How do I print the elements of a C++ vector in GDB?

Question

I want to examine the contents of a std::vector in GDB, how do I do it? Let's say it's a std::vector<int> for the sake of simplicity.

Answer 1

With GCC 4.1.2, to print the whole of a std::vector<int> called myVector, do the following:

print *(myVector._M_impl._M_start)@myVector.size()

To print only the first N elements, do:

print *(myVector._M_impl._M_start)@N

Explanation

This is probably heavily dependent on your compiler version, but for GCC 4.1.2, the pointer to the internal array is:

myVector._M_impl._M_start 

And the GDB command to print N elements of an array starting at pointer P is:

print P@N

Or, in a short form (for a standard .gdbinit):

p P@N