Should I be able to run java(c) in gdb?

[Will Hawkins]

Hello awesome community!

I am attempting to run java/javac under gdb. Everything works a-okay
when I run those binaries from the command line. It works okay under
strace, too. When I run them under gdb, though, I get a segfault every
time. Is there a reason this happens? Is there some set of flags that
I should be passing to java/javac when I want to run it under gdb?

I hope that this is not a silly question. I googled/rtfm'd but
couldn't find anything that I think is helpful.

Thanks for being an awesome community and a great resource for Linux users!

Will