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(gdb.info)Break Commands

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Breakpoint command lists
------------------------

   You can give any breakpoint (or watchpoint or catchpoint) a series of
commands to execute when your program stops due to that breakpoint.  For
example, you might want to print the values of certain expressions, or
enable other breakpoints.

`commands [BNUM]'
`... COMMAND-LIST ...'
`end'
     Specify a list of commands for breakpoint number BNUM.  The
     commands themselves appear on the following lines.  Type a line
     containing just `end' to terminate the commands.

     To remove all commands from a breakpoint, type `commands' and
     follow it immediately with `end'; that is, give no commands.

     With no BNUM argument, `commands' refers to the last breakpoint,
     watchpoint, or catchpoint set (not to the breakpoint most recently
     encountered).

   Pressing <RET> as a means of repeating the last GDB command is
disabled within a COMMAND-LIST.

   You can use breakpoint commands to start your program up again.
Simply use the `continue' command, or `step', or any other command that
resumes execution.

   Any other commands in the command list, after a command that resumes
execution, are ignored.  This is because any time you resume execution
(even with a simple `next' or `step'), you may encounter another
breakpoint--which could have its own command list, leading to
ambiguities about which list to execute.

   If the first command you specify in a command list is `silent', the
usual message about stopping at a breakpoint is not printed.  This may
be desirable for breakpoints that are to print a specific message and
then continue.  If none of the remaining commands print anything, you
see no sign that the breakpoint was reached.  `silent' is meaningful
only at the beginning of a breakpoint command list.

   The commands `echo', `output', and `printf' allow you to print
precisely controlled output, and are often useful in silent
breakpoints.  Note: Commands for controlled output.

   For example, here is how you could use breakpoint commands to print
the value of `x' at entry to `foo' whenever `x' is positive.

     break foo if x>0
     commands
     silent
     printf "x is %d\n",x
     cont
     end

   One application for breakpoint commands is to compensate for one bug
so you can test for another.  Put a breakpoint just after the erroneous
line of code, give it a condition to detect the case in which something
erroneous has been done, and give it commands to assign correct values
to any variables that need them.  End with the `continue' command so
that your program does not stop, and start with the `silent' command so
that no output is produced.  Here is an example:

     break 403
     commands
     silent
     set x = y + 4
     cont
     end