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<h3 class="section">4.8 Killing the Child Process</h3>

     
<a name="index-kill-156"></a>
<dl><dt><code>kill</code><dd>Kill the child process in which your program is running under <span class="sc">gdb</span>. 
</dl>

   <p>This command is useful if you wish to debug a core dump instead of a
running process.  <span class="sc">gdb</span> ignores any core dump file while your program
is running.

   <p>On some operating systems, a program cannot be executed outside <span class="sc">gdb</span>
while you have breakpoints set on it inside <span class="sc">gdb</span>.  You can use the
<code>kill</code> command in this situation to permit running your program
outside the debugger.

   <p>The <code>kill</code> command is also useful if you wish to recompile and
relink your program, since on many systems it is impossible to modify an
executable file while it is running in a process.  In this case, when you
next type <code>run</code>, <span class="sc">gdb</span> notices that the file has changed, and
reads the symbol table again (while trying to preserve your current
breakpoint settings).

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