That's this line, i think:

    sudo gdb -batch -n -iex "set auto-load off" -p $TARGET_PID -ex "call close(${TARGET_FD})"

The -iex is a flag which executes a command on startup:

    -init-eval-command command
    -iex command
       Execute a single GDB command before loading the inferior (but after loading gdbinit files). See Startup.

[1] https://sourceware.org/gdb/current/onlinedocs/gdb/File-Optio...