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GDB and VxWorks

GDB enables developers to spawn and debug tasks running on networked VxWorks targets from a Unix host. Already-running tasks spawned from the VxWorks shell can also be debugged. GDB uses code that runs on both the Unix host and on the VxWorks target. The program gdb is installed and executed on the Unix host. (It may be installed with the name vxgdb, to distinguish it from a GDB for debugging programs on the host itself.)

The following information on connecting to VxWorks was current when this manual was produced; newer releases of VxWorks may use revised procedures.

To use GDB with VxWorks, you must rebuild your VxWorks kernel to include the remote debugging interface routines in the VxWorks library `rdb.a'. To do this, define INCLUDE_RDB in the VxWorks configuration file `configAll.h' and rebuild your VxWorks kernel. The resulting kernel contains `rdb.a', and spawns the source debugging task tRdbTask when VxWorks is booted. For more information on configuring and remaking VxWorks, see the manufacturer's manual.

Once you have included `rdb.a' in your VxWorks system image and set your Unix execution search path to find GDB, you are ready to run GDB. From your Unix host, run gdb (or vxgdb, depending on your installation).

GDB comes up showing the prompt:

(vxgdb)

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