GDB(1)

📦 version 2026.0.1.27+c9c3d3e3_ddb4_490e_bb41_6e9041ba32a7, in arch rolling

🌸 GDB(1) — the GNU Debugger, but make it a group chat 🌸

okay so real quick before we dive in: this is the GDB(1) page from the GNU Development Tools crew, and bestie, it's a lot. Grab a matcha, we're getting into it 💖

✨ NAME ✨

gdb — The GNU Debugger 👑

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

gdb [OPTIONS] [prog|prog procID|prog core]

that's it. that's the whole vibe. iconic honestly.

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what does a debugger even do, you ask? the whole purpose of a debugger like GDB is to let you see what's going on "inside" another program while it's running — or, like, what it was doing at the exact moment it crashed 😭 literally peeking behind the curtain.

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

  • Start your program, specifying anything that might affect its behavior.
  • Make your program stop on specified conditions.
  • Examine what has happened, when your program has stopped.
  • Change things in your program, so you can experiment with correcting the effects of one bug and go on to learn about another.

You can use GDB to debug programs written in C, C++, Fortran and Modula-2. multi-lingual queen 🫶

GDB is invoked with the shell command gdb. Once started, it reads commands from the terminal until you tell it to exit with the GDB command quit or exit. You can get online help from GDB itself by using the command help. self-sufficient much? we love that.

You can run gdb with no arguments or options; but the most usual way to start GDB is with one argument or two, specifying an executable program as the argument:

gdb program

You can also start with both an executable program and a core file specified:

gdb program core

You can, instead, specify a process ID as a second argument or use option -p, if you want to debug a running process:

gdb program 1234
gdb -p 1234

either way, that would attach GDB to process 1234. and with option -p you can totally omit the program filename 💅

💅 the commands you'll actually be typing 💅

Here are some of the most frequently needed GDB commands — memorize these, they're the main characters:

  • break [file:][function|line] — Set a breakpoint at function or line (in file).
  • run [arglist] — Start your program (with arglist, if specified).
  • bt — Backtrace: display the program stack.
  • print expr — Display the value of an expression.
  • c — Continue running your program (after stopping, e.g. at a breakpoint).
  • next — Execute next program line (after stopping); step over any function calls in the line.
  • edit [file:]function — look at the program line where it is presently stopped.
  • list [file:]function — type the text of the program in the vicinity of where it is presently stopped.
  • step — Execute next program line (after stopping); step into any function calls in the line.
  • help [name] — Show information about GDB command name, or general information about using GDB.
  • quit, exit — Exit from GDB.
💖 note the difference between next and step bestie — next steps over function calls, step steps into them. this is the classic gotcha, okay, write it down.

For full details on GDB, see Using GDB: A Guide to the GNU Source-Level Debugger, by Richard M. Stallman and Roland H. Pesch. The same text is available online as the gdb entry in the info program. free documentation royalty ✨

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

okay this is the long part. hydrate first 🍓

Any arguments other than options specify an executable file and core file (or process ID); that is, the first argument encountered with no associated option flag is equivalent to a --se option, and the second, if any, is equivalent to a -c option if it's the name of a file. Many options have both long and abbreviated forms; both are shown here. The long forms are also recognized if you truncate them, so long as enough of the option is present to be unambiguous. (yes, it'll guess. be nice to it.)

The abbreviated forms are shown here with - and long forms are shown with -- to reflect how they are shown in --help. However, GDB recognizes all of the following conventions for most options:

"--option=value"
"--option value"
"-option=value"
"-option value"
"--o=value"
"--o value"
"-o=value"
"-o value"

eight whole ways to say the same thing. commitment. 💀

All the options and command line arguments you give are processed in sequential order. The order makes a difference when the -x option is used. ⚠️ yeah, that one.

  • --help, -h — List all options, with brief explanations.
  • --symbols=file, -s file — Read symbol table from file.
  • --write — Enable writing into executable and core files. (careful with this one, bestie, you're literally letting it write into your binaries 😳)
  • --exec=file, -e file — Use file as the executable file to execute when appropriate, and for examining pure data in conjunction with a core dump.
  • --se=file — Read symbol table from file and use it as the executable file. two-for-one deal 🎀
  • --core=file, -c file — Use file as a core dump to examine.
  • --command=file, -x file — Execute GDB commands from file.
  • --eval-command=command, -ex command — Execute given GDB command.
  • --init-eval-command=command, -iex — Execute GDB command before loading the inferior.
  • --directory=directory, -d directory — Add directory to the path to search for source files.
  • --nh — Do not execute commands from ~/.config/gdb/gdbinit, ~/.gdbinit, ~/.config/gdb/gdbearlyinit, or ~/.gdbearlyinit
  • --nx, -n — Do not execute commands from any .gdbinit or .gdbearlyinit initialization files.
  • --quiet, --silent, -q — "Quiet". Do not print the introductory and copyright messages. These messages are also suppressed in batch mode.
  • --batch — Run in batch mode. Exit with status 0 after processing all the command files specified with -x (and .gdbinit, if not inhibited). Exit with nonzero status if an error occurs in executing the GDB commands in the command files.

Batch mode may be useful for running GDB as a filter, for example to download and run a program on another computer; in order to make this more useful, the message

Program exited normally.

(which is ordinarily issued whenever a program running under GDB control terminates) is not issued when running in batch mode.

  • --batch-silent — Run in batch mode, just like --batch, but totally silent. All GDB output is suppressed (stderr is unaffected). This is much quieter than --silent and would be useless for an interactive session.

This is particularly useful when using targets that give Loading section messages, for example.

🙈 Note that targets that give their output via GDB, as opposed to writing directly to stdout, will also be made silent.
  • --args prog [arglist] — Change interpretation of command line so that arguments following this option are passed as arguments to the inferior. As an example, take the following command:
gdb ./a.out -q

It would start GDB with -q, not printing the introductory message. On the other hand, using:

gdb --args ./a.out -q

starts GDB with the introductory message, and passes the option to the inferior. see the difference? that's the whole trick 🫶

  • --pid=pid — Attach GDB to an already running program, with the PID pid.
  • --tui — Open the terminal user interface. pretty mode ✨
  • --readnow — Read all symbols from the given symfile on the first access.
  • --readnever — Do not read symbol files. the opposite of a symbol girlie.
  • --return-child-result — GDB's exit code will be the same as the child's exit code.
  • --configuration — Print details about GDB configuration and then exit.
  • --version — Print version information and then exit.
  • --cd=directory — Run GDB using directory as its working directory, instead of the current directory.
  • --data-directory=directory, -D — Run GDB using directory as its data directory. The data directory is where GDB searches for its auxiliary files.
  • --fullname, -f — Emacs sets this option when it runs GDB as a subprocess. It tells GDB to output the full file name and line number in a standard, recognizable fashion each time a stack frame is displayed (which includes each time the program stops). This recognizable format looks like two \032 characters, followed by the file name, line number and character position separated by colons, and a newline. The Emacs-to-GDB interface program uses the two \032 characters as a signal to display the source code for the frame.
  • -b baudrate — Set the line speed (baud rate or bits per second) of any serial interface used by GDB for remote debugging.
  • -l timeout — Set timeout, in seconds, for remote debugging.
  • --tty=device — Run using device for your program's standard input and output.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

sooo this section is in the manual but there's literally nothing in it 😭 no environment variables documented here, bestie. it's giving empty section energy. we move.

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

The full documentation for GDB is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and gdb programs and GDB's Texinfo documentation are properly installed at your site, the command

info gdb

should give you access to the complete manual. iykyk 💜

Using GDB: A Guide to the GNU Source-Level Debugger, Richard M. Stallman and Roland H. Pesch, July 1991. vintage ✨

Copyright (c) 1988-2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the Invariant Sections being "Free Software" and "Free Software Needs Free Documentation", with the Front-Cover Texts being "A GNU Manual," and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below.

(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You are free to copy and modify this GNU Manual. Buying copies from GNU Press supports the FSF in developing GNU and promoting software freedom." @sp 1 Copyright (c) 2026, Intel Corporation. Intel's modifications are provided pursuant to the GNU Free Documentation license.

okay that's the whole thing, you made it 🎉 this was GDB(1) from gdb-17.1.2026.be1840694+, dated 2026-04-07 — go set a breakpoint, you absolute icon 💅✨🔥

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