gdb man page on ElementaryOS

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   4994 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
ElementaryOS logo
[printable version]

GDB(1)			     GNU Development Tools			GDB(1)

NAME
       gdb - The GNU Debugger

SYNOPSIS
       gdb [-help] [-nh] [-nx] [-q] [-batch] [-cd=dir] [-f] [-b bps]
	   [-tty=dev] [-s symfile] [-e prog] [-se prog] [-c core] [-p procID]
	   [-x cmds] [-d dir] [prog|prog procID|prog core]

DESCRIPTION
       The purpose of a debugger such as GDB is to allow you to see what is
       going on "inside" another program while it executes -- or what another
       program was doing at the moment it crashed.

       GDB can do four main kinds of things (plus other things in support of
       these) to help you catch bugs in the act:

       ·   Start your program, specifying anything that might affect its
	   behavior.

       ·   Make your program stop on specified conditions.

       ·   Examine what has happened, when your program has stopped.

       ·   Change things in your program, so you can experiment with
	   correcting the effects of one bug and go on to learn about another.

       You can use GDB to debug programs written in C, C@t{++}, Fortran and
       Modula-2.

       GDB is invoked with the shell command "gdb".  Once started, it reads
       commands from the terminal until you tell it to exit with the GDB
       command "quit".	You can get online help from GDB itself by using the
       command "help".

       You can run "gdb" with no arguments or options; but the most usual way
       to start GDB is with one argument or two, specifying an executable
       program as the argument:

	       gdb program

       You can also start with both an executable program and a core file
       specified:

	       gdb program core

       You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument, if you
       want to debug a running process:

	       gdb program 1234
	       gdb -p 1234

       would attach GDB to process 1234 (unless you also have a file named
       1234; GDB does check for a core file first).  With option -p you can
       omit the program filename.

       Here are some of the most frequently needed GDB commands:

       break [file:]functiop
	   Set a breakpoint at function (in file).

       run [arglist]
	   Start your program (with arglist, if specified).

       bt  Backtrace: display the program stack.

       print expr
	   Display the value of an expression.

       c   Continue running your program (after stopping, e.g. at a
	   breakpoint).

       next
	   Execute next program line (after stopping); step over any function
	   calls in the line.

       edit [file:]function
	   look at the program line where it is presently stopped.

       list [file:]function
	   type the text of the program in the vicinity of where it is
	   presently stopped.

       step
	   Execute next program line (after stopping); step into any function
	   calls in the line.

       help [name]
	   Show information about GDB command name, or general information
	   about using GDB.

       quit
	   Exit from GDB.

       For full details on GDB, see Using GDB: A Guide to the GNU Source-Level
       Debugger, by Richard M. Stallman and Roland H. Pesch.  The same text is
       available online as the "gdb" entry in the "info" program.

OPTIONS
       Any arguments other than options specify an executable file and core
       file (or process ID); that is, the first argument encountered with no
       associated option flag is equivalent to a -se option, and the second,
       if any, is equivalent to a -c option if it's the name of a file.	 Many
       options have both long and short forms; both are shown here.  The long
       forms are also recognized if you truncate them, so long as enough of
       the option is present to be unambiguous.	 (If you prefer, you can flag
       option arguments with + rather than -, though we illustrate the more
       usual convention.)

       All the options and command line arguments you give are processed in
       sequential order.  The order makes a difference when the -x option is
       used.

       -help
       -h  List all options, with brief explanations.

       -symbols=file
       -s file
	   Read symbol table from file file.

       -write
	   Enable writing into executable and core files.

       -exec=file
       -e file
	   Use file file as the executable file to execute when appropriate,
	   and for examining pure data in conjunction with a core dump.

       -se=file
	   Read symbol table from file file and use it as the executable file.

       -core=file
       -c file
	   Use file file as a core dump to examine.

       -command=file
       -x file
	   Execute GDB commands from file file.

       -ex command
	   Execute given GDB command.

       -directory=directory
       -d directory
	   Add directory to the path to search for source files.

       -nh Do not execute commands from ~/.gdbinit.

       -nx
       -n  Do not execute commands from any .gdbinit initialization files.

       -quiet
       -q  "Quiet".  Do not print the introductory and copyright messages.
	   These messages are also suppressed in batch mode.

       -batch
	   Run in batch mode.  Exit with status 0 after processing all the
	   command files specified with -x (and .gdbinit, if not inhibited).
	   Exit with nonzero status if an error occurs in executing the GDB
	   commands in the command files.

	   Batch mode may be useful for running GDB as a filter, for example
	   to download and run a program on another computer; in order to make
	   this more useful, the message

		   Program exited normally.

	   (which is ordinarily issued whenever a program running under GDB
	   control terminates) is not issued when running in batch mode.

       -cd=directory
	   Run GDB using directory as its working directory, instead of the
	   current directory.

       -fullname
       -f  Emacs sets this option when it runs GDB as a subprocess.  It tells
	   GDB to output the full file name and line number in a standard,
	   recognizable fashion each time a stack frame is displayed (which
	   includes each time the program stops).  This recognizable format
	   looks like two \032 characters, followed by the file name, line
	   number and character position separated by colons, and a newline.
	   The Emacs-to-GDB interface program uses the two \032 characters as
	   a signal to display the source code for the frame.

       -b bps
	   Set the line speed (baud rate or bits per second) of any serial
	   interface used by GDB for remote debugging.

       -tty=device
	   Run using device for your program's standard input and output.

SEE ALSO
       The full documentation for GDB is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If
       the "info" and "gdb" programs and GDB's Texinfo documentation are
       properly installed at your site, the command

	       info gdb

       should give you access to the complete manual.

       Using GDB: A Guide to the GNU Source-Level Debugger, Richard M.
       Stallman and Roland H. Pesch, July 1991.

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (c) 1988-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
       under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
       any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
       Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free
       Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and
       with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.

       (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify this
       GNU Manual.  Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
       developing GNU and promoting software freedom."

gdb-7.7				  2014-02-19				GDB(1)
[top]

List of man pages available for ElementaryOS

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net