M-x gdb crashes when trying to set a breakpoint on main. Emacs runs on windows and uses the gdb from cygwin. I can reproduce this on multiple machines using the following steps in emacs -Q: 1. Open a *.cpp file in emacs. I've used the following file "test.cpp": #include int main() { std::cout << "Hello world!" << std::endl; return 0; } 2. Compile the file using M-x compile: g++ -g test.cpp -o test.exe 3. start gdb using M-x gdb: gdb -i=mi test.exe 4. inside gdb type "break main". The gdb prompt dissapears and the debugger becomes unusable. The full output of *gud-test.exe*: Current directory is c:/Users/martijns/ GNU gdb (GDB) (Cygwin 7.10.1-1) 7.10.1 Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later < http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details. This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-cygwin". Type "show configuration" for configuration details. For bug reporting instructions, please see: . Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at: . For help, type "help". Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word"... Reading symbols from test.exe...done. (gdb) break main Breakpoint 1 at 0x4011de: file test.cpp, line 6. (gdb) list test.cpp:1 1 2 #include 3 4 int main() 5 { 6 std::cout << "Hello world!" << std::endl; 7 return 0; 8 } If I use the commandline for gdb, then gdb works as expected. Versions of the used software: $ gdb --version GNU gdb (GDB) (Cygwin 7.10.1-1) 7.10.1 Copyright (C) 2015 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later < http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html> This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying" and "show warranty" for details. This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-cygwin". Type "show configuration" for configuration details. For bug reporting instructions, please see: . Find the GDB manual and other documentation resources online at: . For help, type "help". Type "apropos word" to search for commands related to "word". $ emacs --version GNU Emacs 25.1.1 Copyright (C) 2016 Free Software Foundation, Inc. GNU Emacs comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. You may redistribute copies of GNU Emacs under the terms of the GNU General Public License. For more information about these matters, see the file named COPYING. ======================================================================== In GNU Emacs 25.1.1 (i686-w64-mingw32) of 2016-09-17 built on LAPHROAIG Windowing system distributor 'Microsoft Corp.', version 6.3.9600 Configured using: 'configure --host=i686-w64-mingw32 --without-dbus --without-compress-install CFLAGS=-static' Configured features: XPM JPEG TIFF GIF PNG RSVG SOUND NOTIFY ACL GNUTLS LIBXML2 ZLIB TOOLKIT_SCROLL_BARS Important settings: value of $LANG: ENU locale-coding-system: cp1252 Major mode: Debugger Minor modes in effect: shell-dirtrack-mode: t diff-auto-refine-mode: t tooltip-mode: t global-eldoc-mode: t electric-indent-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent messages: Making completion list... [2 times] Compilation finished Making completion list... delete-backward-char: Text is read-only Compilation finished mwheel-scroll: Beginning of buffer [3 times] C-c e is undefined is undefined [2 times] Target doesn’t support non-stop mode. Turning it off. Note: file is write protected Load-path shadows: None found. 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