External programs and GDB Debugger

The GDB debugger can automatically launch an external program (typically a debugging server) right before a debugging session starts, instead of you having to start it manually beforehand. This is controlled by the "Run a program before starting debugging" option in Remote GDB Debugger options.

How to enable it?

Navigate to Debugger → Debugger options... → Set specific options. This opens a GDB configuration dialog; check the "Run a program before starting debugging" checkbox.

If you enable it, the following options become available:

Option

Description

Choose a configuration

Load one of the pre-defined configurations (command line, memory map and SP value) described in the gdb_arch.cfg file.

Command line

Command line of the program to run. The following special symbols can be used: • %i: input file name from the Process options dialog • %p: port number from the Process options dialog • %e: file name of a temporary ELF file created from the database contents

Initial SP

IDA will set the SP (or a similar register) after connecting to the server

Memory map

Edit the memory map for the external server. It will be used during debugging.

You can also use these options to debug small code snippets with the QEMU emulator.