GDB Debugging Symbol
GDB Debugging Symbol
Gdb Debugging Symbol
- A Symbol Table provides the maps instructions in the compiled binary program to their corresponding variable, function, or line in the source code.
- This mapping could be something like:
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Program instruction ⇒ item name, item type, original file, line number defined. - Symbol tables may be embedded into the program or stored as a separate file. So, if you plan to debug your program, then it is required to create a symbol table which will have the required information to debug the program.
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We can infer the following facts about symbol tables:
- A symbol table works for a particular version of the program - if the program changes, a new table must be created.
- Debug builds are often larger and slower than retail (non-debug) builds; debug builds contain the symbol table and other additional information.
- If you wish to debug a binary program you did not compile yourself, you must get the symbol tables from the author.
- To let GDB be able to read all that information line by line from the symbol table, we need to compile it a bit differently. Normally we compile our programs as:
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gcc welcome.cc -o welcome - Instead of doing this, we need to compile with the
-g flagas shown below: gcc -g welcome.cc -o welcome