The problem is not the missing function declaration (which isn’t missing, since you did include <math.h>
).
The problem is missing debug info for the sqrt
you are actually using. Without that debug info, GDB has no clue what parameter type to pass to sqrt()
, and what it returns.
You can get the required debug info on many Linux distributions by installing libc-debuginfo package. Here is what I see on such a system:
gdb -q ./a.out
Reading symbols from /tmp/a.out...done.
(gdb) b main
Breakpoint 1 at 0x400558: file t.c, line 6.
(gdb) r
Breakpoint 1, main () at t.c:6
6 printf("sqrt(3): %f\n", sqrt(3));
(gdb) p sqrt
$1 = {<text variable, no debug info>} 0x7ffff7b7fb50 <__sqrt>
Note: “no debug info”
(gdb) p sqrt(3)
$2 = 0
(gdb) p sqrt(3.0)
$3 = 0
Note: matches your behavior.
What sqrt
functions do have debug info?
(gdb) info func sqrt
All functions matching regular expression "sqrt":
File ../sysdeps/x86_64/fpu/e_sqrt.c:
double __ieee754_sqrt(double);
File s_csqrt.c:
complex double __csqrt(complex double);
File ../sysdeps/x86_64/fpu/e_sqrtf.c:
float __ieee754_sqrtf(float);
File w_sqrtf.c:
float __sqrtf(float);
File s_csqrtf.c:
complex float __csqrtf(complex float);
File ../sysdeps/i386/fpu/e_sqrtl.c:
long double __ieee754_sqrtl(long double);
File w_sqrtl.c:
long double __sqrtl(long double);
File s_csqrtl.c:
complex long double __csqrtl(complex long double);
File ../sysdeps/ieee754/dbl-64/mpsqrt.c:
void __mpsqrt(mp_no *, mp_no *, int);
File w_sqrt.c:
double __sqrt(double);
(gdb) p __sqrt
$4 = {double (double)} 0x7ffff7b7fb50 <__sqrt>
Note: __sqrt
is at the same address as sqrt
, but GDB knows its type!
(gdb) p __sqrt(3)
$5 = 1.7320508075688772
(gdb) p __sqrt(3.0)
$6 = 1.7320508075688772
One can reasonably argue this is a bug in GDB. Feel free to create one in GDB bugzilla.