Segfault analysis with GDB

Lets use the same code as above for this example.

#include <iostream>

void fail() {
    int *p1;
    int *p2(NULL);
    int *p3 = p1;
    if (p3) {
        std::cout << *p2 << std::endl;
    } 
}

int main() { 
    fail();
}

First lets compile it

g++ -g -o main main.cpp

Lets run it with gdb

gdb ./main

Now we will be in gdb shell. Type run.

(gdb) run
The program being debugged has been started already.
Start it from the beginning? (y or n) y
Starting program: /home/opencog/code-snippets/stackoverflow/a.out 

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x0000000000400850 in fail () at debugging_with_gdb.cc:11
11            std::cout << *p2 << std::endl;

We see the segmentation fault is happening at line 11. So the only variable being used at this line is pointer p2. Lets examine its content typing print.

(gdb) print p2
$1 = (int *) 0x0

Now we see that p2 was initialized to 0x0 which stands for NULL. At this line, we know that we are trying to dereference a NULL pointer. So we go and fix it.

Found a mistake? Have a question or improvement idea? Let me know.

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