GDB GDBTK INI TUTORIAL

APP TUTORIAL CREATE A GDB / VISUAL GDB INIT FILE By: Mr. James Calvin Developers can automate debugger commands normally typed on the command line by creating an Init file that is read into GDB/GDBTK (a.k.a. Visual GDB and Insight). The prerequisites are you need a GNU X-Tools toolchain installed and knowledge of what commands you want to automate with GDB / GDBTK. The Init file, also called the ‘ini’ file, needs to be in a directory that the cross-executable is co-located. If the source is not located in the same directory, you will need to use a ‘dir’ command as in Example 3 to show all paths to GDB / Visual GDB debug files and target executable. A command file for GDB / Visual GDB is a file of lines that are GDB commands. Comments (lines starting with #) may also be included. An empty line in a command file does nothing; it does not mean to repeat the last command, as it would from the terminal. When you start GDB / Visual GDB, it automatically executes commands from its Init files. These are files named `.gdbinit' on Unix and `gdb.ini' on Windows (Cygwin). During startup, the debugger does the following: 1. Reads the init file (if any) in your current working directory. (Execute ‘pwd’ to find your current working directory before startup. Execute a ‘cd ’ to change to the directory of the target executable and Init file.) 2. Processes command line options and operands in default Init file. 3. Optionally, reads command files ...