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13 this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
14 developing GNU and promoting software freedom."
15 INFO-DIR-SECTION Software development
17 * Gdb: (gdb). The GNU debugger.
18 * gdbserver: (gdb) Server. The GNU debugging server.
21 This file documents the GNU debugger GDB.
23 This is the Tenth Edition, of 'Debugging with GDB: the GNU
24 Source-Level Debugger' for GDB (GDB) Version 7.8.1.
26 Copyright (C) 1988-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
28 Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
29 under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or
30 any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
31 Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free
32 Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and
33 with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.
35 (a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify
36 this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in
37 developing GNU and promoting software freedom."
40 File: gdb.info, Node: Xmethods In Python, Next: Xmethod API, Prev: Writing a Frame Filter, Up: Python API
42 23.2.2.12 Xmethods In Python
43 ............................
45 "Xmethods" are additional methods or replacements for existing methods
46 of a C++ class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
47 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by the
48 compiler, making it unavailable to GDB. For such cases, one can define
49 an xmethod to serve as a replacement for the method defined in the C++
50 source code. GDB will then invoke the xmethod, instead of the C++
51 method, to evaluate expressions. One can also use xmethods when
52 debugging with core files. Moreover, when debugging live programs,
53 invoking an xmethod need not involve running the inferior (which can
54 potentially perturb its state). Hence, even if the C++ method is
55 available, it is better to use its replacement xmethod if one is
58 The xmethods feature in Python is available via the concepts of an
59 "xmethod matcher" and an "xmethod worker". To implement an xmethod, one
60 has to implement a matcher and a corresponding worker for it (more than
61 one worker can be implemented, each catering to a different overloaded
62 instance of the method). Internally, GDB invokes the 'match' method of
63 a matcher to match the class type and method name. On a match, the
64 'match' method returns a list of matching _worker_ objects. Each worker
65 object typically corresponds to an overloaded instance of the xmethod.
66 They implement a 'get_arg_types' method which returns a sequence of
67 types corresponding to the arguments the xmethod requires. GDB uses
68 this sequence of types to perform overload resolution and picks a
69 winning xmethod worker. A winner is also selected from among the
70 methods GDB finds in the C++ source code. Next, the winning xmethod
71 worker and the winning C++ method are compared to select an overall
72 winner. In case of a tie between a xmethod worker and a C++ method, the
73 xmethod worker is selected as the winner. That is, if a winning xmethod
74 worker is found to be equivalent to the winning C++ method, then the
75 xmethod worker is treated as a replacement for the C++ method. GDB uses
76 the overall winner to invoke the method. If the winning xmethod worker
77 is the overall winner, then the corresponding xmethod is invoked via the
78 'invoke' method of the worker object.
80 If one wants to implement an xmethod as a replacement for an existing
81 C++ method, then they have to implement an equivalent xmethod which has
82 exactly the same name and takes arguments of exactly the same type as
83 the C++ method. If the user wants to invoke the C++ method even though
84 a replacement xmethod is available for that method, then they can
87 *Note Xmethod API::, for API to implement xmethods in Python. *Note
88 Writing an Xmethod::, for implementing xmethods in Python.
91 File: gdb.info, Node: Xmethod API, Next: Writing an Xmethod, Prev: Xmethods In Python, Up: Python API
96 The GDB Python API provides classes, interfaces and functions to
97 implement, register and manipulate xmethods. *Note Xmethods In
100 An xmethod matcher should be an instance of a class derived from
101 'XMethodMatcher' defined in the module 'gdb.xmethod', or an object with
102 similar interface and attributes. An instance of 'XMethodMatcher' has
103 the following attributes:
106 The name of the matcher.
109 A boolean value indicating whether the matcher is enabled or
113 A list of named methods managed by the matcher. Each object in the
114 list is an instance of the class 'XMethod' defined in the module
115 'gdb.xmethod', or any object with the following attributes:
118 Name of the xmethod which should be unique for each xmethod
119 managed by the matcher.
122 A boolean value indicating whether the xmethod is enabled or
125 The class 'XMethod' is a convenience class with same attributes as
126 above along with the following constructor:
128 -- Function: XMethod.__init__ (self, name)
129 Constructs an enabled xmethod with name NAME.
131 The 'XMethodMatcher' class has the following methods:
133 -- Function: XMethodMatcher.__init__ (self, name)
134 Constructs an enabled xmethod matcher with name NAME. The
135 'methods' attribute is initialized to 'None'.
137 -- Function: XMethodMatcher.match (self, class_type, method_name)
138 Derived classes should override this method. It should return a
139 xmethod worker object (or a sequence of xmethod worker objects)
140 matching the CLASS_TYPE and METHOD_NAME. CLASS_TYPE is a
141 'gdb.Type' object, and METHOD_NAME is a string value. If the
142 matcher manages named methods as listed in its 'methods' attribute,
143 then only those worker objects whose corresponding entries in the
144 'methods' list are enabled should be returned.
146 An xmethod worker should be an instance of a class derived from
147 'XMethodWorker' defined in the module 'gdb.xmethod', or support the
150 -- Function: XMethodWorker.get_arg_types (self)
151 This method returns a sequence of 'gdb.Type' objects corresponding
152 to the arguments that the xmethod takes. It can return an empty
153 sequence or 'None' if the xmethod does not take any arguments. If
154 the xmethod takes a single argument, then a single 'gdb.Type'
155 object corresponding to it can be returned.
157 -- Function: XMethodWorker.__call__ (self, *args)
158 This is the method which does the _work_ of the xmethod. The ARGS
159 arguments is the tuple of arguments to the xmethod. Each element
160 in this tuple is a gdb.Value object. The first element is always
161 the 'this' pointer value.
163 For GDB to lookup xmethods, the xmethod matchers should be registered
164 using the following function defined in the module 'gdb.xmethod':
166 -- Function: register_xmethod_matcher (locus, matcher, replace=False)
167 The 'matcher' is registered with 'locus', replacing an existing
168 matcher with the same name as 'matcher' if 'replace' is 'True'.
169 'locus' can be a 'gdb.Objfile' object (*note Objfiles In Python::),
170 or a 'gdb.Progspace' object (*note Progspaces In Python::), or
171 'None'. If it is 'None', then 'matcher' is registered globally.
174 File: gdb.info, Node: Writing an Xmethod, Next: Inferiors In Python, Prev: Xmethod API, Up: Python API
176 23.2.2.14 Writing an Xmethod
177 ............................
179 Implementing xmethods in Python will require implementing xmethod
180 matchers and xmethod workers (*note Xmethods In Python::). Consider the
186 MyClass (int a) : a_(a) { }
188 int geta (void) { return a_; }
189 int operator+ (int b);
196 MyClass::operator+ (int b)
201 Let us define two xmethods for the class 'MyClass', one replacing the
202 method 'geta', and another adding an overloaded flavor of 'operator+'
203 which takes a 'MyClass' argument (the C++ code above already has an
204 overloaded 'operator+' which takes an 'int' argument). The xmethod
205 matcher can be defined as follows:
207 class MyClass_geta(gdb.xmethod.XMethod):
209 gdb.xmethod.XMethod.__init__(self, 'geta')
211 def get_worker(self, method_name):
212 if method_name == 'geta':
213 return MyClassWorker_geta()
216 class MyClass_sum(gdb.xmethod.XMethod):
218 gdb.xmethod.XMethod.__init__(self, 'sum')
220 def get_worker(self, method_name):
221 if method_name == 'operator+':
222 return MyClassWorker_plus()
225 class MyClassMatcher(gdb.xmethod.XMethodMatcher):
227 gdb.xmethod.XMethodMatcher.__init__(self, 'MyClassMatcher')
228 # List of methods 'managed' by this matcher
229 self.methods = [MyClass_geta(), MyClass_sum()]
231 def match(self, class_type, method_name):
232 if class_type.tag != 'MyClass':
235 for method in self.methods:
237 worker = method.get_worker(method_name)
239 workers.append(worker)
243 Notice that the 'match' method of 'MyClassMatcher' returns a worker
244 object of type 'MyClassWorker_geta' for the 'geta' method, and a worker
245 object of type 'MyClassWorker_plus' for the 'operator+' method. This is
246 done indirectly via helper classes derived from 'gdb.xmethod.XMethod'.
247 One does not need to use the 'methods' attribute in a matcher as it is
248 optional. However, if a matcher manages more than one xmethod, it is a
249 good practice to list the xmethods in the 'methods' attribute of the
250 matcher. This will then facilitate enabling and disabling individual
251 xmethods via the 'enable/disable' commands. Notice also that a worker
252 object is returned only if the corresponding entry in the 'methods'
253 attribute of the matcher is enabled.
255 The implementation of the worker classes returned by the matcher
256 setup above is as follows:
258 class MyClassWorker_geta(gdb.xmethod.XMethodWorker):
259 def get_arg_types(self):
262 def __call__(self, obj):
266 class MyClassWorker_plus(gdb.xmethod.XMethodWorker):
267 def get_arg_types(self):
268 return gdb.lookup_type('MyClass')
270 def __call__(self, obj, other):
271 return obj['a_'] + other['a_']
273 For GDB to actually lookup a xmethod, it has to be registered with
274 it. The matcher defined above is registered with GDB globally as
277 gdb.xmethod.register_xmethod_matcher(None, MyClassMatcher())
279 If an object 'obj' of type 'MyClass' is initialized in C++ code as
284 then, after loading the Python script defining the xmethod matchers and
285 workers into 'GDBN', invoking the method 'geta' or using the operator
286 '+' on 'obj' will invoke the xmethods defined above:
294 Consider another example with a C++ template class:
300 MyTemplate () : dsize_(10), data_ (new T [10]) { }
301 ~MyTemplate () { delete [] data_; }
305 return sizeof (T) * dsize_ + sizeof (MyTemplate<T>);
313 Let us implement an xmethod for the above class which serves as a
314 replacement for the 'footprint' method. The full code listing of the
315 xmethod workers and xmethod matchers is as follows:
317 class MyTemplateWorker_footprint(gdb.xmethod.XMethodWorker):
318 def __init__(self, class_type):
319 self.class_type = class_type
321 def get_arg_types(self):
324 def __call__(self, obj):
325 return (self.class_type.sizeof +
327 self.class_type.template_argument(0).sizeof)
330 class MyTemplateMatcher_footprint(gdb.xmethod.XMethodMatcher):
332 gdb.xmethod.XMethodMatcher.__init__(self, 'MyTemplateMatcher')
334 def match(self, class_type, method_name):
335 if (re.match('MyTemplate<[ \t\n]*[_a-zA-Z][ _a-zA-Z0-9]*>',
337 method_name == 'footprint'):
338 return MyTemplateWorker_footprint(class_type)
340 Notice that, in this example, we have not used the 'methods'
341 attribute of the matcher as the matcher manages only one xmethod. The
342 user can enable/disable this xmethod by enabling/disabling the matcher
346 File: gdb.info, Node: Inferiors In Python, Next: Events In Python, Prev: Writing an Xmethod, Up: Python API
348 23.2.2.15 Inferiors In Python
349 .............................
351 Programs which are being run under GDB are called inferiors (*note
352 Inferiors and Programs::). Python scripts can access information about
353 and manipulate inferiors controlled by GDB via objects of the
354 'gdb.Inferior' class.
356 The following inferior-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
359 -- Function: gdb.inferiors ()
360 Return a tuple containing all inferior objects.
362 -- Function: gdb.selected_inferior ()
363 Return an object representing the current inferior.
365 A 'gdb.Inferior' object has the following attributes:
367 -- Variable: Inferior.num
368 ID of inferior, as assigned by GDB.
370 -- Variable: Inferior.pid
371 Process ID of the inferior, as assigned by the underlying operating
374 -- Variable: Inferior.was_attached
375 Boolean signaling whether the inferior was created using 'attach',
376 or started by GDB itself.
378 A 'gdb.Inferior' object has the following methods:
380 -- Function: Inferior.is_valid ()
381 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.Inferior' object is valid, 'False' if
382 not. A 'gdb.Inferior' object will become invalid if the inferior
383 no longer exists within GDB. All other 'gdb.Inferior' methods will
384 throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is
387 -- Function: Inferior.threads ()
388 This method returns a tuple holding all the threads which are valid
389 when it is called. If there are no valid threads, the method will
390 return an empty tuple.
392 -- Function: Inferior.read_memory (address, length)
393 Read LENGTH bytes of memory from the inferior, starting at ADDRESS.
394 Returns a buffer object, which behaves much like an array or a
395 string. It can be modified and given to the
396 'Inferior.write_memory' function. In 'Python' 3, the return value
397 is a 'memoryview' object.
399 -- Function: Inferior.write_memory (address, buffer [, length])
400 Write the contents of BUFFER to the inferior, starting at ADDRESS.
401 The BUFFER parameter must be a Python object which supports the
402 buffer protocol, i.e., a string, an array or the object returned
403 from 'Inferior.read_memory'. If given, LENGTH determines the
404 number of bytes from BUFFER to be written.
406 -- Function: Inferior.search_memory (address, length, pattern)
407 Search a region of the inferior memory starting at ADDRESS with the
408 given LENGTH using the search pattern supplied in PATTERN. The
409 PATTERN parameter must be a Python object which supports the buffer
410 protocol, i.e., a string, an array or the object returned from
411 'gdb.read_memory'. Returns a Python 'Long' containing the address
412 where the pattern was found, or 'None' if the pattern could not be
416 File: gdb.info, Node: Events In Python, Next: Threads In Python, Prev: Inferiors In Python, Up: Python API
418 23.2.2.16 Events In Python
419 ..........................
421 GDB provides a general event facility so that Python code can be
422 notified of various state changes, particularly changes that occur in
425 An "event" is just an object that describes some state change. The
426 type of the object and its attributes will vary depending on the details
427 of the change. All the existing events are described below.
429 In order to be notified of an event, you must register an event
430 handler with an "event registry". An event registry is an object in the
431 'gdb.events' module which dispatches particular events. A registry
432 provides methods to register and unregister event handlers:
434 -- Function: EventRegistry.connect (object)
435 Add the given callable OBJECT to the registry. This object will be
436 called when an event corresponding to this registry occurs.
438 -- Function: EventRegistry.disconnect (object)
439 Remove the given OBJECT from the registry. Once removed, the
440 object will no longer receive notifications of events.
444 def exit_handler (event):
445 print "event type: exit"
446 print "exit code: %d" % (event.exit_code)
448 gdb.events.exited.connect (exit_handler)
450 In the above example we connect our handler 'exit_handler' to the
451 registry 'events.exited'. Once connected, 'exit_handler' gets called
452 when the inferior exits. The argument "event" in this example is of
453 type 'gdb.ExitedEvent'. As you can see in the example the 'ExitedEvent'
454 object has an attribute which indicates the exit code of the inferior.
456 The following is a listing of the event registries that are available
457 and details of the events they emit:
460 Emits 'gdb.ThreadEvent'.
462 Some events can be thread specific when GDB is running in non-stop
463 mode. When represented in Python, these events all extend
464 'gdb.ThreadEvent'. Note, this event is not emitted directly;
465 instead, events which are emitted by this or other modules might
466 extend this event. Examples of these events are
467 'gdb.BreakpointEvent' and 'gdb.ContinueEvent'.
469 -- Variable: ThreadEvent.inferior_thread
470 In non-stop mode this attribute will be set to the specific
471 thread which was involved in the emitted event. Otherwise, it
472 will be set to 'None'.
474 Emits 'gdb.ContinueEvent' which extends 'gdb.ThreadEvent'.
476 This event indicates that the inferior has been continued after a
477 stop. For inherited attribute refer to 'gdb.ThreadEvent' above.
480 Emits 'events.ExitedEvent' which indicates that the inferior has
481 exited. 'events.ExitedEvent' has two attributes:
482 -- Variable: ExitedEvent.exit_code
483 An integer representing the exit code, if available, which the
484 inferior has returned. (The exit code could be unavailable
485 if, for example, GDB detaches from the inferior.) If the exit
486 code is unavailable, the attribute does not exist.
487 -- Variable: ExitedEvent inferior
488 A reference to the inferior which triggered the 'exited'
492 Emits 'gdb.StopEvent' which extends 'gdb.ThreadEvent'.
494 Indicates that the inferior has stopped. All events emitted by
495 this registry extend StopEvent. As a child of 'gdb.ThreadEvent',
496 'gdb.StopEvent' will indicate the stopped thread when GDB is
497 running in non-stop mode. Refer to 'gdb.ThreadEvent' above for
500 Emits 'gdb.SignalEvent' which extends 'gdb.StopEvent'.
502 This event indicates that the inferior or one of its threads has
503 received as signal. 'gdb.SignalEvent' has the following
506 -- Variable: SignalEvent.stop_signal
507 A string representing the signal received by the inferior. A
508 list of possible signal values can be obtained by running the
509 command 'info signals' in the GDB command prompt.
511 Also emits 'gdb.BreakpointEvent' which extends 'gdb.StopEvent'.
513 'gdb.BreakpointEvent' event indicates that one or more breakpoints
514 have been hit, and has the following attributes:
516 -- Variable: BreakpointEvent.breakpoints
517 A sequence containing references to all the breakpoints (type
518 'gdb.Breakpoint') that were hit. *Note Breakpoints In
519 Python::, for details of the 'gdb.Breakpoint' object.
520 -- Variable: BreakpointEvent.breakpoint
521 A reference to the first breakpoint that was hit. This
522 function is maintained for backward compatibility and is now
523 deprecated in favor of the 'gdb.BreakpointEvent.breakpoints'
527 Emits 'gdb.NewObjFileEvent' which indicates that a new object file
528 has been loaded by GDB. 'gdb.NewObjFileEvent' has one attribute:
530 -- Variable: NewObjFileEvent.new_objfile
531 A reference to the object file ('gdb.Objfile') which has been
532 loaded. *Note Objfiles In Python::, for details of the
533 'gdb.Objfile' object.
536 File: gdb.info, Node: Threads In Python, Next: Commands In Python, Prev: Events In Python, Up: Python API
538 23.2.2.17 Threads In Python
539 ...........................
541 Python scripts can access information about, and manipulate inferior
542 threads controlled by GDB, via objects of the 'gdb.InferiorThread'
545 The following thread-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
548 -- Function: gdb.selected_thread ()
549 This function returns the thread object for the selected thread.
550 If there is no selected thread, this will return 'None'.
552 A 'gdb.InferiorThread' object has the following attributes:
554 -- Variable: InferiorThread.name
555 The name of the thread. If the user specified a name using 'thread
556 name', then this returns that name. Otherwise, if an OS-supplied
557 name is available, then it is returned. Otherwise, this returns
560 This attribute can be assigned to. The new value must be a string
561 object, which sets the new name, or 'None', which removes any
562 user-specified thread name.
564 -- Variable: InferiorThread.num
565 ID of the thread, as assigned by GDB.
567 -- Variable: InferiorThread.ptid
568 ID of the thread, as assigned by the operating system. This
569 attribute is a tuple containing three integers. The first is the
570 Process ID (PID); the second is the Lightweight Process ID (LWPID),
571 and the third is the Thread ID (TID). Either the LWPID or TID may
572 be 0, which indicates that the operating system does not use that
575 A 'gdb.InferiorThread' object has the following methods:
577 -- Function: InferiorThread.is_valid ()
578 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.InferiorThread' object is valid, 'False'
579 if not. A 'gdb.InferiorThread' object will become invalid if the
580 thread exits, or the inferior that the thread belongs is deleted.
581 All other 'gdb.InferiorThread' methods will throw an exception if
582 it is invalid at the time the method is called.
584 -- Function: InferiorThread.switch ()
585 This changes GDB's currently selected thread to the one represented
588 -- Function: InferiorThread.is_stopped ()
589 Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is stopped.
591 -- Function: InferiorThread.is_running ()
592 Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is running.
594 -- Function: InferiorThread.is_exited ()
595 Return a Boolean indicating whether the thread is exited.
598 File: gdb.info, Node: Commands In Python, Next: Parameters In Python, Prev: Threads In Python, Up: Python API
600 23.2.2.18 Commands In Python
601 ............................
603 You can implement new GDB CLI commands in Python. A CLI command is
604 implemented using an instance of the 'gdb.Command' class, most commonly
607 -- Function: Command.__init__ (name, COMMAND_CLASS [, COMPLETER_CLASS
609 The object initializer for 'Command' registers the new command with
610 GDB. This initializer is normally invoked from the subclass' own
613 NAME is the name of the command. If NAME consists of multiple
614 words, then the initial words are looked for as prefix commands.
615 In this case, if one of the prefix commands does not exist, an
618 There is no support for multi-line commands.
620 COMMAND_CLASS should be one of the 'COMMAND_' constants defined
621 below. This argument tells GDB how to categorize the new command
624 COMPLETER_CLASS is an optional argument. If given, it should be
625 one of the 'COMPLETE_' constants defined below. This argument
626 tells GDB how to perform completion for this command. If not
627 given, GDB will attempt to complete using the object's 'complete'
628 method (see below); if no such method is found, an error will occur
629 when completion is attempted.
631 PREFIX is an optional argument. If 'True', then the new command is
632 a prefix command; sub-commands of this command may be registered.
634 The help text for the new command is taken from the Python
635 documentation string for the command's class, if there is one. If
636 no documentation string is provided, the default value "This
637 command is not documented." is used.
639 -- Function: Command.dont_repeat ()
640 By default, a GDB command is repeated when the user enters a blank
641 line at the command prompt. A command can suppress this behavior
642 by invoking the 'dont_repeat' method. This is similar to the user
643 command 'dont-repeat', see *note dont-repeat: Define.
645 -- Function: Command.invoke (argument, from_tty)
646 This method is called by GDB when this command is invoked.
648 ARGUMENT is a string. It is the argument to the command, after
649 leading and trailing whitespace has been stripped.
651 FROM_TTY is a boolean argument. When true, this means that the
652 command was entered by the user at the terminal; when false it
653 means that the command came from elsewhere.
655 If this method throws an exception, it is turned into a GDB 'error'
656 call. Otherwise, the return value is ignored.
658 To break ARGUMENT up into an argv-like string use
659 'gdb.string_to_argv'. This function behaves identically to GDB's
660 internal argument lexer 'buildargv'. It is recommended to use this
661 for consistency. Arguments are separated by spaces and may be
664 print gdb.string_to_argv ("1 2\ \\\"3 '4 \"5' \"6 '7\"")
665 ['1', '2 "3', '4 "5', "6 '7"]
667 -- Function: Command.complete (text, word)
668 This method is called by GDB when the user attempts completion on
669 this command. All forms of completion are handled by this method,
670 that is, the <TAB> and <M-?> key bindings (*note Completion::), and
671 the 'complete' command (*note complete: Help.).
673 The arguments TEXT and WORD are both strings; TEXT holds the
674 complete command line up to the cursor's location, while WORD holds
675 the last word of the command line; this is computed using a
676 word-breaking heuristic.
678 The 'complete' method can return several values:
679 * If the return value is a sequence, the contents of the
680 sequence are used as the completions. It is up to 'complete'
681 to ensure that the contents actually do complete the word. A
682 zero-length sequence is allowed, it means that there were no
683 completions available. Only string elements of the sequence
684 are used; other elements in the sequence are ignored.
686 * If the return value is one of the 'COMPLETE_' constants
687 defined below, then the corresponding GDB-internal completion
688 function is invoked, and its result is used.
690 * All other results are treated as though there were no
691 available completions.
693 When a new command is registered, it must be declared as a member of
694 some general class of commands. This is used to classify top-level
695 commands in the on-line help system; note that prefix commands are not
696 listed under their own category but rather that of their top-level
697 command. The available classifications are represented by constants
698 defined in the 'gdb' module:
701 The command does not belong to any particular class. A command in
702 this category will not be displayed in any of the help categories.
704 'gdb.COMMAND_RUNNING'
705 The command is related to running the inferior. For example,
706 'start', 'step', and 'continue' are in this category. Type 'help
707 running' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
711 The command is related to data or variables. For example, 'call',
712 'find', and 'print' are in this category. Type 'help data' at the
713 GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
716 The command has to do with manipulation of the stack. For example,
717 'backtrace', 'frame', and 'return' are in this category. Type
718 'help stack' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
722 This class is used for file-related commands. For example, 'file',
723 'list' and 'section' are in this category. Type 'help files' at
724 the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
726 'gdb.COMMAND_SUPPORT'
727 This should be used for "support facilities", generally meaning
728 things that are useful to the user when interacting with GDB, but
729 not related to the state of the inferior. For example, 'help',
730 'make', and 'shell' are in this category. Type 'help support' at
731 the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
734 The command is an 'info'-related command, that is, related to the
735 state of GDB itself. For example, 'info', 'macro', and 'show' are
736 in this category. Type 'help status' at the GDB prompt to see a
737 list of commands in this category.
739 'gdb.COMMAND_BREAKPOINTS'
740 The command has to do with breakpoints. For example, 'break',
741 'clear', and 'delete' are in this category. Type 'help
742 breakpoints' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
745 'gdb.COMMAND_TRACEPOINTS'
746 The command has to do with tracepoints. For example, 'trace',
747 'actions', and 'tfind' are in this category. Type 'help
748 tracepoints' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
752 The command is a general purpose command for the user, and
753 typically does not fit in one of the other categories. Type 'help
754 user-defined' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
755 category, as well as the list of gdb macros (*note Sequences::).
757 'gdb.COMMAND_OBSCURE'
758 The command is only used in unusual circumstances, or is not of
759 general interest to users. For example, 'checkpoint', 'fork', and
760 'stop' are in this category. Type 'help obscure' at the GDB prompt
761 to see a list of commands in this category.
763 'gdb.COMMAND_MAINTENANCE'
764 The command is only useful to GDB maintainers. The 'maintenance'
765 and 'flushregs' commands are in this category. Type 'help
766 internals' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
769 A new command can use a predefined completion function, either by
770 specifying it via an argument at initialization, or by returning it from
771 the 'complete' method. These predefined completion constants are all
772 defined in the 'gdb' module:
775 This constant means that no completion should be done.
777 'gdb.COMPLETE_FILENAME'
778 This constant means that filename completion should be performed.
780 'gdb.COMPLETE_LOCATION'
781 This constant means that location completion should be done. *Note
784 'gdb.COMPLETE_COMMAND'
785 This constant means that completion should examine GDB command
788 'gdb.COMPLETE_SYMBOL'
789 This constant means that completion should be done using symbol
792 'gdb.COMPLETE_EXPRESSION'
793 This constant means that completion should be done on expressions.
794 Often this means completing on symbol names, but some language
795 parsers also have support for completing on field names.
797 The following code snippet shows how a trivial CLI command can be
798 implemented in Python:
800 class HelloWorld (gdb.Command):
801 """Greet the whole world."""
804 super (HelloWorld, self).__init__ ("hello-world", gdb.COMMAND_USER)
806 def invoke (self, arg, from_tty):
807 print "Hello, World!"
811 The last line instantiates the class, and is necessary to trigger the
812 registration of the command with GDB. Depending on how the Python code
813 is read into GDB, you may need to import the 'gdb' module explicitly.
816 File: gdb.info, Node: Parameters In Python, Next: Functions In Python, Prev: Commands In Python, Up: Python API
818 23.2.2.19 Parameters In Python
819 ..............................
821 You can implement new GDB parameters using Python. A new parameter is
822 implemented as an instance of the 'gdb.Parameter' class.
824 Parameters are exposed to the user via the 'set' and 'show' commands.
827 There are many parameters that already exist and can be set in GDB.
828 Two examples are: 'set follow fork' and 'set charset'. Setting these
829 parameters influences certain behavior in GDB. Similarly, you can
830 define parameters that can be used to influence behavior in custom
831 Python scripts and commands.
833 -- Function: Parameter.__init__ (name, COMMAND-CLASS, PARAMETER-CLASS
835 The object initializer for 'Parameter' registers the new parameter
836 with GDB. This initializer is normally invoked from the subclass'
837 own '__init__' method.
839 NAME is the name of the new parameter. If NAME consists of
840 multiple words, then the initial words are looked for as prefix
841 parameters. An example of this can be illustrated with the 'set
842 print' set of parameters. If NAME is 'print foo', then 'print'
843 will be searched as the prefix parameter. In this case the
844 parameter can subsequently be accessed in GDB as 'set print foo'.
846 If NAME consists of multiple words, and no prefix parameter group
847 can be found, an exception is raised.
849 COMMAND-CLASS should be one of the 'COMMAND_' constants (*note
850 Commands In Python::). This argument tells GDB how to categorize
851 the new parameter in the help system.
853 PARAMETER-CLASS should be one of the 'PARAM_' constants defined
854 below. This argument tells GDB the type of the new parameter; this
855 information is used for input validation and completion.
857 If PARAMETER-CLASS is 'PARAM_ENUM', then ENUM-SEQUENCE must be a
858 sequence of strings. These strings represent the possible values
861 If PARAMETER-CLASS is not 'PARAM_ENUM', then the presence of a
862 fourth argument will cause an exception to be thrown.
864 The help text for the new parameter is taken from the Python
865 documentation string for the parameter's class, if there is one.
866 If there is no documentation string, a default value is used.
868 -- Variable: Parameter.set_doc
869 If this attribute exists, and is a string, then its value is used
870 as the help text for this parameter's 'set' command. The value is
871 examined when 'Parameter.__init__' is invoked; subsequent changes
874 -- Variable: Parameter.show_doc
875 If this attribute exists, and is a string, then its value is used
876 as the help text for this parameter's 'show' command. The value is
877 examined when 'Parameter.__init__' is invoked; subsequent changes
880 -- Variable: Parameter.value
881 The 'value' attribute holds the underlying value of the parameter.
882 It can be read and assigned to just as any other attribute. GDB
883 does validation when assignments are made.
885 There are two methods that should be implemented in any 'Parameter'
888 -- Function: Parameter.get_set_string (self)
889 GDB will call this method when a PARAMETER's value has been changed
890 via the 'set' API (for example, 'set foo off'). The 'value'
891 attribute has already been populated with the new value and may be
892 used in output. This method must return a string.
894 -- Function: Parameter.get_show_string (self, svalue)
895 GDB will call this method when a PARAMETER's 'show' API has been
896 invoked (for example, 'show foo'). The argument 'svalue' receives
897 the string representation of the current value. This method must
900 When a new parameter is defined, its type must be specified. The
901 available types are represented by constants defined in the 'gdb'
905 The value is a plain boolean. The Python boolean values, 'True'
906 and 'False' are the only valid values.
908 'gdb.PARAM_AUTO_BOOLEAN'
909 The value has three possible states: true, false, and 'auto'. In
910 Python, true and false are represented using boolean constants, and
911 'auto' is represented using 'None'.
914 The value is an unsigned integer. The value of 0 should be
915 interpreted to mean "unlimited".
918 The value is a signed integer. The value of 0 should be
919 interpreted to mean "unlimited".
922 The value is a string. When the user modifies the string, any
923 escape sequences, such as '\t', '\f', and octal escapes, are
924 translated into corresponding characters and encoded into the
925 current host charset.
927 'gdb.PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE'
928 The value is a string. When the user modifies the string, escapes
929 are passed through untranslated.
931 'gdb.PARAM_OPTIONAL_FILENAME'
932 The value is a either a filename (a string), or 'None'.
935 The value is a filename. This is just like
936 'PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE', but uses file names for completion.
939 The value is an integer. This is like 'PARAM_INTEGER', except 0 is
940 interpreted as itself.
943 The value is a string, which must be one of a collection string
944 constants provided when the parameter is created.
947 File: gdb.info, Node: Functions In Python, Next: Progspaces In Python, Prev: Parameters In Python, Up: Python API
949 23.2.2.20 Writing new convenience functions
950 ...........................................
952 You can implement new convenience functions (*note Convenience Vars::)
953 in Python. A convenience function is an instance of a subclass of the
954 class 'gdb.Function'.
956 -- Function: Function.__init__ (name)
957 The initializer for 'Function' registers the new function with GDB.
958 The argument NAME is the name of the function, a string. The
959 function will be visible to the user as a convenience variable of
960 type 'internal function', whose name is the same as the given NAME.
962 The documentation for the new function is taken from the
963 documentation string for the new class.
965 -- Function: Function.invoke (*ARGS)
966 When a convenience function is evaluated, its arguments are
967 converted to instances of 'gdb.Value', and then the function's
968 'invoke' method is called. Note that GDB does not predetermine the
969 arity of convenience functions. Instead, all available arguments
970 are passed to 'invoke', following the standard Python calling
971 convention. In particular, a convenience function can have default
972 values for parameters without ill effect.
974 The return value of this method is used as its value in the
975 enclosing expression. If an ordinary Python value is returned, it
976 is converted to a 'gdb.Value' following the usual rules.
978 The following code snippet shows how a trivial convenience function
979 can be implemented in Python:
981 class Greet (gdb.Function):
982 """Return string to greet someone.
983 Takes a name as argument."""
986 super (Greet, self).__init__ ("greet")
988 def invoke (self, name):
989 return "Hello, %s!" % name.string ()
993 The last line instantiates the class, and is necessary to trigger the
994 registration of the function with GDB. Depending on how the Python code
995 is read into GDB, you may need to import the 'gdb' module explicitly.
997 Now you can use the function in an expression:
999 (gdb) print $greet("Bob")
1003 File: gdb.info, Node: Progspaces In Python, Next: Objfiles In Python, Prev: Functions In Python, Up: Python API
1005 23.2.2.21 Program Spaces In Python
1006 ..................................
1008 A program space, or "progspace", represents a symbolic view of an
1009 address space. It consists of all of the objfiles of the program.
1010 *Note Objfiles In Python::. *Note program spaces: Inferiors and
1011 Programs, for more details about program spaces.
1013 The following progspace-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
1016 -- Function: gdb.current_progspace ()
1017 This function returns the program space of the currently selected
1018 inferior. *Note Inferiors and Programs::.
1020 -- Function: gdb.progspaces ()
1021 Return a sequence of all the progspaces currently known to GDB.
1023 Each progspace is represented by an instance of the 'gdb.Progspace'
1026 -- Variable: Progspace.filename
1027 The file name of the progspace as a string.
1029 -- Variable: Progspace.pretty_printers
1030 The 'pretty_printers' attribute is a list of functions. It is used
1031 to look up pretty-printers. A 'Value' is passed to each function
1032 in order; if the function returns 'None', then the search
1033 continues. Otherwise, the return value should be an object which
1034 is used to format the value. *Note Pretty Printing API::, for more
1037 -- Variable: Progspace.type_printers
1038 The 'type_printers' attribute is a list of type printer objects.
1039 *Note Type Printing API::, for more information.
1041 -- Variable: Progspace.frame_filters
1042 The 'frame_filters' attribute is a dictionary of frame filter
1043 objects. *Note Frame Filter API::, for more information.
1046 File: gdb.info, Node: Objfiles In Python, Next: Frames In Python, Prev: Progspaces In Python, Up: Python API
1048 23.2.2.22 Objfiles In Python
1049 ............................
1051 GDB loads symbols for an inferior from various symbol-containing files
1052 (*note Files::). These include the primary executable file, any shared
1053 libraries used by the inferior, and any separate debug info files (*note
1054 Separate Debug Files::). GDB calls these symbol-containing files
1057 The following objfile-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
1060 -- Function: gdb.current_objfile ()
1061 When auto-loading a Python script (*note Python Auto-loading::),
1062 GDB sets the "current objfile" to the corresponding objfile. This
1063 function returns the current objfile. If there is no current
1064 objfile, this function returns 'None'.
1066 -- Function: gdb.objfiles ()
1067 Return a sequence of all the objfiles current known to GDB. *Note
1068 Objfiles In Python::.
1070 Each objfile is represented by an instance of the 'gdb.Objfile'
1073 -- Variable: Objfile.filename
1074 The file name of the objfile as a string.
1076 -- Variable: Objfile.pretty_printers
1077 The 'pretty_printers' attribute is a list of functions. It is used
1078 to look up pretty-printers. A 'Value' is passed to each function
1079 in order; if the function returns 'None', then the search
1080 continues. Otherwise, the return value should be an object which
1081 is used to format the value. *Note Pretty Printing API::, for more
1084 -- Variable: Objfile.type_printers
1085 The 'type_printers' attribute is a list of type printer objects.
1086 *Note Type Printing API::, for more information.
1088 -- Variable: Objfile.frame_filters
1089 The 'frame_filters' attribute is a dictionary of frame filter
1090 objects. *Note Frame Filter API::, for more information.
1092 A 'gdb.Objfile' object has the following methods:
1094 -- Function: Objfile.is_valid ()
1095 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.Objfile' object is valid, 'False' if
1096 not. A 'gdb.Objfile' object can become invalid if the object file
1097 it refers to is not loaded in GDB any longer. All other
1098 'gdb.Objfile' methods will throw an exception if it is invalid at
1099 the time the method is called.
1102 File: gdb.info, Node: Frames In Python, Next: Blocks In Python, Prev: Objfiles In Python, Up: Python API
1104 23.2.2.23 Accessing inferior stack frames from Python.
1105 ......................................................
1107 When the debugged program stops, GDB is able to analyze its call stack
1108 (*note Stack frames: Frames.). The 'gdb.Frame' class represents a frame
1109 in the stack. A 'gdb.Frame' object is only valid while its
1110 corresponding frame exists in the inferior's stack. If you try to use
1111 an invalid frame object, GDB will throw a 'gdb.error' exception (*note
1112 Exception Handling::).
1114 Two 'gdb.Frame' objects can be compared for equality with the '=='
1117 (gdb) python print gdb.newest_frame() == gdb.selected_frame ()
1120 The following frame-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
1123 -- Function: gdb.selected_frame ()
1124 Return the selected frame object. (*note Selecting a Frame:
1127 -- Function: gdb.newest_frame ()
1128 Return the newest frame object for the selected thread.
1130 -- Function: gdb.frame_stop_reason_string (reason)
1131 Return a string explaining the reason why GDB stopped unwinding
1132 frames, as expressed by the given REASON code (an integer, see the
1133 'unwind_stop_reason' method further down in this section).
1135 A 'gdb.Frame' object has the following methods:
1137 -- Function: Frame.is_valid ()
1138 Returns true if the 'gdb.Frame' object is valid, false if not. A
1139 frame object can become invalid if the frame it refers to doesn't
1140 exist anymore in the inferior. All 'gdb.Frame' methods will throw
1141 an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is called.
1143 -- Function: Frame.name ()
1144 Returns the function name of the frame, or 'None' if it can't be
1147 -- Function: Frame.architecture ()
1148 Returns the 'gdb.Architecture' object corresponding to the frame's
1149 architecture. *Note Architectures In Python::.
1151 -- Function: Frame.type ()
1152 Returns the type of the frame. The value can be one of:
1154 An ordinary stack frame.
1157 A fake stack frame that was created by GDB when performing an
1158 inferior function call.
1161 A frame representing an inlined function. The function was
1162 inlined into a 'gdb.NORMAL_FRAME' that is older than this one.
1164 'gdb.TAILCALL_FRAME'
1165 A frame representing a tail call. *Note Tail Call Frames::.
1167 'gdb.SIGTRAMP_FRAME'
1168 A signal trampoline frame. This is the frame created by the
1169 OS when it calls into a signal handler.
1172 A fake stack frame representing a cross-architecture call.
1174 'gdb.SENTINEL_FRAME'
1175 This is like 'gdb.NORMAL_FRAME', but it is only used for the
1178 -- Function: Frame.unwind_stop_reason ()
1179 Return an integer representing the reason why it's not possible to
1180 find more frames toward the outermost frame. Use
1181 'gdb.frame_stop_reason_string' to convert the value returned by
1182 this function to a string. The value can be one of:
1184 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_NO_REASON'
1185 No particular reason (older frames should be available).
1187 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_NULL_ID'
1188 The previous frame's analyzer returns an invalid result. This
1189 is no longer used by GDB, and is kept only for backward
1192 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_OUTERMOST'
1193 This frame is the outermost.
1195 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_UNAVAILABLE'
1196 Cannot unwind further, because that would require knowing the
1197 values of registers or memory that have not been collected.
1199 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_INNER_ID'
1200 This frame ID looks like it ought to belong to a NEXT frame,
1201 but we got it for a PREV frame. Normally, this is a sign of
1202 unwinder failure. It could also indicate stack corruption.
1204 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_SAME_ID'
1205 This frame has the same ID as the previous one. That means
1206 that unwinding further would almost certainly give us another
1207 frame with exactly the same ID, so break the chain. Normally,
1208 this is a sign of unwinder failure. It could also indicate
1211 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_NO_SAVED_PC'
1212 The frame unwinder did not find any saved PC, but we needed
1213 one to unwind further.
1215 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_MEMORY_ERROR'
1216 The frame unwinder caused an error while trying to access
1219 'gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_FIRST_ERROR'
1220 Any stop reason greater or equal to this value indicates some
1221 kind of error. This special value facilitates writing code
1222 that tests for errors in unwinding in a way that will work
1223 correctly even if the list of the other values is modified in
1224 future GDB versions. Using it, you could write:
1225 reason = gdb.selected_frame().unwind_stop_reason ()
1226 reason_str = gdb.frame_stop_reason_string (reason)
1227 if reason >= gdb.FRAME_UNWIND_FIRST_ERROR:
1228 print "An error occured: %s" % reason_str
1230 -- Function: Frame.pc ()
1231 Returns the frame's resume address.
1233 -- Function: Frame.block ()
1234 Return the frame's code block. *Note Blocks In Python::.
1236 -- Function: Frame.function ()
1237 Return the symbol for the function corresponding to this frame.
1238 *Note Symbols In Python::.
1240 -- Function: Frame.older ()
1241 Return the frame that called this frame.
1243 -- Function: Frame.newer ()
1244 Return the frame called by this frame.
1246 -- Function: Frame.find_sal ()
1247 Return the frame's symtab and line object. *Note Symbol Tables In
1250 -- Function: Frame.read_var (variable [, block])
1251 Return the value of VARIABLE in this frame. If the optional
1252 argument BLOCK is provided, search for the variable from that
1253 block; otherwise start at the frame's current block (which is
1254 determined by the frame's current program counter). The VARIABLE
1255 argument must be a string or a 'gdb.Symbol' object; BLOCK must be a
1258 -- Function: Frame.select ()
1259 Set this frame to be the selected frame. *Note Examining the
1263 File: gdb.info, Node: Blocks In Python, Next: Symbols In Python, Prev: Frames In Python, Up: Python API
1265 23.2.2.24 Accessing blocks from Python.
1266 .......................................
1268 In GDB, symbols are stored in blocks. A block corresponds roughly to a
1269 scope in the source code. Blocks are organized hierarchically, and are
1270 represented individually in Python as a 'gdb.Block'. Blocks rely on
1271 debugging information being available.
1273 A frame has a block. Please see *note Frames In Python::, for a more
1274 in-depth discussion of frames.
1276 The outermost block is known as the "global block". The global block
1277 typically holds public global variables and functions.
1279 The block nested just inside the global block is the "static block".
1280 The static block typically holds file-scoped variables and functions.
1282 GDB provides a method to get a block's superblock, but there is
1283 currently no way to examine the sub-blocks of a block, or to iterate
1284 over all the blocks in a symbol table (*note Symbol Tables In Python::).
1286 Here is a short example that should help explain blocks:
1288 /* This is in the global block. */
1291 /* This is in the static block. */
1292 static int file_scope;
1294 /* 'function' is in the global block, and 'argument' is
1295 in a block nested inside of 'function'. */
1296 int function (int argument)
1298 /* 'local' is in a block inside 'function'. It may or may
1299 not be in the same block as 'argument'. */
1303 /* 'inner' is in a block whose superblock is the one holding
1307 /* If this call is expanded by the compiler, you may see
1308 a nested block here whose function is 'inline_function'
1309 and whose superblock is the one holding 'inner'. */
1314 A 'gdb.Block' is iterable. The iterator returns the symbols (*note
1315 Symbols In Python::) local to the block. Python programs should not
1316 assume that a specific block object will always contain a given symbol,
1317 since changes in GDB features and infrastructure may cause symbols move
1318 across blocks in a symbol table.
1320 The following block-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
1323 -- Function: gdb.block_for_pc (pc)
1324 Return the innermost 'gdb.Block' containing the given PC value. If
1325 the block cannot be found for the PC value specified, the function
1328 A 'gdb.Block' object has the following methods:
1330 -- Function: Block.is_valid ()
1331 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.Block' object is valid, 'False' if not.
1332 A block object can become invalid if the block it refers to doesn't
1333 exist anymore in the inferior. All other 'gdb.Block' methods will
1334 throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is
1335 called. The block's validity is also checked during iteration over
1336 symbols of the block.
1338 A 'gdb.Block' object has the following attributes:
1340 -- Variable: Block.start
1341 The start address of the block. This attribute is not writable.
1343 -- Variable: Block.end
1344 The end address of the block. This attribute is not writable.
1346 -- Variable: Block.function
1347 The name of the block represented as a 'gdb.Symbol'. If the block
1348 is not named, then this attribute holds 'None'. This attribute is
1351 For ordinary function blocks, the superblock is the static block.
1352 However, you should note that it is possible for a function block
1353 to have a superblock that is not the static block - for instance
1354 this happens for an inlined function.
1356 -- Variable: Block.superblock
1357 The block containing this block. If this parent block does not
1358 exist, this attribute holds 'None'. This attribute is not
1361 -- Variable: Block.global_block
1362 The global block associated with this block. This attribute is not
1365 -- Variable: Block.static_block
1366 The static block associated with this block. This attribute is not
1369 -- Variable: Block.is_global
1370 'True' if the 'gdb.Block' object is a global block, 'False' if not.
1371 This attribute is not writable.
1373 -- Variable: Block.is_static
1374 'True' if the 'gdb.Block' object is a static block, 'False' if not.
1375 This attribute is not writable.
1378 File: gdb.info, Node: Symbols In Python, Next: Symbol Tables In Python, Prev: Blocks In Python, Up: Python API
1380 23.2.2.25 Python representation of Symbols.
1381 ...........................................
1383 GDB represents every variable, function and type as an entry in a symbol
1384 table. *Note Examining the Symbol Table: Symbols. Similarly, Python
1385 represents these symbols in GDB with the 'gdb.Symbol' object.
1387 The following symbol-related functions are available in the 'gdb'
1390 -- Function: gdb.lookup_symbol (name [, block [, domain]])
1391 This function searches for a symbol by name. The search scope can
1392 be restricted to the parameters defined in the optional domain and
1395 NAME is the name of the symbol. It must be a string. The optional
1396 BLOCK argument restricts the search to symbols visible in that
1397 BLOCK. The BLOCK argument must be a 'gdb.Block' object. If
1398 omitted, the block for the current frame is used. The optional
1399 DOMAIN argument restricts the search to the domain type. The
1400 DOMAIN argument must be a domain constant defined in the 'gdb'
1401 module and described later in this chapter.
1403 The result is a tuple of two elements. The first element is a
1404 'gdb.Symbol' object or 'None' if the symbol is not found. If the
1405 symbol is found, the second element is 'True' if the symbol is a
1406 field of a method's object (e.g., 'this' in C++), otherwise it is
1407 'False'. If the symbol is not found, the second element is
1410 -- Function: gdb.lookup_global_symbol (name [, domain])
1411 This function searches for a global symbol by name. The search
1412 scope can be restricted to by the domain argument.
1414 NAME is the name of the symbol. It must be a string. The optional
1415 DOMAIN argument restricts the search to the domain type. The
1416 DOMAIN argument must be a domain constant defined in the 'gdb'
1417 module and described later in this chapter.
1419 The result is a 'gdb.Symbol' object or 'None' if the symbol is not
1422 A 'gdb.Symbol' object has the following attributes:
1424 -- Variable: Symbol.type
1425 The type of the symbol or 'None' if no type is recorded. This
1426 attribute is represented as a 'gdb.Type' object. *Note Types In
1427 Python::. This attribute is not writable.
1429 -- Variable: Symbol.symtab
1430 The symbol table in which the symbol appears. This attribute is
1431 represented as a 'gdb.Symtab' object. *Note Symbol Tables In
1432 Python::. This attribute is not writable.
1434 -- Variable: Symbol.line
1435 The line number in the source code at which the symbol was defined.
1438 -- Variable: Symbol.name
1439 The name of the symbol as a string. This attribute is not
1442 -- Variable: Symbol.linkage_name
1443 The name of the symbol, as used by the linker (i.e., may be
1444 mangled). This attribute is not writable.
1446 -- Variable: Symbol.print_name
1447 The name of the symbol in a form suitable for output. This is
1448 either 'name' or 'linkage_name', depending on whether the user
1449 asked GDB to display demangled or mangled names.
1451 -- Variable: Symbol.addr_class
1452 The address class of the symbol. This classifies how to find the
1453 value of a symbol. Each address class is a constant defined in the
1454 'gdb' module and described later in this chapter.
1456 -- Variable: Symbol.needs_frame
1457 This is 'True' if evaluating this symbol's value requires a frame
1458 (*note Frames In Python::) and 'False' otherwise. Typically, local
1459 variables will require a frame, but other symbols will not.
1461 -- Variable: Symbol.is_argument
1462 'True' if the symbol is an argument of a function.
1464 -- Variable: Symbol.is_constant
1465 'True' if the symbol is a constant.
1467 -- Variable: Symbol.is_function
1468 'True' if the symbol is a function or a method.
1470 -- Variable: Symbol.is_variable
1471 'True' if the symbol is a variable.
1473 A 'gdb.Symbol' object has the following methods:
1475 -- Function: Symbol.is_valid ()
1476 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.Symbol' object is valid, 'False' if not.
1477 A 'gdb.Symbol' object can become invalid if the symbol it refers to
1478 does not exist in GDB any longer. All other 'gdb.Symbol' methods
1479 will throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is
1482 -- Function: Symbol.value ([frame])
1483 Compute the value of the symbol, as a 'gdb.Value'. For functions,
1484 this computes the address of the function, cast to the appropriate
1485 type. If the symbol requires a frame in order to compute its
1486 value, then FRAME must be given. If FRAME is not given, or if
1487 FRAME is invalid, then this method will throw an exception.
1489 The available domain categories in 'gdb.Symbol' are represented as
1490 constants in the 'gdb' module:
1492 'gdb.SYMBOL_UNDEF_DOMAIN'
1493 This is used when a domain has not been discovered or none of the
1494 following domains apply. This usually indicates an error either in
1495 the symbol information or in GDB's handling of symbols.
1497 'gdb.SYMBOL_VAR_DOMAIN'
1498 This domain contains variables, function names, typedef names and
1501 'gdb.SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN'
1502 This domain holds struct, union and enum type names.
1504 'gdb.SYMBOL_LABEL_DOMAIN'
1505 This domain contains names of labels (for gotos).
1507 'gdb.SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN'
1508 This domain holds a subset of the 'SYMBOLS_VAR_DOMAIN'; it contains
1509 everything minus functions and types.
1511 'gdb.SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN'
1512 This domain contains all functions.
1514 'gdb.SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN'
1515 This domain contains all types.
1517 The available address class categories in 'gdb.Symbol' are
1518 represented as constants in the 'gdb' module:
1520 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_UNDEF'
1521 If this is returned by address class, it indicates an error either
1522 in the symbol information or in GDB's handling of symbols.
1524 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_CONST'
1525 Value is constant int.
1527 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_STATIC'
1528 Value is at a fixed address.
1530 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REGISTER'
1531 Value is in a register.
1533 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_ARG'
1534 Value is an argument. This value is at the offset stored within
1535 the symbol inside the frame's argument list.
1537 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REF_ARG'
1538 Value address is stored in the frame's argument list. Just like
1539 'LOC_ARG' except that the value's address is stored at the offset,
1540 not the value itself.
1542 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_REGPARM_ADDR'
1543 Value is a specified register. Just like 'LOC_REGISTER' except the
1544 register holds the address of the argument instead of the argument
1547 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_LOCAL'
1548 Value is a local variable.
1550 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_TYPEDEF'
1551 Value not used. Symbols in the domain 'SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN' all
1554 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_BLOCK'
1557 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_CONST_BYTES'
1558 Value is a byte-sequence.
1560 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_UNRESOLVED'
1561 Value is at a fixed address, but the address of the variable has to
1562 be determined from the minimal symbol table whenever the variable
1565 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_OPTIMIZED_OUT'
1566 The value does not actually exist in the program.
1568 'gdb.SYMBOL_LOC_COMPUTED'
1569 The value's address is a computed location.
1572 File: gdb.info, Node: Symbol Tables In Python, Next: Line Tables In Python, Prev: Symbols In Python, Up: Python API
1574 23.2.2.26 Symbol table representation in Python.
1575 ................................................
1577 Access to symbol table data maintained by GDB on the inferior is exposed
1578 to Python via two objects: 'gdb.Symtab_and_line' and 'gdb.Symtab'.
1579 Symbol table and line data for a frame is returned from the 'find_sal'
1580 method in 'gdb.Frame' object. *Note Frames In Python::.
1582 For more information on GDB's symbol table management, see *note
1583 Examining the Symbol Table: Symbols, for more information.
1585 A 'gdb.Symtab_and_line' object has the following attributes:
1587 -- Variable: Symtab_and_line.symtab
1588 The symbol table object ('gdb.Symtab') for this frame. This
1589 attribute is not writable.
1591 -- Variable: Symtab_and_line.pc
1592 Indicates the start of the address range occupied by code for the
1593 current source line. This attribute is not writable.
1595 -- Variable: Symtab_and_line.last
1596 Indicates the end of the address range occupied by code for the
1597 current source line. This attribute is not writable.
1599 -- Variable: Symtab_and_line.line
1600 Indicates the current line number for this object. This attribute
1603 A 'gdb.Symtab_and_line' object has the following methods:
1605 -- Function: Symtab_and_line.is_valid ()
1606 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.Symtab_and_line' object is valid,
1607 'False' if not. A 'gdb.Symtab_and_line' object can become invalid
1608 if the Symbol table and line object it refers to does not exist in
1609 GDB any longer. All other 'gdb.Symtab_and_line' methods will throw
1610 an exception if it is invalid at the time the method is called.
1612 A 'gdb.Symtab' object has the following attributes:
1614 -- Variable: Symtab.filename
1615 The symbol table's source filename. This attribute is not
1618 -- Variable: Symtab.objfile
1619 The symbol table's backing object file. *Note Objfiles In
1620 Python::. This attribute is not writable.
1622 A 'gdb.Symtab' object has the following methods:
1624 -- Function: Symtab.is_valid ()
1625 Returns 'True' if the 'gdb.Symtab' object is valid, 'False' if not.
1626 A 'gdb.Symtab' object can become invalid if the symbol table it
1627 refers to does not exist in GDB any longer. All other 'gdb.Symtab'
1628 methods will throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the
1631 -- Function: Symtab.fullname ()
1632 Return the symbol table's source absolute file name.
1634 -- Function: Symtab.global_block ()
1635 Return the global block of the underlying symbol table. *Note
1638 -- Function: Symtab.static_block ()
1639 Return the static block of the underlying symbol table. *Note
1642 -- Function: Symtab.linetable ()
1643 Return the line table associated with the symbol table. *Note Line
1647 File: gdb.info, Node: Line Tables In Python, Next: Breakpoints In Python, Prev: Symbol Tables In Python, Up: Python API
1649 23.2.2.27 Manipulating line tables using Python
1650 ...............................................
1652 Python code can request and inspect line table information from a symbol
1653 table that is loaded in GDB. A line table is a mapping of source lines
1654 to their executable locations in memory. To acquire the line table
1655 information for a particular symbol table, use the 'linetable' function
1656 (*note Symbol Tables In Python::).
1658 A 'gdb.LineTable' is iterable. The iterator returns 'LineTableEntry'
1659 objects that correspond to the source line and address for each line
1660 table entry. 'LineTableEntry' objects have the following attributes:
1662 -- Variable: LineTableEntry.line
1663 The source line number for this line table entry. This number
1664 corresponds to the actual line of source. This attribute is not
1667 -- Variable: LineTableEntry.pc
1668 The address that is associated with the line table entry where the
1669 executable code for that source line resides in memory. This
1670 attribute is not writable.
1672 As there can be multiple addresses for a single source line, you may
1673 receive multiple 'LineTableEntry' objects with matching 'line'
1674 attributes, but with different 'pc' attributes. The iterator is sorted
1675 in ascending 'pc' order. Here is a small example illustrating iterating
1678 symtab = gdb.selected_frame().find_sal().symtab
1679 linetable = symtab.linetable()
1680 for line in linetable:
1681 print "Line: "+str(line.line)+" Address: "+hex(line.pc)
1683 This will have the following output:
1685 Line: 33 Address: 0x4005c8L
1686 Line: 37 Address: 0x4005caL
1687 Line: 39 Address: 0x4005d2L
1688 Line: 40 Address: 0x4005f8L
1689 Line: 42 Address: 0x4005ffL
1690 Line: 44 Address: 0x400608L
1691 Line: 42 Address: 0x40060cL
1692 Line: 45 Address: 0x400615L
1694 In addition to being able to iterate over a 'LineTable', it also has
1695 the following direct access methods:
1697 -- Function: LineTable.line (line)
1698 Return a Python 'Tuple' of 'LineTableEntry' objects for any entries
1699 in the line table for the given LINE, which specifies the source
1700 code line. If there are no entries for that source code LINE, the
1701 Python 'None' is returned.
1703 -- Function: LineTable.has_line (line)
1704 Return a Python 'Boolean' indicating whether there is an entry in
1705 the line table for this source line. Return 'True' if an entry is
1706 found, or 'False' if not.
1708 -- Function: LineTable.source_lines ()
1709 Return a Python 'List' of the source line numbers in the symbol
1710 table. Only lines with executable code locations are returned.
1711 The contents of the 'List' will just be the source line entries
1712 represented as Python 'Long' values.
1715 File: gdb.info, Node: Breakpoints In Python, Next: Finish Breakpoints in Python, Prev: Line Tables In Python, Up: Python API
1717 23.2.2.28 Manipulating breakpoints using Python
1718 ...............................................
1720 Python code can manipulate breakpoints via the 'gdb.Breakpoint' class.
1722 -- Function: Breakpoint.__init__ (spec [, type [, wp_class [,internal
1724 Create a new breakpoint according to SPEC, which is a string naming
1725 the location of the breakpoint, or an expression that defines a
1726 watchpoint. The contents can be any location recognized by the
1727 'break' command, or in the case of a watchpoint, by the 'watch'
1728 command. The optional TYPE denotes the breakpoint to create from
1729 the types defined later in this chapter. This argument can be
1730 either 'gdb.BP_BREAKPOINT' or 'gdb.BP_WATCHPOINT'; it defaults to
1731 'gdb.BP_BREAKPOINT'. The optional INTERNAL argument allows the
1732 breakpoint to become invisible to the user. The breakpoint will
1733 neither be reported when created, nor will it be listed in the
1734 output from 'info breakpoints' (but will be listed with the 'maint
1735 info breakpoints' command). The optional TEMPORARY argument makes
1736 the breakpoint a temporary breakpoint. Temporary breakpoints are
1737 deleted after they have been hit. Any further access to the Python
1738 breakpoint after it has been hit will result in a runtime error (as
1739 that breakpoint has now been automatically deleted). The optional
1740 WP_CLASS argument defines the class of watchpoint to create, if
1741 TYPE is 'gdb.BP_WATCHPOINT'. If a watchpoint class is not
1742 provided, it is assumed to be a 'gdb.WP_WRITE' class.
1744 -- Function: Breakpoint.stop (self)
1745 The 'gdb.Breakpoint' class can be sub-classed and, in particular,
1746 you may choose to implement the 'stop' method. If this method is
1747 defined in a sub-class of 'gdb.Breakpoint', it will be called when
1748 the inferior reaches any location of a breakpoint which
1749 instantiates that sub-class. If the method returns 'True', the
1750 inferior will be stopped at the location of the breakpoint,
1751 otherwise the inferior will continue.
1753 If there are multiple breakpoints at the same location with a
1754 'stop' method, each one will be called regardless of the return
1755 status of the previous. This ensures that all 'stop' methods have
1756 a chance to execute at that location. In this scenario if one of
1757 the methods returns 'True' but the others return 'False', the
1758 inferior will still be stopped.
1760 You should not alter the execution state of the inferior (i.e.,
1761 step, next, etc.), alter the current frame context (i.e., change
1762 the current active frame), or alter, add or delete any breakpoint.
1763 As a general rule, you should not alter any data within GDB or the
1764 inferior at this time.
1766 Example 'stop' implementation:
1768 class MyBreakpoint (gdb.Breakpoint):
1770 inf_val = gdb.parse_and_eval("foo")
1775 The available watchpoint types represented by constants are defined
1776 in the 'gdb' module:
1779 Read only watchpoint.
1782 Write only watchpoint.
1785 Read/Write watchpoint.
1787 -- Function: Breakpoint.is_valid ()
1788 Return 'True' if this 'Breakpoint' object is valid, 'False'
1789 otherwise. A 'Breakpoint' object can become invalid if the user
1790 deletes the breakpoint. In this case, the object still exists, but
1791 the underlying breakpoint does not. In the cases of watchpoint
1792 scope, the watchpoint remains valid even if execution of the
1793 inferior leaves the scope of that watchpoint.
1795 -- Function: Breakpoint.delete
1796 Permanently deletes the GDB breakpoint. This also invalidates the
1797 Python 'Breakpoint' object. Any further access to this object's
1798 attributes or methods will raise an error.
1800 -- Variable: Breakpoint.enabled
1801 This attribute is 'True' if the breakpoint is enabled, and 'False'
1802 otherwise. This attribute is writable.
1804 -- Variable: Breakpoint.silent
1805 This attribute is 'True' if the breakpoint is silent, and 'False'
1806 otherwise. This attribute is writable.
1808 Note that a breakpoint can also be silent if it has commands and
1809 the first command is 'silent'. This is not reported by the
1812 -- Variable: Breakpoint.thread
1813 If the breakpoint is thread-specific, this attribute holds the
1814 thread id. If the breakpoint is not thread-specific, this
1815 attribute is 'None'. This attribute is writable.
1817 -- Variable: Breakpoint.task
1818 If the breakpoint is Ada task-specific, this attribute holds the
1819 Ada task id. If the breakpoint is not task-specific (or the
1820 underlying language is not Ada), this attribute is 'None'. This
1821 attribute is writable.
1823 -- Variable: Breakpoint.ignore_count
1824 This attribute holds the ignore count for the breakpoint, an
1825 integer. This attribute is writable.
1827 -- Variable: Breakpoint.number
1828 This attribute holds the breakpoint's number -- the identifier used
1829 by the user to manipulate the breakpoint. This attribute is not
1832 -- Variable: Breakpoint.type
1833 This attribute holds the breakpoint's type -- the identifier used
1834 to determine the actual breakpoint type or use-case. This
1835 attribute is not writable.
1837 -- Variable: Breakpoint.visible
1838 This attribute tells whether the breakpoint is visible to the user
1839 when set, or when the 'info breakpoints' command is run. This
1840 attribute is not writable.
1842 -- Variable: Breakpoint.temporary
1843 This attribute indicates whether the breakpoint was created as a
1844 temporary breakpoint. Temporary breakpoints are automatically
1845 deleted after that breakpoint has been hit. Access to this
1846 attribute, and all other attributes and functions other than the
1847 'is_valid' function, will result in an error after the breakpoint
1848 has been hit (as it has been automatically deleted). This
1849 attribute is not writable.
1851 The available types are represented by constants defined in the 'gdb'
1855 Normal code breakpoint.
1858 Watchpoint breakpoint.
1860 'gdb.BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT'
1861 Hardware assisted watchpoint.
1863 'gdb.BP_READ_WATCHPOINT'
1864 Hardware assisted read watchpoint.
1866 'gdb.BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT'
1867 Hardware assisted access watchpoint.
1869 -- Variable: Breakpoint.hit_count
1870 This attribute holds the hit count for the breakpoint, an integer.
1871 This attribute is writable, but currently it can only be set to
1874 -- Variable: Breakpoint.location
1875 This attribute holds the location of the breakpoint, as specified
1876 by the user. It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have a
1877 location (that is, it is a watchpoint) the attribute's value is
1878 'None'. This attribute is not writable.
1880 -- Variable: Breakpoint.expression
1881 This attribute holds a breakpoint expression, as specified by the
1882 user. It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have an
1883 expression (the breakpoint is not a watchpoint) the attribute's
1884 value is 'None'. This attribute is not writable.
1886 -- Variable: Breakpoint.condition
1887 This attribute holds the condition of the breakpoint, as specified
1888 by the user. It is a string. If there is no condition, this
1889 attribute's value is 'None'. This attribute is writable.
1891 -- Variable: Breakpoint.commands
1892 This attribute holds the commands attached to the breakpoint. If
1893 there are commands, this attribute's value is a string holding all
1894 the commands, separated by newlines. If there are no commands,
1895 this attribute is 'None'. This attribute is not writable.
1898 File: gdb.info, Node: Finish Breakpoints in Python, Next: Lazy Strings In Python, Prev: Breakpoints In Python, Up: Python API
1900 23.2.2.29 Finish Breakpoints
1901 ............................
1903 A finish breakpoint is a temporary breakpoint set at the return address
1904 of a frame, based on the 'finish' command. 'gdb.FinishBreakpoint'
1905 extends 'gdb.Breakpoint'. The underlying breakpoint will be disabled
1906 and deleted when the execution will run out of the breakpoint scope
1907 (i.e. 'Breakpoint.stop' or 'FinishBreakpoint.out_of_scope' triggered).
1908 Finish breakpoints are thread specific and must be create with the right
1911 -- Function: FinishBreakpoint.__init__ ([frame] [, internal])
1912 Create a finish breakpoint at the return address of the 'gdb.Frame'
1913 object FRAME. If FRAME is not provided, this defaults to the
1914 newest frame. The optional INTERNAL argument allows the breakpoint
1915 to become invisible to the user. *Note Breakpoints In Python::,
1916 for further details about this argument.
1918 -- Function: FinishBreakpoint.out_of_scope (self)
1919 In some circumstances (e.g. 'longjmp', C++ exceptions, GDB 'return'
1920 command, ...), a function may not properly terminate, and thus
1921 never hit the finish breakpoint. When GDB notices such a
1922 situation, the 'out_of_scope' callback will be triggered.
1924 You may want to sub-class 'gdb.FinishBreakpoint' and override this
1927 class MyFinishBreakpoint (gdb.FinishBreakpoint)
1929 print "normal finish"
1932 def out_of_scope ():
1933 print "abnormal finish"
1935 -- Variable: FinishBreakpoint.return_value
1936 When GDB is stopped at a finish breakpoint and the frame used to
1937 build the 'gdb.FinishBreakpoint' object had debug symbols, this
1938 attribute will contain a 'gdb.Value' object corresponding to the
1939 return value of the function. The value will be 'None' if the
1940 function return type is 'void' or if the return value was not
1941 computable. This attribute is not writable.
1944 File: gdb.info, Node: Lazy Strings In Python, Next: Architectures In Python, Prev: Finish Breakpoints in Python, Up: Python API
1946 23.2.2.30 Python representation of lazy strings.
1947 ................................................
1949 A "lazy string" is a string whose contents is not retrieved or encoded
1952 A 'gdb.LazyString' is represented in GDB as an 'address' that points
1953 to a region of memory, an 'encoding' that will be used to encode that
1954 region of memory, and a 'length' to delimit the region of memory that
1955 represents the string. The difference between a 'gdb.LazyString' and a
1956 string wrapped within a 'gdb.Value' is that a 'gdb.LazyString' will be
1957 treated differently by GDB when printing. A 'gdb.LazyString' is
1958 retrieved and encoded during printing, while a 'gdb.Value' wrapping a
1959 string is immediately retrieved and encoded on creation.
1961 A 'gdb.LazyString' object has the following functions:
1963 -- Function: LazyString.value ()
1964 Convert the 'gdb.LazyString' to a 'gdb.Value'. This value will
1965 point to the string in memory, but will lose all the delayed
1966 retrieval, encoding and handling that GDB applies to a
1969 -- Variable: LazyString.address
1970 This attribute holds the address of the string. This attribute is
1973 -- Variable: LazyString.length
1974 This attribute holds the length of the string in characters. If
1975 the length is -1, then the string will be fetched and encoded up to
1976 the first null of appropriate width. This attribute is not
1979 -- Variable: LazyString.encoding
1980 This attribute holds the encoding that will be applied to the
1981 string when the string is printed by GDB. If the encoding is not
1982 set, or contains an empty string, then GDB will select the most
1983 appropriate encoding when the string is printed. This attribute is
1986 -- Variable: LazyString.type
1987 This attribute holds the type that is represented by the lazy
1988 string's type. For a lazy string this will always be a pointer
1989 type. To resolve this to the lazy string's character type, use the
1990 type's 'target' method. *Note Types In Python::. This attribute
1994 File: gdb.info, Node: Architectures In Python, Prev: Lazy Strings In Python, Up: Python API
1996 23.2.2.31 Python representation of architectures
1997 ................................................
1999 GDB uses architecture specific parameters and artifacts in a number of
2000 its various computations. An architecture is represented by an instance
2001 of the 'gdb.Architecture' class.
2003 A 'gdb.Architecture' class has the following methods:
2005 -- Function: Architecture.name ()
2006 Return the name (string value) of the architecture.
2008 -- Function: Architecture.disassemble (START_PC [, END_PC [, COUNT]])
2009 Return a list of disassembled instructions starting from the memory
2010 address START_PC. The optional arguments END_PC and COUNT
2011 determine the number of instructions in the returned list. If both
2012 the optional arguments END_PC and COUNT are specified, then a list
2013 of at most COUNT disassembled instructions whose start address
2014 falls in the closed memory address interval from START_PC to END_PC
2015 are returned. If END_PC is not specified, but COUNT is specified,
2016 then COUNT number of instructions starting from the address
2017 START_PC are returned. If COUNT is not specified but END_PC is
2018 specified, then all instructions whose start address falls in the
2019 closed memory address interval from START_PC to END_PC are
2020 returned. If neither END_PC nor COUNT are specified, then a single
2021 instruction at START_PC is returned. For all of these cases, each
2022 element of the returned list is a Python 'dict' with the following
2026 The value corresponding to this key is a Python long integer
2027 capturing the memory address of the instruction.
2030 The value corresponding to this key is a string value which
2031 represents the instruction with assembly language mnemonics.
2032 The assembly language flavor used is the same as that
2033 specified by the current CLI variable 'disassembly-flavor'.
2034 *Note Machine Code::.
2037 The value corresponding to this key is the length (integer
2038 value) of the instruction in bytes.
2041 File: gdb.info, Node: Python Auto-loading, Next: Python modules, Prev: Python API, Up: Python
2043 23.2.3 Python Auto-loading
2044 --------------------------
2046 When a new object file is read (for example, due to the 'file' command,
2047 or because the inferior has loaded a shared library), GDB will look for
2048 Python support scripts in several ways: 'OBJFILE-gdb.py' and
2049 '.debug_gdb_scripts' section. *Note Auto-loading extensions::.
2051 The auto-loading feature is useful for supplying application-specific
2052 debugging commands and scripts.
2054 Auto-loading can be enabled or disabled, and the list of auto-loaded
2055 scripts can be printed.
2057 'set auto-load python-scripts [on|off]'
2058 Enable or disable the auto-loading of Python scripts.
2060 'show auto-load python-scripts'
2061 Show whether auto-loading of Python scripts is enabled or disabled.
2063 'info auto-load python-scripts [REGEXP]'
2064 Print the list of all Python scripts that GDB auto-loaded.
2066 Also printed is the list of Python scripts that were mentioned in
2067 the '.debug_gdb_scripts' section and were not found (*note
2068 dotdebug_gdb_scripts section::). This is useful because their
2069 names are not printed when GDB tries to load them and fails. There
2070 may be many of them, and printing an error message for each one is
2073 If REGEXP is supplied only Python scripts with matching names are
2078 (gdb) info auto-load python-scripts
2080 Yes py-section-script.py
2081 full name: /tmp/py-section-script.py
2082 No my-foo-pretty-printers.py
2084 When reading an auto-loaded file, GDB sets the "current objfile".
2085 This is available via the 'gdb.current_objfile' function (*note Objfiles
2086 In Python::). This can be useful for registering objfile-specific
2087 pretty-printers and frame-filters.
2090 File: gdb.info, Node: Python modules, Prev: Python Auto-loading, Up: Python
2092 23.2.4 Python modules
2093 ---------------------
2095 GDB comes with several modules to assist writing Python code.
2099 * gdb.printing:: Building and registering pretty-printers.
2100 * gdb.types:: Utilities for working with types.
2101 * gdb.prompt:: Utilities for prompt value substitution.
2104 File: gdb.info, Node: gdb.printing, Next: gdb.types, Up: Python modules
2106 23.2.4.1 gdb.printing
2107 .....................
2109 This module provides a collection of utilities for working with
2112 'PrettyPrinter (NAME, SUBPRINTERS=None)'
2113 This class specifies the API that makes 'info pretty-printer',
2114 'enable pretty-printer' and 'disable pretty-printer' work.
2115 Pretty-printers should generally inherit from this class.
2117 'SubPrettyPrinter (NAME)'
2118 For printers that handle multiple types, this class specifies the
2119 corresponding API for the subprinters.
2121 'RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter (NAME)'
2122 Utility class for handling multiple printers, all recognized via
2123 regular expressions. *Note Writing a Pretty-Printer::, for an
2126 'FlagEnumerationPrinter (NAME)'
2127 A pretty-printer which handles printing of 'enum' values. Unlike
2128 GDB's built-in 'enum' printing, this printer attempts to work
2129 properly when there is some overlap between the enumeration
2130 constants. The argument NAME is the name of the printer and also
2131 the name of the 'enum' type to look up.
2133 'register_pretty_printer (OBJ, PRINTER, REPLACE=False)'
2134 Register PRINTER with the pretty-printer list of OBJ. If REPLACE
2135 is 'True' then any existing copy of the printer is replaced.
2136 Otherwise a 'RuntimeError' exception is raised if a printer with
2137 the same name already exists.
2140 File: gdb.info, Node: gdb.types, Next: gdb.prompt, Prev: gdb.printing, Up: Python modules
2145 This module provides a collection of utilities for working with
2148 'get_basic_type (TYPE)'
2149 Return TYPE with const and volatile qualifiers stripped, and with
2150 typedefs and C++ references converted to the underlying type.
2154 typedef const int const_int;
2156 const_int& foo_ref (foo);
2157 int main () { return 0; }
2162 (gdb) python import gdb.types
2163 (gdb) python foo_ref = gdb.parse_and_eval("foo_ref")
2164 (gdb) python print gdb.types.get_basic_type(foo_ref.type)
2167 'has_field (TYPE, FIELD)'
2168 Return 'True' if TYPE, assumed to be a type with fields (e.g., a
2169 structure or union), has field FIELD.
2171 'make_enum_dict (ENUM_TYPE)'
2172 Return a Python 'dictionary' type produced from ENUM_TYPE.
2175 Returns a Python iterator similar to the standard
2176 'gdb.Type.iteritems' method, except that the iterator returned by
2177 'deep_items' will recursively traverse anonymous struct or union
2178 fields. For example:
2190 (gdb) python import gdb.types
2191 (gdb) python struct_a = gdb.lookup_type("struct A")
2192 (gdb) python print struct_a.keys ()
2194 (gdb) python print [k for k,v in gdb.types.deep_items(struct_a)]
2197 'get_type_recognizers ()'
2198 Return a list of the enabled type recognizers for the current
2199 context. This is called by GDB during the type-printing process
2200 (*note Type Printing API::).
2202 'apply_type_recognizers (recognizers, type_obj)'
2203 Apply the type recognizers, RECOGNIZERS, to the type object
2204 TYPE_OBJ. If any recognizer returns a string, return that string.
2205 Otherwise, return 'None'. This is called by GDB during the
2206 type-printing process (*note Type Printing API::).
2208 'register_type_printer (locus, printer)'
2209 This is a convenience function to register a type printer PRINTER.
2210 The printer must implement the type printer protocol. The LOCUS
2211 argument is either a 'gdb.Objfile', in which case the printer is
2212 registered with that objfile; a 'gdb.Progspace', in which case the
2213 printer is registered with that progspace; or 'None', in which case
2214 the printer is registered globally.
2217 This is a base class that implements the type printer protocol.
2218 Type printers are encouraged, but not required, to derive from this
2219 class. It defines a constructor:
2221 -- Method on TypePrinter: __init__ (self, name)
2222 Initialize the type printer with the given name. The new
2223 printer starts in the enabled state.
2226 File: gdb.info, Node: gdb.prompt, Prev: gdb.types, Up: Python modules
2231 This module provides a method for prompt value-substitution.
2233 'substitute_prompt (STRING)'
2234 Return STRING with escape sequences substituted by values. Some
2235 escape sequences take arguments. You can specify arguments inside
2236 "{}" immediately following the escape sequence.
2238 The escape sequences you can pass to this function are:
2241 Substitute a backslash.
2243 Substitute an ESC character.
2245 Substitute the selected frame; an argument names a frame
2248 Substitute a newline.
2250 Substitute a parameter's value; the argument names the
2253 Substitute a carriage return.
2255 Substitute the selected thread; an argument names a thread
2258 Substitute the version of GDB.
2260 Substitute the current working directory.
2262 Begin a sequence of non-printing characters. These sequences
2263 are typically used with the ESC character, and are not counted
2264 in the string length. Example: "\[\e[0;34m\](gdb)\[\e[0m\]"
2265 will return a blue-colored "(gdb)" prompt where the length is
2268 End a sequence of non-printing characters.
2272 substitute_prompt (``frame: \f,
2273 print arguments: \p{print frame-arguments}'')
2275 will return the string:
2277 "frame: main, print arguments: scalars"
2280 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile, Next: Auto-loading extensions, Prev: Python, Up: Extending GDB
2282 23.3 Extending GDB using Guile
2283 ==============================
2285 You can extend GDB using the Guile implementation of the Scheme
2286 programming language (http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/). This feature
2287 is available only if GDB was configured using '--with-guile'.
2291 * Guile Introduction:: Introduction to Guile scripting in GDB
2292 * Guile Commands:: Accessing Guile from GDB
2293 * Guile API:: Accessing GDB from Guile
2294 * Guile Auto-loading:: Automatically loading Guile code
2295 * Guile Modules:: Guile modules provided by GDB
2298 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Introduction, Next: Guile Commands, Up: Guile
2300 23.3.1 Guile Introduction
2301 -------------------------
2303 Guile is an implementation of the Scheme programming language and is the
2304 GNU project's official extension language.
2306 Guile support in GDB follows the Python support in GDB reasonably
2307 closely, so concepts there should carry over. However, some things are
2308 done differently where it makes sense.
2310 GDB requires Guile version 2.0 or greater. Older versions are not
2313 Guile scripts used by GDB should be installed in
2314 'DATA-DIRECTORY/guile', where DATA-DIRECTORY is the data directory as
2315 determined at GDB startup (*note Data Files::). This directory, known
2316 as the "guile directory", is automatically added to the Guile Search
2317 Path in order to allow the Guile interpreter to locate all scripts
2318 installed at this location.
2321 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Commands, Next: Guile API, Prev: Guile Introduction, Up: Guile
2323 23.3.2 Guile Commands
2324 ---------------------
2326 GDB provides two commands for accessing the Guile interpreter:
2330 The 'guile-repl' command can be used to start an interactive Guile
2331 prompt or "repl". To return to GDB, type ',q' or the 'EOF'
2332 character (e.g., 'Ctrl-D' on an empty prompt). These commands do
2333 not take any arguments.
2335 'guile [SCHEME-EXPRESSION]'
2336 'gu [SCHEME-EXPRESSION]'
2337 The 'guile' command can be used to evaluate a Scheme expression.
2339 If given an argument, GDB will pass the argument to the Guile
2340 interpreter for evaluation.
2342 (gdb) guile (display (+ 20 3)) (newline)
2345 The result of the Scheme expression is displayed using normal Guile
2348 (gdb) guile (+ 20 3)
2351 If you do not provide an argument to 'guile', it will act as a
2352 multi-line command, like 'define'. In this case, the Guile script
2353 is made up of subsequent command lines, given after the 'guile'
2354 command. This command list is terminated using a line containing
2363 It is also possible to execute a Guile script from the GDB
2366 'source script-name'
2367 The script name must end with '.scm' and GDB must be configured to
2368 recognize the script language based on filename extension using the
2369 'script-extension' setting. *Note Extending GDB: Extending GDB.
2371 'guile (load "script-name")'
2372 This method uses the 'load' Guile function. It takes a string
2373 argument that is the name of the script to load. See the Guile
2374 documentation for a description of this function. (*note
2378 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile API, Next: Guile Auto-loading, Prev: Guile Commands, Up: Guile
2383 You can get quick online help for GDB's Guile API by issuing the command
2384 'help guile', or by issuing the command ',help' from an interactive
2385 Guile session. Furthermore, most Guile procedures provided by GDB have
2386 doc strings which can be obtained with ',describe PROCEDURE-NAME' or ',d
2387 PROCEDURE-NAME' from the Guile interactive prompt.
2391 * Basic Guile:: Basic Guile Functions
2392 * Guile Configuration:: Guile configuration variables
2393 * GDB Scheme Data Types:: Scheme representations of GDB objects
2394 * Guile Exception Handling:: How Guile exceptions are translated
2395 * Values From Inferior In Guile:: Guile representation of values
2396 * Arithmetic In Guile:: Arithmetic in Guile
2397 * Types In Guile:: Guile representation of types
2398 * Guile Pretty Printing API:: Pretty-printing values with Guile
2399 * Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers:: How GDB chooses a pretty-printer
2400 * Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer:: Writing a pretty-printer
2401 * Commands In Guile:: Implementing new commands in Guile
2402 * Parameters In Guile:: Adding new GDB parameters
2403 * Progspaces In Guile:: Program spaces
2404 * Objfiles In Guile:: Object files in Guile
2405 * Frames In Guile:: Accessing inferior stack frames from Guile
2406 * Blocks In Guile:: Accessing blocks from Guile
2407 * Symbols In Guile:: Guile representation of symbols
2408 * Symbol Tables In Guile:: Guile representation of symbol tables
2409 * Breakpoints In Guile:: Manipulating breakpoints using Guile
2410 * Lazy Strings In Guile:: Guile representation of lazy strings
2411 * Architectures In Guile:: Guile representation of architectures
2412 * Disassembly In Guile:: Disassembling instructions from Guile
2413 * I/O Ports in Guile:: GDB I/O ports
2414 * Memory Ports in Guile:: Accessing memory through ports and bytevectors
2415 * Iterators In Guile:: Basic iterator support
2418 File: gdb.info, Node: Basic Guile, Next: Guile Configuration, Up: Guile API
2420 23.3.3.1 Basic Guile
2421 ....................
2423 At startup, GDB overrides Guile's 'current-output-port' and
2424 'current-error-port' to print using GDB's output-paging streams. A
2425 Guile program which outputs to one of these streams may have its output
2426 interrupted by the user (*note Screen Size::). In this situation, a
2427 Guile 'signal' exception is thrown with value 'SIGINT'.
2429 Guile's history mechanism uses the same naming as GDB's, namely the
2430 user of dollar-variables (e.g., $1, $2, etc.). The results of
2431 evaluations in Guile and in GDB are counted separately, '$1' in Guile is
2432 not the same value as '$1' in GDB.
2434 GDB is not thread-safe. If your Guile program uses multiple threads,
2435 you must be careful to only call GDB-specific functions in the GDB
2438 Some care must be taken when writing Guile code to run in GDB. Two
2439 things are worth noting in particular:
2441 * GDB installs handlers for 'SIGCHLD' and 'SIGINT'. Guile code must
2442 not override these, or even change the options using 'sigaction'.
2443 If your program changes the handling of these signals, GDB will
2444 most likely stop working correctly. Note that it is unfortunately
2445 common for GUI toolkits to install a 'SIGCHLD' handler.
2447 * GDB takes care to mark its internal file descriptors as
2448 close-on-exec. However, this cannot be done in a thread-safe way
2449 on all platforms. Your Guile programs should be aware of this and
2450 should both create new file descriptors with the close-on-exec flag
2451 set and arrange to close unneeded file descriptors before starting
2454 GDB introduces a new Guile module, named 'gdb'. All methods and
2455 classes added by GDB are placed in this module. GDB does not
2456 automatically 'import' the 'gdb' module, scripts must do this
2457 themselves. There are various options for how to import a module, so
2458 GDB leaves the choice of how the 'gdb' module is imported to the user.
2459 To simplify interactive use, it is recommended to add one of the
2460 following to your ~/.gdbinit.
2462 guile (use-modules (gdb))
2464 guile (use-modules ((gdb) #:renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'gdb:)))
2466 Which one to choose depends on your preference. The second one adds
2467 'gdb:' as a prefix to all module functions and variables.
2469 The rest of this manual assumes the 'gdb' module has been imported
2470 without any prefix. See the Guile documentation for 'use-modules' for
2471 more information (*note (guile)Using Guile Modules::).
2475 (gdb) guile (value-type (make-value 1))
2476 ERROR: Unbound variable: value-type
2477 Error while executing Scheme code.
2478 (gdb) guile (use-modules (gdb))
2479 (gdb) guile (value-type (make-value 1))
2483 The '(gdb)' module provides these basic Guile functions.
2485 -- Scheme Procedure: execute command [#:from-tty boolean] [#:to-string
2487 Evaluate COMMAND, a string, as a GDB CLI command. If a GDB
2488 exception happens while COMMAND runs, it is translated as described
2489 in *note Guile Exception Handling: Guile Exception Handling.
2491 FROM-TTY specifies whether GDB ought to consider this command as
2492 having originated from the user invoking it interactively. It must
2493 be a boolean value. If omitted, it defaults to '#f'.
2495 By default, any output produced by COMMAND is sent to GDB's
2496 standard output (and to the log output if logging is turned on).
2497 If the TO-STRING parameter is '#t', then output will be collected
2498 by 'execute' and returned as a string. The default is '#f', in
2499 which case the return value is unspecified. If TO-STRING is '#t',
2500 the GDB virtual terminal will be temporarily set to unlimited width
2501 and height, and its pagination will be disabled; *note Screen
2504 -- Scheme Procedure: history-ref number
2505 Return a value from GDB's value history (*note Value History::).
2506 The NUMBER argument indicates which history element to return. If
2507 NUMBER is negative, then GDB will take its absolute value and count
2508 backward from the last element (i.e., the most recent element) to
2509 find the value to return. If NUMBER is zero, then GDB will return
2510 the most recent element. If the element specified by NUMBER
2511 doesn't exist in the value history, a 'gdb:error' exception will be
2514 If no exception is raised, the return value is always an instance
2515 of '<gdb:value>' (*note Values From Inferior In Guile::).
2517 _Note:_ GDB's value history is independent of Guile's. '$1' in
2518 GDB's value history contains the result of evaluating an expression
2519 from GDB's command line and '$1' from Guile's history contains the
2520 result of evaluating an expression from Guile's command line.
2522 -- Scheme Procedure: history-append! value
2523 Append VALUE, an instance of '<gdb:value>', to GDB's value history.
2524 Return its index in the history.
2526 Putting into history values returned by Guile extensions will allow
2527 the user convenient access to those values via CLI history
2530 -- Scheme Procedure: parse-and-eval expression
2531 Parse EXPRESSION as an expression in the current language, evaluate
2532 it, and return the result as a '<gdb:value>'. The EXPRESSION must
2535 This function can be useful when implementing a new command (*note
2536 Commands In Guile::), as it provides a way to parse the command's
2537 arguments as an expression. It is also is useful when computing
2538 values. For example, it is the only way to get the value of a
2539 convenience variable (*note Convenience Vars::) as a '<gdb:value>'.
2542 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Configuration, Next: GDB Scheme Data Types, Prev: Basic Guile, Up: Guile API
2544 23.3.3.2 Guile Configuration
2545 ............................
2547 GDB provides these Scheme functions to access various configuration
2550 -- Scheme Procedure: data-directory
2551 Return a string containing GDB's data directory. This directory
2552 contains GDB's ancillary files.
2554 -- Scheme Procedure: guile-data-directory
2555 Return a string containing GDB's Guile data directory. This
2556 directory contains the Guile modules provided by GDB.
2558 -- Scheme Procedure: gdb-version
2559 Return a string containing the GDB version.
2561 -- Scheme Procedure: host-config
2562 Return a string containing the host configuration. This is the
2563 string passed to '--host' when GDB was configured.
2565 -- Scheme Procedure: target-config
2566 Return a string containing the target configuration. This is the
2567 string passed to '--target' when GDB was configured.
2570 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB Scheme Data Types, Next: Guile Exception Handling, Prev: Guile Configuration, Up: Guile API
2572 23.3.3.3 GDB Scheme Data Types
2573 ..............................
2575 The values exposed by GDB to Guile are known as "GDB objects". There
2576 are several kinds of GDB object, and each is disjoint from all other
2577 types known to Guile.
2579 -- Scheme Procedure: gdb-object-kind object
2580 Return the kind of the GDB object, e.g., '<gdb:breakpoint>', as a
2583 GDB defines the following object types:
2586 *Note Architectures In Guile::.
2589 *Note Blocks In Guile::.
2591 '<gdb:block-symbols-iterator>'
2592 *Note Blocks In Guile::.
2595 *Note Breakpoints In Guile::.
2598 *Note Commands In Guile::.
2601 *Note Guile Exception Handling::.
2604 *Note Frames In Guile::.
2607 *Note Iterators In Guile::.
2610 *Note Lazy Strings In Guile::.
2613 *Note Objfiles In Guile::.
2616 *Note Parameters In Guile::.
2618 '<gdb:pretty-printer>'
2619 *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::.
2621 '<gdb:pretty-printer-worker>'
2622 *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::.
2625 *Note Progspaces In Guile::.
2628 *Note Symbols In Guile::.
2631 *Note Symbol Tables In Guile::.
2634 *Note Symbol Tables In Guile::.
2637 *Note Types In Guile::.
2640 *Note Types In Guile::.
2643 *Note Values From Inferior In Guile::.
2645 The following GDB objects are managed internally so that the Scheme
2646 function 'eq?' may be applied to them.
2659 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Exception Handling, Next: Values From Inferior In Guile, Prev: GDB Scheme Data Types, Up: Guile API
2661 23.3.3.4 Guile Exception Handling
2662 .................................
2664 When executing the 'guile' command, Guile exceptions uncaught within the
2665 Guile code are translated to calls to the GDB error-reporting mechanism.
2666 If the command that called 'guile' does not handle the error, GDB will
2667 terminate it and report the error according to the setting of the 'guile
2668 print-stack' parameter.
2670 The 'guile print-stack' parameter has three settings:
2676 An error message is printed containing the Guile exception name,
2677 the associated value, and the Guile call stack backtrace at the
2678 point where the exception was raised. Example:
2680 (gdb) guile (display foo)
2681 ERROR: In procedure memoize-variable-access!:
2682 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2683 Error while executing Scheme code.
2686 In addition to an error message a full backtrace is printed.
2688 (gdb) set guile print-stack full
2689 (gdb) guile (display foo)
2691 In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
2692 157: 10 [catch #t #<catch-closure 2c76e20> ...]
2694 ?: 9 [apply-smob/1 #<catch-closure 2c76e20>]
2695 In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
2696 157: 8 [catch #t #<catch-closure 2c76d20> ...]
2698 ?: 7 [apply-smob/1 #<catch-closure 2c76d20>]
2699 ?: 6 [call-with-input-string "(display foo)" ...]
2700 In ice-9/boot-9.scm:
2701 2320: 5 [save-module-excursion #<procedure 2c2dc30 ... ()>]
2702 In ice-9/eval-string.scm:
2703 44: 4 [read-and-eval #<input: string 27cb410> #:lang ...]
2704 37: 3 [lp (display foo)]
2707 393: 1 [eval #<memoized foo> ()]
2709 ?: 0 [memoize-variable-access! #<memoized foo> ...]
2711 ERROR: In procedure memoize-variable-access!:
2712 ERROR: Unbound variable: foo
2713 Error while executing Scheme code.
2715 GDB errors that happen in GDB commands invoked by Guile code are
2716 converted to Guile exceptions. The type of the Guile exception depends
2719 Guile procedures provided by GDB can throw the standard Guile
2720 exceptions like 'wrong-type-arg' and 'out-of-range'.
2722 User interrupt (via 'C-c' or by typing 'q' at a pagination prompt) is
2723 translated to a Guile 'signal' exception with value 'SIGINT'.
2725 GDB Guile procedures can also throw these exceptions:
2728 This exception is a catch-all for errors generated from within GDB.
2730 'gdb:invalid-object'
2731 This exception is thrown when accessing Guile objects that wrap
2732 underlying GDB objects have become invalid. For example, a
2733 '<gdb:breakpoint>' object becomes invalid if the user deletes it
2734 from the command line. The object still exists in Guile, but the
2735 object it represents is gone. Further operations on this
2736 breakpoint will throw this exception.
2739 This exception is thrown when an operation tried to access invalid
2740 memory in the inferior.
2743 This exception is thrown when a Guile pretty-printer passes a bad
2746 The following exception-related procedures are provided by the
2749 -- Scheme Procedure: make-exception key args
2750 Return a '<gdb:exception>' object given by its KEY and ARGS, which
2751 are the standard Guile parameters of an exception. See the Guile
2752 documentation for more information (*note (guile)Exceptions::).
2754 -- Scheme Procedure: exception? object
2755 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:exception>' object. Otherwise
2758 -- Scheme Procedure: exception-key exception
2759 Return the ARGS field of a '<gdb:exception>' object.
2761 -- Scheme Procedure: exception-args exception
2762 Return the ARGS field of a '<gdb:exception>' object.
2765 File: gdb.info, Node: Values From Inferior In Guile, Next: Arithmetic In Guile, Prev: Guile Exception Handling, Up: Guile API
2767 23.3.3.5 Values From Inferior In Guile
2768 ......................................
2770 GDB provides values it obtains from the inferior program in an object of
2771 type '<gdb:value>'. GDB uses this object for its internal bookkeeping
2772 of the inferior's values, and for fetching values when necessary.
2774 GDB does not memoize '<gdb:value>' objects. 'make-value' always
2775 returns a fresh object.
2777 (gdb) guile (eq? (make-value 1) (make-value 1))
2779 (gdb) guile (equal? (make-value 1) (make-value 1))
2782 A '<gdb:value>' that represents a function can be executed via
2783 inferior function call with 'value-call'. Any arguments provided to the
2784 call must match the function's prototype, and must be provided in the
2785 order specified by that prototype.
2787 For example, 'some-val' is a '<gdb:value>' instance representing a
2788 function that takes two integers as arguments. To execute this
2789 function, call it like so:
2791 (define result (value-call some-val 10 20))
2793 Any values returned from a function call are '<gdb:value>' objects.
2795 Note: Unlike Python scripting in GDB, inferior values that are simple
2796 scalars cannot be used directly in Scheme expressions that are valid for
2797 the value's data type. For example, '(+ (parse-and-eval "int_variable")
2798 2)' does not work. And inferior values that are structures or instances
2799 of some class cannot be accessed using any special syntax, instead
2800 'value-field' must be used.
2802 The following value-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
2805 -- Scheme Procedure: value? object
2806 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:value>' object. Otherwise return
2809 -- Scheme Procedure: make-value value [#:type type]
2810 Many Scheme values can be converted directly to a '<gdb:value>'
2811 with this procedure. If TYPE is specified, the result is a value
2812 of this type, and if VALUE can't be represented with this type an
2813 exception is thrown. Otherwise the type of the result is
2814 determined from VALUE as described below.
2816 *Note Architectures In Guile::, for a list of the builtin types for
2819 Here's how Scheme values are converted when TYPE argument to
2820 'make-value' is not specified:
2823 A Scheme boolean is converted the boolean type for the current
2827 A Scheme integer is converted to the first of a C 'int',
2828 'unsigned int', 'long', 'unsigned long', 'long long' or
2829 'unsigned long long' type for the current architecture that
2830 can represent the value.
2832 If the Scheme integer cannot be represented as a target
2833 integer an 'out-of-range' exception is thrown.
2836 A Scheme real is converted to the C 'double' type for the
2837 current architecture.
2840 A Scheme string is converted to a string in the current target
2841 language using the current target encoding. Characters that
2842 cannot be represented in the current target encoding are
2843 replaced with the corresponding escape sequence. This is
2844 Guile's 'SCM_FAILED_CONVERSION_ESCAPE_SEQUENCE' conversion
2845 strategy (*note (guile)Strings::).
2847 Passing TYPE is not supported in this case, if it is provided
2848 a 'wrong-type-arg' exception is thrown.
2851 If VALUE is a '<gdb:lazy-string>' object (*note Lazy Strings
2852 In Guile::), then the 'lazy-string->value' procedure is
2853 called, and its result is used.
2855 Passing TYPE is not supported in this case, if it is provided
2856 a 'wrong-type-arg' exception is thrown.
2859 If VALUE is a Scheme bytevector and TYPE is provided, VALUE
2860 must be the same size, in bytes, of values of type TYPE, and
2861 the result is essentially created by using 'memcpy'.
2863 If VALUE is a Scheme bytevector and TYPE is not provided, the
2864 result is an array of type 'uint8' of the same length.
2866 -- Scheme Procedure: value-optimized-out? value
2867 Return '#t' if the compiler optimized out VALUE, thus it is not
2868 available for fetching from the inferior. Otherwise return '#f'.
2870 -- Scheme Procedure: value-address value
2871 If VALUE is addressable, returns a '<gdb:value>' object
2872 representing the address. Otherwise, '#f' is returned.
2874 -- Scheme Procedure: value-type value
2875 Return the type of VALUE as a '<gdb:type>' object (*note Types In
2878 -- Scheme Procedure: value-dynamic-type value
2879 Return the dynamic type of VALUE. This uses C++ run-time type
2880 information (RTTI) to determine the dynamic type of the value. If
2881 the value is of class type, it will return the class in which the
2882 value is embedded, if any. If the value is of pointer or reference
2883 to a class type, it will compute the dynamic type of the referenced
2884 object, and return a pointer or reference to that type,
2885 respectively. In all other cases, it will return the value's
2888 Note that this feature will only work when debugging a C++ program
2889 that includes RTTI for the object in question. Otherwise, it will
2890 just return the static type of the value as in 'ptype foo'. *Note
2893 -- Scheme Procedure: value-cast value type
2894 Return a new instance of '<gdb:value>' that is the result of
2895 casting VALUE to the type described by TYPE, which must be a
2896 '<gdb:type>' object. If the cast cannot be performed for some
2897 reason, this method throws an exception.
2899 -- Scheme Procedure: value-dynamic-cast value type
2900 Like 'value-cast', but works as if the C++ 'dynamic_cast' operator
2901 were used. Consult a C++ reference for details.
2903 -- Scheme Procedure: value-reinterpret-cast value type
2904 Like 'value-cast', but works as if the C++ 'reinterpret_cast'
2905 operator were used. Consult a C++ reference for details.
2907 -- Scheme Procedure: value-dereference value
2908 For pointer data types, this method returns a new '<gdb:value>'
2909 object whose contents is the object pointed to by VALUE. For
2910 example, if 'foo' is a C pointer to an 'int', declared in your C
2915 then you can use the corresponding '<gdb:value>' to access what
2916 'foo' points to like this:
2918 (define bar (value-dereference foo))
2920 The result 'bar' will be a '<gdb:value>' object holding the value
2921 pointed to by 'foo'.
2923 A similar function 'value-referenced-value' exists which also
2924 returns '<gdb:value>' objects corresonding to the values pointed to
2925 by pointer values (and additionally, values referenced by reference
2926 values). However, the behavior of 'value-dereference' differs from
2927 'value-referenced-value' by the fact that the behavior of
2928 'value-dereference' is identical to applying the C unary operator
2929 '*' on a given value. For example, consider a reference to a
2930 pointer 'ptrref', declared in your C++ program as
2932 typedef int *intptr;
2936 intptr &ptrref = ptr;
2938 Though 'ptrref' is a reference value, one can apply the method
2939 'value-dereference' to the '<gdb:value>' object corresponding to it
2940 and obtain a '<gdb:value>' which is identical to that corresponding
2941 to 'val'. However, if you apply the method
2942 'value-referenced-value', the result would be a '<gdb:value>'
2943 object identical to that corresponding to 'ptr'.
2945 (define scm-ptrref (parse-and-eval "ptrref"))
2946 (define scm-val (value-dereference scm-ptrref))
2947 (define scm-ptr (value-referenced-value scm-ptrref))
2949 The '<gdb:value>' object 'scm-val' is identical to that
2950 corresponding to 'val', and 'scm-ptr' is identical to that
2951 corresponding to 'ptr'. In general, 'value-dereference' can be
2952 applied whenever the C unary operator '*' can be applied to the
2953 corresponding C value. For those cases where applying both
2954 'value-dereference' and 'value-referenced-value' is allowed, the
2955 results obtained need not be identical (as we have seen in the
2956 above example). The results are however identical when applied on
2957 '<gdb:value>' objects corresponding to pointers ('<gdb:value>'
2958 objects with type code 'TYPE_CODE_PTR') in a C/C++ program.
2960 -- Scheme Procedure: value-referenced-value value
2961 For pointer or reference data types, this method returns a new
2962 '<gdb:value>' object corresponding to the value referenced by the
2963 pointer/reference value. For pointer data types,
2964 'value-dereference' and 'value-referenced-value' produce identical
2965 results. The difference between these methods is that
2966 'value-dereference' cannot get the values referenced by reference
2967 values. For example, consider a reference to an 'int', declared in
2973 then applying 'value-dereference' to the '<gdb:value>' object
2974 corresponding to 'ref' will result in an error, while applying
2975 'value-referenced-value' will result in a '<gdb:value>' object
2976 identical to that corresponding to 'val'.
2978 (define scm-ref (parse-and-eval "ref"))
2979 (define err-ref (value-dereference scm-ref)) ;; error
2980 (define scm-val (value-referenced-value scm-ref)) ;; ok
2982 The '<gdb:value>' object 'scm-val' is identical to that
2983 corresponding to 'val'.
2985 -- Scheme Procedure: value-field value field-name
2986 Return field FIELD-NAME from '<gdb:value>' object VALUE.
2988 -- Scheme Procedure: value-subscript value index
2989 Return the value of array VALUE at index INDEX. The VALUE argument
2990 must be a subscriptable '<gdb:value>' object.
2992 -- Scheme Procedure: value-call value arg-list
2993 Perform an inferior function call, taking VALUE as a pointer to the
2994 function to call. Each element of list ARG-LIST must be a
2995 <gdb:value> object or an object that can be converted to a value.
2996 The result is the value returned by the function.
2998 -- Scheme Procedure: value->bool value
2999 Return the Scheme boolean representing '<gdb:value>' VALUE. The
3000 value must be "integer like". Pointers are ok.
3002 -- Scheme Procedure: value->integer
3003 Return the Scheme integer representing '<gdb:value>' VALUE. The
3004 value must be "integer like". Pointers are ok.
3006 -- Scheme Procedure: value->real
3007 Return the Scheme real number representing '<gdb:value>' VALUE.
3008 The value must be a number.
3010 -- Scheme Procedure: value->bytevector
3011 Return a Scheme bytevector with the raw contents of '<gdb:value>'
3012 VALUE. No transformation, endian or otherwise, is performed.
3014 -- Scheme Procedure: value->string value [#:encoding encoding]
3015 [#:errors errors] [#:length length]
3016 If VALUE> represents a string, then this method converts the
3017 contents to a Guile string. Otherwise, this method will throw an
3020 Values are interpreted as strings according to the rules of the
3021 current language. If the optional length argument is given, the
3022 string will be converted to that length, and will include any
3023 embedded zeroes that the string may contain. Otherwise, for
3024 languages where the string is zero-terminated, the entire string
3027 For example, in C-like languages, a value is a string if it is a
3028 pointer to or an array of characters or ints of type 'wchar_t',
3029 'char16_t', or 'char32_t'.
3031 If the optional ENCODING argument is given, it must be a string
3032 naming the encoding of the string in the '<gdb:value>', such as
3033 '"ascii"', '"iso-8859-6"' or '"utf-8"'. It accepts the same
3034 encodings as the corresponding argument to Guile's
3035 'scm_from_stringn' function, and the Guile codec machinery will be
3036 used to convert the string. If ENCODING is not given, or if
3037 ENCODING is the empty string, then either the 'target-charset'
3038 (*note Character Sets::) will be used, or a language-specific
3039 encoding will be used, if the current language is able to supply
3042 The optional ERRORS argument is one of '#f', 'error' or
3043 'substitute'. 'error' and 'substitute' must be symbols. If ERRORS
3044 is not specified, or if its value is '#f', then the default
3045 conversion strategy is used, which is set with the Scheme function
3046 'set-port-conversion-strategy!'. If the value is ''error' then an
3047 exception is thrown if there is any conversion error. If the value
3048 is ''substitute' then any conversion error is replaced with
3049 question marks. *Note (guile)Strings::.
3051 If the optional LENGTH argument is given, the string will be
3052 fetched and converted to the given length. The length must be a
3053 Scheme integer and not a '<gdb:value>' integer.
3055 -- Scheme Procedure: value->lazy-string value [#:encoding encoding]
3057 If this '<gdb:value>' represents a string, then this method
3058 converts VALUE to a '<gdb:lazy-string' (*note Lazy Strings In
3059 Guile::). Otherwise, this method will throw an exception.
3061 If the optional ENCODING argument is given, it must be a string
3062 naming the encoding of the '<gdb:lazy-string'. Some examples are:
3063 '"ascii"', '"iso-8859-6"' or '"utf-8"'. If the ENCODING argument
3064 is an encoding that GDB does not recognize, GDB will raise an
3067 When a lazy string is printed, the GDB encoding machinery is used
3068 to convert the string during printing. If the optional ENCODING
3069 argument is not provided, or is an empty string, GDB will
3070 automatically select the encoding most suitable for the string
3071 type. For further information on encoding in GDB please see *note
3074 If the optional LENGTH argument is given, the string will be
3075 fetched and encoded to the length of characters specified. If the
3076 LENGTH argument is not provided, the string will be fetched and
3077 encoded until a null of appropriate width is found. The length
3078 must be a Scheme integer and not a '<gdb:value>' integer.
3080 -- Scheme Procedure: value-lazy? value
3081 Return '#t' if VALUE has not yet been fetched from the inferior.
3082 Otherwise return '#f'. GDB does not fetch values until necessary,
3083 for efficiency. For example:
3085 (define myval (parse-and-eval "somevar"))
3087 The value of 'somevar' is not fetched at this time. It will be
3088 fetched when the value is needed, or when the 'fetch-lazy'
3089 procedure is invoked.
3091 -- Scheme Procedure: make-lazy-value type address
3092 Return a '<gdb:value>' that will be lazily fetched from the target.
3093 The object of type '<gdb:type>' whose value to fetch is specified
3094 by its TYPE and its target memory ADDRESS, which is a Scheme
3097 -- Scheme Procedure: value-fetch-lazy! value
3098 If VALUE is a lazy value ('(value-lazy? value)' is '#t'), then the
3099 value is fetched from the inferior. Any errors that occur in the
3100 process will produce a Guile exception.
3102 If VALUE is not a lazy value, this method has no effect.
3104 The result of this function is unspecified.
3106 -- Scheme Procedure: value-print value
3107 Return the string representation (print form) of '<gdb:value>'
3111 File: gdb.info, Node: Arithmetic In Guile, Next: Types In Guile, Prev: Values From Inferior In Guile, Up: Guile API
3113 23.3.3.6 Arithmetic In Guile
3114 ............................
3116 The '(gdb)' module provides several functions for performing arithmetic
3117 on '<gdb:value>' objects. The arithmetic is performed as if it were
3118 done by the target, and therefore has target semantics which are not
3119 necessarily those of Scheme. For example operations work with a fixed
3120 precision, not the arbitrary precision of Scheme.
3122 Wherever a function takes an integer or pointer as an operand, GDB
3123 will convert appropriate Scheme values to perform the operation.
3125 -- Scheme Procedure: value-add a b
3127 -- Scheme Procedure: value-sub a b
3129 -- Scheme Procedure: value-mul a b
3131 -- Scheme Procedure: value-div a b
3133 -- Scheme Procedure: value-rem a b
3135 -- Scheme Procedure: value-mod a b
3137 -- Scheme Procedure: value-pow a b
3139 -- Scheme Procedure: value-not a
3141 -- Scheme Procedure: value-neg a
3143 -- Scheme Procedure: value-pos a
3145 -- Scheme Procedure: value-abs a
3147 -- Scheme Procedure: value-lsh a b
3149 -- Scheme Procedure: value-rsh a b
3151 -- Scheme Procedure: value-min a b
3153 -- Scheme Procedure: value-max a b
3155 -- Scheme Procedure: value-lognot a
3157 -- Scheme Procedure: value-logand a b
3159 -- Scheme Procedure: value-logior a b
3161 -- Scheme Procedure: value-logxor a b
3163 -- Scheme Procedure: value=? a b
3165 -- Scheme Procedure: value<? a b
3167 -- Scheme Procedure: value<=? a b
3169 -- Scheme Procedure: value>? a b
3171 -- Scheme Procedure: value>=? a b
3173 Scheme does not provide a 'not-equal' function, and thus Guile
3174 support in GDB does not either.
3177 File: gdb.info, Node: Types In Guile, Next: Guile Pretty Printing API, Prev: Arithmetic In Guile, Up: Guile API
3179 23.3.3.7 Types In Guile
3180 .......................
3182 GDB represents types from the inferior in objects of type '<gdb:type>'.
3184 The following type-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
3187 -- Scheme Procedure: type? object
3188 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:type>'. Otherwise
3191 -- Scheme Procedure: lookup-type name [#:block block]
3192 This function looks up a type by its NAME, which must be a string.
3194 If BLOCK is given, it is an object of type '<gdb:block>', and NAME
3195 is looked up in that scope. Otherwise, it is searched for
3198 Ordinarily, this function will return an instance of '<gdb:type>'.
3199 If the named type cannot be found, it will throw an exception.
3201 -- Scheme Procedure: type-code type
3202 Return the type code of TYPE. The type code will be one of the
3203 'TYPE_CODE_' constants defined below.
3205 -- Scheme Procedure: type-tag type
3206 Return the tag name of TYPE. The tag name is the name after
3207 'struct', 'union', or 'enum' in C and C++; not all languages have
3208 this concept. If this type has no tag name, then '#f' is returned.
3210 -- Scheme Procedure: type-name type
3211 Return the name of TYPE. If this type has no name, then '#f' is
3214 -- Scheme Procedure: type-print-name type
3215 Return the print name of TYPE. This returns something even for
3216 anonymous types. For example, for an anonymous C struct '"struct
3217 {...}"' is returned.
3219 -- Scheme Procedure: type-sizeof type
3220 Return the size of this type, in target 'char' units. Usually, a
3221 target's 'char' type will be an 8-bit byte. However, on some
3222 unusual platforms, this type may have a different size.
3224 -- Scheme Procedure: type-strip-typedefs type
3225 Return a new '<gdb:type>' that represents the real type of TYPE,
3226 after removing all layers of typedefs.
3228 -- Scheme Procedure: type-array type n1 [n2]
3229 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents an array of this
3230 type. If one argument is given, it is the inclusive upper bound of
3231 the array; in this case the lower bound is zero. If two arguments
3232 are given, the first argument is the lower bound of the array, and
3233 the second argument is the upper bound of the array. An array's
3234 length must not be negative, but the bounds can be.
3236 -- Scheme Procedure: type-vector type n1 [n2]
3237 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents a vector of this
3238 type. If one argument is given, it is the inclusive upper bound of
3239 the vector; in this case the lower bound is zero. If two arguments
3240 are given, the first argument is the lower bound of the vector, and
3241 the second argument is the upper bound of the vector. A vector's
3242 length must not be negative, but the bounds can be.
3244 The difference between an 'array' and a 'vector' is that arrays
3245 behave like in C: when used in expressions they decay to a pointer
3246 to the first element whereas vectors are treated as first class
3249 -- Scheme Procedure: type-pointer type
3250 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents a pointer to
3253 -- Scheme Procedure: type-range type
3254 Return a list of two elements: the low bound and high bound of
3255 TYPE. If TYPE does not have a range, an exception is thrown.
3257 -- Scheme Procedure: type-reference type
3258 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents a reference to
3261 -- Scheme Procedure: type-target type
3262 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents the target type
3265 For a pointer type, the target type is the type of the pointed-to
3266 object. For an array type (meaning C-like arrays), the target type
3267 is the type of the elements of the array. For a function or method
3268 type, the target type is the type of the return value. For a
3269 complex type, the target type is the type of the elements. For a
3270 typedef, the target type is the aliased type.
3272 If the type does not have a target, this method will throw an
3275 -- Scheme Procedure: type-const type
3276 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents a
3277 'const'-qualified variant of TYPE.
3279 -- Scheme Procedure: type-volatile type
3280 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents a
3281 'volatile'-qualified variant of TYPE.
3283 -- Scheme Procedure: type-unqualified type
3284 Return a new '<gdb:type>' object which represents an unqualified
3285 variant of TYPE. That is, the result is neither 'const' nor
3288 -- Scheme Procedure: type-num-fields
3289 Return the number of fields of '<gdb:type>' TYPE.
3291 -- Scheme Procedure: type-fields type
3292 Return the fields of TYPE as a list. For structure and union
3293 types, 'fields' has the usual meaning. Range types have two
3294 fields, the minimum and maximum values. Enum types have one field
3295 per enum constant. Function and method types have one field per
3296 parameter. The base types of C++ classes are also represented as
3297 fields. If the type has no fields, or does not fit into one of
3298 these categories, an empty list will be returned. *Note Fields of
3301 -- Scheme Procedure: make-field-iterator type
3302 Return the fields of TYPE as a <gdb:iterator> object. *Note
3303 Iterators In Guile::.
3305 -- Scheme Procedure: type-field type field-name
3306 Return field named FIELD-NAME in TYPE. The result is an object of
3307 type '<gdb:field>'. *Note Fields of a type in Guile::. If the
3308 type does not have fields, or FIELD-NAME is not a field of TYPE, an
3309 exception is thrown.
3311 For example, if 'some-type' is a '<gdb:type>' instance holding a
3312 structure type, you can access its 'foo' field with:
3314 (define bar (type-field some-type "foo"))
3316 'bar' will be a '<gdb:field>' object.
3318 -- Scheme Procedure: type-has-field? type name
3319 Return '#t' if '<gdb:type>' TYPE has field named NAME. Otherwise
3322 Each type has a code, which indicates what category this type falls
3323 into. The available type categories are represented by constants
3324 defined in the '(gdb)' module:
3327 The type is a pointer.
3330 The type is an array.
3333 The type is a structure.
3336 The type is a union.
3339 The type is an enum.
3342 A bit flags type, used for things such as status registers.
3345 The type is a function.
3348 The type is an integer type.
3351 A floating point type.
3354 The special type 'void'.
3360 A range type, that is, an integer type with bounds.
3363 A string type. Note that this is only used for certain languages
3364 with language-defined string types; C strings are not represented
3367 'TYPE_CODE_BITSTRING'
3368 A string of bits. It is deprecated.
3371 An unknown or erroneous type.
3374 A method type, as found in C++ or Java.
3376 'TYPE_CODE_METHODPTR'
3377 A pointer-to-member-function.
3379 'TYPE_CODE_MEMBERPTR'
3380 A pointer-to-member.
3392 A complex float type.
3395 A typedef to some other type.
3397 'TYPE_CODE_NAMESPACE'
3400 'TYPE_CODE_DECFLOAT'
3401 A decimal floating point type.
3403 'TYPE_CODE_INTERNAL_FUNCTION'
3404 A function internal to GDB. This is the type used to represent
3405 convenience functions (*note Convenience Funs::).
3407 Further support for types is provided in the '(gdb types)' Guile
3408 module (*note Guile Types Module::).
3410 Each field is represented as an object of type '<gdb:field>'.
3412 The following field-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
3415 -- Scheme Procedure: field? object
3416 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:field>'.
3417 Otherwise return '#f'.
3419 -- Scheme Procedure: field-name field
3420 Return the name of the field, or '#f' for anonymous fields.
3422 -- Scheme Procedure: field-type field
3423 Return the type of the field. This is usually an instance of
3424 '<gdb:type>', but it can be '#f' in some situations.
3426 -- Scheme Procedure: field-enumval field
3427 Return the enum value represented by '<gdb:field>' FIELD.
3429 -- Scheme Procedure: field-bitpos field
3430 Return the bit position of '<gdb:field>' FIELD. This attribute is
3431 not available for 'static' fields (as in C++ or Java).
3433 -- Scheme Procedure: field-bitsize field
3434 If the field is packed, or is a bitfield, return the size of
3435 '<gdb:field>' FIELD in bits. Otherwise, zero is returned; in which
3436 case the field's size is given by its type.
3438 -- Scheme Procedure: field-artificial? field
3439 Return '#t' if the field is artificial, usually meaning that it was
3440 provided by the compiler and not the user. Otherwise return '#f'.
3442 -- Scheme Procedure: field-base-class? field
3443 Return '#t' if the field represents a base class of a C++
3444 structure. Otherwise return '#f'.
3447 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Pretty Printing API, Next: Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers, Prev: Types In Guile, Up: Guile API
3449 23.3.3.8 Guile Pretty Printing API
3450 ..................................
3452 An example output is provided (*note Pretty Printing::).
3454 A pretty-printer is represented by an object of type
3455 <gdb:pretty-printer>. Pretty-printer objects are created with
3456 'make-pretty-printer'.
3458 The following pretty-printer-related procedures are provided by the
3461 -- Scheme Procedure: make-pretty-printer name lookup-function
3462 Return a '<gdb:pretty-printer>' object named NAME.
3464 LOOKUP-FUNCTION is a function of one parameter: the value to be
3465 printed. If the value is handled by this pretty-printer, then
3466 LOOKUP-FUNCTION returns an object of type
3467 <gdb:pretty-printer-worker> to perform the actual pretty-printing.
3468 Otherwise LOOKUP-FUNCTION returns '#f'.
3470 -- Scheme Procedure: pretty-printer? object
3471 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:pretty-printer>' object.
3472 Otherwise return '#f'.
3474 -- Scheme Procedure: pretty-printer-enabled? pretty-printer
3475 Return '#t' if PRETTY-PRINTER is enabled. Otherwise return '#f'.
3477 -- Scheme Procedure: set-pretty-printer-enabled! pretty-printer flag
3478 Set the enabled flag of PRETTY-PRINTER to FLAG. The value returned
3481 -- Scheme Procedure: pretty-printers
3482 Return the list of global pretty-printers.
3484 -- Scheme Procedure: set-pretty-printers! pretty-printers
3485 Set the list of global pretty-printers to PRETTY-PRINTERS. The
3486 value returned is unspecified.
3488 -- Scheme Procedure: make-pretty-printer-worker display-hint to-string
3490 Return an object of type '<gdb:pretty-printer-worker>'.
3492 This function takes three parameters:
3495 DISPLAY-HINT provides a hint to GDB or GDB front end via MI to
3496 change the formatting of the value being printed. The value
3497 must be a string or '#f' (meaning there is no hint). Several
3498 values for DISPLAY-HINT are predefined by GDB:
3501 Indicate that the object being printed is "array-like".
3502 The CLI uses this to respect parameters such as 'set
3503 print elements' and 'set print array'.
3506 Indicate that the object being printed is "map-like", and
3507 that the children of this value can be assumed to
3508 alternate between keys and values.
3511 Indicate that the object being printed is "string-like".
3512 If the printer's 'to-string' function returns a Guile
3513 string of some kind, then GDB will call its internal
3514 language-specific string-printing function to format the
3515 string. For the CLI this means adding quotation marks,
3516 possibly escaping some characters, respecting 'set print
3517 elements', and the like.
3520 TO-STRING is either a function of one parameter, the
3521 '<gdb:pretty-printer-worker>' object, or '#f'.
3523 When printing from the CLI, if the 'to-string' method exists,
3524 then GDB will prepend its result to the values returned by
3525 'children'. Exactly how this formatting is done is dependent
3526 on the display hint, and may change as more hints are added.
3527 Also, depending on the print settings (*note Print
3528 Settings::), the CLI may print just the result of 'to-string'
3529 in a stack trace, omitting the result of 'children'.
3531 If this method returns a string, it is printed verbatim.
3533 Otherwise, if this method returns an instance of
3534 '<gdb:value>', then GDB prints this value. This may result in
3535 a call to another pretty-printer.
3537 If instead the method returns a Guile value which is
3538 convertible to a '<gdb:value>', then GDB performs the
3539 conversion and prints the resulting value. Again, this may
3540 result in a call to another pretty-printer. Guile scalars
3541 (integers, floats, and booleans) and strings are convertible
3542 to '<gdb:value>'; other types are not.
3544 Finally, if this method returns '#f' then no further
3545 operations are peformed in this method and nothing is printed.
3547 If the result is not one of these types, an exception is
3550 TO-STRING may also be '#f' in which case it is left to
3551 CHILDREN to print the value.
3554 CHILDREN is either a function of one parameter, the
3555 '<gdb:pretty-printer-worker>' object, or '#f'.
3557 GDB will call this function on a pretty-printer to compute the
3558 children of the pretty-printer's value.
3560 This function must return a <gdb:iterator> object. Each item
3561 returned by the iterator must be a tuple holding two elements.
3562 The first element is the "name" of the child; the second
3563 element is the child's value. The value can be any Guile
3564 object which is convertible to a GDB value.
3566 If CHILDREN is '#f', GDB will act as though the value has no
3569 GDB provides a function which can be used to look up the default
3570 pretty-printer for a '<gdb:value>':
3572 -- Scheme Procedure: default-visualizer value
3573 This function takes a '<gdb:value>' object as an argument. If a
3574 pretty-printer for this value exists, then it is returned. If no
3575 such printer exists, then this returns '#f'.
3578 File: gdb.info, Node: Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers, Next: Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer, Prev: Guile Pretty Printing API, Up: Guile API
3580 23.3.3.9 Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers
3581 ........................................
3583 There are three sets of pretty-printers that GDB searches:
3585 * Per-objfile list of pretty-printers (*note Objfiles In Guile::).
3586 * Per-progspace list of pretty-printers (*note Progspaces In
3588 * The global list of pretty-printers (*note Guile Pretty Printing
3589 API::). These printers are available when debugging any inferior.
3591 Pretty-printer lookup is done by passing the value to be printed to
3592 the lookup function of each enabled object in turn. Lookup stops when a
3593 lookup function returns a non-'#f' value or when the list is exhausted.
3594 Lookup functions must return either a '<gdb:pretty-printer-worker>'
3595 object or '#f'. Otherwise an exception is thrown.
3597 GDB first checks the result of 'objfile-pretty-printers' of each
3598 '<gdb:objfile>' in the current program space and iteratively calls each
3599 enabled lookup function in the list for that '<gdb:objfile>' until a
3600 non-'#f' object is returned. If no pretty-printer is found in the
3601 objfile lists, GDB then searches the result of
3602 'progspace-pretty-printers' of the current program space, calling each
3603 enabled function until a non-'#f' object is returned. After these lists
3604 have been exhausted, it tries the global pretty-printers list, obtained
3605 with 'pretty-printers', again calling each enabled function until a
3606 non-'#f' object is returned.
3608 The order in which the objfiles are searched is not specified. For a
3609 given list, functions are always invoked from the head of the list, and
3610 iterated over sequentially until the end of the list, or a
3611 '<gdb:pretty-printer-worker>' object is returned.
3613 For various reasons a pretty-printer may not work. For example, the
3614 underlying data structure may have changed and the pretty-printer is out
3617 The consequences of a broken pretty-printer are severe enough that
3618 GDB provides support for enabling and disabling individual printers.
3619 For example, if 'print frame-arguments' is on, a backtrace can become
3620 highly illegible if any argument is printed with a broken printer.
3622 Pretty-printers are enabled and disabled from Scheme by calling
3623 'set-pretty-printer-enabled!'. *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::.
3626 File: gdb.info, Node: Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer, Next: Commands In Guile, Prev: Selecting Guile Pretty-Printers, Up: Guile API
3628 23.3.3.10 Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer
3629 ........................................
3631 A pretty-printer consists of two basic parts: a lookup function to
3632 determine if the type is supported, and the printer itself.
3634 Here is an example showing how a 'std::string' printer might be
3635 written. *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::, for details.
3637 (define (make-my-string-printer value)
3638 "Print a my::string string"
3639 (make-pretty-printer-worker
3642 (value-field value "_data"))
3645 And here is an example showing how a lookup function for the printer
3646 example above might be written.
3648 (define (str-lookup-function pretty-printer value)
3649 (let ((tag (type-tag (value-type value))))
3651 (string-prefix? "std::string<" tag)
3652 (make-my-string-printer value))))
3654 Then to register this printer in the global printer list:
3656 (append-pretty-printer!
3657 (make-pretty-printer "my-string" str-lookup-function))
3659 The example lookup function extracts the value's type, and attempts
3660 to match it to a type that it can pretty-print. If it is a type the
3661 printer can pretty-print, it will return a <gdb:pretty-printer-worker>
3662 object. If not, it returns '#f'.
3664 We recommend that you put your core pretty-printers into a Guile
3665 package. If your pretty-printers are for use with a library, we further
3666 recommend embedding a version number into the package name. This
3667 practice will enable GDB to load multiple versions of your
3668 pretty-printers at the same time, because they will have different
3671 You should write auto-loaded code (*note Guile Auto-loading::) such
3672 that it can be evaluated multiple times without changing its meaning.
3673 An ideal auto-load file will consist solely of 'import's of your printer
3674 modules, followed by a call to a register pretty-printers with the
3677 Taken as a whole, this approach will scale nicely to multiple
3678 inferiors, each potentially using a different library version.
3679 Embedding a version number in the Guile package name will ensure that
3680 GDB is able to load both sets of printers simultaneously. Then, because
3681 the search for pretty-printers is done by objfile, and because your
3682 auto-loaded code took care to register your library's printers with a
3683 specific objfile, GDB will find the correct printers for the specific
3684 version of the library used by each inferior.
3686 To continue the 'my::string' example, this code might appear in
3687 '(my-project my-library v1)':
3690 (define (register-printers objfile)
3691 (append-objfile-pretty-printer!
3692 (make-pretty-printer "my-string" str-lookup-function)))
3694 And then the corresponding contents of the auto-load file would be:
3696 (use-modules (gdb) (my-project my-library v1))
3697 (register-printers (current-objfile))
3699 The previous example illustrates a basic pretty-printer. There are a
3700 few things that can be improved on. The printer only handles one type,
3701 whereas a library typically has several types. One could install a
3702 lookup function for each desired type in the library, but one could also
3703 have a single lookup function recognize several types. The latter is
3704 the conventional way this is handled. If a pretty-printer can handle
3705 multiple data types, then its "subprinters" are the printers for the
3706 individual data types.
3708 The '(gdb printing)' module provides a formal way of solving this
3709 problem (*note Guile Printing Module::). Here is another example that
3710 handles multiple types.
3712 These are the types we are going to pretty-print:
3714 struct foo { int a, b; };
3715 struct bar { struct foo x, y; };
3717 Here are the printers:
3719 (define (make-foo-printer value)
3720 "Print a foo object"
3721 (make-pretty-printer-worker
3724 (format #f "a=<~a> b=<~a>"
3725 (value-field value "a") (value-field value "a")))
3728 (define (make-bar-printer value)
3729 "Print a bar object"
3730 (make-pretty-printer-worker
3733 (format #f "x=<~a> y=<~a>"
3734 (value-field value "x") (value-field value "y")))
3737 This example doesn't need a lookup function, that is handled by the
3738 '(gdb printing)' module. Instead a function is provided to build up the
3739 object that handles the lookup.
3741 (use-modules (gdb printing))
3743 (define (build-pretty-printer)
3744 (let ((pp (make-pretty-printer-collection "my-library")))
3745 (pp-collection-add-tag-printer "foo" make-foo-printer)
3746 (pp-collection-add-tag-printer "bar" make-bar-printer)
3749 And here is the autoload support:
3751 (use-modules (gdb) (my-library))
3752 (append-objfile-pretty-printer! (current-objfile) (build-pretty-printer))
3754 Finally, when this printer is loaded into GDB, here is the
3755 corresponding output of 'info pretty-printer':
3757 (gdb) info pretty-printer
3764 File: gdb.info, Node: Commands In Guile, Next: Parameters In Guile, Prev: Writing a Guile Pretty-Printer, Up: Guile API
3766 23.3.3.11 Commands In Guile
3767 ...........................
3769 You can implement new GDB CLI commands in Guile. A CLI command object
3770 is created with the 'make-command' Guile function, and added to GDB with
3771 the 'register-command!' Guile function. This two-step approach is taken
3772 to separate out the side-effect of adding the command to GDB from
3775 There is no support for multi-line commands, that is commands that
3776 consist of multiple lines and are terminated with 'end'.
3778 -- Scheme Procedure: (make-command name [#:invoke invoke]
3779 [#:command-class command-class] [#:completer-class completer]
3780 [#:prefix? prefix] [#:doc doc-string])
3782 The argument NAME is the name of the command. If NAME consists of
3783 multiple words, then the initial words are looked for as prefix
3784 commands. In this case, if one of the prefix commands does not
3785 exist, an exception is raised.
3787 The result is the '<gdb:command>' object representing the command.
3788 The command is not usable until it has been registered with GDB
3789 with 'register-command!'.
3791 The rest of the arguments are optional.
3793 The argument INVOKE is a procedure of three arguments: SELF, ARGS
3794 and FROM-TTY. The argument SELF is the '<gdb:command>' object
3795 representing the command. The argument ARGS is a string
3796 representing the arguments passed to the command, after leading and
3797 trailing whitespace has been stripped. The argument FROM-TTY is a
3798 boolean flag and specifies whether the command should consider
3799 itself to have been originated from the user invoking it
3800 interactively. If this function throws an exception, it is turned
3801 into a GDB 'error' call. Otherwise, the return value is ignored.
3803 The argument COMMAND-CLASS is one of the 'COMMAND_' constants
3804 defined below. This argument tells GDB how to categorize the new
3805 command in the help system. The default is 'COMMAND_NONE'.
3807 The argument COMPLETER is either '#f', one of the 'COMPLETE_'
3808 constants defined below, or a procedure, also defined below. This
3809 argument tells GDB how to perform completion for this command. If
3810 not provided or if the value is '#f', then no completion is
3811 performed on the command.
3813 The argument PREFIX is a boolean flag indicating whether the new
3814 command is a prefix command; sub-commands of this command may be
3817 The argument DOC-STRING is help text for the new command. If no
3818 documentation string is provided, the default value "This command
3819 is not documented." is used.
3821 -- Scheme Procedure: register-command! command
3822 Add COMMAND, a '<gdb:command>' object, to GDB's list of commands.
3823 It is an error to register a command more than once. The result is
3826 -- Scheme Procedure: command? object
3827 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:command>' object. Otherwise
3830 -- Scheme Procedure: dont-repeat
3831 By default, a GDB command is repeated when the user enters a blank
3832 line at the command prompt. A command can suppress this behavior
3833 by invoking the 'dont-repeat' function. This is similar to the
3834 user command 'dont-repeat', see *note dont-repeat: Define.
3836 -- Scheme Procedure: string->argv string
3837 Convert a string to a list of strings split up according to GDB's
3838 argv parsing rules. It is recommended to use this for consistency.
3839 Arguments are separated by spaces and may be quoted. Example:
3841 scheme@(guile-user)> (string->argv "1 2\\ \\\"3 '4 \"5' \"6 '7\"")
3842 $1 = ("1" "2 \"3" "4 \"5" "6 '7")
3844 -- Scheme Procedure: throw-user-error message . args
3845 Throw a 'gdb:user-error' exception. The argument MESSAGE is the
3846 error message as a format string, like the FMT argument to the
3847 'format' Scheme function. *Note (guile)Formatted Output::. The
3848 argument ARGS is a list of the optional arguments of MESSAGE.
3850 This is used when the command detects a user error of some kind,
3851 say a bad command argument.
3853 (gdb) guile (use-modules (gdb))
3855 (register-command! (make-command "test-user-error"
3856 #:command-class COMMAND_OBSCURE
3857 #:invoke (lambda (self arg from-tty)
3858 (throw-user-error "Bad argument ~a" arg))))
3860 (gdb) test-user-error ugh
3861 ERROR: Bad argument ugh
3863 -- completer: self text word
3864 If the COMPLETER option to 'make-command' is a procedure, it takes
3865 three arguments: SELF which is the '<gdb:command>' object, and TEXT
3866 and WORD which are both strings. The argument TEXT holds the
3867 complete command line up to the cursor's location. The argument
3868 WORD holds the last word of the command line; this is computed
3869 using a word-breaking heuristic.
3871 All forms of completion are handled by this function, that is, the
3872 <TAB> and <M-?> key bindings (*note Completion::), and the
3873 'complete' command (*note complete: Help.).
3875 This procedure can return several kinds of values:
3877 * If the return value is a list, the contents of the list are
3878 used as the completions. It is up to COMPLETER to ensure that
3879 the contents actually do complete the word. An empty list is
3880 allowed, it means that there were no completions available.
3881 Only string elements of the list are used; other elements in
3882 the list are ignored.
3884 * If the return value is a '<gdb:iterator>' object, it is
3885 iterated over to obtain the completions. It is up to
3886 'completer-procedure' to ensure that the results actually do
3887 complete the word. Only string elements of the result are
3888 used; other elements in the sequence are ignored.
3890 * All other results are treated as though there were no
3891 available completions.
3893 When a new command is registered, it will have been declared as a
3894 member of some general class of commands. This is used to classify
3895 top-level commands in the on-line help system; note that prefix commands
3896 are not listed under their own category but rather that of their
3897 top-level command. The available classifications are represented by
3898 constants defined in the 'gdb' module:
3901 The command does not belong to any particular class. A command in
3902 this category will not be displayed in any of the help categories.
3903 This is the default.
3906 The command is related to running the inferior. For example,
3907 'start', 'step', and 'continue' are in this category. Type 'help
3908 running' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
3912 The command is related to data or variables. For example, 'call',
3913 'find', and 'print' are in this category. Type 'help data' at the
3914 GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
3917 The command has to do with manipulation of the stack. For example,
3918 'backtrace', 'frame', and 'return' are in this category. Type
3919 'help stack' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
3923 This class is used for file-related commands. For example, 'file',
3924 'list' and 'section' are in this category. Type 'help files' at
3925 the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
3928 This should be used for "support facilities", generally meaning
3929 things that are useful to the user when interacting with GDB, but
3930 not related to the state of the inferior. For example, 'help',
3931 'make', and 'shell' are in this category. Type 'help support' at
3932 the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this category.
3935 The command is an 'info'-related command, that is, related to the
3936 state of GDB itself. For example, 'info', 'macro', and 'show' are
3937 in this category. Type 'help status' at the GDB prompt to see a
3938 list of commands in this category.
3940 'COMMAND_BREAKPOINTS'
3941 The command has to do with breakpoints. For example, 'break',
3942 'clear', and 'delete' are in this category. Type 'help
3943 breakpoints' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
3946 'COMMAND_TRACEPOINTS'
3947 The command has to do with tracepoints. For example, 'trace',
3948 'actions', and 'tfind' are in this category. Type 'help
3949 tracepoints' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
3953 The command is a general purpose command for the user, and
3954 typically does not fit in one of the other categories. Type 'help
3955 user-defined' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
3956 category, as well as the list of gdb macros (*note Sequences::).
3959 The command is only used in unusual circumstances, or is not of
3960 general interest to users. For example, 'checkpoint', 'fork', and
3961 'stop' are in this category. Type 'help obscure' at the GDB prompt
3962 to see a list of commands in this category.
3964 'COMMAND_MAINTENANCE'
3965 The command is only useful to GDB maintainers. The 'maintenance'
3966 and 'flushregs' commands are in this category. Type 'help
3967 internals' at the GDB prompt to see a list of commands in this
3970 A new command can use a predefined completion function, either by
3971 specifying it via an argument at initialization, or by returning it from
3972 the 'completer' procedure. These predefined completion constants are
3973 all defined in the 'gdb' module:
3976 This constant means that no completion should be done.
3979 This constant means that filename completion should be performed.
3982 This constant means that location completion should be done. *Note
3986 This constant means that completion should examine GDB command
3990 This constant means that completion should be done using symbol
3991 names as the source.
3993 'COMPLETE_EXPRESSION'
3994 This constant means that completion should be done on expressions.
3995 Often this means completing on symbol names, but some language
3996 parsers also have support for completing on field names.
3998 The following code snippet shows how a trivial CLI command can be
3999 implemented in Guile:
4002 (register-command! (make-command "hello-world"
4003 #:command-class COMMAND_USER
4004 #:doc "Greet the whole world."
4005 #:invoke (lambda (self args from-tty) (display "Hello, World!\n"))))
4011 File: gdb.info, Node: Parameters In Guile, Next: Progspaces In Guile, Prev: Commands In Guile, Up: Guile API
4013 23.3.3.12 Parameters In Guile
4014 .............................
4016 You can implement new GDB "parameters" using Guile (1).
4018 There are many parameters that already exist and can be set in GDB.
4019 Two examples are: 'set follow-fork' and 'set charset'. Setting these
4020 parameters influences certain behavior in GDB. Similarly, you can
4021 define parameters that can be used to influence behavior in custom Guile
4022 scripts and commands.
4024 A new parameter is defined with the 'make-parameter' Guile function,
4025 and added to GDB with the 'register-parameter!' Guile function. This
4026 two-step approach is taken to separate out the side-effect of adding the
4027 parameter to GDB from 'make-parameter'.
4029 Parameters are exposed to the user via the 'set' and 'show' commands.
4032 -- Scheme Procedure: (make-parameter name [#:command-class
4033 command-class] [#:parameter-type parameter-type] [#:enum-list
4034 enum-list] [#:set-func set-func] [#:show-func show-func]
4035 [#:doc doc] [#:set-doc set-doc] [#:show-doc show-doc]
4036 [#:initial-value initial-value])
4038 The argument NAME is the name of the new parameter. If NAME
4039 consists of multiple words, then the initial words are looked for
4040 as prefix parameters. An example of this can be illustrated with
4041 the 'set print' set of parameters. If NAME is 'print foo', then
4042 'print' will be searched as the prefix parameter. In this case the
4043 parameter can subsequently be accessed in GDB as 'set print foo'.
4044 If NAME consists of multiple words, and no prefix parameter group
4045 can be found, an exception is raised.
4047 The result is the '<gdb:parameter>' object representing the
4048 parameter. The parameter is not usable until it has been
4049 registered with GDB with 'register-parameter!'.
4051 The rest of the arguments are optional.
4053 The argument COMMAND-CLASS should be one of the 'COMMAND_'
4054 constants (*note Commands In Guile::). This argument tells GDB how
4055 to categorize the new parameter in the help system. The default is
4058 The argument PARAMETER-TYPE should be one of the 'PARAM_' constants
4059 defined below. This argument tells GDB the type of the new
4060 parameter; this information is used for input validation and
4061 completion. The default is 'PARAM_BOOLEAN'.
4063 If PARAMETER-TYPE is 'PARAM_ENUM', then ENUM-LIST must be a list of
4064 strings. These strings represent the possible values for the
4067 If PARAMETER-TYPE is not 'PARAM_ENUM', then the presence of
4068 ENUM-LIST will cause an exception to be thrown.
4070 The argument SET-FUNC is a function of one argument: SELF which is
4071 the '<gdb:parameter>' object representing the parameter. GDB will
4072 call this function when a PARAMETER's value has been changed via
4073 the 'set' API (for example, 'set foo off'). The value of the
4074 parameter has already been set to the new value. This function
4075 must return a string to be displayed to the user. GDB will add a
4076 trailing newline if the string is non-empty. GDB generally doesn't
4077 print anything when a parameter is set, thus typically this
4078 function should return '""'. A non-empty string result should
4079 typically be used for displaying warnings and errors.
4081 The argument SHOW-FUNC is a function of two arguments: SELF which
4082 is the '<gdb:parameter>' object representing the parameter, and
4083 SVALUE which is the string representation of the current value.
4084 GDB will call this function when a PARAMETER's 'show' API has been
4085 invoked (for example, 'show foo'). This function must return a
4086 string, and will be displayed to the user. GDB will add a trailing
4089 The argument DOC is the help text for the new parameter. If there
4090 is no documentation string, a default value is used.
4092 The argument SET-DOC is the help text for this parameter's 'set'
4095 The argument SHOW-DOC is the help text for this parameter's 'show'
4098 The argument INITIAL-VALUE specifies the initial value of the
4099 parameter. If it is a function, it takes one parameter, the
4100 '<gdb:parameter>' object and its result is used as the initial
4101 value of the parameter. The initial value must be valid for the
4102 parameter type, otherwise an exception is thrown.
4104 -- Scheme Procedure: register-parameter! parameter
4105 Add PARAMETER, a '<gdb:parameter>' object, to GDB's list of
4106 parameters. It is an error to register a parameter more than once.
4107 The result is unspecified.
4109 -- Scheme Procedure: parameter? object
4110 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:parameter>' object. Otherwise
4113 -- Scheme Procedure: parameter-value parameter
4114 Return the value of PARAMETER which may either be a
4115 '<gdb:parameter>' object or a string naming the parameter.
4117 -- Scheme Procedure: set-parameter-value! parameter new-value
4118 Assign PARAMETER the value of NEW-VALUE. The argument PARAMETER
4119 must be an object of type '<gdb:parameter>'. GDB does validation
4120 when assignments are made.
4122 When a new parameter is defined, its type must be specified. The
4123 available types are represented by constants defined in the 'gdb'
4127 The value is a plain boolean. The Guile boolean values, '#t' and
4128 '#f' are the only valid values.
4130 'PARAM_AUTO_BOOLEAN'
4131 The value has three possible states: true, false, and 'auto'. In
4132 Guile, true and false are represented using boolean constants, and
4133 'auto' is represented using '#:auto'.
4136 The value is an unsigned integer. The value of 0 should be
4137 interpreted to mean "unlimited".
4140 The value is an integer.
4143 The value is an unsigned integer.
4145 'PARAM_ZUINTEGER_UNLIMITED'
4146 The value is an integer in the range '[0, INT_MAX]'. A value of
4147 '-1' means "unlimited", and other negative numbers are not allowed.
4150 The value is a string. When the user modifies the string, any
4151 escape sequences, such as '\t', '\f', and octal escapes, are
4152 translated into corresponding characters and encoded into the
4153 current host charset.
4155 'PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE'
4156 The value is a string. When the user modifies the string, escapes
4157 are passed through untranslated.
4159 'PARAM_OPTIONAL_FILENAME'
4160 The value is a either a filename (a string), or '#f'.
4163 The value is a filename. This is just like
4164 'PARAM_STRING_NOESCAPE', but uses file names for completion.
4167 The value is a string, which must be one of a collection of string
4168 constants provided when the parameter is created.
4170 ---------- Footnotes ----------
4172 (1) Note that GDB parameters must not be confused with Guile’s
4173 parameter objects (*note (guile)Parameters::).
4176 File: gdb.info, Node: Progspaces In Guile, Next: Objfiles In Guile, Prev: Parameters In Guile, Up: Guile API
4178 23.3.3.13 Program Spaces In Guile
4179 .................................
4181 A program space, or "progspace", represents a symbolic view of an
4182 address space. It consists of all of the objfiles of the program.
4183 *Note Objfiles In Guile::. *Note program spaces: Inferiors and
4184 Programs, for more details about program spaces.
4186 Each progspace is represented by an instance of the '<gdb:progspace>'
4187 smob. *Note GDB Scheme Data Types::.
4189 The following progspace-related functions are available in the
4192 -- Scheme Procedure: progspace? object
4193 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:progspace>' object. Otherwise
4196 -- Scheme Procedure: progspace-valid? progspace
4197 Return '#t' if PROGSPACE is valid, '#f' if not. A
4198 '<gdb:progspace>' object can become invalid if the program it
4199 refers to is not loaded in GDB any longer.
4201 -- Scheme Procedure: current-progspace
4202 This function returns the program space of the currently selected
4203 inferior. There is always a current progspace, this never returns
4204 '#f'. *Note Inferiors and Programs::.
4206 -- Scheme Procedure: progspaces
4207 Return a list of all the progspaces currently known to GDB.
4209 -- Scheme Procedure: progspace-filename progspace
4210 Return the absolute file name of PROGSPACE as a string. This is
4211 the name of the file passed as the argument to the 'file' or
4212 'symbol-file' commands. If the program space does not have an
4213 associated file name, then '#f' is returned. This occurs, for
4214 example, when GDB is started without a program to debug.
4216 A 'gdb:invalid-object-error' exception is thrown if PROGSPACE is
4219 -- Scheme Procedure: progspace-objfiles progspace
4220 Return the list of objfiles of PROGSPACE. The order of objfiles in
4221 the result is arbitrary. Each element is an object of type
4222 '<gdb:objfile>'. *Note Objfiles In Guile::.
4224 A 'gdb:invalid-object-error' exception is thrown if PROGSPACE is
4227 -- Scheme Procedure: progspace-pretty-printers progspace
4228 Return the list of pretty-printers of PROGSPACE. Each element is
4229 an object of type '<gdb:pretty-printer>'. *Note Guile Pretty
4230 Printing API::, for more information.
4232 -- Scheme Procedure: set-progspace-pretty-printers! progspace
4234 Set the list of registered '<gdb:pretty-printer>' objects for
4235 PROGSPACE to PRINTER-LIST. *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::, for
4239 File: gdb.info, Node: Objfiles In Guile, Next: Frames In Guile, Prev: Progspaces In Guile, Up: Guile API
4241 23.3.3.14 Objfiles In Guile
4242 ...........................
4244 GDB loads symbols for an inferior from various symbol-containing files
4245 (*note Files::). These include the primary executable file, any shared
4246 libraries used by the inferior, and any separate debug info files (*note
4247 Separate Debug Files::). GDB calls these symbol-containing files
4250 Each objfile is represented as an object of type '<gdb:objfile>'.
4252 The following objfile-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
4255 -- Scheme Procedure: objfile? object
4256 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:objfile>' object. Otherwise
4259 -- Scheme Procedure: objfile-valid? objfile
4260 Return '#t' if OBJFILE is valid, '#f' if not. A '<gdb:objfile>'
4261 object can become invalid if the object file it refers to is not
4262 loaded in GDB any longer. All other '<gdb:objfile>' procedures
4263 will throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the procedure
4266 -- Scheme Procedure: objfile-filename objfile
4267 Return the file name of OBJFILE as a string.
4269 -- Scheme Procedure: objfile-pretty-printers objfile
4270 Return the list of registered '<gdb:pretty-printer>' objects for
4271 OBJFILE. *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::, for more information.
4273 -- Scheme Procedure: set-objfile-pretty-printers! objfile printer-list
4274 Set the list of registered '<gdb:pretty-printer>' objects for
4275 OBJFILE to PRINTER-LIST. The PRINTER-LIST must be a list of
4276 '<gdb:pretty-printer>' objects. *Note Guile Pretty Printing API::,
4277 for more information.
4279 -- Scheme Procedure: current-objfile
4280 When auto-loading a Guile script (*note Guile Auto-loading::), GDB
4281 sets the "current objfile" to the corresponding objfile. This
4282 function returns the current objfile. If there is no current
4283 objfile, this function returns '#f'.
4285 -- Scheme Procedure: objfiles
4286 Return a list of all the objfiles in the current program space.
4289 File: gdb.info, Node: Frames In Guile, Next: Blocks In Guile, Prev: Objfiles In Guile, Up: Guile API
4291 23.3.3.15 Accessing inferior stack frames from Guile.
4292 .....................................................
4294 When the debugged program stops, GDB is able to analyze its call stack
4295 (*note Stack frames: Frames.). The '<gdb:frame>' class represents a
4296 frame in the stack. A '<gdb:frame>' object is only valid while its
4297 corresponding frame exists in the inferior's stack. If you try to use
4298 an invalid frame object, GDB will throw a 'gdb:invalid-object' exception
4299 (*note Guile Exception Handling::).
4301 Two '<gdb:frame>' objects can be compared for equality with the
4302 'equal?' function, like:
4304 (gdb) guile (equal? (newest-frame) (selected-frame))
4307 The following frame-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
4310 -- Scheme Procedure: frame? object
4311 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:frame>' object. Otherwise return
4314 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-valid? frame
4315 Returns '#t' if FRAME is valid, '#f' if not. A frame object can
4316 become invalid if the frame it refers to doesn't exist anymore in
4317 the inferior. All '<gdb:frame>' procedures will throw an exception
4318 if the frame is invalid at the time the procedure is called.
4320 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-name frame
4321 Return the function name of FRAME, or '#f' if it can't be obtained.
4323 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-arch frame
4324 Return the '<gdb:architecture>' object corresponding to FRAME's
4325 architecture. *Note Architectures In Guile::.
4327 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-type frame
4328 Return the type of FRAME. The value can be one of:
4331 An ordinary stack frame.
4334 A fake stack frame that was created by GDB when performing an
4335 inferior function call.
4338 A frame representing an inlined function. The function was
4339 inlined into a 'NORMAL_FRAME' that is older than this one.
4342 A frame representing a tail call. *Note Tail Call Frames::.
4345 A signal trampoline frame. This is the frame created by the
4346 OS when it calls into a signal handler.
4349 A fake stack frame representing a cross-architecture call.
4352 This is like 'NORMAL_FRAME', but it is only used for the
4355 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-unwind-stop-reason frame
4356 Return an integer representing the reason why it's not possible to
4357 find more frames toward the outermost frame. Use
4358 'unwind-stop-reason-string' to convert the value returned by this
4359 function to a string. The value can be one of:
4361 'FRAME_UNWIND_NO_REASON'
4362 No particular reason (older frames should be available).
4364 'FRAME_UNWIND_NULL_ID'
4365 The previous frame's analyzer returns an invalid result.
4367 'FRAME_UNWIND_OUTERMOST'
4368 This frame is the outermost.
4370 'FRAME_UNWIND_UNAVAILABLE'
4371 Cannot unwind further, because that would require knowing the
4372 values of registers or memory that have not been collected.
4374 'FRAME_UNWIND_INNER_ID'
4375 This frame ID looks like it ought to belong to a NEXT frame,
4376 but we got it for a PREV frame. Normally, this is a sign of
4377 unwinder failure. It could also indicate stack corruption.
4379 'FRAME_UNWIND_SAME_ID'
4380 This frame has the same ID as the previous one. That means
4381 that unwinding further would almost certainly give us another
4382 frame with exactly the same ID, so break the chain. Normally,
4383 this is a sign of unwinder failure. It could also indicate
4386 'FRAME_UNWIND_NO_SAVED_PC'
4387 The frame unwinder did not find any saved PC, but we needed
4388 one to unwind further.
4390 'FRAME_UNWIND_MEMORY_ERROR'
4391 The frame unwinder caused an error while trying to access
4394 'FRAME_UNWIND_FIRST_ERROR'
4395 Any stop reason greater or equal to this value indicates some
4396 kind of error. This special value facilitates writing code
4397 that tests for errors in unwinding in a way that will work
4398 correctly even if the list of the other values is modified in
4399 future GDB versions. Using it, you could write:
4401 (define reason (frame-unwind-stop-readon (selected-frame)))
4402 (define reason-str (unwind-stop-reason-string reason))
4403 (if (>= reason FRAME_UNWIND_FIRST_ERROR)
4404 (format #t "An error occured: ~s\n" reason-str))
4406 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-pc frame
4407 Return the frame's resume address.
4409 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-block frame
4410 Return the frame's code block as a '<gdb:block>' object. *Note
4413 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-function frame
4414 Return the symbol for the function corresponding to this frame as a
4415 '<gdb:symbol>' object, or '#f' if there isn't one. *Note Symbols
4418 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-older frame
4419 Return the frame that called FRAME.
4421 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-newer frame
4422 Return the frame called by FRAME.
4424 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-sal frame
4425 Return the frame's '<gdb:sal>' (symtab and line) object. *Note
4426 Symbol Tables In Guile::.
4428 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-read-var frame variable [#:block block]
4429 Return the value of VARIABLE in FRAME. If the optional argument
4430 BLOCK is provided, search for the variable from that block;
4431 otherwise start at the frame's current block (which is determined
4432 by the frame's current program counter). The VARIABLE must be
4433 given as a string or a '<gdb:symbol>' object, and BLOCK must be a
4434 '<gdb:block>' object.
4436 -- Scheme Procedure: frame-select frame
4437 Set FRAME to be the selected frame. *Note Examining the Stack:
4440 -- Scheme Procedure: selected-frame
4441 Return the selected frame object. *Note Selecting a Frame:
4444 -- Scheme Procedure: newest-frame
4445 Return the newest frame object for the selected thread.
4447 -- Scheme Procedure: unwind-stop-reason-string reason
4448 Return a string explaining the reason why GDB stopped unwinding
4449 frames, as expressed by the given REASON code (an integer, see the
4450 'frame-unwind-stop-reason' procedure above in this section).
4453 File: gdb.info, Node: Blocks In Guile, Next: Symbols In Guile, Prev: Frames In Guile, Up: Guile API
4455 23.3.3.16 Accessing blocks from Guile.
4456 ......................................
4458 In GDB, symbols are stored in blocks. A block corresponds roughly to a
4459 scope in the source code. Blocks are organized hierarchically, and are
4460 represented individually in Guile as an object of type '<gdb:block>'.
4461 Blocks rely on debugging information being available.
4463 A frame has a block. Please see *note Frames In Guile::, for a more
4464 in-depth discussion of frames.
4466 The outermost block is known as the "global block". The global block
4467 typically holds public global variables and functions.
4469 The block nested just inside the global block is the "static block".
4470 The static block typically holds file-scoped variables and functions.
4472 GDB provides a method to get a block's superblock, but there is
4473 currently no way to examine the sub-blocks of a block, or to iterate
4474 over all the blocks in a symbol table (*note Symbol Tables In Guile::).
4476 Here is a short example that should help explain blocks:
4478 /* This is in the global block. */
4481 /* This is in the static block. */
4482 static int file_scope;
4484 /* 'function' is in the global block, and 'argument' is
4485 in a block nested inside of 'function'. */
4486 int function (int argument)
4488 /* 'local' is in a block inside 'function'. It may or may
4489 not be in the same block as 'argument'. */
4493 /* 'inner' is in a block whose superblock is the one holding
4497 /* If this call is expanded by the compiler, you may see
4498 a nested block here whose function is 'inline_function'
4499 and whose superblock is the one holding 'inner'. */
4504 The following block-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
4507 -- Scheme Procedure: block? object
4508 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:block>' object. Otherwise return
4511 -- Scheme Procedure: block-valid? block
4512 Returns '#t' if '<gdb:block>' BLOCK is valid, '#f' if not. A block
4513 object can become invalid if the block it refers to doesn't exist
4514 anymore in the inferior. All other '<gdb:block>' methods will
4515 throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the procedure is
4516 called. The block's validity is also checked during iteration over
4517 symbols of the block.
4519 -- Scheme Procedure: block-start block
4520 Return the start address of '<gdb:block>' BLOCK.
4522 -- Scheme Procedure: block-end block
4523 Return the end address of '<gdb:block>' BLOCK.
4525 -- Scheme Procedure: block-function block
4526 Return the name of '<gdb:block>' BLOCK represented as a
4527 '<gdb:symbol>' object. If the block is not named, then '#f' is
4530 For ordinary function blocks, the superblock is the static block.
4531 However, you should note that it is possible for a function block
4532 to have a superblock that is not the static block - for instance
4533 this happens for an inlined function.
4535 -- Scheme Procedure: block-superblock block
4536 Return the block containing '<gdb:block>' BLOCK. If the parent
4537 block does not exist, then '#f' is returned.
4539 -- Scheme Procedure: block-global-block block
4540 Return the global block associated with '<gdb:block>' BLOCK.
4542 -- Scheme Procedure: block-static-block block
4543 Return the static block associated with '<gdb:block>' BLOCK.
4545 -- Scheme Procedure: block-global? block
4546 Return '#t' if '<gdb:block>' BLOCK is a global block. Otherwise
4549 -- Scheme Procedure: block-static? block
4550 Return '#t' if '<gdb:block>' BLOCK is a static block. Otherwise
4553 -- Scheme Procedure: block-symbols
4554 Return a list of all symbols (as <gdb:symbol> objects) in
4555 '<gdb:block>' BLOCK.
4557 -- Scheme Procedure: make-block-symbols-iterator block
4558 Return an object of type '<gdb:iterator>' that will iterate over
4559 all symbols of the block. Guile programs should not assume that a
4560 specific block object will always contain a given symbol, since
4561 changes in GDB features and infrastructure may cause symbols move
4562 across blocks in a symbol table. *Note Iterators In Guile::.
4564 -- Scheme Procedure: block-symbols-progress?
4565 Return #t if the object is a <gdb:block-symbols-progress> object.
4566 This object would be obtained from the 'progress' element of the
4567 '<gdb:iterator>' object returned by 'make-block-symbols-iterator'.
4569 -- Scheme Procedure: lookup-block pc
4570 Return the innermost '<gdb:block>' containing the given PC value.
4571 If the block cannot be found for the PC value specified, the
4572 function will return '#f'.
4575 File: gdb.info, Node: Symbols In Guile, Next: Symbol Tables In Guile, Prev: Blocks In Guile, Up: Guile API
4577 23.3.3.17 Guile representation of Symbols.
4578 ..........................................
4580 GDB represents every variable, function and type as an entry in a symbol
4581 table. *Note Examining the Symbol Table: Symbols. Guile represents
4582 these symbols in GDB with the '<gdb:symbol>' object.
4584 The following symbol-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
4587 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol? object
4588 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:symbol>'.
4589 Otherwise return '#f'.
4591 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-valid? symbol
4592 Return '#t' if the '<gdb:symbol>' object is valid, '#f' if not. A
4593 '<gdb:symbol>' object can become invalid if the symbol it refers to
4594 does not exist in GDB any longer. All other '<gdb:symbol>'
4595 procedures will throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the
4596 procedure is called.
4598 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-type symbol
4599 Return the type of SYMBOL or '#f' if no type is recorded. The
4600 result is an object of type '<gdb:type>'. *Note Types In Guile::.
4602 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-symtab symbol
4603 Return the symbol table in which SYMBOL appears. The result is an
4604 object of type '<gdb:symtab>'. *Note Symbol Tables In Guile::.
4606 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-line symbol
4607 Return the line number in the source code at which SYMBOL was
4608 defined. This is an integer.
4610 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-name symbol
4611 Return the name of SYMBOL as a string.
4613 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-linkage-name symbol
4614 Return the name of SYMBOL, as used by the linker (i.e., may be
4617 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-print-name symbol
4618 Return the name of SYMBOL in a form suitable for output. This is
4619 either 'name' or 'linkage_name', depending on whether the user
4620 asked GDB to display demangled or mangled names.
4622 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-addr-class symbol
4623 Return the address class of the symbol. This classifies how to
4624 find the value of a symbol. Each address class is a constant
4625 defined in the '(gdb)' module and described later in this chapter.
4627 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-needs-frame? symbol
4628 Return '#t' if evaluating SYMBOL's value requires a frame (*note
4629 Frames In Guile::) and '#f' otherwise. Typically, local variables
4630 will require a frame, but other symbols will not.
4632 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-argument? symbol
4633 Return '#t' if SYMBOL is an argument of a function. Otherwise
4636 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-constant? symbol
4637 Return '#t' if SYMBOL is a constant. Otherwise return '#f'.
4639 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-function? symbol
4640 Return '#t' if SYMBOL is a function or a method. Otherwise return
4643 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-variable? symbol
4644 Return '#t' if SYMBOL is a variable. Otherwise return '#f'.
4646 -- Scheme Procedure: symbol-value symbol [#:frame frame]
4647 Compute the value of SYMBOL, as a '<gdb:value>'. For functions,
4648 this computes the address of the function, cast to the appropriate
4649 type. If the symbol requires a frame in order to compute its
4650 value, then FRAME must be given. If FRAME is not given, or if
4651 FRAME is invalid, then an exception is thrown.
4653 -- Scheme Procedure: lookup-symbol name [#:block block] [#:domain
4655 This function searches for a symbol by name. The search scope can
4656 be restricted to the parameters defined in the optional domain and
4659 NAME is the name of the symbol. It must be a string. The optional
4660 BLOCK argument restricts the search to symbols visible in that
4661 BLOCK. The BLOCK argument must be a '<gdb:block>' object. If
4662 omitted, the block for the current frame is used. The optional
4663 DOMAIN argument restricts the search to the domain type. The
4664 DOMAIN argument must be a domain constant defined in the '(gdb)'
4665 module and described later in this chapter.
4667 The result is a list of two elements. The first element is a
4668 '<gdb:symbol>' object or '#f' if the symbol is not found. If the
4669 symbol is found, the second element is '#t' if the symbol is a
4670 field of a method's object (e.g., 'this' in C++), otherwise it is
4671 '#f'. If the symbol is not found, the second element is '#f'.
4673 -- Scheme Procedure: lookup-global-symbol name [#:domain domain]
4674 This function searches for a global symbol by name. The search
4675 scope can be restricted by the domain argument.
4677 NAME is the name of the symbol. It must be a string. The optional
4678 DOMAIN argument restricts the search to the domain type. The
4679 DOMAIN argument must be a domain constant defined in the '(gdb)'
4680 module and described later in this chapter.
4682 The result is a '<gdb:symbol>' object or '#f' if the symbol is not
4685 The available domain categories in '<gdb:symbol>' are represented as
4686 constants in the '(gdb)' module:
4688 'SYMBOL_UNDEF_DOMAIN'
4689 This is used when a domain has not been discovered or none of the
4690 following domains apply. This usually indicates an error either in
4691 the symbol information or in GDB's handling of symbols.
4694 This domain contains variables, function names, typedef names and
4697 'SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN'
4698 This domain holds struct, union and enum type names.
4700 'SYMBOL_LABEL_DOMAIN'
4701 This domain contains names of labels (for gotos).
4703 'SYMBOL_VARIABLES_DOMAIN'
4704 This domain holds a subset of the 'SYMBOLS_VAR_DOMAIN'; it contains
4705 everything minus functions and types.
4707 'SYMBOL_FUNCTION_DOMAIN'
4708 This domain contains all functions.
4710 'SYMBOL_TYPES_DOMAIN'
4711 This domain contains all types.
4713 The available address class categories in '<gdb:symbol>' are
4714 represented as constants in the 'gdb' module:
4717 If this is returned by address class, it indicates an error either
4718 in the symbol information or in GDB's handling of symbols.
4721 Value is constant int.
4724 Value is at a fixed address.
4726 'SYMBOL_LOC_REGISTER'
4727 Value is in a register.
4730 Value is an argument. This value is at the offset stored within
4731 the symbol inside the frame's argument list.
4733 'SYMBOL_LOC_REF_ARG'
4734 Value address is stored in the frame's argument list. Just like
4735 'LOC_ARG' except that the value's address is stored at the offset,
4736 not the value itself.
4738 'SYMBOL_LOC_REGPARM_ADDR'
4739 Value is a specified register. Just like 'LOC_REGISTER' except the
4740 register holds the address of the argument instead of the argument
4744 Value is a local variable.
4746 'SYMBOL_LOC_TYPEDEF'
4747 Value not used. Symbols in the domain 'SYMBOL_STRUCT_DOMAIN' all
4753 'SYMBOL_LOC_CONST_BYTES'
4754 Value is a byte-sequence.
4756 'SYMBOL_LOC_UNRESOLVED'
4757 Value is at a fixed address, but the address of the variable has to
4758 be determined from the minimal symbol table whenever the variable
4761 'SYMBOL_LOC_OPTIMIZED_OUT'
4762 The value does not actually exist in the program.
4764 'SYMBOL_LOC_COMPUTED'
4765 The value's address is a computed location.
4768 File: gdb.info, Node: Symbol Tables In Guile, Next: Breakpoints In Guile, Prev: Symbols In Guile, Up: Guile API
4770 23.3.3.18 Symbol table representation in Guile.
4771 ...............................................
4773 Access to symbol table data maintained by GDB on the inferior is exposed
4774 to Guile via two objects: '<gdb:sal>' (symtab-and-line) and
4775 '<gdb:symtab>'. Symbol table and line data for a frame is returned from
4776 the 'frame-find-sal' '<gdb:frame>' procedure. *Note Frames In Guile::.
4778 For more information on GDB's symbol table management, see *note
4779 Examining the Symbol Table: Symbols.
4781 The following symtab-related procedures are provided by the '(gdb)'
4784 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab? object
4785 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:symtab>'.
4786 Otherwise return '#f'.
4788 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab-valid? symtab
4789 Return '#t' if the '<gdb:symtab>' object is valid, '#f' if not. A
4790 '<gdb:symtab>' object becomes invalid when the symbol table it
4791 refers to no longer exists in GDB. All other '<gdb:symtab>'
4792 procedures will throw an exception if it is invalid at the time the
4793 procedure is called.
4795 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab-filename symtab
4796 Return the symbol table's source filename.
4798 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab-fullname symtab
4799 Return the symbol table's source absolute file name.
4801 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab-objfile symtab
4802 Return the symbol table's backing object file. *Note Objfiles In
4805 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab-global-block symtab
4806 Return the global block of the underlying symbol table. *Note
4809 -- Scheme Procedure: symtab-static-block symtab
4810 Return the static block of the underlying symbol table. *Note
4813 The following symtab-and-line-related procedures are provided by the
4816 -- Scheme Procedure: sal? object
4817 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:sal>'. Otherwise
4820 -- Scheme Procedure: sal-valid? sal
4821 Return '#t' if SAL is valid, '#f' if not. A '<gdb:sal>' object
4822 becomes invalid when the Symbol table object it refers to no longer
4823 exists in GDB. All other '<gdb:sal>' procedures will throw an
4824 exception if it is invalid at the time the procedure is called.
4826 -- Scheme Procedure: sal-symtab sal
4827 Return the symbol table object ('<gdb:symtab>') for SAL.
4829 -- Scheme Procedure: sal-line sal
4830 Return the line number for SAL.
4832 -- Scheme Procedure: sal-pc sal
4833 Return the start of the address range occupied by code for SAL.
4835 -- Scheme Procedure: sal-last sal
4836 Return the end of the address range occupied by code for SAL.
4838 -- Scheme Procedure: find-pc-line pc
4839 Return the '<gdb:sal>' object corresponding to the PC value. If an
4840 invalid value of PC is passed as an argument, then the 'symtab' and
4841 'line' attributes of the returned '<gdb:sal>' object will be '#f'
4845 File: gdb.info, Node: Breakpoints In Guile, Next: Lazy Strings In Guile, Prev: Symbol Tables In Guile, Up: Guile API
4847 23.3.3.19 Manipulating breakpoints using Guile
4848 ..............................................
4850 Breakpoints in Guile are represented by objects of type
4851 '<gdb:breakpoint>'. New breakpoints can be created with the
4852 'make-breakpoint' Guile function, and then added to GDB with the
4853 'register-breakpoint!' Guile function. This two-step approach is taken
4854 to separate out the side-effect of adding the breakpoint to GDB from
4857 Support is also provided to view and manipulate breakpoints created
4860 The following breakpoint-related procedures are provided by the
4863 -- Scheme Procedure: make-breakpoint location [#:type type] [#:wp-class
4864 wp-class] [#:internal internal]
4865 Create a new breakpoint at LOCATION, a string naming the location
4866 of the breakpoint, or an expression that defines a watchpoint. The
4867 contents can be any location recognized by the 'break' command, or
4868 in the case of a watchpoint, by the 'watch' command.
4870 The breakpoint is initially marked as 'invalid'. The breakpoint is
4871 not usable until it has been registered with GDB with
4872 'register-breakpoint!', at which point it becomes 'valid'. The
4873 result is the '<gdb:breakpoint>' object representing the
4876 The optional TYPE denotes the breakpoint to create. This argument
4877 can be either 'BP_BREAKPOINT' or 'BP_WATCHPOINT', and defaults to
4880 The optional WP-CLASS argument defines the class of watchpoint to
4881 create, if TYPE is 'BP_WATCHPOINT'. If a watchpoint class is not
4882 provided, it is assumed to be a 'WP_WRITE' class.
4884 The optional INTERNAL argument allows the breakpoint to become
4885 invisible to the user. The breakpoint will neither be reported
4886 when registered, nor will it be listed in the output from 'info
4887 breakpoints' (but will be listed with the 'maint info breakpoints'
4888 command). If an internal flag is not provided, the breakpoint is
4889 visible (non-internal).
4891 When a watchpoint is created, GDB will try to create a hardware
4892 assisted watchpoint. If successful, the type of the watchpoint is
4893 changed from 'BP_WATCHPOINT' to 'BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT' for
4894 'WP_WRITE', 'BP_READ_WATCHPOINT' for 'WP_READ', and
4895 'BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT' for 'WP_ACCESS'. If not successful, the
4896 type of the watchpoint is left as 'WP_WATCHPOINT'.
4898 The available types are represented by constants defined in the
4902 Normal code breakpoint.
4905 Watchpoint breakpoint.
4907 'BP_HARDWARE_WATCHPOINT'
4908 Hardware assisted watchpoint. This value cannot be specified
4909 when creating the breakpoint.
4911 'BP_READ_WATCHPOINT'
4912 Hardware assisted read watchpoint. This value cannot be
4913 specified when creating the breakpoint.
4915 'BP_ACCESS_WATCHPOINT'
4916 Hardware assisted access watchpoint. This value cannot be
4917 specified when creating the breakpoint.
4919 The available watchpoint types represented by constants are defined
4920 in the '(gdb)' module:
4923 Read only watchpoint.
4926 Write only watchpoint.
4929 Read/Write watchpoint.
4931 -- Scheme Procedure: register-breakpoint! breakpoint
4932 Add BREAKPOINT, a '<gdb:breakpoint>' object, to GDB's list of
4933 breakpoints. The breakpoint must have been created with
4934 'make-breakpoint'. One cannot register breakpoints that have been
4935 created outside of Guile. Once a breakpoint is registered it
4936 becomes 'valid'. It is an error to register an already registered
4937 breakpoint. The result is unspecified.
4939 -- Scheme Procedure: delete-breakpoint! breakpoint
4940 Remove BREAKPOINT from GDB's list of breakpoints. This also
4941 invalidates the Guile BREAKPOINT object. Any further attempt to
4942 access the object will throw an exception.
4944 If BREAKPOINT was created from Guile with 'make-breakpoint' it may
4945 be re-registered with GDB, in which case the breakpoint becomes
4948 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoints
4949 Return a list of all breakpoints. Each element of the list is a
4950 '<gdb:breakpoint>' object.
4952 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint? object
4953 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:breakpoint>' object, and '#f'
4956 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-valid? breakpoint
4957 Return '#t' if BREAKPOINT is valid, '#f' otherwise. Breakpoints
4958 created with 'make-breakpoint' are marked as invalid until they are
4959 registered with GDB with 'register-breakpoint!'. A
4960 '<gdb:breakpoint>' object can become invalid if the user deletes
4961 the breakpoint. In this case, the object still exists, but the
4962 underlying breakpoint does not. In the cases of watchpoint scope,
4963 the watchpoint remains valid even if execution of the inferior
4964 leaves the scope of that watchpoint.
4966 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-number breakpoint
4967 Return the breakpoint's number -- the identifier used by the user
4968 to manipulate the breakpoint.
4970 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-type breakpoint
4971 Return the breakpoint's type -- the identifier used to determine
4972 the actual breakpoint type or use-case.
4974 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-visible? breakpoint
4975 Return '#t' if the breakpoint is visible to the user when hit, or
4976 when the 'info breakpoints' command is run. Otherwise return '#f'.
4978 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-location breakpoint
4979 Return the location of the breakpoint, as specified by the user.
4980 It is a string. If the breakpoint does not have a location (that
4981 is, it is a watchpoint) return '#f'.
4983 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-expression breakpoint
4984 Return the breakpoint expression, as specified by the user. It is
4985 a string. If the breakpoint does not have an expression (the
4986 breakpoint is not a watchpoint) return '#f'.
4988 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-enabled? breakpoint
4989 Return '#t' if the breakpoint is enabled, and '#f' otherwise.
4991 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-enabled! breakpoint flag
4992 Set the enabled state of BREAKPOINT to FLAG. If flag is '#f' it is
4993 disabled, otherwise it is enabled.
4995 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-silent? breakpoint
4996 Return '#t' if the breakpoint is silent, and '#f' otherwise.
4998 Note that a breakpoint can also be silent if it has commands and
4999 the first command is 'silent'. This is not reported by the
5002 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-silent! breakpoint flag
5003 Set the silent state of BREAKPOINT to FLAG. If flag is '#f' the
5004 breakpoint is made silent, otherwise it is made non-silent (or
5007 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-ignore-count breakpoint
5008 Return the ignore count for BREAKPOINT.
5010 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-ignore-count! breakpoint count
5011 Set the ignore count for BREAKPOINT to COUNT.
5013 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-hit-count breakpoint
5014 Return hit count of BREAKPOINT.
5016 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-hit-count! breakpoint count
5017 Set the hit count of BREAKPOINT to COUNT. At present, COUNT must
5020 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-thread breakpoint
5021 Return the thread-id for thread-specific breakpoint BREAKPOINT.
5022 Return #f if BREAKPOINT is not thread-specific.
5024 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-thread! breakpoint thread-id|#f
5025 Set the thread-id for BREAKPOINT to THREAD-ID. If set to '#f', the
5026 breakpoint is no longer thread-specific.
5028 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-task breakpoint
5029 If the breakpoint is Ada task-specific, return the Ada task id. If
5030 the breakpoint is not task-specific (or the underlying language is
5031 not Ada), return '#f'.
5033 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-task! breakpoint task
5034 Set the Ada task of BREAKPOINT to TASK. If set to '#f', the
5035 breakpoint is no longer task-specific.
5037 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-condition breakpoint
5038 Return the condition of BREAKPOINT, as specified by the user. It
5039 is a string. If there is no condition, return '#f'.
5041 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-condition! breakpoint condition
5042 Set the condition of BREAKPOINT to CONDITION, which must be a
5043 string. If set to '#f' then the breakpoint becomes unconditional.
5045 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-stop breakpoint
5046 Return the stop predicate of BREAKPOINT. See
5047 'set-breakpoint-stop!' below in this section.
5049 -- Scheme Procedure: set-breakpoint-stop! breakpoint procedure|#f
5050 Set the stop predicate of BREAKPOINT. The predicate PROCEDURE
5051 takes one argument: the <gdb:breakpoint> object. If this predicate
5052 is set to a procedure then it is invoked whenever the inferior
5053 reaches this breakpoint. If it returns '#t', or any non-'#f'
5054 value, then the inferior is stopped, otherwise the inferior will
5057 If there are multiple breakpoints at the same location with a
5058 'stop' predicate, each one will be called regardless of the return
5059 status of the previous. This ensures that all 'stop' predicates
5060 have a chance to execute at that location. In this scenario if one
5061 of the methods returns '#t' but the others return '#f', the
5062 inferior will still be stopped.
5064 You should not alter the execution state of the inferior (i.e.,
5065 step, next, etc.), alter the current frame context (i.e., change
5066 the current active frame), or alter, add or delete any breakpoint.
5067 As a general rule, you should not alter any data within GDB or the
5068 inferior at this time.
5070 Example 'stop' implementation:
5072 (define (my-stop? bkpt)
5073 (let ((int-val (parse-and-eval "foo")))
5074 (value=? int-val 3)))
5075 (define bkpt (make-breakpoint "main.c:42"))
5076 (register-breakpoint! bkpt)
5077 (set-breakpoint-stop! bkpt my-stop?)
5079 -- Scheme Procedure: breakpoint-commands breakpoint
5080 Return the commands attached to BREAKPOINT as a string, or '#f' if
5084 File: gdb.info, Node: Lazy Strings In Guile, Next: Architectures In Guile, Prev: Breakpoints In Guile, Up: Guile API
5086 23.3.3.20 Guile representation of lazy strings.
5087 ...............................................
5089 A "lazy string" is a string whose contents is not retrieved or encoded
5092 A '<gdb:lazy-string>' is represented in GDB as an 'address' that
5093 points to a region of memory, an 'encoding' that will be used to encode
5094 that region of memory, and a 'length' to delimit the region of memory
5095 that represents the string. The difference between a
5096 '<gdb:lazy-string>' and a string wrapped within a '<gdb:value>' is that
5097 a '<gdb:lazy-string>' will be treated differently by GDB when printing.
5098 A '<gdb:lazy-string>' is retrieved and encoded during printing, while a
5099 '<gdb:value>' wrapping a string is immediately retrieved and encoded on
5102 The following lazy-string-related procedures are provided by the
5105 -- Scheme Procedure: lazy-string? object
5106 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:lazy-string>'.
5107 Otherwise return '#f'.
5109 -- Scheme Procedure: lazy-string-address lazy-sring
5110 Return the address of LAZY-STRING.
5112 -- Scheme Procedure: lazy-string-length lazy-string
5113 Return the length of LAZY-STRING in characters. If the length is
5114 -1, then the string will be fetched and encoded up to the first
5115 null of appropriate width.
5117 -- Scheme Procedure: lazy-string-encoding lazy-string
5118 Return the encoding that will be applied to LAZY-STRING when the
5119 string is printed by GDB. If the encoding is not set, or contains
5120 an empty string, then GDB will select the most appropriate encoding
5121 when the string is printed.
5123 -- Scheme Procedure: lazy-string-type lazy-string
5124 Return the type that is represented by LAZY-STRING's type. For a
5125 lazy string this will always be a pointer type. To resolve this to
5126 the lazy string's character type, use 'type-target-type'. *Note
5129 -- Scheme Procedure: lazy-string->value lazy-string
5130 Convert the '<gdb:lazy-string>' to a '<gdb:value>'. This value
5131 will point to the string in memory, but will lose all the delayed
5132 retrieval, encoding and handling that GDB applies to a
5133 '<gdb:lazy-string>'.
5136 File: gdb.info, Node: Architectures In Guile, Next: Disassembly In Guile, Prev: Lazy Strings In Guile, Up: Guile API
5138 23.3.3.21 Guile representation of architectures
5139 ...............................................
5141 GDB uses architecture specific parameters and artifacts in a number of
5142 its various computations. An architecture is represented by an instance
5143 of the '<gdb:arch>' class.
5145 The following architecture-related procedures are provided by the
5148 -- Scheme Procedure: arch? object
5149 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:arch>'. Otherwise
5152 -- Scheme Procedure: current-arch
5153 Return the current architecture as a '<gdb:arch>' object.
5155 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-name arch
5156 Return the name (string value) of '<gdb:arch>' ARCH.
5158 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-charset arch
5159 Return name of target character set of '<gdb:arch>' ARCH.
5161 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-wide-charset
5162 Return name of target wide character set of '<gdb:arch>' ARCH.
5164 Each architecture provides a set of predefined types, obtained by the
5165 following functions.
5167 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-void-type arch
5168 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'void' type of architecture
5171 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-char-type arch
5172 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'char' type of architecture
5175 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-short-type arch
5176 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'short' type of architecture
5179 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-int-type arch
5180 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'int' type of architecture
5183 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-long-type arch
5184 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'long' type of architecture
5187 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-schar-type arch
5188 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'signed char' type of
5191 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-uchar-type arch
5192 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'unsigned char' type of
5195 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-ushort-type arch
5196 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'unsigned short' type of
5199 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-uint-type arch
5200 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'unsigned int' type of
5203 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-ulong-type arch
5204 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'unsigned long' type of
5207 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-float-type arch
5208 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'float' type of architecture
5211 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-double-type arch
5212 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'double' type of architecture
5215 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-longdouble-type arch
5216 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'long double' type of
5219 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-bool-type arch
5220 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'bool' type of architecture
5223 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-longlong-type arch
5224 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'long long' type of
5227 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-ulonglong-type arch
5228 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'unsigned long long' type of
5231 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-int8-type arch
5232 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'int8' type of architecture
5235 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-uint8-type arch
5236 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'uint8' type of architecture
5239 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-int16-type arch
5240 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'int16' type of architecture
5243 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-uint16-type arch
5244 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'uint16' type of architecture
5247 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-int32-type arch
5248 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'int32' type of architecture
5251 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-uint32-type arch
5252 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'uint32' type of architecture
5255 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-int64-type arch
5256 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for an 'int64' type of architecture
5259 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-uint64-type arch
5260 Return the '<gdb:type>' object for a 'uint64' type of architecture
5265 (gdb) guile (type-name (arch-uchar-type (current-arch)))
5269 File: gdb.info, Node: Disassembly In Guile, Next: I/O Ports in Guile, Prev: Architectures In Guile, Up: Guile API
5271 23.3.3.22 Disassembly In Guile
5272 ..............................
5274 The disassembler can be invoked from Scheme code. Furthermore, the
5275 disassembler can take a Guile port as input, allowing one to disassemble
5276 from any source, and not just target memory.
5278 -- Scheme Procedure: arch-disassemble arch start-pc [#:port port]
5279 [#:offset offset] [#:size size] [#:count count]
5280 Return a list of disassembled instructions starting from the memory
5283 The optional argument PORT specifies the input port to read bytes
5284 from. If PORT is '#f' then bytes are read from target memory.
5286 The optional argument OFFSET specifies the address offset of the
5287 first byte in PORT. This is useful, for example, when PORT
5288 specifies a 'bytevector' and you want the bytevector to be
5289 disassembled as if it came from that address. The START-PC passed
5290 to the reader for PORT is offset by the same amount.
5293 (gdb) guile (use-modules (rnrs io ports))
5294 (gdb) guile (define pc (value->integer (parse-and-eval "$pc")))
5295 (gdb) guile (define mem (open-memory #:start pc))
5296 (gdb) guile (define bv (get-bytevector-n mem 10))
5297 (gdb) guile (define bv-port (open-bytevector-input-port bv))
5298 (gdb) guile (define arch (current-arch))
5299 (gdb) guile (arch-disassemble arch pc #:port bv-port #:offset pc)
5300 (((address . 4195516) (asm . "mov $0x4005c8,%edi") (length . 5)))
5302 The optional arguments SIZE and COUNT determine the number of
5303 instructions in the returned list. If either SIZE or COUNT is
5304 specified as zero, then no instructions are disassembled and an
5305 empty list is returned. If both the optional arguments SIZE and
5306 COUNT are specified, then a list of at most COUNT disassembled
5307 instructions whose start address falls in the closed memory address
5308 interval from START-PC to (START-PC + SIZE - 1) are returned. If
5309 SIZE is not specified, but COUNT is specified, then COUNT number of
5310 instructions starting from the address START-PC are returned. If
5311 COUNT is not specified but SIZE is specified, then all instructions
5312 whose start address falls in the closed memory address interval
5313 from START-PC to (START-PC + SIZE - 1) are returned. If neither
5314 SIZE nor COUNT are specified, then a single instruction at START-PC
5317 Each element of the returned list is an alist (associative list)
5318 with the following keys:
5321 The value corresponding to this key is a Guile integer of the
5322 memory address of the instruction.
5325 The value corresponding to this key is a string value which
5326 represents the instruction with assembly language mnemonics.
5327 The assembly language flavor used is the same as that
5328 specified by the current CLI variable 'disassembly-flavor'.
5329 *Note Machine Code::.
5332 The value corresponding to this key is the length of the
5333 instruction in bytes.
5336 File: gdb.info, Node: I/O Ports in Guile, Next: Memory Ports in Guile, Prev: Disassembly In Guile, Up: Guile API
5338 23.3.3.23 I/O Ports in Guile
5339 ............................
5341 -- Scheme Procedure: input-port
5342 Return GDB's input port as a Guile port object.
5344 -- Scheme Procedure: output-port
5345 Return GDB's output port as a Guile port object.
5347 -- Scheme Procedure: error-port
5348 Return GDB's error port as a Guile port object.
5350 -- Scheme Procedure: stdio-port? object
5351 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a GDB stdio port. Otherwise return '#f'.
5354 File: gdb.info, Node: Memory Ports in Guile, Next: Iterators In Guile, Prev: I/O Ports in Guile, Up: Guile API
5356 23.3.3.24 Memory Ports in Guile
5357 ...............................
5359 GDB provides a 'port' interface to target memory. This allows Guile
5360 code to read/write target memory using Guile's port and bytevector
5361 functionality. The main routine is 'open-memory' which returns a port
5362 object. One can then read/write memory using that object.
5364 -- Scheme Procedure: open-memory [#:mode mode] [#:start address]
5366 Return a port object that can be used for reading and writing
5367 memory. The port will be open according to MODE, which is the
5368 standard mode argument to Guile port open routines, except that it
5369 is restricted to one of '"r"', '"w"', or '"r+"'. For compatibility
5370 '"b"' (binary) may also be present, but we ignore it: memory ports
5371 are binary only. The default is '"r"', read-only.
5373 The chunk of memory that can be accessed can be bounded. If both
5374 START and SIZE are unspecified, all of memory can be accessed. If
5375 only START is specified, all of memory from that point on can be
5376 accessed. If only SIZE if specified, all memory in the range
5377 [0,SIZE) can be accessed. If both are specified, all memory in the
5378 rane [START,START+SIZE) can be accessed.
5380 -- Scheme Procedure: memory-port?
5381 Return '#t' if OBJECT is an object of type '<gdb:memory-port>'.
5382 Otherwise return '#f'.
5384 -- Scheme Procedure: memory-port-range memory-port
5385 Return the range of '<gdb:memory-port>' MEMORY-PORT as a list of
5386 two elements: '(start end)'. The range is START to END inclusive.
5388 -- Scheme Procedure: memory-port-read-buffer-size memory-port
5389 Return the size of the read buffer of '<gdb:memory-port>'
5392 -- Scheme Procedure: set-memory-port-read-buffer-size! memory-port size
5393 Set the size of the read buffer of '<gdb:memory-port>' MEMORY-PORT
5394 to SIZE. The result is unspecified.
5396 -- Scheme Procedure: memory-port-write-buffer-size memory-port
5397 Return the size of the write buffer of '<gdb:memory-port>'
5400 -- Scheme Procedure: set-memory-port-write-buffer-size! memory-port
5402 Set the size of the write buffer of '<gdb:memory-port>' MEMORY-PORT
5403 to SIZE. The result is unspecified.
5405 A memory port is closed like any other port, with 'close-port'.
5407 Combined with Guile's 'bytevectors', memory ports provide a lot of
5408 utility. For example, to fill a buffer of 10 integers in memory, one
5409 can do something like the following.
5411 ;; In the program: int buffer[10];
5412 (use-modules (rnrs bytevectors))
5413 (use-modules (rnrs io ports))
5414 (define addr (parse-and-eval "buffer"))
5416 (define byte-size (* n 4))
5417 (define mem-port (open-memory #:mode "r+" #:start
5418 (value->integer addr) #:size byte-size))
5419 (define byte-vec (make-bytevector byte-size))
5422 (bytevector-s32-native-set! byte-vec (* i 4) (* i 42)))
5423 (put-bytevector mem-port byte-vec)
5424 (close-port mem-port)
5427 File: gdb.info, Node: Iterators In Guile, Prev: Memory Ports in Guile, Up: Guile API
5429 23.3.3.25 Iterators In Guile
5430 ............................
5432 A simple iterator facility is provided to allow, for example, iterating
5433 over the set of program symbols without having to first construct a list
5434 of all of them. A useful contribution would be to add support for SRFI
5437 -- Scheme Procedure: make-iterator object progress next!
5438 A '<gdb:iterator>' object is constructed with the 'make-iterator'
5439 procedure. It takes three arguments: the object to be iterated
5440 over, an object to record the progress of the iteration, and a
5441 procedure to return the next element in the iteration, or an
5442 implementation chosen value to denote the end of iteration.
5444 By convention, end of iteration is marked with
5445 '(end-of-iteration)', and may be tested with the
5446 'end-of-iteration?' predicate. The result of '(end-of-iteration)'
5447 is chosen so that it is not otherwise used by the '(gdb)' module.
5448 If you are using '<gdb:iterator>' in your own code it is your
5449 responsibility to maintain this invariant.
5451 A trivial example for illustration's sake:
5453 (use-modules (gdb iterator))
5454 (define my-list (list 1 2 3))
5456 (make-iterator my-list my-list
5458 (let ((l (iterator-progress iter)))
5462 (set-iterator-progress! iter (cdr l))
5465 Here is a slightly more realistic example, which computes a list of
5466 all the functions in 'my-global-block'.
5468 (use-modules (gdb iterator))
5469 (define this-sal (find-pc-line (frame-pc (selected-frame))))
5470 (define this-symtab (sal-symtab this-sal))
5471 (define this-global-block (symtab-global-block this-symtab))
5472 (define syms-iter (make-block-symbols-iterator this-global-block))
5473 (define functions (iterator-filter symbol-function? syms-iter))
5475 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator? object
5476 Return '#t' if OBJECT is a '<gdb:iterator>' object. Otherwise
5479 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-object iterator
5480 Return the first argument that was passed to 'make-iterator'. This
5481 is the object being iterated over.
5483 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-progress iterator
5484 Return the object tracking iteration progress.
5486 -- Scheme Procedure: set-iterator-progress! iterator new-value
5487 Set the object tracking iteration progress.
5489 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-next! iterator
5490 Invoke the procedure that was the third argument to
5491 'make-iterator', passing it one argument, the '<gdb:iterator>'
5492 object. The result is either the next element in the iteration, or
5493 an end marker as implemented by the 'next!' procedure. By
5494 convention the end marker is the result of '(end-of-iteration)'.
5496 -- Scheme Procedure: end-of-iteration
5497 Return the Scheme object that denotes end of iteration.
5499 -- Scheme Procedure: end-of-iteration? object
5500 Return '#t' if OBJECT is the end of iteration marker. Otherwise
5503 These functions are provided by the '(gdb iterator)' module to assist
5506 -- Scheme Procedure: make-list-iterator list
5507 Return a '<gdb:iterator>' object that will iterate over LIST.
5509 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator->list iterator
5510 Return the elements pointed to by ITERATOR as a list.
5512 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-map proc iterator
5513 Return the list of objects obtained by applying PROC to the object
5514 pointed to by ITERATOR and to each subsequent object.
5516 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-for-each proc iterator
5517 Apply PROC to each element pointed to by ITERATOR. The result is
5520 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-filter pred iterator
5521 Return the list of elements pointed to by ITERATOR that satisfy
5524 -- Scheme Procedure: iterator-until pred iterator
5525 Run ITERATOR until the result of '(pred element)' is true and
5526 return that as the result. Otherwise return '#f'.
5529 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Auto-loading, Next: Guile Modules, Prev: Guile API, Up: Guile
5531 23.3.4 Guile Auto-loading
5532 -------------------------
5534 When a new object file is read (for example, due to the 'file' command,
5535 or because the inferior has loaded a shared library), GDB will look for
5536 Guile support scripts in two ways: 'OBJFILE-gdb.scm' and the
5537 '.debug_gdb_scripts' section. *Note Auto-loading extensions::.
5539 The auto-loading feature is useful for supplying application-specific
5540 debugging commands and scripts.
5542 Auto-loading can be enabled or disabled, and the list of auto-loaded
5543 scripts can be printed.
5545 'set auto-load guile-scripts [on|off]'
5546 Enable or disable the auto-loading of Guile scripts.
5548 'show auto-load guile-scripts'
5549 Show whether auto-loading of Guile scripts is enabled or disabled.
5551 'info auto-load guile-scripts [REGEXP]'
5552 Print the list of all Guile scripts that GDB auto-loaded.
5554 Also printed is the list of Guile scripts that were mentioned in
5555 the '.debug_gdb_scripts' section and were not found. This is
5556 useful because their names are not printed when GDB tries to load
5557 them and fails. There may be many of them, and printing an error
5558 message for each one is problematic.
5560 If REGEXP is supplied only Guile scripts with matching names are
5565 (gdb) info auto-load guile-scripts
5567 Yes scm-section-script.scm
5568 full name: /tmp/scm-section-script.scm
5569 No my-foo-pretty-printers.scm
5571 When reading an auto-loaded file, GDB sets the "current objfile".
5572 This is available via the 'current-objfile' procedure (*note Objfiles In
5573 Guile::). This can be useful for registering objfile-specific
5577 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Modules, Prev: Guile Auto-loading, Up: Guile
5579 23.3.5 Guile Modules
5580 --------------------
5582 GDB comes with several modules to assist writing Guile code.
5586 * Guile Printing Module:: Building and registering pretty-printers
5587 * Guile Types Module:: Utilities for working with types
5590 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Printing Module, Next: Guile Types Module, Up: Guile Modules
5592 23.3.5.1 Guile Printing Module
5593 ..............................
5595 This module provides a collection of utilities for working with
5600 (use-modules (gdb printing))
5602 -- Scheme Procedure: prepend-pretty-printer! object printer
5603 Add PRINTER to the front of the list of pretty-printers for OBJECT.
5604 The OBJECT must either be a '<gdb:objfile>' object, or '#f' in
5605 which case PRINTER is added to the global list of printers.
5607 -- Scheme Procecure: append-pretty-printer! object printer
5608 Add PRINTER to the end of the list of pretty-printers for OBJECT.
5609 The OBJECT must either be a '<gdb:objfile>' object, or '#f' in
5610 which case PRINTER is added to the global list of printers.
5613 File: gdb.info, Node: Guile Types Module, Prev: Guile Printing Module, Up: Guile Modules
5615 23.3.5.2 Guile Types Module
5616 ...........................
5618 This module provides a collection of utilities for working with
5619 '<gdb:type>' objects.
5623 (use-modules (gdb types))
5625 -- Scheme Procedure: get-basic-type type
5626 Return TYPE with const and volatile qualifiers stripped, and with
5627 typedefs and C++ references converted to the underlying type.
5631 typedef const int const_int;
5633 const_int& foo_ref (foo);
5634 int main () { return 0; }
5639 (gdb) guile (use-modules (gdb) (gdb types))
5640 (gdb) guile (define foo-ref (parse-and-eval "foo_ref"))
5641 (gdb) guile (get-basic-type (value-type foo-ref))
5644 -- Scheme Procedure: type-has-field-deep? type field
5645 Return '#t' if TYPE, assumed to be a type with fields (e.g., a
5646 structure or union), has field FIELD. Otherwise return '#f'. This
5647 searches baseclasses, whereas 'type-has-field?' does not.
5649 -- Scheme Procedure: make-enum-hashtable enum-type
5650 Return a Guile hash table produced from ENUM-TYPE. Elements in the
5651 hash table are referenced with 'hashq-ref'.
5654 File: gdb.info, Node: Auto-loading extensions, Next: Multiple Extension Languages, Prev: Guile, Up: Extending GDB
5656 23.4 Auto-loading extensions
5657 ============================
5659 GDB provides two mechanisms for automatically loading extensions when a
5660 new object file is read (for example, due to the 'file' command, or
5661 because the inferior has loaded a shared library): 'OBJFILE-gdb.EXT' and
5662 the '.debug_gdb_scripts' section of modern file formats like ELF.
5666 * objfile-gdb.ext file: objfile-gdbdotext file. The 'OBJFILE-gdb.EXT' file
5667 * .debug_gdb_scripts section: dotdebug_gdb_scripts section. The '.debug_gdb_scripts' section
5668 * Which flavor to choose?::
5670 The auto-loading feature is useful for supplying application-specific
5671 debugging commands and features.
5673 Auto-loading can be enabled or disabled, and the list of auto-loaded
5674 scripts can be printed. See the 'auto-loading' section of each
5675 extension language for more information. For GDB command files see
5676 *note Auto-loading sequences::. For Python files see *note Python
5679 Note that loading of this script file also requires accordingly
5680 configured 'auto-load safe-path' (*note Auto-loading safe path::).
5683 File: gdb.info, Node: objfile-gdbdotext file, Next: dotdebug_gdb_scripts section, Up: Auto-loading extensions
5685 23.4.1 The 'OBJFILE-gdb.EXT' file
5686 ---------------------------------
5688 When a new object file is read, GDB looks for a file named
5689 'OBJFILE-gdb.EXT' (we call it SCRIPT-NAME below), where OBJFILE is the
5690 object file's name and where EXT is the file extension for the extension
5694 GDB's own command language
5700 SCRIPT-NAME is formed by ensuring that the file name of OBJFILE is
5701 absolute, following all symlinks, and resolving '.' and '..' components,
5702 and appending the '-gdb.EXT' suffix. If this file exists and is
5703 readable, GDB will evaluate it as a script in the specified extension
5706 If this file does not exist, then GDB will look for SCRIPT-NAME file
5707 in all of the directories as specified below.
5709 Note that loading of these files requires an accordingly configured
5710 'auto-load safe-path' (*note Auto-loading safe path::).
5712 For object files using '.exe' suffix GDB tries to load first the
5713 scripts normally according to its '.exe' filename. But if no scripts
5714 are found GDB also tries script filenames matching the object file
5715 without its '.exe' suffix. This '.exe' stripping is case insensitive
5716 and it is attempted on any platform. This makes the script filenames
5717 compatible between Unix and MS-Windows hosts.
5719 'set auto-load scripts-directory [DIRECTORIES]'
5720 Control GDB auto-loaded scripts location. Multiple directory
5721 entries may be delimited by the host platform path separator in use
5722 (':' on Unix, ';' on MS-Windows and MS-DOS).
5724 Each entry here needs to be covered also by the security setting
5725 'set auto-load safe-path' (*note set auto-load safe-path::).
5727 This variable defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load'. The
5728 default 'set auto-load safe-path' value can be also overriden by
5729 GDB configuration option '--with-auto-load-dir'.
5731 Any reference to '$debugdir' will get replaced by
5732 DEBUG-FILE-DIRECTORY value (*note Separate Debug Files::) and any
5733 reference to '$datadir' will get replaced by DATA-DIRECTORY which
5734 is determined at GDB startup (*note Data Files::). '$debugdir' and
5735 '$datadir' must be placed as a directory component -- either alone
5736 or delimited by '/' or '\' directory separators, depending on the
5739 The list of directories uses path separator (':' on GNU and Unix
5740 systems, ';' on MS-Windows and MS-DOS) to separate directories,
5741 similarly to the 'PATH' environment variable.
5743 'show auto-load scripts-directory'
5744 Show GDB auto-loaded scripts location.
5746 GDB does not track which files it has already auto-loaded this way.
5747 GDB will load the associated script every time the corresponding OBJFILE
5748 is opened. So your '-gdb.EXT' file should be careful to avoid errors if
5749 it is evaluated more than once.
5752 File: gdb.info, Node: dotdebug_gdb_scripts section, Next: Which flavor to choose?, Prev: objfile-gdbdotext file, Up: Auto-loading extensions
5754 23.4.2 The '.debug_gdb_scripts' section
5755 ---------------------------------------
5757 For systems using file formats like ELF and COFF, when GDB loads a new
5758 object file it will look for a special section named
5759 '.debug_gdb_scripts'. If this section exists, its contents is a list of
5760 NUL-terminated names of scripts to load. Each entry begins with a
5761 non-NULL prefix byte that specifies the kind of entry, typically the
5764 GDB will look for each specified script file first in the current
5765 directory and then along the source search path (*note Specifying Source
5766 Directories: Source Path.), except that '$cdir' is not searched, since
5767 the compilation directory is not relevant to scripts.
5769 Entries can be placed in section '.debug_gdb_scripts' with, for
5770 example, this GCC macro for Python scripts.
5772 /* Note: The "MS" section flags are to remove duplicates. */
5773 #define DEFINE_GDB_PY_SCRIPT(script_name) \
5775 .pushsection \".debug_gdb_scripts\", \"MS\",@progbits,1\n\
5776 .byte 1 /* Python */\n\
5777 .asciz \"" script_name "\"\n\
5781 For Guile scripts, replace '.byte 1' with '.byte 3'. Then one can
5782 reference the macro in a header or source file like this:
5784 DEFINE_GDB_PY_SCRIPT ("my-app-scripts.py")
5786 The script name may include directories if desired.
5788 Note that loading of this script file also requires accordingly
5789 configured 'auto-load safe-path' (*note Auto-loading safe path::).
5791 If the macro invocation is put in a header, any application or
5792 library using this header will get a reference to the specified script,
5793 and with the use of '"MS"' attributes on the section, the linker will
5797 File: gdb.info, Node: Which flavor to choose?, Prev: dotdebug_gdb_scripts section, Up: Auto-loading extensions
5799 23.4.3 Which flavor to choose?
5800 ------------------------------
5802 Given the multiple ways of auto-loading extensions, it might not always
5803 be clear which one to choose. This section provides some guidance.
5805 Benefits of the '-gdb.EXT' way:
5807 * Can be used with file formats that don't support multiple sections.
5809 * Ease of finding scripts for public libraries.
5811 Scripts specified in the '.debug_gdb_scripts' section are searched
5812 for in the source search path. For publicly installed libraries,
5813 e.g., 'libstdc++', there typically isn't a source directory in
5814 which to find the script.
5816 * Doesn't require source code additions.
5818 Benefits of the '.debug_gdb_scripts' way:
5820 * Works with static linking.
5822 Scripts for libraries done the '-gdb.EXT' way require an objfile to
5823 trigger their loading. When an application is statically linked
5824 the only objfile available is the executable, and it is cumbersome
5825 to attach all the scripts from all the input libraries to the
5826 executable's '-gdb.EXT' script.
5828 * Works with classes that are entirely inlined.
5830 Some classes can be entirely inlined, and thus there may not be an
5831 associated shared library to attach a '-gdb.EXT' script to.
5833 * Scripts needn't be copied out of the source tree.
5835 In some circumstances, apps can be built out of large collections
5836 of internal libraries, and the build infrastructure necessary to
5837 install the '-gdb.EXT' scripts in a place where GDB can find them
5838 is cumbersome. It may be easier to specify the scripts in the
5839 '.debug_gdb_scripts' section as relative paths, and add a path to
5840 the top of the source tree to the source search path.
5843 File: gdb.info, Node: Multiple Extension Languages, Next: Aliases, Prev: Auto-loading extensions, Up: Extending GDB
5845 23.5 Multiple Extension Languages
5846 =================================
5848 The Guile and Python extension languages do not share any state, and
5849 generally do not interfere with each other. There are some things to be
5852 23.5.1 Python comes first
5853 -------------------------
5855 Python was GDB's first extension language, and to avoid breaking
5856 existing behaviour Python comes first. This is generally solved by the
5857 "first one wins" principle. GDB maintains a list of enabled extension
5858 languages, and when it makes a call to an extension language, (say to
5859 pretty-print a value), it tries each in turn until an extension language
5860 indicates it has performed the request (e.g., has returned the
5861 pretty-printed form of a value). This extends to errors while
5862 performing such requests: If an error happens while, for example, trying
5863 to pretty-print an object then the error is reported and any following
5864 extension languages are not tried.
5867 File: gdb.info, Node: Aliases, Prev: Multiple Extension Languages, Up: Extending GDB
5869 23.6 Creating new spellings of existing commands
5870 ================================================
5872 It is often useful to define alternate spellings of existing commands.
5873 For example, if a new GDB command defined in Python has a long name to
5874 type, it is handy to have an abbreviated version of it that involves
5877 GDB itself uses aliases. For example 's' is an alias of the 'step'
5878 command even though it is otherwise an ambiguous abbreviation of other
5879 commands like 'set' and 'show'.
5881 Aliases are also used to provide shortened or more common versions of
5882 multi-word commands. For example, GDB provides the 'tty' alias of the
5883 'set inferior-tty' command.
5885 You can define a new alias with the 'alias' command.
5887 'alias [-a] [--] ALIAS = COMMAND'
5889 ALIAS specifies the name of the new alias. Each word of ALIAS must
5890 consist of letters, numbers, dashes and underscores.
5892 COMMAND specifies the name of an existing command that is being
5895 The '-a' option specifies that the new alias is an abbreviation of
5896 the command. Abbreviations are not shown in command lists displayed by
5899 The '--' option specifies the end of options, and is useful when
5900 ALIAS begins with a dash.
5902 Here is a simple example showing how to make an abbreviation of a
5903 command so that there is less to type. Suppose you were tired of typing
5904 'disas', the current shortest unambiguous abbreviation of the
5905 'disassemble' command and you wanted an even shorter version named 'di'.
5906 The following will accomplish this.
5908 (gdb) alias -a di = disas
5910 Note that aliases are different from user-defined commands. With a
5911 user-defined command, you also need to write documentation for it with
5912 the 'document' command. An alias automatically picks up the
5913 documentation of the existing command.
5915 Here is an example where we make 'elms' an abbreviation of 'elements'
5916 in the 'set print elements' command. This is to show that you can make
5917 an abbreviation of any part of a command.
5919 (gdb) alias -a set print elms = set print elements
5920 (gdb) alias -a show print elms = show print elements
5923 Limit on string chars or array elements to print is 200.
5925 Note that if you are defining an alias of a 'set' command, and you
5926 want to have an alias for the corresponding 'show' command, then you
5927 need to define the latter separately.
5929 Unambiguously abbreviated commands are allowed in COMMAND and ALIAS,
5930 just as they are normally.
5932 (gdb) alias -a set pr elms = set p ele
5934 Finally, here is an example showing the creation of a one word alias
5935 for a more complex command. This creates alias 'spe' of the command
5936 'set print elements'.
5938 (gdb) alias spe = set print elements
5942 File: gdb.info, Node: Interpreters, Next: TUI, Prev: Extending GDB, Up: Top
5944 24 Command Interpreters
5945 ***********************
5947 GDB supports multiple command interpreters, and some command
5948 infrastructure to allow users or user interface writers to switch
5949 between interpreters or run commands in other interpreters.
5951 GDB currently supports two command interpreters, the console
5952 interpreter (sometimes called the command-line interpreter or CLI) and
5953 the machine interface interpreter (or GDB/MI). This manual describes
5954 both of these interfaces in great detail.
5956 By default, GDB will start with the console interpreter. However,
5957 the user may choose to start GDB with another interpreter by specifying
5958 the '-i' or '--interpreter' startup options. Defined interpreters
5962 The traditional console or command-line interpreter. This is the
5963 most often used interpreter with GDB. With no interpreter
5964 specified at runtime, GDB will use this interpreter.
5967 The newest GDB/MI interface (currently 'mi2'). Used primarily by
5968 programs wishing to use GDB as a backend for a debugger GUI or an
5969 IDE. For more information, see *note The GDB/MI Interface: GDB/MI.
5972 The current GDB/MI interface.
5975 The GDB/MI interface included in GDB 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3.
5977 The interpreter being used by GDB may not be dynamically switched at
5978 runtime. Although possible, this could lead to a very precarious
5979 situation. Consider an IDE using GDB/MI. If a user enters the command
5980 "interpreter-set console" in a console view, GDB would switch to using
5981 the console interpreter, rendering the IDE inoperable!
5983 Although you may only choose a single interpreter at startup, you may
5984 execute commands in any interpreter from the current interpreter using
5985 the appropriate command. If you are running the console interpreter,
5986 simply use the 'interpreter-exec' command:
5988 interpreter-exec mi "-data-list-register-names"
5990 GDB/MI has a similar command, although it is only available in
5991 versions of GDB which support GDB/MI version 2 (or greater).
5994 File: gdb.info, Node: TUI, Next: Emacs, Prev: Interpreters, Up: Top
5996 25 GDB Text User Interface
5997 **************************
6001 * TUI Overview:: TUI overview
6002 * TUI Keys:: TUI key bindings
6003 * TUI Single Key Mode:: TUI single key mode
6004 * TUI Commands:: TUI-specific commands
6005 * TUI Configuration:: TUI configuration variables
6007 The GDB Text User Interface (TUI) is a terminal interface which uses the
6008 'curses' library to show the source file, the assembly output, the
6009 program registers and GDB commands in separate text windows. The TUI
6010 mode is supported only on platforms where a suitable version of the
6011 'curses' library is available.
6013 The TUI mode is enabled by default when you invoke GDB as 'gdb -tui'.
6014 You can also switch in and out of TUI mode while GDB runs by using
6015 various TUI commands and key bindings, such as 'C-x C-a'. *Note TUI Key
6019 File: gdb.info, Node: TUI Overview, Next: TUI Keys, Up: TUI
6024 In TUI mode, GDB can display several text windows:
6027 This window is the GDB command window with the GDB prompt and the
6028 GDB output. The GDB input is still managed using readline.
6031 The source window shows the source file of the program. The
6032 current line and active breakpoints are displayed in this window.
6035 The assembly window shows the disassembly output of the program.
6038 This window shows the processor registers. Registers are
6039 highlighted when their values change.
6041 The source and assembly windows show the current program position by
6042 highlighting the current line and marking it with a '>' marker.
6043 Breakpoints are indicated with two markers. The first marker indicates
6044 the breakpoint type:
6047 Breakpoint which was hit at least once.
6050 Breakpoint which was never hit.
6053 Hardware breakpoint which was hit at least once.
6056 Hardware breakpoint which was never hit.
6058 The second marker indicates whether the breakpoint is enabled or not:
6061 Breakpoint is enabled.
6064 Breakpoint is disabled.
6066 The source, assembly and register windows are updated when the
6067 current thread changes, when the frame changes, or when the program
6070 These windows are not all visible at the same time. The command
6071 window is always visible. The others can be arranged in several
6078 * source and assembly,
6080 * source and registers, or
6082 * assembly and registers.
6084 A status line above the command window shows the following
6088 Indicates the current GDB target. (*note Specifying a Debugging
6092 Gives the current process or thread number. When no process is
6093 being debugged, this field is set to 'No process'.
6096 Gives the current function name for the selected frame. The name
6097 is demangled if demangling is turned on (*note Print Settings::).
6098 When there is no symbol corresponding to the current program
6099 counter, the string '??' is displayed.
6102 Indicates the current line number for the selected frame. When the
6103 current line number is not known, the string '??' is displayed.
6106 Indicates the current program counter address.
6109 File: gdb.info, Node: TUI Keys, Next: TUI Single Key Mode, Prev: TUI Overview, Up: TUI
6111 25.2 TUI Key Bindings
6112 =====================
6114 The TUI installs several key bindings in the readline keymaps (*note
6115 Command Line Editing::). The following key bindings are installed for
6116 both TUI mode and the GDB standard mode.
6121 Enter or leave the TUI mode. When leaving the TUI mode, the curses
6122 window management stops and GDB operates using its standard mode,
6123 writing on the terminal directly. When reentering the TUI mode,
6124 control is given back to the curses windows. The screen is then
6128 Use a TUI layout with only one window. The layout will either be
6129 'source' or 'assembly'. When the TUI mode is not active, it will
6130 switch to the TUI mode.
6132 Think of this key binding as the Emacs 'C-x 1' binding.
6135 Use a TUI layout with at least two windows. When the current
6136 layout already has two windows, the next layout with two windows is
6137 used. When a new layout is chosen, one window will always be
6138 common to the previous layout and the new one.
6140 Think of it as the Emacs 'C-x 2' binding.
6143 Change the active window. The TUI associates several key bindings
6144 (like scrolling and arrow keys) with the active window. This
6145 command gives the focus to the next TUI window.
6147 Think of it as the Emacs 'C-x o' binding.
6150 Switch in and out of the TUI SingleKey mode that binds single keys
6151 to GDB commands (*note TUI Single Key Mode::).
6153 The following key bindings only work in the TUI mode:
6156 Scroll the active window one page up.
6159 Scroll the active window one page down.
6162 Scroll the active window one line up.
6165 Scroll the active window one line down.
6168 Scroll the active window one column left.
6171 Scroll the active window one column right.
6176 Because the arrow keys scroll the active window in the TUI mode, they
6177 are not available for their normal use by readline unless the command
6178 window has the focus. When another window is active, you must use other
6179 readline key bindings such as 'C-p', 'C-n', 'C-b' and 'C-f' to control
6183 File: gdb.info, Node: TUI Single Key Mode, Next: TUI Commands, Prev: TUI Keys, Up: TUI
6185 25.3 TUI Single Key Mode
6186 ========================
6188 The TUI also provides a "SingleKey" mode, which binds several frequently
6189 used GDB commands to single keys. Type 'C-x s' to switch into this
6190 mode, where the following key bindings are used:
6205 exit the SingleKey mode.
6222 Other keys temporarily switch to the GDB command prompt. The key
6223 that was pressed is inserted in the editing buffer so that it is
6224 possible to type most GDB commands without interaction with the TUI
6225 SingleKey mode. Once the command is entered the TUI SingleKey mode is
6226 restored. The only way to permanently leave this mode is by typing 'q'
6230 File: gdb.info, Node: TUI Commands, Next: TUI Configuration, Prev: TUI Single Key Mode, Up: TUI
6232 25.4 TUI-specific Commands
6233 ==========================
6235 The TUI has specific commands to control the text windows. These
6236 commands are always available, even when GDB is not in the TUI mode.
6237 When GDB is in the standard mode, most of these commands will
6238 automatically switch to the TUI mode.
6240 Note that if GDB's 'stdout' is not connected to a terminal, or GDB
6241 has been started with the machine interface interpreter (*note The
6242 GDB/MI Interface: GDB/MI.), most of these commands will fail with an
6243 error, because it would not be possible or desirable to enable curses
6247 List and give the size of all displayed windows.
6250 Display the next layout.
6253 Display the previous layout.
6256 Display the source window only.
6259 Display the assembly window only.
6262 Display the source and assembly window.
6265 Display the register window together with the source or assembly
6269 Make the next window active for scrolling.
6272 Make the previous window active for scrolling.
6275 Make the source window active for scrolling.
6278 Make the assembly window active for scrolling.
6281 Make the register window active for scrolling.
6284 Make the command window active for scrolling.
6287 Refresh the screen. This is similar to typing 'C-L'.
6290 Show the floating point registers in the register window.
6293 Show the general registers in the register window.
6296 Show the next register group. The list of register groups as well
6297 as their order is target specific. The predefined register groups
6298 are the following: 'general', 'float', 'system', 'vector', 'all',
6302 Show the system registers in the register window.
6305 Update the source window and the current execution point.
6307 'winheight NAME +COUNT'
6308 'winheight NAME -COUNT'
6309 Change the height of the window NAME by COUNT lines. Positive
6310 counts increase the height, while negative counts decrease it.
6313 Set the width of tab stops to be NCHARS characters.
6316 File: gdb.info, Node: TUI Configuration, Prev: TUI Commands, Up: TUI
6318 25.5 TUI Configuration Variables
6319 ================================
6321 Several configuration variables control the appearance of TUI windows.
6323 'set tui border-kind KIND'
6324 Select the border appearance for the source, assembly and register
6325 windows. The possible values are the following:
6327 Use a space character to draw the border.
6330 Use ASCII characters '+', '-' and '|' to draw the border.
6333 Use the Alternate Character Set to draw the border. The
6334 border is drawn using character line graphics if the terminal
6337 'set tui border-mode MODE'
6338 'set tui active-border-mode MODE'
6339 Select the display attributes for the borders of the inactive
6340 windows or the active window. The MODE can be one of the
6343 Use normal attributes to display the border.
6349 Use reverse video mode.
6352 Use half bright mode.
6355 Use half bright and standout mode.
6358 Use extra bright or bold mode.
6361 Use extra bright or bold and standout mode.
6364 File: gdb.info, Node: Emacs, Next: GDB/MI, Prev: TUI, Up: Top
6366 26 Using GDB under GNU Emacs
6367 ****************************
6369 A special interface allows you to use GNU Emacs to view (and edit) the
6370 source files for the program you are debugging with GDB.
6372 To use this interface, use the command 'M-x gdb' in Emacs. Give the
6373 executable file you want to debug as an argument. This command starts
6374 GDB as a subprocess of Emacs, with input and output through a newly
6375 created Emacs buffer.
6377 Running GDB under Emacs can be just like running GDB normally except
6380 * All "terminal" input and output goes through an Emacs buffer,
6381 called the GUD buffer.
6383 This applies both to GDB commands and their output, and to the
6384 input and output done by the program you are debugging.
6386 This is useful because it means that you can copy the text of
6387 previous commands and input them again; you can even use parts of
6388 the output in this way.
6390 All the facilities of Emacs' Shell mode are available for
6391 interacting with your program. In particular, you can send signals
6392 the usual way--for example, 'C-c C-c' for an interrupt, 'C-c C-z'
6395 * GDB displays source code through Emacs.
6397 Each time GDB displays a stack frame, Emacs automatically finds the
6398 source file for that frame and puts an arrow ('=>') at the left
6399 margin of the current line. Emacs uses a separate buffer for
6400 source display, and splits the screen to show both your GDB session
6403 Explicit GDB 'list' or search commands still produce output as
6404 usual, but you probably have no reason to use them from Emacs.
6406 We call this "text command mode". Emacs 22.1, and later, also uses a
6407 graphical mode, enabled by default, which provides further buffers that
6408 can control the execution and describe the state of your program. *Note
6409 (Emacs)GDB Graphical Interface::.
6411 If you specify an absolute file name when prompted for the 'M-x gdb'
6412 argument, then Emacs sets your current working directory to where your
6413 program resides. If you only specify the file name, then Emacs sets
6414 your current working directory to the directory associated with the
6415 previous buffer. In this case, GDB may find your program by searching
6416 your environment's 'PATH' variable, but on some operating systems it
6417 might not find the source. So, although the GDB input and output
6418 session proceeds normally, the auxiliary buffer does not display the
6419 current source and line of execution.
6421 The initial working directory of GDB is printed on the top line of
6422 the GUD buffer and this serves as a default for the commands that
6423 specify files for GDB to operate on. *Note Commands to Specify Files:
6426 By default, 'M-x gdb' calls the program called 'gdb'. If you need to
6427 call GDB by a different name (for example, if you keep several
6428 configurations around, with different names) you can customize the Emacs
6429 variable 'gud-gdb-command-name' to run the one you want.
6431 In the GUD buffer, you can use these special Emacs commands in
6432 addition to the standard Shell mode commands:
6435 Describe the features of Emacs' GUD Mode.
6438 Execute to another source line, like the GDB 'step' command; also
6439 update the display window to show the current file and location.
6442 Execute to next source line in this function, skipping all function
6443 calls, like the GDB 'next' command. Then update the display window
6444 to show the current file and location.
6447 Execute one instruction, like the GDB 'stepi' command; update
6448 display window accordingly.
6451 Execute until exit from the selected stack frame, like the GDB
6455 Continue execution of your program, like the GDB 'continue'
6459 Go up the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument (*note
6460 Numeric Arguments: (Emacs)Arguments.), like the GDB 'up' command.
6463 Go down the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument,
6464 like the GDB 'down' command.
6466 In any source file, the Emacs command 'C-x <SPC>' ('gud-break') tells
6467 GDB to set a breakpoint on the source line point is on.
6469 In text command mode, if you type 'M-x speedbar', Emacs displays a
6470 separate frame which shows a backtrace when the GUD buffer is current.
6471 Move point to any frame in the stack and type <RET> to make it become
6472 the current frame and display the associated source in the source
6473 buffer. Alternatively, click 'Mouse-2' to make the selected frame
6474 become the current one. In graphical mode, the speedbar displays watch
6477 If you accidentally delete the source-display buffer, an easy way to
6478 get it back is to type the command 'f' in the GDB buffer, to request a
6479 frame display; when you run under Emacs, this recreates the source
6480 buffer if necessary to show you the context of the current frame.
6482 The source files displayed in Emacs are in ordinary Emacs buffers
6483 which are visiting the source files in the usual way. You can edit the
6484 files with these buffers if you wish; but keep in mind that GDB
6485 communicates with Emacs in terms of line numbers. If you add or delete
6486 lines from the text, the line numbers that GDB knows cease to correspond
6487 properly with the code.
6489 A more detailed description of Emacs' interaction with GDB is given
6490 in the Emacs manual (*note (Emacs)Debuggers::).
6493 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI, Next: Annotations, Prev: Emacs, Up: Top
6495 27 The GDB/MI Interface
6496 ***********************
6498 Function and Purpose
6499 ====================
6501 GDB/MI is a line based machine oriented text interface to GDB and is
6502 activated by specifying using the '--interpreter' command line option
6503 (*note Mode Options::). It is specifically intended to support the
6504 development of systems which use the debugger as just one small
6505 component of a larger system.
6507 This chapter is a specification of the GDB/MI interface. It is
6508 written in the form of a reference manual.
6510 Note that GDB/MI is still under construction, so some of the features
6511 described below are incomplete and subject to change (*note GDB/MI
6512 Development and Front Ends: GDB/MI Development and Front Ends.).
6514 Notation and Terminology
6515 ========================
6517 This chapter uses the following notation:
6519 * '|' separates two alternatives.
6521 * '[ SOMETHING ]' indicates that SOMETHING is optional: it may or may
6524 * '( GROUP )*' means that GROUP inside the parentheses may repeat
6527 * '( GROUP )+' means that GROUP inside the parentheses may repeat one
6530 * '"STRING"' means a literal STRING.
6534 * GDB/MI General Design::
6535 * GDB/MI Command Syntax::
6536 * GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI::
6537 * GDB/MI Development and Front Ends::
6538 * GDB/MI Output Records::
6539 * GDB/MI Simple Examples::
6540 * GDB/MI Command Description Format::
6541 * GDB/MI Breakpoint Commands::
6542 * GDB/MI Catchpoint Commands::
6543 * GDB/MI Program Context::
6544 * GDB/MI Thread Commands::
6545 * GDB/MI Ada Tasking Commands::
6546 * GDB/MI Program Execution::
6547 * GDB/MI Stack Manipulation::
6548 * GDB/MI Variable Objects::
6549 * GDB/MI Data Manipulation::
6550 * GDB/MI Tracepoint Commands::
6551 * GDB/MI Symbol Query::
6552 * GDB/MI File Commands::
6553 * GDB/MI Target Manipulation::
6554 * GDB/MI File Transfer Commands::
6555 * GDB/MI Ada Exceptions Commands::
6556 * GDB/MI Support Commands::
6557 * GDB/MI Miscellaneous Commands::
6560 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI General Design, Next: GDB/MI Command Syntax, Up: GDB/MI
6562 27.1 GDB/MI General Design
6563 ==========================
6565 Interaction of a GDB/MI frontend with GDB involves three parts--commands
6566 sent to GDB, responses to those commands and notifications. Each
6567 command results in exactly one response, indicating either successful
6568 completion of the command, or an error. For the commands that do not
6569 resume the target, the response contains the requested information. For
6570 the commands that resume the target, the response only indicates whether
6571 the target was successfully resumed. Notifications is the mechanism for
6572 reporting changes in the state of the target, or in GDB state, that
6573 cannot conveniently be associated with a command and reported as part of
6574 that command response.
6576 The important examples of notifications are:
6578 * Exec notifications. These are used to report changes in target
6579 state--when a target is resumed, or stopped. It would not be
6580 feasible to include this information in response of resuming
6581 commands, because one resume commands can result in multiple events
6582 in different threads. Also, quite some time may pass before any
6583 event happens in the target, while a frontend needs to know whether
6584 the resuming command itself was successfully executed.
6586 * Console output, and status notifications. Console output
6587 notifications are used to report output of CLI commands, as well as
6588 diagnostics for other commands. Status notifications are used to
6589 report the progress of a long-running operation. Naturally,
6590 including this information in command response would mean no output
6591 is produced until the command is finished, which is undesirable.
6593 * General notifications. Commands may have various side effects on
6594 the GDB or target state beyond their official purpose. For
6595 example, a command may change the selected thread. Although such
6596 changes can be included in command response, using notification
6597 allows for more orthogonal frontend design.
6599 There's no guarantee that whenever an MI command reports an error,
6600 GDB or the target are in any specific state, and especially, the state
6601 is not reverted to the state before the MI command was processed.
6602 Therefore, whenever an MI command results in an error, we recommend that
6603 the frontend refreshes all the information shown in the user interface.
6607 * Context management::
6608 * Asynchronous and non-stop modes::
6612 File: gdb.info, Node: Context management, Next: Asynchronous and non-stop modes, Up: GDB/MI General Design
6614 27.1.1 Context management
6615 -------------------------
6617 27.1.1.1 Threads and Frames
6618 ...........................
6620 In most cases when GDB accesses the target, this access is done in
6621 context of a specific thread and frame (*note Frames::). Often, even
6622 when accessing global data, the target requires that a thread be
6623 specified. The CLI interface maintains the selected thread and frame,
6624 and supplies them to target on each command. This is convenient,
6625 because a command line user would not want to specify that information
6626 explicitly on each command, and because user interacts with GDB via a
6627 single terminal, so no confusion is possible as to what thread and frame
6628 are the current ones.
6630 In the case of MI, the concept of selected thread and frame is less
6631 useful. First, a frontend can easily remember this information itself.
6632 Second, a graphical frontend can have more than one window, each one
6633 used for debugging a different thread, and the frontend might want to
6634 access additional threads for internal purposes. This increases the
6635 risk that by relying on implicitly selected thread, the frontend may be
6636 operating on a wrong one. Therefore, each MI command should explicitly
6637 specify which thread and frame to operate on. To make it possible, each
6638 MI command accepts the '--thread' and '--frame' options, the value to
6639 each is GDB identifier for thread and frame to operate on.
6641 Usually, each top-level window in a frontend allows the user to
6642 select a thread and a frame, and remembers the user selection for
6643 further operations. However, in some cases GDB may suggest that the
6644 current thread be changed. For example, when stopping on a breakpoint
6645 it is reasonable to switch to the thread where breakpoint is hit. For
6646 another example, if the user issues the CLI 'thread' command via the
6647 frontend, it is desirable to change the frontend's selected thread to
6648 the one specified by user. GDB communicates the suggestion to change
6649 current thread using the '=thread-selected' notification. No such
6650 notification is available for the selected frame at the moment.
6652 Note that historically, MI shares the selected thread with CLI, so
6653 frontends used the '-thread-select' to execute commands in the right
6654 context. However, getting this to work right is cumbersome. The
6655 simplest way is for frontend to emit '-thread-select' command before
6656 every command. This doubles the number of commands that need to be
6657 sent. The alternative approach is to suppress '-thread-select' if the
6658 selected thread in GDB is supposed to be identical to the thread the
6659 frontend wants to operate on. However, getting this optimization right
6660 can be tricky. In particular, if the frontend sends several commands to
6661 GDB, and one of the commands changes the selected thread, then the
6662 behaviour of subsequent commands will change. So, a frontend should
6663 either wait for response from such problematic commands, or explicitly
6664 add '-thread-select' for all subsequent commands. No frontend is known
6665 to do this exactly right, so it is suggested to just always pass the
6666 '--thread' and '--frame' options.
6671 The execution of several commands depends on which language is selected.
6672 By default, the current language (*note show language::) is used. But
6673 for commands known to be language-sensitive, it is recommended to use
6674 the '--language' option. This option takes one argument, which is the
6675 name of the language to use while executing the command. For instance:
6677 -data-evaluate-expression --language c "sizeof (void*)"
6681 The valid language names are the same names accepted by the 'set
6682 language' command (*note Manually::), excluding 'auto', 'local' or
6686 File: gdb.info, Node: Asynchronous and non-stop modes, Next: Thread groups, Prev: Context management, Up: GDB/MI General Design
6688 27.1.2 Asynchronous command execution and non-stop mode
6689 -------------------------------------------------------
6691 On some targets, GDB is capable of processing MI commands even while the
6692 target is running. This is called "asynchronous command execution"
6693 (*note Background Execution::). The frontend may specify a preferrence
6694 for asynchronous execution using the '-gdb-set mi-async 1' command,
6695 which should be emitted before either running the executable or
6696 attaching to the target. After the frontend has started the executable
6697 or attached to the target, it can find if asynchronous execution is
6698 enabled using the '-list-target-features' command.
6700 '-gdb-set mi-async on'
6701 '-gdb-set mi-async off'
6702 Set whether MI is in asynchronous mode.
6704 When 'off', which is the default, MI execution commands (e.g.,
6705 '-exec-continue') are foreground commands, and GDB waits for the
6706 program to stop before processing further commands.
6708 When 'on', MI execution commands are background execution commands
6709 (e.g., '-exec-continue' becomes the equivalent of the 'c&' CLI
6710 command), and so GDB is capable of processing MI commands even
6711 while the target is running.
6713 '-gdb-show mi-async'
6714 Show whether MI asynchronous mode is enabled.
6716 Note: In GDB version 7.7 and earlier, this option was called
6717 'target-async' instead of 'mi-async', and it had the effect of both
6718 putting MI in asynchronous mode and making CLI background commands
6719 possible. CLI background commands are now always possible "out of the
6720 box" if the target supports them. The old spelling is kept as a
6721 deprecated alias for backwards compatibility.
6723 Even if GDB can accept a command while target is running, many
6724 commands that access the target do not work when the target is running.
6725 Therefore, asynchronous command execution is most useful when combined
6726 with non-stop mode (*note Non-Stop Mode::). Then, it is possible to
6727 examine the state of one thread, while other threads are running.
6729 When a given thread is running, MI commands that try to access the
6730 target in the context of that thread may not work, or may work only on
6731 some targets. In particular, commands that try to operate on thread's
6732 stack will not work, on any target. Commands that read memory, or
6733 modify breakpoints, may work or not work, depending on the target. Note
6734 that even commands that operate on global state, such as 'print', 'set',
6735 and breakpoint commands, still access the target in the context of a
6736 specific thread, so frontend should try to find a stopped thread and
6737 perform the operation on that thread (using the '--thread' option).
6739 Which commands will work in the context of a running thread is highly
6740 target dependent. However, the two commands '-exec-interrupt', to stop
6741 a thread, and '-thread-info', to find the state of a thread, will always
6745 File: gdb.info, Node: Thread groups, Prev: Asynchronous and non-stop modes, Up: GDB/MI General Design
6747 27.1.3 Thread groups
6748 --------------------
6750 GDB may be used to debug several processes at the same time. On some
6751 platfroms, GDB may support debugging of several hardware systems, each
6752 one having several cores with several different processes running on
6753 each core. This section describes the MI mechanism to support such
6754 debugging scenarios.
6756 The key observation is that regardless of the structure of the
6757 target, MI can have a global list of threads, because most commands that
6758 accept the '--thread' option do not need to know what process that
6759 thread belongs to. Therefore, it is not necessary to introduce neither
6760 additional '--process' option, nor an notion of the current process in
6761 the MI interface. The only strictly new feature that is required is the
6762 ability to find how the threads are grouped into processes.
6764 To allow the user to discover such grouping, and to support arbitrary
6765 hierarchy of machines/cores/processes, MI introduces the concept of a
6766 "thread group". Thread group is a collection of threads and other
6767 thread groups. A thread group always has a string identifier, a type,
6768 and may have additional attributes specific to the type. A new command,
6769 '-list-thread-groups', returns the list of top-level thread groups,
6770 which correspond to processes that GDB is debugging at the moment. By
6771 passing an identifier of a thread group to the '-list-thread-groups'
6772 command, it is possible to obtain the members of specific thread group.
6774 To allow the user to easily discover processes, and other objects, he
6775 wishes to debug, a concept of "available thread group" is introduced.
6776 Available thread group is an thread group that GDB is not debugging, but
6777 that can be attached to, using the '-target-attach' command. The list
6778 of available top-level thread groups can be obtained using
6779 '-list-thread-groups --available'. In general, the content of a thread
6780 group may be only retrieved only after attaching to that thread group.
6782 Thread groups are related to inferiors (*note Inferiors and
6783 Programs::). Each inferior corresponds to a thread group of a special
6784 type 'process', and some additional operations are permitted on such
6788 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Command Syntax, Next: GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI, Prev: GDB/MI General Design, Up: GDB/MI
6790 27.2 GDB/MI Command Syntax
6791 ==========================
6795 * GDB/MI Input Syntax::
6796 * GDB/MI Output Syntax::
6799 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Input Syntax, Next: GDB/MI Output Syntax, Up: GDB/MI Command Syntax
6801 27.2.1 GDB/MI Input Syntax
6802 --------------------------
6805 'CLI-COMMAND | MI-COMMAND'
6808 '[ TOKEN ] CLI-COMMAND NL', where CLI-COMMAND is any existing GDB
6812 '[ TOKEN ] "-" OPERATION ( " " OPTION )* [ " --" ] ( " " PARAMETER
6816 "any sequence of digits"
6819 '"-" PARAMETER [ " " PARAMETER ]'
6822 'NON-BLANK-SEQUENCE | C-STRING'
6825 _any of the operations described in this chapter_
6827 'NON-BLANK-SEQUENCE ==>'
6828 _anything, provided it doesn't contain special characters such as
6829 "-", NL, """ and of course " "_
6832 '""" SEVEN-BIT-ISO-C-STRING-CONTENT """'
6839 * The CLI commands are still handled by the MI interpreter; their
6840 output is described below.
6842 * The 'TOKEN', when present, is passed back when the command
6845 * Some MI commands accept optional arguments as part of the parameter
6846 list. Each option is identified by a leading '-' (dash) and may be
6847 followed by an optional argument parameter. Options occur first in
6848 the parameter list and can be delimited from normal parameters
6849 using '--' (this is useful when some parameters begin with a dash).
6853 * We want easy access to the existing CLI syntax (for debugging).
6855 * We want it to be easy to spot a MI operation.
6858 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Output Syntax, Prev: GDB/MI Input Syntax, Up: GDB/MI Command Syntax
6860 27.2.2 GDB/MI Output Syntax
6861 ---------------------------
6863 The output from GDB/MI consists of zero or more out-of-band records
6864 followed, optionally, by a single result record. This result record is
6865 for the most recent command. The sequence of output records is
6866 terminated by '(gdb)'.
6868 If an input command was prefixed with a 'TOKEN' then the
6869 corresponding output for that command will also be prefixed by that same
6873 '( OUT-OF-BAND-RECORD )* [ RESULT-RECORD ] "(gdb)" NL'
6876 ' [ TOKEN ] "^" RESULT-CLASS ( "," RESULT )* NL'
6878 'OUT-OF-BAND-RECORD ==>'
6879 'ASYNC-RECORD | STREAM-RECORD'
6882 'EXEC-ASYNC-OUTPUT | STATUS-ASYNC-OUTPUT | NOTIFY-ASYNC-OUTPUT'
6884 'EXEC-ASYNC-OUTPUT ==>'
6885 '[ TOKEN ] "*" ASYNC-OUTPUT NL'
6887 'STATUS-ASYNC-OUTPUT ==>'
6888 '[ TOKEN ] "+" ASYNC-OUTPUT NL'
6890 'NOTIFY-ASYNC-OUTPUT ==>'
6891 '[ TOKEN ] "=" ASYNC-OUTPUT NL'
6894 'ASYNC-CLASS ( "," RESULT )*'
6897 '"done" | "running" | "connected" | "error" | "exit"'
6900 '"stopped" | OTHERS' (where OTHERS will be added depending on the
6901 needs--this is still in development).
6904 ' VARIABLE "=" VALUE'
6910 ' CONST | TUPLE | LIST '
6916 ' "{}" | "{" RESULT ( "," RESULT )* "}" '
6919 ' "[]" | "[" VALUE ( "," VALUE )* "]" | "[" RESULT ( "," RESULT )*
6923 'CONSOLE-STREAM-OUTPUT | TARGET-STREAM-OUTPUT | LOG-STREAM-OUTPUT'
6925 'CONSOLE-STREAM-OUTPUT ==>'
6928 'TARGET-STREAM-OUTPUT ==>'
6931 'LOG-STREAM-OUTPUT ==>'
6938 _any sequence of digits_.
6942 * All output sequences end in a single line containing a period.
6944 * The 'TOKEN' is from the corresponding request. Note that for all
6945 async output, while the token is allowed by the grammar and may be
6946 output by future versions of GDB for select async output messages,
6947 it is generally omitted. Frontends should treat all async output
6948 as reporting general changes in the state of the target and there
6949 should be no need to associate async output to any prior command.
6951 * STATUS-ASYNC-OUTPUT contains on-going status information about the
6952 progress of a slow operation. It can be discarded. All status
6953 output is prefixed by '+'.
6955 * EXEC-ASYNC-OUTPUT contains asynchronous state change on the target
6956 (stopped, started, disappeared). All async output is prefixed by
6959 * NOTIFY-ASYNC-OUTPUT contains supplementary information that the
6960 client should handle (e.g., a new breakpoint information). All
6961 notify output is prefixed by '='.
6963 * CONSOLE-STREAM-OUTPUT is output that should be displayed as is in
6964 the console. It is the textual response to a CLI command. All the
6965 console output is prefixed by '~'.
6967 * TARGET-STREAM-OUTPUT is the output produced by the target program.
6968 All the target output is prefixed by '@'.
6970 * LOG-STREAM-OUTPUT is output text coming from GDB's internals, for
6971 instance messages that should be displayed as part of an error log.
6972 All the log output is prefixed by '&'.
6974 * New GDB/MI commands should only output LISTS containing VALUES.
6976 *Note GDB/MI Stream Records: GDB/MI Stream Records, for more details
6977 about the various output records.
6980 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI, Next: GDB/MI Development and Front Ends, Prev: GDB/MI Command Syntax, Up: GDB/MI
6982 27.3 GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI
6983 ==================================
6985 For the developers convenience CLI commands can be entered directly, but
6986 there may be some unexpected behaviour. For example, commands that
6987 query the user will behave as if the user replied yes, breakpoint
6988 command lists are not executed and some CLI commands, such as 'if',
6989 'when' and 'define', prompt for further input with '>', which is not
6992 This feature may be removed at some stage in the future and it is
6993 recommended that front ends use the '-interpreter-exec' command (*note
6994 -interpreter-exec::).
6997 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Development and Front Ends, Next: GDB/MI Output Records, Prev: GDB/MI Compatibility with CLI, Up: GDB/MI
6999 27.4 GDB/MI Development and Front Ends
7000 ======================================
7002 The application which takes the MI output and presents the state of the
7003 program being debugged to the user is called a "front end".
7005 Although GDB/MI is still incomplete, it is currently being used by a
7006 variety of front ends to GDB. This makes it difficult to introduce new
7007 functionality without breaking existing usage. This section tries to
7008 minimize the problems by describing how the protocol might change.
7010 Some changes in MI need not break a carefully designed front end, and
7011 for these the MI version will remain unchanged. The following is a list
7012 of changes that may occur within one level, so front ends should parse
7013 MI output in a way that can handle them:
7015 * New MI commands may be added.
7017 * New fields may be added to the output of any MI command.
7019 * The range of values for fields with specified values, e.g.,
7020 'in_scope' (*note -var-update::) may be extended.
7022 If the changes are likely to break front ends, the MI version level
7023 will be increased by one. This will allow the front end to parse the
7024 output according to the MI version. Apart from mi0, new versions of GDB
7025 will not support old versions of MI and it will be the responsibility of
7026 the front end to work with the new one.
7028 The best way to avoid unexpected changes in MI that might break your
7029 front end is to make your project known to GDB developers and follow
7030 development on <gdb@sourceware.org> and <gdb-patches@sourceware.org>.
7033 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Output Records, Next: GDB/MI Simple Examples, Prev: GDB/MI Development and Front Ends, Up: GDB/MI
7035 27.5 GDB/MI Output Records
7036 ==========================
7040 * GDB/MI Result Records::
7041 * GDB/MI Stream Records::
7042 * GDB/MI Async Records::
7043 * GDB/MI Breakpoint Information::
7044 * GDB/MI Frame Information::
7045 * GDB/MI Thread Information::
7046 * GDB/MI Ada Exception Information::
7049 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Result Records, Next: GDB/MI Stream Records, Up: GDB/MI Output Records
7051 27.5.1 GDB/MI Result Records
7052 ----------------------------
7054 In addition to a number of out-of-band notifications, the response to a
7055 GDB/MI command includes one of the following result indications:
7057 '"^done" [ "," RESULTS ]'
7058 The synchronous operation was successful, 'RESULTS' are the return
7062 This result record is equivalent to '^done'. Historically, it was
7063 output instead of '^done' if the command has resumed the target.
7064 This behaviour is maintained for backward compatibility, but all
7065 frontends should treat '^done' and '^running' identically and rely
7066 on the '*running' output record to determine which threads are
7070 GDB has connected to a remote target.
7072 '"^error" "," "msg=" C-STRING [ "," "code=" C-STRING ]'
7073 The operation failed. The 'msg=C-STRING' variable contains the
7074 corresponding error message.
7076 If present, the 'code=C-STRING' variable provides an error code on
7077 which consumers can rely on to detect the corresponding error
7078 condition. At present, only one error code is defined:
7080 '"undefined-command"'
7081 Indicates that the command causing the error does not exist.
7087 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Stream Records, Next: GDB/MI Async Records, Prev: GDB/MI Result Records, Up: GDB/MI Output Records
7089 27.5.2 GDB/MI Stream Records
7090 ----------------------------
7092 GDB internally maintains a number of output streams: the console, the
7093 target, and the log. The output intended for each of these streams is
7094 funneled through the GDB/MI interface using "stream records".
7096 Each stream record begins with a unique "prefix character" which
7097 identifies its stream (*note GDB/MI Output Syntax: GDB/MI Output
7098 Syntax.). In addition to the prefix, each stream record contains a
7099 'STRING-OUTPUT'. This is either raw text (with an implicit new line) or
7100 a quoted C string (which does not contain an implicit newline).
7103 The console output stream contains text that should be displayed in
7104 the CLI console window. It contains the textual responses to CLI
7108 The target output stream contains any textual output from the
7109 running target. This is only present when GDB's event loop is
7110 truly asynchronous, which is currently only the case for remote
7114 The log stream contains debugging messages being produced by GDB's
7118 File: gdb.info, Node: GDB/MI Async Records, Next: GDB/MI Breakpoint Information, Prev: GDB/MI Stream Records, Up: GDB/MI Output Records
7120 27.5.3 GDB/MI Async Records
7121 ---------------------------
7123 "Async" records are used to notify the GDB/MI client of additional
7124 changes that have occurred. Those changes can either be a consequence
7125 of GDB/MI commands (e.g., a breakpoint modified) or a result of target
7126 activity (e.g., target stopped).
7128 The following is the list of possible async records:
7130 '*running,thread-id="THREAD"'
7131 The target is now running. The THREAD field tells which specific
7132 thread is now running, and can be 'all' if all threads are running.
7133 The frontend should assume that no interaction with a running
7134 thread is possible after this notification is produced. The
7135 frontend should not assume that this notification is output only
7136 once for any command. GDB may emit this notification several
7137 times, either for different threads, because it cannot resume all
7138 threads together, or even for a single thread, if the thread must
7139 be stepped though some code before letting it run freely.
7141 '*stopped,reason="REASON",thread-id="ID",stopped-threads="STOPPED",core="CORE"'
7142 The target has stopped. The REASON field can have one of the
7146 A breakpoint was reached.
7147 'watchpoint-trigger'
7148 A watchpoint was triggered.
7149 'read-watchpoint-trigger'
7150 A read watchpoint was triggered.
7151 'access-watchpoint-trigger'
7152 An access watchpoint was triggered.
7154 An -exec-finish or similar CLI command was accomplished.
7156 An -exec-until or similar CLI command was accomplished.
7158 A watchpoint has gone out of scope.
7159 'end-stepping-range'
7160 An -exec-next, -exec-next-instruction, -exec-step,
7161 -exec-step-instruction or similar CLI command was
7164 The inferior exited because of a signal.
7166 The inferior exited.
7168 The inferior exited normally.
7170 A signal was received by the inferior.
7172 The inferior has stopped due to a library being loaded or
7173 unloaded. This can happen when 'stop-on-solib-events' (*note
7174 Files::) is set or when a 'catch load' or 'catch unload'
7175 catchpoint is in use (*note Set Catchpoints::).
7177 The inferior has forked. This is reported when 'catch fork'
7178 (*note Set Catchpoints::) has been used.
7180 The inferior has vforked. This is reported in when 'catch
7181 vfork' (*note Set Catchpoints::) has been used.
7183 The inferior entered a system call. This is reported when
7184 'catch syscall' (*note Set Catchpoints::) has been used.
7186 The inferior returned from a system call. This is reported
7187 when 'catch syscall' (*note Set Catchpoints::) has been used.
7189 The inferior called 'exec'. This is reported when 'catch
7190 exec' (*note Set Catchpoints::) has been used.
7192 The ID field identifies the thread that directly caused the stop -
7193 for example by hitting a breakpoint. Depending on whether all-stop
7194 mode is in effect (*note All-Stop Mode::), GDB may either stop all
7195 threads, or only the thread that directly triggered the stop. If
7196 all threads are stopped, the STOPPED field will have the value of
7197 '"all"'. Otherwise, the value of the STOPPED field will be a list
7198 of thread identifiers. Presently, this list will always include a
7199 single thread, but frontend should be prepared to see several
7200 threads in the list. The CORE field reports the processor core on
7201 which the stop event has happened. This field may be absent if
7202 such information is not available.
7204 '=thread-group-added,id="ID"'
7205 '=thread-group-removed,id="ID"'
7206 A thread group was either added or removed. The ID field contains
7207 the GDB identifier of the thread group. When a thread group is
7208 added, it generally might not be associated with a running process.
7209 When a thread group is removed, its id becomes invalid and cannot
7212 '=thread-group-started,id="ID",pid="PID"'
7213 A thread group became associated with a running program, either
7214 because the program was just started or the thread group was
7215 attached to a program. The ID field contains the GDB identifier of
7216 the thread group. The PID field contains process identifier,
7217 specific to the operating system.
7219 '=thread-group-exited,id="ID"[,exit-code="CODE"]'
7220 A thread group is no longer associated with a running program,
7221 either because the program has exited, or because it was detached
7222 from. The ID field contains the GDB identifier of the thread
7223 group. The CODE field is the exit code of the inferior; it exists
7224 only when the inferior exited with some code.
7226 '=thread-created,id="ID",group-id="GID"'
7227 '=thread-exited,id="ID",group-id="GID"'
7228 A thread either was created, or has exited. The ID field contains
7229 the GDB identifier of the thread. The GID field identifies the
7230 thread group this thread belongs to.
7232 '=thread-selected,id="ID"'
7233 Informs that the selected thread was changed as result of the last
7234 command. This notification is not emitted as result of
7235 '-thread-select' command but is emitted whenever an MI command that
7236 is not documented to change the selected thread actually changes
7237 it. In particular, invoking, directly or indirectly (via
7238 user-defined command), the CLI 'thread' command, will generate this
7241 We suggest that in response to this notification, front ends
7242 highlight the selected thread and cause subsequent commands to
7243 apply to that thread.
7245 '=library-loaded,...'
7246 Reports that a new library file was loaded by the program. This
7247 notification has 4 fields--ID, TARGET-NAME, HOST-NAME, and
7248 SYMBOLS-LOADED. The ID field is an opaque identifier of the
7249 library. For remote debugging case, TARGET-NAME and HOST-NAME
7250 fields give the name of the library file on the target, and on the
7251 host respectively. For native debugging, both those fields have
7252 the same value. The SYMBOLS-LOADED field is emitted only for
7253 backward compatibility and should not be relied on to convey any
7254 useful information. The THREAD-GROUP field, if present, specifies
7255 the id of the thread group in whose context the library was loaded.
7256 If the field is absent, it means the library was loaded in the
7257 context of all present thread groups.
7259 '=library-unloaded,...'
7260 Reports that a library was unloaded by the program. This
7261 notification has 3 fields--ID, TARGET-NAME and HOST-NAME with the
7262 same meaning as for the '=library-loaded' notification. The
7263 THREAD-GROUP field, if present, specifies the id of the thread
7264 group in whose context the library was unloaded. If the field is
7265 absent, it means the library was unloaded in the context of all
7266 present thread groups.
7268 '=traceframe-changed,num=TFNUM,tracepoint=TPNUM'
7269 '=traceframe-changed,end'
7270 Reports that the trace frame was changed and its new number is
7271 TFNUM. The number of the tracepoint associated with this trace
7274 '=tsv-created,name=NAME,initial=INITIAL'
7275 Reports that the new trace state variable NAME is created with
7276 initial value INITIAL.
7278 '=tsv-deleted,name=NAME'
7280 Reports that the trace state variable NAME is deleted or all trace
7281 state variables are deleted.
7283 '=tsv-modified,name=NAME,initial=INITIAL[,current=CURRENT]'
7284 Reports that the trace state variable NAME is modified with the
7285 initial value INITIAL. The current value CURRENT of trace state
7286 variable is optional and is reported if the current value of trace
7287 state variable is known.
7289 '=breakpoint-created,bkpt={...}'
7290 '=breakpoint-modified,bkpt={...}'
7291 '=breakpoint-deleted,id=NUMBER'
7292 Reports that a breakpoint was created, modified, or deleted,
7293 respectively. Only user-visible breakpoints are reported to the MI
7296 The BKPT argument is of the same form as returned by the various
7297 breakpoint commands; *Note GDB/MI Breakpoint Commands::. The
7298 NUMBER is the ordinal number of the breakpoint.
7300 Note that if a breakpoint is emitted in the result record of a
7301 command, then it will not also be emitted in an async record.
7303 '=record-started,thread-group="ID"'
7304 '=record-stopped,thread-group="ID"'
7305 Execution log recording was either started or stopped on an
7306 inferior. The ID is the GDB identifier of the thread group
7307 corresponding to the affected inferior.
7309 '=cmd-param-changed,param=PARAM,value=VALUE'
7310 Reports that a parameter of the command 'set PARAM' is changed to
7311 VALUE. In the multi-word 'set' command, the PARAM is the whole
7312 parameter list to 'set' command. For example, In command 'set
7313 check type on', PARAM is 'check type' and VALUE is 'on'.
7315 '=memory-changed,thread-group=ID,addr=ADDR,len=LEN[,type="code"]'
7316 Reports that bytes from ADDR to DATA + LEN were written in an
7317 inferior. The ID is the identifier of the thread group
7318 corresponding to the affected inferior. The optional 'type="code"'
7319 part is reported if the memory written to holds executable code.