Debugging with GDB

Node:Shell Commands, Previous:Quitting GDB, Up:Invocation

### Shell commands

If you need to execute occasional shell commands during your debugging session, there is no need to leave or suspend GDB; you can just use the `shell` command.

`shell` command string``
  Invoke a standard shell to execute command string. If it exists, the environment variable `SHELL` determines which shell to run. Otherwise GDB uses the default shell (`/bin/sh` on Unix systems, `COMMAND.COM` on MS-DOS, etc.).

The utility `make` is often needed in development environments. You do not have to use the `shell` command for this purpose in GDB:

`make` make-args``
  Execute the `make` program with the specified arguments. This is equivalent to `shell make` make-args``.