18.2 File Caching

To speed up file loading, and reduce memory usage, GDB will reuse the bfd objects used to track open files. See BFD in The Binary File Descriptor Library. The following commands allow visibility and control of the caching behavior.

maint info bfds

This prints information about each bfd object that is known to GDB.

maint set bfd-sharing

maint show bfd-sharing

Control whether bfd objects can be shared. When sharing is enabled GDB reuses already open bfd objects rather than reopening the same file. Turning sharing off does not cause already shared bfd objects to be unshared, but all future files that are opened will create a new bfd object. Similarly, re-enabling sharing does not cause multiple existing bfd objects to be collapsed into a single shared bfd object.

set debug bfd-cache level

Turns on debugging of the bfd cache, setting the level to level.

show debug bfd-cache

Show the current debugging level of the bfd cache.