How to access gdb from python

Question

I am looking for a way to access results from gdb from python. I need to debug a c program using gdb and access the results from python. It is like calling gdb from python to debug c program.

Answer 1

Use subprocess to call gdb on the compiled binary (e.g. a.out):

import subprocess

# if you have arguments to gdb, you can supply then in the list itself.
proc = subprocess.Popen(['gdb', 'a.out'],
                        stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
                        )
proc.communicate('\tGDB Output:\n')

Reference:

http://pymotw.com/2/subprocess/

Answer 2

I think you should invert the problem and instead add support what you need by extending gdb: https://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/Extending-GDB.html. When python runs within gdb it has access to gdb API. See How to import 'GDB' in python for some extra details.