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64<a name="Basic-Guile"></a>
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66<p>
67Next: <a href="Guile-Configuration.html#Guile-Configuration" accesskey="n" rel="next">Guile Configuration</a>, Up: <a href="Guile-API.html#Guile-API" accesskey="u" rel="up">Guile API</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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69<hr>
70<a name="Basic-Guile-1"></a>
71<h4 class="subsubsection">23.3.3.1 Basic Guile</h4>
72
73<a name="index-guile-stdout"></a>
74<a name="index-guile-pagination"></a>
75<p>At startup, <small>GDB</small> overrides Guile&rsquo;s <code>current-output-port</code> and
76<code>current-error-port</code> to print using <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s output-paging streams.
77A Guile program which outputs to one of these streams may have its
78output interrupted by the user (see <a href="Screen-Size.html#Screen-Size">Screen Size</a>).  In this
79situation, a Guile <code>signal</code> exception is thrown with value <code>SIGINT</code>.
80</p>
81<p>Guile&rsquo;s history mechanism uses the same naming as <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s,
82namely the user of dollar-variables (e.g., $1, $2, etc.).
83The results of evaluations in Guile and in GDB are counted separately,
84<code>$1</code> in Guile is not the same value as <code>$1</code> in <small>GDB</small>.
85</p>
86<p><small>GDB</small> is not thread-safe.  If your Guile program uses multiple
87threads, you must be careful to only call <small>GDB</small>-specific
88functions in the <small>GDB</small> thread.
89</p>
90<p>Some care must be taken when writing Guile code to run in
91<small>GDB</small>.  Two things are worth noting in particular:
92</p>
93<ul>
94<li> <small>GDB</small> installs handlers for <code>SIGCHLD</code> and <code>SIGINT</code>.
95Guile code must not override these, or even change the options using
96<code>sigaction</code>.  If your program changes the handling of these
97signals, <small>GDB</small> will most likely stop working correctly.  Note
98that it is unfortunately common for GUI toolkits to install a
99<code>SIGCHLD</code> handler.
100
101</li><li> <small>GDB</small> takes care to mark its internal file descriptors as
102close-on-exec.  However, this cannot be done in a thread-safe way on
103all platforms.  Your Guile programs should be aware of this and
104should both create new file descriptors with the close-on-exec flag
105set and arrange to close unneeded file descriptors before starting a
106child process.
107</li></ul>
108
109<a name="index-guile-gdb-module"></a>
110<p><small>GDB</small> introduces a new Guile module, named <code>gdb</code>.  All
111methods and classes added by <small>GDB</small> are placed in this module.
112<small>GDB</small> does not automatically <code>import</code> the <code>gdb</code> module,
113scripts must do this themselves.  There are various options for how to
114import a module, so <small>GDB</small> leaves the choice of how the <code>gdb</code>
115module is imported to the user.
116To simplify interactive use, it is recommended to add one of the following
117to your ~/.gdbinit.
118</p>
119<div class="smallexample">
120<pre class="smallexample">guile (use-modules (gdb))
121</pre></div>
122
123<div class="smallexample">
124<pre class="smallexample">guile (use-modules ((gdb) #:renamer (symbol-prefix-proc 'gdb:)))
125</pre></div>
126
127<p>Which one to choose depends on your preference.
128The second one adds <code>gdb:</code> as a prefix to all module functions
129and variables.
130</p>
131<p>The rest of this manual assumes the <code>gdb</code> module has been imported
132without any prefix.  See the Guile documentation for <code>use-modules</code>
133for more information
134(see <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/guile/manual/html_node/Using-Guile-Modules.html#Using-Guile-Modules">Using Guile Modules</a> in <cite>GNU Guile Reference Manual</cite>).
135</p>
136<p>Example:
137</p>
138<div class="smallexample">
139<pre class="smallexample">(gdb) guile (value-type (make-value 1))
140ERROR: Unbound variable: value-type
141Error while executing Scheme code.
142(gdb) guile (use-modules (gdb))
143(gdb) guile (value-type (make-value 1))
144int
145(gdb)
146</pre></div>
147
148<p>The <code>(gdb)</code> module provides these basic Guile functions.
149</p>
150<dl>
151<dt><a name="index-execute"></a>Scheme Procedure: <strong>execute</strong> <em>command <span class="roman">[</span>#:from-tty boolean<span class="roman">]</span> <span class="roman">[</span>#:to-string boolean<span class="roman">]</span></em></dt>
152<dd><p>Evaluate <var>command</var>, a string, as a <small>GDB</small> CLI command.
153If a <small>GDB</small> exception happens while <var>command</var> runs, it is
154translated as described in
155<a href="Guile-Exception-Handling.html#Guile-Exception-Handling">Guile Exception Handling</a>.
156</p>
157<p><var>from-tty</var> specifies whether <small>GDB</small> ought to consider this
158command as having originated from the user invoking it interactively.
159It must be a boolean value.  If omitted, it defaults to <code>#f</code>.
160</p>
161<p>By default, any output produced by <var>command</var> is sent to
162<small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s standard output (and to the log output if logging is
163turned on).  If the <var>to-string</var> parameter is
164<code>#t</code>, then output will be collected by <code>execute</code> and
165returned as a string.  The default is <code>#f</code>, in which case the
166return value is unspecified.  If <var>to-string</var> is <code>#t</code>, the
167<small>GDB</small> virtual terminal will be temporarily set to unlimited width
168and height, and its pagination will be disabled; see <a href="Screen-Size.html#Screen-Size">Screen Size</a>.
169</p></dd></dl>
170
171<dl>
172<dt><a name="index-history_002dref"></a>Scheme Procedure: <strong>history-ref</strong> <em>number</em></dt>
173<dd><p>Return a value from <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s value history (see <a href="Value-History.html#Value-History">Value History</a>).  The <var>number</var> argument indicates which history element to return.
174If <var>number</var> is negative, then <small>GDB</small> will take its absolute value
175and count backward from the last element (i.e., the most recent element) to
176find the value to return.  If <var>number</var> is zero, then <small>GDB</small> will
177return the most recent element.  If the element specified by <var>number</var>
178doesn&rsquo;t exist in the value history, a <code>gdb:error</code> exception will be
179raised.
180</p>
181<p>If no exception is raised, the return value is always an instance of
182<code>&lt;gdb:value&gt;</code> (see <a href="Values-From-Inferior-In-Guile.html#Values-From-Inferior-In-Guile">Values From Inferior In Guile</a>).
183</p>
184<p><em>Note:</em> <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s value history is independent of Guile&rsquo;s.
185<code>$1</code> in <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s value history contains the result of evaluating
186an expression from <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s command line and <code>$1</code> from Guile&rsquo;s
187history contains the result of evaluating an expression from Guile&rsquo;s
188command line.
189</p></dd></dl>
190
191<dl>
192<dt><a name="index-history_002dappend_0021"></a>Scheme Procedure: <strong>history-append!</strong> <em>value</em></dt>
193<dd><p>Append <var>value</var>, an instance of <code>&lt;gdb:value&gt;</code>, to <small>GDB</small>&rsquo;s
194value history.  Return its index in the history.
195</p>
196<p>Putting into history values returned by Guile extensions will allow
197the user convenient access to those values via CLI history
198facilities.
199</p></dd></dl>
200
201<dl>
202<dt><a name="index-parse_002dand_002deval"></a>Scheme Procedure: <strong>parse-and-eval</strong> <em>expression</em></dt>
203<dd><p>Parse <var>expression</var> as an expression in the current language,
204evaluate it, and return the result as a <code>&lt;gdb:value&gt;</code>.
205The <var>expression</var> must be a string.
206</p>
207<p>This function can be useful when implementing a new command
208(see <a href="Commands-In-Guile.html#Commands-In-Guile">Commands In Guile</a>), as it provides a way to parse the
209command&rsquo;s arguments as an expression.
210It is also is useful when computing values.
211For example, it is the only way to get the value of a
212convenience variable (see <a href="Convenience-Vars.html#Convenience-Vars">Convenience Vars</a>) as a <code>&lt;gdb:value&gt;</code>.
213</p></dd></dl>
214
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