* remote-m32r-sdi.c (m32r_load): Call skip_spaces on correct
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
CommitLineData
c906108c
SS
1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
80c8d323
JB
4*** Changes since GDB 7.5
5
543bf33d
AT
6* New native configurations
7
51d66578 8ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d
AT
9FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
10
249729c4
JB
11* New targets
12
51d66578
MS
13ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
14ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 15Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 16x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
249729c4 17
e64e0392
DE
18* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
19 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
20 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
21 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
22 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
23 --data-directory command-line option.
24
07540c15
DE
25* New command line options:
26
27-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
28 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
29
e93a8774
TT
30* Removed command line options
31
32-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
33 Emacs.
34
53342f27
TT
35* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
36 type formatting.
37
451b7c33
TT
38* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
39
a72c3253
DE
40* Python scripting
41
42 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
43
d7de8e3c
TT
44 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
45
18a9fc12
TT
46 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
47
9a27f2c6
PK
48 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
49
bea883fd
SCR
50 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
51 of architecture in the Python API.
52
53 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
54 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
55
a72c3253
DE
56* New Python-based convenience functions:
57
58 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
59 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
60 ** $_strlen(str)
61 ** $_regex(str, regex)
62
f3c8a52a
JK
63* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
64 given an argument.
65
1605ef26
TT
66* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
67 default for GCC since November 2000.
68
504b36fd
YQ
69* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
70
f2a8bc8a
YQ
71* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
72 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
73
23a80689
JB
74* New configure options
75
76--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
77 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
78 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
79 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
80 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
81 options allow the user to override that default.
82
d6b28940
TT
83* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
84
ab04a2af
TT
85catch signal
86 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
87 conditions to be attached.
88
d6b28940
TT
89maint info bfds
90 List the BFDs known to GDB.
91
8315665e
YPK
92python-interactive [command]
93pi [command]
94 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
95 and print the result of expressions.
96
97py [command]
98 "py" is a new alias for "python".
99
18a9fc12
TT
100enable type-printer [name]...
101disable type-printer [name]...
102 Enable or disable type printers.
103
c9b6281a
YQ
104set debug notification
105show debug notification
106 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
107
aa9259cc
TS
108* Removed commands
109
110 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
111 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
112 instead.
113
53342f27
TT
114* New options
115
116set print type methods (on|off)
117show print type methods
118 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
119 The default is to show them.
120
121set print type typedefs (on|off)
122show print type typedefs
123 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
124 The default is to show them.
125
1b56eb55
JK
126set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
127show filename-display
128 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
129 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
130
5b9afe8a
YQ
131* MI changes
132
133 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
134 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
135 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
136 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
137 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
138 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
139 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
140 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
141 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
142 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
143 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d
AB
144 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
145 containing the absolute file name when GDB can determine it and source
146 has been requested.
62747a60
TT
147 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
148 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
149 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
150 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
151 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
152 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
153 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
154 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
155 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
156 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
5b9afe8a 157
608e2dbb
TT
158* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
159 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
160 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
161 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
162
80c8d323 163*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 164
1b3371b1
L
165* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
166 for more x32 ABI info.
167
d0e64392
MR
168* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
169
4cc0665f
MR
170* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
171
85d4a676
SS
172* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
173 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
174 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
175 "info os files" lists file descriptors
176 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
177 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
178 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
179 "info os msg" lists message queues
180 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
181
55aa24fb
SDJ
182* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
183 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
184 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
185 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
186 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
187 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
188
72508ac0
PO
189* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
190 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
191 record/replay support.
192
16899756
DE
193* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
194
4795f398
DE
195* Python scripting
196
7d74f244
DE
197 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
198 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
199
4795f398
DE
200 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
201
50897289
TT
202 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
203 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
204
64e7d9dd
TT
205 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
206
207 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
208 the source at which the symbol was defined.
209
f0823d2c
TT
210 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
211 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
212 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
213 symbol's value.
214
7b282c5a
SCR
215 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
216 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
217
a20ee7a4
SCR
218 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
219 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
220 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
221
7efc75aa
SCR
222 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
223 object associated with a PC value.
224
ee0bf529
SCR
225 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
226 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
227
a766d390
DE
228* Go language support.
229 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
230 language.
231
e0f9f062
DE
232* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
233 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
234
217bff3e
JK
235* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
236 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
237
cafec441
TT
238* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
239 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
240 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
241 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
242 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
243 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
244
4aac40c8
TT
245* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
246 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
247 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
248 build/libcpp/expr.c.
249
d99bd577
UW
250* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
251 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
252
53fe1783
GB
253* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
254 since December 2007.
255
e41eec66
JB
256* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
257 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
258 command does. For instance:
259
260 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
261
262 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
263 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
264 created, using the "condition" command.
265
5808517f
YQ
266* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
267 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
268
481860b3
GB
269* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
270
271* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
272 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
273 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
e615022a
DE
274 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
275 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
276 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
277 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
278 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 279
156942c7
DE
280 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
281 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
282 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
283 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
284 the .gdb_index section.
285
927fbba6
JB
286* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
287
20388dd6
YQ
288* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
289 target.
290
f3e0e960
SS
291* MI changes
292
293 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
294
37ce89eb
SS
295 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
296
edcc5120
TT
297* New commands
298
e615022a
DE
299 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
300 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
301 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
302
edcc5120
TT
303 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
304 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
305
816338b5
SS
306 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
307 several hits.
308
57651221 309 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
310 C++ and Java objects.
311
06fc020f
SCR
312 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
313 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
314 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
315 configured with '--with-python'.
316
bf88dd68
JK
317 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
318 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
319 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
320 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
321 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
322 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
323 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
324
325 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
326 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
327 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
328 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
329
e7e0cddf
SS
330 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
331 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
332 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
333 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
334
9cb709b6
TT
335 ** "set print symbol"
336 "show print symbol"
337 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
338 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
339 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
340
2d4c29c5
TS
341* Deprecated commands
342
343 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
344 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
345
a58b110a
KB
346* New targets
347
348Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 349HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 350
72895ff6
LM
351* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
352 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
353 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
354 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
355 evaluates to true.
356
357* New options
358
4cc0665f
MR
359set mips compression
360show mips compression
361 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
362 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
363 mips16
364 micromips
365 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
366
72895ff6
LM
367set breakpoint condition-evaluation
368show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 369 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
370 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
371 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
372 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
373 target.
374
bf88dd68
JK
375set auto-load off
376 Disable auto-loading globally.
377
378show auto-load
379 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
380
381set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
382show auto-load gdb-scripts
383 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
384
385set auto-load python-scripts on|off
386show auto-load python-scripts
387 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
388
389set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
390show auto-load local-gdbinit
391 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
392
393set auto-load libthread-db on|off
394show auto-load libthread-db
395 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
396
7349ff92 397set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 398show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
399 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
400 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
401 of the directories listed by this option.
402 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
403
bccbefd2
JK
404set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
405show auto-load safe-path
406 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
407 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
408
4dc84fd1
JK
409set debug auto-load on|off
410show debug auto-load
411 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
412
d3ce09f5 413set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 414show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
415 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
416 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
417 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
418 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
419
420set dprintf-function <expr>
421show dprintf-function
422set dprintf-channel <expr>
423show dprintf-channel
424 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
425 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
426
d3ce09f5
SS
427set disconnected-dprintf on|off
428show disconnected-dprintf
429 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
430 after GDB disconnects.
431
6dea1fbd
JK
432* New configure options
433
7349ff92
JK
434--with-auto-load-dir
435 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
436 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
437 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
438 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
439 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 440
6dea1fbd
JK
441--with-auto-load-safe-path
442 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 443 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
444
445--without-auto-load-safe-path
446 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
447 security feature.
448
72895ff6
LM
449* New remote packets
450
74c48cbb
PA
451z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
452
72895ff6
LM
453 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
454 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
455 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
456 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
457
9b224c5e
PA
458QProgramSignals:
459
460 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
461 program without GDB involvement.
462
8320cc4f
JK
463* New command line options
464
465--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
466 before loading inferior.
467--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
468 execute it before loading inferior.
469
8837a20f
JB
470*** Changes in GDB 7.4
471
f8eba3c6
TT
472* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
473 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
474 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
475 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
476 inferior changes.
477
1bfeeb0f
JL
478* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
479 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
480
480a3f21
PW
481* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
482 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
483 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
484 target hardware watchpoint.
485
486 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
487 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
488 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
489 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
490
3a7bf607
PM
491* Python scripting
492
32d1c362 493 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 494 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
495 existing one.
496
3a7bf607 497 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
498 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
499 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
500 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
501 now "message", which just prints the error message without
502 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 503
baacfb07 504 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 505 Python API.
713389e0 506
fa3a4f15
PM
507 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
508 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 509 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
510 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
511 corresponding value.
512
5e239b84
PM
513 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
514 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
515 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
516 on GDB start-up.
517
9df2fbc4
PM
518 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
519 static_block will return the global and static blocks
520 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
521 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
522
457e09f0
DE
523 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
524
6839b47f
KP
525 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
526 "gdb.breakpoints".
527
cc72b2a2
KP
528 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
529 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
530 available in the CLI.
531
84ad80e6
PK
532 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
533 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
534 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
535 "some_type.items()".
536
20c168b5
KP
537 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
538 new object file.
539
03c3051a
PK
540 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
541 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
542 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
543 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
544 any anonymous fields.
545
7376e450
TT
546* MI changes
547
548 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
549 "solib-event".
550
551 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
552 "=breakpoint-modified".
553
554 ** New command -ada-task-info.
555
98a5dd13
DE
556* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
557 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
558 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
559 lives.
560
561 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
562 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
563 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
564 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
565 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
566
567 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
568 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
569
478aac75
DE
570* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
571 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
572 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
573 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
574 use this option to specify where to find it.
575
9c06b0b4
TJB
576* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
577 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
578 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
579 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
580 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
581 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
582 section in the user manual for more details.
583
03f2bd59
JK
584* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
585 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
586 become available after that.
587
71eba9c2 588* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 589
2bda9cc5
JK
590* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
591 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
592 gcc version 4.7.
593
ed59ded5
DE
594* New commands
595
596!SHELL COMMAND
597 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
598 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
599
9c06b0b4
TJB
600* Changed commands
601
602watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
603 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
604 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
605
dbaefcf7
DE
606info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
607 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
608 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
609
71eba9c2 610info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
611 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
612 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
613 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
614 name starts with a hyphen.
615
3065dfb6
SS
616collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
617 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
618 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
619 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
620 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
621 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
622 number of bytes that will be collected.
623
f196051f
SS
624tstart [NOTES]
625 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
626 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
627 setting the variable trace-notes.
628
629tstop [NOTES]
630 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
631 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
632 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
633 trace-stop-notes.
634
d248b706
KY
635* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
636 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
637 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
638 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
639 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
640 is running.
641
405f8e94
SS
642* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
643 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
644 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
645
2bda9cc5
JK
646* New options
647
45cfd468
DE
648set debug dwarf2-read
649show debug dwarf2-read
650 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
651 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
652
653set debug symtab-create
654show debug symtab-create
655 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
656 creation. The default is off.
657
baacfb07
PM
658set extended-prompt
659show extended-prompt
660 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
661 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
662 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
663 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
664 prompt is displayed.
665
2bda9cc5
JK
666set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
667show print entry-values
668 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
669 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
670 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
671
672set debug entry-values
673show debug entry-values
674 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
675 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
676
c011a4f4
DE
677set basenames-may-differ
678show basenames-may-differ
679 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
680 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
681 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
682 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
683 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
684 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
685 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
686 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
687
f196051f
SS
688set trace-user
689show trace-user
690set trace-notes
691show trace-notes
692 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
693 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
694 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
695 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
696
697set trace-stop-notes
698show trace-stop-notes
699 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
700 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
701 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
702 started by someone else.
703
d248b706
KY
704* New remote packets
705
706QTEnable
707
708 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
709
710QTDisable
711
712 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
713
f196051f
SS
714QTNotes
715
716 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
717
718qTP
719
720 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
721
405f8e94
SS
722qTMinFTPILen
723
724 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
725 be placed.
726
1a532630
PP
727* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
728 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
729
11315641
YQ
730* New targets
731
732Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
733
87326c78
DD
734* New Simulators
735
736Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
737
e8d56f18
JB
738*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
739
740* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
741
d6e00af6 742*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 743
60f98dde
MS
744* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
745 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
746 matches the given regular expression.
747
eee5b35e
DD
748* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
749
b716877b
AB
750* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
751 dumping the instruction opcodes.
752
aae1c79a
DE
753* New command line options
754
755-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
756 This is mostly for testing purposes.
757
a86caf66
DE
758* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
759 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
760
99e7ae30
DE
761* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
762 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
763 source path list instead of augmenting it.
764
4694da01
TT
765* GDB now understands thread names.
766
767 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
768 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
769
770 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
771 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
772
f4b8a18d
KW
773* OpenCL C
774 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
775 has been integrated into GDB.
776
585d1eb8
PM
777* Python scripting
778
da5d4055
PM
779 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
780 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
781 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
782
9a6f1302
PM
783 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
784 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
785 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
786 and allows for more dynamic content.
787
29703da4
PM
788 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
789 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
790 have an is_valid method.
791
350c6c65
PM
792 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
793 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
794 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
795
6e6fbe60
DE
796 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
797
585d1eb8
PM
798 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
799 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
800 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
801 that function like so:
802
803 result = some_value (10,20)
804
0e3509db
DE
805 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
806 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
807 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
808
7b51bc51
DE
809 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
810 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
811 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
812 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
813 New function: register_pretty_printer.
814
815 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
816 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
817
99e7ae30
DE
818 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
819
d8e22779
TT
820 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
821 selected thread.
822
4694da01
TT
823 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
824 holds the thread's name.
825
505500db
SW
826 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
827 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 828 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
829 The following events are currently supported:
830 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
831 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
832 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
833
def98928
TT
834* C++ Improvements:
835
836 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
837 instantiation. For example, if you have:
838
839 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
840
841 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
842 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
843 was added to GCC 4.5.
844
66cb8159
TT
845 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
846 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
847 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
848 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
849 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
850 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
851
4aac0db7
UW
852* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
853 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
854 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
855 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
856 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
857
283e6a52
TT
858* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
859 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
860 execution to a label.
861
862* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
863 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
864 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
865 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
866
b56df873 867* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 868 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
869 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
870 of scope.
871
ae53ffa4
PA
872* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
873
874 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
875 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
876 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
877 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
878 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
879 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
880
881 (gdb) info threads
882 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
883
884 While now you see this:
885
886 (gdb) info threads
887 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
888
889 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
890 dumps.
891
892 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
893 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
894 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
895 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
896
f1310107
TJB
897* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
898 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
899 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
900 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
901 section in the user manual for more details.
902
248c9dbc
JB
903* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
904
1aee7009
JB
905 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
906 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 907
eb826dc6
MF
908 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
909
44603653
JB
910* New native configurations
911
912ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
913
91021223
MF
914* New targets:
915
916Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
917
6e1bb179
JB
918* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
919 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
920 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
921 in the GDB user manual.
922
50c97f38
TT
923* Guile support was removed.
924
448a92bf
MF
925* New features in the GNU simulator
926
927 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
928
66ee2731
MF
929 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
930
76b8507d 931*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 932
ba25b921
PA
933* Shared library support for remote targets by default
934
935 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
936 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
937 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
938 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
939 was always disabled for such configurations.
940
4656f5c6
SW
941* C++ Improvements:
942
943 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
944
945 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
946 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
947 For example:
948 namespace A
949 {
950 class B { };
951 void foo (B) { }
952 }
953 ...
954 A::B b
955 foo(b)
956 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
957 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
958 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
959
960 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
961
962 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
963 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
964 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
965 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
966 entry.
967 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
968 mentioned flavors of operators.
969
254e6b9e
DE
970 ** static const class members
971
972 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
973 class definition has been fixed.
974
711e434b
PM
975* Windows Thread Information Block access.
976
977 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
978 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
979 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
980 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
981 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
982 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
983
0fb4aa4b
PA
984* Static tracepoints
985
986 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
987 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
988 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
989 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
990 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
991 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
992 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
993 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
994 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
995 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
996 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
997 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
998 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
999 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1000 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1001 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1002 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1003 the "New remote packets" section below.
1004
ca11e899
SS
1005* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1006
1007 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1008 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1009 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1010 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1011
1012* Observer mode
1013
1014 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1015 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1016 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1017 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1018 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1019 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1020 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1021
1022* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1023 current thread.
1024
711e434b
PM
1025* New remote packets
1026
1027qGetTIBAddr
1028
1029 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1030
dde08ee1
PA
1031qRelocInsn
1032
1033 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1034 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1035 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1036 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1037 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1038 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1039
0fb4aa4b
PA
1040qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1041
1042 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1043
1044qTSTMat
1045
1046 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1047 program.
1048
1049qXfer:statictrace:read
1050
1051 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1052 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1053 to gdb's qSupported query.
1054
ca11e899
SS
1055QAllow
1056
1057 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1058
1059QTDPsrc
1060
1061 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1062 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1063
3f7b2faa
DE
1064* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1065 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1066 a directory.
1067
d337e9f0
PA
1068* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1069
0fb4aa4b
PA
1070 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1071 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1072 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1073 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1074
1075 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1076 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1077 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1078 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1079 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1080 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1081 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1082
1083 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1084 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1085
c24d0242
PM
1086 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1087
c8d5aac9
L
1088* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1089 it understands register description.
1090
7c953934
TT
1091* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1092
8685c86f
L
1093* X86 general purpose registers
1094
1095 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1096 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1097 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1098 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1099 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1100
95a42b64 1101* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1102 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1103 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1104 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1105 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1106 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1107
8bd10a10
CM
1108* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1109 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1110 in the specified file.
1111
ab38a727
PA
1112* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1113 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1114 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1115 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1116 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1117 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1118 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1119 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1120 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1121 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1122
6149aea9
PA
1123* New commands
1124
f1421989
HZ
1125eval template, expressions...
1126 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1127 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1128
ab38a727
PA
1129set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1130show target-file-system-kind
1131 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1132 names.
1133
6149aea9
PA
1134save breakpoints <filename>
1135 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1136 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1137 definitions, use the `source' command.
1138
1139`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1140is now deprecated.
1141
0fb4aa4b
PA
1142info static-tracepoint-markers
1143 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1144
1145strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1146 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1147 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1148
ca11e899
SS
1149set observer on|off
1150show observer
1151 Enable and disable observer mode.
1152
1153set may-write-registers on|off
1154set may-write-memory on|off
1155set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1156set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1157set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1158set may-interrupt on|off
1159 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1160 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1161 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1162 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1163 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1164 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1165 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1166
1167set record memory-query on|off
1168show record memory-query
1169 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1170 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1171
53a71c06
CR
1172* Changed commands
1173
1174disassemble
1175 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1176
f3e9a817
PM
1177* Python scripting
1178
9279c692
JB
1179** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1180 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1181 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1182 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1183 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1184
adc36818 1185** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1186 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1187 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1188 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1189
fa33c3cd 1190** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1191 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1192
1193** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1194
1195** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1196
967cf477
DE
1197** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1198
8a1ea21f
DE
1199** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1200 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1201 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1202
a7bdde9e
VP
1203* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1204there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1205tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1206regular breakpoints.
1207
05071a4d
PA
1208* New targets
1209
1210ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1211
6aecb9c2
JB
1212* D language support.
1213 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1214 language.
1215
431e49aa
TJB
1216* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1217 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1218 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1219 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1220 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1221
1222* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1223 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1224 conditions of the form:
1225
1226 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1227
1228 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1229 interface mentioned above.
1230
bfbf3774 1231*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1232
4eef138c
TT
1233* C++ Improvements
1234
1235 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1236
1237 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1238 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1239 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1240 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1241 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1242
4eef138c
TT
1243 ** Bug Fixes
1244
1245 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1246 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1247 qualified name.
1248
1249 ** Cast Operators
1250
1251 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1252 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1253
2d1c1221
ME
1254* New targets
1255
1256Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1257Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1258
1259* New Simulators
1260
1261Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1262Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1263
6c95b8df
PA
1264* Multi-program debugging.
1265
1266 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1267 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1268 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1269 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1270 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1271 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1272 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1273 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1274
d5551862
SS
1275* New tracing features
1276
1277 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1278
1279 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1280
1281 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1282 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1283 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1284 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1285 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1286 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1287 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1288 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1289 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1290 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1291
d5551862 1292 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1293
1294 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1295 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1296 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1297 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1298 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1299 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1300 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1301 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1302 the regular trace command.
1303
d5551862
SS
1304 ** Disconnected tracing
1305
1306 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1307 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1308 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1309 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1310 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1311
00bf0b85
SS
1312 ** Trace files
1313
1314 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1315 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1316 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1317 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1318 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1319 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1320 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1321
1322 ** Circular trace buffer
1323
1324 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1325 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1326 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1327 not be available for all target agents.
1328
21a0512e
PP
1329* Changed commands
1330
1331disassemble
1332 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1333 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1334
0fe7935b
DJ
1335info variables
1336 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1337 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1338
fb2e7cb4
JB
1339source
1340 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1341 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1342 support.
1343
1344 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1345 "set script-extension" (see below).
1346
6c95b8df
PA
1347* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1348
399cd161
MS
1349record save [<FILENAME>]
1350 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1351 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1352
1353record restore <FILENAME>
1354 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1355 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1356
6c95b8df
PA
1357add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1358 Add a new inferior.
1359
1360clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1361 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1362 inferior has loaded.
1363
1364remove-inferior ID
1365 Remove an inferior.
1366
1367maint info program-spaces
1368 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1369
9a7071a8
JB
1370set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1371show remote interrupt-sequence
1372 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1373 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1374 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1375 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1376 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1377
1378set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1379show remote interrupt-on-connect
1380 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1381 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1382 Linux kernel.
1383
1384set remotebreak [on | off]
1385show remotebreak
1386Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1387
f61e138d
SS
1388tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1389 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1390
1391info tvariables
1392 List trace state variables and their values.
1393
1394delete tvariable $NAME ...
1395 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1396
6da95a67
SS
1397teval EXPR, ...
1398 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1399 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1400
7a697b8d
SS
1401ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1402 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1403
b0f02ee9
JK
1404* New expression syntax
1405
1406 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1407 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1408
6c95b8df
PA
1409* New options
1410
1411set follow-exec-mode new|same
1412show follow-exec-mode
1413 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1414 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1415 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1416
236f1d4d
SS
1417set default-collect EXPR, ...
1418show default-collect
1419 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1420 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1421 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1422
d5551862
SS
1423set disconnected-tracing
1424show disconnected-tracing
1425 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1426 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1427 upon disconnection.
1428
4daf5ac0
SS
1429set circular-trace-buffer
1430show circular-trace-buffer
1431 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1432 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1433 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1434 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1435
fb2e7cb4
JB
1436set script-extension off|soft|strict
1437show script-extension
1438 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1439 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1440 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1441 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1442 evaluation failed.
1443 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1444
2b71fc8e
JB
1445set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1446show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1447 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1448 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1449 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1450 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1451 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1452 is on.
1453
de2e5182
TT
1454* Python API Improvements
1455
1456 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1457 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1458 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1459
1460 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1461 `is_base_class' attribute.
1462
1463 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1464
1465 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1466 evaluate an expression.
1467
f61e138d
SS
1468* New remote packets
1469
1470QTDV
1471 Define a trace state variable.
1472
1473qTV
1474 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1475
d5551862
SS
1476QTDisconnected
1477 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1478
4daf5ac0
SS
1479QTBuffer:circular
1480 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1481
d5551862
SS
1482qTfP, qTsP
1483 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1484
2d483d34
MS
1485* Bug fixes
1486
1487Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1488
6e0e5977
JB
1489Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1490much more reliable. In particular:
1491 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1492 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1493 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1494 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1495 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1496 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1497 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1498 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1499 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1500 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1501 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1502 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1503 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1504 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1505 non-threaded programs.
1506
93c26624
JK
1507PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1508This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1509libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1510executable program.
1511
abc7453d 1512*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1513
4efc6507
DE
1514* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1515dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1516them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1517for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1518"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1519
782b2b07
SS
1520* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1521breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1522or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1523the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1524for tracepoint actions.
1525
53a71c06
CR
1526* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1527raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1528modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1529
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1530* Process record and replay
1531
1532 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1533 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1534 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1535 execute commands.
1536
64644d9b
MS
1537* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1538step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1539set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1540reverse execution.
1541
b9412953
DD
1542* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1543feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
15442.6.28 or later.
1545
6c7a06a3
TT
1546* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1547target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1548char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1549literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1550U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1551`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1552system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1553the installation instructions for more information.
1554
f1838a98
UW
1555* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1556remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1557with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1558the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1559
55333a84
DE
1560* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1561and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1562
7f6a6314
PM
1563* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1564now complete on file names.
1565
65d12d83
TT
1566* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1567completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1568For instance, consider:
1569
1570 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1571 # struct example variable;
1572 (gdb) p variable.
1573
1574If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1575completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1576
edb3359d
DJ
1577* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1578the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1579
2fae03e8
TT
1580* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1581operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1582macros.
1583
47a3467a 1584* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1585the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1586implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1587
1588* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1589registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1590can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1591and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1592
08388c79
DE
1593* New remote packets
1594
1595qSearch:memory:
1596 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1597
a6f3e723
SL
1598QStartNoAckMode
1599 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1600 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1601 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1602
d7713ae0
EZ
1603vKill
1604 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1605 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1606
07e059b5
VP
1607qXfer:osdata:read
1608 Obtains additional operating system information
1609
47a3467a
PA
1610qXfer:siginfo:read
1611qXfer:siginfo:write
1612 Read or write additional signal information.
1613
060871df
PA
1614* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1615
1616 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1617 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1618 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1619
c055b101 1620* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1621DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1622
1623* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1624and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1625`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1626
31fffb02
CS
1627* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1628with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1629
88d8a8e0
JB
1630* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1631
7f99b190
JB
1632* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1633
ccd213ac
DJ
1634* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1635which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1636
1fddbabb 1637* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1638list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1639
a0ef4274
DJ
1640* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1641conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1642have also been fixed.
1643
bfb8797a 1644* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1645From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1646are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1647
71c25dea
TT
1648* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1649example, given:
1650
1651 template<typename T> class C { };
1652 C<char const *> c;
1653
1654GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1655
1656 ptype C<char const *>
1657 ptype C<char const*>
1658 ptype C<const char *>
1659 ptype C<const char*>
1660
ccd213ac
DJ
1661* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1662
1663 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1664 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1665
7ae0e2a2
UW
1666 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1667 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1668 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1669
a6f3e723
SL
1670 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1671 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1672
da8bd9a3
DJ
1673 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1674 gdbserver.
1675
d70e31dd
DE
1676 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1677 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1678
1679 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1680 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1681 as appropriate.
1682
d57a3c85
TJB
1683* Python scripting
1684
1685 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1686 available is determined at configure time.
1687
d8906c6f
TJB
1688 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1689
aadc346a
JB
1690* Ada tasking support
1691
1692 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1693 been introduced:
1694
1695 info tasks
1696 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1697 info task N
1698 Print detailed information about task number N.
1699 task
1700 Print the task number of the current task.
1701 task N
1702 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1703
adb483fe
DJ
1704* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1705add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1706
2277426b
PA
1707* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1708
1709 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1710 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1711 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1712 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1713 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1714 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1715 below.
1716
08d16641
PA
1717* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1718"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1719information.
1720
e35359c5
UW
1721* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1722to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1723architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1724See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1725more information.
1726
85e747d2
UW
1727* Multi-architecture debugging.
1728
1729 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1730 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1731 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1732 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1733 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1734
1735* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1736use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1737Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1738powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1739--enable-targets configure option.
1740
11ade57a
PA
1741* Non-stop mode debugging.
1742
1743 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1744 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1745 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1746 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1747 section in the user manual for more information.
1748
1749 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1750 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1751 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1752 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1753 extensions on linux targets.
1754
d7713ae0 1755* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1756
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1757catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1758 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1759 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1760 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1761 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1762 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1763 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1764 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1765 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1766
08388c79
DE
1767find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1768 val1 [, val2, ...]
1769 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1770
d57a3c85
TJB
1771maint set python print-stack
1772maint show python print-stack
1773 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1774
1775python [CODE]
1776 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1777
d7713ae0
EZ
1778macro define
1779macro list
1780macro undef
1781 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1782 interactively.
1783
1784info os processes
1785 Show operating system information about processes.
1786
2277426b
PA
1787info inferiors
1788 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1789
1790inferior NUM
1791 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1792
1793detach inferior NUM
1794 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1795
1796kill inferior NUM
1797 Kill inferior number NUM.
1798
d7713ae0
EZ
1799* New options
1800
3285f3fe
UW
1801set spu stop-on-load
1802show spu stop-on-load
1803 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1804
ff1a52c6
UW
1805set spu auto-flush-cache
1806show spu auto-flush-cache
1807 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1808 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1809
d7713ae0
EZ
1810set sh calling-convention
1811show sh calling-convention
1812 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1813
e0a3ce09 1814set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1815show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1816 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1817
1818set disassemble-next-line
1819show disassemble-next-line
1820 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1821 the debuggee stops.
1822
1823set remote noack-packet
1824show remote noack-packet
1825 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1826 under "New remote packets."
1827
1828set remote query-attached-packet
1829show remote query-attached-packet
1830 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1831
1832set remote read-siginfo-object
1833show remote read-siginfo-object
1834 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1835 packet.
1836
1837set remote write-siginfo-object
1838show remote write-siginfo-object
1839 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1840 packet.
1841
40ab02ce
MS
1842set remote reverse-continue
1843show remote reverse-continue
1844 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1845
1846set remote reverse-step
1847show remote reverse-step
1848 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1849
d7713ae0
EZ
1850set displaced-stepping
1851show displaced-stepping
1852 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1853 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1854 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1855
1856set debug displaced
1857show debug displaced
1858 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1859
1860maint set internal-error
1861maint show internal-error
1862 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1863
1864maint set internal-warning
1865maint show internal-warning
1866 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1867
ccd213ac
DJ
1868set exec-wrapper
1869show exec-wrapper
1870unset exec-wrapper
1871 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1872
aad4b048
JB
1873set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1874show multiple-symbols
1875 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1876 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1877 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1878
74960c60
VP
1879set breakpoint always-inserted
1880show breakpoint always-inserted
1881 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1882 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1883 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1884
0428b8f5
DJ
1885set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1886show arm fallback-mode
1887set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1888show arm force-mode
1889 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1890 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1891 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1892 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1893
10568435
JK
1894set disable-randomization
1895show disable-randomization
1896 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1897 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1898 multiple debugging sessions.
1899
d7713ae0
EZ
1900set non-stop
1901show non-stop
1902 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1903 a breakpoint.
1904
b3eb342c 1905set target-async
d7713ae0 1906show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1907 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1908 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1909 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1910 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1911
6c7a06a3
TT
1912set target-wide-charset
1913show target-wide-charset
1914 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1915 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1916
84603566
SL
1917set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1918show tcp auto-retry
1919set tcp connect-timeout
1920show tcp connect-timeout
1921 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1922 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1923 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1924
17a37d48
PP
1925set libthread-db-search-path
1926show libthread-db-search-path
1927 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1928 libthread_db.
1929
d4db2f36
PA
1930set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1931show schedule-multiple
1932 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1933 the current process.
1934
4e5d721f
DE
1935set stack-cache
1936show stack-cache
1937 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1938 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1939 affecting correctness.
1940
910c5da8
JB
1941set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1942show interactive-mode
1943 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1944 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1945 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1946 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1947 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1948
2277426b
PA
1949* Removed commands
1950
1951info forks
1952 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1953 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1954 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1955 command.
1956
1957fork NUM
1958 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1959 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1960 alias for the `fork' command.
1961
1962process PID
1963 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1964 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1965 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1966
1967delete fork NUM
1968 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1969 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1970 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1971 fork' command.
1972
1973detach fork NUM
1974 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1975 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1976 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1977 fork' command.
1978
a80b95ba
TG
1979* New native configurations
1980
1981x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1982
b8bfd3ed
JB
1983x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1984
75a2d5e7
TT
1985* New targets
1986
c28c63d8 1987Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1988x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1989x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1990S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1991
6de3146c
PA
1992* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1993 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1994
d5cbbe6e
JB
1995* Removed commands
1996
1997catch load
1998catch unload
1999 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2000
75feb17d 2001*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2002
af5ca30d
NH
2003* New native configurations
2004
2005NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2006Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2007
2008* New targets
2009
2010NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2011Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2012
7a404eba
PA
2013* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2014
2015 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2016 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2017 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2018 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2019
430ebac9
PA
2020* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2021(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2022
fe6fbf8b 2023* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2024is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2025
2026* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2027including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2028and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2029
10665d76
JB
2030* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2031accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2032more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2033
7cc46491
DJ
2034* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2035
d71340b8
DJ
2036* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2037registers on PowerPC targets.
2038
523c4513
DJ
2039* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2040targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2041
a6b151f1
DJ
2042* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2043commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2044
2d717e4f
DJ
2045* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2046extended-remote mode.
2047
24a836bd 2048* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2049The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2050error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2051The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2052
d0c678e6
UW
2053* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2054building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2055target architectures.
2056
d64a946d
TJB
2057* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2058Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2059now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2060stored in two consecutive float registers.
2061
ee163bf5
VP
2062* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2063breakpoints now.
2064
b93b6ca7 2065* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2066Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2067include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2068 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2069 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2070 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2071 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2072 of an assignment
2073 - Improved command completion in Ada
2074 - Several bug fixes
2075
d001be7a
DJ
2076* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2077process.
2078
a6b151f1
DJ
2079* New commands
2080
6d53d0af
JB
2081set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2082show print frame-arguments
2083 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2084 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2085
a6b151f1
DJ
2086remote put
2087remote get
2088remote delete
2089 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2090
2091* New MI commands
2092
2093-target-file-put
2094-target-file-get
2095-target-file-delete
2096 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2097
2098* New remote packets
2099
2100vFile:open:
2101vFile:close:
2102vFile:pread:
2103vFile:pwrite:
2104vFile:unlink:
2105 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2106
2d717e4f
DJ
2107vAttach
2108 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2109 mode.
2110
2111vRun
2112 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2113
8d5f9c6f 2114*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2115
19d378fc
MS
2116* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2117bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2118Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2119
3a40aaa0
UW
2120* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2121symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2122-Bsymbolic linker option.
2123
a6ec25f2
BW
2124* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2125recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2126is not supported.
2127
6dd09645
JB
2128* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2129frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2130
c9bb8148
DJ
2131* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
213232-bit or 64-bit register values.
2133
0d5de010
DJ
2134* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2135
23181151
DJ
2136* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2137target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2138a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2139
ea37ba09
DJ
2140* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2141automatically displayed as character or string data.
2142
2143* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2144arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2145as strings.
e1f48ead 2146
123dc839
DJ
2147* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2148for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2149only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2150
05a4558a
DJ
2151* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2152iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2153
7c963485
PA
2154* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2155ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2156has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2157
b18be20d
DJ
2158* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2159
0ca420ce
UW
2160* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2161
31d99776
DJ
2162* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2163layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2164segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2165
a4642986
MR
2166* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2167immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2168
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2169* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2170"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2171packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2172where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2173Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2174
2175* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2176(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2177
2178* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2179according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2180
c9bb8148
DJ
2181* New commands
2182
23776285
MR
2183set remoteflow
2184show remoteflow
2185 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2186 when debugging using remote targets.
2187
c9bb8148
DJ
2188set mem inaccessible-by-default
2189show mem inaccessible-by-default
2190 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2191 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2192 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2193 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2194 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2195
2196set breakpoint auto-hw
2197show breakpoint auto-hw
2198 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2199 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2200 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2201 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2202 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2203 including "next" and "finish".
2204
0e420bd8
JB
2205catch exception
2206catch exception unhandled
2207 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2208
2209catch assert
2210 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2211
f822c95b
DJ
2212set sysroot
2213show sysroot
2214 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2215 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2216 an alias to "set sysroot".
2217
83cc5c53
UW
2218info spu
2219 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2220 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2221 architecture.
2222
bd372731
MK
2223* New native configurations
2224
2225OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2226
23181151
DJ
2227set tdesc filename
2228unset tdesc filename
2229show tdesc filename
2230 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2231 not query the target for its built-in description.
2232
c9bb8148
DJ
2233* New targets
2234
54fe9172 2235OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2236MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2237Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2238
6dd09645
JB
2239* New remote packets
2240
2241QPassSignals:
2242 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2243 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2244
23181151
DJ
2245qXfer:features:read:
2246 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2247 features.
6dd09645 2248
83cc5c53
UW
2249qXfer:spu:read:
2250qXfer:spu:write:
2251 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2252 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2253
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2254qXfer:libraries:read:
2255 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2256 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2257 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2258 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2259
483367ee
DJ
2260* Removed targets
2261
2262Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2263
d08950c4
UW
2264alpha*-*-osf1*
2265alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2266d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2267hppa*-*-hiux*
2268i[34567]86-ncr-*
2269i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2270i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2271i[34567]86-*-netware*
2272i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2273i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2274i[34567]86-*-sco*
2275i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2276i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2277i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2278i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2279i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2280i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2281i[34567]86-*-isc*
2282m68*-cisco*-*
2283m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2284mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2285rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2286sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2287
7ce59000
DJ
2288* Other removed features
2289
2290target abug
2291target cpu32bug
2292target est
2293target rom68k
2294
2295 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2296
ea35711c
DJ
2297target hms
2298target e7000
2299target sh3
2300target sh3e
2301
2302 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2303 H8/300.
2304
2305target ocd
2306
2307 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2308 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2309 interfaces.
2310
7ce59000
DJ
2311DWARF 1 support
2312
2313 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2314 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2315
54d61198
DJ
2316Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2317
2318 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2319 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2320 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2321 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2322
ea35711c
DJ
2323MIPS ".pdr" sections
2324
2325 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2326 in debugging information.
2327
2328Scheme support
2329
2330 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2331 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2332
1a69e1e4
DJ
2333set mips stack-arg-size
2334set mips saved-gpreg-size
2335
2336 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2337
6dd09645 2338*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2339
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2340* New targets
2341
2342Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2343Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2344
6aec2e11
DJ
2345* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2346(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2347running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2348
2349* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2350Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2351supported.
2352
17218d91
DJ
2353* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2354broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2355
9ebce043
DJ
2356* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2357stub provides the required support.
2358
7d3d3ece
DJ
2359* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2360longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2361
4f8253f3
JB
2362* New commands
2363
2364set substitute-path
2365unset substitute-path
2366show substitute-path
2367 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2368 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2369 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2370 between compilation and debugging.
2371
9fa66fd7
AS
2372set trace-commands
2373show trace-commands
2374 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2375 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2376 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2377
1f5befc1
DJ
2378* REMOVED features
2379
2380The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2381
2ec3381a
DJ
2382Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2383an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2384
3d00d119
DJ
2385The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2386
be2a5f71
DJ
2387* New remote packets
2388
2389qSupported:
2390 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2391 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2392 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2393 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2394 target.
2395
0876f84a
DJ
2396qXfer:auxv:read:
2397 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2398 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2399
9ebce043
DJ
2400qXfer:memory-map:read:
2401 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2402 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2403
2404vFlashErase:
2405vFlashWrite:
2406vFlashDone:
2407 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2408
0876f84a
DJ
2409* Removed remote packets
2410
2411qPart:auxv:read:
2412 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2413 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2414
e374b601 2415*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2416
96309189
MS
2417* New targets
2418
2419Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2420
2421Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2422
53e5f3cf
AS
2423* New commands
2424
2425init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2426 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2427
ac264b3b
MS
2428The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2429
2430checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2431
2432restart <n> Return the program state to a
2433 previously saved state.
2434
2435info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2436
2437delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2438
2439set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2440 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2441
2442info forks List forks of the user program that
2443 are available to be debugged.
2444
2445fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2446 forks of the user program that are
2447 available to be debugged.
2448
2449delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2450 that are available to be debugged (and
2451 kill the forked process).
2452
2453detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2454 that are available to be debugged (and
2455 allow the process to continue).
2456
3950dc3f
NS
2457* New architecture
2458
2459Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2460
0ea3f30e
DJ
2461* Improved Windows host support
2462
2463GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2464native console support, and remote communications using either
2465network sockets or serial ports.
2466
f79daebb
GM
2467* Improved Modula-2 language support
2468
2469GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2470basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2471pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2472printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2473written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2474GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2475
acab6ab2
MM
2476* REMOVED features
2477
2478The ARM rdi-share module.
2479
f4267320
DJ
2480The Netware NLM debug server.
2481
53e5f3cf 2482*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2483
e0ecbda1
MK
2484* New native configurations
2485
02a677ac 2486OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2487OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2488
d64a6579
KB
2489* New targets
2490
2491Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2492
b33a6190
AS
2493* New command line options
2494
2495--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2496--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2497 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2498--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2499 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2500 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2501 with the --command (-x) option.
2502
11dced61
AC
2503* Deprecated commands removed
2504
2505The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2506removed:
2507
2508 Command Replacement
2509 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2510 othernames set arm disassembler
2511 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2512 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2513 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2514 regs info registers
2515
6fe85783
MK
2516* New BSD user-level threads support
2517
2518It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2519library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2520configurations are:
2521
2522FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2523FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2524OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2525
2526Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2527are not yet supported.
2528
5260ca71
MS
2529* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2530(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2531
e84ecc99
AC
2532* REMOVED configurations and files
2533
2534VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2535Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2536National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2537
31e35378
JB
2538* New "set print array-indexes" command
2539
2540After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2541when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2542behavior.
2543
e85e5c83
MK
2544* VAX floating point support
2545
2546GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2547
d91e9901
AS
2548* User-defined command support
2549
2550In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2551to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2552section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2553
f2cb65ca
MC
2554*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2555
f47b1503
AS
2556* New command line option
2557
2558GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2559debugging.
2560
f2cb65ca
MC
2561* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2562
2563GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2564information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2565by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2566proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2567to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2568
d08c0230
AC
2569* Internationalization
2570
2571When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2572internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2573continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2574
117ea3cf
PH
2575* Ada
2576
2577Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2578implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2579into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2580
d08c0230
AC
2581* New native configurations
2582
2583GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2584
2585* Remote 'p' packet
2586
2587GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2588packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2589
2590* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2591
2592GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2593The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2594features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2595i386 application).
2596
2597GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2598compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2599continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2600configurations:
2601
2602hppa-*-hpux
2603ia64-*-aix
2604mips-*-irix*
2605*-*-lynx
2606mips-*-linux-gnu
2607sds protocol
2608xdr protocol
2609powerpc bdm protocol
2610
2611Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2612made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2613
2614* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2615
2616Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2617been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2618configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2619permanently REMOVED.
2620
2621h8300-*-*
2622mcore-*-*
2623mn10300-*-*
2624ns32k-*-*
2625sh64-*-*
2626v850-*-*
2627
ebb7c577
AC
2628*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2629
2630* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2631
2632When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2633heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2634been fixed.
2635
2636* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2637
2638When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2639fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2640IRIX long double values).
2641
2642* VAX and "next"
2643
2644A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2645command. This problem has been fixed.
2646
860660cb 2647*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2648
0dea2468
AC
2649* Fix for ``many threads''
2650
2651On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2652rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2653error message:
2654
2655 ptrace: No such process.
2656 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2657
2658This problem has been fixed.
2659
2c07db7a
AC
2660* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2661
2662Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2663GDB to dump core).
2664
c23968a2
JB
2665* New ``start'' command.
2666
2667This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2668
71009278
MK
2669* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2670
2671Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2672live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2673platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2674
2675FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2676FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2677NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2678NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2679NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2680OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2681OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2682OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2683OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2684
3c0b7db2
AC
2685* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2686
2687Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2688These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2689of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2690call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2691signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2692
73cc75f3
AC
2693Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2694features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2695include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2696
7243600a
BF
2697* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2698
6f606e1c
MK
2699* New native configurations
2700
97dc871c 2701GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2702OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2703OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2704OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2705OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2706NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2707OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2708
a1b461bf
AC
2709* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2710
2711GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2712The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2713including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2714migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2715compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2716work, was also included.
2717
2718GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2719module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2720
2721h8300-*-*
2722mcore-*-*
2723mn10300-*-*
2724ns32k-*-*
2725sh64-*-*
2726v850-*-*
2727xstormy16-*-*
2728
2729Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2730made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2731
3c7012f5
AC
2732* REMOVED configurations and files
2733
2734Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2735Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2736Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2737Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2738Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2739AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2740Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2741decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2742riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2743sonymips mips-sony-*
2744sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2745
e5fe55f7
AC
2746*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2747
2748* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2749
2750The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2751GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2752command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2753program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2754with GDB".
2755
2756* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2757
2758Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2759libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2760cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2761GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2762shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2763the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2764are created.
2765
2766Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2767
2768* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2769
2770The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2771non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2772compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2773
2774* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2775
2776Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2777wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2778
2779* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2780
2781The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2782permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2783systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2784
2785* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2786
2787Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2788has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2789
2790* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2791
2792GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2793its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2794panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2795
2796* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2797
2798When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2799by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2800not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2801
faae5abe 2802*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2803
9175c9a3
MC
2804* Removed --with-mmalloc
2805
2806Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2807conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2808
3cc87ec0
MK
2809* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2810
2811The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2812the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2813and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2814you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2815
f0424ef6
MK
2816* Revised SPARC target
2817
2818The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2819FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2820support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2821from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2822(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2823
59659be2
ILT
2824* New C++ demangler
2825
2826GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2827names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2828with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2829programs.
2830
9e08b29b
DJ
2831* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2832
2833GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2834arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2835encountered these.
2836
8dfe8985
DC
2837* C++ nested types and namespaces
2838
2839GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2840improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2841is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2842Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2843namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2844"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2845frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2846if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2847GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2848
cced5e27
MK
2849* New native configurations
2850
2851NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2852OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2853OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2854OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2855OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2856
b4b4b794
KI
2857* New debugging protocols
2858
2859M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2860
7989c619
AC
2861* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2862
2863The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2864and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2865tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2866
5994185b
AC
2867* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2868
2869Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2870been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2871configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2872permanently REMOVED.
2873
2874Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2875Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2876Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2877Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2878Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2879AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2880Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2881decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2882riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2883sonymips mips-sony-*
2884sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2885
0ddabb4c
AC
2886* REMOVED configurations and files
2887
2888SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2889SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2890Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2891Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2892H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2893HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2894HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2895HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2896PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2897386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2898Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2899 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2900 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2901SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2902SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2903Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2904Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2905
c7f1390e
DJ
2906*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2907
1fe43d45
AC
2908* Objective-C
2909
2910Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2911integrated into GDB.
2912
e6beb428
AC
2913* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2914
2915DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2916information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2917By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2918backtraces.
2919
2920The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2921have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2922DWARF 2 CFI support.
2923
2924* Hosted file I/O.
2925
2926GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2927file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2928remote protocol documentation for details.
2929
2930* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2931
2932All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2933architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2934to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2935ppc32 on ppc64).
2936
2937* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2938
2939GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2940per-thread variables.
2941
2942* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2943
2944GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2945GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2946
2947* Separate debug info.
2948
2949GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2950automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2951of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2952system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2953and optional debug files.
2954
2955* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2956
2957DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2958describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2959debugger.
2960
2961GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2962for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2963
2964* Java
2965
2966A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2967Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2968considered "useable".
2969
85f8f974
DJ
2970* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2971
2972The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2973commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2974kernel.
2975
0fac0b41
DJ
2976* GDB supports logging output to a file
2977
2978There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2979used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2980
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2981* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2982
2983The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2984disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2985command.
2986
e286caf2 2987* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2988
2989The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2990registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2991
d28f9cdf
DJ
2992* Profiling support
2993
2994A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2995be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2996session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2997"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2998data, for more informative profiling results.
2999
da0f9dcd
AC
3000* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3001
3002The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3003option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3004"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3005
3006Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3007removed.
3008
fb9b6b35
JJ
3009Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3010Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3011Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3012 in a subsequent -var-update.
3013
954a4db8
MK
3014* New native configurations.
3015
3016FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3017
6760f9e6
JB
3018* Multi-arched targets.
3019
b4263afa 3020HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3021Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3022
1b831c93
AC
3023* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3024
3025Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3026been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3027configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3028permanently REMOVED.
3029
8b0e5691 3030Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3031Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3032H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3033HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3034HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3035HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3036PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3037Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3038 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3039 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3040Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3041Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3042
5835abe7
NC
3043* REMOVED configurations and files
3044
3045V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3046Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3047IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3048i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3049i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3050i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3051HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3052 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3053 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3054Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3055Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3056Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3057OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3058I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3059
a094c6fb
AC
3060* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3061
3062The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3063the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3064context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3065address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3066The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3067
299ffc64 3068*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3069
46248966
AC
3070* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3071
3072When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3073`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3074in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3075library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3076shared libs like mad''.
3077
b9d14705 3078* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3079
b9d14705
DJ
3080Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3081the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3082arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3083powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3084
e0e9281e
JB
3085* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3086
3087GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3088and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3089they expand.
3090
dd73b9bb
AC
3091The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3092invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3093
3094The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3095macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3096
e0e9281e
JB
3097Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3098information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3099your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3100information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3101
2250ee0c
CV
3102* Multi-arched targets.
3103
6e3ba3b8
JT
3104DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3105DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3106NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3107National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3108Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3109Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3110
cd9bfe15 3111* New targets.
e33ce519 3112
456f8b9d
DB
3113Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3114
e33ce519 3115
da8ca43d
JT
3116* New native configurations
3117
3118Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3119SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3120MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3121UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3122
cd9bfe15
AC
3123* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3124
3125Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3126been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3127configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3128permanently REMOVED.
3129
92eb23c5 3130Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3131OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3132IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3133Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3134Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3135Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3136i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3137i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3138i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3139HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3140 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3141 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3142I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3143
db034ac5
AC
3144* OBSOLETE languages
3145
3146CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3147
cd9bfe15
AC
3148* REMOVED configurations and files
3149
3150AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3151A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3152AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3153AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3154AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3155
3156testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3157
20f01a46
DH
3158* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3159
3160This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3161commands. The default is 1024.
3162
a5941fbf
MK
3163* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3164
3165Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3166
89743e04
MS
3167* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3168
3169These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3170to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3171from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3172
9fb14e79
JB
3173* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3174
3175The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3176including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3177of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3178
2037aebb
AC
3179*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3180
3181* New targets.
3182
3183Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3184
3185* Bug fixes
3186
3187gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3188mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3189Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3190
3191gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3192dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3193Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3194
3195Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3196Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3197By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3198
3199i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3200avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3201By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3202
37057839 3203*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3204
1a703748
MS
3205* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3206
3207This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3208really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3209In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3210target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3211This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3212(notably embedded) targets.
3213
cefd4ef5
MS
3214* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3215
55241689
AC
3216This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3217process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3218GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3219hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3220
352ed7b4
MS
3221* New command line option
3222
3223GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3224
3225* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3226
3227There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3228command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3229a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3230be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3231open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3232issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3233a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3234it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3235GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3236is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3237
fe419ffc
RE
3238* Changes in ARM configurations.
3239
3240Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3241configuration is fully multi-arch.
3242
eb7cedd9
MK
3243* New native configurations
3244
fe419ffc 3245ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3246x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3247AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3248Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3249
c9f63e6b
CV
3250* New targets
3251
3252Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3253
9b4ff276
AC
3254* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3255
3256Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3257been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3258configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3259permanently REMOVED.
3260
3261AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3262A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3263AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3264AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3265AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3266
b4ceaee6 3267testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3268
e2caac18
AC
3269* REMOVED configurations and files
3270
3271TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3272WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3273PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3274PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3275PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3276Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3277Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3278 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3279SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3280Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3281Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3282ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3283Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3284
c2a727fa
TT
3285* Changes to command line processing
3286
3287The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3288for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3289
467d8519
TT
3290* Changes to key bindings
3291
3292There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3293
7072a954
AC
3294*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3295
3296Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3297
3298Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3299corrupted.
3300
3301Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3302
3303Numerous documentation fixes.
3304
3305Numerous testsuite fixes.
3306
34f47bc4 3307*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3308
3309* New native configurations
3310
3311Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3312x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3313MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3314MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3315ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3316s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3317
bf64bfd6
AC
3318* New targets
3319
def90278 3320Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3321CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3322UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3323
17e78a56 3324* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3325
3326x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3327Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3328Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3329 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3330TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3331WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3332Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3333PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3334PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3335PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3336SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3337Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3338ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3339Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3340
17e78a56
AC
3341stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3342kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3343
7fcca85b
AC
3344Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3345been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3346configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3347permanently REMOVED.
3348
a196c81c 3349* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3350
3351Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3352Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3353Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3354ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3355Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3356ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3357
6d6b80e5 3358* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3359
6d6b80e5 3360GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3361sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3362present.
3363
bf64bfd6
AC
3364* Other news:
3365
e23194cb
EZ
3366* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3367
3368* The MI enabled by default.
3369
3370The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3371revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3372engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3373using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3374which is now deprecated.
3375
3376* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3377
3378GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3379main features are supported:
3380
3381 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3382
3383 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3384 extension;
3385
3386 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3387
3388 - a Pascal expression parser.
3389
3390However, some important features are not yet supported.
3391
3392 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3393
3394 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3395
3396 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3397 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3398
3399 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3400
3401 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3402
3403* Changes in completion.
3404
3405Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3406to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3407users expect at the shell prompt.
3408
3409Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3410`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3411program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3412files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3413be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3414considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3415name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3416
3417`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3418
3419* New platform-independent commands:
3420
3421It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3422hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3423documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3424
3425* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3426
d7275149
MK
3427Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3428revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3429many threads as your system allows you to have.
3430
e23194cb
EZ
3431Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3432
d7275149
MK
3433Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3434multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3435
3436* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3437
3438Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3439
e23194cb
EZ
3440GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3441debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3442supported.)
3443
3444* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3445
3446Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3447breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3448implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3449put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3450and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3451registers.
3452
3453The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3454debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3455watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3456
3457* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3458
3459New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3460the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3461
3462New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3463display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3464IDT.
3465
3466New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3467from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3468New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3469a given linear address.
3470
3471GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3472program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3473which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3474
3475DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3476
6c56c069
EZ
3477It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3478
e23194cb
EZ
3479* Changes in documentation.
3480
3481All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3482Documentation License.
3483
3484Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3485manual.
3486
3487TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3488
3489Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3490manual.
3491
3492The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3493documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3494hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3495
5d6640b1
AC
3496* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3497
3498The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3499``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3500contents of this file.
3501
1a1d8446
AC
3502* gdba.el deleted
3503
3504GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3505
9debab2f 3506*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3507
c63ce875
EZ
3508* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3509
3510Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3511programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3512displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3513greater level of detail.
3514
3515* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3516
3517It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3518bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3519on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3520written.
3521
3522* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3523
3524The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3525necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3526machines ``out of the box''.
3527
3528The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3529possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3530signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3531would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3532interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3533
3534It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3535standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3536even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3537and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3538terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3539
3540The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3541enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3542also works.
3543
3544DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3545GDB.
3546
3547It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3548directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3549times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3550breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3551
ed9a39eb
JM
3552* New native configurations
3553
3554ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3555PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3556
7a292a7a
SS
3557* New targets
3558
96baa820 3559Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3560x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3561PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3562TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3563
085dd6e6
JM
3564* OBSOLETE configurations
3565
3566Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3567Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3568Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3569ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3570Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3571
9debab2f
AC
3572Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3573but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3574these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3575be permanently REMOVED.
3576
5330533d
SS
3577* Gould support removed
3578
3579Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3580
bc9e5bbf
AC
3581* New features for SVR4
3582
3583On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3584without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3585load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3586
3587* Many C++ enhancements
3588
3589C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3590in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3591
adf40b2e
JM
3592* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3593
3594A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3595sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3596with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3597``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3598
3599 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3600 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3601
43e526b9
JM
3602* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3603
3604A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3605expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3606instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3607
3608The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3609added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3610
96baa820
JM
3611* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3612
3613The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3614``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3615include ``set remote P-packet''.
3616
11cf8741
JM
3617* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3618
3619The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3620accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3621``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3622
7876dd43
DB
3623* ``apropos'' command added.
3624
3625The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3626documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3627try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3628
bc9e5bbf
AC
3629* New MI interface
3630
3631A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3632interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3633process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3634"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3635enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3636
3637 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3638
c906108c
SS
3639*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3640
3641* New native configurations
3642
3643HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3644HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3645M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3646
3647* New targets
3648
3649Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3650Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3651Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3652
3653* OBSOLETE configurations
3654
3655Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3656
3657Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3658but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3659these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3660be permanently REMOVED.
3661
3662* ANSI/ISO C
3663
3664As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3665buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3666containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3667use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3668available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3669configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3670information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3671already.
3672
3673* Readline 2.2
3674
3675GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3676
3677* set extension-language
3678
3679You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3680languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3681you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3682 set extension-language .c c++
3683The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3684and their associated languages.
3685
3686* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3687
3688When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3689you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3690PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3691
3692 set processor NAME
3693
3694sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3695following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3696
3697 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3698 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3699 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3700 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3701 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3702 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3703 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3704 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3705 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3706 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3707 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3708
3709At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3710special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3711registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3712only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3713
3714* HP-UX support
3715
3716Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3717more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3718library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3719support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3720for xdb and dbx commands.
3721
3722* Catchpoints
3723
3724HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3725generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3726to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3727
3728This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3729argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3730output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3731
3732* Debugging across forks
3733
3734On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3735in the inferior.
3736
3737* TUI
3738
3739HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3740it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3741configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3742
3743* GDB remote protocol additions
3744
3745A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3746Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3747fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3748allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3749
3750For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3751full 64-bit address. The command
3752
3753 set remoteaddresssize 32
3754
3755can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3756the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3757will be discarded.
3758
3759In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3760command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3761
3762 maint packet heythere
3763
3764sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3765disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3766time.
3767
3768The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3769target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3770downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3771
3772* Tracing can collect general expressions
3773
3774You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3775further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3776doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3777
3778* mask-address variable for Mips
3779
3780For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3781a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3782of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3783
3784* Higher serial baud rates
3785
3786GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3787230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3788to achieve all of these rates.)
3789
3790* i960 simulator
3791
3792The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3793builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3794
3795
3796*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3797
3798* New native configurations
3799
3800Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3801Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3802Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3803PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3804PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3805Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3806Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3807
3808* New targets
3809
3810Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3811Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3812Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3813Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3814MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3815MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3816MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3817Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3818Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3819Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3820NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3821
3822* New debugging protocols
3823
3824ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3825M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3826DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3827PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3828PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3829Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3830
3831* DWARF 2
3832
3833All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3834format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3835information.
3836
3837* Java frontend
3838
3839GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3840only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3841
3842* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3843
3844For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3845loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3846locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3847
3848* Live range splitting
3849
3850GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3851range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3852more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3853
3854* Hurd support
3855
3856GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3857updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3858
3859* ARM Thumb support
3860
3861GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3862instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3863instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3864accordingly.
3865
3866* MIPS16 support
3867
3868GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3869instruction set.
3870
3871* Overlay support
3872
3873GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3874linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3875will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3876control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3877additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3878in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3879
3880* info symbol
3881
3882The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3883the symbol at the specified address.
3884
3885* Trace support
3886
3887The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3888asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3889extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3890includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3891file tracepoint.c for more details.
3892
3893* MIPS simulator
3894
3895Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3896by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3897of most MIPS variants.
3898
3899* Sparc simulator
3900
3901Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3902by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3903Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3904
3905* set architecture
3906
3907For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3908basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3909architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3910the possible architectures.
3911
3912*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3913
3914* New native configurations
3915
3916Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3917M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3918PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3919PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3920PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3921RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3922
3923* New targets
3924
3925ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3926I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3927MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3928MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3929PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3930Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3931Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3932
3933* PowerPC simulator
3934
3935The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3936contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3937PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3938basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3939performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3940
3941* Solaris 2.5
3942
3943GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3944
3945* Windows 95/NT native
3946
3947GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3948To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3949which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3950Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3951ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3952
3953* dont-repeat command
3954
3955If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3956command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3957useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3958extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3959
3960* Send break instead of ^C
3961
3962The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3963rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3964GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3965
3966* Remote protocol timeout
3967
3968The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3969that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3970to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3971
3972* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3973
3974By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3975loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3976stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3977when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3978in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3979
3980Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3981/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3982automatically on hpux10.
3983
3984* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3985
3986Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3987
3988* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3989
3990When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3991may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3992the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3993every character. The default value is 1050.
3994
3995* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3996
3997If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3998a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3999replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4000details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4001remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4002to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4003
4004* Speedups for remote debugging
4005
4006GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4007the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4008and more efficient S-record downloading.
4009
4010* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4011
4012GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4013Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4014
4015*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4016
4017* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4018
4019The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4020can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4021
4022* Remote targets use caching
4023
4024Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4025remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4026it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4027debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4028off' turns the the data cache off.
4029
4030* Remote targets may have threads
4031
4032The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4033in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4034gdb/remote.c for details.
4035
4036* NetROM support
4037
4038If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4039support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4040acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4041write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4042support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4043another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4044sequence is something like
4045
4046 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4047 load <prog>
4048 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4049
4050* Macintosh host
4051
4052GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4053may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4054it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4055available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4056device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4057directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4058scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4059mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4060
4061* Autoconf
4062
4063GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4064but does simplify configuration and building.
4065
4066* hpux10
4067
4068GDB now supports hpux10.
4069
4070*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4071
4072* New native configurations
4073
4074x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4075x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4076NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4077Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4078
4079* New targets
4080
4081A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4082HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4083CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4084PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4085WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4086
4087* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4088
4089GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4090possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4091filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4092the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4093if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4094
4095* Arguments to user-defined commands
4096
4097User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4098Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4099trivial example:
4100define adder
4101 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4102
4103To execute the command use:
4104adder 1 2 3
4105
4106Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4107Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4108use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4109
4110* New `if' and `while' commands
4111
4112This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4113commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4114expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4115execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4116terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4117`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4118if the expression is zero.
4119
4120* Fortran source language mode
4121
4122GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4123Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4124variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4125with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4126Fortran compilers.
4127
4128* Better HPUX support
4129
4130Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4131running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4132processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4133for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4134that behavior do the following before running the program:
4135
4136 adb -w a.out
4137 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4138 control-d
4139
4140This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4141To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4142
4143 adb -w a.out
4144 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4145 control-d
4146
4147You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4148the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4149external linkage.
4150
4151GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4152HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4153
4154* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4155
4156You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4157commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4158current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4159"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4160associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4161configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4162
4163* New DOS host serial code
4164
4165This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4166no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4167a PC's serial port.
4168
4169*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4170
4171* New "complete" command
4172
4173This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4174were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4175
4176* Trailing space optional in prompt
4177
4178"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4179allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4180
4181* Breakpoint hit counts
4182
4183"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4184has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4185can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4186to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4187less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4188that breakpoint.
4189
4190* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4191
4192"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4193an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4194arrays actually contain only short strings.
4195
4196* Shared library breakpoints
4197
4198In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4199breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4200
4201* Hardware watchpoints
4202
4203There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4204targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4205
55241689 4206Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4207
4208* Annotations
4209
4210Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4211and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4212
4213* Improved Irix 5 support
4214
4215GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4216
4217* Improved HPPA support
4218
4219GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4220
4221* New native configurations
4222
4223Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4224HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4225Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4226RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4227
4228* New targets
4229
4230OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4231MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4232Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4233
4234* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4235
4236There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4237This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4238
4239* Fixes
4240
4241As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4242and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4243
4244*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4245
4246* Irix 5 is now supported
4247
4248* HPPA support
4249
4250GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4251to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4252GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4253of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4254can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4255
4256
4257*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4258
4259* User visible changes:
4260
4261* Remote Debugging
4262
4263The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4264target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4265debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4266integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4267debugging info for the mips target).
4268
4269* DEC Alpha native support
4270
4271GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4272debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4273work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4274Alpha-specific notes.
4275
4276* Preliminary thread implementation
4277
4278GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4279
4280* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4281
4282This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4283to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4284for details).
4285
4286* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4287
4288This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4289mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4290call methods, ...etc.
4291
4292*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4293
4294 * User visible changes:
4295
4296Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4297supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4298other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4299somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4300
4301Filename completion now works.
4302
4303When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4304arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4305addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4306
4307All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4308vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4309should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4310your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4311to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4312
4313 * DEC alpha support
4314
4315This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4316cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4317
4318
4319*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4320
4321 * Testsuite
4322
4323This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4324The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4325via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4326
4327 * C++ demangling
4328
4329'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4330emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4331Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4332disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4333use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4334
4335 * Simulators
4336
4337GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4338So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4339Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4340
4341 * New targets supported
4342
4343H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4344H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4345SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4346Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4347IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4348
4349Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4350version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4351GO32 memory extender.
4352
4353 * New remote protocols
4354
4355MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4356
4357 * New source languages supported
4358
4359This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4360used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4361into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4362
4363
4364*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4365
4366 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4367
4368GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4369version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4370University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4371compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4372format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4373(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4374
4375Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4376
4377 * Faster and better demangling
4378
4379We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4380demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4381character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4382only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4383This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4384increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4385symbol lookups.
4386
4387`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4388from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4389compiler does not actually implement.
4390
4391 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4392
4393In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4394inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4395recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4396very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4397The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4398circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4399fix.
4400
4401The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4402release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4403
4404 * Improved configure script
4405
4406The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4407you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4408host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4409done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4410
4411We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4412version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4413`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4414The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4415only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4416We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4417
4418 * Documentation improvements
4419
4420There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4421produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4422before submitting changes.
4423
4424The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4425M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4426`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4427you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4428a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4429
4430*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4431We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4432been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4433or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4434`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4435around this problem.
4436
4437 * New features
4438
4439GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4440the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4441`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4442the target program.
4443
4444The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4445how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4446
4447 * New native hosts supported
4448
4449HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4450386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4451
4452 * New targets supported
4453
4454AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4455
4456 * New file formats supported
4457
4458BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4459HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4460
4461 * Major bug fixes
4462
4463Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4464
4465We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4466printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4467
4468We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4469for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4470release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4471
4472You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4473will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4474
4475We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4476for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4477especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4478libraries.
4479
4480The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4481information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4482command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4483any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4484when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4485
4486 * Internal improvements
4487
4488GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4489debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4490
4491GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4492Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4493symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4494contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4495shared code that handles any of them.
4496
4497 * New command line options
4498
4499We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4500
4501 * Mmalloc licensing
4502
4503The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4504General Public License.
4505
4506*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4507
4508 * Host/native/target split
4509
4510GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4511hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4512target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4513local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4514ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4515
4516The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4517GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4518is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4519code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4520any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4521built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4522handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4523
4524GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4525It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4526plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4527
4528 * New hosts supported
4529
4530HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4531386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4532386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4533
4534 * New targets supported
4535
4536Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
453768030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4538
4539 * New native hosts supported
4540
4541386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4542 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4543386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4544
4545 * New file formats supported
4546
4547BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4548supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4549format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4550
4551 * New commands
4552
4553`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4554`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4555These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4556
4557`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4558
4559You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4560scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4561prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4562executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4563
4564 * C++ improvements
4565
4566We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4567info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4568symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4569
4570Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4571
4572 * Major bug fixes
4573
4574The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4575fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4576by the compiler.
4577
4578We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4579support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4580
4581John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4582slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4583that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4584purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4585the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4586mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4587
4588Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4589about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4590completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4591we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4592
4593 * AMD 29k support
4594
4595A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4596specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4597calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4598usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4599in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4600
4601We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4602Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4603of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4604resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4605
4606 * Remote interfaces
4607
4608We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4609with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4610message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4611This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4612needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4613breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4614each instruction being stepped through.
4615
4616The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4617registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4618
4619There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4620find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4621Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4622processor with a serial port.
4623
4624 * Configuration
4625
4626Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4627`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4628supported, and what files each one uses.
4629
4630 * Library changes
4631
4632There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4633disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4634Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4635disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4636
4637The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4638Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4639can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4640grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4641
4642 * Documentation
4643
4644The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4645reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4646as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4647encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4648system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4649bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4650
4651And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4652
4653
4654*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4655
4656 * Better support for C++ function names
4657
4658GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4659names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4660(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4661single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4662Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4663
4664GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4665the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4666You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4667lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4668for the list of formats.
4669
4670 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4671
4672Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4673C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4674directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4675can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4676usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4677about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4678this problem.)
4679
4680 * New 'maintenance' command
4681
4682All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4683the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4684can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4685
4686 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4687 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4688 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4689 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4690 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4691 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4692
4693The following commands are new:
4694
4695 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4696 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4697 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4698
4699 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4700
4701We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4702(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4703be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4704read after argv processing.
4705
4706 * New hosts supported
4707
4708Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4709
55241689 4710GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4711
4712We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4713is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4714for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4715masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4716fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4717It costs extra.
4718
4719 * New targets supported
4720
4721Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4722
4723 * More smarts about finding #include files
4724
4725GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4726all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4727greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4728especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4729the one that contains your sources.
4730
4731We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4732breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4733try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4734
4735 * Interesting infernals change
4736
4737GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4738section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4739target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4740stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4741
4742 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4743
4744There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4745 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4746 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4747
4748See the ChangeLog for details.
4749
4750*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4751
4752 * New machines supported (host and target)
4753
4754IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4755
4756SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4757
4758 * New malloc package
4759
4760GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4761Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4762capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4763This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4764pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4765more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4766
4767 * info proc
4768
4769The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4770'help info proc' for details.
4771
4772 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4773
4774The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4775Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4776possible.
4777
4778 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4779
4780Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4781support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4782conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4783environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4784that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4785in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4786
4787 * Cross byte order fixes
4788
4789Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4790targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4791
4792 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4793
4794If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4795system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4796`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4797program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4798called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4799Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4800and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4801the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4802option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4803starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4804
4805You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4806the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4807information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4808slower, but makes future operations faster.
4809
4810The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4811build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4812A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4813use is:
4814
4815 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4816
4817The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4818It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4819shared across multiple host platforms.
4820
4821 * longjmp() handling
4822
4823GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4824siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4825all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4826platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4827
4828 * Solaris 2.0
4829
4830Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4831this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4832reading symbols.
4833
4834 * Bug fixes
4835
4836As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4837People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4838crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4839
4840*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4841
4842 * New machines supported (host and target)
4843
4844SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4845 (except core files)
4846BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4847Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4848
4849 * New machines supported (target)
4850
4851AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4852
4853 * C++ support
4854
4855GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4856The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4857per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4858
4859GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4860`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4861extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4862good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4863will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4864released.
4865
4866 * New features for SVR4
4867
4868GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4869shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4870only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4871
4872The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4873on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4874it prints the address mappings of the process.
4875
4876If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4877bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4878
4879 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4880
4881Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4882now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4883skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4884make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4885same code linked statically.
4886
4887 * New Getopt
4888
4889GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4890version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4891continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4892Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4893added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4894future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4895
4896 * Bugs fixed
4897
4898The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4899Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4900See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4901
4902
4903*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4904
4905 * New machines supported (host and target)
4906
4907Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4908NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4909Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4910
4911 * Almost SCO Unix support
4912
4913We had hoped to support:
4914SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4915(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4916that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4917about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4918
4919 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4920
4921GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4922debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4923is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4924send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4925reqired (if any).
4926
4927 * New Readline
4928
4929GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4930is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4931required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4932
4933 * Bugs fixed
4934
4935The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4936Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4937See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4938
4939 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4940
4941GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4942supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4943symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4944
4945Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4946mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4947debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4948mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4949version 2.
4950
4951Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4952really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4953line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4954variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4955situation somewhat.
4956
4957When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4958However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4959methods.
4960
4961We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4962DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4963encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4964
4965
4966*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4967
4968 * Improved configuration
4969
4970Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4971Porting BFD is simpler.
4972
4973 * Stepping improved
4974
4975The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4976of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4977in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4978function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4979
4980 * Bug fixing
4981
4982Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4983
4984 * New host supported (not target)
4985
4986Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4987
4988
4989*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4990
4991 * Multiple source language support
4992
4993GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4994It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4995and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4996language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4997You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4998`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4999
5000 * GDB and Modula-2
5001
5002GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5003currently under development at the State University of New York at
5004Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5005continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5006
5007Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5008debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5009symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5010
5011There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5012in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5013
5014 * set write on/off
5015
5016GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5017a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5018the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5019by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5020effect immediately.
5021
5022 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5023
5024When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5025shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5026The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5027examining core files.
5028
5029 * set listsize
5030
5031You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5032The default is 10.
5033
5034 * New machines supported (host and target)
5035
5036SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5037Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5038Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5039
5040 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5041
5042IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5043
5044 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5045
5046AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5047AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5048Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5049
5050 * New remote interfaces
5051
5052AMD 29000 Adapt
5053AMD 29000 Minimon
5054
5055
5056*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5057
5058 * New Facilities
5059
5060Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5061
5062Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5063target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5064is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5065remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5066remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5067also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5068using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5069stub on the target system.
5070
5071New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5072
5073GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5074library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5075object file types such as a.out and coff.
5076
5077There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5078refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5079
5080
5081 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5082
5083All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5084by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5085
5086For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5087``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5088Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5089
5090What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5091print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5092will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5093all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5094
5095confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5096 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5097 it is already running. Default is ON.
5098
5099editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5100 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5101 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5102 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5103 Default is ON.
5104
5105history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5106 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5107 or the value of the environment variable
5108 GDBHISTFILE.
5109
5110history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5111 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5112 HISTSIZE.
5113
5114history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5115 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5116 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5117
5118history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5119 history expansion will be performed on
5120 command line input. The default is OFF.
5121
5122radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5123 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5124 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5125
5126height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5127 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5128 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5129 variable TERM.
5130
5131width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5132 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5133 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5134 variable TERM.
5135
5136Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5137``set width'' instead.
5138
5139print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5140 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5141 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5142 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5143
5144print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5145 is OFF.
5146
5147print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5148 "raw" form if off.
5149
5150print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5151 like instructions.
5152
5153print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5154
5155
5156 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5157
5158The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5159new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5160are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5161window.
5162
5163
5164 * Support for Shared Libraries
5165
5166GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5167Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5168before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5169happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5170At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5171from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5172shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5173It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5174
5175sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5176 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5177 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5178
5179info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5180
5181
5182 * Watchpoints
5183
5184A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5185expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5186tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5187quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5188problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5189more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5190
5191watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5192
5193info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5194
5195delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5196disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5197enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5198
5199
5200 * C++ multiple inheritance
5201
5202When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5203for C++ programs.
5204
5205 * C++ exception handling
5206
5207Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5208ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5209the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5210handler's context).
5211
5212catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5213 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5214 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5215
5216info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5217 current stack frame.
5218
5219
5220 * Minor command changes
5221
5222The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5223command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5224is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5225
5226The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5227at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5228frames without printing.
5229
5230 * New directory command
5231
5232'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5233The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5234about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5235with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5236find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5237
5238 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5239
5240For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5241for more details.
5242
5243GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5244two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5245Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5246where the program that you are debugging will run.
This page took 1.487685 seconds and 4 git commands to generate.