Writing this down quickly before I forget. When debugging a std::string from GNU libstdc++, the debugger typically won’t show you the actual representation. First, you need to turn off the pretty printer (assuming that it worked in the first place): (gdb) p reregisterSlaveMessage.resource_version_uuid_.ptr_ $13 = (std::string *) 0x7f4d98d5e970 (gdb) p *reregisterSlaveMessage.resource_version_uuid_.ptr_ $14 = "\022\020K|\n\225\064\246CE\222\350\275\315t", <incomplete sequence> (gdb) disable pretty-printer 2 printers disabled 0 of 2 printers enabled (gdb) p *reregisterSlaveMessage.resource_version_uuid_.ptr_ $15 = { static npos = <optimized out>, _M_dataplus = { <:allocator>> = { <:new_allocator>> = {<no data fields>}, <no data fields>}, members of std::basic_string<char std::char_traits>, std::allocator<char> >::_Alloc_hider: _M_p = 0x7f4d98d67068 "\022\020K|\n\225\064\246CE\222\350\275\315t", <incomplete sequence> } } Next, you need to know that the internal structure of std::string is prepended to the actual string data, so you need to cast and subtract from the data pointer to find the length and refcount.