Q:

Why do I see the byte representation of an address in assembly?

I am debugging a binary file with gdb. It was originally coded in C and compiled by gcc on an IA32. In gdb why when I try to print out %ebp for example do I see something like, 
(gdb) x $ebp
0xffffd5b8:  "\350\325\377\377A\213\004\b\b\273\004\b<\205\004\b\340\034", <incomplete sequence \314>

Whatever form this is in is not helpful to me and I would like to find an easy way to interpret it in gdb.

A:

If you want the value in a register, use the print command, such as p $ebp or info registers such as i r ebp. The examine (x) is for viewing memory. Consult the manual or the help for the various formats.

