More fixes for memory access violations whilst scanning corrupt binaries.
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.8
5
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6* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on x86 GNU Hurd.
7
5f3b99cf 8* Python Scripting
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9
10 ** You can now access frame registers from Python scripts.
11 ** New attribute 'producer' for gdb.Symtab objects.
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12 ** gdb.Objfile objects have a new attribute "progspace",
13 which is the gdb.Progspace object of the containing program space.
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14 ** A new event "gdb.clear_objfiles" has been added, triggered when
15 selecting a new file to debug.
02be9a71 16 ** You can now add attributes to gdb.Objfile and gdb.Progspace objects.
5f3b99cf 17
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18* New Python-based convenience functions:
19
20 ** $_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
21 ** $_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
22 ** $_any_caller_is(name [, number_of_frames])
23 ** $_any_caller_matches(regexp [, number_of_frames])
24
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25* New commands
26
27queue-signal signal-name-or-number
28 Queue a signal to be delivered to the thread when it is resumed.
29
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30* On resume, GDB now always passes the signal the program had stopped
31 for to the thread the signal was sent to, even if the user changed
32 threads before resuming. Previously GDB would often (but not
33 always) deliver the signal to the thread that happens to be current
34 at resume time.
35
36* Conversely, the "signal" command now consistently delivers the
37 requested signal to the current thread. GDB now asks for
38 confirmation if the program had stopped for a signal and the user
39 switched threads meanwhile.
40
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41* "breakpoint always-inserted" modes "off" and "auto" merged.
42
43 Now, when 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' is set to "off", GDB
44 won't remove breakpoints from the target until all threads stop,
45 even in non-stop mode. The "auto" mode has been removed, and "off"
46 is now the default mode.
47
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48* MI changes
49
50 ** The -list-thread-groups command outputs an exit-code field for
51 inferiors that have exited.
52
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53* Removed targets
54
55Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
56
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57Alpha running OSF/1 (or Tru64) alpha*-*-osf*
58SGI Irix-5.x mips-*-irix5*
59SGI Irix-6.x mips-*-irix6*
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60VAX running (4.2 - 4.3 Reno) BSD vax-*-bsd*
61VAX running Ultrix vax-*-ultrix*
3831839c 62
919b9a93 63*** Changes in GDB 7.8
e9475ead 64
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65* New command line options
66
67-D data-directory
68 This is an alias for the --data-directory option.
69
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70* GDB supports printing and modifying of variable length automatic arrays
71 as specified in ISO C99.
72
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73* The ARM simulator now supports instruction level tracing
74 with or without disassembly.
b7bba001 75
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76* Guile scripting
77
78 GDB now has support for scripting using Guile. Whether this is
79 available is determined at configure time.
80 Guile version 2.0 or greater is required.
81 Guile version 2.0.9 is well tested, earlier 2.0 versions are not.
82
83* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
84
85guile [code]
86gu [code]
87 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Guile interpreter.
88
89guile-repl
90gr
91 Start a Guile interactive prompt (or "repl" for "read-eval-print loop").
92
93info auto-load guile-scripts [regexp]
94 Print the list of automatically loaded Guile scripts.
95
96* The source command is now capable of sourcing Guile scripts.
97 This feature is dependent on the debugger being built with Guile support.
98
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99* New options
100
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101set print symbol-loading (off|brief|full)
102show print symbol-loading
103 Control whether to print informational messages when loading symbol
104 information for a file. The default is "full", but when debugging
105 programs with large numbers of shared libraries the amount of output
106 becomes less useful.
107
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108set guile print-stack (none|message|full)
109show guile print-stack
110 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Guile script.
111
112set auto-load guile-scripts (on|off)
113show auto-load guile-scripts
114 Control auto-loading of Guile script files.
115
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116maint ada set ignore-descriptive-types (on|off)
117maint ada show ignore-descriptive-types
118 Control whether the debugger should ignore descriptive types in Ada
119 programs. The default is not to ignore the descriptive types. See
120 the user manual for more details on descriptive types and the intended
121 usage of this option.
122
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123set auto-connect-native-target
124
125 Control whether GDB is allowed to automatically connect to the
126 native target for the run, attach, etc. commands when not connected
127 to any target yet. See also "target native" below.
128
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129set record btrace replay-memory-access (read-only|read-write)
130show record btrace replay-memory-access
131 Control what memory accesses are allowed during replay.
132
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133maint set target-async (on|off)
134maint show target-async
135 This controls whether GDB targets operate in syncronous or
136 asyncronous mode. Normally the default is asyncronous, if it is
137 available; but this can be changed to more easily debug problems
138 occurring only in syncronous mode.
139
140set mi-async (on|off)
141show mi-async
142 Control whether MI asynchronous mode is preferred. This supersedes
143 "set target-async" of previous GDB versions.
144
145* "set target-async" is deprecated as a CLI option and is now an alias
146 for "set mi-async" (only puts MI into async mode).
147
148* Background execution commands (e.g., "c&", "s&", etc.) are now
149 possible ``out of the box'' if the target supports them. Previously
150 the user would need to explicitly enable the possibility with the
151 "set target-async on" command.
152
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153* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
154
155 ** New option --debug-format=option1[,option2,...] allows one to add
156 additional text to each output. At present only timestamps
157 are supported: --debug-format=timestamps.
158 Timestamps can also be turned on with the
159 "monitor set debug-format timestamps" command from GDB.
160
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161* The 'record instruction-history' command now starts counting instructions
162 at one. This also affects the instruction ranges reported by the
163 'record function-call-history' command when given the /i modifier.
164
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165* The command 'record function-call-history' supports a new modifier '/c' to
166 indent the function names based on their call stack depth.
167 The fields for the '/i' and '/l' modifier have been reordered.
168 The source line range is now prefixed with 'at'.
169 The instruction range is now prefixed with 'inst'.
170 Both ranges are now printed as '<from>, <to>' to allow copy&paste to the
171 "record instruction-history" and "list" commands.
172
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173* The ranges given as arguments to the 'record function-call-history' and
174 'record instruction-history' commands are now inclusive.
175
066ce621 176* The btrace record target now supports the 'record goto' command.
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177 For locations inside the execution trace, the back trace is computed
178 based on the information stored in the execution trace.
066ce621 179
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180* The btrace record target supports limited reverse execution and replay.
181 The target does not record data and therefore does not allow reading
182 memory or registers.
183
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184* The "catch syscall" command now works on s390*-linux* targets.
185
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186* The "compare-sections" command is no longer specific to target
187 remote. It now works with all targets.
188
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189* All native targets are now consistently called "native".
190 Consequently, the "target child", "target GNU", "target djgpp",
191 "target procfs" (Solaris/Irix/OSF/AIX) and "target darwin-child"
192 commands have been replaced with "target native". The QNX/NTO port
193 leaves the "procfs" target in place and adds a "native" target for
194 consistency with other ports. The impact on users should be minimal
195 as these commands previously either throwed an error, or were
196 no-ops. The target's name is visible in the output of the following
197 commands: "help target", "info target", "info files", "maint print
198 target-stack".
199
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200* The "target native" command now connects to the native target. This
201 can be used to launch native programs even when "set
202 auto-connect-native-target" is set to off.
203
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204* GDB now supports access to Intel(R) MPX registers on GNU/Linux.
205
206* Support for Intel(R) AVX-512 registers on GNU/Linux.
207 Support displaying and modifying Intel(R) AVX-512 registers
208 $zmm0 - $zmm31 and $k0 - $k7 on GNU/Linux.
209
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210* New remote packets
211
212qXfer:btrace:read's annex
213 The qXfer:btrace:read packet supports a new annex 'delta' to read
214 branch trace incrementally.
215
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216* Python Scripting
217
218 ** Valid Python operations on gdb.Value objects representing
219 structs/classes invoke the corresponding overloaded operators if
220 available.
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221 ** New `Xmethods' feature in the Python API. Xmethods are
222 additional methods or replacements for existing methods of a C++
223 class. This feature is useful for those cases where a method
224 defined in C++ source code could be inlined or optimized out by
225 the compiler, making it unavailable to GDB.
f7bd0f78 226
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227* New targets
228PowerPC64 GNU/Linux little-endian powerpc64le-*-linux*
229
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230* The "dll-symbols" command, and its two aliases ("add-shared-symbol-files"
231 and "assf"), have been deprecated. Use the "sharedlibrary" command, or
232 its alias "share", instead.
233
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234* The commands "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" are no longer
235 supported. Use "set serial baud" and "show serial baud" (respectively)
236 instead.
237
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238* MI changes
239
240 ** A new option "-gdb-set mi-async" replaces "-gdb-set
241 target-async". The latter is left as a deprecated alias of the
242 former for backward compatibility. If the target supports it,
243 CLI background execution commands are now always possible by
244 default, independently of whether the frontend stated a
245 preference for asynchronous execution with "-gdb-set mi-async".
246 Previously "-gdb-set target-async off" affected both MI execution
247 commands and CLI execution commands.
248
b7bba001 249*** Changes in GDB 7.7
2d450646 250
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251* Improved support for process record-replay and reverse debugging on
252 arm*-linux* targets. Support for thumb32 and syscall instruction
253 recording has been added.
254
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255* GDB now supports SystemTap SDT probes on AArch64 GNU/Linux.
256
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257* GDB now supports Fission DWP file format version 2.
258 http://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/DebugFission
259
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260* New convenience function "$_isvoid", to check whether an expression
261 is void. A void expression is an expression where the type of the
262 result is "void". For example, some convenience variables may be
263 "void" when evaluated (e.g., "$_exitcode" before the execution of
264 the program being debugged; or an undefined convenience variable).
265 Another example, when calling a function whose return type is
266 "void".
267
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268* The "maintenance print objfiles" command now takes an optional regexp.
269
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270* The "catch syscall" command now works on arm*-linux* targets.
271
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272* GDB now consistently shows "<not saved>" when printing values of
273 registers the debug info indicates have not been saved in the frame
274 and there's nowhere to retrieve them from
275 (callee-saved/call-clobbered registers):
276
277 (gdb) p $rax
278 $1 = <not saved>
279
280 (gdb) info registers rax
281 rax <not saved>
282
283 Before, the former would print "<optimized out>", and the latter
284 "*value not available*".
285
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286* New script contrib/gdb-add-index.sh for adding .gdb_index sections
287 to binaries.
288
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289* Python scripting
290
291 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
f76c27b5 292 ** Temporary breakpoints are now supported.
bc79de95 293 ** Line tables representation has been added.
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294 ** New attribute 'parent_type' for gdb.Field objects.
295 ** gdb.Field objects can be used as subscripts on gdb.Value objects.
c0d48811 296 ** New attribute 'name' for gdb.Type objects.
1e611234 297
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298* New targets
299
300Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
301Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 302Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 303
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304* Removed native configurations
305
306Support for these a.out NetBSD and OpenBSD obsolete configurations has
307been removed. ELF variants of these configurations are kept supported.
308
309arm*-*-netbsd* but arm*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
310i[34567]86-*-netbsd* but i[34567]86-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
311i[34567]86-*-openbsd[0-2].* but i[34567]86-*-openbsd* is kept supported.
312i[34567]86-*-openbsd3.[0-3]
313m68*-*-netbsd* but m68*-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
314sparc-*-netbsd* but sparc-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
315vax-*-netbsd* but vax-*-netbsdelf* is kept supported.
316
bd712aed 317* New commands:
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318catch rethrow
319 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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320maint check-psymtabs
321 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
322maint check-symtabs
323 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
324maint expand-symtabs
325 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 326
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327show configuration
328 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
329
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330maint set|show per-command
331maint set|show per-command space
332maint set|show per-command time
333maint set|show per-command symtab
334 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
335
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336remove-symbol-file FILENAME
337remove-symbol-file -a ADDRESS
338 Remove a symbol file added via add-symbol-file. The file to remove
339 can be identified by its filename or by an address that lies within
340 the boundaries of this symbol file in memory.
341
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342info exceptions
343info exceptions REGEXP
344 Display the list of Ada exceptions defined in the program being
345 debugged. If provided, only the exceptions whose names match REGEXP
346 are listed.
347
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348* New options
349
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350set debug symfile off|on
351show debug symfile
352 Control display of debugging info regarding reading symbol files and
353 symbol tables within those files
354
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355set print raw frame-arguments
356show print raw frame-arguments
357 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
358 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
359
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360set remote trace-status-packet
361show remote trace-status-packet
362 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
363
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364set debug nios2
365show debug nios2
366 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
367
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368set range-stepping
369show range-stepping
370 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
371
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372set startup-with-shell
373show startup-with-shell
374 Specifies whether Unix child processes are started via a shell or
375 directly.
376
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377set code-cache
378show code-cache
379 Use the target memory cache for accesses to the code segment. This
380 improves performance of remote debugging (particularly disassembly).
381
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382* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
383 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
384 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
385 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
386 "set height 0".
387
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388* The "set debug symtab-create" debugging option of GDB has been changed to
389 accept a verbosity level. 0 means "off", 1 provides basic debugging
390 output, and values of 2 or greater provides more verbose output.
391
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392* New command-line options
393--configuration
394 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
395
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396* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
397 buffer in Common Trace Format.
398
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399* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
400 GDB command gcore.
401
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402* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
403
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404* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
405 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
406
407* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
408 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
409
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410* The new convenience variable $_exitsignal is automatically set to
411 the terminating signal number when the program being debugged dies
412 due to an uncaught signal.
413
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414* MI changes
415
403cb6b1 416 ** All MI commands now accept an optional "--language" option.
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417 Support for this feature can be verified by using the "-list-features"
418 command, which should contain "language-option".
403cb6b1 419
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420 ** The new command -info-gdb-mi-command allows the user to determine
421 whether a GDB/MI command is supported or not.
422
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423 ** The "^error" result record returned when trying to execute an undefined
424 GDB/MI command now provides a variable named "code" whose content is the
425 "undefined-command" error code. Support for this feature can be verified
426 by using the "-list-features" command, which should contain
427 "undefined-command-error-code".
428
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429 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
430 Trace Format now.
431
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432 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
433
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434 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
435 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
436 are displayed.
437
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438 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
439 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
440
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441 ** The commands -stack-list-locals, -stack-list-arguments and
442 -stack-list-variables now accept an option "--skip-unavailable".
443 When used, only the available locals or arguments are displayed.
444
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445 ** The -exec-run command now accepts an optional "--start" option.
446 When used, the command follows the same semantics as the "start"
447 command, stopping the program's execution at the start of its
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448 main subprogram. Support for this feature can be verified using
449 the "-list-features" command, which should contain
450 "exec-run-start-option".
5713b9b5 451
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452 ** The new commands -catch-assert and -catch-exceptions insert
453 catchpoints stopping the program when Ada exceptions are raised.
454
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455 ** The new command -info-ada-exceptions provides the equivalent of
456 the new "info exceptions" command.
457
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458* New system-wide configuration scripts
459 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
460 configuration scripts for the following systems:
461 ** ElinOS
462 ** Wind River Linux
463
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464* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
465 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
466 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
467 below.
468
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469* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
470 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
471
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472* On S/390 targets that provide the transactional-execution feature,
473 the program interruption transaction diagnostic block (TDB) is now
474 represented as a number of additional "registers" in GDB.
475
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476* New remote packets
477
478vCont;r
479
480 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
481 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
482 involvemement at each single-step.
483
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484qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
485 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
486 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
487 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
488 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
489 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
490 speedup.
491
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492* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
493
494 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
495 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
496
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497 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
498 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
499 trace state variables.
500
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501 ** GDBserver now supports hardware watchpoints on the MIPS GNU/Linux
502 target.
503
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504* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
505 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
506
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507* GDB can now use Windows x64 unwinding data.
508
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509* The "set remotebaud" command has been replaced by "set serial baud".
510 Similarly, "show remotebaud" has been replaced by "show serial baud".
511 The "set remotebaud" and "show remotebaud" commands are still available
512 to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
513
2d450646 514*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 515
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516* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
517 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
518 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
519 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
520
521set|show record full insn-number-max
522set|show record full stop-at-limit
523set|show record full memory-query
524
525* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
526 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
527 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
528 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
529 This new recording method can be enabled using:
530
531record btrace
532
533 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
534 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
535
536* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
537 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
538 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
539
540record instruction-history prints the execution history at
541 instruction granularity
542
543record function-call-history prints the execution history at
544 function granularity
545
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546* New native configurations
547
51d66578 548ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 549FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 550x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 551Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 552
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553* New targets
554
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555ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
556ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 557Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 558x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 559Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 560
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561* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
562 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
563 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
564 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
565 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
566 --data-directory command-line option.
567
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568* New command line options:
569
570-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
571 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
572
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573* Removed command line options
574
575-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
576 Emacs.
577
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578* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
579 type formatting.
580
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581* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
582
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583* Python scripting
584
585 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
586
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587 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
588
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589 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
590
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591 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
592
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SCR
593 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
594 of architecture in the Python API.
595
596 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
597 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
598
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DE
599* New Python-based convenience functions:
600
601 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
602 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
603 ** $_strlen(str)
604 ** $_regex(str, regex)
605
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JK
606* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
607 given an argument.
608
1605ef26
TT
609* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
610 default for GCC since November 2000.
611
504b36fd
YQ
612* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
613
f2a8bc8a
YQ
614* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
615 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
616
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JB
617* New configure options
618
619--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
620 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
621 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
622 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
623 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
624 options allow the user to override that default.
393fd4c3
YQ
625--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
626 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
627 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 628
d6b28940
TT
629* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
630
ab04a2af
TT
631catch signal
632 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
633 conditions to be attached.
634
d6b28940
TT
635maint info bfds
636 List the BFDs known to GDB.
637
8315665e
YPK
638python-interactive [command]
639pi [command]
640 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
641 and print the result of expressions.
642
643py [command]
644 "py" is a new alias for "python".
645
18a9fc12
TT
646enable type-printer [name]...
647disable type-printer [name]...
648 Enable or disable type printers.
649
aa9259cc
TS
650* Removed commands
651
652 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
653 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
654 instead.
655
53342f27
TT
656* New options
657
658set print type methods (on|off)
659show print type methods
660 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
661 The default is to show them.
662
663set print type typedefs (on|off)
664show print type typedefs
665 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
666 The default is to show them.
667
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JK
668set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
669show filename-display
670 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
671 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
672
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673set trace-buffer-size
674show trace-buffer-size
675 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
676
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677set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
678show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
679 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
680
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681set debug aarch64
682show debug aarch64
683 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
684 The default is off.
685
686set debug coff-pe-read
687show debug coff-pe-read
688 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
689 exported symbols.
690
691set debug mach-o
692show debug mach-o
693 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
694 processing.
695
696set debug notification
697show debug notification
698 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
699
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YQ
700* MI changes
701
702 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
703 "=cmd-param-changed".
201b4506
YQ
704 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
705 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
134a2066
YQ
706 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
707 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
708 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
82a90ccf
YQ
709 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
710 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
8de0566d
YQ
711 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
712 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 713 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 714 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
62747a60
TT
715 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
716 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
3fa7bf06
MG
717 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
718 library load/unload events.
f2a8bc8a
YQ
719 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
720 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
721 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
f5911ea1
HAQ
722 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
723 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
724 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
ec83d211
JK
725 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
726 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 727
608e2dbb
TT
728* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
729 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
730 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
731 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
732
f6f899bf
HAQ
733* New remote packets
734
735QTBuffer:size
736 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
737 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
738
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MM
739Qbtrace:bts
740 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
741 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
742 qSupported query.
743
744Qbtrace:off
745 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
746 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
747
748qXfer:btrace:read
749 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
750 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
751
80c8d323 752*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 753
1b3371b1
L
754* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
755 for more x32 ABI info.
756
d0e64392
MR
757* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
758
4cc0665f
MR
759* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
760
85d4a676
SS
761* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
762 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
763 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
764 "info os files" lists file descriptors
765 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
766 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
767 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
768 "info os msg" lists message queues
769 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
770
55aa24fb
SDJ
771* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
772 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
773 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
774 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
775 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
776 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
777
72508ac0
PO
778* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
779 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
780 record/replay support.
781
16899756
DE
782* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
783
4795f398
DE
784* Python scripting
785
7d74f244
DE
786 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
787 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
788
4795f398
DE
789 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
790
50897289
TT
791 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
792 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
793
64e7d9dd
TT
794 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
795
796 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
797 the source at which the symbol was defined.
798
f0823d2c
TT
799 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
800 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
801 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
802 symbol's value.
803
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SCR
804 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
805 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
806
a20ee7a4
SCR
807 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
808 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
809 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
810
7efc75aa
SCR
811 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
812 object associated with a PC value.
813
ee0bf529
SCR
814 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
815 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
816
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DE
817* Go language support.
818 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
819 language.
820
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DE
821* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
822 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
823
217bff3e
JK
824* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
825 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
826
cafec441
TT
827* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
828 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
829 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
830 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
831 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
832 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
833
4aac40c8
TT
834* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
835 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
836 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
837 build/libcpp/expr.c.
838
d99bd577
UW
839* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
840 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
841
53fe1783
GB
842* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
843 since December 2007.
844
e41eec66
JB
845* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
846 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
847 command does. For instance:
848
849 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
850
851 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
852 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
853 created, using the "condition" command.
854
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YQ
855* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
856 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
857
481860b3
GB
858* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
859
860* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
861 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
862 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
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DE
863 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
864 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
865 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
866 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
867 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 868
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DE
869 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
870 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
871 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
872 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
873 the .gdb_index section.
874
927fbba6
JB
875* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
876
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YQ
877* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
878 target.
879
f3e0e960
SS
880* MI changes
881
882 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
883
37ce89eb
SS
884 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
885
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TT
886* New commands
887
e615022a
DE
888 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
889 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
890 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
891
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TT
892 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
893 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
894
816338b5
SS
895 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
896 several hits.
897
57651221 898 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
c4aeac85
TT
899 C++ and Java objects.
900
06fc020f 901 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
6ea71545 902 can be used to recursively explore values and types of
06fc020f
SCR
903 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
904 configured with '--with-python'.
905
bf88dd68
JK
906 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
907 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
908 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
909 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
910 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
911 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
912 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
913
914 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
915 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
916 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
917 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
918
e7e0cddf
SS
919 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
920 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
921 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
922 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
923
9cb709b6
TT
924 ** "set print symbol"
925 "show print symbol"
926 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
927 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
928 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
929
2d4c29c5
TS
930* Deprecated commands
931
932 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
933 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
934
a58b110a
KB
935* New targets
936
937Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 938HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 939
72895ff6
LM
940* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
941 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
942 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
943 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
944 evaluates to true.
945
946* New options
947
4cc0665f
MR
948set mips compression
949show mips compression
950 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
951 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
952 mips16
953 micromips
954 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
955
72895ff6
LM
956set breakpoint condition-evaluation
957show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 958 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
5b43fab2
JK
959 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
960 available mode.
72895ff6
LM
961 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
962 target.
963
bf88dd68
JK
964set auto-load off
965 Disable auto-loading globally.
966
967show auto-load
968 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
969
970set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
971show auto-load gdb-scripts
972 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
973
974set auto-load python-scripts on|off
975show auto-load python-scripts
976 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
977
978set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
979show auto-load local-gdbinit
980 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
981
982set auto-load libthread-db on|off
983show auto-load libthread-db
984 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
985
7349ff92 986set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 987show auto-load scripts-directory
7349ff92
JK
988 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
989 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
990 of the directories listed by this option.
991 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
992
bccbefd2
JK
993set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
994show auto-load safe-path
995 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
996 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
997
4dc84fd1
JK
998set debug auto-load on|off
999show debug auto-load
1000 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
1001
d3ce09f5 1002set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 1003show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
1004 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
1005 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
1006 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
1007 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
1008
1009set dprintf-function <expr>
1010show dprintf-function
1011set dprintf-channel <expr>
1012show dprintf-channel
1013 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
1014 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
1015
d3ce09f5
SS
1016set disconnected-dprintf on|off
1017show disconnected-dprintf
1018 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
1019 after GDB disconnects.
1020
6dea1fbd
JK
1021* New configure options
1022
7349ff92
JK
1023--with-auto-load-dir
1024 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
1025 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
1026 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
1027 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
1028 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 1029
6dea1fbd
JK
1030--with-auto-load-safe-path
1031 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 1032 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
1033
1034--without-auto-load-safe-path
1035 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
1036 security feature.
1037
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LM
1038* New remote packets
1039
74c48cbb
PA
1040z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
1041
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LM
1042 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
1043 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
1044 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
1045 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
1046
9b224c5e
PA
1047QProgramSignals:
1048
1049 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
1050 program without GDB involvement.
1051
8320cc4f
JK
1052* New command line options
1053
1054--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
1055 before loading inferior.
1056--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
1057 execute it before loading inferior.
1058
8837a20f
JB
1059*** Changes in GDB 7.4
1060
f8eba3c6
TT
1061* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
1062 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
1063 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
1064 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
1065 inferior changes.
1066
1bfeeb0f
JL
1067* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
1068 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
1069
480a3f21
PW
1070* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
1071 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
1072 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
1073 target hardware watchpoint.
1074
1075 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
1076 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
1077 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
1078 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
1079
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PM
1080* Python scripting
1081
32d1c362 1082 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 1083 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
1084 existing one.
1085
3a7bf607 1086 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
1087 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
1088 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
1089 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
1090 now "message", which just prints the error message without
1091 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 1092
baacfb07 1093 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 1094 Python API.
713389e0 1095
fa3a4f15
PM
1096 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
1097 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 1098 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
1099 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
1100 corresponding value.
1101
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PM
1102 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
1103 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
1104 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
1105 on GDB start-up.
1106
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PM
1107 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
1108 static_block will return the global and static blocks
1109 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
1110 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
1111
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DE
1112 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
1113
6839b47f
KP
1114 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
1115 "gdb.breakpoints".
1116
cc72b2a2
KP
1117 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
1118 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
1119 available in the CLI.
1120
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PK
1121 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
1122 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
1123 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
1124 "some_type.items()".
1125
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KP
1126 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
1127 new object file.
1128
03c3051a
PK
1129 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
1130 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
1131 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
1132 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
1133 any anonymous fields.
1134
7376e450
TT
1135* MI changes
1136
1137 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
1138 "solib-event".
1139
1140 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
1141 "=breakpoint-modified".
1142
1143 ** New command -ada-task-info.
1144
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DE
1145* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
1146 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
1147 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
1148 lives.
1149
1150 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
1151 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
1152 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
1153 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
1154 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
1155
1156 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
1157 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
1158
478aac75
DE
1159* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
1160 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
1161 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
1162 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
1163 use this option to specify where to find it.
1164
9c06b0b4
TJB
1165* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1166 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
1167 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
1168 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
1169 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
1170 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1171 section in the user manual for more details.
1172
03f2bd59
JK
1173* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
1174 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
1175 become available after that.
1176
71eba9c2 1177* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 1178
2bda9cc5
JK
1179* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
1180 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
1181 gcc version 4.7.
1182
ed59ded5
DE
1183* New commands
1184
1185!SHELL COMMAND
1186 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
1187 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
1188
9c06b0b4
TJB
1189* Changed commands
1190
1191watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
1192 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
1193 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
1194
dbaefcf7
DE
1195info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
1196 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
1197 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
1198
71eba9c2 1199info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
1200 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
1201 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
1202 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
1203 name starts with a hyphen.
1204
3065dfb6
SS
1205collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
1206 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
1207 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
1208 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
1209 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
1210 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
1211 number of bytes that will be collected.
1212
f196051f
SS
1213tstart [NOTES]
1214 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
1215 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
1216 setting the variable trace-notes.
1217
1218tstop [NOTES]
1219 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
1220 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
1221 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
1222 trace-stop-notes.
1223
d248b706
KY
1224* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
1225 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
1226 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
1227 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
1228 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
1229 is running.
1230
405f8e94
SS
1231* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
1232 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
1233 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
1234
2bda9cc5
JK
1235* New options
1236
45cfd468
DE
1237set debug dwarf2-read
1238show debug dwarf2-read
1239 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
1240 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
1241
1242set debug symtab-create
1243show debug symtab-create
1244 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
1245 creation. The default is off.
1246
baacfb07
PM
1247set extended-prompt
1248show extended-prompt
1249 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
1250 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
1251 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
1252 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
1253 prompt is displayed.
1254
2bda9cc5
JK
1255set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
1256show print entry-values
1257 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
1258 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
1259 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
1260
1261set debug entry-values
1262show debug entry-values
1263 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
1264 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
1265
c011a4f4
DE
1266set basenames-may-differ
1267show basenames-may-differ
1268 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
1269 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
1270 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
1271 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
1272 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
1273 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
1274 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
1275 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
1276
f196051f
SS
1277set trace-user
1278show trace-user
1279set trace-notes
1280show trace-notes
1281 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
1282 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
1283 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
1284 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
1285
1286set trace-stop-notes
1287show trace-stop-notes
1288 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
1289 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
1290 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
1291 started by someone else.
1292
d248b706
KY
1293* New remote packets
1294
1295QTEnable
1296
1297 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1298
1299QTDisable
1300
1301 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
1302
f196051f
SS
1303QTNotes
1304
1305 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
1306
1307qTP
1308
1309 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
1310
405f8e94
SS
1311qTMinFTPILen
1312
1313 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
1314 be placed.
1315
1a532630
PP
1316* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
1317 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
1318
11315641
YQ
1319* New targets
1320
1321Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
1322
87326c78
DD
1323* New Simulators
1324
1325Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
1326
e8d56f18
JB
1327*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
1328
1329* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
1330
d6e00af6 1331*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 1332
60f98dde
MS
1333* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
1334 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
1335 matches the given regular expression.
1336
eee5b35e
DD
1337* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
1338
b716877b
AB
1339* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
1340 dumping the instruction opcodes.
1341
aae1c79a
DE
1342* New command line options
1343
1344-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
1345 This is mostly for testing purposes.
1346
a86caf66
DE
1347* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
1348 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
1349
99e7ae30
DE
1350* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
1351 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
1352 source path list instead of augmenting it.
1353
4694da01
TT
1354* GDB now understands thread names.
1355
1356 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
1357 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
1358
1359 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
1360 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
1361
f4b8a18d
KW
1362* OpenCL C
1363 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
1364 has been integrated into GDB.
1365
585d1eb8
PM
1366* Python scripting
1367
da5d4055
PM
1368 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
1369 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
1370 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
1371
9a6f1302
PM
1372 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1373 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
1374 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
1375 and allows for more dynamic content.
1376
29703da4
PM
1377 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
1378 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
1379 have an is_valid method.
1380
350c6c65
PM
1381 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1382 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1383 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1384
6e6fbe60
DE
1385 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1386
585d1eb8
PM
1387 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1388 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1389 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1390 that function like so:
1391
1392 result = some_value (10,20)
1393
0e3509db
DE
1394 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1395 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1396 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1397
7b51bc51
DE
1398 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1399 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1400 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1401 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1402 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1403
1404 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1405 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1406
99e7ae30
DE
1407 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1408
d8e22779
TT
1409 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1410 selected thread.
1411
4694da01
TT
1412 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1413 holds the thread's name.
1414
505500db
SW
1415 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1416 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1417 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1418 The following events are currently supported:
1419 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1420 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1421 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1422
def98928
TT
1423* C++ Improvements:
1424
1425 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1426 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1427
1428 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1429
1430 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1431 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1432 was added to GCC 4.5.
1433
66cb8159
TT
1434 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1435 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1436 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1437 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1438 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1439 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1440
4aac0db7
UW
1441* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1442 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1443 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1444 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1445 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1446
283e6a52
TT
1447* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1448 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1449 execution to a label.
1450
1451* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1452 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1453 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1454 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1455
b56df873 1456* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1457 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1458 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1459 of scope.
1460
ae53ffa4
PA
1461* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1462
1463 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1464 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1465 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1466 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1467 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1468 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1469
1470 (gdb) info threads
1471 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1472
1473 While now you see this:
1474
1475 (gdb) info threads
1476 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1477
1478 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1479 dumps.
1480
1481 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1482 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1483 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1484 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1485
f1310107
TJB
1486* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1487 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1488 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1489 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1490 section in the user manual for more details.
1491
248c9dbc
JB
1492* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1493
1aee7009
JB
1494 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1495 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1496
eb826dc6
MF
1497 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1498
44603653
JB
1499* New native configurations
1500
1501ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1502
91021223
MF
1503* New targets:
1504
1505Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1506
6e1bb179
JB
1507* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1508 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1509 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1510 in the GDB user manual.
1511
50c97f38
TT
1512* Guile support was removed.
1513
448a92bf
MF
1514* New features in the GNU simulator
1515
1516 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1517
66ee2731
MF
1518 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1519
76b8507d 1520*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1521
ba25b921
PA
1522* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1523
1524 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1525 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1526 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1527 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1528 was always disabled for such configurations.
1529
4656f5c6
SW
1530* C++ Improvements:
1531
1532 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1533
1534 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1535 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1536 For example:
1537 namespace A
1538 {
1539 class B { };
1540 void foo (B) { }
1541 }
1542 ...
1543 A::B b
1544 foo(b)
1545 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1546 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1547 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1548
1549 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1550
1551 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1552 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1553 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1554 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1555 entry.
1556 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1557 mentioned flavors of operators.
1558
254e6b9e
DE
1559 ** static const class members
1560
1561 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1562 class definition has been fixed.
1563
711e434b
PM
1564* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1565
1566 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1567 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1568 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1569 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1570 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1571 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1572
0fb4aa4b
PA
1573* Static tracepoints
1574
1575 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1576 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1577 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1578 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1579 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1580 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1581 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1582 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1583 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1584 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1585 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1586 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1587 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1588 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1589 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1590 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1591 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1592 the "New remote packets" section below.
1593
ca11e899
SS
1594* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1595
1596 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1597 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1598 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1599 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1600
1601* Observer mode
1602
1603 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1604 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1605 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1606 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1607 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1608 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1609 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1610
1611* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1612 current thread.
1613
711e434b
PM
1614* New remote packets
1615
1616qGetTIBAddr
1617
1618 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1619
dde08ee1
PA
1620qRelocInsn
1621
1622 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1623 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1624 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1625 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1626 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1627 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1628
0fb4aa4b
PA
1629qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1630
1631 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1632
1633qTSTMat
1634
1635 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1636 program.
1637
1638qXfer:statictrace:read
1639
1640 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1641 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1642 to gdb's qSupported query.
1643
ca11e899
SS
1644QAllow
1645
1646 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1647
1648QTDPsrc
1649
1650 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1651 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1652
3f7b2faa
DE
1653* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1654 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1655 a directory.
1656
d337e9f0
PA
1657* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1658
0fb4aa4b
PA
1659 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1660 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1661 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1662 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1663
1664 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1665 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1666 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1667 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1668 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1669 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1670 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1671
1672 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1673 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1674
c24d0242
PM
1675 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1676
c8d5aac9
L
1677* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1678 it understands register description.
1679
7c953934
TT
1680* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1681
8685c86f
L
1682* X86 general purpose registers
1683
1684 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1685 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1686 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1687 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1688 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1689
95a42b64 1690* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1691 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1692 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1693 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1694 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1695 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1696
8bd10a10
CM
1697* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1698 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1699 in the specified file.
1700
ab38a727
PA
1701* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1702 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1703 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1704 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1705 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1706 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1707 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1708 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1709 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1710 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1711
6149aea9
PA
1712* New commands
1713
f1421989
HZ
1714eval template, expressions...
1715 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1716 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1717
ab38a727
PA
1718set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1719show target-file-system-kind
1720 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1721 names.
1722
6149aea9
PA
1723save breakpoints <filename>
1724 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1725 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1726 definitions, use the `source' command.
1727
1728`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1729is now deprecated.
1730
0fb4aa4b
PA
1731info static-tracepoint-markers
1732 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1733
1734strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1735 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1736 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1737
ca11e899
SS
1738set observer on|off
1739show observer
1740 Enable and disable observer mode.
1741
1742set may-write-registers on|off
1743set may-write-memory on|off
1744set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1745set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1746set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1747set may-interrupt on|off
1748 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1749 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1750 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1751 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1752 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1753 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1754 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1755
1756set record memory-query on|off
1757show record memory-query
1758 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1759 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1760
53a71c06
CR
1761* Changed commands
1762
1763disassemble
1764 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1765
f3e9a817
PM
1766* Python scripting
1767
9279c692
JB
1768** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1769 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1770 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1771 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1772 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1773
adc36818 1774** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1775 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1776 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1777 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1778
fa33c3cd 1779** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1780 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1781
1782** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1783
1784** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1785
967cf477
DE
1786** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1787
8a1ea21f
DE
1788** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1789 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1790 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1791
a7bdde9e
VP
1792* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1793there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1794tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1795regular breakpoints.
1796
05071a4d
PA
1797* New targets
1798
1799ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1800
6aecb9c2
JB
1801* D language support.
1802 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1803 language.
1804
431e49aa
TJB
1805* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1806 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1807 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1808 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1809 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1810
1811* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1812 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1813 conditions of the form:
1814
1815 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1816
1817 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1818 interface mentioned above.
1819
bfbf3774 1820*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1821
4eef138c
TT
1822* C++ Improvements
1823
1824 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1825
1826 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1827 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1828 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1829 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1830 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1831
4eef138c
TT
1832 ** Bug Fixes
1833
1834 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1835 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1836 qualified name.
1837
1838 ** Cast Operators
1839
1840 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1841 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1842
2d1c1221
ME
1843* New targets
1844
1845Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1846Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1847
1848* New Simulators
1849
1850Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1851Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1852
6c95b8df
PA
1853* Multi-program debugging.
1854
1855 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1856 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1857 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1858 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1859 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1860 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1861 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1862 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1863
d5551862
SS
1864* New tracing features
1865
1866 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1867
1868 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1869
1870 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1871 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1872 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1873 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1874 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1875 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1876 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1877 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1878 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1879 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1880
d5551862 1881 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1882
1883 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1884 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1885 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1886 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1887 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1888 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1889 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1890 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1891 the regular trace command.
1892
d5551862
SS
1893 ** Disconnected tracing
1894
1895 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1896 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1897 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1898 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1899 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1900
00bf0b85
SS
1901 ** Trace files
1902
1903 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1904 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1905 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1906 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1907 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1908 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1909 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1910
1911 ** Circular trace buffer
1912
1913 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1914 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1915 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1916 not be available for all target agents.
1917
21a0512e
PP
1918* Changed commands
1919
1920disassemble
1921 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1922 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1923
0fe7935b
DJ
1924info variables
1925 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1926 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1927
fb2e7cb4
JB
1928source
1929 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1930 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1931 support.
1932
1933 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1934 "set script-extension" (see below).
1935
6c95b8df
PA
1936* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1937
399cd161
MS
1938record save [<FILENAME>]
1939 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1940 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1941
1942record restore <FILENAME>
1943 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1944 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1945
6c95b8df
PA
1946add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1947 Add a new inferior.
1948
1949clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1950 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1951 inferior has loaded.
1952
1953remove-inferior ID
1954 Remove an inferior.
1955
1956maint info program-spaces
1957 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1958
9a7071a8
JB
1959set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1960show remote interrupt-sequence
1961 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1962 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1963 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1964 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1965 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1966
1967set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1968show remote interrupt-on-connect
1969 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1970 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1971 Linux kernel.
1972
1973set remotebreak [on | off]
1974show remotebreak
1975Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1976
f61e138d
SS
1977tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1978 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1979
1980info tvariables
1981 List trace state variables and their values.
1982
1983delete tvariable $NAME ...
1984 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1985
6da95a67
SS
1986teval EXPR, ...
1987 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1988 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1989
7a697b8d
SS
1990ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1991 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1992
b0f02ee9
JK
1993* New expression syntax
1994
1995 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1996 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1997
6c95b8df
PA
1998* New options
1999
2000set follow-exec-mode new|same
2001show follow-exec-mode
2002 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
2003 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
2004 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
2005
236f1d4d
SS
2006set default-collect EXPR, ...
2007show default-collect
2008 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
2009 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
2010 such as registers or a critical global variable.
2011
d5551862
SS
2012set disconnected-tracing
2013show disconnected-tracing
2014 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
2015 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
2016 upon disconnection.
2017
4daf5ac0
SS
2018set circular-trace-buffer
2019show circular-trace-buffer
2020 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
2021 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
2022 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
2023 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
2024
fb2e7cb4
JB
2025set script-extension off|soft|strict
2026show script-extension
2027 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
2028 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
2029 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
2030 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
2031 evaluation failed.
2032 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
2033
2b71fc8e
JB
2034set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
2035show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
2036 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
2037 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
2038 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
2039 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
2040 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
2041 is on.
2042
de2e5182
TT
2043* Python API Improvements
2044
2045 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
2046 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
2047 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
2048
2049 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
2050 `is_base_class' attribute.
2051
2052 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
2053
2054 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
2055 evaluate an expression.
2056
f61e138d
SS
2057* New remote packets
2058
2059QTDV
2060 Define a trace state variable.
2061
2062qTV
2063 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
2064
d5551862
SS
2065QTDisconnected
2066 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
2067
4daf5ac0
SS
2068QTBuffer:circular
2069 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
2070
d5551862
SS
2071qTfP, qTsP
2072 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
2073
2d483d34
MS
2074* Bug fixes
2075
2076Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
2077
6e0e5977
JB
2078Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
2079much more reliable. In particular:
2080 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
2081 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
2082 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
2083 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
2084 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
2085 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
2086 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
2087 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
2088 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
2089 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
2090 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
2091 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
2092 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
2093 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
2094 non-threaded programs.
2095
93c26624
JK
2096PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
2097This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
2098libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
2099executable program.
2100
abc7453d 2101*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 2102
4efc6507
DE
2103* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
2104dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
2105them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
2106for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
2107"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
2108
782b2b07
SS
2109* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
2110breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
2111or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
2112the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
2113for tracepoint actions.
2114
53a71c06
CR
2115* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
2116raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
2117modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 2118
e7a8dbfb
HZ
2119* Process record and replay
2120
2121 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
2122 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
2123 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
2124 execute commands.
2125
64644d9b
MS
2126* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
2127step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
2128set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
2129reverse execution.
2130
b9412953
DD
2131* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
2132feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
21332.6.28 or later.
2134
6c7a06a3
TT
2135* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
2136target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
2137char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
2138literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
2139U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
2140`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
2141system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
2142the installation instructions for more information.
2143
f1838a98
UW
2144* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
2145remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
2146with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
2147the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
2148
55333a84
DE
2149* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
2150and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
2151
7f6a6314
PM
2152* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
2153now complete on file names.
2154
65d12d83
TT
2155* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
2156completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
2157For instance, consider:
2158
2159 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
2160 # struct example variable;
2161 (gdb) p variable.
2162
2163If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
2164completions will be "f1" and "f2".
2165
edb3359d
DJ
2166* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
2167the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
2168
2fae03e8
TT
2169* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
2170operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
2171macros.
2172
47a3467a 2173* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
2174the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
2175implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
2176
2177* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
2178registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
2179can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
2180and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 2181
08388c79
DE
2182* New remote packets
2183
2184qSearch:memory:
2185 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2186
a6f3e723
SL
2187QStartNoAckMode
2188 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
2189 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
2190 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
2191
d7713ae0
EZ
2192vKill
2193 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
2194 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
2195
07e059b5
VP
2196qXfer:osdata:read
2197 Obtains additional operating system information
2198
47a3467a
PA
2199qXfer:siginfo:read
2200qXfer:siginfo:write
2201 Read or write additional signal information.
2202
060871df
PA
2203* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
2204
2205 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
2206 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
2207 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
2208
c055b101 2209* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 2210DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
2211
2212* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
2213and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
2214`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 2215
31fffb02
CS
2216* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
2217with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
2218
88d8a8e0
JB
2219* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
2220
7f99b190
JB
2221* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
2222
ccd213ac
DJ
2223* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
2224which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
2225
1fddbabb 2226* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 2227list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 2228
a0ef4274
DJ
2229* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
2230conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
2231have also been fixed.
2232
bfb8797a 2233* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
2234From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
2235are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 2236
71c25dea
TT
2237* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
2238example, given:
2239
2240 template<typename T> class C { };
2241 C<char const *> c;
2242
2243GDB will now correctly handle all of:
2244
2245 ptype C<char const *>
2246 ptype C<char const*>
2247 ptype C<const char *>
2248 ptype C<const char*>
2249
ccd213ac
DJ
2250* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
2251
2252 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
2253 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
2254
7ae0e2a2
UW
2255 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
2256 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2257 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
2258
a6f3e723
SL
2259 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
2260 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
2261
da8bd9a3
DJ
2262 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
2263 gdbserver.
2264
d70e31dd
DE
2265 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
2266 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
2267
2268 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
2269 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
2270 as appropriate.
2271
d57a3c85
TJB
2272* Python scripting
2273
2274 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
2275 available is determined at configure time.
2276
d8906c6f
TJB
2277 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
2278
aadc346a
JB
2279* Ada tasking support
2280
2281 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
2282 been introduced:
2283
2284 info tasks
2285 Print the list of Ada tasks.
2286 info task N
2287 Print detailed information about task number N.
2288 task
2289 Print the task number of the current task.
2290 task N
2291 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
2292
adb483fe
DJ
2293* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
2294add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
2295
2277426b
PA
2296* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
2297
2298 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
2299 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
2300 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
2301 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
2302 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
2303 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
2304 below.
2305
08d16641
PA
2306* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
2307"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
2308information.
2309
e35359c5
UW
2310* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
2311to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
2312architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
2313See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
2314more information.
2315
85e747d2
UW
2316* Multi-architecture debugging.
2317
2318 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
2319 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
2320 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
2321 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
2322 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
2323
2324* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
2325use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
2326Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
2327powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
2328--enable-targets configure option.
2329
11ade57a
PA
2330* Non-stop mode debugging.
2331
2332 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
2333 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
2334 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
2335 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
2336 section in the user manual for more information.
2337
2338 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
2339 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
2340 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
2341 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
2342 extensions on linux targets.
2343
d7713ae0 2344* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 2345
a96d9b2e
SDJ
2346catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
2347 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
2348 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
2349 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
2350 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
2351 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
2352 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
2353 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
2354 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
2355
08388c79
DE
2356find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
2357 val1 [, val2, ...]
2358 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
2359
d57a3c85
TJB
2360maint set python print-stack
2361maint show python print-stack
2362 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
2363
2364python [CODE]
2365 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
2366
d7713ae0
EZ
2367macro define
2368macro list
2369macro undef
2370 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
2371 interactively.
2372
2373info os processes
2374 Show operating system information about processes.
2375
2277426b
PA
2376info inferiors
2377 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
2378
2379inferior NUM
2380 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2381
2382detach inferior NUM
2383 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2384
2385kill inferior NUM
2386 Kill inferior number NUM.
2387
d7713ae0
EZ
2388* New options
2389
3285f3fe
UW
2390set spu stop-on-load
2391show spu stop-on-load
2392 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2393
ff1a52c6
UW
2394set spu auto-flush-cache
2395show spu auto-flush-cache
2396 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2397 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2398
d7713ae0
EZ
2399set sh calling-convention
2400show sh calling-convention
2401 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2402
e0a3ce09 2403set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2404show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2405 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2406
2407set disassemble-next-line
2408show disassemble-next-line
2409 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2410 the debuggee stops.
2411
2412set remote noack-packet
2413show remote noack-packet
2414 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2415 under "New remote packets."
2416
2417set remote query-attached-packet
2418show remote query-attached-packet
2419 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2420
2421set remote read-siginfo-object
2422show remote read-siginfo-object
2423 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2424 packet.
2425
2426set remote write-siginfo-object
2427show remote write-siginfo-object
2428 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2429 packet.
2430
40ab02ce
MS
2431set remote reverse-continue
2432show remote reverse-continue
2433 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2434
2435set remote reverse-step
2436show remote reverse-step
2437 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2438
d7713ae0
EZ
2439set displaced-stepping
2440show displaced-stepping
2441 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2442 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2443 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2444
2445set debug displaced
2446show debug displaced
2447 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2448
2449maint set internal-error
2450maint show internal-error
2451 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2452
2453maint set internal-warning
2454maint show internal-warning
2455 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2456
ccd213ac
DJ
2457set exec-wrapper
2458show exec-wrapper
2459unset exec-wrapper
2460 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2461
aad4b048
JB
2462set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2463show multiple-symbols
2464 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2465 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2466 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2467
74960c60
VP
2468set breakpoint always-inserted
2469show breakpoint always-inserted
2470 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2471 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2472 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2473
0428b8f5
DJ
2474set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2475show arm fallback-mode
2476set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2477show arm force-mode
2478 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2479 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2480 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2481 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2482
10568435
JK
2483set disable-randomization
2484show disable-randomization
2485 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2486 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2487 multiple debugging sessions.
2488
d7713ae0
EZ
2489set non-stop
2490show non-stop
2491 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2492 a breakpoint.
2493
b3eb342c 2494set target-async
d7713ae0 2495show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2496 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2497 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2498 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2499 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2500
6c7a06a3
TT
2501set target-wide-charset
2502show target-wide-charset
2503 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2504 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2505
84603566
SL
2506set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2507show tcp auto-retry
2508set tcp connect-timeout
2509show tcp connect-timeout
2510 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2511 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2512 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2513
17a37d48
PP
2514set libthread-db-search-path
2515show libthread-db-search-path
2516 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2517 libthread_db.
2518
d4db2f36
PA
2519set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2520show schedule-multiple
2521 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2522 the current process.
2523
4e5d721f
DE
2524set stack-cache
2525show stack-cache
2526 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2527 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2528 affecting correctness.
2529
910c5da8
JB
2530set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2531show interactive-mode
2532 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2533 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2534 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2535 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2536 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2537
2277426b
PA
2538* Removed commands
2539
2540info forks
2541 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2542 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2543 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2544 command.
2545
2546fork NUM
2547 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2548 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2549 alias for the `fork' command.
2550
2551process PID
2552 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2553 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2554 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2555
2556delete fork NUM
2557 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2558 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2559 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2560 fork' command.
2561
2562detach fork NUM
2563 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2564 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2565 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2566 fork' command.
2567
a80b95ba
TG
2568* New native configurations
2569
2570x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2571
b8bfd3ed
JB
2572x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2573
75a2d5e7
TT
2574* New targets
2575
c28c63d8 2576Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2577x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2578x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2579S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2580
6de3146c
PA
2581* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2582 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2583
d5cbbe6e
JB
2584* Removed commands
2585
2586catch load
2587catch unload
2588 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2589
75feb17d 2590*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2591
af5ca30d
NH
2592* New native configurations
2593
2594NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2595Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2596
2597* New targets
2598
2599NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2600Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2601
7a404eba
PA
2602* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2603
2604 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2605 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2606 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2607 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2608
430ebac9
PA
2609* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2610(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2611
fe6fbf8b 2612* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2613is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2614
2615* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2616including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2617and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2618
10665d76
JB
2619* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2620accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2621more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2622
7cc46491
DJ
2623* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2624
d71340b8
DJ
2625* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2626registers on PowerPC targets.
2627
523c4513
DJ
2628* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2629targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2630
a6b151f1
DJ
2631* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2632commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2633
2d717e4f
DJ
2634* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2635extended-remote mode.
2636
24a836bd 2637* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2638The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2639error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2640The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2641
d0c678e6
UW
2642* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2643building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2644target architectures.
2645
d64a946d
TJB
2646* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2647Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2648now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2649stored in two consecutive float registers.
2650
ee163bf5
VP
2651* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2652breakpoints now.
2653
b93b6ca7 2654* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2655Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2656include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2657 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2658 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2659 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2660 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2661 of an assignment
2662 - Improved command completion in Ada
2663 - Several bug fixes
2664
d001be7a
DJ
2665* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2666process.
2667
a6b151f1
DJ
2668* New commands
2669
6d53d0af
JB
2670set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2671show print frame-arguments
2672 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2673 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2674
a6b151f1
DJ
2675remote put
2676remote get
2677remote delete
2678 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2679
2680* New MI commands
2681
2682-target-file-put
2683-target-file-get
2684-target-file-delete
2685 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2686
2687* New remote packets
2688
2689vFile:open:
2690vFile:close:
2691vFile:pread:
2692vFile:pwrite:
2693vFile:unlink:
2694 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2695
2d717e4f
DJ
2696vAttach
2697 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2698 mode.
2699
2700vRun
2701 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2702
8d5f9c6f 2703*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2704
19d378fc
MS
2705* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2706bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2707Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2708
3a40aaa0
UW
2709* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2710symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2711-Bsymbolic linker option.
2712
a6ec25f2
BW
2713* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2714recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2715is not supported.
2716
6dd09645
JB
2717* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2718frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2719
c9bb8148
DJ
2720* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
272132-bit or 64-bit register values.
2722
0d5de010
DJ
2723* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2724
23181151
DJ
2725* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2726target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2727a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2728
ea37ba09
DJ
2729* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2730automatically displayed as character or string data.
2731
2732* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2733arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2734as strings.
e1f48ead 2735
123dc839
DJ
2736* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2737for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2738only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2739
05a4558a
DJ
2740* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2741iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2742
7c963485
PA
2743* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2744ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2745has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2746
b18be20d
DJ
2747* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2748
0ca420ce
UW
2749* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2750
31d99776
DJ
2751* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2752layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2753segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2754
a4642986
MR
2755* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2756immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2757
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2758* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2759"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2760packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2761where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2762Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2763
2764* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2765(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2766
2767* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2768according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2769
c9bb8148
DJ
2770* New commands
2771
23776285
MR
2772set remoteflow
2773show remoteflow
2774 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2775 when debugging using remote targets.
2776
c9bb8148
DJ
2777set mem inaccessible-by-default
2778show mem inaccessible-by-default
2779 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2780 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2781 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2782 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2783 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2784
2785set breakpoint auto-hw
2786show breakpoint auto-hw
2787 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2788 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2789 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2790 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2791 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2792 including "next" and "finish".
2793
0e420bd8
JB
2794catch exception
2795catch exception unhandled
2796 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2797
2798catch assert
2799 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2800
f822c95b
DJ
2801set sysroot
2802show sysroot
2803 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2804 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2805 an alias to "set sysroot".
2806
83cc5c53
UW
2807info spu
2808 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2809 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2810 architecture.
2811
bd372731
MK
2812* New native configurations
2813
2814OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2815
23181151
DJ
2816set tdesc filename
2817unset tdesc filename
2818show tdesc filename
2819 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2820 not query the target for its built-in description.
2821
c9bb8148
DJ
2822* New targets
2823
54fe9172 2824OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2825MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2826Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2827
6dd09645
JB
2828* New remote packets
2829
2830QPassSignals:
2831 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2832 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2833
23181151
DJ
2834qXfer:features:read:
2835 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2836 features.
6dd09645 2837
83cc5c53
UW
2838qXfer:spu:read:
2839qXfer:spu:write:
2840 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2841 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2842
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2843qXfer:libraries:read:
2844 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2845 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2846 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2847 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2848
483367ee
DJ
2849* Removed targets
2850
2851Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2852
d08950c4
UW
2853alpha*-*-osf1*
2854alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2855d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2856hppa*-*-hiux*
2857i[34567]86-ncr-*
2858i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2859i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2860i[34567]86-*-netware*
2861i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2862i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2863i[34567]86-*-sco*
2864i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2865i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2866i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2867i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2868i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2869i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2870i[34567]86-*-isc*
2871m68*-cisco*-*
2872m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2873mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2874rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2875sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2876
7ce59000
DJ
2877* Other removed features
2878
2879target abug
2880target cpu32bug
2881target est
2882target rom68k
2883
2884 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2885
ea35711c
DJ
2886target hms
2887target e7000
2888target sh3
2889target sh3e
2890
2891 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2892 H8/300.
2893
2894target ocd
2895
2896 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2897 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2898 interfaces.
2899
7ce59000
DJ
2900DWARF 1 support
2901
2902 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2903 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2904
54d61198
DJ
2905Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2906
2907 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2908 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2909 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2910 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2911
ea35711c
DJ
2912MIPS ".pdr" sections
2913
2914 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2915 in debugging information.
2916
2917Scheme support
2918
2919 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2920 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2921
1a69e1e4
DJ
2922set mips stack-arg-size
2923set mips saved-gpreg-size
2924
2925 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2926
6dd09645 2927*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2928
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2929* New targets
2930
2931Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2932Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2933
6aec2e11
DJ
2934* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2935(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2936running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2937
2938* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2939Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2940supported.
2941
17218d91
DJ
2942* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2943broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2944
9ebce043
DJ
2945* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2946stub provides the required support.
2947
7d3d3ece
DJ
2948* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2949longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2950
4f8253f3
JB
2951* New commands
2952
2953set substitute-path
2954unset substitute-path
2955show substitute-path
2956 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2957 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2958 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2959 between compilation and debugging.
2960
9fa66fd7
AS
2961set trace-commands
2962show trace-commands
2963 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2964 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2965 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2966
1f5befc1
DJ
2967* REMOVED features
2968
2969The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2970
2ec3381a
DJ
2971Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2972an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2973
3d00d119
DJ
2974The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2975
be2a5f71
DJ
2976* New remote packets
2977
2978qSupported:
2979 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2980 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2981 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2982 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2983 target.
2984
0876f84a
DJ
2985qXfer:auxv:read:
2986 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2987 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2988
9ebce043
DJ
2989qXfer:memory-map:read:
2990 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2991 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2992
2993vFlashErase:
2994vFlashWrite:
2995vFlashDone:
2996 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2997
0876f84a
DJ
2998* Removed remote packets
2999
3000qPart:auxv:read:
3001 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
3002 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
3003
e374b601 3004*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 3005
96309189
MS
3006* New targets
3007
3008Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
3009
3010Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3011
53e5f3cf
AS
3012* New commands
3013
3014init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
3015 only if it doesn't already have a value.
3016
ac264b3b
MS
3017The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
3018
3019checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
3020
3021restart <n> Return the program state to a
3022 previously saved state.
3023
3024info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
3025
3026delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
3027
3028set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
3029 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
3030
3031info forks List forks of the user program that
3032 are available to be debugged.
3033
3034fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
3035 forks of the user program that are
3036 available to be debugged.
3037
3038delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3039 that are available to be debugged (and
3040 kill the forked process).
3041
3042detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
3043 that are available to be debugged (and
3044 allow the process to continue).
3045
3950dc3f
NS
3046* New architecture
3047
3048Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
3049
0ea3f30e
DJ
3050* Improved Windows host support
3051
3052GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
3053native console support, and remote communications using either
3054network sockets or serial ports.
3055
f79daebb
GM
3056* Improved Modula-2 language support
3057
3058GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
3059basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
3060pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
3061printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
3062written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
3063GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
3064
acab6ab2
MM
3065* REMOVED features
3066
3067The ARM rdi-share module.
3068
f4267320
DJ
3069The Netware NLM debug server.
3070
53e5f3cf 3071*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 3072
e0ecbda1
MK
3073* New native configurations
3074
02a677ac 3075OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
3076OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
3077
d64a6579
KB
3078* New targets
3079
3080Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
3081
b33a6190
AS
3082* New command line options
3083
3084--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
3085--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
3086 the child (debugged) program exited with.
3087--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
3088 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
3089 specified multiple times and in conjunction
3090 with the --command (-x) option.
3091
11dced61
AC
3092* Deprecated commands removed
3093
3094The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
3095removed:
3096
3097 Command Replacement
3098 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
3099 othernames set arm disassembler
3100 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
3101 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
3102 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
3103 regs info registers
3104
6fe85783
MK
3105* New BSD user-level threads support
3106
3107It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
3108library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
3109configurations are:
3110
3111FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3112FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
3113OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
3114
3115Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
3116are not yet supported.
3117
5260ca71
MS
3118* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
3119(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
3120
e84ecc99
AC
3121* REMOVED configurations and files
3122
3123VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 3124Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 3125National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 3126
31e35378
JB
3127* New "set print array-indexes" command
3128
3129After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
3130when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
3131behavior.
3132
e85e5c83
MK
3133* VAX floating point support
3134
3135GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
3136
d91e9901
AS
3137* User-defined command support
3138
3139In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
3140to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
3141section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
3142
f2cb65ca
MC
3143*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
3144
f47b1503
AS
3145* New command line option
3146
3147GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
3148debugging.
3149
f2cb65ca
MC
3150* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
3151
3152GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
3153information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
3154by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
3155proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
3156to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 3157
d08c0230
AC
3158* Internationalization
3159
3160When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
3161internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
3162continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
3163
117ea3cf
PH
3164* Ada
3165
3166Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
3167implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
3168into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
3169
d08c0230
AC
3170* New native configurations
3171
3172GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
3173
3174* Remote 'p' packet
3175
3176GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
3177packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
3178
3179* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
3180
3181GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3182The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
3183features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
3184i386 application).
3185
3186GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
3187compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
3188continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
3189configurations:
3190
3191hppa-*-hpux
3192ia64-*-aix
3193mips-*-irix*
3194*-*-lynx
3195mips-*-linux-gnu
3196sds protocol
3197xdr protocol
3198powerpc bdm protocol
3199
3200Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3201made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
3202
3203* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3204
3205Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3206been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3207configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3208permanently REMOVED.
3209
3210h8300-*-*
3211mcore-*-*
3212mn10300-*-*
3213ns32k-*-*
3214sh64-*-*
3215v850-*-*
3216
ebb7c577
AC
3217*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
3218
3219* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
3220
3221When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
3222heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
3223been fixed.
3224
3225* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
3226
3227When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
3228fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
3229IRIX long double values).
3230
3231* VAX and "next"
3232
3233A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
3234command. This problem has been fixed.
3235
860660cb 3236*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 3237
0dea2468
AC
3238* Fix for ``many threads''
3239
3240On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
3241rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
3242error message:
3243
3244 ptrace: No such process.
3245 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
3246
3247This problem has been fixed.
3248
2c07db7a
AC
3249* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
3250
3251Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
3252GDB to dump core).
3253
c23968a2
JB
3254* New ``start'' command.
3255
3256This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
3257
71009278
MK
3258* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
3259
3260Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
3261live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
3262platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
3263
3264FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3265FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
3266NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
3267NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
3268NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
3269OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
3270OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
3271OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
3272OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3273
3c0b7db2
AC
3274* Signal trampoline code overhauled
3275
3276Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
3277These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
3278of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
3279call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
3280signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
3281
73cc75f3
AC
3282Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
3283features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
3284include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 3285
7243600a
BF
3286* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
3287
6f606e1c
MK
3288* New native configurations
3289
97dc871c 3290GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 3291OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
3292OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
3293OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 3294OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3295NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 3296OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 3297
a1b461bf
AC
3298* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
3299
3300GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
3301The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
3302including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
3303migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
3304compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
3305work, was also included.
3306
3307GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
3308module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
3309
3310h8300-*-*
3311mcore-*-*
3312mn10300-*-*
3313ns32k-*-*
3314sh64-*-*
3315v850-*-*
3316xstormy16-*-*
3317
3318Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
3319made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
3320
3c7012f5
AC
3321* REMOVED configurations and files
3322
3323Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3324Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3325Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3326Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3327Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3328AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3329Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
3330decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3331riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3332sonymips mips-sony-*
3333sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
3334
e5fe55f7
AC
3335*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
3336
3337* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
3338
3339The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
3340GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
3341command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
3342program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
3343with GDB".
3344
3345* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
3346
3347Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
3348libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
3349cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
3350GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
3351shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
3352the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
3353are created.
3354
3355Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
3356
3357* Fixed ISO-C build problems
3358
3359The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
3360non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
3361compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
3362
3363* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
3364
3365Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
3366wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
3367
3368* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
3369
3370The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
3371permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
3372systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
3373
3374* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
3375
3376Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
3377has been updated to use constant array sizes.
3378
3379* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3380
3381GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3382its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3383panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3384
3385* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3386
3387When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3388by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3389not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3390
faae5abe 3391*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3392
9175c9a3
MC
3393* Removed --with-mmalloc
3394
3395Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3396conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3397
3cc87ec0
MK
3398* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3399
3400The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3401the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3402and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3403you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3404
f0424ef6
MK
3405* Revised SPARC target
3406
3407The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3408FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3409support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3410from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3411(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3412
59659be2
ILT
3413* New C++ demangler
3414
3415GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3416names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3417with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3418programs.
3419
9e08b29b
DJ
3420* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3421
3422GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3423arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3424encountered these.
3425
8dfe8985
DC
3426* C++ nested types and namespaces
3427
3428GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3429improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3430is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3431Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3432namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3433"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3434frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3435if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3436GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3437
cced5e27
MK
3438* New native configurations
3439
3440NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3441OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3442OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3443OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3444OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3445
b4b4b794
KI
3446* New debugging protocols
3447
3448M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3449
7989c619
AC
3450* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3451
3452The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3453and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3454tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3455
5994185b
AC
3456* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3457
3458Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3459been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3460configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3461permanently REMOVED.
3462
3463Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3464Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3465Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3466Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3467Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3468AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3469Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3470decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3471riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3472sonymips mips-sony-*
3473sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3474
0ddabb4c
AC
3475* REMOVED configurations and files
3476
3477SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3478SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3479Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3480Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3481H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3482HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3483HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3484HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3485PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3486386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3487Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3488 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3489 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3490SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3491SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3492Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3493Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3494
c7f1390e
DJ
3495*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3496
1fe43d45
AC
3497* Objective-C
3498
3499Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3500integrated into GDB.
3501
e6beb428
AC
3502* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3503
3504DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3505information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3506By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3507backtraces.
3508
3509The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3510have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3511DWARF 2 CFI support.
3512
3513* Hosted file I/O.
3514
3515GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3516file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3517remote protocol documentation for details.
3518
3519* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3520
3521All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3522architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3523to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3524ppc32 on ppc64).
3525
3526* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3527
3528GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3529per-thread variables.
3530
3531* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3532
3533GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3534GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3535
3536* Separate debug info.
3537
3538GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3539automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3540of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3541system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3542and optional debug files.
3543
3544* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3545
3546DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3547describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3548debugger.
3549
3550GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3551for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3552
3553* Java
3554
3555A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3556Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3557considered "useable".
3558
85f8f974
DJ
3559* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3560
3561The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3562commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3563kernel.
3564
0fac0b41
DJ
3565* GDB supports logging output to a file
3566
3567There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3568used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3569
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3570* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3571
3572The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3573disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3574command.
3575
e286caf2 3576* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3577
3578The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3579registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3580
d28f9cdf
DJ
3581* Profiling support
3582
3583A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3584be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3585session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3586"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3587data, for more informative profiling results.
3588
da0f9dcd
AC
3589* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3590
3591The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3592option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3593"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3594
3595Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3596removed.
3597
fb9b6b35
JJ
3598Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3599Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3600Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3601 in a subsequent -var-update.
3602
954a4db8
MK
3603* New native configurations.
3604
3605FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3606
6760f9e6
JB
3607* Multi-arched targets.
3608
b4263afa 3609HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3610Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3611
1b831c93
AC
3612* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3613
3614Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3615been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3616configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3617permanently REMOVED.
3618
8b0e5691 3619Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3620Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3621H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3622HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3623HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3624HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3625PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3626Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3627 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3628 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3629Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3630Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3631
5835abe7
NC
3632* REMOVED configurations and files
3633
3634V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3635Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3636IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3637i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3638i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3639i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3640HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3641 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3642 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3643Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3644Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3645Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3646OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3647I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3648
a094c6fb
AC
3649* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3650
3651The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3652the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3653context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3654address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3655The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3656
299ffc64 3657*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3658
46248966
AC
3659* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3660
3661When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3662`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3663in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3664library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3665shared libs like mad''.
3666
b9d14705 3667* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3668
b9d14705
DJ
3669Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3670the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3671arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3672powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3673
e0e9281e
JB
3674* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3675
3676GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3677and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3678they expand.
3679
dd73b9bb
AC
3680The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3681invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3682
3683The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3684macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3685
e0e9281e
JB
3686Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3687information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3688your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3689information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3690
2250ee0c
CV
3691* Multi-arched targets.
3692
6e3ba3b8
JT
3693DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3694DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3695NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3696National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3697Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3698Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3699
cd9bfe15 3700* New targets.
e33ce519 3701
456f8b9d
DB
3702Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3703
e33ce519 3704
da8ca43d
JT
3705* New native configurations
3706
3707Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3708SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3709MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3710UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3711
cd9bfe15
AC
3712* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3713
3714Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3715been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3716configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3717permanently REMOVED.
3718
92eb23c5 3719Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3720OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3721IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3722Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3723Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3724Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3725i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3726i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3727i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3728HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3729 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3730 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3731I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3732
db034ac5
AC
3733* OBSOLETE languages
3734
3735CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3736
cd9bfe15
AC
3737* REMOVED configurations and files
3738
3739AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3740A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3741AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3742AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3743AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3744
3745testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3746
20f01a46
DH
3747* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3748
3749This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3750commands. The default is 1024.
3751
a5941fbf
MK
3752* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3753
3754Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3755
89743e04
MS
3756* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3757
3758These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3759to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3760from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3761
9fb14e79
JB
3762* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3763
3764The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3765including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3766of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3767
2037aebb
AC
3768*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3769
3770* New targets.
3771
3772Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3773
3774* Bug fixes
3775
3776gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3777mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3778Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3779
3780gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3781dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3782Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3783
3784Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3785Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3786By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3787
3788i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3789avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3790By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3791
37057839 3792*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3793
1a703748
MS
3794* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3795
3796This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3797really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3798In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3799target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3800This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3801(notably embedded) targets.
3802
cefd4ef5
MS
3803* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3804
55241689
AC
3805This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3806process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3807GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3808hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3809
352ed7b4
MS
3810* New command line option
3811
3812GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3813
3814* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3815
3816There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3817command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3818a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3819be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3820open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3821issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3822a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3823it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3824GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3825is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3826
fe419ffc
RE
3827* Changes in ARM configurations.
3828
3829Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3830configuration is fully multi-arch.
3831
eb7cedd9
MK
3832* New native configurations
3833
fe419ffc 3834ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3835x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3836AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3837Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3838
c9f63e6b
CV
3839* New targets
3840
3841Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3842
9b4ff276
AC
3843* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3844
3845Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3846been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3847configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3848permanently REMOVED.
3849
3850AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3851A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3852AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3853AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3854AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3855
b4ceaee6 3856testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3857
e2caac18
AC
3858* REMOVED configurations and files
3859
3860TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3861WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3862PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3863PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3864PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3865Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3866Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3867 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3868SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3869Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3870Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3871ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3872Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3873
c2a727fa
TT
3874* Changes to command line processing
3875
3876The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3877for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3878
467d8519
TT
3879* Changes to key bindings
3880
3881There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3882
7072a954
AC
3883*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3884
3885Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3886
3887Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3888corrupted.
3889
3890Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3891
3892Numerous documentation fixes.
3893
3894Numerous testsuite fixes.
3895
34f47bc4 3896*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3897
3898* New native configurations
3899
3900Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3901x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3902MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3903MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3904ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3905s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3906
bf64bfd6
AC
3907* New targets
3908
def90278 3909Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3910CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3911UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3912
17e78a56 3913* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3914
3915x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3916Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3917Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3918 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3919TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3920WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3921Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3922PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3923PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3924PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3925SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3926Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3927ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3928Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3929
17e78a56
AC
3930stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3931kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3932
7fcca85b
AC
3933Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3934been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3935configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3936permanently REMOVED.
3937
a196c81c 3938* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3939
3940Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3941Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3942Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3943ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3944Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3945ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3946
6d6b80e5 3947* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3948
6d6b80e5 3949GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3950sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3951present.
3952
bf64bfd6
AC
3953* Other news:
3954
e23194cb
EZ
3955* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3956
3957* The MI enabled by default.
3958
3959The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3960revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3961engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3962using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3963which is now deprecated.
3964
3965* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3966
3967GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3968main features are supported:
3969
3970 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3971
3972 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3973 extension;
3974
3975 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3976
3977 - a Pascal expression parser.
3978
3979However, some important features are not yet supported.
3980
3981 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3982
3983 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3984
3985 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3986 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3987
3988 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3989
3990 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3991
3992* Changes in completion.
3993
3994Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3995to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3996users expect at the shell prompt.
3997
3998Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3999`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
4000program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
4001files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
4002be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
4003considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
4004name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
4005
4006`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
4007
4008* New platform-independent commands:
4009
4010It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
4011hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
4012documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
4013
4014* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
4015
d7275149
MK
4016Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
4017revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
4018many threads as your system allows you to have.
4019
e23194cb
EZ
4020Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
4021
d7275149
MK
4022Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
4023multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
4024
4025* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
4026
4027Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
4028
e23194cb
EZ
4029GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
4030debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
4031supported.)
4032
4033* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
4034
4035Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
4036breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
4037implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
4038put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
4039and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
4040registers.
4041
4042The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
4043debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
4044watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
4045
4046* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
4047
4048New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
4049the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
4050
4051New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
4052display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
4053IDT.
4054
4055New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
4056from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
4057New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
4058a given linear address.
4059
4060GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
4061program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
4062which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
4063
4064DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
4065
6c56c069
EZ
4066It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
4067
e23194cb
EZ
4068* Changes in documentation.
4069
4070All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
4071Documentation License.
4072
4073Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4074manual.
4075
4076TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
4077
4078Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
4079manual.
4080
4081The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
4082documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
4083hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
4084
5d6640b1
AC
4085* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
4086
4087The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
4088``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
4089contents of this file.
4090
1a1d8446
AC
4091* gdba.el deleted
4092
4093GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 4094
9debab2f 4095*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 4096
c63ce875
EZ
4097* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
4098
4099Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
4100programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
4101displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
4102greater level of detail.
4103
4104* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
4105
4106It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
4107bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
4108on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
4109written.
4110
4111* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
4112
4113The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
4114necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
4115machines ``out of the box''.
4116
4117The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
4118possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
4119signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
4120would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
4121interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
4122
4123It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
4124standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
4125even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
4126and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
4127terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
4128
4129The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
4130enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
4131also works.
4132
4133DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
4134GDB.
4135
4136It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
4137directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
4138times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
4139breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
4140
ed9a39eb
JM
4141* New native configurations
4142
4143ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 4144PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 4145
7a292a7a
SS
4146* New targets
4147
96baa820 4148Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
4149x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
4150PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
4151TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
4152
085dd6e6
JM
4153* OBSOLETE configurations
4154
4155Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
4156Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 4157Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 4158ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 4159Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 4160
9debab2f
AC
4161Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4162but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4163these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4164be permanently REMOVED.
4165
5330533d
SS
4166* Gould support removed
4167
4168Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
4169
bc9e5bbf
AC
4170* New features for SVR4
4171
4172On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
4173without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
4174load symbols from the running process's executable file.
4175
4176* Many C++ enhancements
4177
4178C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
4179in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
4180
adf40b2e
JM
4181* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
4182
4183A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
4184sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
4185with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
4186``|<program> <args>'' vis:
4187
4188 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
4189 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
4190
43e526b9
JM
4191* MIPS 64 remote protocol
4192
4193A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
4194expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
4195instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
4196
4197The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
4198added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
4199
96baa820
JM
4200* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
4201
4202The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
4203``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
4204include ``set remote P-packet''.
4205
11cf8741
JM
4206* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
4207
4208The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
4209accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
4210``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
4211
7876dd43
DB
4212* ``apropos'' command added.
4213
4214The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
4215documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
4216try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
4217
bc9e5bbf
AC
4218* New MI interface
4219
4220A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
4221interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
4222process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
4223"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
4224enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
4225
4226 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
4227
c906108c
SS
4228*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
4229
4230* New native configurations
4231
4232HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
4233HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 4234M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
4235
4236* New targets
4237
4238Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
4239Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
4240Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
4241
4242* OBSOLETE configurations
4243
4244Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
4245
4246Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
4247but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
4248these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
4249be permanently REMOVED.
4250
4251* ANSI/ISO C
4252
4253As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
4254buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
4255containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
4256use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
4257available. If this is not true, please report the affected
4258configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
4259information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
4260already.
4261
4262* Readline 2.2
4263
4264GDB now uses readline 2.2.
4265
4266* set extension-language
4267
4268You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
4269languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
4270you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
4271 set extension-language .c c++
4272The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
4273and their associated languages.
4274
4275* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
4276
4277When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
4278you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
4279PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
4280
4281 set processor NAME
4282
4283sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
4284following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
4285
4286 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
4287 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
4288 403 IBM PowerPC 403
4289 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
4290 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
4291 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
4292 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
4293 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
4294 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
4295 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
4296 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
4297
4298At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
4299special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
4300registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
4301only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
4302
4303* HP-UX support
4304
4305Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
4306more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
4307library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
4308support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
4309for xdb and dbx commands.
4310
4311* Catchpoints
4312
4313HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
4314generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
4315to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
4316
4317This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
4318argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
4319output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
4320
4321* Debugging across forks
4322
4323On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
4324in the inferior.
4325
4326* TUI
4327
4328HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
4329it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
4330configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
4331
4332* GDB remote protocol additions
4333
4334A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
4335Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
4336fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
4337allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
4338
4339For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
4340full 64-bit address. The command
4341
4342 set remoteaddresssize 32
4343
4344can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
4345the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
4346will be discarded.
4347
4348In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
4349command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
4350
4351 maint packet heythere
4352
4353sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
4354disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
4355time.
4356
4357The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
4358target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
4359downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
4360
4361* Tracing can collect general expressions
4362
4363You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
4364further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
4365doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
4366
4367* mask-address variable for Mips
4368
4369For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
4370a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
4371of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
4372
4373* Higher serial baud rates
4374
4375GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
4376230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
4377to achieve all of these rates.)
4378
4379* i960 simulator
4380
4381The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4382builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4383
4384
4385*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4386
4387* New native configurations
4388
4389Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4390Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4391Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4392PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4393PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4394Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4395Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4396
4397* New targets
4398
4399Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4400Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4401Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4402Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4403MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4404MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4405MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4406Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4407Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4408Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4409NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4410
4411* New debugging protocols
4412
4413ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4414M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4415DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4416PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4417PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4418Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4419
4420* DWARF 2
4421
4422All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4423format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4424information.
4425
4426* Java frontend
4427
4428GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4429only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4430
4431* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4432
4433For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4434loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4435locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4436
4437* Live range splitting
4438
4439GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4440range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4441more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4442
4443* Hurd support
4444
4445GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4446updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4447
4448* ARM Thumb support
4449
4450GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4451instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4452instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4453accordingly.
4454
4455* MIPS16 support
4456
4457GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4458instruction set.
4459
4460* Overlay support
4461
4462GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4463linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4464will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4465control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4466additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4467in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4468
4469* info symbol
4470
4471The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4472the symbol at the specified address.
4473
4474* Trace support
4475
4476The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4477asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4478extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4479includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4480file tracepoint.c for more details.
4481
4482* MIPS simulator
4483
4484Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4485by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4486of most MIPS variants.
4487
4488* Sparc simulator
4489
4490Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4491by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4492Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4493
4494* set architecture
4495
4496For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4497basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4498architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4499the possible architectures.
4500
4501*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4502
4503* New native configurations
4504
4505Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4506M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4507PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4508PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4509PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4510RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4511
4512* New targets
4513
4514ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4515I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4516MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4517MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4518PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4519Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4520Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4521
4522* PowerPC simulator
4523
4524The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4525contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4526PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4527basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4528performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4529
4530* Solaris 2.5
4531
4532GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4533
4534* Windows 95/NT native
4535
4536GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4537To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4538which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4539Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4540ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4541
4542* dont-repeat command
4543
4544If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4545command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4546useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4547extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4548
4549* Send break instead of ^C
4550
4551The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4552rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4553GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4554
4555* Remote protocol timeout
4556
4557The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4558that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4559to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4560
4561* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4562
4563By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4564loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4565stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4566when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4567in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4568
4569Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4570/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4571automatically on hpux10.
4572
4573* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4574
4575Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4576
4577* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4578
4579When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4580may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4581the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4582every character. The default value is 1050.
4583
4584* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4585
4586If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4587a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4588replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4589details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4590remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4591to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4592
4593* Speedups for remote debugging
4594
4595GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4596the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4597and more efficient S-record downloading.
4598
4599* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4600
4601GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4602Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4603
4604*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4605
4606* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4607
4608The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4609can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4610
4611* Remote targets use caching
4612
4613Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4614remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4615it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4616debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4617off' turns the the data cache off.
4618
4619* Remote targets may have threads
4620
4621The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4622in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4623gdb/remote.c for details.
4624
4625* NetROM support
4626
4627If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4628support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4629acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4630write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4631support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4632another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4633sequence is something like
4634
4635 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4636 load <prog>
4637 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4638
4639* Macintosh host
4640
4641GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4642may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4643it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4644available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4645device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4646directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4647scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4648mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4649
4650* Autoconf
4651
4652GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4653but does simplify configuration and building.
4654
4655* hpux10
4656
4657GDB now supports hpux10.
4658
4659*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4660
4661* New native configurations
4662
4663x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4664x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4665NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4666Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4667
4668* New targets
4669
4670A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4671HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4672CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4673PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4674WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4675
4676* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4677
4678GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4679possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4680filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4681the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4682if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4683
4684* Arguments to user-defined commands
4685
4686User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4687Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4688trivial example:
4689define adder
4690 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4691
4692To execute the command use:
4693adder 1 2 3
4694
4695Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4696Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4697use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4698
4699* New `if' and `while' commands
4700
4701This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4702commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4703expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4704execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4705terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4706`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4707if the expression is zero.
4708
4709* Fortran source language mode
4710
4711GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4712Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4713variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4714with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4715Fortran compilers.
4716
4717* Better HPUX support
4718
4719Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4720running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4721processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4722for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4723that behavior do the following before running the program:
4724
4725 adb -w a.out
4726 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4727 control-d
4728
4729This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4730To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4731
4732 adb -w a.out
4733 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4734 control-d
4735
4736You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4737the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4738external linkage.
4739
4740GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4741HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4742
4743* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4744
4745You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4746commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4747current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4748"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4749associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4750configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4751
4752* New DOS host serial code
4753
4754This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4755no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4756a PC's serial port.
4757
4758*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4759
4760* New "complete" command
4761
4762This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4763were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4764
4765* Trailing space optional in prompt
4766
4767"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4768allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4769
4770* Breakpoint hit counts
4771
4772"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4773has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4774can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4775to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4776less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4777that breakpoint.
4778
4779* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4780
4781"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4782an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4783arrays actually contain only short strings.
4784
4785* Shared library breakpoints
4786
4787In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4788breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4789
4790* Hardware watchpoints
4791
4792There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4793targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4794
55241689 4795Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4796
4797* Annotations
4798
4799Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4800and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4801
4802* Improved Irix 5 support
4803
4804GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4805
4806* Improved HPPA support
4807
4808GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4809
4810* New native configurations
4811
4812Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4813HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4814Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4815RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4816
4817* New targets
4818
4819OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4820MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4821Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4822
4823* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4824
4825There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4826This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4827
4828* Fixes
4829
4830As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4831and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4832
4833*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4834
4835* Irix 5 is now supported
4836
4837* HPPA support
4838
4839GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4840to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4841GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4842of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4843can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4844
4845
4846*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4847
4848* User visible changes:
4849
4850* Remote Debugging
4851
4852The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4853target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4854debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4855integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4856debugging info for the mips target).
4857
4858* DEC Alpha native support
4859
4860GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4861debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4862work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4863Alpha-specific notes.
4864
4865* Preliminary thread implementation
4866
4867GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4868
4869* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4870
4871This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4872to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4873for details).
4874
4875* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4876
4877This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4878mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4879call methods, ...etc.
4880
4881*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4882
4883 * User visible changes:
4884
4885Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4886supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4887other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4888somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4889
4890Filename completion now works.
4891
4892When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4893arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4894addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4895
4896All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4897vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4898should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4899your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4900to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4901
4902 * DEC alpha support
4903
4904This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4905cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4906
4907
4908*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4909
4910 * Testsuite
4911
4912This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4913The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4914via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4915
4916 * C++ demangling
4917
4918'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4919emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4920Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4921disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4922use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4923
4924 * Simulators
4925
4926GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4927So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4928Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4929
4930 * New targets supported
4931
4932H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4933H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4934SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4935Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4936IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4937
4938Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4939version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4940GO32 memory extender.
4941
4942 * New remote protocols
4943
4944MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4945
4946 * New source languages supported
4947
4948This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4949used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4950into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4951
4952
4953*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4954
4955 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4956
4957GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4958version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4959University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4960compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4961format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4962(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4963
4964Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4965
4966 * Faster and better demangling
4967
4968We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4969demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4970character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4971only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4972This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4973increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4974symbol lookups.
4975
4976`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4977from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4978compiler does not actually implement.
4979
4980 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4981
4982In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4983inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4984recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4985very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4986The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4987circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4988fix.
4989
4990The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4991release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4992
4993 * Improved configure script
4994
4995The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4996you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4997host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4998done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4999
5000We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
5001version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
5002`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
5003The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
5004only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
5005We hope to make this the default in a future release.
5006
5007 * Documentation improvements
5008
5009There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
5010produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
5011before submitting changes.
5012
5013The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
5014M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
5015`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
5016you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
5017a future texinfo-X.Y release.
5018
5019*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
5020We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
5021been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
5022or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
5023`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
5024around this problem.
5025
5026 * New features
5027
5028GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
5029the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
5030`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
5031the target program.
5032
5033The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
5034how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
5035
5036 * New native hosts supported
5037
5038HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
5039386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
5040
5041 * New targets supported
5042
5043AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
5044
5045 * New file formats supported
5046
5047BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
5048HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
5049
5050 * Major bug fixes
5051
5052Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
5053
5054We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
5055printf_filtered("%s") problems.
5056
5057We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
5058for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
5059release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
5060
5061You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
5062will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
5063
5064We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
5065for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
5066especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
5067libraries.
5068
5069The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
5070information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
5071command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
5072any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
5073when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
5074
5075 * Internal improvements
5076
5077GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
5078debugging of multiple languages in the future.
5079
5080GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
5081Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
5082symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
5083contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
5084shared code that handles any of them.
5085
5086 * New command line options
5087
5088We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
5089
5090 * Mmalloc licensing
5091
5092The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
5093General Public License.
5094
5095*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
5096
5097 * Host/native/target split
5098
5099GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
5100hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
5101target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
5102local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
5103ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
5104
5105The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
5106GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
5107is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
5108code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
5109any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
5110built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
5111handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
5112
5113GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
5114It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
5115plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
5116
5117 * New hosts supported
5118
5119HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
5120386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5121386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
5122
5123 * New targets supported
5124
5125Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
512668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
5127
5128 * New native hosts supported
5129
5130386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
5131 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
5132386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
5133
5134 * New file formats supported
5135
5136BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
5137supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
5138format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
5139
5140 * New commands
5141
5142`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
5143`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
5144These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
5145
5146`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
5147
5148You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
5149scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
5150prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
5151executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
5152
5153 * C++ improvements
5154
5155We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
5156info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
5157symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
5158
5159Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
5160
5161 * Major bug fixes
5162
5163The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
5164fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
5165by the compiler.
5166
5167We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
5168support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
5169
5170John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
5171slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
5172that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
5173purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
5174the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
5175mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
5176
5177Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
5178about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
5179completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
5180we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
5181
5182 * AMD 29k support
5183
5184A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
5185specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
5186calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
5187usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
5188in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
5189
5190We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
5191Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
5192of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
5193resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
5194
5195 * Remote interfaces
5196
5197We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
5198with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
5199message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
5200This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
5201needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
5202breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
5203each instruction being stepped through.
5204
5205The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
5206registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
5207
5208There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
5209find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
5210Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
5211processor with a serial port.
5212
5213 * Configuration
5214
5215Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
5216`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
5217supported, and what files each one uses.
5218
5219 * Library changes
5220
5221There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
5222disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
5223Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
5224disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
5225
5226The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
5227Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
5228can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
5229grants all the rights from the General Public License.
5230
5231 * Documentation
5232
5233The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
5234reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
5235as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
5236encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
5237system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
5238bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
5239
5240And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
5241
5242
5243*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
5244
5245 * Better support for C++ function names
5246
5247GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
5248names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
5249(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
5250single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
5251Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
5252
5253GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
5254the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
5255You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
5256lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
5257for the list of formats.
5258
5259 * G++ symbol mangling problem
5260
5261Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
5262C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
5263directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
5264can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
5265usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
5266about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
5267this problem.)
5268
5269 * New 'maintenance' command
5270
5271All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
5272the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
5273can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
5274
5275 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
5276 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
5277 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
5278 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
5279 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
5280 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
5281
5282The following commands are new:
5283
5284 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
5285 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
5286 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
5287
5288 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
5289
5290We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
5291(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
5292be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
5293read after argv processing.
5294
5295 * New hosts supported
5296
5297Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
5298
55241689 5299GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
5300
5301We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
5302is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
5303for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
5304masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
5305fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
5306It costs extra.
5307
5308 * New targets supported
5309
5310Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
5311
5312 * More smarts about finding #include files
5313
5314GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
5315all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
5316greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
5317especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
5318the one that contains your sources.
5319
5320We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
5321breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
5322try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
5323
5324 * Interesting infernals change
5325
5326GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
5327section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
5328target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
5329stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
5330
5331 * Bug fixes (of course!)
5332
5333There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
5334 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
5335 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
5336
5337See the ChangeLog for details.
5338
5339*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
5340
5341 * New machines supported (host and target)
5342
5343IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
5344
5345SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
5346
5347 * New malloc package
5348
5349GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
5350Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
5351capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
5352This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
5353pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
5354more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
5355
5356 * info proc
5357
5358The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
5359'help info proc' for details.
5360
5361 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
5362
5363The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
5364Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
5365possible.
5366
5367 * File name changes for MS-DOS
5368
5369Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
5370support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
5371conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
5372environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
5373that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
5374in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
5375
5376 * Cross byte order fixes
5377
5378Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
5379targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5380
5381 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5382
5383If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5384system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5385`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5386program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5387called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5388Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5389and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5390the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5391option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5392starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5393
5394You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5395the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5396information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5397slower, but makes future operations faster.
5398
5399The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5400build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5401A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5402use is:
5403
5404 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5405
5406The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5407It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5408shared across multiple host platforms.
5409
5410 * longjmp() handling
5411
5412GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5413siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5414all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5415platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5416
5417 * Solaris 2.0
5418
5419Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5420this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5421reading symbols.
5422
5423 * Bug fixes
5424
5425As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5426People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5427crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5428
5429*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5430
5431 * New machines supported (host and target)
5432
5433SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5434 (except core files)
5435BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5436Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5437
5438 * New machines supported (target)
5439
5440AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5441
5442 * C++ support
5443
5444GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5445The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5446per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5447
5448GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5449`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5450extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5451good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5452will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5453released.
5454
5455 * New features for SVR4
5456
5457GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5458shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5459only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5460
5461The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5462on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5463it prints the address mappings of the process.
5464
5465If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5466bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5467
5468 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5469
5470Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5471now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5472skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5473make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5474same code linked statically.
5475
5476 * New Getopt
5477
5478GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5479version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5480continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5481Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5482added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5483future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5484
5485 * Bugs fixed
5486
5487The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5488Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5489See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5490
5491
5492*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5493
5494 * New machines supported (host and target)
5495
5496Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5497NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5498Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5499
5500 * Almost SCO Unix support
5501
5502We had hoped to support:
5503SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5504(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5505that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5506about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5507
5508 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5509
5510GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5511debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5512is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5513send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5514reqired (if any).
5515
5516 * New Readline
5517
5518GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5519is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5520required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5521
5522 * Bugs fixed
5523
5524The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5525Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5526See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5527
5528 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5529
5530GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5531supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5532symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5533
5534Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5535mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5536debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5537mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5538version 2.
5539
5540Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5541really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5542line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5543variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5544situation somewhat.
5545
5546When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5547However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5548methods.
5549
5550We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5551DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5552encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5553
5554
5555*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5556
5557 * Improved configuration
5558
5559Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5560Porting BFD is simpler.
5561
5562 * Stepping improved
5563
5564The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5565of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5566in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5567function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5568
5569 * Bug fixing
5570
5571Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5572
5573 * New host supported (not target)
5574
5575Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5576
5577
5578*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5579
5580 * Multiple source language support
5581
5582GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5583It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5584and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5585language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5586You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5587`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5588
5589 * GDB and Modula-2
5590
5591GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5592currently under development at the State University of New York at
5593Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5594continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5595
5596Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5597debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5598symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5599
5600There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5601in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5602
5603 * set write on/off
5604
5605GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5606a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5607the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5608by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5609effect immediately.
5610
5611 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5612
5613When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5614shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5615The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5616examining core files.
5617
5618 * set listsize
5619
5620You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5621The default is 10.
5622
5623 * New machines supported (host and target)
5624
5625SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5626Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5627Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5628
5629 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5630
5631IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5632
5633 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5634
5635AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5636AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5637Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5638
5639 * New remote interfaces
5640
5641AMD 29000 Adapt
5642AMD 29000 Minimon
5643
5644
5645*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5646
5647 * New Facilities
5648
5649Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5650
5651Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5652target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5653is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5654remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5655remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5656also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5657using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5658stub on the target system.
5659
5660New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5661
5662GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5663library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5664object file types such as a.out and coff.
5665
5666There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5667refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5668
5669
5670 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5671
5672All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5673by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5674
5675For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5676``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5677Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5678
5679What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5680print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5681will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5682all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5683
5684confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5685 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5686 it is already running. Default is ON.
5687
5688editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5689 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5690 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5691 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5692 Default is ON.
5693
5694history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5695 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5696 or the value of the environment variable
5697 GDBHISTFILE.
5698
5699history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5700 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5701 HISTSIZE.
5702
5703history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5704 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5705 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5706
5707history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5708 history expansion will be performed on
5709 command line input. The default is OFF.
5710
5711radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5712 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5713 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5714
5715height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5716 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5717 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5718 variable TERM.
5719
5720width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5721 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5722 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5723 variable TERM.
5724
5725Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5726``set width'' instead.
5727
5728print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5729 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5730 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5731 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5732
5733print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5734 is OFF.
5735
5736print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5737 "raw" form if off.
5738
5739print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5740 like instructions.
5741
5742print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5743
5744
5745 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5746
5747The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5748new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5749are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5750window.
5751
5752
5753 * Support for Shared Libraries
5754
5755GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5756Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5757before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5758happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5759At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5760from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5761shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5762It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5763
5764sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5765 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5766 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5767
5768info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5769
5770
5771 * Watchpoints
5772
5773A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5774expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5775tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5776quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5777problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5778more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5779
5780watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5781
5782info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5783
5784delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5785disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5786enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5787
5788
5789 * C++ multiple inheritance
5790
5791When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5792for C++ programs.
5793
5794 * C++ exception handling
5795
5796Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5797ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5798the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5799handler's context).
5800
5801catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5802 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5803 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5804
5805info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5806 current stack frame.
5807
5808
5809 * Minor command changes
5810
5811The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5812command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5813is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5814
5815The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5816at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5817frames without printing.
5818
5819 * New directory command
5820
5821'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5822The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5823about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5824with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5825find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5826
5827 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5828
5829For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5830for more details.
5831
5832GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5833two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5834Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5835where the program that you are debugging will run.
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