Returning from a function

Contents|Index|Previous|Next
Returning from a function

The following documentation discusses GDB’s return command.

return

expression

You can cancel execution of a function call with the

return

command. If you give an

expression

argument, its value is used as the function’s return value.

When you use

return

, GDB discards the selected stack frame (and all frames within it). You can think of this as making the discarded frame return prematurely. If you wish to specify a value to be returned, give that value as the argument to

return

This pops the selected stack frame (see Selecting a frame), and any other frames inside of it, leaving its caller as the innermost remaining frame. That frame becomes selected. The specified value is stored in the registers used for returning values of functions.

The

return

command does not resume execution; it leaves the program stopped in the state that would exist if the function had just returned.

In contrast, the

finish

command (see Continuing and stepping) resumes execution until the selected stack frame returns naturally.

Top|Contents|Index|Previous|Next