gdb unexpected behavior: in nested if - c

I am using
p12user#ubuntu:~$ uname -a
Linux ubuntu 2.6.32-40-generic #87-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 6 00:56:56 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux
p12user#ubuntu:~$ gdb -v
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.1-ubuntu
Copyright (C) 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
p12user#ubuntu:~/programming$ gcc --version
gcc (Ubuntu 4.4.3-4ubuntu5.1) 4.4.3
Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
On debugging this program in gdb, which is compiled as gcc -g program.c:
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int condition1 = 1;
if(condition1)
{
if(!condition1)
{
printf("The control shouldn't come here.\n");
}
}
else
{
printf("in else\n");
}
return 0;
}
the behaviour is:
Breakpoint 1, main () at program.c:4
4 int condition1 = 1;
(gdb) n
5 if(condition1)
(gdb) n
7 if(!condition1)
(gdb) n
9 printf("The control shouldn't come here.\n");
(gdb) n
16 return 0;
(gdb) n
17 }
(gdb)
The behaviour at LINE 9 is unexpected in gdb. However, the print statement is only shown in gdb but not executed. And if I put a matching ELSE (with some print statement) with inner-IF then this doesn't happen, also if matching ELSE for outer-IF is removed then this doesn't happen. Am I missing something trivial here?

Make sure you're building your program without any kinds of optimization, as the program you've shown seems to be trivially optimizable which can lead to source code statements not making into the executable.
In GCC you'd use:
gcc -O0 ...
or
g++ -O0 ...
for this.

in
2.6.18-164.el5 #1 SMP Tue Aug 18 15:51:48 EDT 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
gcc version 4.1.2 20080704 (Red Hat 4.1.2-46)
GNU gdb Fedora (6.8-37.el5)
it is ok!

Related

different results while displaying data at the same address depending if i use gdb

Need to extract a few values from an auxiliary vector. You can read more about it here. That's where I got and slightly modified code below:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <elf.h>
int main(int argc, char* argv[], char* envp[])
{
Elf64_auxv_t *auxv;
while (*envp++ != NULL); /* from stack diagram above: *envp = NULL marks end of envp */
for (auxv = (Elf64_auxv_t *)envp; auxv->a_type != AT_NULL; auxv++)
/* auxv->a_type = AT_NULL marks the end of auxv */
{
if (AT_EXECFN == auxv->a_type)
{
char *str = (char *)auxv->a_un.a_val;
printf("%s\n", str);
break;
}
}
return 0;
}
I compile the code with gcc -g aux-extractor.c.
Here is the weird part. If I run the code as ./a.out I get and output as ./a.out which makes sense. However when I debug it in gdb and print the value at a specific address I get /tmp/a.out, which also makes sense I compiled my code in /tmp directory. My question is why I'm getting two different results, a.out and /tmp/a.out?
Here is my debugging session (pay attention to the output of the x/s command:
$ gdb ./a.out
GNU gdb (Ubuntu 9.2-0ubuntu1~20.04) 9.2
Copyright (C) 2020 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu". T
ype "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see: <http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from ./a.out...
(gdb) start
Temporary breakpoint 1 at 0x1149: file auxv-extractor.c, line 5.
Starting program: /tmp/a.out
Temporary breakpoint 1, main (argc=21845, argv=0x0, envp=0x5555555551c0 <__libc_csu_init>) at auxv-extractor.c:5
5 {
(gdb) break 15
Breakpoint 2 at 0x555555555198: file auxv-extractor.c, line 15.
(gdb) c
Continuing.
Breakpoint 2, main (argc=1, argv=0x7fffffffe408, envp=0x7fffffffe520) at auxv-extractor.c:15
15 printf("%s\n", str);
(gdb) x/s str
0x7fffffffefed: "/tmp/a.out"
(gdb)
When gdb runs your program, it does so by executing /tmp/a.out, having expanded the path from the ./a.out on the command line.
GDB has a habit of starting the program with $(realpath ./a.out) when ./a.out is given on the command line.
I've tried to set exec-wrapper as a way to avoid this, but was not successful -- even when setting exec-wrapper wrapper.sh with this contents:
#!/bin/bash
exec -a "./a.out" "$#"
the AT_EXECFN remains /tmp/a.out.
This answer shows how to pause the program after main() to make it easy to attach GDB from "outside". AT_EXECFN will be set to ./a.out as expected, and you can continue debugging as you normally would.

program doesn't work probably 'cause segmentation fault

Please tell me why my program isn't working. I think it may be a segmentation fault but I can't identify it. If possible please correct it.
I'm trying to convert from array of char to an array of int using function chartoint() and when I remove it from main it works so the problem is in the function.
#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
void chartoint(char c[],int * x){
int i;
while(c[i]!='.'||c[i]!='\0'){
if((int)c[i]>57){ *(x+i) = (int)c[i] - 54;}
else{ *(x+i) = (c[i]-'0'); }
i++;
}
*(x+i) = -1; i++;
while(c[i]!='\0'){
if((int)c[i]>57){ *(x+i) = (int)c[i] - 54;}
else{ *(x+i) = (c[i]-'0'); }
i++;
}
}
int main(){
int n;
printf(" number of characters ");
scanf("%d",&n);
char c[n+1];
for(int i=0; i<n; i++){
scanf("%c",&c[i]);
}
c[n]='\0';
int * x = (int*)malloc(n*sizeof(int));
chartoint(c,x);
for(int i=0; i<n; i++){
printf("%d",*(x+i));
}
free(x);
return 0;
}
You need to learn how to use a debugger.
Here's the output when you use a debugger to run your C program (gdb, in this case). I named your compiled program t:
$ gdb ./t
GNU gdb (Ubuntu 7.7.1-0ubuntu5~14.04.3) 7.7.1
Copyright (C) 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from ./t...done.
(gdb) r
Starting program: /home/youruser/t
number of characters 3
a
Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x00000000004006ba in chartoint (c=0x7fffffffe540 "\na\n", x=0x602010) at t.c:6
6 while(c[i]!='.'||c[i]!='\0'){
(gdb) bt
#0 0x00000000004006ba in chartoint (c=0x7fffffffe540 "\na\n", x=0x602010) at t.c:6
#1 0x0000000000400884 in main () at t.c:29
(gdb)
It's basically saying that you are getting a segmentation fault (SIGSEGV) when running line 6. The reason is probably that i it's being used without being initialized first.
If you are using an IDE to do this (Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code) you will probably have and embedded debugger.

gdb optimized out values when using __thread

All my static __thread values shown as <optimized out> when, in debugging, I want to watch the value of a variable; even with -o0 and/or volatile.
Static Variables without __thread are shown correctly.
Is there anyway to show the values of the variable even though I'm working with threads?
Using Win10 (CreateThread), eclipse CDT, c11, mingw64-w64 and gdb 7.11.1
A workaround may be: add some printers of thread local variables in your code, and let gdb call them. (Or if you are familiar with x86 assembly, write some hackish plugin to modify the executable memory to read out fs:offset/gs:offset (thread local variable value) and recover the memory & register)
To be more specific, add a function to the C code that does nothing but return the interesting __thread variable, and when you break the program using gdb, you can always make gdb call that function for you (assume that the function is not optimized) without corrupting the stack frame of the original program. it should be as easy as:
(gdb) p rand()
$1 = 1804289383
(gdb) p rand()
$2 = 846930886
(gdb) p rand()
$3 = 1681692777
although rand is not a good example since it has side effect. TLS variable read does not have side effect.
Example: (under Ubuntu 16.04, but things shouldn't have much difference since the functionality is very basic)
tls.cpp:
#include <stdio.h>
__thread long thread_cand;
long what_is_thread_cand()
{
return thread_cand;
}
int main()
{
while ( !feof ( stdin ) )
{
scanf ( "%ld", &thread_cand );
printf ( "%p : %ld\n", &thread_cand, thread_cand );
}
return 0;
}
terminal:
$ g++ -O2 -g3 tls.cpp -o tls
tls.cpp: In function ‘int main()’:
tls.cpp:14:38: warning: ignoring return value of ‘int scanf(const char*, ...)’, declared with attribute warn_unused_result [-Wunused-result]
scanf ( "%ld", &thread_cand );
^
$ gdb tls --nh
GNU gdb (Ubuntu 7.11.1-0ubuntu1~16.04) 7.11.1
Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
Type "show configuration" for configuration details.
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/documentation/>.
For help, type "help".
Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"...
Reading symbols from tls...done.
(gdb) r
Starting program: /home/ubuntu/tls
123
0x7ffff7fcb6f8 : 123
432
0x7ffff7fcb6f8 : 432
^C
Program received signal SIGINT, Interrupt.
0x00007ffff7b04230 in __read_nocancel ()
at ../sysdeps/unix/syscall-template.S:84
84 ../sysdeps/unix/syscall-template.S: No such file or directory.
(gdb) p thread_cand
Cannot find thread-local storage for process 6472, executable file /home/ubuntu/tls:
Cannot find thread-local variables on this target
(gdb) p what_is_thread_cand()
$1 = 432
(gdb)

gdb prints wrong values when modifying arguments

System
Fresh install of codeblocks 12.11 + mingw pack.
win7 64
gcc 4.7.1
gdb 7.5
Example code
Compiled with -g and no optimization.
#include <stdio.h>
void foo(int a, int b);
int main() {
foo(400, 42);
return 0;
}
void foo(int a, int b) {
a = a - 10;
b = a + 1;
printf("y2 %d\n", b);
}
Problem
I put a breakpoint on "void foo(int a, int b)" and I look value of b as I step through the 3 lines.
Either with the codeblocks debugging features or with the gdb command line, the value of b is 42 instead of being 391.
The console output is correct, 391.
GDB commands
C:\DebugTest>"C:\Program Files (x86)\CodeBlocks\MinGW\bin\gdb.exe"
GNU gdb (GDB) 7.5
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-mingw32".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://www.gnu.org/software/gdb/bugs/>.
(gdb) file bin/Debug/DebugTest.exe
Reading symbols from C:\DebugTest\bin\Debug\DebugTest.exe...done.
(gdb) break foo
Breakpoint 1 at 0x401363: file C:\DebugTest\main.c, line 14.
(gdb) run
Starting program: C:\DebugTest\bin\Debug\DebugTest.exe
[New Thread 3596.0x658]
Breakpoint 1, foo (a=400, b=42) at C:\DebugTest\main.c:14
14 a = a - 10;
(gdb) print b
$1 = 42
(gdb) step
15 b = a + 1;
(gdb) print b
$2 = 42
(gdb) step
17 printf("y2 %d\n", b);
(gdb) print b
$3 = 42
(gdb)
Remarks
When the same operations are done without a function, with a and b as local variables inside main, the debug output is correct.
When compiled with gcc 4.4.1, the debug output is correct.
Any idea what could be wrong ? =)
I searched on gcc bugzilla and found this bug report :
Bug 54218 - Debug info for function parameters is incorrect when compiled with -O0"
Althoug the report is about gcc 4.8 and I'm using 4.7, I tried the proposed workaround and it works !
Compiling with -fvar-tracking allows GDB to print the correct value for b after assignment.
gcc does not generate debugging info correctly for values that are in registers -- either values that have been put in registers or values that start there due to the calling conventions. This is a long-standing problem with gcc since at least 4.0, and makes it tricky to debug things.
Sometimes the optimizer is smarter than the debugger. Try debugging unoptimized code, or step through disassembly and watch the HW registers directly rather than stepping through C source lines and watching the debugger's idea of what the variables are.

gdb won't accept user input

I'm currently following this video on how to work with assembly and gdb, using this C program, but I'm running into a problem. Here's what I do to compile and run gdb:
chiggins#host:~/assem$ gcc -ggdb -o SimpleDemo SimpleDemo.c
chiggins#host:~/assem$ gdb ./SimpleDemo
GNU gdb (Ubuntu/Linaro 7.4-2012.04-0ubuntu2) 7.4-2012.04
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu".
For bug reporting instructions, please see:
<http://bugs.launchpad.net/gdb-linaro/>...
Reading symbols from /home/chiggins/assem/SimpleDemo...done.
(gdb) list
4 int add(int x, int y)
5 {
6 int z =10;
7
8 z = x + y;
9 return z;
10 }
11
12 main(int argc, char **argv)
13 {
(gdb)
14 int a = atoi(argv[1]);
15 int b = atoi(argv[2]);
16 int c;
17 char buffer[100];
18
19 gets(buffer);
20 puts(buffer);
21
22 c = add(a,b);
23
(gdb)
24 printf("Sum of %d+%d = %d\n",a, b, c);
25
26 exit(0);
27
28 }
(gdb) run 10 20
Starting program: /home/chiggins/assem/SimpleDemo 10 20
demo
Now from where I have "demo" typed at the end, that's where the program is supposed to be accepting user input. But when I press return after typing enter, nothing happens. I can't ctrl+c out of the program, can't do anything. I end up having to kill the process from another session just so I can get control back. Any ideas why gdb is doing this, or what I might be doing wrong?
Thanks!
I'm not sure why that doesn't work for you; it works as expected here...
Still, I find it easier to run programs performing interactive I/O in a separate terminal, and perhaps it will help you.
In one terminal,
$ gdbserver --multi localhost:4242
listening on port 4242
and in another,
$ gdb ./SimpleDemo
(gdb) target extended-remote localhost:4242
Remote debugging using localhost:4242
(gdb) run 10 20
Back to the terminal running gdbserver,
Remote debugging from host 127.0.0.1
Process ./SimpleDemo created; pid=PID
demo
demo
Sum of 10+20 = 30
Child exited with status 0
Are you trying to have user input during the program? If you simply want to set command line arguments at the beginning you can just say set args ... where you can give the arguments as you would during the course of the program.
Have you tried this?
gdb --args ./SimpleDemo 10 20
Use Ctrl+Enter instead of the Enter key.

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