What is GNU Project Debugger?
The GNU Project Debugger (GDB) is a free and open source debugger that can be used to debug programs written in languages like C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Ada, Go, and Rust across many platforms including Linux, Unix, and Windows.
Some key features of GDB include:
- Step through program execution line by line
- Set breakpoints to pause execution at particular lines or functions
- Inspect variables and data structures to understand current program state
- Change variable values dynamically during debug sessions
- Integrated disassembly view for analyzing machine code
- Attach to and debug already running processes
- Debug multiple threads and processes
GDB provides a command line interface for interactive debugging. It can also be used with various IDEs and debug GUIs that provide graphical frontends. GDB is highly extensible and customizable via Python scripts.
Key advantages of GDB include that it is free, open source software and works across many platforms and languages. It has a an active development community contributing new features and fixes over its 30+ year history.