GDB Cheat Sheet
Basics
$ gcc g ... create an executable that can be debugged using GDB
$ gdb progName start debugging progName
$ gdb args progName args start debugging progName, using command-line arguments args
(gdb) q quit GDB
(gdb) help command display information about command, incl. its syntax
(gbd) run start running program
(gbd) kill terminate currently running program
Examining Data
print expr show current value of expression expr
print var>attr show current value of attribute attr of struct var
print *arr@len show current value of first len elements of array arr
print/format expr show current value of expression expr in format format
print/x expr show current value of expr in hexadecimal
print/t expr show current value of expr in binary
print/c expr show current value of expr as an integer and its character representation
print/f expr show current value of expr in floating point syntax
print/s expr show current value of expr as a string, if possible
display expr automatically print value of expression expr at each halt in execution
undisplay disp# stop displaying expression with display number disp#
watch expr set a watchpoint on expression expr (break whenever value of expr changes)
info args show value of all arguments to current function
info locals show current value of all local variables
x addr show current word in memory at address addr, in hexademical
x/units|format|size addr show current value of memory of size units x size at address addr, in format format
x/3tb addr show current value of 3 bytes of memory at address addr, in binary
Examining the Stack
backtrace display the current call stack (can be used after a runtime error, eg. segfault)
Gabrielle Singh Cadieux, 2017
Breakpoints
break point create a breakpoint at point
break 5 create a breakpoint at line 5 of current source file
break func create a breakpoint at body of function func
break foo.c:5 create a breakpoint at line 5 of source file foo.c
break point if cond create a breakpoint at point which triggers if Boolean expression cond evaluates to true
info breakpoints display information about all current breakpoints
delete remove all breakpoints
delete breakpoint# remove breakpoint with number breakpoint#
Continuing and Stepping
continue continue executing normally
finish continue executing until current function returns
step execute next line of source code
next execute next line of source code, without descending into functions
Altering Execution
return expr return from current function at this point, with return value expr
set var var=expr store value of expression expr into program variable var
set var g=4 store 4 into program variable g
set {type}addr = expr store value of expression expr (represented as type type) into memory at address addr
set {int}0x83040 = 4 store 4 as an int at address 0x83040
signal signal continue executing and immediately send signal signal to the program
signal SIGINT continue executing and immediately send an interrupt signal to the program
Full GDB documentation: https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/index.html
Gabrielle Singh Cadieux, 2017
