Debugging programs with multiple threads

It's possible to view threads in a program using GBD and also to jump between threads. Knowing how to jump between the threads in a program will make threaded programs easier to debug. Writing threaded programs can be hard, but with GDB it's easier to make sure they are working correctly.

Getting ready

In this recipe, we'll use the first-threaded.c program from Chapter 11, Using Threads in Your Programs. There's a copy of the source code in this chapter's GitHub directory.

You'll also need the GCC compiler.

How to do it…

In this recipe, we'll look at the threads from the first-threaded.c program using GDB:

1. Let's start by compiling the program:

   $> gcc -g -Wall -Wextra -pedantic -std=c99 \
   > first-threaded.c -o first-threaded -lpthread

2. Before we run the program through the debugger, let's first run it to recap how the program works:

   $> ./first-threaded 990233331...