Gdb/Initialization-Files
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2.1.4 Initialization Files
During startup (see Startup) GDB will execute commands from several initialization files. These initialization files use the same syntax as command files (see Command Files) and are processed by GDB in the same way.
To display the list of initialization files loaded by GDB at startup, in the order they will be loaded, you can use gdb --help.
As the system wide and home directory initialization files are
processed before most command line options, changes to settings
(e.g. ‘set complaints’) can affect subsequent processing of
command line options and operands.
The following sections describe where GDB looks for the initialization and the order that the files are searched for.
2.1.4.1 System wide initialization files
There are two locations that are searched for system wide initialization files. Both of these locations are always checked:
system.gdbinit- This is a single system-wide initialization file. Its location is specified with the
--with-system-gdbinitconfigure option (see System-wide configuration). It is loaded first when GDB starts, before command line options have been processed. system.gdbinit.d- This is the system-wide initialization directory. Its location is specified with the
--with-system-gdbinit-dirconfigure option (see System-wide configuration). Files in this directory are loaded in alphabetical order immediately aftersystem.gdbinit(if enabled) when GDB starts, before command line options have been processed. Files need to have a recognized scripting language extension (.py/.scm) or be named with a.gdbextension to be interpreted as regular GDB commands. GDB will not recurse into any subdirectories of this directory.
It is possible to prevent the system wide initialization files from
being loaded using the ‘-nx’ command line option, see Choosing Modes.
2.1.4.2 Home directory initialization file
After loading the system wide initialization files GDB will look for an initialization file in the users home directory1. There are a number of locations that GDB will search in the home directory, these locations are searched in order and GDB will load the first file that it finds, and subsequent locations will not be checked.
On non-Apple hosts the locations searched are:
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gdb/gdbinit
$HOME/.config/gdb/gdbinit
$HOME/.gdbinit
While on Apple hosts the locations searched are:
$HOME/Library/Preferences/gdb/gdbinit
$HOME/.gdbinit
It is possible to prevent the home directory initialization file from
being loaded using the ‘-nx’ or ‘-nh’ command line options,
see Choosing Modes.
The DJGPP port of GDB uses the name gdb.ini instead of
.gdbinit or gdbinit, due to the limitations of file
names imposed by DOS filesystems. The Windows port of GDB
uses the standard name, but if it finds a gdb.ini file in your
home directory, it warns you about that and suggests to rename the
file to the standard name.
2.1.4.3 Local directory initialization file
GDB will check the current directory for a file called
.gdbinit. It is loaded last, after command line options
other than ‘-x’ and ‘-ex’ have been processed. The command
line options ‘-x’ and ‘-ex’ are processed last, after
.gdbinit has been loaded, see Choosing
Files.
If the file in the current directory was already loaded as the home directory initialization file then it will not be loaded a second time.
It is possible to prevent the local directory initialization file from
being loaded using the ‘-nx’ command line option, see Choosing Modes.
Footnotes
(1)
On DOS/Windows systems, the home directory is the
one pointed to by the HOME environment variable.
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