dotdebug_gdb_scripts section - Debugging with GDB
Description: Debugging with GDB

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##### 23.2.3.2 The `.debug_gdb_scripts` section

For systems using file formats like ELF and COFF, when gdb loads a new object file it will look for a special section named ‘`.debug_gdb_scripts`’. If this section exists, its contents is a list of names of scripts to load.

gdb will look for each specified script file first in the current directory and then along the source search path (see Specifying Source Directories), except that `$cdir` is not searched, since the compilation directory is not relevant to scripts.

Entries can be placed in section `.debug_gdb_scripts` with, for example, this GCC macro:

         /* Note: The "MS" section flags are to remove duplicates.  */
         #define DEFINE_GDB_SCRIPT(script_name) \
           asm("\
         .pushsection \".debug_gdb_scripts\", \"MS\",@progbits,1\n\
         .byte 1\n\
         .asciz \"" script_name "\"\n\
         .popsection \n\
         ");

Then one can reference the macro in a header or source file like this:

         DEFINE_GDB_SCRIPT ("my-app-scripts.py")

The script name may include directories if desired.

Note that loading of this script file also requires accordingly configured `auto-load safe-path` (see Auto-loading safe path).

If the macro is put in a header, any application or library using this header will get a reference to the specified script.