C. Maintenance Commands

In addition to commands intended for GDB users, GDB includes a number of commands intended for GDB developers. These commands are provided here for reference.

maint info breakpoints

Using the same format as `info breakpoints', display both the breakpoints you've set explicitly, and those GDB is using for internal purposes. Internal breakpoints are shown with negative breakpoint numbers. The type column identifies what kind of breakpoint is shown:

breakpoint

Normal, explicitly set breakpoint.

watchpoint

Normal, explicitly set watchpoint.

longjmp

Internal breakpoint, used to handle correctly stepping through longjmp calls.

longjmp resume

Internal breakpoint at the target of a longjmp.

until

Temporary internal breakpoint used by the GDB until command.

finish

Temporary internal breakpoint used by the GDB finish command.

shlib events

Shared library events.

maint internal-error

maint internal-warning

Cause GDB to call the internal function internal_error or internal_warning and hence behave as though an internal error or internal warning has been detected. In addition to reporting the internal problem, these functions give the user the opportunity to either quit GDB or create a core file of the current GDB session.

(gdb) maint internal-error testing, 1, 2 .../maint.c:121: internal-error: testing, 1, 2 A problem internal to GDB has been detected. Further debugging may prove unreliable. Quit this debugging session? (y or n) n Create a core file? (y or n) n (gdb)

Takes an optional parameter that is used as the text of the error or warning message.

maint print dummy-frames

Prints the contents of GDB's internal dummy-frame stack.

(gdb) b add ... (gdb) print add(2,3) Breakpoint 2, add (a=2, b=3) at ... 58 return (a + b); The program being debugged stopped while in a function called from GDB. ... (gdb) maint print dummy-frames 0x1a57c80: pc=0x01014068 fp=0x0200bddc sp=0x0200bdd6 top=0x0200bdd4 id={stack=0x200bddc,code=0x101405c} call_lo=0x01014000 call_hi=0x01014001 (gdb)

Takes an optional file parameter.

maint print registers

maint print raw-registers

maint print cooked-registers

maint print register-groups

Print GDB's internal register data structures.

The command maint print raw-registers includes the contents of the raw register cache; the command maint print cooked-registers includes the (cooked) value of all registers; and the command maint print register-groups includes the groups that each register is a member of. See section `Registers' in GDB Internals.

Takes an optional file parameter.

maint print reggroups

Print GDB's internal register group data structures.

Takes an optional file parameter.

(gdb) maint print reggroups Group Type general user float user all user vector user system user save internal restore internal

maint set profile

maint show profile

Control profiling of GDB.

Profiling will be disabled until you use the `maint set profile' command to enable it. When you enable profiling, the system will begin collecting timing and execution count data; when you disable profiling or exit GDB, the results will be written to a log file. Remember that if you use profiling, GDB will overwrite the profiling log file (often called `gmon.out'). If you have a record of important profiling data in a `gmon.out' file, be sure to move it to a safe location.

Configuring with `--enable-profiling' arranges for GDB to be compiled with the `-pg' compiler option.

maint set dwarf2 max-cache-age

maint show dwarf2 max-cache-age

Control the DWARF 2 compilation unit cache.

In object files with inter-compilation-unit references, such as those produced by the GCC option `-feliminate-dwarf2-dups', the DWARF 2 reader needs to frequently refer to previously read compilation units. This setting controls how long a compilation unit will remain in the cache if it is not referenced. Setting it to zero disables caching, which will slow down GDB startup but reduce memory consumption.