Debugging with GDB (February 2008)
Table Of Contents
- Summary of GDB
- A Sample GDB Session
- Getting In and Out of GDB
- GDB Commands
- Running Programs Under GDB
- Stopping and Continuing
- Examining the Stack
- Examining Source Files
- Examining Data
- Using GDB with Different Languages
- Examining the Symbol Table
- Altering Execution
- GDB Files
- Specifying a Debugging Target
- HP-UX Configuration-Specific Information
- Summary of HP Enhancements to GDB
- HP-UX dependencies
- Supported Platforms and Modes
- HP-UX targets
- Support for Alternate root
- Specifying object file directories
- Fix and continue debugging
- Inline Support
- Debugging Macros
- Debugging Memory Problems
- When to suspect a memory leak
- Memory debugging restrictions
- Memory Debugging Methodologies
- Debugging Memory in Interactive Mode
- Debugging Memory in Batch Mode
- Debugging Memory Interactively After Attaching to a Running Process
- Configuring memory debugging settings
- Scenarios in memory debugging
- Stop when freeing unallocated or deallocated blocks
- Stop when freeing a block if bad writes occurred outside block boundary
- Stop when a specified block address is allocated or deallocated
- Scramble previous memory contents at malloc/free calls
- Detect dangling pointers and dangling blocks
- Detect in-block corruption of freed blocks
- Specify the amount of guard bytes for every block of allocated memory
- Comparison of Memory Debugging Commands in Interactive Mode and Batch Mode
- Heap Profiling
- Memory Checking Analysis for User Defined Memory Management Routines
- Commands to track the change in data segment value
- Thread Debugging Support
- Debugging MPI Programs
- Debugging multiple processes ( programs with fork and vfork calls)
- Debugging Core Files
- Printing the Execution Path Entries for the Current Frame or Thread
- Invoking GDB Before a Program Aborts
- Aborting a Command Line Call
- Instruction Level Stepping
- Enhanced support for watchpoints and breakpoints
- Debugging support for shared libraries
- Language support
- Enhanced Java Debugging Support
- Commands for Examining Java Virtual Machine(JVM) internals
- Support for stack traces in Java, C, and C++ programs
- Support for 64-bit Java, C, aC++ stack unwinding
- Enhanced support for C++ templates
- Support for __fpreg data type on IPF
- Support for _Complex variables in HP C
- Support for debugging namespaces
- Command for evaluating the address of an expression
- Viewing Wide Character Strings
- Support for output logging
- Getting information from a non-debug executable
- Debugging optimized code
- Visual Interface for WDB
- Starting and stopping Visual Interface for WDB
- Navigating the Visual Interface for WDB display
- Specifying foreground and background colors
- Using the X-window graphical interface
- Using the TUI mode
- Changing the size of the source or debugger pane
- Using commands to browse through source files
- Loading source files
- Editing source files
- Editing the command line and command-line history
- Saving the contents of a debugging session to a file
- Support for ddd
- Support for XDB commands
- GNU GDB Logging Commands
- Support for command line calls in a stripped executable
- Displaying the current block scope information
- Linux support
- The HP-UX Terminal User Interface
- XDB to WDB Transition Guide
- By-function lists of XDB commands and HP WDB equivalents
- Overall breakpoint commands
- XDB data formats and HP WDB equivalents
- XDB location syntax and HP WDB equivalents
- XDB special language operators and HP WDB equivalents
- XDB special variables and HP WDB equivalents
- XDB variable identifiers and HP WDB equivalents
- Alphabetical lists of XDB commands and HP WDB equivalents
- Controlling GDB
- Canned Sequences of Commands
- Using GDB under gnu Emacs
- GDB Annotations
- The gdb/mi Interface
- Function and purpose
- Notation and terminology
- gdb/mi Command Syntax
- gdb/mi compatibility with CLI
- gdb/mi output records
- gdb/mi command description format
- gdb/mi breakpoint table commands
- gdb/mi Data manipulation
- gdb/mi program control
- Miscellaneous GDB commands in gdb/mi
- gdb/mi Stack Manipulation Commands
- gdb/mi Symbol query commands
- gdb/mi Target Manipulation Commands
- gdb/mi thread commands
- gdb/mi tracepoint commands
- gdb/mi variable objects
- Reporting Bugs in GDB
- Installing GDB
- Index
322 Debugging with GDB
• -gdb-show output-radix
• -stack-list-arguments
• -stack-list-locals
• -stack-select-frame
Introduction to variable objects in gdb/mi
The basic idea behind variable objects is the creation of a named object to represent a
variable, an expression, a memory location or even a CPU register. For each object created,
a set of operations is available for examining or changing its properties.
Furthermore, complex data types, such as C structures, are represented in a tree for-
mat. For instance, the struct type variable is the root and the children will represent the
struct members. If a child is itself of a complex type, it will also have children of its own.
Appropriate language differences are handled for C, C++ and Java.
When returning the actual values of the objects, this facility allows for the individual
selection of the display format used in the result creation. It can be chosen among: binary,
decimal, hexadecimal, octal and natural. Natural refers to a default format automatically
chosen based on the variable type (like decimal for an int, hex for pointers, etc.).
The following is the complete set of gdb/mi operations defined to access this function-
ality:
Operation Description
-var-create create a variable object
-var-delete delete the variable object and its children
-var-set-format set the display format of this variable
-var-show-format show the display format of this variable
-var-info-num-children tells how many children this object has
-var-list-children return a list of the object children
-var-info-type show the type of this variable object
-var-info-expression print what this variable object represents
-var-show-attributes is this variable editable? does it exist here?
-var-evaluate-expression get the value of this variable
-var-assign set the value of this variable
-var-update update the variable and its children
In the next subsection we describe each operation in detail and suggest how it can be
used.
Description and use of operations on variable objects
The -var-create command