gdb how to get thread name displayed

Question

There are many threads created in my application. some of the threads name are visible in the gdb while i execute the command \'info threads\', others are not displayed. How

Answer 1

You can set the thread name via non-standard POSIX api calls. GDB (and other debuggers) will display these names.

On Linux

// watch out, 16 char limit on the name
pthread_setname_np(pthread_self(), "My thread name");

On Mac

pthread_setname_np("My thread name");

Answer 2

Threads don't have names by default - the JKMainT string there is the name of the current function.

Try selecting one of the threads and viewing the backtrace - that might give you a good idea which thread it is. Otherwise, you could try prctl with PR_SET_NAME if it's available.

Answer 3

If you upgrade to gdb 7.3 or later, "info thread" will show thread names; at least on native (not remote) Linux.