21 The GDB/MI Interface

Function and purpose

GDB/MI is a line based machine oriented text interface to GDB. It is specifically intended to support the development of systems which use the debugger as just one small component of a larger system.

This chapter is a specification of the GDB/MI interface. It is written in the form of a reference manual.

Notation and terminology

This chapter uses the following notation:

•separates two alternatives.

•[ something ] indicates that something is optional: it may or may not be given.

•( group )* means that group inside the parentheses may repeat zero or more times.

•( group )+ means that group inside the parentheses may repeat one or more times.

•“string” means a literal string.

Acknowledgments

In alphabetic order: Andrew Cagney, Fernando Nasser, Stan Shebs and Elena Zannoni.

21.1 GDB/MI Command Syntax

21.1.1 GDB/MI Input syntax

command

cli-command mi-command

cli-command

[ token ] cli-command nl, where cli-command is

 

any existing GDB CLI command.

mi-command

[ token ] "-"operation ( " " option )* [ " --" ] ( "

 

" parameter )* nl

token

"any sequence of digits"

option

"-"parameter [ " " parameter ]

parameter

non-blank-sequence c-string

operation

any of the operations described in this chapter

non-blank-sequence

anything, provided it does not contain special

 

characters such as “-”, nl, """ and of course “”

c-string

""" seven-bit-iso-c-string-content """

nl

CR CR-LF

21.1 GDB/MI Command Syntax 307