How to set a breakpoint in gdb for all invocations of a function?

Question

I have a third part library function call scattered at a lot of places in my executable. My executable is built using debug symbols, but the third party library does not have the debug symbols, hence I cannot place a breakpoint on the function. I want to put a breakpoint whenever the library function is called, to examine the call stack. How can I set a breakpoint at all invocations of a library function call within my executable.

Answer 1

I think that the only way is to:

• find any call of this function in your code;
• create a breakpoint in that line;
• run the debugger and stop there;
• write in gdb nexti to get to the first function instruction;
• get current eip which will point at the beginning of that function;
• create a new breakpoint at the address pointed by eip;