Using gdb -i=mi integration in emacs 24

Question

I'm checking out a segfault in one of our apps. A short time after starting the app, the main gdb status bar changes to:

(Debugger:run [signal-received])

A (gdb) prompt appears but the contents of all other windows remain unchanged (empty). Typing anything at the prompt does nothing - gdb appears to be hanging. Running the same steps on the command line results in the expected output from gdb with a complete and correct backtrace.

This is my first time debugging with the -i=mi integration between emacs and gdb. I'm using emacs 24.2 and gdb 7.5.

Are there any suggestions on how I can debug this further?

Is it possible to reduce the level of integration? Would that allow me to determine which area is causing the problem?

A final point is that the initial loading of the app takes around 70s compared with around 3s from the command line.

Answer 1

Load time can be reduced by setting gdb-create-source-file-list to nil (use customize). See the documentation for what this does and why it substantially increases load times in some instances.

Answer 2

You can use M-x gud-gdb to use the old gud mode (i.e. without the mi interaction). Less fancy but more reliable.

Answer 3

It appears that gdb-ui from emacs 23 will still work in emacs 24:

• Find a copy of gdb-ui (In my case gdb-ui.el.gz and gdb-ui.elc from a backup)
• Place these into a directory (I have added ~/emacs-modes)

Then add the following to your .emacs:

(add-to-list 'load-path "~/emacs-modes")
(require 'gdb-ui)

Running gdb will now use the old --annotate=3 mode rather than -i=mi.