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In the GNU Debugger (gdb), if I type the command to examine the current instruct

ID: 3859486 • Letter: I

Question

In the GNU Debugger (gdb), if I type the command to examine the current instruction pointer address and specify 4 single bytes, I see:

(gdb) x/4xb $eip

0x8048384: 0xc7 0x45 0xfc 0x00

However, if I type the command to examine the instruction pointer address and specify longwords, I see:
(gdb) x/1xw $eip
0x8048384: 0x00fc45c7

The four-byte word is displayed as 0x00fc45c7; however, when I see those bytes are displayed byte by byte, they appear reversed: 0xc7, 0x45, 0xfc, and 0x00.

This is indicative of what type of system storage in which the least significant byte of a word is in the smallest address and the most significant byte is in the largest address?

Big Endian

Explanation / Answer

Little Endian

Little Endian system storage store least significant byte of a word in the smallest address and the most significant byte in the largest address. eg

50DB22AC16

Big endian store the most significant byte in the smallest address.

Address Value 1000 AC 1001 22 1002 DB 1003 50