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17.4 Returning from a Function

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.


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.

GDB needs to know how the expression argument should be set for the inferior. The concrete registers assignment depends on the OS ABI and the type being returned by the selected stack frame. For example it is common for OS ABI to return floating point values in FPU registers while integer values in CPU registers. Still some ABIs return even floating point values in CPU registers. Larger integer widths (such as long long int) also have specific placement rules. GDB already knows the OS ABI from its current target so it needs to find out also the type being returned to make the assignment into the right register(s).

Normally, the selected stack frame has debug info. GDB will always use the debug info instead of the implicit type of expression when the debug info is available. For example, if you type return -1, and the function in the current stack frame is declared to return a long long int, GDB transparently converts the implicit int value of -1 into a long long int:

Breakpoint 1, func () at gdb.base/return-nodebug.c:29
29        return 31;
(gdb) return -1
Make func return now? (y or n) y
#0  0x004004f6 in main () at gdb.base/return-nodebug.c:43
43        printf ("result=%lld\n", func ());

However, if the selected stack frame does not have a debug info, e.g., if the function was compiled without debug info, GDB has to find out the type to return from user. Specifying a different type by mistake may set the value in different inferior registers than the caller code expects. For example, typing return -1 with its implicit type int would set only a part of a long long int result for a debug info less function (on 32-bit architectures). Therefore the user is required to specify the return type by an appropriate cast explicitly:

Breakpoint 2, 0x0040050b in func ()
(gdb) return -1
Return value type not available for selected stack frame.
Please use an explicit cast of the value to return.
(gdb) return (long long int) -1
#0  0x00400526 in main ()
