man > gdb(1)

GDB(1)                                  GNU Development Tools                                 GDB(1)

NAME
       gdb - The GNU Debugger

SYNOPSIS
       gdb [OPTIONS] [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++, 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" or "exit".  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 or use option "-p", if  you  want
       to debug a running process:

               gdb program 1234
               gdb -p 1234

       would attach GDB to process 1234.  With option -p you can omit the program filename.

       Here are some of the most frequently needed GDB commands:

       break [file:][function|line]
           Set a breakpoint at function or line (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
           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 abbreviated 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.

       The abbreviated forms are shown here with - and long forms are shown with -- to  reflect  how
       they  are  shown in --help. However, GDB recognizes all of the following conventions for most
       options:

       "--option=value"
       "--option value"
       "-option=value"
       "-option value"
       "--o=value"
       "--o value"
       "-o=value"
       "-o value"

       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.

       --write
           Enable writing into executable and core files.

       --exec=file
       -e file
           Use  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 and use it as the executable file.

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

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

       --eval-command=command
       -ex command
           Execute given GDB command.

       --init-eval-command=command
       -iex
           Execute GDB command before loading the inferior.

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

       --nh
           Do     not     execute     commands     from      ~/.config/gdb/gdbinit,      ~/.gdbinit,
           ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit, or ~/.gdbearlyinit

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

       --quiet
       --silent
       -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.

       --batch-silent
           Run  in  batch mode, just like --batch, but totally silent.  All GDB output is suppressed
           (stderr is unaffected).  This is much quieter than --silent and would be useless  for  an
           interactive session.

           This  is  particularly  useful when using targets that give Loading section messages, for
           example.

           Note that targets that give their output via GDB,  as  opposed  to  writing  directly  to
           "stdout", will also be made silent.

       --args prog [arglist]
           Change  interpretation of command line so that arguments following this option are passed
           as arguments to the inferior.  As an example, take the following command:

                   gdb ./a.out -q

           It would start GDB with -q, not printing the introductory message.  On  the  other  hand,
           using:

                   gdb --args ./a.out -q

           starts GDB with the introductory message, and passes the option to the inferior.

       --pid=pid
           Attach GDB to an already running program, with the PID pid.

       --tui
           Open the terminal user interface.

       --readnow
           Read all symbols from the given symfile on the first access.

       --readnever
           Do not read symbol files.

       --return-child-result
           GDB's exit code will be the same as the child's exit code.

       --configuration
           Print details about GDB configuration and then exit.

       --version
           Print version information and then exit.

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

       --data-directory=directory
       -D  Run  GDB using directory as its data directory.  The data directory is where GDB searches
           for its auxiliary files.

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

       -l timeout
           Set timeout, in seconds, 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) 1988-2024 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-                                         2026-02-05                                       GDB(1)