Debugging with GDB

Next: , Previous: Top, Up: Top


Summary of gdb

The purpose of a debugger such as gdb is to allow you to see what is going on “inside” another program while it executes—or what another program was doing at the moment it crashed.

gdb can do four main kinds of things (plus other things in support of these) to help you catch bugs in the act:

You can use gdb to debug programs written in C and C++. For more information, see Supported Languages. For more information, see C and C++.

Support for D is partial. For information on D, see D.

Support for Modula-2 is partial. For information on Modula-2, see Modula-2.

Support for OpenCL C is partial. For information on OpenCL C, see OpenCL C.

Debugging Pascal programs which use sets, subranges, file variables, or nested functions does not currently work. gdb does not support entering expressions, printing values, or similar features using Pascal syntax.

gdb can be used to debug programs written in Fortran, although it may be necessary to refer to some variables with a trailing underscore.

gdb can be used to debug programs written in Objective-C, using either the Apple/NeXT or the GNU Objective-C runtime.