Speed up executable loading

[epasveer]

Look into using caches.

https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb.html/Index-Files.html

set index-cache enabled on

[epasveer]

Maybe a switch on the gdb config page?

[epasveer]

From google.

GDB's index cache is a feature designed to accelerate the loading of debugging symbols by storing a pre-computed index of the symbols on disk. This significantly reduces the time required to load the same binary multiple times, especially for large executables or libraries.
Key aspects of the GDB index cache:
Purpose: To speed up symbol loading by caching symbol indexes to disk.
Enabling/Disabling:
To enable the cache: set index-cache enabled on
To disable the cache: set index-cache enabled off
This setting can be placed in your ~/.gdbinit file for persistent activation.
Cache Directory:
The index files are stored in a designated directory.
To set the directory: set index-cache directory <directory>
To view the current directory: show index-cache directory
By default, it often resides in a gdb subdirectory within XDG_CACHE_HOME or .cache/gdb in your home directory.
Cache Management:
The index cache does not have an automatic pruning mechanism, so manual deletion of old index files from the cache directory may be necessary to free up disk space.
The contents of the cache directory can be safely deleted without affecting GDB's functionality.
Statistics:
show index-cache stats displays the number of cache hits and misses since the current GDB session started, providing insight into the cache's effectiveness.
Benefit: Particularly beneficial when repeatedly debugging large programs with extensive debugging information, as it minimizes the time spent processing symbol tables.