@dircategory Programming & development tools. * Gdb: (gdb). The GNU debugger.

Copyright (C) 1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994,1995,1996,1998,1999,2000,2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Published by the Free Software Foundation
59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
ISBN 1-882114-77-9

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 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 have freedom to copy and modify this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development." @node Top @top Debugging with @value{GDBN} This file describes @value{GDBN}, the @sc{gnu} symbolic debugger. This is the @value{EDITION} Edition, @value{DATE}, for @value{GDBN} Version @value{GDBVN}. Copyright (C) 1988-2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc. @menu * Summary:: Summary of @value{GDBN} * Sample Session:: A sample @value{GDBN} session * Invocation:: Getting in and out of @value{GDBN} * Commands:: @value{GDBN} commands * Running:: Running programs under @value{GDBN} * Stopping:: Stopping and continuing * Stack:: Examining the stack * Source:: Examining source files * Data:: Examining data * Languages:: Using @value{GDBN} with different languages * Symbols:: Examining the symbol table * Altering:: Altering execution * GDB Files:: @value{GDBN} files * Targets:: Specifying a debugging target * Configurations:: Configuration-specific information * Controlling GDB:: Controlling @value{GDBN} * Sequences:: Canned sequences of commands * Emacs:: Using @value{GDBN} under @sc{gnu} Emacs * Annotations:: @value{GDBN}'s annotation interface. * GDB Bugs:: Reporting bugs in @value{GDBN} * Formatting Documentation:: How to format and print @value{GDBN} documentation * Command Line Editing:: Command Line Editing * Using History Interactively:: Using History Interactively * Installing GDB:: Installing GDB * Index:: Index @end menu

Summary of

The purpose of a debugger such as 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.

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 to debug programs written in C and C++. For more information, see section Supported languages. For more information, see section C and C++.

Support for Modula-2 and Chill is partial. For information on Modula-2, see section Modula-2. For information on Chill, see section Chill.

Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, file variables, or nested functions does not currently work. does not support entering expressions, printing values, or similar features using Pascal syntax.

can be used to debug programs written in Fortran, although it may be necessary to refer to some variables with a trailing underscore.

Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.