23.4.1 The objfile-gdb.ext file

When a new object file is read, GDB looks for a file named objfile-gdb.ext (we call it script-name below), where objfile is the object file’s name and where ext is the file extension for the extension language:

objfile-gdb.gdb

GDB’s own command language

objfile-gdb.py

Python

objfile-gdb.scm

Guile

script-name is formed by ensuring that the file name of objfile is absolute, following all symlinks, and resolving . and .. components, and appending the -gdb.ext suffix. If this file exists and is readable, GDB will evaluate it as a script in the specified extension language.

If this file does not exist, then GDB will look for script-name file in all of the directories as specified below. (On MS-Windows/MS-DOS, the drive letter of the executable’s leading directories is converted to a one-letter subdirectory, i.e. d:/usr/bin/ is converted to /d/usr/bin/, because Windows filesystems disallow colons in file names.)

Note that loading of these files requires an accordingly configured auto-load safe-path (see Auto-loading safe path).

For object files using .exe suffix GDB tries to load first the scripts normally according to its .exe filename. But if no scripts are found GDB also tries script filenames matching the object file without its .exe suffix. This .exe stripping is case insensitive and it is attempted on any platform. This makes the script filenames compatible between Unix and MS-Windows hosts.

set auto-load scripts-directory [directories]

Control GDB auto-loaded scripts location. Multiple directory entries may be delimited by the host platform path separator in use (‘:’ on Unix, ‘;’ on MS-Windows and MS-DOS).

Each entry here needs to be covered also by the security setting set auto-load safe-path (see set auto-load safe-path).

This variable defaults to $debugdir:$datadir/auto-load. The default set auto-load safe-path value can be also overriden by GDB configuration option --with-auto-load-dir.

Any reference to $debugdir will get replaced by debug-file-directory value (see Separate Debug Files) and any reference to $datadir will get replaced by data-directory which is determined at GDB startup (see Data Files). $debugdir and $datadir must be placed as a directory component — either alone or delimited by / or \ directory separators, depending on the host platform.

The list of directories uses path separator (‘:’ on GNU and Unix systems, ‘;’ on MS-Windows and MS-DOS) to separate directories, similarly to the PATH environment variable.

show auto-load scripts-directory

Show GDB auto-loaded scripts location.

add-auto-load-scripts-directory [directories…]

Add an entry (or list of entries) to the list of auto-loaded scripts locations. Multiple entries may be delimited by the host platform path separator in use.

GDB does not track which files it has already auto-loaded this way. GDB will load the associated script every time the corresponding objfile is opened. So your -gdb.ext file should be careful to avoid errors if it is evaluated more than once.