I have a list of breakpoints which I want to add each time I debug a particular program.
Is there a way I can put all of the breakpoint information in a file and use it at the start of each debug session? In other words can I provide a script file with breakpoint information to GDB before I give the 'run' command?
From man gdb(1):
-x file
Execute GDB commands from file file.
You could then put your breakpoints in a file:
break [file:]function
break [file:]function
...
You can put all of the commands you want into a .gdbinit file that lives in the same directory as the executable you are debugging.
Something like:
b somefile.c:128
b otherfile.c:33
Should work just fine.
Yes, the -x command line argument will allow you to execute arbitrary files at GDB startup, but maintaining a .gdbinit file for each project means that the file is executed automatically (without the need to specify a filename). Also, you can easily add the project-specific .gdbinit file to your source control, which means that all of your team members can use the same debugging facilities.
Besides using an external file, you can also just keep GDB open: If the binary under GDB changes, it will reload the binary and libraries without losing your breakpoints the next time you run.
The save breakpoints command is new as of GDB 7.2 (2011-08-23). After you've saved the breakpoints to a file you can read them into a later GDB session using the source command and then the next time you run GDB you can use the -x <filename> option.
save breakpoints <filename>
Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
definitions, use the `source' command.
Or use:
gdb --command=commands.gdb ./a.out
where commands.gdb is a text file with your breakpoints.
--command is probably the same as -x
The documentation of GDB claims that the commands "save breakpoints" and "source" can be used.
However, this doesn't work on my GDB (Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon)).
