Debugging with GDB: GDB/MI Input Syntax

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27.2.1 GDB/MI Input Syntax

command →

cli-command | mi-command

cli-command →

[ token ] cli-command nl , where cli-command is any existing GDB CLI command.

mi-command →

[ token ] "-" operation ( " " option )* [ " --" ] ( " " parameter )* nl

token →

"any sequence of digits"

option →

"-" parameter [ " " parameter ]

parameter →

non-blank-sequence | c-string

operation →

any of the operations described in this chapter

non-blank-sequence →

anything, provided it doesn’t contain special characters such as "-", nl, """ and of course " "

c-string →

""" seven-bit-iso-c-string-content """

nl →

CR | CR-LF

Notes:

• The CLI commands are still handled by the MI interpreter; their output is described below.
• The token , when present, is passed back when the command finishes.
• Some MI commands accept optional arguments as part of the parameter list. Each option is identified by a leading ‘-’ (dash) and may be followed by an optional argument parameter. Options occur first in the parameter list and can be delimited from normal parameters using ‘--’ (this is useful when some parameters begin with a dash).

Pragmatics:

• We want easy access to the existing CLI syntax (for debugging).
• We want it to be easy to spot a MI operation.