Appendix B Formatting Documentation

The GDB 4 release includes an already-formatted reference card, ready for printing with PostScript or Ghostscript, in the gdb subdirectory of the main source directory¹⁹. If you can use PostScript or Ghostscript with your printer, you can print the reference card immediately with refcard.ps.

The release also includes the source for the reference card. You can format it, using TeX, by typing:

make refcard.dvi

The GDB reference card is designed to print in landscape mode on US “letter” size paper; that is, on a sheet 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches high. You will need to specify this form of printing as an option to your DVI output program.

All the documentation for GDB comes as part of the machine-readable distribution. The documentation is written in Texinfo format, which is a documentation system that uses a single source file to produce both on-line information and a printed manual. You can use one of the Info formatting commands to create the on-line version of the documentation and TeX (or texi2roff) to typeset the printed version.

GDB includes an already formatted copy of the on-line Info version of this manual in the gdb subdirectory. The main Info file is gdb-10.1.90.20201028-git/gdb/gdb.info, and it refers to subordinate files matching ‘gdb.info*’ in the same directory. If necessary, you can print out these files, or read them with any editor; but they are easier to read using the info subsystem in GNU Emacs or the standalone info program, available as part of the GNU Texinfo distribution.

If you want to format these Info files yourself, you need one of the Info formatting programs, such as texinfo-format-buffer or makeinfo.

If you have makeinfo installed, and are in the top level GDB source directory (gdb-10.1.90.20201028-git, in the case of version 10.1.90.20201028-git), you can make the Info file by typing:

cd gdb
make gdb.info

If you want to typeset and print copies of this manual, you need TeX, a program to print its DVI output files, and texinfo.tex, the Texinfo definitions file.

TeX is a typesetting program; it does not print files directly, but produces output files called DVI files. To print a typeset document, you need a program to print DVI files. If your system has TeX installed, chances are it has such a program. The precise command to use depends on your system; lpr -d is common; another (for PostScript devices) is dvips. The DVI print command may require a file name without any extension or a ‘.dvi’ extension.

TeX also requires a macro definitions file called texinfo.tex. This file tells TeX how to typeset a document written in Texinfo format. On its own, TeX cannot either read or typeset a Texinfo file. texinfo.tex is distributed with GDB and is located in the gdb-version-number/texinfo directory.

If you have TeX and a DVI printer program installed, you can typeset and print this manual. First switch to the gdb subdirectory of the main source directory (for example, to gdb-10.1.90.20201028-git/gdb) and type:

make gdb.dvi

Then give gdb.dvi to your DVI printing program.