Question

In gdb is there any way to get base data types of a structure ?

suppose for following structure

typedef struct _trial
{
        int i;
        double j;
}trial_t;

in gdb

(gdb) whatis trial_t
type = struct _trial
(gdb) whatis _trial
No symbol "_trial" in current context.
(gdb)

any workarounds ?

I know this works for simple typedefs

typedef unsigned char BYTE; 
BYTE var;  
(gdb)whatis var 
type = BYTE 
(gdb)whatis BYTE 
BYTE = unsigned char 

Answer 1

You probably want ptype

ptype accepts the same arguments as whatis, but prints a detailed
description of the type, instead of just the name of the type.

(gdb) ptype struct _trial

Or even:

(gdb) ptype trial_t

Contrary to whatis, ptype always unrolls any typedefs in its argument
declaration