logging is enabled,
19015 ADP packets exchanged between @value{GDBN} and the RDI target device
19016 are logged to a file.
19017
19018 @item set rdiromatzero
19019 @kindex set rdiromatzero
19020 @cindex ROM at zero address, RDI
19021 Tell @value{GDBN} whether the target has ROM at address 0. If on,
19022 vector catching is disabled, so that zero address can be used. If off
19023 (the default), vector catching is enabled. For this command to take
19024 effect, it needs to be invoked prior to the @code{target rdi} command.
19025
19026 @item show rdiromatzero
19027 @kindex show rdiromatzero
19028 Show the current setting of ROM at zero address.
19029
19030 @item set rdiheartbeat
19031 @kindex set rdiheartbeat
19032 @cindex RDI heartbeat
19033 Enable or disable RDI heartbeat packets. It is not recommended to
19034 turn on this option, since it confuses ARM and EPI JTAG interface, as
19035 well as the Angel monitor.
19036
19037 @item show rdiheartbeat
19038 @kindex show rdiheartbeat
19039 Show the setting of RDI heartbeat packets.
19040 @end table
19041
19042 @table @code
19043 @item target sim @r{[}@var{simargs}@r{]} @dots{}
19044 The @value{GDBN} ARM simulator accepts the following optional arguments.
19045
19046 @table @code
19047 @item --swi-support=@var{type}
19048 Tell the simulator which SWI interfaces to support.
19049 @var{type} may be a comma separated list of the following values.
19050 The default value is @code{all}.
19051
19052 @table @code
19053 @item none
19054 @item demon
19055 @item angel
19056 @item redboot
19057 @item all
19058 @end table
19059 @end table
19060 @end table
19061
19062 @node M32R/D
19063 @subsection Renesas M32R/D and M32R/SDI
19064
19065 @table @code
19066 @kindex target m32r
19067 @item target m32r @var{dev}
19068 Renesas M32R/D ROM monitor.
19069
19070 @kindex target m32rsdi
19071 @item target m32rsdi @var{dev}
19072 Renesas M32R SDI server, connected via parallel port to the board.
19073 @end table
19074
19075 The following @value{GDBN} commands are specific to the M32R monitor:
19076
19077 @table @code
19078 @item set download-path @var{path}
19079 @kindex set download-path
19080 @cindex find downloadable @sc{srec} files (M32R)
19081 Set the default path for finding downloadable @sc{srec} files.
19082
19083 @item show download-path
19084 @kindex show download-path
19085 Show the default path for downloadable @sc{srec} files.
19086
19087 @item set board-address @var{addr}
19088 @kindex set board-address
19089 @cindex M32-EVA target board address
19090 Set the IP address for the M32R-EVA target board.
19091
19092 @item show board-address
19093 @kindex show board-address
19094 Show the current IP address of the target board.
19095
19096 @item set server-address @var{addr}
19097 @kindex set server-address
19098 @cindex download server address (M32R)
19099 Set the IP address for the download server, which is the @value{GDBN}'s
19100 host machine.
19101
19102 @item show server-address
19103 @kindex show server-address
19104 Display the IP address of the download server.
19105
19106 @item upload @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
19107 @kindex upload@r{, M32R}
19108 Upload the specified @sc{srec} @var{file} via the monitor's Ethernet
19109 upload capability. If no @var{file} argument is given, the current
19110 executable file is uploaded.
19111
19112 @item tload @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
19113 @kindex tload@r{, M32R}
19114 Test the @code{upload} command.
19115 @end table
19116
19117 The following commands are available for M32R/SDI:
19118
19119 @table @code
19120 @item sdireset
19121 @kindex sdireset
19122 @cindex reset SDI connection, M32R
19123 This command resets the SDI connection.
19124
19125 @item sdistatus
19126 @kindex sdistatus
19127 This command shows the SDI connection status.
19128
19129 @item debug_chaos
19130 @kindex debug_chaos
19131 @cindex M32R/Chaos debugging
19132 Instructs the remote that M32R/Chaos debugging is to be used.
19133
19134 @item use_debug_dma
19135 @kindex use_debug_dma
19136 Instructs the remote to use the DEBUG_DMA method of accessing memory.
19137
19138 @item use_mon_code
19139 @kindex use_mon_code
19140 Instructs the remote to use the MON_CODE method of accessing memory.
19141
19142 @item use_ib_break
19143 @kindex use_ib_break
19144 Instructs the remote to set breakpoints by IB break.
19145
19146 @item use_dbt_break
19147 @kindex use_dbt_break
19148 Instructs the remote to set breakpoints by DBT.
19149 @end table
19150
19151 @node M68K
19152 @subsection M68k
19153
19154 The Motorola m68k configuration includes ColdFire support, and a
19155 target command for the following ROM monitor.
19156
19157 @table @code
19158
19159 @kindex target dbug
19160 @item target dbug @var{dev}
19161 dBUG ROM monitor for Motorola ColdFire.
19162
19163 @end table
19164
19165 @node MicroBlaze
19166 @subsection MicroBlaze
19167 @cindex Xilinx MicroBlaze
19168 @cindex XMD, Xilinx Microprocessor Debugger
19169
19170 The MicroBlaze is a soft-core processor supported on various Xilinx
19171 FPGAs, such as Spartan or Virtex series. Boards with these processors
19172 usually have JTAG ports which connect to a host system running the Xilinx
19173 Embedded Development Kit (EDK) or Software Development Kit (SDK).
19174 This host system is used to download the configuration bitstream to
19175 the target FPGA. The Xilinx Microprocessor Debugger (XMD) program
19176 communicates with the target board using the JTAG interface and
19177 presents a @code{gdbserver} interface to the board. By default
19178 @code{xmd} uses port @code{1234}. (While it is possible to change
19179 this default port, it requires the use of undocumented @code{xmd}
19180 commands. Contact Xilinx support if you need to do this.)
19181
19182 Use these GDB commands to connect to the MicroBlaze target processor.
19183
19184 @table @code
19185 @item target remote :1234
19186 Use this command to connect to the target if you are running @value{GDBN}
19187 on the same system as @code{xmd}.
19188
19189 @item target remote @var{xmd-host}:1234
19190 Use this command to connect to the target if it is connected to @code{xmd}
19191 running on a different system named @var{xmd-host}.
19192
19193 @item load
19194 Use this command to download a program to the MicroBlaze target.
19195
19196 @item set debug microblaze @var{n}
19197 Enable MicroBlaze-specific debugging messages if non-zero.
19198
19199 @item show debug microblaze @var{n}
19200 Show MicroBlaze-specific debugging level.
19201 @end table
19202
19203 @node MIPS Embedded
19204 @subsection MIPS Embedded
19205
19206 @cindex MIPS boards
19207 @value{GDBN} can use the MIPS remote debugging protocol to talk to a
19208 MIPS board attached to a serial line. This is available when
19209 you configure @value{GDBN} with @samp{--target=mips-elf}.
19210
19211 @need 1000
19212 Use these @value{GDBN} commands to specify the connection to your target board:
19213
19214 @table @code
19215 @item target mips @var{port}
19216 @kindex target mips @var{port}
19217 To run a program on the board, start up @code{@value{GDBP}} with the
19218 name of your program as the argument. To connect to the board, use the
19219 command @samp{target mips @var{port}}, where @var{port} is the name of
19220 the serial port connected to the board. If the program has not already
19221 been downloaded to the board, you may use the @code{load} command to
19222 download it. You can then use all the usual @value{GDBN} commands.
19223
19224 For example, this sequence connects to the target board through a serial
19225 port, and loads and runs a program called @var{prog} through the
19226 debugger:
19227
19228 @smallexample
19229 host$ @value{GDBP} @var{prog}
19230 @value{GDBN} is free software and @dots{}
19231 (@value{GDBP}) target mips /dev/ttyb
19232 (@value{GDBP}) load @var{prog}
19233 (@value{GDBP}) run
19234 @end smallexample
19235
19236 @item target mips @var{hostname}:@var{portnumber}
19237 On some @value{GDBN} host configurations, you can specify a TCP
19238 connection (for instance, to a serial line managed by a terminal
19239 concentrator) instead of a serial port, using the syntax
19240 @samp{@var{hostname}:@var{portnumber}}.
19241
19242 @item target pmon @var{port}
19243 @kindex target pmon @var{port}
19244 PMON ROM monitor.
19245
19246 @item target ddb @var{port}
19247 @kindex target ddb @var{port}
19248 NEC's DDB variant of PMON for Vr4300.
19249
19250 @item target lsi @var{port}
19251 @kindex target lsi @var{port}
19252 LSI variant of PMON.
19253
19254 @kindex target r3900
19255 @item target r3900 @var{dev}
19256 Densan DVE-R3900 ROM monitor for Toshiba R3900 Mips.
19257
19258 @kindex target array
19259 @item target array @var{dev}
19260 Array Tech LSI33K RAID controller board.
19261
19262 @end table
19263
19264
19265 @noindent
19266 @value{GDBN} also supports these special commands for MIPS targets:
19267
19268 @table @code
19269 @item set mipsfpu double
19270 @itemx set mipsfpu single
19271 @itemx set mipsfpu none
19272 @itemx set mipsfpu auto
19273 @itemx show mipsfpu
19274 @kindex set mipsfpu
19275 @kindex show mipsfpu
19276 @cindex MIPS remote floating point
19277 @cindex floating point, MIPS remote
19278 If your target board does not support the MIPS floating point
19279 coprocessor, you should use the command @samp{set mipsfpu none} (if you
19280 need this, you may wish to put the command in your @value{GDBN} init
19281 file). This tells @value{GDBN} how to find the return value of
19282 functions which return floating point values. It also allows
19283 @value{GDBN} to avoid saving the floating point registers when calling
19284 functions on the board. If you are using a floating point coprocessor
19285 with only single precision floating point support, as on the @sc{r4650}
19286 processor, use the command @samp{set mipsfpu single}. The default
19287 double precision floating point coprocessor may be selected using
19288 @samp{set mipsfpu double}.
19289
19290 In previous versions the only choices were double precision or no
19291 floating point, so @samp{set mipsfpu on} will select double precision
19292 and @samp{set mipsfpu off} will select no floating point.
19293
19294 As usual, you can inquire about the @code{mipsfpu} variable with
19295 @samp{show mipsfpu}.
19296
19297 @item set timeout @var{seconds}
19298 @itemx set retransmit-timeout @var{seconds}
19299 @itemx show timeout
19300 @itemx show retransmit-timeout
19301 @cindex @code{timeout}, MIPS protocol
19302 @cindex @code{retransmit-timeout}, MIPS protocol
19303 @kindex set timeout
19304 @kindex show timeout
19305 @kindex set retransmit-timeout
19306 @kindex show retransmit-timeout
19307 You can control the timeout used while waiting for a packet, in the MIPS
19308 remote protocol, with the @code{set timeout @var{seconds}} command. The
19309 default is 5 seconds. Similarly, you can control the timeout used while
19310 waiting for an acknowledgment of a packet with the @code{set
19311 retransmit-timeout @var{seconds}} command. The default is 3 seconds.
19312 You can inspect both values with @code{show timeout} and @code{show
19313 retransmit-timeout}. (These commands are @emph{only} available when
19314 @value{GDBN} is configured for @samp{--target=mips-elf}.)
19315
19316 The timeout set by @code{set timeout} does not apply when @value{GDBN}
19317 is waiting for your program to stop. In that case, @value{GDBN} waits
19318 forever because it has no way of knowing how long the program is going
19319 to run before stopping.
19320
19321 @item set syn-garbage-limit @var{num}
19322 @kindex set syn-garbage-limit@r{, MIPS remote}
19323 @cindex synchronize with remote MIPS target
19324 Limit the maximum number of characters @value{GDBN} should ignore when
19325 it tries to synchronize with the remote target. The default is 10
19326 characters. Setting the limit to -1 means there's no limit.
19327
19328 @item show syn-garbage-limit
19329 @kindex show syn-garbage-limit@r{, MIPS remote}
19330 Show the current limit on the number of characters to ignore when
19331 trying to synchronize with the remote system.
19332
19333 @item set monitor-prompt @var{prompt}
19334 @kindex set monitor-prompt@r{, MIPS remote}
19335 @cindex remote monitor prompt
19336 Tell @value{GDBN} to expect the specified @var{prompt} string from the
19337 remote monitor. The default depends on the target:
19338 @table @asis
19339 @item pmon target
19340 @samp{PMON}
19341 @item ddb target
19342 @samp{NEC010}
19343 @item lsi target
19344 @samp{PMON>}
19345 @end table
19346
19347 @item show monitor-prompt
19348 @kindex show monitor-prompt@r{, MIPS remote}
19349 Show the current strings @value{GDBN} expects as the prompt from the
19350 remote monitor.
19351
19352 @item set monitor-warnings
19353 @kindex set monitor-warnings@r{, MIPS remote}
19354 Enable or disable monitor warnings about hardware breakpoints. This
19355 has effect only for the @code{lsi} target. When on, @value{GDBN} will
19356 display warning messages whose codes are returned by the @code{lsi}
19357 PMON monitor for breakpoint commands.
19358
19359 @item show monitor-warnings
19360 @kindex show monitor-warnings@r{, MIPS remote}
19361 Show the current setting of printing monitor warnings.
19362
19363 @item pmon @var{command}
19364 @kindex pmon@r{, MIPS remote}
19365 @cindex send PMON command
19366 This command allows sending an arbitrary @var{command} string to the
19367 monitor. The monitor must be in debug mode for this to work.
19368 @end table
19369
19370 @node OpenRISC 1000
19371 @subsection OpenRISC 1000
19372 @cindex OpenRISC 1000
19373
19374 @cindex or1k boards
19375 See OR1k Architecture document (@uref{www.opencores.org}) for more information
19376 about platform and commands.
19377
19378 @table @code
19379
19380 @kindex target jtag
19381 @item target jtag jtag://@var{host}:@var{port}
19382
19383 Connects to remote JTAG server.
19384 JTAG remote server can be either an or1ksim or JTAG server,
19385 connected via parallel port to the board.
19386
19387 Example: @code{target jtag jtag://localhost:9999}
19388
19389 @kindex or1ksim
19390 @item or1ksim @var{command}
19391 If connected to @code{or1ksim} OpenRISC 1000 Architectural
19392 Simulator, proprietary commands can be executed.
19393
19394 @kindex info or1k spr
19395 @item info or1k spr
19396 Displays spr groups.
19397
19398 @item info or1k spr @var{group}
19399 @itemx info or1k spr @var{groupno}
19400 Displays register names in selected group.
19401
19402 @item info or1k spr @var{group} @var{register}
19403 @itemx info or1k spr @var{register}
19404 @itemx info or1k spr @var{groupno} @var{registerno}
19405 @itemx info or1k spr @var{registerno}
19406 Shows information about specified spr register.
19407
19408 @kindex spr
19409 @item spr @var{group} @var{register} @var{value}
19410 @itemx spr @var{register @var{value}}
19411 @itemx spr @var{groupno} @var{registerno @var{value}}
19412 @itemx spr @var{registerno @var{value}}
19413 Writes @var{value} to specified spr register.
19414 @end table
19415
19416 Some implementations of OpenRISC 1000 Architecture also have hardware trace.
19417 It is very similar to @value{GDBN} trace, except it does not interfere with normal
19418 program execution and is thus much faster. Hardware breakpoints/watchpoint
19419 triggers can be set using:
19420 @table @code
19421 @item $LEA/$LDATA
19422 Load effective address/data
19423 @item $SEA/$SDATA
19424 Store effective address/data
19425 @item $AEA/$ADATA
19426 Access effective address ($SEA or $LEA) or data ($SDATA/$LDATA)
19427 @item $FETCH
19428 Fetch data
19429 @end table
19430
19431 When triggered, it can capture low level data, like: @code{PC}, @code{LSEA},
19432 @code{LDATA}, @code{SDATA}, @code{READSPR}, @code{WRITESPR}, @code{INSTR}.
19433
19434 @code{htrace} commands:
19435 @cindex OpenRISC 1000 htrace
19436 @table @code
19437 @kindex hwatch
19438 @item hwatch @var{conditional}
19439 Set hardware watchpoint on combination of Load/Store Effective Address(es)
19440 or Data. For example:
19441
19442 @code{hwatch ($LEA == my_var) && ($LDATA < 50) || ($SEA == my_var) && ($SDATA >= 50)}
19443
19444 @code{hwatch ($LEA == my_var) && ($LDATA < 50) || ($SEA == my_var) && ($SDATA >= 50)}
19445
19446 @kindex htrace
19447 @item htrace info
19448 Display information about current HW trace configuration.
19449
19450 @item htrace trigger @var{conditional}
19451 Set starting criteria for HW trace.
19452
19453 @item htrace qualifier @var{conditional}
19454 Set acquisition qualifier for HW trace.
19455
19456 @item htrace stop @var{conditional}
19457 Set HW trace stopping criteria.
19458
19459 @item htrace record [@var{data}]*
19460 Selects the data to be recorded, when qualifier is met and HW trace was
19461 triggered.
19462
19463 @item htrace enable
19464 @itemx htrace disable
19465 Enables/disables the HW trace.
19466
19467 @item htrace rewind [@var{filename}]
19468 Clears currently recorded trace data.
19469
19470 If filename is specified, new trace file is made and any newly collected data
19471 will be written there.
19472
19473 @item htrace print [@var{start} [@var{len}]]
19474 Prints trace buffer, using current record configuration.
19475
19476 @item htrace mode continuous
19477 Set continuous trace mode.
19478
19479 @item htrace mode suspend
19480 Set suspend trace mode.
19481
19482 @end table
19483
19484 @node PowerPC Embedded
19485 @subsection PowerPC Embedded
19486
19487 @cindex DVC register
19488 @value{GDBN} supports using the DVC (Data Value Compare) register to
19489 implement in hardware simple hardware watchpoint conditions of the form:
19490
19491 @smallexample
19492 (@value{GDBP}) watch @var{ADDRESS|VARIABLE} \
19493 if @var{ADDRESS|VARIABLE} == @var{CONSTANT EXPRESSION}
19494 @end smallexample
19495
19496 The DVC register will be automatically used when @value{GDBN} detects
19497 such pattern in a condition expression, and the created watchpoint uses one
19498 debug register (either the @code{exact-watchpoints} option is on and the
19499 variable is scalar, or the variable has a length of one byte). This feature
19500 is available in native @value{GDBN} running on a Linux kernel version 2.6.34
19501 or newer.
19502
19503 When running on PowerPC embedded processors, @value{GDBN} automatically uses
19504 ranged hardware watchpoints, unless the @code{exact-watchpoints} option is on,
19505 in which case watchpoints using only one debug register are created when
19506 watching variables of scalar types.
19507
19508 You can create an artificial array to watch an arbitrary memory
19509 region using one of the following commands (@pxref{Expressions}):
19510
19511 @smallexample
19512 (@value{GDBP}) watch *((char *) @var{address})@@@var{length}
19513 (@value{GDBP}) watch @{char[@var{length}]@} @var{address}
19514 @end smallexample
19515
19516 PowerPC embedded processors support masked watchpoints. See the discussion
19517 about the @code{mask} argument in @ref{Set Watchpoints}.
19518
19519 @cindex ranged breakpoint
19520 PowerPC embedded processors support hardware accelerated
19521 @dfn{ranged breakpoints}. A ranged breakpoint stops execution of
19522 the inferior whenever it executes an instruction at any address within
19523 the range it specifies. To set a ranged breakpoint in @value{GDBN},
19524 use the @code{break-range} command.
19525
19526 @value{GDBN} provides the following PowerPC-specific commands:
19527
19528 @table @code
19529 @kindex break-range
19530 @item break-range @var{start-location}, @var{end-location}
19531 Set a breakpoint for an address range.
19532 @var{start-location} and @var{end-location} can specify a function name,
19533 a line number, an offset of lines from the current line or from the start
19534 location, or an address of an instruction (see @ref{Specify Location},
19535 for a list of all the possible ways to specify a @var{location}.)
19536 The breakpoint will stop execution of the inferior whenever it
19537 executes an instruction at any address within the specified range,
19538 (including @var{start-location} and @var{end-location}.)
19539
19540 @kindex set powerpc
19541 @item set powerpc soft-float
19542 @itemx show powerpc soft-float
19543 Force @value{GDBN} to use (or not use) a software floating point calling
19544 convention. By default, @value{GDBN} selects the calling convention based
19545 on the selected architecture and the provided executable file.
19546
19547 @item set powerpc vector-abi
19548 @itemx show powerpc vector-abi
19549 Force @value{GDBN} to use the specified calling convention for vector
19550 arguments and return values. The valid options are @samp{auto};
19551 @samp{generic}, to avoid vector registers even if they are present;
19552 @samp{altivec}, to use AltiVec registers; and @samp{spe} to use SPE
19553 registers. By default, @value{GDBN} selects the calling convention
19554 based on the selected architecture and the provided executable file.
19555
19556 @item set powerpc exact-watchpoints
19557 @itemx show powerpc exact-watchpoints
19558 Allow @value{GDBN} to use only one debug register when watching a variable
19559 of scalar type, thus assuming that the variable is accessed through the
19560 address of its first byte.
19561
19562 @kindex target dink32
19563 @item target dink32 @var{dev}
19564 DINK32 ROM monitor.
19565
19566 @kindex target ppcbug
19567 @item target ppcbug @var{dev}
19568 @kindex target ppcbug1
19569 @item target ppcbug1 @var{dev}
19570 PPCBUG ROM monitor for PowerPC.
19571
19572 @kindex target sds
19573 @item target sds @var{dev}
19574 SDS monitor, running on a PowerPC board (such as Motorola's ADS).
19575 @end table
19576
19577 @cindex SDS protocol
19578 The following commands specific to the SDS protocol are supported
19579 by @value{GDBN}:
19580
19581 @table @code
19582 @item set sdstimeout @var{nsec}
19583 @kindex set sdstimeout
19584 Set the timeout for SDS protocol reads to be @var{nsec} seconds. The
19585 default is 2 seconds.
19586
19587 @item show sdstimeout
19588 @kindex show sdstimeout
19589 Show the current value of the SDS timeout.
19590
19591 @item sds @var{command}
19592 @kindex sds@r{, a command}
19593 Send the specified @var{command} string to the SDS monitor.
19594 @end table
19595
19596
19597 @node PA
19598 @subsection HP PA Embedded
19599
19600 @table @code
19601
19602 @kindex target op50n
19603 @item target op50n @var{dev}
19604 OP50N monitor, running on an OKI HPPA board.
19605
19606 @kindex target w89k
19607 @item target w89k @var{dev}
19608 W89K monitor, running on a Winbond HPPA board.
19609
19610 @end table
19611
19612 @node Sparclet
19613 @subsection Tsqware Sparclet
19614
19615 @cindex Sparclet
19616
19617 @value{GDBN} enables developers to debug tasks running on
19618 Sparclet targets from a Unix host.
19619 @value{GDBN} uses code that runs on
19620 both the Unix host and on the Sparclet target. The program
19621 @code{@value{GDBP}} is installed and executed on the Unix host.
19622
19623 @table @code
19624 @item remotetimeout @var{args}
19625 @kindex remotetimeout
19626 @value{GDBN} supports the option @code{remotetimeout}.
19627 This option is set by the user, and @var{args} represents the number of
19628 seconds @value{GDBN} waits for responses.
19629 @end table
19630
19631 @cindex compiling, on Sparclet
19632 When compiling for debugging, include the options @samp{-g} to get debug
19633 information and @samp{-Ttext} to relocate the program to where you wish to
19634 load it on the target. You may also want to add the options @samp{-n} or
19635 @samp{-N} in order to reduce the size of the sections. Example:
19636
19637 @smallexample
19638 sparclet-aout-gcc prog.c -Ttext 0x12010000 -g -o prog -N
19639 @end smallexample
19640
19641 You can use @code{objdump} to verify that the addresses are what you intended:
19642
19643 @smallexample
19644 sparclet-aout-objdump --headers --syms prog
19645 @end smallexample
19646
19647 @cindex running, on Sparclet
19648 Once you have set
19649 your Unix execution search path to find @value{GDBN}, you are ready to
19650 run @value{GDBN}. From your Unix host, run @code{@value{GDBP}}
19651 (or @code{sparclet-aout-gdb}, depending on your installation).
19652
19653 @value{GDBN} comes up showing the prompt:
19654
19655 @smallexample
19656 (gdbslet)
19657 @end smallexample
19658
19659 @menu
19660 * Sparclet File:: Setting the file to debug
19661 * Sparclet Connection:: Connecting to Sparclet
19662 * Sparclet Download:: Sparclet download
19663 * Sparclet Execution:: Running and debugging
19664 @end menu
19665
19666 @node Sparclet File
19667 @subsubsection Setting File to Debug
19668
19669 The @value{GDBN} command @code{file} lets you choose with program to debug.
19670
19671 @smallexample
19672 (gdbslet) file prog
19673 @end smallexample
19674
19675 @need 1000
19676 @value{GDBN} then attempts to read the symbol table of @file{prog}.
19677 @value{GDBN} locates
19678 the file by searching the directories listed in the command search
19679 path.
19680 If the file was compiled with debug information (option @samp{-g}), source
19681 files will be searched as well.
19682 @value{GDBN} locates
19683 the source files by searching the directories listed in the directory search
19684 path (@pxref{Environment, ,Your Program's Environment}).
19685 If it fails
19686 to find a file, it displays a message such as:
19687
19688 @smallexample
19689 prog: No such file or directory.
19690 @end smallexample
19691
19692 When this happens, add the appropriate directories to the search paths with
19693 the @value{GDBN} commands @code{path} and @code{dir}, and execute the
19694 @code{target} command again.
19695
19696 @node Sparclet Connection
19697 @subsubsection Connecting to Sparclet
19698
19699 The @value{GDBN} command @code{target} lets you connect to a Sparclet target.
19700 To connect to a target on serial port ``@code{ttya}'', type:
19701
19702 @smallexample
19703 (gdbslet) target sparclet /dev/ttya
19704 Remote target sparclet connected to /dev/ttya
19705 main () at ../prog.c:3
19706 @end smallexample
19707
19708 @need 750
19709 @value{GDBN} displays messages like these:
19710
19711 @smallexample
19712 Connected to ttya.
19713 @end smallexample
19714
19715 @node Sparclet Download
19716 @subsubsection Sparclet Download
19717
19718 @cindex download to Sparclet
19719 Once connected to the Sparclet target,
19720 you can use the @value{GDBN}
19721 @code{load} command to download the file from the host to the target.
19722 The file name and load offset should be given as arguments to the @code{load}
19723 command.
19724 Since the file format is aout, the program must be loaded to the starting
19725 address. You can use @code{objdump} to find out what this value is. The load
19726 offset is an offset which is added to the VMA (virtual memory address)
19727 of each of the file's sections.
19728 For instance, if the program
19729 @file{prog} was linked to text address 0x1201000, with data at 0x12010160
19730 and bss at 0x12010170, in @value{GDBN}, type:
19731
19732 @smallexample
19733 (gdbslet) load prog 0x12010000
19734 Loading section .text, size 0xdb0 vma 0x12010000
19735 @end smallexample
19736
19737 If the code is loaded at a different address then what the program was linked
19738 to, you may need to use the @code{section} and @code{add-symbol-file} commands
19739 to tell @value{GDBN} where to map the symbol table.
19740
19741 @node Sparclet Execution
19742 @subsubsection Running and Debugging
19743
19744 @cindex running and debugging Sparclet programs
19745 You can now begin debugging the task using @value{GDBN}'s execution control
19746 commands, @code{b}, @code{step}, @code{run}, etc. See the @value{GDBN}
19747 manual for the list of commands.
19748
19749 @smallexample
19750 (gdbslet) b main
19751 Breakpoint 1 at 0x12010000: file prog.c, line 3.
19752 (gdbslet) run
19753 Starting program: prog
19754 Breakpoint 1, main (argc=1, argv=0xeffff21c) at prog.c:3
19755 3 char *symarg = 0;
19756 (gdbslet) step
19757 4 char *execarg = "hello!";
19758 (gdbslet)
19759 @end smallexample
19760
19761 @node Sparclite
19762 @subsection Fujitsu Sparclite
19763
19764 @table @code
19765
19766 @kindex target sparclite
19767 @item target sparclite @var{dev}
19768 Fujitsu sparclite boards, used only for the purpose of loading.
19769 You must use an additional command to debug the program.
19770 For example: target remote @var{dev} using @value{GDBN} standard
19771 remote protocol.
19772
19773 @end table
19774
19775 @node Z8000
19776 @subsection Zilog Z8000
19777
19778 @cindex Z8000
19779 @cindex simulator, Z8000
19780 @cindex Zilog Z8000 simulator
19781
19782 When configured for debugging Zilog Z8000 targets, @value{GDBN} includes
19783 a Z8000 simulator.
19784
19785 For the Z8000 family, @samp{target sim} simulates either the Z8002 (the
19786 unsegmented variant of the Z8000 architecture) or the Z8001 (the
19787 segmented variant). The simulator recognizes which architecture is
19788 appropriate by inspecting the object code.
19789
19790 @table @code
19791 @item target sim @var{args}
19792 @kindex sim
19793 @kindex target sim@r{, with Z8000}
19794 Debug programs on a simulated CPU. If the simulator supports setup
19795 options, specify them via @var{args}.
19796 @end table
19797
19798 @noindent
19799 After specifying this target, you can debug programs for the simulated
19800 CPU in the same style as programs for your host computer; use the
19801 @code{file} command to load a new program image, the @code{run} command
19802 to run your program, and so on.
19803
19804 As well as making available all the usual machine registers
19805 (@pxref{Registers, ,Registers}), the Z8000 simulator provides three
19806 additional items of information as specially named registers:
19807
19808 @table @code
19809
19810 @item cycles
19811 Counts clock-ticks in the simulator.
19812
19813 @item insts
19814 Counts instructions run in the simulator.
19815
19816 @item time
19817 Execution time in 60ths of a second.
19818
19819 @end table
19820
19821 You can refer to these values in @value{GDBN} expressions with the usual
19822 conventions; for example, @w{@samp{b fputc if $cycles>5000}} sets a
19823 conditional breakpoint that suspends only after at least 5000
19824 simulated clock ticks.
19825
19826 @node AVR
19827 @subsection Atmel AVR
19828 @cindex AVR
19829
19830 When configured for debugging the Atmel AVR, @value{GDBN} supports the
19831 following AVR-specific commands:
19832
19833 @table @code
19834 @item info io_registers
19835 @kindex info io_registers@r{, AVR}
19836 @cindex I/O registers (Atmel AVR)
19837 This command displays information about the AVR I/O registers. For
19838 each register, @value{GDBN} prints its number and value.
19839 @end table
19840
19841 @node CRIS
19842 @subsection CRIS
19843 @cindex CRIS
19844
19845 When configured for debugging CRIS, @value{GDBN} provides the
19846 following CRIS-specific commands:
19847
19848 @table @code
19849 @item set cris-version @var{ver}
19850 @cindex CRIS version
19851 Set the current CRIS version to @var{ver}, either @samp{10} or @samp{32}.
19852 The CRIS version affects register names and sizes. This command is useful in
19853 case autodetection of the CRIS version fails.
19854
19855 @item show cris-version
19856 Show the current CRIS version.
19857
19858 @item set cris-dwarf2-cfi
19859 @cindex DWARF-2 CFI and CRIS
19860 Set the usage of DWARF-2 CFI for CRIS debugging. The default is @samp{on}.
19861 Change to @samp{off} when using @code{gcc-cris} whose version is below
19862 @code{R59}.
19863
19864 @item show cris-dwarf2-cfi
19865 Show the current state of using DWARF-2 CFI.
19866
19867 @item set cris-mode @var{mode}
19868 @cindex CRIS mode
19869 Set the current CRIS mode to @var{mode}. It should only be changed when
19870 debugging in guru mode, in which case it should be set to
19871 @samp{guru} (the default is @samp{normal}).
19872
19873 @item show cris-mode
19874 Show the current CRIS mode.
19875 @end table
19876
19877 @node Super-H
19878 @subsection Renesas Super-H
19879 @cindex Super-H
19880
19881 For the Renesas Super-H processor, @value{GDBN} provides these
19882 commands:
19883
19884 @table @code
19885 @item regs
19886 @kindex regs@r{, Super-H}
19887 Show the values of all Super-H registers.
19888
19889 @item set sh calling-convention @var{convention}
19890 @kindex set sh calling-convention
19891 Set the calling-convention used when calling functions from @value{GDBN}.
19892 Allowed values are @samp{gcc}, which is the default setting, and @samp{renesas}.
19893 With the @samp{gcc} setting, functions are called using the @value{NGCC} calling
19894 convention. If the DWARF-2 information of the called function specifies
19895 that the function follows the Renesas calling convention, the function
19896 is called using the Renesas calling convention. If the calling convention
19897 is set to @samp{renesas}, the Renesas calling convention is always used,
19898 regardless of the DWARF-2 information. This can be used to override the
19899 default of @samp{gcc} if debug information is missing, or the compiler
19900 does not emit the DWARF-2 calling convention entry for a function.
19901
19902 @item show sh calling-convention
19903 @kindex show sh calling-convention
19904 Show the current calling convention setting.
19905
19906 @end table
19907
19908
19909 @node Architectures
19910 @section Architectures
19911
19912 This section describes characteristics of architectures that affect
19913 all uses of @value{GDBN} with the architecture, both native and cross.
19914
19915 @menu
19916 * i386::
19917 * A29K::
19918 * Alpha::
19919 * MIPS::
19920 * HPPA:: HP PA architecture
19921 * SPU:: Cell Broadband Engine SPU architecture
19922 * PowerPC::
19923 @end menu
19924
19925 @node i386
19926 @subsection x86 Architecture-specific Issues
19927
19928 @table @code
19929 @item set struct-convention @var{mode}
19930 @kindex set struct-convention
19931 @cindex struct return convention
19932 @cindex struct/union returned in registers
19933 Set the convention used by the inferior to return @code{struct}s and
19934 @code{union}s from functions to @var{mode}. Possible values of
19935 @var{mode} are @code{"pcc"}, @code{"reg"}, and @code{"default"} (the
19936 default). @code{"default"} or @code{"pcc"} means that @code{struct}s
19937 are returned on the stack, while @code{"reg"} means that a
19938 @code{struct} or a @code{union} whose size is 1, 2, 4, or 8 bytes will
19939 be returned in a register.
19940
19941 @item show struct-convention
19942 @kindex show struct-convention
19943 Show the current setting of the convention to return @code{struct}s
19944 from functions.
19945 @end table
19946
19947 @node A29K
19948 @subsection A29K
19949
19950 @table @code
19951
19952 @kindex set rstack_high_address
19953 @cindex AMD 29K register stack
19954 @cindex register stack, AMD29K
19955 @item set rstack_high_address @var{address}
19956 On AMD 29000 family processors, registers are saved in a separate
19957 @dfn{register stack}. There is no way for @value{GDBN} to determine the
19958 extent of this stack. Normally, @value{GDBN} just assumes that the
19959 stack is ``large enough''. This may result in @value{GDBN} referencing
19960 memory locations that do not exist. If necessary, you can get around
19961 this problem by specifying the ending address of the register stack with
19962 the @code{set rstack_high_address} command. The argument should be an
19963 address, which you probably want to precede with @samp{0x} to specify in
19964 hexadecimal.
19965
19966 @kindex show rstack_high_address
19967 @item show rstack_high_address
19968 Display the current limit of the register stack, on AMD 29000 family
19969 processors.
19970
19971 @end table
19972
19973 @node Alpha
19974 @subsection Alpha
19975
19976 See the following section.
19977
19978 @node MIPS
19979 @subsection MIPS
19980
19981 @cindex stack on Alpha
19982 @cindex stack on MIPS
19983 @cindex Alpha stack
19984 @cindex MIPS stack
19985 Alpha- and MIPS-based computers use an unusual stack frame, which
19986 sometimes requires @value{GDBN} to search backward in the object code to
19987 find the beginning of a function.
19988
19989 @cindex response time, MIPS debugging
19990 To improve response time (especially for embedded applications, where
19991 @value{GDBN} may be restricted to a slow serial line for this search)
19992 you may want to limit the size of this search, using one of these
19993 commands:
19994
19995 @table @code
19996 @cindex @code{heuristic-fence-post} (Alpha, MIPS)
19997 @item set heuristic-fence-post @var{limit}
19998 Restrict @value{GDBN} to examining at most @var{limit} bytes in its
19999 search for the beginning of a function. A value of @var{0} (the
20000 default) means there is no limit. However, except for @var{0}, the
20001 larger the limit the more bytes @code{heuristic-fence-post} must search
20002 and therefore the longer it takes to run. You should only need to use
20003 this command when debugging a stripped executable.
20004
20005 @item show heuristic-fence-post
20006 Display the current limit.
20007 @end table
20008
20009 @noindent
20010 These commands are available @emph{only} when @value{GDBN} is configured
20011 for debugging programs on Alpha or MIPS processors.
20012
20013 Several MIPS-specific commands are available when debugging MIPS
20014 programs:
20015
20016 @table @code
20017 @item set mips abi @var{arg}
20018 @kindex set mips abi
20019 @cindex set ABI for MIPS
20020 Tell @value{GDBN} which MIPS ABI is used by the inferior. Possible
20021 values of @var{arg} are:
20022
20023 @table @samp
20024 @item auto
20025 The default ABI associated with the current binary (this is the
20026 default).
20027 @item o32
20028 @item o64
20029 @item n32
20030 @item n64
20031 @item eabi32
20032 @item eabi64
20033 @end table
20034
20035 @item show mips abi
20036 @kindex show mips abi
20037 Show the MIPS ABI used by @value{GDBN} to debug the inferior.
20038
20039 @item set mipsfpu
20040 @itemx show mipsfpu
20041 @xref{MIPS Embedded, set mipsfpu}.
20042
20043 @item set mips mask-address @var{arg}
20044 @kindex set mips mask-address
20045 @cindex MIPS addresses, masking
20046 This command determines whether the most-significant 32 bits of 64-bit
20047 MIPS addresses are masked off. The argument @var{arg} can be
20048 @samp{on}, @samp{off}, or @samp{auto}. The latter is the default
20049 setting, which lets @value{GDBN} determine the correct value.
20050
20051 @item show mips mask-address
20052 @kindex show mips mask-address
20053 Show whether the upper 32 bits of MIPS addresses are masked off or
20054 not.
20055
20056 @item set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs
20057 @kindex set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs
20058 This command controls compatibility with 64-bit MIPS targets that
20059 transfer data in 32-bit quantities. If you have an old MIPS 64 target
20060 that transfers 32 bits for some registers, like @sc{sr} and @sc{fsr},
20061 and 64 bits for other registers, set this option to @samp{on}.
20062
20063 @item show remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs
20064 @kindex show remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs
20065 Show the current setting of compatibility with older MIPS 64 targets.
20066
20067 @item set debug mips
20068 @kindex set debug mips
20069 This command turns on and off debugging messages for the MIPS-specific
20070 target code in @value{GDBN}.
20071
20072 @item show debug mips
20073 @kindex show debug mips
20074 Show the current setting of MIPS debugging messages.
20075 @end table
20076
20077
20078 @node HPPA
20079 @subsection HPPA
20080 @cindex HPPA support
20081
20082 When @value{GDBN} is debugging the HP PA architecture, it provides the
20083 following special commands:
20084
20085 @table @code
20086 @item set debug hppa
20087 @kindex set debug hppa
20088 This command determines whether HPPA architecture-specific debugging
20089 messages are to be displayed.
20090
20091 @item show debug hppa
20092 Show whether HPPA debugging messages are displayed.
20093
20094 @item maint print unwind @var{address}
20095 @kindex maint print unwind@r{, HPPA}
20096 This command displays the contents of the unwind table entry at the
20097 given @var{address}.
20098
20099 @end table
20100
20101
20102 @node SPU
20103 @subsection Cell Broadband Engine SPU architecture
20104 @cindex Cell Broadband Engine
20105 @cindex SPU
20106
20107 When @value{GDBN} is debugging the Cell Broadband Engine SPU architecture,
20108 it provides the following special commands:
20109
20110 @table @code
20111 @item info spu event
20112 @kindex info spu
20113 Display SPU event facility status. Shows current event mask
20114 and pending event status.
20115
20116 @item info spu signal
20117 Display SPU signal notification facility status. Shows pending
20118 signal-control word and signal notification mode of both signal
20119 notification channels.
20120
20121 @item info spu mailbox
20122 Display SPU mailbox facility status. Shows all pending entries,
20123 in order of processing, in each of the SPU Write Outbound,
20124 SPU Write Outbound Interrupt, and SPU Read Inbound mailboxes.
20125
20126 @item info spu dma
20127 Display MFC DMA status. Shows all pending commands in the MFC
20128 DMA queue. For each entry, opcode, tag, class IDs, effective
20129 and local store addresses and transfer size are shown.
20130
20131 @item info spu proxydma
20132 Display MFC Proxy-DMA status. Shows all pending commands in the MFC
20133 Proxy-DMA queue. For each entry, opcode, tag, class IDs, effective
20134 and local store addresses and transfer size are shown.
20135
20136 @end table
20137
20138 When @value{GDBN} is debugging a combined PowerPC/SPU application
20139 on the Cell Broadband Engine, it provides in addition the following
20140 special commands:
20141
20142 @table @code
20143 @item set spu stop-on-load @var{arg}
20144 @kindex set spu
20145 Set whether to stop for new SPE threads. When set to @code{on}, @value{GDBN}
20146 will give control to the user when a new SPE thread enters its @code{main}
20147 function. The default is @code{off}.
20148
20149 @item show spu stop-on-load
20150 @kindex show spu
20151 Show whether to stop for new SPE threads.
20152
20153 @item set spu auto-flush-cache @var{arg}
20154 Set whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache. When set to
20155 @code{on}, @value{GDBN} will automatically cause the SPE software-managed
20156 cache to be flushed whenever SPE execution stops. This provides a consistent
20157 view of PowerPC memory that is accessed via the cache. If an application
20158 does not use the software-managed cache, this option has no effect.
20159
20160 @item show spu auto-flush-cache
20161 Show whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache.
20162
20163 @end table
20164
20165 @node PowerPC
20166 @subsection PowerPC
20167 @cindex PowerPC architecture
20168
20169 When @value{GDBN} is debugging the PowerPC architecture, it provides a set of
20170 pseudo-registers to enable inspection of 128-bit wide Decimal Floating Point
20171 numbers stored in the floating point registers. These values must be stored
20172 in two consecutive registers, always starting at an even register like
20173 @code{f0} or @code{f2}.
20174
20175 The pseudo-registers go from @code{$dl0} through @code{$dl15}, and are formed
20176 by joining the even/odd register pairs @code{f0} and @code{f1} for @code{$dl0},
20177 @code{f2} and @code{f3} for @code{$dl1} and so on.
20178
20179 For POWER7 processors, @value{GDBN} provides a set of pseudo-registers, the 64-bit
20180 wide Extended Floating Point Registers (@samp{f32} through @samp{f63}).
20181
20182
20183 @node Controlling GDB
20184 @chapter Controlling @value{GDBN}
20185
20186 You can alter the way @value{GDBN} interacts with you by using the
20187 @code{set} command. For commands controlling how @value{GDBN} displays
20188 data, see @ref{Print Settings, ,Print Settings}. Other settings are
20189 described here.
20190
20191 @menu
20192 * Prompt:: Prompt
20193 * Editing:: Command editing
20194 * Command History:: Command history
20195 * Screen Size:: Screen size
20196 * Numbers:: Numbers
20197 * ABI:: Configuring the current ABI
20198 * Messages/Warnings:: Optional warnings and messages
20199 * Debugging Output:: Optional messages about internal happenings
20200 * Other Misc Settings:: Other Miscellaneous Settings
20201 @end menu
20202
20203 @node Prompt
20204 @section Prompt
20205
20206 @cindex prompt
20207
20208 @value{GDBN} indicates its readiness to read a command by printing a string
20209 called the @dfn{prompt}. This string is normally @samp{(@value{GDBP})}. You
20210 can change the prompt string with the @code{set prompt} command. For
20211 instance, when debugging @value{GDBN} with @value{GDBN}, it is useful to change
20212 the prompt in one of the @value{GDBN} sessions so that you can always tell
20213 which one you are talking to.
20214
20215 @emph{Note:} @code{set prompt} does not add a space for you after the
20216 prompt you set. This allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space
20217 or a prompt that does not.
20218
20219 @table @code
20220 @kindex set prompt
20221 @item set prompt @var{newprompt}
20222 Directs @value{GDBN} to use @var{newprompt} as its prompt string henceforth.
20223
20224 @kindex show prompt
20225 @item show prompt
20226 Prints a line of the form: @samp{Gdb's prompt is: @var{your-prompt}}
20227 @end table
20228
20229 Versions of @value{GDBN} that ship with Python scripting enabled have
20230 prompt extensions. The commands for interacting with these extensions
20231 are:
20232
20233 @table @code
20234 @kindex set extended-prompt
20235 @item set extended-prompt @var{prompt}
20236 Set an extended prompt that allows for substitutions.
20237 @xref{gdb.prompt}, for a list of escape sequences that can be used for
20238 substitution. Any escape sequences specified as part of the prompt
20239 string are replaced with the corresponding strings each time the prompt
20240 is displayed.
20241
20242 For example:
20243
20244 @smallexample
20245 set extended-prompt Current working directory: \w (gdb)
20246 @end smallexample
20247
20248 Note that when an extended-prompt is set, it takes control of the
20249 @var{prompt_hook} hook. @xref{prompt_hook}, for further information.
20250
20251 @kindex show extended-prompt
20252 @item show extended-prompt
20253 Prints the extended prompt. Any escape sequences specified as part of
20254 the prompt string with @code{set extended-prompt}, are replaced with the
20255 corresponding strings each time the prompt is displayed.
20256 @end table
20257
20258 @node Editing
20259 @section Command Editing
20260 @cindex readline
20261 @cindex command line editing
20262
20263 @value{GDBN} reads its input commands via the @dfn{Readline} interface. This
20264 @sc{gnu} library provides consistent behavior for programs which provide a
20265 command line interface to the user. Advantages are @sc{gnu} Emacs-style
20266 or @dfn{vi}-style inline editing of commands, @code{csh}-like history
20267 substitution, and a storage and recall of command history across
20268 debugging sessions.
20269
20270 You may control the behavior of command line editing in @value{GDBN} with the
20271 command @code{set}.
20272
20273 @table @code
20274 @kindex set editing
20275 @cindex editing
20276 @item set editing
20277 @itemx set editing on
20278 Enable command line editing (enabled by default).
20279
20280 @item set editing off
20281 Disable command line editing.
20282
20283 @kindex show editing
20284 @item show editing
20285 Show whether command line editing is enabled.
20286 @end table
20287
20288 @ifset SYSTEM_READLINE
20289 @xref{Command Line Editing, , , rluserman, GNU Readline Library},
20290 @end ifset
20291 @ifclear SYSTEM_READLINE
20292 @xref{Command Line Editing},
20293 @end ifclear
20294 for more details about the Readline
20295 interface. Users unfamiliar with @sc{gnu} Emacs or @code{vi} are
20296 encouraged to read that chapter.
20297
20298 @node Command History
20299 @section Command History
20300 @cindex command history
20301
20302 @value{GDBN} can keep track of the commands you type during your
20303 debugging sessions, so that you can be certain of precisely what
20304 happened. Use these commands to manage the @value{GDBN} command
20305 history facility.
20306
20307 @value{GDBN} uses the @sc{gnu} History library, a part of the Readline
20308 package, to provide the history facility.
20309 @ifset SYSTEM_READLINE
20310 @xref{Using History Interactively, , , history, GNU History Library},
20311 @end ifset
20312 @ifclear SYSTEM_READLINE
20313 @xref{Using History Interactively},
20314 @end ifclear
20315 for the detailed description of the History library.
20316
20317 To issue a command to @value{GDBN} without affecting certain aspects of
20318 the state which is seen by users, prefix it with @samp{server }
20319 (@pxref{Server Prefix}). This
20320 means that this command will not affect the command history, nor will it
20321 affect @value{GDBN}'s notion of which command to repeat if @key{RET} is
20322 pressed on a line by itself.
20323
20324 @cindex @code{server}, command prefix
20325 The server prefix does not affect the recording of values into the value
20326 history; to print a value without recording it into the value history,
20327 use the @code{output} command instead of the @code{print} command.
20328
20329 Here is the description of @value{GDBN} commands related to command
20330 history.
20331
20332 @table @code
20333 @cindex history substitution
20334 @cindex history file
20335 @kindex set history filename
20336 @cindex @env{GDBHISTFILE}, environment variable
20337 @item set history filename @var{fname}
20338 Set the name of the @value{GDBN} command history file to @var{fname}.
20339 This is the file where @value{GDBN} reads an initial command history
20340 list, and where it writes the command history from this session when it
20341 exits. You can access this list through history expansion or through
20342 the history command editing characters listed below. This file defaults
20343 to the value of the environment variable @code{GDBHISTFILE}, or to
20344 @file{./.gdb_history} (@file{./_gdb_history} on MS-DOS) if this variable
20345 is not set.
20346
20347 @cindex save command history
20348 @kindex set history save
20349 @item set history save
20350 @itemx set history save on
20351 Record command history in a file, whose name may be specified with the
20352 @code{set history filename} command. By default, this option is disabled.
20353
20354 @item set history save off
20355 Stop recording command history in a file.
20356
20357 @cindex history size
20358 @kindex set history size
20359 @cindex @env{HISTSIZE}, environment variable
20360 @item set history size @var{size}
20361 Set the number of commands which @value{GDBN} keeps in its history list.
20362 This defaults to the value of the environment variable
20363 @code{HISTSIZE}, or to 256 if this variable is not set.
20364 @end table
20365
20366 History expansion assigns special meaning to the character @kbd{!}.
20367 @ifset SYSTEM_READLINE
20368 @xref{Event Designators, , , history, GNU History Library},
20369 @end ifset
20370 @ifclear SYSTEM_READLINE
20371 @xref{Event Designators},
20372 @end ifclear
20373 for more details.
20374
20375 @cindex history expansion, turn on/off
20376 Since @kbd{!} is also the logical not operator in C, history expansion
20377 is off by default. If you decide to enable history expansion with the
20378 @code{set history expansion on} command, you may sometimes need to
20379 follow @kbd{!} (when it is used as logical not, in an expression) with
20380 a space or a tab to prevent it from being expanded. The readline
20381 history facilities do not attempt substitution on the strings
20382 @kbd{!=} and @kbd{!(}, even when history expansion is enabled.
20383
20384 The commands to control history expansion are:
20385
20386 @table @code
20387 @item set history expansion on
20388 @itemx set history expansion
20389 @kindex set history expansion
20390 Enable history expansion. History expansion is off by default.
20391
20392 @item set history expansion off
20393 Disable history expansion.
20394
20395 @c @group
20396 @kindex show history
20397 @item show history
20398 @itemx show history filename
20399 @itemx show history save
20400 @itemx show history size
20401 @itemx show history expansion
20402 These commands display the state of the @value{GDBN} history parameters.
20403 @code{show history} by itself displays all four states.
20404 @c @end group
20405 @end table
20406
20407 @table @code
20408 @kindex show commands
20409 @cindex show last commands
20410 @cindex display command history
20411 @item show commands
20412 Display the last ten commands in the command history.
20413
20414 @item show commands @var{n}
20415 Print ten commands centered on command number @var{n}.
20416
20417 @item show commands +
20418 Print ten commands just after the commands last printed.
20419 @end table
20420
20421 @node Screen Size
20422 @section Screen Size
20423 @cindex size of screen
20424 @cindex pauses in output
20425
20426 Certain commands to @value{GDBN} may produce large amounts of
20427 information output to the screen. To help you read all of it,
20428 @value{GDBN} pauses and asks you for input at the end of each page of
20429 output. Type @key{RET} when you want to continue the output, or @kbd{q}
20430 to discard the remaining output. Also, the screen width setting
20431 determines when to wrap lines of output. Depending on what is being
20432 printed, @value{GDBN} tries to break the line at a readable place,
20433 rather than simply letting it overflow onto the following line.
20434
20435 Normally @value{GDBN} knows the size of the screen from the terminal
20436 driver software. For example, on Unix @value{GDBN} uses the termcap data base
20437 together with the value of the @code{TERM} environment variable and the
20438 @code{stty rows} and @code{stty cols} settings. If this is not correct,
20439 you can override it with the @code{set height} and @code{set
20440 width} commands:
20441
20442 @table @code
20443 @kindex set height
20444 @kindex set width
20445 @kindex show width
20446 @kindex show height
20447 @item set height @var{lpp}
20448 @itemx show height
20449 @itemx set width @var{cpl}
20450 @itemx show width
20451 These @code{set} commands specify a screen height of @var{lpp} lines and
20452 a screen width of @var{cpl} characters. The associated @code{show}
20453 commands display the current settings.
20454
20455 If you specify a height of zero lines, @value{GDBN} does not pause during
20456 output no matter how long the output is. This is useful if output is to a
20457 file or to an editor buffer.
20458
20459 Likewise, you can specify @samp{set width 0} to prevent @value{GDBN}
20460 from wrapping its output.
20461
20462 @item set pagination on
20463 @itemx set pagination off
20464 @kindex set pagination
20465 Turn the output pagination on or off; the default is on. Turning
20466 pagination off is the alternative to @code{set height 0}. Note that
20467 running @value{GDBN} with the @option{--batch} option (@pxref{Mode
20468 Options, -batch}) also automatically disables pagination.
20469
20470 @item show pagination
20471 @kindex show pagination
20472 Show the current pagination mode.
20473 @end table
20474
20475 @node Numbers
20476 @section Numbers
20477 @cindex number representation
20478 @cindex entering numbers
20479
20480 You can always enter numbers in octal, decimal, or hexadecimal in
20481 @value{GDBN} by the usual conventions: octal numbers begin with
20482 @samp{0}, decimal numbers end with @samp{.}, and hexadecimal numbers
20483 begin with @samp{0x}. Numbers that neither begin with @samp{0} or
20484 @samp{0x}, nor end with a @samp{.} are, by default, entered in base
20485 10; likewise, the default display for numbers---when no particular
20486 format is specified---is base 10. You can change the default base for
20487 both input and output with the commands described below.
20488
20489 @table @code
20490 @kindex set input-radix
20491 @item set input-radix @var{base}
20492 Set the default base for numeric input. Supported choices
20493 for @var{base} are decimal 8, 10, or 16. @var{base} must itself be
20494 specified either unambiguously or using the current input radix; for
20495 example, any of
20496
20497 @smallexample
20498 set input-radix 012
20499 set input-radix 10.
20500 set input-radix 0xa
20501 @end smallexample
20502
20503 @noindent
20504 sets the input base to decimal. On the other hand, @samp{set input-radix 10}
20505 leaves the input radix unchanged, no matter what it was, since
20506 @samp{10}, being without any leading or trailing signs of its base, is
20507 interpreted in the current radix. Thus, if the current radix is 16,
20508 @samp{10} is interpreted in hex, i.e.@: as 16 decimal, which doesn't
20509 change the radix.
20510
20511 @kindex set output-radix
20512 @item set output-radix @var{base}
20513 Set the default base for numeric display. Supported choices
20514 for @var{base} are decimal 8, 10, or 16. @var{base} must itself be
20515 specified either unambiguously or using the current input radix.
20516
20517 @kindex show input-radix
20518 @item show input-radix
20519 Display the current default base for numeric input.
20520
20521 @kindex show output-radix
20522 @item show output-radix
20523 Display the current default base for numeric display.
20524
20525 @item set radix @r{[}@var{base}@r{]}
20526 @itemx show radix
20527 @kindex set radix
20528 @kindex show radix
20529 These commands set and show the default base for both input and output
20530 of numbers. @code{set radix} sets the radix of input and output to
20531 the same base; without an argument, it resets the radix back to its
20532 default value of 10.
20533
20534 @end table
20535
20536 @node ABI
20537 @section Configuring the Current ABI
20538
20539 @value{GDBN} can determine the @dfn{ABI} (Application Binary Interface) of your
20540 application automatically. However, sometimes you need to override its
20541 conclusions. Use these commands to manage @value{GDBN}'s view of the
20542 current ABI.
20543
20544 @cindex OS ABI
20545 @kindex set osabi
20546 @kindex show osabi
20547
20548 One @value{GDBN} configuration can debug binaries for multiple operating
20549 system targets, either via remote debugging or native emulation.
20550 @value{GDBN} will autodetect the @dfn{OS ABI} (Operating System ABI) in use,
20551 but you can override its conclusion using the @code{set osabi} command.
20552 One example where this is useful is in debugging of binaries which use
20553 an alternate C library (e.g.@: @sc{uClibc} for @sc{gnu}/Linux) which does
20554 not have the same identifying marks that the standard C library for your
20555 platform provides.
20556
20557 @table @code
20558 @item show osabi
20559 Show the OS ABI currently in use.
20560
20561 @item set osabi
20562 With no argument, show the list of registered available OS ABI's.
20563
20564 @item set osabi @var{abi}
20565 Set the current OS ABI to @var{abi}.
20566 @end table
20567
20568 @cindex float promotion
20569
20570 Generally, the way that an argument of type @code{float} is passed to a
20571 function depends on whether the function is prototyped. For a prototyped
20572 (i.e.@: ANSI/ISO style) function, @code{float} arguments are passed unchanged,
20573 according to the architecture's convention for @code{float}. For unprototyped
20574 (i.e.@: K&R style) functions, @code{float} arguments are first promoted to type
20575 @code{double} and then passed.
20576
20577 Unfortunately, some forms of debug information do not reliably indicate whether
20578 a function is prototyped. If @value{GDBN} calls a function that is not marked
20579 as prototyped, it consults @kbd{set coerce-float-to-double}.
20580
20581 @table @code
20582 @kindex set coerce-float-to-double
20583 @item set coerce-float-to-double
20584 @itemx set coerce-float-to-double on
20585 Arguments of type @code{float} will be promoted to @code{double} when passed
20586 to an unprototyped function. This is the default setting.
20587
20588 @item set coerce-float-to-double off
20589 Arguments of type @code{float} will be passed directly to unprototyped
20590 functions.
20591
20592 @kindex show coerce-float-to-double
20593 @item show coerce-float-to-double
20594 Show the current setting of promoting @code{float} to @code{double}.
20595 @end table
20596
20597 @kindex set cp-abi
20598 @kindex show cp-abi
20599 @value{GDBN} needs to know the ABI used for your program's C@t{++}
20600 objects. The correct C@t{++} ABI depends on which C@t{++} compiler was
20601 used to build your application. @value{GDBN} only fully supports
20602 programs with a single C@t{++} ABI; if your program contains code using
20603 multiple C@t{++} ABI's or if @value{GDBN} can not identify your
20604 program's ABI correctly, you can tell @value{GDBN} which ABI to use.
20605 Currently supported ABI's include ``gnu-v2'', for @code{g++} versions
20606 before 3.0, ``gnu-v3'', for @code{g++} versions 3.0 and later, and
20607 ``hpaCC'' for the HP ANSI C@t{++} compiler. Other C@t{++} compilers may
20608 use the ``gnu-v2'' or ``gnu-v3'' ABI's as well. The default setting is
20609 ``auto''.
20610
20611 @table @code
20612 @item show cp-abi
20613 Show the C@t{++} ABI currently in use.
20614
20615 @item set cp-abi
20616 With no argument, show the list of supported C@t{++} ABI's.
20617
20618 @item set cp-abi @var{abi}
20619 @itemx set cp-abi auto
20620 Set the current C@t{++} ABI to @var{abi}, or return to automatic detection.
20621 @end table
20622
20623 @node Messages/Warnings
20624 @section Optional Warnings and Messages
20625
20626 @cindex verbose operation
20627 @cindex optional warnings
20628 By default, @value{GDBN} is silent about its inner workings. If you are
20629 running on a slow machine, you may want to use the @code{set verbose}
20630 command. This makes @value{GDBN} tell you when it does a lengthy
20631 internal operation, so you will not think it has crashed.
20632
20633 Currently, the messages controlled by @code{set verbose} are those
20634 which announce that the symbol table for a source file is being read;
20635 see @code{symbol-file} in @ref{Files, ,Commands to Specify Files}.
20636
20637 @table @code
20638 @kindex set verbose
20639 @item set verbose on
20640 Enables @value{GDBN} output of certain informational messages.
20641
20642 @item set verbose off
20643 Disables @value{GDBN} output of certain informational messages.
20644
20645 @kindex show verbose
20646 @item show verbose
20647 Displays whether @code{set verbose} is on or off.
20648 @end table
20649
20650 By default, if @value{GDBN} encounters bugs in the symbol table of an
20651 object file, it is silent; but if you are debugging a compiler, you may
20652 find this information useful (@pxref{Symbol Errors, ,Errors Reading
20653 Symbol Files}).
20654
20655 @table @code
20656
20657 @kindex set complaints
20658 @item set complaints @var{limit}
20659 Permits @value{GDBN} to output @var{limit} complaints about each type of
20660 unusual symbols before becoming silent about the problem. Set
20661 @var{limit} to zero to suppress all complaints; set it to a large number
20662 to prevent complaints from being suppressed.
20663
20664 @kindex show complaints
20665 @item show complaints
20666 Displays how many symbol complaints @value{GDBN} is permitted to produce.
20667
20668 @end table
20669
20670 @anchor{confirmation requests}
20671 By default, @value{GDBN} is cautious, and asks what sometimes seems to be a
20672 lot of stupid questions to confirm certain commands. For example, if
20673 you try to run a program which is already running:
20674
20675 @smallexample
20676 (@value{GDBP}) run
20677 The program being debugged has been started already.
20678 Start it from the beginning? (y or n)
20679 @end smallexample
20680
20681 If you are willing to unflinchingly face the consequences of your own
20682 commands, you can disable this ``feature'':
20683
20684 @table @code
20685
20686 @kindex set confirm
20687 @cindex flinching
20688 @cindex confirmation
20689 @cindex stupid questions
20690 @item set confirm off
20691 Disables confirmation requests. Note that running @value{GDBN} with
20692 the @option{--batch} option (@pxref{Mode Options, -batch}) also
20693 automatically disables confirmation requests.
20694
20695 @item set confirm on
20696 Enables confirmation requests (the default).
20697
20698 @kindex show confirm
20699 @item show confirm
20700 Displays state of confirmation requests.
20701
20702 @end table
20703
20704 @cindex command tracing
20705 If you need to debug user-defined commands or sourced files you may find it
20706 useful to enable @dfn{command tracing}. In this mode each command will be
20707 printed as it is executed, prefixed with one or more @samp{+} symbols, the
20708 quantity denoting the call depth of each command.
20709
20710 @table @code
20711 @kindex set trace-commands
20712 @cindex command scripts, debugging
20713 @item set trace-commands on
20714 Enable command tracing.
20715 @item set trace-commands off
20716 Disable command tracing.
20717 @item show trace-commands
20718 Display the current state of command tracing.
20719 @end table
20720
20721 @node Debugging Output
20722 @section Optional Messages about Internal Happenings
20723 @cindex optional debugging messages
20724
20725 @value{GDBN} has commands that enable optional debugging messages from
20726 various @value{GDBN} subsystems; normally these commands are of
20727 interest to @value{GDBN} maintainers, or when reporting a bug. This
20728 section documents those commands.
20729
20730 @table @code
20731 @kindex set exec-done-display
20732 @item set exec-done-display
20733 Turns on or off the notification of asynchronous commands'
20734 completion. When on, @value{GDBN} will print a message when an
20735 asynchronous command finishes its execution. The default is off.
20736 @kindex show exec-done-display
20737 @item show exec-done-display
20738 Displays the current setting of asynchronous command completion
20739 notification.
20740 @kindex set debug
20741 @cindex gdbarch debugging info
20742 @cindex architecture debugging info
20743 @item set debug arch
20744 Turns on or off display of gdbarch debugging info. The default is off
20745 @kindex show debug
20746 @item show debug arch
20747 Displays the current state of displaying gdbarch debugging info.
20748 @item set debug aix-thread
20749 @cindex AIX threads
20750 Display debugging messages about inner workings of the AIX thread
20751 module.
20752 @item show debug aix-thread
20753 Show the current state of AIX thread debugging info display.
20754 @item set debug check-physname
20755 @cindex physname
20756 Check the results of the ``physname'' computation. When reading DWARF
20757 debugging information for C@t{++}, @value{GDBN} attempts to compute
20758 each entity's name. @value{GDBN} can do this computation in two
20759 different ways, depending on exactly what information is present.
20760 When enabled, this setting causes @value{GDBN} to compute the names
20761 both ways and display any discrepancies.
20762 @item show debug check-physname
20763 Show the current state of ``physname'' checking.
20764 @item set debug dwarf2-die
20765 @cindex DWARF2 DIEs
20766 Dump DWARF2 DIEs after they are read in.
20767 The value is the number of nesting levels to print.
20768 A value of zero turns off the display.
20769 @item show debug dwarf2-die
20770 Show the current state of DWARF2 DIE debugging.
20771 @item set debug displaced
20772 @cindex displaced stepping debugging info
20773 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} debugging info for the
20774 displaced stepping support. The default is off.
20775 @item show debug displaced
20776 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} debugging info
20777 related to displaced stepping.
20778 @item set debug event
20779 @cindex event debugging info
20780 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} event debugging info. The
20781 default is off.
20782 @item show debug event
20783 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} event debugging
20784 info.
20785 @item set debug expression
20786 @cindex expression debugging info
20787 Turns on or off display of debugging info about @value{GDBN}
20788 expression parsing. The default is off.
20789 @item show debug expression
20790 Displays the current state of displaying debugging info about
20791 @value{GDBN} expression parsing.
20792 @item set debug frame
20793 @cindex frame debugging info
20794 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} frame debugging info. The
20795 default is off.
20796 @item show debug frame
20797 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} frame debugging
20798 info.
20799 @item set debug gnu-nat
20800 @cindex @sc{gnu}/Hurd debug messages
20801 Turns on or off debugging messages from the @sc{gnu}/Hurd debug support.
20802 @item show debug gnu-nat
20803 Show the current state of @sc{gnu}/Hurd debugging messages.
20804 @item set debug infrun
20805 @cindex inferior debugging info
20806 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} debugging info for running the inferior.
20807 The default is off. @file{infrun.c} contains GDB's runtime state machine used
20808 for implementing operations such as single-stepping the inferior.
20809 @item show debug infrun
20810 Displays the current state of @value{GDBN} inferior debugging.
20811 @item set debug jit
20812 @cindex just-in-time compilation, debugging messages
20813 Turns on or off debugging messages from JIT debug support.
20814 @item show debug jit
20815 Displays the current state of @value{GDBN} JIT debugging.
20816 @item set debug lin-lwp
20817 @cindex @sc{gnu}/Linux LWP debug messages
20818 @cindex Linux lightweight processes
20819 Turns on or off debugging messages from the Linux LWP debug support.
20820 @item show debug lin-lwp
20821 Show the current state of Linux LWP debugging messages.
20822 @item set debug observer
20823 @cindex observer debugging info
20824 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} observer debugging. This
20825 includes info such as the notification of observable events.
20826 @item show debug observer
20827 Displays the current state of observer debugging.
20828 @item set debug overload
20829 @cindex C@t{++} overload debugging info
20830 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} C@t{++} overload debugging
20831 info. This includes info such as ranking of functions, etc. The default
20832 is off.
20833 @item show debug overload
20834 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} C@t{++} overload
20835 debugging info.
20836 @cindex expression parser, debugging info
20837 @cindex debug expression parser
20838 @item set debug parser
20839 Turns on or off the display of expression parser debugging output.
20840 Internally, this sets the @code{yydebug} variable in the expression
20841 parser. @xref{Tracing, , Tracing Your Parser, bison, Bison}, for
20842 details. The default is off.
20843 @item show debug parser
20844 Show the current state of expression parser debugging.
20845 @cindex packets, reporting on stdout
20846 @cindex serial connections, debugging
20847 @cindex debug remote protocol
20848 @cindex remote protocol debugging
20849 @cindex display remote packets
20850 @item set debug remote
20851 Turns on or off display of reports on all packets sent back and forth across
20852 the serial line to the remote machine. The info is printed on the
20853 @value{GDBN} standard output stream. The default is off.
20854 @item show debug remote
20855 Displays the state of display of remote packets.
20856 @item set debug serial
20857 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} serial debugging info. The
20858 default is off.
20859 @item show debug serial
20860 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} serial debugging
20861 info.
20862 @item set debug solib-frv
20863 @cindex FR-V shared-library debugging
20864 Turns on or off debugging messages for FR-V shared-library code.
20865 @item show debug solib-frv
20866 Display the current state of FR-V shared-library code debugging
20867 messages.
20868 @item set debug target
20869 @cindex target debugging info
20870 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} target debugging info. This info
20871 includes what is going on at the target level of GDB, as it happens. The
20872 default is 0. Set it to 1 to track events, and to 2 to also track the
20873 value of large memory transfers. Changes to this flag do not take effect
20874 until the next time you connect to a target or use the @code{run} command.
20875 @item show debug target
20876 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} target debugging
20877 info.
20878 @item set debug timestamp
20879 @cindex timestampping debugging info
20880 Turns on or off display of timestamps with @value{GDBN} debugging info.
20881 When enabled, seconds and microseconds are displayed before each debugging
20882 message.
20883 @item show debug timestamp
20884 Displays the current state of displaying timestamps with @value{GDBN}
20885 debugging info.
20886 @item set debugvarobj
20887 @cindex variable object debugging info
20888 Turns on or off display of @value{GDBN} variable object debugging
20889 info. The default is off.
20890 @item show debugvarobj
20891 Displays the current state of displaying @value{GDBN} variable object
20892 debugging info.
20893 @item set debug xml
20894 @cindex XML parser debugging
20895 Turns on or off debugging messages for built-in XML parsers.
20896 @item show debug xml
20897 Displays the current state of XML debugging messages.
20898 @end table
20899
20900 @node Other Misc Settings
20901 @section Other Miscellaneous Settings
20902 @cindex miscellaneous settings
20903
20904 @table @code
20905 @kindex set interactive-mode
20906 @item set interactive-mode
20907 If @code{on}, forces @value{GDBN} to assume that GDB was started
20908 in a terminal. In practice, this means that @value{GDBN} should wait
20909 for the user to answer queries generated by commands entered at
20910 the command prompt. If @code{off}, forces @value{GDBN} to operate
20911 in the opposite mode, and it uses the default answers to all queries.
20912 If @code{auto} (the default), @value{GDBN} tries to determine whether
20913 its standard input is a terminal, and works in interactive-mode if it
20914 is, non-interactively otherwise.
20915
20916 In the vast majority of cases, the debugger should be able to guess
20917 correctly which mode should be used. But this setting can be useful
20918 in certain specific cases, such as running a MinGW @value{GDBN}
20919 inside a cygwin window.
20920
20921 @kindex show interactive-mode
20922 @item show interactive-mode
20923 Displays whether the debugger is operating in interactive mode or not.
20924 @end table
20925
20926 @node Extending GDB
20927 @chapter Extending @value{GDBN}
20928 @cindex extending GDB
20929
20930 @value{GDBN} provides three mechanisms for extension. The first is based
20931 on composition of @value{GDBN} commands, the second is based on the
20932 Python scripting language, and the third is for defining new aliases of
20933 existing commands.
20934
20935 To facilitate the use of the first two extensions, @value{GDBN} is capable
20936 of evaluating the contents of a file. When doing so, @value{GDBN}
20937 can recognize which scripting language is being used by looking at
20938 the filename extension. Files with an unrecognized filename extension
20939 are always treated as a @value{GDBN} Command Files.
20940 @xref{Command Files,, Command files}.
20941
20942 You can control how @value{GDBN} evaluates these files with the following
20943 setting:
20944
20945 @table @code
20946 @kindex set script-extension
20947 @kindex show script-extension
20948 @item set script-extension off
20949 All scripts are always evaluated as @value{GDBN} Command Files.
20950
20951 @item set script-extension soft
20952 The debugger determines the scripting language based on filename
20953 extension. If this scripting language is supported, @value{GDBN}
20954 evaluates the script using that language. Otherwise, it evaluates
20955 the file as a @value{GDBN} Command File.
20956
20957 @item set script-extension strict
20958 The debugger determines the scripting language based on filename
20959 extension, and evaluates the script using that language. If the
20960 language is not supported, then the evaluation fails.
20961
20962 @item show script-extension
20963 Display the current value of the @code{script-extension} option.
20964
20965 @end table
20966
20967 @menu
20968 * Sequences:: Canned Sequences of Commands
20969 * Python:: Scripting @value{GDBN} using Python
20970 * Aliases:: Creating new spellings of existing commands
20971 @end menu
20972
20973 @node Sequences
20974 @section Canned Sequences of Commands
20975
20976 Aside from breakpoint commands (@pxref{Break Commands, ,Breakpoint
20977 Command Lists}), @value{GDBN} provides two ways to store sequences of
20978 commands for execution as a unit: user-defined commands and command
20979 files.
20980
20981 @menu
20982 * Define:: How to define your own commands
20983 * Hooks:: Hooks for user-defined commands
20984 * Command Files:: How to write scripts of commands to be stored in a file
20985 * Output:: Commands for controlled output
20986 @end menu
20987
20988 @node Define
20989 @subsection User-defined Commands
20990
20991 @cindex user-defined command
20992 @cindex arguments, to user-defined commands
20993 A @dfn{user-defined command} is a sequence of @value{GDBN} commands to
20994 which you assign a new name as a command. This is done with the
20995 @code{define} command. User commands may accept up to 10 arguments
20996 separated by whitespace. Arguments are accessed within the user command
20997 via @code{$arg0@dots{}$arg9}. A trivial example:
20998
20999 @smallexample
21000 define adder
21001 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
21002 end
21003 @end smallexample
21004
21005 @noindent
21006 To execute the command use:
21007
21008 @smallexample
21009 adder 1 2 3
21010 @end smallexample
21011
21012 @noindent
21013 This defines the command @code{adder}, which prints the sum of
21014 its three arguments. Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may
21015 reference variables, use complex expressions, or even perform inferior
21016 functions calls.
21017
21018 @cindex argument count in user-defined commands
21019 @cindex how many arguments (user-defined commands)
21020 In addition, @code{$argc} may be used to find out how many arguments have
21021 been passed. This expands to a number in the range 0@dots{}10.
21022
21023 @smallexample
21024 define adder
21025 if $argc == 2
21026 print $arg0 + $arg1
21027 end
21028 if $argc == 3
21029 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
21030 end
21031 end
21032 @end smallexample
21033
21034 @table @code
21035
21036 @kindex define
21037 @item define @var{commandname}
21038 Define a command named @var{commandname}. If there is already a command
21039 by that name, you are asked to confirm that you want to redefine it.
21040 @var{commandname} may be a bare command name consisting of letters,
21041 numbers, dashes, and underscores. It may also start with any predefined
21042 prefix command. For example, @samp{define target my-target} creates
21043 a user-defined @samp{target my-target} command.
21044
21045 The definition of the command is made up of other @value{GDBN} command lines,
21046 which are given following the @code{define} command. The end of these
21047 commands is marked by a line containing @code{end}.
21048
21049 @kindex document
21050 @kindex end@r{ (user-defined commands)}
21051 @item document @var{commandname}
21052 Document the user-defined command @var{commandname}, so that it can be
21053 accessed by @code{help}. The command @var{commandname} must already be
21054 defined. This command reads lines of documentation just as @code{define}
21055 reads the lines of the command definition, ending with @code{end}.
21056 After the @code{document} command is finished, @code{help} on command
21057 @var{commandname} displays the documentation you have written.
21058
21059 You may use the @code{document} command again to change the
21060 documentation of a command. Redefining the command with @code{define}
21061 does not change the documentation.
21062
21063 @kindex dont-repeat
21064 @cindex don't repeat command
21065 @item dont-repeat
21066 Used inside a user-defined command, this tells @value{GDBN} that this
21067 command should not be repeated when the user hits @key{RET}
21068 (@pxref{Command Syntax, repeat last command}).
21069
21070 @kindex help user-defined
21071 @item help user-defined
21072 List all user-defined commands, with the first line of the documentation
21073 (if any) for each.
21074
21075 @kindex show user
21076 @item show user
21077 @itemx show user @var{commandname}
21078 Display the @value{GDBN} commands used to define @var{commandname} (but
21079 not its documentation). If no @var{commandname} is given, display the
21080 definitions for all user-defined commands.
21081
21082 @cindex infinite recursion in user-defined commands
21083 @kindex show max-user-call-depth
21084 @kindex set max-user-call-depth
21085 @item show max-user-call-depth
21086 @itemx set max-user-call-depth
21087 The value of @code{max-user-call-depth} controls how many recursion
21088 levels are allowed in user-defined commands before @value{GDBN} suspects an
21089 infinite recursion and aborts the command.
21090 @end table
21091
21092 In addition to the above commands, user-defined commands frequently
21093 use control flow commands, described in @ref{Command Files}.
21094
21095 When user-defined commands are executed, the
21096 commands of the definition are not printed. An error in any command
21097 stops execution of the user-defined command.
21098
21099 If used interactively, commands that would ask for confirmation proceed
21100 without asking when used inside a user-defined command. Many @value{GDBN}
21101 commands that normally print messages to say what they are doing omit the
21102 messages when used in a user-defined command.
21103
21104 @node Hooks
21105 @subsection User-defined Command Hooks
21106 @cindex command hooks
21107 @cindex hooks, for commands
21108 @cindex hooks, pre-command
21109
21110 @kindex hook
21111 You may define @dfn{hooks}, which are a special kind of user-defined
21112 command. Whenever you run the command @samp{foo}, if the user-defined
21113 command @samp{hook-foo} exists, it is executed (with no arguments)
21114 before that command.
21115
21116 @cindex hooks, post-command
21117 @kindex hookpost
21118 A hook may also be defined which is run after the command you executed.
21119 Whenever you run the command @samp{foo}, if the user-defined command
21120 @samp{hookpost-foo} exists, it is executed (with no arguments) after
21121 that command. Post-execution hooks may exist simultaneously with
21122 pre-execution hooks, for the same command.
21123
21124 It is valid for a hook to call the command which it hooks. If this
21125 occurs, the hook is not re-executed, thereby avoiding infinite recursion.
21126
21127 @c It would be nice if hookpost could be passed a parameter indicating
21128 @c if the command it hooks executed properly or not. FIXME!
21129
21130 @kindex stop@r{, a pseudo-command}
21131 In addition, a pseudo-command, @samp{stop} exists. Defining
21132 (@samp{hook-stop}) makes the associated commands execute every time
21133 execution stops in your program: before breakpoint commands are run,
21134 displays are printed, or the stack frame is printed.
21135
21136 For example, to ignore @code{SIGALRM} signals while
21137 single-stepping, but treat them normally during normal execution,
21138 you could define:
21139
21140 @smallexample
21141 define hook-stop
21142 handle SIGALRM nopass
21143 end
21144
21145 define hook-run
21146 handle SIGALRM pass
21147 end
21148
21149 define hook-continue
21150 handle SIGALRM pass
21151 end
21152 @end smallexample
21153
21154 As a further example, to hook at the beginning and end of the @code{echo}
21155 command, and to add extra text to the beginning and end of the message,
21156 you could define:
21157
21158 @smallexample
21159 define hook-echo
21160 echo <<<---
21161 end
21162
21163 define hookpost-echo
21164 echo --->>>\n
21165 end
21166
21167 (@value{GDBP}) echo Hello World
21168 <<<---Hello World--->>>
21169 (@value{GDBP})
21170
21171 @end smallexample
21172
21173 You can define a hook for any single-word command in @value{GDBN}, but
21174 not for command aliases; you should define a hook for the basic command
21175 name, e.g.@: @code{backtrace} rather than @code{bt}.
21176 @c FIXME! So how does Joe User discover whether a command is an alias
21177 @c or not?
21178 You can hook a multi-word command by adding @code{hook-} or
21179 @code{hookpost-} to the last word of the command, e.g.@:
21180 @samp{define target hook-remote} to add a hook to @samp{target remote}.
21181
21182 If an error occurs during the execution of your hook, execution of
21183 @value{GDBN} commands stops and @value{GDBN} issues a prompt
21184 (before the command that you actually typed had a chance to run).
21185
21186 If you try to define a hook which does not match any known command, you
21187 get a warning from the @code{define} command.
21188
21189 @node Command Files
21190 @subsection Command Files
21191
21192 @cindex command files
21193 @cindex scripting commands
21194 A command file for @value{GDBN} is a text file made of lines that are
21195 @value{GDBN} commands. Comments (lines starting with @kbd{#}) may
21196 also be included. An empty line in a command file does nothing; it
21197 does not mean to repeat the last command, as it would from the
21198 terminal.
21199
21200 You can request the execution of a command file with the @code{source}
21201 command. Note that the @code{source} command is also used to evaluate
21202 scripts that are not Command Files. The exact behavior can be configured
21203 using the @code{script-extension} setting.
21204 @xref{Extending GDB,, Extending GDB}.
21205
21206 @table @code
21207 @kindex source
21208 @cindex execute commands from a file
21209 @item source [-s] [-v] @var{filename}
21210 Execute the command file @var{filename}.
21211 @end table
21212
21213 The lines in a command file are generally executed sequentially,
21214 unless the order of execution is changed by one of the
21215 @emph{flow-control commands} described below. The commands are not
21216 printed as they are executed. An error in any command terminates
21217 execution of the command file and control is returned to the console.
21218
21219 @value{GDBN} first searches for @var{filename} in the current directory.
21220 If the file is not found there, and @var{filename} does not specify a
21221 directory, then @value{GDBN} also looks for the file on the source search path
21222 (specified with the @samp{directory} command);
21223 except that @file{$cdir} is not searched because the compilation directory
21224 is not relevant to scripts.
21225
21226 If @code{-s} is specified, then @value{GDBN} searches for @var{filename}
21227 on the search path even if @var{filename} specifies a directory.
21228 The search is done by appending @var{filename} to each element of the
21229 search path. So, for example, if @var{filename} is @file{mylib/myscript}
21230 and the search path contains @file{/home/user} then @value{GDBN} will
21231 look for the script @file{/home/user/mylib/myscript}.
21232 The search is also done if @var{filename} is an absolute path.
21233 For example, if @var{filename} is @file{/tmp/myscript} and
21234 the search path contains @file{/home/user} then @value{GDBN} will
21235 look for the script @file{/home/user/tmp/myscript}.
21236 For DOS-like systems, if @var{filename} contains a drive specification,
21237 it is stripped before concatenation. For example, if @var{filename} is
21238 @file{d:myscript} and the search path contains @file{c:/tmp} then @value{GDBN}
21239 will look for the script @file{c:/tmp/myscript}.
21240
21241 If @code{-v}, for verbose mode, is given then @value{GDBN} displays
21242 each command as it is executed. The option must be given before
21243 @var{filename}, and is interpreted as part of the filename anywhere else.
21244
21245 Commands that would ask for confirmation if used interactively proceed
21246 without asking when used in a command file. Many @value{GDBN} commands that
21247 normally print messages to say what they are doing omit the messages
21248 when called from command files.
21249
21250 @value{GDBN} also accepts command input from standard input. In this
21251 mode, normal output goes to standard output and error output goes to
21252 standard error. Errors in a command file supplied on standard input do
21253 not terminate execution of the command file---execution continues with
21254 the next command.
21255
21256 @smallexample
21257 gdb < cmds > log 2>&1
21258 @end smallexample
21259
21260 (The syntax above will vary depending on the shell used.) This example
21261 will execute commands from the file @file{cmds}. All output and errors
21262 would be directed to @file{log}.
21263
21264 Since commands stored on command files tend to be more general than
21265 commands typed interactively, they frequently need to deal with
21266 complicated situations, such as different or unexpected values of
21267 variables and symbols, changes in how the program being debugged is
21268 built, etc. @value{GDBN} provides a set of flow-control commands to
21269 deal with these complexities. Using these commands, you can write
21270 complex scripts that loop over data structures, execute commands
21271 conditionally, etc.
21272
21273 @table @code
21274 @kindex if
21275 @kindex else
21276 @item if
21277 @itemx else
21278 This command allows to include in your script conditionally executed
21279 commands. The @code{if} command takes a single argument, which is an
21280 expression to evaluate. It is followed by a series of commands that
21281 are executed only if the expression is true (its value is nonzero).
21282 There can then optionally be an @code{else} line, followed by a series
21283 of commands that are only executed if the expression was false. The
21284 end of the list is marked by a line containing @code{end}.
21285
21286 @kindex while
21287 @item while
21288 This command allows to write loops. Its syntax is similar to
21289 @code{if}: the command takes a single argument, which is an expression
21290 to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to execute, one per
21291 line, terminated by an @code{end}. These commands are called the
21292 @dfn{body} of the loop. The commands in the body of @code{while} are
21293 executed repeatedly as long as the expression evaluates to true.
21294
21295 @kindex loop_break
21296 @item loop_break
21297 This command exits the @code{while} loop in whose body it is included.
21298 Execution of the script continues after that @code{while}s @code{end}
21299 line.
21300
21301 @kindex loop_continue
21302 @item loop_continue
21303 This command skips the execution of the rest of the body of commands
21304 in the @code{while} loop in whose body it is included. Execution
21305 branches to the beginning of the @code{while} loop, where it evaluates
21306 the controlling expression.
21307
21308 @kindex end@r{ (if/else/while commands)}
21309 @item end
21310 Terminate the block of commands that are the body of @code{if},
21311 @code{else}, or @code{while} flow-control commands.
21312 @end table
21313
21314
21315 @node Output
21316 @subsection Commands for Controlled Output
21317
21318 During the execution of a command file or a user-defined command, normal
21319 @value{GDBN} output is suppressed; the only output that appears is what is
21320 explicitly printed by the commands in the definition. This section
21321 describes three commands useful for generating exactly the output you
21322 want.
21323
21324 @table @code
21325 @kindex echo
21326 @item echo @var{text}
21327 @c I do not consider backslash-space a standard C escape sequence
21328 @c because it is not in ANSI.
21329 Print @var{text}. Nonprinting characters can be included in
21330 @var{text} using C escape sequences, such as @samp{\n} to print a
21331 newline. @strong{No newline is printed unless you specify one.}
21332 In addition to the standard C escape sequences, a backslash followed
21333 by a space stands for a space. This is useful for displaying a
21334 string with spaces at the beginning or the end, since leading and
21335 trailing spaces are otherwise trimmed from all arguments.
21336 To print @samp{@w{ }and foo =@w{ }}, use the command
21337 @samp{echo \@w{ }and foo = \@w{ }}.
21338
21339 A backslash at the end of @var{text} can be used, as in C, to continue
21340 the command onto subsequent lines. For example,
21341
21342 @smallexample
21343 echo This is some text\n\
21344 which is continued\n\
21345 onto several lines.\n
21346 @end smallexample
21347
21348 produces the same output as
21349
21350 @smallexample
21351 echo This is some text\n
21352 echo which is continued\n
21353 echo onto several lines.\n
21354 @end smallexample
21355
21356 @kindex output
21357 @item output @var{expression}
21358 Print the value of @var{expression} and nothing but that value: no
21359 newlines, no @samp{$@var{nn} = }. The value is not entered in the
21360 value history either. @xref{Expressions, ,Expressions}, for more information
21361 on expressions.
21362
21363 @item output/@var{fmt} @var{expression}
21364 Print the value of @var{expression} in format @var{fmt}. You can use
21365 the same formats as for @code{print}. @xref{Output Formats,,Output
21366 Formats}, for more information.
21367
21368 @kindex printf
21369 @item printf @var{template}, @var{expressions}@dots{}
21370 Print the values of one or more @var{expressions} under the control of
21371 the string @var{template}. To print several values, make
21372 @var{expressions} be a comma-separated list of individual expressions,
21373 which may be either numbers or pointers. Their values are printed as
21374 specified by @var{template}, exactly as a C program would do by
21375 executing the code below:
21376
21377 @smallexample
21378 printf (@var{template}, @var{expressions}@dots{});
21379 @end smallexample
21380
21381 As in @code{C} @code{printf}, ordinary characters in @var{template}
21382 are printed verbatim, while @dfn{conversion specification} introduced
21383 by the @samp{%} character cause subsequent @var{expressions} to be
21384 evaluated, their values converted and formatted according to type and
21385 style information encoded in the conversion specifications, and then
21386 printed.
21387
21388 For example, you can print two values in hex like this:
21389
21390 @smallexample
21391 printf "foo, bar-foo = 0x%x, 0x%x\n", foo, bar-foo
21392 @end smallexample
21393
21394 @code{printf} supports all the standard @code{C} conversion
21395 specifications, including the flags and modifiers between the @samp{%}
21396 character and the conversion letter, with the following exceptions:
21397
21398 @itemize @bullet
21399 @item
21400 The argument-ordering modifiers, such as @samp{2$}, are not supported.
21401
21402 @item
21403 The modifier @samp{*} is not supported for specifying precision or
21404 width.
21405
21406 @item
21407 The @samp{'} flag (for separation of digits into groups according to
21408 @code{LC_NUMERIC'}) is not supported.
21409
21410 @item
21411 The type modifiers @samp{hh}, @samp{j}, @samp{t}, and @samp{z} are not
21412 supported.
21413
21414 @item
21415 The conversion letter @samp{n} (as in @samp{%n}) is not supported.
21416
21417 @item
21418 The conversion letters @samp{a} and @samp{A} are not supported.
21419 @end itemize
21420
21421 @noindent
21422 Note that the @samp{ll} type modifier is supported only if the
21423 underlying @code{C} implementation used to build @value{GDBN} supports
21424 the @code{long long int} type, and the @samp{L} type modifier is
21425 supported only if @code{long double} type is available.
21426
21427 As in @code{C}, @code{printf} supports simple backslash-escape
21428 sequences, such as @code{\n}, @samp{\t}, @samp{\\}, @samp{\"},
21429 @samp{\a}, and @samp{\f}, that consist of backslash followed by a
21430 single character. Octal and hexadecimal escape sequences are not
21431 supported.
21432
21433 Additionally, @code{printf} supports conversion specifications for DFP
21434 (@dfn{Decimal Floating Point}) types using the following length modifiers
21435 together with a floating point specifier.
21436 letters:
21437
21438 @itemize @bullet
21439 @item
21440 @samp{H} for printing @code{Decimal32} types.
21441
21442 @item
21443 @samp{D} for printing @code{Decimal64} types.
21444
21445 @item
21446 @samp{DD} for printing @code{Decimal128} types.
21447 @end itemize
21448
21449 If the underlying @code{C} implementation used to build @value{GDBN} has
21450 support for the three length modifiers for DFP types, other modifiers
21451 such as width and precision will also be available for @value{GDBN} to use.
21452
21453 In case there is no such @code{C} support, no additional modifiers will be
21454 available and the value will be printed in the standard way.
21455
21456 Here's an example of printing DFP types using the above conversion letters:
21457 @smallexample
21458 printf "D32: %Hf - D64: %Df - D128: %DDf\n",1.2345df,1.2E10dd,1.2E1dl
21459 @end smallexample
21460
21461 @kindex eval
21462 @item eval @var{template}, @var{expressions}@dots{}
21463 Convert the values of one or more @var{expressions} under the control of
21464 the string @var{template} to a command line, and call it.
21465
21466 @end table
21467
21468 @node Python
21469 @section Scripting @value{GDBN} using Python
21470 @cindex python scripting
21471 @cindex scripting with python
21472
21473 You can script @value{GDBN} using the @uref{http://www.python.org/,
21474 Python programming language}. This feature is available only if
21475 @value{GDBN} was configured using @option{--with-python}.
21476
21477 @cindex python directory
21478 Python scripts used by @value{GDBN} should be installed in
21479 @file{@var{data-directory}/python}, where @var{data-directory} is
21480 the data directory as determined at @value{GDBN} startup (@pxref{Data Files}).
21481 This directory, known as the @dfn{python directory},
21482 is automatically added to the Python Search Path in order to allow
21483 the Python interpreter to locate all scripts installed at this location.
21484
21485 Additionally, @value{GDBN} commands and convenience functions which
21486 are written in Python and are located in the
21487 @file{@var{data-directory}/python/gdb/command} or
21488 @file{@var{data-directory}/python/gdb/function} directories are
21489 automatically imported when @value{GDBN} starts.
21490
21491 @menu
21492 * Python Commands:: Accessing Python from @value{GDBN}.
21493 * Python API:: Accessing @value{GDBN} from Python.
21494 * Auto-loading:: Automatically loading Python code.
21495 * Python modules:: Python modules provided by @value{GDBN}.
21496 @end menu
21497
21498 @node Python Commands
21499 @subsection Python Commands
21500 @cindex python commands
21501 @cindex commands to access python
21502
21503 @value{GDBN} provides one command for accessing the Python interpreter,
21504 and one related setting:
21505
21506 @table @code
21507 @kindex python
21508 @item python @r{[}@var{code}@r{]}
21509 The @code{python} command can be used to evaluate Python code.
21510
21511 If given an argument, the @code{python} command will evaluate the
21512 argument as a Python command. For example:
21513
21514 @smallexample
21515 (@value{GDBP}) python print 23
21516 23
21517 @end smallexample
21518
21519 If you do not provide an argument to @code{python}, it will act as a
21520 multi-line command, like @code{define}. In this case, the Python
21521 script is made up of subsequent command lines, given after the
21522 @code{python} command. This command list is terminated using a line
21523 containing @code{end}. For example:
21524
21525 @smallexample
21526 (@value{GDBP}) python
21527 Type python script
21528 End with a line saying just "end".
21529 >print 23
21530 >end
21531 23
21532 @end smallexample
21533
21534 @kindex set python print-stack
21535 @item set python print-stack
21536 By default, @value{GDBN} will print only the message component of a
21537 Python exception when an error occurs in a Python script. This can be
21538 controlled using @code{set python print-stack}: if @code{full}, then
21539 full Python stack printing is enabled; if @code{none}, then Python stack
21540 and message printing is disabled; if @code{message}, the default, only
21541 the message component of the error is printed.
21542 @end table
21543
21544 It is also possible to execute a Python script from the @value{GDBN}
21545 interpreter:
21546
21547 @table @code
21548 @item source @file{script-name}
21549 The script name must end with @samp{.py} and @value{GDBN} must be configured
21550 to recognize the script language based on filename extension using
21551 the @code{script-extension} setting. @xref{Extending GDB, ,Extending GDB}.
21552
21553 @item python execfile ("script-name")
21554 This method is based on the @code{execfile} Python built-in function,
21555 and thus is always available.
21556 @end table
21557
21558 @node Python API
21559 @subsection Python API
21560 @cindex python api
21561 @cindex programming in python
21562
21563 @cindex python stdout
21564 @cindex python pagination
21565 At startup, @value{GDBN} overrides Python's @code{sys.stdout} and
21566 @code{sys.stderr} to print using @value{GDBN}'s output-paging streams.
21567 A Python program which outputs to one of these streams may have its
21568 output interrupted by the user (@pxref{Screen Size}). In this
21569 situation, a Python @code{KeyboardInterrupt} exception is thrown.
21570
21571 @menu
21572 * Basic Python:: Basic Python Functions.
21573 * Exception Handling:: How Python exceptions are translated.
21574 * Values From Inferior:: Python representation of values.
21575 * Types In Python:: Python representation of types.
21576 * Pretty Printing API:: Pretty-printing values.
21577 * Selecting Pretty-Printers:: How GDB chooses a pretty-printer.
21578 * Writing a Pretty-Printer:: Writing a Pretty-Printer.
21579 * Inferiors In Python:: Python representation of inferiors (processes)
21580 * Events In Python:: Listening for events from @value{GDBN}.
21581 * Threads In Python:: Accessing inferior threads from Python.
21582 * Commands In Python:: Implementing new commands in Python.
21583 * Parameters In Python:: Adding new @value{GDBN} parameters.
21584 * Functions In Python:: Writing new convenience functions.
21585 * Progspaces In Python:: Program spaces.
21586 * Objfiles In Python:: Object files.
21587 * Frames In Python:: Accessing inferior stack frames from Python.
21588 * Blocks In Python:: Accessing frame blocks from Python.
21589 * Symbols In Python:: Python representation of symbols.
21590 * Symbol Tables In Python:: Python representation of symbol tables.
21591 * Lazy Strings In Python:: Python representation of lazy strings.
21592 * Breakpoints In Python:: Manipulating breakpoints using Python.
21593 * Finish Breakpoints in Python:: Setting Breakpoints on function return
21594 using Python.
21595 @end menu
21596
21597 @node Basic Python
21598 @subsubsection Basic Python
21599
21600 @cindex python functions
21601 @cindex python module
21602 @cindex gdb module
21603 @value{GDBN} introduces a new Python module, named @code{gdb}. All
21604 methods and classes added by @value{GDBN} are placed in this module.
21605 @value{GDBN} automatically @code{import}s the @code{gdb} module for
21606 use in all scripts evaluated by the @code{python} command.
21607
21608 @findex gdb.PYTHONDIR
21609 @defvar gdb.PYTHONDIR
21610 A string containing the python directory (@pxref{Python}).
21611 @end defvar
21612
21613 @findex gdb.execute
21614 @defun gdb.execute (command @r{[}, from_tty @r{[}, to_string@r{]]})
21615 Evaluate @var{command}, a string, as a @value{GDBN} CLI command.
21616 If a GDB exception happens while @var{command} runs, it is
21617 translated as described in @ref{Exception Handling,,Exception Handling}.
21618
21619 @var{from_tty} specifies whether @value{GDBN} ought to consider this
21620 command as having originated from the user invoking it interactively.
21621 It must be a boolean value. If omitted, it defaults to @code{False}.
21622
21623 By default, any output produced by @var{command} is sent to
21624 @value{GDBN}'s standard output. If the @var{to_string} parameter is
21625 @code{True}, then output will be collected by @code{gdb.execute} and
21626 returned as a string. The default is @code{False}, in which case the
21627 return value is @code{None}. If @var{to_string} is @code{True}, the
21628 @value{GDBN} virtual terminal will be temporarily set to unlimited width
21629 and height, and its pagination will be disabled; @pxref{Screen Size}.
21630 @end defun
21631
21632 @findex gdb.breakpoints
21633 @defun gdb.breakpoints ()
21634 Return a sequence holding all of @value{GDBN}'s breakpoints.
21635 @xref{Breakpoints In Python}, for more information.
21636 @end defun
21637
21638 @findex gdb.parameter
21639 @defun gdb.parameter (parameter)
21640 Return the value of a @value{GDBN} parameter. @var{parameter} is a
21641 string naming the parameter to look up; @var{parameter} may contain
21642 spaces if the parameter has a multi-part name. For example,
21643 @samp{print object} is a valid parameter name.
21644
21645 If the named parameter does not exist, this function throws a
21646 @code{gdb.error} (@pxref{Exception Handling}). Otherwise, the
21647 parameter's value is converted to a Python value of the appropriate
21648 type, and returned.
21649 @end defun
21650
21651 @findex gdb.history
21652 @defun gdb.history (number)
21653 Return a value from @value{GDBN}'s value history (@pxref{Value
21654 History}). @var{number} indicates which history element to return.
21655 If @var{number} is negative, then @value{GDBN} will take its absolute value
21656 and count backward from the last element (i.e., the most recent element) to
21657 find the value to return. If @var{number} is zero, then @value{GDBN} will
21658 return the most recent element. If the element specified by @var{number}
21659 doesn't exist in the value history, a @code{gdb.error} exception will be
21660 raised.
21661
21662 If no exception is raised, the return value is always an instance of
21663 @code{gdb.Value} (@pxref{Values From Inferior}).
21664 @end defun
21665
21666 @findex gdb.parse_and_eval
21667 @defun gdb.parse_and_eval (expression)
21668 Parse @var{expression} as an expression in the current language,
21669 evaluate it, and return the result as a @code{gdb.Value}.
21670 @var{expression} must be a string.
21671
21672 This function can be useful when implementing a new command
21673 (@pxref{Commands In Python}), as it provides a way to parse the
21674 command's argument as an expression. It is also useful simply to
21675 compute values, for example, it is the only way to get the value of a
21676 convenience variable (@pxref{Convenience Vars}) as a @code{gdb.Value}.
21677 @end defun
21678
21679 @findex gdb.post_event
21680 @defun gdb.post_event (event)
21681 Put @var{event}, a callable object taking no arguments, into
21682 @value{GDBN}'s internal event queue. This callable will be invoked at
21683 some later point, during @value{GDBN}'s event processing. Events
21684 posted using @code{post_event} will be run in the order in which they
21685 were posted; however, there is no way to know when they will be
21686 processed relative to other events inside @value{GDBN}.
21687
21688 @value{GDBN} is not thread-safe. If your Python program uses multiple
21689 threads, you must be careful to only call @value{GDBN}-specific
21690 functions in the main @value{GDBN} thread. @code{post_event} ensures
21691 this. For example:
21692
21693 @smallexample
21694 (@value{GDBP}) python
21695 >import threading
21696 >
21697 >class Writer():
21698 > def __init__(self, message):
21699 > self.message = message;
21700 > def __call__(self):
21701 > gdb.write(self.message)
21702 >
21703 >class MyThread1 (threading.Thread):
21704 > def run (self):
21705 > gdb.post_event(Writer("Hello "))
21706 >
21707 >class MyThread2 (threading.Thread):
21708 > def run (self):
21709 > gdb.post_event(Writer("World\n"))
21710 >
21711 >MyThread1().start()
21712 >MyThread2().start()
21713 >end
21714 (@value{GDBP}) Hello World
21715 @end smallexample
21716 @end defun
21717
21718 @findex gdb.write
21719 @defun gdb.write (string @r{[}, stream{]})
21720 Print a string to @value{GDBN}'s paginated output stream. The
21721 optional @var{stream} determines the stream to print to. The default
21722 stream is @value{GDBN}'s standard output stream. Possible stream
21723 values are:
21724
21725 @table @code
21726 @findex STDOUT
21727 @findex gdb.STDOUT
21728 @item gdb.STDOUT
21729 @value{GDBN}'s standard output stream.
21730
21731 @findex STDERR
21732 @findex gdb.STDERR
21733 @item gdb.STDERR
21734 @value{GDBN}'s standard error stream.
21735
21736 @findex STDLOG
21737 @findex gdb.STDLOG
21738 @item gdb.STDLOG
21739 @value{GDBN}'s log stream (@pxref{Logging Output}).
21740 @end table
21741
21742 Writing to @code{sys.stdout} or @code{sys.stderr} will automatically
21743 call this function and will automatically direct the output to the
21744 relevant stream.
21745 @end defun
21746
21747 @findex gdb.flush
21748 @defun gdb.flush ()
21749 Flush the buffer of a @value{GDBN} paginated stream so that the
21750 contents are displayed immediately. @value{GDBN} will flush the
21751 contents of a stream automatically when it encounters a newline in the
21752 buffer. The optional @var{stream} determines the stream to flush. The
21753 default stream is @value{GDBN}'s standard output stream. Possible
21754 stream values are:
21755
21756 @table @code
21757 @findex STDOUT
21758 @findex gdb.STDOUT
21759 @item gdb.STDOUT
21760 @value{GDBN}'s standard output stream.
21761
21762 @findex STDERR
21763 @findex gdb.STDERR
21764 @item gdb.STDERR
21765 @value{GDBN}'s standard error stream.
21766
21767 @findex STDLOG
21768 @findex gdb.STDLOG
21769 @item gdb.STDLOG
21770 @value{GDBN}'s log stream (@pxref{Logging Output}).
21771
21772 @end table
21773
21774 Flushing @code{sys.stdout} or @code{sys.stderr} will automatically
21775 call this function for the relevant stream.
21776 @end defun
21777
21778 @findex gdb.target_charset
21779 @defun gdb.target_charset ()
21780 Return the name of the current target character set (@pxref{Character
21781 Sets}). This differs from @code{gdb.parameter('target-charset')} in
21782 that @samp{auto} is never returned.
21783 @end defun
21784
21785 @findex gdb.target_wide_charset
21786 @defun gdb.target_wide_charset ()
21787 Return the name of the current target wide character set
21788 (@pxref{Character Sets}). This differs from
21789 @code{gdb.parameter('target-wide-charset')} in that @samp{auto} is
21790 never returned.
21791 @end defun
21792
21793 @findex gdb.solib_name
21794 @defun gdb.solib_name (address)
21795 Return the name of the shared library holding the given @var{address}
21796 as a string, or @code{None}.
21797 @end defun
21798
21799 @findex gdb.decode_line
21800 @defun gdb.decode_line @r{[}expression@r{]}
21801 Return locations of the line specified by @var{expression}, or of the
21802 current line if no argument was given. This function returns a Python
21803 tuple containing two elements. The first element contains a string
21804 holding any unparsed section of @var{expression} (or @code{None} if
21805 the expression has been fully parsed). The second element contains
21806 either @code{None} or another tuple that contains all the locations
21807 that match the expression represented as @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line}
21808 objects (@pxref{Symbol Tables In Python}). If @var{expression} is
21809 provided, it is decoded the way that @value{GDBN}'s inbuilt
21810 @code{break} or @code{edit} commands do (@pxref{Specify Location}).
21811 @end defun
21812
21813 @defun gdb.prompt_hook (current_prompt)
21814 @anchor{prompt_hook}
21815
21816 If @var{prompt_hook} is callable, @value{GDBN} will call the method
21817 assigned to this operation before a prompt is displayed by
21818 @value{GDBN}.
21819
21820 The parameter @code{current_prompt} contains the current @value{GDBN}
21821 prompt. This method must return a Python string, or @code{None}. If
21822 a string is returned, the @value{GDBN} prompt will be set to that
21823 string. If @code{None} is returned, @value{GDBN} will continue to use
21824 the current prompt.
21825
21826 Some prompts cannot be substituted in @value{GDBN}. Secondary prompts
21827 such as those used by readline for command input, and annotation
21828 related prompts are prohibited from being changed.
21829 @end defun
21830
21831 @node Exception Handling
21832 @subsubsection Exception Handling
21833 @cindex python exceptions
21834 @cindex exceptions, python
21835
21836 When executing the @code{python} command, Python exceptions
21837 uncaught within the Python code are translated to calls to
21838 @value{GDBN} error-reporting mechanism. If the command that called
21839 @code{python} does not handle the error, @value{GDBN} will
21840 terminate it and print an error message containing the Python
21841 exception name, the associated value, and the Python call stack
21842 backtrace at the point where the exception was raised. Example:
21843
21844 @smallexample
21845 (@value{GDBP}) python print foo
21846 Traceback (most recent call last):
21847 File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
21848 NameError: name 'foo' is not defined
21849 @end smallexample
21850
21851 @value{GDBN} errors that happen in @value{GDBN} commands invoked by
21852 Python code are converted to Python exceptions. The type of the
21853 Python exception depends on the error.
21854
21855 @ftable @code
21856 @item gdb.error
21857 This is the base class for most exceptions generated by @value{GDBN}.
21858 It is derived from @code{RuntimeError}, for compatibility with earlier
21859 versions of @value{GDBN}.
21860
21861 If an error occurring in @value{GDBN} does not fit into some more
21862 specific category, then the generated exception will have this type.
21863
21864 @item gdb.MemoryError
21865 This is a subclass of @code{gdb.error} which is thrown when an
21866 operation tried to access invalid memory in the inferior.
21867
21868 @item KeyboardInterrupt
21869 User interrupt (via @kbd{C-c} or by typing @kbd{q} at a pagination
21870 prompt) is translated to a Python @code{KeyboardInterrupt} exception.
21871 @end ftable
21872
21873 In all cases, your exception handler will see the @value{GDBN} error
21874 message as its value and the Python call stack backtrace at the Python
21875 statement closest to where the @value{GDBN} error occured as the
21876 traceback.
21877
21878 @findex gdb.GdbError
21879 When implementing @value{GDBN} commands in Python via @code{gdb.Command},
21880 it is useful to be able to throw an exception that doesn't cause a
21881 traceback to be printed. For example, the user may have invoked the
21882 command incorrectly. Use the @code{gdb.GdbError} exception
21883 to handle this case. Example:
21884
21885 @smallexample
21886 (gdb) python
21887 >class HelloWorld (gdb.Command):
21888 > """Greet the whole world."""
21889 > def __init__ (self):
21890 > super (HelloWorld, self).__init__ ("hello-world", gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE)
21891 > def invoke (self, args, from_tty):
21892 > argv = gdb.string_to_argv (args)
21893 > if len (argv) != 0:
21894 > raise gdb.GdbError ("hello-world takes no arguments")
21895 > print "Hello, World!"
21896 >HelloWorld ()
21897 >end
21898 (gdb) hello-world 42
21899 hello-world takes no arguments
21900 @end smallexample
21901
21902 @node Values From Inferior
21903 @subsubsection Values From Inferior
21904 @cindex values from inferior, with Python
21905 @cindex python, working with values from inferior
21906
21907 @cindex @code{gdb.Value}
21908 @value{GDBN} provides values it obtains from the inferior program in
21909 an object of type @code{gdb.Value}. @value{GDBN} uses this object
21910 for its internal bookkeeping of the inferior's values, and for
21911 fetching values when necessary.
21912
21913 Inferior values that are simple scalars can be used directly in
21914 Python expressions that are valid for the value's data type. Here's
21915 an example for an integer or floating-point value @code{some_val}:
21916
21917 @smallexample
21918 bar = some_val + 2
21919 @end smallexample
21920
21921 @noindent
21922 As result of this, @code{bar} will also be a @code{gdb.Value} object
21923 whose values are of the same type as those of @code{some_val}.
21924
21925 Inferior values that are structures or instances of some class can
21926 be accessed using the Python @dfn{dictionary syntax}. For example, if
21927 @code{some_val} is a @code{gdb.Value} instance holding a structure, you
21928 can access its @code{foo} element with:
21929
21930 @smallexample
21931 bar = some_val['foo']
21932 @end smallexample
21933
21934 Again, @code{bar} will also be a @code{gdb.Value} object.
21935
21936 A @code{gdb.Value} that represents a function can be executed via
21937 inferior function call. Any arguments provided to the call must match
21938 the function's prototype, and must be provided in the order specified
21939 by that prototype.
21940
21941 For example, @code{some_val} is a @code{gdb.Value} instance
21942 representing a function that takes two integers as arguments. To
21943 execute this function, call it like so:
21944
21945 @smallexample
21946 result = some_val (10,20)
21947 @end smallexample
21948
21949 Any values returned from a function call will be stored as a
21950 @code{gdb.Value}.
21951
21952 The following attributes are provided:
21953
21954 @table @code
21955 @defvar Value.address
21956 If this object is addressable, this read-only attribute holds a
21957 @code{gdb.Value} object representing the address. Otherwise,
21958 this attribute holds @code{None}.
21959 @end defvar
21960
21961 @cindex optimized out value in Python
21962 @defvar Value.is_optimized_out
21963 This read-only boolean attribute is true if the compiler optimized out
21964 this value, thus it is not available for fetching from the inferior.
21965 @end defvar
21966
21967 @defvar Value.type
21968 The type of this @code{gdb.Value}. The value of this attribute is a
21969 @code{gdb.Type} object (@pxref{Types In Python}).
21970 @end defvar
21971
21972 @defvar Value.dynamic_type
21973 The dynamic type of this @code{gdb.Value}. This uses C@t{++} run-time
21974 type information (@acronym{RTTI}) to determine the dynamic type of the
21975 value. If this value is of class type, it will return the class in
21976 which the value is embedded, if any. If this value is of pointer or
21977 reference to a class type, it will compute the dynamic type of the
21978 referenced object, and return a pointer or reference to that type,
21979 respectively. In all other cases, it will return the value's static
21980 type.
21981
21982 Note that this feature will only work when debugging a C@t{++} program
21983 that includes @acronym{RTTI} for the object in question. Otherwise,
21984 it will just return the static type of the value as in @kbd{ptype foo}
21985 (@pxref{Symbols, ptype}).
21986 @end defvar
21987
21988 @defvar Value.is_lazy
21989 The value of this read-only boolean attribute is @code{True} if this
21990 @code{gdb.Value} has not yet been fetched from the inferior.
21991 @value{GDBN} does not fetch values until necessary, for efficiency.
21992 For example:
21993
21994 @smallexample
21995 myval = gdb.parse_and_eval ('somevar')
21996 @end smallexample
21997
21998 The value of @code{somevar} is not fetched at this time. It will be
21999 fetched when the value is needed, or when the @code{fetch_lazy}
22000 method is invoked.
22001 @end defvar
22002 @end table
22003
22004 The following methods are provided:
22005
22006 @table @code
22007 @defun Value.__init__ (@var{val})
22008 Many Python values can be converted directly to a @code{gdb.Value} via
22009 this object initializer. Specifically:
22010
22011 @table @asis
22012 @item Python boolean
22013 A Python boolean is converted to the boolean type from the current
22014 language.
22015
22016 @item Python integer
22017 A Python integer is converted to the C @code{long} type for the
22018 current architecture.
22019
22020 @item Python long
22021 A Python long is converted to the C @code{long long} type for the
22022 current architecture.
22023
22024 @item Python float
22025 A Python float is converted to the C @code{double} type for the
22026 current architecture.
22027
22028 @item Python string
22029 A Python string is converted to a target string, using the current
22030 target encoding.
22031
22032 @item @code{gdb.Value}
22033 If @code{val} is a @code{gdb.Value}, then a copy of the value is made.
22034
22035 @item @code{gdb.LazyString}
22036 If @code{val} is a @code{gdb.LazyString} (@pxref{Lazy Strings In
22037 Python}), then the lazy string's @code{value} method is called, and
22038 its result is used.
22039 @end table
22040 @end defun
22041
22042 @defun Value.cast (type)
22043 Return a new instance of @code{gdb.Value} that is the result of
22044 casting this instance to the type described by @var{type}, which must
22045 be a @code{gdb.Type} object. If the cast cannot be performed for some
22046 reason, this method throws an exception.
22047 @end defun
22048
22049 @defun Value.dereference ()
22050 For pointer data types, this method returns a new @code{gdb.Value} object
22051 whose contents is the object pointed to by the pointer. For example, if
22052 @code{foo} is a C pointer to an @code{int}, declared in your C program as
22053
22054 @smallexample
22055 int *foo;
22056 @end smallexample
22057
22058 @noindent
22059 then you can use the corresponding @code{gdb.Value} to access what
22060 @code{foo} points to like this:
22061
22062 @smallexample
22063 bar = foo.dereference ()
22064 @end smallexample
22065
22066 The result @code{bar} will be a @code{gdb.Value} object holding the
22067 value pointed to by @code{foo}.
22068 @end defun
22069
22070 @defun Value.dynamic_cast (type)
22071 Like @code{Value.cast}, but works as if the C@t{++} @code{dynamic_cast}
22072 operator were used. Consult a C@t{++} reference for details.
22073 @end defun
22074
22075 @defun Value.reinterpret_cast (type)
22076 Like @code{Value.cast}, but works as if the C@t{++} @code{reinterpret_cast}
22077 operator were used. Consult a C@t{++} reference for details.
22078 @end defun
22079
22080 @defun Value.string (@r{[}encoding@r{[}, errors@r{[}, length@r{]]]})
22081 If this @code{gdb.Value} represents a string, then this method
22082 converts the contents to a Python string. Otherwise, this method will
22083 throw an exception.
22084
22085 Strings are recognized in a language-specific way; whether a given
22086 @code{gdb.Value} represents a string is determined by the current
22087 language.
22088
22089 For C-like languages, a value is a string if it is a pointer to or an
22090 array of characters or ints. The string is assumed to be terminated
22091 by a zero of the appropriate width. However if the optional length
22092 argument is given, the string will be converted to that given length,
22093 ignoring any embedded zeros that the string may contain.
22094
22095 If the optional @var{encoding} argument is given, it must be a string
22096 naming the encoding of the string in the @code{gdb.Value}, such as
22097 @code{"ascii"}, @code{"iso-8859-6"} or @code{"utf-8"}. It accepts
22098 the same encodings as the corresponding argument to Python's
22099 @code{string.decode} method, and the Python codec machinery will be used
22100 to convert the string. If @var{encoding} is not given, or if
22101 @var{encoding} is the empty string, then either the @code{target-charset}
22102 (@pxref{Character Sets}) will be used, or a language-specific encoding
22103 will be used, if the current language is able to supply one.
22104
22105 The optional @var{errors} argument is the same as the corresponding
22106 argument to Python's @code{string.decode} method.
22107
22108 If the optional @var{length} argument is given, the string will be
22109 fetched and converted to the given length.
22110 @end defun
22111
22112 @defun Value.lazy_string (@r{[}encoding @r{[}, length@r{]]})
22113 If this @code{gdb.Value} represents a string, then this method
22114 converts the contents to a @code{gdb.LazyString} (@pxref{Lazy Strings
22115 In Python}). Otherwise, this method will throw an exception.
22116
22117 If the optional @var{encoding} argument is given, it must be a string
22118 naming the encoding of the @code{gdb.LazyString}. Some examples are:
22119 @samp{ascii}, @samp{iso-8859-6} or @samp{utf-8}. If the
22120 @var{encoding} argument is an encoding that @value{GDBN} does
22121 recognize, @value{GDBN} will raise an error.
22122
22123 When a lazy string is printed, the @value{GDBN} encoding machinery is
22124 used to convert the string during printing. If the optional
22125 @var{encoding} argument is not provided, or is an empty string,
22126 @value{GDBN} will automatically select the encoding most suitable for
22127 the string type. For further information on encoding in @value{GDBN}
22128 please see @ref{Character Sets}.
22129
22130 If the optional @var{length} argument is given, the string will be
22131 fetched and encoded to the length of characters specified. If
22132 the @var{length} argument is not provided, the string will be fetched
22133 and encoded until a null of appropriate width is found.
22134 @end defun
22135
22136 @defun Value.fetch_lazy ()
22137 If the @code{gdb.Value} object is currently a lazy value
22138 (@code{gdb.Value.is_lazy} is @code{True}), then the value is
22139 fetched from the inferior. Any errors that occur in the process
22140 will produce a Python exception.
22141
22142 If the @code{gdb.Value} object is not a lazy value, this method
22143 has no effect.
22144
22145 This method does not return a value.
22146 @end defun
22147
22148 @end table
22149
22150 @node Types In Python
22151 @subsubsection Types In Python
22152 @cindex types in Python
22153 @cindex Python, working with types
22154
22155 @tindex gdb.Type
22156 @value{GDBN} represents types from the inferior using the class
22157 @code{gdb.Type}.
22158
22159 The following type-related functions are available in the @code{gdb}
22160 module:
22161
22162 @findex gdb.lookup_type
22163 @defun gdb.lookup_type (name @r{[}, block@r{]})
22164 This function looks up a type by name. @var{name} is the name of the
22165 type to look up. It must be a string.
22166
22167 If @var{block} is given, then @var{name} is looked up in that scope.
22168 Otherwise, it is searched for globally.
22169
22170 Ordinarily, this function will return an instance of @code{gdb.Type}.
22171 If the named type cannot be found, it will throw an exception.
22172 @end defun
22173
22174 If the type is a structure or class type, or an enum type, the fields
22175 of that type can be accessed using the Python @dfn{dictionary syntax}.
22176 For example, if @code{some_type} is a @code{gdb.Type} instance holding
22177 a structure type, you can access its @code{foo} field with:
22178
22179 @smallexample
22180 bar = some_type['foo']
22181 @end smallexample
22182
22183 @code{bar} will be a @code{gdb.Field} object; see below under the
22184 description of the @code{Type.fields} method for a description of the
22185 @code{gdb.Field} class.
22186
22187 An instance of @code{Type} has the following attributes:
22188
22189 @table @code
22190 @defvar Type.code
22191 The type code for this type. The type code will be one of the
22192 @code{TYPE_CODE_} constants defined below.
22193 @end defvar
22194
22195 @defvar Type.sizeof
22196 The size of this type, in target @code{char} units. Usually, a
22197 target's @code{char} type will be an 8-bit byte. However, on some
22198 unusual platforms, this type may have a different size.
22199 @end defvar
22200
22201 @defvar Type.tag
22202 The tag name for this type. The tag name is the name after
22203 @code{struct}, @code{union}, or @code{enum} in C and C@t{++}; not all
22204 languages have this concept. If this type has no tag name, then
22205 @code{None} is returned.
22206 @end defvar
22207 @end table
22208
22209 The following methods are provided:
22210
22211 @table @code
22212 @defun Type.fields ()
22213 For structure and union types, this method returns the fields. Range
22214 types have two fields, the minimum and maximum values. Enum types
22215 have one field per enum constant. Function and method types have one
22216 field per parameter. The base types of C@t{++} classes are also
22217 represented as fields. If the type has no fields, or does not fit
22218 into one of these categories, an empty sequence will be returned.
22219
22220 Each field is a @code{gdb.Field} object, with some pre-defined attributes:
22221 @table @code
22222 @item bitpos
22223 This attribute is not available for @code{static} fields (as in
22224 C@t{++} or Java). For non-@code{static} fields, the value is the bit
22225 position of the field. For @code{enum} fields, the value is the
22226 enumeration member's integer representation.
22227
22228 @item name
22229 The name of the field, or @code{None} for anonymous fields.
22230
22231 @item artificial
22232 This is @code{True} if the field is artificial, usually meaning that
22233 it was provided by the compiler and not the user. This attribute is
22234 always provided, and is @code{False} if the field is not artificial.
22235
22236 @item is_base_class
22237 This is @code{True} if the field represents a base class of a C@t{++}
22238 structure. This attribute is always provided, and is @code{False}
22239 if the field is not a base class of the type that is the argument of
22240 @code{fields}, or if that type was not a C@t{++} class.
22241
22242 @item bitsize
22243 If the field is packed, or is a bitfield, then this will have a
22244 non-zero value, which is the size of the field in bits. Otherwise,
22245 this will be zero; in this case the field's size is given by its type.
22246
22247 @item type
22248 The type of the field. This is usually an instance of @code{Type},
22249 but it can be @code{None} in some situations.
22250 @end table
22251 @end defun
22252
22253 @defun Type.array (@var{n1} @r{[}, @var{n2}@r{]})
22254 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents an array of this
22255 type. If one argument is given, it is the inclusive upper bound of
22256 the array; in this case the lower bound is zero. If two arguments are
22257 given, the first argument is the lower bound of the array, and the
22258 second argument is the upper bound of the array. An array's length
22259 must not be negative, but the bounds can be.
22260 @end defun
22261
22262 @defun Type.const ()
22263 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents a
22264 @code{const}-qualified variant of this type.
22265 @end defun
22266
22267 @defun Type.volatile ()
22268 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents a
22269 @code{volatile}-qualified variant of this type.
22270 @end defun
22271
22272 @defun Type.unqualified ()
22273 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents an unqualified
22274 variant of this type. That is, the result is neither @code{const} nor
22275 @code{volatile}.
22276 @end defun
22277
22278 @defun Type.range ()
22279 Return a Python @code{Tuple} object that contains two elements: the
22280 low bound of the argument type and the high bound of that type. If
22281 the type does not have a range, @value{GDBN} will raise a
22282 @code{gdb.error} exception (@pxref{Exception Handling}).
22283 @end defun
22284
22285 @defun Type.reference ()
22286 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents a reference to this
22287 type.
22288 @end defun
22289
22290 @defun Type.pointer ()
22291 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents a pointer to this
22292 type.
22293 @end defun
22294
22295 @defun Type.strip_typedefs ()
22296 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} that represents the real type,
22297 after removing all layers of typedefs.
22298 @end defun
22299
22300 @defun Type.target ()
22301 Return a new @code{gdb.Type} object which represents the target type
22302 of this type.
22303
22304 For a pointer type, the target type is the type of the pointed-to
22305 object. For an array type (meaning C-like arrays), the target type is
22306 the type of the elements of the array. For a function or method type,
22307 the target type is the type of the return value. For a complex type,
22308 the target type is the type of the elements. For a typedef, the
22309 target type is the aliased type.
22310
22311 If the type does not have a target, this method will throw an
22312 exception.
22313 @end defun
22314
22315 @defun Type.template_argument (n @r{[}, block@r{]})
22316 If this @code{gdb.Type} is an instantiation of a template, this will
22317 return a new @code{gdb.Type} which represents the type of the
22318 @var{n}th template argument.
22319
22320 If this @code{gdb.Type} is not a template type, this will throw an
22321 exception. Ordinarily, only C@t{++} code will have template types.
22322
22323 If @var{block} is given, then @var{name} is looked up in that scope.
22324 Otherwise, it is searched for globally.
22325 @end defun
22326 @end table
22327
22328
22329 Each type has a code, which indicates what category this type falls
22330 into. The available type categories are represented by constants
22331 defined in the @code{gdb} module:
22332
22333 @table @code
22334 @findex TYPE_CODE_PTR
22335 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_PTR
22336 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_PTR
22337 The type is a pointer.
22338
22339 @findex TYPE_CODE_ARRAY
22340 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_ARRAY
22341 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_ARRAY
22342 The type is an array.
22343
22344 @findex TYPE_CODE_STRUCT
22345 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_STRUCT
22346 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_STRUCT
22347 The type is a structure.
22348
22349 @findex TYPE_CODE_UNION
22350 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_UNION
22351 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_UNION
22352 The type is a union.
22353
22354 @findex TYPE_CODE_ENUM
22355 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_ENUM
22356 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_ENUM
22357 The type is an enum.
22358
22359 @findex TYPE_CODE_FLAGS
22360 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_FLAGS
22361 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_FLAGS
22362 A bit flags type, used for things such as status registers.
22363
22364 @findex TYPE_CODE_FUNC
22365 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_FUNC
22366 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_FUNC
22367 The type is a function.
22368
22369 @findex TYPE_CODE_INT
22370 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_INT
22371 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_INT
22372 The type is an integer type.
22373
22374 @findex TYPE_CODE_FLT
22375 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_FLT
22376 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_FLT
22377 A floating point type.
22378
22379 @findex TYPE_CODE_VOID
22380 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_VOID
22381 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_VOID
22382 The special type @code{void}.
22383
22384 @findex TYPE_CODE_SET
22385 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_SET
22386 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_SET
22387 A Pascal set type.
22388
22389 @findex TYPE_CODE_RANGE
22390 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_RANGE
22391 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_RANGE
22392 A range type, that is, an integer type with bounds.
22393
22394 @findex TYPE_CODE_STRING
22395 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_STRING
22396 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_STRING
22397 A string type. Note that this is only used for certain languages with
22398 language-defined string types; C strings are not represented this way.
22399
22400 @findex TYPE_CODE_BITSTRING
22401 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_BITSTRING
22402 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_BITSTRING
22403 A string of bits.
22404
22405 @findex TYPE_CODE_ERROR
22406 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_ERROR
22407 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_ERROR
22408 An unknown or erroneous type.
22409
22410 @findex TYPE_CODE_METHOD
22411 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_METHOD
22412 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_METHOD
22413 A method type, as found in C@t{++} or Java.
22414
22415 @findex TYPE_CODE_METHODPTR
22416 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_METHODPTR
22417 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_METHODPTR
22418 A pointer-to-member-function.
22419
22420 @findex TYPE_CODE_MEMBERPTR
22421 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_MEMBERPTR
22422 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_MEMBERPTR
22423 A pointer-to-member.
22424
22425 @findex TYPE_CODE_REF
22426 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_REF
22427 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_REF
22428 A reference type.
22429
22430 @findex TYPE_CODE_CHAR
22431 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_CHAR
22432 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_CHAR
22433 A character type.
22434
22435 @findex TYPE_CODE_BOOL
22436 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_BOOL
22437 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_BOOL
22438 A boolean type.
22439
22440 @findex TYPE_CODE_COMPLEX
22441 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_COMPLEX
22442 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_COMPLEX
22443 A complex float type.
22444
22445 @findex TYPE_CODE_TYPEDEF
22446 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_TYPEDEF
22447 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_TYPEDEF
22448 A typedef to some other type.
22449
22450 @findex TYPE_CODE_NAMESPACE
22451 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_NAMESPACE
22452 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_NAMESPACE
22453 A C@t{++} namespace.
22454
22455 @findex TYPE_CODE_DECFLOAT
22456 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_DECFLOAT
22457 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_DECFLOAT
22458 A decimal floating point type.
22459
22460 @findex TYPE_CODE_INTERNAL_FUNCTION
22461 @findex gdb.TYPE_CODE_INTERNAL_FUNCTION
22462 @item gdb.TYPE_CODE_INTERNAL_FUNCTION
22463 A function internal to @value{GDBN}. This is the type used to represent
22464 convenience functions.
22465 @end table
22466
22467 Further support for types is provided in the @code{gdb.types}
22468 Python module (@pxref{gdb.types}).
22469
22470 @node Pretty Printing API
22471 @subsubsection Pretty Printing API
22472
22473 An example output is provided (@pxref{Pretty Printing}).
22474
22475 A pretty-printer is just an object that holds a value and implements a
22476 specific interface, defined here.
22477
22478 @defun pretty_printer.children (self)
22479 @value{GDBN} will call this method on a pretty-printer to compute the
22480 children of the pretty-printer's value.
22481
22482 This method must return an object conforming to the Python iterator
22483 protocol. Each item returned by the iterator must be a tuple holding
22484 two elements. The first element is the ``name'' of the child; the
22485 second element is the child's value. The value can be any Python
22486 object which is convertible to a @value{GDBN} value.
22487
22488 This method is optional. If it does not exist, @value{GDBN} will act
22489 as though the value has no children.
22490 @end defun
22491
22492 @defun pretty_printer.display_hint (self)
22493 The CLI may call this method and use its result to change the
22494 formatting of a value. The result will also be supplied to an MI
22495 consumer as a @samp{displayhint} attribute of the variable being
22496 printed.
22497
22498 This method is optional. If it does exist, this method must return a
22499 string.
22500
22501 Some display hints are predefined by @value{GDBN}:
22502
22503 @table @samp
22504 @item array
22505 Indicate that the object being printed is ``array-like''. The CLI
22506 uses this to respect parameters such as @code{set print elements} and
22507 @code{set print array}.
22508
22509 @item map
22510 Indicate that the object being printed is ``map-like'', and that the
22511 children of this value can be assumed to alternate between keys and
22512 values.
22513
22514 @item string
22515 Indicate that the object being printed is ``string-like''. If the
22516 printer's @code{to_string} method returns a Python string of some
22517 kind, then @value{GDBN} will call its internal language-specific
22518 string-printing function to format the string. For the CLI this means
22519 adding quotation marks, possibly escaping some characters, respecting
22520 @code{set print elements}, and the like.
22521 @end table
22522 @end defun
22523
22524 @defun pretty_printer.to_string (self)
22525 @value{GDBN} will call this method to display the string
22526 representation of the value passed to the object's constructor.
22527
22528 When printing from the CLI, if the @code{to_string} method exists,
22529 then @value{GDBN} will prepend its result to the values returned by
22530 @code{children}. Exactly how this formatting is done is dependent on
22531 the display hint, and may change as more hints are added. Also,
22532 depending on the print settings (@pxref{Print Settings}), the CLI may
22533 print just the result of @code{to_string} in a stack trace, omitting
22534 the result of @code{children}.
22535
22536 If this method returns a string, it is printed verbatim.
22537
22538 Otherwise, if this method returns an instance of @code{gdb.Value},
22539 then @value{GDBN} prints this value. This may result in a call to
22540 another pretty-printer.
22541
22542 If instead the method returns a Python value which is convertible to a
22543 @code{gdb.Value}, then @value{GDBN} performs the conversion and prints
22544 the resulting value. Again, this may result in a call to another
22545 pretty-printer. Python scalars (integers, floats, and booleans) and
22546 strings are convertible to @code{gdb.Value}; other types are not.
22547
22548 Finally, if this method returns @code{None} then no further operations
22549 are peformed in this method and nothing is printed.
22550
22551 If the result is not one of these types, an exception is raised.
22552 @end defun
22553
22554 @value{GDBN} provides a function which can be used to look up the
22555 default pretty-printer for a @code{gdb.Value}:
22556
22557 @findex gdb.default_visualizer
22558 @defun gdb.default_visualizer (value)
22559 This function takes a @code{gdb.Value} object as an argument. If a
22560 pretty-printer for this value exists, then it is returned. If no such
22561 printer exists, then this returns @code{None}.
22562 @end defun
22563
22564 @node Selecting Pretty-Printers
22565 @subsubsection Selecting Pretty-Printers
22566
22567 The Python list @code{gdb.pretty_printers} contains an array of
22568 functions or callable objects that have been registered via addition
22569 as a pretty-printer. Printers in this list are called @code{global}
22570 printers, they're available when debugging all inferiors.
22571 Each @code{gdb.Progspace} contains a @code{pretty_printers} attribute.
22572 Each @code{gdb.Objfile} also contains a @code{pretty_printers}
22573 attribute.
22574
22575 Each function on these lists is passed a single @code{gdb.Value}
22576 argument and should return a pretty-printer object conforming to the
22577 interface definition above (@pxref{Pretty Printing API}). If a function
22578 cannot create a pretty-printer for the value, it should return
22579 @code{None}.
22580
22581 @value{GDBN} first checks the @code{pretty_printers} attribute of each
22582 @code{gdb.Objfile} in the current program space and iteratively calls
22583 each enabled lookup routine in the list for that @code{gdb.Objfile}
22584 until it receives a pretty-printer object.
22585 If no pretty-printer is found in the objfile lists, @value{GDBN} then
22586 searches the pretty-printer list of the current program space,
22587 calling each enabled function until an object is returned.
22588 After these lists have been exhausted, it tries the global
22589 @code{gdb.pretty_printers} list, again calling each enabled function until an
22590 object is returned.
22591
22592 The order in which the objfiles are searched is not specified. For a
22593 given list, functions are always invoked from the head of the list,
22594 and iterated over sequentially until the end of the list, or a printer
22595 object is returned.
22596
22597 For various reasons a pretty-printer may not work.
22598 For example, the underlying data structure may have changed and
22599 the pretty-printer is out of date.
22600
22601 The consequences of a broken pretty-printer are severe enough that
22602 @value{GDBN} provides support for enabling and disabling individual
22603 printers. For example, if @code{print frame-arguments} is on,
22604 a backtrace can become highly illegible if any argument is printed
22605 with a broken printer.
22606
22607 Pretty-printers are enabled and disabled by attaching an @code{enabled}
22608 attribute to the registered function or callable object. If this attribute
22609 is present and its value is @code{False}, the printer is disabled, otherwise
22610 the printer is enabled.
22611
22612 @node Writing a Pretty-Printer
22613 @subsubsection Writing a Pretty-Printer
22614 @cindex writing a pretty-printer
22615
22616 A pretty-printer consists of two parts: a lookup function to detect
22617 if the type is supported, and the printer itself.
22618
22619 Here is an example showing how a @code{std::string} printer might be
22620 written. @xref{Pretty Printing API}, for details on the API this class
22621 must provide.
22622
22623 @smallexample
22624 class StdStringPrinter(object):
22625 "Print a std::string"
22626
22627 def __init__(self, val):
22628 self.val = val
22629
22630 def to_string(self):
22631 return self.val['_M_dataplus']['_M_p']
22632
22633 def display_hint(self):
22634 return 'string'
22635 @end smallexample
22636
22637 And here is an example showing how a lookup function for the printer
22638 example above might be written.
22639
22640 @smallexample
22641 def str_lookup_function(val):
22642 lookup_tag = val.type.tag
22643 if lookup_tag == None:
22644 return None
22645 regex = re.compile("^std::basic_string<char,.*>$")
22646 if regex.match(lookup_tag):
22647 return StdStringPrinter(val)
22648 return None
22649 @end smallexample
22650
22651 The example lookup function extracts the value's type, and attempts to
22652 match it to a type that it can pretty-print. If it is a type the
22653 printer can pretty-print, it will return a printer object. If not, it
22654 returns @code{None}.
22655
22656 We recommend that you put your core pretty-printers into a Python
22657 package. If your pretty-printers are for use with a library, we
22658 further recommend embedding a version number into the package name.
22659 This practice will enable @value{GDBN} to load multiple versions of
22660 your pretty-printers at the same time, because they will have
22661 different names.
22662
22663 You should write auto-loaded code (@pxref{Auto-loading}) such that it
22664 can be evaluated multiple times without changing its meaning. An
22665 ideal auto-load file will consist solely of @code{import}s of your
22666 printer modules, followed by a call to a register pretty-printers with
22667 the current objfile.
22668
22669 Taken as a whole, this approach will scale nicely to multiple
22670 inferiors, each potentially using a different library version.
22671 Embedding a version number in the Python package name will ensure that
22672 @value{GDBN} is able to load both sets of printers simultaneously.
22673 Then, because the search for pretty-printers is done by objfile, and
22674 because your auto-loaded code took care to register your library's
22675 printers with a specific objfile, @value{GDBN} will find the correct
22676 printers for the specific version of the library used by each
22677 inferior.
22678
22679 To continue the @code{std::string} example (@pxref{Pretty Printing API}),
22680 this code might appear in @code{gdb.libstdcxx.v6}:
22681
22682 @smallexample
22683 def register_printers(objfile):
22684 objfile.pretty_printers.append(str_lookup_function)
22685 @end smallexample
22686
22687 @noindent
22688 And then the corresponding contents of the auto-load file would be:
22689
22690 @smallexample
22691 import gdb.libstdcxx.v6
22692 gdb.libstdcxx.v6.register_printers(gdb.current_objfile())
22693 @end smallexample
22694
22695 The previous example illustrates a basic pretty-printer.
22696 There are a few things that can be improved on.
22697 The printer doesn't have a name, making it hard to identify in a
22698 list of installed printers. The lookup function has a name, but
22699 lookup functions can have arbitrary, even identical, names.
22700
22701 Second, the printer only handles one type, whereas a library typically has
22702 several types. One could install a lookup function for each desired type
22703 in the library, but one could also have a single lookup function recognize
22704 several types. The latter is the conventional way this is handled.
22705 If a pretty-printer can handle multiple data types, then its
22706 @dfn{subprinters} are the printers for the individual data types.
22707
22708 The @code{gdb.printing} module provides a formal way of solving these
22709 problems (@pxref{gdb.printing}).
22710 Here is another example that handles multiple types.
22711
22712 These are the types we are going to pretty-print:
22713
22714 @smallexample
22715 struct foo @{ int a, b; @};
22716 struct bar @{ struct foo x, y; @};
22717 @end smallexample
22718
22719 Here are the printers:
22720
22721 @smallexample
22722 class fooPrinter:
22723 """Print a foo object."""
22724
22725 def __init__(self, val):
22726 self.val = val
22727
22728 def to_string(self):
22729 return ("a=<" + str(self.val["a"]) +
22730 "> b=<" + str(self.val["b"]) + ">")
22731
22732 class barPrinter:
22733 """Print a bar object."""
22734
22735 def __init__(self, val):
22736 self.val = val
22737
22738 def to_string(self):
22739 return ("x=<" + str(self.val["x"]) +
22740 "> y=<" + str(self.val["y"]) + ">")
22741 @end smallexample
22742
22743 This example doesn't need a lookup function, that is handled by the
22744 @code{gdb.printing} module. Instead a function is provided to build up
22745 the object that handles the lookup.
22746
22747 @smallexample
22748 import gdb.printing
22749
22750 def build_pretty_printer():
22751 pp = gdb.printing.RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter(
22752 "my_library")
22753 pp.add_printer('foo', '^foo$', fooPrinter)
22754 pp.add_printer('bar', '^bar$', barPrinter)
22755 return pp
22756 @end smallexample
22757
22758 And here is the autoload support:
22759
22760 @smallexample
22761 import gdb.printing
22762 import my_library
22763 gdb.printing.register_pretty_printer(
22764 gdb.current_objfile(),
22765 my_library.build_pretty_printer())
22766 @end smallexample
22767
22768 Finally, when this printer is loaded into @value{GDBN}, here is the
22769 corresponding output of @samp{info pretty-printer}:
22770
22771 @smallexample
22772 (gdb) info pretty-printer
22773 my_library.so:
22774 my_library
22775 foo
22776 bar
22777 @end smallexample
22778
22779 @node Inferiors In Python
22780 @subsubsection Inferiors In Python
22781 @cindex inferiors in Python
22782
22783 @findex gdb.Inferior
22784 Programs which are being run under @value{GDBN} are called inferiors
22785 (@pxref{Inferiors and Programs}). Python scripts can access
22786 information about and manipulate inferiors controlled by @value{GDBN}
22787 via objects of the @code{gdb.Inferior} class.
22788
22789 The following inferior-related functions are available in the @code{gdb}
22790 module:
22791
22792 @defun gdb.inferiors ()
22793 Return a tuple containing all inferior objects.
22794 @end defun
22795
22796 @defun gdb.selected_inferior ()
22797 Return an object representing the current inferior.
22798 @end defun
22799
22800 A @code{gdb.Inferior} object has the following attributes:
22801
22802 @table @code
22803 @defvar Inferior.num
22804 ID of inferior, as assigned by GDB.
22805 @end defvar
22806
22807 @defvar Inferior.pid
22808 Process ID of the inferior, as assigned by the underlying operating
22809 system.
22810 @end defvar
22811
22812 @defvar Inferior.was_attached
22813 Boolean signaling whether the inferior was created using `attach', or
22814 started by @value{GDBN} itself.
22815 @end defvar
22816 @end table
22817
22818 A @code{gdb.Inferior} object has the following methods:
22819
22820 @table @code
22821 @defun Inferior.is_valid ()
22822 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Inferior} object is valid,
22823 @code{False} if not. A @code{gdb.Inferior} object will become invalid
22824 if the inferior no longer exists within @value{GDBN}. All other
22825 @code{gdb.Inferior} methods will throw an exception if it is invalid
22826 at the time the method is called.
22827 @end defun
22828
22829 @defun Inferior.threads ()
22830 This method returns a tuple holding all the threads which are valid
22831 when it is called. If there are no valid threads, the method will
22832 return an empty tuple.
22833 @end defun
22834
22835 @findex gdb.read_memory
22836 @defun Inferior.read_memory (address, length)
22837 Read @var{length} bytes of memory from the inferior, starting at
22838 @var{address}. Returns a buffer object, which behaves much like an array
22839 or a string. It can be modified and given to the @code{gdb.write_memory}
22840 function.
22841 @end defun
22842
22843 @findex gdb.write_memory
22844 @defun Inferior.write_memory (address, buffer @r{[}, length@r{]})
22845 Write the contents of @var{buffer} to the inferior, starting at
22846 @var{address}. The @var{buffer} parameter must be a Python object
22847 which supports the buffer protocol, i.e., a string, an array or the
22848 object returned from @code{gdb.read_memory}. If given, @var{length}
22849 determines the number of bytes from @var{buffer} to be written.
22850 @end defun
22851
22852 @findex gdb.search_memory
22853 @defun Inferior.search_memory (address, length, pattern)
22854 Search a region of the inferior memory starting at @var{address} with
22855 the given @var{length} using the search pattern supplied in
22856 @var{pattern}. The @var{pattern} parameter must be a Python object
22857 which supports the buffer protocol, i.e., a string, an array or the
22858 object returned from @code{gdb.read_memory}. Returns a Python @code{Long}
22859 containing the address where the pattern was found, or @code{None} if
22860 the pattern could not be found.
22861 @end defun
22862 @end table
22863
22864 @node Events In Python
22865 @subsubsection Events In Python
22866 @cindex inferior events in Python
22867
22868 @value{GDBN} provides a general event facility so that Python code can be
22869 notified of various state changes, particularly changes that occur in
22870 the inferior.
22871
22872 An @dfn{event} is just an object that describes some state change. The
22873 type of the object and its attributes will vary depending on the details
22874 of the change. All the existing events are described below.
22875
22876 In order to be notified of an event, you must register an event handler
22877 with an @dfn{event registry}. An event registry is an object in the
22878 @code{gdb.events} module which dispatches particular events. A registry
22879 provides methods to register and unregister event handlers:
22880
22881 @table @code
22882 @defun EventRegistry.connect (object)
22883 Add the given callable @var{object} to the registry. This object will be
22884 called when an event corresponding to this registry occurs.
22885 @end defun
22886
22887 @defun EventRegistry.disconnect (object)
22888 Remove the given @var{object} from the registry. Once removed, the object
22889 will no longer receive notifications of events.
22890 @end defun
22891 @end table
22892
22893 Here is an example:
22894
22895 @smallexample
22896 def exit_handler (event):
22897 print "event type: exit"
22898 print "exit code: %d" % (event.exit_code)
22899
22900 gdb.events.exited.connect (exit_handler)
22901 @end smallexample
22902
22903 In the above example we connect our handler @code{exit_handler} to the
22904 registry @code{events.exited}. Once connected, @code{exit_handler} gets
22905 called when the inferior exits. The argument @dfn{event} in this example is
22906 of type @code{gdb.ExitedEvent}. As you can see in the example the
22907 @code{ExitedEvent} object has an attribute which indicates the exit code of
22908 the inferior.
22909
22910 The following is a listing of the event registries that are available and
22911 details of the events they emit:
22912
22913 @table @code
22914
22915 @item events.cont
22916 Emits @code{gdb.ThreadEvent}.
22917
22918 Some events can be thread specific when @value{GDBN} is running in non-stop
22919 mode. When represented in Python, these events all extend
22920 @code{gdb.ThreadEvent}. Note, this event is not emitted directly; instead,
22921 events which are emitted by this or other modules might extend this event.
22922 Examples of these events are @code{gdb.BreakpointEvent} and
22923 @code{gdb.ContinueEvent}.
22924
22925 @table @code
22926 @defvar ThreadEvent.inferior_thread
22927 In non-stop mode this attribute will be set to the specific thread which was
22928 involved in the emitted event. Otherwise, it will be set to @code{None}.
22929 @end defvar
22930 @end table
22931
22932 Emits @code{gdb.ContinueEvent} which extends @code{gdb.ThreadEvent}.
22933
22934 This event indicates that the inferior has been continued after a stop. For
22935 inherited attribute refer to @code{gdb.ThreadEvent} above.
22936
22937 @item events.exited
22938 Emits @code{events.ExitedEvent} which indicates that the inferior has exited.
22939 @code{events.ExitedEvent} has two attributes:
22940 @table @code
22941 @defvar ExitedEvent.exit_code
22942 An integer representing the exit code, if available, which the inferior
22943 has returned. (The exit code could be unavailable if, for example,
22944 @value{GDBN} detaches from the inferior.) If the exit code is unavailable,
22945 the attribute does not exist.
22946 @end defvar
22947 @defvar ExitedEvent inferior
22948 A reference to the inferior which triggered the @code{exited} event.
22949 @end defvar
22950 @end table
22951
22952 @item events.stop
22953 Emits @code{gdb.StopEvent} which extends @code{gdb.ThreadEvent}.
22954
22955 Indicates that the inferior has stopped. All events emitted by this registry
22956 extend StopEvent. As a child of @code{gdb.ThreadEvent}, @code{gdb.StopEvent}
22957 will indicate the stopped thread when @value{GDBN} is running in non-stop
22958 mode. Refer to @code{gdb.ThreadEvent} above for more details.
22959
22960 Emits @code{gdb.SignalEvent} which extends @code{gdb.StopEvent}.
22961
22962 This event indicates that the inferior or one of its threads has received as
22963 signal. @code{gdb.SignalEvent} has the following attributes:
22964
22965 @table @code
22966 @defvar SignalEvent.stop_signal
22967 A string representing the signal received by the inferior. A list of possible
22968 signal values can be obtained by running the command @code{info signals} in
22969 the @value{GDBN} command prompt.
22970 @end defvar
22971 @end table
22972
22973 Also emits @code{gdb.BreakpointEvent} which extends @code{gdb.StopEvent}.
22974
22975 @code{gdb.BreakpointEvent} event indicates that one or more breakpoints have
22976 been hit, and has the following attributes:
22977
22978 @table @code
22979 @defvar BreakpointEvent.breakpoints
22980 A sequence containing references to all the breakpoints (type
22981 @code{gdb.Breakpoint}) that were hit.
22982 @xref{Breakpoints In Python}, for details of the @code{gdb.Breakpoint} object.
22983 @end defvar
22984 @defvar BreakpointEvent.breakpoint
22985 A reference to the first breakpoint that was hit.
22986 This function is maintained for backward compatibility and is now deprecated
22987 in favor of the @code{gdb.BreakpointEvent.breakpoints} attribute.
22988 @end defvar
22989 @end table
22990
22991 @item events.new_objfile
22992 Emits @code{gdb.NewObjFileEvent} which indicates that a new object file has
22993 been loaded by @value{GDBN}. @code{gdb.NewObjFileEvent} has one attribute:
22994
22995 @table @code
22996 @defvar NewObjFileEvent.new_objfile
22997 A reference to the object file (@code{gdb.Objfile}) which has been loaded.
22998 @xref{Objfiles In Python}, for details of the @code{gdb.Objfile} object.
22999 @end defvar
23000 @end table
23001
23002 @end table
23003
23004 @node Threads In Python
23005 @subsubsection Threads In Python
23006 @cindex threads in python
23007
23008 @findex gdb.InferiorThread
23009 Python scripts can access information about, and manipulate inferior threads
23010 controlled by @value{GDBN}, via objects of the @code{gdb.InferiorThread} class.
23011
23012 The following thread-related functions are available in the @code{gdb}
23013 module:
23014
23015 @findex gdb.selected_thread
23016 @defun gdb.selected_thread ()
23017 This function returns the thread object for the selected thread. If there
23018 is no selected thread, this will return @code{None}.
23019 @end defun
23020
23021 A @code{gdb.InferiorThread} object has the following attributes:
23022
23023 @table @code
23024 @defvar InferiorThread.name
23025 The name of the thread. If the user specified a name using
23026 @code{thread name}, then this returns that name. Otherwise, if an
23027 OS-supplied name is available, then it is returned. Otherwise, this
23028 returns @code{None}.
23029
23030 This attribute can be assigned to. The new value must be a string
23031 object, which sets the new name, or @code{None}, which removes any
23032 user-specified thread name.
23033 @end defvar
23034
23035 @defvar InferiorThread.num
23036 ID of the thread, as assigned by GDB.
23037 @end defvar
23038
23039 @defvar InferiorThread.ptid
23040 ID of the thread, as assigned by the operating system. This attribute is a
23041 tuple containing three integers. The first is the Process ID (PID); the second
23042 is the Lightweight Process ID (LWPID), and the third is the Thread ID (TID).
23043 Either the LWPID or TID may be 0, which indicates that the operating system
23044 does not use that identifier.
23045 @end defvar
23046 @end table
23047
23048 A @code{gdb.InferiorThread} object has the following methods:
23049
23050 @table @code
23051 @defun InferiorThread.is_valid ()
23052 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.InferiorThread} object is valid,
23053 @code{False} if not. A @code{gdb.InferiorThread} object will become
23054 invalid if the thread exits, or the inferior that the thread belongs
23055 is deleted. All other @code{gdb.InferiorThread} methods will throw an
23056 exception if it is invalid at the time the method is called.
23057 @end defun
23058
23059 @defun InferiorThread.switch ()
23060 This changes @value{GDBN}'s currently selected thread to the one represented
23061 by this object.
23062 @end defun
23063
23064 @defun InferiorThread.is_stopped ()
23065 Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is stopped.
23066 @end defun
23067
23068 @defun InferiorThread.is_running ()
23069 Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is running.
23070 @end defun
23071
23072 @defun InferiorThread.is_exited ()
23073 Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is exited.
23074 @end defun
23075 @end table
23076
23077 @node Commands In Python
23078 @subsubsection Commands In Python
23079
23080 @cindex commands in python
23081 @cindex python commands
23082 You can implement new @value{GDBN} CLI commands in Python. A CLI
23083 command is implemented using an instance of the @code{gdb.Command}
23084 class, most commonly using a subclass.
23085
23086 @defun Command.__init__ (name, @var{command_class} @r{[}, @var{completer_class} @r{[}, @var{prefix}@r{]]})
23087 The object initializer for @code{Command} registers the new command
23088 with @value{GDBN}. This initializer is normally invoked from the
23089 subclass' own @code{__init__} method.
23090
23091 @var{name} is the name of the command. If @var{name} consists of
23092 multiple words, then the initial words are looked for as prefix
23093 commands. In this case, if one of the prefix commands does not exist,
23094 an exception is raised.
23095
23096 There is no support for multi-line commands.
23097
23098 @var{command_class} should be one of the @samp{COMMAND_} constants
23099 defined below. This argument tells @value{GDBN} how to categorize the
23100 new command in the help system.
23101
23102 @var{completer_class} is an optional argument. If given, it should be
23103 one of the @samp{COMPLETE_} constants defined below. This argument
23104 tells @value{GDBN} how to perform completion for this command. If not
23105 given, @value{GDBN} will attempt to complete using the object's
23106 @code{complete} method (see below); if no such method is found, an
23107 error will occur when completion is attempted.
23108
23109 @var{prefix} is an optional argument. If @code{True}, then the new
23110 command is a prefix command; sub-commands of this command may be
23111 registered.
23112
23113 The help text for the new command is taken from the Python
23114 documentation string for the command's class, if there is one. If no
23115 documentation string is provided, the default value ``This command is
23116 not documented.'' is used.
23117 @end defun
23118
23119 @cindex don't repeat Python command
23120 @defun Command.dont_repeat ()
23121 By default, a @value{GDBN} command is repeated when the user enters a
23122 blank line at the command prompt. A command can suppress this
23123 behavior by invoking the @code{dont_repeat} method. This is similar
23124 to the user command @code{dont-repeat}, see @ref{Define, dont-repeat}.
23125 @end defun
23126
23127 @defun Command.invoke (argument, from_tty)
23128 This method is called by @value{GDBN} when this command is invoked.
23129
23130 @var{argument} is a string. It is the argument to the command, after
23131 leading and trailing whitespace has been stripped.
23132
23133 @var{from_tty} is a boolean argument. When true, this means that the
23134 command was entered by the user at the terminal; when false it means
23135 that the command came from elsewhere.
23136
23137 If this method throws an exception, it is turned into a @value{GDBN}
23138 @code{error} call. Otherwise, the return value is ignored.
23139
23140 @findex gdb.string_to_argv
23141 To break @var{argument} up into an argv-like string use
23142 @code{gdb.string_to_argv}. This function behaves identically to
23143 @value{GDBN}'s internal argument lexer @code{buildargv}.
23144 It is recommended to use this for consistency.
23145 Arguments are separated by spaces and may be quoted.
23146 Example:
23147
23148 @smallexample
23149 print gdb.string_to_argv ("1 2\ \\\"3 '4 \"5' \"6 '7\"")
23150 ['1', '2 "3', '4 "5', "6 '7"]
23151 @end smallexample
23152
23153 @end defun
23154
23155 @cindex completion of Python commands
23156 @defun Command.complete (text, word)
23157 This method is called by @value{GDBN} when the user attempts
23158 completion on this command. All forms of completion are handled by
23159 this method, that is, the @key{TAB} and @key{M-?} key bindings
23160 (@pxref{Completion}), and the @code{complete} command (@pxref{Help,
23161 complete}).
23162
23163 The arguments @var{text} and @var{word} are both strings. @var{text}
23164 holds the complete command line up to the cursor's location.
23165 @var{word} holds the last word of the command line; this is computed
23166 using a word-breaking heuristic.
23167
23168 The @code{complete} method can return several values:
23169 @itemize @bullet
23170 @item
23171 If the return value is a sequence, the contents of the sequence are
23172 used as the completions. It is up to @code{complete} to ensure that the
23173 contents actually do complete the word. A zero-length sequence is
23174 allowed, it means that there were no completions available. Only
23175 string elements of the sequence are used; other elements in the
23176 sequence are ignored.
23177
23178 @item
23179 If the return value is one of the @samp{COMPLETE_} constants defined
23180 below, then the corresponding @value{GDBN}-internal completion
23181 function is invoked, and its result is used.
23182
23183 @item
23184 All other results are treated as though there were no available
23185 completions.
23186 @end itemize
23187 @end defun
23188
23189 When a new command is registered, it must be declared as a member of
23190 some general class of commands. This is used to classify top-level
23191 commands in the on-line help system; note that prefix commands are not
23192 listed under their own category but rather that of their top-level
23193 command. The available classifications are represented by constants
23194 defined in the @code{gdb} module:
23195
23196 @table @code
23197 @findex COMMAND_NONE
23198 @findex gdb.COMMAND_NONE
23199 @item gdb.COMMAND_NONE
23200 The command does not belong to any particular class. A command in
23201 this category will not be displayed in any of the help categories.
23202
23203 @findex COMMAND_RUNNING
23204 @findex gdb.COMMAND_RUNNING
23205 @item gdb.COMMAND_RUNNING
23206 The command is related to running the inferior. For example,
23207 @code{start}, @code{step}, and @code{continue} are in this category.
23208 Type @kbd{help running} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of
23209 commands in this category.
23210
23211 @findex COMMAND_DATA
23212 @findex gdb.COMMAND_DATA
23213 @item gdb.COMMAND_DATA
23214 The command is related to data or variables. For example,
23215 @code{call}, @code{find}, and @code{print} are in this category. Type
23216 @kbd{help data} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of commands
23217 in this category.
23218
23219 @findex COMMAND_STACK
23220 @findex gdb.COMMAND_STACK
23221 @item gdb.COMMAND_STACK
23222 The command has to do with manipulation of the stack. For example,
23223 @code{backtrace}, @code{frame}, and @code{return} are in this
23224 category. Type @kbd{help stack} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a
23225 list of commands in this category.
23226
23227 @findex COMMAND_FILES
23228 @findex gdb.COMMAND_FILES
23229 @item gdb.COMMAND_FILES
23230 This class is used for file-related commands. For example,
23231 @code{file}, @code{list} and @code{section} are in this category.
23232 Type @kbd{help files} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of
23233 commands in this category.
23234
23235 @findex COMMAND_SUPPORT
23236 @findex gdb.COMMAND_SUPPORT
23237 @item gdb.COMMAND_SUPPORT
23238 This should be used for ``support facilities'', generally meaning
23239 things that are useful to the user when interacting with @value{GDBN},
23240 but not related to the state of the inferior. For example,
23241 @code{help}, @code{make}, and @code{shell} are in this category. Type
23242 @kbd{help support} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of
23243 commands in this category.
23244
23245 @findex COMMAND_STATUS
23246 @findex gdb.COMMAND_STATUS
23247 @item gdb.COMMAND_STATUS
23248 The command is an @samp{info}-related command, that is, related to the
23249 state of @value{GDBN} itself. For example, @code{info}, @code{macro},
23250 and @code{show} are in this category. Type @kbd{help status} at the
23251 @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
23252
23253 @findex COMMAND_BREAKPOINTS
23254 @findex gdb.COMMAND_BREAKPOINTS
23255 @item gdb.COMMAND_BREAKPOINTS
23256 The command has to do with breakpoints. For example, @code{break},
23257 @code{clear}, and @code{delete} are in this category. Type @kbd{help
23258 breakpoints} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of commands in
23259 this category.
23260
23261 @findex COMMAND_TRACEPOINTS
23262 @findex gdb.COMMAND_TRACEPOINTS
23263 @item gdb.COMMAND_TRACEPOINTS
23264 The command has to do with tracepoints. For example, @code{trace},
23265 @code{actions}, and @code{tfind} are in this category. Type
23266 @kbd{help tracepoints} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of
23267 commands in this category.
23268
23269 @findex COMMAND_OBSCURE
23270 @findex gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE
23271 @item gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE
23272 The command is only used in unusual circumstances, or is not of
23273 general interest to users. For example, @code{checkpoint},
23274 @code{fork}, and @code{stop} are in this category. Type @kbd{help
23275 obscure} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of commands in this
23276 category.
23277
23278 @findex COMMAND_MAINTENANCE
23279 @findex gdb.COMMAND_MAINTENANCE
23280 @item gdb.COMMAND_MAINTENANCE
23281 The command is only useful to @value{GDBN} maintainers. The
23282 @code{maintenance} and @code{flushregs} commands are in this category.
23283 Type @kbd{help internals} at the @value{GDBN} prompt to see a list of
23284 commands in this category.
23285 @end table
23286
23287 A new command can use a predefined completion function, either by
23288 specifying it via an argument at initialization, or by returning it
23289 from the @code{complete} method. These predefined completion
23290 constants are all defined in the @code{gdb} module:
23291
23292 @table @code
23293 @findex COMPLETE_NONE
23294 @findex gdb.COMPLETE_NONE
23295 @item gdb.COMPLETE_NONE
23296 This constant means that no completion should be done.
23297
23298 @findex COMPLETE_FILENAME
23299 @findex gdb.COMPLETE_FILENAME
23300 @item gdb.COMPLETE_FILENAME
23301 This constant means that filename completion should be performed.
23302
23303 @findex COMPLETE_LOCATION
23304 @findex gdb.COMPLETE_LOCATION
23305 @item gdb.COMPLETE_LOCATION
23306 This constant means that location completion should be done.
23307 @xref{Specify Location}.
23308
23309 @findex COMPLETE_COMMAND
23310 @findex gdb.COMPLETE_COMMAND
23311 @item gdb.COMPLETE_COMMAND
23312 This constant means that completion should examine @value{GDBN}
23313 command names.
23314
23315 @findex COMPLETE_SYMBOL
23316 @findex gdb.COMPLETE_SYMBOL
23317 @item gdb.COMPLETE_SYMBOL
23318 This constant means that completion should be done using symbol names
23319 as the source.
23320 @end table
23321
23322 The following code snippet shows how a trivial CLI command can be
23323 implemented in Python:
23324
23325 @smallexample
23326 class HelloWorld (gdb.Command):
23327 """Greet the whole world."""
23328
23329 def __init__ (self):
23330 super (HelloWorld, self).__init__ ("hello-world", gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE)
23331
23332 def invoke (self, arg, from_tty):
23333 print "Hello, World!"
23334
23335 HelloWorld ()
23336 @end smallexample
23337
23338 The last line instantiates the class, and is necessary to trigger the
23339 registration of the command with @value{GDBN}. Depending on how the
23340 Python code is read into @value{GDBN}, you may need to import the
23341 @code{gdb} module explicitly.
23342
23343 @node Parameters In Python
23344 @subsubsection Parameters In Python
23345
23346 @cindex parameters in python
23347 @cindex python parameters
23348 @tindex gdb.Parameter
23349 @tindex Parameter
23350 You can implement new @value{GDBN} parameters using Python. A new
23351 parameter is implemented as an instance of the @code{gdb.Parameter}
23352 class.
23353
23354 Parameters are exposed to the user via the @code{set} and
23355 @code{show} commands. @xref{Help}.
23356
23357 There are many parameters that already exist and can be set in
23358 @value{GDBN}. Two examples are: @code{set follow fork} and
23359 @code{set charset}. Setting these parameters influences certain
23360 behavior in @value{GDBN}. Similarly, you can define parameters that
23361 can be used to influence behavior in custom Python scripts and commands.
23362
23363 @defun Parameter.__init__ (name, @var{command-class}, @var{parameter-class} @r{[}, @var{enum-sequence}@r{]})
23364 The object initializer for @code{Parameter} registers the new
23365 parameter with @value{GDBN}. This initializer is normally invoked
23366 from the subclass' own @code{__init__} method.
23367
23368 @var{name} is the name of the new parameter. If @var{name} consists
23369 of multiple words, then the initial words are looked for as prefix
23370 parameters. An example of this can be illustrated with the
23371 @code{set print} set of parameters. If @var{name} is
23372 @code{print foo}, then @code{print} will be searched as the prefix
23373 parameter. In this case the parameter can subsequently be accessed in
23374 @value{GDBN} as @code{set print foo}.
23375
23376 If @var{name} consists of multiple words, and no prefix parameter group
23377 can be found, an exception is raised.
23378
23379 @var{command-class} should be one of the @samp{COMMAND_} constants
23380 (@pxref{Commands In Python}). This argument tells @value{GDBN} how to
23381 categorize the new parameter in the help system.
23382
23383 @var{parameter-class} should be one of the @samp{PARAM_} constants
23384 defined below. This argument tells @value{GDBN} the type of the new
23385 parameter; this information is used for input validation and
23386 completion.
23387
23388 If @var{parameter-class} is @code{PARAM_ENUM}, then
23389 @var{enum-sequence} must be a sequence of strings. These strings
23390 represent the possible values for the parameter.
23391
23392 If @var{parameter-class} is not @code{PARAM_ENUM}, then the presence
23393 of a fourth argument will cause an exception to be thrown.
23394
23395 The help text for the new parameter is taken from the Python
23396 documentation string for the parameter's class, if there is one. If
23397 there is no documentation string, a default value is used.
23398 @end defun
23399
23400 @defvar Parameter.set_doc
23401 If this attribute exists, and is a string, then its value is used as
23402 the help text for this parameter's @code{set} command. The value is
23403 examined when @code{Parameter.__init__} is invoked; subsequent changes
23404 have no effect.
23405 @end defvar
23406
23407 @defvar Parameter.show_doc
23408 If this attribute exists, and is a string, then its value is used as
23409 the help text for this parameter's @code{show} command. The value is
23410 examined when @code{Parameter.__init__} is invoked; subsequent changes
23411 have no effect.
23412 @end defvar
23413
23414 @defvar Parameter.value
23415 The @code{value} attribute holds the underlying value of the
23416 parameter. It can be read and assigned to just as any other
23417 attribute. @value{GDBN} does validation when assignments are made.
23418 @end defvar
23419
23420 There are two methods that should be implemented in any
23421 @code{Parameter} class. These are:
23422
23423 @defun Parameter.get_set_string (self)
23424 @value{GDBN} will call this method when a @var{parameter}'s value has
23425 been changed via the @code{set} API (for example, @kbd{set foo off}).
23426 The @code{value} attribute has already been populated with the new
23427 value and may be used in output. This method must return a string.
23428 @end defun
23429
23430 @defun Parameter.get_show_string (self, svalue)
23431 @value{GDBN} will call this method when a @var{parameter}'s
23432 @code{show} API has been invoked (for example, @kbd{show foo}). The
23433 argument @code{svalue} receives the string representation of the
23434 current value. This method must return a string.
23435 @end defun
23436
23437 When a new parameter is defined, its type must be specified. The
23438 available types are represented by constants defined in the @code{gdb}
23439 module:
23440
23441 @table @code
23442 @findex PARAM_BOOLEAN
23443 @findex gdb.PARAM_BOOLEAN
23444 @item gdb.PARAM_BOOLEAN
23445 The value is a plain boolean. The Python boolean values, @code{True}
23446 and @code{False} are the only valid values.
23447
23448 @findex PARAM_AUTO_BOOLEAN
23449 @findex gdb.PARAM_AUTO_BOOLEAN
23450 @item gdb.PARAM_AUTO_BOOLEAN
23451 The value has three possible states: true, false, and @samp{auto}. In
23452 Python, true and false are represented using boolean constants, and
23453 @samp{auto} is represented using @code{None}.
23454
23455 @findex PARAM_UINTEGER
23456 @findex gdb.PARAM_UINTEGER
23457 @item gdb.PARAM_UINTEGER
23458 The value is an unsigned integer. The value of 0 should be
23459 interpreted to mean ``unlimited''.
23460
23461 @findex PARAM_INTEGER
23462 @findex gdb.PARAM_INTEGER
23463 @item gdb.PARAM_INTEGER
23464 The value is a signed integer. The value of 0 should be interpreted
23465 to mean ``unlimited''.
23466
23467 @findex PARAM_STRING
23468 @findex gdb.PARAM_STRING
23469 @item gdb.PARAM_STRING
23470 The value is a string. When the user modifies the string, any escape
23471 sequences, such as @samp{\t}, @samp{\f}, and octal escapes, are
23472 translated into corresponding characters and encoded into the current
23473 host charset.
23474
23475 @findex PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE
23476 @findex gdb.PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE
23477 @item gdb.PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE
23478 The value is a string. When the user modifies the string, escapes are
23479 passed through untranslated.
23480
23481 @findex PARAM_OPTIONAL_FILENAME
23482 @findex gdb.PARAM_OPTIONAL_FILENAME
23483 @item gdb.PARAM_OPTIONAL_FILENAME
23484 The value is a either a filename (a string), or @code{None}.
23485
23486 @findex PARAM_FILENAME
23487 @findex gdb.PARAM_FILENAME
23488 @item gdb.PARAM_FILENAME
23489 The value is a filename. This is just like
23490 @code{PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE}, but uses file names for completion.
23491
23492 @findex PARAM_ZINTEGER
23493 @findex gdb.PARAM_ZINTEGER
23494 @item gdb.PARAM_ZINTEGER
23495 The value is an integer. This is like @code{PARAM_INTEGER}, except 0
23496 is interpreted as itself.
23497
23498 @findex PARAM_ENUM
23499 @findex gdb.PARAM_ENUM
23500 @item gdb.PARAM_ENUM
23501 The value is a string, which must be one of a collection string
23502 constants provided when the parameter is created.
23503 @end table
23504
23505 @node Functions In Python
23506 @subsubsection Writing new convenience functions
23507
23508 @cindex writing convenience functions
23509 @cindex convenience functions in python
23510 @cindex python convenience functions
23511 @tindex gdb.Function
23512 @tindex Function
23513 You can implement new convenience functions (@pxref{Convenience Vars})
23514 in Python. A convenience function is an instance of a subclass of the
23515 class @code{gdb.Function}.
23516
23517 @defun Function.__init__ (name)
23518 The initializer for @code{Function} registers the new function with
23519 @value{GDBN}. The argument @var{name} is the name of the function,
23520 a string. The function will be visible to the user as a convenience
23521 variable of type @code{internal function}, whose name is the same as
23522 the given @var{name}.
23523
23524 The documentation for the new function is taken from the documentation
23525 string for the new class.
23526 @end defun
23527
23528 @defun Function.invoke (@var{*args})
23529 When a convenience function is evaluated, its arguments are converted
23530 to instances of @code{gdb.Value}, and then the function's
23531 @code{invoke} method is called. Note that @value{GDBN} does not
23532 predetermine the arity of convenience functions. Instead, all
23533 available arguments are passed to @code{invoke}, following the
23534 standard Python calling convention. In particular, a convenience
23535 function can have default values for parameters without ill effect.
23536
23537 The return value of this method is used as its value in the enclosing
23538 expression. If an ordinary Python value is returned, it is converted
23539 to a @code{gdb.Value} following the usual rules.
23540 @end defun
23541
23542 The following code snippet shows how a trivial convenience function can
23543 be implemented in Python:
23544
23545 @smallexample
23546 class Greet (gdb.Function):
23547 """Return string to greet someone.
23548 Takes a name as argument."""
23549
23550 def __init__ (self):
23551 super (Greet, self).__init__ ("greet")
23552
23553 def invoke (self, name):
23554 return "Hello, %s!" % name.string ()
23555
23556 Greet ()
23557 @end smallexample
23558
23559 The last line instantiates the class, and is necessary to trigger the
23560 registration of the function with @value{GDBN}. Depending on how the
23561 Python code is read into @value{GDBN}, you may need to import the
23562 @code{gdb} module explicitly.
23563
23564 @node Progspaces In Python
23565 @subsubsection Program Spaces In Python
23566
23567 @cindex progspaces in python
23568 @tindex gdb.Progspace
23569 @tindex Progspace
23570 A program space, or @dfn{progspace}, represents a symbolic view
23571 of an address space.
23572 It consists of all of the objfiles of the program.
23573 @xref{Objfiles In Python}.
23574 @xref{Inferiors and Programs, program spaces}, for more details
23575 about program spaces.
23576
23577 The following progspace-related functions are available in the
23578 @code{gdb} module:
23579
23580 @findex gdb.current_progspace
23581 @defun gdb.current_progspace ()
23582 This function returns the program space of the currently selected inferior.
23583 @xref{Inferiors and Programs}.
23584 @end defun
23585
23586 @findex gdb.progspaces
23587 @defun gdb.progspaces ()
23588 Return a sequence of all the progspaces currently known to @value{GDBN}.
23589 @end defun
23590
23591 Each progspace is represented by an instance of the @code{gdb.Progspace}
23592 class.
23593
23594 @defvar Progspace.filename
23595 The file name of the progspace as a string.
23596 @end defvar
23597
23598 @defvar Progspace.pretty_printers
23599 The @code{pretty_printers} attribute is a list of functions. It is
23600 used to look up pretty-printers. A @code{Value} is passed to each
23601 function in order; if the function returns @code{None}, then the
23602 search continues. Otherwise, the return value should be an object
23603 which is used to format the value. @xref{Pretty Printing API}, for more
23604 information.
23605 @end defvar
23606
23607 @node Objfiles In Python
23608 @subsubsection Objfiles In Python
23609
23610 @cindex objfiles in python
23611 @tindex gdb.Objfile
23612 @tindex Objfile
23613 @value{GDBN} loads symbols for an inferior from various
23614 symbol-containing files (@pxref{Files}). These include the primary
23615 executable file, any shared libraries used by the inferior, and any
23616 separate debug info files (@pxref{Separate Debug Files}).
23617 @value{GDBN} calls these symbol-containing files @dfn{objfiles}.
23618
23619 The following objfile-related functions are available in the
23620 @code{gdb} module:
23621
23622 @findex gdb.current_objfile
23623 @defun gdb.current_objfile ()
23624 When auto-loading a Python script (@pxref{Auto-loading}), @value{GDBN}
23625 sets the ``current objfile'' to the corresponding objfile. This
23626 function returns the current objfile. If there is no current objfile,
23627 this function returns @code{None}.
23628 @end defun
23629
23630 @findex gdb.objfiles
23631 @defun gdb.objfiles ()
23632 Return a sequence of all the objfiles current known to @value{GDBN}.
23633 @xref{Objfiles In Python}.
23634 @end defun
23635
23636 Each objfile is represented by an instance of the @code{gdb.Objfile}
23637 class.
23638
23639 @defvar Objfile.filename
23640 The file name of the objfile as a string.
23641 @end defvar
23642
23643 @defvar Objfile.pretty_printers
23644 The @code{pretty_printers} attribute is a list of functions. It is
23645 used to look up pretty-printers. A @code{Value} is passed to each
23646 function in order; if the function returns @code{None}, then the
23647 search continues. Otherwise, the return value should be an object
23648 which is used to format the value. @xref{Pretty Printing API}, for more
23649 information.
23650 @end defvar
23651
23652 A @code{gdb.Objfile} object has the following methods:
23653
23654 @defun Objfile.is_valid ()
23655 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Objfile} object is valid,
23656 @code{False} if not. A @code{gdb.Objfile} object can become invalid
23657 if the object file it refers to is not loaded in @value{GDBN} any
23658 longer. All other @code{gdb.Objfile} methods will throw an exception
23659 if it is invalid at the time the method is called.
23660 @end defun
23661
23662 @node Frames In Python
23663 @subsubsection Accessing inferior stack frames from Python.
23664
23665 @cindex frames in python
23666 When the debugged program stops, @value{GDBN} is able to analyze its call
23667 stack (@pxref{Frames,,Stack frames}). The @code{gdb.Frame} class
23668 represents a frame in the stack. A @code{gdb.Frame} object is only valid
23669 while its corresponding frame exists in the inferior's stack. If you try
23670 to use an invalid frame object, @value{GDBN} will throw a @code{gdb.error}
23671 exception (@pxref{Exception Handling}).
23672
23673 Two @code{gdb.Frame} objects can be compared for equality with the @code{==}
23674 operator, like:
23675
23676 @smallexample
23677 (@value{GDBP}) python print gdb.newest_frame() == gdb.selected_frame ()
23678 True
23679 @end smallexample
23680
23681 The following frame-related functions are available in the @code{gdb} module:
23682
23683 @findex gdb.selected_frame
23684 @defun gdb.selected_frame ()
23685 Return the selected frame object. (@pxref{Selection,,Selecting a Frame}).
23686 @end defun
23687
23688 @findex gdb.newest_frame
23689 @defun gdb.newest_frame ()
23690 Return the newest frame object for the selected thread.
23691 @end defun
23692
23693 @defun gdb.frame_stop_reason_string (reason)
23694 Return a string explaining the reason why @value{GDBN} stopped unwinding
23695 frames, as expressed by the given @var{reason} code (an integer, see the
23696 @code{unwind_stop_reason} method further down in this section).
23697 @end defun
23698
23699 A @code{gdb.Frame} object has the following methods:
23700
23701 @table @code
23702 @defun Frame.is_valid ()
23703 Returns true if the @code{gdb.Frame} object is valid, false if not.
23704 A frame object can become invalid if the frame it refers to doesn't
23705 exist anymore in the inferior. All @code{gdb.Frame} methods will throw
23706 an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is called.
23707 @end defun
23708
23709 @defun Frame.name ()
23710 Returns the function name of the frame, or @code{None} if it can't be
23711 obtained.
23712 @end defun
23713
23714 @defun Frame.type ()
23715 Returns the type of the frame. The value can be one of:
23716 @table @code
23717 @item gdb.NORMAL_FRAME
23718 An ordinary stack frame.
23719
23720 @item gdb.DUMMY_FRAME
23721 A fake stack frame that was created by @value{GDBN} when performing an
23722 inferior function call.
23723
23724 @item gdb.INLINE_FRAME
23725 A frame representing an inlined function. The function was inlined
23726 into a @code{gdb.NORMAL_FRAME} that is older than this one.
23727
23728 @item gdb.TAILCALL_FRAME
23729 A frame representing a tail call. @xref{Tail Call Frames}.
23730
23731 @item gdb.SIGTRAMP_FRAME
23732 A signal trampoline frame. This is the frame created by the OS when
23733 it calls into a signal handler.
23734
23735 @item gdb.ARCH_FRAME
23736 A fake stack frame representing a cross-architecture call.
23737
23738 @item gdb.SENTINEL_FRAME
23739 This is like @code{gdb.NORMAL_FRAME}, but it is only used for the
23740 newest frame.
23741 @end table
23742 @end defun
23743
23744 @defun Frame.unwind_stop_reason ()
23745 Return an integer representing the reason why it's not possible to find
23746 more frames toward the outermost frame. Use
23747 @code{gdb.frame_stop_reason_string} to convert the value returned by this
23748 function to a string. The value can be one of:
23749
23750 @table @code
23751 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_NO_REASON
23752 No particular reason (older frames should be available).
23753
23754 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_NULL_ID
23755 The previous frame's analyzer returns an invalid result.
23756
23757 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_OUTERMOST
23758 This frame is the outermost.
23759
23760 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_UNAVAILABLE
23761 Cannot unwind further, because that would require knowing the
23762 values of registers or memory that have not been collected.
23763
23764 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_INNER_ID
23765 This frame ID looks like it ought to belong to a NEXT frame,
23766 but we got it for a PREV frame. Normally, this is a sign of
23767 unwinder failure. It could also indicate stack corruption.
23768
23769 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_SAME_ID
23770 This frame has the same ID as the previous one. That means
23771 that unwinding further would almost certainly give us another
23772 frame with exactly the same ID, so break the chain. Normally,
23773 this is a sign of unwinder failure. It could also indicate
23774 stack corruption.
23775
23776 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_NO_SAVED_PC
23777 The frame unwinder did not find any saved PC, but we needed
23778 one to unwind further.
23779
23780 @item gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_FIRST_ERROR
23781 Any stop reason greater or equal to this value indicates some kind
23782 of error. This special value facilitates writing code that tests
23783 for errors in unwinding in a way that will work correctly even if
23784 the list of the other values is modified in future @value{GDBN}
23785 versions. Using it, you could write:
23786 @smallexample
23787 reason = gdb.selected_frame().unwind_stop_reason ()
23788 reason_str = gdb.frame_stop_reason_string (reason)
23789 if reason >= gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_FIRST_ERROR:
23790 print "An error occured: %s" % reason_str
23791 @end smallexample
23792 @end table
23793
23794 @end defun
23795
23796 @defun Frame.pc ()
23797 Returns the frame's resume address.
23798 @end defun
23799
23800 @defun Frame.block ()
23801 Return the frame's code block. @xref{Blocks In Python}.
23802 @end defun
23803
23804 @defun Frame.function ()
23805 Return the symbol for the function corresponding to this frame.
23806 @xref{Symbols In Python}.
23807 @end defun
23808
23809 @defun Frame.older ()
23810 Return the frame that called this frame.
23811 @end defun
23812
23813 @defun Frame.newer ()
23814 Return the frame called by this frame.
23815 @end defun
23816
23817 @defun Frame.find_sal ()
23818 Return the frame's symtab and line object.
23819 @xref{Symbol Tables In Python}.
23820 @end defun
23821
23822 @defun Frame.read_var (variable @r{[}, block@r{]})
23823 Return the value of @var{variable} in this frame. If the optional
23824 argument @var{block} is provided, search for the variable from that
23825 block; otherwise start at the frame's current block (which is
23826 determined by the frame's current program counter). @var{variable}
23827 must be a string or a @code{gdb.Symbol} object. @var{block} must be a
23828 @code{gdb.Block} object.
23829 @end defun
23830
23831 @defun Frame.select ()
23832 Set this frame to be the selected frame. @xref{Stack, ,Examining the
23833 Stack}.
23834 @end defun
23835 @end table
23836
23837 @node Blocks In Python
23838 @subsubsection Accessing frame blocks from Python.
23839
23840 @cindex blocks in python
23841 @tindex gdb.Block
23842
23843 Within each frame, @value{GDBN} maintains information on each block
23844 stored in that frame. These blocks are organized hierarchically, and
23845 are represented individually in Python as a @code{gdb.Block}.
23846 Please see @ref{Frames In Python}, for a more in-depth discussion on
23847 frames. Furthermore, see @ref{Stack, ,Examining the Stack}, for more
23848 detailed technical information on @value{GDBN}'s book-keeping of the
23849 stack.
23850
23851 The following block-related functions are available in the @code{gdb}
23852 module:
23853
23854 @findex gdb.block_for_pc
23855 @defun gdb.block_for_pc (pc)
23856 Return the @code{gdb.Block} containing the given @var{pc} value. If the
23857 block cannot be found for the @var{pc} value specified, the function
23858 will return @code{None}.
23859 @end defun
23860
23861 A @code{gdb.Block} object has the following methods:
23862
23863 @table @code
23864 @defun Block.is_valid ()
23865 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Block} object is valid,
23866 @code{False} if not. A block object can become invalid if the block it
23867 refers to doesn't exist anymore in the inferior. All other
23868 @code{gdb.Block} methods will throw an exception if it is invalid at
23869 the time the method is called. This method is also made available to
23870 the Python iterator object that @code{gdb.Block} provides in an iteration
23871 context and via the Python @code{iter} built-in function.
23872 @end defun
23873 @end table
23874
23875 A @code{gdb.Block} object has the following attributes:
23876
23877 @table @code
23878 @defvar Block.start
23879 The start address of the block. This attribute is not writable.
23880 @end defvar
23881
23882 @defvar Block.end
23883 The end address of the block. This attribute is not writable.
23884 @end defvar
23885
23886 @defvar Block.function
23887 The name of the block represented as a @code{gdb.Symbol}. If the
23888 block is not named, then this attribute holds @code{None}. This
23889 attribute is not writable.
23890 @end defvar
23891
23892 @defvar Block.superblock
23893 The block containing this block. If this parent block does not exist,
23894 this attribute holds @code{None}. This attribute is not writable.
23895 @end defvar
23896
23897 @defvar Block.global_block
23898 The global block associated with this block. This attribute is not
23899 writable.
23900 @end defvar
23901
23902 @defvar Block.static_block
23903 The static block associated with this block. This attribute is not
23904 writable.
23905 @end defvar
23906
23907 @defvar Block.is_global
23908 @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Block} object is a global block,
23909 @code{False} if not. This attribute is not
23910 writable.
23911 @end defvar
23912
23913 @defvar Block.is_static
23914 @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Block} object is a static block,
23915 @code{False} if not. This attribute is not writable.
23916 @end defvar
23917 @end table
23918
23919 @node Symbols In Python
23920 @subsubsection Python representation of Symbols.
23921
23922 @cindex symbols in python
23923 @tindex gdb.Symbol
23924
23925 @value{GDBN} represents every variable, function and type as an
23926 entry in a symbol table. @xref{Symbols, ,Examining the Symbol Table}.
23927 Similarly, Python represents these symbols in @value{GDBN} with the
23928 @code{gdb.Symbol} object.
23929
23930 The following symbol-related functions are available in the @code{gdb}
23931 module:
23932
23933 @findex gdb.lookup_symbol
23934 @defun gdb.lookup_symbol (name @r{[}, block @r{[}, domain@r{]]})
23935 This function searches for a symbol by name. The search scope can be
23936 restricted to the parameters defined in the optional domain and block
23937 arguments.
23938
23939 @var{name} is the name of the symbol. It must be a string. The
23940 optional @var{block} argument restricts the search to symbols visible
23941 in that @var{block}. The @var{block} argument must be a
23942 @code{gdb.Block} object. If omitted, the block for the current frame
23943 is used. The optional @var{domain} argument restricts
23944 the search to the domain type. The @var{domain} argument must be a
23945 domain constant defined in the @code{gdb} module and described later
23946 in this chapter.
23947
23948 The result is a tuple of two elements.
23949 The first element is a @code{gdb.Symbol} object or @code{None} if the symbol
23950 is not found.
23951 If the symbol is found, the second element is @code{True} if the symbol
23952 is a field of a method's object (e.g., @code{this} in C@t{++}),
23953 otherwise it is @code{False}.
23954 If the symbol is not found, the second element is @code{False}.
23955 @end defun
23956
23957 @findex gdb.lookup_global_symbol
23958 @defun gdb.lookup_global_symbol (name @r{[}, domain@r{]})
23959 This function searches for a global symbol by name.
23960 The search scope can be restricted to by the domain argument.
23961
23962 @var{name} is the name of the symbol. It must be a string.
23963 The optional @var{domain} argument restricts the search to the domain type.
23964 The @var{domain} argument must be a domain constant defined in the @code{gdb}
23965 module and described later in this chapter.
23966
23967 The result is a @code{gdb.Symbol} object or @code{None} if the symbol
23968 is not found.
23969 @end defun
23970
23971 A @code{gdb.Symbol} object has the following attributes:
23972
23973 @table @code
23974 @defvar Symbol.type
23975 The type of the symbol or @code{None} if no type is recorded.
23976 This attribute is represented as a @code{gdb.Type} object.
23977 @xref{Types In Python}. This attribute is not writable.
23978 @end defvar
23979
23980 @defvar Symbol.symtab
23981 The symbol table in which the symbol appears. This attribute is
23982 represented as a @code{gdb.Symtab} object. @xref{Symbol Tables In
23983 Python}. This attribute is not writable.
23984 @end defvar
23985
23986 @defvar Symbol.line
23987 The line number in the source code at which the symbol was defined.
23988 This is an integer.
23989 @end defvar
23990
23991 @defvar Symbol.name
23992 The name of the symbol as a string. This attribute is not writable.
23993 @end defvar
23994
23995 @defvar Symbol.linkage_name
23996 The name of the symbol, as used by the linker (i.e., may be mangled).
23997 This attribute is not writable.
23998 @end defvar
23999
24000 @defvar Symbol.print_name
24001 The name of the symbol in a form suitable for output. This is either
24002 @code{name} or @code{linkage_name}, depending on whether the user
24003 asked @value{GDBN} to display demangled or mangled names.
24004 @end defvar
24005
24006 @defvar Symbol.addr_class
24007 The address class of the symbol. This classifies how to find the value
24008 of a symbol. Each address class is a constant defined in the
24009 @code{gdb} module and described later in this chapter.
24010 @end defvar
24011
24012 @defvar Symbol.needs_frame
24013 This is @code{True} if evaluating this symbol's value requires a frame
24014 (@pxref{Frames In Python}) and @code{False} otherwise. Typically,
24015 local variables will require a frame, but other symbols will not.
24016 @end defvar
24017
24018 @defvar Symbol.is_argument
24019 @code{True} if the symbol is an argument of a function.
24020 @end defvar
24021
24022 @defvar Symbol.is_constant
24023 @code{True} if the symbol is a constant.
24024 @end defvar
24025
24026 @defvar Symbol.is_function
24027 @code{True} if the symbol is a function or a method.
24028 @end defvar
24029
24030 @defvar Symbol.is_variable
24031 @code{True} if the symbol is a variable.
24032 @end defvar
24033 @end table
24034
24035 A @code{gdb.Symbol} object has the following methods:
24036
24037 @table @code
24038 @defun Symbol.is_valid ()
24039 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Symbol} object is valid,
24040 @code{False} if not. A @code{gdb.Symbol} object can become invalid if
24041 the symbol it refers to does not exist in @value{GDBN} any longer.
24042 All other @code{gdb.Symbol} methods will throw an exception if it is
24043 invalid at the time the method is called.
24044 @end defun
24045
24046 @defun Symbol.value (@r{[}frame@r{]})
24047 Compute the value of the symbol, as a @code{gdb.Value}. For
24048 functions, this computes the address of the function, cast to the
24049 appropriate type. If the symbol requires a frame in order to compute
24050 its value, then @var{frame} must be given. If @var{frame} is not
24051 given, or if @var{frame} is invalid, then this method will throw an
24052 exception.
24053 @end defun
24054 @end table
24055
24056 The available domain categories in @code{gdb.Symbol} are represented
24057 as constants in the @code{gdb} module:
24058
24059 @table @code
24060 @findex SYMBOL_UNDEF_DOMAIN
24061 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_UNDEF_DOMAIN
24062 @item gdb.SYMBOL_UNDEF_DOMAIN
24063 This is used when a domain has not been discovered or none of the
24064 following domains apply. This usually indicates an error either
24065 in the symbol information or in @value{GDBN}'s handling of symbols.
24066 @findex SYMBOL_VAR_DOMAIN
24067 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_VAR_DOMAIN
24068 @item gdb.SYMBOL_VAR_DOMAIN
24069 This domain contains variables, function names, typedef names and enum
24070 type values.
24071 @findex SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN
24072 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN
24073 @item gdb.SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN
24074 This domain holds struct, union and enum type names.
24075 @findex SYMBOL_LABEL_DOMAIN
24076 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LABEL_DOMAIN
24077 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LABEL_DOMAIN
24078 This domain contains names of labels (for gotos).
24079 @findex SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN
24080 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN
24081 @item gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN
24082 This domain holds a subset of the @code{SYMBOLS_VAR_DOMAIN}; it
24083 contains everything minus functions and types.
24084 @findex SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN
24085 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTIONS_DOMAIN
24086 @item gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN
24087 This domain contains all functions.
24088 @findex SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN
24089 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN
24090 @item gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN
24091 This domain contains all types.
24092 @end table
24093
24094 The available address class categories in @code{gdb.Symbol} are represented
24095 as constants in the @code{gdb} module:
24096
24097 @table @code
24098 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_UNDEF
24099 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_UNDEF
24100 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_UNDEF
24101 If this is returned by address class, it indicates an error either in
24102 the symbol information or in @value{GDBN}'s handling of symbols.
24103 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_CONST
24104 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_CONST
24105 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_CONST
24106 Value is constant int.
24107 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_STATIC
24108 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_STATIC
24109 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_STATIC
24110 Value is at a fixed address.
24111 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_REGISTER
24112 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REGISTER
24113 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REGISTER
24114 Value is in a register.
24115 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_ARG
24116 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_ARG
24117 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_ARG
24118 Value is an argument. This value is at the offset stored within the
24119 symbol inside the frame's argument list.
24120 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_REF_ARG
24121 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REF_ARG
24122 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REF_ARG
24123 Value address is stored in the frame's argument list. Just like
24124 @code{LOC_ARG} except that the value's address is stored at the
24125 offset, not the value itself.
24126 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_REGPARM_ADDR
24127 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REGPARM_ADDR
24128 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REGPARM_ADDR
24129 Value is a specified register. Just like @code{LOC_REGISTER} except
24130 the register holds the address of the argument instead of the argument
24131 itself.
24132 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_LOCAL
24133 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_LOCAL
24134 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_LOCAL
24135 Value is a local variable.
24136 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_TYPEDEF
24137 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_TYPEDEF
24138 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_TYPEDEF
24139 Value not used. Symbols in the domain @code{SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN} all
24140 have this class.
24141 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_BLOCK
24142 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_BLOCK
24143 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_BLOCK
24144 Value is a block.
24145 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_CONST_BYTES
24146 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_CONST_BYTES
24147 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_CONST_BYTES
24148 Value is a byte-sequence.
24149 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_UNRESOLVED
24150 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_UNRESOLVED
24151 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_UNRESOLVED
24152 Value is at a fixed address, but the address of the variable has to be
24153 determined from the minimal symbol table whenever the variable is
24154 referenced.
24155 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_OPTIMIZED_OUT
24156 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_OPTIMIZED_OUT
24157 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_OPTIMIZED_OUT
24158 The value does not actually exist in the program.
24159 @findex SYMBOL_LOC_COMPUTED
24160 @findex gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMPUTED
24161 @item gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMPUTED
24162 The value's address is a computed location.
24163 @end table
24164
24165 @node Symbol Tables In Python
24166 @subsubsection Symbol table representation in Python.
24167
24168 @cindex symbol tables in python
24169 @tindex gdb.Symtab
24170 @tindex gdb.Symtab_and_line
24171
24172 Access to symbol table data maintained by @value{GDBN} on the inferior
24173 is exposed to Python via two objects: @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line} and
24174 @code{gdb.Symtab}. Symbol table and line data for a frame is returned
24175 from the @code{find_sal} method in @code{gdb.Frame} object.
24176 @xref{Frames In Python}.
24177
24178 For more information on @value{GDBN}'s symbol table management, see
24179 @ref{Symbols, ,Examining the Symbol Table}, for more information.
24180
24181 A @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line} object has the following attributes:
24182
24183 @table @code
24184 @defvar Symtab_and_line.symtab
24185 The symbol table object (@code{gdb.Symtab}) for this frame.
24186 This attribute is not writable.
24187 @end defvar
24188
24189 @defvar Symtab_and_line.pc
24190 Indicates the current program counter address. This attribute is not
24191 writable.
24192 @end defvar
24193
24194 @defvar Symtab_and_line.line
24195 Indicates the current line number for this object. This
24196 attribute is not writable.
24197 @end defvar
24198 @end table
24199
24200 A @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line} object has the following methods:
24201
24202 @table @code
24203 @defun Symtab_and_line.is_valid ()
24204 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line} object is valid,
24205 @code{False} if not. A @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line} object can become
24206 invalid if the Symbol table and line object it refers to does not
24207 exist in @value{GDBN} any longer. All other
24208 @code{gdb.Symtab_and_line} methods will throw an exception if it is
24209 invalid at the time the method is called.
24210 @end defun
24211 @end table
24212
24213 A @code{gdb.Symtab} object has the following attributes:
24214
24215 @table @code
24216 @defvar Symtab.filename
24217 The symbol table's source filename. This attribute is not writable.
24218 @end defvar
24219
24220 @defvar Symtab.objfile
24221 The symbol table's backing object file. @xref{Objfiles In Python}.
24222 This attribute is not writable.
24223 @end defvar
24224 @end table
24225
24226 A @code{gdb.Symtab} object has the following methods:
24227
24228 @table @code
24229 @defun Symtab.is_valid ()
24230 Returns @code{True} if the @code{gdb.Symtab} object is valid,
24231 @code{False} if not. A @code{gdb.Symtab} object can become invalid if
24232 the symbol table it refers to does not exist in @value{GDBN} any
24233 longer. All other @code{gdb.Symtab} methods will throw an exception
24234 if it is invalid at the time the method is called.
24235 @end defun
24236
24237 @defun Symtab.fullname ()
24238 Return the symbol table's source absolute file name.
24239 @end defun
24240 @end table
24241
24242 @node Breakpoints In Python
24243 @subsubsection Manipulating breakpoints using Python
24244
24245 @cindex breakpoints in python
24246 @tindex gdb.Breakpoint
24247
24248 Python code can manipulate breakpoints via the @code{gdb.Breakpoint}
24249 class.
24250
24251 @defun Breakpoint.__init__ (spec @r{[}, type @r{[}, wp_class @r{[},internal@r{]]]})
24252 Create a new breakpoint. @var{spec} is a string naming the
24253 location of the breakpoint, or an expression that defines a
24254 watchpoint. The contents can be any location recognized by the
24255 @code{break} command, or in the case of a watchpoint, by the @code{watch}
24256 command. The optional @var{type} denotes the breakpoint to create
24257 from the types defined later in this chapter. This argument can be
24258 either: @code{gdb.BP_BREAKPOINT} or @code{gdb.BP_WATCHPOINT}. @var{type}
24259 defaults to @code{gdb.BP_BREAKPOINT}. The optional @var{internal} argument
24260 allows the breakpoint to become invisible to the user. The breakpoint
24261 will neither be reported when created, nor will it be listed in the
24262 output from @code{info breakpoints} (but will be listed with the
24263 @code{maint info breakpoints} command). The optional @var{wp_class}
24264 argument defines the class of watchpoint to create, if @var{type} is
24265 @code{gdb.BP_WATCHPOINT}. If a watchpoint class is not provided, it is
24266 assumed to be a @code{gdb.WP_WRITE} class.
24267 @end defun
24268
24269 @defun Breakpoint.stop (self)
24270 The @code{gdb.Breakpoint} class can be sub-classed and, in
24271 particular, you may choose to implement the @code{stop} method.
24272 If this method is defined as a sub-class of @code{gdb.Breakpoint},
24273 it will be called when the inferior reaches any location of a
24274 breakpoint which instantiates that sub-class. If the method returns
24275 @code{True}, the inferior will be stopped at the location of the
24276 breakpoint, otherwise the inferior will continue.
24277
24278 If there are multiple breakpoints at the same location with a
24279 @code{stop} method, each one will be called regardless of the
24280 return status of the previous. This ensures that all @code{stop}
24281 methods have a chance to execute at that location. In this scenario
24282 if one of the methods returns @code{True} but the others return
24283 @code{False}, the inferior will still be stopped.
24284
24285 You should not alter the execution state of the inferior (i.e.@:, step,
24286 next, etc.), alter the current frame context (i.e.@:, change the current
24287 active frame), or alter, add or delete any breakpoint. As a general
24288 rule, you should not alter any data within @value{GDBN} or the inferior
24289 at this time.
24290
24291 Example @code{stop} implementation:
24292
24293 @smallexample
24294 class MyBreakpoint (gdb.Breakpoint):
24295 def stop (self):
24296 inf_val = gdb.parse_and_eval("foo")
24297 if inf_val == 3:
24298 return True
24299 return False
24300 @end smallexample
24301 @end defun
24302
24303 The available watchpoint types represented by constants are defined in the
24304 @code{gdb} module:
24305
24306 @table @code
24307 @findex WP_READ
24308 @findex gdb.WP_READ
24309 @item gdb.WP_READ
24310 Read only watchpoint.
24311
24312 @findex WP_WRITE
24313 @findex gdb.WP_WRITE
24314 @item gdb.WP_WRITE
24315 Write only watchpoint.
24316
24317 @findex WP_ACCESS
24318 @findex gdb.WP_ACCESS
24319 @item gdb.WP_ACCESS
24320 Read/Write watchpoint.
24321 @end table
24322
24323 @defun Breakpoint.is_valid ()
24324 Return @code{True} if this @code{Breakpoint} object is valid,
24325 @code{False} otherwise. A @code{Breakpoint} object can become invalid
24326 if the user deletes the breakpoint. In this case, the object still
24327 exists, but the underlying breakpoint does not. In the cases of
24328 watchpoint scope, the watchpoint remains valid even if execution of the
24329 inferior leaves the scope of that watchpoint.
24330 @end defun
24331
24332 @defun Breakpoint.delete
24333 Permanently deletes the @value{GDBN} breakpoint. This also
24334 invalidates the Python @code{Breakpoint} object. Any further access
24335 to this object's attributes or methods will raise an error.
24336 @end defun
24337
24338 @defvar Breakpoint.enabled
24339 This attribute is @code{True} if the breakpoint is enabled, and
24340 @code{False} otherwise. This attribute is writable.
24341 @end defvar
24342
24343 @defvar Breakpoint.silent
24344 This attribute is @code{True} if the breakpoint is silent, and
24345 @code{False} otherwise. This attribute is writable.
24346
24347 Note that a breakpoint can also be silent if it has commands and the
24348 first command is @code{silent}. This is not reported by the
24349 @code{silent} attribute.
24350 @end defvar
24351
24352 @defvar Breakpoint.thread
24353 If the breakpoint is thread-specific, this attribute holds the thread
24354 id. If the breakpoint is not thread-specific, this attribute is
24355 @code{None}. This attribute is writable.
24356 @end defvar
24357
24358 @defvar Breakpoint.task
24359 If the breakpoint is Ada task-specific, this attribute holds the Ada task
24360 id. If the breakpoint is not task-specific (or the underlying
24361 language is not Ada), this attribute is @code{None}. This attribute
24362 is writable.
24363 @end defvar
24364
24365 @defvar Breakpoint.ignore_count
24366 This attribute holds the ignore count for the breakpoint, an integer.
24367 This attribute is writable.
24368 @end defvar
24369
24370 @defvar Breakpoint.number
24371 This attribute holds the breakpoint's number --- the identifier used by
24372 the user to manipulate the breakpoint. This attribute is not writable.
24373 @end defvar
24374
24375 @defvar Breakpoint.type
24376 This attribute holds the breakpoint's type --- the identifier used to
24377 determine the actual breakpoint type or use-case. This attribute is not
24378 writable.
24379 @end defvar
24380
24381 @defvar Breakpoint.visible
24382 This attribute tells whether the breakpoint is visible to the user
24383 when set, or when the @samp{info breakpoints} command is run. This
24384 attribute is not writable.
24385 @end defvar
24386
24387 The available types are represented by constants defined in the @code{gdb}
24388 module:
24389
24390 @table @code
24391 @findex BP_BREAKPOINT
24392 @findex gdb.BP_BREAKPOINT
24393 @item gdb.BP_BREAKPOINT
24394 Normal code breakpoint.
24395
24396 @findex BP_WATCHPOINT
24397 @findex gdb.BP_WATCHPOINT
24398 @item gdb.BP_WATCHPOINT
24399 Watchpoint breakpoint.
24400
24401 @findex BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT
24402 @findex gdb.BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT
24403 @item gdb.BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT
24404 Hardware assisted watchpoint.
24405
24406 @findex BP_READ_WATCHPOINT
24407 @findex gdb.BP_READ_WATCHPOINT
24408 @item gdb.BP_READ_WATCHPOINT
24409 Hardware assisted read watchpoint.
24410
24411 @findex BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT
24412 @findex gdb.BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT
24413 @item gdb.BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT
24414 Hardware assisted access watchpoint.
24415 @end table
24416
24417 @defvar Breakpoint.hit_count
24418 This attribute holds the hit count for the breakpoint, an integer.
24419 This attribute is writable, but currently it can only be set to zero.
24420 @end defvar
24421
24422 @defvar Breakpoint.location
24423 This attribute holds the location of the breakpoint, as specified by
24424 the user. It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have a location
24425 (that is, it is a watchpoint) the attribute's value is @code{None}. This
24426 attribute is not writable.
24427 @end defvar
24428
24429 @defvar Breakpoint.expression
24430 This attribute holds a breakpoint expression, as specified by
24431 the user. It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have an
24432 expression (the breakpoint is not a watchpoint) the attribute's value
24433 is @code{None}. This attribute is not writable.
24434 @end defvar
24435
24436 @defvar Breakpoint.condition
24437 This attribute holds the condition of the breakpoint, as specified by
24438 the user. It is a string. If there is no condition, this attribute's
24439 value is @code{None}. This attribute is writable.
24440 @end defvar
24441
24442 @defvar Breakpoint.commands
24443 This attribute holds the commands attached to the breakpoint. If
24444 there are commands, this attribute's value is a string holding all the
24445 commands, separated by newlines. If there are no commands, this
24446 attribute is @code{None}. This attribute is not writable.
24447 @end defvar
24448
24449 @node Finish Breakpoints in Python
24450 @subsubsection Finish Breakpoints
24451
24452 @cindex python finish breakpoints
24453 @tindex gdb.FinishBreakpoint
24454
24455 A finish breakpoint is a temporary breakpoint set at the return address of
24456 a frame, based on the @code{finish} command. @code{gdb.FinishBreakpoint}
24457 extends @code{gdb.Breakpoint}. The underlying breakpoint will be disabled
24458 and deleted when the execution will run out of the breakpoint scope (i.e.@:
24459 @code{Breakpoint.stop} or @code{FinishBreakpoint.out_of_scope} triggered).
24460 Finish breakpoints are thread specific and must be create with the right
24461 thread selected.
24462
24463 @defun FinishBreakpoint.__init__ (@r{[}frame@r{]} @r{[}, internal@r{]})
24464 Create a finish breakpoint at the return address of the @code{gdb.Frame}
24465 object @var{frame}. If @var{frame} is not provided, this defaults to the
24466 newest frame. The optional @var{internal} argument allows the breakpoint to
24467 become invisible to the user. @xref{Breakpoints In Python}, for further
24468 details about this argument.
24469 @end defun
24470
24471 @defun FinishBreakpoint.out_of_scope (self)
24472 In some circumstances (e.g.@: @code{longjmp}, C@t{++} exceptions, @value{GDBN}
24473 @code{return} command, @dots{}), a function may not properly terminate, and
24474 thus never hit the finish breakpoint. When @value{GDBN} notices such a
24475 situation, the @code{out_of_scope} callback will be triggered.
24476
24477 You may want to sub-class @code{gdb.FinishBreakpoint} and override this
24478 method:
24479
24480 @smallexample
24481 class MyFinishBreakpoint (gdb.FinishBreakpoint)
24482 def stop (self):
24483 print "normal finish"
24484 return True
24485
24486 def out_of_scope ():
24487 print "abnormal finish"
24488 @end smallexample
24489 @end defun
24490
24491 @defvar FinishBreakpoint.return_value
24492 When @value{GDBN} is stopped at a finish breakpoint and the frame
24493 used to build the @code{gdb.FinishBreakpoint} object had debug symbols, this
24494 attribute will contain a @code{gdb.Value} object corresponding to the return
24495 value of the function. The value will be @code{None} if the function return
24496 type is @code{void} or if the return value was not computable. This attribute
24497 is not writable.
24498 @end defvar
24499
24500 @node Lazy Strings In Python
24501 @subsubsection Python representation of lazy strings.
24502
24503 @cindex lazy strings in python
24504 @tindex gdb.LazyString
24505
24506 A @dfn{lazy string} is a string whose contents is not retrieved or
24507 encoded until it is needed.
24508
24509 A @code{gdb.LazyString} is represented in @value{GDBN} as an
24510 @code{address} that points to a region of memory, an @code{encoding}
24511 that will be used to encode that region of memory, and a @code{length}
24512 to delimit the region of memory that represents the string. The
24513 difference between a @code{gdb.LazyString} and a string wrapped within
24514 a @code{gdb.Value} is that a @code{gdb.LazyString} will be treated
24515 differently by @value{GDBN} when printing. A @code{gdb.LazyString} is
24516 retrieved and encoded during printing, while a @code{gdb.Value}
24517 wrapping a string is immediately retrieved and encoded on creation.
24518
24519 A @code{gdb.LazyString} object has the following functions:
24520
24521 @defun LazyString.value ()
24522 Convert the @code{gdb.LazyString} to a @code{gdb.Value}. This value
24523 will point to the string in memory, but will lose all the delayed
24524 retrieval, encoding and handling that @value{GDBN} applies to a
24525 @code{gdb.LazyString}.
24526 @end defun
24527
24528 @defvar LazyString.address
24529 This attribute holds the address of the string. This attribute is not
24530 writable.
24531 @end defvar
24532
24533 @defvar LazyString.length
24534 This attribute holds the length of the string in characters. If the
24535 length is -1, then the string will be fetched and encoded up to the
24536 first null of appropriate width. This attribute is not writable.
24537 @end defvar
24538
24539 @defvar LazyString.encoding
24540 This attribute holds the encoding that will be applied to the string
24541 when the string is printed by @value{GDBN}. If the encoding is not
24542 set, or contains an empty string, then @value{GDBN} will select the
24543 most appropriate encoding when the string is printed. This attribute
24544 is not writable.
24545 @end defvar
24546
24547 @defvar LazyString.type
24548 This attribute holds the type that is represented by the lazy string's
24549 type. For a lazy string this will always be a pointer type. To
24550 resolve this to the lazy string's character type, use the type's
24551 @code{target} method. @xref{Types In Python}. This attribute is not
24552 writable.
24553 @end defvar
24554
24555 @node Auto-loading
24556 @subsection Auto-loading
24557 @cindex auto-loading, Python
24558
24559 When a new object file is read (for example, due to the @code{file}
24560 command, or because the inferior has loaded a shared library),
24561 @value{GDBN} will look for Python support scripts in several ways:
24562 @file{@var{objfile}-gdb.py} and @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section.
24563
24564 @menu
24565 * objfile-gdb.py file:: The @file{@var{objfile}-gdb.py} file
24566 * .debug_gdb_scripts section:: The @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section
24567 * Which flavor to choose?::
24568 @end menu
24569
24570 The auto-loading feature is useful for supplying application-specific
24571 debugging commands and scripts.
24572
24573 Auto-loading can be enabled or disabled,
24574 and the list of auto-loaded scripts can be printed.
24575
24576 @table @code
24577 @kindex set auto-load-scripts
24578 @item set auto-load-scripts [yes|no]
24579 Enable or disable the auto-loading of Python scripts.
24580
24581 @kindex show auto-load-scripts
24582 @item show auto-load-scripts
24583 Show whether auto-loading of Python scripts is enabled or disabled.
24584
24585 @kindex info auto-load-scripts
24586 @cindex print list of auto-loaded scripts
24587 @item info auto-load-scripts [@var{regexp}]
24588 Print the list of all scripts that @value{GDBN} auto-loaded.
24589
24590 Also printed is the list of scripts that were mentioned in
24591 the @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section and were not found
24592 (@pxref{.debug_gdb_scripts section}).
24593 This is useful because their names are not printed when @value{GDBN}
24594 tries to load them and fails. There may be many of them, and printing
24595 an error message for each one is problematic.
24596
24597 If @var{regexp} is supplied only scripts with matching names are printed.
24598
24599 Example:
24600
24601 @smallexample
24602 (gdb) info auto-load-scripts
24603 Loaded Script
24604 Yes py-section-script.py
24605 full name: /tmp/py-section-script.py
24606 Missing my-foo-pretty-printers.py
24607 @end smallexample
24608 @end table
24609
24610 When reading an auto-loaded file, @value{GDBN} sets the
24611 @dfn{current objfile}. This is available via the @code{gdb.current_objfile}
24612 function (@pxref{Objfiles In Python}). This can be useful for
24613 registering objfile-specific pretty-printers.
24614
24615 @node objfile-gdb.py file
24616 @subsubsection The @file{@var{objfile}-gdb.py} file
24617 @cindex @file{@var{objfile}-gdb.py}
24618
24619 When a new object file is read, @value{GDBN} looks for
24620 a file named @file{@var{objfile}-gdb.py},
24621 where @var{objfile} is the object file's real name, formed by ensuring
24622 that the file name is absolute, following all symlinks, and resolving
24623 @code{.} and @code{..} components. If this file exists and is
24624 readable, @value{GDBN} will evaluate it as a Python script.
24625
24626 If this file does not exist, and if the parameter
24627 @code{debug-file-directory} is set (@pxref{Separate Debug Files}),
24628 then @value{GDBN} will look for @var{real-name} in all of the
24629 directories mentioned in the value of @code{debug-file-directory}.
24630
24631 Finally, if this file does not exist, then @value{GDBN} will look for
24632 a file named @file{@var{data-directory}/python/auto-load/@var{real-name}}, where
24633 @var{data-directory} is @value{GDBN}'s data directory (available via
24634 @code{show data-directory}, @pxref{Data Files}), and @var{real-name}
24635 is the object file's real name, as described above.
24636
24637 @value{GDBN} does not track which files it has already auto-loaded this way.
24638 @value{GDBN} will load the associated script every time the corresponding
24639 @var{objfile} is opened.
24640 So your @file{-gdb.py} file should be careful to avoid errors if it
24641 is evaluated more than once.
24642
24643 @node .debug_gdb_scripts section
24644 @subsubsection The @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section
24645 @cindex @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section
24646
24647 For systems using file formats like ELF and COFF,
24648 when @value{GDBN} loads a new object file
24649 it will look for a special section named @samp{.debug_gdb_scripts}.
24650 If this section exists, its contents is a list of names of scripts to load.
24651
24652 @value{GDBN} will look for each specified script file first in the
24653 current directory and then along the source search path
24654 (@pxref{Source Path, ,Specifying Source Directories}),
24655 except that @file{$cdir} is not searched, since the compilation
24656 directory is not relevant to scripts.
24657
24658 Entries can be placed in section @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} with,
24659 for example, this GCC macro:
24660
24661 @example
24662 /* Note: The "MS" section flags are to remove duplicates. */
24663 #define DEFINE_GDB_SCRIPT(script_name) \
24664 asm("\
24665 .pushsection \".debug_gdb_scripts\", \"MS\",@@progbits,1\n\
24666 .byte 1\n\
24667 .asciz \"" script_name "\"\n\
24668 .popsection \n\
24669 ");
24670 @end example
24671
24672 @noindent
24673 Then one can reference the macro in a header or source file like this:
24674
24675 @example
24676 DEFINE_GDB_SCRIPT ("my-app-scripts.py")
24677 @end example
24678
24679 The script name may include directories if desired.
24680
24681 If the macro is put in a header, any application or library
24682 using this header will get a reference to the specified script.
24683
24684 @node Which flavor to choose?
24685 @subsubsection Which flavor to choose?
24686
24687 Given the multiple ways of auto-loading Python scripts, it might not always
24688 be clear which one to choose. This section provides some guidance.
24689
24690 Benefits of the @file{-gdb.py} way:
24691
24692 @itemize @bullet
24693 @item
24694 Can be used with file formats that don't support multiple sections.
24695
24696 @item
24697 Ease of finding scripts for public libraries.
24698
24699 Scripts specified in the @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section are searched for
24700 in the source search path.
24701 For publicly installed libraries, e.g., @file{libstdc++}, there typically
24702 isn't a source directory in which to find the script.
24703
24704 @item
24705 Doesn't require source code additions.
24706 @end itemize
24707
24708 Benefits of the @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} way:
24709
24710 @itemize @bullet
24711 @item
24712 Works with static linking.
24713
24714 Scripts for libraries done the @file{-gdb.py} way require an objfile to
24715 trigger their loading. When an application is statically linked the only
24716 objfile available is the executable, and it is cumbersome to attach all the
24717 scripts from all the input libraries to the executable's @file{-gdb.py} script.
24718
24719 @item
24720 Works with classes that are entirely inlined.
24721
24722 Some classes can be entirely inlined, and thus there may not be an associated
24723 shared library to attach a @file{-gdb.py} script to.
24724
24725 @item
24726 Scripts needn't be copied out of the source tree.
24727
24728 In some circumstances, apps can be built out of large collections of internal
24729 libraries, and the build infrastructure necessary to install the
24730 @file{-gdb.py} scripts in a place where @value{GDBN} can find them is
24731 cumbersome. It may be easier to specify the scripts in the
24732 @code{.debug_gdb_scripts} section as relative paths, and add a path to the
24733 top of the source tree to the source search path.
24734 @end itemize
24735
24736 @node Python modules
24737 @subsection Python modules
24738 @cindex python modules
24739
24740 @value{GDBN} comes with several modules to assist writing Python code.
24741
24742 @menu
24743 * gdb.printing:: Building and registering pretty-printers.
24744 * gdb.types:: Utilities for working with types.
24745 * gdb.prompt:: Utilities for prompt value substitution.
24746 @end menu
24747
24748 @node gdb.printing
24749 @subsubsection gdb.printing
24750 @cindex gdb.printing
24751
24752 This module provides a collection of utilities for working with
24753 pretty-printers.
24754
24755 @table @code
24756 @item PrettyPrinter (@var{name}, @var{subprinters}=None)
24757 This class specifies the API that makes @samp{info pretty-printer},
24758 @samp{enable pretty-printer} and @samp{disable pretty-printer} work.
24759 Pretty-printers should generally inherit from this class.
24760
24761 @item SubPrettyPrinter (@var{name})
24762 For printers that handle multiple types, this class specifies the
24763 corresponding API for the subprinters.
24764
24765 @item RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter (@var{name})
24766 Utility class for handling multiple printers, all recognized via
24767 regular expressions.
24768 @xref{Writing a Pretty-Printer}, for an example.
24769
24770 @item FlagEnumerationPrinter (@var{name})
24771 A pretty-printer which handles printing of @code{enum} values. Unlike
24772 @value{GDBN}'s built-in @code{enum} printing, this printer attempts to
24773 work properly when there is some overlap between the enumeration
24774 constants. @var{name} is the name of the printer and also the name of
24775 the @code{enum} type to look up.
24776
24777 @item register_pretty_printer (@var{obj}, @var{printer}, @var{replace}=False)
24778 Register @var{printer} with the pretty-printer list of @var{obj}.
24779 If @var{replace} is @code{True} then any existing copy of the printer
24780 is replaced. Otherwise a @code{RuntimeError} exception is raised
24781 if a printer with the same name already exists.
24782 @end table
24783
24784 @node gdb.types
24785 @subsubsection gdb.types
24786 @cindex gdb.types
24787
24788 This module provides a collection of utilities for working with
24789 @code{gdb.Types} objects.
24790
24791 @table @code
24792 @item get_basic_type (@var{type})
24793 Return @var{type} with const and volatile qualifiers stripped,
24794 and with typedefs and C@t{++} references converted to the underlying type.
24795
24796 C@t{++} example:
24797
24798 @smallexample
24799 typedef const int const_int;
24800 const_int foo (3);
24801 const_int& foo_ref (foo);
24802 int main () @{ return 0; @}
24803 @end smallexample
24804
24805 Then in gdb:
24806
24807 @smallexample
24808 (gdb) start
24809 (gdb) python import gdb.types
24810 (gdb) python foo_ref = gdb.parse_and_eval("foo_ref")
24811 (gdb) python print gdb.types.get_basic_type(foo_ref.type)
24812 int
24813 @end smallexample
24814
24815 @item has_field (@var{type}, @var{field})
24816 Return @code{True} if @var{type}, assumed to be a type with fields
24817 (e.g., a structure or union), has field @var{field}.
24818
24819 @item make_enum_dict (@var{enum_type})
24820 Return a Python @code{dictionary} type produced from @var{enum_type}.
24821
24822 @item deep_items (@var{type})
24823 Returns a Python iterator similar to the standard
24824 @code{gdb.Type.iteritems} method, except that the iterator returned
24825 by @code{deep_items} will recursively traverse anonymous struct or
24826 union fields. For example:
24827
24828 @smallexample
24829 struct A
24830 @{
24831 int a;
24832 union @{
24833 int b0;
24834 int b1;
24835 @};
24836 @};
24837 @end smallexample
24838
24839 @noindent
24840 Then in @value{GDBN}:
24841 @smallexample
24842 (@value{GDBP}) python import gdb.types
24843 (@value{GDBP}) python struct_a = gdb.lookup_type("struct A")
24844 (@value{GDBP}) python print struct_a.keys ()
24845 @{['a', '']@}
24846 (@value{GDBP}) python print [k for k,v in gdb.types.deep_items(struct_a)]
24847 @{['a', 'b0', 'b1']@}
24848 @end smallexample
24849
24850 @end table
24851
24852 @node gdb.prompt
24853 @subsubsection gdb.prompt
24854 @cindex gdb.prompt
24855
24856 This module provides a method for prompt value-substitution.
24857
24858 @table @code
24859 @item substitute_prompt (@var{string})
24860 Return @var{string} with escape sequences substituted by values. Some
24861 escape sequences take arguments. You can specify arguments inside
24862 ``@{@}'' immediately following the escape sequence.
24863
24864 The escape sequences you can pass to this function are:
24865
24866 @table @code
24867 @item \\
24868 Substitute a backslash.
24869 @item \e
24870 Substitute an ESC character.
24871 @item \f
24872 Substitute the selected frame; an argument names a frame parameter.
24873 @item \n
24874 Substitute a newline.
24875 @item \p
24876 Substitute a parameter's value; the argument names the parameter.
24877 @item \r
24878 Substitute a carriage return.
24879 @item \t
24880 Substitute the selected thread; an argument names a thread parameter.
24881 @item \v
24882 Substitute the version of GDB.
24883 @item \w
24884 Substitute the current working directory.
24885 @item \[
24886 Begin a sequence of non-printing characters. These sequences are
24887 typically used with the ESC character, and are not counted in the string
24888 length. Example: ``\[\e[0;34m\](gdb)\[\e[0m\]'' will return a
24889 blue-colored ``(gdb)'' prompt where the length is five.
24890 @item \]
24891 End a sequence of non-printing characters.
24892 @end table
24893
24894 For example:
24895
24896 @smallexample
24897 substitute_prompt (``frame: \f,
24898 print arguments: \p@{print frame-arguments@}'')
24899 @end smallexample
24900
24901 @exdent will return the string:
24902
24903 @smallexample
24904 "frame: main, print arguments: scalars"
24905 @end smallexample
24906 @end table
24907
24908 @node Aliases
24909 @section Creating new spellings of existing commands
24910 @cindex aliases for commands
24911
24912 It is often useful to define alternate spellings of existing commands.
24913 For example, if a new @value{GDBN} command defined in Python has
24914 a long name to type, it is handy to have an abbreviated version of it
24915 that involves less typing.
24916
24917 @value{GDBN} itself uses aliases. For example @samp{s} is an alias
24918 of the @samp{step} command even though it is otherwise an ambiguous
24919 abbreviation of other commands like @samp{set} and @samp{show}.
24920
24921 Aliases are also used to provide shortened or more common versions
24922 of multi-word commands. For example, @value{GDBN} provides the
24923 @samp{tty} alias of the @samp{set inferior-tty} command.
24924
24925 You can define a new alias with the @samp{alias} command.
24926
24927 @table @code
24928
24929 @kindex alias
24930 @item alias [-a] [--] @var{ALIAS} = @var{COMMAND}
24931
24932 @end table
24933
24934 @var{ALIAS} specifies the name of the new alias.
24935 Each word of @var{ALIAS} must consist of letters, numbers, dashes and
24936 underscores.
24937
24938 @var{COMMAND} specifies the name of an existing command
24939 that is being aliased.
24940
24941 The @samp{-a} option specifies that the new alias is an abbreviation
24942 of the command. Abbreviations are not shown in command
24943 lists displayed by the @samp{help} command.
24944
24945 The @samp{--} option specifies the end of options,
24946 and is useful when @var{ALIAS} begins with a dash.
24947
24948 Here is a simple example showing how to make an abbreviation
24949 of a command so that there is less to type.
24950 Suppose you were tired of typing @samp{disas}, the current
24951 shortest unambiguous abbreviation of the @samp{disassemble} command
24952 and you wanted an even shorter version named @samp{di}.
24953 The following will accomplish this.
24954
24955 @smallexample
24956 (gdb) alias -a di = disas
24957 @end smallexample
24958
24959 Note that aliases are different from user-defined commands.
24960 With a user-defined command, you also need to write documentation
24961 for it with the @samp{document} command.
24962 An alias automatically picks up the documentation of the existing command.
24963
24964 Here is an example where we make @samp{elms} an abbreviation of
24965 @samp{elements} in the @samp{set print elements} command.
24966 This is to show that you can make an abbreviation of any part
24967 of a command.
24968
24969 @smallexample
24970 (gdb) alias -a set print elms = set print elements
24971 (gdb) alias -a show print elms = show print elements
24972 (gdb) set p elms 20
24973 (gdb) show p elms
24974 Limit on string chars or array elements to print is 200.
24975 @end smallexample
24976
24977 Note that if you are defining an alias of a @samp{set} command,
24978 and you want to have an alias for the corresponding @samp{show}
24979 command, then you need to define the latter separately.
24980
24981 Unambiguously abbreviated commands are allowed in @var{COMMAND} and
24982 @var{ALIAS}, just as they are normally.
24983
24984 @smallexample
24985 (gdb) alias -a set pr elms = set p ele
24986 @end smallexample
24987
24988 Finally, here is an example showing the creation of a one word
24989 alias for a more complex command.
24990 This creates alias @samp{spe} of the command @samp{set print elements}.
24991
24992 @smallexample
24993 (gdb) alias spe = set print elements
24994 (gdb) spe 20
24995 @end smallexample
24996
24997 @node Interpreters
24998 @chapter Command Interpreters
24999 @cindex command interpreters
25000
25001 @value{GDBN} supports multiple command interpreters, and some command
25002 infrastructure to allow users or user interface writers to switch
25003 between interpreters or run commands in other interpreters.
25004
25005 @value{GDBN} currently supports two command interpreters, the console
25006 interpreter (sometimes called the command-line interpreter or @sc{cli})
25007 and the machine interface interpreter (or @sc{gdb/mi}). This manual
25008 describes both of these interfaces in great detail.
25009
25010 By default, @value{GDBN} will start with the console interpreter.
25011 However, the user may choose to start @value{GDBN} with another
25012 interpreter by specifying the @option{-i} or @option{--interpreter}
25013 startup options. Defined interpreters include:
25014
25015 @table @code
25016 @item console
25017 @cindex console interpreter
25018 The traditional console or command-line interpreter. This is the most often
25019 used interpreter with @value{GDBN}. With no interpreter specified at runtime,
25020 @value{GDBN} will use this interpreter.
25021
25022 @item mi
25023 @cindex mi interpreter
25024 The newest @sc{gdb/mi} interface (currently @code{mi2}). Used primarily
25025 by programs wishing to use @value{GDBN} as a backend for a debugger GUI
25026 or an IDE. For more information, see @ref{GDB/MI, ,The @sc{gdb/mi}
25027 Interface}.
25028
25029 @item mi2
25030 @cindex mi2 interpreter
25031 The current @sc{gdb/mi} interface.
25032
25033 @item mi1
25034 @cindex mi1 interpreter
25035 The @sc{gdb/mi} interface included in @value{GDBN} 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3.
25036
25037 @end table
25038
25039 @cindex invoke another interpreter
25040 The interpreter being used by @value{GDBN} may not be dynamically
25041 switched at runtime. Although possible, this could lead to a very
25042 precarious situation. Consider an IDE using @sc{gdb/mi}. If a user
25043 enters the command "interpreter-set console" in a console view,
25044 @value{GDBN} would switch to using the console interpreter, rendering
25045 the IDE inoperable!
25046
25047 @kindex interpreter-exec
25048 Although you may only choose a single interpreter at startup, you may execute
25049 commands in any interpreter from the current interpreter using the appropriate
25050 command. If you are running the console interpreter, simply use the
25051 @code{interpreter-exec} command:
25052
25053 @smallexample
25054 interpreter-exec mi "-data-list-register-names"
25055 @end smallexample
25056
25057 @sc{gdb/mi} has a similar command, although it is only available in versions of
25058 @value{GDBN} which support @sc{gdb/mi} version 2 (or greater).
25059
25060 @node TUI
25061 @chapter @value{GDBN} Text User Interface
25062 @cindex TUI
25063 @cindex Text User Interface
25064
25065 @menu
25066 * TUI Overview:: TUI overview
25067 * TUI Keys:: TUI key bindings
25068 * TUI Single Key Mode:: TUI single key mode
25069 * TUI Commands:: TUI-specific commands
25070 * TUI Configuration:: TUI configuration variables
25071 @end menu
25072
25073 The @value{GDBN} Text User Interface (TUI) is a terminal
25074 interface which uses the @code{curses} library to show the source
25075 file, the assembly output, the program registers and @value{GDBN}
25076 commands in separate text windows. The TUI mode is supported only
25077 on platforms where a suitable version of the @code{curses} library
25078 is available.
25079
25080 The TUI mode is enabled by default when you invoke @value{GDBN} as
25081 @samp{@value{GDBP} -tui}.
25082 You can also switch in and out of TUI mode while @value{GDBN} runs by
25083 using various TUI commands and key bindings, such as @kbd{C-x C-a}.
25084 @xref{TUI Keys, ,TUI Key Bindings}.
25085
25086 @node TUI Overview
25087 @section TUI Overview
25088
25089 In TUI mode, @value{GDBN} can display several text windows:
25090
25091 @table @emph
25092 @item command
25093 This window is the @value{GDBN} command window with the @value{GDBN}
25094 prompt and the @value{GDBN} output. The @value{GDBN} input is still
25095 managed using readline.
25096
25097 @item source
25098 The source window shows the source file of the program. The current
25099 line and active breakpoints are displayed in this window.
25100
25101 @item assembly
25102 The assembly window shows the disassembly output of the program.
25103
25104 @item register
25105 This window shows the processor registers. Registers are highlighted
25106 when their values change.
25107 @end table
25108
25109 The source and assembly windows show the current program position
25110 by highlighting the current line and marking it with a @samp{>} marker.
25111 Breakpoints are indicated with two markers. The first marker
25112 indicates the breakpoint type:
25113
25114 @table @code
25115 @item B
25116 Breakpoint which was hit at least once.
25117
25118 @item b
25119 Breakpoint which was never hit.
25120
25121 @item H
25122 Hardware breakpoint which was hit at least once.
25123
25124 @item h
25125 Hardware breakpoint which was never hit.
25126 @end table
25127
25128 The second marker indicates whether the breakpoint is enabled or not:
25129
25130 @table @code
25131 @item +
25132 Breakpoint is enabled.
25133
25134 @item -
25135 Breakpoint is disabled.
25136 @end table
25137
25138 The source, assembly and register windows are updated when the current
25139 thread changes, when the frame changes, or when the program counter
25140 changes.
25141
25142 These windows are not all visible at the same time. The command
25143 window is always visible. The others can be arranged in several
25144 layouts:
25145
25146 @itemize @bullet
25147 @item
25148 source only,
25149
25150 @item
25151 assembly only,
25152
25153 @item
25154 source and assembly,
25155
25156 @item
25157 source and registers, or
25158
25159 @item
25160 assembly and registers.
25161 @end itemize
25162
25163 A status line above the command window shows the following information:
25164
25165 @table @emph
25166 @item target
25167 Indicates the current @value{GDBN} target.
25168 (@pxref{Targets, ,Specifying a Debugging Target}).
25169
25170 @item process
25171 Gives the current process or thread number.
25172 When no process is being debugged, this field is set to @code{No process}.
25173
25174 @item function
25175 Gives the current function name for the selected frame.
25176 The name is demangled if demangling is turned on (@pxref{Print Settings}).
25177 When there is no symbol corresponding to the current program counter,
25178 the string @code{??} is displayed.
25179
25180 @item line
25181 Indicates the current line number for the selected frame.
25182 When the current line number is not known, the string @code{??} is displayed.
25183
25184 @item pc
25185 Indicates the current program counter address.
25186 @end table
25187
25188 @node TUI Keys
25189 @section TUI Key Bindings
25190 @cindex TUI key bindings
25191
25192 The TUI installs several key bindings in the readline keymaps
25193 @ifset SYSTEM_READLINE
25194 (@pxref{Command Line Editing, , , rluserman, GNU Readline Library}).
25195 @end ifset
25196 @ifclear SYSTEM_READLINE
25197 (@pxref{Command Line Editing}).
25198 @end ifclear
25199 The following key bindings are installed for both TUI mode and the
25200 @value{GDBN} standard mode.
25201
25202 @table @kbd
25203 @kindex C-x C-a
25204 @item C-x C-a
25205 @kindex C-x a
25206 @itemx C-x a
25207 @kindex C-x A
25208 @itemx C-x A
25209 Enter or leave the TUI mode. When leaving the TUI mode,
25210 the curses window management stops and @value{GDBN} operates using
25211 its standard mode, writing on the terminal directly. When reentering
25212 the TUI mode, control is given back to the curses windows.
25213 The screen is then refreshed.
25214
25215 @kindex C-x 1
25216 @item C-x 1
25217 Use a TUI layout with only one window. The layout will
25218 either be @samp{source} or @samp{assembly}. When the TUI mode
25219 is not active, it will switch to the TUI mode.
25220
25221 Think of this key binding as the Emacs @kbd{C-x 1} binding.
25222
25223 @kindex C-x 2
25224 @item C-x 2
25225 Use a TUI layout with at least two windows. When the current
25226 layout already has two windows, the next layout with two windows is used.
25227 When a new layout is chosen, one window will always be common to the
25228 previous layout and the new one.
25229
25230 Think of it as the Emacs @kbd{C-x 2} binding.
25231
25232 @kindex C-x o
25233 @item C-x o
25234 Change the active window. The TUI associates several key bindings
25235 (like scrolling and arrow keys) with the active window. This command
25236 gives the focus to the next TUI window.
25237
25238 Think of it as the Emacs @kbd{C-x o} binding.
25239
25240 @kindex C-x s
25241 @item C-x s
25242 Switch in and out of the TUI SingleKey mode that binds single
25243 keys to @value{GDBN} commands (@pxref{TUI Single Key Mode}).
25244 @end table
25245
25246 The following key bindings only work in the TUI mode:
25247
25248 @table @asis
25249 @kindex PgUp
25250 @item @key{PgUp}
25251 Scroll the active window one page up.
25252
25253 @kindex PgDn
25254 @item @key{PgDn}
25255 Scroll the active window one page down.
25256
25257 @kindex Up
25258 @item @key{Up}
25259 Scroll the active window one line up.
25260
25261 @kindex Down
25262 @item @key{Down}
25263 Scroll the active window one line down.
25264
25265 @kindex Left
25266 @item @key{Left}
25267 Scroll the active window one column left.
25268
25269 @kindex Right
25270 @item @key{Right}
25271 Scroll the active window one column right.
25272
25273 @kindex C-L
25274 @item @kbd{C-L}
25275 Refresh the screen.
25276 @end table
25277
25278 Because the arrow keys scroll the active window in the TUI mode, they
25279 are not available for their normal use by readline unless the command
25280 window has the focus. When another window is active, you must use
25281 other readline key bindings such as @kbd{C-p}, @kbd{C-n}, @kbd{C-b}
25282 and @kbd{C-f} to control the command window.
25283
25284 @node TUI Single Key Mode
25285 @section TUI Single Key Mode
25286 @cindex TUI single key mode
25287
25288 The TUI also provides a @dfn{SingleKey} mode, which binds several
25289 frequently used @value{GDBN} commands to single keys. Type @kbd{C-x s} to
25290 switch into this mode, where the following key bindings are used:
25291
25292 @table @kbd
25293 @kindex c @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25294 @item c
25295 continue
25296
25297 @kindex d @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25298 @item d
25299 down
25300
25301 @kindex f @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25302 @item f
25303 finish
25304
25305 @kindex n @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25306 @item n
25307 next
25308
25309 @kindex q @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25310 @item q
25311 exit the SingleKey mode.
25312
25313 @kindex r @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25314 @item r
25315 run
25316
25317 @kindex s @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25318 @item s
25319 step
25320
25321 @kindex u @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25322 @item u
25323 up
25324
25325 @kindex v @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25326 @item v
25327 info locals
25328
25329 @kindex w @r{(SingleKey TUI key)}
25330 @item w
25331 where
25332 @end table
25333
25334 Other keys temporarily switch to the @value{GDBN} command prompt.
25335 The key that was pressed is inserted in the editing buffer so that
25336 it is possible to type most @value{GDBN} commands without interaction
25337 with the TUI SingleKey mode. Once the command is entered the TUI
25338 SingleKey mode is restored. The only way to permanently leave
25339 this mode is by typing @kbd{q} or @kbd{C-x s}.
25340
25341
25342 @node TUI Commands
25343 @section TUI-specific Commands
25344 @cindex TUI commands
25345
25346 The TUI has specific commands to control the text windows.
25347 These commands are always available, even when @value{GDBN} is not in
25348 the TUI mode. When @value{GDBN} is in the standard mode, most
25349 of these commands will automatically switch to the TUI mode.
25350
25351 Note that if @value{GDBN}'s @code{stdout} is not connected to a
25352 terminal, or @value{GDBN} has been started with the machine interface
25353 interpreter (@pxref{GDB/MI, ,The @sc{gdb/mi} Interface}), most of
25354 these commands will fail with an error, because it would not be
25355 possible or desirable to enable curses window management.
25356
25357 @table @code
25358 @item info win
25359 @kindex info win
25360 List and give the size of all displayed windows.
25361
25362 @item layout next
25363 @kindex layout
25364 Display the next layout.
25365
25366 @item layout prev
25367 Display the previous layout.
25368
25369 @item layout src
25370 Display the source window only.
25371
25372 @item layout asm
25373 Display the assembly window only.
25374
25375 @item layout split
25376 Display the source and assembly window.
25377
25378 @item layout regs
25379 Display the register window together with the source or assembly window.
25380
25381 @item focus next
25382 @kindex focus
25383 Make the next window active for scrolling.
25384
25385 @item focus prev
25386 Make the previous window active for scrolling.
25387
25388 @item focus src
25389 Make the source window active for scrolling.
25390
25391 @item focus asm
25392 Make the assembly window active for scrolling.
25393
25394 @item focus regs
25395 Make the register window active for scrolling.
25396
25397 @item focus cmd
25398 Make the command window active for scrolling.
25399
25400 @item refresh
25401 @kindex refresh
25402 Refresh the screen. This is similar to typing @kbd{C-L}.
25403
25404 @item tui reg float
25405 @kindex tui reg
25406 Show the floating point registers in the register window.
25407
25408 @item tui reg general
25409 Show the general registers in the register window.
25410
25411 @item tui reg next
25412 Show the next register group. The list of register groups as well as
25413 their order is target specific. The predefined register groups are the
25414 following: @code{general}, @code{float}, @code{system}, @code{vector},
25415 @code{all}, @code{save}, @code{restore}.
25416
25417 @item tui reg system
25418 Show the system registers in the register window.
25419
25420 @item update
25421 @kindex update
25422 Update the source window and the current execution point.
25423
25424 @item winheight @var{name} +@var{count}
25425 @itemx winheight @var{name} -@var{count}
25426 @kindex winheight
25427 Change the height of the window @var{name} by @var{count}
25428 lines. Positive counts increase the height, while negative counts
25429 decrease it.
25430
25431 @item tabset @var{nchars}
25432 @kindex tabset
25433 Set the width of tab stops to be @var{nchars} characters.
25434 @end table
25435
25436 @node TUI Configuration
25437 @section TUI Configuration Variables
25438 @cindex TUI configuration variables
25439
25440 Several configuration variables control the appearance of TUI windows.
25441
25442 @table @code
25443 @item set tui border-kind @var{kind}
25444 @kindex set tui border-kind
25445 Select the border appearance for the source, assembly and register windows.
25446 The possible values are the following:
25447 @table @code
25448 @item space
25449 Use a space character to draw the border.
25450
25451 @item ascii
25452 Use @sc{ascii} characters @samp{+}, @samp{-} and @samp{|} to draw the border.
25453
25454 @item acs
25455 Use the Alternate Character Set to draw the border. The border is
25456 drawn using character line graphics if the terminal supports them.
25457 @end table
25458
25459 @item set tui border-mode @var{mode}
25460 @kindex set tui border-mode
25461 @itemx set tui active-border-mode @var{mode}
25462 @kindex set tui active-border-mode
25463 Select the display attributes for the borders of the inactive windows
25464 or the active window. The @var{mode} can be one of the following:
25465 @table @code
25466 @item normal
25467 Use normal attributes to display the border.
25468
25469 @item standout
25470 Use standout mode.
25471
25472 @item reverse
25473 Use reverse video mode.
25474
25475 @item half
25476 Use half bright mode.
25477
25478 @item half-standout
25479 Use half bright and standout mode.
25480
25481 @item bold
25482 Use extra bright or bold mode.
25483
25484 @item bold-standout
25485 Use extra bright or bold and standout mode.
25486 @end table
25487 @end table
25488
25489 @node Emacs
25490 @chapter Using @value{GDBN} under @sc{gnu} Emacs
25491
25492 @cindex Emacs
25493 @cindex @sc{gnu} Emacs
25494 A special interface allows you to use @sc{gnu} Emacs to view (and
25495 edit) the source files for the program you are debugging with
25496 @value{GDBN}.
25497
25498 To use this interface, use the command @kbd{M-x gdb} in Emacs. Give the
25499 executable file you want to debug as an argument. This command starts
25500 @value{GDBN} as a subprocess of Emacs, with input and output through a newly
25501 created Emacs buffer.
25502 @c (Do not use the @code{-tui} option to run @value{GDBN} from Emacs.)
25503
25504 Running @value{GDBN} under Emacs can be just like running @value{GDBN} normally except for two
25505 things:
25506
25507 @itemize @bullet
25508 @item
25509 All ``terminal'' input and output goes through an Emacs buffer, called
25510 the GUD buffer.
25511
25512 This applies both to @value{GDBN} commands and their output, and to the input
25513 and output done by the program you are debugging.
25514
25515 This is useful because it means that you can copy the text of previous
25516 commands and input them again; you can even use parts of the output
25517 in this way.
25518
25519 All the facilities of Emacs' Shell mode are available for interacting
25520 with your program. In particular, you can send signals the usual
25521 way---for example, @kbd{C-c C-c} for an interrupt, @kbd{C-c C-z} for a
25522 stop.
25523
25524 @item
25525 @value{GDBN} displays source code through Emacs.
25526
25527 Each time @value{GDBN} displays a stack frame, Emacs automatically finds the
25528 source file for that frame and puts an arrow (@samp{=>}) at the
25529 left margin of the current line. Emacs uses a separate buffer for
25530 source display, and splits the screen to show both your @value{GDBN} session
25531 and the source.
25532
25533 Explicit @value{GDBN} @code{list} or search commands still produce output as
25534 usual, but you probably have no reason to use them from Emacs.
25535 @end itemize
25536
25537 We call this @dfn{text command mode}. Emacs 22.1, and later, also uses
25538 a graphical mode, enabled by default, which provides further buffers
25539 that can control the execution and describe the state of your program.
25540 @xref{GDB Graphical Interface,,, Emacs, The @sc{gnu} Emacs Manual}.
25541
25542 If you specify an absolute file name when prompted for the @kbd{M-x
25543 gdb} argument, then Emacs sets your current working directory to where
25544 your program resides. If you only specify the file name, then Emacs
25545 sets your current working directory to the directory associated
25546 with the previous buffer. In this case, @value{GDBN} may find your
25547 program by searching your environment's @code{PATH} variable, but on
25548 some operating systems it might not find the source. So, although the
25549 @value{GDBN} input and output session proceeds normally, the auxiliary
25550 buffer does not display the current source and line of execution.
25551
25552 The initial working directory of @value{GDBN} is printed on the top
25553 line of the GUD buffer and this serves as a default for the commands
25554 that specify files for @value{GDBN} to operate on. @xref{Files,
25555 ,Commands to Specify Files}.
25556
25557 By default, @kbd{M-x gdb} calls the program called @file{gdb}. If you
25558 need to call @value{GDBN} by a different name (for example, if you
25559 keep several configurations around, with different names) you can
25560 customize the Emacs variable @code{gud-gdb-command-name} to run the
25561 one you want.
25562
25563 In the GUD buffer, you can use these special Emacs commands in
25564 addition to the standard Shell mode commands:
25565
25566 @table @kbd
25567 @item C-h m
25568 Describe the features of Emacs' GUD Mode.
25569
25570 @item C-c C-s
25571 Execute to another source line, like the @value{GDBN} @code{step} command; also
25572 update the display window to show the current file and location.
25573
25574 @item C-c C-n
25575 Execute to next source line in this function, skipping all function
25576 calls, like the @value{GDBN} @code{next} command. Then update the display window
25577 to show the current file and location.
25578
25579 @item C-c C-i
25580 Execute one instruction, like the @value{GDBN} @code{stepi} command; update
25581 display window accordingly.
25582
25583 @item C-c C-f
25584 Execute until exit from the selected stack frame, like the @value{GDBN}
25585 @code{finish} command.
25586
25587 @item C-c C-r
25588 Continue execution of your program, like the @value{GDBN} @code{continue}
25589 command.
25590
25591 @item C-c <
25592 Go up the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument
25593 (@pxref{Arguments, , Numeric Arguments, Emacs, The @sc{gnu} Emacs Manual}),
25594 like the @value{GDBN} @code{up} command.
25595
25596 @item C-c >
25597 Go down the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument, like the
25598 @value{GDBN} @code{down} command.
25599 @end table
25600
25601 In any source file, the Emacs command @kbd{C-x @key{SPC}} (@code{gud-break})
25602 tells @value{GDBN} to set a breakpoint on the source line point is on.
25603
25604 In text command mode, if you type @kbd{M-x speedbar}, Emacs displays a
25605 separate frame which shows a backtrace when the GUD buffer is current.
25606 Move point to any frame in the stack and type @key{RET} to make it
25607 become the current frame and display the associated source in the
25608 source buffer. Alternatively, click @kbd{Mouse-2} to make the
25609 selected frame become the current one. In graphical mode, the
25610 speedbar displays watch expressions.
25611
25612 If you accidentally delete the source-display buffer, an easy way to get
25613 it back is to type the command @code{f} in the @value{GDBN} buffer, to
25614 request a frame display; when you run under Emacs, this recreates
25615 the source buffer if necessary to show you the context of the current
25616 frame.
25617
25618 The source files displayed in Emacs are in ordinary Emacs buffers
25619 which are visiting the source files in the usual way. You can edit
25620 the files with these buffers if you wish; but keep in mind that @value{GDBN}
25621 communicates with Emacs in terms of line numbers. If you add or
25622 delete lines from the text, the line numbers that @value{GDBN} knows cease
25623 to correspond properly with the code.
25624
25625 A more detailed description of Emacs' interaction with @value{GDBN} is
25626 given in the Emacs manual (@pxref{Debuggers,,, Emacs, The @sc{gnu}
25627 Emacs Manual}).
25628
25629 @c The following dropped because Epoch is nonstandard. Reactivate
25630 @c if/when v19 does something similar. ---doc@cygnus.com 19dec1990
25631 @ignore
25632 @kindex Emacs Epoch environment
25633 @kindex Epoch
25634 @kindex inspect
25635
25636 Version 18 of @sc{gnu} Emacs has a built-in window system
25637 called the @code{epoch}
25638 environment. Users of this environment can use a new command,
25639 @code{inspect} which performs identically to @code{print} except that
25640 each value is printed in its own window.
25641 @end ignore
25642
25643
25644 @node GDB/MI
25645 @chapter The @sc{gdb/mi} Interface
25646
25647 @unnumberedsec Function and Purpose
25648
25649 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, its purpose
25650 @sc{gdb/mi} is a line based machine oriented text interface to
25651 @value{GDBN} and is activated by specifying using the
25652 @option{--interpreter} command line option (@pxref{Mode Options}). It
25653 is specifically intended to support the development of systems which
25654 use the debugger as just one small component of a larger system.
25655
25656 This chapter is a specification of the @sc{gdb/mi} interface. It is written
25657 in the form of a reference manual.
25658
25659 Note that @sc{gdb/mi} is still under construction, so some of the
25660 features described below are incomplete and subject to change
25661 (@pxref{GDB/MI Development and Front Ends, , @sc{gdb/mi} Development and Front Ends}).
25662
25663 @unnumberedsec Notation and Terminology
25664
25665 @cindex notational conventions, for @sc{gdb/mi}
25666 This chapter uses the following notation:
25667
25668 @itemize @bullet
25669 @item
25670 @code{|} separates two alternatives.
25671
25672 @item
25673 @code{[ @var{something} ]} indicates that @var{something} is optional:
25674 it may or may not be given.
25675
25676 @item
25677 @code{( @var{group} )*} means that @var{group} inside the parentheses
25678 may repeat zero or more times.
25679
25680 @item
25681 @code{( @var{group} )+} means that @var{group} inside the parentheses
25682 may repeat one or more times.
25683
25684 @item
25685 @code{"@var{string}"} means a literal @var{string}.
25686 @end itemize
25687
25688 @ignore
25689 @heading Dependencies
25690 @end ignore
25691
25692 @menu
25693 * GDB/MI General Design::
25694 * GDB/MI Command Syntax::
25695 * GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI::
25696 * GDB/MI Development and Front Ends::
25697 * GDB/MI Output Records::
25698 * GDB/MI Simple Examples::
25699 * GDB/MI Command Description Format::
25700 * GDB/MI Breakpoint Commands::
25701 * GDB/MI Program Context::
25702 * GDB/MI Thread Commands::
25703 * GDB/MI Ada Tasking Commands::
25704 * GDB/MI Program Execution::
25705 * GDB/MI Stack Manipulation::
25706 * GDB/MI Variable Objects::
25707 * GDB/MI Data Manipulation::
25708 * GDB/MI Tracepoint Commands::
25709 * GDB/MI Symbol Query::
25710 * GDB/MI File Commands::
25711 @ignore
25712 * GDB/MI Kod Commands::
25713 * GDB/MI Memory Overlay Commands::
25714 * GDB/MI Signal Handling Commands::
25715 @end ignore
25716 * GDB/MI Target Manipulation::
25717 * GDB/MI File Transfer Commands::
25718 * GDB/MI Miscellaneous Commands::
25719 @end menu
25720
25721 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
25722 @node GDB/MI General Design
25723 @section @sc{gdb/mi} General Design
25724 @cindex GDB/MI General Design
25725
25726 Interaction of a @sc{GDB/MI} frontend with @value{GDBN} involves three
25727 parts---commands sent to @value{GDBN}, responses to those commands
25728 and notifications. Each command results in exactly one response,
25729 indicating either successful completion of the command, or an error.
25730 For the commands that do not resume the target, the response contains the
25731 requested information. For the commands that resume the target, the
25732 response only indicates whether the target was successfully resumed.
25733 Notifications is the mechanism for reporting changes in the state of the
25734 target, or in @value{GDBN} state, that cannot conveniently be associated with
25735 a command and reported as part of that command response.
25736
25737 The important examples of notifications are:
25738 @itemize @bullet
25739
25740 @item
25741 Exec notifications. These are used to report changes in
25742 target state---when a target is resumed, or stopped. It would not
25743 be feasible to include this information in response of resuming
25744 commands, because one resume commands can result in multiple events in
25745 different threads. Also, quite some time may pass before any event
25746 happens in the target, while a frontend needs to know whether the resuming
25747 command itself was successfully executed.
25748
25749 @item
25750 Console output, and status notifications. Console output
25751 notifications are used to report output of CLI commands, as well as
25752 diagnostics for other commands. Status notifications are used to
25753 report the progress of a long-running operation. Naturally, including
25754 this information in command response would mean no output is produced
25755 until the command is finished, which is undesirable.
25756
25757 @item
25758 General notifications. Commands may have various side effects on
25759 the @value{GDBN} or target state beyond their official purpose. For example,
25760 a command may change the selected thread. Although such changes can
25761 be included in command response, using notification allows for more
25762 orthogonal frontend design.
25763
25764 @end itemize
25765
25766 There's no guarantee that whenever an MI command reports an error,
25767 @value{GDBN} or the target are in any specific state, and especially,
25768 the state is not reverted to the state before the MI command was
25769 processed. Therefore, whenever an MI command results in an error,
25770 we recommend that the frontend refreshes all the information shown in
25771 the user interface.
25772
25773
25774 @menu
25775 * Context management::
25776 * Asynchronous and non-stop modes::
25777 * Thread groups::
25778 @end menu
25779
25780 @node Context management
25781 @subsection Context management
25782
25783 In most cases when @value{GDBN} accesses the target, this access is
25784 done in context of a specific thread and frame (@pxref{Frames}).
25785 Often, even when accessing global data, the target requires that a thread
25786 be specified. The CLI interface maintains the selected thread and frame,
25787 and supplies them to target on each command. This is convenient,
25788 because a command line user would not want to specify that information
25789 explicitly on each command, and because user interacts with
25790 @value{GDBN} via a single terminal, so no confusion is possible as
25791 to what thread and frame are the current ones.
25792
25793 In the case of MI, the concept of selected thread and frame is less
25794 useful. First, a frontend can easily remember this information
25795 itself. Second, a graphical frontend can have more than one window,
25796 each one used for debugging a different thread, and the frontend might
25797 want to access additional threads for internal purposes. This
25798 increases the risk that by relying on implicitly selected thread, the
25799 frontend may be operating on a wrong one. Therefore, each MI command
25800 should explicitly specify which thread and frame to operate on. To
25801 make it possible, each MI command accepts the @samp{--thread} and
25802 @samp{--frame} options, the value to each is @value{GDBN} identifier
25803 for thread and frame to operate on.
25804
25805 Usually, each top-level window in a frontend allows the user to select
25806 a thread and a frame, and remembers the user selection for further
25807 operations. However, in some cases @value{GDBN} may suggest that the
25808 current thread be changed. For example, when stopping on a breakpoint
25809 it is reasonable to switch to the thread where breakpoint is hit. For
25810 another example, if the user issues the CLI @samp{thread} command via
25811 the frontend, it is desirable to change the frontend's selected thread to the
25812 one specified by user. @value{GDBN} communicates the suggestion to
25813 change current thread using the @samp{=thread-selected} notification.
25814 No such notification is available for the selected frame at the moment.
25815
25816 Note that historically, MI shares the selected thread with CLI, so
25817 frontends used the @code{-thread-select} to execute commands in the
25818 right context. However, getting this to work right is cumbersome. The
25819 simplest way is for frontend to emit @code{-thread-select} command
25820 before every command. This doubles the number of commands that need
25821 to be sent. The alternative approach is to suppress @code{-thread-select}
25822 if the selected thread in @value{GDBN} is supposed to be identical to the
25823 thread the frontend wants to operate on. However, getting this
25824 optimization right can be tricky. In particular, if the frontend
25825 sends several commands to @value{GDBN}, and one of the commands changes the
25826 selected thread, then the behaviour of subsequent commands will
25827 change. So, a frontend should either wait for response from such
25828 problematic commands, or explicitly add @code{-thread-select} for
25829 all subsequent commands. No frontend is known to do this exactly
25830 right, so it is suggested to just always pass the @samp{--thread} and
25831 @samp{--frame} options.
25832
25833 @node Asynchronous and non-stop modes
25834 @subsection Asynchronous command execution and non-stop mode
25835
25836 On some targets, @value{GDBN} is capable of processing MI commands
25837 even while the target is running. This is called @dfn{asynchronous
25838 command execution} (@pxref{Background Execution}). The frontend may
25839 specify a preferrence for asynchronous execution using the
25840 @code{-gdb-set target-async 1} command, which should be emitted before
25841 either running the executable or attaching to the target. After the
25842 frontend has started the executable or attached to the target, it can
25843 find if asynchronous execution is enabled using the
25844 @code{-list-target-features} command.
25845
25846 Even if @value{GDBN} can accept a command while target is running,
25847 many commands that access the target do not work when the target is
25848 running. Therefore, asynchronous command execution is most useful
25849 when combined with non-stop mode (@pxref{Non-Stop Mode}). Then,
25850 it is possible to examine the state of one thread, while other threads
25851 are running.
25852
25853 When a given thread is running, MI commands that try to access the
25854 target in the context of that thread may not work, or may work only on
25855 some targets. In particular, commands that try to operate on thread's
25856 stack will not work, on any target. Commands that read memory, or
25857 modify breakpoints, may work or not work, depending on the target. Note
25858 that even commands that operate on global state, such as @code{print},
25859 @code{set}, and breakpoint commands, still access the target in the
25860 context of a specific thread, so frontend should try to find a
25861 stopped thread and perform the operation on that thread (using the
25862 @samp{--thread} option).
25863
25864 Which commands will work in the context of a running thread is
25865 highly target dependent. However, the two commands
25866 @code{-exec-interrupt}, to stop a thread, and @code{-thread-info},
25867 to find the state of a thread, will always work.
25868
25869 @node Thread groups
25870 @subsection Thread groups
25871 @value{GDBN} may be used to debug several processes at the same time.
25872 On some platfroms, @value{GDBN} may support debugging of several
25873 hardware systems, each one having several cores with several different
25874 processes running on each core. This section describes the MI
25875 mechanism to support such debugging scenarios.
25876
25877 The key observation is that regardless of the structure of the
25878 target, MI can have a global list of threads, because most commands that
25879 accept the @samp{--thread} option do not need to know what process that
25880 thread belongs to. Therefore, it is not necessary to introduce
25881 neither additional @samp{--process} option, nor an notion of the
25882 current process in the MI interface. The only strictly new feature
25883 that is required is the ability to find how the threads are grouped
25884 into processes.
25885
25886 To allow the user to discover such grouping, and to support arbitrary
25887 hierarchy of machines/cores/processes, MI introduces the concept of a
25888 @dfn{thread group}. Thread group is a collection of threads and other
25889 thread groups. A thread group always has a string identifier, a type,
25890 and may have additional attributes specific to the type. A new
25891 command, @code{-list-thread-groups}, returns the list of top-level
25892 thread groups, which correspond to processes that @value{GDBN} is
25893 debugging at the moment. By passing an identifier of a thread group
25894 to the @code{-list-thread-groups} command, it is possible to obtain
25895 the members of specific thread group.
25896
25897 To allow the user to easily discover processes, and other objects, he
25898 wishes to debug, a concept of @dfn{available thread group} is
25899 introduced. Available thread group is an thread group that
25900 @value{GDBN} is not debugging, but that can be attached to, using the
25901 @code{-target-attach} command. The list of available top-level thread
25902 groups can be obtained using @samp{-list-thread-groups --available}.
25903 In general, the content of a thread group may be only retrieved only
25904 after attaching to that thread group.
25905
25906 Thread groups are related to inferiors (@pxref{Inferiors and
25907 Programs}). Each inferior corresponds to a thread group of a special
25908 type @samp{process}, and some additional operations are permitted on
25909 such thread groups.
25910
25911 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
25912 @node GDB/MI Command Syntax
25913 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Command Syntax
25914
25915 @menu
25916 * GDB/MI Input Syntax::
25917 * GDB/MI Output Syntax::
25918 @end menu
25919
25920 @node GDB/MI Input Syntax
25921 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Input Syntax
25922
25923 @cindex input syntax for @sc{gdb/mi}
25924 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, input syntax
25925 @table @code
25926 @item @var{command} @expansion{}
25927 @code{@var{cli-command} | @var{mi-command}}
25928
25929 @item @var{cli-command} @expansion{}
25930 @code{[ @var{token} ] @var{cli-command} @var{nl}}, where
25931 @var{cli-command} is any existing @value{GDBN} CLI command.
25932
25933 @item @var{mi-command} @expansion{}
25934 @code{[ @var{token} ] "-" @var{operation} ( " " @var{option} )*
25935 @code{[} " --" @code{]} ( " " @var{parameter} )* @var{nl}}
25936
25937 @item @var{token} @expansion{}
25938 "any sequence of digits"
25939
25940 @item @var{option} @expansion{}
25941 @code{"-" @var{parameter} [ " " @var{parameter} ]}
25942
25943 @item @var{parameter} @expansion{}
25944 @code{@var{non-blank-sequence} | @var{c-string}}
25945
25946 @item @var{operation} @expansion{}
25947 @emph{any of the operations described in this chapter}
25948
25949 @item @var{non-blank-sequence} @expansion{}
25950 @emph{anything, provided it doesn't contain special characters such as
25951 "-", @var{nl}, """ and of course " "}
25952
25953 @item @var{c-string} @expansion{}
25954 @code{""" @var{seven-bit-iso-c-string-content} """}
25955
25956 @item @var{nl} @expansion{}
25957 @code{CR | CR-LF}
25958 @end table
25959
25960 @noindent
25961 Notes:
25962
25963 @itemize @bullet
25964 @item
25965 The CLI commands are still handled by the @sc{mi} interpreter; their
25966 output is described below.
25967
25968 @item
25969 The @code{@var{token}}, when present, is passed back when the command
25970 finishes.
25971
25972 @item
25973 Some @sc{mi} commands accept optional arguments as part of the parameter
25974 list. Each option is identified by a leading @samp{-} (dash) and may be
25975 followed by an optional argument parameter. Options occur first in the
25976 parameter list and can be delimited from normal parameters using
25977 @samp{--} (this is useful when some parameters begin with a dash).
25978 @end itemize
25979
25980 Pragmatics:
25981
25982 @itemize @bullet
25983 @item
25984 We want easy access to the existing CLI syntax (for debugging).
25985
25986 @item
25987 We want it to be easy to spot a @sc{mi} operation.
25988 @end itemize
25989
25990 @node GDB/MI Output Syntax
25991 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Output Syntax
25992
25993 @cindex output syntax of @sc{gdb/mi}
25994 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, output syntax
25995 The output from @sc{gdb/mi} consists of zero or more out-of-band records
25996 followed, optionally, by a single result record. This result record
25997 is for the most recent command. The sequence of output records is
25998 terminated by @samp{(gdb)}.
25999
26000 If an input command was prefixed with a @code{@var{token}} then the
26001 corresponding output for that command will also be prefixed by that same
26002 @var{token}.
26003
26004 @table @code
26005 @item @var{output} @expansion{}
26006 @code{( @var{out-of-band-record} )* [ @var{result-record} ] "(gdb)" @var{nl}}
26007
26008 @item @var{result-record} @expansion{}
26009 @code{ [ @var{token} ] "^" @var{result-class} ( "," @var{result} )* @var{nl}}
26010
26011 @item @var{out-of-band-record} @expansion{}
26012 @code{@var{async-record} | @var{stream-record}}
26013
26014 @item @var{async-record} @expansion{}
26015 @code{@var{exec-async-output} | @var{status-async-output} | @var{notify-async-output}}
26016
26017 @item @var{exec-async-output} @expansion{}
26018 @code{[ @var{token} ] "*" @var{async-output}}
26019
26020 @item @var{status-async-output} @expansion{}
26021 @code{[ @var{token} ] "+" @var{async-output}}
26022
26023 @item @var{notify-async-output} @expansion{}
26024 @code{[ @var{token} ] "=" @var{async-output}}
26025
26026 @item @var{async-output} @expansion{}
26027 @code{@var{async-class} ( "," @var{result} )* @var{nl}}
26028
26029 @item @var{result-class} @expansion{}
26030 @code{"done" | "running" | "connected" | "error" | "exit"}
26031
26032 @item @var{async-class} @expansion{}
26033 @code{"stopped" | @var{others}} (where @var{others} will be added
26034 depending on the needs---this is still in development).
26035
26036 @item @var{result} @expansion{}
26037 @code{ @var{variable} "=" @var{value}}
26038
26039 @item @var{variable} @expansion{}
26040 @code{ @var{string} }
26041
26042 @item @var{value} @expansion{}
26043 @code{ @var{const} | @var{tuple} | @var{list} }
26044
26045 @item @var{const} @expansion{}
26046 @code{@var{c-string}}
26047
26048 @item @var{tuple} @expansion{}
26049 @code{ "@{@}" | "@{" @var{result} ( "," @var{result} )* "@}" }
26050
26051 @item @var{list} @expansion{}
26052 @code{ "[]" | "[" @var{value} ( "," @var{value} )* "]" | "["
26053 @var{result} ( "," @var{result} )* "]" }
26054
26055 @item @var{stream-record} @expansion{}
26056 @code{@var{console-stream-output} | @var{target-stream-output} | @var{log-stream-output}}
26057
26058 @item @var{console-stream-output} @expansion{}
26059 @code{"~" @var{c-string}}
26060
26061 @item @var{target-stream-output} @expansion{}
26062 @code{"@@" @var{c-string}}
26063
26064 @item @var{log-stream-output} @expansion{}
26065 @code{"&" @var{c-string}}
26066
26067 @item @var{nl} @expansion{}
26068 @code{CR | CR-LF}
26069
26070 @item @var{token} @expansion{}
26071 @emph{any sequence of digits}.
26072 @end table
26073
26074 @noindent
26075 Notes:
26076
26077 @itemize @bullet
26078 @item
26079 All output sequences end in a single line containing a period.
26080
26081 @item
26082 The @code{@var{token}} is from the corresponding request. Note that
26083 for all async output, while the token is allowed by the grammar and
26084 may be output by future versions of @value{GDBN} for select async
26085 output messages, it is generally omitted. Frontends should treat
26086 all async output as reporting general changes in the state of the
26087 target and there should be no need to associate async output to any
26088 prior command.
26089
26090 @item
26091 @cindex status output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26092 @var{status-async-output} contains on-going status information about the
26093 progress of a slow operation. It can be discarded. All status output is
26094 prefixed by @samp{+}.
26095
26096 @item
26097 @cindex async output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26098 @var{exec-async-output} contains asynchronous state change on the target
26099 (stopped, started, disappeared). All async output is prefixed by
26100 @samp{*}.
26101
26102 @item
26103 @cindex notify output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26104 @var{notify-async-output} contains supplementary information that the
26105 client should handle (e.g., a new breakpoint information). All notify
26106 output is prefixed by @samp{=}.
26107
26108 @item
26109 @cindex console output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26110 @var{console-stream-output} is output that should be displayed as is in the
26111 console. It is the textual response to a CLI command. All the console
26112 output is prefixed by @samp{~}.
26113
26114 @item
26115 @cindex target output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26116 @var{target-stream-output} is the output produced by the target program.
26117 All the target output is prefixed by @samp{@@}.
26118
26119 @item
26120 @cindex log output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26121 @var{log-stream-output} is output text coming from @value{GDBN}'s internals, for
26122 instance messages that should be displayed as part of an error log. All
26123 the log output is prefixed by @samp{&}.
26124
26125 @item
26126 @cindex list output in @sc{gdb/mi}
26127 New @sc{gdb/mi} commands should only output @var{lists} containing
26128 @var{values}.
26129
26130
26131 @end itemize
26132
26133 @xref{GDB/MI Stream Records, , @sc{gdb/mi} Stream Records}, for more
26134 details about the various output records.
26135
26136 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
26137 @node GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI
26138 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Compatibility with CLI
26139
26140 @cindex compatibility, @sc{gdb/mi} and CLI
26141 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, compatibility with CLI
26142
26143 For the developers convenience CLI commands can be entered directly,
26144 but there may be some unexpected behaviour. For example, commands
26145 that query the user will behave as if the user replied yes, breakpoint
26146 command lists are not executed and some CLI commands, such as
26147 @code{if}, @code{when} and @code{define}, prompt for further input with
26148 @samp{>}, which is not valid MI output.
26149
26150 This feature may be removed at some stage in the future and it is
26151 recommended that front ends use the @code{-interpreter-exec} command
26152 (@pxref{-interpreter-exec}).
26153
26154 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
26155 @node GDB/MI Development and Front Ends
26156 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Development and Front Ends
26157 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi} development
26158
26159 The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the
26160 program being debugged to the user is called a @dfn{front end}.
26161
26162 Although @sc{gdb/mi} is still incomplete, it is currently being used
26163 by a variety of front ends to @value{GDBN}. This makes it difficult
26164 to introduce new functionality without breaking existing usage. This
26165 section tries to minimize the problems by describing how the protocol
26166 might change.
26167
26168 Some changes in MI need not break a carefully designed front end, and
26169 for these the MI version will remain unchanged. The following is a
26170 list of changes that may occur within one level, so front ends should
26171 parse MI output in a way that can handle them:
26172
26173 @itemize @bullet
26174 @item
26175 New MI commands may be added.
26176
26177 @item
26178 New fields may be added to the output of any MI command.
26179
26180 @item
26181 The range of values for fields with specified values, e.g.,
26182 @code{in_scope} (@pxref{-var-update}) may be extended.
26183
26184 @c The format of field's content e.g type prefix, may change so parse it
26185 @c at your own risk. Yes, in general?
26186
26187 @c The order of fields may change? Shouldn't really matter but it might
26188 @c resolve inconsistencies.
26189 @end itemize
26190
26191 If the changes are likely to break front ends, the MI version level
26192 will be increased by one. This will allow the front end to parse the
26193 output according to the MI version. Apart from mi0, new versions of
26194 @value{GDBN} will not support old versions of MI and it will be the
26195 responsibility of the front end to work with the new one.
26196
26197 @c Starting with mi3, add a new command -mi-version that prints the MI
26198 @c version?
26199
26200 The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your front
26201 end is to make your project known to @value{GDBN} developers and
26202 follow development on @email{gdb@@sourceware.org} and
26203 @email{gdb-patches@@sourceware.org}.
26204 @cindex mailing lists
26205
26206 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
26207 @node GDB/MI Output Records
26208 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Output Records
26209
26210 @menu
26211 * GDB/MI Result Records::
26212 * GDB/MI Stream Records::
26213 * GDB/MI Async Records::
26214 * GDB/MI Frame Information::
26215 * GDB/MI Thread Information::
26216 * GDB/MI Ada Exception Information::
26217 @end menu
26218
26219 @node GDB/MI Result Records
26220 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Result Records
26221
26222 @cindex result records in @sc{gdb/mi}
26223 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, result records
26224 In addition to a number of out-of-band notifications, the response to a
26225 @sc{gdb/mi} command includes one of the following result indications:
26226
26227 @table @code
26228 @findex ^done
26229 @item "^done" [ "," @var{results} ]
26230 The synchronous operation was successful, @code{@var{results}} are the return
26231 values.
26232
26233 @item "^running"
26234 @findex ^running
26235 This result record is equivalent to @samp{^done}. Historically, it
26236 was output instead of @samp{^done} if the command has resumed the
26237 target. This behaviour is maintained for backward compatibility, but
26238 all frontends should treat @samp{^done} and @samp{^running}
26239 identically and rely on the @samp{*running} output record to determine
26240 which threads are resumed.
26241
26242 @item "^connected"
26243 @findex ^connected
26244 @value{GDBN} has connected to a remote target.
26245
26246 @item "^error" "," @var{c-string}
26247 @findex ^error
26248 The operation failed. The @code{@var{c-string}} contains the corresponding
26249 error message.
26250
26251 @item "^exit"
26252 @findex ^exit
26253 @value{GDBN} has terminated.
26254
26255 @end table
26256
26257 @node GDB/MI Stream Records
26258 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Stream Records
26259
26260 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, stream records
26261 @cindex stream records in @sc{gdb/mi}
26262 @value{GDBN} internally maintains a number of output streams: the console, the
26263 target, and the log. The output intended for each of these streams is
26264 funneled through the @sc{gdb/mi} interface using @dfn{stream records}.
26265
26266 Each stream record begins with a unique @dfn{prefix character} which
26267 identifies its stream (@pxref{GDB/MI Output Syntax, , @sc{gdb/mi} Output
26268 Syntax}). In addition to the prefix, each stream record contains a
26269 @code{@var{string-output}}. This is either raw text (with an implicit new
26270 line) or a quoted C string (which does not contain an implicit newline).
26271
26272 @table @code
26273 @item "~" @var{string-output}
26274 The console output stream contains text that should be displayed in the
26275 CLI console window. It contains the textual responses to CLI commands.
26276
26277 @item "@@" @var{string-output}
26278 The target output stream contains any textual output from the running
26279 target. This is only present when GDB's event loop is truly
26280 asynchronous, which is currently only the case for remote targets.
26281
26282 @item "&" @var{string-output}
26283 The log stream contains debugging messages being produced by @value{GDBN}'s
26284 internals.
26285 @end table
26286
26287 @node GDB/MI Async Records
26288 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Async Records
26289
26290 @cindex async records in @sc{gdb/mi}
26291 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, async records
26292 @dfn{Async} records are used to notify the @sc{gdb/mi} client of
26293 additional changes that have occurred. Those changes can either be a
26294 consequence of @sc{gdb/mi} commands (e.g., a breakpoint modified) or a result of
26295 target activity (e.g., target stopped).
26296
26297 The following is the list of possible async records:
26298
26299 @table @code
26300
26301 @item *running,thread-id="@var{thread}"
26302 The target is now running. The @var{thread} field tells which
26303 specific thread is now running, and can be @samp{all} if all threads
26304 are running. The frontend should assume that no interaction with a
26305 running thread is possible after this notification is produced.
26306 The frontend should not assume that this notification is output
26307 only once for any command. @value{GDBN} may emit this notification
26308 several times, either for different threads, because it cannot resume
26309 all threads together, or even for a single thread, if the thread must
26310 be stepped though some code before letting it run freely.
26311
26312 @item *stopped,reason="@var{reason}",thread-id="@var{id}",stopped-threads="@var{stopped}",core="@var{core}"
26313 The target has stopped. The @var{reason} field can have one of the
26314 following values:
26315
26316 @table @code
26317 @item breakpoint-hit
26318 A breakpoint was reached.
26319 @item watchpoint-trigger
26320 A watchpoint was triggered.
26321 @item read-watchpoint-trigger
26322 A read watchpoint was triggered.
26323 @item access-watchpoint-trigger
26324 An access watchpoint was triggered.
26325 @item function-finished
26326 An -exec-finish or similar CLI command was accomplished.
26327 @item location-reached
26328 An -exec-until or similar CLI command was accomplished.
26329 @item watchpoint-scope
26330 A watchpoint has gone out of scope.
26331 @item end-stepping-range
26332 An -exec-next, -exec-next-instruction, -exec-step, -exec-step-instruction or
26333 similar CLI command was accomplished.
26334 @item exited-signalled
26335 The inferior exited because of a signal.
26336 @item exited
26337 The inferior exited.
26338 @item exited-normally
26339 The inferior exited normally.
26340 @item signal-received
26341 A signal was received by the inferior.
26342 @item solib-event
26343 The inferior has stopped due to a library being loaded or unloaded.
26344 This can happen when @code{stop-on-solib-events} (@pxref{Files}) is
26345 set or when a @code{catch load} or @code{catch unload} catchpoint is
26346 in use (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}).
26347 @item fork
26348 The inferior has forked. This is reported when @code{catch fork}
26349 (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}) has been used.
26350 @item vfork
26351 The inferior has vforked. This is reported in when @code{catch vfork}
26352 (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}) has been used.
26353 @item syscall-entry
26354 The inferior entered a system call. This is reported when @code{catch
26355 syscall} (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}) has been used.
26356 @item syscall-entry
26357 The inferior returned from a system call. This is reported when
26358 @code{catch syscall} (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}) has been used.
26359 @item exec
26360 The inferior called @code{exec}. This is reported when @code{catch exec}
26361 (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}) has been used.
26362 @end table
26363
26364 The @var{id} field identifies the thread that directly caused the stop
26365 -- for example by hitting a breakpoint. Depending on whether all-stop
26366 mode is in effect (@pxref{All-Stop Mode}), @value{GDBN} may either
26367 stop all threads, or only the thread that directly triggered the stop.
26368 If all threads are stopped, the @var{stopped} field will have the
26369 value of @code{"all"}. Otherwise, the value of the @var{stopped}
26370 field will be a list of thread identifiers. Presently, this list will
26371 always include a single thread, but frontend should be prepared to see
26372 several threads in the list. The @var{core} field reports the
26373 processor core on which the stop event has happened. This field may be absent
26374 if such information is not available.
26375
26376 @item =thread-group-added,id="@var{id}"
26377 @itemx =thread-group-removed,id="@var{id}"
26378 A thread group was either added or removed. The @var{id} field
26379 contains the @value{GDBN} identifier of the thread group. When a thread
26380 group is added, it generally might not be associated with a running
26381 process. When a thread group is removed, its id becomes invalid and
26382 cannot be used in any way.
26383
26384 @item =thread-group-started,id="@var{id}",pid="@var{pid}"
26385 A thread group became associated with a running program,
26386 either because the program was just started or the thread group
26387 was attached to a program. The @var{id} field contains the
26388 @value{GDBN} identifier of the thread group. The @var{pid} field
26389 contains process identifier, specific to the operating system.
26390
26391 @item =thread-group-exited,id="@var{id}"[,exit-code="@var{code}"]
26392 A thread group is no longer associated with a running program,
26393 either because the program has exited, or because it was detached
26394 from. The @var{id} field contains the @value{GDBN} identifier of the
26395 thread group. @var{code} is the exit code of the inferior; it exists
26396 only when the inferior exited with some code.
26397
26398 @item =thread-created,id="@var{id}",group-id="@var{gid}"
26399 @itemx =thread-exited,id="@var{id}",group-id="@var{gid}"
26400 A thread either was created, or has exited. The @var{id} field
26401 contains the @value{GDBN} identifier of the thread. The @var{gid}
26402 field identifies the thread group this thread belongs to.
26403
26404 @item =thread-selected,id="@var{id}"
26405 Informs that the selected thread was changed as result of the last
26406 command. This notification is not emitted as result of @code{-thread-select}
26407 command but is emitted whenever an MI command that is not documented
26408 to change the selected thread actually changes it. In particular,
26409 invoking, directly or indirectly (via user-defined command), the CLI
26410 @code{thread} command, will generate this notification.
26411
26412 We suggest that in response to this notification, front ends
26413 highlight the selected thread and cause subsequent commands to apply to
26414 that thread.
26415
26416 @item =library-loaded,...
26417 Reports that a new library file was loaded by the program. This
26418 notification has 4 fields---@var{id}, @var{target-name},
26419 @var{host-name}, and @var{symbols-loaded}. The @var{id} field is an
26420 opaque identifier of the library. For remote debugging case,
26421 @var{target-name} and @var{host-name} fields give the name of the
26422 library file on the target, and on the host respectively. For native
26423 debugging, both those fields have the same value. The
26424 @var{symbols-loaded} field is emitted only for backward compatibility
26425 and should not be relied on to convey any useful information. The
26426 @var{thread-group} field, if present, specifies the id of the thread
26427 group in whose context the library was loaded. If the field is
26428 absent, it means the library was loaded in the context of all present
26429 thread groups.
26430
26431 @item =library-unloaded,...
26432 Reports that a library was unloaded by the program. This notification
26433 has 3 fields---@var{id}, @var{target-name} and @var{host-name} with
26434 the same meaning as for the @code{=library-loaded} notification.
26435 The @var{thread-group} field, if present, specifies the id of the
26436 thread group in whose context the library was unloaded. If the field is
26437 absent, it means the library was unloaded in the context of all present
26438 thread groups.
26439
26440 @item =breakpoint-created,bkpt=@{...@}
26441 @itemx =breakpoint-modified,bkpt=@{...@}
26442 @itemx =breakpoint-deleted,bkpt=@{...@}
26443 Reports that a breakpoint was created, modified, or deleted,
26444 respectively. Only user-visible breakpoints are reported to the MI
26445 user.
26446
26447 The @var{bkpt} argument is of the same form as returned by the various
26448 breakpoint commands; @xref{GDB/MI Breakpoint Commands}.
26449
26450 Note that if a breakpoint is emitted in the result record of a
26451 command, then it will not also be emitted in an async record.
26452
26453 @end table
26454
26455 @node GDB/MI Frame Information
26456 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Frame Information
26457
26458 Response from many MI commands includes an information about stack
26459 frame. This information is a tuple that may have the following
26460 fields:
26461
26462 @table @code
26463 @item level
26464 The level of the stack frame. The innermost frame has the level of
26465 zero. This field is always present.
26466
26467 @item func
26468 The name of the function corresponding to the frame. This field may
26469 be absent if @value{GDBN} is unable to determine the function name.
26470
26471 @item addr
26472 The code address for the frame. This field is always present.
26473
26474 @item file
26475 The name of the source files that correspond to the frame's code
26476 address. This field may be absent.
26477
26478 @item line
26479 The source line corresponding to the frames' code address. This field
26480 may be absent.
26481
26482 @item from
26483 The name of the binary file (either executable or shared library) the
26484 corresponds to the frame's code address. This field may be absent.
26485
26486 @end table
26487
26488 @node GDB/MI Thread Information
26489 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Thread Information
26490
26491 Whenever @value{GDBN} has to report an information about a thread, it
26492 uses a tuple with the following fields:
26493
26494 @table @code
26495 @item id
26496 The numeric id assigned to the thread by @value{GDBN}. This field is
26497 always present.
26498
26499 @item target-id
26500 Target-specific string identifying the thread. This field is always present.
26501
26502 @item details
26503 Additional information about the thread provided by the target.
26504 It is supposed to be human-readable and not interpreted by the
26505 frontend. This field is optional.
26506
26507 @item state
26508 Either @samp{stopped} or @samp{running}, depending on whether the
26509 thread is presently running. This field is always present.
26510
26511 @item core
26512 The value of this field is an integer number of the processor core the
26513 thread was last seen on. This field is optional.
26514 @end table
26515
26516 @node GDB/MI Ada Exception Information
26517 @subsection @sc{gdb/mi} Ada Exception Information
26518
26519 Whenever a @code{*stopped} record is emitted because the program
26520 stopped after hitting an exception catchpoint (@pxref{Set Catchpoints}),
26521 @value{GDBN} provides the name of the exception that was raised via
26522 the @code{exception-name} field.
26523
26524 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
26525 @node GDB/MI Simple Examples
26526 @section Simple Examples of @sc{gdb/mi} Interaction
26527 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, simple examples
26528
26529 This subsection presents several simple examples of interaction using
26530 the @sc{gdb/mi} interface. In these examples, @samp{->} means that the
26531 following line is passed to @sc{gdb/mi} as input, while @samp{<-} means
26532 the output received from @sc{gdb/mi}.
26533
26534 Note the line breaks shown in the examples are here only for
26535 readability, they don't appear in the real output.
26536
26537 @subheading Setting a Breakpoint
26538
26539 Setting a breakpoint generates synchronous output which contains detailed
26540 information of the breakpoint.
26541
26542 @smallexample
26543 -> -break-insert main
26544 <- ^done,bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",
26545 enabled="y",addr="0x08048564",func="main",file="myprog.c",
26546 fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="68",times="0"@}
26547 <- (gdb)
26548 @end smallexample
26549
26550 @subheading Program Execution
26551
26552 Program execution generates asynchronous records and MI gives the
26553 reason that execution stopped.
26554
26555 @smallexample
26556 -> -exec-run
26557 <- ^running
26558 <- (gdb)
26559 <- *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",thread-id="0",
26560 frame=@{addr="0x08048564",func="main",
26561 args=[@{name="argc",value="1"@},@{name="argv",value="0xbfc4d4d4"@}],
26562 file="myprog.c",fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="68"@}
26563 <- (gdb)
26564 -> -exec-continue
26565 <- ^running
26566 <- (gdb)
26567 <- *stopped,reason="exited-normally"
26568 <- (gdb)
26569 @end smallexample
26570
26571 @subheading Quitting @value{GDBN}
26572
26573 Quitting @value{GDBN} just prints the result class @samp{^exit}.
26574
26575 @smallexample
26576 -> (gdb)
26577 <- -gdb-exit
26578 <- ^exit
26579 @end smallexample
26580
26581 Please note that @samp{^exit} is printed immediately, but it might
26582 take some time for @value{GDBN} to actually exit. During that time, @value{GDBN}
26583 performs necessary cleanups, including killing programs being debugged
26584 or disconnecting from debug hardware, so the frontend should wait till
26585 @value{GDBN} exits and should only forcibly kill @value{GDBN} if it
26586 fails to exit in reasonable time.
26587
26588 @subheading A Bad Command
26589
26590 Here's what happens if you pass a non-existent command:
26591
26592 @smallexample
26593 -> -rubbish
26594 <- ^error,msg="Undefined MI command: rubbish"
26595 <- (gdb)
26596 @end smallexample
26597
26598
26599 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
26600 @node GDB/MI Command Description Format
26601 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Command Description Format
26602
26603 The remaining sections describe blocks of commands. Each block of
26604 commands is laid out in a fashion similar to this section.
26605
26606 @subheading Motivation
26607
26608 The motivation for this collection of commands.
26609
26610 @subheading Introduction
26611
26612 A brief introduction to this collection of commands as a whole.
26613
26614 @subheading Commands
26615
26616 For each command in the block, the following is described:
26617
26618 @subsubheading Synopsis
26619
26620 @smallexample
26621 -command @var{args}@dots{}
26622 @end smallexample
26623
26624 @subsubheading Result
26625
26626 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26627
26628 The corresponding @value{GDBN} CLI command(s), if any.
26629
26630 @subsubheading Example
26631
26632 Example(s) formatted for readability. Some of the described commands have
26633 not been implemented yet and these are labeled N.A.@: (not available).
26634
26635
26636 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
26637 @node GDB/MI Breakpoint Commands
26638 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Breakpoint Commands
26639
26640 @cindex breakpoint commands for @sc{gdb/mi}
26641 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, breakpoint commands
26642 This section documents @sc{gdb/mi} commands for manipulating
26643 breakpoints.
26644
26645 @subheading The @code{-break-after} Command
26646 @findex -break-after
26647
26648 @subsubheading Synopsis
26649
26650 @smallexample
26651 -break-after @var{number} @var{count}
26652 @end smallexample
26653
26654 The breakpoint number @var{number} is not in effect until it has been
26655 hit @var{count} times. To see how this is reflected in the output of
26656 the @samp{-break-list} command, see the description of the
26657 @samp{-break-list} command below.
26658
26659 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26660
26661 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{ignore}.
26662
26663 @subsubheading Example
26664
26665 @smallexample
26666 (gdb)
26667 -break-insert main
26668 ^done,bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",
26669 enabled="y",addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",
26670 fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",line="5",times="0"@}
26671 (gdb)
26672 -break-after 1 3
26673 ~
26674 ^done
26675 (gdb)
26676 -break-list
26677 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6",
26678 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
26679 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
26680 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
26681 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
26682 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
26683 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
26684 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
26685 addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",
26686 line="5",times="0",ignore="3"@}]@}
26687 (gdb)
26688 @end smallexample
26689
26690 @ignore
26691 @subheading The @code{-break-catch} Command
26692 @findex -break-catch
26693 @end ignore
26694
26695 @subheading The @code{-break-commands} Command
26696 @findex -break-commands
26697
26698 @subsubheading Synopsis
26699
26700 @smallexample
26701 -break-commands @var{number} [ @var{command1} ... @var{commandN} ]
26702 @end smallexample
26703
26704 Specifies the CLI commands that should be executed when breakpoint
26705 @var{number} is hit. The parameters @var{command1} to @var{commandN}
26706 are the commands. If no command is specified, any previously-set
26707 commands are cleared. @xref{Break Commands}. Typical use of this
26708 functionality is tracing a program, that is, printing of values of
26709 some variables whenever breakpoint is hit and then continuing.
26710
26711 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26712
26713 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{commands}.
26714
26715 @subsubheading Example
26716
26717 @smallexample
26718 (gdb)
26719 -break-insert main
26720 ^done,bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",
26721 enabled="y",addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",
26722 fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",line="5",times="0"@}
26723 (gdb)
26724 -break-commands 1 "print v" "continue"
26725 ^done
26726 (gdb)
26727 @end smallexample
26728
26729 @subheading The @code{-break-condition} Command
26730 @findex -break-condition
26731
26732 @subsubheading Synopsis
26733
26734 @smallexample
26735 -break-condition @var{number} @var{expr}
26736 @end smallexample
26737
26738 Breakpoint @var{number} will stop the program only if the condition in
26739 @var{expr} is true. The condition becomes part of the
26740 @samp{-break-list} output (see the description of the @samp{-break-list}
26741 command below).
26742
26743 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26744
26745 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{condition}.
26746
26747 @subsubheading Example
26748
26749 @smallexample
26750 (gdb)
26751 -break-condition 1 1
26752 ^done
26753 (gdb)
26754 -break-list
26755 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6",
26756 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
26757 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
26758 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
26759 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
26760 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
26761 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
26762 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
26763 addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",
26764 line="5",cond="1",times="0",ignore="3"@}]@}
26765 (gdb)
26766 @end smallexample
26767
26768 @subheading The @code{-break-delete} Command
26769 @findex -break-delete
26770
26771 @subsubheading Synopsis
26772
26773 @smallexample
26774 -break-delete ( @var{breakpoint} )+
26775 @end smallexample
26776
26777 Delete the breakpoint(s) whose number(s) are specified in the argument
26778 list. This is obviously reflected in the breakpoint list.
26779
26780 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26781
26782 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{delete}.
26783
26784 @subsubheading Example
26785
26786 @smallexample
26787 (gdb)
26788 -break-delete 1
26789 ^done
26790 (gdb)
26791 -break-list
26792 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="0",nr_cols="6",
26793 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
26794 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
26795 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
26796 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
26797 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
26798 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
26799 body=[]@}
26800 (gdb)
26801 @end smallexample
26802
26803 @subheading The @code{-break-disable} Command
26804 @findex -break-disable
26805
26806 @subsubheading Synopsis
26807
26808 @smallexample
26809 -break-disable ( @var{breakpoint} )+
26810 @end smallexample
26811
26812 Disable the named @var{breakpoint}(s). The field @samp{enabled} in the
26813 break list is now set to @samp{n} for the named @var{breakpoint}(s).
26814
26815 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26816
26817 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{disable}.
26818
26819 @subsubheading Example
26820
26821 @smallexample
26822 (gdb)
26823 -break-disable 2
26824 ^done
26825 (gdb)
26826 -break-list
26827 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6",
26828 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
26829 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
26830 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
26831 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
26832 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
26833 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
26834 body=[bkpt=@{number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="n",
26835 addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",
26836 line="5",times="0"@}]@}
26837 (gdb)
26838 @end smallexample
26839
26840 @subheading The @code{-break-enable} Command
26841 @findex -break-enable
26842
26843 @subsubheading Synopsis
26844
26845 @smallexample
26846 -break-enable ( @var{breakpoint} )+
26847 @end smallexample
26848
26849 Enable (previously disabled) @var{breakpoint}(s).
26850
26851 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26852
26853 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{enable}.
26854
26855 @subsubheading Example
26856
26857 @smallexample
26858 (gdb)
26859 -break-enable 2
26860 ^done
26861 (gdb)
26862 -break-list
26863 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6",
26864 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
26865 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
26866 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
26867 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
26868 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
26869 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
26870 body=[bkpt=@{number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
26871 addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",
26872 line="5",times="0"@}]@}
26873 (gdb)
26874 @end smallexample
26875
26876 @subheading The @code{-break-info} Command
26877 @findex -break-info
26878
26879 @subsubheading Synopsis
26880
26881 @smallexample
26882 -break-info @var{breakpoint}
26883 @end smallexample
26884
26885 @c REDUNDANT???
26886 Get information about a single breakpoint.
26887
26888 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26889
26890 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info break @var{breakpoint}}.
26891
26892 @subsubheading Example
26893 N.A.
26894
26895 @subheading The @code{-break-insert} Command
26896 @findex -break-insert
26897
26898 @subsubheading Synopsis
26899
26900 @smallexample
26901 -break-insert [ -t ] [ -h ] [ -f ] [ -d ] [ -a ]
26902 [ -c @var{condition} ] [ -i @var{ignore-count} ]
26903 [ -p @var{thread} ] [ @var{location} ]
26904 @end smallexample
26905
26906 @noindent
26907 If specified, @var{location}, can be one of:
26908
26909 @itemize @bullet
26910 @item function
26911 @c @item +offset
26912 @c @item -offset
26913 @c @item linenum
26914 @item filename:linenum
26915 @item filename:function
26916 @item *address
26917 @end itemize
26918
26919 The possible optional parameters of this command are:
26920
26921 @table @samp
26922 @item -t
26923 Insert a temporary breakpoint.
26924 @item -h
26925 Insert a hardware breakpoint.
26926 @item -c @var{condition}
26927 Make the breakpoint conditional on @var{condition}.
26928 @item -i @var{ignore-count}
26929 Initialize the @var{ignore-count}.
26930 @item -f
26931 If @var{location} cannot be parsed (for example if it
26932 refers to unknown files or functions), create a pending
26933 breakpoint. Without this flag, @value{GDBN} will report
26934 an error, and won't create a breakpoint, if @var{location}
26935 cannot be parsed.
26936 @item -d
26937 Create a disabled breakpoint.
26938 @item -a
26939 Create a tracepoint. @xref{Tracepoints}. When this parameter
26940 is used together with @samp{-h}, a fast tracepoint is created.
26941 @end table
26942
26943 @subsubheading Result
26944
26945 The result is in the form:
26946
26947 @smallexample
26948 ^done,bkpt=@{number="@var{number}",type="@var{type}",disp="del"|"keep",
26949 enabled="y"|"n",addr="@var{hex}",func="@var{funcname}",file="@var{filename}",
26950 fullname="@var{full_filename}",line="@var{lineno}",[thread="@var{threadno},]
26951 times="@var{times}"@}
26952 @end smallexample
26953
26954 @noindent
26955 where @var{number} is the @value{GDBN} number for this breakpoint,
26956 @var{funcname} is the name of the function where the breakpoint was
26957 inserted, @var{filename} is the name of the source file which contains
26958 this function, @var{lineno} is the source line number within that file
26959 and @var{times} the number of times that the breakpoint has been hit
26960 (always 0 for -break-insert but may be greater for -break-info or -break-list
26961 which use the same output).
26962
26963 Note: this format is open to change.
26964 @c An out-of-band breakpoint instead of part of the result?
26965
26966 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
26967
26968 The corresponding @value{GDBN} commands are @samp{break}, @samp{tbreak},
26969 @samp{hbreak}, @samp{thbreak}, and @samp{rbreak}.
26970
26971 @subsubheading Example
26972
26973 @smallexample
26974 (gdb)
26975 -break-insert main
26976 ^done,bkpt=@{number="1",addr="0x0001072c",file="recursive2.c",
26977 fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c,line="4",times="0"@}
26978 (gdb)
26979 -break-insert -t foo
26980 ^done,bkpt=@{number="2",addr="0x00010774",file="recursive2.c",
26981 fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c,line="11",times="0"@}
26982 (gdb)
26983 -break-list
26984 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6",
26985 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
26986 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
26987 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
26988 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
26989 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
26990 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
26991 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
26992 addr="0x0001072c", func="main",file="recursive2.c",
26993 fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c,"line="4",times="0"@},
26994 bkpt=@{number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="del",enabled="y",
26995 addr="0x00010774",func="foo",file="recursive2.c",
26996 fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c",line="11",times="0"@}]@}
26997 (gdb)
26998 -break-insert -r foo.*
26999 ~int foo(int, int);
27000 ^done,bkpt=@{number="3",addr="0x00010774",file="recursive2.c,
27001 "fullname="/home/foo/recursive2.c",line="11",times="0"@}
27002 (gdb)
27003 @end smallexample
27004
27005 @subheading The @code{-break-list} Command
27006 @findex -break-list
27007
27008 @subsubheading Synopsis
27009
27010 @smallexample
27011 -break-list
27012 @end smallexample
27013
27014 Displays the list of inserted breakpoints, showing the following fields:
27015
27016 @table @samp
27017 @item Number
27018 number of the breakpoint
27019 @item Type
27020 type of the breakpoint: @samp{breakpoint} or @samp{watchpoint}
27021 @item Disposition
27022 should the breakpoint be deleted or disabled when it is hit: @samp{keep}
27023 or @samp{nokeep}
27024 @item Enabled
27025 is the breakpoint enabled or no: @samp{y} or @samp{n}
27026 @item Address
27027 memory location at which the breakpoint is set
27028 @item What
27029 logical location of the breakpoint, expressed by function name, file
27030 name, line number
27031 @item Times
27032 number of times the breakpoint has been hit
27033 @end table
27034
27035 If there are no breakpoints or watchpoints, the @code{BreakpointTable}
27036 @code{body} field is an empty list.
27037
27038 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27039
27040 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info break}.
27041
27042 @subsubheading Example
27043
27044 @smallexample
27045 (gdb)
27046 -break-list
27047 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6",
27048 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
27049 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
27050 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
27051 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
27052 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
27053 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
27054 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
27055 addr="0x000100d0",func="main",file="hello.c",line="5",times="0"@},
27056 bkpt=@{number="2",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
27057 addr="0x00010114",func="foo",file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/hello.c",
27058 line="13",times="0"@}]@}
27059 (gdb)
27060 @end smallexample
27061
27062 Here's an example of the result when there are no breakpoints:
27063
27064 @smallexample
27065 (gdb)
27066 -break-list
27067 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="0",nr_cols="6",
27068 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
27069 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
27070 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
27071 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
27072 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
27073 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
27074 body=[]@}
27075 (gdb)
27076 @end smallexample
27077
27078 @subheading The @code{-break-passcount} Command
27079 @findex -break-passcount
27080
27081 @subsubheading Synopsis
27082
27083 @smallexample
27084 -break-passcount @var{tracepoint-number} @var{passcount}
27085 @end smallexample
27086
27087 Set the passcount for tracepoint @var{tracepoint-number} to
27088 @var{passcount}. If the breakpoint referred to by @var{tracepoint-number}
27089 is not a tracepoint, error is emitted. This corresponds to CLI
27090 command @samp{passcount}.
27091
27092 @subheading The @code{-break-watch} Command
27093 @findex -break-watch
27094
27095 @subsubheading Synopsis
27096
27097 @smallexample
27098 -break-watch [ -a | -r ]
27099 @end smallexample
27100
27101 Create a watchpoint. With the @samp{-a} option it will create an
27102 @dfn{access} watchpoint, i.e., a watchpoint that triggers either on a
27103 read from or on a write to the memory location. With the @samp{-r}
27104 option, the watchpoint created is a @dfn{read} watchpoint, i.e., it will
27105 trigger only when the memory location is accessed for reading. Without
27106 either of the options, the watchpoint created is a regular watchpoint,
27107 i.e., it will trigger when the memory location is accessed for writing.
27108 @xref{Set Watchpoints, , Setting Watchpoints}.
27109
27110 Note that @samp{-break-list} will report a single list of watchpoints and
27111 breakpoints inserted.
27112
27113 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27114
27115 The corresponding @value{GDBN} commands are @samp{watch}, @samp{awatch}, and
27116 @samp{rwatch}.
27117
27118 @subsubheading Example
27119
27120 Setting a watchpoint on a variable in the @code{main} function:
27121
27122 @smallexample
27123 (gdb)
27124 -break-watch x
27125 ^done,wpt=@{number="2",exp="x"@}
27126 (gdb)
27127 -exec-continue
27128 ^running
27129 (gdb)
27130 *stopped,reason="watchpoint-trigger",wpt=@{number="2",exp="x"@},
27131 value=@{old="-268439212",new="55"@},
27132 frame=@{func="main",args=[],file="recursive2.c",
27133 fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="5"@}
27134 (gdb)
27135 @end smallexample
27136
27137 Setting a watchpoint on a variable local to a function. @value{GDBN} will stop
27138 the program execution twice: first for the variable changing value, then
27139 for the watchpoint going out of scope.
27140
27141 @smallexample
27142 (gdb)
27143 -break-watch C
27144 ^done,wpt=@{number="5",exp="C"@}
27145 (gdb)
27146 -exec-continue
27147 ^running
27148 (gdb)
27149 *stopped,reason="watchpoint-trigger",
27150 wpt=@{number="5",exp="C"@},value=@{old="-276895068",new="3"@},
27151 frame=@{func="callee4",args=[],
27152 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27153 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="13"@}
27154 (gdb)
27155 -exec-continue
27156 ^running
27157 (gdb)
27158 *stopped,reason="watchpoint-scope",wpnum="5",
27159 frame=@{func="callee3",args=[@{name="strarg",
27160 value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@}],
27161 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27162 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="18"@}
27163 (gdb)
27164 @end smallexample
27165
27166 Listing breakpoints and watchpoints, at different points in the program
27167 execution. Note that once the watchpoint goes out of scope, it is
27168 deleted.
27169
27170 @smallexample
27171 (gdb)
27172 -break-watch C
27173 ^done,wpt=@{number="2",exp="C"@}
27174 (gdb)
27175 -break-list
27176 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6",
27177 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
27178 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
27179 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
27180 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
27181 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
27182 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
27183 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
27184 addr="0x00010734",func="callee4",
27185 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27186 fullname="/home/foo/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c"line="8",times="1"@},
27187 bkpt=@{number="2",type="watchpoint",disp="keep",
27188 enabled="y",addr="",what="C",times="0"@}]@}
27189 (gdb)
27190 -exec-continue
27191 ^running
27192 (gdb)
27193 *stopped,reason="watchpoint-trigger",wpt=@{number="2",exp="C"@},
27194 value=@{old="-276895068",new="3"@},
27195 frame=@{func="callee4",args=[],
27196 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27197 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="13"@}
27198 (gdb)
27199 -break-list
27200 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="2",nr_cols="6",
27201 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
27202 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
27203 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
27204 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
27205 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
27206 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
27207 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
27208 addr="0x00010734",func="callee4",
27209 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27210 fullname="/home/foo/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8",times="1"@},
27211 bkpt=@{number="2",type="watchpoint",disp="keep",
27212 enabled="y",addr="",what="C",times="-5"@}]@}
27213 (gdb)
27214 -exec-continue
27215 ^running
27216 ^done,reason="watchpoint-scope",wpnum="2",
27217 frame=@{func="callee3",args=[@{name="strarg",
27218 value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@}],
27219 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27220 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="18"@}
27221 (gdb)
27222 -break-list
27223 ^done,BreakpointTable=@{nr_rows="1",nr_cols="6",
27224 hdr=[@{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="number",colhdr="Num"@},
27225 @{width="14",alignment="-1",col_name="type",colhdr="Type"@},
27226 @{width="4",alignment="-1",col_name="disp",colhdr="Disp"@},
27227 @{width="3",alignment="-1",col_name="enabled",colhdr="Enb"@},
27228 @{width="10",alignment="-1",col_name="addr",colhdr="Address"@},
27229 @{width="40",alignment="2",col_name="what",colhdr="What"@}],
27230 body=[bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
27231 addr="0x00010734",func="callee4",
27232 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27233 fullname="/home/foo/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8",
27234 times="1"@}]@}
27235 (gdb)
27236 @end smallexample
27237
27238 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
27239 @node GDB/MI Program Context
27240 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Program Context
27241
27242 @subheading The @code{-exec-arguments} Command
27243 @findex -exec-arguments
27244
27245
27246 @subsubheading Synopsis
27247
27248 @smallexample
27249 -exec-arguments @var{args}
27250 @end smallexample
27251
27252 Set the inferior program arguments, to be used in the next
27253 @samp{-exec-run}.
27254
27255 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27256
27257 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{set args}.
27258
27259 @subsubheading Example
27260
27261 @smallexample
27262 (gdb)
27263 -exec-arguments -v word
27264 ^done
27265 (gdb)
27266 @end smallexample
27267
27268
27269 @ignore
27270 @subheading The @code{-exec-show-arguments} Command
27271 @findex -exec-show-arguments
27272
27273 @subsubheading Synopsis
27274
27275 @smallexample
27276 -exec-show-arguments
27277 @end smallexample
27278
27279 Print the arguments of the program.
27280
27281 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27282
27283 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{show args}.
27284
27285 @subsubheading Example
27286 N.A.
27287 @end ignore
27288
27289
27290 @subheading The @code{-environment-cd} Command
27291 @findex -environment-cd
27292
27293 @subsubheading Synopsis
27294
27295 @smallexample
27296 -environment-cd @var{pathdir}
27297 @end smallexample
27298
27299 Set @value{GDBN}'s working directory.
27300
27301 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27302
27303 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{cd}.
27304
27305 @subsubheading Example
27306
27307 @smallexample
27308 (gdb)
27309 -environment-cd /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb
27310 ^done
27311 (gdb)
27312 @end smallexample
27313
27314
27315 @subheading The @code{-environment-directory} Command
27316 @findex -environment-directory
27317
27318 @subsubheading Synopsis
27319
27320 @smallexample
27321 -environment-directory [ -r ] [ @var{pathdir} ]+
27322 @end smallexample
27323
27324 Add directories @var{pathdir} to beginning of search path for source files.
27325 If the @samp{-r} option is used, the search path is reset to the default
27326 search path. If directories @var{pathdir} are supplied in addition to the
27327 @samp{-r} option, the search path is first reset and then addition
27328 occurs as normal.
27329 Multiple directories may be specified, separated by blanks. Specifying
27330 multiple directories in a single command
27331 results in the directories added to the beginning of the
27332 search path in the same order they were presented in the command.
27333 If blanks are needed as
27334 part of a directory name, double-quotes should be used around
27335 the name. In the command output, the path will show up separated
27336 by the system directory-separator character. The directory-separator
27337 character must not be used
27338 in any directory name.
27339 If no directories are specified, the current search path is displayed.
27340
27341 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27342
27343 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{dir}.
27344
27345 @subsubheading Example
27346
27347 @smallexample
27348 (gdb)
27349 -environment-directory /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb
27350 ^done,source-path="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb:$cdir:$cwd"
27351 (gdb)
27352 -environment-directory ""
27353 ^done,source-path="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb:$cdir:$cwd"
27354 (gdb)
27355 -environment-directory -r /home/jjohnstn/src/gdb /usr/src
27356 ^done,source-path="/home/jjohnstn/src/gdb:/usr/src:$cdir:$cwd"
27357 (gdb)
27358 -environment-directory -r
27359 ^done,source-path="$cdir:$cwd"
27360 (gdb)
27361 @end smallexample
27362
27363
27364 @subheading The @code{-environment-path} Command
27365 @findex -environment-path
27366
27367 @subsubheading Synopsis
27368
27369 @smallexample
27370 -environment-path [ -r ] [ @var{pathdir} ]+
27371 @end smallexample
27372
27373 Add directories @var{pathdir} to beginning of search path for object files.
27374 If the @samp{-r} option is used, the search path is reset to the original
27375 search path that existed at gdb start-up. If directories @var{pathdir} are
27376 supplied in addition to the
27377 @samp{-r} option, the search path is first reset and then addition
27378 occurs as normal.
27379 Multiple directories may be specified, separated by blanks. Specifying
27380 multiple directories in a single command
27381 results in the directories added to the beginning of the
27382 search path in the same order they were presented in the command.
27383 If blanks are needed as
27384 part of a directory name, double-quotes should be used around
27385 the name. In the command output, the path will show up separated
27386 by the system directory-separator character. The directory-separator
27387 character must not be used
27388 in any directory name.
27389 If no directories are specified, the current path is displayed.
27390
27391
27392 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27393
27394 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{path}.
27395
27396 @subsubheading Example
27397
27398 @smallexample
27399 (gdb)
27400 -environment-path
27401 ^done,path="/usr/bin"
27402 (gdb)
27403 -environment-path /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/ppc-eabi/gdb /bin
27404 ^done,path="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/ppc-eabi/gdb:/bin:/usr/bin"
27405 (gdb)
27406 -environment-path -r /usr/local/bin
27407 ^done,path="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin"
27408 (gdb)
27409 @end smallexample
27410
27411
27412 @subheading The @code{-environment-pwd} Command
27413 @findex -environment-pwd
27414
27415 @subsubheading Synopsis
27416
27417 @smallexample
27418 -environment-pwd
27419 @end smallexample
27420
27421 Show the current working directory.
27422
27423 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27424
27425 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{pwd}.
27426
27427 @subsubheading Example
27428
27429 @smallexample
27430 (gdb)
27431 -environment-pwd
27432 ^done,cwd="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb"
27433 (gdb)
27434 @end smallexample
27435
27436 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
27437 @node GDB/MI Thread Commands
27438 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Thread Commands
27439
27440
27441 @subheading The @code{-thread-info} Command
27442 @findex -thread-info
27443
27444 @subsubheading Synopsis
27445
27446 @smallexample
27447 -thread-info [ @var{thread-id} ]
27448 @end smallexample
27449
27450 Reports information about either a specific thread, if
27451 the @var{thread-id} parameter is present, or about all
27452 threads. When printing information about all threads,
27453 also reports the current thread.
27454
27455 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27456
27457 The @samp{info thread} command prints the same information
27458 about all threads.
27459
27460 @subsubheading Result
27461
27462 The result is a list of threads. The following attributes are
27463 defined for a given thread:
27464
27465 @table @samp
27466 @item current
27467 This field exists only for the current thread. It has the value @samp{*}.
27468
27469 @item id
27470 The identifier that @value{GDBN} uses to refer to the thread.
27471
27472 @item target-id
27473 The identifier that the target uses to refer to the thread.
27474
27475 @item details
27476 Extra information about the thread, in a target-specific format. This
27477 field is optional.
27478
27479 @item name
27480 The name of the thread. If the user specified a name using the
27481 @code{thread name} command, then this name is given. Otherwise, if
27482 @value{GDBN} can extract the thread name from the target, then that
27483 name is given. If @value{GDBN} cannot find the thread name, then this
27484 field is omitted.
27485
27486 @item frame
27487 The stack frame currently executing in the thread.
27488
27489 @item state
27490 The thread's state. The @samp{state} field may have the following
27491 values:
27492
27493 @table @code
27494 @item stopped
27495 The thread is stopped. Frame information is available for stopped
27496 threads.
27497
27498 @item running
27499 The thread is running. There's no frame information for running
27500 threads.
27501
27502 @end table
27503
27504 @item core
27505 If @value{GDBN} can find the CPU core on which this thread is running,
27506 then this field is the core identifier. This field is optional.
27507
27508 @end table
27509
27510 @subsubheading Example
27511
27512 @smallexample
27513 -thread-info
27514 ^done,threads=[
27515 @{id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90 (LWP 21257)",
27516 frame=@{level="0",addr="0xffffe410",func="__kernel_vsyscall",
27517 args=[]@},state="running"@},
27518 @{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e156b0 (LWP 21254)",
27519 frame=@{level="0",addr="0x0804891f",func="foo",
27520 args=[@{name="i",value="10"@}],
27521 file="/tmp/a.c",fullname="/tmp/a.c",line="158"@},
27522 state="running"@}],
27523 current-thread-id="1"
27524 (gdb)
27525 @end smallexample
27526
27527 @subheading The @code{-thread-list-ids} Command
27528 @findex -thread-list-ids
27529
27530 @subsubheading Synopsis
27531
27532 @smallexample
27533 -thread-list-ids
27534 @end smallexample
27535
27536 Produces a list of the currently known @value{GDBN} thread ids. At the
27537 end of the list it also prints the total number of such threads.
27538
27539 This command is retained for historical reasons, the
27540 @code{-thread-info} command should be used instead.
27541
27542 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27543
27544 Part of @samp{info threads} supplies the same information.
27545
27546 @subsubheading Example
27547
27548 @smallexample
27549 (gdb)
27550 -thread-list-ids
27551 ^done,thread-ids=@{thread-id="3",thread-id="2",thread-id="1"@},
27552 current-thread-id="1",number-of-threads="3"
27553 (gdb)
27554 @end smallexample
27555
27556
27557 @subheading The @code{-thread-select} Command
27558 @findex -thread-select
27559
27560 @subsubheading Synopsis
27561
27562 @smallexample
27563 -thread-select @var{threadnum}
27564 @end smallexample
27565
27566 Make @var{threadnum} the current thread. It prints the number of the new
27567 current thread, and the topmost frame for that thread.
27568
27569 This command is deprecated in favor of explicitly using the
27570 @samp{--thread} option to each command.
27571
27572 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27573
27574 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{thread}.
27575
27576 @subsubheading Example
27577
27578 @smallexample
27579 (gdb)
27580 -exec-next
27581 ^running
27582 (gdb)
27583 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",thread-id="2",line="187",
27584 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.threads/linux-dp.c"
27585 (gdb)
27586 -thread-list-ids
27587 ^done,
27588 thread-ids=@{thread-id="3",thread-id="2",thread-id="1"@},
27589 number-of-threads="3"
27590 (gdb)
27591 -thread-select 3
27592 ^done,new-thread-id="3",
27593 frame=@{level="0",func="vprintf",
27594 args=[@{name="format",value="0x8048e9c \"%*s%c %d %c\\n\""@},
27595 @{name="arg",value="0x2"@}],file="vprintf.c",line="31"@}
27596 (gdb)
27597 @end smallexample
27598
27599 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
27600 @node GDB/MI Ada Tasking Commands
27601 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Ada Tasking Commands
27602
27603 @subheading The @code{-ada-task-info} Command
27604 @findex -ada-task-info
27605
27606 @subsubheading Synopsis
27607
27608 @smallexample
27609 -ada-task-info [ @var{task-id} ]
27610 @end smallexample
27611
27612 Reports information about either a specific Ada task, if the
27613 @var{task-id} parameter is present, or about all Ada tasks.
27614
27615 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27616
27617 The @samp{info tasks} command prints the same information
27618 about all Ada tasks (@pxref{Ada Tasks}).
27619
27620 @subsubheading Result
27621
27622 The result is a table of Ada tasks. The following columns are
27623 defined for each Ada task:
27624
27625 @table @samp
27626 @item current
27627 This field exists only for the current thread. It has the value @samp{*}.
27628
27629 @item id
27630 The identifier that @value{GDBN} uses to refer to the Ada task.
27631
27632 @item task-id
27633 The identifier that the target uses to refer to the Ada task.
27634
27635 @item thread-id
27636 The identifier of the thread corresponding to the Ada task.
27637
27638 This field should always exist, as Ada tasks are always implemented
27639 on top of a thread. But if @value{GDBN} cannot find this corresponding
27640 thread for any reason, the field is omitted.
27641
27642 @item parent-id
27643 This field exists only when the task was created by another task.
27644 In this case, it provides the ID of the parent task.
27645
27646 @item priority
27647 The base priority of the task.
27648
27649 @item state
27650 The current state of the task. For a detailed description of the
27651 possible states, see @ref{Ada Tasks}.
27652
27653 @item name
27654 The name of the task.
27655
27656 @end table
27657
27658 @subsubheading Example
27659
27660 @smallexample
27661 -ada-task-info
27662 ^done,tasks=@{nr_rows="3",nr_cols="8",
27663 hdr=[@{width="1",alignment="-1",col_name="current",colhdr=""@},
27664 @{width="3",alignment="1",col_name="id",colhdr="ID"@},
27665 @{width="9",alignment="1",col_name="task-id",colhdr="TID"@},
27666 @{width="4",alignment="1",col_name="thread-id",colhdr=""@},
27667 @{width="4",alignment="1",col_name="parent-id",colhdr="P-ID"@},
27668 @{width="3",alignment="1",col_name="priority",colhdr="Pri"@},
27669 @{width="22",alignment="-1",col_name="state",colhdr="State"@},
27670 @{width="1",alignment="2",col_name="name",colhdr="Name"@}],
27671 body=[@{current="*",id="1",task-id=" 644010",thread-id="1",priority="48",
27672 state="Child Termination Wait",name="main_task"@}]@}
27673 (gdb)
27674 @end smallexample
27675
27676 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
27677 @node GDB/MI Program Execution
27678 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Program Execution
27679
27680 These are the asynchronous commands which generate the out-of-band
27681 record @samp{*stopped}. Currently @value{GDBN} only really executes
27682 asynchronously with remote targets and this interaction is mimicked in
27683 other cases.
27684
27685 @subheading The @code{-exec-continue} Command
27686 @findex -exec-continue
27687
27688 @subsubheading Synopsis
27689
27690 @smallexample
27691 -exec-continue [--reverse] [--all|--thread-group N]
27692 @end smallexample
27693
27694 Resumes the execution of the inferior program, which will continue
27695 to execute until it reaches a debugger stop event. If the
27696 @samp{--reverse} option is specified, execution resumes in reverse until
27697 it reaches a stop event. Stop events may include
27698 @itemize @bullet
27699 @item
27700 breakpoints or watchpoints
27701 @item
27702 signals or exceptions
27703 @item
27704 the end of the process (or its beginning under @samp{--reverse})
27705 @item
27706 the end or beginning of a replay log if one is being used.
27707 @end itemize
27708 In all-stop mode (@pxref{All-Stop
27709 Mode}), may resume only one thread, or all threads, depending on the
27710 value of the @samp{scheduler-locking} variable. If @samp{--all} is
27711 specified, all threads (in all inferiors) will be resumed. The @samp{--all} option is
27712 ignored in all-stop mode. If the @samp{--thread-group} options is
27713 specified, then all threads in that thread group are resumed.
27714
27715 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27716
27717 The corresponding @value{GDBN} corresponding is @samp{continue}.
27718
27719 @subsubheading Example
27720
27721 @smallexample
27722 -exec-continue
27723 ^running
27724 (gdb)
27725 @@Hello world
27726 *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="2",frame=@{
27727 func="foo",args=[],file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/hello.c",
27728 line="13"@}
27729 (gdb)
27730 @end smallexample
27731
27732
27733 @subheading The @code{-exec-finish} Command
27734 @findex -exec-finish
27735
27736 @subsubheading Synopsis
27737
27738 @smallexample
27739 -exec-finish [--reverse]
27740 @end smallexample
27741
27742 Resumes the execution of the inferior program until the current
27743 function is exited. Displays the results returned by the function.
27744 If the @samp{--reverse} option is specified, resumes the reverse
27745 execution of the inferior program until the point where current
27746 function was called.
27747
27748 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27749
27750 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{finish}.
27751
27752 @subsubheading Example
27753
27754 Function returning @code{void}.
27755
27756 @smallexample
27757 -exec-finish
27758 ^running
27759 (gdb)
27760 @@hello from foo
27761 *stopped,reason="function-finished",frame=@{func="main",args=[],
27762 file="hello.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/hello.c",line="7"@}
27763 (gdb)
27764 @end smallexample
27765
27766 Function returning other than @code{void}. The name of the internal
27767 @value{GDBN} variable storing the result is printed, together with the
27768 value itself.
27769
27770 @smallexample
27771 -exec-finish
27772 ^running
27773 (gdb)
27774 *stopped,reason="function-finished",frame=@{addr="0x000107b0",func="foo",
27775 args=[@{name="a",value="1"],@{name="b",value="9"@}@},
27776 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
27777 gdb-result-var="$1",return-value="0"
27778 (gdb)
27779 @end smallexample
27780
27781
27782 @subheading The @code{-exec-interrupt} Command
27783 @findex -exec-interrupt
27784
27785 @subsubheading Synopsis
27786
27787 @smallexample
27788 -exec-interrupt [--all|--thread-group N]
27789 @end smallexample
27790
27791 Interrupts the background execution of the target. Note how the token
27792 associated with the stop message is the one for the execution command
27793 that has been interrupted. The token for the interrupt itself only
27794 appears in the @samp{^done} output. If the user is trying to
27795 interrupt a non-running program, an error message will be printed.
27796
27797 Note that when asynchronous execution is enabled, this command is
27798 asynchronous just like other execution commands. That is, first the
27799 @samp{^done} response will be printed, and the target stop will be
27800 reported after that using the @samp{*stopped} notification.
27801
27802 In non-stop mode, only the context thread is interrupted by default.
27803 All threads (in all inferiors) will be interrupted if the
27804 @samp{--all} option is specified. If the @samp{--thread-group}
27805 option is specified, all threads in that group will be interrupted.
27806
27807 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27808
27809 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{interrupt}.
27810
27811 @subsubheading Example
27812
27813 @smallexample
27814 (gdb)
27815 111-exec-continue
27816 111^running
27817
27818 (gdb)
27819 222-exec-interrupt
27820 222^done
27821 (gdb)
27822 111*stopped,signal-name="SIGINT",signal-meaning="Interrupt",
27823 frame=@{addr="0x00010140",func="foo",args=[],file="try.c",
27824 fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",line="13"@}
27825 (gdb)
27826
27827 (gdb)
27828 -exec-interrupt
27829 ^error,msg="mi_cmd_exec_interrupt: Inferior not executing."
27830 (gdb)
27831 @end smallexample
27832
27833 @subheading The @code{-exec-jump} Command
27834 @findex -exec-jump
27835
27836 @subsubheading Synopsis
27837
27838 @smallexample
27839 -exec-jump @var{location}
27840 @end smallexample
27841
27842 Resumes execution of the inferior program at the location specified by
27843 parameter. @xref{Specify Location}, for a description of the
27844 different forms of @var{location}.
27845
27846 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27847
27848 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{jump}.
27849
27850 @subsubheading Example
27851
27852 @smallexample
27853 -exec-jump foo.c:10
27854 *running,thread-id="all"
27855 ^running
27856 @end smallexample
27857
27858
27859 @subheading The @code{-exec-next} Command
27860 @findex -exec-next
27861
27862 @subsubheading Synopsis
27863
27864 @smallexample
27865 -exec-next [--reverse]
27866 @end smallexample
27867
27868 Resumes execution of the inferior program, stopping when the beginning
27869 of the next source line is reached.
27870
27871 If the @samp{--reverse} option is specified, resumes reverse execution
27872 of the inferior program, stopping at the beginning of the previous
27873 source line. If you issue this command on the first line of a
27874 function, it will take you back to the caller of that function, to the
27875 source line where the function was called.
27876
27877
27878 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27879
27880 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{next}.
27881
27882 @subsubheading Example
27883
27884 @smallexample
27885 -exec-next
27886 ^running
27887 (gdb)
27888 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",line="8",file="hello.c"
27889 (gdb)
27890 @end smallexample
27891
27892
27893 @subheading The @code{-exec-next-instruction} Command
27894 @findex -exec-next-instruction
27895
27896 @subsubheading Synopsis
27897
27898 @smallexample
27899 -exec-next-instruction [--reverse]
27900 @end smallexample
27901
27902 Executes one machine instruction. If the instruction is a function
27903 call, continues until the function returns. If the program stops at an
27904 instruction in the middle of a source line, the address will be
27905 printed as well.
27906
27907 If the @samp{--reverse} option is specified, resumes reverse execution
27908 of the inferior program, stopping at the previous instruction. If the
27909 previously executed instruction was a return from another function,
27910 it will continue to execute in reverse until the call to that function
27911 (from the current stack frame) is reached.
27912
27913 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27914
27915 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{nexti}.
27916
27917 @subsubheading Example
27918
27919 @smallexample
27920 (gdb)
27921 -exec-next-instruction
27922 ^running
27923
27924 (gdb)
27925 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",
27926 addr="0x000100d4",line="5",file="hello.c"
27927 (gdb)
27928 @end smallexample
27929
27930
27931 @subheading The @code{-exec-return} Command
27932 @findex -exec-return
27933
27934 @subsubheading Synopsis
27935
27936 @smallexample
27937 -exec-return
27938 @end smallexample
27939
27940 Makes current function return immediately. Doesn't execute the inferior.
27941 Displays the new current frame.
27942
27943 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27944
27945 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{return}.
27946
27947 @subsubheading Example
27948
27949 @smallexample
27950 (gdb)
27951 200-break-insert callee4
27952 200^done,bkpt=@{number="1",addr="0x00010734",
27953 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8"@}
27954 (gdb)
27955 000-exec-run
27956 000^running
27957 (gdb)
27958 000*stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",
27959 frame=@{func="callee4",args=[],
27960 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27961 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8"@}
27962 (gdb)
27963 205-break-delete
27964 205^done
27965 (gdb)
27966 111-exec-return
27967 111^done,frame=@{level="0",func="callee3",
27968 args=[@{name="strarg",
27969 value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@}],
27970 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
27971 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="18"@}
27972 (gdb)
27973 @end smallexample
27974
27975
27976 @subheading The @code{-exec-run} Command
27977 @findex -exec-run
27978
27979 @subsubheading Synopsis
27980
27981 @smallexample
27982 -exec-run [--all | --thread-group N]
27983 @end smallexample
27984
27985 Starts execution of the inferior from the beginning. The inferior
27986 executes until either a breakpoint is encountered or the program
27987 exits. In the latter case the output will include an exit code, if
27988 the program has exited exceptionally.
27989
27990 When no option is specified, the current inferior is started. If the
27991 @samp{--thread-group} option is specified, it should refer to a thread
27992 group of type @samp{process}, and that thread group will be started.
27993 If the @samp{--all} option is specified, then all inferiors will be started.
27994
27995 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
27996
27997 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{run}.
27998
27999 @subsubheading Examples
28000
28001 @smallexample
28002 (gdb)
28003 -break-insert main
28004 ^done,bkpt=@{number="1",addr="0x0001072c",file="recursive2.c",line="4"@}
28005 (gdb)
28006 -exec-run
28007 ^running
28008 (gdb)
28009 *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",
28010 frame=@{func="main",args=[],file="recursive2.c",
28011 fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="4"@}
28012 (gdb)
28013 @end smallexample
28014
28015 @noindent
28016 Program exited normally:
28017
28018 @smallexample
28019 (gdb)
28020 -exec-run
28021 ^running
28022 (gdb)
28023 x = 55
28024 *stopped,reason="exited-normally"
28025 (gdb)
28026 @end smallexample
28027
28028 @noindent
28029 Program exited exceptionally:
28030
28031 @smallexample
28032 (gdb)
28033 -exec-run
28034 ^running
28035 (gdb)
28036 x = 55
28037 *stopped,reason="exited",exit-code="01"
28038 (gdb)
28039 @end smallexample
28040
28041 Another way the program can terminate is if it receives a signal such as
28042 @code{SIGINT}. In this case, @sc{gdb/mi} displays this:
28043
28044 @smallexample
28045 (gdb)
28046 *stopped,reason="exited-signalled",signal-name="SIGINT",
28047 signal-meaning="Interrupt"
28048 @end smallexample
28049
28050
28051 @c @subheading -exec-signal
28052
28053
28054 @subheading The @code{-exec-step} Command
28055 @findex -exec-step
28056
28057 @subsubheading Synopsis
28058
28059 @smallexample
28060 -exec-step [--reverse]
28061 @end smallexample
28062
28063 Resumes execution of the inferior program, stopping when the beginning
28064 of the next source line is reached, if the next source line is not a
28065 function call. If it is, stop at the first instruction of the called
28066 function. If the @samp{--reverse} option is specified, resumes reverse
28067 execution of the inferior program, stopping at the beginning of the
28068 previously executed source line.
28069
28070 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28071
28072 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{step}.
28073
28074 @subsubheading Example
28075
28076 Stepping into a function:
28077
28078 @smallexample
28079 -exec-step
28080 ^running
28081 (gdb)
28082 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",
28083 frame=@{func="foo",args=[@{name="a",value="10"@},
28084 @{name="b",value="0"@}],file="recursive2.c",
28085 fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="11"@}
28086 (gdb)
28087 @end smallexample
28088
28089 Regular stepping:
28090
28091 @smallexample
28092 -exec-step
28093 ^running
28094 (gdb)
28095 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",line="14",file="recursive2.c"
28096 (gdb)
28097 @end smallexample
28098
28099
28100 @subheading The @code{-exec-step-instruction} Command
28101 @findex -exec-step-instruction
28102
28103 @subsubheading Synopsis
28104
28105 @smallexample
28106 -exec-step-instruction [--reverse]
28107 @end smallexample
28108
28109 Resumes the inferior which executes one machine instruction. If the
28110 @samp{--reverse} option is specified, resumes reverse execution of the
28111 inferior program, stopping at the previously executed instruction.
28112 The output, once @value{GDBN} has stopped, will vary depending on
28113 whether we have stopped in the middle of a source line or not. In the
28114 former case, the address at which the program stopped will be printed
28115 as well.
28116
28117 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28118
28119 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{stepi}.
28120
28121 @subsubheading Example
28122
28123 @smallexample
28124 (gdb)
28125 -exec-step-instruction
28126 ^running
28127
28128 (gdb)
28129 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",
28130 frame=@{func="foo",args=[],file="try.c",
28131 fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",line="10"@}
28132 (gdb)
28133 -exec-step-instruction
28134 ^running
28135
28136 (gdb)
28137 *stopped,reason="end-stepping-range",
28138 frame=@{addr="0x000100f4",func="foo",args=[],file="try.c",
28139 fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",line="10"@}
28140 (gdb)
28141 @end smallexample
28142
28143
28144 @subheading The @code{-exec-until} Command
28145 @findex -exec-until
28146
28147 @subsubheading Synopsis
28148
28149 @smallexample
28150 -exec-until [ @var{location} ]
28151 @end smallexample
28152
28153 Executes the inferior until the @var{location} specified in the
28154 argument is reached. If there is no argument, the inferior executes
28155 until a source line greater than the current one is reached. The
28156 reason for stopping in this case will be @samp{location-reached}.
28157
28158 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28159
28160 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{until}.
28161
28162 @subsubheading Example
28163
28164 @smallexample
28165 (gdb)
28166 -exec-until recursive2.c:6
28167 ^running
28168 (gdb)
28169 x = 55
28170 *stopped,reason="location-reached",frame=@{func="main",args=[],
28171 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="6"@}
28172 (gdb)
28173 @end smallexample
28174
28175 @ignore
28176 @subheading -file-clear
28177 Is this going away????
28178 @end ignore
28179
28180 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
28181 @node GDB/MI Stack Manipulation
28182 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Stack Manipulation Commands
28183
28184
28185 @subheading The @code{-stack-info-frame} Command
28186 @findex -stack-info-frame
28187
28188 @subsubheading Synopsis
28189
28190 @smallexample
28191 -stack-info-frame
28192 @end smallexample
28193
28194 Get info on the selected frame.
28195
28196 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28197
28198 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info frame} or @samp{frame}
28199 (without arguments).
28200
28201 @subsubheading Example
28202
28203 @smallexample
28204 (gdb)
28205 -stack-info-frame
28206 ^done,frame=@{level="1",addr="0x0001076c",func="callee3",
28207 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
28208 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="17"@}
28209 (gdb)
28210 @end smallexample
28211
28212 @subheading The @code{-stack-info-depth} Command
28213 @findex -stack-info-depth
28214
28215 @subsubheading Synopsis
28216
28217 @smallexample
28218 -stack-info-depth [ @var{max-depth} ]
28219 @end smallexample
28220
28221 Return the depth of the stack. If the integer argument @var{max-depth}
28222 is specified, do not count beyond @var{max-depth} frames.
28223
28224 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28225
28226 There's no equivalent @value{GDBN} command.
28227
28228 @subsubheading Example
28229
28230 For a stack with frame levels 0 through 11:
28231
28232 @smallexample
28233 (gdb)
28234 -stack-info-depth
28235 ^done,depth="12"
28236 (gdb)
28237 -stack-info-depth 4
28238 ^done,depth="4"
28239 (gdb)
28240 -stack-info-depth 12
28241 ^done,depth="12"
28242 (gdb)
28243 -stack-info-depth 11
28244 ^done,depth="11"
28245 (gdb)
28246 -stack-info-depth 13
28247 ^done,depth="12"
28248 (gdb)
28249 @end smallexample
28250
28251 @subheading The @code{-stack-list-arguments} Command
28252 @findex -stack-list-arguments
28253
28254 @subsubheading Synopsis
28255
28256 @smallexample
28257 -stack-list-arguments @var{print-values}
28258 [ @var{low-frame} @var{high-frame} ]
28259 @end smallexample
28260
28261 Display a list of the arguments for the frames between @var{low-frame}
28262 and @var{high-frame} (inclusive). If @var{low-frame} and
28263 @var{high-frame} are not provided, list the arguments for the whole
28264 call stack. If the two arguments are equal, show the single frame
28265 at the corresponding level. It is an error if @var{low-frame} is
28266 larger than the actual number of frames. On the other hand,
28267 @var{high-frame} may be larger than the actual number of frames, in
28268 which case only existing frames will be returned.
28269
28270 If @var{print-values} is 0 or @code{--no-values}, print only the names of
28271 the variables; if it is 1 or @code{--all-values}, print also their
28272 values; and if it is 2 or @code{--simple-values}, print the name,
28273 type and value for simple data types, and the name and type for arrays,
28274 structures and unions.
28275
28276 Use of this command to obtain arguments in a single frame is
28277 deprecated in favor of the @samp{-stack-list-variables} command.
28278
28279 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28280
28281 @value{GDBN} does not have an equivalent command. @code{gdbtk} has a
28282 @samp{gdb_get_args} command which partially overlaps with the
28283 functionality of @samp{-stack-list-arguments}.
28284
28285 @subsubheading Example
28286
28287 @smallexample
28288 (gdb)
28289 -stack-list-frames
28290 ^done,
28291 stack=[
28292 frame=@{level="0",addr="0x00010734",func="callee4",
28293 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
28294 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="8"@},
28295 frame=@{level="1",addr="0x0001076c",func="callee3",
28296 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
28297 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="17"@},
28298 frame=@{level="2",addr="0x0001078c",func="callee2",
28299 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
28300 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="22"@},
28301 frame=@{level="3",addr="0x000107b4",func="callee1",
28302 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
28303 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="27"@},
28304 frame=@{level="4",addr="0x000107e0",func="main",
28305 file="../../../devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",
28306 fullname="/home/foo/bar/devo/gdb/testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line="32"@}]
28307 (gdb)
28308 -stack-list-arguments 0
28309 ^done,
28310 stack-args=[
28311 frame=@{level="0",args=[]@},
28312 frame=@{level="1",args=[name="strarg"]@},
28313 frame=@{level="2",args=[name="intarg",name="strarg"]@},
28314 frame=@{level="3",args=[name="intarg",name="strarg",name="fltarg"]@},
28315 frame=@{level="4",args=[]@}]
28316 (gdb)
28317 -stack-list-arguments 1
28318 ^done,
28319 stack-args=[
28320 frame=@{level="0",args=[]@},
28321 frame=@{level="1",
28322 args=[@{name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@}]@},
28323 frame=@{level="2",args=[
28324 @{name="intarg",value="2"@},
28325 @{name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@}]@},
28326 @{frame=@{level="3",args=[
28327 @{name="intarg",value="2"@},
28328 @{name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@},
28329 @{name="fltarg",value="3.5"@}]@},
28330 frame=@{level="4",args=[]@}]
28331 (gdb)
28332 -stack-list-arguments 0 2 2
28333 ^done,stack-args=[frame=@{level="2",args=[name="intarg",name="strarg"]@}]
28334 (gdb)
28335 -stack-list-arguments 1 2 2
28336 ^done,stack-args=[frame=@{level="2",
28337 args=[@{name="intarg",value="2"@},
28338 @{name="strarg",value="0x11940 \"A string argument.\""@}]@}]
28339 (gdb)
28340 @end smallexample
28341
28342 @c @subheading -stack-list-exception-handlers
28343
28344
28345 @subheading The @code{-stack-list-frames} Command
28346 @findex -stack-list-frames
28347
28348 @subsubheading Synopsis
28349
28350 @smallexample
28351 -stack-list-frames [ @var{low-frame} @var{high-frame} ]
28352 @end smallexample
28353
28354 List the frames currently on the stack. For each frame it displays the
28355 following info:
28356
28357 @table @samp
28358 @item @var{level}
28359 The frame number, 0 being the topmost frame, i.e., the innermost function.
28360 @item @var{addr}
28361 The @code{$pc} value for that frame.
28362 @item @var{func}
28363 Function name.
28364 @item @var{file}
28365 File name of the source file where the function lives.
28366 @item @var{fullname}
28367 The full file name of the source file where the function lives.
28368 @item @var{line}
28369 Line number corresponding to the @code{$pc}.
28370 @item @var{from}
28371 The shared library where this function is defined. This is only given
28372 if the frame's function is not known.
28373 @end table
28374
28375 If invoked without arguments, this command prints a backtrace for the
28376 whole stack. If given two integer arguments, it shows the frames whose
28377 levels are between the two arguments (inclusive). If the two arguments
28378 are equal, it shows the single frame at the corresponding level. It is
28379 an error if @var{low-frame} is larger than the actual number of
28380 frames. On the other hand, @var{high-frame} may be larger than the
28381 actual number of frames, in which case only existing frames will be returned.
28382
28383 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28384
28385 The corresponding @value{GDBN} commands are @samp{backtrace} and @samp{where}.
28386
28387 @subsubheading Example
28388
28389 Full stack backtrace:
28390
28391 @smallexample
28392 (gdb)
28393 -stack-list-frames
28394 ^done,stack=
28395 [frame=@{level="0",addr="0x0001076c",func="foo",
28396 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="11"@},
28397 frame=@{level="1",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28398 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28399 frame=@{level="2",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28400 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28401 frame=@{level="3",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28402 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28403 frame=@{level="4",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28404 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28405 frame=@{level="5",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28406 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28407 frame=@{level="6",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28408 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28409 frame=@{level="7",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28410 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28411 frame=@{level="8",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28412 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28413 frame=@{level="9",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28414 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28415 frame=@{level="10",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28416 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28417 frame=@{level="11",addr="0x00010738",func="main",
28418 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="4"@}]
28419 (gdb)
28420 @end smallexample
28421
28422 Show frames between @var{low_frame} and @var{high_frame}:
28423
28424 @smallexample
28425 (gdb)
28426 -stack-list-frames 3 5
28427 ^done,stack=
28428 [frame=@{level="3",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28429 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28430 frame=@{level="4",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28431 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@},
28432 frame=@{level="5",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28433 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@}]
28434 (gdb)
28435 @end smallexample
28436
28437 Show a single frame:
28438
28439 @smallexample
28440 (gdb)
28441 -stack-list-frames 3 3
28442 ^done,stack=
28443 [frame=@{level="3",addr="0x000107a4",func="foo",
28444 file="recursive2.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/recursive2.c",line="14"@}]
28445 (gdb)
28446 @end smallexample
28447
28448
28449 @subheading The @code{-stack-list-locals} Command
28450 @findex -stack-list-locals
28451
28452 @subsubheading Synopsis
28453
28454 @smallexample
28455 -stack-list-locals @var{print-values}
28456 @end smallexample
28457
28458 Display the local variable names for the selected frame. If
28459 @var{print-values} is 0 or @code{--no-values}, print only the names of
28460 the variables; if it is 1 or @code{--all-values}, print also their
28461 values; and if it is 2 or @code{--simple-values}, print the name,
28462 type and value for simple data types, and the name and type for arrays,
28463 structures and unions. In this last case, a frontend can immediately
28464 display the value of simple data types and create variable objects for
28465 other data types when the user wishes to explore their values in
28466 more detail.
28467
28468 This command is deprecated in favor of the
28469 @samp{-stack-list-variables} command.
28470
28471 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28472
28473 @samp{info locals} in @value{GDBN}, @samp{gdb_get_locals} in @code{gdbtk}.
28474
28475 @subsubheading Example
28476
28477 @smallexample
28478 (gdb)
28479 -stack-list-locals 0
28480 ^done,locals=[name="A",name="B",name="C"]
28481 (gdb)
28482 -stack-list-locals --all-values
28483 ^done,locals=[@{name="A",value="1"@},@{name="B",value="2"@},
28484 @{name="C",value="@{1, 2, 3@}"@}]
28485 -stack-list-locals --simple-values
28486 ^done,locals=[@{name="A",type="int",value="1"@},
28487 @{name="B",type="int",value="2"@},@{name="C",type="int [3]"@}]
28488 (gdb)
28489 @end smallexample
28490
28491 @subheading The @code{-stack-list-variables} Command
28492 @findex -stack-list-variables
28493
28494 @subsubheading Synopsis
28495
28496 @smallexample
28497 -stack-list-variables @var{print-values}
28498 @end smallexample
28499
28500 Display the names of local variables and function arguments for the selected frame. If
28501 @var{print-values} is 0 or @code{--no-values}, print only the names of
28502 the variables; if it is 1 or @code{--all-values}, print also their
28503 values; and if it is 2 or @code{--simple-values}, print the name,
28504 type and value for simple data types, and the name and type for arrays,
28505 structures and unions.
28506
28507 @subsubheading Example
28508
28509 @smallexample
28510 (gdb)
28511 -stack-list-variables --thread 1 --frame 0 --all-values
28512 ^done,variables=[@{name="x",value="11"@},@{name="s",value="@{a = 1, b = 2@}"@}]
28513 (gdb)
28514 @end smallexample
28515
28516
28517 @subheading The @code{-stack-select-frame} Command
28518 @findex -stack-select-frame
28519
28520 @subsubheading Synopsis
28521
28522 @smallexample
28523 -stack-select-frame @var{framenum}
28524 @end smallexample
28525
28526 Change the selected frame. Select a different frame @var{framenum} on
28527 the stack.
28528
28529 This command in deprecated in favor of passing the @samp{--frame}
28530 option to every command.
28531
28532 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
28533
28534 The corresponding @value{GDBN} commands are @samp{frame}, @samp{up},
28535 @samp{down}, @samp{select-frame}, @samp{up-silent}, and @samp{down-silent}.
28536
28537 @subsubheading Example
28538
28539 @smallexample
28540 (gdb)
28541 -stack-select-frame 2
28542 ^done
28543 (gdb)
28544 @end smallexample
28545
28546 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
28547 @node GDB/MI Variable Objects
28548 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Variable Objects
28549
28550 @ignore
28551
28552 @subheading Motivation for Variable Objects in @sc{gdb/mi}
28553
28554 For the implementation of a variable debugger window (locals, watched
28555 expressions, etc.), we are proposing the adaptation of the existing code
28556 used by @code{Insight}.
28557
28558 The two main reasons for that are:
28559
28560 @enumerate 1
28561 @item
28562 It has been proven in practice (it is already on its second generation).
28563
28564 @item
28565 It will shorten development time (needless to say how important it is
28566 now).
28567 @end enumerate
28568
28569 The original interface was designed to be used by Tcl code, so it was
28570 slightly changed so it could be used through @sc{gdb/mi}. This section
28571 describes the @sc{gdb/mi} operations that will be available and gives some
28572 hints about their use.
28573
28574 @emph{Note}: In addition to the set of operations described here, we
28575 expect the @sc{gui} implementation of a variable window to require, at
28576 least, the following operations:
28577
28578 @itemize @bullet
28579 @item @code{-gdb-show} @code{output-radix}
28580 @item @code{-stack-list-arguments}
28581 @item @code{-stack-list-locals}
28582 @item @code{-stack-select-frame}
28583 @end itemize
28584
28585 @end ignore
28586
28587 @subheading Introduction to Variable Objects
28588
28589 @cindex variable objects in @sc{gdb/mi}
28590
28591 Variable objects are "object-oriented" MI interface for examining and
28592 changing values of expressions. Unlike some other MI interfaces that
28593 work with expressions, variable objects are specifically designed for
28594 simple and efficient presentation in the frontend. A variable object
28595 is identified by string name. When a variable object is created, the
28596 frontend specifies the expression for that variable object. The
28597 expression can be a simple variable, or it can be an arbitrary complex
28598 expression, and can even involve CPU registers. After creating a
28599 variable object, the frontend can invoke other variable object
28600 operations---for example to obtain or change the value of a variable
28601 object, or to change display format.
28602
28603 Variable objects have hierarchical tree structure. Any variable object
28604 that corresponds to a composite type, such as structure in C, has
28605 a number of child variable objects, for example corresponding to each
28606 element of a structure. A child variable object can itself have
28607 children, recursively. Recursion ends when we reach
28608 leaf variable objects, which always have built-in types. Child variable
28609 objects are created only by explicit request, so if a frontend
28610 is not interested in the children of a particular variable object, no
28611 child will be created.
28612
28613 For a leaf variable object it is possible to obtain its value as a
28614 string, or set the value from a string. String value can be also
28615 obtained for a non-leaf variable object, but it's generally a string
28616 that only indicates the type of the object, and does not list its
28617 contents. Assignment to a non-leaf variable object is not allowed.
28618
28619 A frontend does not need to read the values of all variable objects each time
28620 the program stops. Instead, MI provides an update command that lists all
28621 variable objects whose values has changed since the last update
28622 operation. This considerably reduces the amount of data that must
28623 be transferred to the frontend. As noted above, children variable
28624 objects are created on demand, and only leaf variable objects have a
28625 real value. As result, gdb will read target memory only for leaf
28626 variables that frontend has created.
28627
28628 The automatic update is not always desirable. For example, a frontend
28629 might want to keep a value of some expression for future reference,
28630 and never update it. For another example, fetching memory is
28631 relatively slow for embedded targets, so a frontend might want
28632 to disable automatic update for the variables that are either not
28633 visible on the screen, or ``closed''. This is possible using so
28634 called ``frozen variable objects''. Such variable objects are never
28635 implicitly updated.
28636
28637 Variable objects can be either @dfn{fixed} or @dfn{floating}. For the
28638 fixed variable object, the expression is parsed when the variable
28639 object is created, including associating identifiers to specific
28640 variables. The meaning of expression never changes. For a floating
28641 variable object the values of variables whose names appear in the
28642 expressions are re-evaluated every time in the context of the current
28643 frame. Consider this example:
28644
28645 @smallexample
28646 void do_work(...)
28647 @{
28648 struct work_state state;
28649
28650 if (...)
28651 do_work(...);
28652 @}
28653 @end smallexample
28654
28655 If a fixed variable object for the @code{state} variable is created in
28656 this function, and we enter the recursive call, the variable
28657 object will report the value of @code{state} in the top-level
28658 @code{do_work} invocation. On the other hand, a floating variable
28659 object will report the value of @code{state} in the current frame.
28660
28661 If an expression specified when creating a fixed variable object
28662 refers to a local variable, the variable object becomes bound to the
28663 thread and frame in which the variable object is created. When such
28664 variable object is updated, @value{GDBN} makes sure that the
28665 thread/frame combination the variable object is bound to still exists,
28666 and re-evaluates the variable object in context of that thread/frame.
28667
28668 The following is the complete set of @sc{gdb/mi} operations defined to
28669 access this functionality:
28670
28671 @multitable @columnfractions .4 .6
28672 @item @strong{Operation}
28673 @tab @strong{Description}
28674
28675 @item @code{-enable-pretty-printing}
28676 @tab enable Python-based pretty-printing
28677 @item @code{-var-create}
28678 @tab create a variable object
28679 @item @code{-var-delete}
28680 @tab delete the variable object and/or its children
28681 @item @code{-var-set-format}
28682 @tab set the display format of this variable
28683 @item @code{-var-show-format}
28684 @tab show the display format of this variable
28685 @item @code{-var-info-num-children}
28686 @tab tells how many children this object has
28687 @item @code{-var-list-children}
28688 @tab return a list of the object's children
28689 @item @code{-var-info-type}
28690 @tab show the type of this variable object
28691 @item @code{-var-info-expression}
28692 @tab print parent-relative expression that this variable object represents
28693 @item @code{-var-info-path-expression}
28694 @tab print full expression that this variable object represents
28695 @item @code{-var-show-attributes}
28696 @tab is this variable editable? does it exist here?
28697 @item @code{-var-evaluate-expression}
28698 @tab get the value of this variable
28699 @item @code{-var-assign}
28700 @tab set the value of this variable
28701 @item @code{-var-update}
28702 @tab update the variable and its children
28703 @item @code{-var-set-frozen}
28704 @tab set frozeness attribute
28705 @item @code{-var-set-update-range}
28706 @tab set range of children to display on update
28707 @end multitable
28708
28709 In the next subsection we describe each operation in detail and suggest
28710 how it can be used.
28711
28712 @subheading Description And Use of Operations on Variable Objects
28713
28714 @subheading The @code{-enable-pretty-printing} Command
28715 @findex -enable-pretty-printing
28716
28717 @smallexample
28718 -enable-pretty-printing
28719 @end smallexample
28720
28721 @value{GDBN} allows Python-based visualizers to affect the output of the
28722 MI variable object commands. However, because there was no way to
28723 implement this in a fully backward-compatible way, a front end must
28724 request that this functionality be enabled.
28725
28726 Once enabled, this feature cannot be disabled.
28727
28728 Note that if Python support has not been compiled into @value{GDBN},
28729 this command will still succeed (and do nothing).
28730
28731 This feature is currently (as of @value{GDBN} 7.0) experimental, and
28732 may work differently in future versions of @value{GDBN}.
28733
28734 @subheading The @code{-var-create} Command
28735 @findex -var-create
28736
28737 @subsubheading Synopsis
28738
28739 @smallexample
28740 -var-create @{@var{name} | "-"@}
28741 @{@var{frame-addr} | "*" | "@@"@} @var{expression}
28742 @end smallexample
28743
28744 This operation creates a variable object, which allows the monitoring of
28745 a variable, the result of an expression, a memory cell or a CPU
28746 register.
28747
28748 The @var{name} parameter is the string by which the object can be
28749 referenced. It must be unique. If @samp{-} is specified, the varobj
28750 system will generate a string ``varNNNNNN'' automatically. It will be
28751 unique provided that one does not specify @var{name} of that format.
28752 The command fails if a duplicate name is found.
28753
28754 The frame under which the expression should be evaluated can be
28755 specified by @var{frame-addr}. A @samp{*} indicates that the current
28756 frame should be used. A @samp{@@} indicates that a floating variable
28757 object must be created.
28758
28759 @var{expression} is any expression valid on the current language set (must not
28760 begin with a @samp{*}), or one of the following:
28761
28762 @itemize @bullet
28763 @item
28764 @samp{*@var{addr}}, where @var{addr} is the address of a memory cell
28765
28766 @item
28767 @samp{*@var{addr}-@var{addr}} --- a memory address range (TBD)
28768
28769 @item
28770 @samp{$@var{regname}} --- a CPU register name
28771 @end itemize
28772
28773 @cindex dynamic varobj
28774 A varobj's contents may be provided by a Python-based pretty-printer. In this
28775 case the varobj is known as a @dfn{dynamic varobj}. Dynamic varobjs
28776 have slightly different semantics in some cases. If the
28777 @code{-enable-pretty-printing} command is not sent, then @value{GDBN}
28778 will never create a dynamic varobj. This ensures backward
28779 compatibility for existing clients.
28780
28781 @subsubheading Result
28782
28783 This operation returns attributes of the newly-created varobj. These
28784 are:
28785
28786 @table @samp
28787 @item name
28788 The name of the varobj.
28789
28790 @item numchild
28791 The number of children of the varobj. This number is not necessarily
28792 reliable for a dynamic varobj. Instead, you must examine the
28793 @samp{has_more} attribute.
28794
28795 @item value
28796 The varobj's scalar value. For a varobj whose type is some sort of
28797 aggregate (e.g., a @code{struct}), or for a dynamic varobj, this value
28798 will not be interesting.
28799
28800 @item type
28801 The varobj's type. This is a string representation of the type, as
28802 would be printed by the @value{GDBN} CLI.
28803
28804 @item thread-id
28805 If a variable object is bound to a specific thread, then this is the
28806 thread's identifier.
28807
28808 @item has_more
28809 For a dynamic varobj, this indicates whether there appear to be any
28810 children available. For a non-dynamic varobj, this will be 0.
28811
28812 @item dynamic
28813 This attribute will be present and have the value @samp{1} if the
28814 varobj is a dynamic varobj. If the varobj is not a dynamic varobj,
28815 then this attribute will not be present.
28816
28817 @item displayhint
28818 A dynamic varobj can supply a display hint to the front end. The
28819 value comes directly from the Python pretty-printer object's
28820 @code{display_hint} method. @xref{Pretty Printing API}.
28821 @end table
28822
28823 Typical output will look like this:
28824
28825 @smallexample
28826 name="@var{name}",numchild="@var{N}",type="@var{type}",thread-id="@var{M}",
28827 has_more="@var{has_more}"
28828 @end smallexample
28829
28830
28831 @subheading The @code{-var-delete} Command
28832 @findex -var-delete
28833
28834 @subsubheading Synopsis
28835
28836 @smallexample
28837 -var-delete [ -c ] @var{name}
28838 @end smallexample
28839
28840 Deletes a previously created variable object and all of its children.
28841 With the @samp{-c} option, just deletes the children.
28842
28843 Returns an error if the object @var{name} is not found.
28844
28845
28846 @subheading The @code{-var-set-format} Command
28847 @findex -var-set-format
28848
28849 @subsubheading Synopsis
28850
28851 @smallexample
28852 -var-set-format @var{name} @var{format-spec}
28853 @end smallexample
28854
28855 Sets the output format for the value of the object @var{name} to be
28856 @var{format-spec}.
28857
28858 @anchor{-var-set-format}
28859 The syntax for the @var{format-spec} is as follows:
28860
28861 @smallexample
28862 @var{format-spec} @expansion{}
28863 @{binary | decimal | hexadecimal | octal | natural@}
28864 @end smallexample
28865
28866 The natural format is the default format choosen automatically
28867 based on the variable type (like decimal for an @code{int}, hex
28868 for pointers, etc.).
28869
28870 For a variable with children, the format is set only on the
28871 variable itself, and the children are not affected.
28872
28873 @subheading The @code{-var-show-format} Command
28874 @findex -var-show-format
28875
28876 @subsubheading Synopsis
28877
28878 @smallexample
28879 -var-show-format @var{name}
28880 @end smallexample
28881
28882 Returns the format used to display the value of the object @var{name}.
28883
28884 @smallexample
28885 @var{format} @expansion{}
28886 @var{format-spec}
28887 @end smallexample
28888
28889
28890 @subheading The @code{-var-info-num-children} Command
28891 @findex -var-info-num-children
28892
28893 @subsubheading Synopsis
28894
28895 @smallexample
28896 -var-info-num-children @var{name}
28897 @end smallexample
28898
28899 Returns the number of children of a variable object @var{name}:
28900
28901 @smallexample
28902 numchild=@var{n}
28903 @end smallexample
28904
28905 Note that this number is not completely reliable for a dynamic varobj.
28906 It will return the current number of children, but more children may
28907 be available.
28908
28909
28910 @subheading The @code{-var-list-children} Command
28911 @findex -var-list-children
28912
28913 @subsubheading Synopsis
28914
28915 @smallexample
28916 -var-list-children [@var{print-values}] @var{name} [@var{from} @var{to}]
28917 @end smallexample
28918 @anchor{-var-list-children}
28919
28920 Return a list of the children of the specified variable object and
28921 create variable objects for them, if they do not already exist. With
28922 a single argument or if @var{print-values} has a value of 0 or
28923 @code{--no-values}, print only the names of the variables; if
28924 @var{print-values} is 1 or @code{--all-values}, also print their
28925 values; and if it is 2 or @code{--simple-values} print the name and
28926 value for simple data types and just the name for arrays, structures
28927 and unions.
28928
28929 @var{from} and @var{to}, if specified, indicate the range of children
28930 to report. If @var{from} or @var{to} is less than zero, the range is
28931 reset and all children will be reported. Otherwise, children starting
28932 at @var{from} (zero-based) and up to and excluding @var{to} will be
28933 reported.
28934
28935 If a child range is requested, it will only affect the current call to
28936 @code{-var-list-children}, but not future calls to @code{-var-update}.
28937 For this, you must instead use @code{-var-set-update-range}. The
28938 intent of this approach is to enable a front end to implement any
28939 update approach it likes; for example, scrolling a view may cause the
28940 front end to request more children with @code{-var-list-children}, and
28941 then the front end could call @code{-var-set-update-range} with a
28942 different range to ensure that future updates are restricted to just
28943 the visible items.
28944
28945 For each child the following results are returned:
28946
28947 @table @var
28948
28949 @item name
28950 Name of the variable object created for this child.
28951
28952 @item exp
28953 The expression to be shown to the user by the front end to designate this child.
28954 For example this may be the name of a structure member.
28955
28956 For a dynamic varobj, this value cannot be used to form an
28957 expression. There is no way to do this at all with a dynamic varobj.
28958
28959 For C/C@t{++} structures there are several pseudo children returned to
28960 designate access qualifiers. For these pseudo children @var{exp} is
28961 @samp{public}, @samp{private}, or @samp{protected}. In this case the
28962 type and value are not present.
28963
28964 A dynamic varobj will not report the access qualifying
28965 pseudo-children, regardless of the language. This information is not
28966 available at all with a dynamic varobj.
28967
28968 @item numchild
28969 Number of children this child has. For a dynamic varobj, this will be
28970 0.
28971
28972 @item type
28973 The type of the child.
28974
28975 @item value
28976 If values were requested, this is the value.
28977
28978 @item thread-id
28979 If this variable object is associated with a thread, this is the thread id.
28980 Otherwise this result is not present.
28981
28982 @item frozen
28983 If the variable object is frozen, this variable will be present with a value of 1.
28984 @end table
28985
28986 The result may have its own attributes:
28987
28988 @table @samp
28989 @item displayhint
28990 A dynamic varobj can supply a display hint to the front end. The
28991 value comes directly from the Python pretty-printer object's
28992 @code{display_hint} method. @xref{Pretty Printing API}.
28993
28994 @item has_more
28995 This is an integer attribute which is nonzero if there are children
28996 remaining after the end of the selected range.
28997 @end table
28998
28999 @subsubheading Example
29000
29001 @smallexample
29002 (gdb)
29003 -var-list-children n
29004 ^done,numchild=@var{n},children=[child=@{name=@var{name},exp=@var{exp},
29005 numchild=@var{n},type=@var{type}@},@r{(repeats N times)}]
29006 (gdb)
29007 -var-list-children --all-values n
29008 ^done,numchild=@var{n},children=[child=@{name=@var{name},exp=@var{exp},
29009 numchild=@var{n},value=@var{value},type=@var{type}@},@r{(repeats N times)}]
29010 @end smallexample
29011
29012
29013 @subheading The @code{-var-info-type} Command
29014 @findex -var-info-type
29015
29016 @subsubheading Synopsis
29017
29018 @smallexample
29019 -var-info-type @var{name}
29020 @end smallexample
29021
29022 Returns the type of the specified variable @var{name}. The type is
29023 returned as a string in the same format as it is output by the
29024 @value{GDBN} CLI:
29025
29026 @smallexample
29027 type=@var{typename}
29028 @end smallexample
29029
29030
29031 @subheading The @code{-var-info-expression} Command
29032 @findex -var-info-expression
29033
29034 @subsubheading Synopsis
29035
29036 @smallexample
29037 -var-info-expression @var{name}
29038 @end smallexample
29039
29040 Returns a string that is suitable for presenting this
29041 variable object in user interface. The string is generally
29042 not valid expression in the current language, and cannot be evaluated.
29043
29044 For example, if @code{a} is an array, and variable object
29045 @code{A} was created for @code{a}, then we'll get this output:
29046
29047 @smallexample
29048 (gdb) -var-info-expression A.1
29049 ^done,lang="C",exp="1"
29050 @end smallexample
29051
29052 @noindent
29053 Here, the values of @code{lang} can be @code{@{"C" | "C++" | "Java"@}}.
29054
29055 Note that the output of the @code{-var-list-children} command also
29056 includes those expressions, so the @code{-var-info-expression} command
29057 is of limited use.
29058
29059 @subheading The @code{-var-info-path-expression} Command
29060 @findex -var-info-path-expression
29061
29062 @subsubheading Synopsis
29063
29064 @smallexample
29065 -var-info-path-expression @var{name}
29066 @end smallexample
29067
29068 Returns an expression that can be evaluated in the current
29069 context and will yield the same value that a variable object has.
29070 Compare this with the @code{-var-info-expression} command, which
29071 result can be used only for UI presentation. Typical use of
29072 the @code{-var-info-path-expression} command is creating a
29073 watchpoint from a variable object.
29074
29075 This command is currently not valid for children of a dynamic varobj,
29076 and will give an error when invoked on one.
29077
29078 For example, suppose @code{C} is a C@t{++} class, derived from class
29079 @code{Base}, and that the @code{Base} class has a member called
29080 @code{m_size}. Assume a variable @code{c} is has the type of
29081 @code{C} and a variable object @code{C} was created for variable
29082 @code{c}. Then, we'll get this output:
29083 @smallexample
29084 (gdb) -var-info-path-expression C.Base.public.m_size
29085 ^done,path_expr=((Base)c).m_size)
29086 @end smallexample
29087
29088 @subheading The @code{-var-show-attributes} Command
29089 @findex -var-show-attributes
29090
29091 @subsubheading Synopsis
29092
29093 @smallexample
29094 -var-show-attributes @var{name}
29095 @end smallexample
29096
29097 List attributes of the specified variable object @var{name}:
29098
29099 @smallexample
29100 status=@var{attr} [ ( ,@var{attr} )* ]
29101 @end smallexample
29102
29103 @noindent
29104 where @var{attr} is @code{@{ @{ editable | noneditable @} | TBD @}}.
29105
29106 @subheading The @code{-var-evaluate-expression} Command
29107 @findex -var-evaluate-expression
29108
29109 @subsubheading Synopsis
29110
29111 @smallexample
29112 -var-evaluate-expression [-f @var{format-spec}] @var{name}
29113 @end smallexample
29114
29115 Evaluates the expression that is represented by the specified variable
29116 object and returns its value as a string. The format of the string
29117 can be specified with the @samp{-f} option. The possible values of
29118 this option are the same as for @code{-var-set-format}
29119 (@pxref{-var-set-format}). If the @samp{-f} option is not specified,
29120 the current display format will be used. The current display format
29121 can be changed using the @code{-var-set-format} command.
29122
29123 @smallexample
29124 value=@var{value}
29125 @end smallexample
29126
29127 Note that one must invoke @code{-var-list-children} for a variable
29128 before the value of a child variable can be evaluated.
29129
29130 @subheading The @code{-var-assign} Command
29131 @findex -var-assign
29132
29133 @subsubheading Synopsis
29134
29135 @smallexample
29136 -var-assign @var{name} @var{expression}
29137 @end smallexample
29138
29139 Assigns the value of @var{expression} to the variable object specified
29140 by @var{name}. The object must be @samp{editable}. If the variable's
29141 value is altered by the assign, the variable will show up in any
29142 subsequent @code{-var-update} list.
29143
29144 @subsubheading Example
29145
29146 @smallexample
29147 (gdb)
29148 -var-assign var1 3
29149 ^done,value="3"
29150 (gdb)
29151 -var-update *
29152 ^done,changelist=[@{name="var1",in_scope="true",type_changed="false"@}]
29153 (gdb)
29154 @end smallexample
29155
29156 @subheading The @code{-var-update} Command
29157 @findex -var-update
29158
29159 @subsubheading Synopsis
29160
29161 @smallexample
29162 -var-update [@var{print-values}] @{@var{name} | "*"@}
29163 @end smallexample
29164
29165 Reevaluate the expressions corresponding to the variable object
29166 @var{name} and all its direct and indirect children, and return the
29167 list of variable objects whose values have changed; @var{name} must
29168 be a root variable object. Here, ``changed'' means that the result of
29169 @code{-var-evaluate-expression} before and after the
29170 @code{-var-update} is different. If @samp{*} is used as the variable
29171 object names, all existing variable objects are updated, except
29172 for frozen ones (@pxref{-var-set-frozen}). The option
29173 @var{print-values} determines whether both names and values, or just
29174 names are printed. The possible values of this option are the same
29175 as for @code{-var-list-children} (@pxref{-var-list-children}). It is
29176 recommended to use the @samp{--all-values} option, to reduce the
29177 number of MI commands needed on each program stop.
29178
29179 With the @samp{*} parameter, if a variable object is bound to a
29180 currently running thread, it will not be updated, without any
29181 diagnostic.
29182
29183 If @code{-var-set-update-range} was previously used on a varobj, then
29184 only the selected range of children will be reported.
29185
29186 @code{-var-update} reports all the changed varobjs in a tuple named
29187 @samp{changelist}.
29188
29189 Each item in the change list is itself a tuple holding:
29190
29191 @table @samp
29192 @item name
29193 The name of the varobj.
29194
29195 @item value
29196 If values were requested for this update, then this field will be
29197 present and will hold the value of the varobj.
29198
29199 @item in_scope
29200 @anchor{-var-update}
29201 This field is a string which may take one of three values:
29202
29203 @table @code
29204 @item "true"
29205 The variable object's current value is valid.
29206
29207 @item "false"
29208 The variable object does not currently hold a valid value but it may
29209 hold one in the future if its associated expression comes back into
29210 scope.
29211
29212 @item "invalid"
29213 The variable object no longer holds a valid value.
29214 This can occur when the executable file being debugged has changed,
29215 either through recompilation or by using the @value{GDBN} @code{file}
29216 command. The front end should normally choose to delete these variable
29217 objects.
29218 @end table
29219
29220 In the future new values may be added to this list so the front should
29221 be prepared for this possibility. @xref{GDB/MI Development and Front Ends, ,@sc{GDB/MI} Development and Front Ends}.
29222
29223 @item type_changed
29224 This is only present if the varobj is still valid. If the type
29225 changed, then this will be the string @samp{true}; otherwise it will
29226 be @samp{false}.
29227
29228 @item new_type
29229 If the varobj's type changed, then this field will be present and will
29230 hold the new type.
29231
29232 @item new_num_children
29233 For a dynamic varobj, if the number of children changed, or if the
29234 type changed, this will be the new number of children.
29235
29236 The @samp{numchild} field in other varobj responses is generally not
29237 valid for a dynamic varobj -- it will show the number of children that
29238 @value{GDBN} knows about, but because dynamic varobjs lazily
29239 instantiate their children, this will not reflect the number of
29240 children which may be available.
29241
29242 The @samp{new_num_children} attribute only reports changes to the
29243 number of children known by @value{GDBN}. This is the only way to
29244 detect whether an update has removed children (which necessarily can
29245 only happen at the end of the update range).
29246
29247 @item displayhint
29248 The display hint, if any.
29249
29250 @item has_more
29251 This is an integer value, which will be 1 if there are more children
29252 available outside the varobj's update range.
29253
29254 @item dynamic
29255 This attribute will be present and have the value @samp{1} if the
29256 varobj is a dynamic varobj. If the varobj is not a dynamic varobj,
29257 then this attribute will not be present.
29258
29259 @item new_children
29260 If new children were added to a dynamic varobj within the selected
29261 update range (as set by @code{-var-set-update-range}), then they will
29262 be listed in this attribute.
29263 @end table
29264
29265 @subsubheading Example
29266
29267 @smallexample
29268 (gdb)
29269 -var-assign var1 3
29270 ^done,value="3"
29271 (gdb)
29272 -var-update --all-values var1
29273 ^done,changelist=[@{name="var1",value="3",in_scope="true",
29274 type_changed="false"@}]
29275 (gdb)
29276 @end smallexample
29277
29278 @subheading The @code{-var-set-frozen} Command
29279 @findex -var-set-frozen
29280 @anchor{-var-set-frozen}
29281
29282 @subsubheading Synopsis
29283
29284 @smallexample
29285 -var-set-frozen @var{name} @var{flag}
29286 @end smallexample
29287
29288 Set the frozenness flag on the variable object @var{name}. The
29289 @var{flag} parameter should be either @samp{1} to make the variable
29290 frozen or @samp{0} to make it unfrozen. If a variable object is
29291 frozen, then neither itself, nor any of its children, are
29292 implicitly updated by @code{-var-update} of
29293 a parent variable or by @code{-var-update *}. Only
29294 @code{-var-update} of the variable itself will update its value and
29295 values of its children. After a variable object is unfrozen, it is
29296 implicitly updated by all subsequent @code{-var-update} operations.
29297 Unfreezing a variable does not update it, only subsequent
29298 @code{-var-update} does.
29299
29300 @subsubheading Example
29301
29302 @smallexample
29303 (gdb)
29304 -var-set-frozen V 1
29305 ^done
29306 (gdb)
29307 @end smallexample
29308
29309 @subheading The @code{-var-set-update-range} command
29310 @findex -var-set-update-range
29311 @anchor{-var-set-update-range}
29312
29313 @subsubheading Synopsis
29314
29315 @smallexample
29316 -var-set-update-range @var{name} @var{from} @var{to}
29317 @end smallexample
29318
29319 Set the range of children to be returned by future invocations of
29320 @code{-var-update}.
29321
29322 @var{from} and @var{to} indicate the range of children to report. If
29323 @var{from} or @var{to} is less than zero, the range is reset and all
29324 children will be reported. Otherwise, children starting at @var{from}
29325 (zero-based) and up to and excluding @var{to} will be reported.
29326
29327 @subsubheading Example
29328
29329 @smallexample
29330 (gdb)
29331 -var-set-update-range V 1 2
29332 ^done
29333 @end smallexample
29334
29335 @subheading The @code{-var-set-visualizer} command
29336 @findex -var-set-visualizer
29337 @anchor{-var-set-visualizer}
29338
29339 @subsubheading Synopsis
29340
29341 @smallexample
29342 -var-set-visualizer @var{name} @var{visualizer}
29343 @end smallexample
29344
29345 Set a visualizer for the variable object @var{name}.
29346
29347 @var{visualizer} is the visualizer to use. The special value
29348 @samp{None} means to disable any visualizer in use.
29349
29350 If not @samp{None}, @var{visualizer} must be a Python expression.
29351 This expression must evaluate to a callable object which accepts a
29352 single argument. @value{GDBN} will call this object with the value of
29353 the varobj @var{name} as an argument (this is done so that the same
29354 Python pretty-printing code can be used for both the CLI and MI).
29355 When called, this object must return an object which conforms to the
29356 pretty-printing interface (@pxref{Pretty Printing API}).
29357
29358 The pre-defined function @code{gdb.default_visualizer} may be used to
29359 select a visualizer by following the built-in process
29360 (@pxref{Selecting Pretty-Printers}). This is done automatically when
29361 a varobj is created, and so ordinarily is not needed.
29362
29363 This feature is only available if Python support is enabled. The MI
29364 command @code{-list-features} (@pxref{GDB/MI Miscellaneous Commands})
29365 can be used to check this.
29366
29367 @subsubheading Example
29368
29369 Resetting the visualizer:
29370
29371 @smallexample
29372 (gdb)
29373 -var-set-visualizer V None
29374 ^done
29375 @end smallexample
29376
29377 Reselecting the default (type-based) visualizer:
29378
29379 @smallexample
29380 (gdb)
29381 -var-set-visualizer V gdb.default_visualizer
29382 ^done
29383 @end smallexample
29384
29385 Suppose @code{SomeClass} is a visualizer class. A lambda expression
29386 can be used to instantiate this class for a varobj:
29387
29388 @smallexample
29389 (gdb)
29390 -var-set-visualizer V "lambda val: SomeClass()"
29391 ^done
29392 @end smallexample
29393
29394 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
29395 @node GDB/MI Data Manipulation
29396 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Data Manipulation
29397
29398 @cindex data manipulation, in @sc{gdb/mi}
29399 @cindex @sc{gdb/mi}, data manipulation
29400 This section describes the @sc{gdb/mi} commands that manipulate data:
29401 examine memory and registers, evaluate expressions, etc.
29402
29403 @c REMOVED FROM THE INTERFACE.
29404 @c @subheading -data-assign
29405 @c Change the value of a program variable. Plenty of side effects.
29406 @c @subsubheading GDB Command
29407 @c set variable
29408 @c @subsubheading Example
29409 @c N.A.
29410
29411 @subheading The @code{-data-disassemble} Command
29412 @findex -data-disassemble
29413
29414 @subsubheading Synopsis
29415
29416 @smallexample
29417 -data-disassemble
29418 [ -s @var{start-addr} -e @var{end-addr} ]
29419 | [ -f @var{filename} -l @var{linenum} [ -n @var{lines} ] ]
29420 -- @var{mode}
29421 @end smallexample
29422
29423 @noindent
29424 Where:
29425
29426 @table @samp
29427 @item @var{start-addr}
29428 is the beginning address (or @code{$pc})
29429 @item @var{end-addr}
29430 is the end address
29431 @item @var{filename}
29432 is the name of the file to disassemble
29433 @item @var{linenum}
29434 is the line number to disassemble around
29435 @item @var{lines}
29436 is the number of disassembly lines to be produced. If it is -1,
29437 the whole function will be disassembled, in case no @var{end-addr} is
29438 specified. If @var{end-addr} is specified as a non-zero value, and
29439 @var{lines} is lower than the number of disassembly lines between
29440 @var{start-addr} and @var{end-addr}, only @var{lines} lines are
29441 displayed; if @var{lines} is higher than the number of lines between
29442 @var{start-addr} and @var{end-addr}, only the lines up to @var{end-addr}
29443 are displayed.
29444 @item @var{mode}
29445 is either 0 (meaning only disassembly), 1 (meaning mixed source and
29446 disassembly), 2 (meaning disassembly with raw opcodes), or 3 (meaning
29447 mixed source and disassembly with raw opcodes).
29448 @end table
29449
29450 @subsubheading Result
29451
29452 The output for each instruction is composed of four fields:
29453
29454 @itemize @bullet
29455 @item Address
29456 @item Func-name
29457 @item Offset
29458 @item Instruction
29459 @end itemize
29460
29461 Note that whatever included in the instruction field, is not manipulated
29462 directly by @sc{gdb/mi}, i.e., it is not possible to adjust its format.
29463
29464 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29465
29466 There's no direct mapping from this command to the CLI.
29467
29468 @subsubheading Example
29469
29470 Disassemble from the current value of @code{$pc} to @code{$pc + 20}:
29471
29472 @smallexample
29473 (gdb)
29474 -data-disassemble -s $pc -e "$pc + 20" -- 0
29475 ^done,
29476 asm_insns=[
29477 @{address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4",
29478 inst="mov 2, %o0"@},
29479 @{address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8",
29480 inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"@},
29481 @{address="0x000107c8",func-name="main",offset="12",
29482 inst="or %o2, 0x140, %o1\t! 0x11940 <_lib_version+8>"@},
29483 @{address="0x000107cc",func-name="main",offset="16",
29484 inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"@},
29485 @{address="0x000107d0",func-name="main",offset="20",
29486 inst="or %o2, 0x168, %o4\t! 0x11968 <_lib_version+48>"@}]
29487 (gdb)
29488 @end smallexample
29489
29490 Disassemble the whole @code{main} function. Line 32 is part of
29491 @code{main}.
29492
29493 @smallexample
29494 -data-disassemble -f basics.c -l 32 -- 0
29495 ^done,asm_insns=[
29496 @{address="0x000107bc",func-name="main",offset="0",
29497 inst="save %sp, -112, %sp"@},
29498 @{address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4",
29499 inst="mov 2, %o0"@},
29500 @{address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8",
29501 inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"@},
29502 [@dots{}]
29503 @{address="0x0001081c",func-name="main",offset="96",inst="ret "@},
29504 @{address="0x00010820",func-name="main",offset="100",inst="restore "@}]
29505 (gdb)
29506 @end smallexample
29507
29508 Disassemble 3 instructions from the start of @code{main}:
29509
29510 @smallexample
29511 (gdb)
29512 -data-disassemble -f basics.c -l 32 -n 3 -- 0
29513 ^done,asm_insns=[
29514 @{address="0x000107bc",func-name="main",offset="0",
29515 inst="save %sp, -112, %sp"@},
29516 @{address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4",
29517 inst="mov 2, %o0"@},
29518 @{address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8",
29519 inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"@}]
29520 (gdb)
29521 @end smallexample
29522
29523 Disassemble 3 instructions from the start of @code{main} in mixed mode:
29524
29525 @smallexample
29526 (gdb)
29527 -data-disassemble -f basics.c -l 32 -n 3 -- 1
29528 ^done,asm_insns=[
29529 src_and_asm_line=@{line="31",
29530 file="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb/ \
29531 testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line_asm_insn=[
29532 @{address="0x000107bc",func-name="main",offset="0",
29533 inst="save %sp, -112, %sp"@}]@},
29534 src_and_asm_line=@{line="32",
29535 file="/kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/flathead-dev/devo/gdb/ \
29536 testsuite/gdb.mi/basics.c",line_asm_insn=[
29537 @{address="0x000107c0",func-name="main",offset="4",
29538 inst="mov 2, %o0"@},
29539 @{address="0x000107c4",func-name="main",offset="8",
29540 inst="sethi %hi(0x11800), %o2"@}]@}]
29541 (gdb)
29542 @end smallexample
29543
29544
29545 @subheading The @code{-data-evaluate-expression} Command
29546 @findex -data-evaluate-expression
29547
29548 @subsubheading Synopsis
29549
29550 @smallexample
29551 -data-evaluate-expression @var{expr}
29552 @end smallexample
29553
29554 Evaluate @var{expr} as an expression. The expression could contain an
29555 inferior function call. The function call will execute synchronously.
29556 If the expression contains spaces, it must be enclosed in double quotes.
29557
29558 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29559
29560 The corresponding @value{GDBN} commands are @samp{print}, @samp{output}, and
29561 @samp{call}. In @code{gdbtk} only, there's a corresponding
29562 @samp{gdb_eval} command.
29563
29564 @subsubheading Example
29565
29566 In the following example, the numbers that precede the commands are the
29567 @dfn{tokens} described in @ref{GDB/MI Command Syntax, ,@sc{gdb/mi}
29568 Command Syntax}. Notice how @sc{gdb/mi} returns the same tokens in its
29569 output.
29570
29571 @smallexample
29572 211-data-evaluate-expression A
29573 211^done,value="1"
29574 (gdb)
29575 311-data-evaluate-expression &A
29576 311^done,value="0xefffeb7c"
29577 (gdb)
29578 411-data-evaluate-expression A+3
29579 411^done,value="4"
29580 (gdb)
29581 511-data-evaluate-expression "A + 3"
29582 511^done,value="4"
29583 (gdb)
29584 @end smallexample
29585
29586
29587 @subheading The @code{-data-list-changed-registers} Command
29588 @findex -data-list-changed-registers
29589
29590 @subsubheading Synopsis
29591
29592 @smallexample
29593 -data-list-changed-registers
29594 @end smallexample
29595
29596 Display a list of the registers that have changed.
29597
29598 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29599
29600 @value{GDBN} doesn't have a direct analog for this command; @code{gdbtk}
29601 has the corresponding command @samp{gdb_changed_register_list}.
29602
29603 @subsubheading Example
29604
29605 On a PPC MBX board:
29606
29607 @smallexample
29608 (gdb)
29609 -exec-continue
29610 ^running
29611
29612 (gdb)
29613 *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",frame=@{
29614 func="main",args=[],file="try.c",fullname="/home/foo/bar/try.c",
29615 line="5"@}
29616 (gdb)
29617 -data-list-changed-registers
29618 ^done,changed-registers=["0","1","2","4","5","6","7","8","9",
29619 "10","11","13","14","15","16","17","18","19","20","21","22","23",
29620 "24","25","26","27","28","30","31","64","65","66","67","69"]
29621 (gdb)
29622 @end smallexample
29623
29624
29625 @subheading The @code{-data-list-register-names} Command
29626 @findex -data-list-register-names
29627
29628 @subsubheading Synopsis
29629
29630 @smallexample
29631 -data-list-register-names [ ( @var{regno} )+ ]
29632 @end smallexample
29633
29634 Show a list of register names for the current target. If no arguments
29635 are given, it shows a list of the names of all the registers. If
29636 integer numbers are given as arguments, it will print a list of the
29637 names of the registers corresponding to the arguments. To ensure
29638 consistency between a register name and its number, the output list may
29639 include empty register names.
29640
29641 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29642
29643 @value{GDBN} does not have a command which corresponds to
29644 @samp{-data-list-register-names}. In @code{gdbtk} there is a
29645 corresponding command @samp{gdb_regnames}.
29646
29647 @subsubheading Example
29648
29649 For the PPC MBX board:
29650 @smallexample
29651 (gdb)
29652 -data-list-register-names
29653 ^done,register-names=["r0","r1","r2","r3","r4","r5","r6","r7",
29654 "r8","r9","r10","r11","r12","r13","r14","r15","r16","r17","r18",
29655 "r19","r20","r21","r22","r23","r24","r25","r26","r27","r28","r29",
29656 "r30","r31","f0","f1","f2","f3","f4","f5","f6","f7","f8","f9",
29657 "f10","f11","f12","f13","f14","f15","f16","f17","f18","f19","f20",
29658 "f21","f22","f23","f24","f25","f26","f27","f28","f29","f30","f31",
29659 "", "pc","ps","cr","lr","ctr","xer"]
29660 (gdb)
29661 -data-list-register-names 1 2 3
29662 ^done,register-names=["r1","r2","r3"]
29663 (gdb)
29664 @end smallexample
29665
29666 @subheading The @code{-data-list-register-values} Command
29667 @findex -data-list-register-values
29668
29669 @subsubheading Synopsis
29670
29671 @smallexample
29672 -data-list-register-values @var{fmt} [ ( @var{regno} )*]
29673 @end smallexample
29674
29675 Display the registers' contents. @var{fmt} is the format according to
29676 which the registers' contents are to be returned, followed by an optional
29677 list of numbers specifying the registers to display. A missing list of
29678 numbers indicates that the contents of all the registers must be returned.
29679
29680 Allowed formats for @var{fmt} are:
29681
29682 @table @code
29683 @item x
29684 Hexadecimal
29685 @item o
29686 Octal
29687 @item t
29688 Binary
29689 @item d
29690 Decimal
29691 @item r
29692 Raw
29693 @item N
29694 Natural
29695 @end table
29696
29697 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29698
29699 The corresponding @value{GDBN} commands are @samp{info reg}, @samp{info
29700 all-reg}, and (in @code{gdbtk}) @samp{gdb_fetch_registers}.
29701
29702 @subsubheading Example
29703
29704 For a PPC MBX board (note: line breaks are for readability only, they
29705 don't appear in the actual output):
29706
29707 @smallexample
29708 (gdb)
29709 -data-list-register-values r 64 65
29710 ^done,register-values=[@{number="64",value="0xfe00a300"@},
29711 @{number="65",value="0x00029002"@}]
29712 (gdb)
29713 -data-list-register-values x
29714 ^done,register-values=[@{number="0",value="0xfe0043c8"@},
29715 @{number="1",value="0x3fff88"@},@{number="2",value="0xfffffffe"@},
29716 @{number="3",value="0x0"@},@{number="4",value="0xa"@},
29717 @{number="5",value="0x3fff68"@},@{number="6",value="0x3fff58"@},
29718 @{number="7",value="0xfe011e98"@},@{number="8",value="0x2"@},
29719 @{number="9",value="0xfa202820"@},@{number="10",value="0xfa202808"@},
29720 @{number="11",value="0x1"@},@{number="12",value="0x0"@},
29721 @{number="13",value="0x4544"@},@{number="14",value="0xffdfffff"@},
29722 @{number="15",value="0xffffffff"@},@{number="16",value="0xfffffeff"@},
29723 @{number="17",value="0xefffffed"@},@{number="18",value="0xfffffffe"@},
29724 @{number="19",value="0xffffffff"@},@{number="20",value="0xffffffff"@},
29725 @{number="21",value="0xffffffff"@},@{number="22",value="0xfffffff7"@},
29726 @{number="23",value="0xffffffff"@},@{number="24",value="0xffffffff"@},
29727 @{number="25",value="0xffffffff"@},@{number="26",value="0xfffffffb"@},
29728 @{number="27",value="0xffffffff"@},@{number="28",value="0xf7bfffff"@},
29729 @{number="29",value="0x0"@},@{number="30",value="0xfe010000"@},
29730 @{number="31",value="0x0"@},@{number="32",value="0x0"@},
29731 @{number="33",value="0x0"@},@{number="34",value="0x0"@},
29732 @{number="35",value="0x0"@},@{number="36",value="0x0"@},
29733 @{number="37",value="0x0"@},@{number="38",value="0x0"@},
29734 @{number="39",value="0x0"@},@{number="40",value="0x0"@},
29735 @{number="41",value="0x0"@},@{number="42",value="0x0"@},
29736 @{number="43",value="0x0"@},@{number="44",value="0x0"@},
29737 @{number="45",value="0x0"@},@{number="46",value="0x0"@},
29738 @{number="47",value="0x0"@},@{number="48",value="0x0"@},
29739 @{number="49",value="0x0"@},@{number="50",value="0x0"@},
29740 @{number="51",value="0x0"@},@{number="52",value="0x0"@},
29741 @{number="53",value="0x0"@},@{number="54",value="0x0"@},
29742 @{number="55",value="0x0"@},@{number="56",value="0x0"@},
29743 @{number="57",value="0x0"@},@{number="58",value="0x0"@},
29744 @{number="59",value="0x0"@},@{number="60",value="0x0"@},
29745 @{number="61",value="0x0"@},@{number="62",value="0x0"@},
29746 @{number="63",value="0x0"@},@{number="64",value="0xfe00a300"@},
29747 @{number="65",value="0x29002"@},@{number="66",value="0x202f04b5"@},
29748 @{number="67",value="0xfe0043b0"@},@{number="68",value="0xfe00b3e4"@},
29749 @{number="69",value="0x20002b03"@}]
29750 (gdb)
29751 @end smallexample
29752
29753
29754 @subheading The @code{-data-read-memory} Command
29755 @findex -data-read-memory
29756
29757 This command is deprecated, use @code{-data-read-memory-bytes} instead.
29758
29759 @subsubheading Synopsis
29760
29761 @smallexample
29762 -data-read-memory [ -o @var{byte-offset} ]
29763 @var{address} @var{word-format} @var{word-size}
29764 @var{nr-rows} @var{nr-cols} [ @var{aschar} ]
29765 @end smallexample
29766
29767 @noindent
29768 where:
29769
29770 @table @samp
29771 @item @var{address}
29772 An expression specifying the address of the first memory word to be
29773 read. Complex expressions containing embedded white space should be
29774 quoted using the C convention.
29775
29776 @item @var{word-format}
29777 The format to be used to print the memory words. The notation is the
29778 same as for @value{GDBN}'s @code{print} command (@pxref{Output Formats,
29779 ,Output Formats}).
29780
29781 @item @var{word-size}
29782 The size of each memory word in bytes.
29783
29784 @item @var{nr-rows}
29785 The number of rows in the output table.
29786
29787 @item @var{nr-cols}
29788 The number of columns in the output table.
29789
29790 @item @var{aschar}
29791 If present, indicates that each row should include an @sc{ascii} dump. The
29792 value of @var{aschar} is used as a padding character when a byte is not a
29793 member of the printable @sc{ascii} character set (printable @sc{ascii}
29794 characters are those whose code is between 32 and 126, inclusively).
29795
29796 @item @var{byte-offset}
29797 An offset to add to the @var{address} before fetching memory.
29798 @end table
29799
29800 This command displays memory contents as a table of @var{nr-rows} by
29801 @var{nr-cols} words, each word being @var{word-size} bytes. In total,
29802 @code{@var{nr-rows} * @var{nr-cols} * @var{word-size}} bytes are read
29803 (returned as @samp{total-bytes}). Should less than the requested number
29804 of bytes be returned by the target, the missing words are identified
29805 using @samp{N/A}. The number of bytes read from the target is returned
29806 in @samp{nr-bytes} and the starting address used to read memory in
29807 @samp{addr}.
29808
29809 The address of the next/previous row or page is available in
29810 @samp{next-row} and @samp{prev-row}, @samp{next-page} and
29811 @samp{prev-page}.
29812
29813 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29814
29815 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{x}. @code{gdbtk} has
29816 @samp{gdb_get_mem} memory read command.
29817
29818 @subsubheading Example
29819
29820 Read six bytes of memory starting at @code{bytes+6} but then offset by
29821 @code{-6} bytes. Format as three rows of two columns. One byte per
29822 word. Display each word in hex.
29823
29824 @smallexample
29825 (gdb)
29826 9-data-read-memory -o -6 -- bytes+6 x 1 3 2
29827 9^done,addr="0x00001390",nr-bytes="6",total-bytes="6",
29828 next-row="0x00001396",prev-row="0x0000138e",next-page="0x00001396",
29829 prev-page="0x0000138a",memory=[
29830 @{addr="0x00001390",data=["0x00","0x01"]@},
29831 @{addr="0x00001392",data=["0x02","0x03"]@},
29832 @{addr="0x00001394",data=["0x04","0x05"]@}]
29833 (gdb)
29834 @end smallexample
29835
29836 Read two bytes of memory starting at address @code{shorts + 64} and
29837 display as a single word formatted in decimal.
29838
29839 @smallexample
29840 (gdb)
29841 5-data-read-memory shorts+64 d 2 1 1
29842 5^done,addr="0x00001510",nr-bytes="2",total-bytes="2",
29843 next-row="0x00001512",prev-row="0x0000150e",
29844 next-page="0x00001512",prev-page="0x0000150e",memory=[
29845 @{addr="0x00001510",data=["128"]@}]
29846 (gdb)
29847 @end smallexample
29848
29849 Read thirty two bytes of memory starting at @code{bytes+16} and format
29850 as eight rows of four columns. Include a string encoding with @samp{x}
29851 used as the non-printable character.
29852
29853 @smallexample
29854 (gdb)
29855 4-data-read-memory bytes+16 x 1 8 4 x
29856 4^done,addr="0x000013a0",nr-bytes="32",total-bytes="32",
29857 next-row="0x000013c0",prev-row="0x0000139c",
29858 next-page="0x000013c0",prev-page="0x00001380",memory=[
29859 @{addr="0x000013a0",data=["0x10","0x11","0x12","0x13"],ascii="xxxx"@},
29860 @{addr="0x000013a4",data=["0x14","0x15","0x16","0x17"],ascii="xxxx"@},
29861 @{addr="0x000013a8",data=["0x18","0x19","0x1a","0x1b"],ascii="xxxx"@},
29862 @{addr="0x000013ac",data=["0x1c","0x1d","0x1e","0x1f"],ascii="xxxx"@},
29863 @{addr="0x000013b0",data=["0x20","0x21","0x22","0x23"],ascii=" !\"#"@},
29864 @{addr="0x000013b4",data=["0x24","0x25","0x26","0x27"],ascii="$%&'"@},
29865 @{addr="0x000013b8",data=["0x28","0x29","0x2a","0x2b"],ascii="()*+"@},
29866 @{addr="0x000013bc",data=["0x2c","0x2d","0x2e","0x2f"],ascii=",-./"@}]
29867 (gdb)
29868 @end smallexample
29869
29870 @subheading The @code{-data-read-memory-bytes} Command
29871 @findex -data-read-memory-bytes
29872
29873 @subsubheading Synopsis
29874
29875 @smallexample
29876 -data-read-memory-bytes [ -o @var{byte-offset} ]
29877 @var{address} @var{count}
29878 @end smallexample
29879
29880 @noindent
29881 where:
29882
29883 @table @samp
29884 @item @var{address}
29885 An expression specifying the address of the first memory word to be
29886 read. Complex expressions containing embedded white space should be
29887 quoted using the C convention.
29888
29889 @item @var{count}
29890 The number of bytes to read. This should be an integer literal.
29891
29892 @item @var{byte-offset}
29893 The offsets in bytes relative to @var{address} at which to start
29894 reading. This should be an integer literal. This option is provided
29895 so that a frontend is not required to first evaluate address and then
29896 perform address arithmetics itself.
29897
29898 @end table
29899
29900 This command attempts to read all accessible memory regions in the
29901 specified range. First, all regions marked as unreadable in the memory
29902 map (if one is defined) will be skipped. @xref{Memory Region
29903 Attributes}. Second, @value{GDBN} will attempt to read the remaining
29904 regions. For each one, if reading full region results in an errors,
29905 @value{GDBN} will try to read a subset of the region.
29906
29907 In general, every single byte in the region may be readable or not,
29908 and the only way to read every readable byte is to try a read at
29909 every address, which is not practical. Therefore, @value{GDBN} will
29910 attempt to read all accessible bytes at either beginning or the end
29911 of the region, using a binary division scheme. This heuristic works
29912 well for reading accross a memory map boundary. Note that if a region
29913 has a readable range that is neither at the beginning or the end,
29914 @value{GDBN} will not read it.
29915
29916 The result record (@pxref{GDB/MI Result Records}) that is output of
29917 the command includes a field named @samp{memory} whose content is a
29918 list of tuples. Each tuple represent a successfully read memory block
29919 and has the following fields:
29920
29921 @table @code
29922 @item begin
29923 The start address of the memory block, as hexadecimal literal.
29924
29925 @item end
29926 The end address of the memory block, as hexadecimal literal.
29927
29928 @item offset
29929 The offset of the memory block, as hexadecimal literal, relative to
29930 the start address passed to @code{-data-read-memory-bytes}.
29931
29932 @item contents
29933 The contents of the memory block, in hex.
29934
29935 @end table
29936
29937
29938
29939 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29940
29941 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{x}.
29942
29943 @subsubheading Example
29944
29945 @smallexample
29946 (gdb)
29947 -data-read-memory-bytes &a 10
29948 ^done,memory=[@{begin="0xbffff154",offset="0x00000000",
29949 end="0xbffff15e",
29950 contents="01000000020000000300"@}]
29951 (gdb)
29952 @end smallexample
29953
29954
29955 @subheading The @code{-data-write-memory-bytes} Command
29956 @findex -data-write-memory-bytes
29957
29958 @subsubheading Synopsis
29959
29960 @smallexample
29961 -data-write-memory-bytes @var{address} @var{contents}
29962 @end smallexample
29963
29964 @noindent
29965 where:
29966
29967 @table @samp
29968 @item @var{address}
29969 An expression specifying the address of the first memory word to be
29970 read. Complex expressions containing embedded white space should be
29971 quoted using the C convention.
29972
29973 @item @var{contents}
29974 The hex-encoded bytes to write.
29975
29976 @end table
29977
29978 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
29979
29980 There's no corresponding @value{GDBN} command.
29981
29982 @subsubheading Example
29983
29984 @smallexample
29985 (gdb)
29986 -data-write-memory-bytes &a "aabbccdd"
29987 ^done
29988 (gdb)
29989 @end smallexample
29990
29991
29992 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
29993 @node GDB/MI Tracepoint Commands
29994 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Tracepoint Commands
29995
29996 The commands defined in this section implement MI support for
29997 tracepoints. For detailed introduction, see @ref{Tracepoints}.
29998
29999 @subheading The @code{-trace-find} Command
30000 @findex -trace-find
30001
30002 @subsubheading Synopsis
30003
30004 @smallexample
30005 -trace-find @var{mode} [@var{parameters}@dots{}]
30006 @end smallexample
30007
30008 Find a trace frame using criteria defined by @var{mode} and
30009 @var{parameters}. The following table lists permissible
30010 modes and their parameters. For details of operation, see @ref{tfind}.
30011
30012 @table @samp
30013
30014 @item none
30015 No parameters are required. Stops examining trace frames.
30016
30017 @item frame-number
30018 An integer is required as parameter. Selects tracepoint frame with
30019 that index.
30020
30021 @item tracepoint-number
30022 An integer is required as parameter. Finds next
30023 trace frame that corresponds to tracepoint with the specified number.
30024
30025 @item pc
30026 An address is required as parameter. Finds
30027 next trace frame that corresponds to any tracepoint at the specified
30028 address.
30029
30030 @item pc-inside-range
30031 Two addresses are required as parameters. Finds next trace
30032 frame that corresponds to a tracepoint at an address inside the
30033 specified range. Both bounds are considered to be inside the range.
30034
30035 @item pc-outside-range
30036 Two addresses are required as parameters. Finds
30037 next trace frame that corresponds to a tracepoint at an address outside
30038 the specified range. Both bounds are considered to be inside the range.
30039
30040 @item line
30041 Line specification is required as parameter. @xref{Specify Location}.
30042 Finds next trace frame that corresponds to a tracepoint at
30043 the specified location.
30044
30045 @end table
30046
30047 If @samp{none} was passed as @var{mode}, the response does not
30048 have fields. Otherwise, the response may have the following fields:
30049
30050 @table @samp
30051 @item found
30052 This field has either @samp{0} or @samp{1} as the value, depending
30053 on whether a matching tracepoint was found.
30054
30055 @item traceframe
30056 The index of the found traceframe. This field is present iff
30057 the @samp{found} field has value of @samp{1}.
30058
30059 @item tracepoint
30060 The index of the found tracepoint. This field is present iff
30061 the @samp{found} field has value of @samp{1}.
30062
30063 @item frame
30064 The information about the frame corresponding to the found trace
30065 frame. This field is present only if a trace frame was found.
30066 @xref{GDB/MI Frame Information}, for description of this field.
30067
30068 @end table
30069
30070 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30071
30072 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tfind}.
30073
30074 @subheading -trace-define-variable
30075 @findex -trace-define-variable
30076
30077 @subsubheading Synopsis
30078
30079 @smallexample
30080 -trace-define-variable @var{name} [ @var{value} ]
30081 @end smallexample
30082
30083 Create trace variable @var{name} if it does not exist. If
30084 @var{value} is specified, sets the initial value of the specified
30085 trace variable to that value. Note that the @var{name} should start
30086 with the @samp{$} character.
30087
30088 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30089
30090 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tvariable}.
30091
30092 @subheading -trace-list-variables
30093 @findex -trace-list-variables
30094
30095 @subsubheading Synopsis
30096
30097 @smallexample
30098 -trace-list-variables
30099 @end smallexample
30100
30101 Return a table of all defined trace variables. Each element of the
30102 table has the following fields:
30103
30104 @table @samp
30105 @item name
30106 The name of the trace variable. This field is always present.
30107
30108 @item initial
30109 The initial value. This is a 64-bit signed integer. This
30110 field is always present.
30111
30112 @item current
30113 The value the trace variable has at the moment. This is a 64-bit
30114 signed integer. This field is absent iff current value is
30115 not defined, for example if the trace was never run, or is
30116 presently running.
30117
30118 @end table
30119
30120 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30121
30122 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tvariables}.
30123
30124 @subsubheading Example
30125
30126 @smallexample
30127 (gdb)
30128 -trace-list-variables
30129 ^done,trace-variables=@{nr_rows="1",nr_cols="3",
30130 hdr=[@{width="15",alignment="-1",col_name="name",colhdr="Name"@},
30131 @{width="11",alignment="-1",col_name="initial",colhdr="Initial"@},
30132 @{width="11",alignment="-1",col_name="current",colhdr="Current"@}],
30133 body=[variable=@{name="$trace_timestamp",initial="0"@}
30134 variable=@{name="$foo",initial="10",current="15"@}]@}
30135 (gdb)
30136 @end smallexample
30137
30138 @subheading -trace-save
30139 @findex -trace-save
30140
30141 @subsubheading Synopsis
30142
30143 @smallexample
30144 -trace-save [-r ] @var{filename}
30145 @end smallexample
30146
30147 Saves the collected trace data to @var{filename}. Without the
30148 @samp{-r} option, the data is downloaded from the target and saved
30149 in a local file. With the @samp{-r} option the target is asked
30150 to perform the save.
30151
30152 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30153
30154 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tsave}.
30155
30156
30157 @subheading -trace-start
30158 @findex -trace-start
30159
30160 @subsubheading Synopsis
30161
30162 @smallexample
30163 -trace-start
30164 @end smallexample
30165
30166 Starts a tracing experiments. The result of this command does not
30167 have any fields.
30168
30169 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30170
30171 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tstart}.
30172
30173 @subheading -trace-status
30174 @findex -trace-status
30175
30176 @subsubheading Synopsis
30177
30178 @smallexample
30179 -trace-status
30180 @end smallexample
30181
30182 Obtains the status of a tracing experiment. The result may include
30183 the following fields:
30184
30185 @table @samp
30186
30187 @item supported
30188 May have a value of either @samp{0}, when no tracing operations are
30189 supported, @samp{1}, when all tracing operations are supported, or
30190 @samp{file} when examining trace file. In the latter case, examining
30191 of trace frame is possible but new tracing experiement cannot be
30192 started. This field is always present.
30193
30194 @item running
30195 May have a value of either @samp{0} or @samp{1} depending on whether
30196 tracing experiement is in progress on target. This field is present
30197 if @samp{supported} field is not @samp{0}.
30198
30199 @item stop-reason
30200 Report the reason why the tracing was stopped last time. This field
30201 may be absent iff tracing was never stopped on target yet. The
30202 value of @samp{request} means the tracing was stopped as result of
30203 the @code{-trace-stop} command. The value of @samp{overflow} means
30204 the tracing buffer is full. The value of @samp{disconnection} means
30205 tracing was automatically stopped when @value{GDBN} has disconnected.
30206 The value of @samp{passcount} means tracing was stopped when a
30207 tracepoint was passed a maximal number of times for that tracepoint.
30208 This field is present if @samp{supported} field is not @samp{0}.
30209
30210 @item stopping-tracepoint
30211 The number of tracepoint whose passcount as exceeded. This field is
30212 present iff the @samp{stop-reason} field has the value of
30213 @samp{passcount}.
30214
30215 @item frames
30216 @itemx frames-created
30217 The @samp{frames} field is a count of the total number of trace frames
30218 in the trace buffer, while @samp{frames-created} is the total created
30219 during the run, including ones that were discarded, such as when a
30220 circular trace buffer filled up. Both fields are optional.
30221
30222 @item buffer-size
30223 @itemx buffer-free
30224 These fields tell the current size of the tracing buffer and the
30225 remaining space. These fields are optional.
30226
30227 @item circular
30228 The value of the circular trace buffer flag. @code{1} means that the
30229 trace buffer is circular and old trace frames will be discarded if
30230 necessary to make room, @code{0} means that the trace buffer is linear
30231 and may fill up.
30232
30233 @item disconnected
30234 The value of the disconnected tracing flag. @code{1} means that
30235 tracing will continue after @value{GDBN} disconnects, @code{0} means
30236 that the trace run will stop.
30237
30238 @end table
30239
30240 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30241
30242 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tstatus}.
30243
30244 @subheading -trace-stop
30245 @findex -trace-stop
30246
30247 @subsubheading Synopsis
30248
30249 @smallexample
30250 -trace-stop
30251 @end smallexample
30252
30253 Stops a tracing experiment. The result of this command has the same
30254 fields as @code{-trace-status}, except that the @samp{supported} and
30255 @samp{running} fields are not output.
30256
30257 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30258
30259 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{tstop}.
30260
30261
30262 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
30263 @node GDB/MI Symbol Query
30264 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Symbol Query Commands
30265
30266
30267 @ignore
30268 @subheading The @code{-symbol-info-address} Command
30269 @findex -symbol-info-address
30270
30271 @subsubheading Synopsis
30272
30273 @smallexample
30274 -symbol-info-address @var{symbol}
30275 @end smallexample
30276
30277 Describe where @var{symbol} is stored.
30278
30279 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30280
30281 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info address}.
30282
30283 @subsubheading Example
30284 N.A.
30285
30286
30287 @subheading The @code{-symbol-info-file} Command
30288 @findex -symbol-info-file
30289
30290 @subsubheading Synopsis
30291
30292 @smallexample
30293 -symbol-info-file
30294 @end smallexample
30295
30296 Show the file for the symbol.
30297
30298 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30299
30300 There's no equivalent @value{GDBN} command. @code{gdbtk} has
30301 @samp{gdb_find_file}.
30302
30303 @subsubheading Example
30304 N.A.
30305
30306
30307 @subheading The @code{-symbol-info-function} Command
30308 @findex -symbol-info-function
30309
30310 @subsubheading Synopsis
30311
30312 @smallexample
30313 -symbol-info-function
30314 @end smallexample
30315
30316 Show which function the symbol lives in.
30317
30318 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30319
30320 @samp{gdb_get_function} in @code{gdbtk}.
30321
30322 @subsubheading Example
30323 N.A.
30324
30325
30326 @subheading The @code{-symbol-info-line} Command
30327 @findex -symbol-info-line
30328
30329 @subsubheading Synopsis
30330
30331 @smallexample
30332 -symbol-info-line
30333 @end smallexample
30334
30335 Show the core addresses of the code for a source line.
30336
30337 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30338
30339 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info line}.
30340 @code{gdbtk} has the @samp{gdb_get_line} and @samp{gdb_get_file} commands.
30341
30342 @subsubheading Example
30343 N.A.
30344
30345
30346 @subheading The @code{-symbol-info-symbol} Command
30347 @findex -symbol-info-symbol
30348
30349 @subsubheading Synopsis
30350
30351 @smallexample
30352 -symbol-info-symbol @var{addr}
30353 @end smallexample
30354
30355 Describe what symbol is at location @var{addr}.
30356
30357 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30358
30359 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info symbol}.
30360
30361 @subsubheading Example
30362 N.A.
30363
30364
30365 @subheading The @code{-symbol-list-functions} Command
30366 @findex -symbol-list-functions
30367
30368 @subsubheading Synopsis
30369
30370 @smallexample
30371 -symbol-list-functions
30372 @end smallexample
30373
30374 List the functions in the executable.
30375
30376 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30377
30378 @samp{info functions} in @value{GDBN}, @samp{gdb_listfunc} and
30379 @samp{gdb_search} in @code{gdbtk}.
30380
30381 @subsubheading Example
30382 N.A.
30383 @end ignore
30384
30385
30386 @subheading The @code{-symbol-list-lines} Command
30387 @findex -symbol-list-lines
30388
30389 @subsubheading Synopsis
30390
30391 @smallexample
30392 -symbol-list-lines @var{filename}
30393 @end smallexample
30394
30395 Print the list of lines that contain code and their associated program
30396 addresses for the given source filename. The entries are sorted in
30397 ascending PC order.
30398
30399 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30400
30401 There is no corresponding @value{GDBN} command.
30402
30403 @subsubheading Example
30404 @smallexample
30405 (gdb)
30406 -symbol-list-lines basics.c
30407 ^done,lines=[@{pc="0x08048554",line="7"@},@{pc="0x0804855a",line="8"@}]
30408 (gdb)
30409 @end smallexample
30410
30411
30412 @ignore
30413 @subheading The @code{-symbol-list-types} Command
30414 @findex -symbol-list-types
30415
30416 @subsubheading Synopsis
30417
30418 @smallexample
30419 -symbol-list-types
30420 @end smallexample
30421
30422 List all the type names.
30423
30424 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30425
30426 The corresponding commands are @samp{info types} in @value{GDBN},
30427 @samp{gdb_search} in @code{gdbtk}.
30428
30429 @subsubheading Example
30430 N.A.
30431
30432
30433 @subheading The @code{-symbol-list-variables} Command
30434 @findex -symbol-list-variables
30435
30436 @subsubheading Synopsis
30437
30438 @smallexample
30439 -symbol-list-variables
30440 @end smallexample
30441
30442 List all the global and static variable names.
30443
30444 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30445
30446 @samp{info variables} in @value{GDBN}, @samp{gdb_search} in @code{gdbtk}.
30447
30448 @subsubheading Example
30449 N.A.
30450
30451
30452 @subheading The @code{-symbol-locate} Command
30453 @findex -symbol-locate
30454
30455 @subsubheading Synopsis
30456
30457 @smallexample
30458 -symbol-locate
30459 @end smallexample
30460
30461 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30462
30463 @samp{gdb_loc} in @code{gdbtk}.
30464
30465 @subsubheading Example
30466 N.A.
30467
30468
30469 @subheading The @code{-symbol-type} Command
30470 @findex -symbol-type
30471
30472 @subsubheading Synopsis
30473
30474 @smallexample
30475 -symbol-type @var{variable}
30476 @end smallexample
30477
30478 Show type of @var{variable}.
30479
30480 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30481
30482 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{ptype}, @code{gdbtk} has
30483 @samp{gdb_obj_variable}.
30484
30485 @subsubheading Example
30486 N.A.
30487 @end ignore
30488
30489
30490 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
30491 @node GDB/MI File Commands
30492 @section @sc{gdb/mi} File Commands
30493
30494 This section describes the GDB/MI commands to specify executable file names
30495 and to read in and obtain symbol table information.
30496
30497 @subheading The @code{-file-exec-and-symbols} Command
30498 @findex -file-exec-and-symbols
30499
30500 @subsubheading Synopsis
30501
30502 @smallexample
30503 -file-exec-and-symbols @var{file}
30504 @end smallexample
30505
30506 Specify the executable file to be debugged. This file is the one from
30507 which the symbol table is also read. If no file is specified, the
30508 command clears the executable and symbol information. If breakpoints
30509 are set when using this command with no arguments, @value{GDBN} will produce
30510 error messages. Otherwise, no output is produced, except a completion
30511 notification.
30512
30513 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30514
30515 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{file}.
30516
30517 @subsubheading Example
30518
30519 @smallexample
30520 (gdb)
30521 -file-exec-and-symbols /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/TRUNK/mbx/hello.mbx
30522 ^done
30523 (gdb)
30524 @end smallexample
30525
30526
30527 @subheading The @code{-file-exec-file} Command
30528 @findex -file-exec-file
30529
30530 @subsubheading Synopsis
30531
30532 @smallexample
30533 -file-exec-file @var{file}
30534 @end smallexample
30535
30536 Specify the executable file to be debugged. Unlike
30537 @samp{-file-exec-and-symbols}, the symbol table is @emph{not} read
30538 from this file. If used without argument, @value{GDBN} clears the information
30539 about the executable file. No output is produced, except a completion
30540 notification.
30541
30542 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30543
30544 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{exec-file}.
30545
30546 @subsubheading Example
30547
30548 @smallexample
30549 (gdb)
30550 -file-exec-file /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/TRUNK/mbx/hello.mbx
30551 ^done
30552 (gdb)
30553 @end smallexample
30554
30555
30556 @ignore
30557 @subheading The @code{-file-list-exec-sections} Command
30558 @findex -file-list-exec-sections
30559
30560 @subsubheading Synopsis
30561
30562 @smallexample
30563 -file-list-exec-sections
30564 @end smallexample
30565
30566 List the sections of the current executable file.
30567
30568 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30569
30570 The @value{GDBN} command @samp{info file} shows, among the rest, the same
30571 information as this command. @code{gdbtk} has a corresponding command
30572 @samp{gdb_load_info}.
30573
30574 @subsubheading Example
30575 N.A.
30576 @end ignore
30577
30578
30579 @subheading The @code{-file-list-exec-source-file} Command
30580 @findex -file-list-exec-source-file
30581
30582 @subsubheading Synopsis
30583
30584 @smallexample
30585 -file-list-exec-source-file
30586 @end smallexample
30587
30588 List the line number, the current source file, and the absolute path
30589 to the current source file for the current executable. The macro
30590 information field has a value of @samp{1} or @samp{0} depending on
30591 whether or not the file includes preprocessor macro information.
30592
30593 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30594
30595 The @value{GDBN} equivalent is @samp{info source}
30596
30597 @subsubheading Example
30598
30599 @smallexample
30600 (gdb)
30601 123-file-list-exec-source-file
30602 123^done,line="1",file="foo.c",fullname="/home/bar/foo.c,macro-info="1"
30603 (gdb)
30604 @end smallexample
30605
30606
30607 @subheading The @code{-file-list-exec-source-files} Command
30608 @findex -file-list-exec-source-files
30609
30610 @subsubheading Synopsis
30611
30612 @smallexample
30613 -file-list-exec-source-files
30614 @end smallexample
30615
30616 List the source files for the current executable.
30617
30618 It will always output the filename, but only when @value{GDBN} can find
30619 the absolute file name of a source file, will it output the fullname.
30620
30621 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30622
30623 The @value{GDBN} equivalent is @samp{info sources}.
30624 @code{gdbtk} has an analogous command @samp{gdb_listfiles}.
30625
30626 @subsubheading Example
30627 @smallexample
30628 (gdb)
30629 -file-list-exec-source-files
30630 ^done,files=[
30631 @{file=foo.c,fullname=/home/foo.c@},
30632 @{file=/home/bar.c,fullname=/home/bar.c@},
30633 @{file=gdb_could_not_find_fullpath.c@}]
30634 (gdb)
30635 @end smallexample
30636
30637 @ignore
30638 @subheading The @code{-file-list-shared-libraries} Command
30639 @findex -file-list-shared-libraries
30640
30641 @subsubheading Synopsis
30642
30643 @smallexample
30644 -file-list-shared-libraries
30645 @end smallexample
30646
30647 List the shared libraries in the program.
30648
30649 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30650
30651 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info shared}.
30652
30653 @subsubheading Example
30654 N.A.
30655
30656
30657 @subheading The @code{-file-list-symbol-files} Command
30658 @findex -file-list-symbol-files
30659
30660 @subsubheading Synopsis
30661
30662 @smallexample
30663 -file-list-symbol-files
30664 @end smallexample
30665
30666 List symbol files.
30667
30668 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30669
30670 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{info file} (part of it).
30671
30672 @subsubheading Example
30673 N.A.
30674 @end ignore
30675
30676
30677 @subheading The @code{-file-symbol-file} Command
30678 @findex -file-symbol-file
30679
30680 @subsubheading Synopsis
30681
30682 @smallexample
30683 -file-symbol-file @var{file}
30684 @end smallexample
30685
30686 Read symbol table info from the specified @var{file} argument. When
30687 used without arguments, clears @value{GDBN}'s symbol table info. No output is
30688 produced, except for a completion notification.
30689
30690 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30691
30692 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{symbol-file}.
30693
30694 @subsubheading Example
30695
30696 @smallexample
30697 (gdb)
30698 -file-symbol-file /kwikemart/marge/ezannoni/TRUNK/mbx/hello.mbx
30699 ^done
30700 (gdb)
30701 @end smallexample
30702
30703 @ignore
30704 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
30705 @node GDB/MI Memory Overlay Commands
30706 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Memory Overlay Commands
30707
30708 The memory overlay commands are not implemented.
30709
30710 @c @subheading -overlay-auto
30711
30712 @c @subheading -overlay-list-mapping-state
30713
30714 @c @subheading -overlay-list-overlays
30715
30716 @c @subheading -overlay-map
30717
30718 @c @subheading -overlay-off
30719
30720 @c @subheading -overlay-on
30721
30722 @c @subheading -overlay-unmap
30723
30724 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
30725 @node GDB/MI Signal Handling Commands
30726 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Signal Handling Commands
30727
30728 Signal handling commands are not implemented.
30729
30730 @c @subheading -signal-handle
30731
30732 @c @subheading -signal-list-handle-actions
30733
30734 @c @subheading -signal-list-signal-types
30735 @end ignore
30736
30737
30738 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
30739 @node GDB/MI Target Manipulation
30740 @section @sc{gdb/mi} Target Manipulation Commands
30741
30742
30743 @subheading The @code{-target-attach} Command
30744 @findex -target-attach
30745
30746 @subsubheading Synopsis
30747
30748 @smallexample
30749 -target-attach @var{pid} | @var{gid} | @var{file}
30750 @end smallexample
30751
30752 Attach to a process @var{pid} or a file @var{file} outside of
30753 @value{GDBN}, or a thread group @var{gid}. If attaching to a thread
30754 group, the id previously returned by
30755 @samp{-list-thread-groups --available} must be used.
30756
30757 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30758
30759 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{attach}.
30760
30761 @subsubheading Example
30762 @smallexample
30763 (gdb)
30764 -target-attach 34
30765 =thread-created,id="1"
30766 *stopped,thread-id="1",frame=@{addr="0xb7f7e410",func="bar",args=[]@}
30767 ^done
30768 (gdb)
30769 @end smallexample
30770
30771 @ignore
30772 @subheading The @code{-target-compare-sections} Command
30773 @findex -target-compare-sections
30774
30775 @subsubheading Synopsis
30776
30777 @smallexample
30778 -target-compare-sections [ @var{section} ]
30779 @end smallexample
30780
30781 Compare data of section @var{section} on target to the exec file.
30782 Without the argument, all sections are compared.
30783
30784 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30785
30786 The @value{GDBN} equivalent is @samp{compare-sections}.
30787
30788 @subsubheading Example
30789 N.A.
30790 @end ignore
30791
30792
30793 @subheading The @code{-target-detach} Command
30794 @findex -target-detach
30795
30796 @subsubheading Synopsis
30797
30798 @smallexample
30799 -target-detach [ @var{pid} | @var{gid} ]
30800 @end smallexample
30801
30802 Detach from the remote target which normally resumes its execution.
30803 If either @var{pid} or @var{gid} is specified, detaches from either
30804 the specified process, or specified thread group. There's no output.
30805
30806 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30807
30808 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{detach}.
30809
30810 @subsubheading Example
30811
30812 @smallexample
30813 (gdb)
30814 -target-detach
30815 ^done
30816 (gdb)
30817 @end smallexample
30818
30819
30820 @subheading The @code{-target-disconnect} Command
30821 @findex -target-disconnect
30822
30823 @subsubheading Synopsis
30824
30825 @smallexample
30826 -target-disconnect
30827 @end smallexample
30828
30829 Disconnect from the remote target. There's no output and the target is
30830 generally not resumed.
30831
30832 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30833
30834 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{disconnect}.
30835
30836 @subsubheading Example
30837
30838 @smallexample
30839 (gdb)
30840 -target-disconnect
30841 ^done
30842 (gdb)
30843 @end smallexample
30844
30845
30846 @subheading The @code{-target-download} Command
30847 @findex -target-download
30848
30849 @subsubheading Synopsis
30850
30851 @smallexample
30852 -target-download
30853 @end smallexample
30854
30855 Loads the executable onto the remote target.
30856 It prints out an update message every half second, which includes the fields:
30857
30858 @table @samp
30859 @item section
30860 The name of the section.
30861 @item section-sent
30862 The size of what has been sent so far for that section.
30863 @item section-size
30864 The size of the section.
30865 @item total-sent
30866 The total size of what was sent so far (the current and the previous sections).
30867 @item total-size
30868 The size of the overall executable to download.
30869 @end table
30870
30871 @noindent
30872 Each message is sent as status record (@pxref{GDB/MI Output Syntax, ,
30873 @sc{gdb/mi} Output Syntax}).
30874
30875 In addition, it prints the name and size of the sections, as they are
30876 downloaded. These messages include the following fields:
30877
30878 @table @samp
30879 @item section
30880 The name of the section.
30881 @item section-size
30882 The size of the section.
30883 @item total-size
30884 The size of the overall executable to download.
30885 @end table
30886
30887 @noindent
30888 At the end, a summary is printed.
30889
30890 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30891
30892 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{load}.
30893
30894 @subsubheading Example
30895
30896 Note: each status message appears on a single line. Here the messages
30897 have been broken down so that they can fit onto a page.
30898
30899 @smallexample
30900 (gdb)
30901 -target-download
30902 +download,@{section=".text",section-size="6668",total-size="9880"@}
30903 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="512",section-size="6668",
30904 total-sent="512",total-size="9880"@}
30905 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="1024",section-size="6668",
30906 total-sent="1024",total-size="9880"@}
30907 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="1536",section-size="6668",
30908 total-sent="1536",total-size="9880"@}
30909 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="2048",section-size="6668",
30910 total-sent="2048",total-size="9880"@}
30911 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="2560",section-size="6668",
30912 total-sent="2560",total-size="9880"@}
30913 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="3072",section-size="6668",
30914 total-sent="3072",total-size="9880"@}
30915 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="3584",section-size="6668",
30916 total-sent="3584",total-size="9880"@}
30917 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="4096",section-size="6668",
30918 total-sent="4096",total-size="9880"@}
30919 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="4608",section-size="6668",
30920 total-sent="4608",total-size="9880"@}
30921 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="5120",section-size="6668",
30922 total-sent="5120",total-size="9880"@}
30923 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="5632",section-size="6668",
30924 total-sent="5632",total-size="9880"@}
30925 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="6144",section-size="6668",
30926 total-sent="6144",total-size="9880"@}
30927 +download,@{section=".text",section-sent="6656",section-size="6668",
30928 total-sent="6656",total-size="9880"@}
30929 +download,@{section=".init",section-size="28",total-size="9880"@}
30930 +download,@{section=".fini",section-size="28",total-size="9880"@}
30931 +download,@{section=".data",section-size="3156",total-size="9880"@}
30932 +download,@{section=".data",section-sent="512",section-size="3156",
30933 total-sent="7236",total-size="9880"@}
30934 +download,@{section=".data",section-sent="1024",section-size="3156",
30935 total-sent="7748",total-size="9880"@}
30936 +download,@{section=".data",section-sent="1536",section-size="3156",
30937 total-sent="8260",total-size="9880"@}
30938 +download,@{section=".data",section-sent="2048",section-size="3156",
30939 total-sent="8772",total-size="9880"@}
30940 +download,@{section=".data",section-sent="2560",section-size="3156",
30941 total-sent="9284",total-size="9880"@}
30942 +download,@{section=".data",section-sent="3072",section-size="3156",
30943 total-sent="9796",total-size="9880"@}
30944 ^done,address="0x10004",load-size="9880",transfer-rate="6586",
30945 write-rate="429"
30946 (gdb)
30947 @end smallexample
30948
30949
30950 @ignore
30951 @subheading The @code{-target-exec-status} Command
30952 @findex -target-exec-status
30953
30954 @subsubheading Synopsis
30955
30956 @smallexample
30957 -target-exec-status
30958 @end smallexample
30959
30960 Provide information on the state of the target (whether it is running or
30961 not, for instance).
30962
30963 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30964
30965 There's no equivalent @value{GDBN} command.
30966
30967 @subsubheading Example
30968 N.A.
30969
30970
30971 @subheading The @code{-target-list-available-targets} Command
30972 @findex -target-list-available-targets
30973
30974 @subsubheading Synopsis
30975
30976 @smallexample
30977 -target-list-available-targets
30978 @end smallexample
30979
30980 List the possible targets to connect to.
30981
30982 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
30983
30984 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{help target}.
30985
30986 @subsubheading Example
30987 N.A.
30988
30989
30990 @subheading The @code{-target-list-current-targets} Command
30991 @findex -target-list-current-targets
30992
30993 @subsubheading Synopsis
30994
30995 @smallexample
30996 -target-list-current-targets
30997 @end smallexample
30998
30999 Describe the current target.
31000
31001 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31002
31003 The corresponding information is printed by @samp{info file} (among
31004 other things).
31005
31006 @subsubheading Example
31007 N.A.
31008
31009
31010 @subheading The @code{-target-list-parameters} Command
31011 @findex -target-list-parameters
31012
31013 @subsubheading Synopsis
31014
31015 @smallexample
31016 -target-list-parameters
31017 @end smallexample
31018
31019 @c ????
31020 @end ignore
31021
31022 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31023
31024 No equivalent.
31025
31026 @subsubheading Example
31027 N.A.
31028
31029
31030 @subheading The @code{-target-select} Command
31031 @findex -target-select
31032
31033 @subsubheading Synopsis
31034
31035 @smallexample
31036 -target-select @var{type} @var{parameters @dots{}}
31037 @end smallexample
31038
31039 Connect @value{GDBN} to the remote target. This command takes two args:
31040
31041 @table @samp
31042 @item @var{type}
31043 The type of target, for instance @samp{remote}, etc.
31044 @item @var{parameters}
31045 Device names, host names and the like. @xref{Target Commands, ,
31046 Commands for Managing Targets}, for more details.
31047 @end table
31048
31049 The output is a connection notification, followed by the address at
31050 which the target program is, in the following form:
31051
31052 @smallexample
31053 ^connected,addr="@var{address}",func="@var{function name}",
31054 args=[@var{arg list}]
31055 @end smallexample
31056
31057 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31058
31059 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{target}.
31060
31061 @subsubheading Example
31062
31063 @smallexample
31064 (gdb)
31065 -target-select remote /dev/ttya
31066 ^connected,addr="0xfe00a300",func="??",args=[]
31067 (gdb)
31068 @end smallexample
31069
31070 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
31071 @node GDB/MI File Transfer Commands
31072 @section @sc{gdb/mi} File Transfer Commands
31073
31074
31075 @subheading The @code{-target-file-put} Command
31076 @findex -target-file-put
31077
31078 @subsubheading Synopsis
31079
31080 @smallexample
31081 -target-file-put @var{hostfile} @var{targetfile}
31082 @end smallexample
31083
31084 Copy file @var{hostfile} from the host system (the machine running
31085 @value{GDBN}) to @var{targetfile} on the target system.
31086
31087 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31088
31089 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{remote put}.
31090
31091 @subsubheading Example
31092
31093 @smallexample
31094 (gdb)
31095 -target-file-put localfile remotefile
31096 ^done
31097 (gdb)
31098 @end smallexample
31099
31100
31101 @subheading The @code{-target-file-get} Command
31102 @findex -target-file-get
31103
31104 @subsubheading Synopsis
31105
31106 @smallexample
31107 -target-file-get @var{targetfile} @var{hostfile}
31108 @end smallexample
31109
31110 Copy file @var{targetfile} from the target system to @var{hostfile}
31111 on the host system.
31112
31113 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31114
31115 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{remote get}.
31116
31117 @subsubheading Example
31118
31119 @smallexample
31120 (gdb)
31121 -target-file-get remotefile localfile
31122 ^done
31123 (gdb)
31124 @end smallexample
31125
31126
31127 @subheading The @code{-target-file-delete} Command
31128 @findex -target-file-delete
31129
31130 @subsubheading Synopsis
31131
31132 @smallexample
31133 -target-file-delete @var{targetfile}
31134 @end smallexample
31135
31136 Delete @var{targetfile} from the target system.
31137
31138 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31139
31140 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{remote delete}.
31141
31142 @subsubheading Example
31143
31144 @smallexample
31145 (gdb)
31146 -target-file-delete remotefile
31147 ^done
31148 (gdb)
31149 @end smallexample
31150
31151
31152 @c %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% SECTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
31153 @node GDB/MI Miscellaneous Commands
31154 @section Miscellaneous @sc{gdb/mi} Commands
31155
31156 @c @subheading -gdb-complete
31157
31158 @subheading The @code{-gdb-exit} Command
31159 @findex -gdb-exit
31160
31161 @subsubheading Synopsis
31162
31163 @smallexample
31164 -gdb-exit
31165 @end smallexample
31166
31167 Exit @value{GDBN} immediately.
31168
31169 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31170
31171 Approximately corresponds to @samp{quit}.
31172
31173 @subsubheading Example
31174
31175 @smallexample
31176 (gdb)
31177 -gdb-exit
31178 ^exit
31179 @end smallexample
31180
31181
31182 @ignore
31183 @subheading The @code{-exec-abort} Command
31184 @findex -exec-abort
31185
31186 @subsubheading Synopsis
31187
31188 @smallexample
31189 -exec-abort
31190 @end smallexample
31191
31192 Kill the inferior running program.
31193
31194 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31195
31196 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{kill}.
31197
31198 @subsubheading Example
31199 N.A.
31200 @end ignore
31201
31202
31203 @subheading The @code{-gdb-set} Command
31204 @findex -gdb-set
31205
31206 @subsubheading Synopsis
31207
31208 @smallexample
31209 -gdb-set
31210 @end smallexample
31211
31212 Set an internal @value{GDBN} variable.
31213 @c IS THIS A DOLLAR VARIABLE? OR SOMETHING LIKE ANNOTATE ?????
31214
31215 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31216
31217 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{set}.
31218
31219 @subsubheading Example
31220
31221 @smallexample
31222 (gdb)
31223 -gdb-set $foo=3
31224 ^done
31225 (gdb)
31226 @end smallexample
31227
31228
31229 @subheading The @code{-gdb-show} Command
31230 @findex -gdb-show
31231
31232 @subsubheading Synopsis
31233
31234 @smallexample
31235 -gdb-show
31236 @end smallexample
31237
31238 Show the current value of a @value{GDBN} variable.
31239
31240 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31241
31242 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{show}.
31243
31244 @subsubheading Example
31245
31246 @smallexample
31247 (gdb)
31248 -gdb-show annotate
31249 ^done,value="0"
31250 (gdb)
31251 @end smallexample
31252
31253 @c @subheading -gdb-source
31254
31255
31256 @subheading The @code{-gdb-version} Command
31257 @findex -gdb-version
31258
31259 @subsubheading Synopsis
31260
31261 @smallexample
31262 -gdb-version
31263 @end smallexample
31264
31265 Show version information for @value{GDBN}. Used mostly in testing.
31266
31267 @subsubheading @value{GDBN} Command
31268
31269 The @value{GDBN} equivalent is @samp{show version}. @value{GDBN} by
31270 default shows this information when you start an interactive session.
31271
31272 @subsubheading Example
31273
31274 @c This example modifies the actual output from GDB to avoid overfull
31275 @c box in TeX.
31276 @smallexample
31277 (gdb)
31278 -gdb-version
31279 ~GNU gdb 5.2.1
31280 ~Copyright 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
31281 ~GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and
31282 ~you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under
31283 ~ certain conditions.
31284 ~Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
31285 ~There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty" for
31286 ~ details.
31287 ~This GDB was configured as
31288 "--host=sparc-sun-solaris2.5.1 --target=ppc-eabi".
31289 ^done
31290 (gdb)
31291 @end smallexample
31292
31293 @subheading The @code{-list-features} Command
31294 @findex -list-features
31295
31296 Returns a list of particular features of the MI protocol that
31297 this version of gdb implements. A feature can be a command,
31298 or a new field in an output of some command, or even an
31299 important bugfix. While a frontend can sometimes detect presence
31300 of a feature at runtime, it is easier to perform detection at debugger
31301 startup.
31302
31303 The command returns a list of strings, with each string naming an
31304 available feature. Each returned string is just a name, it does not
31305 have any internal structure. The list of possible feature names
31306 is given below.
31307
31308 Example output:
31309
31310 @smallexample
31311 (gdb) -list-features
31312 ^done,result=["feature1","feature2"]
31313 @end smallexample
31314
31315 The current list of features is:
31316
31317 @table @samp
31318 @item frozen-varobjs
31319 Indicates support for the @code{-var-set-frozen} command, as well
31320 as possible presense of the @code{frozen} field in the output
31321 of @code{-varobj-create}.
31322 @item pending-breakpoints
31323 Indicates support for the @option{-f} option to the @code{-break-insert}
31324 command.
31325 @item python
31326 Indicates Python scripting support, Python-based
31327 pretty-printing commands, and possible presence of the
31328 @samp{display_hint} field in the output of @code{-var-list-children}
31329 @item thread-info
31330 Indicates support for the @code{-thread-info} command.
31331 @item data-read-memory-bytes
31332 Indicates support for the @code{-data-read-memory-bytes} and the
31333 @code{-data-write-memory-bytes} commands.
31334 @item breakpoint-notifications
31335 Indicates that changes to breakpoints and breakpoints created via the
31336 CLI will be announced via async records.
31337 @item ada-task-info
31338 Indicates support for the @code{-ada-task-info} command.
31339 @end table
31340
31341 @subheading The @code{-list-target-features} Command
31342 @findex -list-target-features
31343
31344 Returns a list of particular features that are supported by the
31345 target. Those features affect the permitted MI commands, but
31346 unlike the features reported by the @code{-list-features} command, the
31347 features depend on which target GDB is using at the moment. Whenever
31348 a target can change, due to commands such as @code{-target-select},
31349 @code{-target-attach} or @code{-exec-run}, the list of target features
31350 may change, and the frontend should obtain it again.
31351 Example output:
31352
31353 @smallexample
31354 (gdb) -list-features
31355 ^done,result=["async"]
31356 @end smallexample
31357
31358 The current list of features is:
31359
31360 @table @samp
31361 @item async
31362 Indicates that the target is capable of asynchronous command
31363 execution, which means that @value{GDBN} will accept further commands
31364 while the target is running.
31365
31366 @item reverse
31367 Indicates that the target is capable of reverse execution.
31368 @xref{Reverse Execution}, for more information.
31369
31370 @end table
31371
31372 @subheading The @code{-list-thread-groups} Command
31373 @findex -list-thread-groups
31374
31375 @subheading Synopsis
31376
31377 @smallexample
31378 -list-thread-groups [ --available ] [ --recurse 1 ] [ @var{group} ... ]
31379 @end smallexample
31380
31381 Lists thread groups (@pxref{Thread groups}). When a single thread
31382 group is passed as the argument, lists the children of that group.
31383 When several thread group are passed, lists information about those
31384 thread groups. Without any parameters, lists information about all
31385 top-level thread groups.
31386
31387 Normally, thread groups that are being debugged are reported.
31388 With the @samp{--available} option, @value{GDBN} reports thread groups
31389 available on the target.
31390
31391 The output of this command may have either a @samp{threads} result or
31392 a @samp{groups} result. The @samp{thread} result has a list of tuples
31393 as value, with each tuple describing a thread (@pxref{GDB/MI Thread
31394 Information}). The @samp{groups} result has a list of tuples as value,
31395 each tuple describing a thread group. If top-level groups are
31396 requested (that is, no parameter is passed), or when several groups
31397 are passed, the output always has a @samp{groups} result. The format
31398 of the @samp{group} result is described below.
31399
31400 To reduce the number of roundtrips it's possible to list thread groups
31401 together with their children, by passing the @samp{--recurse} option
31402 and the recursion depth. Presently, only recursion depth of 1 is
31403 permitted. If this option is present, then every reported thread group
31404 will also include its children, either as @samp{group} or
31405 @samp{threads} field.
31406
31407 In general, any combination of option and parameters is permitted, with
31408 the following caveats:
31409
31410 @itemize @bullet
31411 @item
31412 When a single thread group is passed, the output will typically
31413 be the @samp{threads} result. Because threads may not contain
31414 anything, the @samp{recurse} option will be ignored.
31415
31416 @item
31417 When the @samp{--available} option is passed, limited information may
31418 be available. In particular, the list of threads of a process might
31419 be inaccessible. Further, specifying specific thread groups might
31420 not give any performance advantage over listing all thread groups.
31421 The frontend should assume that @samp{-list-thread-groups --available}
31422 is always an expensive operation and cache the results.
31423
31424 @end itemize
31425
31426 The @samp{groups} result is a list of tuples, where each tuple may
31427 have the following fields:
31428
31429 @table @code
31430 @item id
31431 Identifier of the thread group. This field is always present.
31432 The identifier is an opaque string; frontends should not try to
31433 convert it to an integer, even though it might look like one.
31434
31435 @item type
31436 The type of the thread group. At present, only @samp{process} is a
31437 valid type.
31438
31439 @item pid
31440 The target-specific process identifier. This field is only present
31441 for thread groups of type @samp{process} and only if the process exists.
31442
31443 @item num_children
31444 The number of children this thread group has. This field may be
31445 absent for an available thread group.
31446
31447 @item threads
31448 This field has a list of tuples as value, each tuple describing a
31449 thread. It may be present if the @samp{--recurse} option is
31450 specified, and it's actually possible to obtain the threads.
31451
31452 @item cores
31453 This field is a list of integers, each identifying a core that one
31454 thread of the group is running on. This field may be absent if
31455 such information is not available.
31456
31457 @item executable
31458 The name of the executable file that corresponds to this thread group.
31459 The field is only present for thread groups of type @samp{process},
31460 and only if there is a corresponding executable file.
31461
31462 @end table
31463
31464 @subheading Example
31465
31466 @smallexample
31467 @value{GDBP}
31468 -list-thread-groups
31469 ^done,groups=[@{id="17",type="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2"@}]
31470 -list-thread-groups 17
31471 ^done,threads=[@{id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90 (LWP 21257)",
31472 frame=@{level="0",addr="0xffffe410",func="__kernel_vsyscall",args=[]@},state="running"@},
31473 @{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e156b0 (LWP 21254)",
31474 frame=@{level="0",addr="0x0804891f",func="foo",args=[@{name="i",value="10"@}],
31475 file="/tmp/a.c",fullname="/tmp/a.c",line="158"@},state="running"@}]]
31476 -list-thread-groups --available
31477 ^done,groups=[@{id="17",type="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2",cores=[1,2]@}]
31478 -list-thread-groups --available --recurse 1
31479 ^done,groups=[@{id="17", types="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2",cores=[1,2],
31480 threads=[@{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[1]@},
31481 @{id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[2]@}]@},..]
31482 -list-thread-groups --available --recurse 1 17 18
31483 ^done,groups=[@{id="17", types="process",pid="yyy",num_children="2",cores=[1,2],
31484 threads=[@{id="1",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[1]@},
31485 @{id="2",target-id="Thread 0xb7e14b90",cores=[2]@}]@},...]
31486 @end smallexample
31487
31488
31489 @subheading The @code{-add-inferior} Command
31490 @findex -add-inferior
31491
31492 @subheading Synopsis
31493
31494 @smallexample
31495 -add-inferior
31496 @end smallexample
31497
31498 Creates a new inferior (@pxref{Inferiors and Programs}). The created
31499 inferior is not associated with any executable. Such association may
31500 be established with the @samp{-file-exec-and-symbols} command
31501 (@pxref{GDB/MI File Commands}). The command response has a single
31502 field, @samp{thread-group}, whose value is the identifier of the
31503 thread group corresponding to the new inferior.
31504
31505 @subheading Example
31506
31507 @smallexample
31508 @value{GDBP}
31509 -add-inferior
31510 ^done,thread-group="i3"
31511 @end smallexample
31512
31513 @subheading The @code{-interpreter-exec} Command
31514 @findex -interpreter-exec
31515
31516 @subheading Synopsis
31517
31518 @smallexample
31519 -interpreter-exec @var{interpreter} @var{command}
31520 @end smallexample
31521 @anchor{-interpreter-exec}
31522
31523 Execute the specified @var{command} in the given @var{interpreter}.
31524
31525 @subheading @value{GDBN} Command
31526
31527 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{interpreter-exec}.
31528
31529 @subheading Example
31530
31531 @smallexample
31532 (gdb)
31533 -interpreter-exec console "break main"
31534 &"During symbol reading, couldn't parse type; debugger out of date?.\n"
31535 &"During symbol reading, bad structure-type format.\n"
31536 ~"Breakpoint 1 at 0x8074fc6: file ../../src/gdb/main.c, line 743.\n"
31537 ^done
31538 (gdb)
31539 @end smallexample
31540
31541 @subheading The @code{-inferior-tty-set} Command
31542 @findex -inferior-tty-set
31543
31544 @subheading Synopsis
31545
31546 @smallexample
31547 -inferior-tty-set /dev/pts/1
31548 @end smallexample
31549
31550 Set terminal for future runs of the program being debugged.
31551
31552 @subheading @value{GDBN} Command
31553
31554 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{set inferior-tty} /dev/pts/1.
31555
31556 @subheading Example
31557
31558 @smallexample
31559 (gdb)
31560 -inferior-tty-set /dev/pts/1
31561 ^done
31562 (gdb)
31563 @end smallexample
31564
31565 @subheading The @code{-inferior-tty-show} Command
31566 @findex -inferior-tty-show
31567
31568 @subheading Synopsis
31569
31570 @smallexample
31571 -inferior-tty-show
31572 @end smallexample
31573
31574 Show terminal for future runs of program being debugged.
31575
31576 @subheading @value{GDBN} Command
31577
31578 The corresponding @value{GDBN} command is @samp{show inferior-tty}.
31579
31580 @subheading Example
31581
31582 @smallexample
31583 (gdb)
31584 -inferior-tty-set /dev/pts/1
31585 ^done
31586 (gdb)
31587 -inferior-tty-show
31588 ^done,inferior_tty_terminal="/dev/pts/1"
31589 (gdb)
31590 @end smallexample
31591
31592 @subheading The @code{-enable-timings} Command
31593 @findex -enable-timings
31594
31595 @subheading Synopsis
31596
31597 @smallexample
31598 -enable-timings [yes | no]
31599 @end smallexample
31600
31601 Toggle the printing of the wallclock, user and system times for an MI
31602 command as a field in its output. This command is to help frontend
31603 developers optimize the performance of their code. No argument is
31604 equivalent to @samp{yes}.
31605
31606 @subheading @value{GDBN} Command
31607
31608 No equivalent.
31609
31610 @subheading Example
31611
31612 @smallexample
31613 (gdb)
31614 -enable-timings
31615 ^done
31616 (gdb)
31617 -break-insert main
31618 ^done,bkpt=@{number="1",type="breakpoint",disp="keep",enabled="y",
31619 addr="0x080484ed",func="main",file="myprog.c",
31620 fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="73",times="0"@},
31621 time=@{wallclock="0.05185",user="0.00800",system="0.00000"@}
31622 (gdb)
31623 -enable-timings no
31624 ^done
31625 (gdb)
31626 -exec-run
31627 ^running
31628 (gdb)
31629 *stopped,reason="breakpoint-hit",disp="keep",bkptno="1",thread-id="0",
31630 frame=@{addr="0x080484ed",func="main",args=[@{name="argc",value="1"@},
31631 @{name="argv",value="0xbfb60364"@}],file="myprog.c",
31632 fullname="/home/nickrob/myprog.c",line="73"@}
31633 (gdb)
31634 @end smallexample
31635
31636 @node Annotations
31637 @chapter @value{GDBN} Annotations
31638
31639 This chapter describes annotations in @value{GDBN}. Annotations were
31640 designed to interface @value{GDBN} to graphical user interfaces or other
31641 similar programs which want to interact with @value{GDBN} at a
31642 relatively high level.
31643
31644 The annotation mechanism has largely been superseded by @sc{gdb/mi}
31645 (@pxref{GDB/MI}).
31646
31647 @ignore
31648 This is Edition @value{EDITION}, @value{DATE}.
31649 @end ignore
31650
31651 @menu
31652 * Annotations Overview:: What annotations are; the general syntax.
31653 * Server Prefix:: Issuing a command without affecting user state.
31654 * Prompting:: Annotations marking @value{GDBN}'s need for input.
31655 * Errors:: Annotations for error messages.
31656 * Invalidation:: Some annotations describe things now invalid.
31657 * Annotations for Running::
31658 Whether the program is running, how it stopped, etc.
31659 * Source Annotations:: Annotations describing source code.
31660 @end menu
31661
31662 @node Annotations Overview
31663 @section What is an Annotation?
31664 @cindex annotations
31665
31666 Annotations start with a newline character, two @samp{control-z}
31667 characters, and the name of the annotation. If there is no additional
31668 information associated with this annotation, the name of the annotation
31669 is followed immediately by a newline. If there is additional
31670 information, the name of the annotation is followed by a space, the
31671 additional information, and a newline. The additional information
31672 cannot contain newline characters.
31673
31674 Any output not beginning with a newline and two @samp{control-z}
31675 characters denotes literal output from @value{GDBN}. Currently there is
31676 no need for @value{GDBN} to output a newline followed by two
31677 @samp{control-z} characters, but if there was such a need, the
31678 annotations could be extended with an @samp{escape} annotation which
31679 means those three characters as output.
31680
31681 The annotation @var{level}, which is specified using the
31682 @option{--annotate} command line option (@pxref{Mode Options}), controls
31683 how much information @value{GDBN} prints together with its prompt,
31684 values of expressions, source lines, and other types of output. Level 0
31685 is for no annotations, level 1 is for use when @value{GDBN} is run as a
31686 subprocess of @sc{gnu} Emacs, level 3 is the maximum annotation suitable
31687 for programs that control @value{GDBN}, and level 2 annotations have
31688 been made obsolete (@pxref{Limitations, , Limitations of the Annotation
31689 Interface, annotate, GDB's Obsolete Annotations}).
31690
31691 @table @code
31692 @kindex set annotate
31693 @item set annotate @var{level}
31694 The @value{GDBN} command @code{set annotate} sets the level of
31695 annotations to the specified @var{level}.
31696
31697 @item show annotate
31698 @kindex show annotate
31699 Show the current annotation level.
31700 @end table
31701
31702 This chapter describes level 3 annotations.
31703
31704 A simple example of starting up @value{GDBN} with annotations is:
31705
31706 @smallexample
31707 $ @kbd{gdb --annotate=3}
31708 GNU gdb 6.0
31709 Copyright 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
31710 GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License,
31711 and you are welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it
31712 under certain conditions.
31713 Type "show copying" to see the conditions.
31714 There is absolutely no warranty for GDB. Type "show warranty"
31715 for details.
31716 This GDB was configured as "i386-pc-linux-gnu"
31717
31718 ^Z^Zpre-prompt
31719 (@value{GDBP})
31720 ^Z^Zprompt
31721 @kbd{quit}
31722
31723 ^Z^Zpost-prompt
31724 $
31725 @end smallexample
31726
31727 Here @samp{quit} is input to @value{GDBN}; the rest is output from
31728 @value{GDBN}. The three lines beginning @samp{^Z^Z} (where @samp{^Z}
31729 denotes a @samp{control-z} character) are annotations; the rest is
31730 output from @value{GDBN}.
31731
31732 @node Server Prefix
31733 @section The Server Prefix
31734 @cindex server prefix
31735
31736 If you prefix a command with @samp{server } then it will not affect
31737 the command history, nor will it affect @value{GDBN}'s notion of which
31738 command to repeat if @key{RET} is pressed on a line by itself. This
31739 means that commands can be run behind a user's back by a front-end in
31740 a transparent manner.
31741
31742 The @code{server } prefix does not affect the recording of values into
31743 the value history; to print a value without recording it into the
31744 value history, use the @code{output} command instead of the
31745 @code{print} command.
31746
31747 Using this prefix also disables confirmation requests
31748 (@pxref{confirmation requests}).
31749
31750 @node Prompting
31751 @section Annotation for @value{GDBN} Input
31752
31753 @cindex annotations for prompts
31754 When @value{GDBN} prompts for input, it annotates this fact so it is possible
31755 to know when to send output, when the output from a given command is
31756 over, etc.
31757
31758 Different kinds of input each have a different @dfn{input type}. Each
31759 input type has three annotations: a @code{pre-} annotation, which
31760 denotes the beginning of any prompt which is being output, a plain
31761 annotation, which denotes the end of the prompt, and then a @code{post-}
31762 annotation which denotes the end of any echo which may (or may not) be
31763 associated with the input. For example, the @code{prompt} input type
31764 features the following annotations:
31765
31766 @smallexample
31767 ^Z^Zpre-prompt
31768 ^Z^Zprompt
31769 ^Z^Zpost-prompt
31770 @end smallexample
31771
31772 The input types are
31773
31774 @table @code
31775 @findex pre-prompt annotation
31776 @findex prompt annotation
31777 @findex post-prompt annotation
31778 @item prompt
31779 When @value{GDBN} is prompting for a command (the main @value{GDBN} prompt).
31780
31781 @findex pre-commands annotation
31782 @findex commands annotation
31783 @findex post-commands annotation
31784 @item commands
31785 When @value{GDBN} prompts for a set of commands, like in the @code{commands}
31786 command. The annotations are repeated for each command which is input.
31787
31788 @findex pre-overload-choice annotation
31789 @findex overload-choice annotation
31790 @findex post-overload-choice annotation
31791 @item overload-choice
31792 When @value{GDBN} wants the user to select between various overloaded functions.
31793
31794 @findex pre-query annotation
31795 @findex query annotation
31796 @findex post-query annotation
31797 @item query
31798 When @value{GDBN} wants the user to confirm a potentially dangerous operation.
31799
31800 @findex pre-prompt-for-continue annotation
31801 @findex prompt-for-continue annotation
31802 @findex post-prompt-for-continue annotation
31803 @item prompt-for-continue
31804 When @value{GDBN} is asking the user to press return to continue. Note: Don't
31805 expect this to work well; instead use @code{set height 0} to disable
31806 prompting. This is because the counting of lines is buggy in the
31807 presence of annotations.
31808 @end table
31809
31810 @node Errors
31811 @section Errors
31812 @cindex annotations for errors, warnings and interrupts
31813
31814 @findex quit annotation
31815 @smallexample
31816 ^Z^Zquit
31817 @end smallexample
31818
31819 This annotation occurs right before @value{GDBN} responds to an interrupt.
31820
31821 @findex error annotation
31822 @smallexample
31823 ^Z^Zerror
31824 @end smallexample
31825
31826 This annotation occurs right before @value{GDBN} responds to an error.
31827
31828 Quit and error annotations indicate that any annotations which @value{GDBN} was
31829 in the middle of may end abruptly. For example, if a
31830 @code{value-history-begin} annotation is followed by a @code{error}, one
31831 cannot expect to receive the matching @code{value-history-end}. One
31832 cannot expect not to receive it either, however; an error annotation
31833 does not necessarily mean that @value{GDBN} is immediately returning all the way
31834 to the top level.
31835
31836 @findex error-begin annotation
31837 A quit or error annotation may be preceded by
31838
31839 @smallexample
31840 ^Z^Zerror-begin
31841 @end smallexample
31842
31843 Any output between that and the quit or error annotation is the error
31844 message.
31845
31846 Warning messages are not yet annotated.
31847 @c If we want to change that, need to fix warning(), type_error(),
31848 @c range_error(), and possibly other places.
31849
31850 @node Invalidation
31851 @section Invalidation Notices
31852
31853 @cindex annotations for invalidation messages
31854 The following annotations say that certain pieces of state may have
31855 changed.
31856
31857 @table @code
31858 @findex frames-invalid annotation
31859 @item ^Z^Zframes-invalid
31860
31861 The frames (for example, output from the @code{backtrace} command) may
31862 have changed.
31863
31864 @findex breakpoints-invalid annotation
31865 @item ^Z^Zbreakpoints-invalid
31866
31867 The breakpoints may have changed. For example, the user just added or
31868 deleted a breakpoint.
31869 @end table
31870
31871 @node Annotations for Running
31872 @section Running the Program
31873 @cindex annotations for running programs
31874
31875 @findex starting annotation
31876 @findex stopping annotation
31877 When the program starts executing due to a @value{GDBN} command such as
31878 @code{step} or @code{continue},
31879
31880 @smallexample
31881 ^Z^Zstarting
31882 @end smallexample
31883
31884 is output. When the program stops,
31885
31886 @smallexample
31887 ^Z^Zstopped
31888 @end smallexample
31889
31890 is output. Before the @code{stopped} annotation, a variety of
31891 annotations describe how the program stopped.
31892
31893 @table @code
31894 @findex exited annotation
31895 @item ^Z^Zexited @var{exit-status}
31896 The program exited, and @var{exit-status} is the exit status (zero for
31897 successful exit, otherwise nonzero).
31898
31899 @findex signalled annotation
31900 @findex signal-name annotation
31901 @findex signal-name-end annotation
31902 @findex signal-string annotation
31903 @findex signal-string-end annotation
31904 @item ^Z^Zsignalled
31905 The program exited with a signal. After the @code{^Z^Zsignalled}, the
31906 annotation continues:
31907
31908 @smallexample
31909 @var{intro-text}
31910 ^Z^Zsignal-name
31911 @var{name}
31912 ^Z^Zsignal-name-end
31913 @var{middle-text}
31914 ^Z^Zsignal-string
31915 @var{string}
31916 ^Z^Zsignal-string-end
31917 @var{end-text}
31918 @end smallexample
31919
31920 @noindent
31921 where @var{name} is the name of the signal, such as @code{SIGILL} or
31922 @code{SIGSEGV}, and @var{string} is the explanation of the signal, such
31923 as @code{Illegal Instruction} or @code{Segmentation fault}.
31924 @var{intro-text}, @var{middle-text}, and @var{end-text} are for the
31925 user's benefit and have no particular format.
31926
31927 @findex signal annotation
31928 @item ^Z^Zsignal
31929 The syntax of this annotation is just like @code{signalled}, but @value{GDBN} is
31930 just saying that the program received the signal, not that it was
31931 terminated with it.
31932
31933 @findex breakpoint annotation
31934 @item ^Z^Zbreakpoint @var{number}
31935 The program hit breakpoint number @var{number}.
31936
31937 @findex watchpoint annotation
31938 @item ^Z^Zwatchpoint @var{number}
31939 The program hit watchpoint number @var{number}.
31940 @end table
31941
31942 @node Source Annotations
31943 @section Displaying Source
31944 @cindex annotations for source display
31945
31946 @findex source annotation
31947 The following annotation is used instead of displaying source code:
31948
31949 @smallexample
31950 ^Z^Zsource @var{filename}:@var{line}:@var{character}:@var{middle}:@var{addr}
31951 @end smallexample
31952
31953 where @var{filename} is an absolute file name indicating which source
31954 file, @var{line} is the line number within that file (where 1 is the
31955 first line in the file), @var{character} is the character position
31956 within the file (where 0 is the first character in the file) (for most
31957 debug formats this will necessarily point to the beginning of a line),
31958 @var{middle} is @samp{middle} if @var{addr} is in the middle of the
31959 line, or @samp{beg} if @var{addr} is at the beginning of the line, and
31960 @var{addr} is the address in the target program associated with the
31961 source which is being displayed. @var{addr} is in the form @samp{0x}
31962 followed by one or more lowercase hex digits (note that this does not
31963 depend on the language).
31964
31965 @node JIT Interface
31966 @chapter JIT Compilation Interface
31967 @cindex just-in-time compilation
31968 @cindex JIT compilation interface
31969
31970 This chapter documents @value{GDBN}'s @dfn{just-in-time} (JIT) compilation
31971 interface. A JIT compiler is a program or library that generates native
31972 executable code at runtime and executes it, usually in order to achieve good
31973 performance while maintaining platform independence.
31974
31975 Programs that use JIT compilation are normally difficult to debug because
31976 portions of their code are generated at runtime, instead of being loaded from
31977 object files, which is where @value{GDBN} normally finds the program's symbols
31978 and debug information. In order to debug programs that use JIT compilation,
31979 @value{GDBN} has an interface that allows the program to register in-memory
31980 symbol files with @value{GDBN} at runtime.
31981
31982 If you are using @value{GDBN} to debug a program that uses this interface, then
31983 it should work transparently so long as you have not stripped the binary. If
31984 you are developing a JIT compiler, then the interface is documented in the rest
31985 of this chapter. At this time, the only known client of this interface is the
31986 LLVM JIT.
31987
31988 Broadly speaking, the JIT interface mirrors the dynamic loader interface. The
31989 JIT compiler communicates with @value{GDBN} by writing data into a global
31990 variable and calling a fuction at a well-known symbol. When @value{GDBN}
31991 attaches, it reads a linked list of symbol files from the global variable to
31992 find existing code, and puts a breakpoint in the function so that it can find
31993 out about additional code.
31994
31995 @menu
31996 * Declarations:: Relevant C struct declarations
31997 * Registering Code:: Steps to register code
31998 * Unregistering Code:: Steps to unregister code
31999 * Custom Debug Info:: Emit debug information in a custom format
32000 @end menu
32001
32002 @node Declarations
32003 @section JIT Declarations
32004
32005 These are the relevant struct declarations that a C program should include to
32006 implement the interface:
32007
32008 @smallexample
32009 typedef enum
32010 @{
32011 JIT_NOACTION = 0,
32012 JIT_REGISTER_FN,
32013 JIT_UNREGISTER_FN
32014 @} jit_actions_t;
32015
32016 struct jit_code_entry
32017 @{
32018 struct jit_code_entry *next_entry;
32019 struct jit_code_entry *prev_entry;
32020 const char *symfile_addr;
32021 uint64_t symfile_size;
32022 @};
32023
32024 struct jit_descriptor
32025 @{
32026 uint32_t version;
32027 /* This type should be jit_actions_t, but we use uint32_t
32028 to be explicit about the bitwidth. */
32029 uint32_t action_flag;
32030 struct jit_code_entry *relevant_entry;
32031 struct jit_code_entry *first_entry;
32032 @};
32033
32034 /* GDB puts a breakpoint in this function. */
32035 void __attribute__((noinline)) __jit_debug_register_code() @{ @};
32036
32037 /* Make sure to specify the version statically, because the
32038 debugger may check the version before we can set it. */
32039 struct jit_descriptor __jit_debug_descriptor = @{ 1, 0, 0, 0 @};
32040 @end smallexample
32041
32042 If the JIT is multi-threaded, then it is important that the JIT synchronize any
32043 modifications to this global data properly, which can easily be done by putting
32044 a global mutex around modifications to these structures.
32045
32046 @node Registering Code
32047 @section Registering Code
32048
32049 To register code with @value{GDBN}, the JIT should follow this protocol:
32050
32051 @itemize @bullet
32052 @item
32053 Generate an object file in memory with symbols and other desired debug
32054 information. The file must include the virtual addresses of the sections.
32055
32056 @item
32057 Create a code entry for the file, which gives the start and size of the symbol
32058 file.
32059
32060 @item
32061 Add it to the linked list in the JIT descriptor.
32062
32063 @item
32064 Point the relevant_entry field of the descriptor at the entry.
32065
32066 @item
32067 Set @code{action_flag} to @code{JIT_REGISTER} and call
32068 @code{__jit_debug_register_code}.
32069 @end itemize
32070
32071 When @value{GDBN} is attached and the breakpoint fires, @value{GDBN} uses the
32072 @code{relevant_entry} pointer so it doesn't have to walk the list looking for
32073 new code. However, the linked list must still be maintained in order to allow
32074 @value{GDBN} to attach to a running process and still find the symbol files.
32075
32076 @node Unregistering Code
32077 @section Unregistering Code
32078
32079 If code is freed, then the JIT should use the following protocol:
32080
32081 @itemize @bullet
32082 @item
32083 Remove the code entry corresponding to the code from the linked list.
32084
32085 @item
32086 Point the @code{relevant_entry} field of the descriptor at the code entry.
32087
32088 @item
32089 Set @code{action_flag} to @code{JIT_UNREGISTER} and call
32090 @code{__jit_debug_register_code}.
32091 @end itemize
32092
32093 If the JIT frees or recompiles code without unregistering it, then @value{GDBN}
32094 and the JIT will leak the memory used for the associated symbol files.
32095
32096 @node Custom Debug Info
32097 @section Custom Debug Info
32098 @cindex custom JIT debug info
32099 @cindex JIT debug info reader
32100
32101 Generating debug information in platform-native file formats (like ELF
32102 or COFF) may be an overkill for JIT compilers; especially if all the
32103 debug info is used for is displaying a meaningful backtrace. The
32104 issue can be resolved by having the JIT writers decide on a debug info
32105 format and also provide a reader that parses the debug info generated
32106 by the JIT compiler. This section gives a brief overview on writing
32107 such a parser. More specific details can be found in the source file
32108 @file{gdb/jit-reader.in}, which is also installed as a header at
32109 @file{@var{includedir}/gdb/jit-reader.h} for easy inclusion.
32110
32111 The reader is implemented as a shared object (so this functionality is
32112 not available on platforms which don't allow loading shared objects at
32113 runtime). Two @value{GDBN} commands, @code{jit-reader-load} and
32114 @code{jit-reader-unload} are provided, to be used to load and unload
32115 the readers from a preconfigured directory. Once loaded, the shared
32116 object is used the parse the debug information emitted by the JIT
32117 compiler.
32118
32119 @menu
32120 * Using JIT Debug Info Readers:: How to use supplied readers correctly
32121 * Writing JIT Debug Info Readers:: Creating a debug-info reader
32122 @end menu
32123
32124 @node Using JIT Debug Info Readers
32125 @subsection Using JIT Debug Info Readers
32126 @kindex jit-reader-load
32127 @kindex jit-reader-unload
32128
32129 Readers can be loaded and unloaded using the @code{jit-reader-load}
32130 and @code{jit-reader-unload} commands.
32131
32132 @table @code
32133 @item jit-reader-load @var{reader-name}
32134 Load the JIT reader named @var{reader-name}. On a UNIX system, this
32135 will usually load @file{@var{libdir}/gdb/@var{reader-name}}, where
32136 @var{libdir} is the system library directory, usually
32137 @file{/usr/local/lib}. Only one reader can be active at a time;
32138 trying to load a second reader when one is already loaded will result
32139 in @value{GDBN} reporting an error. A new JIT reader can be loaded by
32140 first unloading the current one using @code{jit-reader-load} and then
32141 invoking @code{jit-reader-load}.
32142
32143 @item jit-reader-unload
32144 Unload the currently loaded JIT reader.
32145
32146 @end table
32147
32148 @node Writing JIT Debug Info Readers
32149 @subsection Writing JIT Debug Info Readers
32150 @cindex writing JIT debug info readers
32151
32152 As mentioned, a reader is essentially a shared object conforming to a
32153 certain ABI. This ABI is described in @file{jit-reader.h}.
32154
32155 @file{jit-reader.h} defines the structures, macros and functions
32156 required to write a reader. It is installed (along with
32157 @value{GDBN}), in @file{@var{includedir}/gdb} where @var{includedir} is
32158 the system include directory.
32159
32160 Readers need to be released under a GPL compatible license. A reader
32161 can be declared as released under such a license by placing the macro
32162 @code{GDB_DECLARE_GPL_COMPATIBLE_READER} in a source file.
32163
32164 The entry point for readers is the symbol @code{gdb_init_reader},
32165 which is expected to be a function with the prototype
32166
32167 @findex gdb_init_reader
32168 @smallexample
32169 extern struct gdb_reader_funcs *gdb_init_reader (void);
32170 @end smallexample
32171
32172 @cindex @code{struct gdb_reader_funcs}
32173
32174 @code{struct gdb_reader_funcs} contains a set of pointers to callback
32175 functions. These functions are executed to read the debug info
32176 generated by the JIT compiler (@code{read}), to unwind stack frames
32177 (@code{unwind}) and to create canonical frame IDs
32178 (@code{get_Frame_id}). It also has a callback that is called when the
32179 reader is being unloaded (@code{destroy}). The struct looks like this
32180
32181 @smallexample
32182 struct gdb_reader_funcs
32183 @{
32184 /* Must be set to GDB_READER_INTERFACE_VERSION. */
32185 int reader_version;
32186
32187 /* For use by the reader. */
32188 void *priv_data;
32189
32190 gdb_read_debug_info *read;
32191 gdb_unwind_frame *unwind;
32192 gdb_get_frame_id *get_frame_id;
32193 gdb_destroy_reader *destroy;
32194 @};
32195 @end smallexample
32196
32197 @cindex @code{struct gdb_symbol_callbacks}
32198 @cindex @code{struct gdb_unwind_callbacks}
32199
32200 The callbacks are provided with another set of callbacks by
32201 @value{GDBN} to do their job. For @code{read}, these callbacks are
32202 passed in a @code{struct gdb_symbol_callbacks} and for @code{unwind}
32203 and @code{get_frame_id}, in a @code{struct gdb_unwind_callbacks}.
32204 @code{struct gdb_symbol_callbacks} has callbacks to create new object
32205 files and new symbol tables inside those object files. @code{struct
32206 gdb_unwind_callbacks} has callbacks to read registers off the current
32207 frame and to write out the values of the registers in the previous
32208 frame. Both have a callback (@code{target_read}) to read bytes off the
32209 target's address space.
32210
32211 @node GDB Bugs
32212 @chapter Reporting Bugs in @value{GDBN}
32213 @cindex bugs in @value{GDBN}
32214 @cindex reporting bugs in @value{GDBN}
32215
32216 Your bug reports play an essential role in making @value{GDBN} reliable.
32217
32218 Reporting a bug may help you by bringing a solution to your problem, or it
32219 may not. But in any case the principal function of a bug report is to help
32220 the entire community by making the next version of @value{GDBN} work better. Bug
32221 reports are your contribution to the maintenance of @value{GDBN}.
32222
32223 In order for a bug report to serve its purpose, you must include the
32224 information that enables us to fix the bug.
32225
32226 @menu
32227 * Bug Criteria:: Have you found a bug?
32228 * Bug Reporting:: How to report bugs
32229 @end menu
32230
32231 @node Bug Criteria
32232 @section Have You Found a Bug?
32233 @cindex bug criteria
32234
32235 If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines:
32236
32237 @itemize @bullet
32238 @cindex fatal signal
32239 @cindex debugger crash
32240 @cindex crash of debugger
32241 @item
32242 If the debugger gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a
32243 @value{GDBN} bug. Reliable debuggers never crash.
32244
32245 @cindex error on valid input
32246 @item
32247 If @value{GDBN} produces an error message for valid input, that is a
32248 bug. (Note that if you're cross debugging, the problem may also be
32249 somewhere in the connection to the target.)
32250
32251 @cindex invalid input
32252 @item
32253 If @value{GDBN} does not produce an error message for invalid input,
32254 that is a bug. However, you should note that your idea of
32255 ``invalid input'' might be our idea of ``an extension'' or ``support
32256 for traditional practice''.
32257
32258 @item
32259 If you are an experienced user of debugging tools, your suggestions
32260 for improvement of @value{GDBN} are welcome in any case.
32261 @end itemize
32262
32263 @node Bug Reporting
32264 @section How to Report Bugs
32265 @cindex bug reports
32266 @cindex @value{GDBN} bugs, reporting
32267
32268 A number of companies and individuals offer support for @sc{gnu} products.
32269 If you obtained @value{GDBN} from a support organization, we recommend you
32270 contact that organization first.
32271
32272 You can find contact information for many support companies and
32273 individuals in the file @file{etc/SERVICE} in the @sc{gnu} Emacs
32274 distribution.
32275 @c should add a web page ref...
32276
32277 @ifset BUGURL
32278 @ifset BUGURL_DEFAULT
32279 In any event, we also recommend that you submit bug reports for
32280 @value{GDBN}. The preferred method is to submit them directly using
32281 @uref{http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/, @value{GDBN}'s Bugs web
32282 page}. Alternatively, the @email{bug-gdb@@gnu.org, e-mail gateway} can
32283 be used.
32284
32285 @strong{Do not send bug reports to @samp{info-gdb}, or to
32286 @samp{help-gdb}, or to any newsgroups.} Most users of @value{GDBN} do
32287 not want to receive bug reports. Those that do have arranged to receive
32288 @samp{bug-gdb}.
32289
32290 The mailing list @samp{bug-gdb} has a newsgroup @samp{gnu.gdb.bug} which
32291 serves as a repeater. The mailing list and the newsgroup carry exactly
32292 the same messages. Often people think of posting bug reports to the
32293 newsgroup instead of mailing them. This appears to work, but it has one
32294 problem which can be crucial: a newsgroup posting often lacks a mail
32295 path back to the sender. Thus, if we need to ask for more information,
32296 we may be unable to reach you. For this reason, it is better to send
32297 bug reports to the mailing list.
32298 @end ifset
32299 @ifclear BUGURL_DEFAULT
32300 In any event, we also recommend that you submit bug reports for
32301 @value{GDBN} to @value{BUGURL}.
32302 @end ifclear
32303 @end ifset
32304
32305 The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this:
32306 @strong{report all the facts}. If you are not sure whether to state a
32307 fact or leave it out, state it!
32308
32309 Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the
32310 problem and assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might
32311 assume that the name of the variable you use in an example does not matter.
32312 Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is a
32313 stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where that
32314 name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name were different, the contents
32315 of that location would fool the debugger into doing the right thing despite
32316 the bug. Play it safe and give a specific, complete example. That is the
32317 easiest thing for you to do, and the most helpful.
32318
32319 Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the
32320 bug. It may be that the bug has been reported previously, but neither
32321 you nor we can know that unless your bug report is complete and
32322 self-contained.
32323
32324 Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, ``Does this ring a
32325 bell?'' Those bug reports are useless, and we urge everyone to
32326 @emph{refuse to respond to them} except to chide the sender to report
32327 bugs properly.
32328
32329 To enable us to fix the bug, you should include all these things:
32330
32331 @itemize @bullet
32332 @item
32333 The version of @value{GDBN}. @value{GDBN} announces it if you start
32334 with no arguments; you can also print it at any time using @code{show
32335 version}.
32336
32337 Without this, we will not know whether there is any point in looking for
32338 the bug in the current version of @value{GDBN}.
32339
32340 @item
32341 The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and
32342 version number.
32343
32344 @item
32345 What compiler (and its version) was used to compile @value{GDBN}---e.g.@:
32346 ``@value{GCC}--2.8.1''.
32347
32348 @item
32349 What compiler (and its version) was used to compile the program you are
32350 debugging---e.g.@: ``@value{GCC}--2.8.1'', or ``HP92453-01 A.10.32.03 HP
32351 C Compiler''. For @value{NGCC}, you can say @kbd{@value{GCC} --version}
32352 to get this information; for other compilers, see the documentation for
32353 those compilers.
32354
32355 @item
32356 The command arguments you gave the compiler to compile your example and
32357 observe the bug. For example, did you use @samp{-O}? To guarantee
32358 you will not omit something important, list them all. A copy of the
32359 Makefile (or the output from make) is sufficient.
32360
32361 If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong
32362 and then we might not encounter the bug.
32363
32364 @item
32365 A complete input script, and all necessary source files, that will
32366 reproduce the bug.
32367
32368 @item
32369 A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is
32370 incorrect. For example, ``It gets a fatal signal.''
32371
32372 Of course, if the bug is that @value{GDBN} gets a fatal signal, then we
32373 will certainly notice it. But if the bug is incorrect output, we might
32374 not notice unless it is glaringly wrong. You might as well not give us
32375 a chance to make a mistake.
32376
32377 Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still
32378 say so explicitly. Suppose something strange is going on, such as, your
32379 copy of @value{GDBN} is out of synch, or you have encountered a bug in
32380 the C library on your system. (This has happened!) Your copy might
32381 crash and ours would not. If you told us to expect a crash, then when
32382 ours fails to crash, we would know that the bug was not happening for
32383 us. If you had not told us to expect a crash, then we would not be able
32384 to draw any conclusion from our observations.
32385
32386 @pindex script
32387 @cindex recording a session script
32388 To collect all this information, you can use a session recording program
32389 such as @command{script}, which is available on many Unix systems.
32390 Just run your @value{GDBN} session inside @command{script} and then
32391 include the @file{typescript} file with your bug report.
32392
32393 Another way to record a @value{GDBN} session is to run @value{GDBN}
32394 inside Emacs and then save the entire buffer to a file.
32395
32396 @item
32397 If you wish to suggest changes to the @value{GDBN} source, send us context
32398 diffs. If you even discuss something in the @value{GDBN} source, refer to
32399 it by context, not by line number.
32400
32401 The line numbers in our development sources will not match those in your
32402 sources. Your line numbers would convey no useful information to us.
32403
32404 @end itemize
32405
32406 Here are some things that are not necessary:
32407
32408 @itemize @bullet
32409 @item
32410 A description of the envelope of the bug.
32411
32412 Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating
32413 which changes to the input file will make the bug go away and which
32414 changes will not affect it.
32415
32416 This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we
32417 will find the bug is by running a single example under the debugger
32418 with breakpoints, not by pure deduction from a series of examples.
32419 We recommend that you save your time for something else.
32420
32421 Of course, if you can find a simpler example to report @emph{instead}
32422 of the original one, that is a convenience for us. Errors in the
32423 output will be easier to spot, running under the debugger will take
32424 less time, and so on.
32425
32426 However, simplification is not vital; if you do not want to do this,
32427 report the bug anyway and send us the entire test case you used.
32428
32429 @item
32430 A patch for the bug.
32431
32432 A patch for the bug does help us if it is a good one. But do not omit
32433 the necessary information, such as the test case, on the assumption that
32434 a patch is all we need. We might see problems with your patch and decide
32435 to fix the problem another way, or we might not understand it at all.
32436
32437 Sometimes with a program as complicated as @value{GDBN} it is very hard to
32438 construct an example that will make the program follow a certain path
32439 through the code. If you do not send us the example, we will not be able
32440 to construct one, so we will not be able to verify that the bug is fixed.
32441
32442 And if we cannot understand what bug you are trying to fix, or why your
32443 patch should be an improvement, we will not install it. A test case will
32444 help us to understand.
32445
32446 @item
32447 A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on.
32448
32449 Such guesses are usually wrong. Even we cannot guess right about such
32450 things without first using the debugger to find the facts.
32451 @end itemize
32452
32453 @c The readline documentation is distributed with the readline code
32454 @c and consists of the two following files:
32455 @c rluser.texi
32456 @c hsuser.texi
32457 @c Use -I with makeinfo to point to the appropriate directory,
32458 @c environment var TEXINPUTS with TeX.
32459 @ifclear SYSTEM_READLINE
32460 @include rluser.texi
32461 @include hsuser.texi
32462 @end ifclear
32463
32464 @node In Memoriam
32465 @appendix In Memoriam
32466
32467 The @value{GDBN} project mourns the loss of the following long-time
32468 contributors:
32469
32470 @table @code
32471 @item Fred Fish
32472 Fred was a long-standing contributor to @value{GDBN} (1991-2006), and
32473 to Free Software in general. Outside of @value{GDBN}, he was known in
32474 the Amiga world for his series of Fish Disks, and the GeekGadget project.
32475
32476 @item Michael Snyder
32477 Michael was one of the Global Maintainers of the @value{GDBN} project,
32478 with contributions recorded as early as 1996, until 2011. In addition
32479 to his day to day participation, he was a large driving force behind
32480 adding Reverse Debugging to @value{GDBN}.
32481 @end table
32482
32483 Beyond their technical contributions to the project, they were also
32484 enjoyable members of the Free Software Community. We will miss them.
32485
32486 @node Formatting Documentation
32487 @appendix Formatting Documentation
32488
32489 @cindex @value{GDBN} reference card
32490 @cindex reference card
32491 The @value{GDBN} 4 release includes an already-formatted reference card, ready
32492 for printing with PostScript or Ghostscript, in the @file{gdb}
32493 subdirectory of the main source directory@footnote{In
32494 @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}/gdb/refcard.ps} of the version @value{GDBVN}
32495 release.}. If you can use PostScript or Ghostscript with your printer,
32496 you can print the reference card immediately with @file{refcard.ps}.
32497
32498 The release also includes the source for the reference card. You
32499 can format it, using @TeX{}, by typing:
32500
32501 @smallexample
32502 make refcard.dvi
32503 @end smallexample
32504
32505 The @value{GDBN} reference card is designed to print in @dfn{landscape}
32506 mode on US ``letter'' size paper;
32507 that is, on a sheet 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches
32508 high. You will need to specify this form of printing as an option to
32509 your @sc{dvi} output program.
32510
32511 @cindex documentation
32512
32513 All the documentation for @value{GDBN} comes as part of the machine-readable
32514 distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which is
32515 a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both
32516 on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the Info
32517 formatting commands to create the on-line version of the documentation
32518 and @TeX{} (or @code{texi2roff}) to typeset the printed version.
32519
32520 @value{GDBN} includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info
32521 version of this manual in the @file{gdb} subdirectory. The main Info
32522 file is @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}/gdb/gdb.info}, and it refers to
32523 subordinate files matching @samp{gdb.info*} in the same directory. If
32524 necessary, you can print out these files, or read them with any editor;
32525 but they are easier to read using the @code{info} subsystem in @sc{gnu}
32526 Emacs or the standalone @code{info} program, available as part of the
32527 @sc{gnu} Texinfo distribution.
32528
32529 If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the
32530 Info formatting programs, such as @code{texinfo-format-buffer} or
32531 @code{makeinfo}.
32532
32533 If you have @code{makeinfo} installed, and are in the top level
32534 @value{GDBN} source directory (@file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}}, in the case of
32535 version @value{GDBVN}), you can make the Info file by typing:
32536
32537 @smallexample
32538 cd gdb
32539 make gdb.info
32540 @end smallexample
32541
32542 If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need @TeX{},
32543 a program to print its @sc{dvi} output files, and @file{texinfo.tex}, the
32544 Texinfo definitions file.
32545
32546 @TeX{} is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but
32547 produces output files called @sc{dvi} files. To print a typeset
32548 document, you need a program to print @sc{dvi} files. If your system
32549 has @TeX{} installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise
32550 command to use depends on your system; @kbd{lpr -d} is common; another
32551 (for PostScript devices) is @kbd{dvips}. The @sc{dvi} print command may
32552 require a file name without any extension or a @samp{.dvi} extension.
32553
32554 @TeX{} also requires a macro definitions file called
32555 @file{texinfo.tex}. This file tells @TeX{} how to typeset a document
32556 written in Texinfo format. On its own, @TeX{} cannot either read or
32557 typeset a Texinfo file. @file{texinfo.tex} is distributed with GDB
32558 and is located in the @file{gdb-@var{version-number}/texinfo}
32559 directory.
32560
32561 If you have @TeX{} and a @sc{dvi} printer program installed, you can
32562 typeset and print this manual. First switch to the @file{gdb}
32563 subdirectory of the main source directory (for example, to
32564 @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}/gdb}) and type:
32565
32566 @smallexample
32567 make gdb.dvi
32568 @end smallexample
32569
32570 Then give @file{gdb.dvi} to your @sc{dvi} printing program.
32571
32572 @node Installing GDB
32573 @appendix Installing @value{GDBN}
32574 @cindex installation
32575
32576 @menu
32577 * Requirements:: Requirements for building @value{GDBN}
32578 * Running Configure:: Invoking the @value{GDBN} @file{configure} script
32579 * Separate Objdir:: Compiling @value{GDBN} in another directory
32580 * Config Names:: Specifying names for hosts and targets
32581 * Configure Options:: Summary of options for configure
32582 * System-wide configuration:: Having a system-wide init file
32583 @end menu
32584
32585 @node Requirements
32586 @section Requirements for Building @value{GDBN}
32587 @cindex building @value{GDBN}, requirements for
32588
32589 Building @value{GDBN} requires various tools and packages to be available.
32590 Other packages will be used only if they are found.
32591
32592 @heading Tools/Packages Necessary for Building @value{GDBN}
32593 @table @asis
32594 @item ISO C90 compiler
32595 @value{GDBN} is written in ISO C90. It should be buildable with any
32596 working C90 compiler, e.g.@: GCC.
32597
32598 @end table
32599
32600 @heading Tools/Packages Optional for Building @value{GDBN}
32601 @table @asis
32602 @item Expat
32603 @anchor{Expat}
32604 @value{GDBN} can use the Expat XML parsing library. This library may be
32605 included with your operating system distribution; if it is not, you
32606 can get the latest version from @url{http://expat.sourceforge.net}.
32607 The @file{configure} script will search for this library in several
32608 standard locations; if it is installed in an unusual path, you can
32609 use the @option{--with-libexpat-prefix} option to specify its location.
32610
32611 Expat is used for:
32612
32613 @itemize @bullet
32614 @item
32615 Remote protocol memory maps (@pxref{Memory Map Format})
32616 @item
32617 Target descriptions (@pxref{Target Descriptions})
32618 @item
32619 Remote shared library lists (@xref{Library List Format},
32620 or alternatively @pxref{Library List Format for SVR4 Targets})
32621 @item
32622 MS-Windows shared libraries (@pxref{Shared Libraries})
32623 @item
32624 Traceframe info (@pxref{Traceframe Info Format})
32625 @end itemize
32626
32627 @item zlib
32628 @cindex compressed debug sections
32629 @value{GDBN} will use the @samp{zlib} library, if available, to read
32630 compressed debug sections. Some linkers, such as GNU gold, are capable
32631 of producing binaries with compressed debug sections. If @value{GDBN}
32632 is compiled with @samp{zlib}, it will be able to read the debug
32633 information in such binaries.
32634
32635 The @samp{zlib} library is likely included with your operating system
32636 distribution; if it is not, you can get the latest version from
32637 @url{http://zlib.net}.
32638
32639 @item iconv
32640 @value{GDBN}'s features related to character sets (@pxref{Character
32641 Sets}) require a functioning @code{iconv} implementation. If you are
32642 on a GNU system, then this is provided by the GNU C Library. Some
32643 other systems also provide a working @code{iconv}.
32644
32645 If @value{GDBN} is using the @code{iconv} program which is installed
32646 in a non-standard place, you will need to tell @value{GDBN} where to find it.
32647 This is done with @option{--with-iconv-bin} which specifies the
32648 directory that contains the @code{iconv} program.
32649
32650 On systems without @code{iconv}, you can install GNU Libiconv. If you
32651 have previously installed Libiconv, you can use the
32652 @option{--with-libiconv-prefix} option to configure.
32653
32654 @value{GDBN}'s top-level @file{configure} and @file{Makefile} will
32655 arrange to build Libiconv if a directory named @file{libiconv} appears
32656 in the top-most source directory. If Libiconv is built this way, and
32657 if the operating system does not provide a suitable @code{iconv}
32658 implementation, then the just-built library will automatically be used
32659 by @value{GDBN}. One easy way to set this up is to download GNU
32660 Libiconv, unpack it, and then rename the directory holding the
32661 Libiconv source code to @samp{libiconv}.
32662 @end table
32663
32664 @node Running Configure
32665 @section Invoking the @value{GDBN} @file{configure} Script
32666 @cindex configuring @value{GDBN}
32667 @value{GDBN} comes with a @file{configure} script that automates the process
32668 of preparing @value{GDBN} for installation; you can then use @code{make} to
32669 build the @code{gdb} program.
32670 @iftex
32671 @c irrelevant in info file; it's as current as the code it lives with.
32672 @footnote{If you have a more recent version of @value{GDBN} than @value{GDBVN},
32673 look at the @file{README} file in the sources; we may have improved the
32674 installation procedures since publishing this manual.}
32675 @end iftex
32676
32677 The @value{GDBN} distribution includes all the source code you need for
32678 @value{GDBN} in a single directory, whose name is usually composed by
32679 appending the version number to @samp{gdb}.
32680
32681 For example, the @value{GDBN} version @value{GDBVN} distribution is in the
32682 @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}} directory. That directory contains:
32683
32684 @table @code
32685 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/configure @r{(and supporting files)}
32686 script for configuring @value{GDBN} and all its supporting libraries
32687
32688 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/gdb
32689 the source specific to @value{GDBN} itself
32690
32691 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/bfd
32692 source for the Binary File Descriptor library
32693
32694 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/include
32695 @sc{gnu} include files
32696
32697 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/libiberty
32698 source for the @samp{-liberty} free software library
32699
32700 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/opcodes
32701 source for the library of opcode tables and disassemblers
32702
32703 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/readline
32704 source for the @sc{gnu} command-line interface
32705
32706 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/glob
32707 source for the @sc{gnu} filename pattern-matching subroutine
32708
32709 @item gdb-@value{GDBVN}/mmalloc
32710 source for the @sc{gnu} memory-mapped malloc package
32711 @end table
32712
32713 The simplest way to configure and build @value{GDBN} is to run @file{configure}
32714 from the @file{gdb-@var{version-number}} source directory, which in
32715 this example is the @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}} directory.
32716
32717 First switch to the @file{gdb-@var{version-number}} source directory
32718 if you are not already in it; then run @file{configure}. Pass the
32719 identifier for the platform on which @value{GDBN} will run as an
32720 argument.
32721
32722 For example:
32723
32724 @smallexample
32725 cd gdb-@value{GDBVN}
32726 ./configure @var{host}
32727 make
32728 @end smallexample
32729
32730 @noindent
32731 where @var{host} is an identifier such as @samp{sun4} or
32732 @samp{decstation}, that identifies the platform where @value{GDBN} will run.
32733 (You can often leave off @var{host}; @file{configure} tries to guess the
32734 correct value by examining your system.)
32735
32736 Running @samp{configure @var{host}} and then running @code{make} builds the
32737 @file{bfd}, @file{readline}, @file{mmalloc}, and @file{libiberty}
32738 libraries, then @code{gdb} itself. The configured source files, and the
32739 binaries, are left in the corresponding source directories.
32740
32741 @need 750
32742 @file{configure} is a Bourne-shell (@code{/bin/sh}) script; if your
32743 system does not recognize this automatically when you run a different
32744 shell, you may need to run @code{sh} on it explicitly:
32745
32746 @smallexample
32747 sh configure @var{host}
32748 @end smallexample
32749
32750 If you run @file{configure} from a directory that contains source
32751 directories for multiple libraries or programs, such as the
32752 @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}} source directory for version @value{GDBVN},
32753 @file{configure}
32754 creates configuration files for every directory level underneath (unless
32755 you tell it not to, with the @samp{--norecursion} option).
32756
32757 You should run the @file{configure} script from the top directory in the
32758 source tree, the @file{gdb-@var{version-number}} directory. If you run
32759 @file{configure} from one of the subdirectories, you will configure only
32760 that subdirectory. That is usually not what you want. In particular,
32761 if you run the first @file{configure} from the @file{gdb} subdirectory
32762 of the @file{gdb-@var{version-number}} directory, you will omit the
32763 configuration of @file{bfd}, @file{readline}, and other sibling
32764 directories of the @file{gdb} subdirectory. This leads to build errors
32765 about missing include files such as @file{bfd/bfd.h}.
32766
32767 You can install @code{@value{GDBP}} anywhere; it has no hardwired paths.
32768 However, you should make sure that the shell on your path (named by
32769 the @samp{SHELL} environment variable) is publicly readable. Remember
32770 that @value{GDBN} uses the shell to start your program---some systems refuse to
32771 let @value{GDBN} debug child processes whose programs are not readable.
32772
32773 @node Separate Objdir
32774 @section Compiling @value{GDBN} in Another Directory
32775
32776 If you want to run @value{GDBN} versions for several host or target machines,
32777 you need a different @code{gdb} compiled for each combination of
32778 host and target. @file{configure} is designed to make this easy by
32779 allowing you to generate each configuration in a separate subdirectory,
32780 rather than in the source directory. If your @code{make} program
32781 handles the @samp{VPATH} feature (@sc{gnu} @code{make} does), running
32782 @code{make} in each of these directories builds the @code{gdb}
32783 program specified there.
32784
32785 To build @code{gdb} in a separate directory, run @file{configure}
32786 with the @samp{--srcdir} option to specify where to find the source.
32787 (You also need to specify a path to find @file{configure}
32788 itself from your working directory. If the path to @file{configure}
32789 would be the same as the argument to @samp{--srcdir}, you can leave out
32790 the @samp{--srcdir} option; it is assumed.)
32791
32792 For example, with version @value{GDBVN}, you can build @value{GDBN} in a
32793 separate directory for a Sun 4 like this:
32794
32795 @smallexample
32796 @group
32797 cd gdb-@value{GDBVN}
32798 mkdir ../gdb-sun4
32799 cd ../gdb-sun4
32800 ../gdb-@value{GDBVN}/configure sun4
32801 make
32802 @end group
32803 @end smallexample
32804
32805 When @file{configure} builds a configuration using a remote source
32806 directory, it creates a tree for the binaries with the same structure
32807 (and using the same names) as the tree under the source directory. In
32808 the example, you'd find the Sun 4 library @file{libiberty.a} in the
32809 directory @file{gdb-sun4/libiberty}, and @value{GDBN} itself in
32810 @file{gdb-sun4/gdb}.
32811
32812 Make sure that your path to the @file{configure} script has just one
32813 instance of @file{gdb} in it. If your path to @file{configure} looks
32814 like @file{../gdb-@value{GDBVN}/gdb/configure}, you are configuring only
32815 one subdirectory of @value{GDBN}, not the whole package. This leads to
32816 build errors about missing include files such as @file{bfd/bfd.h}.
32817
32818 One popular reason to build several @value{GDBN} configurations in separate
32819 directories is to configure @value{GDBN} for cross-compiling (where
32820 @value{GDBN} runs on one machine---the @dfn{host}---while debugging
32821 programs that run on another machine---the @dfn{target}).
32822 You specify a cross-debugging target by
32823 giving the @samp{--target=@var{target}} option to @file{configure}.
32824
32825 When you run @code{make} to build a program or library, you must run
32826 it in a configured directory---whatever directory you were in when you
32827 called @file{configure} (or one of its subdirectories).
32828
32829 The @code{Makefile} that @file{configure} generates in each source
32830 directory also runs recursively. If you type @code{make} in a source
32831 directory such as @file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}} (or in a separate configured
32832 directory configured with @samp{--srcdir=@var{dirname}/gdb-@value{GDBVN}}), you
32833 will build all the required libraries, and then build GDB.
32834
32835 When you have multiple hosts or targets configured in separate
32836 directories, you can run @code{make} on them in parallel (for example,
32837 if they are NFS-mounted on each of the hosts); they will not interfere
32838 with each other.
32839
32840 @node Config Names
32841 @section Specifying Names for Hosts and Targets
32842
32843 The specifications used for hosts and targets in the @file{configure}
32844 script are based on a three-part naming scheme, but some short predefined
32845 aliases are also supported. The full naming scheme encodes three pieces
32846 of information in the following pattern:
32847
32848 @smallexample
32849 @var{architecture}-@var{vendor}-@var{os}
32850 @end smallexample
32851
32852 For example, you can use the alias @code{sun4} as a @var{host} argument,
32853 or as the value for @var{target} in a @code{--target=@var{target}}
32854 option. The equivalent full name is @samp{sparc-sun-sunos4}.
32855
32856 The @file{configure} script accompanying @value{GDBN} does not provide
32857 any query facility to list all supported host and target names or
32858 aliases. @file{configure} calls the Bourne shell script
32859 @code{config.sub} to map abbreviations to full names; you can read the
32860 script, if you wish, or you can use it to test your guesses on
32861 abbreviations---for example:
32862
32863 @smallexample
32864 % sh config.sub i386-linux
32865 i386-pc-linux-gnu
32866 % sh config.sub alpha-linux
32867 alpha-unknown-linux-gnu
32868 % sh config.sub hp9k700
32869 hppa1.1-hp-hpux
32870 % sh config.sub sun4
32871 sparc-sun-sunos4.1.1
32872 % sh config.sub sun3
32873 m68k-sun-sunos4.1.1
32874 % sh config.sub i986v
32875 Invalid configuration `i986v': machine `i986v' not recognized
32876 @end smallexample
32877
32878 @noindent
32879 @code{config.sub} is also distributed in the @value{GDBN} source
32880 directory (@file{gdb-@value{GDBVN}}, for version @value{GDBVN}).
32881
32882 @node Configure Options
32883 @section @file{configure} Options
32884
32885 Here is a summary of the @file{configure} options and arguments that
32886 are most often useful for building @value{GDBN}. @file{configure} also has
32887 several other options not listed here. @inforef{What Configure
32888 Does,,configure.info}, for a full explanation of @file{configure}.
32889
32890 @smallexample
32891 configure @r{[}--help@r{]}
32892 @r{[}--prefix=@var{dir}@r{]}
32893 @r{[}--exec-prefix=@var{dir}@r{]}
32894 @r{[}--srcdir=@var{dirname}@r{]}
32895 @r{[}--norecursion@r{]} @r{[}--rm@r{]}
32896 @r{[}--target=@var{target}@r{]}
32897 @var{host}
32898 @end smallexample
32899
32900 @noindent
32901 You may introduce options with a single @samp{-} rather than
32902 @samp{--} if you prefer; but you may abbreviate option names if you use
32903 @samp{--}.
32904
32905 @table @code
32906 @item --help
32907 Display a quick summary of how to invoke @file{configure}.
32908
32909 @item --prefix=@var{dir}
32910 Configure the source to install programs and files under directory
32911 @file{@var{dir}}.
32912
32913 @item --exec-prefix=@var{dir}
32914 Configure the source to install programs under directory
32915 @file{@var{dir}}.
32916
32917 @c avoid splitting the warning from the explanation:
32918 @need 2000
32919 @item --srcdir=@var{dirname}
32920 @strong{Warning: using this option requires @sc{gnu} @code{make}, or another
32921 @code{make} that implements the @code{VPATH} feature.}@*
32922 Use this option to make configurations in directories separate from the
32923 @value{GDBN} source directories. Among other things, you can use this to
32924 build (or maintain) several configurations simultaneously, in separate
32925 directories. @file{configure} writes configuration-specific files in
32926 the current directory, but arranges for them to use the source in the
32927 directory @var{dirname}. @file{configure} creates directories under
32928 the working directory in parallel to the source directories below
32929 @var{dirname}.
32930
32931 @item --norecursion
32932 Configure only the directory level where @file{configure} is executed; do not
32933 propagate configuration to subdirectories.
32934
32935 @item --target=@var{target}
32936 Configure @value{GDBN} for cross-debugging programs running on the specified
32937 @var{target}. Without this option, @value{GDBN} is configured to debug
32938 programs that run on the same machine (@var{host}) as @value{GDBN} itself.
32939
32940 There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available targets.
32941
32942 @item @var{host} @dots{}
32943 Configure @value{GDBN} to run on the specified @var{host}.
32944
32945 There is no convenient way to generate a list of all available hosts.
32946 @end table
32947
32948 There are many other options available as well, but they are generally
32949 needed for special purposes only.
32950
32951 @node System-wide configuration
32952 @section System-wide configuration and settings
32953 @cindex system-wide init file
32954
32955 @value{GDBN} can be configured to have a system-wide init file;
32956 this file will be read and executed at startup (@pxref{Startup, , What
32957 @value{GDBN} does during startup}).
32958
32959 Here is the corresponding configure option:
32960
32961 @table @code
32962 @item --with-system-gdbinit=@var{file}
32963 Specify that the default location of the system-wide init file is
32964 @var{file}.
32965 @end table
32966
32967 If @value{GDBN} has been configured with the option @option{--prefix=$prefix},
32968 it may be subject to relocation. Two possible cases:
32969
32970 @itemize @bullet
32971 @item
32972 If the default location of this init file contains @file{$prefix},
32973 it will be subject to relocation. Suppose that the configure options
32974 are @option{--prefix=$prefix --with-system-gdbinit=$prefix/etc/gdbinit};
32975 if @value{GDBN} is moved from @file{$prefix} to @file{$install}, the system
32976 init file is looked for as @file{$install/etc/gdbinit} instead of
32977 @file{$prefix/etc/gdbinit}.
32978
32979 @item
32980 By contrast, if the default location does not contain the prefix,
32981 it will not be relocated. E.g.@: if @value{GDBN} has been configured with
32982 @option{--prefix=/usr/local --with-system-gdbinit=/usr/share/gdb/gdbinit},
32983 then @value{GDBN} will always look for @file{/usr/share/gdb/gdbinit},
32984 wherever @value{GDBN} is installed.
32985 @end itemize
32986
32987 @node Maintenance Commands
32988 @appendix Maintenance Commands
32989 @cindex maintenance commands
32990 @cindex internal commands
32991
32992 In addition to commands intended for @value{GDBN} users, @value{GDBN}
32993 includes a number of commands intended for @value{GDBN} developers,
32994 that are not documented elsewhere in this manual. These commands are
32995 provided here for reference. (For commands that turn on debugging
32996 messages, see @ref{Debugging Output}.)
32997
32998 @table @code
32999 @kindex maint agent
33000 @kindex maint agent-eval
33001 @item maint agent @var{expression}
33002 @itemx maint agent-eval @var{expression}
33003 Translate the given @var{expression} into remote agent bytecodes.
33004 This command is useful for debugging the Agent Expression mechanism
33005 (@pxref{Agent Expressions}). The @samp{agent} version produces an
33006 expression useful for data collection, such as by tracepoints, while
33007 @samp{maint agent-eval} produces an expression that evaluates directly
33008 to a result. For instance, a collection expression for @code{globa +
33009 globb} will include bytecodes to record four bytes of memory at each
33010 of the addresses of @code{globa} and @code{globb}, while discarding
33011 the result of the addition, while an evaluation expression will do the
33012 addition and return the sum.
33013
33014 @kindex maint info breakpoints
33015 @item @anchor{maint info breakpoints}maint info breakpoints
33016 Using the same format as @samp{info breakpoints}, display both the
33017 breakpoints you've set explicitly, and those @value{GDBN} is using for
33018 internal purposes. Internal breakpoints are shown with negative
33019 breakpoint numbers. The type column identifies what kind of breakpoint
33020 is shown:
33021
33022 @table @code
33023 @item breakpoint
33024 Normal, explicitly set breakpoint.
33025
33026 @item watchpoint
33027 Normal, explicitly set watchpoint.
33028
33029 @item longjmp
33030 Internal breakpoint, used to handle correctly stepping through
33031 @code{longjmp} calls.
33032
33033 @item longjmp resume
33034 Internal breakpoint at the target of a @code{longjmp}.
33035
33036 @item until
33037 Temporary internal breakpoint used by the @value{GDBN} @code{until} command.
33038
33039 @item finish
33040 Temporary internal breakpoint used by the @value{GDBN} @code{finish} command.
33041
33042 @item shlib events
33043 Shared library events.
33044
33045 @end table
33046
33047 @kindex set displaced-stepping
33048 @kindex show displaced-stepping
33049 @cindex displaced stepping support
33050 @cindex out-of-line single-stepping
33051 @item set displaced-stepping
33052 @itemx show displaced-stepping
33053 Control whether or not @value{GDBN} will do @dfn{displaced stepping}
33054 if the target supports it. Displaced stepping is a way to single-step
33055 over breakpoints without removing them from the inferior, by executing
33056 an out-of-line copy of the instruction that was originally at the
33057 breakpoint location. It is also known as out-of-line single-stepping.
33058
33059 @table @code
33060 @item set displaced-stepping on
33061 If the target architecture supports it, @value{GDBN} will use
33062 displaced stepping to step over breakpoints.
33063
33064 @item set displaced-stepping off
33065 @value{GDBN} will not use displaced stepping to step over breakpoints,
33066 even if such is supported by the target architecture.
33067
33068 @cindex non-stop mode, and @samp{set displaced-stepping}
33069 @item set displaced-stepping auto
33070 This is the default mode. @value{GDBN} will use displaced stepping
33071 only if non-stop mode is active (@pxref{Non-Stop Mode}) and the target
33072 architecture supports displaced stepping.
33073 @end table
33074
33075 @kindex maint check-symtabs
33076 @item maint check-symtabs
33077 Check the consistency of psymtabs and symtabs.
33078
33079 @kindex maint cplus first_component
33080 @item maint cplus first_component @var{name}
33081 Print the first C@t{++} class/namespace component of @var{name}.
33082
33083 @kindex maint cplus namespace
33084 @item maint cplus namespace
33085 Print the list of possible C@t{++} namespaces.
33086
33087 @kindex maint demangle
33088 @item maint demangle @var{name}
33089 Demangle a C@t{++} or Objective-C mangled @var{name}.
33090
33091 @kindex maint deprecate
33092 @kindex maint undeprecate
33093 @cindex deprecated commands
33094 @item maint deprecate @var{command} @r{[}@var{replacement}@r{]}
33095 @itemx maint undeprecate @var{command}
33096 Deprecate or undeprecate the named @var{command}. Deprecated commands
33097 cause @value{GDBN} to issue a warning when you use them. The optional
33098 argument @var{replacement} says which newer command should be used in
33099 favor of the deprecated one; if it is given, @value{GDBN} will mention
33100 the replacement as part of the warning.
33101
33102 @kindex maint dump-me
33103 @item maint dump-me
33104 @cindex @code{SIGQUIT} signal, dump core of @value{GDBN}
33105 Cause a fatal signal in the debugger and force it to dump its core.
33106 This is supported only on systems which support aborting a program
33107 with the @code{SIGQUIT} signal.
33108
33109 @kindex maint internal-error
33110 @kindex maint internal-warning
33111 @item maint internal-error @r{[}@var{message-text}@r{]}
33112 @itemx maint internal-warning @r{[}@var{message-text}@r{]}
33113 Cause @value{GDBN} to call the internal function @code{internal_error}
33114 or @code{internal_warning} and hence behave as though an internal error
33115 or internal warning has been detected. In addition to reporting the
33116 internal problem, these functions give the user the opportunity to
33117 either quit @value{GDBN} or create a core file of the current
33118 @value{GDBN} session.
33119
33120 These commands take an optional parameter @var{message-text} that is
33121 used as the text of the error or warning message.
33122
33123 Here's an example of using @code{internal-error}:
33124
33125 @smallexample
33126 (@value{GDBP}) @kbd{maint internal-error testing, 1, 2}
33127 @dots{}/maint.c:121: internal-error: testing, 1, 2
33128 A problem internal to GDB has been detected. Further
33129 debugging may prove unreliable.
33130 Quit this debugging session? (y or n) @kbd{n}
33131 Create a core file? (y or n) @kbd{n}
33132 (@value{GDBP})
33133 @end smallexample
33134
33135 @cindex @value{GDBN} internal error
33136 @cindex internal errors, control of @value{GDBN} behavior
33137
33138 @kindex maint set internal-error
33139 @kindex maint show internal-error
33140 @kindex maint set internal-warning
33141 @kindex maint show internal-warning
33142 @item maint set internal-error @var{action} [ask|yes|no]
33143 @itemx maint show internal-error @var{action}
33144 @itemx maint set internal-warning @var{action} [ask|yes|no]
33145 @itemx maint show internal-warning @var{action}
33146 When @value{GDBN} reports an internal problem (error or warning) it
33147 gives the user the opportunity to both quit @value{GDBN} and create a
33148 core file of the current @value{GDBN} session. These commands let you
33149 override the default behaviour for each particular @var{action},
33150 described in the table below.
33151
33152 @table @samp
33153 @item quit
33154 You can specify that @value{GDBN} should always (yes) or never (no)
33155 quit. The default is to ask the user what to do.
33156
33157 @item corefile
33158 You can specify that @value{GDBN} should always (yes) or never (no)
33159 create a core file. The default is to ask the user what to do.
33160 @end table
33161
33162 @kindex maint packet
33163 @item maint packet @var{text}
33164 If @value{GDBN} is talking to an inferior via the serial protocol,
33165 then this command sends the string @var{text} to the inferior, and
33166 displays the response packet. @value{GDBN} supplies the initial
33167 @samp{$} character, the terminating @samp{#} character, and the
33168 checksum.
33169
33170 @kindex maint print architecture
33171 @item maint print architecture @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33172 Print the entire architecture configuration. The optional argument
33173 @var{file} names the file where the output goes.
33174
33175 @kindex maint print c-tdesc
33176 @item maint print c-tdesc
33177 Print the current target description (@pxref{Target Descriptions}) as
33178 a C source file. The created source file can be used in @value{GDBN}
33179 when an XML parser is not available to parse the description.
33180
33181 @kindex maint print dummy-frames
33182 @item maint print dummy-frames
33183 Prints the contents of @value{GDBN}'s internal dummy-frame stack.
33184
33185 @smallexample
33186 (@value{GDBP}) @kbd{b add}
33187 @dots{}
33188 (@value{GDBP}) @kbd{print add(2,3)}
33189 Breakpoint 2, add (a=2, b=3) at @dots{}
33190 58 return (a + b);
33191 The program being debugged stopped while in a function called from GDB.
33192 @dots{}
33193 (@value{GDBP}) @kbd{maint print dummy-frames}
33194 0x1a57c80: pc=0x01014068 fp=0x0200bddc sp=0x0200bdd6
33195 top=0x0200bdd4 id=@{stack=0x200bddc,code=0x101405c@}
33196 call_lo=0x01014000 call_hi=0x01014001
33197 (@value{GDBP})
33198 @end smallexample
33199
33200 Takes an optional file parameter.
33201
33202 @kindex maint print registers
33203 @kindex maint print raw-registers
33204 @kindex maint print cooked-registers
33205 @kindex maint print register-groups
33206 @kindex maint print remote-registers
33207 @item maint print registers @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33208 @itemx maint print raw-registers @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33209 @itemx maint print cooked-registers @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33210 @itemx maint print register-groups @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33211 @itemx maint print remote-registers @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33212 Print @value{GDBN}'s internal register data structures.
33213
33214 The command @code{maint print raw-registers} includes the contents of
33215 the raw register cache; the command @code{maint print
33216 cooked-registers} includes the (cooked) value of all registers,
33217 including registers which aren't available on the target nor visible
33218 to user; the command @code{maint print register-groups} includes the
33219 groups that each register is a member of; and the command @code{maint
33220 print remote-registers} includes the remote target's register numbers
33221 and offsets in the `G' packets. @xref{Registers,, Registers, gdbint,
33222 @value{GDBN} Internals}.
33223
33224 These commands take an optional parameter, a file name to which to
33225 write the information.
33226
33227 @kindex maint print reggroups
33228 @item maint print reggroups @r{[}@var{file}@r{]}
33229 Print @value{GDBN}'s internal register group data structures. The
33230 optional argument @var{file} tells to what file to write the
33231 information.
33232
33233 The register groups info looks like this:
33234
33235 @smallexample
33236 (@value{GDBP}) @kbd{maint print reggroups}
33237 Group Type
33238 general user
33239 float user
33240 all user
33241 vector user
33242 system user
33243 save internal
33244 restore internal
33245 @end smallexample
33246
33247 @kindex flushregs
33248 @item flushregs
33249 This command forces @value{GDBN} to flush its internal register cache.
33250
33251 @kindex maint print objfiles
33252 @cindex info for known object files
33253 @item maint print objfiles
33254 Print a dump of all known object files. For each object file, this
33255 command prints its name, address in memory, and all of its psymtabs
33256 and symtabs.
33257
33258 @kindex maint print section-scripts
33259 @cindex info for known .debug_gdb_scripts-loaded scripts
33260 @item maint print section-scripts [@var{regexp}]
33261 Print a dump of scripts specified in the @code{.debug_gdb_section} section.
33262 If @var{regexp} is specified, only print scripts loaded by object files
33263 matching @var{regexp}.
33264 For each script, this command prints its name as specified in the objfile,
33265 and the full path if known.
33266 @xref{.debug_gdb_scripts section}.
33267
33268 @kindex maint print statistics
33269 @cindex bcache statistics
33270 @item maint print statistics
33271 This command prints, for each object file in the program, various data
33272 about that object file followed by the byte cache (@dfn{bcache})
33273 statistics for the object file. The objfile data includes the number
33274 of minimal, partial, full, and stabs symbols, the number of types
33275 defined by the objfile, the number of as yet unexpanded psym tables,
33276 the number of line tables and string tables, and the amount of memory
33277 used by the various tables. The bcache statistics include the counts,
33278 sizes, and counts of duplicates of all and unique objects, max,
33279 average, and median entry size, total memory used and its overhead and
33280 savings, and various measures of the hash table size and chain
33281 lengths.
33282
33283 @kindex maint print target-stack
33284 @cindex target stack description
33285 @item maint print target-stack
33286 A @dfn{target} is an interface between the debugger and a particular
33287 kind of file or process. Targets can be stacked in @dfn{strata},
33288 so that more than one target can potentially respond to a request.
33289 In particular, memory accesses will walk down the stack of targets
33290 until they find a target that is interested in handling that particular
33291 address.
33292
33293 This command prints a short description of each layer that was pushed on
33294 the @dfn{target stack}, starting from the top layer down to the bottom one.
33295
33296 @kindex maint print type
33297 @cindex type chain of a data type
33298 @item maint print type @var{expr}
33299 Print the type chain for a type specified by @var{expr}. The argument
33300 can be either a type name or a symbol. If it is a symbol, the type of
33301 that symbol is described. The type chain produced by this command is
33302 a recursive definition of the data type as stored in @value{GDBN}'s
33303 data structures, including its flags and contained types.
33304
33305 @kindex maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble
33306 @kindex maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble
33307 @item maint set dwarf2 always-disassemble
33308 @item maint show dwarf2 always-disassemble
33309 Control the behavior of @code{info address} when using DWARF debugging
33310 information.
33311
33312 The default is @code{off}, which means that @value{GDBN} should try to
33313 describe a variable's location in an easily readable format. When
33314 @code{on}, @value{GDBN} will instead display the DWARF location
33315 expression in an assembly-like format. Note that some locations are
33316 too complex for @value{GDBN} to describe simply; in this case you will
33317 always see the disassembly form.
33318
33319 Here is an example of the resulting disassembly:
33320
33321 @smallexample
33322 (gdb) info addr argc
33323 Symbol "argc" is a complex DWARF expression:
33324 1: DW_OP_fbreg 0
33325 @end smallexample
33326
33327 For more information on these expressions, see
33328 @uref{http://www.dwarfstd.org/, the DWARF standard}.
33329
33330 @kindex maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age
33331 @kindex maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age
33332 @item maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age
33333 @itemx maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age
33334 Control the DWARF 2 compilation unit cache.
33335
33336 @cindex DWARF 2 compilation units cache
33337 In object files with inter-compilation-unit references, such as those
33338 produced by the GCC option @samp{-feliminate-dwarf2-dups}, the DWARF 2
33339 reader needs to frequently refer to previously read compilation units.
33340 This setting controls how long a compilation unit will remain in the
33341 cache if it is not referenced. A higher limit means that cached
33342 compilation units will be stored in memory longer, and more total
33343 memory will be used. Setting it to zero disables caching, which will
33344 slow down @value{GDBN} startup, but reduce memory consumption.
33345
33346 @kindex maint set profile
33347 @kindex maint show profile
33348 @cindex profiling GDB
33349 @item maint set profile
33350 @itemx maint show profile
33351 Control profiling of @value{GDBN}.
33352
33353 Profiling will be disabled until you use the @samp{maint set profile}
33354 command to enable it. When you enable profiling, the system will begin
33355 collecting timing and execution count data; when you disable profiling or
33356 exit @value{GDBN}, the results will be written to a log file. Remember that
33357 if you use profiling, @value{GDBN} will overwrite the profiling log file
33358 (often called @file{gmon.out}). If you have a record of important profiling
33359 data in a @file{gmon.out} file, be sure to move it to a safe location.
33360
33361 Configuring with @samp{--enable-profiling} arranges for @value{GDBN} to be
33362 compiled with the @samp{-pg} compiler option.
33363
33364 @kindex maint set show-debug-regs
33365 @kindex maint show show-debug-regs
33366 @cindex hardware debug registers
33367 @item maint set show-debug-regs
33368 @itemx maint show show-debug-regs
33369 Control whether to show variables that mirror the hardware debug
33370 registers. Use @code{ON} to enable, @code{OFF} to disable. If
33371 enabled, the debug registers values are shown when @value{GDBN} inserts or
33372 removes a hardware breakpoint or watchpoint, and when the inferior
33373 triggers a hardware-assisted breakpoint or watchpoint.
33374
33375 @kindex maint set show-all-tib
33376 @kindex maint show show-all-tib
33377 @item maint set show-all-tib
33378 @itemx maint show show-all-tib
33379 Control whether to show all non zero areas within a 1k block starting
33380 at thread local base, when using the @samp{info w32 thread-information-block}
33381 command.
33382
33383 @kindex maint space
33384 @cindex memory used by commands
33385 @item maint space
33386 Control whether to display memory usage for each command. If set to a
33387 nonzero value, @value{GDBN} will display how much memory each command
33388 took, following the command's own output. This can also be requested
33389 by invoking @value{GDBN} with the @option{--statistics} command-line
33390 switch (@pxref{Mode Options}).
33391
33392 @kindex maint time
33393 @cindex time of command execution
33394 @item maint time
33395 Control whether to display the execution time of @value{GDBN} for each command.
33396 If set to a nonzero value, @value{GDBN} will display how much time it
33397 took to execute each command, following the command's own output.
33398 Both CPU time and wallclock time are printed.
33399 Printing both is useful when trying to determine whether the cost is
33400 CPU or, e.g., disk/network, latency.
33401 Note that the CPU time printed is for @value{GDBN} only, it does not include
33402 the execution time of the inferior because there's no mechanism currently
33403 to compute how much time was spent by @value{GDBN} and how much time was
33404 spent by the program been debugged.
33405 This can also be requested by invoking @value{GDBN} with the
33406 @option{--statistics} command-line switch (@pxref{Mode Options}).
33407
33408 @kindex maint translate-address
33409 @item maint translate-address @r{[}@var{section}@r{]} @var{addr}
33410 Find the symbol stored at the location specified by the address
33411 @var{addr} and an optional section name @var{section}. If found,
33412 @value{GDBN} prints the name of the closest symbol and an offset from
33413 the symbol's location to the specified address. This is similar to
33414 the @code{info address} command (@pxref{Symbols}), except that this
33415 command also allows to find symbols in other sections.
33416
33417 If section was not specified, the section in which the symbol was found
33418 is also printed. For dynamically linked executables, the name of
33419 executable or shared library containing the symbol is printed as well.
33420
33421 @end table
33422
33423 The following command is useful for non-interactive invocations of
33424 @value{GDBN}, such as in the test suite.
33425
33426 @table @code
33427 @item set watchdog @var{nsec}
33428 @kindex set watchdog
33429 @cindex watchdog timer
33430 @cindex timeout for commands
33431 Set the maximum number of seconds @value{GDBN} will wait for the
33432 target operation to finish. If this time expires, @value{GDBN}
33433 reports and error and the command is aborted.
33434
33435 @item show watchdog
33436 Show the current setting of the target wait timeout.
33437 @end table
33438
33439 @node Remote Protocol
33440 @appendix @value{GDBN} Remote Serial Protocol
33441
33442 @menu
33443 * Overview::
33444 * Packets::
33445 * Stop Reply Packets::
33446 * General Query Packets::
33447 * Architecture-Specific Protocol Details::
33448 * Tracepoint Packets::
33449 * Host I/O Packets::
33450 * Interrupts::
33451 * Notification Packets::
33452 * Remote Non-Stop::
33453 * Packet Acknowledgment::
33454 * Examples::
33455 * File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension::
33456 * Library List Format::
33457 * Library List Format for SVR4 Targets::
33458 * Memory Map Format::
33459 * Thread List Format::
33460 * Traceframe Info Format::
33461 @end menu
33462
33463 @node Overview
33464 @section Overview
33465
33466 There may be occasions when you need to know something about the
33467 protocol---for example, if there is only one serial port to your target
33468 machine, you might want your program to do something special if it
33469 recognizes a packet meant for @value{GDBN}.
33470
33471 In the examples below, @samp{->} and @samp{<-} are used to indicate
33472 transmitted and received data, respectively.
33473
33474 @cindex protocol, @value{GDBN} remote serial
33475 @cindex serial protocol, @value{GDBN} remote
33476 @cindex remote serial protocol
33477 All @value{GDBN} commands and responses (other than acknowledgments
33478 and notifications, see @ref{Notification Packets}) are sent as a
33479 @var{packet}. A @var{packet} is introduced with the character
33480 @samp{$}, the actual @var{packet-data}, and the terminating character
33481 @samp{#} followed by a two-digit @var{checksum}:
33482
33483 @smallexample
33484 @code{$}@var{packet-data}@code{#}@var{checksum}
33485 @end smallexample
33486 @noindent
33487
33488 @cindex checksum, for @value{GDBN} remote
33489 @noindent
33490 The two-digit @var{checksum} is computed as the modulo 256 sum of all
33491 characters between the leading @samp{$} and the trailing @samp{#} (an
33492 eight bit unsigned checksum).
33493
33494 Implementors should note that prior to @value{GDBN} 5.0 the protocol
33495 specification also included an optional two-digit @var{sequence-id}:
33496
33497 @smallexample
33498 @code{$}@var{sequence-id}@code{:}@var{packet-data}@code{#}@var{checksum}
33499 @end smallexample
33500
33501 @cindex sequence-id, for @value{GDBN} remote
33502 @noindent
33503 That @var{sequence-id} was appended to the acknowledgment. @value{GDBN}
33504 has never output @var{sequence-id}s. Stubs that handle packets added
33505 since @value{GDBN} 5.0 must not accept @var{sequence-id}.
33506
33507 When either the host or the target machine receives a packet, the first
33508 response expected is an acknowledgment: either @samp{+} (to indicate
33509 the package was received correctly) or @samp{-} (to request
33510 retransmission):
33511
33512 @smallexample
33513 -> @code{$}@var{packet-data}@code{#}@var{checksum}
33514 <- @code{+}
33515 @end smallexample
33516 @noindent
33517
33518 The @samp{+}/@samp{-} acknowledgments can be disabled
33519 once a connection is established.
33520 @xref{Packet Acknowledgment}, for details.
33521
33522 The host (@value{GDBN}) sends @var{command}s, and the target (the
33523 debugging stub incorporated in your program) sends a @var{response}. In
33524 the case of step and continue @var{command}s, the response is only sent
33525 when the operation has completed, and the target has again stopped all
33526 threads in all attached processes. This is the default all-stop mode
33527 behavior, but the remote protocol also supports @value{GDBN}'s non-stop
33528 execution mode; see @ref{Remote Non-Stop}, for details.
33529
33530 @var{packet-data} consists of a sequence of characters with the
33531 exception of @samp{#} and @samp{$} (see @samp{X} packet for additional
33532 exceptions).
33533
33534 @cindex remote protocol, field separator
33535 Fields within the packet should be separated using @samp{,} @samp{;} or
33536 @samp{:}. Except where otherwise noted all numbers are represented in
33537 @sc{hex} with leading zeros suppressed.
33538
33539 Implementors should note that prior to @value{GDBN} 5.0, the character
33540 @samp{:} could not appear as the third character in a packet (as it
33541 would potentially conflict with the @var{sequence-id}).
33542
33543 @cindex remote protocol, binary data
33544 @anchor{Binary Data}
33545 Binary data in most packets is encoded either as two hexadecimal
33546 digits per byte of binary data. This allowed the traditional remote
33547 protocol to work over connections which were only seven-bit clean.
33548 Some packets designed more recently assume an eight-bit clean
33549 connection, and use a more efficient encoding to send and receive
33550 binary data.
33551
33552 The binary data representation uses @code{7d} (@sc{ascii} @samp{@}})
33553 as an escape character. Any escaped byte is transmitted as the escape
33554 character followed by the original character XORed with @code{0x20}.
33555 For example, the byte @code{0x7d} would be transmitted as the two
33556 bytes @code{0x7d 0x5d}. The bytes @code{0x23} (@sc{ascii} @samp{#}),
33557 @code{0x24} (@sc{ascii} @samp{$}), and @code{0x7d} (@sc{ascii}
33558 @samp{@}}) must always be escaped. Responses sent by the stub
33559 must also escape @code{0x2a} (@sc{ascii} @samp{*}), so that it
33560 is not interpreted as the start of a run-length encoded sequence
33561 (described next).
33562
33563 Response @var{data} can be run-length encoded to save space.
33564 Run-length encoding replaces runs of identical characters with one
33565 instance of the repeated character, followed by a @samp{*} and a
33566 repeat count. The repeat count is itself sent encoded, to avoid
33567 binary characters in @var{data}: a value of @var{n} is sent as
33568 @code{@var{n}+29}. For a repeat count greater or equal to 3, this
33569 produces a printable @sc{ascii} character, e.g.@: a space (@sc{ascii}
33570 code 32) for a repeat count of 3. (This is because run-length
33571 encoding starts to win for counts 3 or more.) Thus, for example,
33572 @samp{0* } is a run-length encoding of ``0000'': the space character
33573 after @samp{*} means repeat the leading @code{0} @w{@code{32 - 29 =
33574 3}} more times.
33575
33576 The printable characters @samp{#} and @samp{$} or with a numeric value
33577 greater than 126 must not be used. Runs of six repeats (@samp{#}) or
33578 seven repeats (@samp{$}) can be expanded using a repeat count of only
33579 five (@samp{"}). For example, @samp{00000000} can be encoded as
33580 @samp{0*"00}.
33581
33582 The error response returned for some packets includes a two character
33583 error number. That number is not well defined.
33584
33585 @cindex empty response, for unsupported packets
33586 For any @var{command} not supported by the stub, an empty response
33587 (@samp{$#00}) should be returned. That way it is possible to extend the
33588 protocol. A newer @value{GDBN} can tell if a packet is supported based
33589 on that response.
33590
33591 At a minimum, a stub is required to support the @samp{g} and @samp{G}
33592 commands for register access, and the @samp{m} and @samp{M} commands
33593 for memory access. Stubs that only control single-threaded targets
33594 can implement run control with the @samp{c} (continue), and @samp{s}
33595 (step) commands. Stubs that support multi-threading targets should
33596 support the @samp{vCont} command. All other commands are optional.
33597
33598 @node Packets
33599 @section Packets
33600
33601 The following table provides a complete list of all currently defined
33602 @var{command}s and their corresponding response @var{data}.
33603 @xref{File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension}, for details about the File
33604 I/O extension of the remote protocol.
33605
33606 Each packet's description has a template showing the packet's overall
33607 syntax, followed by an explanation of the packet's meaning. We
33608 include spaces in some of the templates for clarity; these are not
33609 part of the packet's syntax. No @value{GDBN} packet uses spaces to
33610 separate its components. For example, a template like @samp{foo
33611 @var{bar} @var{baz}} describes a packet beginning with the three ASCII
33612 bytes @samp{foo}, followed by a @var{bar}, followed directly by a
33613 @var{baz}. @value{GDBN} does not transmit a space character between the
33614 @samp{foo} and the @var{bar}, or between the @var{bar} and the
33615 @var{baz}.
33616
33617 @cindex @var{thread-id}, in remote protocol
33618 @anchor{thread-id syntax}
33619 Several packets and replies include a @var{thread-id} field to identify
33620 a thread. Normally these are positive numbers with a target-specific
33621 interpretation, formatted as big-endian hex strings. A @var{thread-id}
33622 can also be a literal @samp{-1} to indicate all threads, or @samp{0} to
33623 pick any thread.
33624
33625 In addition, the remote protocol supports a multiprocess feature in
33626 which the @var{thread-id} syntax is extended to optionally include both
33627 process and thread ID fields, as @samp{p@var{pid}.@var{tid}}.
33628 The @var{pid} (process) and @var{tid} (thread) components each have the
33629 format described above: a positive number with target-specific
33630 interpretation formatted as a big-endian hex string, literal @samp{-1}
33631 to indicate all processes or threads (respectively), or @samp{0} to
33632 indicate an arbitrary process or thread. Specifying just a process, as
33633 @samp{p@var{pid}}, is equivalent to @samp{p@var{pid}.-1}. It is an
33634 error to specify all processes but a specific thread, such as
33635 @samp{p-1.@var{tid}}. Note that the @samp{p} prefix is @emph{not} used
33636 for those packets and replies explicitly documented to include a process
33637 ID, rather than a @var{thread-id}.
33638
33639 The multiprocess @var{thread-id} syntax extensions are only used if both
33640 @value{GDBN} and the stub report support for the @samp{multiprocess}
33641 feature using @samp{qSupported}. @xref{multiprocess extensions}, for
33642 more information.
33643
33644 Note that all packet forms beginning with an upper- or lower-case
33645 letter, other than those described here, are reserved for future use.
33646
33647 Here are the packet descriptions.
33648
33649 @table @samp
33650
33651 @item !
33652 @cindex @samp{!} packet
33653 @anchor{extended mode}
33654 Enable extended mode. In extended mode, the remote server is made
33655 persistent. The @samp{R} packet is used to restart the program being
33656 debugged.
33657
33658 Reply:
33659 @table @samp
33660 @item OK
33661 The remote target both supports and has enabled extended mode.
33662 @end table
33663
33664 @item ?
33665 @cindex @samp{?} packet
33666 Indicate the reason the target halted. The reply is the same as for
33667 step and continue. This packet has a special interpretation when the
33668 target is in non-stop mode; see @ref{Remote Non-Stop}.
33669
33670 Reply:
33671 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33672
33673 @item A @var{arglen},@var{argnum},@var{arg},@dots{}
33674 @cindex @samp{A} packet
33675 Initialized @code{argv[]} array passed into program. @var{arglen}
33676 specifies the number of bytes in the hex encoded byte stream
33677 @var{arg}. See @code{gdbserver} for more details.
33678
33679 Reply:
33680 @table @samp
33681 @item OK
33682 The arguments were set.
33683 @item E @var{NN}
33684 An error occurred.
33685 @end table
33686
33687 @item b @var{baud}
33688 @cindex @samp{b} packet
33689 (Don't use this packet; its behavior is not well-defined.)
33690 Change the serial line speed to @var{baud}.
33691
33692 JTC: @emph{When does the transport layer state change? When it's
33693 received, or after the ACK is transmitted. In either case, there are
33694 problems if the command or the acknowledgment packet is dropped.}
33695
33696 Stan: @emph{If people really wanted to add something like this, and get
33697 it working for the first time, they ought to modify ser-unix.c to send
33698 some kind of out-of-band message to a specially-setup stub and have the
33699 switch happen "in between" packets, so that from remote protocol's point
33700 of view, nothing actually happened.}
33701
33702 @item B @var{addr},@var{mode}
33703 @cindex @samp{B} packet
33704 Set (@var{mode} is @samp{S}) or clear (@var{mode} is @samp{C}) a
33705 breakpoint at @var{addr}.
33706
33707 Don't use this packet. Use the @samp{Z} and @samp{z} packets instead
33708 (@pxref{insert breakpoint or watchpoint packet}).
33709
33710 @cindex @samp{bc} packet
33711 @anchor{bc}
33712 @item bc
33713 Backward continue. Execute the target system in reverse. No parameter.
33714 @xref{Reverse Execution}, for more information.
33715
33716 Reply:
33717 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33718
33719 @cindex @samp{bs} packet
33720 @anchor{bs}
33721 @item bs
33722 Backward single step. Execute one instruction in reverse. No parameter.
33723 @xref{Reverse Execution}, for more information.
33724
33725 Reply:
33726 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33727
33728 @item c @r{[}@var{addr}@r{]}
33729 @cindex @samp{c} packet
33730 Continue. @var{addr} is address to resume. If @var{addr} is omitted,
33731 resume at current address.
33732
33733 This packet is deprecated for multi-threading support. @xref{vCont
33734 packet}.
33735
33736 Reply:
33737 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33738
33739 @item C @var{sig}@r{[};@var{addr}@r{]}
33740 @cindex @samp{C} packet
33741 Continue with signal @var{sig} (hex signal number). If
33742 @samp{;@var{addr}} is omitted, resume at same address.
33743
33744 This packet is deprecated for multi-threading support. @xref{vCont
33745 packet}.
33746
33747 Reply:
33748 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33749
33750 @item d
33751 @cindex @samp{d} packet
33752 Toggle debug flag.
33753
33754 Don't use this packet; instead, define a general set packet
33755 (@pxref{General Query Packets}).
33756
33757 @item D
33758 @itemx D;@var{pid}
33759 @cindex @samp{D} packet
33760 The first form of the packet is used to detach @value{GDBN} from the
33761 remote system. It is sent to the remote target
33762 before @value{GDBN} disconnects via the @code{detach} command.
33763
33764 The second form, including a process ID, is used when multiprocess
33765 protocol extensions are enabled (@pxref{multiprocess extensions}), to
33766 detach only a specific process. The @var{pid} is specified as a
33767 big-endian hex string.
33768
33769 Reply:
33770 @table @samp
33771 @item OK
33772 for success
33773 @item E @var{NN}
33774 for an error
33775 @end table
33776
33777 @item F @var{RC},@var{EE},@var{CF};@var{XX}
33778 @cindex @samp{F} packet
33779 A reply from @value{GDBN} to an @samp{F} packet sent by the target.
33780 This is part of the File-I/O protocol extension. @xref{File-I/O
33781 Remote Protocol Extension}, for the specification.
33782
33783 @item g
33784 @anchor{read registers packet}
33785 @cindex @samp{g} packet
33786 Read general registers.
33787
33788 Reply:
33789 @table @samp
33790 @item @var{XX@dots{}}
33791 Each byte of register data is described by two hex digits. The bytes
33792 with the register are transmitted in target byte order. The size of
33793 each register and their position within the @samp{g} packet are
33794 determined by the @value{GDBN} internal gdbarch functions
33795 @code{DEPRECATED_REGISTER_RAW_SIZE} and @code{gdbarch_register_name}. The
33796 specification of several standard @samp{g} packets is specified below.
33797
33798 When reading registers from a trace frame (@pxref{Analyze Collected
33799 Data,,Using the Collected Data}), the stub may also return a string of
33800 literal @samp{x}'s in place of the register data digits, to indicate
33801 that the corresponding register has not been collected, thus its value
33802 is unavailable. For example, for an architecture with 4 registers of
33803 4 bytes each, the following reply indicates to @value{GDBN} that
33804 registers 0 and 2 have not been collected, while registers 1 and 3
33805 have been collected, and both have zero value:
33806
33807 @smallexample
33808 -> @code{g}
33809 <- @code{xxxxxxxx00000000xxxxxxxx00000000}
33810 @end smallexample
33811
33812 @item E @var{NN}
33813 for an error.
33814 @end table
33815
33816 @item G @var{XX@dots{}}
33817 @cindex @samp{G} packet
33818 Write general registers. @xref{read registers packet}, for a
33819 description of the @var{XX@dots{}} data.
33820
33821 Reply:
33822 @table @samp
33823 @item OK
33824 for success
33825 @item E @var{NN}
33826 for an error
33827 @end table
33828
33829 @item H @var{op} @var{thread-id}
33830 @cindex @samp{H} packet
33831 Set thread for subsequent operations (@samp{m}, @samp{M}, @samp{g},
33832 @samp{G}, et.al.). @var{op} depends on the operation to be performed:
33833 it should be @samp{c} for step and continue operations (note that this
33834 is deprecated, supporting the @samp{vCont} command is a better
33835 option), @samp{g} for other operations. The thread designator
33836 @var{thread-id} has the format and interpretation described in
33837 @ref{thread-id syntax}.
33838
33839 Reply:
33840 @table @samp
33841 @item OK
33842 for success
33843 @item E @var{NN}
33844 for an error
33845 @end table
33846
33847 @c FIXME: JTC:
33848 @c 'H': How restrictive (or permissive) is the thread model. If a
33849 @c thread is selected and stopped, are other threads allowed
33850 @c to continue to execute? As I mentioned above, I think the
33851 @c semantics of each command when a thread is selected must be
33852 @c described. For example:
33853 @c
33854 @c 'g': If the stub supports threads and a specific thread is
33855 @c selected, returns the register block from that thread;
33856 @c otherwise returns current registers.
33857 @c
33858 @c 'G' If the stub supports threads and a specific thread is
33859 @c selected, sets the registers of the register block of
33860 @c that thread; otherwise sets current registers.
33861
33862 @item i @r{[}@var{addr}@r{[},@var{nnn}@r{]]}
33863 @anchor{cycle step packet}
33864 @cindex @samp{i} packet
33865 Step the remote target by a single clock cycle. If @samp{,@var{nnn}} is
33866 present, cycle step @var{nnn} cycles. If @var{addr} is present, cycle
33867 step starting at that address.
33868
33869 @item I
33870 @cindex @samp{I} packet
33871 Signal, then cycle step. @xref{step with signal packet}. @xref{cycle
33872 step packet}.
33873
33874 @item k
33875 @cindex @samp{k} packet
33876 Kill request.
33877
33878 FIXME: @emph{There is no description of how to operate when a specific
33879 thread context has been selected (i.e.@: does 'k' kill only that
33880 thread?)}.
33881
33882 @item m @var{addr},@var{length}
33883 @cindex @samp{m} packet
33884 Read @var{length} bytes of memory starting at address @var{addr}.
33885 Note that @var{addr} may not be aligned to any particular boundary.
33886
33887 The stub need not use any particular size or alignment when gathering
33888 data from memory for the response; even if @var{addr} is word-aligned
33889 and @var{length} is a multiple of the word size, the stub is free to
33890 use byte accesses, or not. For this reason, this packet may not be
33891 suitable for accessing memory-mapped I/O devices.
33892 @cindex alignment of remote memory accesses
33893 @cindex size of remote memory accesses
33894 @cindex memory, alignment and size of remote accesses
33895
33896 Reply:
33897 @table @samp
33898 @item @var{XX@dots{}}
33899 Memory contents; each byte is transmitted as a two-digit hexadecimal
33900 number. The reply may contain fewer bytes than requested if the
33901 server was able to read only part of the region of memory.
33902 @item E @var{NN}
33903 @var{NN} is errno
33904 @end table
33905
33906 @item M @var{addr},@var{length}:@var{XX@dots{}}
33907 @cindex @samp{M} packet
33908 Write @var{length} bytes of memory starting at address @var{addr}.
33909 @var{XX@dots{}} is the data; each byte is transmitted as a two-digit
33910 hexadecimal number.
33911
33912 Reply:
33913 @table @samp
33914 @item OK
33915 for success
33916 @item E @var{NN}
33917 for an error (this includes the case where only part of the data was
33918 written).
33919 @end table
33920
33921 @item p @var{n}
33922 @cindex @samp{p} packet
33923 Read the value of register @var{n}; @var{n} is in hex.
33924 @xref{read registers packet}, for a description of how the returned
33925 register value is encoded.
33926
33927 Reply:
33928 @table @samp
33929 @item @var{XX@dots{}}
33930 the register's value
33931 @item E @var{NN}
33932 for an error
33933 @item
33934 Indicating an unrecognized @var{query}.
33935 @end table
33936
33937 @item P @var{n@dots{}}=@var{r@dots{}}
33938 @anchor{write register packet}
33939 @cindex @samp{P} packet
33940 Write register @var{n@dots{}} with value @var{r@dots{}}. The register
33941 number @var{n} is in hexadecimal, and @var{r@dots{}} contains two hex
33942 digits for each byte in the register (target byte order).
33943
33944 Reply:
33945 @table @samp
33946 @item OK
33947 for success
33948 @item E @var{NN}
33949 for an error
33950 @end table
33951
33952 @item q @var{name} @var{params}@dots{}
33953 @itemx Q @var{name} @var{params}@dots{}
33954 @cindex @samp{q} packet
33955 @cindex @samp{Q} packet
33956 General query (@samp{q}) and set (@samp{Q}). These packets are
33957 described fully in @ref{General Query Packets}.
33958
33959 @item r
33960 @cindex @samp{r} packet
33961 Reset the entire system.
33962
33963 Don't use this packet; use the @samp{R} packet instead.
33964
33965 @item R @var{XX}
33966 @cindex @samp{R} packet
33967 Restart the program being debugged. @var{XX}, while needed, is ignored.
33968 This packet is only available in extended mode (@pxref{extended mode}).
33969
33970 The @samp{R} packet has no reply.
33971
33972 @item s @r{[}@var{addr}@r{]}
33973 @cindex @samp{s} packet
33974 Single step. @var{addr} is the address at which to resume. If
33975 @var{addr} is omitted, resume at same address.
33976
33977 This packet is deprecated for multi-threading support. @xref{vCont
33978 packet}.
33979
33980 Reply:
33981 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33982
33983 @item S @var{sig}@r{[};@var{addr}@r{]}
33984 @anchor{step with signal packet}
33985 @cindex @samp{S} packet
33986 Step with signal. This is analogous to the @samp{C} packet, but
33987 requests a single-step, rather than a normal resumption of execution.
33988
33989 This packet is deprecated for multi-threading support. @xref{vCont
33990 packet}.
33991
33992 Reply:
33993 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
33994
33995 @item t @var{addr}:@var{PP},@var{MM}
33996 @cindex @samp{t} packet
33997 Search backwards starting at address @var{addr} for a match with pattern
33998 @var{PP} and mask @var{MM}. @var{PP} and @var{MM} are 4 bytes.
33999 @var{addr} must be at least 3 digits.
34000
34001 @item T @var{thread-id}
34002 @cindex @samp{T} packet
34003 Find out if the thread @var{thread-id} is alive. @xref{thread-id syntax}.
34004
34005 Reply:
34006 @table @samp
34007 @item OK
34008 thread is still alive
34009 @item E @var{NN}
34010 thread is dead
34011 @end table
34012
34013 @item v
34014 Packets starting with @samp{v} are identified by a multi-letter name,
34015 up to the first @samp{;} or @samp{?} (or the end of the packet).
34016
34017 @item vAttach;@var{pid}
34018 @cindex @samp{vAttach} packet
34019 Attach to a new process with the specified process ID @var{pid}.
34020 The process ID is a
34021 hexadecimal integer identifying the process. In all-stop mode, all
34022 threads in the attached process are stopped; in non-stop mode, it may be
34023 attached without being stopped if that is supported by the target.
34024
34025 @c In non-stop mode, on a successful vAttach, the stub should set the
34026 @c current thread to a thread of the newly-attached process. After
34027 @c attaching, GDB queries for the attached process's thread ID with qC.
34028 @c Also note that, from a user perspective, whether or not the
34029 @c target is stopped on attach in non-stop mode depends on whether you
34030 @c use the foreground or background version of the attach command, not
34031 @c on what vAttach does; GDB does the right thing with respect to either
34032 @c stopping or restarting threads.
34033
34034 This packet is only available in extended mode (@pxref{extended mode}).
34035
34036 Reply:
34037 @table @samp
34038 @item E @var{nn}
34039 for an error
34040 @item @r{Any stop packet}
34041 for success in all-stop mode (@pxref{Stop Reply Packets})
34042 @item OK
34043 for success in non-stop mode (@pxref{Remote Non-Stop})
34044 @end table
34045
34046 @item vCont@r{[};@var{action}@r{[}:@var{thread-id}@r{]]}@dots{}
34047 @cindex @samp{vCont} packet
34048 @anchor{vCont packet}
34049 Resume the inferior, specifying different actions for each thread.
34050 If an action is specified with no @var{thread-id}, then it is applied to any
34051 threads that don't have a specific action specified; if no default action is
34052 specified then other threads should remain stopped in all-stop mode and
34053 in their current state in non-stop mode.
34054 Specifying multiple
34055 default actions is an error; specifying no actions is also an error.
34056 Thread IDs are specified using the syntax described in @ref{thread-id syntax}.
34057
34058 Currently supported actions are:
34059
34060 @table @samp
34061 @item c
34062 Continue.
34063 @item C @var{sig}
34064 Continue with signal @var{sig}. The signal @var{sig} should be two hex digits.
34065 @item s
34066 Step.
34067 @item S @var{sig}
34068 Step with signal @var{sig}. The signal @var{sig} should be two hex digits.
34069 @item t
34070 Stop.
34071 @end table
34072
34073 The optional argument @var{addr} normally associated with the
34074 @samp{c}, @samp{C}, @samp{s}, and @samp{S} packets is
34075 not supported in @samp{vCont}.
34076
34077 The @samp{t} action is only relevant in non-stop mode
34078 (@pxref{Remote Non-Stop}) and may be ignored by the stub otherwise.
34079 A stop reply should be generated for any affected thread not already stopped.
34080 When a thread is stopped by means of a @samp{t} action,
34081 the corresponding stop reply should indicate that the thread has stopped with
34082 signal @samp{0}, regardless of whether the target uses some other signal
34083 as an implementation detail.
34084
34085 The stub must support @samp{vCont} if it reports support for
34086 multiprocess extensions (@pxref{multiprocess extensions}). Note that in
34087 this case @samp{vCont} actions can be specified to apply to all threads
34088 in a process by using the @samp{p@var{pid}.-1} form of the
34089 @var{thread-id}.
34090
34091 Reply:
34092 @xref{Stop Reply Packets}, for the reply specifications.
34093
34094 @item vCont?
34095 @cindex @samp{vCont?} packet
34096 Request a list of actions supported by the @samp{vCont} packet.
34097
34098 Reply:
34099 @table @samp
34100 @item vCont@r{[};@var{action}@dots{}@r{]}
34101 The @samp{vCont} packet is supported. Each @var{action} is a supported
34102 command in the @samp{vCont} packet.
34103 @item
34104 The @samp{vCont} packet is not supported.
34105 @end table
34106
34107 @item vFile:@var{operation}:@var{parameter}@dots{}
34108 @cindex @samp{vFile} packet
34109 Perform a file operation on the target system. For details,
34110 see @ref{Host I/O Packets}.
34111
34112 @item vFlashErase:@var{addr},@var{length}
34113 @cindex @samp{vFlashErase} packet
34114 Direct the stub to erase @var{length} bytes of flash starting at
34115 @var{addr}. The region may enclose any number of flash blocks, but
34116 its start and end must fall on block boundaries, as indicated by the
34117 flash block size appearing in the memory map (@pxref{Memory Map
34118 Format}). @value{GDBN} groups flash memory programming operations
34119 together, and sends a @samp{vFlashDone} request after each group; the
34120 stub is allowed to delay erase operation until the @samp{vFlashDone}
34121 packet is received.
34122
34123 Reply:
34124 @table @samp
34125 @item OK
34126 for success
34127 @item E @var{NN}
34128 for an error
34129 @end table
34130
34131 @item vFlashWrite:@var{addr}:@var{XX@dots{}}
34132 @cindex @samp{vFlashWrite} packet
34133 Direct the stub to write data to flash address @var{addr}. The data
34134 is passed in binary form using the same encoding as for the @samp{X}
34135 packet (@pxref{Binary Data}). The memory ranges specified by
34136 @samp{vFlashWrite} packets preceding a @samp{vFlashDone} packet must
34137 not overlap, and must appear in order of increasing addresses
34138 (although @samp{vFlashErase} packets for higher addresses may already
34139 have been received; the ordering is guaranteed only between
34140 @samp{vFlashWrite} packets). If a packet writes to an address that was
34141 neither erased by a preceding @samp{vFlashErase} packet nor by some other
34142 target-specific method, the results are unpredictable.
34143
34144
34145 Reply:
34146 @table @samp
34147 @item OK
34148 for success
34149 @item E.memtype
34150 for vFlashWrite addressing non-flash memory
34151 @item E @var{NN}
34152 for an error
34153 @end table
34154
34155 @item vFlashDone
34156 @cindex @samp{vFlashDone} packet
34157 Indicate to the stub that flash programming operation is finished.
34158 The stub is permitted to delay or batch the effects of a group of
34159 @samp{vFlashErase} and @samp{vFlashWrite} packets until a
34160 @samp{vFlashDone} packet is received. The contents of the affected
34161 regions of flash memory are unpredictable until the @samp{vFlashDone}
34162 request is completed.
34163
34164 @item vKill;@var{pid}
34165 @cindex @samp{vKill} packet
34166 Kill the process with the specified process ID. @var{pid} is a
34167 hexadecimal integer identifying the process. This packet is used in
34168 preference to @samp{k} when multiprocess protocol extensions are
34169 supported; see @ref{multiprocess extensions}.
34170
34171 Reply:
34172 @table @samp
34173 @item E @var{nn}
34174 for an error
34175 @item OK
34176 for success
34177 @end table
34178
34179 @item vRun;@var{filename}@r{[};@var{argument}@r{]}@dots{}
34180 @cindex @samp{vRun} packet
34181 Run the program @var{filename}, passing it each @var{argument} on its
34182 command line. The file and arguments are hex-encoded strings. If
34183 @var{filename} is an empty string, the stub may use a default program
34184 (e.g.@: the last program run). The program is created in the stopped
34185 state.
34186
34187 @c FIXME: What about non-stop mode?
34188
34189 This packet is only available in extended mode (@pxref{extended mode}).
34190
34191 Reply:
34192 @table @samp
34193 @item E @var{nn}
34194 for an error
34195 @item @r{Any stop packet}
34196 for success (@pxref{Stop Reply Packets})
34197 @end table
34198
34199 @item vStopped
34200 @anchor{vStopped packet}
34201 @cindex @samp{vStopped} packet
34202
34203 In non-stop mode (@pxref{Remote Non-Stop}), acknowledge a previous stop
34204 reply and prompt for the stub to report another one.
34205
34206 Reply:
34207 @table @samp
34208 @item @r{Any stop packet}
34209 if there is another unreported stop event (@pxref{Stop Reply Packets})
34210 @item OK
34211 if there are no unreported stop events
34212 @end table
34213
34214 @item X @var{addr},@var{length}:@var{XX@dots{}}
34215 @anchor{X packet}
34216 @cindex @samp{X} packet
34217 Write data to memory, where the data is transmitted in binary.
34218 @var{addr} is address, @var{length} is number of bytes,
34219 @samp{@var{XX}@dots{}} is binary data (@pxref{Binary Data}).
34220
34221 Reply:
34222 @table @samp
34223 @item OK
34224 for success
34225 @item E @var{NN}
34226 for an error
34227 @end table
34228
34229 @item z @var{type},@var{addr},@var{kind}
34230 @itemx Z @var{type},@var{addr},@var{kind}
34231 @anchor{insert breakpoint or watchpoint packet}
34232 @cindex @samp{z} packet
34233 @cindex @samp{Z} packets
34234 Insert (@samp{Z}) or remove (@samp{z}) a @var{type} breakpoint or
34235 watchpoint starting at address @var{address} of kind @var{kind}.
34236
34237 Each breakpoint and watchpoint packet @var{type} is documented
34238 separately.
34239
34240 @emph{Implementation notes: A remote target shall return an empty string
34241 for an unrecognized breakpoint or watchpoint packet @var{type}. A
34242 remote target shall support either both or neither of a given
34243 @samp{Z@var{type}@dots{}} and @samp{z@var{type}@dots{}} packet pair. To
34244 avoid potential problems with duplicate packets, the operations should
34245 be implemented in an idempotent way.}
34246
34247 @item z0,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34248 @itemx Z0,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34249 @cindex @samp{z0} packet
34250 @cindex @samp{Z0} packet
34251 Insert (@samp{Z0}) or remove (@samp{z0}) a memory breakpoint at address
34252 @var{addr} of type @var{kind}.
34253
34254 A memory breakpoint is implemented by replacing the instruction at
34255 @var{addr} with a software breakpoint or trap instruction. The
34256 @var{kind} is target-specific and typically indicates the size of
34257 the breakpoint in bytes that should be inserted. E.g., the @sc{arm}
34258 and @sc{mips} can insert either a 2 or 4 byte breakpoint. Some
34259 architectures have additional meanings for @var{kind};
34260 see @ref{Architecture-Specific Protocol Details}.
34261
34262 @emph{Implementation note: It is possible for a target to copy or move
34263 code that contains memory breakpoints (e.g., when implementing
34264 overlays). The behavior of this packet, in the presence of such a
34265 target, is not defined.}
34266
34267 Reply:
34268 @table @samp
34269 @item OK
34270 success
34271 @item
34272 not supported
34273 @item E @var{NN}
34274 for an error
34275 @end table
34276
34277 @item z1,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34278 @itemx Z1,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34279 @cindex @samp{z1} packet
34280 @cindex @samp{Z1} packet
34281 Insert (@samp{Z1}) or remove (@samp{z1}) a hardware breakpoint at
34282 address @var{addr}.
34283
34284 A hardware breakpoint is implemented using a mechanism that is not
34285 dependant on being able to modify the target's memory. @var{kind}
34286 has the same meaning as in @samp{Z0} packets.
34287
34288 @emph{Implementation note: A hardware breakpoint is not affected by code
34289 movement.}
34290
34291 Reply:
34292 @table @samp
34293 @item OK
34294 success
34295 @item
34296 not supported
34297 @item E @var{NN}
34298 for an error
34299 @end table
34300
34301 @item z2,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34302 @itemx Z2,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34303 @cindex @samp{z2} packet
34304 @cindex @samp{Z2} packet
34305 Insert (@samp{Z2}) or remove (@samp{z2}) a write watchpoint at @var{addr}.
34306 @var{kind} is interpreted as the number of bytes to watch.
34307
34308 Reply:
34309 @table @samp
34310 @item OK
34311 success
34312 @item
34313 not supported
34314 @item E @var{NN}
34315 for an error
34316 @end table
34317
34318 @item z3,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34319 @itemx Z3,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34320 @cindex @samp{z3} packet
34321 @cindex @samp{Z3} packet
34322 Insert (@samp{Z3}) or remove (@samp{z3}) a read watchpoint at @var{addr}.
34323 @var{kind} is interpreted as the number of bytes to watch.
34324
34325 Reply:
34326 @table @samp
34327 @item OK
34328 success
34329 @item
34330 not supported
34331 @item E @var{NN}
34332 for an error
34333 @end table
34334
34335 @item z4,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34336 @itemx Z4,@var{addr},@var{kind}
34337 @cindex @samp{z4} packet
34338 @cindex @samp{Z4} packet
34339 Insert (@samp{Z4}) or remove (@samp{z4}) an access watchpoint at @var{addr}.
34340 @var{kind} is interpreted as the number of bytes to watch.
34341
34342 Reply:
34343 @table @samp
34344 @item OK
34345 success
34346 @item
34347 not supported
34348 @item E @var{NN}
34349 for an error
34350 @end table
34351
34352 @end table
34353
34354 @node Stop Reply Packets
34355 @section Stop Reply Packets
34356 @cindex stop reply packets
34357
34358 The @samp{C}, @samp{c}, @samp{S}, @samp{s}, @samp{vCont},
34359 @samp{vAttach}, @samp{vRun}, @samp{vStopped}, and @samp{?} packets can
34360 receive any of the below as a reply. Except for @samp{?}
34361 and @samp{vStopped}, that reply is only returned
34362 when the target halts. In the below the exact meaning of @dfn{signal
34363 number} is defined by the header @file{include/gdb/signals.h} in the
34364 @value{GDBN} source code.
34365
34366 As in the description of request packets, we include spaces in the
34367 reply templates for clarity; these are not part of the reply packet's
34368 syntax. No @value{GDBN} stop reply packet uses spaces to separate its
34369 components.
34370
34371 @table @samp
34372
34373 @item S @var{AA}
34374 The program received signal number @var{AA} (a two-digit hexadecimal
34375 number). This is equivalent to a @samp{T} response with no
34376 @var{n}:@var{r} pairs.
34377
34378 @item T @var{AA} @var{n1}:@var{r1};@var{n2}:@var{r2};@dots{}
34379 @cindex @samp{T} packet reply
34380 The program received signal number @var{AA} (a two-digit hexadecimal
34381 number). This is equivalent to an @samp{S} response, except that the
34382 @samp{@var{n}:@var{r}} pairs can carry values of important registers
34383 and other information directly in the stop reply packet, reducing
34384 round-trip latency. Single-step and breakpoint traps are reported
34385 this way. Each @samp{@var{n}:@var{r}} pair is interpreted as follows:
34386
34387 @itemize @bullet
34388 @item
34389 If @var{n} is a hexadecimal number, it is a register number, and the
34390 corresponding @var{r} gives that register's value. @var{r} is a
34391 series of bytes in target byte order, with each byte given by a
34392 two-digit hex number.
34393
34394 @item
34395 If @var{n} is @samp{thread}, then @var{r} is the @var{thread-id} of
34396 the stopped thread, as specified in @ref{thread-id syntax}.
34397
34398 @item
34399 If @var{n} is @samp{core}, then @var{r} is the hexadecimal number of
34400 the core on which the stop event was detected.
34401
34402 @item
34403 If @var{n} is a recognized @dfn{stop reason}, it describes a more
34404 specific event that stopped the target. The currently defined stop
34405 reasons are listed below. @var{aa} should be @samp{05}, the trap
34406 signal. At most one stop reason should be present.
34407
34408 @item
34409 Otherwise, @value{GDBN} should ignore this @samp{@var{n}:@var{r}} pair
34410 and go on to the next; this allows us to extend the protocol in the
34411 future.
34412 @end itemize
34413
34414 The currently defined stop reasons are:
34415
34416 @table @samp
34417 @item watch
34418 @itemx rwatch
34419 @itemx awatch
34420 The packet indicates a watchpoint hit, and @var{r} is the data address, in
34421 hex.
34422
34423 @cindex shared library events, remote reply
34424 @item library
34425 The packet indicates that the loaded libraries have changed.
34426 @value{GDBN} should use @samp{qXfer:libraries:read} to fetch a new
34427 list of loaded libraries. @var{r} is ignored.
34428
34429 @cindex replay log events, remote reply
34430 @item replaylog
34431 The packet indicates that the target cannot continue replaying
34432 logged execution events, because it has reached the end (or the
34433 beginning when executing backward) of the log. The value of @var{r}
34434 will be either @samp{begin} or @samp{end}. @xref{Reverse Execution},
34435 for more information.
34436 @end table
34437
34438 @item W @var{AA}
34439 @itemx W @var{AA} ; process:@var{pid}
34440 The process exited, and @var{AA} is the exit status. This is only
34441 applicable to certain targets.
34442
34443 The second form of the response, including the process ID of the exited
34444 process, can be used only when @value{GDBN} has reported support for
34445 multiprocess protocol extensions; see @ref{multiprocess extensions}.
34446 The @var{pid} is formatted as a big-endian hex string.
34447
34448 @item X @var{AA}
34449 @itemx X @var{AA} ; process:@var{pid}
34450 The process terminated with signal @var{AA}.
34451
34452 The second form of the response, including the process ID of the
34453 terminated process, can be used only when @value{GDBN} has reported
34454 support for multiprocess protocol extensions; see @ref{multiprocess
34455 extensions}. The @var{pid} is formatted as a big-endian hex string.
34456
34457 @item O @var{XX}@dots{}
34458 @samp{@var{XX}@dots{}} is hex encoding of @sc{ascii} data, to be
34459 written as the program's console output. This can happen at any time
34460 while the program is running and the debugger should continue to wait
34461 for @samp{W}, @samp{T}, etc. This reply is not permitted in non-stop mode.
34462
34463 @item F @var{call-id},@var{parameter}@dots{}
34464 @var{call-id} is the identifier which says which host system call should
34465 be called. This is just the name of the function. Translation into the
34466 correct system call is only applicable as it's defined in @value{GDBN}.
34467 @xref{File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension}, for a list of implemented
34468 system calls.
34469
34470 @samp{@var{parameter}@dots{}} is a list of parameters as defined for
34471 this very system call.
34472
34473 The target replies with this packet when it expects @value{GDBN} to
34474 call a host system call on behalf of the target. @value{GDBN} replies
34475 with an appropriate @samp{F} packet and keeps up waiting for the next
34476 reply packet from the target. The latest @samp{C}, @samp{c}, @samp{S}
34477 or @samp{s} action is expected to be continued. @xref{File-I/O Remote
34478 Protocol Extension}, for more details.
34479
34480 @end table
34481
34482 @node General Query Packets
34483 @section General Query Packets
34484 @cindex remote query requests
34485
34486 Packets starting with @samp{q} are @dfn{general query packets};
34487 packets starting with @samp{Q} are @dfn{general set packets}. General
34488 query and set packets are a semi-unified form for retrieving and
34489 sending information to and from the stub.
34490
34491 The initial letter of a query or set packet is followed by a name
34492 indicating what sort of thing the packet applies to. For example,
34493 @value{GDBN} may use a @samp{qSymbol} packet to exchange symbol
34494 definitions with the stub. These packet names follow some
34495 conventions:
34496
34497 @itemize @bullet
34498 @item
34499 The name must not contain commas, colons or semicolons.
34500 @item
34501 Most @value{GDBN} query and set packets have a leading upper case
34502 letter.
34503 @item
34504 The names of custom vendor packets should use a company prefix, in
34505 lower case, followed by a period. For example, packets designed at
34506 the Acme Corporation might begin with @samp{qacme.foo} (for querying
34507 foos) or @samp{Qacme.bar} (for setting bars).
34508 @end itemize
34509
34510 The name of a query or set packet should be separated from any
34511 parameters by a @samp{:}; the parameters themselves should be
34512 separated by @samp{,} or @samp{;}. Stubs must be careful to match the
34513 full packet name, and check for a separator or the end of the packet,
34514 in case two packet names share a common prefix. New packets should not begin
34515 with @samp{qC}, @samp{qP}, or @samp{qL}@footnote{The @samp{qP} and @samp{qL}
34516 packets predate these conventions, and have arguments without any terminator
34517 for the packet name; we suspect they are in widespread use in places that
34518 are difficult to upgrade. The @samp{qC} packet has no arguments, but some
34519 existing stubs (e.g.@: RedBoot) are known to not check for the end of the
34520 packet.}.
34521
34522 Like the descriptions of the other packets, each description here
34523 has a template showing the packet's overall syntax, followed by an
34524 explanation of the packet's meaning. We include spaces in some of the
34525 templates for clarity; these are not part of the packet's syntax. No
34526 @value{GDBN} packet uses spaces to separate its components.
34527
34528 Here are the currently defined query and set packets:
34529
34530 @table @samp
34531
34532 @item QAllow:@var{op}:@var{val}@dots{}
34533 @cindex @samp{QAllow} packet
34534 Specify which operations @value{GDBN} expects to request of the
34535 target, as a semicolon-separated list of operation name and value
34536 pairs. Possible values for @var{op} include @samp{WriteReg},
34537 @samp{WriteMem}, @samp{InsertBreak}, @samp{InsertTrace},
34538 @samp{InsertFastTrace}, and @samp{Stop}. @var{val} is either 0,
34539 indicating that @value{GDBN} will not request the operation, or 1,
34540 indicating that it may. (The target can then use this to set up its
34541 own internals optimally, for instance if the debugger never expects to
34542 insert breakpoints, it may not need to install its own trap handler.)
34543
34544 @item qC
34545 @cindex current thread, remote request
34546 @cindex @samp{qC} packet
34547 Return the current thread ID.
34548
34549 Reply:
34550 @table @samp
34551 @item QC @var{thread-id}
34552 Where @var{thread-id} is a thread ID as documented in
34553 @ref{thread-id syntax}.
34554 @item @r{(anything else)}
34555 Any other reply implies the old thread ID.
34556 @end table
34557
34558 @item qCRC:@var{addr},@var{length}
34559 @cindex CRC of memory block, remote request
34560 @cindex @samp{qCRC} packet
34561 Compute the CRC checksum of a block of memory using CRC-32 defined in
34562 IEEE 802.3. The CRC is computed byte at a time, taking the most
34563 significant bit of each byte first. The initial pattern code
34564 @code{0xffffffff} is used to ensure leading zeros affect the CRC.
34565
34566 @emph{Note:} This is the same CRC used in validating separate debug
34567 files (@pxref{Separate Debug Files, , Debugging Information in Separate
34568 Files}). However the algorithm is slightly different. When validating
34569 separate debug files, the CRC is computed taking the @emph{least}
34570 significant bit of each byte first, and the final result is inverted to
34571 detect trailing zeros.
34572
34573 Reply:
34574 @table @samp
34575 @item E @var{NN}
34576 An error (such as memory fault)
34577 @item C @var{crc32}
34578 The specified memory region's checksum is @var{crc32}.
34579 @end table
34580
34581 @item QDisableRandomization:@var{value}
34582 @cindex disable address space randomization, remote request
34583 @cindex @samp{QDisableRandomization} packet
34584 Some target operating systems will randomize the virtual address space
34585 of the inferior process as a security feature, but provide a feature
34586 to disable such randomization, e.g.@: to allow for a more deterministic
34587 debugging experience. On such systems, this packet with a @var{value}
34588 of 1 directs the target to disable address space randomization for
34589 processes subsequently started via @samp{vRun} packets, while a packet
34590 with a @var{value} of 0 tells the target to enable address space
34591 randomization.
34592
34593 This packet is only available in extended mode (@pxref{extended mode}).
34594
34595 Reply:
34596 @table @samp
34597 @item OK
34598 The request succeeded.
34599
34600 @item E @var{nn}
34601 An error occurred. @var{nn} are hex digits.
34602
34603 @item
34604 An empty reply indicates that @samp{QDisableRandomization} is not supported
34605 by the stub.
34606 @end table
34607
34608 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
34609 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
34610 This should only be done on targets that actually support disabling
34611 address space randomization.
34612
34613 @item qfThreadInfo
34614 @itemx qsThreadInfo
34615 @cindex list active threads, remote request
34616 @cindex @samp{qfThreadInfo} packet
34617 @cindex @samp{qsThreadInfo} packet
34618 Obtain a list of all active thread IDs from the target (OS). Since there
34619 may be too many active threads to fit into one reply packet, this query
34620 works iteratively: it may require more than one query/reply sequence to
34621 obtain the entire list of threads. The first query of the sequence will
34622 be the @samp{qfThreadInfo} query; subsequent queries in the
34623 sequence will be the @samp{qsThreadInfo} query.
34624
34625 NOTE: This packet replaces the @samp{qL} query (see below).
34626
34627 Reply:
34628 @table @samp
34629 @item m @var{thread-id}
34630 A single thread ID
34631 @item m @var{thread-id},@var{thread-id}@dots{}
34632 a comma-separated list of thread IDs
34633 @item l
34634 (lower case letter @samp{L}) denotes end of list.
34635 @end table
34636
34637 In response to each query, the target will reply with a list of one or
34638 more thread IDs, separated by commas.
34639 @value{GDBN} will respond to each reply with a request for more thread
34640 ids (using the @samp{qs} form of the query), until the target responds
34641 with @samp{l} (lower-case ell, for @dfn{last}).
34642 Refer to @ref{thread-id syntax}, for the format of the @var{thread-id}
34643 fields.
34644
34645 @item qGetTLSAddr:@var{thread-id},@var{offset},@var{lm}
34646 @cindex get thread-local storage address, remote request
34647 @cindex @samp{qGetTLSAddr} packet
34648 Fetch the address associated with thread local storage specified
34649 by @var{thread-id}, @var{offset}, and @var{lm}.
34650
34651 @var{thread-id} is the thread ID associated with the
34652 thread for which to fetch the TLS address. @xref{thread-id syntax}.
34653
34654 @var{offset} is the (big endian, hex encoded) offset associated with the
34655 thread local variable. (This offset is obtained from the debug
34656 information associated with the variable.)
34657
34658 @var{lm} is the (big endian, hex encoded) OS/ABI-specific encoding of the
34659 load module associated with the thread local storage. For example,
34660 a @sc{gnu}/Linux system will pass the link map address of the shared
34661 object associated with the thread local storage under consideration.
34662 Other operating environments may choose to represent the load module
34663 differently, so the precise meaning of this parameter will vary.
34664
34665 Reply:
34666 @table @samp
34667 @item @var{XX}@dots{}
34668 Hex encoded (big endian) bytes representing the address of the thread
34669 local storage requested.
34670
34671 @item E @var{nn}
34672 An error occurred. @var{nn} are hex digits.
34673
34674 @item
34675 An empty reply indicates that @samp{qGetTLSAddr} is not supported by the stub.
34676 @end table
34677
34678 @item qGetTIBAddr:@var{thread-id}
34679 @cindex get thread information block address
34680 @cindex @samp{qGetTIBAddr} packet
34681 Fetch address of the Windows OS specific Thread Information Block.
34682
34683 @var{thread-id} is the thread ID associated with the thread.
34684
34685 Reply:
34686 @table @samp
34687 @item @var{XX}@dots{}
34688 Hex encoded (big endian) bytes representing the linear address of the
34689 thread information block.
34690
34691 @item E @var{nn}
34692 An error occured. This means that either the thread was not found, or the
34693 address could not be retrieved.
34694
34695 @item
34696 An empty reply indicates that @samp{qGetTIBAddr} is not supported by the stub.
34697 @end table
34698
34699 @item qL @var{startflag} @var{threadcount} @var{nextthread}
34700 Obtain thread information from RTOS. Where: @var{startflag} (one hex
34701 digit) is one to indicate the first query and zero to indicate a
34702 subsequent query; @var{threadcount} (two hex digits) is the maximum
34703 number of threads the response packet can contain; and @var{nextthread}
34704 (eight hex digits), for subsequent queries (@var{startflag} is zero), is
34705 returned in the response as @var{argthread}.
34706
34707 Don't use this packet; use the @samp{qfThreadInfo} query instead (see above).
34708
34709 Reply:
34710 @table @samp
34711 @item qM @var{count} @var{done} @var{argthread} @var{thread}@dots{}
34712 Where: @var{count} (two hex digits) is the number of threads being
34713 returned; @var{done} (one hex digit) is zero to indicate more threads
34714 and one indicates no further threads; @var{argthreadid} (eight hex
34715 digits) is @var{nextthread} from the request packet; @var{thread}@dots{}
34716 is a sequence of thread IDs from the target. @var{threadid} (eight hex
34717 digits). See @code{remote.c:parse_threadlist_response()}.
34718 @end table
34719
34720 @item qOffsets
34721 @cindex section offsets, remote request
34722 @cindex @samp{qOffsets} packet
34723 Get section offsets that the target used when relocating the downloaded
34724 image.
34725
34726 Reply:
34727 @table @samp
34728 @item Text=@var{xxx};Data=@var{yyy}@r{[};Bss=@var{zzz}@r{]}
34729 Relocate the @code{Text} section by @var{xxx} from its original address.
34730 Relocate the @code{Data} section by @var{yyy} from its original address.
34731 If the object file format provides segment information (e.g.@: @sc{elf}
34732 @samp{PT_LOAD} program headers), @value{GDBN} will relocate entire
34733 segments by the supplied offsets.
34734
34735 @emph{Note: while a @code{Bss} offset may be included in the response,
34736 @value{GDBN} ignores this and instead applies the @code{Data} offset
34737 to the @code{Bss} section.}
34738
34739 @item TextSeg=@var{xxx}@r{[};DataSeg=@var{yyy}@r{]}
34740 Relocate the first segment of the object file, which conventionally
34741 contains program code, to a starting address of @var{xxx}. If
34742 @samp{DataSeg} is specified, relocate the second segment, which
34743 conventionally contains modifiable data, to a starting address of
34744 @var{yyy}. @value{GDBN} will report an error if the object file
34745 does not contain segment information, or does not contain at least
34746 as many segments as mentioned in the reply. Extra segments are
34747 kept at fixed offsets relative to the last relocated segment.
34748 @end table
34749
34750 @item qP @var{mode} @var{thread-id}
34751 @cindex thread information, remote request
34752 @cindex @samp{qP} packet
34753 Returns information on @var{thread-id}. Where: @var{mode} is a hex
34754 encoded 32 bit mode; @var{thread-id} is a thread ID
34755 (@pxref{thread-id syntax}).
34756
34757 Don't use this packet; use the @samp{qThreadExtraInfo} query instead
34758 (see below).
34759
34760 Reply: see @code{remote.c:remote_unpack_thread_info_response()}.
34761
34762 @item QNonStop:1
34763 @item QNonStop:0
34764 @cindex non-stop mode, remote request
34765 @cindex @samp{QNonStop} packet
34766 @anchor{QNonStop}
34767 Enter non-stop (@samp{QNonStop:1}) or all-stop (@samp{QNonStop:0}) mode.
34768 @xref{Remote Non-Stop}, for more information.
34769
34770 Reply:
34771 @table @samp
34772 @item OK
34773 The request succeeded.
34774
34775 @item E @var{nn}
34776 An error occurred. @var{nn} are hex digits.
34777
34778 @item
34779 An empty reply indicates that @samp{QNonStop} is not supported by
34780 the stub.
34781 @end table
34782
34783 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
34784 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
34785 Use of this packet is controlled by the @code{set non-stop} command;
34786 @pxref{Non-Stop Mode}.
34787
34788 @item QPassSignals: @var{signal} @r{[};@var{signal}@r{]}@dots{}
34789 @cindex pass signals to inferior, remote request
34790 @cindex @samp{QPassSignals} packet
34791 @anchor{QPassSignals}
34792 Each listed @var{signal} should be passed directly to the inferior process.
34793 Signals are numbered identically to continue packets and stop replies
34794 (@pxref{Stop Reply Packets}). Each @var{signal} list item should be
34795 strictly greater than the previous item. These signals do not need to stop
34796 the inferior, or be reported to @value{GDBN}. All other signals should be
34797 reported to @value{GDBN}. Multiple @samp{QPassSignals} packets do not
34798 combine; any earlier @samp{QPassSignals} list is completely replaced by the
34799 new list. This packet improves performance when using @samp{handle
34800 @var{signal} nostop noprint pass}.
34801
34802 Reply:
34803 @table @samp
34804 @item OK
34805 The request succeeded.
34806
34807 @item E @var{nn}
34808 An error occurred. @var{nn} are hex digits.
34809
34810 @item
34811 An empty reply indicates that @samp{QPassSignals} is not supported by
34812 the stub.
34813 @end table
34814
34815 Use of this packet is controlled by the @code{set remote pass-signals}
34816 command (@pxref{Remote Configuration, set remote pass-signals}).
34817 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
34818 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
34819
34820 @item qRcmd,@var{command}
34821 @cindex execute remote command, remote request
34822 @cindex @samp{qRcmd} packet
34823 @var{command} (hex encoded) is passed to the local interpreter for
34824 execution. Invalid commands should be reported using the output
34825 string. Before the final result packet, the target may also respond
34826 with a number of intermediate @samp{O@var{output}} console output
34827 packets. @emph{Implementors should note that providing access to a
34828 stubs's interpreter may have security implications}.
34829
34830 Reply:
34831 @table @samp
34832 @item OK
34833 A command response with no output.
34834 @item @var{OUTPUT}
34835 A command response with the hex encoded output string @var{OUTPUT}.
34836 @item E @var{NN}
34837 Indicate a badly formed request.
34838 @item
34839 An empty reply indicates that @samp{qRcmd} is not recognized.
34840 @end table
34841
34842 (Note that the @code{qRcmd} packet's name is separated from the
34843 command by a @samp{,}, not a @samp{:}, contrary to the naming
34844 conventions above. Please don't use this packet as a model for new
34845 packets.)
34846
34847 @item qSearch:memory:@var{address};@var{length};@var{search-pattern}
34848 @cindex searching memory, in remote debugging
34849 @cindex @samp{qSearch:memory} packet
34850 @anchor{qSearch memory}
34851 Search @var{length} bytes at @var{address} for @var{search-pattern}.
34852 @var{address} and @var{length} are encoded in hex.
34853 @var{search-pattern} is a sequence of bytes, hex encoded.
34854
34855 Reply:
34856 @table @samp
34857 @item 0
34858 The pattern was not found.
34859 @item 1,address
34860 The pattern was found at @var{address}.
34861 @item E @var{NN}
34862 A badly formed request or an error was encountered while searching memory.
34863 @item
34864 An empty reply indicates that @samp{qSearch:memory} is not recognized.
34865 @end table
34866
34867 @item QStartNoAckMode
34868 @cindex @samp{QStartNoAckMode} packet
34869 @anchor{QStartNoAckMode}
34870 Request that the remote stub disable the normal @samp{+}/@samp{-}
34871 protocol acknowledgments (@pxref{Packet Acknowledgment}).
34872
34873 Reply:
34874 @table @samp
34875 @item OK
34876 The stub has switched to no-acknowledgment mode.
34877 @value{GDBN} acknowledges this reponse,
34878 but neither the stub nor @value{GDBN} shall send or expect further
34879 @samp{+}/@samp{-} acknowledgments in the current connection.
34880 @item
34881 An empty reply indicates that the stub does not support no-acknowledgment mode.
34882 @end table
34883
34884 @item qSupported @r{[}:@var{gdbfeature} @r{[};@var{gdbfeature}@r{]}@dots{} @r{]}
34885 @cindex supported packets, remote query
34886 @cindex features of the remote protocol
34887 @cindex @samp{qSupported} packet
34888 @anchor{qSupported}
34889 Tell the remote stub about features supported by @value{GDBN}, and
34890 query the stub for features it supports. This packet allows
34891 @value{GDBN} and the remote stub to take advantage of each others'
34892 features. @samp{qSupported} also consolidates multiple feature probes
34893 at startup, to improve @value{GDBN} performance---a single larger
34894 packet performs better than multiple smaller probe packets on
34895 high-latency links. Some features may enable behavior which must not
34896 be on by default, e.g.@: because it would confuse older clients or
34897 stubs. Other features may describe packets which could be
34898 automatically probed for, but are not. These features must be
34899 reported before @value{GDBN} will use them. This ``default
34900 unsupported'' behavior is not appropriate for all packets, but it
34901 helps to keep the initial connection time under control with new
34902 versions of @value{GDBN} which support increasing numbers of packets.
34903
34904 Reply:
34905 @table @samp
34906 @item @var{stubfeature} @r{[};@var{stubfeature}@r{]}@dots{}
34907 The stub supports or does not support each returned @var{stubfeature},
34908 depending on the form of each @var{stubfeature} (see below for the
34909 possible forms).
34910 @item
34911 An empty reply indicates that @samp{qSupported} is not recognized,
34912 or that no features needed to be reported to @value{GDBN}.
34913 @end table
34914
34915 The allowed forms for each feature (either a @var{gdbfeature} in the
34916 @samp{qSupported} packet, or a @var{stubfeature} in the response)
34917 are:
34918
34919 @table @samp
34920 @item @var{name}=@var{value}
34921 The remote protocol feature @var{name} is supported, and associated
34922 with the specified @var{value}. The format of @var{value} depends
34923 on the feature, but it must not include a semicolon.
34924 @item @var{name}+
34925 The remote protocol feature @var{name} is supported, and does not
34926 need an associated value.
34927 @item @var{name}-
34928 The remote protocol feature @var{name} is not supported.
34929 @item @var{name}?
34930 The remote protocol feature @var{name} may be supported, and
34931 @value{GDBN} should auto-detect support in some other way when it is
34932 needed. This form will not be used for @var{gdbfeature} notifications,
34933 but may be used for @var{stubfeature} responses.
34934 @end table
34935
34936 Whenever the stub receives a @samp{qSupported} request, the
34937 supplied set of @value{GDBN} features should override any previous
34938 request. This allows @value{GDBN} to put the stub in a known
34939 state, even if the stub had previously been communicating with
34940 a different version of @value{GDBN}.
34941
34942 The following values of @var{gdbfeature} (for the packet sent by @value{GDBN})
34943 are defined:
34944
34945 @table @samp
34946 @item multiprocess
34947 This feature indicates whether @value{GDBN} supports multiprocess
34948 extensions to the remote protocol. @value{GDBN} does not use such
34949 extensions unless the stub also reports that it supports them by
34950 including @samp{multiprocess+} in its @samp{qSupported} reply.
34951 @xref{multiprocess extensions}, for details.
34952
34953 @item xmlRegisters
34954 This feature indicates that @value{GDBN} supports the XML target
34955 description. If the stub sees @samp{xmlRegisters=} with target
34956 specific strings separated by a comma, it will report register
34957 description.
34958
34959 @item qRelocInsn
34960 This feature indicates whether @value{GDBN} supports the
34961 @samp{qRelocInsn} packet (@pxref{Tracepoint Packets,,Relocate
34962 instruction reply packet}).
34963 @end table
34964
34965 Stubs should ignore any unknown values for
34966 @var{gdbfeature}. Any @value{GDBN} which sends a @samp{qSupported}
34967 packet supports receiving packets of unlimited length (earlier
34968 versions of @value{GDBN} may reject overly long responses). Additional values
34969 for @var{gdbfeature} may be defined in the future to let the stub take
34970 advantage of new features in @value{GDBN}, e.g.@: incompatible
34971 improvements in the remote protocol---the @samp{multiprocess} feature is
34972 an example of such a feature. The stub's reply should be independent
34973 of the @var{gdbfeature} entries sent by @value{GDBN}; first @value{GDBN}
34974 describes all the features it supports, and then the stub replies with
34975 all the features it supports.
34976
34977 Similarly, @value{GDBN} will silently ignore unrecognized stub feature
34978 responses, as long as each response uses one of the standard forms.
34979
34980 Some features are flags. A stub which supports a flag feature
34981 should respond with a @samp{+} form response. Other features
34982 require values, and the stub should respond with an @samp{=}
34983 form response.
34984
34985 Each feature has a default value, which @value{GDBN} will use if
34986 @samp{qSupported} is not available or if the feature is not mentioned
34987 in the @samp{qSupported} response. The default values are fixed; a
34988 stub is free to omit any feature responses that match the defaults.
34989
34990 Not all features can be probed, but for those which can, the probing
34991 mechanism is useful: in some cases, a stub's internal
34992 architecture may not allow the protocol layer to know some information
34993 about the underlying target in advance. This is especially common in
34994 stubs which may be configured for multiple targets.
34995
34996 These are the currently defined stub features and their properties:
34997
34998 @multitable @columnfractions 0.35 0.2 0.12 0.2
34999 @c NOTE: The first row should be @headitem, but we do not yet require
35000 @c a new enough version of Texinfo (4.7) to use @headitem.
35001 @item Feature Name
35002 @tab Value Required
35003 @tab Default
35004 @tab Probe Allowed
35005
35006 @item @samp{PacketSize}
35007 @tab Yes
35008 @tab @samp{-}
35009 @tab No
35010
35011 @item @samp{qXfer:auxv:read}
35012 @tab No
35013 @tab @samp{-}
35014 @tab Yes
35015
35016 @item @samp{qXfer:features:read}
35017 @tab No
35018 @tab @samp{-}
35019 @tab Yes
35020
35021 @item @samp{qXfer:libraries:read}
35022 @tab No
35023 @tab @samp{-}
35024 @tab Yes
35025
35026 @item @samp{qXfer:memory-map:read}
35027 @tab No
35028 @tab @samp{-}
35029 @tab Yes
35030
35031 @item @samp{qXfer:sdata:read}
35032 @tab No
35033 @tab @samp{-}
35034 @tab Yes
35035
35036 @item @samp{qXfer:spu:read}
35037 @tab No
35038 @tab @samp{-}
35039 @tab Yes
35040
35041 @item @samp{qXfer:spu:write}
35042 @tab No
35043 @tab @samp{-}
35044 @tab Yes
35045
35046 @item @samp{qXfer:siginfo:read}
35047 @tab No
35048 @tab @samp{-}
35049 @tab Yes
35050
35051 @item @samp{qXfer:siginfo:write}
35052 @tab No
35053 @tab @samp{-}
35054 @tab Yes
35055
35056 @item @samp{qXfer:threads:read}
35057 @tab No
35058 @tab @samp{-}
35059 @tab Yes
35060
35061 @item @samp{qXfer:traceframe-info:read}
35062 @tab No
35063 @tab @samp{-}
35064 @tab Yes
35065
35066 @item @samp{qXfer:fdpic:read}
35067 @tab No
35068 @tab @samp{-}
35069 @tab Yes
35070
35071 @item @samp{QNonStop}
35072 @tab No
35073 @tab @samp{-}
35074 @tab Yes
35075
35076 @item @samp{QPassSignals}
35077 @tab No
35078 @tab @samp{-}
35079 @tab Yes
35080
35081 @item @samp{QStartNoAckMode}
35082 @tab No
35083 @tab @samp{-}
35084 @tab Yes
35085
35086 @item @samp{multiprocess}
35087 @tab No
35088 @tab @samp{-}
35089 @tab No
35090
35091 @item @samp{ConditionalTracepoints}
35092 @tab No
35093 @tab @samp{-}
35094 @tab No
35095
35096 @item @samp{ReverseContinue}
35097 @tab No
35098 @tab @samp{-}
35099 @tab No
35100
35101 @item @samp{ReverseStep}
35102 @tab No
35103 @tab @samp{-}
35104 @tab No
35105
35106 @item @samp{TracepointSource}
35107 @tab No
35108 @tab @samp{-}
35109 @tab No
35110
35111 @item @samp{QAllow}
35112 @tab No
35113 @tab @samp{-}
35114 @tab No
35115
35116 @item @samp{QDisableRandomization}
35117 @tab No
35118 @tab @samp{-}
35119 @tab No
35120
35121 @item @samp{EnableDisableTracepoints}
35122 @tab No
35123 @tab @samp{-}
35124 @tab No
35125
35126 @item @samp{tracenz}
35127 @tab No
35128 @tab @samp{-}
35129 @tab No
35130
35131 @end multitable
35132
35133 These are the currently defined stub features, in more detail:
35134
35135 @table @samp
35136 @cindex packet size, remote protocol
35137 @item PacketSize=@var{bytes}
35138 The remote stub can accept packets up to at least @var{bytes} in
35139 length. @value{GDBN} will send packets up to this size for bulk
35140 transfers, and will never send larger packets. This is a limit on the
35141 data characters in the packet, including the frame and checksum.
35142 There is no trailing NUL byte in a remote protocol packet; if the stub
35143 stores packets in a NUL-terminated format, it should allow an extra
35144 byte in its buffer for the NUL. If this stub feature is not supported,
35145 @value{GDBN} guesses based on the size of the @samp{g} packet response.
35146
35147 @item qXfer:auxv:read
35148 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:auxv:read} packet
35149 (@pxref{qXfer auxiliary vector read}).
35150
35151 @item qXfer:features:read
35152 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:features:read} packet
35153 (@pxref{qXfer target description read}).
35154
35155 @item qXfer:libraries:read
35156 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:libraries:read} packet
35157 (@pxref{qXfer library list read}).
35158
35159 @item qXfer:libraries-svr4:read
35160 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:libraries-svr4:read} packet
35161 (@pxref{qXfer svr4 library list read}).
35162
35163 @item qXfer:memory-map:read
35164 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:memory-map:read} packet
35165 (@pxref{qXfer memory map read}).
35166
35167 @item qXfer:sdata:read
35168 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:sdata:read} packet
35169 (@pxref{qXfer sdata read}).
35170
35171 @item qXfer:spu:read
35172 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:spu:read} packet
35173 (@pxref{qXfer spu read}).
35174
35175 @item qXfer:spu:write
35176 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:spu:write} packet
35177 (@pxref{qXfer spu write}).
35178
35179 @item qXfer:siginfo:read
35180 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:siginfo:read} packet
35181 (@pxref{qXfer siginfo read}).
35182
35183 @item qXfer:siginfo:write
35184 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:siginfo:write} packet
35185 (@pxref{qXfer siginfo write}).
35186
35187 @item qXfer:threads:read
35188 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:threads:read} packet
35189 (@pxref{qXfer threads read}).
35190
35191 @item qXfer:traceframe-info:read
35192 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:traceframe-info:read}
35193 packet (@pxref{qXfer traceframe info read}).
35194
35195 @item qXfer:fdpic:read
35196 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:fdpic:read}
35197 packet (@pxref{qXfer fdpic loadmap read}).
35198
35199 @item QNonStop
35200 The remote stub understands the @samp{QNonStop} packet
35201 (@pxref{QNonStop}).
35202
35203 @item QPassSignals
35204 The remote stub understands the @samp{QPassSignals} packet
35205 (@pxref{QPassSignals}).
35206
35207 @item QStartNoAckMode
35208 The remote stub understands the @samp{QStartNoAckMode} packet and
35209 prefers to operate in no-acknowledgment mode. @xref{Packet Acknowledgment}.
35210
35211 @item multiprocess
35212 @anchor{multiprocess extensions}
35213 @cindex multiprocess extensions, in remote protocol
35214 The remote stub understands the multiprocess extensions to the remote
35215 protocol syntax. The multiprocess extensions affect the syntax of
35216 thread IDs in both packets and replies (@pxref{thread-id syntax}), and
35217 add process IDs to the @samp{D} packet and @samp{W} and @samp{X}
35218 replies. Note that reporting this feature indicates support for the
35219 syntactic extensions only, not that the stub necessarily supports
35220 debugging of more than one process at a time. The stub must not use
35221 multiprocess extensions in packet replies unless @value{GDBN} has also
35222 indicated it supports them in its @samp{qSupported} request.
35223
35224 @item qXfer:osdata:read
35225 The remote stub understands the @samp{qXfer:osdata:read} packet
35226 ((@pxref{qXfer osdata read}).
35227
35228 @item ConditionalTracepoints
35229 The remote stub accepts and implements conditional expressions defined
35230 for tracepoints (@pxref{Tracepoint Conditions}).
35231
35232 @item ReverseContinue
35233 The remote stub accepts and implements the reverse continue packet
35234 (@pxref{bc}).
35235
35236 @item ReverseStep
35237 The remote stub accepts and implements the reverse step packet
35238 (@pxref{bs}).
35239
35240 @item TracepointSource
35241 The remote stub understands the @samp{QTDPsrc} packet that supplies
35242 the source form of tracepoint definitions.
35243
35244 @item QAllow
35245 The remote stub understands the @samp{QAllow} packet.
35246
35247 @item QDisableRandomization
35248 The remote stub understands the @samp{QDisableRandomization} packet.
35249
35250 @item StaticTracepoint
35251 @cindex static tracepoints, in remote protocol
35252 The remote stub supports static tracepoints.
35253
35254 @item InstallInTrace
35255 @anchor{install tracepoint in tracing}
35256 The remote stub supports installing tracepoint in tracing.
35257
35258 @item EnableDisableTracepoints
35259 The remote stub supports the @samp{QTEnable} (@pxref{QTEnable}) and
35260 @samp{QTDisable} (@pxref{QTDisable}) packets that allow tracepoints
35261 to be enabled and disabled while a trace experiment is running.
35262
35263 @item tracenz
35264 @cindex string tracing, in remote protocol
35265 The remote stub supports the @samp{tracenz} bytecode for collecting strings.
35266 See @ref{Bytecode Descriptions} for details about the bytecode.
35267
35268 @end table
35269
35270 @item qSymbol::
35271 @cindex symbol lookup, remote request
35272 @cindex @samp{qSymbol} packet
35273 Notify the target that @value{GDBN} is prepared to serve symbol lookup
35274 requests. Accept requests from the target for the values of symbols.
35275
35276 Reply:
35277 @table @samp
35278 @item OK
35279 The target does not need to look up any (more) symbols.
35280 @item qSymbol:@var{sym_name}
35281 The target requests the value of symbol @var{sym_name} (hex encoded).
35282 @value{GDBN} may provide the value by using the
35283 @samp{qSymbol:@var{sym_value}:@var{sym_name}} message, described
35284 below.
35285 @end table
35286
35287 @item qSymbol:@var{sym_value}:@var{sym_name}
35288 Set the value of @var{sym_name} to @var{sym_value}.
35289
35290 @var{sym_name} (hex encoded) is the name of a symbol whose value the
35291 target has previously requested.
35292
35293 @var{sym_value} (hex) is the value for symbol @var{sym_name}. If
35294 @value{GDBN} cannot supply a value for @var{sym_name}, then this field
35295 will be empty.
35296
35297 Reply:
35298 @table @samp
35299 @item OK
35300 The target does not need to look up any (more) symbols.
35301 @item qSymbol:@var{sym_name}
35302 The target requests the value of a new symbol @var{sym_name} (hex
35303 encoded). @value{GDBN} will continue to supply the values of symbols
35304 (if available), until the target ceases to request them.
35305 @end table
35306
35307 @item qTBuffer
35308 @item QTBuffer
35309 @item QTDisconnected
35310 @itemx QTDP
35311 @itemx QTDPsrc
35312 @itemx QTDV
35313 @itemx qTfP
35314 @itemx qTfV
35315 @itemx QTFrame
35316 @itemx qTMinFTPILen
35317
35318 @xref{Tracepoint Packets}.
35319
35320 @item qThreadExtraInfo,@var{thread-id}
35321 @cindex thread attributes info, remote request
35322 @cindex @samp{qThreadExtraInfo} packet
35323 Obtain a printable string description of a thread's attributes from
35324 the target OS. @var{thread-id} is a thread ID;
35325 see @ref{thread-id syntax}. This
35326 string may contain anything that the target OS thinks is interesting
35327 for @value{GDBN} to tell the user about the thread. The string is
35328 displayed in @value{GDBN}'s @code{info threads} display. Some
35329 examples of possible thread extra info strings are @samp{Runnable}, or
35330 @samp{Blocked on Mutex}.
35331
35332 Reply:
35333 @table @samp
35334 @item @var{XX}@dots{}
35335 Where @samp{@var{XX}@dots{}} is a hex encoding of @sc{ascii} data,
35336 comprising the printable string containing the extra information about
35337 the thread's attributes.
35338 @end table
35339
35340 (Note that the @code{qThreadExtraInfo} packet's name is separated from
35341 the command by a @samp{,}, not a @samp{:}, contrary to the naming
35342 conventions above. Please don't use this packet as a model for new
35343 packets.)
35344
35345 @item QTNotes
35346 @item qTP
35347 @item QTSave
35348 @item qTsP
35349 @item qTsV
35350 @itemx QTStart
35351 @itemx QTStop
35352 @itemx QTEnable
35353 @itemx QTDisable
35354 @itemx QTinit
35355 @itemx QTro
35356 @itemx qTStatus
35357 @itemx qTV
35358 @itemx qTfSTM
35359 @itemx qTsSTM
35360 @itemx qTSTMat
35361 @xref{Tracepoint Packets}.
35362
35363 @item qXfer:@var{object}:read:@var{annex}:@var{offset},@var{length}
35364 @cindex read special object, remote request
35365 @cindex @samp{qXfer} packet
35366 @anchor{qXfer read}
35367 Read uninterpreted bytes from the target's special data area
35368 identified by the keyword @var{object}. Request @var{length} bytes
35369 starting at @var{offset} bytes into the data. The content and
35370 encoding of @var{annex} is specific to @var{object}; it can supply
35371 additional details about what data to access.
35372
35373 Here are the specific requests of this form defined so far. All
35374 @samp{qXfer:@var{object}:read:@dots{}} requests use the same reply
35375 formats, listed below.
35376
35377 @table @samp
35378 @item qXfer:auxv:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35379 @anchor{qXfer auxiliary vector read}
35380 Access the target's @dfn{auxiliary vector}. @xref{OS Information,
35381 auxiliary vector}. Note @var{annex} must be empty.
35382
35383 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35384 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35385
35386 @item qXfer:features:read:@var{annex}:@var{offset},@var{length}
35387 @anchor{qXfer target description read}
35388 Access the @dfn{target description}. @xref{Target Descriptions}. The
35389 annex specifies which XML document to access. The main description is
35390 always loaded from the @samp{target.xml} annex.
35391
35392 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35393 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35394
35395 @item qXfer:libraries:read:@var{annex}:@var{offset},@var{length}
35396 @anchor{qXfer library list read}
35397 Access the target's list of loaded libraries. @xref{Library List Format}.
35398 The annex part of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must be empty
35399 (@pxref{qXfer read}).
35400
35401 Targets which maintain a list of libraries in the program's memory do
35402 not need to implement this packet; it is designed for platforms where
35403 the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries.
35404
35405 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35406 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35407
35408 @item qXfer:libraries-svr4:read:@var{annex}:@var{offset},@var{length}
35409 @anchor{qXfer svr4 library list read}
35410 Access the target's list of loaded libraries when the target is an SVR4
35411 platform. @xref{Library List Format for SVR4 Targets}. The annex part
35412 of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must be empty (@pxref{qXfer read}).
35413
35414 This packet is optional for better performance on SVR4 targets.
35415 @value{GDBN} uses memory read packets to read the SVR4 library list otherwise.
35416
35417 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35418 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35419
35420 @item qXfer:memory-map:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35421 @anchor{qXfer memory map read}
35422 Access the target's @dfn{memory-map}. @xref{Memory Map Format}. The
35423 annex part of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must be empty
35424 (@pxref{qXfer read}).
35425
35426 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35427 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35428
35429 @item qXfer:sdata:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35430 @anchor{qXfer sdata read}
35431
35432 Read contents of the extra collected static tracepoint marker
35433 information. The annex part of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must
35434 be empty (@pxref{qXfer read}). @xref{Tracepoint Actions,,Tracepoint
35435 Action Lists}.
35436
35437 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35438 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response
35439 (@pxref{qSupported}).
35440
35441 @item qXfer:siginfo:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35442 @anchor{qXfer siginfo read}
35443 Read contents of the extra signal information on the target
35444 system. The annex part of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must be
35445 empty (@pxref{qXfer read}).
35446
35447 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35448 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response
35449 (@pxref{qSupported}).
35450
35451 @item qXfer:spu:read:@var{annex}:@var{offset},@var{length}
35452 @anchor{qXfer spu read}
35453 Read contents of an @code{spufs} file on the target system. The
35454 annex specifies which file to read; it must be of the form
35455 @file{@var{id}/@var{name}}, where @var{id} specifies an SPU context ID
35456 in the target process, and @var{name} identifes the @code{spufs} file
35457 in that context to be accessed.
35458
35459 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35460 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response
35461 (@pxref{qSupported}).
35462
35463 @item qXfer:threads:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35464 @anchor{qXfer threads read}
35465 Access the list of threads on target. @xref{Thread List Format}. The
35466 annex part of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must be empty
35467 (@pxref{qXfer read}).
35468
35469 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35470 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35471
35472 @item qXfer:traceframe-info:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35473 @anchor{qXfer traceframe info read}
35474
35475 Return a description of the current traceframe's contents.
35476 @xref{Traceframe Info Format}. The annex part of the generic
35477 @samp{qXfer} packet must be empty (@pxref{qXfer read}).
35478
35479 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35480 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35481
35482 @item qXfer:fdpic:read:@var{annex}:@var{offset},@var{length}
35483 @anchor{qXfer fdpic loadmap read}
35484 Read contents of @code{loadmap}s on the target system. The
35485 annex, either @samp{exec} or @samp{interp}, specifies which @code{loadmap},
35486 executable @code{loadmap} or interpreter @code{loadmap} to read.
35487
35488 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35489 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35490
35491 @item qXfer:osdata:read::@var{offset},@var{length}
35492 @anchor{qXfer osdata read}
35493 Access the target's @dfn{operating system information}.
35494 @xref{Operating System Information}.
35495
35496 @end table
35497
35498 Reply:
35499 @table @samp
35500 @item m @var{data}
35501 Data @var{data} (@pxref{Binary Data}) has been read from the
35502 target. There may be more data at a higher address (although
35503 it is permitted to return @samp{m} even for the last valid
35504 block of data, as long as at least one byte of data was read).
35505 @var{data} may have fewer bytes than the @var{length} in the
35506 request.
35507
35508 @item l @var{data}
35509 Data @var{data} (@pxref{Binary Data}) has been read from the target.
35510 There is no more data to be read. @var{data} may have fewer bytes
35511 than the @var{length} in the request.
35512
35513 @item l
35514 The @var{offset} in the request is at the end of the data.
35515 There is no more data to be read.
35516
35517 @item E00
35518 The request was malformed, or @var{annex} was invalid.
35519
35520 @item E @var{nn}
35521 The offset was invalid, or there was an error encountered reading the data.
35522 @var{nn} is a hex-encoded @code{errno} value.
35523
35524 @item
35525 An empty reply indicates the @var{object} string was not recognized by
35526 the stub, or that the object does not support reading.
35527 @end table
35528
35529 @item qXfer:@var{object}:write:@var{annex}:@var{offset}:@var{data}@dots{}
35530 @cindex write data into object, remote request
35531 @anchor{qXfer write}
35532 Write uninterpreted bytes into the target's special data area
35533 identified by the keyword @var{object}, starting at @var{offset} bytes
35534 into the data. @var{data}@dots{} is the binary-encoded data
35535 (@pxref{Binary Data}) to be written. The content and encoding of @var{annex}
35536 is specific to @var{object}; it can supply additional details about what data
35537 to access.
35538
35539 Here are the specific requests of this form defined so far. All
35540 @samp{qXfer:@var{object}:write:@dots{}} requests use the same reply
35541 formats, listed below.
35542
35543 @table @samp
35544 @item qXfer:siginfo:write::@var{offset}:@var{data}@dots{}
35545 @anchor{qXfer siginfo write}
35546 Write @var{data} to the extra signal information on the target system.
35547 The annex part of the generic @samp{qXfer} packet must be
35548 empty (@pxref{qXfer write}).
35549
35550 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35551 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response
35552 (@pxref{qSupported}).
35553
35554 @item qXfer:spu:write:@var{annex}:@var{offset}:@var{data}@dots{}
35555 @anchor{qXfer spu write}
35556 Write @var{data} to an @code{spufs} file on the target system. The
35557 annex specifies which file to write; it must be of the form
35558 @file{@var{id}/@var{name}}, where @var{id} specifies an SPU context ID
35559 in the target process, and @var{name} identifes the @code{spufs} file
35560 in that context to be accessed.
35561
35562 This packet is not probed by default; the remote stub must request it,
35563 by supplying an appropriate @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
35564 @end table
35565
35566 Reply:
35567 @table @samp
35568 @item @var{nn}
35569 @var{nn} (hex encoded) is the number of bytes written.
35570 This may be fewer bytes than supplied in the request.
35571
35572 @item E00
35573 The request was malformed, or @var{annex} was invalid.
35574
35575 @item E @var{nn}
35576 The offset was invalid, or there was an error encountered writing the data.
35577 @var{nn} is a hex-encoded @code{errno} value.
35578
35579 @item
35580 An empty reply indicates the @var{object} string was not
35581 recognized by the stub, or that the object does not support writing.
35582 @end table
35583
35584 @item qXfer:@var{object}:@var{operation}:@dots{}
35585 Requests of this form may be added in the future. When a stub does
35586 not recognize the @var{object} keyword, or its support for
35587 @var{object} does not recognize the @var{operation} keyword, the stub
35588 must respond with an empty packet.
35589
35590 @item qAttached:@var{pid}
35591 @cindex query attached, remote request
35592 @cindex @samp{qAttached} packet
35593 Return an indication of whether the remote server attached to an
35594 existing process or created a new process. When the multiprocess
35595 protocol extensions are supported (@pxref{multiprocess extensions}),
35596 @var{pid} is an integer in hexadecimal format identifying the target
35597 process. Otherwise, @value{GDBN} will omit the @var{pid} field and
35598 the query packet will be simplified as @samp{qAttached}.
35599
35600 This query is used, for example, to know whether the remote process
35601 should be detached or killed when a @value{GDBN} session is ended with
35602 the @code{quit} command.
35603
35604 Reply:
35605 @table @samp
35606 @item 1
35607 The remote server attached to an existing process.
35608 @item 0
35609 The remote server created a new process.
35610 @item E @var{NN}
35611 A badly formed request or an error was encountered.
35612 @end table
35613
35614 @end table
35615
35616 @node Architecture-Specific Protocol Details
35617 @section Architecture-Specific Protocol Details
35618
35619 This section describes how the remote protocol is applied to specific
35620 target architectures. Also see @ref{Standard Target Features}, for
35621 details of XML target descriptions for each architecture.
35622
35623 @subsection ARM
35624
35625 @subsubsection Breakpoint Kinds
35626
35627 These breakpoint kinds are defined for the @samp{Z0} and @samp{Z1} packets.
35628
35629 @table @r
35630
35631 @item 2
35632 16-bit Thumb mode breakpoint.
35633
35634 @item 3
35635 32-bit Thumb mode (Thumb-2) breakpoint.
35636
35637 @item 4
35638 32-bit ARM mode breakpoint.
35639
35640 @end table
35641
35642 @subsection MIPS
35643
35644 @subsubsection Register Packet Format
35645
35646 The following @code{g}/@code{G} packets have previously been defined.
35647 In the below, some thirty-two bit registers are transferred as
35648 sixty-four bits. Those registers should be zero/sign extended (which?)
35649 to fill the space allocated. Register bytes are transferred in target
35650 byte order. The two nibbles within a register byte are transferred
35651 most-significant - least-significant.
35652
35653 @table @r
35654
35655 @item MIPS32
35656
35657 All registers are transferred as thirty-two bit quantities in the order:
35658 32 general-purpose; sr; lo; hi; bad; cause; pc; 32 floating-point
35659 registers; fsr; fir; fp.
35660
35661 @item MIPS64
35662
35663 All registers are transferred as sixty-four bit quantities (including
35664 thirty-two bit registers such as @code{sr}). The ordering is the same
35665 as @code{MIPS32}.
35666
35667 @end table
35668
35669 @node Tracepoint Packets
35670 @section Tracepoint Packets
35671 @cindex tracepoint packets
35672 @cindex packets, tracepoint
35673
35674 Here we describe the packets @value{GDBN} uses to implement
35675 tracepoints (@pxref{Tracepoints}).
35676
35677 @table @samp
35678
35679 @item QTDP:@var{n}:@var{addr}:@var{ena}:@var{step}:@var{pass}[:F@var{flen}][:X@var{len},@var{bytes}]@r{[}-@r{]}
35680 Create a new tracepoint, number @var{n}, at @var{addr}. If @var{ena}
35681 is @samp{E}, then the tracepoint is enabled; if it is @samp{D}, then
35682 the tracepoint is disabled. @var{step} is the tracepoint's step
35683 count, and @var{pass} is its pass count. If an @samp{F} is present,
35684 then the tracepoint is to be a fast tracepoint, and the @var{flen} is
35685 the number of bytes that the target should copy elsewhere to make room
35686 for the tracepoint. If an @samp{X} is present, it introduces a
35687 tracepoint condition, which consists of a hexadecimal length, followed
35688 by a comma and hex-encoded bytes, in a manner similar to action
35689 encodings as described below. If the trailing @samp{-} is present,
35690 further @samp{QTDP} packets will follow to specify this tracepoint's
35691 actions.
35692
35693 Replies:
35694 @table @samp
35695 @item OK
35696 The packet was understood and carried out.
35697 @item qRelocInsn
35698 @xref{Tracepoint Packets,,Relocate instruction reply packet}.
35699 @item
35700 The packet was not recognized.
35701 @end table
35702
35703 @item QTDP:-@var{n}:@var{addr}:@r{[}S@r{]}@var{action}@dots{}@r{[}-@r{]}
35704 Define actions to be taken when a tracepoint is hit. @var{n} and
35705 @var{addr} must be the same as in the initial @samp{QTDP} packet for
35706 this tracepoint. This packet may only be sent immediately after
35707 another @samp{QTDP} packet that ended with a @samp{-}. If the
35708 trailing @samp{-} is present, further @samp{QTDP} packets will follow,
35709 specifying more actions for this tracepoint.
35710
35711 In the series of action packets for a given tracepoint, at most one
35712 can have an @samp{S} before its first @var{action}. If such a packet
35713 is sent, it and the following packets define ``while-stepping''
35714 actions. Any prior packets define ordinary actions --- that is, those
35715 taken when the tracepoint is first hit. If no action packet has an
35716 @samp{S}, then all the packets in the series specify ordinary
35717 tracepoint actions.
35718
35719 The @samp{@var{action}@dots{}} portion of the packet is a series of
35720 actions, concatenated without separators. Each action has one of the
35721 following forms:
35722
35723 @table @samp
35724
35725 @item R @var{mask}
35726 Collect the registers whose bits are set in @var{mask}. @var{mask} is
35727 a hexadecimal number whose @var{i}'th bit is set if register number
35728 @var{i} should be collected. (The least significant bit is numbered
35729 zero.) Note that @var{mask} may be any number of digits long; it may
35730 not fit in a 32-bit word.
35731
35732 @item M @var{basereg},@var{offset},@var{len}
35733 Collect @var{len} bytes of memory starting at the address in register
35734 number @var{basereg}, plus @var{offset}. If @var{basereg} is
35735 @samp{-1}, then the range has a fixed address: @var{offset} is the
35736 address of the lowest byte to collect. The @var{basereg},
35737 @var{offset}, and @var{len} parameters are all unsigned hexadecimal
35738 values (the @samp{-1} value for @var{basereg} is a special case).
35739
35740 @item X @var{len},@var{expr}
35741 Evaluate @var{expr}, whose length is @var{len}, and collect memory as
35742 it directs. @var{expr} is an agent expression, as described in
35743 @ref{Agent Expressions}. Each byte of the expression is encoded as a
35744 two-digit hex number in the packet; @var{len} is the number of bytes
35745 in the expression (and thus one-half the number of hex digits in the
35746 packet).
35747
35748 @end table
35749
35750 Any number of actions may be packed together in a single @samp{QTDP}
35751 packet, as long as the packet does not exceed the maximum packet
35752 length (400 bytes, for many stubs). There may be only one @samp{R}
35753 action per tracepoint, and it must precede any @samp{M} or @samp{X}
35754 actions. Any registers referred to by @samp{M} and @samp{X} actions
35755 must be collected by a preceding @samp{R} action. (The
35756 ``while-stepping'' actions are treated as if they were attached to a
35757 separate tracepoint, as far as these restrictions are concerned.)
35758
35759 Replies:
35760 @table @samp
35761 @item OK
35762 The packet was understood and carried out.
35763 @item qRelocInsn
35764 @xref{Tracepoint Packets,,Relocate instruction reply packet}.
35765 @item
35766 The packet was not recognized.
35767 @end table
35768
35769 @item QTDPsrc:@var{n}:@var{addr}:@var{type}:@var{start}:@var{slen}:@var{bytes}
35770 @cindex @samp{QTDPsrc} packet
35771 Specify a source string of tracepoint @var{n} at address @var{addr}.
35772 This is useful to get accurate reproduction of the tracepoints
35773 originally downloaded at the beginning of the trace run. @var{type}
35774 is the name of the tracepoint part, such as @samp{cond} for the
35775 tracepoint's conditional expression (see below for a list of types), while
35776 @var{bytes} is the string, encoded in hexadecimal.
35777
35778 @var{start} is the offset of the @var{bytes} within the overall source
35779 string, while @var{slen} is the total length of the source string.
35780 This is intended for handling source strings that are longer than will
35781 fit in a single packet.
35782 @c Add detailed example when this info is moved into a dedicated
35783 @c tracepoint descriptions section.
35784
35785 The available string types are @samp{at} for the location,
35786 @samp{cond} for the conditional, and @samp{cmd} for an action command.
35787 @value{GDBN} sends a separate packet for each command in the action
35788 list, in the same order in which the commands are stored in the list.
35789
35790 The target does not need to do anything with source strings except
35791 report them back as part of the replies to the @samp{qTfP}/@samp{qTsP}
35792 query packets.
35793
35794 Although this packet is optional, and @value{GDBN} will only send it
35795 if the target replies with @samp{TracepointSource} @xref{General
35796 Query Packets}, it makes both disconnected tracing and trace files
35797 much easier to use. Otherwise the user must be careful that the
35798 tracepoints in effect while looking at trace frames are identical to
35799 the ones in effect during the trace run; even a small discrepancy
35800 could cause @samp{tdump} not to work, or a particular trace frame not
35801 be found.
35802
35803 @item QTDV:@var{n}:@var{value}
35804 @cindex define trace state variable, remote request
35805 @cindex @samp{QTDV} packet
35806 Create a new trace state variable, number @var{n}, with an initial
35807 value of @var{value}, which is a 64-bit signed integer. Both @var{n}
35808 and @var{value} are encoded as hexadecimal values. @value{GDBN} has
35809 the option of not using this packet for initial values of zero; the
35810 target should simply create the trace state variables as they are
35811 mentioned in expressions.
35812
35813 @item QTFrame:@var{n}
35814 Select the @var{n}'th tracepoint frame from the buffer, and use the
35815 register and memory contents recorded there to answer subsequent
35816 request packets from @value{GDBN}.
35817
35818 A successful reply from the stub indicates that the stub has found the
35819 requested frame. The response is a series of parts, concatenated
35820 without separators, describing the frame we selected. Each part has
35821 one of the following forms:
35822
35823 @table @samp
35824 @item F @var{f}
35825 The selected frame is number @var{n} in the trace frame buffer;
35826 @var{f} is a hexadecimal number. If @var{f} is @samp{-1}, then there
35827 was no frame matching the criteria in the request packet.
35828
35829 @item T @var{t}
35830 The selected trace frame records a hit of tracepoint number @var{t};
35831 @var{t} is a hexadecimal number.
35832
35833 @end table
35834
35835 @item QTFrame:pc:@var{addr}
35836 Like @samp{QTFrame:@var{n}}, but select the first tracepoint frame after the
35837 currently selected frame whose PC is @var{addr};
35838 @var{addr} is a hexadecimal number.
35839
35840 @item QTFrame:tdp:@var{t}
35841 Like @samp{QTFrame:@var{n}}, but select the first tracepoint frame after the
35842 currently selected frame that is a hit of tracepoint @var{t}; @var{t}
35843 is a hexadecimal number.
35844
35845 @item QTFrame:range:@var{start}:@var{end}
35846 Like @samp{QTFrame:@var{n}}, but select the first tracepoint frame after the
35847 currently selected frame whose PC is between @var{start} (inclusive)
35848 and @var{end} (inclusive); @var{start} and @var{end} are hexadecimal
35849 numbers.
35850
35851 @item QTFrame:outside:@var{start}:@var{end}
35852 Like @samp{QTFrame:range:@var{start}:@var{end}}, but select the first
35853 frame @emph{outside} the given range of addresses (exclusive).
35854
35855 @item qTMinFTPILen
35856 This packet requests the minimum length of instruction at which a fast
35857 tracepoint (@pxref{Set Tracepoints}) may be placed. For instance, on
35858 the 32-bit x86 architecture, it is possible to use a 4-byte jump, but
35859 it depends on the target system being able to create trampolines in
35860 the first 64K of memory, which might or might not be possible for that
35861 system. So the reply to this packet will be 4 if it is able to
35862 arrange for that.
35863
35864 Replies:
35865
35866 @table @samp
35867 @item 0
35868 The minimum instruction length is currently unknown.
35869 @item @var{length}
35870 The minimum instruction length is @var{length}, where @var{length} is greater
35871 or equal to 1. @var{length} is a hexadecimal number. A reply of 1 means
35872 that a fast tracepoint may be placed on any instruction regardless of size.
35873 @item E
35874 An error has occurred.
35875 @item
35876 An empty reply indicates that the request is not supported by the stub.
35877 @end table
35878
35879 @item QTStart
35880 Begin the tracepoint experiment. Begin collecting data from
35881 tracepoint hits in the trace frame buffer. This packet supports the
35882 @samp{qRelocInsn} reply (@pxref{Tracepoint Packets,,Relocate
35883 instruction reply packet}).
35884
35885 @item QTStop
35886 End the tracepoint experiment. Stop collecting trace frames.
35887
35888 @item QTEnable:@var{n}:@var{addr}
35889 @anchor{QTEnable}
35890 Enable tracepoint @var{n} at address @var{addr} in a started tracepoint
35891 experiment. If the tracepoint was previously disabled, then collection
35892 of data from it will resume.
35893
35894 @item QTDisable:@var{n}:@var{addr}
35895 @anchor{QTDisable}
35896 Disable tracepoint @var{n} at address @var{addr} in a started tracepoint
35897 experiment. No more data will be collected from the tracepoint unless
35898 @samp{QTEnable:@var{n}:@var{addr}} is subsequently issued.
35899
35900 @item QTinit
35901 Clear the table of tracepoints, and empty the trace frame buffer.
35902
35903 @item QTro:@var{start1},@var{end1}:@var{start2},@var{end2}:@dots{}
35904 Establish the given ranges of memory as ``transparent''. The stub
35905 will answer requests for these ranges from memory's current contents,
35906 if they were not collected as part of the tracepoint hit.
35907
35908 @value{GDBN} uses this to mark read-only regions of memory, like those
35909 containing program code. Since these areas never change, they should
35910 still have the same contents they did when the tracepoint was hit, so
35911 there's no reason for the stub to refuse to provide their contents.
35912
35913 @item QTDisconnected:@var{value}
35914 Set the choice to what to do with the tracing run when @value{GDBN}
35915 disconnects from the target. A @var{value} of 1 directs the target to
35916 continue the tracing run, while 0 tells the target to stop tracing if
35917 @value{GDBN} is no longer in the picture.
35918
35919 @item qTStatus
35920 Ask the stub if there is a trace experiment running right now.
35921
35922 The reply has the form:
35923
35924 @table @samp
35925
35926 @item T@var{running}@r{[};@var{field}@r{]}@dots{}
35927 @var{running} is a single digit @code{1} if the trace is presently
35928 running, or @code{0} if not. It is followed by semicolon-separated
35929 optional fields that an agent may use to report additional status.
35930
35931 @end table
35932
35933 If the trace is not running, the agent may report any of several
35934 explanations as one of the optional fields:
35935
35936 @table @samp
35937
35938 @item tnotrun:0
35939 No trace has been run yet.
35940
35941 @item tstop[:@var{text}]:0
35942 The trace was stopped by a user-originated stop command. The optional
35943 @var{text} field is a user-supplied string supplied as part of the
35944 stop command (for instance, an explanation of why the trace was
35945 stopped manually). It is hex-encoded.
35946
35947 @item tfull:0
35948 The trace stopped because the trace buffer filled up.
35949
35950 @item tdisconnected:0
35951 The trace stopped because @value{GDBN} disconnected from the target.
35952
35953 @item tpasscount:@var{tpnum}
35954 The trace stopped because tracepoint @var{tpnum} exceeded its pass count.
35955
35956 @item terror:@var{text}:@var{tpnum}
35957 The trace stopped because tracepoint @var{tpnum} had an error. The
35958 string @var{text} is available to describe the nature of the error
35959 (for instance, a divide by zero in the condition expression).
35960 @var{text} is hex encoded.
35961
35962 @item tunknown:0
35963 The trace stopped for some other reason.
35964
35965 @end table
35966
35967 Additional optional fields supply statistical and other information.
35968 Although not required, they are extremely useful for users monitoring
35969 the progress of a trace run. If a trace has stopped, and these
35970 numbers are reported, they must reflect the state of the just-stopped
35971 trace.
35972
35973 @table @samp
35974
35975 @item tframes:@var{n}
35976 The number of trace frames in the buffer.
35977
35978 @item tcreated:@var{n}
35979 The total number of trace frames created during the run. This may
35980 be larger than the trace frame count, if the buffer is circular.
35981
35982 @item tsize:@var{n}
35983 The total size of the trace buffer, in bytes.
35984
35985 @item tfree:@var{n}
35986 The number of bytes still unused in the buffer.
35987
35988 @item circular:@var{n}
35989 The value of the circular trace buffer flag. @code{1} means that the
35990 trace buffer is circular and old trace frames will be discarded if
35991 necessary to make room, @code{0} means that the trace buffer is linear
35992 and may fill up.
35993
35994 @item disconn:@var{n}
35995 The value of the disconnected tracing flag. @code{1} means that
35996 tracing will continue after @value{GDBN} disconnects, @code{0} means
35997 that the trace run will stop.
35998
35999 @end table
36000
36001 @item qTP:@var{tp}:@var{addr}
36002 @cindex tracepoint status, remote request
36003 @cindex @samp{qTP} packet
36004 Ask the stub for the current state of tracepoint number @var{tp} at
36005 address @var{addr}.
36006
36007 Replies:
36008 @table @samp
36009 @item V@var{hits}:@var{usage}
36010 The tracepoint has been hit @var{hits} times so far during the trace
36011 run, and accounts for @var{usage} in the trace buffer. Note that
36012 @code{while-stepping} steps are not counted as separate hits, but the
36013 steps' space consumption is added into the usage number.
36014
36015 @end table
36016
36017 @item qTV:@var{var}
36018 @cindex trace state variable value, remote request
36019 @cindex @samp{qTV} packet
36020 Ask the stub for the value of the trace state variable number @var{var}.
36021
36022 Replies:
36023 @table @samp
36024 @item V@var{value}
36025 The value of the variable is @var{value}. This will be the current
36026 value of the variable if the user is examining a running target, or a
36027 saved value if the variable was collected in the trace frame that the
36028 user is looking at. Note that multiple requests may result in
36029 different reply values, such as when requesting values while the
36030 program is running.
36031
36032 @item U
36033 The value of the variable is unknown. This would occur, for example,
36034 if the user is examining a trace frame in which the requested variable
36035 was not collected.
36036 @end table
36037
36038 @item qTfP
36039 @itemx qTsP
36040 These packets request data about tracepoints that are being used by
36041 the target. @value{GDBN} sends @code{qTfP} to get the first piece
36042 of data, and multiple @code{qTsP} to get additional pieces. Replies
36043 to these packets generally take the form of the @code{QTDP} packets
36044 that define tracepoints. (FIXME add detailed syntax)
36045
36046 @item qTfV
36047 @itemx qTsV
36048 These packets request data about trace state variables that are on the
36049 target. @value{GDBN} sends @code{qTfV} to get the first vari of data,
36050 and multiple @code{qTsV} to get additional variables. Replies to
36051 these packets follow the syntax of the @code{QTDV} packets that define
36052 trace state variables.
36053
36054 @item qTfSTM
36055 @itemx qTsSTM
36056 These packets request data about static tracepoint markers that exist
36057 in the target program. @value{GDBN} sends @code{qTfSTM} to get the
36058 first piece of data, and multiple @code{qTsSTM} to get additional
36059 pieces. Replies to these packets take the following form:
36060
36061 Reply:
36062 @table @samp
36063 @item m @var{address}:@var{id}:@var{extra}
36064 A single marker
36065 @item m @var{address}:@var{id}:@var{extra},@var{address}:@var{id}:@var{extra}@dots{}
36066 a comma-separated list of markers
36067 @item l
36068 (lower case letter @samp{L}) denotes end of list.
36069 @item E @var{nn}
36070 An error occurred. @var{nn} are hex digits.
36071 @item
36072 An empty reply indicates that the request is not supported by the
36073 stub.
36074 @end table
36075
36076 @var{address} is encoded in hex.
36077 @var{id} and @var{extra} are strings encoded in hex.
36078
36079 In response to each query, the target will reply with a list of one or
36080 more markers, separated by commas. @value{GDBN} will respond to each
36081 reply with a request for more markers (using the @samp{qs} form of the
36082 query), until the target responds with @samp{l} (lower-case ell, for
36083 @dfn{last}).
36084
36085 @item qTSTMat:@var{address}
36086 This packets requests data about static tracepoint markers in the
36087 target program at @var{address}. Replies to this packet follow the
36088 syntax of the @samp{qTfSTM} and @code{qTsSTM} packets that list static
36089 tracepoint markers.
36090
36091 @item QTSave:@var{filename}
36092 This packet directs the target to save trace data to the file name
36093 @var{filename} in the target's filesystem. @var{filename} is encoded
36094 as a hex string; the interpretation of the file name (relative vs
36095 absolute, wild cards, etc) is up to the target.
36096
36097 @item qTBuffer:@var{offset},@var{len}
36098 Return up to @var{len} bytes of the current contents of trace buffer,
36099 starting at @var{offset}. The trace buffer is treated as if it were
36100 a contiguous collection of traceframes, as per the trace file format.
36101 The reply consists as many hex-encoded bytes as the target can deliver
36102 in a packet; it is not an error to return fewer than were asked for.
36103 A reply consisting of just @code{l} indicates that no bytes are
36104 available.
36105
36106 @item QTBuffer:circular:@var{value}
36107 This packet directs the target to use a circular trace buffer if
36108 @var{value} is 1, or a linear buffer if the value is 0.
36109
36110 @item QTNotes:@r{[}@var{type}:@var{text}@r{]}@r{[};@var{type}:@var{text}@r{]}@dots{}
36111 This packet adds optional textual notes to the trace run. Allowable
36112 types include @code{user}, @code{notes}, and @code{tstop}, the
36113 @var{text} fields are arbitrary strings, hex-encoded.
36114
36115 @end table
36116
36117 @subsection Relocate instruction reply packet
36118 When installing fast tracepoints in memory, the target may need to
36119 relocate the instruction currently at the tracepoint address to a
36120 different address in memory. For most instructions, a simple copy is
36121 enough, but, for example, call instructions that implicitly push the
36122 return address on the stack, and relative branches or other
36123 PC-relative instructions require offset adjustment, so that the effect
36124 of executing the instruction at a different address is the same as if
36125 it had executed in the original location.
36126
36127 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may also
36128 respond with a number of intermediate @samp{qRelocInsn} request
36129 packets before the final result packet, to have @value{GDBN} handle
36130 this relocation operation. If a packet supports this mechanism, its
36131 documentation will explicitly say so. See for example the above
36132 descriptions for the @samp{QTStart} and @samp{QTDP} packets. The
36133 format of the request is:
36134
36135 @table @samp
36136 @item qRelocInsn:@var{from};@var{to}
36137
36138 This requests @value{GDBN} to copy instruction at address @var{from}
36139 to address @var{to}, possibly adjusted so that executing the
36140 instruction at @var{to} has the same effect as executing it at
36141 @var{from}. @value{GDBN} writes the adjusted instruction to target
36142 memory starting at @var{to}.
36143 @end table
36144
36145 Replies:
36146 @table @samp
36147 @item qRelocInsn:@var{adjusted_size}
36148 Informs the stub the relocation is complete. @var{adjusted_size} is
36149 the length in bytes of resulting relocated instruction sequence.
36150 @item E @var{NN}
36151 A badly formed request was detected, or an error was encountered while
36152 relocating the instruction.
36153 @end table
36154
36155 @node Host I/O Packets
36156 @section Host I/O Packets
36157 @cindex Host I/O, remote protocol
36158 @cindex file transfer, remote protocol
36159
36160 The @dfn{Host I/O} packets allow @value{GDBN} to perform I/O
36161 operations on the far side of a remote link. For example, Host I/O is
36162 used to upload and download files to a remote target with its own
36163 filesystem. Host I/O uses the same constant values and data structure
36164 layout as the target-initiated File-I/O protocol. However, the
36165 Host I/O packets are structured differently. The target-initiated
36166 protocol relies on target memory to store parameters and buffers.
36167 Host I/O requests are initiated by @value{GDBN}, and the
36168 target's memory is not involved. @xref{File-I/O Remote Protocol
36169 Extension}, for more details on the target-initiated protocol.
36170
36171 The Host I/O request packets all encode a single operation along with
36172 its arguments. They have this format:
36173
36174 @table @samp
36175
36176 @item vFile:@var{operation}: @var{parameter}@dots{}
36177 @var{operation} is the name of the particular request; the target
36178 should compare the entire packet name up to the second colon when checking
36179 for a supported operation. The format of @var{parameter} depends on
36180 the operation. Numbers are always passed in hexadecimal. Negative
36181 numbers have an explicit minus sign (i.e.@: two's complement is not
36182 used). Strings (e.g.@: filenames) are encoded as a series of
36183 hexadecimal bytes. The last argument to a system call may be a
36184 buffer of escaped binary data (@pxref{Binary Data}).
36185
36186 @end table
36187
36188 The valid responses to Host I/O packets are:
36189
36190 @table @samp
36191
36192 @item F @var{result} [, @var{errno}] [; @var{attachment}]
36193 @var{result} is the integer value returned by this operation, usually
36194 non-negative for success and -1 for errors. If an error has occured,
36195 @var{errno} will be included in the result. @var{errno} will have a
36196 value defined by the File-I/O protocol (@pxref{Errno Values}). For
36197 operations which return data, @var{attachment} supplies the data as a
36198 binary buffer. Binary buffers in response packets are escaped in the
36199 normal way (@pxref{Binary Data}). See the individual packet
36200 documentation for the interpretation of @var{result} and
36201 @var{attachment}.
36202
36203 @item
36204 An empty response indicates that this operation is not recognized.
36205
36206 @end table
36207
36208 These are the supported Host I/O operations:
36209
36210 @table @samp
36211 @item vFile:open: @var{pathname}, @var{flags}, @var{mode}
36212 Open a file at @var{pathname} and return a file descriptor for it, or
36213 return -1 if an error occurs. @var{pathname} is a string,
36214 @var{flags} is an integer indicating a mask of open flags
36215 (@pxref{Open Flags}), and @var{mode} is an integer indicating a mask
36216 of mode bits to use if the file is created (@pxref{mode_t Values}).
36217 @xref{open}, for details of the open flags and mode values.
36218
36219 @item vFile:close: @var{fd}
36220 Close the open file corresponding to @var{fd} and return 0, or
36221 -1 if an error occurs.
36222
36223 @item vFile:pread: @var{fd}, @var{count}, @var{offset}
36224 Read data from the open file corresponding to @var{fd}. Up to
36225 @var{count} bytes will be read from the file, starting at @var{offset}
36226 relative to the start of the file. The target may read fewer bytes;
36227 common reasons include packet size limits and an end-of-file
36228 condition. The number of bytes read is returned. Zero should only be
36229 returned for a successful read at the end of the file, or if
36230 @var{count} was zero.
36231
36232 The data read should be returned as a binary attachment on success.
36233 If zero bytes were read, the response should include an empty binary
36234 attachment (i.e.@: a trailing semicolon). The return value is the
36235 number of target bytes read; the binary attachment may be longer if
36236 some characters were escaped.
36237
36238 @item vFile:pwrite: @var{fd}, @var{offset}, @var{data}
36239 Write @var{data} (a binary buffer) to the open file corresponding
36240 to @var{fd}. Start the write at @var{offset} from the start of the
36241 file. Unlike many @code{write} system calls, there is no
36242 separate @var{count} argument; the length of @var{data} in the
36243 packet is used. @samp{vFile:write} returns the number of bytes written,
36244 which may be shorter than the length of @var{data}, or -1 if an
36245 error occurred.
36246
36247 @item vFile:unlink: @var{pathname}
36248 Delete the file at @var{pathname} on the target. Return 0,
36249 or -1 if an error occurs. @var{pathname} is a string.
36250
36251 @item vFile:readlink: @var{filename}
36252 Read value of symbolic link @var{filename} on the target. Return
36253 the number of bytes read, or -1 if an error occurs.
36254
36255 The data read should be returned as a binary attachment on success.
36256 If zero bytes were read, the response should include an empty binary
36257 attachment (i.e.@: a trailing semicolon). The return value is the
36258 number of target bytes read; the binary attachment may be longer if
36259 some characters were escaped.
36260
36261 @end table
36262
36263 @node Interrupts
36264 @section Interrupts
36265 @cindex interrupts (remote protocol)
36266
36267 When a program on the remote target is running, @value{GDBN} may
36268 attempt to interrupt it by sending a @samp{Ctrl-C}, @code{BREAK} or
36269 a @code{BREAK} followed by @code{g},
36270 control of which is specified via @value{GDBN}'s @samp{interrupt-sequence}.
36271
36272 The precise meaning of @code{BREAK} is defined by the transport
36273 mechanism and may, in fact, be undefined. @value{GDBN} does not
36274 currently define a @code{BREAK} mechanism for any of the network
36275 interfaces except for TCP, in which case @value{GDBN} sends the
36276 @code{telnet} BREAK sequence.
36277
36278 @samp{Ctrl-C}, on the other hand, is defined and implemented for all
36279 transport mechanisms. It is represented by sending the single byte
36280 @code{0x03} without any of the usual packet overhead described in
36281 the Overview section (@pxref{Overview}). When a @code{0x03} byte is
36282 transmitted as part of a packet, it is considered to be packet data
36283 and does @emph{not} represent an interrupt. E.g., an @samp{X} packet
36284 (@pxref{X packet}), used for binary downloads, may include an unescaped
36285 @code{0x03} as part of its packet.
36286
36287 @code{BREAK} followed by @code{g} is also known as Magic SysRq g.
36288 When Linux kernel receives this sequence from serial port,
36289 it stops execution and connects to gdb.
36290
36291 Stubs are not required to recognize these interrupt mechanisms and the
36292 precise meaning associated with receipt of the interrupt is
36293 implementation defined. If the target supports debugging of multiple
36294 threads and/or processes, it should attempt to interrupt all
36295 currently-executing threads and processes.
36296 If the stub is successful at interrupting the
36297 running program, it should send one of the stop
36298 reply packets (@pxref{Stop Reply Packets}) to @value{GDBN} as a result
36299 of successfully stopping the program in all-stop mode, and a stop reply
36300 for each stopped thread in non-stop mode.
36301 Interrupts received while the
36302 program is stopped are discarded.
36303
36304 @node Notification Packets
36305 @section Notification Packets
36306 @cindex notification packets
36307 @cindex packets, notification
36308
36309 The @value{GDBN} remote serial protocol includes @dfn{notifications},
36310 packets that require no acknowledgment. Both the GDB and the stub
36311 may send notifications (although the only notifications defined at
36312 present are sent by the stub). Notifications carry information
36313 without incurring the round-trip latency of an acknowledgment, and so
36314 are useful for low-impact communications where occasional packet loss
36315 is not a problem.
36316
36317 A notification packet has the form @samp{% @var{data} #
36318 @var{checksum}}, where @var{data} is the content of the notification,
36319 and @var{checksum} is a checksum of @var{data}, computed and formatted
36320 as for ordinary @value{GDBN} packets. A notification's @var{data}
36321 never contains @samp{$}, @samp{%} or @samp{#} characters. Upon
36322 receiving a notification, the recipient sends no @samp{+} or @samp{-}
36323 to acknowledge the notification's receipt or to report its corruption.
36324
36325 Every notification's @var{data} begins with a name, which contains no
36326 colon characters, followed by a colon character.
36327
36328 Recipients should silently ignore corrupted notifications and
36329 notifications they do not understand. Recipients should restart
36330 timeout periods on receipt of a well-formed notification, whether or
36331 not they understand it.
36332
36333 Senders should only send the notifications described here when this
36334 protocol description specifies that they are permitted. In the
36335 future, we may extend the protocol to permit existing notifications in
36336 new contexts; this rule helps older senders avoid confusing newer
36337 recipients.
36338
36339 (Older versions of @value{GDBN} ignore bytes received until they see
36340 the @samp{$} byte that begins an ordinary packet, so new stubs may
36341 transmit notifications without fear of confusing older clients. There
36342 are no notifications defined for @value{GDBN} to send at the moment, but we
36343 assume that most older stubs would ignore them, as well.)
36344
36345 The following notification packets from the stub to @value{GDBN} are
36346 defined:
36347
36348 @table @samp
36349 @item Stop: @var{reply}
36350 Report an asynchronous stop event in non-stop mode.
36351 The @var{reply} has the form of a stop reply, as
36352 described in @ref{Stop Reply Packets}. Refer to @ref{Remote Non-Stop},
36353 for information on how these notifications are acknowledged by
36354 @value{GDBN}.
36355 @end table
36356
36357 @node Remote Non-Stop
36358 @section Remote Protocol Support for Non-Stop Mode
36359
36360 @value{GDBN}'s remote protocol supports non-stop debugging of
36361 multi-threaded programs, as described in @ref{Non-Stop Mode}. If the stub
36362 supports non-stop mode, it should report that to @value{GDBN} by including
36363 @samp{QNonStop+} in its @samp{qSupported} response (@pxref{qSupported}).
36364
36365 @value{GDBN} typically sends a @samp{QNonStop} packet only when
36366 establishing a new connection with the stub. Entering non-stop mode
36367 does not alter the state of any currently-running threads, but targets
36368 must stop all threads in any already-attached processes when entering
36369 all-stop mode. @value{GDBN} uses the @samp{?} packet as necessary to
36370 probe the target state after a mode change.
36371
36372 In non-stop mode, when an attached process encounters an event that
36373 would otherwise be reported with a stop reply, it uses the
36374 asynchronous notification mechanism (@pxref{Notification Packets}) to
36375 inform @value{GDBN}. In contrast to all-stop mode, where all threads
36376 in all processes are stopped when a stop reply is sent, in non-stop
36377 mode only the thread reporting the stop event is stopped. That is,
36378 when reporting a @samp{S} or @samp{T} response to indicate completion
36379 of a step operation, hitting a breakpoint, or a fault, only the
36380 affected thread is stopped; any other still-running threads continue
36381 to run. When reporting a @samp{W} or @samp{X} response, all running
36382 threads belonging to other attached processes continue to run.
36383
36384 Only one stop reply notification at a time may be pending; if
36385 additional stop events occur before @value{GDBN} has acknowledged the
36386 previous notification, they must be queued by the stub for later
36387 synchronous transmission in response to @samp{vStopped} packets from
36388 @value{GDBN}. Because the notification mechanism is unreliable,
36389 the stub is permitted to resend a stop reply notification
36390 if it believes @value{GDBN} may not have received it. @value{GDBN}
36391 ignores additional stop reply notifications received before it has
36392 finished processing a previous notification and the stub has completed
36393 sending any queued stop events.
36394
36395 Otherwise, @value{GDBN} must be prepared to receive a stop reply
36396 notification at any time. Specifically, they may appear when
36397 @value{GDBN} is not otherwise reading input from the stub, or when
36398 @value{GDBN} is expecting to read a normal synchronous response or a
36399 @samp{+}/@samp{-} acknowledgment to a packet it has sent.
36400 Notification packets are distinct from any other communication from
36401 the stub so there is no ambiguity.
36402
36403 After receiving a stop reply notification, @value{GDBN} shall
36404 acknowledge it by sending a @samp{vStopped} packet (@pxref{vStopped packet})
36405 as a regular, synchronous request to the stub. Such acknowledgment
36406 is not required to happen immediately, as @value{GDBN} is permitted to
36407 send other, unrelated packets to the stub first, which the stub should
36408 process normally.
36409
36410 Upon receiving a @samp{vStopped} packet, if the stub has other queued
36411 stop events to report to @value{GDBN}, it shall respond by sending a
36412 normal stop reply response. @value{GDBN} shall then send another
36413 @samp{vStopped} packet to solicit further responses; again, it is
36414 permitted to send other, unrelated packets as well which the stub
36415 should process normally.
36416
36417 If the stub receives a @samp{vStopped} packet and there are no
36418 additional stop events to report, the stub shall return an @samp{OK}
36419 response. At this point, if further stop events occur, the stub shall
36420 send a new stop reply notification, @value{GDBN} shall accept the
36421 notification, and the process shall be repeated.
36422
36423 In non-stop mode, the target shall respond to the @samp{?} packet as
36424 follows. First, any incomplete stop reply notification/@samp{vStopped}
36425 sequence in progress is abandoned. The target must begin a new
36426 sequence reporting stop events for all stopped threads, whether or not
36427 it has previously reported those events to @value{GDBN}. The first
36428 stop reply is sent as a synchronous reply to the @samp{?} packet, and
36429 subsequent stop replies are sent as responses to @samp{vStopped} packets
36430 using the mechanism described above. The target must not send
36431 asynchronous stop reply notifications until the sequence is complete.
36432 If all threads are running when the target receives the @samp{?} packet,
36433 or if the target is not attached to any process, it shall respond
36434 @samp{OK}.
36435
36436 @node Packet Acknowledgment
36437 @section Packet Acknowledgment
36438
36439 @cindex acknowledgment, for @value{GDBN} remote
36440 @cindex packet acknowledgment, for @value{GDBN} remote
36441 By default, when either the host or the target machine receives a packet,
36442 the first response expected is an acknowledgment: either @samp{+} (to indicate
36443 the package was received correctly) or @samp{-} (to request retransmission).
36444 This mechanism allows the @value{GDBN} remote protocol to operate over
36445 unreliable transport mechanisms, such as a serial line.
36446
36447 In cases where the transport mechanism is itself reliable (such as a pipe or
36448 TCP connection), the @samp{+}/@samp{-} acknowledgments are redundant.
36449 It may be desirable to disable them in that case to reduce communication
36450 overhead, or for other reasons. This can be accomplished by means of the
36451 @samp{QStartNoAckMode} packet; @pxref{QStartNoAckMode}.
36452
36453 When in no-acknowledgment mode, neither the stub nor @value{GDBN} shall send or
36454 expect @samp{+}/@samp{-} protocol acknowledgments. The packet
36455 and response format still includes the normal checksum, as described in
36456 @ref{Overview}, but the checksum may be ignored by the receiver.
36457
36458 If the stub supports @samp{QStartNoAckMode} and prefers to operate in
36459 no-acknowledgment mode, it should report that to @value{GDBN}
36460 by including @samp{QStartNoAckMode+} in its response to @samp{qSupported};
36461 @pxref{qSupported}.
36462 If @value{GDBN} also supports @samp{QStartNoAckMode} and it has not been
36463 disabled via the @code{set remote noack-packet off} command
36464 (@pxref{Remote Configuration}),
36465 @value{GDBN} may then send a @samp{QStartNoAckMode} packet to the stub.
36466 Only then may the stub actually turn off packet acknowledgments.
36467 @value{GDBN} sends a final @samp{+} acknowledgment of the stub's @samp{OK}
36468 response, which can be safely ignored by the stub.
36469
36470 Note that @code{set remote noack-packet} command only affects negotiation
36471 between @value{GDBN} and the stub when subsequent connections are made;
36472 it does not affect the protocol acknowledgment state for any current
36473 connection.
36474 Since @samp{+}/@samp{-} acknowledgments are enabled by default when a
36475 new connection is established,
36476 there is also no protocol request to re-enable the acknowledgments
36477 for the current connection, once disabled.
36478
36479 @node Examples
36480 @section Examples
36481
36482 Example sequence of a target being re-started. Notice how the restart
36483 does not get any direct output:
36484
36485 @smallexample
36486 -> @code{R00}
36487 <- @code{+}
36488 @emph{target restarts}
36489 -> @code{?}
36490 <- @code{+}
36491 <- @code{T001:1234123412341234}
36492 -> @code{+}
36493 @end smallexample
36494
36495 Example sequence of a target being stepped by a single instruction:
36496
36497 @smallexample
36498 -> @code{G1445@dots{}}
36499 <- @code{+}
36500 -> @code{s}
36501 <- @code{+}
36502 @emph{time passes}
36503 <- @code{T001:1234123412341234}
36504 -> @code{+}
36505 -> @code{g}
36506 <- @code{+}
36507 <- @code{1455@dots{}}
36508 -> @code{+}
36509 @end smallexample
36510
36511 @node File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension
36512 @section File-I/O Remote Protocol Extension
36513 @cindex File-I/O remote protocol extension
36514
36515 @menu
36516 * File-I/O Overview::
36517 * Protocol Basics::
36518 * The F Request Packet::
36519 * The F Reply Packet::
36520 * The Ctrl-C Message::
36521 * Console I/O::
36522 * List of Supported Calls::
36523 * Protocol-specific Representation of Datatypes::
36524 * Constants::
36525 * File-I/O Examples::
36526 @end menu
36527
36528 @node File-I/O Overview
36529 @subsection File-I/O Overview
36530 @cindex file-i/o overview
36531
36532 The @dfn{File I/O remote protocol extension} (short: File-I/O) allows the
36533 target to use the host's file system and console I/O to perform various
36534 system calls. System calls on the target system are translated into a
36535 remote protocol packet to the host system, which then performs the needed
36536 actions and returns a response packet to the target system.
36537 This simulates file system operations even on targets that lack file systems.
36538
36539 The protocol is defined to be independent of both the host and target systems.
36540 It uses its own internal representation of datatypes and values. Both
36541 @value{GDBN} and the target's @value{GDBN} stub are responsible for
36542 translating the system-dependent value representations into the internal
36543 protocol representations when data is transmitted.
36544
36545 The communication is synchronous. A system call is possible only when
36546 @value{GDBN} is waiting for a response from the @samp{C}, @samp{c}, @samp{S}
36547 or @samp{s} packets. While @value{GDBN} handles the request for a system call,
36548 the target is stopped to allow deterministic access to the target's
36549 memory. Therefore File-I/O is not interruptible by target signals. On
36550 the other hand, it is possible to interrupt File-I/O by a user interrupt
36551 (@samp{Ctrl-C}) within @value{GDBN}.
36552
36553 The target's request to perform a host system call does not finish
36554 the latest @samp{C}, @samp{c}, @samp{S} or @samp{s} action. That means,
36555 after finishing the system call, the target returns to continuing the
36556 previous activity (continue, step). No additional continue or step
36557 request from @value{GDBN} is required.
36558
36559 @smallexample
36560 (@value{GDBP}) continue
36561 <- target requests 'system call X'
36562 target is stopped, @value{GDBN} executes system call
36563 -> @value{GDBN} returns result
36564 ... target continues, @value{GDBN} returns to wait for the target
36565 <- target hits breakpoint and sends a Txx packet
36566 @end smallexample
36567
36568 The protocol only supports I/O on the console and to regular files on
36569 the host file system. Character or block special devices, pipes,
36570 named pipes, sockets or any other communication method on the host
36571 system are not supported by this protocol.
36572
36573 File I/O is not supported in non-stop mode.
36574
36575 @node Protocol Basics
36576 @subsection Protocol Basics
36577 @cindex protocol basics, file-i/o
36578
36579 The File-I/O protocol uses the @code{F} packet as the request as well
36580 as reply packet. Since a File-I/O system call can only occur when
36581 @value{GDBN} is waiting for a response from the continuing or stepping target,
36582 the File-I/O request is a reply that @value{GDBN} has to expect as a result
36583 of a previous @samp{C}, @samp{c}, @samp{S} or @samp{s} packet.
36584 This @code{F} packet contains all information needed to allow @value{GDBN}
36585 to call the appropriate host system call:
36586
36587 @itemize @bullet
36588 @item
36589 A unique identifier for the requested system call.
36590
36591 @item
36592 All parameters to the system call. Pointers are given as addresses
36593 in the target memory address space. Pointers to strings are given as
36594 pointer/length pair. Numerical values are given as they are.
36595 Numerical control flags are given in a protocol-specific representation.
36596
36597 @end itemize
36598
36599 At this point, @value{GDBN} has to perform the following actions.
36600
36601 @itemize @bullet
36602 @item
36603 If the parameters include pointer values to data needed as input to a
36604 system call, @value{GDBN} requests this data from the target with a
36605 standard @code{m} packet request. This additional communication has to be
36606 expected by the target implementation and is handled as any other @code{m}
36607 packet.
36608
36609 @item
36610 @value{GDBN} translates all value from protocol representation to host
36611 representation as needed. Datatypes are coerced into the host types.
36612
36613 @item
36614 @value{GDBN} calls the system call.
36615
36616 @item
36617 It then coerces datatypes back to protocol representation.
36618
36619 @item
36620 If the system call is expected to return data in buffer space specified
36621 by pointer parameters to the call, the data is transmitted to the
36622 target using a @code{M} or @code{X} packet. This packet has to be expected
36623 by the target implementation and is handled as any other @code{M} or @code{X}
36624 packet.
36625
36626 @end itemize
36627
36628 Eventually @value{GDBN} replies with another @code{F} packet which contains all
36629 necessary information for the target to continue. This at least contains
36630
36631 @itemize @bullet
36632 @item
36633 Return value.
36634
36635 @item
36636 @code{errno}, if has been changed by the system call.
36637
36638 @item
36639 ``Ctrl-C'' flag.
36640
36641 @end itemize
36642
36643 After having done the needed type and value coercion, the target continues
36644 the latest continue or step action.
36645
36646 @node The F Request Packet
36647 @subsection The @code{F} Request Packet
36648 @cindex file-i/o request packet
36649 @cindex @code{F} request packet
36650
36651 The @code{F} request packet has the following format:
36652
36653 @table @samp
36654 @item F@var{call-id},@var{parameter@dots{}}
36655
36656 @var{call-id} is the identifier to indicate the host system call to be called.
36657 This is just the name of the function.
36658
36659 @var{parameter@dots{}} are the parameters to the system call.
36660 Parameters are hexadecimal integer values, either the actual values in case
36661 of scalar datatypes, pointers to target buffer space in case of compound
36662 datatypes and unspecified memory areas, or pointer/length pairs in case
36663 of string parameters. These are appended to the @var{call-id} as a
36664 comma-delimited list. All values are transmitted in ASCII
36665 string representation, pointer/length pairs separated by a slash.
36666
36667 @end table
36668
36669
36670
36671 @node The F Reply Packet
36672 @subsection The @code{F} Reply Packet
36673 @cindex file-i/o reply packet
36674 @cindex @code{F} reply packet
36675
36676 The @code{F} reply packet has the following format:
36677
36678 @table @samp
36679
36680 @item F@var{retcode},@var{errno},@var{Ctrl-C flag};@var{call-specific attachment}
36681
36682 @var{retcode} is the return code of the system call as hexadecimal value.
36683
36684 @var{errno} is the @code{errno} set by the call, in protocol-specific
36685 representation.
36686 This parameter can be omitted if the call was successful.
36687
36688 @var{Ctrl-C flag} is only sent if the user requested a break. In this
36689 case, @var{errno} must be sent as well, even if the call was successful.
36690 The @var{Ctrl-C flag} itself consists of the character @samp{C}:
36691
36692 @smallexample
36693 F0,0,C
36694 @end smallexample
36695
36696 @noindent
36697 or, if the call was interrupted before the host call has been performed:
36698
36699 @smallexample
36700 F-1,4,C
36701 @end smallexample
36702
36703 @noindent
36704 assuming 4 is the protocol-specific representation of @code{EINTR}.
36705
36706 @end table
36707
36708
36709 @node The Ctrl-C Message
36710 @subsection The @samp{Ctrl-C} Message
36711 @cindex ctrl-c message, in file-i/o protocol
36712
36713 If the @samp{Ctrl-C} flag is set in the @value{GDBN}
36714 reply packet (@pxref{The F Reply Packet}),
36715 the target should behave as if it had
36716 gotten a break message. The meaning for the target is ``system call
36717 interrupted by @code{SIGINT}''. Consequentially, the target should actually stop
36718 (as with a break message) and return to @value{GDBN} with a @code{T02}
36719 packet.
36720
36721 It's important for the target to know in which
36722 state the system call was interrupted. There are two possible cases:
36723
36724 @itemize @bullet
36725 @item
36726 The system call hasn't been performed on the host yet.
36727
36728 @item
36729 The system call on the host has been finished.
36730
36731 @end itemize
36732
36733 These two states can be distinguished by the target by the value of the
36734 returned @code{errno}. If it's the protocol representation of @code{EINTR}, the system
36735 call hasn't been performed. This is equivalent to the @code{EINTR} handling
36736 on POSIX systems. In any other case, the target may presume that the
36737 system call has been finished --- successfully or not --- and should behave
36738 as if the break message arrived right after the system call.
36739
36740 @value{GDBN} must behave reliably. If the system call has not been called
36741 yet, @value{GDBN} may send the @code{F} reply immediately, setting @code{EINTR} as
36742 @code{errno} in the packet. If the system call on the host has been finished
36743 before the user requests a break, the full action must be finished by
36744 @value{GDBN}. This requires sending @code{M} or @code{X} packets as necessary.
36745 The @code{F} packet may only be sent when either nothing has happened
36746 or the full action has been completed.
36747
36748 @node Console I/O
36749 @subsection Console I/O
36750 @cindex console i/o as part of file-i/o
36751
36752 By default and if not explicitly closed by the target system, the file
36753 descriptors 0, 1 and 2 are connected to the @value{GDBN} console. Output
36754 on the @value{GDBN} console is handled as any other file output operation
36755 (@code{write(1, @dots{})} or @code{write(2, @dots{})}). Console input is handled
36756 by @value{GDBN} so that after the target read request from file descriptor
36757 0 all following typing is buffered until either one of the following
36758 conditions is met:
36759
36760 @itemize @bullet
36761 @item
36762 The user types @kbd{Ctrl-c}. The behaviour is as explained above, and the
36763 @code{read}
36764 system call is treated as finished.
36765
36766 @item
36767 The user presses @key{RET}. This is treated as end of input with a trailing
36768 newline.
36769
36770 @item
36771 The user types @kbd{Ctrl-d}. This is treated as end of input. No trailing
36772 character (neither newline nor @samp{Ctrl-D}) is appended to the input.
36773
36774 @end itemize
36775
36776 If the user has typed more characters than fit in the buffer given to
36777 the @code{read} call, the trailing characters are buffered in @value{GDBN} until
36778 either another @code{read(0, @dots{})} is requested by the target, or debugging
36779 is stopped at the user's request.
36780
36781
36782 @node List of Supported Calls
36783 @subsection List of Supported Calls
36784 @cindex list of supported file-i/o calls
36785
36786 @menu
36787 * open::
36788 * close::
36789 * read::
36790 * write::
36791 * lseek::
36792 * rename::
36793 * unlink::
36794 * stat/fstat::
36795 * gettimeofday::
36796 * isatty::
36797 * system::
36798 @end menu
36799
36800 @node open
36801 @unnumberedsubsubsec open
36802 @cindex open, file-i/o system call
36803
36804 @table @asis
36805 @item Synopsis:
36806 @smallexample
36807 int open(const char *pathname, int flags);
36808 int open(const char *pathname, int flags, mode_t mode);
36809 @end smallexample
36810
36811 @item Request:
36812 @samp{Fopen,@var{pathptr}/@var{len},@var{flags},@var{mode}}
36813
36814 @noindent
36815 @var{flags} is the bitwise @code{OR} of the following values:
36816
36817 @table @code
36818 @item O_CREAT
36819 If the file does not exist it will be created. The host
36820 rules apply as far as file ownership and time stamps
36821 are concerned.
36822
36823 @item O_EXCL
36824 When used with @code{O_CREAT}, if the file already exists it is
36825 an error and open() fails.
36826
36827 @item O_TRUNC
36828 If the file already exists and the open mode allows
36829 writing (@code{O_RDWR} or @code{O_WRONLY} is given) it will be
36830 truncated to zero length.
36831
36832 @item O_APPEND
36833 The file is opened in append mode.
36834
36835 @item O_RDONLY
36836 The file is opened for reading only.
36837
36838 @item O_WRONLY
36839 The file is opened for writing only.
36840
36841 @item O_RDWR
36842 The file is opened for reading and writing.
36843 @end table
36844
36845 @noindent
36846 Other bits are silently ignored.
36847
36848
36849 @noindent
36850 @var{mode} is the bitwise @code{OR} of the following values:
36851
36852 @table @code
36853 @item S_IRUSR
36854 User has read permission.
36855
36856 @item S_IWUSR
36857 User has write permission.
36858
36859 @item S_IRGRP
36860 Group has read permission.
36861
36862 @item S_IWGRP
36863 Group has write permission.
36864
36865 @item S_IROTH
36866 Others have read permission.
36867
36868 @item S_IWOTH
36869 Others have write permission.
36870 @end table
36871
36872 @noindent
36873 Other bits are silently ignored.
36874
36875
36876 @item Return value:
36877 @code{open} returns the new file descriptor or -1 if an error
36878 occurred.
36879
36880 @item Errors:
36881
36882 @table @code
36883 @item EEXIST
36884 @var{pathname} already exists and @code{O_CREAT} and @code{O_EXCL} were used.
36885
36886 @item EISDIR
36887 @var{pathname} refers to a directory.
36888
36889 @item EACCES
36890 The requested access is not allowed.
36891
36892 @item ENAMETOOLONG
36893 @var{pathname} was too long.
36894
36895 @item ENOENT
36896 A directory component in @var{pathname} does not exist.
36897
36898 @item ENODEV
36899 @var{pathname} refers to a device, pipe, named pipe or socket.
36900
36901 @item EROFS
36902 @var{pathname} refers to a file on a read-only filesystem and
36903 write access was requested.
36904
36905 @item EFAULT
36906 @var{pathname} is an invalid pointer value.
36907
36908 @item ENOSPC
36909 No space on device to create the file.
36910
36911 @item EMFILE
36912 The process already has the maximum number of files open.
36913
36914 @item ENFILE
36915 The limit on the total number of files open on the system
36916 has been reached.
36917
36918 @item EINTR
36919 The call was interrupted by the user.
36920 @end table
36921
36922 @end table
36923
36924 @node close
36925 @unnumberedsubsubsec close
36926 @cindex close, file-i/o system call
36927
36928 @table @asis
36929 @item Synopsis:
36930 @smallexample
36931 int close(int fd);
36932 @end smallexample
36933
36934 @item Request:
36935 @samp{Fclose,@var{fd}}
36936
36937 @item Return value:
36938 @code{close} returns zero on success, or -1 if an error occurred.
36939
36940 @item Errors:
36941
36942 @table @code
36943 @item EBADF
36944 @var{fd} isn't a valid open file descriptor.
36945
36946 @item EINTR
36947 The call was interrupted by the user.
36948 @end table
36949
36950 @end table
36951
36952 @node read
36953 @unnumberedsubsubsec read
36954 @cindex read, file-i/o system call
36955
36956 @table @asis
36957 @item Synopsis:
36958 @smallexample
36959 int read(int fd, void *buf, unsigned int count);
36960 @end smallexample
36961
36962 @item Request:
36963 @samp{Fread,@var{fd},@var{bufptr},@var{count}}
36964
36965 @item Return value:
36966 On success, the number of bytes read is returned.
36967 Zero indicates end of file. If count is zero, read
36968 returns zero as well. On error, -1 is returned.
36969
36970 @item Errors:
36971
36972 @table @code
36973 @item EBADF
36974 @var{fd} is not a valid file descriptor or is not open for
36975 reading.
36976
36977 @item EFAULT
36978 @var{bufptr} is an invalid pointer value.
36979
36980 @item EINTR
36981 The call was interrupted by the user.
36982 @end table
36983
36984 @end table
36985
36986 @node write
36987 @unnumberedsubsubsec write
36988 @cindex write, file-i/o system call
36989
36990 @table @asis
36991 @item Synopsis:
36992 @smallexample
36993 int write(int fd, const void *buf, unsigned int count);
36994 @end smallexample
36995
36996 @item Request:
36997 @samp{Fwrite,@var{fd},@var{bufptr},@var{count}}
36998
36999 @item Return value:
37000 On success, the number of bytes written are returned.
37001 Zero indicates nothing was written. On error, -1
37002 is returned.
37003
37004 @item Errors:
37005
37006 @table @code
37007 @item EBADF
37008 @var{fd} is not a valid file descriptor or is not open for
37009 writing.
37010
37011 @item EFAULT
37012 @var{bufptr} is an invalid pointer value.
37013
37014 @item EFBIG
37015 An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the
37016 host-specific maximum file size allowed.
37017
37018 @item ENOSPC
37019 No space on device to write the data.
37020
37021 @item EINTR
37022 The call was interrupted by the user.
37023 @end table
37024
37025 @end table
37026
37027 @node lseek
37028 @unnumberedsubsubsec lseek
37029 @cindex lseek, file-i/o system call
37030
37031 @table @asis
37032 @item Synopsis:
37033 @smallexample
37034 long lseek (int fd, long offset, int flag);
37035 @end smallexample
37036
37037 @item Request:
37038 @samp{Flseek,@var{fd},@var{offset},@var{flag}}
37039
37040 @var{flag} is one of:
37041
37042 @table @code
37043 @item SEEK_SET
37044 The offset is set to @var{offset} bytes.
37045
37046 @item SEEK_CUR
37047 The offset is set to its current location plus @var{offset}
37048 bytes.
37049
37050 @item SEEK_END
37051 The offset is set to the size of the file plus @var{offset}
37052 bytes.
37053 @end table
37054
37055 @item Return value:
37056 On success, the resulting unsigned offset in bytes from
37057 the beginning of the file is returned. Otherwise, a
37058 value of -1 is returned.
37059
37060 @item Errors:
37061
37062 @table @code
37063 @item EBADF
37064 @var{fd} is not a valid open file descriptor.
37065
37066 @item ESPIPE
37067 @var{fd} is associated with the @value{GDBN} console.
37068
37069 @item EINVAL
37070 @var{flag} is not a proper value.
37071
37072 @item EINTR
37073 The call was interrupted by the user.
37074 @end table
37075
37076 @end table
37077
37078 @node rename
37079 @unnumberedsubsubsec rename
37080 @cindex rename, file-i/o system call
37081
37082 @table @asis
37083 @item Synopsis:
37084 @smallexample
37085 int rename(const char *oldpath, const char *newpath);
37086 @end smallexample
37087
37088 @item Request:
37089 @samp{Frename,@var{oldpathptr}/@var{len},@var{newpathptr}/@var{len}}
37090
37091 @item Return value:
37092 On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned.
37093
37094 @item Errors:
37095
37096 @table @code
37097 @item EISDIR
37098 @var{newpath} is an existing directory, but @var{oldpath} is not a
37099 directory.
37100
37101 @item EEXIST
37102 @var{newpath} is a non-empty directory.
37103
37104 @item EBUSY
37105 @var{oldpath} or @var{newpath} is a directory that is in use by some
37106 process.
37107
37108 @item EINVAL
37109 An attempt was made to make a directory a subdirectory
37110 of itself.
37111
37112 @item ENOTDIR
37113 A component used as a directory in @var{oldpath} or new
37114 path is not a directory. Or @var{oldpath} is a directory
37115 and @var{newpath} exists but is not a directory.
37116
37117 @item EFAULT
37118 @var{oldpathptr} or @var{newpathptr} are invalid pointer values.
37119
37120 @item EACCES
37121 No access to the file or the path of the file.
37122
37123 @item ENAMETOOLONG
37124
37125 @var{oldpath} or @var{newpath} was too long.
37126
37127 @item ENOENT
37128 A directory component in @var{oldpath} or @var{newpath} does not exist.
37129
37130 @item EROFS
37131 The file is on a read-only filesystem.
37132
37133 @item ENOSPC
37134 The device containing the file has no room for the new
37135 directory entry.
37136
37137 @item EINTR
37138 The call was interrupted by the user.
37139 @end table
37140
37141 @end table
37142
37143 @node unlink
37144 @unnumberedsubsubsec unlink
37145 @cindex unlink, file-i/o system call
37146
37147 @table @asis
37148 @item Synopsis:
37149 @smallexample
37150 int unlink(const char *pathname);
37151 @end smallexample
37152
37153 @item Request:
37154 @samp{Funlink,@var{pathnameptr}/@var{len}}
37155
37156 @item Return value:
37157 On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned.
37158
37159 @item Errors:
37160
37161 @table @code
37162 @item EACCES
37163 No access to the file or the path of the file.
37164
37165 @item EPERM
37166 The system does not allow unlinking of directories.
37167
37168 @item EBUSY
37169 The file @var{pathname} cannot be unlinked because it's
37170 being used by another process.
37171
37172 @item EFAULT
37173 @var{pathnameptr} is an invalid pointer value.
37174
37175 @item ENAMETOOLONG
37176 @var{pathname} was too long.
37177
37178 @item ENOENT
37179 A directory component in @var{pathname} does not exist.
37180
37181 @item ENOTDIR
37182 A component of the path is not a directory.
37183
37184 @item EROFS
37185 The file is on a read-only filesystem.
37186
37187 @item EINTR
37188 The call was interrupted by the user.
37189 @end table
37190
37191 @end table
37192
37193 @node stat/fstat
37194 @unnumberedsubsubsec stat/fstat
37195 @cindex fstat, file-i/o system call
37196 @cindex stat, file-i/o system call
37197
37198 @table @asis
37199 @item Synopsis:
37200 @smallexample
37201 int stat(const char *pathname, struct stat *buf);
37202 int fstat(int fd, struct stat *buf);
37203 @end smallexample
37204
37205 @item Request:
37206 @samp{Fstat,@var{pathnameptr}/@var{len},@var{bufptr}}@*
37207 @samp{Ffstat,@var{fd},@var{bufptr}}
37208
37209 @item Return value:
37210 On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned.
37211
37212 @item Errors:
37213
37214 @table @code
37215 @item EBADF
37216 @var{fd} is not a valid open file.
37217
37218 @item ENOENT
37219 A directory component in @var{pathname} does not exist or the
37220 path is an empty string.
37221
37222 @item ENOTDIR
37223 A component of the path is not a directory.
37224
37225 @item EFAULT
37226 @var{pathnameptr} is an invalid pointer value.
37227
37228 @item EACCES
37229 No access to the file or the path of the file.
37230
37231 @item ENAMETOOLONG
37232 @var{pathname} was too long.
37233
37234 @item EINTR
37235 The call was interrupted by the user.
37236 @end table
37237
37238 @end table
37239
37240 @node gettimeofday
37241 @unnumberedsubsubsec gettimeofday
37242 @cindex gettimeofday, file-i/o system call
37243
37244 @table @asis
37245 @item Synopsis:
37246 @smallexample
37247 int gettimeofday(struct timeval *tv, void *tz);
37248 @end smallexample
37249
37250 @item Request:
37251 @samp{Fgettimeofday,@var{tvptr},@var{tzptr}}
37252
37253 @item Return value:
37254 On success, 0 is returned, -1 otherwise.
37255
37256 @item Errors:
37257
37258 @table @code
37259 @item EINVAL
37260 @var{tz} is a non-NULL pointer.
37261
37262 @item EFAULT
37263 @var{tvptr} and/or @var{tzptr} is an invalid pointer value.
37264 @end table
37265
37266 @end table
37267
37268 @node isatty
37269 @unnumberedsubsubsec isatty
37270 @cindex isatty, file-i/o system call
37271
37272 @table @asis
37273 @item Synopsis:
37274 @smallexample
37275 int isatty(int fd);
37276 @end smallexample
37277
37278 @item Request:
37279 @samp{Fisatty,@var{fd}}
37280
37281 @item Return value:
37282 Returns 1 if @var{fd} refers to the @value{GDBN} console, 0 otherwise.
37283
37284 @item Errors:
37285
37286 @table @code
37287 @item EINTR
37288 The call was interrupted by the user.
37289 @end table
37290
37291 @end table
37292
37293 Note that the @code{isatty} call is treated as a special case: it returns
37294 1 to the target if the file descriptor is attached
37295 to the @value{GDBN} console, 0 otherwise. Implementing through system calls
37296 would require implementing @code{ioctl} and would be more complex than
37297 needed.
37298
37299
37300 @node system
37301 @unnumberedsubsubsec system
37302 @cindex system, file-i/o system call
37303
37304 @table @asis
37305 @item Synopsis:
37306 @smallexample
37307 int system(const char *command);
37308 @end smallexample
37309
37310 @item Request:
37311 @samp{Fsystem,@var{commandptr}/@var{len}}
37312
37313 @item Return value:
37314 If @var{len} is zero, the return value indicates whether a shell is
37315 available. A zero return value indicates a shell is not available.
37316 For non-zero @var{len}, the value returned is -1 on error and the
37317 return status of the command otherwise. Only the exit status of the
37318 command is returned, which is extracted from the host's @code{system}
37319 return value by calling @code{WEXITSTATUS(retval)}. In case
37320 @file{/bin/sh} could not be executed, 127 is returned.
37321
37322 @item Errors:
37323
37324 @table @code
37325 @item EINTR
37326 The call was interrupted by the user.
37327 @end table
37328
37329 @end table
37330
37331 @value{GDBN} takes over the full task of calling the necessary host calls
37332 to perform the @code{system} call. The return value of @code{system} on
37333 the host is simplified before it's returned
37334 to the target. Any termination signal information from the child process
37335 is discarded, and the return value consists
37336 entirely of the exit status of the called command.
37337
37338 Due to security concerns, the @code{system} call is by default refused
37339 by @value{GDBN}. The user has to allow this call explicitly with the
37340 @code{set remote system-call-allowed 1} command.
37341
37342 @table @code
37343 @item set remote system-call-allowed
37344 @kindex set remote system-call-allowed
37345 Control whether to allow the @code{system} calls in the File I/O
37346 protocol for the remote target. The default is zero (disabled).
37347
37348 @item show remote system-call-allowed
37349 @kindex show remote system-call-allowed
37350 Show whether the @code{system} calls are allowed in the File I/O
37351 protocol.
37352 @end table
37353
37354 @node Protocol-specific Representation of Datatypes
37355 @subsection Protocol-specific Representation of Datatypes
37356 @cindex protocol-specific representation of datatypes, in file-i/o protocol
37357
37358 @menu
37359 * Integral Datatypes::
37360 * Pointer Values::
37361 * Memory Transfer::
37362 * struct stat::
37363 * struct timeval::
37364 @end menu
37365
37366 @node Integral Datatypes
37367 @unnumberedsubsubsec Integral Datatypes
37368 @cindex integral datatypes, in file-i/o protocol
37369
37370 The integral datatypes used in the system calls are @code{int},
37371 @code{unsigned int}, @code{long}, @code{unsigned long},
37372 @code{mode_t}, and @code{time_t}.
37373
37374 @code{int}, @code{unsigned int}, @code{mode_t} and @code{time_t} are
37375 implemented as 32 bit values in this protocol.
37376
37377 @code{long} and @code{unsigned long} are implemented as 64 bit types.
37378
37379 @xref{Limits}, for corresponding MIN and MAX values (similar to those
37380 in @file{limits.h}) to allow range checking on host and target.
37381
37382 @code{time_t} datatypes are defined as seconds since the Epoch.
37383
37384 All integral datatypes transferred as part of a memory read or write of a
37385 structured datatype e.g.@: a @code{struct stat} have to be given in big endian
37386 byte order.
37387
37388 @node Pointer Values
37389 @unnumberedsubsubsec Pointer Values
37390 @cindex pointer values, in file-i/o protocol
37391
37392 Pointers to target data are transmitted as they are. An exception
37393 is made for pointers to buffers for which the length isn't
37394 transmitted as part of the function call, namely strings. Strings
37395 are transmitted as a pointer/length pair, both as hex values, e.g.@:
37396
37397 @smallexample
37398 @code{1aaf/12}
37399 @end smallexample
37400
37401 @noindent
37402 which is a pointer to data of length 18 bytes at position 0x1aaf.
37403 The length is defined as the full string length in bytes, including
37404 the trailing null byte. For example, the string @code{"hello world"}
37405 at address 0x123456 is transmitted as
37406
37407 @smallexample
37408 @code{123456/d}
37409 @end smallexample
37410
37411 @node Memory Transfer
37412 @unnumberedsubsubsec Memory Transfer
37413 @cindex memory transfer, in file-i/o protocol
37414
37415 Structured data which is transferred using a memory read or write (for
37416 example, a @code{struct stat}) is expected to be in a protocol-specific format
37417 with all scalar multibyte datatypes being big endian. Translation to
37418 this representation needs to be done both by the target before the @code{F}
37419 packet is sent, and by @value{GDBN} before
37420 it transfers memory to the target. Transferred pointers to structured
37421 data should point to the already-coerced data at any time.
37422
37423
37424 @node struct stat
37425 @unnumberedsubsubsec struct stat
37426 @cindex struct stat, in file-i/o protocol
37427
37428 The buffer of type @code{struct stat} used by the target and @value{GDBN}
37429 is defined as follows:
37430
37431 @smallexample
37432 struct stat @{
37433 unsigned int st_dev; /* device */
37434 unsigned int st_ino; /* inode */
37435 mode_t st_mode; /* protection */
37436 unsigned int st_nlink; /* number of hard links */
37437 unsigned int st_uid; /* user ID of owner */
37438 unsigned int st_gid; /* group ID of owner */
37439 unsigned int st_rdev; /* device type (if inode device) */
37440 unsigned long st_size; /* total size, in bytes */
37441 unsigned long st_blksize; /* blocksize for filesystem I/O */
37442 unsigned long st_blocks; /* number of blocks allocated */
37443 time_t st_atime; /* time of last access */
37444 time_t st_mtime; /* time of last modification */
37445 time_t st_ctime; /* time of last change */
37446 @};
37447 @end smallexample
37448
37449 The integral datatypes conform to the definitions given in the
37450 appropriate section (see @ref{Integral Datatypes}, for details) so this
37451 structure is of size 64 bytes.
37452
37453 The values of several fields have a restricted meaning and/or
37454 range of values.
37455
37456 @table @code
37457
37458 @item st_dev
37459 A value of 0 represents a file, 1 the console.
37460
37461 @item st_ino
37462 No valid meaning for the target. Transmitted unchanged.
37463
37464 @item st_mode
37465 Valid mode bits are described in @ref{Constants}. Any other
37466 bits have currently no meaning for the target.
37467
37468 @item st_uid
37469 @itemx st_gid
37470 @itemx st_rdev
37471 No valid meaning for the target. Transmitted unchanged.
37472
37473 @item st_atime
37474 @itemx st_mtime
37475 @itemx st_ctime
37476 These values have a host and file system dependent
37477 accuracy. Especially on Windows hosts, the file system may not
37478 support exact timing values.
37479 @end table
37480
37481 The target gets a @code{struct stat} of the above representation and is
37482 responsible for coercing it to the target representation before
37483 continuing.
37484
37485 Note that due to size differences between the host, target, and protocol
37486 representations of @code{struct stat} members, these members could eventually
37487 get truncated on the target.
37488
37489 @node struct timeval
37490 @unnumberedsubsubsec struct timeval
37491 @cindex struct timeval, in file-i/o protocol
37492
37493 The buffer of type @code{struct timeval} used by the File-I/O protocol
37494 is defined as follows:
37495
37496 @smallexample
37497 struct timeval @{
37498 time_t tv_sec; /* second */
37499 long tv_usec; /* microsecond */
37500 @};
37501 @end smallexample
37502
37503 The integral datatypes conform to the definitions given in the
37504 appropriate section (see @ref{Integral Datatypes}, for details) so this
37505 structure is of size 8 bytes.
37506
37507 @node Constants
37508 @subsection Constants
37509 @cindex constants, in file-i/o protocol
37510
37511 The following values are used for the constants inside of the
37512 protocol. @value{GDBN} and target are responsible for translating these
37513 values before and after the call as needed.
37514
37515 @menu
37516 * Open Flags::
37517 * mode_t Values::
37518 * Errno Values::
37519 * Lseek Flags::
37520 * Limits::
37521 @end menu
37522
37523 @node Open Flags
37524 @unnumberedsubsubsec Open Flags
37525 @cindex open flags, in file-i/o protocol
37526
37527 All values are given in hexadecimal representation.
37528
37529 @smallexample
37530 O_RDONLY 0x0
37531 O_WRONLY 0x1
37532 O_RDWR 0x2
37533 O_APPEND 0x8
37534 O_CREAT 0x200
37535 O_TRUNC 0x400
37536 O_EXCL 0x800
37537 @end smallexample
37538
37539 @node mode_t Values
37540 @unnumberedsubsubsec mode_t Values
37541 @cindex mode_t values, in file-i/o protocol
37542
37543 All values are given in octal representation.
37544
37545 @smallexample
37546 S_IFREG 0100000
37547 S_IFDIR 040000
37548 S_IRUSR 0400
37549 S_IWUSR 0200
37550 S_IXUSR 0100
37551 S_IRGRP 040
37552 S_IWGRP 020
37553 S_IXGRP 010
37554 S_IROTH 04
37555 S_IWOTH 02
37556 S_IXOTH 01
37557 @end smallexample
37558
37559 @node Errno Values
37560 @unnumberedsubsubsec Errno Values
37561 @cindex errno values, in file-i/o protocol
37562
37563 All values are given in decimal representation.
37564
37565 @smallexample
37566 EPERM 1
37567 ENOENT 2
37568 EINTR 4
37569 EBADF 9
37570 EACCES 13
37571 EFAULT 14
37572 EBUSY 16
37573 EEXIST 17
37574 ENODEV 19
37575 ENOTDIR 20
37576 EISDIR 21
37577 EINVAL 22
37578 ENFILE 23
37579 EMFILE 24
37580 EFBIG 27
37581 ENOSPC 28
37582 ESPIPE 29
37583 EROFS 30
37584 ENAMETOOLONG 91
37585 EUNKNOWN 9999
37586 @end smallexample
37587
37588 @code{EUNKNOWN} is used as a fallback error value if a host system returns
37589 any error value not in the list of supported error numbers.
37590
37591 @node Lseek Flags
37592 @unnumberedsubsubsec Lseek Flags
37593 @cindex lseek flags, in file-i/o protocol
37594
37595 @smallexample
37596 SEEK_SET 0
37597 SEEK_CUR 1
37598 SEEK_END 2
37599 @end smallexample
37600
37601 @node Limits
37602 @unnumberedsubsubsec Limits
37603 @cindex limits, in file-i/o protocol
37604
37605 All values are given in decimal representation.
37606
37607 @smallexample
37608 INT_MIN -2147483648
37609 INT_MAX 2147483647
37610 UINT_MAX 4294967295
37611 LONG_MIN -9223372036854775808
37612 LONG_MAX 9223372036854775807
37613 ULONG_MAX 18446744073709551615
37614 @end smallexample
37615
37616 @node File-I/O Examples
37617 @subsection File-I/O Examples
37618 @cindex file-i/o examples
37619
37620 Example sequence of a write call, file descriptor 3, buffer is at target
37621 address 0x1234, 6 bytes should be written:
37622
37623 @smallexample
37624 <- @code{Fwrite,3,1234,6}
37625 @emph{request memory read from target}
37626 -> @code{m1234,6}
37627 <- XXXXXX
37628 @emph{return "6 bytes written"}
37629 -> @code{F6}
37630 @end smallexample
37631
37632 Example sequence of a read call, file descriptor 3, buffer is at target
37633 address 0x1234, 6 bytes should be read:
37634
37635 @smallexample
37636 <- @code{Fread,3,1234,6}
37637 @emph{request memory write to target}
37638 -> @code{X1234,6:XXXXXX}
37639 @emph{return "6 bytes read"}
37640 -> @code{F6}
37641 @end smallexample
37642
37643 Example sequence of a read call, call fails on the host due to invalid
37644 file descriptor (@code{EBADF}):
37645
37646 @smallexample
37647 <- @code{Fread,3,1234,6}
37648 -> @code{F-1,9}
37649 @end smallexample
37650
37651 Example sequence of a read call, user presses @kbd{Ctrl-c} before syscall on
37652 host is called:
37653
37654 @smallexample
37655 <- @code{Fread,3,1234,6}
37656 -> @code{F-1,4,C}
37657 <- @code{T02}
37658 @end smallexample
37659
37660 Example sequence of a read call, user presses @kbd{Ctrl-c} after syscall on
37661 host is called:
37662
37663 @smallexample
37664 <- @code{Fread,3,1234,6}
37665 -> @code{X1234,6:XXXXXX}
37666 <- @code{T02}
37667 @end smallexample
37668
37669 @node Library List Format
37670 @section Library List Format
37671 @cindex library list format, remote protocol
37672
37673 On some platforms, a dynamic loader (e.g.@: @file{ld.so}) runs in the
37674 same process as your application to manage libraries. In this case,
37675 @value{GDBN} can use the loader's symbol table and normal memory
37676 operations to maintain a list of shared libraries. On other
37677 platforms, the operating system manages loaded libraries.
37678 @value{GDBN} can not retrieve the list of currently loaded libraries
37679 through memory operations, so it uses the @samp{qXfer:libraries:read}
37680 packet (@pxref{qXfer library list read}) instead. The remote stub
37681 queries the target's operating system and reports which libraries
37682 are loaded.
37683
37684 The @samp{qXfer:libraries:read} packet returns an XML document which
37685 lists loaded libraries and their offsets. Each library has an
37686 associated name and one or more segment or section base addresses,
37687 which report where the library was loaded in memory.
37688
37689 For the common case of libraries that are fully linked binaries, the
37690 library should have a list of segments. If the target supports
37691 dynamic linking of a relocatable object file, its library XML element
37692 should instead include a list of allocated sections. The segment or
37693 section bases are start addresses, not relocation offsets; they do not
37694 depend on the library's link-time base addresses.
37695
37696 @value{GDBN} must be linked with the Expat library to support XML
37697 library lists. @xref{Expat}.
37698
37699 A simple memory map, with one loaded library relocated by a single
37700 offset, looks like this:
37701
37702 @smallexample
37703 <library-list>
37704 <library name="/lib/libc.so.6">
37705 <segment address="0x10000000"/>
37706 </library>
37707 </library-list>
37708 @end smallexample
37709
37710 Another simple memory map, with one loaded library with three
37711 allocated sections (.text, .data, .bss), looks like this:
37712
37713 @smallexample
37714 <library-list>
37715 <library name="sharedlib.o">
37716 <section address="0x10000000"/>
37717 <section address="0x20000000"/>
37718 <section address="0x30000000"/>
37719 </library>
37720 </library-list>
37721 @end smallexample
37722
37723 The format of a library list is described by this DTD:
37724
37725 @smallexample
37726 <!-- library-list: Root element with versioning -->
37727 <!ELEMENT library-list (library)*>
37728 <!ATTLIST library-list version CDATA #FIXED "1.0">
37729 <!ELEMENT library (segment*, section*)>
37730 <!ATTLIST library name CDATA #REQUIRED>
37731 <!ELEMENT segment EMPTY>
37732 <!ATTLIST segment address CDATA #REQUIRED>
37733 <!ELEMENT section EMPTY>
37734 <!ATTLIST section address CDATA #REQUIRED>
37735 @end smallexample
37736
37737 In addition, segments and section descriptors cannot be mixed within a
37738 single library element, and you must supply at least one segment or
37739 section for each library.
37740
37741 @node Library List Format for SVR4 Targets
37742 @section Library List Format for SVR4 Targets
37743 @cindex library list format, remote protocol
37744
37745 On SVR4 platforms @value{GDBN} can use the symbol table of a dynamic loader
37746 (e.g.@: @file{ld.so}) and normal memory operations to maintain a list of
37747 shared libraries. Still a special library list provided by this packet is
37748 more efficient for the @value{GDBN} remote protocol.
37749
37750 The @samp{qXfer:libraries-svr4:read} packet returns an XML document which lists
37751 loaded libraries and their SVR4 linker parameters. For each library on SVR4
37752 target, the following parameters are reported:
37753
37754 @itemize @minus
37755 @item
37756 @code{name}, the absolute file name from the @code{l_name} field of
37757 @code{struct link_map}.
37758 @item
37759 @code{lm} with address of @code{struct link_map} used for TLS
37760 (Thread Local Storage) access.
37761 @item
37762 @code{l_addr}, the displacement as read from the field @code{l_addr} of
37763 @code{struct link_map}. For prelinked libraries this is not an absolute
37764 memory address. It is a displacement of absolute memory address against
37765 address the file was prelinked to during the library load.
37766 @item
37767 @code{l_ld}, which is memory address of the @code{PT_DYNAMIC} segment
37768 @end itemize
37769
37770 Additionally the single @code{main-lm} attribute specifies address of
37771 @code{struct link_map} used for the main executable. This parameter is used
37772 for TLS access and its presence is optional.
37773
37774 @value{GDBN} must be linked with the Expat library to support XML
37775 SVR4 library lists. @xref{Expat}.
37776
37777 A simple memory map, with two loaded libraries (which do not use prelink),
37778 looks like this:
37779
37780 @smallexample
37781 <library-list-svr4 version="1.0" main-lm="0xe4f8f8">
37782 <library name="/lib/ld-linux.so.2" lm="0xe4f51c" l_addr="0xe2d000"
37783 l_ld="0xe4eefc"/>
37784 <library name="/lib/libc.so.6" lm="0xe4fbe8" l_addr="0x154000"
37785 l_ld="0x152350"/>
37786 </library-list-svr>
37787 @end smallexample
37788
37789 The format of an SVR4 library list is described by this DTD:
37790
37791 @smallexample
37792 <!-- library-list-svr4: Root element with versioning -->
37793 <!ELEMENT library-list-svr4 (library)*>
37794 <!ATTLIST library-list-svr4 version CDATA #FIXED "1.0">
37795 <!ATTLIST library-list-svr4 main-lm CDATA #IMPLIED>
37796 <!ELEMENT library EMPTY>
37797 <!ATTLIST library name CDATA #REQUIRED>
37798 <!ATTLIST library lm CDATA #REQUIRED>
37799 <!ATTLIST library l_addr CDATA #REQUIRED>
37800 <!ATTLIST library l_ld CDATA #REQUIRED>
37801 @end smallexample
37802
37803 @node Memory Map Format
37804 @section Memory Map Format
37805 @cindex memory map format
37806
37807 To be able to write into flash memory, @value{GDBN} needs to obtain a
37808 memory map from the target. This section describes the format of the
37809 memory map.
37810
37811 The memory map is obtained using the @samp{qXfer:memory-map:read}
37812 (@pxref{qXfer memory map read}) packet and is an XML document that
37813 lists memory regions.
37814
37815 @value{GDBN} must be linked with the Expat library to support XML
37816 memory maps. @xref{Expat}.
37817
37818 The top-level structure of the document is shown below:
37819
37820 @smallexample
37821 <?xml version="1.0"?>
37822 <!DOCTYPE memory-map
37823 PUBLIC "+//IDN gnu.org//DTD GDB Memory Map V1.0//EN"
37824 "http://sourceware.org/gdb/gdb-memory-map.dtd">
37825 <memory-map>
37826 region...
37827 </memory-map>
37828 @end smallexample
37829
37830 Each region can be either:
37831
37832 @itemize
37833
37834 @item
37835 A region of RAM starting at @var{addr} and extending for @var{length}
37836 bytes from there:
37837
37838 @smallexample
37839 <memory type="ram" start="@var{addr}" length="@var{length}"/>
37840 @end smallexample
37841
37842
37843 @item
37844 A region of read-only memory:
37845
37846 @smallexample
37847 <memory type="rom" start="@var{addr}" length="@var{length}"/>
37848 @end smallexample
37849
37850
37851 @item
37852 A region of flash memory, with erasure blocks @var{blocksize}
37853 bytes in length:
37854
37855 @smallexample
37856 <memory type="flash" start="@var{addr}" length="@var{length}">
37857 <property name="blocksize">@var{blocksize}</property>
37858 </memory>
37859 @end smallexample
37860
37861 @end itemize
37862
37863 Regions must not overlap. @value{GDBN} assumes that areas of memory not covered
37864 by the memory map are RAM, and uses the ordinary @samp{M} and @samp{X}
37865 packets to write to addresses in such ranges.
37866
37867 The formal DTD for memory map format is given below:
37868
37869 @smallexample
37870 <!-- ................................................... -->
37871 <!-- Memory Map XML DTD ................................ -->
37872 <!-- File: memory-map.dtd .............................. -->
37873 <!-- .................................... .............. -->
37874 <!-- memory-map.dtd -->
37875 <!-- memory-map: Root element with versioning -->
37876 <!ELEMENT memory-map (memory | property)>
37877 <!ATTLIST memory-map version CDATA #FIXED "1.0.0">
37878 <!ELEMENT memory (property)>
37879 <!-- memory: Specifies a memory region,
37880 and its type, or device. -->
37881 <!ATTLIST memory type CDATA #REQUIRED
37882 start CDATA #REQUIRED
37883 length CDATA #REQUIRED
37884 device CDATA #IMPLIED>
37885 <!-- property: Generic attribute tag -->
37886 <!ELEMENT property (#PCDATA | property)*>
37887 <!ATTLIST property name CDATA #REQUIRED>
37888 @end smallexample
37889
37890 @node Thread List Format
37891 @section Thread List Format
37892 @cindex thread list format
37893
37894 To efficiently update the list of threads and their attributes,
37895 @value{GDBN} issues the @samp{qXfer:threads:read} packet
37896 (@pxref{qXfer threads read}) and obtains the XML document with
37897 the following structure:
37898
37899 @smallexample
37900 <?xml version="1.0"?>
37901 <threads>
37902 <thread id="id" core="0">
37903 ... description ...
37904 </thread>
37905 </threads>
37906 @end smallexample
37907
37908 Each @samp{thread} element must have the @samp{id} attribute that
37909 identifies the thread (@pxref{thread-id syntax}). The
37910 @samp{core} attribute, if present, specifies which processor core
37911 the thread was last executing on. The content of the of @samp{thread}
37912 element is interpreted as human-readable auxilliary information.
37913
37914 @node Traceframe Info Format
37915 @section Traceframe Info Format
37916 @cindex traceframe info format
37917
37918 To be able to know which objects in the inferior can be examined when
37919 inspecting a tracepoint hit, @value{GDBN} needs to obtain the list of
37920 memory ranges, registers and trace state variables that have been
37921 collected in a traceframe.
37922
37923 This list is obtained using the @samp{qXfer:traceframe-info:read}
37924 (@pxref{qXfer traceframe info read}) packet and is an XML document.
37925
37926 @value{GDBN} must be linked with the Expat library to support XML
37927 traceframe info discovery. @xref{Expat}.
37928
37929 The top-level structure of the document is shown below:
37930
37931 @smallexample
37932 <?xml version="1.0"?>
37933 <!DOCTYPE traceframe-info
37934 PUBLIC "+//IDN gnu.org//DTD GDB Memory Map V1.0//EN"
37935 "http://sourceware.org/gdb/gdb-traceframe-info.dtd">
37936 <traceframe-info>
37937 block...
37938 </traceframe-info>
37939 @end smallexample
37940
37941 Each traceframe block can be either:
37942
37943 @itemize
37944
37945 @item
37946 A region of collected memory starting at @var{addr} and extending for
37947 @var{length} bytes from there:
37948
37949 @smallexample
37950 <memory start="@var{addr}" length="@var{length}"/>
37951 @end smallexample
37952
37953 @end itemize
37954
37955 The formal DTD for the traceframe info format is given below:
37956
37957 @smallexample
37958 <!ELEMENT traceframe-info (memory)* >
37959 <!ATTLIST traceframe-info version CDATA #FIXED "1.0">
37960
37961 <!ELEMENT memory EMPTY>
37962 <!ATTLIST memory start CDATA #REQUIRED
37963 length CDATA #REQUIRED>
37964 @end smallexample
37965
37966 @include agentexpr.texi
37967
37968 @node Target Descriptions
37969 @appendix Target Descriptions
37970 @cindex target descriptions
37971
37972 One of the challenges of using @value{GDBN} to debug embedded systems
37973 is that there are so many minor variants of each processor
37974 architecture in use. It is common practice for vendors to start with
37975 a standard processor core --- ARM, PowerPC, or MIPS, for example ---
37976 and then make changes to adapt it to a particular market niche. Some
37977 architectures have hundreds of variants, available from dozens of
37978 vendors. This leads to a number of problems:
37979
37980 @itemize @bullet
37981 @item
37982 With so many different customized processors, it is difficult for
37983 the @value{GDBN} maintainers to keep up with the changes.
37984 @item
37985 Since individual variants may have short lifetimes or limited
37986 audiences, it may not be worthwhile to carry information about every
37987 variant in the @value{GDBN} source tree.
37988 @item
37989 When @value{GDBN} does support the architecture of the embedded system
37990 at hand, the task of finding the correct architecture name to give the
37991 @command{set architecture} command can be error-prone.
37992 @end itemize
37993
37994 To address these problems, the @value{GDBN} remote protocol allows a
37995 target system to not only identify itself to @value{GDBN}, but to
37996 actually describe its own features. This lets @value{GDBN} support
37997 processor variants it has never seen before --- to the extent that the
37998 descriptions are accurate, and that @value{GDBN} understands them.
37999
38000 @value{GDBN} must be linked with the Expat library to support XML
38001 target descriptions. @xref{Expat}.
38002
38003 @menu
38004 * Retrieving Descriptions:: How descriptions are fetched from a target.
38005 * Target Description Format:: The contents of a target description.
38006 * Predefined Target Types:: Standard types available for target
38007 descriptions.
38008 * Standard Target Features:: Features @value{GDBN} knows about.
38009 @end menu
38010
38011 @node Retrieving Descriptions
38012 @section Retrieving Descriptions
38013
38014 Target descriptions can be read from the target automatically, or
38015 specified by the user manually. The default behavior is to read the
38016 description from the target. @value{GDBN} retrieves it via the remote
38017 protocol using @samp{qXfer} requests (@pxref{General Query Packets,
38018 qXfer}). The @var{annex} in the @samp{qXfer} packet will be
38019 @samp{target.xml}. The contents of the @samp{target.xml} annex are an
38020 XML document, of the form described in @ref{Target Description
38021 Format}.
38022
38023 Alternatively, you can specify a file to read for the target description.
38024 If a file is set, the target will not be queried. The commands to
38025 specify a file are:
38026
38027 @table @code
38028 @cindex set tdesc filename
38029 @item set tdesc filename @var{path}
38030 Read the target description from @var{path}.
38031
38032 @cindex unset tdesc filename
38033 @item unset tdesc filename
38034 Do not read the XML target description from a file. @value{GDBN}
38035 will use the description supplied by the current target.
38036
38037 @cindex show tdesc filename
38038 @item show tdesc filename
38039 Show the filename to read for a target description, if any.
38040 @end table
38041
38042
38043 @node Target Description Format
38044 @section Target Description Format
38045 @cindex target descriptions, XML format
38046
38047 A target description annex is an @uref{http://www.w3.org/XML/, XML}
38048 document which complies with the Document Type Definition provided in
38049 the @value{GDBN} sources in @file{gdb/features/gdb-target.dtd}. This
38050 means you can use generally available tools like @command{xmllint} to
38051 check that your feature descriptions are well-formed and valid.
38052 However, to help people unfamiliar with XML write descriptions for
38053 their targets, we also describe the grammar here.
38054
38055 Target descriptions can identify the architecture of the remote target
38056 and (for some architectures) provide information about custom register
38057 sets. They can also identify the OS ABI of the remote target.
38058 @value{GDBN} can use this information to autoconfigure for your
38059 target, or to warn you if you connect to an unsupported target.
38060
38061 Here is a simple target description:
38062
38063 @smallexample
38064 <target version="1.0">
38065 <architecture>i386:x86-64</architecture>
38066 </target>
38067 @end smallexample
38068
38069 @noindent
38070 This minimal description only says that the target uses
38071 the x86-64 architecture.
38072
38073 A target description has the following overall form, with [ ] marking
38074 optional elements and @dots{} marking repeatable elements. The elements
38075 are explained further below.
38076
38077 @smallexample
38078 <?xml version="1.0"?>
38079 <!DOCTYPE target SYSTEM "gdb-target.dtd">
38080 <target version="1.0">
38081 @r{[}@var{architecture}@r{]}
38082 @r{[}@var{osabi}@r{]}
38083 @r{[}@var{compatible}@r{]}
38084 @r{[}@var{feature}@dots{}@r{]}
38085 </target>
38086 @end smallexample
38087
38088 @noindent
38089 The description is generally insensitive to whitespace and line
38090 breaks, under the usual common-sense rules. The XML version
38091 declaration and document type declaration can generally be omitted
38092 (@value{GDBN} does not require them), but specifying them may be
38093 useful for XML validation tools. The @samp{version} attribute for
38094 @samp{<target>} may also be omitted, but we recommend
38095 including it; if future versions of @value{GDBN} use an incompatible
38096 revision of @file{gdb-target.dtd}, they will detect and report
38097 the version mismatch.
38098
38099 @subsection Inclusion
38100 @cindex target descriptions, inclusion
38101 @cindex XInclude
38102 @ifnotinfo
38103 @cindex <xi:include>
38104 @end ifnotinfo
38105
38106 It can sometimes be valuable to split a target description up into
38107 several different annexes, either for organizational purposes, or to
38108 share files between different possible target descriptions. You can
38109 divide a description into multiple files by replacing any element of
38110 the target description with an inclusion directive of the form:
38111
38112 @smallexample
38113 <xi:include href="@var{document}"/>
38114 @end smallexample
38115
38116 @noindent
38117 When @value{GDBN} encounters an element of this form, it will retrieve
38118 the named XML @var{document}, and replace the inclusion directive with
38119 the contents of that document. If the current description was read
38120 using @samp{qXfer}, then so will be the included document;
38121 @var{document} will be interpreted as the name of an annex. If the
38122 current description was read from a file, @value{GDBN} will look for
38123 @var{document} as a file in the same directory where it found the
38124 original description.
38125
38126 @subsection Architecture
38127 @cindex <architecture>
38128
38129 An @samp{<architecture>} element has this form:
38130
38131 @smallexample
38132 <architecture>@var{arch}</architecture>
38133 @end smallexample
38134
38135 @var{arch} is one of the architectures from the set accepted by
38136 @code{set architecture} (@pxref{Targets, ,Specifying a Debugging Target}).
38137
38138 @subsection OS ABI
38139 @cindex @code{<osabi>}
38140
38141 This optional field was introduced in @value{GDBN} version 7.0.
38142 Previous versions of @value{GDBN} ignore it.
38143
38144 An @samp{<osabi>} element has this form:
38145
38146 @smallexample
38147 <osabi>@var{abi-name}</osabi>
38148 @end smallexample
38149
38150 @var{abi-name} is an OS ABI name from the same selection accepted by
38151 @w{@code{set osabi}} (@pxref{ABI, ,Configuring the Current ABI}).
38152
38153 @subsection Compatible Architecture
38154 @cindex @code{<compatible>}
38155
38156 This optional field was introduced in @value{GDBN} version 7.0.
38157 Previous versions of @value{GDBN} ignore it.
38158
38159 A @samp{<compatible>} element has this form:
38160
38161 @smallexample
38162 <compatible>@var{arch}</compatible>
38163 @end smallexample
38164
38165 @var{arch} is one of the architectures from the set accepted by
38166 @code{set architecture} (@pxref{Targets, ,Specifying a Debugging Target}).
38167
38168 A @samp{<compatible>} element is used to specify that the target
38169 is able to run binaries in some other than the main target architecture
38170 given by the @samp{<architecture>} element. For example, on the
38171 Cell Broadband Engine, the main architecture is @code{powerpc:common}
38172 or @code{powerpc:common64}, but the system is able to run binaries
38173 in the @code{spu} architecture as well. The way to describe this
38174 capability with @samp{<compatible>} is as follows:
38175
38176 @smallexample
38177 <architecture>powerpc:common</architecture>
38178 <compatible>spu</compatible>
38179 @end smallexample
38180
38181 @subsection Features
38182 @cindex <feature>
38183
38184 Each @samp{<feature>} describes some logical portion of the target
38185 system. Features are currently used to describe available CPU
38186 registers and the types of their contents. A @samp{<feature>} element
38187 has this form:
38188
38189 @smallexample
38190 <feature name="@var{name}">
38191 @r{[}@var{type}@dots{}@r{]}
38192 @var{reg}@dots{}
38193 </feature>
38194 @end smallexample
38195
38196 @noindent
38197 Each feature's name should be unique within the description. The name
38198 of a feature does not matter unless @value{GDBN} has some special
38199 knowledge of the contents of that feature; if it does, the feature
38200 should have its standard name. @xref{Standard Target Features}.
38201
38202 @subsection Types
38203
38204 Any register's value is a collection of bits which @value{GDBN} must
38205 interpret. The default interpretation is a two's complement integer,
38206 but other types can be requested by name in the register description.
38207 Some predefined types are provided by @value{GDBN} (@pxref{Predefined
38208 Target Types}), and the description can define additional composite types.
38209
38210 Each type element must have an @samp{id} attribute, which gives
38211 a unique (within the containing @samp{<feature>}) name to the type.
38212 Types must be defined before they are used.
38213
38214 @cindex <vector>
38215 Some targets offer vector registers, which can be treated as arrays
38216 of scalar elements. These types are written as @samp{<vector>} elements,
38217 specifying the array element type, @var{type}, and the number of elements,
38218 @var{count}:
38219
38220 @smallexample
38221 <vector id="@var{id}" type="@var{type}" count="@var{count}"/>
38222 @end smallexample
38223
38224 @cindex <union>
38225 If a register's value is usefully viewed in multiple ways, define it
38226 with a union type containing the useful representations. The
38227 @samp{<union>} element contains one or more @samp{<field>} elements,
38228 each of which has a @var{name} and a @var{type}:
38229
38230 @smallexample
38231 <union id="@var{id}">
38232 <field name="@var{name}" type="@var{type}"/>
38233 @dots{}
38234 </union>
38235 @end smallexample
38236
38237 @cindex <struct>
38238 If a register's value is composed from several separate values, define
38239 it with a structure type. There are two forms of the @samp{<struct>}
38240 element; a @samp{<struct>} element must either contain only bitfields
38241 or contain no bitfields. If the structure contains only bitfields,
38242 its total size in bytes must be specified, each bitfield must have an
38243 explicit start and end, and bitfields are automatically assigned an
38244 integer type. The field's @var{start} should be less than or
38245 equal to its @var{end}, and zero represents the least significant bit.
38246
38247 @smallexample
38248 <struct id="@var{id}" size="@var{size}">
38249 <field name="@var{name}" start="@var{start}" end="@var{end}"/>
38250 @dots{}
38251 </struct>
38252 @end smallexample
38253
38254 If the structure contains no bitfields, then each field has an
38255 explicit type, and no implicit padding is added.
38256
38257 @smallexample
38258 <struct id="@var{id}">
38259 <field name="@var{name}" type="@var{type}"/>
38260 @dots{}
38261 </struct>
38262 @end smallexample
38263
38264 @cindex <flags>
38265 If a register's value is a series of single-bit flags, define it with
38266 a flags type. The @samp{<flags>} element has an explicit @var{size}
38267 and contains one or more @samp{<field>} elements. Each field has a
38268 @var{name}, a @var{start}, and an @var{end}. Only single-bit flags
38269 are supported.
38270
38271 @smallexample
38272 <flags id="@var{id}" size="@var{size}">
38273 <field name="@var{name}" start="@var{start}" end="@var{end}"/>
38274 @dots{}
38275 </flags>
38276 @end smallexample
38277
38278 @subsection Registers
38279 @cindex <reg>
38280
38281 Each register is represented as an element with this form:
38282
38283 @smallexample
38284 <reg name="@var{name}"
38285 bitsize="@var{size}"
38286 @r{[}regnum="@var{num}"@r{]}
38287 @r{[}save-restore="@var{save-restore}"@r{]}
38288 @r{[}type="@var{type}"@r{]}
38289 @r{[}group="@var{group}"@r{]}/>
38290 @end smallexample
38291
38292 @noindent
38293 The components are as follows:
38294
38295 @table @var
38296
38297 @item name
38298 The register's name; it must be unique within the target description.
38299
38300 @item bitsize
38301 The register's size, in bits.
38302
38303 @item regnum
38304 The register's number. If omitted, a register's number is one greater
38305 than that of the previous register (either in the current feature or in
38306 a preceding feature); the first register in the target description
38307 defaults to zero. This register number is used to read or write
38308 the register; e.g.@: it is used in the remote @code{p} and @code{P}
38309 packets, and registers appear in the @code{g} and @code{G} packets
38310 in order of increasing register number.
38311
38312 @item save-restore
38313 Whether the register should be preserved across inferior function
38314 calls; this must be either @code{yes} or @code{no}. The default is
38315 @code{yes}, which is appropriate for most registers except for
38316 some system control registers; this is not related to the target's
38317 ABI.
38318
38319 @item type
38320 The type of the register. @var{type} may be a predefined type, a type
38321 defined in the current feature, or one of the special types @code{int}
38322 and @code{float}. @code{int} is an integer type of the correct size
38323 for @var{bitsize}, and @code{float} is a floating point type (in the
38324 architecture's normal floating point format) of the correct size for
38325 @var{bitsize}. The default is @code{int}.
38326
38327 @item group
38328 The register group to which this register belongs. @var{group} must
38329 be either @code{general}, @code{float}, or @code{vector}. If no
38330 @var{group} is specified, @value{GDBN} will not display the register
38331 in @code{info registers}.
38332
38333 @end table
38334
38335 @node Predefined Target Types
38336 @section Predefined Target Types
38337 @cindex target descriptions, predefined types
38338
38339 Type definitions in the self-description can build up composite types
38340 from basic building blocks, but can not define fundamental types. Instead,
38341 standard identifiers are provided by @value{GDBN} for the fundamental
38342 types. The currently supported types are:
38343
38344 @table @code
38345
38346 @item int8
38347 @itemx int16
38348 @itemx int32
38349 @itemx int64
38350 @itemx int128
38351 Signed integer types holding the specified number of bits.
38352
38353 @item uint8
38354 @itemx uint16
38355 @itemx uint32
38356 @itemx uint64
38357 @itemx uint128
38358 Unsigned integer types holding the specified number of bits.
38359
38360 @item code_ptr
38361 @itemx data_ptr
38362 Pointers to unspecified code and data. The program counter and
38363 any dedicated return address register may be marked as code
38364 pointers; printing a code pointer converts it into a symbolic
38365 address. The stack pointer and any dedicated address registers
38366 may be marked as data pointers.
38367
38368 @item ieee_single
38369 Single precision IEEE floating point.
38370
38371 @item ieee_double
38372 Double precision IEEE floating point.
38373
38374 @item arm_fpa_ext
38375 The 12-byte extended precision format used by ARM FPA registers.
38376
38377 @item i387_ext
38378 The 10-byte extended precision format used by x87 registers.
38379
38380 @item i386_eflags
38381 32bit @sc{eflags} register used by x86.
38382
38383 @item i386_mxcsr
38384 32bit @sc{mxcsr} register used by x86.
38385
38386 @end table
38387
38388 @node Standard Target Features
38389 @section Standard Target Features
38390 @cindex target descriptions, standard features
38391
38392 A target description must contain either no registers or all the
38393 target's registers. If the description contains no registers, then
38394 @value{GDBN} will assume a default register layout, selected based on
38395 the architecture. If the description contains any registers, the
38396 default layout will not be used; the standard registers must be
38397 described in the target description, in such a way that @value{GDBN}
38398 can recognize them.
38399
38400 This is accomplished by giving specific names to feature elements
38401 which contain standard registers. @value{GDBN} will look for features
38402 with those names and verify that they contain the expected registers;
38403 if any known feature is missing required registers, or if any required
38404 feature is missing, @value{GDBN} will reject the target
38405 description. You can add additional registers to any of the
38406 standard features --- @value{GDBN} will display them just as if
38407 they were added to an unrecognized feature.
38408
38409 This section lists the known features and their expected contents.
38410 Sample XML documents for these features are included in the
38411 @value{GDBN} source tree, in the directory @file{gdb/features}.
38412
38413 Names recognized by @value{GDBN} should include the name of the
38414 company or organization which selected the name, and the overall
38415 architecture to which the feature applies; so e.g.@: the feature
38416 containing ARM core registers is named @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.core}.
38417
38418 The names of registers are not case sensitive for the purpose
38419 of recognizing standard features, but @value{GDBN} will only display
38420 registers using the capitalization used in the description.
38421
38422 @menu
38423 * ARM Features::
38424 * i386 Features::
38425 * MIPS Features::
38426 * M68K Features::
38427 * PowerPC Features::
38428 * TIC6x Features::
38429 @end menu
38430
38431
38432 @node ARM Features
38433 @subsection ARM Features
38434 @cindex target descriptions, ARM features
38435
38436 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.core} feature is required for non-M-profile
38437 ARM targets.
38438 It should contain registers @samp{r0} through @samp{r13}, @samp{sp},
38439 @samp{lr}, @samp{pc}, and @samp{cpsr}.
38440
38441 For M-profile targets (e.g. Cortex-M3), the @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.core}
38442 feature is replaced by @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.m-profile}. It should contain
38443 registers @samp{r0} through @samp{r13}, @samp{sp}, @samp{lr}, @samp{pc},
38444 and @samp{xpsr}.
38445
38446 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.fpa} feature is optional. If present, it
38447 should contain registers @samp{f0} through @samp{f7} and @samp{fps}.
38448
38449 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.xscale.iwmmxt} feature is optional. If present,
38450 it should contain at least registers @samp{wR0} through @samp{wR15} and
38451 @samp{wCGR0} through @samp{wCGR3}. The @samp{wCID}, @samp{wCon},
38452 @samp{wCSSF}, and @samp{wCASF} registers are optional.
38453
38454 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.vfp} feature is optional. If present, it
38455 should contain at least registers @samp{d0} through @samp{d15}. If
38456 they are present, @samp{d16} through @samp{d31} should also be included.
38457 @value{GDBN} will synthesize the single-precision registers from
38458 halves of the double-precision registers.
38459
38460 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.neon} feature is optional. It does not
38461 need to contain registers; it instructs @value{GDBN} to display the
38462 VFP double-precision registers as vectors and to synthesize the
38463 quad-precision registers from pairs of double-precision registers.
38464 If this feature is present, @samp{org.gnu.gdb.arm.vfp} must also
38465 be present and include 32 double-precision registers.
38466
38467 @node i386 Features
38468 @subsection i386 Features
38469 @cindex target descriptions, i386 features
38470
38471 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.i386.core} feature is required for i386/amd64
38472 targets. It should describe the following registers:
38473
38474 @itemize @minus
38475 @item
38476 @samp{eax} through @samp{edi} plus @samp{eip} for i386
38477 @item
38478 @samp{rax} through @samp{r15} plus @samp{rip} for amd64
38479 @item
38480 @samp{eflags}, @samp{cs}, @samp{ss}, @samp{ds}, @samp{es},
38481 @samp{fs}, @samp{gs}
38482 @item
38483 @samp{st0} through @samp{st7}
38484 @item
38485 @samp{fctrl}, @samp{fstat}, @samp{ftag}, @samp{fiseg}, @samp{fioff},
38486 @samp{foseg}, @samp{fooff} and @samp{fop}
38487 @end itemize
38488
38489 The register sets may be different, depending on the target.
38490
38491 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.i386.sse} feature is optional. It should
38492 describe registers:
38493
38494 @itemize @minus
38495 @item
38496 @samp{xmm0} through @samp{xmm7} for i386
38497 @item
38498 @samp{xmm0} through @samp{xmm15} for amd64
38499 @item
38500 @samp{mxcsr}
38501 @end itemize
38502
38503 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.i386.avx} feature is optional and requires the
38504 @samp{org.gnu.gdb.i386.sse} feature. It should
38505 describe the upper 128 bits of @sc{ymm} registers:
38506
38507 @itemize @minus
38508 @item
38509 @samp{ymm0h} through @samp{ymm7h} for i386
38510 @item
38511 @samp{ymm0h} through @samp{ymm15h} for amd64
38512 @end itemize
38513
38514 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.i386.linux} feature is optional. It should
38515 describe a single register, @samp{orig_eax}.
38516
38517 @node MIPS Features
38518 @subsection MIPS Features
38519 @cindex target descriptions, MIPS features
38520
38521 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.mips.cpu} feature is required for MIPS targets.
38522 It should contain registers @samp{r0} through @samp{r31}, @samp{lo},
38523 @samp{hi}, and @samp{pc}. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending
38524 on the target.
38525
38526 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.mips.cp0} feature is also required. It should
38527 contain at least the @samp{status}, @samp{badvaddr}, and @samp{cause}
38528 registers. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target.
38529
38530 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.mips.fpu} feature is currently required, though
38531 it may be optional in a future version of @value{GDBN}. It should
38532 contain registers @samp{f0} through @samp{f31}, @samp{fcsr}, and
38533 @samp{fir}. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target.
38534
38535 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.mips.linux} feature is optional. It should
38536 contain a single register, @samp{restart}, which is used by the
38537 Linux kernel to control restartable syscalls.
38538
38539 @node M68K Features
38540 @subsection M68K Features
38541 @cindex target descriptions, M68K features
38542
38543 @table @code
38544 @item @samp{org.gnu.gdb.m68k.core}
38545 @itemx @samp{org.gnu.gdb.coldfire.core}
38546 @itemx @samp{org.gnu.gdb.fido.core}
38547 One of those features must be always present.
38548 The feature that is present determines which flavor of m68k is
38549 used. The feature that is present should contain registers
38550 @samp{d0} through @samp{d7}, @samp{a0} through @samp{a5}, @samp{fp},
38551 @samp{sp}, @samp{ps} and @samp{pc}.
38552
38553 @item @samp{org.gnu.gdb.coldfire.fp}
38554 This feature is optional. If present, it should contain registers
38555 @samp{fp0} through @samp{fp7}, @samp{fpcontrol}, @samp{fpstatus} and
38556 @samp{fpiaddr}.
38557 @end table
38558
38559 @node PowerPC Features
38560 @subsection PowerPC Features
38561 @cindex target descriptions, PowerPC features
38562
38563 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.power.core} feature is required for PowerPC
38564 targets. It should contain registers @samp{r0} through @samp{r31},
38565 @samp{pc}, @samp{msr}, @samp{cr}, @samp{lr}, @samp{ctr}, and
38566 @samp{xer}. They may be 32-bit or 64-bit depending on the target.
38567
38568 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.power.fpu} feature is optional. It should
38569 contain registers @samp{f0} through @samp{f31} and @samp{fpscr}.
38570
38571 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.power.altivec} feature is optional. It should
38572 contain registers @samp{vr0} through @samp{vr31}, @samp{vscr},
38573 and @samp{vrsave}.
38574
38575 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.power.vsx} feature is optional. It should
38576 contain registers @samp{vs0h} through @samp{vs31h}. @value{GDBN}
38577 will combine these registers with the floating point registers
38578 (@samp{f0} through @samp{f31}) and the altivec registers (@samp{vr0}
38579 through @samp{vr31}) to present the 128-bit wide registers @samp{vs0}
38580 through @samp{vs63}, the set of vector registers for POWER7.
38581
38582 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.power.spe} feature is optional. It should
38583 contain registers @samp{ev0h} through @samp{ev31h}, @samp{acc}, and
38584 @samp{spefscr}. SPE targets should provide 32-bit registers in
38585 @samp{org.gnu.gdb.power.core} and provide the upper halves in
38586 @samp{ev0h} through @samp{ev31h}. @value{GDBN} will combine
38587 these to present registers @samp{ev0} through @samp{ev31} to the
38588 user.
38589
38590 @node TIC6x Features
38591 @subsection TMS320C6x Features
38592 @cindex target descriptions, TIC6x features
38593 @cindex target descriptions, TMS320C6x features
38594 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.tic6x.core} feature is required for TMS320C6x
38595 targets. It should contain registers @samp{A0} through @samp{A15},
38596 registers @samp{B0} through @samp{B15}, @samp{CSR} and @samp{PC}.
38597
38598 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.tic6x.gp} feature is optional. It should
38599 contain registers @samp{A16} through @samp{A31} and @samp{B16}
38600 through @samp{B31}.
38601
38602 The @samp{org.gnu.gdb.tic6x.c6xp} feature is optional. It should
38603 contain registers @samp{TSR}, @samp{ILC} and @samp{RILC}.
38604
38605 @node Operating System Information
38606 @appendix Operating System Information
38607 @cindex operating system information
38608
38609 @menu
38610 * Process list::
38611 @end menu
38612
38613 Users of @value{GDBN} often wish to obtain information about the state of
38614 the operating system running on the target---for example the list of
38615 processes, or the list of open files. This section describes the
38616 mechanism that makes it possible. This mechanism is similar to the
38617 target features mechanism (@pxref{Target Descriptions}), but focuses
38618 on a different aspect of target.
38619
38620 Operating system information is retrived from the target via the
38621 remote protocol, using @samp{qXfer} requests (@pxref{qXfer osdata
38622 read}). The object name in the request should be @samp{osdata}, and
38623 the @var{annex} identifies the data to be fetched.
38624
38625 @node Process list
38626 @appendixsection Process list
38627 @cindex operating system information, process list
38628
38629 When requesting the process list, the @var{annex} field in the
38630 @samp{qXfer} request should be @samp{processes}. The returned data is
38631 an XML document. The formal syntax of this document is defined in
38632 @file{gdb/features/osdata.dtd}.
38633
38634 An example document is:
38635
38636 @smallexample
38637 <?xml version="1.0"?>
38638 <!DOCTYPE target SYSTEM "osdata.dtd">
38639 <osdata type="processes">
38640 <item>
38641 <column name="pid">1</column>
38642 <column name="user">root</column>
38643 <column name="command">/sbin/init</column>
38644 <column name="cores">1,2,3</column>
38645 </item>
38646 </osdata>
38647 @end smallexample
38648
38649 Each item should include a column whose name is @samp{pid}. The value
38650 of that column should identify the process on the target. The
38651 @samp{user} and @samp{command} columns are optional, and will be
38652 displayed by @value{GDBN}. The @samp{cores} column, if present,
38653 should contain a comma-separated list of cores that this process
38654 is running on. Target may provide additional columns,
38655 which @value{GDBN} currently ignores.
38656
38657 @node Trace File Format
38658 @appendix Trace File Format
38659 @cindex trace file format
38660
38661 The trace file comes in three parts: a header, a textual description
38662 section, and a trace frame section with binary data.
38663
38664 The header has the form @code{\x7fTRACE0\n}. The first byte is
38665 @code{0x7f} so as to indicate that the file contains binary data,
38666 while the @code{0} is a version number that may have different values
38667 in the future.
38668
38669 The description section consists of multiple lines of @sc{ascii} text
38670 separated by newline characters (@code{0xa}). The lines may include a
38671 variety of optional descriptive or context-setting information, such
38672 as tracepoint definitions or register set size. @value{GDBN} will
38673 ignore any line that it does not recognize. An empty line marks the end
38674 of this section.
38675
38676 @c FIXME add some specific types of data
38677
38678 The trace frame section consists of a number of consecutive frames.
38679 Each frame begins with a two-byte tracepoint number, followed by a
38680 four-byte size giving the amount of data in the frame. The data in
38681 the frame consists of a number of blocks, each introduced by a
38682 character indicating its type (at least register, memory, and trace
38683 state variable). The data in this section is raw binary, not a
38684 hexadecimal or other encoding; its endianness matches the target's
38685 endianness.
38686
38687 @c FIXME bi-arch may require endianness/arch info in description section
38688
38689 @table @code
38690 @item R @var{bytes}
38691 Register block. The number and ordering of bytes matches that of a
38692 @code{g} packet in the remote protocol. Note that these are the
38693 actual bytes, in target order and @value{GDBN} register order, not a
38694 hexadecimal encoding.
38695
38696 @item M @var{address} @var{length} @var{bytes}...
38697 Memory block. This is a contiguous block of memory, at the 8-byte
38698 address @var{address}, with a 2-byte length @var{length}, followed by
38699 @var{length} bytes.
38700
38701 @item V @var{number} @var{value}
38702 Trace state variable block. This records the 8-byte signed value
38703 @var{value} of trace state variable numbered @var{number}.
38704
38705 @end table
38706
38707 Future enhancements of the trace file format may include additional types
38708 of blocks.
38709
38710 @node Index Section Format
38711 @appendix @code{.gdb_index} section format
38712 @cindex .gdb_index section format
38713 @cindex index section format
38714
38715 This section documents the index section that is created by @code{save
38716 gdb-index} (@pxref{Index Files}). The index section is
38717 DWARF-specific; some knowledge of DWARF is assumed in this
38718 description.
38719
38720 The mapped index file format is designed to be directly
38721 @code{mmap}able on any architecture. In most cases, a datum is
38722 represented using a little-endian 32-bit integer value, called an
38723 @code{offset_type}. Big endian machines must byte-swap the values
38724 before using them. Exceptions to this rule are noted. The data is
38725 laid out such that alignment is always respected.
38726
38727 A mapped index consists of several areas, laid out in order.
38728
38729 @enumerate
38730 @item
38731 The file header. This is a sequence of values, of @code{offset_type}
38732 unless otherwise noted:
38733
38734 @enumerate
38735 @item
38736 The version number, currently 5. Versions 1, 2 and 3 are obsolete.
38737 Version 4 differs by its hashing function.
38738
38739 @item
38740 The offset, from the start of the file, of the CU list.
38741
38742 @item
38743 The offset, from the start of the file, of the types CU list. Note
38744 that this area can be empty, in which case this offset will be equal
38745 to the next offset.
38746
38747 @item
38748 The offset, from the start of the file, of the address area.
38749
38750 @item
38751 The offset, from the start of the file, of the symbol table.
38752
38753 @item
38754 The offset, from the start of the file, of the constant pool.
38755 @end enumerate
38756
38757 @item
38758 The CU list. This is a sequence of pairs of 64-bit little-endian
38759 values, sorted by the CU offset. The first element in each pair is
38760 the offset of a CU in the @code{.debug_info} section. The second
38761 element in each pair is the length of that CU. References to a CU
38762 elsewhere in the map are done using a CU index, which is just the
38763 0-based index into this table. Note that if there are type CUs, then
38764 conceptually CUs and type CUs form a single list for the purposes of
38765 CU indices.
38766
38767 @item
38768 The types CU list. This is a sequence of triplets of 64-bit
38769 little-endian values. In a triplet, the first value is the CU offset,
38770 the second value is the type offset in the CU, and the third value is
38771 the type signature. The types CU list is not sorted.
38772
38773 @item
38774 The address area. The address area consists of a sequence of address
38775 entries. Each address entry has three elements:
38776
38777 @enumerate
38778 @item
38779 The low address. This is a 64-bit little-endian value.
38780
38781 @item
38782 The high address. This is a 64-bit little-endian value. Like
38783 @code{DW_AT_high_pc}, the value is one byte beyond the end.
38784
38785 @item
38786 The CU index. This is an @code{offset_type} value.
38787 @end enumerate
38788
38789 @item
38790 The symbol table. This is an open-addressed hash table. The size of
38791 the hash table is always a power of 2.
38792
38793 Each slot in the hash table consists of a pair of @code{offset_type}
38794 values. The first value is the offset of the symbol's name in the
38795 constant pool. The second value is the offset of the CU vector in the
38796 constant pool.
38797
38798 If both values are 0, then this slot in the hash table is empty. This
38799 is ok because while 0 is a valid constant pool index, it cannot be a
38800 valid index for both a string and a CU vector.
38801
38802 The hash value for a table entry is computed by applying an
38803 iterative hash function to the symbol's name. Starting with an
38804 initial value of @code{r = 0}, each (unsigned) character @samp{c} in
38805 the string is incorporated into the hash using the formula depending on the
38806 index version:
38807
38808 @table @asis
38809 @item Version 4
38810 The formula is @code{r = r * 67 + c - 113}.
38811
38812 @item Version 5
38813 The formula is @code{r = r * 67 + tolower (c) - 113}.
38814 @end table
38815
38816 The terminating @samp{\0} is not incorporated into the hash.
38817
38818 The step size used in the hash table is computed via
38819 @code{((hash * 17) & (size - 1)) | 1}, where @samp{hash} is the hash
38820 value, and @samp{size} is the size of the hash table. The step size
38821 is used to find the next candidate slot when handling a hash
38822 collision.
38823
38824 The names of C@t{++} symbols in the hash table are canonicalized. We
38825 don't currently have a simple description of the canonicalization
38826 algorithm; if you intend to create new index sections, you must read
38827 the code.
38828
38829 @item
38830 The constant pool. This is simply a bunch of bytes. It is organized
38831 so that alignment is correct: CU vectors are stored first, followed by
38832 strings.
38833
38834 A CU vector in the constant pool is a sequence of @code{offset_type}
38835 values. The first value is the number of CU indices in the vector.
38836 Each subsequent value is the index of a CU in the CU list. This
38837 element in the hash table is used to indicate which CUs define the
38838 symbol.
38839
38840 A string in the constant pool is zero-terminated.
38841 @end enumerate
38842
38843 @include gpl.texi
38844
38845 @node GNU Free Documentation License
38846 @appendix GNU Free Documentation License
38847 @include fdl.texi
38848
38849 @node Index
38850 @unnumbered Index
38851
38852 @printindex cp
38853
38854 @tex
38855 % I think something like @colophon should be in texinfo. In the
38856 % meantime:
38857 \long\def\colophon{\hbox to0pt{}\vfill
38858 \centerline{The body of this manual is set in}
38859 \centerline{\fontname\tenrm,}
38860 \centerline{with headings in {\bf\fontname\tenbf}}
38861 \centerline{and examples in {\tt\fontname\tentt}.}
38862 \centerline{{\it\fontname\tenit\/},}
38863 \centerline{{\bf\fontname\tenbf}, and}
38864 \centerline{{\sl\fontname\tensl\/}}
38865 \centerline{are used for emphasis.}\vfill}
38866 \page\colophon
38867 % Blame: doc@cygnus.com, 1991.
38868 @end tex
38869
38870 @bye