3 docs tagged with "gdb"

Systematic techniques for finding and fixing bugs: compilation flags, assertions, logging, debuggers. Understanding debugging tools is essential for efficient development.

GNU Debugger (GDB) is the standard debugger for C/C++ on Linux. Allows stepping through code, inspecting variables, setting breakpoints, and analyzing crashes.

The thing that surprises people about on-chip debugging is how little of it is software. GDB does not single-step your firmware; the processor single-steps it, because Armv7-M defines a halting-debug mode with its own registers, comparator hardware for breakpoints, and comparator hardware for watchpoints. GDB is a client. OpenOCD is a translator. The debug capability is silicon that was on the die before you wrote anything, and it is finite in a way that software breakpoints on a hosted system are not.