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<title>Debugging with GDB: Packet Acknowledgment</title>

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<a name="Packet-Acknowledgment"></a>
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<a name="Packet-Acknowledgment-1"></a>
<h3 class="section">E.11 Packet Acknowledgment</h3>

<a name="index-acknowledgment_002c-for-GDB-remote"></a>
<a name="index-packet-acknowledgment_002c-for-GDB-remote"></a>
<p>By default, when either the host or the target machine receives a packet,
the first response expected is an acknowledgment: either &lsquo;<samp>+</samp>&rsquo; (to indicate
the package was received correctly) or &lsquo;<samp>-</samp>&rsquo; (to request retransmission).
This mechanism allows the <small>GDB</small> remote protocol to operate over
unreliable transport mechanisms, such as a serial line.
</p>
<p>In cases where the transport mechanism is itself reliable (such as a pipe or
TCP connection), the &lsquo;<samp>+</samp>&rsquo;/&lsquo;<samp>-</samp>&rsquo; acknowledgments are redundant.
It may be desirable to disable them in that case to reduce communication
overhead, or for other reasons.  This can be accomplished by means of the
&lsquo;<samp>QStartNoAckMode</samp>&rsquo; packet; see <a href="General-Query-Packets.html#QStartNoAckMode">QStartNoAckMode</a>.
</p>
<p>When in no-acknowledgment mode, neither the stub nor <small>GDB</small> shall send or
expect &lsquo;<samp>+</samp>&rsquo;/&lsquo;<samp>-</samp>&rsquo; protocol acknowledgments.  The packet
and response format still includes the normal checksum, as described in
<a href="Overview.html#Overview">Overview</a>, but the checksum may be ignored by the receiver.
</p>
<p>If the stub supports &lsquo;<samp>QStartNoAckMode</samp>&rsquo; and prefers to operate in
no-acknowledgment mode, it should report that to <small>GDB</small>
by including &lsquo;<samp>QStartNoAckMode+</samp>&rsquo; in its response to &lsquo;<samp>qSupported</samp>&rsquo;;
see <a href="General-Query-Packets.html#qSupported">qSupported</a>.
If <small>GDB</small> also supports &lsquo;<samp>QStartNoAckMode</samp>&rsquo; and it has not been
disabled via the <code>set remote noack-packet off</code> command
(see <a href="Remote-Configuration.html#Remote-Configuration">Remote Configuration</a>),
<small>GDB</small> may then send a &lsquo;<samp>QStartNoAckMode</samp>&rsquo; packet to the stub.
Only then may the stub actually turn off packet acknowledgments.
<small>GDB</small> sends a final &lsquo;<samp>+</samp>&rsquo; acknowledgment of the stub&rsquo;s &lsquo;<samp>OK</samp>&rsquo;
response, which can be safely ignored by the stub.
</p>
<p>Note that <code>set remote noack-packet</code> command only affects negotiation
between <small>GDB</small> and the stub when subsequent connections are made;
it does not affect the protocol acknowledgment state for any current
connection.
Since &lsquo;<samp>+</samp>&rsquo;/&lsquo;<samp>-</samp>&rsquo; acknowledgments are enabled by default when a
new connection is established,
there is also no protocol request to re-enable the acknowledgments
for the current connection, once disabled.
</p>
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