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### 2.3 Shell Commands

If you need to execute occasional shell commands during your debugging session, there is no need to leave or suspend GDB; you can just use the `shell` command.

`shell command-string`
`!command-string`

  Invoke a standard shell to execute command-string. Note that no space is needed between `!` and command-string. If it exists, the environment variable `SHELL` determines which shell to run. Otherwise GDB uses the default shell (`/bin/sh` on Unix systems, `COMMAND.COM` on MS-DOS, etc.).

The utility `make` is often needed in development environments. You do not have to use the `shell` command for this purpose in GDB:

`make make-args`

  Execute the `make` program with the specified arguments. This is equivalent to ‘`shell make make-args`’.