GDB is able to use hardware-assisted execution traces (via Intel Processor Trace) [1]: record method btrace pt: Use the Intel Processor Trace recording format. In this format, the processor stores the execution trace in a compressed form that is afterwards decoded by GDB. The trace can be recorded with very low overhead. The compressed trace format also allows small trace buffers to already contain a big number of instructions compared to BTS. --- The IPT support library is already in the tree (dev-libs/processor-trace), the only missing part is ./configure options [2]. ~ $ cat /etc/portage/env/gdb-econf.conf # Requires libipt EXTRA_ECONF="${EXTRA_ECONF} --with-intel-pt=yes" ~ $ cat /etc/portage/package.env | grep gdb sys-devel/gdb gdb-econf.conf Works for me with: dev-libs/processor-trace-1.6.1:0 -doc -test sys-devel/gdb-8.2:0 client lzma python xml -multitarget -nls -server -test -vanilla [1] https://sourceware.org/gdb/onlinedocs/gdb/Process-Record-and-Replay.html [2] https://github.com/bminor/binutils-gdb/blob/12b164e9a96f75ffd030d04a7633dfbb64862806/gdb/configure#L1604
This is a WONTFIX unless somebody maintains processor-trace (which is now being last-rited due to lack of maintenance & open bugs).
