GDB/MI Support Commands (Debugging with GDB)

27.23 GDB/MI Support Commands

Since new commands and features get regularly added to GDB/MI, some commands are available to help front-ends query the debugger about support for these capabilities. Similarly, it is also possible to query GDB about target support of certain features.

The -info-gdb-mi-command Command

Synopsis

 -info-gdb-mi-command cmd_name

Query support for the GDB/MI command named cmd_name.

Note that the dash (-) starting all GDB/MI commands is technically not part of the command name (see GDB/MI Input Syntax), and thus should be omitted in cmd_name. However, for ease of use, this command also accepts the form with the leading dash.

GDB Command

There is no corresponding GDB command.

Result

The result is a tuple. There is currently only one field:

‘exists’: This field is equal to "true" if the GDB/MI command exists, "false" otherwise.

Example

Here is an example where the GDB/MI command does not exist:

-info-gdb-mi-command unsupported-command
^done,command={exists="false"}

And here is an example where the GDB/MI command is known to the debugger:

-info-gdb-mi-command symbol-list-lines
^done,command={exists="true"}

The -list-features Command

Returns a list of particular features of the MI protocol that this version of gdb implements. A feature can be a command, or a new field in an output of some command, or even an important bugfix. While a frontend can sometimes detect presence of a feature at runtime, it is easier to perform detection at debugger startup.

The command returns a list of strings, with each string naming an available feature. Each returned string is just a name, it does not have any internal structure. The list of possible feature names is given below.

Example output:

(gdb) -list-features
^done,result=["feature1","feature2"]

The current list of features is:

‘frozen-varobjs’: Indicates support for the -var-set-frozen command, as well as possible presence of the frozen field in the output of -varobj-create.
‘pending-breakpoints’: Indicates support for the -f option to the -break-insert command.
‘python’: Indicates Python scripting support, Python-based pretty-printing commands, and possible presence of the ‘display_hint’ field in the output of -var-list-children
‘thread-info’: Indicates support for the -thread-info command.
‘data-read-memory-bytes’: Indicates support for the -data-read-memory-bytes and the -data-write-memory-bytes commands.
‘breakpoint-notifications’: Indicates that changes to breakpoints and breakpoints created via the CLI will be announced via async records.
‘ada-task-info’: Indicates support for the -ada-task-info command.
‘language-option’: Indicates that all GDB/MI commands accept the --language option (see Context management).
‘info-gdb-mi-command’: Indicates support for the -info-gdb-mi-command command.
‘undefined-command-error-code’: Indicates support for the "undefined-command" error code in error result records, produced when trying to execute an undefined GDB/MI command (see GDB/MI Result Records).
‘exec-run-start-option’: Indicates that the -exec-run command supports the --start option (see GDB/MI Program Execution).
‘data-disassemble-a-option’: Indicates that the -data-disassemble command supports the -a option (see GDB/MI Data Manipulation).

The -list-target-features Command

Returns a list of particular features that are supported by the target. Those features affect the permitted MI commands, but unlike the features reported by the -list-features command, the features depend on which target GDB is using at the moment. Whenever a target can change, due to commands such as -target-select, -target-attach or -exec-run, the list of target features may change, and the frontend should obtain it again. Example output:

(gdb) -list-target-features
^done,result=["async"]

The current list of features is:

‘async’: Indicates that the target is capable of asynchronous command execution, which means that GDB will accept further commands while the target is running.
‘reverse’: Indicates that the target is capable of reverse execution. See Reverse Execution, for more information.