Thomas added the comment: I have done a bit more digging, turns out it is actually no problem at all to debug python in gdb with gdb with python support (at least using a fixed python-gdb-py).
Turns out the type->length of the the globally initialized ptr types is wrong: It is 4 instead of 8, causing the cast to fail. I suspect the initialization is done before the executable is loaded and gdb is using some default. To verify, I have put two prints in the global initialization and in a command invocation: GOBAL INITIALIZATION: gdb.lookup_type('char').pointer().sizeof == 4 COMMAND INVOKE: gdb.lookup_type('char').pointer().sizeof == 8 I guess to be fully portable those types need to be looked up at least whenever gdb changes it's binary, but I have no idea if there is a hook for that. But it seems reasonable to just replace those globals with on-demand lookup functions or properties. If you are interested in the actual python/c stack traces for the error: Thread 1 "gdb" hit Breakpoint 1, value_cast (type=type@entry=0x2ef91e0, arg2=arg2@entry=0x32b13f0) at ../../gdb/valops.c:571 571 error (_("Invalid cast.")); (gdb) py-bt Traceback (most recent call first): <built-in method cast of gdb.Value object at remote 0x3260de0> File "[...]/python-gdb.py", line 1151, in proxyval field_str = field_str.cast(_type_unsigned_char_ptr) File "[...]/python-gdb.py", line 945, in print_traceback % (self.co_filename.proxyval(visited), File "[...]/python-gdb.py", line 1578, in print_traceback pyop.print_traceback() File "[...]/python-gdb.py", line 1761, in invoke frame.print_traceback() (gdb) bt #0 value_cast (type=type@entry=0x2ef91e0, arg2=arg2@entry=0x32b13f0) at ../../gdb/valops.c:571 #1 0x000000000052261f in valpy_do_cast (self=<gdb.Value at remote 0x3260de0>, args=<optimized out>, op=UNOP_CAST) at ../../gdb/python/py-value.c:525 #2 0x00007fc7ce2141de in PyCFunction_Call (func=func@entry=<built-in method cast of gdb.Value object at remote 0x3260de0>, args=args@entry=(<gdb.Type at remote 0x2ed0fb0>,), kwds=kwds@entry=0x0) at ../../Python-3.5.1/Objects/methodobject.c:109 #3 0x00007fc7ce2c8887 in call_function (pp_stack=pp_stack@entry=0x7ffffc81cec8, oparg=oparg@entry=1) at ../../Python-3.5.1/Python/ceval.c:4655 #4 0x00007fc7ce2c57ac in PyEval_EvalFrameEx ( ---------- _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue26799> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com