2012-04-24 Marc Khouzam <marc.khouzam@ericsson.com>
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
8d5b6c2b 4*** Changes since GDB 7.4
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6* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
7 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
8 record/replay support.
9
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10* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
11
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12* Python scripting
13
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14 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
15 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
16
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17 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
18
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19 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
20 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
21
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22 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
23
24 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
25 the source at which the symbol was defined.
26
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27 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
28 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
29 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
30 symbol's value.
31
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32 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
33 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
34
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35* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
36 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
37
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38* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
39 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
40
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41* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
42 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
43 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
44 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
45 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
46 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
47
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48* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
49 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
50 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
51 build/libcpp/expr.c.
52
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53* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
54 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
55
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56* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
57 since December 2007.
58
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59* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
60 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
61 command does. For instance:
62
63 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
64
65 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
66 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
67 created, using the "condition" command.
68
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69* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
70 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
71
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72* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
73
74* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
75 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
76 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
77 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new option
78 --use-deprecated-index-sections will cause GDB to use any older
79 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but
80 the ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost
81 in symbol files with older .gdb_index sections.
82
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83* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
84
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85* New commands
86
87 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
88 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
89
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90 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
91 several hits.
92
57651221 93 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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94 C++ and Java objects.
95
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96 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
97 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
98 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
99 configured with '--with-python'.
100
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101 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
102 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
103 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
104 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
105 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
106 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
107 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
108
109 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
110 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
111 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
112 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
113
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114* New targets
115
116Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 117HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
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119* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
120 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
121 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
122 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
123 evaluates to true.
124
125* New options
126
127set breakpoint condition-evaluation
128show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 129 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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130 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
131 available mode.
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132 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
133 target.
134
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135set auto-load off
136 Disable auto-loading globally.
137
138show auto-load
139 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
140
141set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
142show auto-load gdb-scripts
143 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
144
145set auto-load python-scripts on|off
146show auto-load python-scripts
147 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
148
149set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
150show auto-load local-gdbinit
151 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
152
153set auto-load libthread-db on|off
154show auto-load libthread-db
155 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
156
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157set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
158show auto-load safe-path
159 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
160 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
161
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162set debug auto-load on|off
163show debug auto-load
164 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
165
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166* New remote packets
167
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168z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
169
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170 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
171 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
172 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
173 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
174
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175QProgramSignals:
176
177 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
178 program without GDB involvement.
179
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180* New command line options
181
182--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
183 before loading inferior.
184--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
185 execute it before loading inferior.
186
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187*** Changes in GDB 7.4
188
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189* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
190 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
191 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
192 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
193 inferior changes.
194
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195* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
196 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
197
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198* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
199 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
200 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
201 target hardware watchpoint.
202
203 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
204 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
205 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
206 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
207
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208* Python scripting
209
32d1c362 210 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 211 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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212 existing one.
213
3a7bf607 214 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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215 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
216 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
217 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
218 now "message", which just prints the error message without
219 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 220
baacfb07 221 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 222 Python API.
713389e0 223
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224 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
225 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 226 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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227 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
228 corresponding value.
229
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230 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
231 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
232 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
233 on GDB start-up.
234
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235 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
236 static_block will return the global and static blocks
237 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
238 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
239
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240 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
241
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242 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
243 "gdb.breakpoints".
244
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245 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
246 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
247 available in the CLI.
248
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249 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
250 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
251 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
252 "some_type.items()".
253
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254 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
255 new object file.
256
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257 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
258 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
259 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
260 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
261 any anonymous fields.
262
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263* MI changes
264
265 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
266 "solib-event".
267
268 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
269 "=breakpoint-modified".
270
271 ** New command -ada-task-info.
272
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273* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
274 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
275 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
276 lives.
277
278 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
279 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
280 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
281 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
282 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
283
284 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
285 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
286
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287* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
288 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
289 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
290 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
291 use this option to specify where to find it.
292
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293* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
294 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
295 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
296 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
297 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
298 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
299 section in the user manual for more details.
300
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301* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
302 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
303 become available after that.
304
71eba9c2 305* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 306
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307* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
308 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
309 gcc version 4.7.
310
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311* New commands
312
313!SHELL COMMAND
314 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
315 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
316
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317* Changed commands
318
319watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
320 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
321 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
322
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323info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
324 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
325 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
326
71eba9c2 327info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
328 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
329 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
330 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
331 name starts with a hyphen.
332
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333collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
334 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
335 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
336 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
337 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
338 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
339 number of bytes that will be collected.
340
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341tstart [NOTES]
342 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
343 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
344 setting the variable trace-notes.
345
346tstop [NOTES]
347 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
348 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
349 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
350 trace-stop-notes.
351
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352* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
353 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
354 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
355 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
356 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
357 is running.
358
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359* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
360 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
361 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
362
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363* New options
364
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365set extended-prompt
366show extended-prompt
367 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
368 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
369 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
370 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
371 prompt is displayed.
372
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373set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
374show print entry-values
375 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
376 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
377 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
378
379set debug entry-values
380show debug entry-values
381 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
382 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
383
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384set basenames-may-differ
385show basenames-may-differ
386 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
387 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
388 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
389 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
390 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
391 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
392 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
393 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
394
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395set trace-user
396show trace-user
397set trace-notes
398show trace-notes
399 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
400 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
401 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
402 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
403
404set trace-stop-notes
405show trace-stop-notes
406 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
407 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
408 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
409 started by someone else.
410
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411* New remote packets
412
413QTEnable
414
415 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
416
417QTDisable
418
419 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
420
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421QTNotes
422
423 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
424
425qTP
426
427 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
428
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429qTMinFTPILen
430
431 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
432 be placed.
433
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434* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
435 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
436
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437* New targets
438
439Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
440
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441* New Simulators
442
443Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
444
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445*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
446
447* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
448
d6e00af6 449*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 450
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451* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
452 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
453 matches the given regular expression.
454
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455* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
456
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457* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
458 dumping the instruction opcodes.
459
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460* New command line options
461
462-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
463 This is mostly for testing purposes.
464
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465* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
466 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
467
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468* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
469 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
470 source path list instead of augmenting it.
471
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472* GDB now understands thread names.
473
474 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
475 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
476
477 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
478 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
479
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480* OpenCL C
481 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
482 has been integrated into GDB.
483
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484* Python scripting
485
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486 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
487 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
488 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
489
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490 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
491 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
492 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
493 and allows for more dynamic content.
494
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495 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
496 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
497 have an is_valid method.
498
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499 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
500 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
501 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
502
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503 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
504
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505 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
506 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
507 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
508 that function like so:
509
510 result = some_value (10,20)
511
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512 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
513 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
514 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
515
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516 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
517 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
518 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
519 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
520 New function: register_pretty_printer.
521
522 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
523 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
524
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525 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
526
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527 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
528 selected thread.
529
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530 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
531 holds the thread's name.
532
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533 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
534 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 535 occurring in the process being debugged.
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536 The following events are currently supported:
537 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
538 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
539 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
540
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541* C++ Improvements:
542
543 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
544 instantiation. For example, if you have:
545
546 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
547
548 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
549 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
550 was added to GCC 4.5.
551
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552 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
553 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
554 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
555 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
556 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
557 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
558
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559* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
560 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
561 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
562 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
563 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
564
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565* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
566 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
567 execution to a label.
568
569* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
570 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
571 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
572 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
573
b56df873 574* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 575 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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576 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
577 of scope.
578
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579* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
580
581 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
582 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
583 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
584 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
585 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
586 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
587
588 (gdb) info threads
589 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
590
591 While now you see this:
592
593 (gdb) info threads
594 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
595
596 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
597 dumps.
598
599 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
600 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
601 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
602 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
603
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604* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
605 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
606 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
607 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
608 section in the user manual for more details.
609
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JB
610* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
611
1aee7009
JB
612 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
613 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 614
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MF
615 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
616
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JB
617* New native configurations
618
619ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
620
91021223
MF
621* New targets:
622
623Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
624
6e1bb179
JB
625* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
626 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
627 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
628 in the GDB user manual.
629
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TT
630* Guile support was removed.
631
448a92bf
MF
632* New features in the GNU simulator
633
634 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
635
66ee2731
MF
636 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
637
76b8507d 638*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 639
ba25b921
PA
640* Shared library support for remote targets by default
641
642 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
643 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
644 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
645 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
646 was always disabled for such configurations.
647
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SW
648* C++ Improvements:
649
650 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
651
652 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
653 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
654 For example:
655 namespace A
656 {
657 class B { };
658 void foo (B) { }
659 }
660 ...
661 A::B b
662 foo(b)
663 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
664 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
665 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
666
667 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
668
669 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
670 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
671 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
672 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
673 entry.
674 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
675 mentioned flavors of operators.
676
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DE
677 ** static const class members
678
679 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
680 class definition has been fixed.
681
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PM
682* Windows Thread Information Block access.
683
684 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
685 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
686 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
687 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
688 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
689 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
690
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691* Static tracepoints
692
693 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
694 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
695 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
696 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
697 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
698 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
699 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
700 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
701 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
702 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
703 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
704 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
705 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
706 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
707 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
708 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
709 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
710 the "New remote packets" section below.
711
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712* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
713
714 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
715 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
716 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
717 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
718
719* Observer mode
720
721 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
722 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
723 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
724 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
725 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
726 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
727 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
728
729* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
730 current thread.
731
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732* New remote packets
733
734qGetTIBAddr
735
736 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
737
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PA
738qRelocInsn
739
740 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
741 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
742 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
743 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
744 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
745 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
746
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PA
747qTfSTM, qTsSTM
748
749 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
750
751qTSTMat
752
753 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
754 program.
755
756qXfer:statictrace:read
757
758 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
759 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
760 to gdb's qSupported query.
761
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SS
762QAllow
763
764 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
765
766QTDPsrc
767
768 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
769 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
770
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DE
771* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
772 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
773 a directory.
774
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PA
775* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
776
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PA
777 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
778 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
779 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
780 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
781
782 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
783 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
784 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
785 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
786 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
787 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
788 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
789
790 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
791 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 792
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793 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
794
c8d5aac9
L
795* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
796 it understands register description.
797
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TT
798* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
799
8685c86f
L
800* X86 general purpose registers
801
802 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
803 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
804 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
805 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
806 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
807
95a42b64 808* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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PA
809 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
810 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
811 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
812 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
813 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 814
8bd10a10
CM
815* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
816 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
817 in the specified file.
818
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PA
819* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
820 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
821 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
822 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
823 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
824 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
825 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
826 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
827 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
828 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
829
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PA
830* New commands
831
f1421989
HZ
832eval template, expressions...
833 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
834 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
835
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PA
836set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
837show target-file-system-kind
838 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
839 names.
840
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PA
841save breakpoints <filename>
842 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
843 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
844 definitions, use the `source' command.
845
846`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
847is now deprecated.
848
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PA
849info static-tracepoint-markers
850 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
851
852strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
853 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
854 function, line, address, or marker ID.
855
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SS
856set observer on|off
857show observer
858 Enable and disable observer mode.
859
860set may-write-registers on|off
861set may-write-memory on|off
862set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
863set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
864set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
865set may-interrupt on|off
866 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
867 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
868 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
869 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
870 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
871 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
872 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
873
874set record memory-query on|off
875show record memory-query
876 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
877 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
878
53a71c06
CR
879* Changed commands
880
881disassemble
882 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
883
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PM
884* Python scripting
885
9279c692
JB
886** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
887 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
888 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
889 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
890 GDB using Python' in the manual.
891
adc36818 892** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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893 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
894 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
895 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 896
fa33c3cd 897** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
898 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
899
900** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
901
902** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 903
967cf477
DE
904** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
905
8a1ea21f
DE
906** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
907 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
908 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
909
a7bdde9e
VP
910* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
911there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
912tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
913regular breakpoints.
914
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PA
915* New targets
916
917ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
918
6aecb9c2
JB
919* D language support.
920 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
921 language.
922
431e49aa
TJB
923* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
924 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
925 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
926 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
927 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
928
929* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
930 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
931 conditions of the form:
932
933 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
934
935 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
936 interface mentioned above.
937
bfbf3774 938*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 939
4eef138c
TT
940* C++ Improvements
941
942 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
943
944 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
945 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
946 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
947 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
948 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
949
4eef138c
TT
950 ** Bug Fixes
951
952 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
953 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
954 qualified name.
955
956 ** Cast Operators
957
958 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
959 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
960
2d1c1221
ME
961* New targets
962
963Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 964Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
965
966* New Simulators
967
968Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 969Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 970
6c95b8df
PA
971* Multi-program debugging.
972
973 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
974 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
975 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
976 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
977 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
978 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
979 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
980 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
981
d5551862
SS
982* New tracing features
983
984 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
985
986 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
987
988 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
989 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
990 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
991 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
992 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
993 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
994 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
995 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
996 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
997 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 998
d5551862 999 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1000
1001 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1002 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1003 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1004 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1005 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1006 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1007 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1008 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1009 the regular trace command.
1010
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SS
1011 ** Disconnected tracing
1012
1013 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1014 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1015 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1016 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1017 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1018
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SS
1019 ** Trace files
1020
1021 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1022 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1023 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1024 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1025 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1026 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1027 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1028
1029 ** Circular trace buffer
1030
1031 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1032 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1033 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1034 not be available for all target agents.
1035
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PP
1036* Changed commands
1037
1038disassemble
1039 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1040 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1041
0fe7935b
DJ
1042info variables
1043 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1044 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1045
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JB
1046source
1047 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1048 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1049 support.
1050
1051 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1052 "set script-extension" (see below).
1053
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PA
1054* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1055
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MS
1056record save [<FILENAME>]
1057 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1058 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1059
1060record restore <FILENAME>
1061 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1062 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1063
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PA
1064add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1065 Add a new inferior.
1066
1067clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1068 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1069 inferior has loaded.
1070
1071remove-inferior ID
1072 Remove an inferior.
1073
1074maint info program-spaces
1075 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1076
9a7071a8
JB
1077set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1078show remote interrupt-sequence
1079 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1080 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1081 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1082 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1083 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1084
1085set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1086show remote interrupt-on-connect
1087 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1088 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1089 Linux kernel.
1090
1091set remotebreak [on | off]
1092show remotebreak
1093Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1094
f61e138d
SS
1095tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1096 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1097
1098info tvariables
1099 List trace state variables and their values.
1100
1101delete tvariable $NAME ...
1102 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1103
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SS
1104teval EXPR, ...
1105 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1106 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1107
7a697b8d
SS
1108ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1109 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1110
b0f02ee9
JK
1111* New expression syntax
1112
1113 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1114 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1115
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1116* New options
1117
1118set follow-exec-mode new|same
1119show follow-exec-mode
1120 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1121 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1122 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1123
236f1d4d
SS
1124set default-collect EXPR, ...
1125show default-collect
1126 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1127 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1128 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1129
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SS
1130set disconnected-tracing
1131show disconnected-tracing
1132 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1133 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1134 upon disconnection.
1135
4daf5ac0
SS
1136set circular-trace-buffer
1137show circular-trace-buffer
1138 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1139 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1140 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1141 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1142
fb2e7cb4
JB
1143set script-extension off|soft|strict
1144show script-extension
1145 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1146 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1147 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1148 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1149 evaluation failed.
1150 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1151
2b71fc8e
JB
1152set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1153show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1154 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1155 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1156 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1157 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1158 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1159 is on.
1160
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TT
1161* Python API Improvements
1162
1163 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1164 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1165 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1166
1167 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1168 `is_base_class' attribute.
1169
1170 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1171
1172 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1173 evaluate an expression.
1174
f61e138d
SS
1175* New remote packets
1176
1177QTDV
1178 Define a trace state variable.
1179
1180qTV
1181 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1182
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SS
1183QTDisconnected
1184 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1185
4daf5ac0
SS
1186QTBuffer:circular
1187 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1188
d5551862
SS
1189qTfP, qTsP
1190 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1191
2d483d34
MS
1192* Bug fixes
1193
1194Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1195
6e0e5977
JB
1196Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1197much more reliable. In particular:
1198 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1199 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1200 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1201 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1202 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1203 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1204 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1205 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1206 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1207 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1208 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1209 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1210 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1211 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1212 non-threaded programs.
1213
93c26624
JK
1214PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1215This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1216libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1217executable program.
1218
abc7453d 1219*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1220
4efc6507
DE
1221* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1222dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1223them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1224for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1225"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1226
782b2b07
SS
1227* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1228breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1229or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1230the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1231for tracepoint actions.
1232
53a71c06
CR
1233* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1234raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1235modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1236
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1237* Process record and replay
1238
1239 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1240 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1241 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1242 execute commands.
1243
64644d9b
MS
1244* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1245step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1246set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1247reverse execution.
1248
b9412953
DD
1249* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1250feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
12512.6.28 or later.
1252
6c7a06a3
TT
1253* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1254target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1255char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1256literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1257U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1258`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1259system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1260the installation instructions for more information.
1261
f1838a98
UW
1262* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1263remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1264with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1265the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1266
55333a84
DE
1267* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1268and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1269
7f6a6314
PM
1270* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1271now complete on file names.
1272
65d12d83
TT
1273* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1274completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1275For instance, consider:
1276
1277 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1278 # struct example variable;
1279 (gdb) p variable.
1280
1281If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1282completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1283
edb3359d
DJ
1284* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1285the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1286
2fae03e8
TT
1287* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1288operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1289macros.
1290
47a3467a 1291* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1292the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1293implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1294
1295* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1296registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1297can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1298and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1299
08388c79
DE
1300* New remote packets
1301
1302qSearch:memory:
1303 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1304
a6f3e723
SL
1305QStartNoAckMode
1306 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1307 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1308 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1309
d7713ae0
EZ
1310vKill
1311 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1312 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1313
07e059b5
VP
1314qXfer:osdata:read
1315 Obtains additional operating system information
1316
47a3467a
PA
1317qXfer:siginfo:read
1318qXfer:siginfo:write
1319 Read or write additional signal information.
1320
060871df
PA
1321* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1322
1323 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1324 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1325 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1326
c055b101 1327* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1328DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1329
1330* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1331and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1332`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1333
31fffb02
CS
1334* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1335with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1336
88d8a8e0
JB
1337* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1338
7f99b190
JB
1339* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1340
ccd213ac
DJ
1341* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1342which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1343
1fddbabb 1344* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1345list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1346
a0ef4274
DJ
1347* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1348conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1349have also been fixed.
1350
bfb8797a 1351* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1352From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1353are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1354
71c25dea
TT
1355* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1356example, given:
1357
1358 template<typename T> class C { };
1359 C<char const *> c;
1360
1361GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1362
1363 ptype C<char const *>
1364 ptype C<char const*>
1365 ptype C<const char *>
1366 ptype C<const char*>
1367
ccd213ac
DJ
1368* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1369
1370 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1371 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1372
7ae0e2a2
UW
1373 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1374 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1375 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1376
a6f3e723
SL
1377 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1378 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1379
da8bd9a3
DJ
1380 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1381 gdbserver.
1382
d70e31dd
DE
1383 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1384 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1385
1386 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1387 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1388 as appropriate.
1389
d57a3c85
TJB
1390* Python scripting
1391
1392 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1393 available is determined at configure time.
1394
d8906c6f
TJB
1395 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1396
aadc346a
JB
1397* Ada tasking support
1398
1399 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1400 been introduced:
1401
1402 info tasks
1403 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1404 info task N
1405 Print detailed information about task number N.
1406 task
1407 Print the task number of the current task.
1408 task N
1409 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1410
adb483fe
DJ
1411* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1412add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1413
2277426b
PA
1414* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1415
1416 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1417 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1418 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1419 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1420 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1421 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1422 below.
1423
08d16641
PA
1424* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1425"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1426information.
1427
e35359c5
UW
1428* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1429to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1430architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1431See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1432more information.
1433
85e747d2
UW
1434* Multi-architecture debugging.
1435
1436 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1437 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1438 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1439 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1440 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1441
1442* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1443use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1444Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1445powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1446--enable-targets configure option.
1447
11ade57a
PA
1448* Non-stop mode debugging.
1449
1450 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1451 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1452 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1453 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1454 section in the user manual for more information.
1455
1456 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1457 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1458 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1459 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1460 extensions on linux targets.
1461
d7713ae0 1462* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1463
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1464catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1465 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1466 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1467 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1468 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1469 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1470 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1471 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1472 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1473
08388c79
DE
1474find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1475 val1 [, val2, ...]
1476 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1477
d57a3c85
TJB
1478maint set python print-stack
1479maint show python print-stack
1480 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1481
1482python [CODE]
1483 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1484
d7713ae0
EZ
1485macro define
1486macro list
1487macro undef
1488 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1489 interactively.
1490
1491info os processes
1492 Show operating system information about processes.
1493
2277426b
PA
1494info inferiors
1495 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1496
1497inferior NUM
1498 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1499
1500detach inferior NUM
1501 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1502
1503kill inferior NUM
1504 Kill inferior number NUM.
1505
d7713ae0
EZ
1506* New options
1507
3285f3fe
UW
1508set spu stop-on-load
1509show spu stop-on-load
1510 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1511
ff1a52c6
UW
1512set spu auto-flush-cache
1513show spu auto-flush-cache
1514 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1515 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1516
d7713ae0
EZ
1517set sh calling-convention
1518show sh calling-convention
1519 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1520
e0a3ce09 1521set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1522show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1523 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1524
1525set disassemble-next-line
1526show disassemble-next-line
1527 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1528 the debuggee stops.
1529
1530set remote noack-packet
1531show remote noack-packet
1532 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1533 under "New remote packets."
1534
1535set remote query-attached-packet
1536show remote query-attached-packet
1537 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1538
1539set remote read-siginfo-object
1540show remote read-siginfo-object
1541 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1542 packet.
1543
1544set remote write-siginfo-object
1545show remote write-siginfo-object
1546 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1547 packet.
1548
40ab02ce
MS
1549set remote reverse-continue
1550show remote reverse-continue
1551 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1552
1553set remote reverse-step
1554show remote reverse-step
1555 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1556
d7713ae0
EZ
1557set displaced-stepping
1558show displaced-stepping
1559 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1560 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1561 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1562
1563set debug displaced
1564show debug displaced
1565 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1566
1567maint set internal-error
1568maint show internal-error
1569 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1570
1571maint set internal-warning
1572maint show internal-warning
1573 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1574
ccd213ac
DJ
1575set exec-wrapper
1576show exec-wrapper
1577unset exec-wrapper
1578 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1579
aad4b048
JB
1580set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1581show multiple-symbols
1582 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1583 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1584 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1585
74960c60
VP
1586set breakpoint always-inserted
1587show breakpoint always-inserted
1588 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1589 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1590 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1591
0428b8f5
DJ
1592set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1593show arm fallback-mode
1594set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1595show arm force-mode
1596 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1597 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1598 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1599 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1600
10568435
JK
1601set disable-randomization
1602show disable-randomization
1603 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1604 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1605 multiple debugging sessions.
1606
d7713ae0
EZ
1607set non-stop
1608show non-stop
1609 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1610 a breakpoint.
1611
b3eb342c 1612set target-async
d7713ae0 1613show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1614 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1615 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1616 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1617 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1618
6c7a06a3
TT
1619set target-wide-charset
1620show target-wide-charset
1621 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1622 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1623
84603566
SL
1624set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1625show tcp auto-retry
1626set tcp connect-timeout
1627show tcp connect-timeout
1628 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1629 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1630 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1631
17a37d48
PP
1632set libthread-db-search-path
1633show libthread-db-search-path
1634 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1635 libthread_db.
1636
d4db2f36
PA
1637set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1638show schedule-multiple
1639 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1640 the current process.
1641
4e5d721f
DE
1642set stack-cache
1643show stack-cache
1644 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1645 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1646 affecting correctness.
1647
910c5da8
JB
1648set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1649show interactive-mode
1650 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1651 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1652 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1653 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1654 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1655
2277426b
PA
1656* Removed commands
1657
1658info forks
1659 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1660 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1661 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1662 command.
1663
1664fork NUM
1665 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1666 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1667 alias for the `fork' command.
1668
1669process PID
1670 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1671 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1672 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1673
1674delete fork NUM
1675 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1676 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1677 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1678 fork' command.
1679
1680detach fork NUM
1681 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1682 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1683 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1684 fork' command.
1685
a80b95ba
TG
1686* New native configurations
1687
1688x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1689
b8bfd3ed
JB
1690x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1691
75a2d5e7
TT
1692* New targets
1693
c28c63d8 1694Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1695x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1696x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1697S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1698
6de3146c
PA
1699* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1700 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1701
d5cbbe6e
JB
1702* Removed commands
1703
1704catch load
1705catch unload
1706 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1707
75feb17d 1708*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1709
af5ca30d
NH
1710* New native configurations
1711
1712NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1713Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1714
1715* New targets
1716
1717NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1718Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1719
7a404eba
PA
1720* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1721
1722 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1723 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1724 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1725 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1726
430ebac9
PA
1727* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1728(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1729
fe6fbf8b 1730* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1731is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1732
1733* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1734including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1735and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1736
10665d76
JB
1737* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1738accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1739more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1740
7cc46491
DJ
1741* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1742
d71340b8
DJ
1743* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1744registers on PowerPC targets.
1745
523c4513
DJ
1746* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1747targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1748
a6b151f1
DJ
1749* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1750commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1751
2d717e4f
DJ
1752* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1753extended-remote mode.
1754
24a836bd 1755* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1756The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1757error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1758The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1759
d0c678e6
UW
1760* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1761building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1762target architectures.
1763
d64a946d
TJB
1764* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1765Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1766now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1767stored in two consecutive float registers.
1768
ee163bf5
VP
1769* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1770breakpoints now.
1771
b93b6ca7 1772* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1773Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1774include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1775 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1776 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1777 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1778 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1779 of an assignment
1780 - Improved command completion in Ada
1781 - Several bug fixes
1782
d001be7a
DJ
1783* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1784process.
1785
a6b151f1
DJ
1786* New commands
1787
6d53d0af
JB
1788set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1789show print frame-arguments
1790 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1791 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1792
a6b151f1
DJ
1793remote put
1794remote get
1795remote delete
1796 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1797
1798* New MI commands
1799
1800-target-file-put
1801-target-file-get
1802-target-file-delete
1803 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1804
1805* New remote packets
1806
1807vFile:open:
1808vFile:close:
1809vFile:pread:
1810vFile:pwrite:
1811vFile:unlink:
1812 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1813
2d717e4f
DJ
1814vAttach
1815 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1816 mode.
1817
1818vRun
1819 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1820
8d5f9c6f 1821*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1822
19d378fc
MS
1823* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1824bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1825Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1826
3a40aaa0
UW
1827* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1828symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1829-Bsymbolic linker option.
1830
a6ec25f2
BW
1831* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1832recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1833is not supported.
1834
6dd09645
JB
1835* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1836frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1837
c9bb8148
DJ
1838* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
183932-bit or 64-bit register values.
1840
0d5de010
DJ
1841* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1842
23181151
DJ
1843* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1844target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1845a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1846
ea37ba09
DJ
1847* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1848automatically displayed as character or string data.
1849
1850* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1851arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1852as strings.
e1f48ead 1853
123dc839
DJ
1854* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1855for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1856only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1857
05a4558a
DJ
1858* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1859iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1860
7c963485
PA
1861* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1862ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1863has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1864
b18be20d
DJ
1865* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1866
0ca420ce
UW
1867* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1868
31d99776
DJ
1869* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1870layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1871segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1872
a4642986
MR
1873* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1874immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1875
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1876* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1877"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1878packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1879where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1880Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1881
1882* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1883(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1884
1885* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1886according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1887
c9bb8148
DJ
1888* New commands
1889
23776285
MR
1890set remoteflow
1891show remoteflow
1892 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1893 when debugging using remote targets.
1894
c9bb8148
DJ
1895set mem inaccessible-by-default
1896show mem inaccessible-by-default
1897 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1898 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1899 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1900 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1901 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1902
1903set breakpoint auto-hw
1904show breakpoint auto-hw
1905 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1906 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1907 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1908 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1909 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1910 including "next" and "finish".
1911
0e420bd8
JB
1912catch exception
1913catch exception unhandled
1914 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1915
1916catch assert
1917 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1918
f822c95b
DJ
1919set sysroot
1920show sysroot
1921 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1922 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1923 an alias to "set sysroot".
1924
83cc5c53
UW
1925info spu
1926 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1927 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1928 architecture.
1929
bd372731
MK
1930* New native configurations
1931
1932OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1933
23181151
DJ
1934set tdesc filename
1935unset tdesc filename
1936show tdesc filename
1937 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1938 not query the target for its built-in description.
1939
c9bb8148
DJ
1940* New targets
1941
54fe9172 1942OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1943MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1944Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1945
6dd09645
JB
1946* New remote packets
1947
1948QPassSignals:
1949 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1950 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1951
23181151
DJ
1952qXfer:features:read:
1953 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1954 features.
6dd09645 1955
83cc5c53
UW
1956qXfer:spu:read:
1957qXfer:spu:write:
1958 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1959 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1960
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1961qXfer:libraries:read:
1962 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1963 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1964 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1965 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1966
483367ee
DJ
1967* Removed targets
1968
1969Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1970
d08950c4
UW
1971alpha*-*-osf1*
1972alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1973d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1974hppa*-*-hiux*
1975i[34567]86-ncr-*
1976i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1977i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1978i[34567]86-*-netware*
1979i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1980i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1981i[34567]86-*-sco*
1982i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1983i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1984i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1985i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1986i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1987i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1988i[34567]86-*-isc*
1989m68*-cisco*-*
1990m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1991mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1992rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1993sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1994
7ce59000
DJ
1995* Other removed features
1996
1997target abug
1998target cpu32bug
1999target est
2000target rom68k
2001
2002 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2003
ea35711c
DJ
2004target hms
2005target e7000
2006target sh3
2007target sh3e
2008
2009 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2010 H8/300.
2011
2012target ocd
2013
2014 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2015 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2016 interfaces.
2017
7ce59000
DJ
2018DWARF 1 support
2019
2020 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2021 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2022
54d61198
DJ
2023Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2024
2025 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2026 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2027 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2028 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2029
ea35711c
DJ
2030MIPS ".pdr" sections
2031
2032 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2033 in debugging information.
2034
2035Scheme support
2036
2037 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2038 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2039
1a69e1e4
DJ
2040set mips stack-arg-size
2041set mips saved-gpreg-size
2042
2043 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2044
6dd09645 2045*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2046
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2047* New targets
2048
2049Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2050Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2051
6aec2e11
DJ
2052* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2053(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2054running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2055
2056* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2057Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2058supported.
2059
17218d91
DJ
2060* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2061broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2062
9ebce043
DJ
2063* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2064stub provides the required support.
2065
7d3d3ece
DJ
2066* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2067longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2068
4f8253f3
JB
2069* New commands
2070
2071set substitute-path
2072unset substitute-path
2073show substitute-path
2074 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2075 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2076 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2077 between compilation and debugging.
2078
9fa66fd7
AS
2079set trace-commands
2080show trace-commands
2081 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2082 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2083 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2084
1f5befc1
DJ
2085* REMOVED features
2086
2087The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2088
2ec3381a
DJ
2089Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2090an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2091
3d00d119
DJ
2092The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2093
be2a5f71
DJ
2094* New remote packets
2095
2096qSupported:
2097 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2098 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2099 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2100 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2101 target.
2102
0876f84a
DJ
2103qXfer:auxv:read:
2104 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2105 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2106
9ebce043
DJ
2107qXfer:memory-map:read:
2108 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2109 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2110
2111vFlashErase:
2112vFlashWrite:
2113vFlashDone:
2114 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2115
0876f84a
DJ
2116* Removed remote packets
2117
2118qPart:auxv:read:
2119 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2120 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2121
e374b601 2122*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2123
96309189
MS
2124* New targets
2125
2126Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2127
2128Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2129
53e5f3cf
AS
2130* New commands
2131
2132init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2133 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2134
ac264b3b
MS
2135The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2136
2137checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2138
2139restart <n> Return the program state to a
2140 previously saved state.
2141
2142info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2143
2144delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2145
2146set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2147 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2148
2149info forks List forks of the user program that
2150 are available to be debugged.
2151
2152fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2153 forks of the user program that are
2154 available to be debugged.
2155
2156delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2157 that are available to be debugged (and
2158 kill the forked process).
2159
2160detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2161 that are available to be debugged (and
2162 allow the process to continue).
2163
3950dc3f
NS
2164* New architecture
2165
2166Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2167
0ea3f30e
DJ
2168* Improved Windows host support
2169
2170GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2171native console support, and remote communications using either
2172network sockets or serial ports.
2173
f79daebb
GM
2174* Improved Modula-2 language support
2175
2176GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2177basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2178pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2179printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2180written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2181GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2182
acab6ab2
MM
2183* REMOVED features
2184
2185The ARM rdi-share module.
2186
f4267320
DJ
2187The Netware NLM debug server.
2188
53e5f3cf 2189*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2190
e0ecbda1
MK
2191* New native configurations
2192
02a677ac 2193OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2194OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2195
d64a6579
KB
2196* New targets
2197
2198Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2199
b33a6190
AS
2200* New command line options
2201
2202--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2203--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2204 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2205--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2206 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2207 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2208 with the --command (-x) option.
2209
11dced61
AC
2210* Deprecated commands removed
2211
2212The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2213removed:
2214
2215 Command Replacement
2216 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2217 othernames set arm disassembler
2218 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2219 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2220 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2221 regs info registers
2222
6fe85783
MK
2223* New BSD user-level threads support
2224
2225It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2226library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2227configurations are:
2228
2229FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2230FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2231OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2232
2233Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2234are not yet supported.
2235
5260ca71
MS
2236* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2237(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2238
e84ecc99
AC
2239* REMOVED configurations and files
2240
2241VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2242Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2243National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2244
31e35378
JB
2245* New "set print array-indexes" command
2246
2247After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2248when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2249behavior.
2250
e85e5c83
MK
2251* VAX floating point support
2252
2253GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2254
d91e9901
AS
2255* User-defined command support
2256
2257In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2258to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2259section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2260
f2cb65ca
MC
2261*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2262
f47b1503
AS
2263* New command line option
2264
2265GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2266debugging.
2267
f2cb65ca
MC
2268* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2269
2270GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2271information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2272by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2273proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2274to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2275
d08c0230
AC
2276* Internationalization
2277
2278When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2279internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2280continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2281
117ea3cf
PH
2282* Ada
2283
2284Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2285implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2286into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2287
d08c0230
AC
2288* New native configurations
2289
2290GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2291
2292* Remote 'p' packet
2293
2294GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2295packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2296
2297* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2298
2299GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2300The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2301features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2302i386 application).
2303
2304GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2305compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2306continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2307configurations:
2308
2309hppa-*-hpux
2310ia64-*-aix
2311mips-*-irix*
2312*-*-lynx
2313mips-*-linux-gnu
2314sds protocol
2315xdr protocol
2316powerpc bdm protocol
2317
2318Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2319made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2320
2321* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2322
2323Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2324been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2325configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2326permanently REMOVED.
2327
2328h8300-*-*
2329mcore-*-*
2330mn10300-*-*
2331ns32k-*-*
2332sh64-*-*
2333v850-*-*
2334
ebb7c577
AC
2335*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2336
2337* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2338
2339When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2340heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2341been fixed.
2342
2343* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2344
2345When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2346fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2347IRIX long double values).
2348
2349* VAX and "next"
2350
2351A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2352command. This problem has been fixed.
2353
860660cb 2354*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2355
0dea2468
AC
2356* Fix for ``many threads''
2357
2358On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2359rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2360error message:
2361
2362 ptrace: No such process.
2363 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2364
2365This problem has been fixed.
2366
2c07db7a
AC
2367* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2368
2369Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2370GDB to dump core).
2371
c23968a2
JB
2372* New ``start'' command.
2373
2374This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2375
71009278
MK
2376* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2377
2378Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2379live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2380platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2381
2382FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2383FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2384NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2385NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2386NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2387OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2388OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2389OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2390OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2391
3c0b7db2
AC
2392* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2393
2394Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2395These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2396of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2397call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2398signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2399
73cc75f3
AC
2400Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2401features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2402include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2403
7243600a
BF
2404* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2405
6f606e1c
MK
2406* New native configurations
2407
97dc871c 2408GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2409OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2410OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2411OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2412OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2413NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2414OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2415
a1b461bf
AC
2416* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2417
2418GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2419The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2420including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2421migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2422compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2423work, was also included.
2424
2425GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2426module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2427
2428h8300-*-*
2429mcore-*-*
2430mn10300-*-*
2431ns32k-*-*
2432sh64-*-*
2433v850-*-*
2434xstormy16-*-*
2435
2436Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2437made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2438
3c7012f5
AC
2439* REMOVED configurations and files
2440
2441Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2442Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2443Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2444Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2445Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2446AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2447Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2448decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2449riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2450sonymips mips-sony-*
2451sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2452
e5fe55f7
AC
2453*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2454
2455* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2456
2457The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2458GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2459command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2460program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2461with GDB".
2462
2463* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2464
2465Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2466libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2467cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2468GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2469shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2470the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2471are created.
2472
2473Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2474
2475* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2476
2477The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2478non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2479compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2480
2481* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2482
2483Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2484wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2485
2486* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2487
2488The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2489permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2490systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2491
2492* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2493
2494Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2495has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2496
2497* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2498
2499GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2500its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2501panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2502
2503* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2504
2505When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2506by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2507not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2508
faae5abe 2509*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2510
9175c9a3
MC
2511* Removed --with-mmalloc
2512
2513Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2514conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2515
3cc87ec0
MK
2516* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2517
2518The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2519the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2520and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2521you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2522
f0424ef6
MK
2523* Revised SPARC target
2524
2525The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2526FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2527support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2528from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2529(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2530
59659be2
ILT
2531* New C++ demangler
2532
2533GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2534names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2535with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2536programs.
2537
9e08b29b
DJ
2538* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2539
2540GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2541arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2542encountered these.
2543
8dfe8985
DC
2544* C++ nested types and namespaces
2545
2546GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2547improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2548is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2549Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2550namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2551"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2552frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2553if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2554GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2555
cced5e27
MK
2556* New native configurations
2557
2558NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2559OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2560OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2561OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2562OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2563
b4b4b794
KI
2564* New debugging protocols
2565
2566M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2567
7989c619
AC
2568* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2569
2570The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2571and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2572tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2573
5994185b
AC
2574* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2575
2576Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2577been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2578configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2579permanently REMOVED.
2580
2581Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2582Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2583Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2584Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2585Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2586AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2587Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2588decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2589riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2590sonymips mips-sony-*
2591sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2592
0ddabb4c
AC
2593* REMOVED configurations and files
2594
2595SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2596SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2597Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2598Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2599H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2600HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2601HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2602HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2603PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2604386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2605Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2606 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2607 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2608SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2609SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2610Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2611Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2612
c7f1390e
DJ
2613*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2614
1fe43d45
AC
2615* Objective-C
2616
2617Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2618integrated into GDB.
2619
e6beb428
AC
2620* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2621
2622DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2623information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2624By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2625backtraces.
2626
2627The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2628have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2629DWARF 2 CFI support.
2630
2631* Hosted file I/O.
2632
2633GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2634file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2635remote protocol documentation for details.
2636
2637* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2638
2639All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2640architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2641to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2642ppc32 on ppc64).
2643
2644* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2645
2646GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2647per-thread variables.
2648
2649* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2650
2651GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2652GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2653
2654* Separate debug info.
2655
2656GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2657automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2658of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2659system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2660and optional debug files.
2661
2662* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2663
2664DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2665describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2666debugger.
2667
2668GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2669for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2670
2671* Java
2672
2673A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2674Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2675considered "useable".
2676
85f8f974
DJ
2677* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2678
2679The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2680commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2681kernel.
2682
0fac0b41
DJ
2683* GDB supports logging output to a file
2684
2685There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2686used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2687
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2688* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2689
2690The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2691disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2692command.
2693
e286caf2 2694* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2695
2696The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2697registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2698
d28f9cdf
DJ
2699* Profiling support
2700
2701A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2702be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2703session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2704"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2705data, for more informative profiling results.
2706
da0f9dcd
AC
2707* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2708
2709The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2710option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2711"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2712
2713Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2714removed.
2715
fb9b6b35
JJ
2716Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2717Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2718Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2719 in a subsequent -var-update.
2720
954a4db8
MK
2721* New native configurations.
2722
2723FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2724
6760f9e6
JB
2725* Multi-arched targets.
2726
b4263afa 2727HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2728Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2729
1b831c93
AC
2730* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2731
2732Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2733been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2734configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2735permanently REMOVED.
2736
8b0e5691 2737Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2738Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2739H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2740HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2741HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2742HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2743PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2744Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2745 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2746 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2747Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2748Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2749
5835abe7
NC
2750* REMOVED configurations and files
2751
2752V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2753Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2754IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2755i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2756i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2757i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2758HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2759 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2760 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2761Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2762Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2763Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2764OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2765I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2766
a094c6fb
AC
2767* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2768
2769The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2770the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2771context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2772address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2773The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2774
299ffc64 2775*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2776
46248966
AC
2777* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2778
2779When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2780`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2781in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2782library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2783shared libs like mad''.
2784
b9d14705 2785* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2786
b9d14705
DJ
2787Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2788the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2789arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2790powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2791
e0e9281e
JB
2792* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2793
2794GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2795and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2796they expand.
2797
dd73b9bb
AC
2798The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2799invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2800
2801The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2802macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2803
e0e9281e
JB
2804Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2805information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2806your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2807information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2808
2250ee0c
CV
2809* Multi-arched targets.
2810
6e3ba3b8
JT
2811DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2812DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2813NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2814National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2815Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2816Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2817
cd9bfe15 2818* New targets.
e33ce519 2819
456f8b9d
DB
2820Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2821
e33ce519 2822
da8ca43d
JT
2823* New native configurations
2824
2825Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2826SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2827MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2828UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2829
cd9bfe15
AC
2830* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2831
2832Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2833been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2834configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2835permanently REMOVED.
2836
92eb23c5 2837Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2838OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2839IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2840Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2841Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2842Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2843i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2844i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2845i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2846HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2847 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2848 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2849I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2850
db034ac5
AC
2851* OBSOLETE languages
2852
2853CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2854
cd9bfe15
AC
2855* REMOVED configurations and files
2856
2857AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2858A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2859AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2860AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2861AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2862
2863testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2864
20f01a46
DH
2865* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2866
2867This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2868commands. The default is 1024.
2869
a5941fbf
MK
2870* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2871
2872Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2873
89743e04
MS
2874* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2875
2876These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2877to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2878from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2879
9fb14e79
JB
2880* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2881
2882The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2883including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2884of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2885
2037aebb
AC
2886*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2887
2888* New targets.
2889
2890Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2891
2892* Bug fixes
2893
2894gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2895mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2896Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2897
2898gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2899dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2900Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2901
2902Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2903Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2904By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2905
2906i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2907avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2908By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2909
37057839 2910*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2911
1a703748
MS
2912* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2913
2914This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2915really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2916In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2917target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2918This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2919(notably embedded) targets.
2920
cefd4ef5
MS
2921* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2922
55241689
AC
2923This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2924process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2925GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2926hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2927
352ed7b4
MS
2928* New command line option
2929
2930GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2931
2932* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2933
2934There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2935command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2936a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2937be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2938open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2939issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2940a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2941it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2942GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2943is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2944
fe419ffc
RE
2945* Changes in ARM configurations.
2946
2947Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2948configuration is fully multi-arch.
2949
eb7cedd9
MK
2950* New native configurations
2951
fe419ffc 2952ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2953x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2954AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2955Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2956
c9f63e6b
CV
2957* New targets
2958
2959Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2960
9b4ff276
AC
2961* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2962
2963Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2964been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2965configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2966permanently REMOVED.
2967
2968AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2969A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2970AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2971AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2972AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2973
b4ceaee6 2974testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2975
e2caac18
AC
2976* REMOVED configurations and files
2977
2978TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2979WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2980PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2981PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2982PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2983Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2984Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2985 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2986SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2987Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2988Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2989ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2990Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2991
c2a727fa
TT
2992* Changes to command line processing
2993
2994The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2995for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2996
467d8519
TT
2997* Changes to key bindings
2998
2999There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3000
7072a954
AC
3001*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3002
3003Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3004
3005Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3006corrupted.
3007
3008Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3009
3010Numerous documentation fixes.
3011
3012Numerous testsuite fixes.
3013
34f47bc4 3014*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3015
3016* New native configurations
3017
3018Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3019x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3020MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3021MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3022ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3023s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3024
bf64bfd6
AC
3025* New targets
3026
def90278 3027Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3028CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3029UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3030
17e78a56 3031* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3032
3033x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3034Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3035Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3036 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3037TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3038WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3039Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3040PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3041PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3042PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3043SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3044Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3045ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3046Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3047
17e78a56
AC
3048stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3049kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3050
7fcca85b
AC
3051Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3052been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3053configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3054permanently REMOVED.
3055
a196c81c 3056* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3057
3058Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3059Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3060Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3061ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3062Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3063ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3064
6d6b80e5 3065* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3066
6d6b80e5 3067GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3068sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3069present.
3070
bf64bfd6
AC
3071* Other news:
3072
e23194cb
EZ
3073* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3074
3075* The MI enabled by default.
3076
3077The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3078revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3079engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3080using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3081which is now deprecated.
3082
3083* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3084
3085GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3086main features are supported:
3087
3088 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3089
3090 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3091 extension;
3092
3093 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3094
3095 - a Pascal expression parser.
3096
3097However, some important features are not yet supported.
3098
3099 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3100
3101 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3102
3103 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3104 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3105
3106 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3107
3108 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3109
3110* Changes in completion.
3111
3112Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3113to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3114users expect at the shell prompt.
3115
3116Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3117`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3118program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3119files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3120be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3121considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3122name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3123
3124`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3125
3126* New platform-independent commands:
3127
3128It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3129hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3130documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3131
3132* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3133
d7275149
MK
3134Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3135revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3136many threads as your system allows you to have.
3137
e23194cb
EZ
3138Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3139
d7275149
MK
3140Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3141multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3142
3143* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3144
3145Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3146
e23194cb
EZ
3147GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3148debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3149supported.)
3150
3151* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3152
3153Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3154breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3155implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3156put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3157and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3158registers.
3159
3160The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3161debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3162watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3163
3164* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3165
3166New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3167the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3168
3169New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3170display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3171IDT.
3172
3173New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3174from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3175New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3176a given linear address.
3177
3178GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3179program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3180which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3181
3182DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3183
6c56c069
EZ
3184It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3185
e23194cb
EZ
3186* Changes in documentation.
3187
3188All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3189Documentation License.
3190
3191Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3192manual.
3193
3194TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3195
3196Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3197manual.
3198
3199The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3200documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3201hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3202
5d6640b1
AC
3203* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3204
3205The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3206``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3207contents of this file.
3208
1a1d8446
AC
3209* gdba.el deleted
3210
3211GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3212
9debab2f 3213*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3214
c63ce875
EZ
3215* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3216
3217Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3218programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3219displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3220greater level of detail.
3221
3222* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3223
3224It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3225bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3226on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3227written.
3228
3229* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3230
3231The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3232necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3233machines ``out of the box''.
3234
3235The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3236possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3237signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3238would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3239interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3240
3241It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3242standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3243even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3244and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3245terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3246
3247The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3248enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3249also works.
3250
3251DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3252GDB.
3253
3254It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3255directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3256times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3257breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3258
ed9a39eb
JM
3259* New native configurations
3260
3261ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3262PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3263
7a292a7a
SS
3264* New targets
3265
96baa820 3266Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3267x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3268PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3269TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3270
085dd6e6
JM
3271* OBSOLETE configurations
3272
3273Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3274Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3275Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3276ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3277Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3278
9debab2f
AC
3279Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3280but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3281these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3282be permanently REMOVED.
3283
5330533d
SS
3284* Gould support removed
3285
3286Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3287
bc9e5bbf
AC
3288* New features for SVR4
3289
3290On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3291without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3292load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3293
3294* Many C++ enhancements
3295
3296C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3297in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3298
adf40b2e
JM
3299* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3300
3301A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3302sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3303with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3304``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3305
3306 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3307 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3308
43e526b9
JM
3309* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3310
3311A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3312expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3313instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3314
3315The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3316added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3317
96baa820
JM
3318* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3319
3320The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3321``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3322include ``set remote P-packet''.
3323
11cf8741
JM
3324* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3325
3326The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3327accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3328``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3329
7876dd43
DB
3330* ``apropos'' command added.
3331
3332The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3333documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3334try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3335
bc9e5bbf
AC
3336* New MI interface
3337
3338A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3339interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3340process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3341"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3342enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3343
3344 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3345
c906108c
SS
3346*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3347
3348* New native configurations
3349
3350HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3351HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3352M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3353
3354* New targets
3355
3356Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3357Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3358Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3359
3360* OBSOLETE configurations
3361
3362Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3363
3364Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3365but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3366these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3367be permanently REMOVED.
3368
3369* ANSI/ISO C
3370
3371As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3372buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3373containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3374use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3375available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3376configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3377information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3378already.
3379
3380* Readline 2.2
3381
3382GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3383
3384* set extension-language
3385
3386You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3387languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3388you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3389 set extension-language .c c++
3390The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3391and their associated languages.
3392
3393* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3394
3395When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3396you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3397PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3398
3399 set processor NAME
3400
3401sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3402following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3403
3404 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3405 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3406 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3407 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3408 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3409 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3410 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3411 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3412 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3413 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3414 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3415
3416At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3417special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3418registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3419only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3420
3421* HP-UX support
3422
3423Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3424more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3425library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3426support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3427for xdb and dbx commands.
3428
3429* Catchpoints
3430
3431HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3432generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3433to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3434
3435This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3436argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3437output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3438
3439* Debugging across forks
3440
3441On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3442in the inferior.
3443
3444* TUI
3445
3446HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3447it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3448configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3449
3450* GDB remote protocol additions
3451
3452A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3453Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3454fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3455allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3456
3457For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3458full 64-bit address. The command
3459
3460 set remoteaddresssize 32
3461
3462can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3463the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3464will be discarded.
3465
3466In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3467command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3468
3469 maint packet heythere
3470
3471sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3472disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3473time.
3474
3475The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3476target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3477downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3478
3479* Tracing can collect general expressions
3480
3481You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3482further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3483doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3484
3485* mask-address variable for Mips
3486
3487For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3488a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3489of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3490
3491* Higher serial baud rates
3492
3493GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3494230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3495to achieve all of these rates.)
3496
3497* i960 simulator
3498
3499The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3500builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3501
3502
3503*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3504
3505* New native configurations
3506
3507Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3508Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3509Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3510PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3511PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3512Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3513Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3514
3515* New targets
3516
3517Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3518Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3519Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3520Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3521MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3522MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3523MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3524Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3525Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3526Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3527NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3528
3529* New debugging protocols
3530
3531ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3532M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3533DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3534PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3535PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3536Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3537
3538* DWARF 2
3539
3540All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3541format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3542information.
3543
3544* Java frontend
3545
3546GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3547only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3548
3549* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3550
3551For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3552loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3553locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3554
3555* Live range splitting
3556
3557GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3558range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3559more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3560
3561* Hurd support
3562
3563GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3564updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3565
3566* ARM Thumb support
3567
3568GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3569instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3570instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3571accordingly.
3572
3573* MIPS16 support
3574
3575GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3576instruction set.
3577
3578* Overlay support
3579
3580GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3581linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3582will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3583control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3584additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3585in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3586
3587* info symbol
3588
3589The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3590the symbol at the specified address.
3591
3592* Trace support
3593
3594The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3595asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3596extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3597includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3598file tracepoint.c for more details.
3599
3600* MIPS simulator
3601
3602Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3603by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3604of most MIPS variants.
3605
3606* Sparc simulator
3607
3608Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3609by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3610Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3611
3612* set architecture
3613
3614For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3615basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3616architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3617the possible architectures.
3618
3619*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3620
3621* New native configurations
3622
3623Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3624M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3625PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3626PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3627PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3628RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3629
3630* New targets
3631
3632ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3633I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3634MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3635MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3636PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3637Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3638Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3639
3640* PowerPC simulator
3641
3642The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3643contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3644PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3645basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3646performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3647
3648* Solaris 2.5
3649
3650GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3651
3652* Windows 95/NT native
3653
3654GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3655To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3656which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3657Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3658ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3659
3660* dont-repeat command
3661
3662If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3663command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3664useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3665extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3666
3667* Send break instead of ^C
3668
3669The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3670rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3671GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3672
3673* Remote protocol timeout
3674
3675The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3676that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3677to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3678
3679* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3680
3681By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3682loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3683stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3684when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3685in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3686
3687Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3688/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3689automatically on hpux10.
3690
3691* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3692
3693Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3694
3695* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3696
3697When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3698may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3699the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3700every character. The default value is 1050.
3701
3702* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3703
3704If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3705a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3706replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3707details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3708remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3709to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3710
3711* Speedups for remote debugging
3712
3713GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3714the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3715and more efficient S-record downloading.
3716
3717* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3718
3719GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3720Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3721
3722*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3723
3724* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3725
3726The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3727can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3728
3729* Remote targets use caching
3730
3731Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3732remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3733it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3734debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3735off' turns the the data cache off.
3736
3737* Remote targets may have threads
3738
3739The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3740in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3741gdb/remote.c for details.
3742
3743* NetROM support
3744
3745If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3746support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3747acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3748write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3749support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3750another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3751sequence is something like
3752
3753 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3754 load <prog>
3755 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3756
3757* Macintosh host
3758
3759GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3760may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3761it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3762available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3763device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3764directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3765scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3766mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3767
3768* Autoconf
3769
3770GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3771but does simplify configuration and building.
3772
3773* hpux10
3774
3775GDB now supports hpux10.
3776
3777*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3778
3779* New native configurations
3780
3781x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3782x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3783NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3784Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3785
3786* New targets
3787
3788A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3789HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3790CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3791PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3792WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3793
3794* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3795
3796GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3797possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3798filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3799the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3800if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3801
3802* Arguments to user-defined commands
3803
3804User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3805Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3806trivial example:
3807define adder
3808 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3809
3810To execute the command use:
3811adder 1 2 3
3812
3813Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3814Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3815use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3816
3817* New `if' and `while' commands
3818
3819This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3820commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3821expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3822execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3823terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3824`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3825if the expression is zero.
3826
3827* Fortran source language mode
3828
3829GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3830Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3831variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3832with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3833Fortran compilers.
3834
3835* Better HPUX support
3836
3837Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3838running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3839processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3840for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3841that behavior do the following before running the program:
3842
3843 adb -w a.out
3844 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3845 control-d
3846
3847This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3848To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3849
3850 adb -w a.out
3851 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3852 control-d
3853
3854You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3855the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3856external linkage.
3857
3858GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3859HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3860
3861* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3862
3863You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3864commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3865current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3866"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3867associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3868configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3869
3870* New DOS host serial code
3871
3872This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3873no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3874a PC's serial port.
3875
3876*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3877
3878* New "complete" command
3879
3880This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3881were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3882
3883* Trailing space optional in prompt
3884
3885"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3886allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3887
3888* Breakpoint hit counts
3889
3890"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3891has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3892can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3893to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3894less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3895that breakpoint.
3896
3897* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3898
3899"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3900an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3901arrays actually contain only short strings.
3902
3903* Shared library breakpoints
3904
3905In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3906breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3907
3908* Hardware watchpoints
3909
3910There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3911targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3912
55241689 3913Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3914
3915* Annotations
3916
3917Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3918and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3919
3920* Improved Irix 5 support
3921
3922GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3923
3924* Improved HPPA support
3925
3926GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3927
3928* New native configurations
3929
3930Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3931HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3932Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3933RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3934
3935* New targets
3936
3937OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3938MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3939Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3940
3941* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3942
3943There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3944This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3945
3946* Fixes
3947
3948As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3949and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3950
3951*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3952
3953* Irix 5 is now supported
3954
3955* HPPA support
3956
3957GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3958to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3959GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3960of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3961can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3962
3963
3964*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3965
3966* User visible changes:
3967
3968* Remote Debugging
3969
3970The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3971target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3972debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3973integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3974debugging info for the mips target).
3975
3976* DEC Alpha native support
3977
3978GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3979debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3980work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3981Alpha-specific notes.
3982
3983* Preliminary thread implementation
3984
3985GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3986
3987* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3988
3989This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3990to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3991for details).
3992
3993* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3994
3995This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3996mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3997call methods, ...etc.
3998
3999*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4000
4001 * User visible changes:
4002
4003Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4004supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4005other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4006somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4007
4008Filename completion now works.
4009
4010When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4011arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4012addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4013
4014All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4015vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4016should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4017your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4018to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4019
4020 * DEC alpha support
4021
4022This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4023cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4024
4025
4026*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4027
4028 * Testsuite
4029
4030This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4031The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4032via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4033
4034 * C++ demangling
4035
4036'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4037emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4038Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4039disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4040use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4041
4042 * Simulators
4043
4044GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4045So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4046Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4047
4048 * New targets supported
4049
4050H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4051H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4052SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4053Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4054IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4055
4056Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4057version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4058GO32 memory extender.
4059
4060 * New remote protocols
4061
4062MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4063
4064 * New source languages supported
4065
4066This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4067used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4068into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4069
4070
4071*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4072
4073 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4074
4075GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4076version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4077University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4078compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4079format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4080(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4081
4082Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4083
4084 * Faster and better demangling
4085
4086We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4087demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4088character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4089only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4090This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4091increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4092symbol lookups.
4093
4094`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4095from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4096compiler does not actually implement.
4097
4098 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4099
4100In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4101inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4102recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4103very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4104The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4105circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4106fix.
4107
4108The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4109release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4110
4111 * Improved configure script
4112
4113The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4114you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4115host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4116done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4117
4118We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4119version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4120`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4121The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4122only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4123We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4124
4125 * Documentation improvements
4126
4127There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4128produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4129before submitting changes.
4130
4131The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4132M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4133`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4134you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4135a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4136
4137*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4138We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4139been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4140or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4141`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4142around this problem.
4143
4144 * New features
4145
4146GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4147the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4148`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4149the target program.
4150
4151The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4152how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4153
4154 * New native hosts supported
4155
4156HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4157386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4158
4159 * New targets supported
4160
4161AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4162
4163 * New file formats supported
4164
4165BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4166HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4167
4168 * Major bug fixes
4169
4170Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4171
4172We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4173printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4174
4175We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4176for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4177release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4178
4179You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4180will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4181
4182We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4183for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4184especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4185libraries.
4186
4187The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4188information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4189command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4190any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4191when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4192
4193 * Internal improvements
4194
4195GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4196debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4197
4198GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4199Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4200symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4201contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4202shared code that handles any of them.
4203
4204 * New command line options
4205
4206We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4207
4208 * Mmalloc licensing
4209
4210The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4211General Public License.
4212
4213*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4214
4215 * Host/native/target split
4216
4217GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4218hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4219target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4220local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4221ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4222
4223The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4224GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4225is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4226code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4227any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4228built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4229handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4230
4231GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4232It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4233plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4234
4235 * New hosts supported
4236
4237HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4238386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4239386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4240
4241 * New targets supported
4242
4243Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
424468030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4245
4246 * New native hosts supported
4247
4248386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4249 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4250386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4251
4252 * New file formats supported
4253
4254BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4255supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4256format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4257
4258 * New commands
4259
4260`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4261`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4262These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4263
4264`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4265
4266You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4267scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4268prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4269executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4270
4271 * C++ improvements
4272
4273We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4274info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4275symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4276
4277Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4278
4279 * Major bug fixes
4280
4281The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4282fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4283by the compiler.
4284
4285We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4286support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4287
4288John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4289slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4290that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4291purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4292the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4293mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4294
4295Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4296about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4297completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4298we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4299
4300 * AMD 29k support
4301
4302A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4303specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4304calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4305usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4306in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4307
4308We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4309Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4310of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4311resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4312
4313 * Remote interfaces
4314
4315We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4316with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4317message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4318This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4319needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4320breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4321each instruction being stepped through.
4322
4323The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4324registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4325
4326There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4327find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4328Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4329processor with a serial port.
4330
4331 * Configuration
4332
4333Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4334`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4335supported, and what files each one uses.
4336
4337 * Library changes
4338
4339There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4340disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4341Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4342disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4343
4344The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4345Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4346can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4347grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4348
4349 * Documentation
4350
4351The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4352reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4353as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4354encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4355system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4356bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4357
4358And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4359
4360
4361*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4362
4363 * Better support for C++ function names
4364
4365GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4366names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4367(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4368single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4369Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4370
4371GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4372the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4373You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4374lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4375for the list of formats.
4376
4377 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4378
4379Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4380C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4381directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4382can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4383usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4384about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4385this problem.)
4386
4387 * New 'maintenance' command
4388
4389All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4390the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4391can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4392
4393 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4394 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4395 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4396 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4397 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4398 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4399
4400The following commands are new:
4401
4402 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4403 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4404 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4405
4406 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4407
4408We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4409(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4410be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4411read after argv processing.
4412
4413 * New hosts supported
4414
4415Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4416
55241689 4417GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4418
4419We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4420is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4421for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4422masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4423fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4424It costs extra.
4425
4426 * New targets supported
4427
4428Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4429
4430 * More smarts about finding #include files
4431
4432GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4433all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4434greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4435especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4436the one that contains your sources.
4437
4438We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4439breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4440try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4441
4442 * Interesting infernals change
4443
4444GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4445section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4446target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4447stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4448
4449 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4450
4451There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4452 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4453 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4454
4455See the ChangeLog for details.
4456
4457*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4458
4459 * New machines supported (host and target)
4460
4461IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4462
4463SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4464
4465 * New malloc package
4466
4467GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4468Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4469capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4470This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4471pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4472more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4473
4474 * info proc
4475
4476The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4477'help info proc' for details.
4478
4479 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4480
4481The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4482Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4483possible.
4484
4485 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4486
4487Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4488support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4489conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4490environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4491that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4492in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4493
4494 * Cross byte order fixes
4495
4496Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4497targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4498
4499 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4500
4501If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4502system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4503`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4504program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4505called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4506Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4507and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4508the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4509option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4510starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4511
4512You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4513the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4514information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4515slower, but makes future operations faster.
4516
4517The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4518build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4519A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4520use is:
4521
4522 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4523
4524The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4525It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4526shared across multiple host platforms.
4527
4528 * longjmp() handling
4529
4530GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4531siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4532all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4533platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4534
4535 * Solaris 2.0
4536
4537Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4538this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4539reading symbols.
4540
4541 * Bug fixes
4542
4543As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4544People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4545crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4546
4547*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4548
4549 * New machines supported (host and target)
4550
4551SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4552 (except core files)
4553BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4554Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4555
4556 * New machines supported (target)
4557
4558AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4559
4560 * C++ support
4561
4562GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4563The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4564per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4565
4566GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4567`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4568extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4569good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4570will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4571released.
4572
4573 * New features for SVR4
4574
4575GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4576shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4577only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4578
4579The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4580on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4581it prints the address mappings of the process.
4582
4583If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4584bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4585
4586 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4587
4588Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4589now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4590skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4591make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4592same code linked statically.
4593
4594 * New Getopt
4595
4596GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4597version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4598continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4599Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4600added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4601future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4602
4603 * Bugs fixed
4604
4605The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4606Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4607See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4608
4609
4610*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4611
4612 * New machines supported (host and target)
4613
4614Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4615NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4616Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4617
4618 * Almost SCO Unix support
4619
4620We had hoped to support:
4621SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4622(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4623that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4624about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4625
4626 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4627
4628GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4629debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4630is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4631send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4632reqired (if any).
4633
4634 * New Readline
4635
4636GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4637is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4638required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4639
4640 * Bugs fixed
4641
4642The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4643Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4644See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4645
4646 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4647
4648GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4649supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4650symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4651
4652Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4653mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4654debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4655mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4656version 2.
4657
4658Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4659really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4660line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4661variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4662situation somewhat.
4663
4664When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4665However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4666methods.
4667
4668We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4669DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4670encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4671
4672
4673*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4674
4675 * Improved configuration
4676
4677Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4678Porting BFD is simpler.
4679
4680 * Stepping improved
4681
4682The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4683of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4684in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4685function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4686
4687 * Bug fixing
4688
4689Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4690
4691 * New host supported (not target)
4692
4693Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4694
4695
4696*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4697
4698 * Multiple source language support
4699
4700GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4701It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4702and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4703language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4704You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4705`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4706
4707 * GDB and Modula-2
4708
4709GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4710currently under development at the State University of New York at
4711Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4712continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4713
4714Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4715debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4716symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4717
4718There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4719in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4720
4721 * set write on/off
4722
4723GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4724a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4725the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4726by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4727effect immediately.
4728
4729 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4730
4731When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4732shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4733The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4734examining core files.
4735
4736 * set listsize
4737
4738You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4739The default is 10.
4740
4741 * New machines supported (host and target)
4742
4743SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4744Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4745Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4746
4747 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4748
4749IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4750
4751 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4752
4753AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4754AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4755Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4756
4757 * New remote interfaces
4758
4759AMD 29000 Adapt
4760AMD 29000 Minimon
4761
4762
4763*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4764
4765 * New Facilities
4766
4767Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4768
4769Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4770target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4771is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4772remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4773remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4774also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4775using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4776stub on the target system.
4777
4778New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4779
4780GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4781library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4782object file types such as a.out and coff.
4783
4784There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4785refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4786
4787
4788 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4789
4790All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4791by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4792
4793For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4794``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4795Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4796
4797What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4798print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4799will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4800all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4801
4802confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4803 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4804 it is already running. Default is ON.
4805
4806editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4807 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4808 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4809 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4810 Default is ON.
4811
4812history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4813 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4814 or the value of the environment variable
4815 GDBHISTFILE.
4816
4817history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4818 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4819 HISTSIZE.
4820
4821history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4822 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4823 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4824
4825history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4826 history expansion will be performed on
4827 command line input. The default is OFF.
4828
4829radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4830 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4831 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4832
4833height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4834 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4835 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4836 variable TERM.
4837
4838width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4839 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4840 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4841 variable TERM.
4842
4843Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4844``set width'' instead.
4845
4846print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4847 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4848 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4849 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4850
4851print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4852 is OFF.
4853
4854print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4855 "raw" form if off.
4856
4857print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4858 like instructions.
4859
4860print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4861
4862
4863 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4864
4865The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4866new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4867are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4868window.
4869
4870
4871 * Support for Shared Libraries
4872
4873GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4874Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4875before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4876happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4877At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4878from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4879shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4880It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4881
4882sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4883 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4884 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4885
4886info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4887
4888
4889 * Watchpoints
4890
4891A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4892expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4893tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4894quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4895problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4896more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4897
4898watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4899
4900info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4901
4902delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4903disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4904enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4905
4906
4907 * C++ multiple inheritance
4908
4909When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4910for C++ programs.
4911
4912 * C++ exception handling
4913
4914Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4915ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4916the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4917handler's context).
4918
4919catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4920 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4921 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4922
4923info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4924 current stack frame.
4925
4926
4927 * Minor command changes
4928
4929The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4930command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4931is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4932
4933The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4934at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4935frames without printing.
4936
4937 * New directory command
4938
4939'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4940The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4941about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4942with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4943find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4944
4945 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4946
4947For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4948for more details.
4949
4950GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4951two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4952Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4953where the program that you are debugging will run.
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