gdb - how to automatically run the executable ?

Question

howdy. i'd like to have gdb immediately run the executable, as if i'd typed "run". (motivation: i dislike typing "run")

one way is to can pipe the command to gdb like this: echo run | gdb myApp but the problem with this approach is that you lose interactivity with gdb. eg, if a breakpoint triggers or myApp crashes, gdb quits. this method is discussed here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/322110/invoke-gdb-to-automatically-pass-arguments-to-the-program-being-debugged

looking at the options in --help i don't see a way to do this, but perhaps i'm missing something.

tia, orion

Answer 1

I would use a gdb-script:

gdb -x your-script

where your-script contains something like:

file a.out
b main
r

afterwards you have the normal interactive gdb prompt

EDIT:

here is an optimization for the truly lazy:

1. save the script as .gdbinit in the working directory.

2. Afterwards you simply run gdb as

   gdb

... and gdb automatically loads and executes the content of .gdbinit.

Answer 2

gdb -ex run ./a.out

EDIT: Orion says this doesn't work on Mac OSX.

The -ex flag has been available since GDB-6.4 (released in 2005), but OSX uses Apple's fork of GDB, and the latest XCode for Leopard contains GDB 6.3.50-20050815 (Apple version gdb-967), so you are out of luck.

Building current GDB-7.0.1 release is one possible solution. Just be sure to read this.