#### 27.2.1 GDB/MI Input Syntax ¶

`command →`

  `cli-command | mi-command`

`cli-command →`

  `[ token ] cli-command nl`, where cli-command is any existing GDB CLI command.

`mi-command →`

  `[ token ] "-" operation ( " " option )* `[` " --" `]` ( " " parameter )* nl`

`token →`

  "any sequence of digits"

`option →`

  `"-" parameter [ " " parameter ]`

`parameter →`

  `non-blank-sequence | c-string`

`operation →`

  any of the operations described in this chapter

`non-blank-sequence →`

  anything, provided it doesn’t contain special characters such as "-", nl, """ and of course " "

`c-string →`

  `""" seven-bit-iso-c-string-content """`

`nl →`

  `CR | CR-LF`

Notes:

- The CLI commands are still handled by the MI interpreter; their output is described below.
- The `token`, when present, is passed back when the command finishes.
- Some MI commands accept optional arguments as part of the parameter list. Each option is identified by a leading ‘`-`’ (dash) and may be followed by an optional argument parameter. Options occur first in the parameter list and can be delimited from normal parameters using ‘`--`’ (this is useful when some parameters begin with a dash).

Pragmatics:

- We want easy access to the existing CLI syntax (for debugging).
- We want it to be easy to spot a MI operation.