When your program has multiple threads (see section Debugging programs with multiple threads), you can choose whether to set breakpoints on all threads, or on a particular thread.
break linespec thread threadno
break linespec thread threadno if ...
thread
qualifier on conditional breakpoints as
well; in this case, place `thread threadno' before the
breakpoint condition, like this:
(gdb) break frik.c:13 thread 28 if bartab > lim
Whenever your program stops under GDB for any reason, all threads of execution stop, not just the current thread. This allows you to examine the overall state of the program, including switching between threads, without worrying that things may change underfoot.
Conversely, whenever you restart the program, all threads start
executing. This is true even when single-stepping with commands
like step
or next
.
In particular, GDB cannot single-step all threads in lockstep. Since thread scheduling is up to your debugging target's operating system (not controlled by GDB), other threads may execute more than one statement while the current thread completes a single step. Moreover, in general other threads stop in the middle of a statement, rather than at a clean statement boundary, when the program stops.
You might even find your program stopped in another thread after continuing or even single-stepping. This happens whenever some other thread runs into a breakpoint, a signal, or an exception before the first thread completes whatever you requested.
On some OSes, you can lock the OS scheduler and thus allow only a single thread to run.
set scheduler-locking mode
off
, then there is no
locking and any thread may run at any time. If on
, then only the
current thread may run when the inferior is resumed. The step
mode optimizes for single-stepping. It stops other threads from
"seizing the prompt" by preempting the current thread while you are
stepping. Other threads will only rarely (or never) get a chance to run
when you step. They are more likely to run when you `next' over a
function call, and they are completely free to run when you use commands
like `continue', `until', or `finish'. However, unless another
thread hits a breakpoint during its timeslice, they will never steal the
GDB prompt away from the thread that you are debugging.
show scheduler-locking
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