How to load all symbol-files recursively from given path including subdirectories?

Question

You can point a single symbol file to gdb with command the:

symbol-file /usr/lib/debug/symbolfile.so

But how to tell gdb to load all symbol-files from given path including subdirectories?

What platform are you on? I have a good answer for Linux/ELF, but I am too lazy to type it in if that's not your platform. — Employed Russian, May 16 '10 at 03:15
Man, all these answers suck... Ditto for [How to load multiple symbol files in gdb?](http://stackoverflow.com/q/20380204) — jww, Aug 01 '16 at 20:54

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '10 at 16:09

2

On a Linux system, you should never have to use symbol-file GDB command in the first place.

The trick is to prepare your binaries in such a way that GDB will find the symbol file automatically. This is surprisingly easy to do. Detailed instructions are here.

answered May 16 '10 at 16:09

Employed Russian

199,314
34
295
362

Well, lets assume I don't compile anything myself. For example after apt-get install libc-dbg. Should I move installed debug package by copying it somewhere before debugging? – user44556 May 17 '10 at 05:52
Executing "apt-get install libc-dbg" should allow you to debug libc in GDB *without* any additional symbol-file commands. If it doesn't, then either you have a broken .gdbinit (most likely), a broken GDB, or a broken libc-dbg. I suggest you edit your question and provide as many details as possible, including what packages are installed and what they contain, as well as output from your actual GDB session with "gdb -nx -ex 'set verbose on' ./a.out". – Employed Russian May 17 '10 at 18:17

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 29 '14 at 12:43

0

Use following command: set solib-search-path path

answered Oct 29 '14 at 12:43

user1071801

11
3

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 24 '18 at 13:26

The solution is to add-symbol-file. For instance, if symbol file is called lib.out:

add-symbol-file lib.out 0

This is particularly useful on embedded system where application developers use a library stored in ROM. The debugger needs the symbol file to reconstruct the stack if execution stops in the middle of a library function call. This works even if the library was generated on a separate system to which the developers have no access.

How to load all symbol-files recursively from given path including subdirectories?

3 Answers3