# Usage of tools/gdb/gdbinit

Usage of Chromium's [gdbinit](../tools/gdb/gdbinit) is recommended when
debugging with gdb on any platform. This is necessary for source-level debugging
when `strip_absolute_paths_from_debug_symbols` or `use_custom_libcxx` are
enabled (they're enabled by default), and also adds extra features like
pretty-printing of custom Chromium types.

To use, add the following to your `~/.gdbinit`

```
source /path/to/chromium/src/tools/gdb/gdbinit
```

*** promo
Notice that in components builds, the debug files will be loaded lazily. Because of this, the program needs to run at least once before breakpoints can be set. Alternatively, gdb will ask for confirmation as follows:
> Make breakpoint pending on future shared library load? (y or [n])
***