This is Info file ./gdb.info, produced by Makeinfo version 1.67 from the input file gdb.texinfo. START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Gdb: (gdb). The GNU debugger. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY This file documents the GNU debugger GDB. This is Edition 4.12, January 1994, of `Debugging with GDB: the GNU Source-Level Debugger' for GDB Version 4.16. Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions.  File: gdb.info, Node: MIPS Remote, Next: Simulator, Prev: Hitachi Remote, Up: Remote GDB and remote MIPS boards -------------------------- GDB can use the MIPS remote debugging protocol to talk to a MIPS board attached to a serial line. This is available when you configure GDB with `--target=mips-idt-ecoff'. Use these GDB commands to specify the connection to your target board: `target mips PORT' To run a program on the board, start up `gdb' with the name of your program as the argument. To connect to the board, use the command `target mips PORT', where PORT is the name of the serial port connected to the board. If the program has not already been downloaded to the board, you may use the `load' command to download it. You can then use all the usual GDB commands. For example, this sequence connects to the target board through a serial port, and loads and runs a program called PROG through the debugger: host$ gdb PROG GDB is free software and ... (gdb) target mips /dev/ttyb (gdb) load PROG (gdb) run `target mips HOSTNAME:PORTNUMBER' On some GDB host configurations, you can specify a TCP connection (for instance, to a serial line managed by a terminal concentrator) instead of a serial port, using the syntax `HOSTNAME:PORTNUMBER'. GDB also supports these special commands for MIPS targets: `set processor ARGS' `show processor' Use the `set processor' command to set the type of MIPS processor when you want to access processor-type-specific registers. For example, `set processor R3041' tells GDB to use the CPO registers appropriate for the 3041 chip. Use the `show processor' command to see what MIPS processor GDB is using. Use the `info reg' command to see what registers GDB is using. `set mipsfpu double' `set mipsfpu single' `set mipsfpu none' `show mipsfpu' If your target board does not support the MIPS floating point coprocessor, you should use the command `set mipsfpu none' (if you need this, you may wish to put the command in your .gdbinit file). This tells GDB how to find the return value of functions which return floating point values. It also allows GDB to avoid saving the floating point registers when calling functions on the board. If you are using a floating point coprocessor with only single precision floating point support, as on the R4650 processor, use the command `set mipsfpu single'. The default double precision floating point coprocessor may be selected using `set mipsfpu double'. In previous versions the only choices were double precision or no floating point, so `set mipsfpu on' will select double precision and `set mipsfpu off' will select no floating point. As usual, you can inquire about the `mipsfpu' variable with `show mipsfpu'. `set remotedebug N' `show remotedebug' You can see some debugging information about communications with the board by setting the `remotedebug' variable. If you set it to `1' using `set remotedebug 1', every packet is displayed. If you set it to `2', every character is displayed. You can check the current value at any time with the command `show remotedebug'. `set timeout SECONDS' `set retransmit-timeout SECONDS' `show timeout' `show retransmit-timeout' You can control the timeout used while waiting for a packet, in the MIPS remote protocol, with the `set timeout SECONDS' command. The default is 5 seconds. Similarly, you can control the timeout used while waiting for an acknowledgement of a packet with the `set retransmit-timeout SECONDS' command. The default is 3 seconds. You can inspect both values with `show timeout' and `show retransmit-timeout'. (These commands are *only* available when GDB is configured for `--target=mips-idt-ecoff'.) The timeout set by `set timeout' does not apply when GDB is waiting for your program to stop. In that case, GDB waits forever because it has no way of knowing how long the program is going to run before stopping.  File: gdb.info, Node: Simulator, Prev: MIPS Remote, Up: Remote Simulated CPU target -------------------- For some configurations, GDB includes a CPU simulator that you can use instead of a hardware CPU to debug your programs. Currently, a simulator is available when GDB is configured to debug Zilog Z8000 or Hitachi microprocessor targets. For the Z8000 family, `target sim' simulates either the Z8002 (the unsegmented variant of the Z8000 architecture) or the Z8001 (the segmented variant). The simulator recognizes which architecture is appropriate by inspecting the object code. `target sim' Debug programs on a simulated CPU (which CPU depends on the GDB configuration) After specifying this target, you can debug programs for the simulated CPU in the same style as programs for your host computer; use the `file' command to load a new program image, the `run' command to run your program, and so on. As well as making available all the usual machine registers (see `info reg'), this debugging target provides three additional items of information as specially named registers: `cycles' Counts clock-ticks in the simulator. `insts' Counts instructions run in the simulator. `time' Execution time in 60ths of a second. You can refer to these values in GDB expressions with the usual conventions; for example, `b fputc if $cycles>5000' sets a conditional breakpoint that suspends only after at least 5000 simulated clock ticks.  File: gdb.info, Node: Controlling GDB, Next: Sequences, Prev: Targets, Up: Top Controlling GDB *************** You can alter the way GDB interacts with you by using the `set' command. For commands controlling how GDB displays data, *note Print settings: Print Settings.; other settings are described here. * Menu: * Prompt:: Prompt * Editing:: Command editing * History:: Command history * Screen Size:: Screen size * Numbers:: Numbers * Messages/Warnings:: Optional warnings and messages  File: gdb.info, Node: Prompt, Next: Editing, Up: Controlling GDB Prompt ====== GDB indicates its readiness to read a command by printing a string called the "prompt". This string is normally `(gdb)'. You can change the prompt string with the `set prompt' command. For instance, when debugging GDB with GDB, it is useful to change the prompt in one of the GDB sessions so that you can always tell which one you are talking to. *Note:* `set prompt' no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or a prompt that does not. `set prompt NEWPROMPT' Directs GDB to use NEWPROMPT as its prompt string henceforth. `show prompt' Prints a line of the form: `Gdb's prompt is: YOUR-PROMPT'  File: gdb.info, Node: Editing, Next: History, Prev: Prompt, Up: Controlling GDB Command editing =============== GDB reads its input commands via the "readline" interface. This GNU library provides consistent behavior for programs which provide a command line interface to the user. Advantages are GNU Emacs-style or "vi"-style inline editing of commands, `csh'-like history substitution, and a storage and recall of command history across debugging sessions. You may control the behavior of command line editing in GDB with the command `set'. `set editing' `set editing on' Enable command line editing (enabled by default). `set editing off' Disable command line editing. `show editing' Show whether command line editing is enabled.  File: gdb.info, Node: History, Next: Screen Size, Prev: Editing, Up: Controlling GDB Command history =============== GDB can keep track of the commands you type during your debugging sessions, so that you can be certain of precisely what happened. Use these commands to manage the GDB command history facility. `set history filename FNAME' Set the name of the GDB command history file to FNAME. This is the file where GDB reads an initial command history list, and where it writes the command history from this session when it exits. You can access this list through history expansion or through the history command editing characters listed below. This file defaults to the value of the environment variable `GDBHISTFILE', or to `./.gdb_history' if this variable is not set. `set history save' `set history save on' Record command history in a file, whose name may be specified with the `set history filename' command. By default, this option is disabled. `set history save off' Stop recording command history in a file. `set history size SIZE' Set the number of commands which GDB keeps in its history list. This defaults to the value of the environment variable `HISTSIZE', or to 256 if this variable is not set. History expansion assigns special meaning to the character `!'. Since `!' is also the logical not operator in C, history expansion is off by default. If you decide to enable history expansion with the `set history expansion on' command, you may sometimes need to follow `!' (when it is used as logical not, in an expression) with a space or a tab to prevent it from being expanded. The readline history facilities do not attempt substitution on the strings `!=' and `!(', even when history expansion is enabled. The commands to control history expansion are: `set history expansion on' `set history expansion' Enable history expansion. History expansion is off by default. `set history expansion off' Disable history expansion. The readline code comes with more complete documentation of editing and history expansion features. Users unfamiliar with GNU Emacs or `vi' may wish to read it. `show history' `show history filename' `show history save' `show history size' `show history expansion' These commands display the state of the GDB history parameters. `show history' by itself displays all four states. `show commands' Display the last ten commands in the command history. `show commands N' Print ten commands centered on command number N. `show commands +' Print ten commands just after the commands last printed.  File: gdb.info, Node: Screen Size, Next: Numbers, Prev: History, Up: Controlling GDB Screen size =========== Certain commands to GDB may produce large amounts of information output to the screen. To help you read all of it, GDB pauses and asks you for input at the end of each page of output. Type when you want to continue the output, or `q' to discard the remaining output. Also, the screen width setting determines when to wrap lines of output. Depending on what is being printed, GDB tries to break the line at a readable place, rather than simply letting it overflow onto the following line. Normally GDB knows the size of the screen from the termcap data base together with the value of the `TERM' environment variable and the `stty rows' and `stty cols' settings. If this is not correct, you can override it with the `set height' and `set width' commands: `set height LPP' `show height' `set width CPL' `show width' These `set' commands specify a screen height of LPP lines and a screen width of CPL characters. The associated `show' commands display the current settings. If you specify a height of zero lines, GDB does not pause during output no matter how long the output is. This is useful if output is to a file or to an editor buffer. Likewise, you can specify `set width 0' to prevent GDB from wrapping its output.  File: gdb.info, Node: Numbers, Next: Messages/Warnings, Prev: Screen Size, Up: Controlling GDB Numbers ======= You can always enter numbers in octal, decimal, or hexadecimal in GDB by the usual conventions: octal numbers begin with `0', decimal numbers end with `.', and hexadecimal numbers begin with `0x'. Numbers that begin with none of these are, by default, entered in base 10; likewise, the default display for numbers--when no particular format is specified--is base 10. You can change the default base for both input and output with the `set radix' command. `set input-radix BASE' Set the default base for numeric input. Supported choices for BASE are decimal 8, 10, or 16. BASE must itself be specified either unambiguously or using the current default radix; for example, any of set radix 012 set radix 10. set radix 0xa sets the base to decimal. On the other hand, `set radix 10' leaves the radix unchanged no matter what it was. `set output-radix BASE' Set the default base for numeric display. Supported choices for BASE are decimal 8, 10, or 16. BASE must itself be specified either unambiguously or using the current default radix. `show input-radix' Display the current default base for numeric input. `show output-radix' Display the current default base for numeric display.  File: gdb.info, Node: Messages/Warnings, Prev: Numbers, Up: Controlling GDB Optional warnings and messages ============================== By default, GDB is silent about its inner workings. If you are running on a slow machine, you may want to use the `set verbose' command. This makes GDB tell you when it does a lengthy internal operation, so you will not think it has crashed. Currently, the messages controlled by `set verbose' are those which announce that the symbol table for a source file is being read; see `symbol-file' in *Note Commands to specify files: Files.. `set verbose on' Enables GDB output of certain informational messages. `set verbose off' Disables GDB output of certain informational messages. `show verbose' Displays whether `set verbose' is on or off. By default, if GDB encounters bugs in the symbol table of an object file, it is silent; but if you are debugging a compiler, you may find this information useful (*note Errors reading symbol files: Symbol Errors.). `set complaints LIMIT' Permits GDB to output LIMIT complaints about each type of unusual symbols before becoming silent about the problem. Set LIMIT to zero to suppress all complaints; set it to a large number to prevent complaints from being suppressed. `show complaints' Displays how many symbol complaints GDB is permitted to produce. By default, GDB is cautious, and asks what sometimes seems to be a lot of stupid questions to confirm certain commands. For example, if you try to run a program which is already running: (gdb) run The program being debugged has been started already. Start it from the beginning? (y or n) If you are willing to unflinchingly face the consequences of your own commands, you can disable this "feature": `set confirm off' Disables confirmation requests. `set confirm on' Enables confirmation requests (the default). `show confirm' Displays state of confirmation requests.  File: gdb.info, Node: Sequences, Next: Emacs, Prev: Controlling GDB, Up: Top Canned Sequences of Commands **************************** Aside from breakpoint commands (*note Breakpoint command lists: Break Commands.), GDB provides two ways to store sequences of commands for execution as a unit: user-defined commands and command files. * Menu: * Define:: User-defined commands * Hooks:: User-defined command hooks * Command Files:: Command files * Output:: Commands for controlled output  File: gdb.info, Node: Define, Next: Hooks, Up: Sequences User-defined commands ===================== A "user-defined command" is a sequence of GDB commands to which you assign a new name as a command. This is done with the `define' command. User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace. Arguments are accessed within the user command via $ARG0...$ARG9. A trivial example: define adder print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2 To execute the command use: adder 1 2 3 This defines the command `adder', which prints the sum of its three arguments. Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables, use complex expressions, or even perform inferior functions calls. `define COMMANDNAME' Define a command named COMMANDNAME. If there is already a command by that name, you are asked to confirm that you want to redefine it. The definition of the command is made up of other GDB command lines, which are given following the `define' command. The end of these commands is marked by a line containing `end'. `if' Takes a single argument, which is an expression to evaluate. It is followed by a series of commands that are executed only if the expression is true (nonzero). There can then optionally be a line `else', followed by a series of commands that are only executed if the expression was false. The end of the list is marked by a line containing `end'. `while' The syntax is similar to `if': the command takes a single argument, which is an expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to execute, one per line, terminated by an `end'. The commands are executed repeatedly as long as the expression evaluates to true. `document COMMANDNAME' Document the user-defined command COMMANDNAME, so that it can be accessed by `help'. The command COMMANDNAME must already be defined. This command reads lines of documentation just as `define' reads the lines of the command definition, ending with `end'. After the `document' command is finished, `help' on command COMMANDNAME displays the documentation you have written. You may use the `document' command again to change the documentation of a command. Redefining the command with `define' does not change the documentation. `help user-defined' List all user-defined commands, with the first line of the documentation (if any) for each. `show user' `show user COMMANDNAME' Display the GDB commands used to define COMMANDNAME (but not its documentation). If no COMMANDNAME is given, display the definitions for all user-defined commands. When user-defined commands are executed, the commands of the definition are not printed. An error in any command stops execution of the user-defined command. If used interactively, commands that would ask for confirmation proceed without asking when used inside a user-defined command. Many GDB commands that normally print messages to say what they are doing omit the messages when used in a user-defined command.  File: gdb.info, Node: Hooks, Next: Command Files, Prev: Define, Up: Sequences User-defined command hooks ========================== You may define *hooks*, which are a special kind of user-defined command. Whenever you run the command `foo', if the user-defined command `hook-foo' exists, it is executed (with no arguments) before that command. In addition, a pseudo-command, `stop' exists. Defining (`hook-stop') makes the associated commands execute every time execution stops in your program: before breakpoint commands are run, displays are printed, or the stack frame is printed. For example, to ignore `SIGALRM' signals while single-stepping, but treat them normally during normal execution, you could define: define hook-stop handle SIGALRM nopass end define hook-run handle SIGALRM pass end define hook-continue handle SIGLARM pass end You can define a hook for any single-word command in GDB, but not for command aliases; you should define a hook for the basic command name, e.g. `backtrace' rather than `bt'. If an error occurs during the execution of your hook, execution of GDB commands stops and GDB issues a prompt (before the command that you actually typed had a chance to run). If you try to define a hook which does not match any known command, you get a warning from the `define' command.  File: gdb.info, Node: Command Files, Next: Output, Prev: Hooks, Up: Sequences Command files ============= A command file for GDB is a file of lines that are GDB commands. Comments (lines starting with `#') may also be included. An empty line in a command file does nothing; it does not mean to repeat the last command, as it would from the terminal. When you start GDB, it automatically executes commands from its "init files". These are files named `.gdbinit'. GDB reads the init file (if any) in your home directory, then processes command line options and operands, and then reads the init file (if any) in the current working directory. This is so the init file in your home directory can set options (such as `set complaints') which affect the processing of the command line options and operands. The init files are not executed if you use the `-nx' option; *note Choosing modes: Mode Options.. On some configurations of GDB, the init file is known by a different name (these are typically environments where a specialized form of GDB may need to coexist with other forms, hence a different name for the specialized version's init file). These are the environments with special init file names: * VxWorks (Wind River Systems real-time OS): `.vxgdbinit' * OS68K (Enea Data Systems real-time OS): `.os68gdbinit' * ES-1800 (Ericsson Telecom AB M68000 emulator): `.esgdbinit' You can also request the execution of a command file with the `source' command: `source FILENAME' Execute the command file FILENAME. The lines in a command file are executed sequentially. They are not printed as they are executed. An error in any command terminates execution of the command file. Commands that would ask for confirmation if used interactively proceed without asking when used in a command file. Many GDB commands that normally print messages to say what they are doing omit the messages when called from command files.  File: gdb.info, Node: Output, Prev: Command Files, Up: Sequences Commands for controlled output ============================== During the execution of a command file or a user-defined command, normal GDB output is suppressed; the only output that appears is what is explicitly printed by the commands in the definition. This section describes three commands useful for generating exactly the output you want. `echo TEXT' Print TEXT. Nonprinting characters can be included in TEXT using C escape sequences, such as `\n' to print a newline. *No newline is printed unless you specify one.* In addition to the standard C escape sequences, a backslash followed by a space stands for a space. This is useful for displaying a string with spaces at the beginning or the end, since leading and trailing spaces are otherwise trimmed from all arguments. To print ` and foo = ', use the command `echo \ and foo = \ '. A backslash at the end of TEXT can be used, as in C, to continue the command onto subsequent lines. For example, echo This is some text\n\ which is continued\n\ onto several lines.\n produces the same output as echo This is some text\n echo which is continued\n echo onto several lines.\n `output EXPRESSION' Print the value of EXPRESSION and nothing but that value: no newlines, no `$NN = '. The value is not entered in the value history either. *Note Expressions: Expressions, for more information on expressions. `output/FMT EXPRESSION' Print the value of EXPRESSION in format FMT. You can use the same formats as for `print'. *Note Output formats: Output Formats, for more information. `printf STRING, EXPRESSIONS...' Print the values of the EXPRESSIONS under the control of STRING. The EXPRESSIONS are separated by commas and may be either numbers or pointers. Their values are printed as specified by STRING, exactly as if your program were to execute the C subroutine printf (STRING, EXPRESSIONS...); For example, you can print two values in hex like this: printf "foo, bar-foo = 0x%x, 0x%x\n", foo, bar-foo The only backslash-escape sequences that you can use in the format string are the simple ones that consist of backslash followed by a letter.  File: gdb.info, Node: Emacs, Next: GDB Bugs, Prev: Sequences, Up: Top Using GDB under GNU Emacs ************************* A special interface allows you to use GNU Emacs to view (and edit) the source files for the program you are debugging with GDB. To use this interface, use the command `M-x gdb' in Emacs. Give the executable file you want to debug as an argument. This command starts GDB as a subprocess of Emacs, with input and output through a newly created Emacs buffer. Using GDB under Emacs is just like using GDB normally except for two things: * All "terminal" input and output goes through the Emacs buffer. This applies both to GDB commands and their output, and to the input and output done by the program you are debugging. This is useful because it means that you can copy the text of previous commands and input them again; you can even use parts of the output in this way. All the facilities of Emacs' Shell mode are available for interacting with your program. In particular, you can send signals the usual way--for example, `C-c C-c' for an interrupt, `C-c C-z' for a stop. * GDB displays source code through Emacs. Each time GDB displays a stack frame, Emacs automatically finds the source file for that frame and puts an arrow (`=>') at the left margin of the current line. Emacs uses a separate buffer for source display, and splits the screen to show both your GDB session and the source. Explicit GDB `list' or search commands still produce output as usual, but you probably have no reason to use them from Emacs. *Warning:* If the directory where your program resides is not your current directory, it can be easy to confuse Emacs about the location of the source files, in which case the auxiliary display buffer does not appear to show your source. GDB can find programs by searching your environment's `PATH' variable, so the GDB input and output session proceeds normally; but Emacs does not get enough information back from GDB to locate the source files in this situation. To avoid this problem, either start GDB mode from the directory where your program resides, or specify an absolute file name when prompted for the `M-x gdb' argument. A similar confusion can result if you use the GDB `file' command to switch to debugging a program in some other location, from an existing GDB buffer in Emacs. By default, `M-x gdb' calls the program called `gdb'. If you need to call GDB by a different name (for example, if you keep several configurations around, with different names) you can set the Emacs variable `gdb-command-name'; for example, (setq gdb-command-name "mygdb") (preceded by `ESC ESC', or typed in the `*scratch*' buffer, or in your `.emacs' file) makes Emacs call the program named "`mygdb'" instead. In the GDB I/O buffer, you can use these special Emacs commands in addition to the standard Shell mode commands: `C-h m' Describe the features of Emacs' GDB Mode. `M-s' Execute to another source line, like the GDB `step' command; also update the display window to show the current file and location. `M-n' Execute to next source line in this function, skipping all function calls, like the GDB `next' command. Then update the display window to show the current file and location. `M-i' Execute one instruction, like the GDB `stepi' command; update display window accordingly. `M-x gdb-nexti' Execute to next instruction, using the GDB `nexti' command; update display window accordingly. `C-c C-f' Execute until exit from the selected stack frame, like the GDB `finish' command. `M-c' Continue execution of your program, like the GDB `continue' command. *Warning:* In Emacs v19, this command is `C-c C-p'. `M-u' Go up the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument (*note Numeric Arguments: (Emacs)Arguments.), like the GDB `up' command. *Warning:* In Emacs v19, this command is `C-c C-u'. `M-d' Go down the number of frames indicated by the numeric argument, like the GDB `down' command. *Warning:* In Emacs v19, this command is `C-c C-d'. `C-x &' Read the number where the cursor is positioned, and insert it at the end of the GDB I/O buffer. For example, if you wish to disassemble code around an address that was displayed earlier, type `disassemble'; then move the cursor to the address display, and pick up the argument for `disassemble' by typing `C-x &'. You can customize this further by defining elements of the list `gdb-print-command'; once it is defined, you can format or otherwise process numbers picked up by `C-x &' before they are inserted. A numeric argument to `C-x &' indicates that you wish special formatting, and also acts as an index to pick an element of the list. If the list element is a string, the number to be inserted is formatted using the Emacs function `format'; otherwise the number is passed as an argument to the corresponding list element. In any source file, the Emacs command `C-x SPC' (`gdb-break') tells GDB to set a breakpoint on the source line point is on. If you accidentally delete the source-display buffer, an easy way to get it back is to type the command `f' in the GDB buffer, to request a frame display; when you run under Emacs, this recreates the source buffer if necessary to show you the context of the current frame. The source files displayed in Emacs are in ordinary Emacs buffers which are visiting the source files in the usual way. You can edit the files with these buffers if you wish; but keep in mind that GDB communicates with Emacs in terms of line numbers. If you add or delete lines from the text, the line numbers that GDB knows cease to correspond properly with the code.  File: gdb.info, Node: GDB Bugs, Next: Command Line Editing, Prev: Emacs, Up: Top Reporting Bugs in GDB ********************* Your bug reports play an essential role in making GDB reliable. Reporting a bug may help you by bringing a solution to your problem, or it may not. But in any case the principal function of a bug report is to help the entire community by making the next version of GDB work better. Bug reports are your contribution to the maintenance of GDB. In order for a bug report to serve its purpose, you must include the information that enables us to fix the bug. * Menu: * Bug Criteria:: Have you found a bug? * Bug Reporting:: How to report bugs  File: gdb.info, Node: Bug Criteria, Next: Bug Reporting, Up: GDB Bugs Have you found a bug? ===================== If you are not sure whether you have found a bug, here are some guidelines: * If the debugger gets a fatal signal, for any input whatever, that is a GDB bug. Reliable debuggers never crash. * If GDB produces an error message for valid input, that is a bug. * If GDB does not produce an error message for invalid input, that is a bug. However, you should note that your idea of "invalid input" might be our idea of "an extension" or "support for traditional practice". * If you are an experienced user of debugging tools, your suggestions for improvement of GDB are welcome in any case.  File: gdb.info, Node: Bug Reporting, Prev: Bug Criteria, Up: GDB Bugs How to report bugs ================== A number of companies and individuals offer support for GNU products. If you obtained GDB from a support organization, we recommend you contact that organization first. You can find contact information for many support companies and individuals in the file `etc/SERVICE' in the GNU Emacs distribution. In any event, we also recommend that you send bug reports for GDB to one of these addresses: bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu {ucbvax|mit-eddie|uunet}!prep.ai.mit.edu!bug-gdb *Do not send bug reports to `info-gdb', or to `help-gdb', or to any newsgroups.* Most users of GDB do not want to receive bug reports. Those that do have arranged to receive `bug-gdb'. The mailing list `bug-gdb' has a newsgroup `gnu.gdb.bug' which serves as a repeater. The mailing list and the newsgroup carry exactly the same messages. Often people think of posting bug reports to the newsgroup instead of mailing them. This appears to work, but it has one problem which can be crucial: a newsgroup posting often lacks a mail path back to the sender. Thus, if we need to ask for more information, we may be unable to reach you. For this reason, it is better to send bug reports to the mailing list. As a last resort, send bug reports on paper to: GNU Debugger Bugs Free Software Foundation Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA The fundamental principle of reporting bugs usefully is this: *report all the facts*. If you are not sure whether to state a fact or leave it out, state it! Often people omit facts because they think they know what causes the problem and assume that some details do not matter. Thus, you might assume that the name of the variable you use in an example does not matter. Well, probably it does not, but one cannot be sure. Perhaps the bug is a stray memory reference which happens to fetch from the location where that name is stored in memory; perhaps, if the name were different, the contents of that location would fool the debugger into doing the right thing despite the bug. Play it safe and give a specific, complete example. That is the easiest thing for you to do, and the most helpful. Keep in mind that the purpose of a bug report is to enable us to fix the bug if it is new to us. Therefore, always write your bug reports on the assumption that the bug has not been reported previously. Sometimes people give a few sketchy facts and ask, "Does this ring a bell?" Those bug reports are useless, and we urge everyone to *refuse to respond to them* except to chide the sender to report bugs properly. To enable us to fix the bug, you should include all these things: * The version of GDB. GDB announces it if you start with no arguments; you can also print it at any time using `show version'. Without this, we will not know whether there is any point in looking for the bug in the current version of GDB. * The type of machine you are using, and the operating system name and version number. * What compiler (and its version) was used to compile GDB--e.g. "gcc-2.0". * What compiler (and its version) was used to compile the program you are debugging--e.g. "gcc-2.0". * The command arguments you gave the compiler to compile your example and observe the bug. For example, did you use `-O'? To guarantee you will not omit something important, list them all. A copy of the Makefile (or the output from make) is sufficient. If we were to try to guess the arguments, we would probably guess wrong and then we might not encounter the bug. * A complete input script, and all necessary source files, that will reproduce the bug. * A description of what behavior you observe that you believe is incorrect. For example, "It gets a fatal signal." Of course, if the bug is that GDB gets a fatal signal, then we will certainly notice it. But if the bug is incorrect output, we might not notice unless it is glaringly wrong. You might as well not give us a chance to make a mistake. Even if the problem you experience is a fatal signal, you should still say so explicitly. Suppose something strange is going on, such as, your copy of GDB is out of synch, or you have encountered a bug in the C library on your system. (This has happened!) Your copy might crash and ours would not. If you told us to expect a crash, then when ours fails to crash, we would know that the bug was not happening for us. If you had not told us to expect a crash, then we would not be able to draw any conclusion from our observations. * If you wish to suggest changes to the GDB source, send us context diffs. If you even discuss something in the GDB source, refer to it by context, not by line number. The line numbers in our development sources will not match those in your sources. Your line numbers would convey no useful information to us. Here are some things that are not necessary: * A description of the envelope of the bug. Often people who encounter a bug spend a lot of time investigating which changes to the input file will make the bug go away and which changes will not affect it. This is often time consuming and not very useful, because the way we will find the bug is by running a single example under the debugger with breakpoints, not by pure deduction from a series of examples. We recommend that you save your time for something else. Of course, if you can find a simpler example to report *instead* of the original one, that is a convenience for us. Errors in the output will be easier to spot, running under the debugger will take less time, and so on. However, simplification is not vital; if you do not want to do this, report the bug anyway and send us the entire test case you used. * A patch for the bug. A patch for the bug does help us if it is a good one. But do not omit the necessary information, such as the test case, on the assumption that a patch is all we need. We might see problems with your patch and decide to fix the problem another way, or we might not understand it at all. Sometimes with a program as complicated as GDB it is very hard to construct an example that will make the program follow a certain path through the code. If you do not send us the example, we will not be able to construct one, so we will not be able to verify that the bug is fixed. And if we cannot understand what bug you are trying to fix, or why your patch should be an improvement, we will not install it. A test case will help us to understand. * A guess about what the bug is or what it depends on. Such guesses are usually wrong. Even we cannot guess right about such things without first using the debugger to find the facts.  File: gdb.info, Node: Command Line Editing, Next: Using History Interactively, Prev: GDB Bugs, Up: Top Command Line Editing ******************** This text describes GNU's command line editing interface. * Menu: * Introduction and Notation:: Notation used in this text. * Readline Interaction:: The minimum set of commands for editing a line. * Readline Init File:: Customizing Readline from a user's view.  File: gdb.info, Node: Introduction and Notation, Next: Readline Interaction, Up: Command Line Editing Introduction to Line Editing ============================ The following paragraphs describe the notation we use to represent keystrokes. The text is read as `Control-K' and describes the character produced when the Control key is depressed and the key is struck. The text is read as `Meta-K' and describes the character produced when the meta key (if you have one) is depressed, and the key is struck. If you do not have a meta key, the identical keystroke can be generated by typing first, and then typing . Either process is known as "metafying" the key. The text is read as `Meta-Control-k' and describes the character produced by "metafying" . In addition, several keys have their own names. Specifically, , , , , , and all stand for themselves when seen in this text, or in an init file (*note Readline Init File::., for more info).  File: gdb.info, Node: Readline Interaction, Next: Readline Init File, Prev: Introduction and Notation, Up: Command Line Editing Readline Interaction ==================== Often during an interactive session you type in a long line of text, only to notice that the first word on the line is misspelled. The Readline library gives you a set of commands for manipulating the text as you type it in, allowing you to just fix your typo, and not forcing you to retype the majority of the line. Using these editing commands, you move the cursor to the place that needs correction, and delete or insert the text of the corrections. Then, when you are satisfied with the line, you simply press . You do not have to be at the end of the line to press ; the entire line is accepted regardless of the location of the cursor within the line. * Menu: * Readline Bare Essentials:: The least you need to know about Readline. * Readline Movement Commands:: Moving about the input line. * Readline Killing Commands:: How to delete text, and how to get it back! * Readline Arguments:: Giving numeric arguments to commands.  File: gdb.info, Node: Readline Bare Essentials, Next: Readline Movement Commands, Up: Readline Interaction Readline Bare Essentials ------------------------ In order to enter characters into the line, simply type them. The typed character appears where the cursor was, and then the cursor moves one space to the right. If you mistype a character, you can use to back up, and delete the mistyped character. Sometimes you may miss typing a character that you wanted to type, and not notice your error until you have typed several other characters. In that case, you can type to move the cursor to the left, and then correct your mistake. Aftwerwards, you can move the cursor to the right with . When you add text in the middle of a line, you will notice that characters to the right of the cursor get `pushed over' to make room for the text that you have inserted. Likewise, when you delete text behind the cursor, characters to the right of the cursor get `pulled back' to fill in the blank space created by the removal of the text. A list of the basic bare essentials for editing the text of an input line follows. Move back one character. Move forward one character. Delete the character to the left of the cursor. Delete the character underneath the cursor. Printing characters Insert itself into the line at the cursor. Undo the last thing that you did. You can undo all the way back to an empty line.  File: gdb.info, Node: Readline Movement Commands, Next: Readline Killing Commands, Prev: Readline Bare Essentials, Up: Readline Interaction Readline Movement Commands -------------------------- The above table describes the most basic possible keystrokes that you need in order to do editing of the input line. For your convenience, many other commands have been added in addition to , , , and . Here are some commands for moving more rapidly about the line. Move to the start of the line. Move to the end of the line. Move forward a word. Move backward a word. Clear the screen, reprinting the current line at the top. Notice how moves forward a character, while moves forward a word. It is a loose convention that control keystrokes operate on characters while meta keystrokes operate on words.  File: gdb.info, Node: Readline Killing Commands, Next: Readline Arguments, Prev: Readline Movement Commands, Up: Readline Interaction Readline Killing Commands ------------------------- "Killing" text means to delete the text from the line, but to save it away for later use, usually by "yanking" it back into the line. If the description for a command says that it `kills' text, then you can be sure that you can get the text back in a different (or the same) place later. Here is the list of commands for killing text. Kill the text from the current cursor position to the end of the line. Kill from the cursor to the end of the current word, or if between words, to the end of the next word. Kill from the cursor to the start of the previous word, or if between words, to the start of the previous word. Kill from the cursor to the previous whitespace. This is different than because the word boundaries differ. And, here is how to "yank" the text back into the line. Yank the most recently killed text back into the buffer at the cursor. Rotate the kill-ring, and yank the new top. You can only do this if the prior command is or . When you use a kill command, the text is saved in a "kill-ring". Any number of consecutive kills save all of the killed text together, so that when you yank it back, you get it in one clean sweep. The kill ring is not line specific; the text that you killed on a previously typed line is available to be yanked back later, when you are typing another line.  File: gdb.info, Node: Readline Arguments, Prev: Readline Killing Commands, Up: Readline Interaction Readline Arguments ------------------ You can pass numeric arguments to Readline commands. Sometimes the argument acts as a repeat count, other times it is the sign of the argument that is significant. If you pass a negative argument to a command which normally acts in a forward direction, that command will act in a backward direction. For example, to kill text back to the start of the line, you might type . The general way to pass numeric arguments to a command is to type meta digits before the command. If the first `digit' you type is a minus sign (<->), then the sign of the argument will be negative. Once you have typed one meta digit to get the argument started, you can type the remainder of the digits, and then the command. For example, to give the command an argument of 10, you could type .  File: gdb.info, Node: Readline Init File, Prev: Readline Interaction, Up: Command Line Editing Readline Init File ================== Although the Readline library comes with a set of GNU Emacs-like keybindings, it is possible that you would like to use a different set of keybindings. You can customize programs that use Readline by putting commands in an "init" file in your home directory. The name of this file is `~/.inputrc'. When a program which uses the Readline library starts up, the `~/.inputrc' file is read, and the keybindings are set. In addition, the command re-reads this init file, thus incorporating any changes that you might have made to it. * Menu: * Readline Init Syntax:: Syntax for the commands in `~/.inputrc'. * Readline vi Mode:: Switching to `vi' mode in Readline.