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[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.6
5
bd712aed 6* New commands:
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7catch rethrow
8 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
9
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10show configuration
11 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
12
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13maint set|show per-command
14maint set|show per-command space
15maint set|show per-command time
16maint set|show per-command symtab
17 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
18
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19* New options
20
21set remote trace-status-packet
22show remote trace-status-packet
23 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
24
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25* New command-line options
26--configuration
27 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
28
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29* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
30 buffer in Common Trace Format.
31
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32* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
33 GDB command gcore.
34
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35* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
36
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37* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
38 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
39
40* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
41 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
42
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43* MI changes
44
45 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
46 Trace Format now.
47
2d450646 48*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 49
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50* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
51 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
52 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
53 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
54
55set|show record full insn-number-max
56set|show record full stop-at-limit
57set|show record full memory-query
58
59* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
60 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
61 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
62 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
63 This new recording method can be enabled using:
64
65record btrace
66
67 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
68 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
69
70* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
71 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
72 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
73
74record instruction-history prints the execution history at
75 instruction granularity
76
77record function-call-history prints the execution history at
78 function granularity
79
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80* New native configurations
81
51d66578 82ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 83FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 84x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 85Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 86
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87* New targets
88
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89ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
90ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 91Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 92x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 93Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 94
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95* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
96 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
97 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
98 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
99 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
100 --data-directory command-line option.
101
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102* New command line options:
103
104-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
105 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
106
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107* Removed command line options
108
109-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
110 Emacs.
111
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112* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
113 type formatting.
114
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115* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
116
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117* Python scripting
118
119 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
120
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121 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
122
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123 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
124
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125 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
126
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127 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
128 of architecture in the Python API.
129
130 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
131 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
132
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133* New Python-based convenience functions:
134
135 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
136 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
137 ** $_strlen(str)
138 ** $_regex(str, regex)
139
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140* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
141 given an argument.
142
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143* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
144 default for GCC since November 2000.
145
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146* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
147
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148* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
149 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
150
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151* New configure options
152
153--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
154 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
155 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
156 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
157 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
158 options allow the user to override that default.
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159--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
160 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
161 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 162
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163* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
164
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165catch signal
166 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
167 conditions to be attached.
168
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169maint info bfds
170 List the BFDs known to GDB.
171
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172python-interactive [command]
173pi [command]
174 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
175 and print the result of expressions.
176
177py [command]
178 "py" is a new alias for "python".
179
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180enable type-printer [name]...
181disable type-printer [name]...
182 Enable or disable type printers.
183
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184* Removed commands
185
186 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
187 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
188 instead.
189
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190* New options
191
192set print type methods (on|off)
193show print type methods
194 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
195 The default is to show them.
196
197set print type typedefs (on|off)
198show print type typedefs
199 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
200 The default is to show them.
201
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202set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
203show filename-display
204 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
205 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
206
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207set trace-buffer-size
208show trace-buffer-size
209 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
210
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211set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
212show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
213 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
214
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215set debug aarch64
216show debug aarch64
217 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
218 The default is off.
219
220set debug coff-pe-read
221show debug coff-pe-read
222 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
223 exported symbols.
224
225set debug mach-o
226show debug mach-o
227 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
228 processing.
229
230set debug notification
231show debug notification
232 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
233
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234* MI changes
235
236 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
237 "=cmd-param-changed".
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238 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
239 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
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240 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
241 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
242 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
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243 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
244 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
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245 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
246 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 247 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 248 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
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249 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
250 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
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251 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
252 library load/unload events.
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253 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
254 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
255 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
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256 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
257 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
258 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
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259 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
260 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 261
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262* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
263 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
264 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
265 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
266
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267* New remote packets
268
269QTBuffer:size
270 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
271 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
272
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273Qbtrace:bts
274 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
275 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
276 qSupported query.
277
278Qbtrace:off
279 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
280 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
281
282qXfer:btrace:read
283 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
284 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
285
80c8d323 286*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 287
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288* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
289 for more x32 ABI info.
290
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291* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
292
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293* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
294
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295* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
296 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
297 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
298 "info os files" lists file descriptors
299 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
300 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
301 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
302 "info os msg" lists message queues
303 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
304
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305* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
306 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
307 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
308 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
309 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
310 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
311
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312* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
313 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
314 record/replay support.
315
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316* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
317
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318* Python scripting
319
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320 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
321 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
322
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323 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
324
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325 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
326 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
327
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328 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
329
330 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
331 the source at which the symbol was defined.
332
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333 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
334 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
335 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
336 symbol's value.
337
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338 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
339 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
340
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341 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
342 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
343 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
344
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345 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
346 object associated with a PC value.
347
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348 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
349 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
350
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351* Go language support.
352 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
353 language.
354
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355* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
356 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
357
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358* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
359 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
360
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361* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
362 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
363 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
364 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
365 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
366 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
367
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368* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
369 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
370 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
371 build/libcpp/expr.c.
372
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373* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
374 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
375
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376* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
377 since December 2007.
378
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379* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
380 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
381 command does. For instance:
382
383 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
384
385 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
386 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
387 created, using the "condition" command.
388
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389* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
390 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
391
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392* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
393
394* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
395 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
396 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
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397 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
398 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
399 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
400 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
401 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 402
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403 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
404 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
405 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
406 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
407 the .gdb_index section.
408
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409* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
410
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411* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
412 target.
413
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414* MI changes
415
416 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
417
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418 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
419
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420* New commands
421
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422 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
423 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
424 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
425
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426 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
427 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
428
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429 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
430 several hits.
431
57651221 432 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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433 C++ and Java objects.
434
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435 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
436 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
437 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
438 configured with '--with-python'.
439
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440 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
441 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
442 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
443 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
444 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
445 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
446 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
447
448 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
449 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
450 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
451 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
452
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453 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
454 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
455 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
456 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
457
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458 ** "set print symbol"
459 "show print symbol"
460 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
461 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
462 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
463
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464* Deprecated commands
465
466 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
467 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
468
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469* New targets
470
471Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 472HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 473
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474* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
475 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
476 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
477 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
478 evaluates to true.
479
480* New options
481
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482set mips compression
483show mips compression
484 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
485 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
486 mips16
487 micromips
488 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
489
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490set breakpoint condition-evaluation
491show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 492 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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493 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
494 available mode.
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495 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
496 target.
497
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498set auto-load off
499 Disable auto-loading globally.
500
501show auto-load
502 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
503
504set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
505show auto-load gdb-scripts
506 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
507
508set auto-load python-scripts on|off
509show auto-load python-scripts
510 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
511
512set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
513show auto-load local-gdbinit
514 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
515
516set auto-load libthread-db on|off
517show auto-load libthread-db
518 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
519
7349ff92 520set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 521show auto-load scripts-directory
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522 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
523 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
524 of the directories listed by this option.
525 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
526
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527set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
528show auto-load safe-path
529 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
530 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
531
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532set debug auto-load on|off
533show debug auto-load
534 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
535
d3ce09f5 536set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 537show dprintf-style
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538 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
539 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
540 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
541 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
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542
543set dprintf-function <expr>
544show dprintf-function
545set dprintf-channel <expr>
546show dprintf-channel
547 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
548 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
549
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550set disconnected-dprintf on|off
551show disconnected-dprintf
552 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
553 after GDB disconnects.
554
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555* New configure options
556
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557--with-auto-load-dir
558 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
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559 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
560 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
561 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
562 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 563
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564--with-auto-load-safe-path
565 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 566 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
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567
568--without-auto-load-safe-path
569 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
570 security feature.
571
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572* New remote packets
573
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574z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
575
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576 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
577 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
578 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
579 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
580
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581QProgramSignals:
582
583 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
584 program without GDB involvement.
585
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586* New command line options
587
588--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
589 before loading inferior.
590--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
591 execute it before loading inferior.
592
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593*** Changes in GDB 7.4
594
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595* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
596 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
597 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
598 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
599 inferior changes.
600
1bfeeb0f
JL
601* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
602 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
603
480a3f21
PW
604* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
605 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
606 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
607 target hardware watchpoint.
608
609 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
610 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
611 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
612 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
613
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614* Python scripting
615
32d1c362 616 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 617 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
618 existing one.
619
3a7bf607 620 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
621 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
622 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
623 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
624 now "message", which just prints the error message without
625 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 626
baacfb07 627 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 628 Python API.
713389e0 629
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630 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
631 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 632 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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PM
633 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
634 corresponding value.
635
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PM
636 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
637 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
638 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
639 on GDB start-up.
640
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641 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
642 static_block will return the global and static blocks
643 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
644 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
645
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DE
646 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
647
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KP
648 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
649 "gdb.breakpoints".
650
cc72b2a2
KP
651 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
652 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
653 available in the CLI.
654
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PK
655 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
656 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
657 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
658 "some_type.items()".
659
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KP
660 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
661 new object file.
662
03c3051a
PK
663 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
664 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
665 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
666 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
667 any anonymous fields.
668
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TT
669* MI changes
670
671 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
672 "solib-event".
673
674 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
675 "=breakpoint-modified".
676
677 ** New command -ada-task-info.
678
98a5dd13
DE
679* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
680 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
681 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
682 lives.
683
684 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
685 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
686 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
687 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
688 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
689
690 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
691 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
692
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DE
693* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
694 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
695 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
696 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
697 use this option to specify where to find it.
698
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TJB
699* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
700 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
701 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
702 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
703 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
704 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
705 section in the user manual for more details.
706
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JK
707* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
708 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
709 become available after that.
710
71eba9c2 711* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 712
2bda9cc5
JK
713* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
714 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
715 gcc version 4.7.
716
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DE
717* New commands
718
719!SHELL COMMAND
720 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
721 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
722
9c06b0b4
TJB
723* Changed commands
724
725watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
726 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
727 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
728
dbaefcf7
DE
729info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
730 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
731 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
732
71eba9c2 733info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
734 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
735 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
736 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
737 name starts with a hyphen.
738
3065dfb6
SS
739collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
740 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
741 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
742 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
743 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
744 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
745 number of bytes that will be collected.
746
f196051f
SS
747tstart [NOTES]
748 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
749 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
750 setting the variable trace-notes.
751
752tstop [NOTES]
753 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
754 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
755 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
756 trace-stop-notes.
757
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KY
758* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
759 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
760 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
761 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
762 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
763 is running.
764
405f8e94
SS
765* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
766 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
767 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
768
2bda9cc5
JK
769* New options
770
45cfd468
DE
771set debug dwarf2-read
772show debug dwarf2-read
773 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
774 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
775
776set debug symtab-create
777show debug symtab-create
778 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
779 creation. The default is off.
780
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PM
781set extended-prompt
782show extended-prompt
783 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
784 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
785 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
786 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
787 prompt is displayed.
788
2bda9cc5
JK
789set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
790show print entry-values
791 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
792 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
793 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
794
795set debug entry-values
796show debug entry-values
797 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
798 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
799
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DE
800set basenames-may-differ
801show basenames-may-differ
802 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
803 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
804 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
805 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
806 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
807 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
808 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
809 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
810
f196051f
SS
811set trace-user
812show trace-user
813set trace-notes
814show trace-notes
815 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
816 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
817 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
818 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
819
820set trace-stop-notes
821show trace-stop-notes
822 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
823 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
824 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
825 started by someone else.
826
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KY
827* New remote packets
828
829QTEnable
830
831 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
832
833QTDisable
834
835 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
836
f196051f
SS
837QTNotes
838
839 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
840
841qTP
842
843 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
844
405f8e94
SS
845qTMinFTPILen
846
847 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
848 be placed.
849
1a532630
PP
850* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
851 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
852
11315641
YQ
853* New targets
854
855Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
856
87326c78
DD
857* New Simulators
858
859Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
860
e8d56f18
JB
861*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
862
863* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
864
d6e00af6 865*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 866
60f98dde
MS
867* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
868 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
869 matches the given regular expression.
870
eee5b35e
DD
871* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
872
b716877b
AB
873* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
874 dumping the instruction opcodes.
875
aae1c79a
DE
876* New command line options
877
878-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
879 This is mostly for testing purposes.
880
a86caf66
DE
881* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
882 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
883
99e7ae30
DE
884* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
885 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
886 source path list instead of augmenting it.
887
4694da01
TT
888* GDB now understands thread names.
889
890 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
891 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
892
893 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
894 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
895
f4b8a18d
KW
896* OpenCL C
897 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
898 has been integrated into GDB.
899
585d1eb8
PM
900* Python scripting
901
da5d4055
PM
902 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
903 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
904 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
905
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PM
906 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
907 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
908 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
909 and allows for more dynamic content.
910
29703da4
PM
911 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
912 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
913 have an is_valid method.
914
350c6c65
PM
915 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
916 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
917 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
918
6e6fbe60
DE
919 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
920
585d1eb8
PM
921 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
922 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
923 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
924 that function like so:
925
926 result = some_value (10,20)
927
0e3509db
DE
928 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
929 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
930 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
931
7b51bc51
DE
932 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
933 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
934 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
935 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
936 New function: register_pretty_printer.
937
938 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
939 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
940
99e7ae30
DE
941 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
942
d8e22779
TT
943 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
944 selected thread.
945
4694da01
TT
946 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
947 holds the thread's name.
948
505500db
SW
949 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
950 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 951 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
952 The following events are currently supported:
953 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
954 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
955 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
956
def98928
TT
957* C++ Improvements:
958
959 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
960 instantiation. For example, if you have:
961
962 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
963
964 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
965 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
966 was added to GCC 4.5.
967
66cb8159
TT
968 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
969 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
970 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
971 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
972 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
973 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
974
4aac0db7
UW
975* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
976 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
977 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
978 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
979 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
980
283e6a52
TT
981* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
982 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
983 execution to a label.
984
985* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
986 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
987 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
988 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
989
b56df873 990* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 991 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
992 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
993 of scope.
994
ae53ffa4
PA
995* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
996
997 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
998 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
999 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1000 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1001 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1002 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1003
1004 (gdb) info threads
1005 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1006
1007 While now you see this:
1008
1009 (gdb) info threads
1010 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1011
1012 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1013 dumps.
1014
1015 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1016 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1017 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1018 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1019
f1310107
TJB
1020* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1021 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1022 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1023 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1024 section in the user manual for more details.
1025
248c9dbc
JB
1026* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1027
1aee7009
JB
1028 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1029 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1030
eb826dc6
MF
1031 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1032
44603653
JB
1033* New native configurations
1034
1035ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1036
91021223
MF
1037* New targets:
1038
1039Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1040
6e1bb179
JB
1041* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1042 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1043 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1044 in the GDB user manual.
1045
50c97f38
TT
1046* Guile support was removed.
1047
448a92bf
MF
1048* New features in the GNU simulator
1049
1050 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1051
66ee2731
MF
1052 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1053
76b8507d 1054*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1055
ba25b921
PA
1056* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1057
1058 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1059 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1060 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1061 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1062 was always disabled for such configurations.
1063
4656f5c6
SW
1064* C++ Improvements:
1065
1066 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1067
1068 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1069 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1070 For example:
1071 namespace A
1072 {
1073 class B { };
1074 void foo (B) { }
1075 }
1076 ...
1077 A::B b
1078 foo(b)
1079 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1080 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1081 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1082
1083 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1084
1085 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1086 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1087 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1088 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1089 entry.
1090 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1091 mentioned flavors of operators.
1092
254e6b9e
DE
1093 ** static const class members
1094
1095 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1096 class definition has been fixed.
1097
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PM
1098* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1099
1100 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1101 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1102 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1103 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1104 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1105 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1106
0fb4aa4b
PA
1107* Static tracepoints
1108
1109 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1110 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1111 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1112 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1113 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1114 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1115 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1116 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1117 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1118 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1119 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1120 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1121 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1122 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1123 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1124 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1125 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1126 the "New remote packets" section below.
1127
ca11e899
SS
1128* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1129
1130 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1131 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1132 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1133 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1134
1135* Observer mode
1136
1137 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1138 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1139 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1140 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1141 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1142 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1143 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1144
1145* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1146 current thread.
1147
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PM
1148* New remote packets
1149
1150qGetTIBAddr
1151
1152 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1153
dde08ee1
PA
1154qRelocInsn
1155
1156 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1157 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1158 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1159 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1160 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1161 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1162
0fb4aa4b
PA
1163qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1164
1165 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1166
1167qTSTMat
1168
1169 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1170 program.
1171
1172qXfer:statictrace:read
1173
1174 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1175 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1176 to gdb's qSupported query.
1177
ca11e899
SS
1178QAllow
1179
1180 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1181
1182QTDPsrc
1183
1184 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1185 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1186
3f7b2faa
DE
1187* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1188 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1189 a directory.
1190
d337e9f0
PA
1191* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1192
0fb4aa4b
PA
1193 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1194 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1195 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1196 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1197
1198 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1199 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1200 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1201 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1202 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1203 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1204 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1205
1206 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1207 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1208
c24d0242
PM
1209 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1210
c8d5aac9
L
1211* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1212 it understands register description.
1213
7c953934
TT
1214* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1215
8685c86f
L
1216* X86 general purpose registers
1217
1218 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1219 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1220 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1221 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1222 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1223
95a42b64 1224* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1225 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1226 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1227 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1228 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1229 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1230
8bd10a10
CM
1231* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1232 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1233 in the specified file.
1234
ab38a727
PA
1235* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1236 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1237 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1238 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1239 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1240 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1241 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1242 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1243 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1244 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1245
6149aea9
PA
1246* New commands
1247
f1421989
HZ
1248eval template, expressions...
1249 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1250 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1251
ab38a727
PA
1252set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1253show target-file-system-kind
1254 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1255 names.
1256
6149aea9
PA
1257save breakpoints <filename>
1258 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1259 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1260 definitions, use the `source' command.
1261
1262`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1263is now deprecated.
1264
0fb4aa4b
PA
1265info static-tracepoint-markers
1266 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1267
1268strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1269 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1270 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1271
ca11e899
SS
1272set observer on|off
1273show observer
1274 Enable and disable observer mode.
1275
1276set may-write-registers on|off
1277set may-write-memory on|off
1278set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1279set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1280set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1281set may-interrupt on|off
1282 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1283 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1284 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1285 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1286 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1287 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1288 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1289
1290set record memory-query on|off
1291show record memory-query
1292 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1293 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1294
53a71c06
CR
1295* Changed commands
1296
1297disassemble
1298 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1299
f3e9a817
PM
1300* Python scripting
1301
9279c692
JB
1302** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1303 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1304 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1305 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1306 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1307
adc36818 1308** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1309 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1310 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1311 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1312
fa33c3cd 1313** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1314 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1315
1316** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1317
1318** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1319
967cf477
DE
1320** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1321
8a1ea21f
DE
1322** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1323 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1324 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1325
a7bdde9e
VP
1326* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1327there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1328tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1329regular breakpoints.
1330
05071a4d
PA
1331* New targets
1332
1333ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1334
6aecb9c2
JB
1335* D language support.
1336 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1337 language.
1338
431e49aa
TJB
1339* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1340 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1341 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1342 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1343 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1344
1345* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1346 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1347 conditions of the form:
1348
1349 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1350
1351 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1352 interface mentioned above.
1353
bfbf3774 1354*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1355
4eef138c
TT
1356* C++ Improvements
1357
1358 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1359
1360 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1361 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1362 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1363 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1364 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1365
4eef138c
TT
1366 ** Bug Fixes
1367
1368 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1369 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1370 qualified name.
1371
1372 ** Cast Operators
1373
1374 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1375 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1376
2d1c1221
ME
1377* New targets
1378
1379Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1380Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1381
1382* New Simulators
1383
1384Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1385Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1386
6c95b8df
PA
1387* Multi-program debugging.
1388
1389 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1390 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1391 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1392 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1393 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1394 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1395 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1396 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1397
d5551862
SS
1398* New tracing features
1399
1400 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1401
1402 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1403
1404 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1405 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1406 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1407 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1408 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1409 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1410 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1411 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1412 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1413 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1414
d5551862 1415 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1416
1417 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1418 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1419 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1420 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1421 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1422 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1423 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1424 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1425 the regular trace command.
1426
d5551862
SS
1427 ** Disconnected tracing
1428
1429 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1430 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1431 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1432 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1433 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1434
00bf0b85
SS
1435 ** Trace files
1436
1437 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1438 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1439 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1440 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1441 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1442 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1443 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1444
1445 ** Circular trace buffer
1446
1447 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1448 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1449 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1450 not be available for all target agents.
1451
21a0512e
PP
1452* Changed commands
1453
1454disassemble
1455 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1456 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1457
0fe7935b
DJ
1458info variables
1459 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1460 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1461
fb2e7cb4
JB
1462source
1463 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1464 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1465 support.
1466
1467 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1468 "set script-extension" (see below).
1469
6c95b8df
PA
1470* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1471
399cd161
MS
1472record save [<FILENAME>]
1473 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1474 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1475
1476record restore <FILENAME>
1477 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1478 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1479
6c95b8df
PA
1480add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1481 Add a new inferior.
1482
1483clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1484 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1485 inferior has loaded.
1486
1487remove-inferior ID
1488 Remove an inferior.
1489
1490maint info program-spaces
1491 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1492
9a7071a8
JB
1493set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1494show remote interrupt-sequence
1495 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1496 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1497 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1498 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1499 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1500
1501set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1502show remote interrupt-on-connect
1503 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1504 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1505 Linux kernel.
1506
1507set remotebreak [on | off]
1508show remotebreak
1509Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1510
f61e138d
SS
1511tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1512 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1513
1514info tvariables
1515 List trace state variables and their values.
1516
1517delete tvariable $NAME ...
1518 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1519
6da95a67
SS
1520teval EXPR, ...
1521 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1522 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1523
7a697b8d
SS
1524ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1525 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1526
b0f02ee9
JK
1527* New expression syntax
1528
1529 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1530 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1531
6c95b8df
PA
1532* New options
1533
1534set follow-exec-mode new|same
1535show follow-exec-mode
1536 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1537 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1538 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1539
236f1d4d
SS
1540set default-collect EXPR, ...
1541show default-collect
1542 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1543 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1544 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1545
d5551862
SS
1546set disconnected-tracing
1547show disconnected-tracing
1548 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1549 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1550 upon disconnection.
1551
4daf5ac0
SS
1552set circular-trace-buffer
1553show circular-trace-buffer
1554 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1555 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1556 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1557 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1558
fb2e7cb4
JB
1559set script-extension off|soft|strict
1560show script-extension
1561 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1562 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1563 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1564 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1565 evaluation failed.
1566 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1567
2b71fc8e
JB
1568set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1569show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1570 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1571 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1572 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1573 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1574 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1575 is on.
1576
de2e5182
TT
1577* Python API Improvements
1578
1579 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1580 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1581 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1582
1583 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1584 `is_base_class' attribute.
1585
1586 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1587
1588 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1589 evaluate an expression.
1590
f61e138d
SS
1591* New remote packets
1592
1593QTDV
1594 Define a trace state variable.
1595
1596qTV
1597 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1598
d5551862
SS
1599QTDisconnected
1600 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1601
4daf5ac0
SS
1602QTBuffer:circular
1603 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1604
d5551862
SS
1605qTfP, qTsP
1606 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1607
2d483d34
MS
1608* Bug fixes
1609
1610Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1611
6e0e5977
JB
1612Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1613much more reliable. In particular:
1614 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1615 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1616 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1617 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1618 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1619 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1620 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1621 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1622 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1623 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1624 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1625 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1626 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1627 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1628 non-threaded programs.
1629
93c26624
JK
1630PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1631This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1632libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1633executable program.
1634
abc7453d 1635*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1636
4efc6507
DE
1637* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1638dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1639them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1640for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1641"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1642
782b2b07
SS
1643* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1644breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1645or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1646the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1647for tracepoint actions.
1648
53a71c06
CR
1649* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1650raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1651modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1652
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1653* Process record and replay
1654
1655 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1656 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1657 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1658 execute commands.
1659
64644d9b
MS
1660* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1661step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1662set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1663reverse execution.
1664
b9412953
DD
1665* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1666feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
16672.6.28 or later.
1668
6c7a06a3
TT
1669* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1670target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1671char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1672literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1673U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1674`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1675system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1676the installation instructions for more information.
1677
f1838a98
UW
1678* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1679remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1680with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1681the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1682
55333a84
DE
1683* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1684and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1685
7f6a6314
PM
1686* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1687now complete on file names.
1688
65d12d83
TT
1689* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1690completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1691For instance, consider:
1692
1693 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1694 # struct example variable;
1695 (gdb) p variable.
1696
1697If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1698completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1699
edb3359d
DJ
1700* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1701the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1702
2fae03e8
TT
1703* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1704operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1705macros.
1706
47a3467a 1707* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1708the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1709implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1710
1711* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1712registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1713can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1714and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1715
08388c79
DE
1716* New remote packets
1717
1718qSearch:memory:
1719 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1720
a6f3e723
SL
1721QStartNoAckMode
1722 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1723 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1724 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1725
d7713ae0
EZ
1726vKill
1727 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1728 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1729
07e059b5
VP
1730qXfer:osdata:read
1731 Obtains additional operating system information
1732
47a3467a
PA
1733qXfer:siginfo:read
1734qXfer:siginfo:write
1735 Read or write additional signal information.
1736
060871df
PA
1737* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1738
1739 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1740 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1741 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1742
c055b101 1743* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1744DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1745
1746* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1747and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1748`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1749
31fffb02
CS
1750* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1751with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1752
88d8a8e0
JB
1753* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1754
7f99b190
JB
1755* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1756
ccd213ac
DJ
1757* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1758which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1759
1fddbabb 1760* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1761list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1762
a0ef4274
DJ
1763* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1764conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1765have also been fixed.
1766
bfb8797a 1767* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1768From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1769are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1770
71c25dea
TT
1771* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1772example, given:
1773
1774 template<typename T> class C { };
1775 C<char const *> c;
1776
1777GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1778
1779 ptype C<char const *>
1780 ptype C<char const*>
1781 ptype C<const char *>
1782 ptype C<const char*>
1783
ccd213ac
DJ
1784* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1785
1786 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1787 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1788
7ae0e2a2
UW
1789 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1790 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1791 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1792
a6f3e723
SL
1793 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1794 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1795
da8bd9a3
DJ
1796 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1797 gdbserver.
1798
d70e31dd
DE
1799 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1800 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1801
1802 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1803 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1804 as appropriate.
1805
d57a3c85
TJB
1806* Python scripting
1807
1808 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1809 available is determined at configure time.
1810
d8906c6f
TJB
1811 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1812
aadc346a
JB
1813* Ada tasking support
1814
1815 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1816 been introduced:
1817
1818 info tasks
1819 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1820 info task N
1821 Print detailed information about task number N.
1822 task
1823 Print the task number of the current task.
1824 task N
1825 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1826
adb483fe
DJ
1827* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1828add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1829
2277426b
PA
1830* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1831
1832 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1833 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1834 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1835 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1836 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1837 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1838 below.
1839
08d16641
PA
1840* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1841"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1842information.
1843
e35359c5
UW
1844* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1845to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1846architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1847See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1848more information.
1849
85e747d2
UW
1850* Multi-architecture debugging.
1851
1852 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1853 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1854 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1855 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1856 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1857
1858* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1859use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1860Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1861powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1862--enable-targets configure option.
1863
11ade57a
PA
1864* Non-stop mode debugging.
1865
1866 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1867 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1868 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1869 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1870 section in the user manual for more information.
1871
1872 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1873 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1874 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1875 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1876 extensions on linux targets.
1877
d7713ae0 1878* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1879
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1880catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1881 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1882 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1883 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1884 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1885 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1886 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1887 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1888 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1889
08388c79
DE
1890find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1891 val1 [, val2, ...]
1892 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1893
d57a3c85
TJB
1894maint set python print-stack
1895maint show python print-stack
1896 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1897
1898python [CODE]
1899 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1900
d7713ae0
EZ
1901macro define
1902macro list
1903macro undef
1904 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1905 interactively.
1906
1907info os processes
1908 Show operating system information about processes.
1909
2277426b
PA
1910info inferiors
1911 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1912
1913inferior NUM
1914 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1915
1916detach inferior NUM
1917 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1918
1919kill inferior NUM
1920 Kill inferior number NUM.
1921
d7713ae0
EZ
1922* New options
1923
3285f3fe
UW
1924set spu stop-on-load
1925show spu stop-on-load
1926 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1927
ff1a52c6
UW
1928set spu auto-flush-cache
1929show spu auto-flush-cache
1930 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1931 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1932
d7713ae0
EZ
1933set sh calling-convention
1934show sh calling-convention
1935 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1936
e0a3ce09 1937set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1938show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1939 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1940
1941set disassemble-next-line
1942show disassemble-next-line
1943 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1944 the debuggee stops.
1945
1946set remote noack-packet
1947show remote noack-packet
1948 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1949 under "New remote packets."
1950
1951set remote query-attached-packet
1952show remote query-attached-packet
1953 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1954
1955set remote read-siginfo-object
1956show remote read-siginfo-object
1957 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1958 packet.
1959
1960set remote write-siginfo-object
1961show remote write-siginfo-object
1962 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1963 packet.
1964
40ab02ce
MS
1965set remote reverse-continue
1966show remote reverse-continue
1967 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1968
1969set remote reverse-step
1970show remote reverse-step
1971 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1972
d7713ae0
EZ
1973set displaced-stepping
1974show displaced-stepping
1975 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1976 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1977 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1978
1979set debug displaced
1980show debug displaced
1981 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1982
1983maint set internal-error
1984maint show internal-error
1985 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1986
1987maint set internal-warning
1988maint show internal-warning
1989 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1990
ccd213ac
DJ
1991set exec-wrapper
1992show exec-wrapper
1993unset exec-wrapper
1994 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1995
aad4b048
JB
1996set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1997show multiple-symbols
1998 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1999 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2000 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2001
74960c60
VP
2002set breakpoint always-inserted
2003show breakpoint always-inserted
2004 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2005 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2006 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2007
0428b8f5
DJ
2008set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2009show arm fallback-mode
2010set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2011show arm force-mode
2012 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2013 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2014 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2015 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2016
10568435
JK
2017set disable-randomization
2018show disable-randomization
2019 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2020 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2021 multiple debugging sessions.
2022
d7713ae0
EZ
2023set non-stop
2024show non-stop
2025 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2026 a breakpoint.
2027
b3eb342c 2028set target-async
d7713ae0 2029show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2030 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2031 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2032 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2033 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2034
6c7a06a3
TT
2035set target-wide-charset
2036show target-wide-charset
2037 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2038 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2039
84603566
SL
2040set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2041show tcp auto-retry
2042set tcp connect-timeout
2043show tcp connect-timeout
2044 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2045 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2046 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2047
17a37d48
PP
2048set libthread-db-search-path
2049show libthread-db-search-path
2050 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2051 libthread_db.
2052
d4db2f36
PA
2053set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2054show schedule-multiple
2055 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2056 the current process.
2057
4e5d721f
DE
2058set stack-cache
2059show stack-cache
2060 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2061 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2062 affecting correctness.
2063
910c5da8
JB
2064set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2065show interactive-mode
2066 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2067 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2068 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2069 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2070 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2071
2277426b
PA
2072* Removed commands
2073
2074info forks
2075 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2076 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2077 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2078 command.
2079
2080fork NUM
2081 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2082 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2083 alias for the `fork' command.
2084
2085process PID
2086 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2087 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2088 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2089
2090delete fork NUM
2091 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2092 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2093 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2094 fork' command.
2095
2096detach fork NUM
2097 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2098 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2099 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2100 fork' command.
2101
a80b95ba
TG
2102* New native configurations
2103
2104x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2105
b8bfd3ed
JB
2106x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2107
75a2d5e7
TT
2108* New targets
2109
c28c63d8 2110Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2111x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2112x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2113S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2114
6de3146c
PA
2115* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2116 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2117
d5cbbe6e
JB
2118* Removed commands
2119
2120catch load
2121catch unload
2122 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2123
75feb17d 2124*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2125
af5ca30d
NH
2126* New native configurations
2127
2128NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2129Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2130
2131* New targets
2132
2133NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2134Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2135
7a404eba
PA
2136* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2137
2138 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2139 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2140 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2141 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2142
430ebac9
PA
2143* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2144(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2145
fe6fbf8b 2146* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2147is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2148
2149* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2150including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2151and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2152
10665d76
JB
2153* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2154accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2155more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2156
7cc46491
DJ
2157* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2158
d71340b8
DJ
2159* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2160registers on PowerPC targets.
2161
523c4513
DJ
2162* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2163targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2164
a6b151f1
DJ
2165* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2166commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2167
2d717e4f
DJ
2168* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2169extended-remote mode.
2170
24a836bd 2171* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2172The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2173error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2174The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2175
d0c678e6
UW
2176* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2177building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2178target architectures.
2179
d64a946d
TJB
2180* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2181Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2182now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2183stored in two consecutive float registers.
2184
ee163bf5
VP
2185* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2186breakpoints now.
2187
b93b6ca7 2188* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2189Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2190include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2191 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2192 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2193 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2194 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2195 of an assignment
2196 - Improved command completion in Ada
2197 - Several bug fixes
2198
d001be7a
DJ
2199* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2200process.
2201
a6b151f1
DJ
2202* New commands
2203
6d53d0af
JB
2204set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2205show print frame-arguments
2206 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2207 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2208
a6b151f1
DJ
2209remote put
2210remote get
2211remote delete
2212 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2213
2214* New MI commands
2215
2216-target-file-put
2217-target-file-get
2218-target-file-delete
2219 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2220
2221* New remote packets
2222
2223vFile:open:
2224vFile:close:
2225vFile:pread:
2226vFile:pwrite:
2227vFile:unlink:
2228 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2229
2d717e4f
DJ
2230vAttach
2231 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2232 mode.
2233
2234vRun
2235 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2236
8d5f9c6f 2237*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2238
19d378fc
MS
2239* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2240bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2241Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2242
3a40aaa0
UW
2243* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2244symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2245-Bsymbolic linker option.
2246
a6ec25f2
BW
2247* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2248recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2249is not supported.
2250
6dd09645
JB
2251* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2252frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2253
c9bb8148
DJ
2254* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
225532-bit or 64-bit register values.
2256
0d5de010
DJ
2257* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2258
23181151
DJ
2259* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2260target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2261a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2262
ea37ba09
DJ
2263* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2264automatically displayed as character or string data.
2265
2266* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2267arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2268as strings.
e1f48ead 2269
123dc839
DJ
2270* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2271for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2272only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2273
05a4558a
DJ
2274* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2275iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2276
7c963485
PA
2277* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2278ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2279has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2280
b18be20d
DJ
2281* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2282
0ca420ce
UW
2283* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2284
31d99776
DJ
2285* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2286layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2287segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2288
a4642986
MR
2289* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2290immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2291
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2292* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2293"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2294packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2295where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2296Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2297
2298* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2299(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2300
2301* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2302according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2303
c9bb8148
DJ
2304* New commands
2305
23776285
MR
2306set remoteflow
2307show remoteflow
2308 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2309 when debugging using remote targets.
2310
c9bb8148
DJ
2311set mem inaccessible-by-default
2312show mem inaccessible-by-default
2313 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2314 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2315 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2316 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2317 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2318
2319set breakpoint auto-hw
2320show breakpoint auto-hw
2321 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2322 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2323 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2324 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2325 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2326 including "next" and "finish".
2327
0e420bd8
JB
2328catch exception
2329catch exception unhandled
2330 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2331
2332catch assert
2333 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2334
f822c95b
DJ
2335set sysroot
2336show sysroot
2337 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2338 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2339 an alias to "set sysroot".
2340
83cc5c53
UW
2341info spu
2342 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2343 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2344 architecture.
2345
bd372731
MK
2346* New native configurations
2347
2348OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2349
23181151
DJ
2350set tdesc filename
2351unset tdesc filename
2352show tdesc filename
2353 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2354 not query the target for its built-in description.
2355
c9bb8148
DJ
2356* New targets
2357
54fe9172 2358OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2359MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2360Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2361
6dd09645
JB
2362* New remote packets
2363
2364QPassSignals:
2365 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2366 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2367
23181151
DJ
2368qXfer:features:read:
2369 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2370 features.
6dd09645 2371
83cc5c53
UW
2372qXfer:spu:read:
2373qXfer:spu:write:
2374 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2375 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2376
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2377qXfer:libraries:read:
2378 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2379 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2380 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2381 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2382
483367ee
DJ
2383* Removed targets
2384
2385Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2386
d08950c4
UW
2387alpha*-*-osf1*
2388alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2389d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2390hppa*-*-hiux*
2391i[34567]86-ncr-*
2392i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2393i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2394i[34567]86-*-netware*
2395i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2396i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2397i[34567]86-*-sco*
2398i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2399i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2400i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2401i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2402i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2403i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2404i[34567]86-*-isc*
2405m68*-cisco*-*
2406m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2407mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2408rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2409sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2410
7ce59000
DJ
2411* Other removed features
2412
2413target abug
2414target cpu32bug
2415target est
2416target rom68k
2417
2418 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2419
ea35711c
DJ
2420target hms
2421target e7000
2422target sh3
2423target sh3e
2424
2425 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2426 H8/300.
2427
2428target ocd
2429
2430 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2431 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2432 interfaces.
2433
7ce59000
DJ
2434DWARF 1 support
2435
2436 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2437 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2438
54d61198
DJ
2439Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2440
2441 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2442 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2443 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2444 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2445
ea35711c
DJ
2446MIPS ".pdr" sections
2447
2448 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2449 in debugging information.
2450
2451Scheme support
2452
2453 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2454 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2455
1a69e1e4
DJ
2456set mips stack-arg-size
2457set mips saved-gpreg-size
2458
2459 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2460
6dd09645 2461*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2462
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2463* New targets
2464
2465Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2466Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2467
6aec2e11
DJ
2468* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2469(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2470running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2471
2472* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2473Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2474supported.
2475
17218d91
DJ
2476* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2477broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2478
9ebce043
DJ
2479* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2480stub provides the required support.
2481
7d3d3ece
DJ
2482* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2483longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2484
4f8253f3
JB
2485* New commands
2486
2487set substitute-path
2488unset substitute-path
2489show substitute-path
2490 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2491 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2492 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2493 between compilation and debugging.
2494
9fa66fd7
AS
2495set trace-commands
2496show trace-commands
2497 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2498 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2499 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2500
1f5befc1
DJ
2501* REMOVED features
2502
2503The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2504
2ec3381a
DJ
2505Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2506an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2507
3d00d119
DJ
2508The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2509
be2a5f71
DJ
2510* New remote packets
2511
2512qSupported:
2513 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2514 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2515 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2516 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2517 target.
2518
0876f84a
DJ
2519qXfer:auxv:read:
2520 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2521 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2522
9ebce043
DJ
2523qXfer:memory-map:read:
2524 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2525 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2526
2527vFlashErase:
2528vFlashWrite:
2529vFlashDone:
2530 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2531
0876f84a
DJ
2532* Removed remote packets
2533
2534qPart:auxv:read:
2535 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2536 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2537
e374b601 2538*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2539
96309189
MS
2540* New targets
2541
2542Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2543
2544Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2545
53e5f3cf
AS
2546* New commands
2547
2548init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2549 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2550
ac264b3b
MS
2551The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2552
2553checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2554
2555restart <n> Return the program state to a
2556 previously saved state.
2557
2558info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2559
2560delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2561
2562set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2563 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2564
2565info forks List forks of the user program that
2566 are available to be debugged.
2567
2568fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2569 forks of the user program that are
2570 available to be debugged.
2571
2572delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2573 that are available to be debugged (and
2574 kill the forked process).
2575
2576detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2577 that are available to be debugged (and
2578 allow the process to continue).
2579
3950dc3f
NS
2580* New architecture
2581
2582Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2583
0ea3f30e
DJ
2584* Improved Windows host support
2585
2586GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2587native console support, and remote communications using either
2588network sockets or serial ports.
2589
f79daebb
GM
2590* Improved Modula-2 language support
2591
2592GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2593basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2594pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2595printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2596written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2597GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2598
acab6ab2
MM
2599* REMOVED features
2600
2601The ARM rdi-share module.
2602
f4267320
DJ
2603The Netware NLM debug server.
2604
53e5f3cf 2605*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2606
e0ecbda1
MK
2607* New native configurations
2608
02a677ac 2609OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2610OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2611
d64a6579
KB
2612* New targets
2613
2614Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2615
b33a6190
AS
2616* New command line options
2617
2618--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2619--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2620 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2621--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2622 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2623 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2624 with the --command (-x) option.
2625
11dced61
AC
2626* Deprecated commands removed
2627
2628The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2629removed:
2630
2631 Command Replacement
2632 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2633 othernames set arm disassembler
2634 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2635 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2636 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2637 regs info registers
2638
6fe85783
MK
2639* New BSD user-level threads support
2640
2641It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2642library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2643configurations are:
2644
2645FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2646FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2647OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2648
2649Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2650are not yet supported.
2651
5260ca71
MS
2652* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2653(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2654
e84ecc99
AC
2655* REMOVED configurations and files
2656
2657VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2658Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2659National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2660
31e35378
JB
2661* New "set print array-indexes" command
2662
2663After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2664when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2665behavior.
2666
e85e5c83
MK
2667* VAX floating point support
2668
2669GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2670
d91e9901
AS
2671* User-defined command support
2672
2673In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2674to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2675section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2676
f2cb65ca
MC
2677*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2678
f47b1503
AS
2679* New command line option
2680
2681GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2682debugging.
2683
f2cb65ca
MC
2684* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2685
2686GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2687information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2688by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2689proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2690to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2691
d08c0230
AC
2692* Internationalization
2693
2694When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2695internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2696continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2697
117ea3cf
PH
2698* Ada
2699
2700Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2701implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2702into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2703
d08c0230
AC
2704* New native configurations
2705
2706GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2707
2708* Remote 'p' packet
2709
2710GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2711packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2712
2713* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2714
2715GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2716The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2717features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2718i386 application).
2719
2720GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2721compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2722continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2723configurations:
2724
2725hppa-*-hpux
2726ia64-*-aix
2727mips-*-irix*
2728*-*-lynx
2729mips-*-linux-gnu
2730sds protocol
2731xdr protocol
2732powerpc bdm protocol
2733
2734Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2735made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2736
2737* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2738
2739Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2740been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2741configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2742permanently REMOVED.
2743
2744h8300-*-*
2745mcore-*-*
2746mn10300-*-*
2747ns32k-*-*
2748sh64-*-*
2749v850-*-*
2750
ebb7c577
AC
2751*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2752
2753* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2754
2755When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2756heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2757been fixed.
2758
2759* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2760
2761When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2762fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2763IRIX long double values).
2764
2765* VAX and "next"
2766
2767A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2768command. This problem has been fixed.
2769
860660cb 2770*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2771
0dea2468
AC
2772* Fix for ``many threads''
2773
2774On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2775rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2776error message:
2777
2778 ptrace: No such process.
2779 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2780
2781This problem has been fixed.
2782
2c07db7a
AC
2783* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2784
2785Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2786GDB to dump core).
2787
c23968a2
JB
2788* New ``start'' command.
2789
2790This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2791
71009278
MK
2792* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2793
2794Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2795live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2796platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2797
2798FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2799FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2800NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2801NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2802NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2803OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2804OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2805OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2806OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2807
3c0b7db2
AC
2808* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2809
2810Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2811These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2812of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2813call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2814signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2815
73cc75f3
AC
2816Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2817features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2818include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2819
7243600a
BF
2820* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2821
6f606e1c
MK
2822* New native configurations
2823
97dc871c 2824GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2825OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2826OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2827OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2828OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2829NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2830OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2831
a1b461bf
AC
2832* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2833
2834GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2835The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2836including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2837migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2838compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2839work, was also included.
2840
2841GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2842module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2843
2844h8300-*-*
2845mcore-*-*
2846mn10300-*-*
2847ns32k-*-*
2848sh64-*-*
2849v850-*-*
2850xstormy16-*-*
2851
2852Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2853made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2854
3c7012f5
AC
2855* REMOVED configurations and files
2856
2857Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2858Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2859Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2860Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2861Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2862AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2863Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2864decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2865riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2866sonymips mips-sony-*
2867sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2868
e5fe55f7
AC
2869*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2870
2871* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2872
2873The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2874GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2875command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2876program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2877with GDB".
2878
2879* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2880
2881Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2882libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2883cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2884GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2885shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2886the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2887are created.
2888
2889Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2890
2891* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2892
2893The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2894non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2895compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2896
2897* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2898
2899Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2900wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2901
2902* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2903
2904The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2905permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2906systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2907
2908* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2909
2910Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2911has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2912
2913* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2914
2915GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2916its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2917panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2918
2919* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2920
2921When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2922by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2923not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2924
faae5abe 2925*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2926
9175c9a3
MC
2927* Removed --with-mmalloc
2928
2929Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2930conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2931
3cc87ec0
MK
2932* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2933
2934The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2935the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2936and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2937you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2938
f0424ef6
MK
2939* Revised SPARC target
2940
2941The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2942FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2943support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2944from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2945(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2946
59659be2
ILT
2947* New C++ demangler
2948
2949GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2950names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2951with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2952programs.
2953
9e08b29b
DJ
2954* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2955
2956GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2957arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2958encountered these.
2959
8dfe8985
DC
2960* C++ nested types and namespaces
2961
2962GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2963improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2964is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2965Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2966namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2967"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2968frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2969if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2970GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2971
cced5e27
MK
2972* New native configurations
2973
2974NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2975OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2976OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2977OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2978OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2979
b4b4b794
KI
2980* New debugging protocols
2981
2982M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2983
7989c619
AC
2984* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2985
2986The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2987and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2988tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2989
5994185b
AC
2990* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2991
2992Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2993been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2994configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2995permanently REMOVED.
2996
2997Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2998Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2999Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3000Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3001Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3002AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3003Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3004decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3005riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3006sonymips mips-sony-*
3007sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3008
0ddabb4c
AC
3009* REMOVED configurations and files
3010
3011SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3012SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3013Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3014Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3015H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3016HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3017HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3018HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3019PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3020386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3021Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3022 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3023 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3024SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3025SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3026Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3027Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3028
c7f1390e
DJ
3029*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3030
1fe43d45
AC
3031* Objective-C
3032
3033Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3034integrated into GDB.
3035
e6beb428
AC
3036* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3037
3038DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3039information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3040By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3041backtraces.
3042
3043The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3044have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3045DWARF 2 CFI support.
3046
3047* Hosted file I/O.
3048
3049GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3050file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3051remote protocol documentation for details.
3052
3053* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3054
3055All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3056architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3057to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3058ppc32 on ppc64).
3059
3060* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3061
3062GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3063per-thread variables.
3064
3065* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3066
3067GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3068GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3069
3070* Separate debug info.
3071
3072GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3073automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3074of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3075system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3076and optional debug files.
3077
3078* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3079
3080DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3081describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3082debugger.
3083
3084GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3085for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3086
3087* Java
3088
3089A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3090Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3091considered "useable".
3092
85f8f974
DJ
3093* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3094
3095The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3096commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3097kernel.
3098
0fac0b41
DJ
3099* GDB supports logging output to a file
3100
3101There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3102used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3103
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3104* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3105
3106The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3107disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3108command.
3109
e286caf2 3110* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3111
3112The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3113registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3114
d28f9cdf
DJ
3115* Profiling support
3116
3117A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3118be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3119session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3120"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3121data, for more informative profiling results.
3122
da0f9dcd
AC
3123* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3124
3125The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3126option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3127"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3128
3129Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3130removed.
3131
fb9b6b35
JJ
3132Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3133Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3134Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3135 in a subsequent -var-update.
3136
954a4db8
MK
3137* New native configurations.
3138
3139FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3140
6760f9e6
JB
3141* Multi-arched targets.
3142
b4263afa 3143HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3144Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3145
1b831c93
AC
3146* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3147
3148Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3149been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3150configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3151permanently REMOVED.
3152
8b0e5691 3153Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3154Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3155H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3156HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3157HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3158HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3159PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3160Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3161 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3162 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3163Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3164Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3165
5835abe7
NC
3166* REMOVED configurations and files
3167
3168V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3169Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3170IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3171i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3172i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3173i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3174HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3175 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3176 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3177Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3178Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3179Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3180OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3181I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3182
a094c6fb
AC
3183* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3184
3185The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3186the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3187context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3188address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3189The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3190
299ffc64 3191*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3192
46248966
AC
3193* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3194
3195When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3196`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3197in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3198library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3199shared libs like mad''.
3200
b9d14705 3201* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3202
b9d14705
DJ
3203Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3204the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3205arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3206powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3207
e0e9281e
JB
3208* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3209
3210GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3211and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3212they expand.
3213
dd73b9bb
AC
3214The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3215invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3216
3217The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3218macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3219
e0e9281e
JB
3220Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3221information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3222your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3223information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3224
2250ee0c
CV
3225* Multi-arched targets.
3226
6e3ba3b8
JT
3227DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3228DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3229NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3230National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3231Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3232Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3233
cd9bfe15 3234* New targets.
e33ce519 3235
456f8b9d
DB
3236Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3237
e33ce519 3238
da8ca43d
JT
3239* New native configurations
3240
3241Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3242SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3243MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3244UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3245
cd9bfe15
AC
3246* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3247
3248Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3249been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3250configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3251permanently REMOVED.
3252
92eb23c5 3253Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3254OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3255IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3256Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3257Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3258Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3259i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3260i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3261i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3262HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3263 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3264 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3265I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3266
db034ac5
AC
3267* OBSOLETE languages
3268
3269CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3270
cd9bfe15
AC
3271* REMOVED configurations and files
3272
3273AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3274A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3275AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3276AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3277AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3278
3279testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3280
20f01a46
DH
3281* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3282
3283This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3284commands. The default is 1024.
3285
a5941fbf
MK
3286* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3287
3288Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3289
89743e04
MS
3290* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3291
3292These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3293to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3294from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3295
9fb14e79
JB
3296* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3297
3298The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3299including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3300of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3301
2037aebb
AC
3302*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3303
3304* New targets.
3305
3306Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3307
3308* Bug fixes
3309
3310gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3311mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3312Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3313
3314gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3315dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3316Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3317
3318Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3319Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3320By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3321
3322i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3323avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3324By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3325
37057839 3326*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3327
1a703748
MS
3328* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3329
3330This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3331really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3332In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3333target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3334This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3335(notably embedded) targets.
3336
cefd4ef5
MS
3337* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3338
55241689
AC
3339This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3340process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3341GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3342hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3343
352ed7b4
MS
3344* New command line option
3345
3346GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3347
3348* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3349
3350There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3351command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3352a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3353be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3354open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3355issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3356a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3357it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3358GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3359is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3360
fe419ffc
RE
3361* Changes in ARM configurations.
3362
3363Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3364configuration is fully multi-arch.
3365
eb7cedd9
MK
3366* New native configurations
3367
fe419ffc 3368ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3369x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3370AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3371Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3372
c9f63e6b
CV
3373* New targets
3374
3375Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3376
9b4ff276
AC
3377* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3378
3379Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3380been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3381configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3382permanently REMOVED.
3383
3384AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3385A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3386AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3387AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3388AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3389
b4ceaee6 3390testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3391
e2caac18
AC
3392* REMOVED configurations and files
3393
3394TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3395WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3396PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3397PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3398PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3399Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3400Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3401 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3402SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3403Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3404Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3405ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3406Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3407
c2a727fa
TT
3408* Changes to command line processing
3409
3410The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3411for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3412
467d8519
TT
3413* Changes to key bindings
3414
3415There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3416
7072a954
AC
3417*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3418
3419Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3420
3421Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3422corrupted.
3423
3424Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3425
3426Numerous documentation fixes.
3427
3428Numerous testsuite fixes.
3429
34f47bc4 3430*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3431
3432* New native configurations
3433
3434Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3435x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3436MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3437MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3438ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3439s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3440
bf64bfd6
AC
3441* New targets
3442
def90278 3443Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3444CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3445UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3446
17e78a56 3447* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3448
3449x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3450Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3451Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3452 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3453TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3454WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3455Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3456PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3457PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3458PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3459SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3460Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3461ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3462Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3463
17e78a56
AC
3464stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3465kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3466
7fcca85b
AC
3467Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3468been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3469configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3470permanently REMOVED.
3471
a196c81c 3472* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3473
3474Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3475Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3476Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3477ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3478Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3479ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3480
6d6b80e5 3481* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3482
6d6b80e5 3483GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3484sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3485present.
3486
bf64bfd6
AC
3487* Other news:
3488
e23194cb
EZ
3489* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3490
3491* The MI enabled by default.
3492
3493The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3494revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3495engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3496using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3497which is now deprecated.
3498
3499* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3500
3501GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3502main features are supported:
3503
3504 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3505
3506 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3507 extension;
3508
3509 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3510
3511 - a Pascal expression parser.
3512
3513However, some important features are not yet supported.
3514
3515 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3516
3517 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3518
3519 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3520 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3521
3522 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3523
3524 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3525
3526* Changes in completion.
3527
3528Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3529to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3530users expect at the shell prompt.
3531
3532Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3533`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3534program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3535files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3536be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3537considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3538name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3539
3540`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3541
3542* New platform-independent commands:
3543
3544It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3545hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3546documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3547
3548* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3549
d7275149
MK
3550Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3551revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3552many threads as your system allows you to have.
3553
e23194cb
EZ
3554Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3555
d7275149
MK
3556Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3557multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3558
3559* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3560
3561Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3562
e23194cb
EZ
3563GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3564debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3565supported.)
3566
3567* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3568
3569Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3570breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3571implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3572put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3573and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3574registers.
3575
3576The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3577debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3578watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3579
3580* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3581
3582New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3583the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3584
3585New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3586display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3587IDT.
3588
3589New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3590from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3591New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3592a given linear address.
3593
3594GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3595program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3596which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3597
3598DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3599
6c56c069
EZ
3600It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3601
e23194cb
EZ
3602* Changes in documentation.
3603
3604All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3605Documentation License.
3606
3607Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3608manual.
3609
3610TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3611
3612Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3613manual.
3614
3615The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3616documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3617hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3618
5d6640b1
AC
3619* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3620
3621The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3622``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3623contents of this file.
3624
1a1d8446
AC
3625* gdba.el deleted
3626
3627GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3628
9debab2f 3629*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3630
c63ce875
EZ
3631* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3632
3633Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3634programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3635displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3636greater level of detail.
3637
3638* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3639
3640It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3641bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3642on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3643written.
3644
3645* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3646
3647The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3648necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3649machines ``out of the box''.
3650
3651The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3652possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3653signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3654would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3655interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3656
3657It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3658standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3659even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3660and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3661terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3662
3663The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3664enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3665also works.
3666
3667DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3668GDB.
3669
3670It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3671directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3672times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3673breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3674
ed9a39eb
JM
3675* New native configurations
3676
3677ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3678PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3679
7a292a7a
SS
3680* New targets
3681
96baa820 3682Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3683x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3684PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3685TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3686
085dd6e6
JM
3687* OBSOLETE configurations
3688
3689Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3690Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3691Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3692ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3693Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3694
9debab2f
AC
3695Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3696but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3697these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3698be permanently REMOVED.
3699
5330533d
SS
3700* Gould support removed
3701
3702Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3703
bc9e5bbf
AC
3704* New features for SVR4
3705
3706On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3707without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3708load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3709
3710* Many C++ enhancements
3711
3712C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3713in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3714
adf40b2e
JM
3715* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3716
3717A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3718sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3719with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3720``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3721
3722 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3723 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3724
43e526b9
JM
3725* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3726
3727A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3728expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3729instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3730
3731The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3732added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3733
96baa820
JM
3734* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3735
3736The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3737``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3738include ``set remote P-packet''.
3739
11cf8741
JM
3740* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3741
3742The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3743accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3744``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3745
7876dd43
DB
3746* ``apropos'' command added.
3747
3748The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3749documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3750try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3751
bc9e5bbf
AC
3752* New MI interface
3753
3754A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3755interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3756process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3757"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3758enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3759
3760 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3761
c906108c
SS
3762*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3763
3764* New native configurations
3765
3766HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3767HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3768M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3769
3770* New targets
3771
3772Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3773Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3774Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3775
3776* OBSOLETE configurations
3777
3778Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3779
3780Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3781but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3782these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3783be permanently REMOVED.
3784
3785* ANSI/ISO C
3786
3787As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3788buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3789containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3790use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3791available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3792configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3793information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3794already.
3795
3796* Readline 2.2
3797
3798GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3799
3800* set extension-language
3801
3802You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3803languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3804you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3805 set extension-language .c c++
3806The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3807and their associated languages.
3808
3809* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3810
3811When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3812you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3813PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3814
3815 set processor NAME
3816
3817sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3818following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3819
3820 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3821 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3822 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3823 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3824 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3825 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3826 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3827 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3828 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3829 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3830 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3831
3832At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3833special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3834registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3835only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3836
3837* HP-UX support
3838
3839Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3840more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3841library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3842support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3843for xdb and dbx commands.
3844
3845* Catchpoints
3846
3847HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3848generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3849to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3850
3851This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3852argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3853output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3854
3855* Debugging across forks
3856
3857On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3858in the inferior.
3859
3860* TUI
3861
3862HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3863it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3864configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3865
3866* GDB remote protocol additions
3867
3868A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3869Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3870fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3871allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3872
3873For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3874full 64-bit address. The command
3875
3876 set remoteaddresssize 32
3877
3878can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3879the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3880will be discarded.
3881
3882In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3883command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3884
3885 maint packet heythere
3886
3887sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3888disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3889time.
3890
3891The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3892target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3893downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3894
3895* Tracing can collect general expressions
3896
3897You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3898further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3899doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3900
3901* mask-address variable for Mips
3902
3903For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3904a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3905of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3906
3907* Higher serial baud rates
3908
3909GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3910230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3911to achieve all of these rates.)
3912
3913* i960 simulator
3914
3915The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3916builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3917
3918
3919*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3920
3921* New native configurations
3922
3923Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3924Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3925Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3926PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3927PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3928Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3929Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3930
3931* New targets
3932
3933Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3934Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3935Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3936Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3937MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3938MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3939MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3940Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3941Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3942Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3943NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3944
3945* New debugging protocols
3946
3947ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3948M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3949DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3950PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3951PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3952Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3953
3954* DWARF 2
3955
3956All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3957format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3958information.
3959
3960* Java frontend
3961
3962GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3963only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3964
3965* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3966
3967For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3968loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3969locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3970
3971* Live range splitting
3972
3973GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3974range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3975more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3976
3977* Hurd support
3978
3979GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3980updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3981
3982* ARM Thumb support
3983
3984GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3985instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3986instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3987accordingly.
3988
3989* MIPS16 support
3990
3991GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3992instruction set.
3993
3994* Overlay support
3995
3996GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3997linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3998will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3999control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4000additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4001in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4002
4003* info symbol
4004
4005The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4006the symbol at the specified address.
4007
4008* Trace support
4009
4010The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4011asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4012extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4013includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4014file tracepoint.c for more details.
4015
4016* MIPS simulator
4017
4018Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4019by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4020of most MIPS variants.
4021
4022* Sparc simulator
4023
4024Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4025by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4026Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4027
4028* set architecture
4029
4030For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4031basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4032architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4033the possible architectures.
4034
4035*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4036
4037* New native configurations
4038
4039Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4040M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4041PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4042PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4043PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4044RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4045
4046* New targets
4047
4048ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4049I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4050MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4051MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4052PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4053Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4054Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4055
4056* PowerPC simulator
4057
4058The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4059contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4060PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4061basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4062performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4063
4064* Solaris 2.5
4065
4066GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4067
4068* Windows 95/NT native
4069
4070GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4071To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4072which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4073Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4074ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4075
4076* dont-repeat command
4077
4078If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4079command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4080useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4081extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4082
4083* Send break instead of ^C
4084
4085The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4086rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4087GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4088
4089* Remote protocol timeout
4090
4091The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4092that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4093to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4094
4095* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4096
4097By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4098loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4099stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4100when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4101in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4102
4103Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4104/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4105automatically on hpux10.
4106
4107* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4108
4109Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4110
4111* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4112
4113When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4114may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4115the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4116every character. The default value is 1050.
4117
4118* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4119
4120If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4121a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4122replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4123details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4124remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4125to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4126
4127* Speedups for remote debugging
4128
4129GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4130the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4131and more efficient S-record downloading.
4132
4133* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4134
4135GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4136Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4137
4138*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4139
4140* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4141
4142The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4143can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4144
4145* Remote targets use caching
4146
4147Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4148remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4149it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4150debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4151off' turns the the data cache off.
4152
4153* Remote targets may have threads
4154
4155The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4156in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4157gdb/remote.c for details.
4158
4159* NetROM support
4160
4161If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4162support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4163acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4164write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4165support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4166another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4167sequence is something like
4168
4169 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4170 load <prog>
4171 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4172
4173* Macintosh host
4174
4175GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4176may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4177it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4178available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4179device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4180directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4181scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4182mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4183
4184* Autoconf
4185
4186GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4187but does simplify configuration and building.
4188
4189* hpux10
4190
4191GDB now supports hpux10.
4192
4193*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4194
4195* New native configurations
4196
4197x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4198x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4199NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4200Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4201
4202* New targets
4203
4204A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4205HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4206CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4207PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4208WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4209
4210* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4211
4212GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4213possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4214filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4215the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4216if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4217
4218* Arguments to user-defined commands
4219
4220User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4221Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4222trivial example:
4223define adder
4224 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4225
4226To execute the command use:
4227adder 1 2 3
4228
4229Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4230Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4231use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4232
4233* New `if' and `while' commands
4234
4235This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4236commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4237expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4238execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4239terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4240`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4241if the expression is zero.
4242
4243* Fortran source language mode
4244
4245GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4246Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4247variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4248with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4249Fortran compilers.
4250
4251* Better HPUX support
4252
4253Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4254running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4255processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4256for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4257that behavior do the following before running the program:
4258
4259 adb -w a.out
4260 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4261 control-d
4262
4263This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4264To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4265
4266 adb -w a.out
4267 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4268 control-d
4269
4270You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4271the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4272external linkage.
4273
4274GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4275HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4276
4277* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4278
4279You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4280commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4281current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4282"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4283associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4284configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4285
4286* New DOS host serial code
4287
4288This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4289no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4290a PC's serial port.
4291
4292*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4293
4294* New "complete" command
4295
4296This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4297were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4298
4299* Trailing space optional in prompt
4300
4301"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4302allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4303
4304* Breakpoint hit counts
4305
4306"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4307has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4308can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4309to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4310less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4311that breakpoint.
4312
4313* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4314
4315"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4316an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4317arrays actually contain only short strings.
4318
4319* Shared library breakpoints
4320
4321In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4322breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4323
4324* Hardware watchpoints
4325
4326There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4327targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4328
55241689 4329Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4330
4331* Annotations
4332
4333Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4334and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4335
4336* Improved Irix 5 support
4337
4338GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4339
4340* Improved HPPA support
4341
4342GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4343
4344* New native configurations
4345
4346Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4347HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4348Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4349RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4350
4351* New targets
4352
4353OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4354MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4355Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4356
4357* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4358
4359There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4360This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4361
4362* Fixes
4363
4364As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4365and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4366
4367*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4368
4369* Irix 5 is now supported
4370
4371* HPPA support
4372
4373GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4374to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4375GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4376of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4377can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4378
4379
4380*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4381
4382* User visible changes:
4383
4384* Remote Debugging
4385
4386The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4387target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4388debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4389integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4390debugging info for the mips target).
4391
4392* DEC Alpha native support
4393
4394GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4395debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4396work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4397Alpha-specific notes.
4398
4399* Preliminary thread implementation
4400
4401GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4402
4403* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4404
4405This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4406to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4407for details).
4408
4409* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4410
4411This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4412mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4413call methods, ...etc.
4414
4415*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4416
4417 * User visible changes:
4418
4419Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4420supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4421other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4422somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4423
4424Filename completion now works.
4425
4426When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4427arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4428addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4429
4430All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4431vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4432should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4433your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4434to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4435
4436 * DEC alpha support
4437
4438This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4439cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4440
4441
4442*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4443
4444 * Testsuite
4445
4446This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4447The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4448via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4449
4450 * C++ demangling
4451
4452'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4453emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4454Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4455disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4456use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4457
4458 * Simulators
4459
4460GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4461So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4462Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4463
4464 * New targets supported
4465
4466H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4467H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4468SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4469Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4470IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4471
4472Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4473version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4474GO32 memory extender.
4475
4476 * New remote protocols
4477
4478MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4479
4480 * New source languages supported
4481
4482This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4483used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4484into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4485
4486
4487*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4488
4489 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4490
4491GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4492version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4493University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4494compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4495format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4496(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4497
4498Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4499
4500 * Faster and better demangling
4501
4502We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4503demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4504character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4505only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4506This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4507increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4508symbol lookups.
4509
4510`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4511from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4512compiler does not actually implement.
4513
4514 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4515
4516In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4517inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4518recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4519very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4520The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4521circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4522fix.
4523
4524The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4525release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4526
4527 * Improved configure script
4528
4529The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4530you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4531host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4532done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4533
4534We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4535version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4536`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4537The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4538only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4539We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4540
4541 * Documentation improvements
4542
4543There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4544produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4545before submitting changes.
4546
4547The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4548M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4549`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4550you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4551a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4552
4553*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4554We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4555been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4556or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4557`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4558around this problem.
4559
4560 * New features
4561
4562GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4563the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4564`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4565the target program.
4566
4567The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4568how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4569
4570 * New native hosts supported
4571
4572HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4573386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4574
4575 * New targets supported
4576
4577AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4578
4579 * New file formats supported
4580
4581BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4582HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4583
4584 * Major bug fixes
4585
4586Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4587
4588We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4589printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4590
4591We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4592for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4593release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4594
4595You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4596will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4597
4598We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4599for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4600especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4601libraries.
4602
4603The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4604information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4605command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4606any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4607when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4608
4609 * Internal improvements
4610
4611GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4612debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4613
4614GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4615Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4616symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4617contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4618shared code that handles any of them.
4619
4620 * New command line options
4621
4622We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4623
4624 * Mmalloc licensing
4625
4626The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4627General Public License.
4628
4629*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4630
4631 * Host/native/target split
4632
4633GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4634hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4635target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4636local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4637ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4638
4639The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4640GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4641is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4642code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4643any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4644built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4645handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4646
4647GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4648It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4649plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4650
4651 * New hosts supported
4652
4653HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4654386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4655386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4656
4657 * New targets supported
4658
4659Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
466068030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4661
4662 * New native hosts supported
4663
4664386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4665 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4666386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4667
4668 * New file formats supported
4669
4670BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4671supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4672format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4673
4674 * New commands
4675
4676`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4677`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4678These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4679
4680`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4681
4682You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4683scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4684prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4685executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4686
4687 * C++ improvements
4688
4689We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4690info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4691symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4692
4693Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4694
4695 * Major bug fixes
4696
4697The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4698fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4699by the compiler.
4700
4701We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4702support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4703
4704John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4705slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4706that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4707purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4708the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4709mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4710
4711Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4712about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4713completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4714we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4715
4716 * AMD 29k support
4717
4718A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4719specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4720calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4721usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4722in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4723
4724We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4725Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4726of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4727resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4728
4729 * Remote interfaces
4730
4731We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4732with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4733message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4734This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4735needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4736breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4737each instruction being stepped through.
4738
4739The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4740registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4741
4742There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4743find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4744Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4745processor with a serial port.
4746
4747 * Configuration
4748
4749Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4750`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4751supported, and what files each one uses.
4752
4753 * Library changes
4754
4755There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4756disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4757Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4758disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4759
4760The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4761Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4762can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4763grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4764
4765 * Documentation
4766
4767The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4768reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4769as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4770encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4771system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4772bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4773
4774And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4775
4776
4777*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4778
4779 * Better support for C++ function names
4780
4781GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4782names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4783(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4784single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4785Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4786
4787GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4788the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4789You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4790lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4791for the list of formats.
4792
4793 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4794
4795Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4796C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4797directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4798can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4799usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4800about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4801this problem.)
4802
4803 * New 'maintenance' command
4804
4805All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4806the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4807can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4808
4809 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4810 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4811 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4812 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4813 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4814 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4815
4816The following commands are new:
4817
4818 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4819 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4820 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4821
4822 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4823
4824We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4825(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4826be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4827read after argv processing.
4828
4829 * New hosts supported
4830
4831Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4832
55241689 4833GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4834
4835We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4836is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4837for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4838masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4839fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4840It costs extra.
4841
4842 * New targets supported
4843
4844Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4845
4846 * More smarts about finding #include files
4847
4848GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4849all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4850greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4851especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4852the one that contains your sources.
4853
4854We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4855breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4856try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4857
4858 * Interesting infernals change
4859
4860GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4861section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4862target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4863stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4864
4865 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4866
4867There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4868 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4869 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4870
4871See the ChangeLog for details.
4872
4873*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4874
4875 * New machines supported (host and target)
4876
4877IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4878
4879SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4880
4881 * New malloc package
4882
4883GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4884Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4885capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4886This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4887pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4888more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4889
4890 * info proc
4891
4892The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4893'help info proc' for details.
4894
4895 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4896
4897The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4898Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4899possible.
4900
4901 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4902
4903Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4904support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4905conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4906environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4907that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4908in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4909
4910 * Cross byte order fixes
4911
4912Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4913targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4914
4915 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4916
4917If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4918system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4919`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4920program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4921called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4922Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4923and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4924the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4925option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4926starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4927
4928You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4929the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4930information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4931slower, but makes future operations faster.
4932
4933The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4934build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4935A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4936use is:
4937
4938 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4939
4940The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4941It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4942shared across multiple host platforms.
4943
4944 * longjmp() handling
4945
4946GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4947siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4948all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4949platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4950
4951 * Solaris 2.0
4952
4953Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4954this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4955reading symbols.
4956
4957 * Bug fixes
4958
4959As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4960People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4961crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4962
4963*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4964
4965 * New machines supported (host and target)
4966
4967SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4968 (except core files)
4969BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4970Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4971
4972 * New machines supported (target)
4973
4974AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4975
4976 * C++ support
4977
4978GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4979The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4980per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4981
4982GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4983`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4984extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4985good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4986will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4987released.
4988
4989 * New features for SVR4
4990
4991GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4992shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4993only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4994
4995The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4996on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4997it prints the address mappings of the process.
4998
4999If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5000bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5001
5002 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5003
5004Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5005now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5006skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5007make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5008same code linked statically.
5009
5010 * New Getopt
5011
5012GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5013version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5014continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5015Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5016added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5017future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5018
5019 * Bugs fixed
5020
5021The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5022Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5023See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5024
5025
5026*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5027
5028 * New machines supported (host and target)
5029
5030Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5031NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5032Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5033
5034 * Almost SCO Unix support
5035
5036We had hoped to support:
5037SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5038(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5039that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5040about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5041
5042 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5043
5044GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5045debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5046is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5047send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5048reqired (if any).
5049
5050 * New Readline
5051
5052GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5053is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5054required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5055
5056 * Bugs fixed
5057
5058The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5059Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5060See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5061
5062 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5063
5064GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5065supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5066symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5067
5068Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5069mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5070debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5071mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5072version 2.
5073
5074Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5075really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5076line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5077variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5078situation somewhat.
5079
5080When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5081However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5082methods.
5083
5084We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5085DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5086encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5087
5088
5089*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5090
5091 * Improved configuration
5092
5093Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5094Porting BFD is simpler.
5095
5096 * Stepping improved
5097
5098The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5099of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5100in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5101function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5102
5103 * Bug fixing
5104
5105Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5106
5107 * New host supported (not target)
5108
5109Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5110
5111
5112*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5113
5114 * Multiple source language support
5115
5116GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5117It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5118and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5119language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5120You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5121`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5122
5123 * GDB and Modula-2
5124
5125GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5126currently under development at the State University of New York at
5127Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5128continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5129
5130Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5131debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5132symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5133
5134There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5135in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5136
5137 * set write on/off
5138
5139GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5140a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5141the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5142by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5143effect immediately.
5144
5145 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5146
5147When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5148shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5149The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5150examining core files.
5151
5152 * set listsize
5153
5154You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5155The default is 10.
5156
5157 * New machines supported (host and target)
5158
5159SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5160Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5161Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5162
5163 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5164
5165IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5166
5167 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5168
5169AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5170AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5171Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5172
5173 * New remote interfaces
5174
5175AMD 29000 Adapt
5176AMD 29000 Minimon
5177
5178
5179*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5180
5181 * New Facilities
5182
5183Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5184
5185Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5186target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5187is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5188remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5189remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5190also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5191using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5192stub on the target system.
5193
5194New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5195
5196GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5197library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5198object file types such as a.out and coff.
5199
5200There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5201refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5202
5203
5204 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5205
5206All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5207by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5208
5209For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5210``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5211Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5212
5213What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5214print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5215will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5216all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5217
5218confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5219 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5220 it is already running. Default is ON.
5221
5222editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5223 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5224 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5225 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5226 Default is ON.
5227
5228history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5229 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5230 or the value of the environment variable
5231 GDBHISTFILE.
5232
5233history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5234 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5235 HISTSIZE.
5236
5237history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5238 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5239 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5240
5241history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5242 history expansion will be performed on
5243 command line input. The default is OFF.
5244
5245radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5246 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5247 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5248
5249height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5250 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5251 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5252 variable TERM.
5253
5254width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5255 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5256 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5257 variable TERM.
5258
5259Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5260``set width'' instead.
5261
5262print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5263 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5264 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5265 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5266
5267print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5268 is OFF.
5269
5270print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5271 "raw" form if off.
5272
5273print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5274 like instructions.
5275
5276print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5277
5278
5279 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5280
5281The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5282new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5283are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5284window.
5285
5286
5287 * Support for Shared Libraries
5288
5289GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5290Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5291before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5292happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5293At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5294from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5295shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5296It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5297
5298sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5299 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5300 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5301
5302info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5303
5304
5305 * Watchpoints
5306
5307A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5308expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5309tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5310quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5311problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5312more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5313
5314watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5315
5316info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5317
5318delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5319disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5320enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5321
5322
5323 * C++ multiple inheritance
5324
5325When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5326for C++ programs.
5327
5328 * C++ exception handling
5329
5330Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5331ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5332the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5333handler's context).
5334
5335catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5336 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5337 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5338
5339info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5340 current stack frame.
5341
5342
5343 * Minor command changes
5344
5345The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5346command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5347is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5348
5349The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5350at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5351frames without printing.
5352
5353 * New directory command
5354
5355'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5356The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5357about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5358with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5359find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5360
5361 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5362
5363For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5364for more details.
5365
5366GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5367two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5368Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5369where the program that you are debugging will run.
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