Can I prevent debugger from stepping into Boost or STL header files?

Question

I\'m using Qt Creator with gdb to debug my C++ code on a Linux Platform. Whenever I use a boost::shared_ptr or the like, the debugger steps into the header fil

Answer 1

GDB without stepping into STL and all other libraries in /usr:

Put the following in your .gdbinit file. It searches through the sources that gdb has loaded or will potentially load (gdb command info sources), and skips them when their absolute path starts with "/usr". It's hooked to the run command, because symbols might get reloaded when executing it.

# skip all STL source files
define skipstl
python
# get all sources loadable by gdb
def GetSources():
    sources = []
    for line in gdb.execute('info sources',to_string=True).splitlines():
        if line.startswith("/"):
            sources += [source.strip() for source in line.split(",")]
    return sources

# skip files of which the (absolute) path begins with 'dir'
def SkipDir(dir):
    sources = GetSources()
    for source in sources:
        if source.startswith(dir):
            gdb.execute('skip file %s' % source, to_string=True)

# apply only for c++
if 'c++' in gdb.execute('show language', to_string=True):
    SkipDir("/usr")
end
end

define hookpost-run
    skipstl
end

To check the list of files to be skipped, set a breakpoint somewhere (e.g., break main) and run gdb (e.g., run), then check with info sources upon reaching the breakpoint:

(gdb) info skip
Num     Type           Enb What
1       file           y   /usr/include/c++/5/bits/unordered_map.h
2       file           y   /usr/include/c++/5/bits/stl_set.h
3       file           y   /usr/include/c++/5/bits/stl_map.h
4       file           y   /usr/include/c++/5/bits/stl_vector.h
...

Its easy to extend this to skip other directories as well by adding a call to SkipDir().