gdb catchpoint for uncaught C++ exceptions only?

Question

I can tell the gdb debugger to stop as soon as any C++ exception is thrown by setting a catchpoint with the gdb command

catch throw

However, is there any way to only stop at uncaught C++ exceptions (like in C# or Java)? This would make it much easier to find bugs in some situations.

Thanks!

Answer 1

If an exception is uncaught, the special library function terminate() is automatically called. Terminate is actually a pointer to a function and default value is the Standard C library function abort(). You may be able to set a breakpoint on the call to the abort() function and identify the location of the uncaught exception from there.

break abort
...
run
...
bt

---

You can install your own terminate() function by using std::set_terminate(). You should be able to set a breakpoint on your terminate function in gdb. You may be able to generate a stack backtrace from your terminate() function and this backtrace may help in identifying the location of the exception. Additional details are provided here.