23.2.2.34 Registers In Python

Python code can request from a gdb.Architecture information about the set of registers available (see Architecture.registers). The register information is returned as a gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator, which is an iterator that in turn returns gdb.RegisterDescriptor objects.

A gdb.RegisterDescriptor does not provide the value of a register (see Frame.read_register for reading a register’s value), instead the RegisterDescriptor is a way to discover which registers are available for a particular architecture.

A gdb.RegisterDescriptor has the following read-only properties:

Variable: RegisterDescriptor.name

The name of this register.

It is also possible to lookup a register descriptor based on its name using the following gdb.RegisterDescriptorIterator function:

Function: RegisterDescriptorIterator.find (name)

Takes name as an argument, which must be a string, and returns a gdb.RegisterDescriptor for the register with that name, or None if there is no register with that name.

Python code can also request from a gdb.Architecture information about the set of register groups available on a given architecture (see Architecture.register_groups).

Every register can be a member of zero or more register groups. Some register groups are used internally within GDB to control things like which registers must be saved when calling into the program being debugged (see Calling Program Functions). Other register groups exist to allow users to easily see related sets of registers in commands like info registers (see info registers reggroup).

The register groups information is returned as a gdb.RegisterGroupsIterator, which is an iterator that in turn returns gdb.RegisterGroup objects.

A gdb.RegisterGroup object has the following read-only properties:

Variable: RegisterGroup.name

A string that is the name of this register group.