GNU Debugger#Remote debugging

GDB was first written by Richard Stallman in 1986 as part of his GNU system, after his GNU Emacs was "reasonably stable".{{cite web|title=Richard Stallman lecture at the Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden (1986-10-30)|url=https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/stallman-kth.html|access-date=2006-09-21|quote=Then after GNU Emacs was reasonably stable, which took all in all about a year and a half, I started getting back to other parts of the system. I developed a debugger which I called GDB which is a symbolic debugger for C code, which recently entered distribution. Now this debugger is to a large extent in the spirit of DBX, which is a debugger that comes with Berkeley Unix.}} GDB is free software released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It was modeled after the DBX debugger, which came with Berkeley Unix distributions.

From 1990 to 1993 it was maintained by John Gilmore.{{Cite web|title=John Gilmore (activist)|url=https://hyperleap.com/topic/John_Gilmore_(activist)|website=hyperleap.com|access-date=2020-10-13|archive-date=2021-02-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226173853/https://hyperleap.com/topic/John_Gilmore_(activist)|url-status=dead}} Now it is maintained by the GDB Steering Committee which is appointed by the Free Software Foundation.{{cite web|title=GDB Steering Committee|url=https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/committee/|access-date=2008-05-11}}

GDB offers extensive facilities for tracing and altering the execution of computer programs. The user can monitor and modify the values of programs' internal variables, and even call functions independently of the program's normal behavior.

GDB target processors (as of 2003){{needs update|date=March 2025}} include: Alpha, ARM, AVR, H8/300, Altera Nios/Nios II, System/370, System 390, x86 and its 64-bit extension x86-64, IA-64 "Itanium", Motorola 68000, MIPS, PA-RISC, PowerPC, RISC-V, SuperH, SPARC, and VAX. Lesser-known target processors supported in the standard release have included A29K, ARC, ETRAX CRIS, D10V, D30V, FR-30, FR-V, Intel i960, 68HC11, Motorola 88000, MCORE, MN10200, MN10300, NS32K, Stormy16, and Z8000. (Newer releases will likely not support some of these.) GDB has compiled-in simulators for even lesser-known target processors such like M32R or V850.{{cite web

| title = GDB Documentation - Summary - Contributors

| url = http://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Contributors.html#Contributors

| access-date = 2011-12-01

| archive-date = 2011-09-29

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110929153415/http://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/Contributors.html#Contributors

| url-status = dead

}}

GDB is still actively being developed. As of version 7.0 new features include support for Python scripting{{cite web

| title = GDB 7.0 Release Notes

| url = http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/GDB_7.0_Release

| access-date = 2011-11-28

}} and as of version 7.8 GNU Guile scripting as well.{{cite web |url=https://sourceware.org/ml/gdb/2014-07/msg00032.html |title=GDB 7.8 released! |author=Joel Brobecker |date=2014-07-29 |access-date=2014-07-30}} Since version 7.0, support for "reversible debugging" — allowing a debugging session to step backward, much like rewinding a crashed program to see what happened — is available.{{cite web

| title = Reverse Debugging with GDB

| url = https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/news/reversible.html

| access-date = 2014-01-20

}}

GDB offers a "remote" mode often used when debugging embedded systems. Remote operation is when GDB runs on one machine and the program being debugged runs on another. GDB can communicate to the remote "stub" that understands GDB protocol through a serial device or TCP/IP.{{cite web|url=http://www.embecosm.com/appnotes/ean4/embecosm-howto-rsp-server-ean4-issue-2.pdf|title=Howto: GDB Remote Serial Protocol: Writing a RSP Server}} A stub program can be created by linking to the appropriate stub files provided with GDB, which implement the target side of the communication protocol.{{cite web|url=http://davis.lbl.gov/Manuals/GDB/gdb_17.html#SEC140|title=Implementing a remote stub}} Alternatively, gdbserver can be used to remotely debug the program without needing to change it in any way.

The same mode is also used by KGDB for debugging a running Linux kernel on the source level with gdb. With KGDB, kernel developers can debug a kernel in much the same way as they debug application programs. It makes it possible to place breakpoints in kernel code, step through the code, and observe variables. On architectures where hardware debugging registers are available, watchpoints can be set which trigger breakpoints when specified memory addresses are executed or accessed. KGDB requires an additional machine which is connected to the machine to be debugged using a serial cable or Ethernet. On FreeBSD, it is also possible to debug using FireWire direct memory access (DMA).{{cite web|url=http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/developers-handbook/kerneldebug-dcons.html|title=Kernel debugging with Dcons}}

The debugger does not contain its own graphical user interface, and defaults to a command-line interface, although it does contain a text user interface. Several front-ends have been built for it, such as UltraGDB, Xxgdb, Data Display Debugger (DDD), Nemiver, KDbg, the Xcode debugger, GDBtk/Insight, Gede [https://gede.dexar.se/], Seer [https://github.com/epasveer/seer], and HP Wildebeest Debugger GUI (WDB GUI). IDEs such as Codelite, Code::Blocks, Dev-C++, Geany, GNAT Programming Studio (GPS), KDevelop, Qt Creator, Lazarus, MonoDevelop, Eclipse, NetBeans, and Visual Studio can interface with GDB. GNU Emacs has a "GUD mode" and tools for Vim exist (e.g. clewn). These offer facilities similar to debuggers found in IDEs.

Some other debugging tools have been designed to work with GDB, such as memory leak detectors.

GDB uses a system call named ptrace (the name is an abbreviation of "process trace") to observe and control the execution of another process, and examine and change the process' memory and registers.

{{aligned table|class=wikitable|cols=2|col1header=y|col1align=left|row1header=y

| Common gdb commands | Corresponding ptrace calls

| (gdb) start | {{mono|PTRACE_TRACEME}} – makes parent a tracer (called by a tracee)

| (gdb) attach PID | {{mono|PTRACE_ATTACH}} – attach to a running process

| (gdb) stop | {{code|kill(child_pid, SIGSTOP)}} (or {{mono|PTRACE_INTERRUPT}})

| (gdb) continue | {{mono|PTRACE_CONT}}

| (gdb) info registers | {{mono|PTRACE_GET(FP)REGS(ET)}} and {{mono|PTRACE_SET(FP)REGS(ET)}}

| (gdb) x | {{mono|PTRACE_PEEKTEXT}} and {{mono|PTRACE_POKETEXT}}

}}

A breakpoint is implemented by replacing an instruction at a given memory address with another special instruction. Executing breakpoint instruction causes SIGTRAP.

Consider the following source-code written in C:

1. include
2. include
3. include

size_t foo_len( const char *s )

{

return strlen(s);

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{

const char *a = NULL;

printf("size of a = %lu\n", foo_len(a));

exit(0);

}

Using the GCC compiler on Linux, the code above must be compiled using the -g flag in order to include appropriate debug information on the binary generated, thus making it possible to inspect it using GDB. Assuming that the file containing the code above is named example.c, the command for the compilation could be:

$ gcc example.c -Og -g -o example

And the binary can now be run:

$ ./example

Segmentation fault

Since the example code, when executed, generates a segmentation fault, GDB can be used to inspect the problem.

$ gdb ./example

GNU gdb (GDB) Fedora (7.3.50.20110722-13.fc16)

Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"

and "show warranty" for details.

This GDB was configured as "x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu".

For bug reporting instructions, please see:

...

Reading symbols from /path/example...done.

(gdb) run

Starting program: /path/example

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.

0x0000000000400527 in foo_len (s=0x0) at example.c:7

7 return strlen (s);

(gdb) print s

$1 = 0x0

The problem is present in line 7, and occurs when calling the function strlen (because its argument, s, is NULL).

Depending on the implementation of strlen (inline or not), the output can be different, e.g.:

GNU gdb (GDB) 7.3.1

Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"

and "show warranty" for details.

This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu".

For bug reporting instructions, please see:

...

Reading symbols from /tmp/gdb/example...done.

(gdb) run

Starting program: /tmp/gdb/example

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.

0xb7ee94f3 in strlen () from /lib/i686/cmov/libc.so.6

(gdb) bt

1. 0 0xb7ee94f3 in strlen () from /lib/i686/cmov/libc.so.6
2. 1 0x08048435 in foo_len (s=0x0) at example.c:7
3. 2 0x0804845a in main (argc=, argv=) at example.c:14

To fix the problem, the variable a (in the function main) must contain a valid string. Here is a fixed version of the code:

1. include
2. include
3. include

size_t foo_len(const char *s)

{

return strlen(s);

}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])

{

const char *a = "This is a test string";

printf("size of a = %lu\n", foo_len(a));

exit(0);

}

Recompiling and running the executable again inside GDB now gives a correct result:

$ gdb ./example

GNU gdb (GDB) Fedora (7.3.50.20110722-13.fc16)

Copyright (C) 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"

and "show warranty" for details.

This GDB was configured as "x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu".

For bug reporting instructions, please see:

...

Reading symbols from /path/example...done.

(gdb) run

Starting program: /path/example

size of a = 21

[Inferior 1 (process 14290) exited normally]

GDB prints the output of printf in the screen, and then informs the user that the program exited normally.

{{Portal|Free and open-source software|Computer programming}}

• Binary File Descriptor library (libbfd)
• dbx
• DDD, a GUI for GDB and other debuggers
• gdbserver
• LLDB

{{Clear}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{Official website|https://www.gnu.org/software/gdb}}
• [http://www.ultragdb.com/ UltraGDB: Visual C/C++ Debugging with GDB on Windows and Linux] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171212091410/http://www.ultragdb.com/ |date=2017-12-12 }}
• [http://linsyssoft.com/product_kgdb.php KGDB: Linux Kernel Source Level Debugger]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100829051021/http://kldp.net/projects/mygdb/ The website for "MyGDB: GDB Frontend" in the Korean language]
• [https://visualgdb.com/ A Visual Studio plugin for debugging with GDB]
• [https://www.drdobbs.com/testing/13-linux-debuggers-for-c-reviewed/240156817 Comparison of GDB front-ends, 2013]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20141022045312/https://developer.palm.com/content/api/dev-guide/pdk/eclipse-gdb-debugging.html Using Eclipse as a Front-End to the GDB Debugger]

• Richard M. Stallman, Roland Pesch, Stan Shebs, et al., [http://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb.html Debugging with GDB] (Free Software Foundation, 2011) {{ISBN|978-0-9831592-3-0}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070303045900/http://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdbint.html GDB Internals]

• [http://www.unknownroad.com/rtfm/gdbtut/gdbtoc.html RMS's gdb Tutorial] (Ryan Michael Schmidt, not Richard Matthew Stallman)
• [https://www.gdb-tutorial.net GDB Tutorial]

{{GNU}}

{{Authority control}}

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