Debugging with GDB (February 2008)

16 Debugging with GDB
2.2 Quitting GDB
quit [expression ]
q To exit GDB, use the quit command (abbreviated q), or type an end-of-file
character (usually C-d). If you do not supply expression, GDB will terminate
normally; otherwise it will terminate using the result of expression as the error
code.
An interrupt (often C-c) does not exit from GDB, but rather terminates the action of
any GDB command that is in progress and returns to GDB command level. It is safe to
type the interrupt character at any time because GDB does not allow it to take effect until
a time when it is safe.
You can use the detach command to release an attached process or device.
2.3 Shell commands
If you need to execute occasional shell commands during your debugging session, there
is no need to leave or suspend GDB; you can just use the shell command.
shell command string
Invoke a standard shell to execute command string. If it exists, the environment
variable SHELL determines which shell to run. Otherwise GDB uses the default
shell (‘/bin/sh’ on Unix systems, ‘COMMAND.COM’ on MS-DOS, etc.).
The utility make is often needed in development environments. You do not have to use
the shell command for this purpose in GDB:
make make-args
Execute the make program with the specified arguments. This is equivalent to
‘shell make make-args ’.