gdb: GNU Debugger

GNU Debugger (GDB) can be used to debug compiled programs (written in C, C++, Fortran). It can perform four main tasks: inform about everything that might affect the behavior, make the program stop in specific conditions, examine why the program stopped, and finally change things in the program in order to correct the effects of a bug.

In order to use the debugger the program has to be compiled with -g flag to enable symbolic debugging.

The debugger can either start a new process or attach to a running process.

Example of starting a new process to be debugged:

gdb --tui ./myexecutable

Example of attaching to an existing process (with process ID pid):

gdb --tui ./myexecutable pid

If additional arguments are needed for the program, one can use the option --args before the name of the executable. The --tui option starts a nice terminal interface that shows the source code.

In the gdb prompt it is possible to enter commands such as break, step, or run. For more information check the official page: GDB.

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Last update: July 31, 2020

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