20.6. Optional Warnings and Messages

By default, the debugger is silent about its inner workings. If you are running on a slow machine, you may want to use the set verbose command. This makes the debugger tell you when it does a lengthy internal operation, so you will not think it has crashed.

Currently, the messages controlled by set verbose are those that announce that the symbol table for a source file is being read; see symbol-file in Section 18.1.

set verbose on

Enables the debugger output of certain informational messages.

set verbose off

Disables the debugger output of certain informational messages.

show verbose

Displays whether set verbose is on or off.

By default, if the debugger encounters bugs in the symbol table of an object file, it is silent; but if you are debugging a compiler, you may find this information useful (see Section 18.2.).

set complaints limit

Permits the debugger to output limit complaints about each type of unusual symbols before becoming silent about the problem. Set limit to zero to suppress all complaints; set it to a large number to prevent complaints from being suppressed.

show complaints

Displays how many symbol complaints the debugger is permitted to produce.

By default, the debugger is cautious, and asks what sometimes seems to be a lot of stupid questions to confirm certain commands. For example, if you try to run a program which is already running:

(gdb) run
The program being debugged has been started already.
Start it from the beginning? (y or n)

If you are willing to unflinchingly face the consequences of your own commands, you can disable this “feature”:

set confirm off

Disables confirmation requests.

set confirm on

Enables confirmation requests (the default).

show confirm

Displays state of confirmation requests.