Debugging with GDB Manual (5900-1473; WDB 6.2; January 2011)
Table Of Contents
- Debugging with GDB Manual
- Contents
- Summary of GDB
- 1 A Sample GDB Session
- 1.1 Loading the Executable
- 1.2 Setting Display width
- 1.3 Setting Breakpoints
- 1.4 Running the executable under GDB
- 1.5 Stepping to the next line in the source program
- 1.6 Stepping into a subroutine
- 1.7 Examining the Stack
- 1.8 Printing Variable Values
- 1.9 Listing Source Code
- 1.10 Setting Variable Values During a Session
- 2 Getting In and Out of GDB
- 3 GDB Commands
- 4 Running Programs Under GDB
- 4.1 Compiling for debugging
- 4.2 Starting your program
- 4.3 Arguments To Your Program
- 4.4 Program Environment
- 4.5 Working directory
- 4.6 Program Input and Output
- 4.7 Debugging a Running Process
- 4.8 Killing the child process
- 4.9 Debugging programs with multiple threads
- 4.10 Debugging programs with multiple processes
- 5 Stopping and Continuing
- 6 Examining the Stack
- 7 Examining Source Files
- 8 Examining Data
- 9 Using GDB with Different Languages
- 10 Examining the Symbol Table
- 11 Altering Execution
- 12 GDB Files
- 13 Specifying a Debugging Target
- 14 HP-UX Configuration-Specific Information
- 14.1 Summary of HP Enhancements to GDB
- 14.2 HP-UX dependencies
- 14.3 Supported Platforms and Modes
- 14.4 HP-UX targets
- 14.5 Support for Alternate root
- 14.6 Specifying object file directories
- 14.7 Fix and continue debugging
- 14.8 Inline Support
- 14.9 Debugging Macros
- 14.10 Debugging Memory Problems
- 14.10.1 When to suspect a memory leak
- 14.10.2 Memory debugging restrictions
- 14.10.3 Memory Debugging Methodologies
- 14.10.4 Debugging Memory in Interactive Mode
- 14.10.5 Debugging Memory in Batch Mode
- 14.10.6 Debugging Memory Interactively After Attaching to a Running Process
- 14.10.7 Open-files reporting
- 14.10.8 Configuring memory debugging settings
- 14.10.9 Scenarios in memory debugging
- 14.10.9.1 Stop when freeing unallocated or deallocated blocks
- 14.10.9.2 Stop when freeing a block if bad writes occurred outside block boundary
- 14.10.9.3 Stop when a specified block address is allocated or deallocated
- 14.10.9.4 Scramble previous memory contents at malloc/free calls
- 14.10.9.5 Detect dangling pointers and dangling blocks
- 14.10.9.6 Detect in-block corruption of freed blocks
- 14.10.9.7 Specify the amount of guard bytes for every block of allocated memory
- 14.10.10 Comparison of Memory Debugging Commands in Interactive Mode and Batch Mode
- 14.10.11 Heap Profiling
- 14.10.12 Memory Checking Analysis for User Defined Memory Management Routines
- 14.10.13 Commands to track the change in data segment value
- 14.10.14 Support for Memory Debugging Feature on Applications Using libmallocng Library for Heap Allocation Management
- 14.11 Thread Debugging Support
- 14.11.1 Support for Enabling and Disabling Specific Threads
- 14.11.2 Backtrace Support for Thread Debugging
- 14.11.3 Advanced Thread Debugging Support
- 14.11.4 Debugging Threads Interactively After Attaching to a Process
- 14.11.5 Thread Debugging in Batch Mode
- 14.11.6 Thread Debugging in +check Mode
- 14.11.7 Known issues with Thread Debugging for Interactive and Batch mode
- 14.12 Debugging MPI Programs
- 14.13 Debugging multiple processes (programs with fork and vfork calls)
- 14.14 Command to Search for a Pattern in the Memory Address Space
- 14.15 Debugging Core Files
- 14.15.1 Generating core files with packcore /unpackcore/getcore
- 14.15.2 Support for the info target Command
- 14.15.3 Support for the dumpcore command
- 14.15.4 Support for display of run time type information
- 14.15.5 Support for Core File Debugging of MITR Applications
- 14.15.5.1 Configuring HP WDB for Mixed Mode Debugging
- 14.15.5.2 Command to Support Core File Debugging in Mixed More Applications
- 14.15.5.3 Change in the Behavior of Existing Commands
- 14.15.5.4 Command and Features Applicable to PA-RISC Libraries
- 14.15.5.5 Known Issues and Unsupported Features in Mixed Mode Debugging
- 14.15.6 Support for mmapfile command
- 14.16 Debugging with debug information available in the side debug file
- 14.17 Printing the Execution Path Entries for the Current Frame or Thread
- 14.18 Command to Unwind Beyond 10000 Frames
- 14.19 Invoking GDB Before a Program Aborts
- 14.20 Aborting a Command Line Call
- 14.21 Instruction Level Stepping
- 14.22 Enhanced support for watchpoints and breakpoints
- 14.23 Debugging support for shared libraries
- 14.23.1 Using shared library as main program
- 14.23.2 Setting Deferred Breakpoints in Shared Library
- 14.23.3 Using catch load
- 14.23.4 Privately mapping shared libraries
- 14.23.5 Selectively Mapping Shared Libraries As Private
- 14.23.6 Setting breakpoints in shared library
- 14.23.7 Enhancement to the info shared Command
- 14.24 Debugging support for Decimal Floating Point data type
- 14.25 Additional Support for binary floating point data type
- 14.26 Language support
- 14.27 Viewing Wide Character Strings
- 14.28 Support for output logging
- 14.29 Getting information from a non-debug executable
- 14.30 Debugging optimized code
- 14.31 Debugging with ARIES
- 14.32 Visual Interface for HP WDB
- 14.32.1 Starting and stopping Visual Interface for HP WDB
- 14.32.2 Navigating the Visual Interface for HP WDB display
- 14.32.3 Specifying foreground and background colors
- 14.32.4 Using the X-window graphical interface
- 14.32.5 Using the TUI mode
- 14.32.6 Changing the size of the source or debugger pane
- 14.32.7 Using commands to browse through source files
- 14.32.8 Loading source files
- 14.32.9 Editing source files
- 14.32.10 Editing the command line and command-line history
- 14.32.11 Saving the contents of a debugging session to a file
- 14.33 Support for ddd
- 14.34 Support for XDB commands
- 14.35 GDB Logging Commands
- 14.36 Support for command line calls in a stripped executable
- 14.37 Displaying the current block scope information
- 14.38 Linux support
- 14.39 Source level debugging
- 14.40 Support for using old DW-VIRTUALITY values
- 14.41 Additional support for examining registers
- 15 The HP-UX Terminal User Interface
- 16 XDB to HP WDB Transition Guide
- 16.1 By-function lists of XDB commands and HP WDB equivalents
- 16.2 Overall breakpoint commands
- 16.2.1 Auxiliary breakpoint commands
- 16.2.2 Breakpoint creation commands
- 16.2.3 Breakpoint status commands
- 16.2.4 All-procedures breakpoint commands
- 16.2.5 Global breakpoint commands
- 16.2.6 Assertion control commands
- 16.2.7 Record and playback commands
- 16.2.8 Macro facility commands
- 16.2.9 Signal control commands
- 16.2.10 Miscellaneous commands
- 16.3 XDB data formats and HP WDB equivalents
- 16.4 XDB location syntax and HP WDB equivalents
- 16.5 XDB special language operators and HP WDB equivalents
- 16.6 XDB special variables and HP WDB equivalents
- 16.7 XDB variable identifiers and HP WDB equivalents
- 16.8 Alphabetical lists of XDB commands and HP WDB equivalents
- 17 Controlling GDB
- 17.1 Setting the GDB Prompt
- 17.2 Setting Command Editing Options in GDB
- 17.3 Setting Command History Feature in GDB
- 17.4 Setting the GDB Screen Size
- 17.5 Supported Number Formats
- 17.6 Optional warnings and messages
- 17.7 Optional messages about internal happenings
- 17.8 Configuring the Current Application Binary Interface (ABI)
- 18 Canned Sequences of Commands
- 19 Using GDB under gnu Emacs
- 20 GDB Annotations
- 21 The GDB/MI Interface
- 21.1 GDB/MI Command Syntax
- 21.2 GDB/MI compatibility with CLI
- 21.3 GDB/MI output records
- 21.4 GDB/MI command description format
- 21.5 GDB/MI breakpoint table commands
- 21.6 GDB/MI Data manipulation
- 21.7 GDB/MI program control
- 21.8 Miscellaneous GDB commands in GDB/MI
- 21.9 GDB/MI Stack Manipulation Commands
- 21.10 GDB/MI Symbol query commands
- 21.11 GDB/MI Target Manipulation Commands
- 21.12 GDB/MI thread commands
- 21.13 GDB/MI tracepoint commands
- 21.14 GDB/MI variable objects
- 22 Reporting Bugs in GDB
- A Installing GDB
4 Running Programs Under GDB
When you run a program under GDB, you must first generate debugging information
when you compile it using compiler option cc -g -O.
You may start GDB with its arguments, if any, in an environment of your choice. If you
are doing native debugging, you may redirect your program's input and output, debug
an already running process, or kill a child process.
4.1 Compiling for debugging
Following points are noteable while compiling programs for debugging:
• Compile your program with the -g-O option to generate debugging information.
• The -g-O option is supported by HP ANSI C and HP aC++ compilers and GNU
gcc compiler.
• Some compilers do not support the -g-O options together.
• The -g-O options do not work on machines with instruction scheduling.
NOTE: Older versions of the GNU C compiler permitted a variant option '-gg' for
debugging information. GDB no longer supports this format; if your GNU C compiler
has this option, do not use it.
4.2 Starting your program
run,
r
Use the run command to start your program under GDB. You must first specify
the program name (except on VxWorks) with an argument to GDB (see Chapter 2
(page 23)), or by using the file or exec-file command (see “Commands
to specify files” (page 118)).
NOTE: If you are running your program in an execution environment that supports
processes, run creates an inferior process and makes that process run your program. (In
environments without processes, run jumps to the start of your program.)
The execution of a program is affected by the information it receives from the parent
process. You must provide GDB the information before starting the program. (You can
change the information after starting your program, but such changes only affect your
program the next time you start it.) The information that must be passed to GDB can be
categorized into four categories:
arguments. Specify the arguments to give your program as
the arguments of the run command. If a shell is
available on your target, the shell is used to pass
the arguments, so that you may use normal
conventions (such as wildcard expansion or
4.1 Compiling for debugging 35