I'm trying to debug a program written using Go inside eclipse. I can set and hit breakpoints pretty consistently, but I cannot view the contents of my variables. When I start debugging the program, I always get the following error on my console.
warning: File "/usr/local/go/src/pkg/runtime/runtime-gdb.py" auto-loading has been declined by your `auto-load safe-path' set to "$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load". To enable execution of this file add add-auto-load-safe-path /usr/local/go/src/pkg/runtime/runtime-gdb.py line to your configuration file "/home/johnlawrie/.gdbinit". To completely disable this security protection add set auto-load safe-path / line to your configuration file "/home/johnlawrie/.gdbinit". For more information about this security protection see the "Auto-loading safe path" section in the GDB manual. E.g., run from the shell: info "(gdb)Auto-loading safe path"
Thinking that the problem might be due to the error message, I put the entry into my .gdbinit file as instructed. However, I get the same message every time I run as if I did nothing at all. This is the contents of my /home/johnlawrie/.gdbinit file
add-auto-load-safe-path /usr/local/go/src/pkg/runtime/runtime-gdb.py
Any ideas what I need to do to make this change take effect? I have tried logged off and back in.
Thanks, John Lawrie
It did learn what was happening. When gdb is started from Eclipse/CDT, it is started with option -nx, which means it doesn't load .gdbinit in the home directory.
I was able to get this to work by creating a .gdbinit file as a peer to the src, bin, and pkg directories in my workspace and adding the following line to it
set auto-load safe-path /usr/local/go/
It should be add-auto-load-safe-path /usr/local/go/src/pkg/, not the path to the script.
Also keep in mind that gdb doesn't really work with Go, specially v1.3.
From http://golang.org/doc/gdb:
GDB does not understand Go programs well. The stack management, threading, and runtime contain aspects that differ enough from the execution model GDB expects that they can confuse the debugger, even when the program is compiled with gccgo. As a consequence, although GDB can be useful in some situations, it is not a reliable debugger for Go programs, particularly heavily concurrent ones. Moreover, it is not a priority for the Go project to address these issues, which are difficult. In short, the instructions below should be taken only as a guide to how to use GDB when it works, not as a guarantee of success.