Documentation for DTrace USDT probes.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.9
5
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6* The "info source" command now displays the producer string if it was
7 present in the debug info. This typically includes the compiler version
8 and may include things like its command line arguments.
9
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10* Python Scripting
11
12 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "username",
13 which is the name of the objfile as specified by the user,
14 without, for example, resolving symlinks.
15
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16* New commands
17
18maint print symbol-cache
19 Print the contents of the symbol cache.
20
21maint print symbol-cache-statistics
22 Print statistics of symbol cache usage.
23
24maint flush-symbol-cache
25 Flush the contents of the symbol cache.
26
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27record btrace bts
28record bts
29 Start branch trace recording using Branch Trace Store (BTS) format.
30
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31* New options
32
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33set max-completions
34show max-completions
35 Set the maximum number of candidates to be considered during
36 completion. The default value is 200. This limit allows GDB
37 to avoid generating large completion lists, the computation of
38 which can cause the debugger to become temporarily unresponsive.
39
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40maint set symbol-cache-size
41maint show symbol-cache-size
42 Control the size of the symbol cache.
43
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44set|show record btrace bts buffer-size
45 Set and show the size of the ring buffer used for branch tracing in
46 BTS format.
47 The obtained size may differ from the requested size. Use "info
48 record" to see the obtained buffer size.
49
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50* The command 'thread apply all' can now support new option '-ascending'
51 to call its specified command for all threads in ascending order.
52
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53* Python/Guile scripting
54
55 ** GDB now supports auto-loading of Python/Guile scripts contained in the
56 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts'.
57
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58* New remote packets
59
60qXfer:btrace-conf:read
61 Return the branch trace configuration for the current thread.
62
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63Qbtrace-conf:bts:size
64 Set the requested ring buffer size for branch tracing in BTS format.
65
66* The info record command now shows the recording format and the
67 branch tracing configuration for the current thread when using
68 the btrace record target.
69 For the BTS format, it shows the ring buffer size.
70
3b2f13ff 71*** Changes in GDB 7.9
919b9a93 72
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73* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
74
5f3b99cf 75* Python Scripting
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76
77 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
78 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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79 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
80 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
a0be3e44 81 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "owner".
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82 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "build_id",
83 which is the build ID generated when the file was built.
86e4ed39 84 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new method "add_separate_debug_file".
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85 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
86 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 87 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
6dddd6a5 88 ** New function gdb.lookup_objfile.
5f3b99cf 89
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90 New events which are triggered when GDB modifies the state of the
91 inferior.
92
93 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_pre: Function call is about to be made.
94 ** gdb.events.inferior_call_post: Function call has just been made.
95 ** gdb.events.memory_changed: A memory location has been altered.
96 ** gdb.events.register_changed: A register has been altered.
97
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98* New Python-based convenience functions:
99
100 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
101 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
102 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
103 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
104
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105* GDB now supports the compilation and injection of source code into
106 the inferior. GDB will use GCC 5.0 or higher built with libcc1.so
107 to compile the source code to object code, and if successful, inject
108 and execute that code within the current context of the inferior.
109 Currently the C language is supported. The commands used to
110 interface with this new feature are:
111
112 compile code [-raw|-r] [--] [source code]
113 compile file [-raw|-r] filename
114
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115* New commands
116
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117demangle [-l language] [--] name
118 Demangle "name" in the specified language, or the current language
119 if elided. This command is renamed from the "maint demangle" command.
120 The latter is kept as a no-op to avoid "maint demangle" being interpreted
121 as "maint demangler-warning".
122
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123queue-signal signal-name-or-number
124 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
125
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126add-auto-load-scripts-directory directory
127 Add entries to the list of directories from which to load auto-loaded
128 scripts.
129
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130maint print user-registers
131 List all currently available "user" registers.
132
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133compile code [-r|-raw] [--] [source code]
134 Compile, inject, and execute in the inferior the executable object
135 code produced by compiling the provided source code.
136
137compile file [-r|-raw] filename
138 Compile and inject into the inferior the executable object code
139 produced by compiling the source code stored in the filename
140 provided.
141
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142* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
143 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
144 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
145 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
146 at resume time.
147
148* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
149 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
150 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
151 switched threads meanwhile.
152
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153* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
154
155 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
156 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
157 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
158 is now the default mode.
159
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160* New options
161
162set debug symbol-lookup
163show debug symbol-lookup
164 Control display of debugging info regarding symbol lookup.
165
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166* MI changes
167
168 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
169 inferiors that have exited.
170
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171* New targets
172
173MIPS SDE mips*-sde*-elf*
174
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175* Removed targets
176
177Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
178
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179Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
180SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
181SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
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182VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
183VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 184
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185* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
186 and "assf"), have been removed. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
187 its alias "share", instead.
188
919b9a93 189*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 190
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191* New command line options
192
193-D data-directory
194 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
195
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196* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
197 as specified in ISO C99.
198
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199* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
200 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 201
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202* Guile scripting
203
204 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
205 available is determined at configure time.
206 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
207 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
208
209* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
210
211guile [code]
212gu [code]
213 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
214
215guile-repl
216gr
217 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
218
219info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
220 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
221
222* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
223 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
224
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225* New options
226
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227set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
228show print symbol-loading
229 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
230 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
231 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
232 becomes less useful.
233
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234set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
235show guile print-stack
236 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
237
238set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
239show auto-load guile-scripts
240 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
241
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242maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
243maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
244 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
245 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
246 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
247 usage of this option.
248
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249set auto-connect-native-target
250
251 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
252 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
253 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
254
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255set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
256show record btrace replay-memory-access
257 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
258
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259maint set target-async (on|off)
260maint show target-async
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261 This controls whether GDB targets operate in synchronous or
262 asynchronous mode. Normally the default is asynchronous, if it is
329ea579 263 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
5784b3ca 264 occurring only in synchronous mode.
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265
266set mi-async (on|off)
267show mi-async
268 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
269 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
270
271* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
272 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
273
274* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
275 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
276 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
277 "set target-async on" command.
278
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279* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
280
281 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
282 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
283 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
284 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
285 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
286
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287* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
288 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
289 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
290
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291* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
292 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
293 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
294 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
295 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
296 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
297 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
298
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299* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
300 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
301
066ce621 302* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
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303 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
304 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 305
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306* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
307 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
308 memory or registers.
309
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310* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
311
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312* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
313 remote. It now works with all targets.
314
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315* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
316 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
317 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
318 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
319 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
320 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
321 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
322 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
323 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
324 target-stack".
325
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326* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
327 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
328 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
329
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330* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
331
332* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
333 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
334 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
335
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336* New remote packets
337
338qXfer:btrace:read's annex
339 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
340 branch trace incrementally.
341
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342* Python Scripting
343
344 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
345 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
346 available.
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347 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
348 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
349 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
350 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
351 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 352
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353* New targets
354PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
355
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356* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
357 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
358 its alias "share", instead.
359
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360* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
361 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
362 instead.
363
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364* MI changes
365
366 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
367 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
368 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
369 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
370 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
371 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
372 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
373 commands and CLI execution commands.
374
b7bba001 375*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 376
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377* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
378 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
379 recording has been added.
380
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381* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
382
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383* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
384 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
385
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386* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
387 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
388 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
389 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
390 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
391 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
392 "void".
393
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394* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
395
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396* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
397
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398* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
399 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
400 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
401 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
402
403 (gdb) p $rax
404 $1 = <not saved>
405
406 (gdb) info registers rax
407 rax <not saved>
408
409 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
410 "*value not available*".
411
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412* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
413 to binaries.
414
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415* Python scripting
416
417 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 418 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 419 ** Line tables representation has been added.
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420 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
421 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 422 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 423
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424* New targets
425
426Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
427Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 428Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 429
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430* Removed native configurations
431
432Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
433been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
434
435arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
436i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
437i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
438i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
439m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
440sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
441vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
442
bd712aed 443* New commands:
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444catch rethrow
445 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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446maint check-psymtabs
447 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
448maint check-symtabs
449 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
450maint expand-symtabs
451 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 452
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453show configuration
454 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
455
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456maint set|show per-command
457maint set|show per-command space
458maint set|show per-command time
459maint set|show per-command symtab
460 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
461
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462remove-symbol-file FILENAME
463remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
464 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
465 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
466 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
467
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468info exceptions
469info exceptions REGEXP
470 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
471 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
472 are listed.
473
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474* New options
475
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476set debug symfile off|on
477show debug symfile
478 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
479 symbol tables within those files
480
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481set print raw frame-arguments
482show print raw frame-arguments
483 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
484 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
485
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486set remote trace-status-packet
487show remote trace-status-packet
488 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
489
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490set debug nios2
491show debug nios2
492 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
493
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494set range-stepping
495show range-stepping
496 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
497
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498set startup-with-shell
499show startup-with-shell
500 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
501 directly.
502
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503set code-cache
504show code-cache
505 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
506 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
507
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508* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
509 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
510 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
511 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
512 "set height 0".
513
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514* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
515 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
516 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
517
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518* New command-line options
519--configuration
520 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
521
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522* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
523 buffer in Common Trace Format.
524
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525* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
526 GDB command gcore.
527
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528* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
529
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530* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
531 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
532
533* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
534 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
535
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536* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
537 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
538 due to an uncaught signal.
539
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540* MI changes
541
403cb6b1 542 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
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543 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
544 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 545
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546 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
547 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
548
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549 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
550 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
551 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
552 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
553 "undefined-command-error-code".
554
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555 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
556 Trace Format now.
557
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558 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
559
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560 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
561 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
562 are displayed.
563
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564 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
565 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
566
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567 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
568 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
569 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
570
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571 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
572 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
573 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
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574 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
575 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
576 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 577
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578 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
579 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
580
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581 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
582 the new "info exceptions" command.
583
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584* New system-wide configuration scripts
585 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
586 configuration scripts for the following systems:
587 ** ElinOS
588 ** Wind River Linux
589
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590* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
591 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
592 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
593 below.
594
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595* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
596 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
597
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598* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
599 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
600 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
601
c1e36e3e
PA
602* New remote packets
603
604vCont;r
605
606 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
607 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
608 involvemement at each single-step.
609
7f91dbec
GB
610qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
611 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
612 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
613 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
614 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
615 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
616 speedup.
617
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PA
618* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
619
620 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
621 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
622
28a93511
YQ
623 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
624 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
625 trace state variables.
626
7a60ad40
YQ
627 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
628 target.
629
6fbe845e
AB
630* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
631 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
632
9058cc3a
TG
633* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
634
0d12017b
JB
635* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
636 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
637 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
638 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
639
2d450646 640*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 641
59ea5688
MM
642* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
643 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
644 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
645 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
646
647set|show record full insn-number-max
648set|show record full stop-at-limit
649set|show record full memory-query
650
651* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
652 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
653 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
654 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
655 This new recording method can be enabled using:
656
657record btrace
658
659 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
660 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
661
662* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
663 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
664 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
665
666record instruction-history prints the execution history at
667 instruction granularity
668
669record function-call-history prints the execution history at
670 function granularity
671
543bf33d
AT
672* New native configurations
673
51d66578 674ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 675FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 676x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 677Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 678
249729c4
JB
679* New targets
680
51d66578
MS
681ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
682ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 683Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 684x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 685Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 686
e64e0392
DE
687* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
688 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
689 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
690 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
691 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
692 --data-directory command-line option.
693
07540c15
DE
694* New command line options:
695
696-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
697 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
698
e93a8774
TT
699* Removed command line options
700
701-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
702 Emacs.
703
53342f27
TT
704* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
705 type formatting.
706
451b7c33
TT
707* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
708
a72c3253
DE
709* Python scripting
710
711 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
712
d7de8e3c
TT
713 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
714
18a9fc12
TT
715 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
716
9a27f2c6
PK
717 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
718
bea883fd
SCR
719 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
720 of architecture in the Python API.
721
722 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
723 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
724
a72c3253
DE
725* New Python-based convenience functions:
726
727 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
728 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
729 ** $_strlen(str)
730 ** $_regex(str, regex)
731
f3c8a52a
JK
732* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
733 given an argument.
734
1605ef26
TT
735* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
736 default for GCC since November 2000.
737
504b36fd
YQ
738* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
739
f2a8bc8a
YQ
740* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
741 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
742
23a80689
JB
743* New configure options
744
745--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
746 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
747 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
748 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
749 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
750 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
751--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
752 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
753 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 754
d6b28940
TT
755* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
756
ab04a2af
TT
757catch signal
758 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
759 conditions to be attached.
760
d6b28940
TT
761maint info bfds
762 List the BFDs known to GDB.
763
8315665e
YPK
764python-interactive [command]
765pi [command]
766 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
767 and print the result of expressions.
768
769py [command]
770 "py" is a new alias for "python".
771
18a9fc12
TT
772enable type-printer [name]...
773disable type-printer [name]...
774 Enable or disable type printers.
775
aa9259cc
TS
776* Removed commands
777
778 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
779 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
780 instead.
781
53342f27
TT
782* New options
783
784set print type methods (on|off)
785show print type methods
786 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
787 The default is to show them.
788
789set print type typedefs (on|off)
790show print type typedefs
791 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
792 The default is to show them.
793
1b56eb55
JK
794set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
795show filename-display
796 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
797 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
798
e9f1758d
PA
799set trace-buffer-size
800show trace-buffer-size
801 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
802
a46c1e42
PA
803set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
804show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
805 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
806
be9a8770
PA
807set debug aarch64
808show debug aarch64
809 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
810 The default is off.
811
812set debug coff-pe-read
813show debug coff-pe-read
814 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
815 exported symbols.
816
817set debug mach-o
818show debug mach-o
819 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
820 processing.
821
822set debug notification
823show debug notification
824 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
825
5b9afe8a
YQ
826* MI changes
827
828 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
829 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
830 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
831 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
832 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
833 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
834 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
835 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
836 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
837 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
838 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 839 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 840 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
841 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
842 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
843 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
844 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
845 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
846 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
847 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
848 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
849 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
850 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
851 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
852 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 853
608e2dbb
TT
854* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
855 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
856 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
857 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
858
f6f899bf
HAQ
859* New remote packets
860
861QTBuffer:size
862 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
863 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
864
10782d74
MM
865Qbtrace:bts
866 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
867 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
868 qSupported query.
869
870Qbtrace:off
871 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
872 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
873
874qXfer:btrace:read
875 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
876 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
877
80c8d323 878*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 879
1b3371b1
L
880* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
881 for more x32 ABI info.
882
d0e64392
MR
883* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
884
4cc0665f
MR
885* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
886
85d4a676
SS
887* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
888 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
889 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
890 "info os files" lists file descriptors
891 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
892 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
893 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
894 "info os msg" lists message queues
895 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
896
55aa24fb
SDJ
897* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
898 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
899 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
900 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
901 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
902 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
903
72508ac0
PO
904* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
905 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
906 record/replay support.
907
16899756
DE
908* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
909
4795f398
DE
910* Python scripting
911
7d74f244
DE
912 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
913 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
914
4795f398
DE
915 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
916
50897289
TT
917 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
918 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
919
64e7d9dd
TT
920 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
921
922 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
923 the source at which the symbol was defined.
924
f0823d2c
TT
925 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
926 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
927 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
928 symbol's value.
929
7b282c5a
SCR
930 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
931 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
932
a20ee7a4
SCR
933 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
934 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
935 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
936
7efc75aa
SCR
937 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
938 object associated with a PC value.
939
ee0bf529
SCR
940 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
941 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
942
a766d390
DE
943* Go language support.
944 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
945 language.
946
e0f9f062
DE
947* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
948 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
949
217bff3e
JK
950* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
951 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
952
cafec441
TT
953* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
954 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
955 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
956 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
957 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
958 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
959
4aac40c8
TT
960* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
961 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
962 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
963 build/libcpp/expr.c.
964
d99bd577
UW
965* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
966 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
967
53fe1783
GB
968* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
969 since December 2007.
970
e41eec66
JB
971* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
972 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
973 command does. For instance:
974
975 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
976
977 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
978 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
979 created, using the "condition" command.
980
5808517f
YQ
981* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
982 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
983
481860b3
GB
984* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
985
986* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
987 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
988 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
989 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
990 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
991 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
992 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
993 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 994
156942c7
DE
995 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
996 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
997 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
998 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
999 the .gdb_index section.
1000
927fbba6
JB
1001* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
1002
20388dd6
YQ
1003* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
1004 target.
1005
f3e0e960
SS
1006* MI changes
1007
1008 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
1009
37ce89eb
SS
1010 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
1011
edcc5120
TT
1012* New commands
1013
e615022a
DE
1014 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1015 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
1016 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
1017
edcc5120
TT
1018 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
1019 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
1020
816338b5
SS
1021 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
1022 several hits.
1023
57651221 1024 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
1025 C++ and Java objects.
1026
06fc020f 1027 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 1028 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
1029 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
1030 configured with '--with-python'.
1031
bf88dd68
JK
1032 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
1033 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
1034 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
1035 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
1036 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
1037 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
1038 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
1039
1040 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
1041 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
1042 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
1043 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
1044
e7e0cddf
SS
1045 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
1046 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
1047 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
1048 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
1049
9cb709b6
TT
1050 ** "set print symbol"
1051 "show print symbol"
1052 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
1053 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
1054 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
1055
2d4c29c5
TS
1056* Deprecated commands
1057
1058 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
1059 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
1060
a58b110a
KB
1061* New targets
1062
1063Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 1064HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 1065
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LM
1066* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
1067 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
1068 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
1069 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
1070 evaluates to true.
1071
1072* New options
1073
4cc0665f
MR
1074set mips compression
1075show mips compression
1076 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
1077 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
1078 mips16
1079 micromips
1080 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
1081
72895ff6
LM
1082set breakpoint condition-evaluation
1083show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 1084 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
1085 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
1086 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
1087 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
1088 target.
1089
bf88dd68
JK
1090set auto-load off
1091 Disable auto-loading globally.
1092
1093show auto-load
1094 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
1095
1096set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
1097show auto-load gdb-scripts
1098 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
1099
1100set auto-load python-scripts on|off
1101show auto-load python-scripts
1102 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
1103
1104set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
1105show auto-load local-gdbinit
1106 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
1107
1108set auto-load libthread-db on|off
1109show auto-load libthread-db
1110 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
1111
7349ff92 1112set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 1113show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
1114 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
1115 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
1116 of the directories listed by this option.
1117 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1118
bccbefd2
JK
1119set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
1120show auto-load safe-path
1121 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
1122 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
1123
4dc84fd1
JK
1124set debug auto-load on|off
1125show debug auto-load
1126 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1127
d3ce09f5 1128set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1129show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1130 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1131 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1132 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1133 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1134
1135set dprintf-function <expr>
1136show dprintf-function
1137set dprintf-channel <expr>
1138show dprintf-channel
1139 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1140 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1141
d3ce09f5
SS
1142set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1143show disconnected-dprintf
1144 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1145 after GDB disconnects.
1146
6dea1fbd
JK
1147* New configure options
1148
7349ff92
JK
1149--with-auto-load-dir
1150 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1151 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1152 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1153 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1154 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1155
6dea1fbd
JK
1156--with-auto-load-safe-path
1157 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1158 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1159
1160--without-auto-load-safe-path
1161 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1162 security feature.
1163
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LM
1164* New remote packets
1165
74c48cbb
PA
1166z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1167
72895ff6
LM
1168 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1169 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1170 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1171 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1172
9b224c5e
PA
1173QProgramSignals:
1174
1175 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1176 program without GDB involvement.
1177
8320cc4f
JK
1178* New command line options
1179
1180--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1181 before loading inferior.
1182--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1183 execute it before loading inferior.
1184
8837a20f
JB
1185*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1186
f8eba3c6
TT
1187* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1188 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1189 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1190 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1191 inferior changes.
1192
1bfeeb0f
JL
1193* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1194 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1195
480a3f21
PW
1196* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1197 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1198 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1199 target hardware watchpoint.
1200
1201 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1202 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1203 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1204 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1205
3a7bf607
PM
1206* Python scripting
1207
32d1c362 1208 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1209 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1210 existing one.
1211
3a7bf607 1212 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1213 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1214 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1215 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1216 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1217 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1218
baacfb07 1219 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1220 Python API.
713389e0 1221
fa3a4f15
PM
1222 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1223 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1224 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1225 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1226 corresponding value.
1227
5e239b84
PM
1228 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1229 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1230 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1231 on GDB start-up.
1232
9df2fbc4
PM
1233 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1234 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1235 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1236 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1237
457e09f0
DE
1238 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1239
6839b47f
KP
1240 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1241 "gdb.breakpoints".
1242
cc72b2a2
KP
1243 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1244 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1245 available in the CLI.
1246
84ad80e6
PK
1247 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1248 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1249 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1250 "some_type.items()".
1251
20c168b5
KP
1252 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1253 new object file.
1254
03c3051a
PK
1255 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1256 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1257 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1258 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1259 any anonymous fields.
1260
7376e450
TT
1261* MI changes
1262
1263 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1264 "solib-event".
1265
1266 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1267 "=breakpoint-modified".
1268
1269 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1270
98a5dd13
DE
1271* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1272 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1273 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1274 lives.
1275
1276 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1277 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1278 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1279 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1280 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1281
1282 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1283 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1284
478aac75
DE
1285* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1286 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1287 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1288 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1289 use this option to specify where to find it.
1290
9c06b0b4
TJB
1291* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1292 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1293 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1294 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1295 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1296 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1297 section in the user manual for more details.
1298
03f2bd59
JK
1299* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1300 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1301 become available after that.
1302
71eba9c2 1303* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1304
2bda9cc5
JK
1305* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1306 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1307 gcc version 4.7.
1308
ed59ded5
DE
1309* New commands
1310
1311!SHELL COMMAND
1312 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1313 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1314
9c06b0b4
TJB
1315* Changed commands
1316
1317watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1318 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1319 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1320
dbaefcf7
DE
1321info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1322 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1323 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1324
71eba9c2 1325info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1326 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1327 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1328 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1329 name starts with a hyphen.
1330
3065dfb6
SS
1331collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1332 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1333 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1334 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1335 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1336 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1337 number of bytes that will be collected.
1338
f196051f
SS
1339tstart [NOTES]
1340 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1341 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1342 setting the variable trace-notes.
1343
1344tstop [NOTES]
1345 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1346 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1347 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1348 trace-stop-notes.
1349
d248b706
KY
1350* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1351 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1352 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1353 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1354 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1355 is running.
1356
405f8e94
SS
1357* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1358 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1359 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1360
2bda9cc5
JK
1361* New options
1362
45cfd468
DE
1363set debug dwarf2-read
1364show debug dwarf2-read
1365 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1366 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1367
1368set debug symtab-create
1369show debug symtab-create
1370 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1371 creation. The default is off.
1372
baacfb07
PM
1373set extended-prompt
1374show extended-prompt
1375 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1376 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1377 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1378 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1379 prompt is displayed.
1380
2bda9cc5
JK
1381set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1382show print entry-values
1383 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1384 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1385 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1386
1387set debug entry-values
1388show debug entry-values
1389 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1390 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1391
c011a4f4
DE
1392set basenames-may-differ
1393show basenames-may-differ
1394 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1395 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1396 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1397 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1398 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1399 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1400 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1401 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1402
f196051f
SS
1403set trace-user
1404show trace-user
1405set trace-notes
1406show trace-notes
1407 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1408 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1409 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1410 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1411
1412set trace-stop-notes
1413show trace-stop-notes
1414 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1415 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1416 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1417 started by someone else.
1418
d248b706
KY
1419* New remote packets
1420
1421QTEnable
1422
1423 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1424
1425QTDisable
1426
1427 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1428
f196051f
SS
1429QTNotes
1430
1431 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1432
1433qTP
1434
1435 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1436
405f8e94
SS
1437qTMinFTPILen
1438
1439 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1440 be placed.
1441
1a532630
PP
1442* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1443 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1444
11315641
YQ
1445* New targets
1446
1447Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1448
87326c78
DD
1449* New Simulators
1450
1451Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1452
e8d56f18
JB
1453*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1454
1455* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1456
d6e00af6 1457*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1458
60f98dde
MS
1459* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1460 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1461 matches the given regular expression.
1462
eee5b35e
DD
1463* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1464
b716877b
AB
1465* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1466 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1467
aae1c79a
DE
1468* New command line options
1469
1470-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1471 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1472
a86caf66
DE
1473* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1474 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1475
99e7ae30
DE
1476* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1477 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1478 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1479
4694da01
TT
1480* GDB now understands thread names.
1481
1482 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1483 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1484
1485 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1486 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1487
f4b8a18d
KW
1488* OpenCL C
1489 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1490 has been integrated into GDB.
1491
585d1eb8
PM
1492* Python scripting
1493
da5d4055
PM
1494 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1495 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1496 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1497
9a6f1302
PM
1498 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1499 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1500 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1501 and allows for more dynamic content.
1502
29703da4
PM
1503 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1504 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1505 have an is_valid method.
1506
350c6c65
PM
1507 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1508 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1509 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1510
6e6fbe60
DE
1511 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1512
585d1eb8
PM
1513 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1514 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1515 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1516 that function like so:
1517
1518 result = some_value (10,20)
1519
0e3509db
DE
1520 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1521 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1522 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1523
7b51bc51
DE
1524 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1525 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1526 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1527 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1528 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1529
1530 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1531 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1532
99e7ae30
DE
1533 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1534
d8e22779
TT
1535 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1536 selected thread.
1537
4694da01
TT
1538 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1539 holds the thread's name.
1540
505500db
SW
1541 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1542 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1543 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1544 The following events are currently supported:
1545 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1546 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1547 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1548
def98928
TT
1549* C++ Improvements:
1550
1551 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1552 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1553
1554 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1555
1556 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1557 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1558 was added to GCC 4.5.
1559
66cb8159
TT
1560 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1561 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1562 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1563 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1564 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1565 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1566
4aac0db7
UW
1567* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1568 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1569 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1570 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1571 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1572
283e6a52
TT
1573* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1574 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1575 execution to a label.
1576
1577* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1578 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1579 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1580 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1581
b56df873 1582* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1583 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1584 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1585 of scope.
1586
ae53ffa4
PA
1587* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1588
1589 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1590 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1591 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1592 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1593 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1594 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1595
1596 (gdb) info threads
1597 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1598
1599 While now you see this:
1600
1601 (gdb) info threads
1602 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1603
1604 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1605 dumps.
1606
1607 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1608 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1609 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1610 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1611
f1310107
TJB
1612* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1613 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1614 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1615 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1616 section in the user manual for more details.
1617
248c9dbc
JB
1618* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1619
1aee7009
JB
1620 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1621 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1622
eb826dc6
MF
1623 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1624
44603653
JB
1625* New native configurations
1626
1627ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1628
91021223
MF
1629* New targets:
1630
1631Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1632
6e1bb179
JB
1633* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1634 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1635 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1636 in the GDB user manual.
1637
50c97f38
TT
1638* Guile support was removed.
1639
448a92bf
MF
1640* New features in the GNU simulator
1641
1642 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1643
66ee2731
MF
1644 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1645
76b8507d 1646*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1647
ba25b921
PA
1648* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1649
1650 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1651 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1652 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1653 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1654 was always disabled for such configurations.
1655
4656f5c6
SW
1656* C++ Improvements:
1657
1658 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1659
1660 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1661 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1662 For example:
1663 namespace A
1664 {
1665 class B { };
1666 void foo (B) { }
1667 }
1668 ...
1669 A::B b
1670 foo(b)
1671 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1672 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1673 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1674
1675 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1676
1677 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1678 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1679 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1680 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1681 entry.
1682 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1683 mentioned flavors of operators.
1684
254e6b9e
DE
1685 ** static const class members
1686
1687 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1688 class definition has been fixed.
1689
711e434b
PM
1690* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1691
1692 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1693 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1694 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1695 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1696 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1697 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1698
0fb4aa4b
PA
1699* Static tracepoints
1700
1701 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1702 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1703 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1704 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1705 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1706 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1707 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1708 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1709 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1710 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1711 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1712 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1713 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1714 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1715 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1716 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1717 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1718 the "New remote packets" section below.
1719
ca11e899
SS
1720* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1721
1722 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1723 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1724 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1725 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1726
1727* Observer mode
1728
1729 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1730 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1731 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1732 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1733 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1734 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1735 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1736
1737* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1738 current thread.
1739
711e434b
PM
1740* New remote packets
1741
1742qGetTIBAddr
1743
1744 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1745
dde08ee1
PA
1746qRelocInsn
1747
1748 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1749 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1750 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1751 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1752 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1753 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1754
0fb4aa4b
PA
1755qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1756
1757 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1758
1759qTSTMat
1760
1761 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1762 program.
1763
1764qXfer:statictrace:read
1765
1766 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1767 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1768 to gdb's qSupported query.
1769
ca11e899
SS
1770QAllow
1771
1772 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1773
1774QTDPsrc
1775
1776 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1777 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1778
3f7b2faa
DE
1779* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1780 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1781 a directory.
1782
d337e9f0
PA
1783* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1784
0fb4aa4b
PA
1785 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1786 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1787 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1788 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1789
1790 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1791 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1792 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1793 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1794 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1795 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1796 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1797
1798 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1799 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1800
c24d0242
PM
1801 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1802
c8d5aac9
L
1803* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1804 it understands register description.
1805
7c953934
TT
1806* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1807
8685c86f
L
1808* X86 general purpose registers
1809
1810 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1811 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1812 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1813 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1814 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1815
95a42b64 1816* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1817 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1818 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1819 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1820 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1821 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1822
8bd10a10
CM
1823* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1824 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1825 in the specified file.
1826
ab38a727
PA
1827* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1828 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1829 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1830 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1831 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1832 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1833 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1834 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1835 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1836 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1837
6149aea9
PA
1838* New commands
1839
f1421989
HZ
1840eval template, expressions...
1841 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1842 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1843
ab38a727
PA
1844set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1845show target-file-system-kind
1846 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1847 names.
1848
6149aea9
PA
1849save breakpoints <filename>
1850 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1851 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1852 definitions, use the `source' command.
1853
1854`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1855is now deprecated.
1856
0fb4aa4b
PA
1857info static-tracepoint-markers
1858 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1859
1860strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1861 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1862 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1863
ca11e899
SS
1864set observer on|off
1865show observer
1866 Enable and disable observer mode.
1867
1868set may-write-registers on|off
1869set may-write-memory on|off
1870set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1871set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1872set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1873set may-interrupt on|off
1874 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1875 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1876 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1877 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1878 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1879 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1880 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1881
1882set record memory-query on|off
1883show record memory-query
1884 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1885 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1886
53a71c06
CR
1887* Changed commands
1888
1889disassemble
1890 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1891
f3e9a817
PM
1892* Python scripting
1893
9279c692
JB
1894** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1895 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1896 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1897 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1898 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1899
adc36818 1900** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1901 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1902 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1903 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1904
fa33c3cd 1905** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1906 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1907
1908** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1909
1910** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1911
967cf477
DE
1912** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1913
8a1ea21f
DE
1914** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1915 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1916 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1917
a7bdde9e
VP
1918* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1919there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1920tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1921regular breakpoints.
1922
05071a4d
PA
1923* New targets
1924
1925ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1926
6aecb9c2
JB
1927* D language support.
1928 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1929 language.
1930
431e49aa
TJB
1931* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1932 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1933 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1934 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1935 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1936
1937* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1938 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1939 conditions of the form:
1940
1941 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1942
1943 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1944 interface mentioned above.
1945
bfbf3774 1946*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1947
4eef138c
TT
1948* C++ Improvements
1949
1950 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1951
1952 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1953 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1954 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1955 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1956 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1957
4eef138c
TT
1958 ** Bug Fixes
1959
1960 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1961 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1962 qualified name.
1963
1964 ** Cast Operators
1965
1966 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1967 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1968
2d1c1221
ME
1969* New targets
1970
1971Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1972Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1973
1974* New Simulators
1975
1976Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1977Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1978
6c95b8df
PA
1979* Multi-program debugging.
1980
1981 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1982 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1983 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1984 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1985 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1986 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1987 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1988 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1989
d5551862
SS
1990* New tracing features
1991
1992 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1993
1994 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1995
1996 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1997 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1998 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1999 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
2000 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
2001 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
2002 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
2003 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
2004 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
2005 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 2006
d5551862 2007 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
2008
2009 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
2010 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
2011 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
2012 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
2013 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
2014 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
2015 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
2016 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
2017 the regular trace command.
2018
d5551862
SS
2019 ** Disconnected tracing
2020
2021 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
2022 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
2023 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
2024 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
2025 connection is lost unexpectedly.
2026
00bf0b85
SS
2027 ** Trace files
2028
2029 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
2030 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
2031 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
2032 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
2033 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
2034 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
2035 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
2036
2037 ** Circular trace buffer
2038
2039 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
2040 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
2041 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
2042 not be available for all target agents.
2043
21a0512e
PP
2044* Changed commands
2045
2046disassemble
2047 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
2048 the arguments to be comma-separated.
2049
0fe7935b
DJ
2050info variables
2051 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
2052 which only declare a variable are not shown.
2053
fb2e7cb4
JB
2054source
2055 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
2056 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
2057 support.
2058
2059 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
2060 "set script-extension" (see below).
2061
6c95b8df
PA
2062* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
2063
399cd161
MS
2064record save [<FILENAME>]
2065 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
2066 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
2067
2068record restore <FILENAME>
2069 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
2070 earlier time, for replay debugging.
2071
6c95b8df
PA
2072add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
2073 Add a new inferior.
2074
2075clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
2076 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
2077 inferior has loaded.
2078
2079remove-inferior ID
2080 Remove an inferior.
2081
2082maint info program-spaces
2083 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
2084
9a7071a8
JB
2085set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
2086show remote interrupt-sequence
2087 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
2088 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
2089 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
2090 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
2091 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
2092
2093set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
2094show remote interrupt-on-connect
2095 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
2096 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
2097 Linux kernel.
2098
2099set remotebreak [on | off]
2100show remotebreak
2101Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
2102
f61e138d
SS
2103tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
2104 Create or modify a trace state variable.
2105
2106info tvariables
2107 List trace state variables and their values.
2108
2109delete tvariable $NAME ...
2110 Delete one or more trace state variables.
2111
6da95a67
SS
2112teval EXPR, ...
2113 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
2114 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
2115
7a697b8d
SS
2116ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
2117 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
2118
b0f02ee9
JK
2119* New expression syntax
2120
2121 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
2122 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
2123
6c95b8df
PA
2124* New options
2125
2126set follow-exec-mode new|same
2127show follow-exec-mode
2128 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2129 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2130 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2131
236f1d4d
SS
2132set default-collect EXPR, ...
2133show default-collect
2134 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2135 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2136 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2137
d5551862
SS
2138set disconnected-tracing
2139show disconnected-tracing
2140 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2141 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2142 upon disconnection.
2143
4daf5ac0
SS
2144set circular-trace-buffer
2145show circular-trace-buffer
2146 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2147 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2148 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2149 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2150
fb2e7cb4
JB
2151set script-extension off|soft|strict
2152show script-extension
2153 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2154 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2155 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2156 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2157 evaluation failed.
2158 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2159
2b71fc8e
JB
2160set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2161show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2162 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2163 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2164 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2165 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2166 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2167 is on.
2168
de2e5182
TT
2169* Python API Improvements
2170
2171 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2172 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2173 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2174
2175 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2176 `is_base_class' attribute.
2177
2178 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2179
2180 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2181 evaluate an expression.
2182
f61e138d
SS
2183* New remote packets
2184
2185QTDV
2186 Define a trace state variable.
2187
2188qTV
2189 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2190
d5551862
SS
2191QTDisconnected
2192 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2193
4daf5ac0
SS
2194QTBuffer:circular
2195 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2196
d5551862
SS
2197qTfP, qTsP
2198 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2199
2d483d34
MS
2200* Bug fixes
2201
2202Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2203
6e0e5977
JB
2204Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2205much more reliable. In particular:
2206 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2207 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2208 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2209 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2210 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2211 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2212 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2213 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2214 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2215 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2216 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2217 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2218 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2219 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2220 non-threaded programs.
2221
93c26624
JK
2222PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2223This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2224libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2225executable program.
2226
abc7453d 2227*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2228
4efc6507
DE
2229* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2230dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2231them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2232for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2233"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2234
782b2b07
SS
2235* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2236breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2237or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2238the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2239for tracepoint actions.
2240
53a71c06
CR
2241* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2242raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2243modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2244
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2245* Process record and replay
2246
2247 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2248 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2249 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2250 execute commands.
2251
64644d9b
MS
2252* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2253step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2254set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2255reverse execution.
2256
b9412953
DD
2257* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2258feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
22592.6.28 or later.
2260
6c7a06a3
TT
2261* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2262target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2263char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2264literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2265U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2266`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2267system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2268the installation instructions for more information.
2269
f1838a98
UW
2270* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2271remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2272with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2273the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2274
55333a84
DE
2275* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2276and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2277
7f6a6314
PM
2278* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2279now complete on file names.
2280
65d12d83
TT
2281* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2282completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2283For instance, consider:
2284
2285 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2286 # struct example variable;
2287 (gdb) p variable.
2288
2289If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2290completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2291
edb3359d
DJ
2292* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2293the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2294
2fae03e8
TT
2295* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2296operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2297macros.
2298
47a3467a 2299* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2300the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2301implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2302
2303* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2304registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2305can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2306and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2307
08388c79
DE
2308* New remote packets
2309
2310qSearch:memory:
2311 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2312
a6f3e723
SL
2313QStartNoAckMode
2314 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2315 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2316 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2317
d7713ae0
EZ
2318vKill
2319 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2320 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2321
07e059b5
VP
2322qXfer:osdata:read
2323 Obtains additional operating system information
2324
47a3467a
PA
2325qXfer:siginfo:read
2326qXfer:siginfo:write
2327 Read or write additional signal information.
2328
060871df
PA
2329* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2330
2331 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2332 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2333 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2334
c055b101 2335* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2336DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2337
2338* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2339and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2340`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2341
31fffb02
CS
2342* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2343with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2344
88d8a8e0
JB
2345* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2346
7f99b190
JB
2347* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2348
ccd213ac
DJ
2349* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2350which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2351
1fddbabb 2352* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2353list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2354
a0ef4274
DJ
2355* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2356conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2357have also been fixed.
2358
bfb8797a 2359* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2360From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2361are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2362
71c25dea
TT
2363* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2364example, given:
2365
2366 template<typename T> class C { };
2367 C<char const *> c;
2368
2369GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2370
2371 ptype C<char const *>
2372 ptype C<char const*>
2373 ptype C<const char *>
2374 ptype C<const char*>
2375
ccd213ac
DJ
2376* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2377
2378 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2379 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2380
7ae0e2a2
UW
2381 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2382 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2383 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2384
a6f3e723
SL
2385 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2386 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2387
da8bd9a3
DJ
2388 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2389 gdbserver.
2390
d70e31dd
DE
2391 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2392 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2393
2394 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2395 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2396 as appropriate.
2397
d57a3c85
TJB
2398* Python scripting
2399
2400 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2401 available is determined at configure time.
2402
d8906c6f
TJB
2403 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2404
aadc346a
JB
2405* Ada tasking support
2406
2407 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2408 been introduced:
2409
2410 info tasks
2411 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2412 info task N
2413 Print detailed information about task number N.
2414 task
2415 Print the task number of the current task.
2416 task N
2417 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2418
adb483fe
DJ
2419* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2420add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2421
2277426b
PA
2422* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2423
2424 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2425 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2426 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2427 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2428 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2429 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2430 below.
2431
08d16641
PA
2432* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2433"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2434information.
2435
e35359c5
UW
2436* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2437to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2438architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2439See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2440more information.
2441
85e747d2
UW
2442* Multi-architecture debugging.
2443
2444 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2445 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2446 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2447 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2448 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2449
2450* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2451use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2452Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2453powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2454--enable-targets configure option.
2455
11ade57a
PA
2456* Non-stop mode debugging.
2457
2458 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2459 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2460 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2461 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2462 section in the user manual for more information.
2463
2464 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2465 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2466 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2467 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2468 extensions on linux targets.
2469
d7713ae0 2470* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2471
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2472catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2473 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2474 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2475 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2476 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2477 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2478 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2479 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2480 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2481
08388c79
DE
2482find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2483 val1 [, val2, ...]
2484 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2485
d57a3c85
TJB
2486maint set python print-stack
2487maint show python print-stack
2488 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2489
2490python [CODE]
2491 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2492
d7713ae0
EZ
2493macro define
2494macro list
2495macro undef
2496 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2497 interactively.
2498
2499info os processes
2500 Show operating system information about processes.
2501
2277426b
PA
2502info inferiors
2503 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2504
2505inferior NUM
2506 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2507
2508detach inferior NUM
2509 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2510
2511kill inferior NUM
2512 Kill inferior number NUM.
2513
d7713ae0
EZ
2514* New options
2515
3285f3fe
UW
2516set spu stop-on-load
2517show spu stop-on-load
2518 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2519
ff1a52c6
UW
2520set spu auto-flush-cache
2521show spu auto-flush-cache
2522 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2523 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2524
d7713ae0
EZ
2525set sh calling-convention
2526show sh calling-convention
2527 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2528
e0a3ce09 2529set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2530show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2531 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2532
2533set disassemble-next-line
2534show disassemble-next-line
2535 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2536 the debuggee stops.
2537
2538set remote noack-packet
2539show remote noack-packet
2540 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2541 under "New remote packets."
2542
2543set remote query-attached-packet
2544show remote query-attached-packet
2545 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2546
2547set remote read-siginfo-object
2548show remote read-siginfo-object
2549 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2550 packet.
2551
2552set remote write-siginfo-object
2553show remote write-siginfo-object
2554 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2555 packet.
2556
40ab02ce
MS
2557set remote reverse-continue
2558show remote reverse-continue
2559 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2560
2561set remote reverse-step
2562show remote reverse-step
2563 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2564
d7713ae0
EZ
2565set displaced-stepping
2566show displaced-stepping
2567 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2568 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2569 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2570
2571set debug displaced
2572show debug displaced
2573 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2574
2575maint set internal-error
2576maint show internal-error
2577 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2578
2579maint set internal-warning
2580maint show internal-warning
2581 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2582
ccd213ac
DJ
2583set exec-wrapper
2584show exec-wrapper
2585unset exec-wrapper
2586 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2587
aad4b048
JB
2588set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2589show multiple-symbols
2590 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2591 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2592 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2593
74960c60
VP
2594set breakpoint always-inserted
2595show breakpoint always-inserted
2596 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2597 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2598 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2599
0428b8f5
DJ
2600set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2601show arm fallback-mode
2602set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2603show arm force-mode
2604 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2605 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2606 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2607 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2608
10568435
JK
2609set disable-randomization
2610show disable-randomization
2611 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2612 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2613 multiple debugging sessions.
2614
d7713ae0
EZ
2615set non-stop
2616show non-stop
2617 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2618 a breakpoint.
2619
b3eb342c 2620set target-async
d7713ae0 2621show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2622 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2623 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2624 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2625 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2626
6c7a06a3
TT
2627set target-wide-charset
2628show target-wide-charset
2629 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2630 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2631
84603566
SL
2632set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2633show tcp auto-retry
2634set tcp connect-timeout
2635show tcp connect-timeout
2636 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2637 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2638 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2639
17a37d48
PP
2640set libthread-db-search-path
2641show libthread-db-search-path
2642 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2643 libthread_db.
2644
d4db2f36
PA
2645set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2646show schedule-multiple
2647 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2648 the current process.
2649
4e5d721f
DE
2650set stack-cache
2651show stack-cache
2652 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2653 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2654 affecting correctness.
2655
910c5da8
JB
2656set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2657show interactive-mode
2658 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2659 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2660 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2661 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2662 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2663
2277426b
PA
2664* Removed commands
2665
2666info forks
2667 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2668 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2669 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2670 command.
2671
2672fork NUM
2673 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2674 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2675 alias for the `fork' command.
2676
2677process PID
2678 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2679 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2680 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2681
2682delete fork NUM
2683 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2684 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2685 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2686 fork' command.
2687
2688detach fork NUM
2689 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2690 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2691 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2692 fork' command.
2693
a80b95ba
TG
2694* New native configurations
2695
2696x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2697
b8bfd3ed
JB
2698x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2699
75a2d5e7
TT
2700* New targets
2701
c28c63d8 2702Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2703x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2704x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2705S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2706
6de3146c
PA
2707* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2708 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2709
d5cbbe6e
JB
2710* Removed commands
2711
2712catch load
2713catch unload
2714 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2715
75feb17d 2716*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2717
af5ca30d
NH
2718* New native configurations
2719
2720NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2721Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2722
2723* New targets
2724
2725NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2726Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2727
7a404eba
PA
2728* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2729
2730 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2731 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2732 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2733 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2734
430ebac9
PA
2735* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2736(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2737
fe6fbf8b 2738* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2739is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2740
2741* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2742including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2743and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2744
10665d76
JB
2745* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2746accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2747more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2748
7cc46491
DJ
2749* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2750
d71340b8
DJ
2751* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2752registers on PowerPC targets.
2753
523c4513
DJ
2754* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2755targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2756
a6b151f1
DJ
2757* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2758commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2759
2d717e4f
DJ
2760* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2761extended-remote mode.
2762
24a836bd 2763* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2764The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2765error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2766The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2767
d0c678e6
UW
2768* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2769building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2770target architectures.
2771
d64a946d
TJB
2772* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2773Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2774now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2775stored in two consecutive float registers.
2776
ee163bf5
VP
2777* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2778breakpoints now.
2779
b93b6ca7 2780* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2781Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2782include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2783 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2784 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2785 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2786 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2787 of an assignment
2788 - Improved command completion in Ada
2789 - Several bug fixes
2790
d001be7a
DJ
2791* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2792process.
2793
a6b151f1
DJ
2794* New commands
2795
6d53d0af
JB
2796set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2797show print frame-arguments
2798 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2799 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2800
a6b151f1
DJ
2801remote put
2802remote get
2803remote delete
2804 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2805
2806* New MI commands
2807
2808-target-file-put
2809-target-file-get
2810-target-file-delete
2811 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2812
2813* New remote packets
2814
2815vFile:open:
2816vFile:close:
2817vFile:pread:
2818vFile:pwrite:
2819vFile:unlink:
2820 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2821
2d717e4f
DJ
2822vAttach
2823 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2824 mode.
2825
2826vRun
2827 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2828
8d5f9c6f 2829*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2830
19d378fc
MS
2831* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2832bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2833Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2834
3a40aaa0
UW
2835* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2836symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2837-Bsymbolic linker option.
2838
a6ec25f2
BW
2839* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2840recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2841is not supported.
2842
6dd09645
JB
2843* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2844frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2845
c9bb8148
DJ
2846* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
284732-bit or 64-bit register values.
2848
0d5de010
DJ
2849* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2850
23181151
DJ
2851* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2852target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2853a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2854
ea37ba09
DJ
2855* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2856automatically displayed as character or string data.
2857
2858* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2859arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2860as strings.
e1f48ead 2861
123dc839
DJ
2862* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2863for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2864only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2865
05a4558a
DJ
2866* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2867iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2868
7c963485
PA
2869* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2870ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2871has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2872
b18be20d
DJ
2873* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2874
0ca420ce
UW
2875* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2876
31d99776
DJ
2877* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2878layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2879segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2880
a4642986
MR
2881* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2882immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2883
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2884* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2885"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2886packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2887where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2888Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2889
2890* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2891(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2892
2893* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2894according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2895
c9bb8148
DJ
2896* New commands
2897
23776285
MR
2898set remoteflow
2899show remoteflow
2900 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2901 when debugging using remote targets.
2902
c9bb8148
DJ
2903set mem inaccessible-by-default
2904show mem inaccessible-by-default
2905 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2906 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2907 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2908 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2909 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2910
2911set breakpoint auto-hw
2912show breakpoint auto-hw
2913 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2914 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2915 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2916 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2917 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2918 including "next" and "finish".
2919
0e420bd8
JB
2920catch exception
2921catch exception unhandled
2922 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2923
2924catch assert
2925 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2926
f822c95b
DJ
2927set sysroot
2928show sysroot
2929 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2930 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2931 an alias to "set sysroot".
2932
83cc5c53
UW
2933info spu
2934 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2935 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2936 architecture.
2937
bd372731
MK
2938* New native configurations
2939
2940OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2941
23181151
DJ
2942set tdesc filename
2943unset tdesc filename
2944show tdesc filename
2945 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2946 not query the target for its built-in description.
2947
c9bb8148
DJ
2948* New targets
2949
54fe9172 2950OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2951MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2952Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2953
6dd09645
JB
2954* New remote packets
2955
2956QPassSignals:
2957 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2958 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2959
23181151
DJ
2960qXfer:features:read:
2961 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2962 features.
6dd09645 2963
83cc5c53
UW
2964qXfer:spu:read:
2965qXfer:spu:write:
2966 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2967 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2968
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2969qXfer:libraries:read:
2970 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2971 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2972 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2973 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2974
483367ee
DJ
2975* Removed targets
2976
2977Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2978
d08950c4
UW
2979alpha*-*-osf1*
2980alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2981d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2982hppa*-*-hiux*
2983i[34567]86-ncr-*
2984i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2985i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2986i[34567]86-*-netware*
2987i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2988i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2989i[34567]86-*-sco*
2990i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2991i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2992i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2993i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2994i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2995i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2996i[34567]86-*-isc*
2997m68*-cisco*-*
2998m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2999mips*-*-pe
483367ee 3000rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 3001sh*-*-pe
483367ee 3002
7ce59000
DJ
3003* Other removed features
3004
3005target abug
3006target cpu32bug
3007target est
3008target rom68k
3009
3010 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
3011
ea35711c
DJ
3012target hms
3013target e7000
3014target sh3
3015target sh3e
3016
3017 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
3018 H8/300.
3019
3020target ocd
3021
3022 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
3023 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
3024 interfaces.
3025
7ce59000
DJ
3026DWARF 1 support
3027
3028 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
3029 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
3030
54d61198
DJ
3031Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
3032
3033 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
3034 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
3035 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
3036 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
3037
ea35711c
DJ
3038MIPS ".pdr" sections
3039
3040 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
3041 in debugging information.
3042
3043Scheme support
3044
3045 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
3046 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
3047
1a69e1e4
DJ
3048set mips stack-arg-size
3049set mips saved-gpreg-size
3050
3051 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
3052
6dd09645 3053*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 3054
ca3bf3bd
DJ
3055* New targets
3056
3057Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 3058Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 3059
6aec2e11
DJ
3060* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
3061(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
3062running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
3063
3064* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
3065Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
3066supported.
3067
17218d91
DJ
3068* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
3069broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
3070
9ebce043
DJ
3071* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
3072stub provides the required support.
3073
7d3d3ece
DJ
3074* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
3075longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
3076
4f8253f3
JB
3077* New commands
3078
3079set substitute-path
3080unset substitute-path
3081show substitute-path
3082 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
3083 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
3084 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
3085 between compilation and debugging.
3086
9fa66fd7
AS
3087set trace-commands
3088show trace-commands
3089 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
3090 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
3091 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
3092
1f5befc1
DJ
3093* REMOVED features
3094
3095The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
3096
2ec3381a
DJ
3097Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
3098an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
3099
3d00d119
DJ
3100The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
3101
be2a5f71
DJ
3102* New remote packets
3103
3104qSupported:
3105 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
3106 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
3107 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
3108 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
3109 target.
3110
0876f84a
DJ
3111qXfer:auxv:read:
3112 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
3113 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
3114
9ebce043
DJ
3115qXfer:memory-map:read:
3116 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
3117 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
3118
3119vFlashErase:
3120vFlashWrite:
3121vFlashDone:
3122 Erase and program a flash memory device.
3123
0876f84a
DJ
3124* Removed remote packets
3125
3126qPart:auxv:read:
3127 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3128 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3129
e374b601 3130*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3131
96309189
MS
3132* New targets
3133
3134Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3135
3136Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3137
53e5f3cf
AS
3138* New commands
3139
3140init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3141 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3142
ac264b3b
MS
3143The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3144
3145checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3146
3147restart <n> Return the program state to a
3148 previously saved state.
3149
3150info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3151
3152delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3153
3154set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3155 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3156
3157info forks List forks of the user program that
3158 are available to be debugged.
3159
3160fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3161 forks of the user program that are
3162 available to be debugged.
3163
3164delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3165 that are available to be debugged (and
3166 kill the forked process).
3167
3168detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3169 that are available to be debugged (and
3170 allow the process to continue).
3171
3950dc3f
NS
3172* New architecture
3173
3174Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3175
0ea3f30e
DJ
3176* Improved Windows host support
3177
3178GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3179native console support, and remote communications using either
3180network sockets or serial ports.
3181
f79daebb
GM
3182* Improved Modula-2 language support
3183
3184GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3185basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3186pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3187printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3188written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3189GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3190
acab6ab2
MM
3191* REMOVED features
3192
3193The ARM rdi-share module.
3194
f4267320
DJ
3195The Netware NLM debug server.
3196
53e5f3cf 3197*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3198
e0ecbda1
MK
3199* New native configurations
3200
02a677ac 3201OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3202OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3203
d64a6579
KB
3204* New targets
3205
3206Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3207
b33a6190
AS
3208* New command line options
3209
3210--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3211--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3212 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3213--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3214 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3215 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3216 with the --command (-x) option.
3217
11dced61
AC
3218* Deprecated commands removed
3219
3220The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3221removed:
3222
3223 Command Replacement
3224 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3225 othernames set arm disassembler
3226 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3227 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3228 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3229 regs info registers
3230
6fe85783
MK
3231* New BSD user-level threads support
3232
3233It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3234library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3235configurations are:
3236
3237FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3238FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3239OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3240
3241Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3242are not yet supported.
3243
5260ca71
MS
3244* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3245(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3246
e84ecc99
AC
3247* REMOVED configurations and files
3248
3249VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3250Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3251National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3252
31e35378
JB
3253* New "set print array-indexes" command
3254
3255After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3256when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3257behavior.
3258
e85e5c83
MK
3259* VAX floating point support
3260
3261GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3262
d91e9901
AS
3263* User-defined command support
3264
3265In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3266to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3267section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3268
f2cb65ca
MC
3269*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3270
f47b1503
AS
3271* New command line option
3272
3273GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3274debugging.
3275
f2cb65ca
MC
3276* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3277
3278GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3279information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3280by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3281proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3282to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3283
d08c0230
AC
3284* Internationalization
3285
3286When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3287internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3288continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3289
117ea3cf
PH
3290* Ada
3291
3292Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3293implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3294into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3295
d08c0230
AC
3296* New native configurations
3297
3298GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3299
3300* Remote 'p' packet
3301
3302GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3303packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3304
3305* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3306
3307GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3308The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3309features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3310i386 application).
3311
3312GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3313compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3314continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3315configurations:
3316
3317hppa-*-hpux
3318ia64-*-aix
3319mips-*-irix*
3320*-*-lynx
3321mips-*-linux-gnu
3322sds protocol
3323xdr protocol
3324powerpc bdm protocol
3325
3326Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3327made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3328
3329* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3330
3331Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3332been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3333configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3334permanently REMOVED.
3335
3336h8300-*-*
3337mcore-*-*
3338mn10300-*-*
3339ns32k-*-*
3340sh64-*-*
3341v850-*-*
3342
ebb7c577
AC
3343*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3344
3345* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3346
3347When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3348heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3349been fixed.
3350
3351* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3352
3353When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3354fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3355IRIX long double values).
3356
3357* VAX and "next"
3358
3359A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3360command. This problem has been fixed.
3361
860660cb 3362*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3363
0dea2468
AC
3364* Fix for ``many threads''
3365
3366On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3367rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3368error message:
3369
3370 ptrace: No such process.
3371 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3372
3373This problem has been fixed.
3374
2c07db7a
AC
3375* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3376
3377Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3378GDB to dump core).
3379
c23968a2
JB
3380* New ``start'' command.
3381
3382This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3383
71009278
MK
3384* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3385
3386Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3387live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3388platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3389
3390FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3391FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3392NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3393NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3394NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3395OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3396OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3397OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3398OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3399
3c0b7db2
AC
3400* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3401
3402Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3403These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3404of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3405call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3406signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3407
73cc75f3
AC
3408Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3409features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3410include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3411
7243600a
BF
3412* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3413
6f606e1c
MK
3414* New native configurations
3415
97dc871c 3416GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3417OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3418OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3419OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3420OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3421NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3422OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3423
a1b461bf
AC
3424* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3425
3426GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3427The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3428including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3429migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3430compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3431work, was also included.
3432
3433GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3434module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3435
3436h8300-*-*
3437mcore-*-*
3438mn10300-*-*
3439ns32k-*-*
3440sh64-*-*
3441v850-*-*
3442xstormy16-*-*
3443
3444Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3445made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3446
3c7012f5
AC
3447* REMOVED configurations and files
3448
3449Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3450Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3451Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3452Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3453Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3454AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3455Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3456decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3457riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3458sonymips mips-sony-*
3459sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3460
e5fe55f7
AC
3461*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3462
3463* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3464
3465The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3466GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3467command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3468program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3469with GDB".
3470
3471* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3472
3473Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3474libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3475cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3476GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3477shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3478the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3479are created.
3480
3481Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3482
3483* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3484
3485The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3486non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3487compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3488
3489* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3490
3491Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3492wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3493
3494* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3495
3496The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3497permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3498systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3499
3500* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3501
3502Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3503has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3504
3505* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3506
3507GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3508its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3509panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3510
3511* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3512
3513When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3514by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3515not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3516
faae5abe 3517*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3518
9175c9a3
MC
3519* Removed --with-mmalloc
3520
3521Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3522conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3523
3cc87ec0
MK
3524* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3525
3526The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3527the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3528and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3529you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3530
f0424ef6
MK
3531* Revised SPARC target
3532
3533The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3534FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3535support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3536from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3537(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3538
59659be2
ILT
3539* New C++ demangler
3540
3541GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3542names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3543with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3544programs.
3545
9e08b29b
DJ
3546* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3547
3548GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3549arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3550encountered these.
3551
8dfe8985
DC
3552* C++ nested types and namespaces
3553
3554GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3555improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3556is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3557Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3558namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3559"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3560frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3561if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3562GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3563
cced5e27
MK
3564* New native configurations
3565
3566NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3567OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3568OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3569OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3570OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3571
b4b4b794
KI
3572* New debugging protocols
3573
3574M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3575
7989c619
AC
3576* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3577
3578The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3579and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3580tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3581
5994185b
AC
3582* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3583
3584Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3585been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3586configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3587permanently REMOVED.
3588
3589Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3590Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3591Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3592Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3593Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3594AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3595Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3596decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3597riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3598sonymips mips-sony-*
3599sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3600
0ddabb4c
AC
3601* REMOVED configurations and files
3602
3603SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3604SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3605Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3606Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3607H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3608HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3609HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3610HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3611PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3612386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3613Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3614 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3615 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3616SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3617SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3618Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3619Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3620
c7f1390e
DJ
3621*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3622
1fe43d45
AC
3623* Objective-C
3624
3625Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3626integrated into GDB.
3627
e6beb428
AC
3628* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3629
3630DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3631information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3632By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3633backtraces.
3634
3635The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3636have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3637DWARF 2 CFI support.
3638
3639* Hosted file I/O.
3640
3641GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3642file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3643remote protocol documentation for details.
3644
3645* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3646
3647All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3648architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3649to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3650ppc32 on ppc64).
3651
3652* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3653
3654GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3655per-thread variables.
3656
3657* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3658
3659GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3660GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3661
3662* Separate debug info.
3663
3664GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3665automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3666of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3667system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3668and optional debug files.
3669
3670* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3671
3672DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3673describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3674debugger.
3675
3676GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3677for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3678
3679* Java
3680
3681A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3682Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3683considered "useable".
3684
85f8f974
DJ
3685* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3686
3687The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3688commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3689kernel.
3690
0fac0b41
DJ
3691* GDB supports logging output to a file
3692
3693There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3694used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3695
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3696* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3697
3698The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3699disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3700command.
3701
e286caf2 3702* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3703
3704The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3705registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3706
d28f9cdf
DJ
3707* Profiling support
3708
3709A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3710be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3711session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3712"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3713data, for more informative profiling results.
3714
da0f9dcd
AC
3715* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3716
3717The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3718option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3719"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3720
3721Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3722removed.
3723
fb9b6b35
JJ
3724Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3725Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3726Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3727 in a subsequent -var-update.
3728
954a4db8
MK
3729* New native configurations.
3730
3731FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3732
6760f9e6
JB
3733* Multi-arched targets.
3734
b4263afa 3735HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3736Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3737
1b831c93
AC
3738* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3739
3740Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3741been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3742configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3743permanently REMOVED.
3744
8b0e5691 3745Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3746Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3747H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3748HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3749HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3750HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3751PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3752Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3753 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3754 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3755Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3756Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3757
5835abe7
NC
3758* REMOVED configurations and files
3759
3760V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3761Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3762IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3763i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3764i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3765i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3766HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3767 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3768 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3769Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3770Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3771Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3772OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3773I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3774
a094c6fb
AC
3775* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3776
3777The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3778the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3779context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3780address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3781The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3782
299ffc64 3783*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3784
46248966
AC
3785* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3786
3787When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3788`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3789in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3790library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3791shared libs like mad''.
3792
b9d14705 3793* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3794
b9d14705
DJ
3795Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3796the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3797arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3798powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3799
e0e9281e
JB
3800* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3801
3802GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3803and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3804they expand.
3805
dd73b9bb
AC
3806The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3807invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3808
3809The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3810macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3811
e0e9281e
JB
3812Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3813information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3814your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3815information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3816
2250ee0c
CV
3817* Multi-arched targets.
3818
6e3ba3b8
JT
3819DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3820DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3821NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3822National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3823Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3824Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3825
cd9bfe15 3826* New targets.
e33ce519 3827
456f8b9d
DB
3828Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3829
e33ce519 3830
da8ca43d
JT
3831* New native configurations
3832
3833Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3834SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3835MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3836UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3837
cd9bfe15
AC
3838* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3839
3840Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3841been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3842configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3843permanently REMOVED.
3844
92eb23c5 3845Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3846OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3847IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3848Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3849Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3850Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3851i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3852i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3853i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3854HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3855 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3856 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3857I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3858
db034ac5
AC
3859* OBSOLETE languages
3860
3861CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3862
cd9bfe15
AC
3863* REMOVED configurations and files
3864
3865AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3866A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3867AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3868AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3869AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3870
3871testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3872
20f01a46
DH
3873* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3874
3875This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3876commands. The default is 1024.
3877
a5941fbf
MK
3878* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3879
3880Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3881
89743e04
MS
3882* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3883
3884These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3885to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3886from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3887
9fb14e79
JB
3888* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3889
3890The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3891including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3892of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3893
2037aebb
AC
3894*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3895
3896* New targets.
3897
3898Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3899
3900* Bug fixes
3901
3902gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3903mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3904Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3905
3906gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3907dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3908Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3909
3910Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3911Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3912By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3913
3914i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3915avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3916By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3917
37057839 3918*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3919
1a703748
MS
3920* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3921
3922This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3923really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3924In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3925target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3926This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3927(notably embedded) targets.
3928
cefd4ef5
MS
3929* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3930
55241689
AC
3931This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3932process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3933GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3934hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3935
352ed7b4
MS
3936* New command line option
3937
3938GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3939
3940* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3941
3942There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3943command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3944a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3945be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3946open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3947issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3948a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3949it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3950GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3951is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3952
fe419ffc
RE
3953* Changes in ARM configurations.
3954
3955Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3956configuration is fully multi-arch.
3957
eb7cedd9
MK
3958* New native configurations
3959
fe419ffc 3960ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3961x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3962AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3963Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3964
c9f63e6b
CV
3965* New targets
3966
3967Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3968
9b4ff276
AC
3969* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3970
3971Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3972been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3973configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3974permanently REMOVED.
3975
3976AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3977A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3978AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3979AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3980AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3981
b4ceaee6 3982testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3983
e2caac18
AC
3984* REMOVED configurations and files
3985
3986TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3987WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3988PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3989PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3990PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3991Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3992Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3993 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3994SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3995Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3996Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3997ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3998Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3999
c2a727fa
TT
4000* Changes to command line processing
4001
4002The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
4003for the inferior from gdb's command line.
4004
467d8519
TT
4005* Changes to key bindings
4006
4007There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
4008
7072a954
AC
4009*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
4010
4011Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
4012
4013Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
4014corrupted.
4015
4016Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
4017
4018Numerous documentation fixes.
4019
4020Numerous testsuite fixes.
4021
34f47bc4 4022*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
4023
4024* New native configurations
4025
4026Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
4027x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 4028MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
4029MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4030ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 4031s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 4032
bf64bfd6
AC
4033* New targets
4034
def90278 4035Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 4036CRIS cris-axis
55241689 4037UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 4038
17e78a56 4039* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
4040
4041x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 4042Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
4043Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
4044 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
4045TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4046WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 4047Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
4048PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4049PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4050PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 4051SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
4052Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
4053ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 4054Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 4055
17e78a56
AC
4056stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
4057kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
4058
7fcca85b
AC
4059Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
4060been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
4061configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
4062permanently REMOVED.
4063
a196c81c 4064* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
4065
4066Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4067Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
4068Pyramid pyramid-*-*
4069ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
4070Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 4071ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 4072
6d6b80e5 4073* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 4074
6d6b80e5 4075GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
4076sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
4077present.
4078
bf64bfd6
AC
4079* Other news:
4080
e23194cb
EZ
4081* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
4082
4083* The MI enabled by default.
4084
4085The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
4086revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
4087engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
4088using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
4089which is now deprecated.
4090
4091* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
4092
4093GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
4094main features are supported:
4095
4096 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
4097
4098 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
4099 extension;
4100
4101 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
4102
4103 - a Pascal expression parser.
4104
4105However, some important features are not yet supported.
4106
4107 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
4108
4109 - there are some problems with boolean types;
4110
4111 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
4112 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
4113
4114 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
4115
4116 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
4117
4118* Changes in completion.
4119
4120Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
4121to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
4122users expect at the shell prompt.
4123
4124Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
4125`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4126program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4127files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4128be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4129considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4130name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4131
4132`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4133
4134* New platform-independent commands:
4135
4136It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4137hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4138documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4139
4140* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4141
d7275149
MK
4142Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4143revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4144many threads as your system allows you to have.
4145
e23194cb
EZ
4146Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4147
d7275149
MK
4148Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4149multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4150
4151* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4152
4153Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4154
e23194cb
EZ
4155GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4156debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4157supported.)
4158
4159* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4160
4161Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4162breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4163implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4164put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4165and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4166registers.
4167
4168The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4169debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4170watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4171
4172* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4173
4174New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4175the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4176
4177New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4178display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4179IDT.
4180
4181New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4182from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4183New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4184a given linear address.
4185
4186GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4187program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4188which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4189
4190DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4191
6c56c069
EZ
4192It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4193
e23194cb
EZ
4194* Changes in documentation.
4195
4196All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4197Documentation License.
4198
4199Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4200manual.
4201
4202TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4203
4204Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4205manual.
4206
4207The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4208documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4209hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4210
5d6640b1
AC
4211* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4212
4213The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4214``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4215contents of this file.
4216
1a1d8446
AC
4217* gdba.el deleted
4218
4219GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4220
9debab2f 4221*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4222
c63ce875
EZ
4223* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4224
4225Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4226programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4227displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4228greater level of detail.
4229
4230* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4231
4232It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4233bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4234on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4235written.
4236
4237* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4238
4239The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4240necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4241machines ``out of the box''.
4242
4243The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4244possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4245signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4246would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4247interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4248
4249It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4250standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4251even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4252and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4253terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4254
4255The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4256enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4257also works.
4258
4259DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4260GDB.
4261
4262It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4263directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4264times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4265breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4266
ed9a39eb
JM
4267* New native configurations
4268
4269ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4270PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4271
7a292a7a
SS
4272* New targets
4273
96baa820 4274Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4275x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4276PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4277TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4278
085dd6e6
JM
4279* OBSOLETE configurations
4280
4281Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4282Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4283Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4284ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4285Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4286
9debab2f
AC
4287Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4288but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4289these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4290be permanently REMOVED.
4291
5330533d
SS
4292* Gould support removed
4293
4294Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4295
bc9e5bbf
AC
4296* New features for SVR4
4297
4298On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4299without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4300load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4301
4302* Many C++ enhancements
4303
4304C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4305in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4306
adf40b2e
JM
4307* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4308
4309A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4310sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4311with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4312``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4313
4314 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4315 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4316
43e526b9
JM
4317* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4318
4319A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4320expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4321instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4322
4323The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4324added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4325
96baa820
JM
4326* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4327
4328The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4329``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4330include ``set remote P-packet''.
4331
11cf8741
JM
4332* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4333
4334The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4335accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4336``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4337
7876dd43
DB
4338* ``apropos'' command added.
4339
4340The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4341documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4342try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4343
bc9e5bbf
AC
4344* New MI interface
4345
4346A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4347interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4348process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4349"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4350enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4351
4352 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4353
c906108c
SS
4354*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4355
4356* New native configurations
4357
4358HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4359HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4360M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4361
4362* New targets
4363
4364Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4365Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4366Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4367
4368* OBSOLETE configurations
4369
4370Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4371
4372Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4373but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4374these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4375be permanently REMOVED.
4376
4377* ANSI/ISO C
4378
4379As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4380buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4381containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4382use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4383available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4384configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4385information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4386already.
4387
4388* Readline 2.2
4389
4390GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4391
4392* set extension-language
4393
4394You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4395languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4396you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4397 set extension-language .c c++
4398The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4399and their associated languages.
4400
4401* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4402
4403When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4404you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4405PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4406
4407 set processor NAME
4408
4409sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4410following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4411
4412 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4413 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4414 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4415 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4416 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4417 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4418 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4419 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4420 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4421 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4422 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4423
4424At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4425special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4426registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4427only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4428
4429* HP-UX support
4430
4431Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4432more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4433library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4434support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4435for xdb and dbx commands.
4436
4437* Catchpoints
4438
4439HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4440generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4441to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4442
4443This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4444argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4445output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4446
4447* Debugging across forks
4448
4449On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4450in the inferior.
4451
4452* TUI
4453
4454HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4455it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4456configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4457
4458* GDB remote protocol additions
4459
4460A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4461Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4462fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4463allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4464
4465For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4466full 64-bit address. The command
4467
4468 set remoteaddresssize 32
4469
4470can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4471the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4472will be discarded.
4473
4474In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4475command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4476
4477 maint packet heythere
4478
4479sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4480disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4481time.
4482
4483The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4484target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4485downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4486
4487* Tracing can collect general expressions
4488
4489You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4490further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4491doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4492
4493* mask-address variable for Mips
4494
4495For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4496a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4497of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4498
4499* Higher serial baud rates
4500
4501GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4502230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4503to achieve all of these rates.)
4504
4505* i960 simulator
4506
4507The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4508builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4509
4510
4511*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4512
4513* New native configurations
4514
4515Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4516Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4517Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4518PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4519PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4520Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4521Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4522
4523* New targets
4524
4525Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4526Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4527Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4528Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4529MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4530MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4531MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4532Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4533Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4534Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4535NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4536
4537* New debugging protocols
4538
4539ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4540M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4541DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4542PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4543PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4544Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4545
4546* DWARF 2
4547
4548All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4549format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4550information.
4551
4552* Java frontend
4553
4554GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4555only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4556
4557* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4558
4559For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4560loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4561locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4562
4563* Live range splitting
4564
4565GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4566range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4567more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4568
4569* Hurd support
4570
4571GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4572updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4573
4574* ARM Thumb support
4575
4576GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4577instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4578instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4579accordingly.
4580
4581* MIPS16 support
4582
4583GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4584instruction set.
4585
4586* Overlay support
4587
4588GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4589linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4590will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4591control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4592additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4593in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4594
4595* info symbol
4596
4597The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4598the symbol at the specified address.
4599
4600* Trace support
4601
4602The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4603asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4604extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4605includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4606file tracepoint.c for more details.
4607
4608* MIPS simulator
4609
4610Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4611by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4612of most MIPS variants.
4613
4614* Sparc simulator
4615
4616Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4617by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4618Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4619
4620* set architecture
4621
4622For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4623basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4624architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4625the possible architectures.
4626
4627*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4628
4629* New native configurations
4630
4631Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4632M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4633PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4634PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4635PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4636RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4637
4638* New targets
4639
4640ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4641I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4642MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4643MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4644PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4645Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4646Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4647
4648* PowerPC simulator
4649
4650The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4651contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4652PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4653basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4654performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4655
4656* Solaris 2.5
4657
4658GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4659
4660* Windows 95/NT native
4661
4662GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4663To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4664which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4665Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4666ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4667
4668* dont-repeat command
4669
4670If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4671command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4672useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4673extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4674
4675* Send break instead of ^C
4676
4677The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4678rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4679GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4680
4681* Remote protocol timeout
4682
4683The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4684that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4685to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4686
4687* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4688
4689By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4690loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4691stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4692when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4693in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4694
4695Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4696/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4697automatically on hpux10.
4698
4699* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4700
4701Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4702
4703* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4704
4705When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4706may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4707the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4708every character. The default value is 1050.
4709
4710* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4711
4712If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4713a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4714replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4715details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4716remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4717to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4718
4719* Speedups for remote debugging
4720
4721GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4722the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4723and more efficient S-record downloading.
4724
4725* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4726
4727GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4728Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4729
4730*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4731
4732* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4733
4734The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4735can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4736
4737* Remote targets use caching
4738
4739Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4740remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4741it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4742debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4743off' turns the the data cache off.
4744
4745* Remote targets may have threads
4746
4747The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4748in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4749gdb/remote.c for details.
4750
4751* NetROM support
4752
4753If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4754support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4755acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4756write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4757support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4758another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4759sequence is something like
4760
4761 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4762 load <prog>
4763 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4764
4765* Macintosh host
4766
4767GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4768may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4769it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4770available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4771device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4772directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4773scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4774mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4775
4776* Autoconf
4777
4778GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4779but does simplify configuration and building.
4780
4781* hpux10
4782
4783GDB now supports hpux10.
4784
4785*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4786
4787* New native configurations
4788
4789x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4790x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4791NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4792Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4793
4794* New targets
4795
4796A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4797HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4798CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4799PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4800WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4801
4802* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4803
4804GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4805possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4806filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4807the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4808if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4809
4810* Arguments to user-defined commands
4811
4812User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4813Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4814trivial example:
4815define adder
4816 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4817
4818To execute the command use:
4819adder 1 2 3
4820
4821Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4822Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4823use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4824
4825* New `if' and `while' commands
4826
4827This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4828commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4829expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4830execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4831terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4832`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4833if the expression is zero.
4834
4835* Fortran source language mode
4836
4837GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4838Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4839variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4840with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4841Fortran compilers.
4842
4843* Better HPUX support
4844
4845Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4846running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4847processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4848for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4849that behavior do the following before running the program:
4850
4851 adb -w a.out
4852 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4853 control-d
4854
4855This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4856To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4857
4858 adb -w a.out
4859 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4860 control-d
4861
4862You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4863the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4864external linkage.
4865
4866GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4867HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4868
4869* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4870
4871You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4872commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4873current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4874"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4875associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4876configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4877
4878* New DOS host serial code
4879
4880This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4881no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4882a PC's serial port.
4883
4884*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4885
4886* New "complete" command
4887
4888This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4889were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4890
4891* Trailing space optional in prompt
4892
4893"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4894allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4895
4896* Breakpoint hit counts
4897
4898"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4899has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4900can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4901to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4902less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4903that breakpoint.
4904
4905* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4906
4907"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4908an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4909arrays actually contain only short strings.
4910
4911* Shared library breakpoints
4912
4913In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4914breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4915
4916* Hardware watchpoints
4917
4918There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4919targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4920
55241689 4921Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4922
4923* Annotations
4924
4925Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4926and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4927
4928* Improved Irix 5 support
4929
4930GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4931
4932* Improved HPPA support
4933
4934GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4935
4936* New native configurations
4937
4938Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4939HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4940Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4941RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4942
4943* New targets
4944
4945OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4946MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4947Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4948
4949* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4950
4951There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4952This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4953
4954* Fixes
4955
4956As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4957and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4958
4959*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4960
4961* Irix 5 is now supported
4962
4963* HPPA support
4964
4965GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4966to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4967GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4968of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4969can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4970
4971
4972*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4973
4974* User visible changes:
4975
4976* Remote Debugging
4977
4978The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4979target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4980debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4981integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4982debugging info for the mips target).
4983
4984* DEC Alpha native support
4985
4986GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4987debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4988work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4989Alpha-specific notes.
4990
4991* Preliminary thread implementation
4992
4993GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4994
4995* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4996
4997This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4998to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4999for details).
5000
5001* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
5002
5003This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
5004mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
5005call methods, ...etc.
5006
5007*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
5008
5009 * User visible changes:
5010
5011Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
5012supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
5013other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
5014somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
5015
5016Filename completion now works.
5017
5018When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
5019arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
5020addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
5021
5022All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
5023vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
5024should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
5025your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
5026to be on the far side of a thin network line.
5027
5028 * DEC alpha support
5029
5030This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
5031cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
5032
5033
5034*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
5035
5036 * Testsuite
5037
5038This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
5039The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
5040via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
5041
5042 * C++ demangling
5043
5044'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
5045emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
5046Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
5047disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
5048use gdb with AT&T cfront.
5049
5050 * Simulators
5051
5052GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
5053So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
5054Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
5055
5056 * New targets supported
5057
5058H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5059H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
5060SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
5061Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
5062IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
5063
5064Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
5065version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
5066GO32 memory extender.
5067
5068 * New remote protocols
5069
5070MIPS remote debugging protocol.
5071
5072 * New source languages supported
5073
5074This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
5075used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
5076into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
5077
5078
5079*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
5080
5081 * HP Precision Architecture supported
5082
5083GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
5084version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
5085University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
5086compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
5087format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
5088(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
5089
5090Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
5091
5092 * Faster and better demangling
5093
5094We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
5095demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
5096character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
5097only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
5098This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
5099increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
5100symbol lookups.
5101
5102`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
5103from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
5104compiler does not actually implement.
5105
5106 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
5107
5108In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
5109inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
5110recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
5111very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
5112The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
5113circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
5114fix.
5115
5116The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
5117release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
5118
5119 * Improved configure script
5120
5121The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
5122you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
5123host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
5124done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
5125
5126We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5127version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5128`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5129The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5130only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5131We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5132
5133 * Documentation improvements
5134
5135There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5136produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5137before submitting changes.
5138
5139The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5140M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5141`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5142you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5143a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5144
5145*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5146We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5147been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5148or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5149`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5150around this problem.
5151
5152 * New features
5153
5154GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5155the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5156`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5157the target program.
5158
5159The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5160how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5161
5162 * New native hosts supported
5163
5164HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5165386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5166
5167 * New targets supported
5168
5169AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5170
5171 * New file formats supported
5172
5173BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5174HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5175
5176 * Major bug fixes
5177
5178Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5179
5180We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5181printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5182
5183We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5184for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5185release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5186
5187You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5188will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5189
5190We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5191for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5192especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5193libraries.
5194
5195The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5196information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5197command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5198any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5199when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5200
5201 * Internal improvements
5202
5203GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5204debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5205
5206GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5207Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5208symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5209contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5210shared code that handles any of them.
5211
5212 * New command line options
5213
5214We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5215
5216 * Mmalloc licensing
5217
5218The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5219General Public License.
5220
5221*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5222
5223 * Host/native/target split
5224
5225GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5226hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5227target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5228local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5229ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5230
5231The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5232GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5233is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5234code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5235any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5236built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5237handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5238
5239GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5240It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5241plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5242
5243 * New hosts supported
5244
5245HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5246386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5247386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5248
5249 * New targets supported
5250
5251Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
525268030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5253
5254 * New native hosts supported
5255
5256386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5257 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5258386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5259
5260 * New file formats supported
5261
5262BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5263supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5264format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5265
5266 * New commands
5267
5268`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5269`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5270These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5271
5272`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5273
5274You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5275scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5276prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5277executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5278
5279 * C++ improvements
5280
5281We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5282info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5283symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5284
5285Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5286
5287 * Major bug fixes
5288
5289The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5290fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5291by the compiler.
5292
5293We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5294support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5295
5296John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5297slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5298that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5299purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5300the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5301mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5302
5303Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5304about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5305completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5306we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5307
5308 * AMD 29k support
5309
5310A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5311specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5312calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5313usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5314in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5315
5316We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5317Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5318of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5319resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5320
5321 * Remote interfaces
5322
5323We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5324with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5325message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5326This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5327needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5328breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5329each instruction being stepped through.
5330
5331The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5332registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5333
5334There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5335find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5336Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5337processor with a serial port.
5338
5339 * Configuration
5340
5341Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5342`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5343supported, and what files each one uses.
5344
5345 * Library changes
5346
5347There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5348disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5349Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5350disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5351
5352The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5353Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5354can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5355grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5356
5357 * Documentation
5358
5359The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5360reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5361as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5362encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5363system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5364bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5365
5366And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5367
5368
5369*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5370
5371 * Better support for C++ function names
5372
5373GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5374names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5375(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5376single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5377Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5378
5379GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5380the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5381You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5382lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5383for the list of formats.
5384
5385 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5386
5387Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5388C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5389directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5390can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5391usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5392about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5393this problem.)
5394
5395 * New 'maintenance' command
5396
5397All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5398the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5399can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5400
5401 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5402 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5403 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5404 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5405 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5406 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5407
5408The following commands are new:
5409
5410 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5411 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5412 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5413
5414 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5415
5416We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5417(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5418be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5419read after argv processing.
5420
5421 * New hosts supported
5422
5423Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5424
55241689 5425GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5426
5427We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5428is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5429for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5430masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5431fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5432It costs extra.
5433
5434 * New targets supported
5435
5436Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5437
5438 * More smarts about finding #include files
5439
5440GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5441all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5442greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5443especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5444the one that contains your sources.
5445
5446We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5447breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5448try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5449
5450 * Interesting infernals change
5451
5452GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5453section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5454target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5455stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5456
5457 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5458
5459There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5460 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5461 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5462
5463See the ChangeLog for details.
5464
5465*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5466
5467 * New machines supported (host and target)
5468
5469IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5470
5471SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5472
5473 * New malloc package
5474
5475GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5476Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5477capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5478This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5479pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5480more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5481
5482 * info proc
5483
5484The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5485'help info proc' for details.
5486
5487 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5488
5489The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5490Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5491possible.
5492
5493 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5494
5495Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5496support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5497conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5498environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5499that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5500in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5501
5502 * Cross byte order fixes
5503
5504Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5505targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5506
5507 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5508
5509If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5510system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5511`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5512program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5513called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5514Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5515and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5516the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5517option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5518starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5519
5520You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5521the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5522information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5523slower, but makes future operations faster.
5524
5525The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5526build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5527A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5528use is:
5529
5530 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5531
5532The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5533It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5534shared across multiple host platforms.
5535
5536 * longjmp() handling
5537
5538GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5539siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5540all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5541platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5542
5543 * Solaris 2.0
5544
5545Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5546this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5547reading symbols.
5548
5549 * Bug fixes
5550
5551As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5552People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5553crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5554
5555*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5556
5557 * New machines supported (host and target)
5558
5559SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5560 (except core files)
5561BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5562Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5563
5564 * New machines supported (target)
5565
5566AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5567
5568 * C++ support
5569
5570GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5571The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5572per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5573
5574GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5575`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5576extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5577good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5578will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5579released.
5580
5581 * New features for SVR4
5582
5583GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5584shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5585only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5586
5587The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5588on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5589it prints the address mappings of the process.
5590
5591If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5592bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5593
5594 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5595
5596Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5597now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5598skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5599make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5600same code linked statically.
5601
5602 * New Getopt
5603
5604GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5605version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5606continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5607Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5608added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5609future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5610
5611 * Bugs fixed
5612
5613The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5614Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5615See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5616
5617
5618*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5619
5620 * New machines supported (host and target)
5621
5622Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5623NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5624Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5625
5626 * Almost SCO Unix support
5627
5628We had hoped to support:
5629SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5630(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5631that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5632about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5633
5634 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5635
5636GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5637debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5638is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5639send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5640reqired (if any).
5641
5642 * New Readline
5643
5644GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5645is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5646required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5647
5648 * Bugs fixed
5649
5650The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5651Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5652See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5653
5654 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5655
5656GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5657supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5658symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5659
5660Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5661mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5662debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5663mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5664version 2.
5665
5666Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5667really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5668line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5669variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5670situation somewhat.
5671
5672When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5673However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5674methods.
5675
5676We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5677DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5678encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5679
5680
5681*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5682
5683 * Improved configuration
5684
5685Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5686Porting BFD is simpler.
5687
5688 * Stepping improved
5689
5690The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5691of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5692in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5693function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5694
5695 * Bug fixing
5696
5697Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5698
5699 * New host supported (not target)
5700
5701Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5702
5703
5704*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5705
5706 * Multiple source language support
5707
5708GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5709It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5710and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5711language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5712You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5713`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5714
5715 * GDB and Modula-2
5716
5717GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5718currently under development at the State University of New York at
5719Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5720continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5721
5722Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5723debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5724symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5725
5726There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5727in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5728
5729 * set write on/off
5730
5731GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5732a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5733the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5734by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5735effect immediately.
5736
5737 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5738
5739When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5740shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5741The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5742examining core files.
5743
5744 * set listsize
5745
5746You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5747The default is 10.
5748
5749 * New machines supported (host and target)
5750
5751SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5752Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5753Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5754
5755 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5756
5757IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5758
5759 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5760
5761AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5762AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5763Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5764
5765 * New remote interfaces
5766
5767AMD 29000 Adapt
5768AMD 29000 Minimon
5769
5770
5771*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5772
5773 * New Facilities
5774
5775Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5776
5777Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5778target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5779is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5780remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5781remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5782also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5783using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5784stub on the target system.
5785
5786New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5787
5788GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5789library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5790object file types such as a.out and coff.
5791
5792There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5793refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5794
5795
5796 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5797
5798All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5799by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5800
5801For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5802``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5803Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5804
5805What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5806print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5807will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5808all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5809
5810confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5811 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5812 it is already running. Default is ON.
5813
5814editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5815 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5816 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5817 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5818 Default is ON.
5819
5820history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5821 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5822 or the value of the environment variable
5823 GDBHISTFILE.
5824
5825history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5826 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5827 HISTSIZE.
5828
5829history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5830 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5831 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5832
5833history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5834 history expansion will be performed on
5835 command line input. The default is OFF.
5836
5837radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5838 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5839 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5840
5841height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5842 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5843 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5844 variable TERM.
5845
5846width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5847 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5848 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5849 variable TERM.
5850
5851Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5852``set width'' instead.
5853
5854print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5855 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5856 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5857 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5858
5859print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5860 is OFF.
5861
5862print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5863 "raw" form if off.
5864
5865print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5866 like instructions.
5867
5868print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5869
5870
5871 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5872
5873The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5874new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5875are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5876window.
5877
5878
5879 * Support for Shared Libraries
5880
5881GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5882Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5883before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5884happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5885At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5886from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5887shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5888It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5889
5890sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5891 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5892 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5893
5894info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5895
5896
5897 * Watchpoints
5898
5899A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5900expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5901tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5902quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5903problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5904more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5905
5906watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5907
5908info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5909
5910delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5911disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5912enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5913
5914
5915 * C++ multiple inheritance
5916
5917When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5918for C++ programs.
5919
5920 * C++ exception handling
5921
5922Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5923ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5924the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5925handler's context).
5926
5927catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5928 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5929 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5930
5931info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5932 current stack frame.
5933
5934
5935 * Minor command changes
5936
5937The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5938command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5939is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5940
5941The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5942at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5943frames without printing.
5944
5945 * New directory command
5946
5947'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5948The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5949about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5950with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5951find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5952
5953 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5954
5955For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5956for more details.
5957
5958GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5959two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5960Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5961where the program that you are debugging will run.
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