Prettify my gdb

Question

Is there a way to highlight and color gdb output during interactive debugging?

Please don't reply I should use ddd, nemiver, emacs, vim, or any other front-end, I just prefer gdb as it is, but would like to see its output with some terminal colors.

Thank you

Answer 1

gdb has no colors, you need to either:

• write your own readline-based front-end,
• or hack the code directly into gdb.

That would be a real nice hack, too.

Answer 2

It's not colours, but I assume you're aware of gdb's text gui? I wasn't for a long time and it makes a vast difference to how usable gdb is.

For those not in the know, launch gdb with -tui

Answer 3

I know you did not want a frontend. But how about cgdb it is very close to gdb, it is textmode but has a source window above with syntax highlight on the code.

Answer 4

cgdb is great tool. It is what I am exactly looking for. thanks Johan for your hints. /Kai

Answer 5

you can get whatever colors you want;

# gdb
(gdb) shell echo -en '\E[47;34m'"\033[1m"
...
anything is now blue foreground and white background
...
(gdb) shell tput sgr0
... back to normal

Answer 6

I was googling around and found DebugVI which is similar to cgdb, but runs vi instead of a custom viewer. dbvi

Answer 7

It is possible to greatly enhance the appears of gdb through the use of colors, this is done via any of the following method:

1. Colorized prompt via the "set prompt" command
2. Colorized commands via hooks
3. Colorized syntax highlighting of the "list" command.

All examples are aviable at the following page:

http://www.michaelkelleher.info/?p=1

and

http://www.michaelkelleher.info/?p=51