gdb fails with “Unable to find Mach task port for process-id” error

Question

My app runs fine but gdb fails to debug it with the following error

(gdb) run
Starting program: /path/to/app 
Unable to find Mach task port for process-id 83         


        

Answer 1

The problem is that you are not logged in as a root user (which you don't want). You need to create a certificate for gdb to be allowed access. Follow this tutorial and you should be good to go...

http://sourceware.org/gdb/wiki/BuildingOnDarwin

If all else fails, just use: sudo gdb executableFileName