GDB is a source-level debugger, capable of breaking programs at any specific line, displaying variable values, and determining where errors occurred. Currently, it works for C, C++, Fortran, Modula 2 and Java programs.
Specifically, GDB can do four main kinds of things (plus other things in support of these) to help developers identify bugs:
- Start the program, specifying anything that might affect its behavior
- Make the program stop on specified conditions
- Examine what has happened, when the program has stopped
- Change things in the code, to experiment with correcting the effects of one bug and go on to learn about another
GDB is a must-have for any serious programmer.
Key Features
- Supports a wide variety of processors including: Alpha, ARM, AVR, H8/300, System/370, System 390, X86 and its 64-bit extension X86-64, IA-64 “Itanium”, Motorola 68000, MIPS, PA-RISC, PowerPC, SuperH, SPARC, and VAX.
- Remote mode for debugging embedded systems and kernels.
- Extensive facilities for tracing and altering the execution of code.
- Monitor and modify the values of internal variables.
- Call functions independently of the software’s standard behaviour.
- Large number of supported languages including C, C++, Fortran, Pascal, Modula-2, and Ada.
Website: www.sourceware.org/gdb
Support:
Developer: GNU Project
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
GDB is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Debuggers | |
|---|---|
| LLDB | Next generation, high-performance debugger |
| Ghidra | Software reverse engineering framework |
| Delve | Source level debugger for the Go programming language |
| GDB | The GNU Debugger |
| Valgrind | A memory debugger and profiler |
| Radare2 | Portable reversing framework |
| BugStalker | Rust debugger |
| Xdebug | Extension for PHP to aid debugging and development |
| Seer | GUI frontend to GDB |
| iaito | Graphical interface for radare2 |
| React Native Debugger | Standalone app for debugging React Native apps |
| KDbg | Graphical user interface to GDB |
| strace | Diagnostic, debugging and instructional userspace utility |
| rr | Record-and-replay debugger |
| drgn | Programmable debugger that puts scripting at the centre |
| cgdb | Lightweight console frontend to the GNU debugger |
| PuDB | Console-based visual debugger for Python |
| nnd | Partially inspired by RemedyBG |
| bashdb | Source-code debugger for bash; follows the GDB command syntax |
| Sysprof | Profile an application or entire system |
| crash | Linux kernel crash analysis utility |
| Nemiver | Standalone graphical debugger for GNOME |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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