gdb/
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
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4*** Changes since GDB 7.6
5
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6* Python scripting
7
8 ** Frame filters and frame decorators have been added.
9
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10* New targets
11
12Nios II ELF nios2*-*-elf
13Nios II GNU/Linux nios2*-*-linux
42059f0e 14Texas Instruments MSP430 msp430*-*-elf
a1217d97 15
bd712aed 16* New commands:
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17catch rethrow
18 Like "catch throw", but catches a re-thrown exception.
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19maint check-psymtabs
20 Renamed from old "maint check-symtabs".
21maint check-symtabs
22 Perform consistency checks on symtabs.
23maint expand-symtabs
24 Expand symtabs matching an optional regexp.
b340913d 25
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26show configuration
27 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
28
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29maint set|show per-command
30maint set|show per-command space
31maint set|show per-command time
32maint set|show per-command symtab
33 Enable display of per-command gdb resource usage.
34
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35* New options
36
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37set print raw frame-arguments
38show print raw frame-arguments
39 Set/show whether to print frame arguments in raw mode,
40 disregarding any defined pretty-printers.
41
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42set remote trace-status-packet
43show remote trace-status-packet
44 Set/show the use of remote protocol qTStatus packet.
45
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46set debug nios2
47show debug nios2
48 Control display of debugging messages related to Nios II targets.
49
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50set range-stepping
51show range-stepping
52 Control whether target-assisted range stepping is enabled.
53
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54* You can now use a literal value 'unlimited' for options that
55 interpret 0 or -1 as meaning "unlimited". E.g., "set
56 trace-buffer-size unlimited" is now an alias for "set
57 trace-buffer-size -1" and "set height unlimited" is now an alias for
58 "set height 0".
59
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60* New command-line options
61--configuration
62 Display the details of GDB configure-time options.
63
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64* The command 'tsave' can now support new option '-ctf' to save trace
65 buffer in Common Trace Format.
66
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67* Newly installed $prefix/bin/gcore acts as a shell interface for the
68 GDB command gcore.
69
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70* GDB now implements the the C++ 'typeid' operator.
71
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72* The new convenience variable $_exception holds the exception being
73 thrown or caught at an exception-related catchpoint.
74
75* The exception-related catchpoints, like "catch throw", now accept a
76 regular expression which can be used to filter exceptions by type.
77
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78* MI changes
79
80 ** The -trace-save MI command can optionally save trace buffer in Common
81 Trace Format now.
82
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83 ** The new command -dprintf-insert sets a dynamic printf breakpoint.
84
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85 ** The command -data-list-register-values now accepts an optional
86 "--skip-unavailable" option. When used, only the available registers
87 are displayed.
88
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89 ** The new command -trace-frame-collected dumps collected variables,
90 computed expressions, tvars, memory and registers in a traceframe.
91
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92* New system-wide configuration scripts
93 A GDB installation now provides scripts suitable for use as system-wide
94 configuration scripts for the following systems:
95 ** ElinOS
96 ** Wind River Linux
97
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98* GDB now supports target-assigned range stepping with remote targets.
99 This improves the performance of stepping source lines by reducing
100 the number of control packets from/to GDB. See "New remote packets"
101 below.
102
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103* GDB now understands the element 'tvar' in the XML traceframe info.
104 It has the id of the collected trace state variables.
105
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106* New remote packets
107
108vCont;r
109
110 The vCont packet supports a new 'r' action, that tells the remote
111 stub to step through an address range itself, without GDB
112 involvemement at each single-step.
113
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114qXfer:libraries-svr4:read's annex
115 The previously unused annex of the qXfer:libraries-svr4:read packet
116 is now used to support passing an argument list. The remote stub
117 reports support for this argument list to GDB's qSupported query.
118 The defined arguments are "start" and "prev", used to reduce work
119 necessary for library list updating, resulting in significant
120 speedup.
121
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122* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
123
124 ** GDBserver now supports target-assisted range stepping. Currently
125 enabled on x86/x86_64 GNU/Linux targets.
126
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127 ** GDBserver now adds element 'tvar' in the XML in the reply to
128 'qXfer:traceframe-info:read'. It has the id of the collected
129 trace state variables.
130
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131* New 'z' formatter for printing and examining memory, this displays the
132 value as hexadecimal zero padded on the left to the size of the type.
133
2d450646 134*** Changes in GDB 7.6
80c8d323 135
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136* Target record has been renamed to record-full.
137 Record/replay is now enabled with the "record full" command.
138 This also affects settings that are associated with full record/replay
139 that have been moved from "set/show record" to "set/show record full":
140
141set|show record full insn-number-max
142set|show record full stop-at-limit
143set|show record full memory-query
144
145* A new record target "record-btrace" has been added. The new target
146 uses hardware support to record the control-flow of a process. It
147 does not support replaying the execution, but it implements the
148 below new commands for investigating the recorded execution log.
149 This new recording method can be enabled using:
150
151record btrace
152
153 The "record-btrace" target is only available on Intel Atom processors
154 and requires a Linux kernel 2.6.32 or later.
155
156* Two new commands have been added for record/replay to give information
157 about the recorded execution without having to replay the execution.
158 The commands are only supported by "record btrace".
159
160record instruction-history prints the execution history at
161 instruction granularity
162
163record function-call-history prints the execution history at
164 function granularity
165
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166* New native configurations
167
51d66578 168ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 169FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
4f4352f7 170x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 171Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux-gnu
543bf33d 172
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173* New targets
174
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175ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
176ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
249729c4 177Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
3c095f49 178x86_64/Cygwin x86_64-*-cygwin*
ea5f3910 179Tilera TILE-Gx GNU/Linux tilegx*-*-linux
249729c4 180
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181* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
182 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
183 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
184 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
185 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
186 --data-directory command-line option.
187
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188* New command line options:
189
190-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
191 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
192
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193* Removed command line options
194
195-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
196 Emacs.
197
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198* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
199 type formatting.
200
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201* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
202
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203* Python scripting
204
205 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
206
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207 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
208
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209 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
210
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211 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
212
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213 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
214 of architecture in the Python API.
215
216 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
217 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
218
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219* New Python-based convenience functions:
220
221 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
222 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
223 ** $_strlen(str)
224 ** $_regex(str, regex)
225
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226* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
227 given an argument.
228
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229* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
230 default for GCC since November 2000.
231
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232* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
233
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234* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
235 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
236
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237* New configure options
238
239--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
240 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
241 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
242 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
243 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
244 options allow the user to override that default.
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245--with-babeltrace/--with-babeltrace-include/--with-babeltrace-lib
246 This configure option allows the user to build GDB with
247 libbabeltrace using which GDB can read Common Trace Format data.
23a80689 248
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249* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
250
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251catch signal
252 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
253 conditions to be attached.
254
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255maint info bfds
256 List the BFDs known to GDB.
257
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258python-interactive [command]
259pi [command]
260 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
261 and print the result of expressions.
262
263py [command]
264 "py" is a new alias for "python".
265
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266enable type-printer [name]...
267disable type-printer [name]...
268 Enable or disable type printers.
269
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270* Removed commands
271
272 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
273 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
274 instead.
275
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276* New options
277
278set print type methods (on|off)
279show print type methods
280 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
281 The default is to show them.
282
283set print type typedefs (on|off)
284show print type typedefs
285 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
286 The default is to show them.
287
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288set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
289show filename-display
290 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
291 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
292
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293set trace-buffer-size
294show trace-buffer-size
295 Request target to change the size of trace buffer.
296
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297set remote trace-buffer-size-packet auto|on|off
298show remote trace-buffer-size-packet
299 Control the use of the remote protocol `QTBuffer:size' packet.
300
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301set debug aarch64
302show debug aarch64
303 Control display of debugging messages related to ARM AArch64.
304 The default is off.
305
306set debug coff-pe-read
307show debug coff-pe-read
308 Control display of debugging messages related to reading of COFF/PE
309 exported symbols.
310
311set debug mach-o
312show debug mach-o
313 Control display of debugging messages related to Mach-O symbols
314 processing.
315
316set debug notification
317show debug notification
318 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
319
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320* MI changes
321
322 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
323 "=cmd-param-changed".
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324 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
325 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
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326 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
327 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
328 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
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329 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
330 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
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331 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
332 "=memory-changed".
ed8a1c2d 333 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
ec83d211 334 containing the absolute file name when source has been requested.
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335 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
336 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
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337 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
338 library load/unload events.
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339 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
340 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
341 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
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342 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
343 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
344 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
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345 ** The "fullname" field is now always present along with the "file" field,
346 even if the file cannot be found by GDB.
5b9afe8a 347
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348* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
349 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
350 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
351 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
352
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353* New remote packets
354
355QTBuffer:size
356 Set the size of trace buffer. The remote stub reports support for this
357 packet to gdb's qSupported query.
358
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359Qbtrace:bts
360 Enable Branch Trace Store (BTS)-based branch tracing for the current
361 thread. The remote stub reports support for this packet to gdb's
362 qSupported query.
363
364Qbtrace:off
365 Disable branch tracing for the current thread. The remote stub reports
366 support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
367
368qXfer:btrace:read
369 Read the traced branches for the current thread. The remote stub
370 reports support for this packet to gdb's qSupported query.
371
80c8d323 372*** Changes in GDB 7.5
d6e00af6 373
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374* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
375 for more x32 ABI info.
376
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377* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
378
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379* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
380
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381* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
382 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
383 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
384 "info os files" lists file descriptors
385 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
386 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
387 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
388 "info os msg" lists message queues
389 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
390
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391* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
392 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
393 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
394 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
395 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
396 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
397
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398* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
399 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
400 record/replay support.
401
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402* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
403
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404* Python scripting
405
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406 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
407 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
408
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409 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
410
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411 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
412 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
413
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414 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
415
416 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
417 the source at which the symbol was defined.
418
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419 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
420 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
421 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
422 symbol's value.
423
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424 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
425 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
426
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427 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
428 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
429 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
430
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431 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
432 object associated with a PC value.
433
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434 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
435 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
436
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437* Go language support.
438 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
439 language.
440
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441* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
442 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
443
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444* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
445 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
446
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447* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
448 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
449 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
450 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
451 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
452 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
453
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454* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
455 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
456 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
457 build/libcpp/expr.c.
458
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459* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
460 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
461
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462* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
463 since December 2007.
464
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465* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
466 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
467 command does. For instance:
468
469 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
470
471 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
472 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
473 created, using the "condition" command.
474
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475* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
476 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
477
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478* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
479
480* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
481 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
482 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
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483 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
484 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
485 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
486 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
487 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 488
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489 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
490 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
491 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
492 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
493 the .gdb_index section.
494
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495* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
496
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497* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
498 target.
499
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500* MI changes
501
502 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
503
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504 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
505
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506* New commands
507
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508 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
509 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
510 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
511
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512 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
513 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
514
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515 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
516 several hits.
517
57651221 518 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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519 C++ and Java objects.
520
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521 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
522 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
523 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
524 configured with '--with-python'.
525
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526 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
527 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
528 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
529 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
530 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
531 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
532 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
533
534 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
535 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
536 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
537 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
538
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539 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
540 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
541 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
542 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
543
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544 ** "set print symbol"
545 "show print symbol"
546 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
547 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
548 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
549
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550* Deprecated commands
551
552 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
553 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
554
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555* New targets
556
557Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 558HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 559
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560* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
561 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
562 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
563 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
564 evaluates to true.
565
566* New options
567
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568set mips compression
569show mips compression
570 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
571 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
572 mips16
573 micromips
574 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
575
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576set breakpoint condition-evaluation
577show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 578 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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579 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
580 available mode.
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581 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
582 target.
583
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584set auto-load off
585 Disable auto-loading globally.
586
587show auto-load
588 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
589
590set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
591show auto-load gdb-scripts
592 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
593
594set auto-load python-scripts on|off
595show auto-load python-scripts
596 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
597
598set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
599show auto-load local-gdbinit
600 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
601
602set auto-load libthread-db on|off
603show auto-load libthread-db
604 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
605
7349ff92 606set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 607show auto-load scripts-directory
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JK
608 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
609 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
610 of the directories listed by this option.
611 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
612
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JK
613set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
614show auto-load safe-path
615 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
616 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
617
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JK
618set debug auto-load on|off
619show debug auto-load
620 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
621
d3ce09f5 622set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 623show dprintf-style
d3ce09f5
SS
624 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
625 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
626 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
627 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
e7e0cddf
SS
628
629set dprintf-function <expr>
630show dprintf-function
631set dprintf-channel <expr>
632show dprintf-channel
633 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
634 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
635
d3ce09f5
SS
636set disconnected-dprintf on|off
637show disconnected-dprintf
638 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
639 after GDB disconnects.
640
6dea1fbd
JK
641* New configure options
642
7349ff92
JK
643--with-auto-load-dir
644 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
1564a261
JK
645 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
646 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
647 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
648 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 649
6dea1fbd
JK
650--with-auto-load-safe-path
651 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 652 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
6dea1fbd
JK
653
654--without-auto-load-safe-path
655 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
656 security feature.
657
72895ff6
LM
658* New remote packets
659
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PA
660z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
661
72895ff6
LM
662 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
663 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
664 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
665 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
666
9b224c5e
PA
667QProgramSignals:
668
669 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
670 program without GDB involvement.
671
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JK
672* New command line options
673
674--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
675 before loading inferior.
676--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
677 execute it before loading inferior.
678
8837a20f
JB
679*** Changes in GDB 7.4
680
f8eba3c6
TT
681* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
682 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
683 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
684 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
685 inferior changes.
686
1bfeeb0f
JL
687* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
688 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
689
480a3f21
PW
690* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
691 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
692 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
693 target hardware watchpoint.
694
695 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
696 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
697 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
698 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
699
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700* Python scripting
701
32d1c362 702 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 703 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
32d1c362
DE
704 existing one.
705
3a7bf607 706 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
4795f398
DE
707 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
708 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
709 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
710 now "message", which just prints the error message without
711 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 712
baacfb07 713 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 714 Python API.
713389e0 715
fa3a4f15
PM
716 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
717 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 718 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
fa3a4f15
PM
719 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
720 corresponding value.
721
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PM
722 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
723 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
724 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
725 on GDB start-up.
726
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PM
727 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
728 static_block will return the global and static blocks
729 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
730 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
731
457e09f0
DE
732 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
733
6839b47f
KP
734 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
735 "gdb.breakpoints".
736
cc72b2a2
KP
737 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
738 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
739 available in the CLI.
740
84ad80e6
PK
741 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
742 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
743 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
744 "some_type.items()".
745
20c168b5
KP
746 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
747 new object file.
748
03c3051a
PK
749 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
750 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
751 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
752 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
753 any anonymous fields.
754
7376e450
TT
755* MI changes
756
757 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
758 "solib-event".
759
760 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
761 "=breakpoint-modified".
762
763 ** New command -ada-task-info.
764
98a5dd13
DE
765* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
766 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
767 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
768 lives.
769
770 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
771 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
772 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
773 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
774 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
775
776 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
777 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
778
478aac75
DE
779* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
780 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
781 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
782 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
783 use this option to specify where to find it.
784
9c06b0b4
TJB
785* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
786 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
787 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
788 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
789 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
790 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
791 section in the user manual for more details.
792
03f2bd59
JK
793* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
794 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
795 become available after that.
796
71eba9c2 797* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 798
2bda9cc5
JK
799* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
800 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
801 gcc version 4.7.
802
ed59ded5
DE
803* New commands
804
805!SHELL COMMAND
806 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
807 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
808
9c06b0b4
TJB
809* Changed commands
810
811watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
812 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
813 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
814
dbaefcf7
DE
815info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
816 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
817 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
818
71eba9c2 819info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
820 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
821 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
822 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
823 name starts with a hyphen.
824
3065dfb6
SS
825collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
826 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
827 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
828 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
829 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
830 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
831 number of bytes that will be collected.
832
f196051f
SS
833tstart [NOTES]
834 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
835 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
836 setting the variable trace-notes.
837
838tstop [NOTES]
839 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
840 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
841 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
842 trace-stop-notes.
843
d248b706
KY
844* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
845 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
846 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
847 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
848 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
849 is running.
850
405f8e94
SS
851* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
852 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
853 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
854
2bda9cc5
JK
855* New options
856
45cfd468
DE
857set debug dwarf2-read
858show debug dwarf2-read
859 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
860 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
861
862set debug symtab-create
863show debug symtab-create
864 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
865 creation. The default is off.
866
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PM
867set extended-prompt
868show extended-prompt
869 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
870 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
871 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
872 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
873 prompt is displayed.
874
2bda9cc5
JK
875set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
876show print entry-values
877 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
878 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
879 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
880
881set debug entry-values
882show debug entry-values
883 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
884 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
885
c011a4f4
DE
886set basenames-may-differ
887show basenames-may-differ
888 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
889 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
890 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
891 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
892 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
893 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
894 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
895 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
896
f196051f
SS
897set trace-user
898show trace-user
899set trace-notes
900show trace-notes
901 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
902 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
903 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
904 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
905
906set trace-stop-notes
907show trace-stop-notes
908 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
909 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
910 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
911 started by someone else.
912
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KY
913* New remote packets
914
915QTEnable
916
917 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
918
919QTDisable
920
921 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
922
f196051f
SS
923QTNotes
924
925 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
926
927qTP
928
929 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
930
405f8e94
SS
931qTMinFTPILen
932
933 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
934 be placed.
935
1a532630
PP
936* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
937 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
938
11315641
YQ
939* New targets
940
941Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
942
87326c78
DD
943* New Simulators
944
945Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
946
e8d56f18
JB
947*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
948
949* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
950
d6e00af6 951*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 952
60f98dde
MS
953* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
954 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
955 matches the given regular expression.
956
eee5b35e
DD
957* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
958
b716877b
AB
959* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
960 dumping the instruction opcodes.
961
aae1c79a
DE
962* New command line options
963
964-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
965 This is mostly for testing purposes.
966
a86caf66
DE
967* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
968 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
969
99e7ae30
DE
970* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
971 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
972 source path list instead of augmenting it.
973
4694da01
TT
974* GDB now understands thread names.
975
976 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
977 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
978
979 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
980 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
981
f4b8a18d
KW
982* OpenCL C
983 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
984 has been integrated into GDB.
985
585d1eb8
PM
986* Python scripting
987
da5d4055
PM
988 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
989 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
990 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
991
9a6f1302
PM
992 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
993 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
994 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
995 and allows for more dynamic content.
996
29703da4
PM
997 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
998 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
999 have an is_valid method.
1000
350c6c65
PM
1001 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
1002 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
1003 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
1004
6e6fbe60
DE
1005 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
1006
585d1eb8
PM
1007 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
1008 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
1009 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
1010 that function like so:
1011
1012 result = some_value (10,20)
1013
0e3509db
DE
1014 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
1015 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
1016 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
1017
7b51bc51
DE
1018 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
1019 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
1020 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
1021 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
1022 New function: register_pretty_printer.
1023
1024 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
1025 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
1026
99e7ae30
DE
1027 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
1028
d8e22779
TT
1029 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
1030 selected thread.
1031
4694da01
TT
1032 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
1033 holds the thread's name.
1034
505500db
SW
1035 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
1036 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 1037 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
1038 The following events are currently supported:
1039 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
1040 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
1041 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
1042
def98928
TT
1043* C++ Improvements:
1044
1045 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
1046 instantiation. For example, if you have:
1047
1048 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
1049
1050 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
1051 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
1052 was added to GCC 4.5.
1053
66cb8159
TT
1054 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
1055 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
1056 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
1057 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
1058 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
1059 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
1060
4aac0db7
UW
1061* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
1062 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
1063 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
1064 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
1065 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
1066
283e6a52
TT
1067* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
1068 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
1069 execution to a label.
1070
1071* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
1072 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
1073 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
1074 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
1075
b56df873 1076* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 1077 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
1078 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
1079 of scope.
1080
ae53ffa4
PA
1081* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
1082
1083 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
1084 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
1085 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
1086 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
1087 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
1088 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
1089
1090 (gdb) info threads
1091 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
1092
1093 While now you see this:
1094
1095 (gdb) info threads
1096 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
1097
1098 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
1099 dumps.
1100
1101 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
1102 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
1103 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
1104 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
1105
f1310107
TJB
1106* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
1107 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
1108 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
1109 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
1110 section in the user manual for more details.
1111
248c9dbc
JB
1112* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1113
1aee7009
JB
1114 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
1115 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 1116
eb826dc6
MF
1117 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
1118
44603653
JB
1119* New native configurations
1120
1121ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
1122
91021223
MF
1123* New targets:
1124
1125Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
1126
6e1bb179
JB
1127* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
1128 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
1129 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
1130 in the GDB user manual.
1131
50c97f38
TT
1132* Guile support was removed.
1133
448a92bf
MF
1134* New features in the GNU simulator
1135
1136 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
1137
66ee2731
MF
1138 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
1139
76b8507d 1140*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 1141
ba25b921
PA
1142* Shared library support for remote targets by default
1143
1144 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
1145 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
1146 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
1147 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
1148 was always disabled for such configurations.
1149
4656f5c6
SW
1150* C++ Improvements:
1151
1152 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
1153
1154 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
1155 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
1156 For example:
1157 namespace A
1158 {
1159 class B { };
1160 void foo (B) { }
1161 }
1162 ...
1163 A::B b
1164 foo(b)
1165 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
1166 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
1167 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
1168
1169 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
1170
1171 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
1172 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
1173 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
1174 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
1175 entry.
1176 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
1177 mentioned flavors of operators.
1178
254e6b9e
DE
1179 ** static const class members
1180
1181 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
1182 class definition has been fixed.
1183
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PM
1184* Windows Thread Information Block access.
1185
1186 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
1187 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
1188 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
1189 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
1190 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
1191 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
1192
0fb4aa4b
PA
1193* Static tracepoints
1194
1195 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
1196 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
1197 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
1198 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
1199 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
1200 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
1201 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
1202 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
1203 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
1204 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
1205 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
1206 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
1207 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
1208 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
1209 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1210 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1211 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1212 the "New remote packets" section below.
1213
ca11e899
SS
1214* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1215
1216 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1217 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1218 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1219 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1220
1221* Observer mode
1222
1223 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1224 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1225 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1226 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1227 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1228 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1229 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1230
1231* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1232 current thread.
1233
711e434b
PM
1234* New remote packets
1235
1236qGetTIBAddr
1237
1238 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1239
dde08ee1
PA
1240qRelocInsn
1241
1242 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1243 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1244 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1245 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1246 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1247 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1248
0fb4aa4b
PA
1249qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1250
1251 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1252
1253qTSTMat
1254
1255 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1256 program.
1257
1258qXfer:statictrace:read
1259
1260 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1261 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1262 to gdb's qSupported query.
1263
ca11e899
SS
1264QAllow
1265
1266 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1267
1268QTDPsrc
1269
1270 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1271 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1272
3f7b2faa
DE
1273* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1274 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1275 a directory.
1276
d337e9f0
PA
1277* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1278
0fb4aa4b
PA
1279 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1280 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1281 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1282 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1283
1284 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1285 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1286 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1287 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1288 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1289 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1290 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1291
1292 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1293 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1294
c24d0242
PM
1295 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1296
c8d5aac9
L
1297* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1298 it understands register description.
1299
7c953934
TT
1300* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1301
8685c86f
L
1302* X86 general purpose registers
1303
1304 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1305 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1306 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1307 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1308 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1309
95a42b64 1310* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
86b17b60
PA
1311 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1312 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1313 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1314 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1315 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1316
8bd10a10
CM
1317* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1318 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1319 in the specified file.
1320
ab38a727
PA
1321* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1322 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1323 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1324 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1325 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1326 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1327 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1328 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1329 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1330 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1331
6149aea9
PA
1332* New commands
1333
f1421989
HZ
1334eval template, expressions...
1335 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1336 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1337
ab38a727
PA
1338set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1339show target-file-system-kind
1340 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1341 names.
1342
6149aea9
PA
1343save breakpoints <filename>
1344 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1345 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1346 definitions, use the `source' command.
1347
1348`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1349is now deprecated.
1350
0fb4aa4b
PA
1351info static-tracepoint-markers
1352 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1353
1354strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1355 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1356 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1357
ca11e899
SS
1358set observer on|off
1359show observer
1360 Enable and disable observer mode.
1361
1362set may-write-registers on|off
1363set may-write-memory on|off
1364set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1365set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1366set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1367set may-interrupt on|off
1368 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1369 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1370 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1371 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1372 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1373 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1374 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1375
1376set record memory-query on|off
1377show record memory-query
1378 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1379 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1380
53a71c06
CR
1381* Changed commands
1382
1383disassemble
1384 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1385
f3e9a817
PM
1386* Python scripting
1387
9279c692
JB
1388** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1389 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1390 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1391 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1392 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1393
adc36818 1394** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1395 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1396 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1397 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1398
fa33c3cd 1399** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1400 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1401
1402** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1403
1404** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1405
967cf477
DE
1406** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1407
8a1ea21f
DE
1408** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1409 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1410 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1411
a7bdde9e
VP
1412* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1413there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1414tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1415regular breakpoints.
1416
05071a4d
PA
1417* New targets
1418
1419ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1420
6aecb9c2
JB
1421* D language support.
1422 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1423 language.
1424
431e49aa
TJB
1425* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1426 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1427 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1428 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1429 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1430
1431* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1432 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1433 conditions of the form:
1434
1435 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1436
1437 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1438 interface mentioned above.
1439
bfbf3774 1440*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1441
4eef138c
TT
1442* C++ Improvements
1443
1444 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1445
1446 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1447 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1448 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1449 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1450 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1451
4eef138c
TT
1452 ** Bug Fixes
1453
1454 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1455 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1456 qualified name.
1457
1458 ** Cast Operators
1459
1460 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1461 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1462
2d1c1221
ME
1463* New targets
1464
1465Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1466Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1467
1468* New Simulators
1469
1470Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1471Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1472
6c95b8df
PA
1473* Multi-program debugging.
1474
1475 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1476 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1477 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1478 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1479 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1480 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1481 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1482 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1483
d5551862
SS
1484* New tracing features
1485
1486 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1487
1488 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1489
1490 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1491 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1492 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1493 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1494 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1495 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1496 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1497 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1498 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1499 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1500
d5551862 1501 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1502
1503 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1504 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1505 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1506 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1507 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1508 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1509 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1510 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1511 the regular trace command.
1512
d5551862
SS
1513 ** Disconnected tracing
1514
1515 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1516 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1517 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1518 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1519 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1520
00bf0b85
SS
1521 ** Trace files
1522
1523 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1524 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1525 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1526 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1527 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1528 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1529 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1530
1531 ** Circular trace buffer
1532
1533 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1534 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1535 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1536 not be available for all target agents.
1537
21a0512e
PP
1538* Changed commands
1539
1540disassemble
1541 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1542 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1543
0fe7935b
DJ
1544info variables
1545 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1546 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1547
fb2e7cb4
JB
1548source
1549 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1550 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1551 support.
1552
1553 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1554 "set script-extension" (see below).
1555
6c95b8df
PA
1556* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1557
399cd161
MS
1558record save [<FILENAME>]
1559 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1560 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1561
1562record restore <FILENAME>
1563 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1564 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1565
6c95b8df
PA
1566add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1567 Add a new inferior.
1568
1569clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1570 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1571 inferior has loaded.
1572
1573remove-inferior ID
1574 Remove an inferior.
1575
1576maint info program-spaces
1577 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1578
9a7071a8
JB
1579set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1580show remote interrupt-sequence
1581 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1582 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1583 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1584 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1585 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1586
1587set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1588show remote interrupt-on-connect
1589 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1590 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1591 Linux kernel.
1592
1593set remotebreak [on | off]
1594show remotebreak
1595Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1596
f61e138d
SS
1597tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1598 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1599
1600info tvariables
1601 List trace state variables and their values.
1602
1603delete tvariable $NAME ...
1604 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1605
6da95a67
SS
1606teval EXPR, ...
1607 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1608 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1609
7a697b8d
SS
1610ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1611 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1612
b0f02ee9
JK
1613* New expression syntax
1614
1615 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1616 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1617
6c95b8df
PA
1618* New options
1619
1620set follow-exec-mode new|same
1621show follow-exec-mode
1622 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1623 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1624 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1625
236f1d4d
SS
1626set default-collect EXPR, ...
1627show default-collect
1628 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1629 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1630 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1631
d5551862
SS
1632set disconnected-tracing
1633show disconnected-tracing
1634 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1635 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1636 upon disconnection.
1637
4daf5ac0
SS
1638set circular-trace-buffer
1639show circular-trace-buffer
1640 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1641 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1642 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1643 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1644
fb2e7cb4
JB
1645set script-extension off|soft|strict
1646show script-extension
1647 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1648 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1649 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1650 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1651 evaluation failed.
1652 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1653
2b71fc8e
JB
1654set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1655show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1656 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1657 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1658 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1659 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1660 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1661 is on.
1662
de2e5182
TT
1663* Python API Improvements
1664
1665 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1666 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1667 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1668
1669 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1670 `is_base_class' attribute.
1671
1672 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1673
1674 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1675 evaluate an expression.
1676
f61e138d
SS
1677* New remote packets
1678
1679QTDV
1680 Define a trace state variable.
1681
1682qTV
1683 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1684
d5551862
SS
1685QTDisconnected
1686 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1687
4daf5ac0
SS
1688QTBuffer:circular
1689 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1690
d5551862
SS
1691qTfP, qTsP
1692 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1693
2d483d34
MS
1694* Bug fixes
1695
1696Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1697
6e0e5977
JB
1698Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1699much more reliable. In particular:
1700 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1701 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1702 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1703 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1704 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1705 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1706 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1707 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1708 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1709 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1710 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1711 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1712 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1713 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1714 non-threaded programs.
1715
93c26624
JK
1716PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1717This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1718libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1719executable program.
1720
abc7453d 1721*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1722
4efc6507
DE
1723* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1724dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1725them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1726for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1727"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1728
782b2b07
SS
1729* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1730breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1731or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1732the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1733for tracepoint actions.
1734
53a71c06
CR
1735* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1736raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1737modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1738
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1739* Process record and replay
1740
1741 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1742 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1743 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1744 execute commands.
1745
64644d9b
MS
1746* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1747step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1748set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1749reverse execution.
1750
b9412953
DD
1751* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1752feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
17532.6.28 or later.
1754
6c7a06a3
TT
1755* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1756target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1757char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1758literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1759U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1760`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1761system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1762the installation instructions for more information.
1763
f1838a98
UW
1764* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1765remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1766with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1767the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1768
55333a84
DE
1769* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1770and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1771
7f6a6314
PM
1772* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1773now complete on file names.
1774
65d12d83
TT
1775* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1776completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1777For instance, consider:
1778
1779 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1780 # struct example variable;
1781 (gdb) p variable.
1782
1783If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1784completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1785
edb3359d
DJ
1786* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1787the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1788
2fae03e8
TT
1789* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1790operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1791macros.
1792
47a3467a 1793* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1794the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1795implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1796
1797* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1798registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1799can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1800and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1801
08388c79
DE
1802* New remote packets
1803
1804qSearch:memory:
1805 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1806
a6f3e723
SL
1807QStartNoAckMode
1808 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1809 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1810 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1811
d7713ae0
EZ
1812vKill
1813 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1814 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1815
07e059b5
VP
1816qXfer:osdata:read
1817 Obtains additional operating system information
1818
47a3467a
PA
1819qXfer:siginfo:read
1820qXfer:siginfo:write
1821 Read or write additional signal information.
1822
060871df
PA
1823* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1824
1825 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1826 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1827 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1828
c055b101 1829* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1830DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1831
1832* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1833and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1834`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1835
31fffb02
CS
1836* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1837with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1838
88d8a8e0
JB
1839* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1840
7f99b190
JB
1841* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1842
ccd213ac
DJ
1843* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1844which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1845
1fddbabb 1846* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1847list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1848
a0ef4274
DJ
1849* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1850conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1851have also been fixed.
1852
bfb8797a 1853* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1854From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1855are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1856
71c25dea
TT
1857* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1858example, given:
1859
1860 template<typename T> class C { };
1861 C<char const *> c;
1862
1863GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1864
1865 ptype C<char const *>
1866 ptype C<char const*>
1867 ptype C<const char *>
1868 ptype C<const char*>
1869
ccd213ac
DJ
1870* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1871
1872 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1873 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1874
7ae0e2a2
UW
1875 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1876 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1877 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1878
a6f3e723
SL
1879 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1880 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1881
da8bd9a3
DJ
1882 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1883 gdbserver.
1884
d70e31dd
DE
1885 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1886 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1887
1888 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1889 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1890 as appropriate.
1891
d57a3c85
TJB
1892* Python scripting
1893
1894 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1895 available is determined at configure time.
1896
d8906c6f
TJB
1897 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1898
aadc346a
JB
1899* Ada tasking support
1900
1901 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1902 been introduced:
1903
1904 info tasks
1905 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1906 info task N
1907 Print detailed information about task number N.
1908 task
1909 Print the task number of the current task.
1910 task N
1911 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1912
adb483fe
DJ
1913* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1914add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1915
2277426b
PA
1916* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1917
1918 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1919 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1920 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1921 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1922 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1923 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1924 below.
1925
08d16641
PA
1926* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1927"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1928information.
1929
e35359c5
UW
1930* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1931to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1932architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1933See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1934more information.
1935
85e747d2
UW
1936* Multi-architecture debugging.
1937
1938 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1939 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1940 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1941 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1942 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1943
1944* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1945use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1946Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1947powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1948--enable-targets configure option.
1949
11ade57a
PA
1950* Non-stop mode debugging.
1951
1952 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1953 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1954 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1955 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1956 section in the user manual for more information.
1957
1958 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1959 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1960 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1961 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1962 extensions on linux targets.
1963
d7713ae0 1964* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1965
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1966catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1967 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1968 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1969 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1970 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1971 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1972 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1973 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1974 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1975
08388c79
DE
1976find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1977 val1 [, val2, ...]
1978 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1979
d57a3c85
TJB
1980maint set python print-stack
1981maint show python print-stack
1982 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1983
1984python [CODE]
1985 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1986
d7713ae0
EZ
1987macro define
1988macro list
1989macro undef
1990 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1991 interactively.
1992
1993info os processes
1994 Show operating system information about processes.
1995
2277426b
PA
1996info inferiors
1997 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1998
1999inferior NUM
2000 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
2001
2002detach inferior NUM
2003 Detach from inferior number NUM.
2004
2005kill inferior NUM
2006 Kill inferior number NUM.
2007
d7713ae0
EZ
2008* New options
2009
3285f3fe
UW
2010set spu stop-on-load
2011show spu stop-on-load
2012 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2013
ff1a52c6
UW
2014set spu auto-flush-cache
2015show spu auto-flush-cache
2016 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
2017 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
2018
d7713ae0
EZ
2019set sh calling-convention
2020show sh calling-convention
2021 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
2022
e0a3ce09 2023set debug timestamp
75feb17d 2024show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
2025 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
2026
2027set disassemble-next-line
2028show disassemble-next-line
2029 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
2030 the debuggee stops.
2031
2032set remote noack-packet
2033show remote noack-packet
2034 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
2035 under "New remote packets."
2036
2037set remote query-attached-packet
2038show remote query-attached-packet
2039 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
2040
2041set remote read-siginfo-object
2042show remote read-siginfo-object
2043 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
2044 packet.
2045
2046set remote write-siginfo-object
2047show remote write-siginfo-object
2048 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
2049 packet.
2050
40ab02ce
MS
2051set remote reverse-continue
2052show remote reverse-continue
2053 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
2054
2055set remote reverse-step
2056show remote reverse-step
2057 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
2058
d7713ae0
EZ
2059set displaced-stepping
2060show displaced-stepping
2061 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
2062 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
2063 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
2064
2065set debug displaced
2066show debug displaced
2067 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
2068
2069maint set internal-error
2070maint show internal-error
2071 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
2072
2073maint set internal-warning
2074maint show internal-warning
2075 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 2076
ccd213ac
DJ
2077set exec-wrapper
2078show exec-wrapper
2079unset exec-wrapper
2080 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 2081
aad4b048
JB
2082set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
2083show multiple-symbols
2084 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
2085 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
2086 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
2087
74960c60
VP
2088set breakpoint always-inserted
2089show breakpoint always-inserted
2090 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
2091 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
2092 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
2093
0428b8f5
DJ
2094set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2095show arm fallback-mode
2096set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
2097show arm force-mode
2098 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
2099 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
2100 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
2101 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
2102
10568435
JK
2103set disable-randomization
2104show disable-randomization
2105 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
2106 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
2107 multiple debugging sessions.
2108
d7713ae0
EZ
2109set non-stop
2110show non-stop
2111 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
2112 a breakpoint.
2113
b3eb342c 2114set target-async
d7713ae0 2115show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
2116 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
2117 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
2118 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
2119 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
2120
6c7a06a3
TT
2121set target-wide-charset
2122show target-wide-charset
2123 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
2124 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
2125
84603566
SL
2126set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
2127show tcp auto-retry
2128set tcp connect-timeout
2129show tcp connect-timeout
2130 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
2131 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
2132 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
2133
17a37d48
PP
2134set libthread-db-search-path
2135show libthread-db-search-path
2136 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
2137 libthread_db.
2138
d4db2f36
PA
2139set schedule-multiple (on|off)
2140show schedule-multiple
2141 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
2142 the current process.
2143
4e5d721f
DE
2144set stack-cache
2145show stack-cache
2146 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
2147 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
2148 affecting correctness.
2149
910c5da8
JB
2150set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
2151show interactive-mode
2152 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
2153 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
2154 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
2155 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
2156 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
2157
2277426b
PA
2158* Removed commands
2159
2160info forks
2161 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
2162 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
2163 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
2164 command.
2165
2166fork NUM
2167 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
2168 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
2169 alias for the `fork' command.
2170
2171process PID
2172 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
2173 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
2174 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
2175
2176delete fork NUM
2177 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
2178 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
2179 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
2180 fork' command.
2181
2182detach fork NUM
2183 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
2184 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
2185 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
2186 fork' command.
2187
a80b95ba
TG
2188* New native configurations
2189
2190x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
2191
b8bfd3ed
JB
2192x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
2193
75a2d5e7
TT
2194* New targets
2195
c28c63d8 2196Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 2197x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 2198x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 2199S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 2200
6de3146c
PA
2201* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
2202 (mingw32ce) debugging.
2203
d5cbbe6e
JB
2204* Removed commands
2205
2206catch load
2207catch unload
2208 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
2209
75feb17d 2210*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2211
af5ca30d
NH
2212* New native configurations
2213
2214NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2215Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2216
2217* New targets
2218
2219NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2220Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2221
7a404eba
PA
2222* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2223
2224 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2225 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2226 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2227 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2228
430ebac9
PA
2229* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2230(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2231
fe6fbf8b 2232* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2233is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2234
2235* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2236including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2237and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2238
10665d76
JB
2239* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2240accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2241more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2242
7cc46491
DJ
2243* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2244
d71340b8
DJ
2245* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2246registers on PowerPC targets.
2247
523c4513
DJ
2248* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2249targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2250
a6b151f1
DJ
2251* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2252commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2253
2d717e4f
DJ
2254* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2255extended-remote mode.
2256
24a836bd 2257* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2258The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2259error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2260The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2261
d0c678e6
UW
2262* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2263building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2264target architectures.
2265
d64a946d
TJB
2266* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2267Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2268now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2269stored in two consecutive float registers.
2270
ee163bf5
VP
2271* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2272breakpoints now.
2273
b93b6ca7 2274* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2275Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2276include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2277 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2278 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2279 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2280 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2281 of an assignment
2282 - Improved command completion in Ada
2283 - Several bug fixes
2284
d001be7a
DJ
2285* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2286process.
2287
a6b151f1
DJ
2288* New commands
2289
6d53d0af
JB
2290set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2291show print frame-arguments
2292 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2293 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2294
a6b151f1
DJ
2295remote put
2296remote get
2297remote delete
2298 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2299
2300* New MI commands
2301
2302-target-file-put
2303-target-file-get
2304-target-file-delete
2305 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2306
2307* New remote packets
2308
2309vFile:open:
2310vFile:close:
2311vFile:pread:
2312vFile:pwrite:
2313vFile:unlink:
2314 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2315
2d717e4f
DJ
2316vAttach
2317 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2318 mode.
2319
2320vRun
2321 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2322
8d5f9c6f 2323*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2324
19d378fc
MS
2325* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2326bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2327Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2328
3a40aaa0
UW
2329* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2330symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2331-Bsymbolic linker option.
2332
a6ec25f2
BW
2333* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2334recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2335is not supported.
2336
6dd09645
JB
2337* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2338frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2339
c9bb8148
DJ
2340* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
234132-bit or 64-bit register values.
2342
0d5de010
DJ
2343* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2344
23181151
DJ
2345* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2346target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2347a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2348
ea37ba09
DJ
2349* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2350automatically displayed as character or string data.
2351
2352* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2353arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2354as strings.
e1f48ead 2355
123dc839
DJ
2356* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2357for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2358only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2359
05a4558a
DJ
2360* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2361iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2362
7c963485
PA
2363* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2364ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2365has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2366
b18be20d
DJ
2367* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2368
0ca420ce
UW
2369* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2370
31d99776
DJ
2371* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2372layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2373segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2374
a4642986
MR
2375* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2376immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2377
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2378* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2379"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2380packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2381where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2382Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2383
2384* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2385(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2386
2387* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2388according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2389
c9bb8148
DJ
2390* New commands
2391
23776285
MR
2392set remoteflow
2393show remoteflow
2394 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2395 when debugging using remote targets.
2396
c9bb8148
DJ
2397set mem inaccessible-by-default
2398show mem inaccessible-by-default
2399 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2400 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2401 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2402 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2403 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2404
2405set breakpoint auto-hw
2406show breakpoint auto-hw
2407 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2408 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2409 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2410 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2411 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2412 including "next" and "finish".
2413
0e420bd8
JB
2414catch exception
2415catch exception unhandled
2416 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2417
2418catch assert
2419 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2420
f822c95b
DJ
2421set sysroot
2422show sysroot
2423 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2424 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2425 an alias to "set sysroot".
2426
83cc5c53
UW
2427info spu
2428 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2429 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2430 architecture.
2431
bd372731
MK
2432* New native configurations
2433
2434OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2435
23181151
DJ
2436set tdesc filename
2437unset tdesc filename
2438show tdesc filename
2439 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2440 not query the target for its built-in description.
2441
c9bb8148
DJ
2442* New targets
2443
54fe9172 2444OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2445MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2446Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2447
6dd09645
JB
2448* New remote packets
2449
2450QPassSignals:
2451 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2452 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2453
23181151
DJ
2454qXfer:features:read:
2455 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2456 features.
6dd09645 2457
83cc5c53
UW
2458qXfer:spu:read:
2459qXfer:spu:write:
2460 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2461 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2462
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2463qXfer:libraries:read:
2464 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2465 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2466 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2467 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2468
483367ee
DJ
2469* Removed targets
2470
2471Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2472
d08950c4
UW
2473alpha*-*-osf1*
2474alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2475d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2476hppa*-*-hiux*
2477i[34567]86-ncr-*
2478i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2479i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2480i[34567]86-*-netware*
2481i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2482i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2483i[34567]86-*-sco*
2484i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2485i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2486i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2487i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2488i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2489i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2490i[34567]86-*-isc*
2491m68*-cisco*-*
2492m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2493mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2494rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2495sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2496
7ce59000
DJ
2497* Other removed features
2498
2499target abug
2500target cpu32bug
2501target est
2502target rom68k
2503
2504 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2505
ea35711c
DJ
2506target hms
2507target e7000
2508target sh3
2509target sh3e
2510
2511 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2512 H8/300.
2513
2514target ocd
2515
2516 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2517 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2518 interfaces.
2519
7ce59000
DJ
2520DWARF 1 support
2521
2522 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2523 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2524
54d61198
DJ
2525Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2526
2527 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2528 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2529 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2530 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2531
ea35711c
DJ
2532MIPS ".pdr" sections
2533
2534 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2535 in debugging information.
2536
2537Scheme support
2538
2539 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2540 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2541
1a69e1e4
DJ
2542set mips stack-arg-size
2543set mips saved-gpreg-size
2544
2545 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2546
6dd09645 2547*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2548
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2549* New targets
2550
2551Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2552Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2553
6aec2e11
DJ
2554* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2555(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2556running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2557
2558* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2559Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2560supported.
2561
17218d91
DJ
2562* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2563broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2564
9ebce043
DJ
2565* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2566stub provides the required support.
2567
7d3d3ece
DJ
2568* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2569longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2570
4f8253f3
JB
2571* New commands
2572
2573set substitute-path
2574unset substitute-path
2575show substitute-path
2576 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2577 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2578 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2579 between compilation and debugging.
2580
9fa66fd7
AS
2581set trace-commands
2582show trace-commands
2583 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2584 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2585 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2586
1f5befc1
DJ
2587* REMOVED features
2588
2589The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2590
2ec3381a
DJ
2591Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2592an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2593
3d00d119
DJ
2594The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2595
be2a5f71
DJ
2596* New remote packets
2597
2598qSupported:
2599 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2600 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2601 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2602 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2603 target.
2604
0876f84a
DJ
2605qXfer:auxv:read:
2606 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2607 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2608
9ebce043
DJ
2609qXfer:memory-map:read:
2610 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2611 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2612
2613vFlashErase:
2614vFlashWrite:
2615vFlashDone:
2616 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2617
0876f84a
DJ
2618* Removed remote packets
2619
2620qPart:auxv:read:
2621 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2622 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2623
e374b601 2624*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2625
96309189
MS
2626* New targets
2627
2628Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2629
2630Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2631
53e5f3cf
AS
2632* New commands
2633
2634init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2635 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2636
ac264b3b
MS
2637The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2638
2639checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2640
2641restart <n> Return the program state to a
2642 previously saved state.
2643
2644info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2645
2646delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2647
2648set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2649 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2650
2651info forks List forks of the user program that
2652 are available to be debugged.
2653
2654fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2655 forks of the user program that are
2656 available to be debugged.
2657
2658delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2659 that are available to be debugged (and
2660 kill the forked process).
2661
2662detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2663 that are available to be debugged (and
2664 allow the process to continue).
2665
3950dc3f
NS
2666* New architecture
2667
2668Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2669
0ea3f30e
DJ
2670* Improved Windows host support
2671
2672GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2673native console support, and remote communications using either
2674network sockets or serial ports.
2675
f79daebb
GM
2676* Improved Modula-2 language support
2677
2678GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2679basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2680pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2681printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2682written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2683GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2684
acab6ab2
MM
2685* REMOVED features
2686
2687The ARM rdi-share module.
2688
f4267320
DJ
2689The Netware NLM debug server.
2690
53e5f3cf 2691*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2692
e0ecbda1
MK
2693* New native configurations
2694
02a677ac 2695OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2696OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2697
d64a6579
KB
2698* New targets
2699
2700Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2701
b33a6190
AS
2702* New command line options
2703
2704--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2705--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2706 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2707--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2708 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2709 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2710 with the --command (-x) option.
2711
11dced61
AC
2712* Deprecated commands removed
2713
2714The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2715removed:
2716
2717 Command Replacement
2718 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2719 othernames set arm disassembler
2720 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2721 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2722 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2723 regs info registers
2724
6fe85783
MK
2725* New BSD user-level threads support
2726
2727It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2728library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2729configurations are:
2730
2731FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2732FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2733OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2734
2735Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2736are not yet supported.
2737
5260ca71
MS
2738* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2739(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2740
e84ecc99
AC
2741* REMOVED configurations and files
2742
2743VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2744Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2745National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2746
31e35378
JB
2747* New "set print array-indexes" command
2748
2749After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2750when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2751behavior.
2752
e85e5c83
MK
2753* VAX floating point support
2754
2755GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2756
d91e9901
AS
2757* User-defined command support
2758
2759In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2760to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2761section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2762
f2cb65ca
MC
2763*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2764
f47b1503
AS
2765* New command line option
2766
2767GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2768debugging.
2769
f2cb65ca
MC
2770* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2771
2772GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2773information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2774by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2775proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2776to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2777
d08c0230
AC
2778* Internationalization
2779
2780When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2781internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2782continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2783
117ea3cf
PH
2784* Ada
2785
2786Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2787implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2788into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2789
d08c0230
AC
2790* New native configurations
2791
2792GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2793
2794* Remote 'p' packet
2795
2796GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2797packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2798
2799* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2800
2801GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2802The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2803features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2804i386 application).
2805
2806GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2807compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2808continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2809configurations:
2810
2811hppa-*-hpux
2812ia64-*-aix
2813mips-*-irix*
2814*-*-lynx
2815mips-*-linux-gnu
2816sds protocol
2817xdr protocol
2818powerpc bdm protocol
2819
2820Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2821made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2822
2823* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2824
2825Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2826been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2827configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2828permanently REMOVED.
2829
2830h8300-*-*
2831mcore-*-*
2832mn10300-*-*
2833ns32k-*-*
2834sh64-*-*
2835v850-*-*
2836
ebb7c577
AC
2837*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2838
2839* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2840
2841When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2842heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2843been fixed.
2844
2845* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2846
2847When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2848fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2849IRIX long double values).
2850
2851* VAX and "next"
2852
2853A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2854command. This problem has been fixed.
2855
860660cb 2856*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2857
0dea2468
AC
2858* Fix for ``many threads''
2859
2860On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2861rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2862error message:
2863
2864 ptrace: No such process.
2865 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2866
2867This problem has been fixed.
2868
2c07db7a
AC
2869* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2870
2871Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2872GDB to dump core).
2873
c23968a2
JB
2874* New ``start'' command.
2875
2876This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2877
71009278
MK
2878* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2879
2880Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2881live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2882platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2883
2884FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2885FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2886NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2887NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2888NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2889OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2890OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2891OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2892OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2893
3c0b7db2
AC
2894* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2895
2896Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2897These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2898of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2899call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2900signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2901
73cc75f3
AC
2902Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2903features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2904include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2905
7243600a
BF
2906* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2907
6f606e1c
MK
2908* New native configurations
2909
97dc871c 2910GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2911OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2912OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2913OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2914OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2915NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2916OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2917
a1b461bf
AC
2918* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2919
2920GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2921The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2922including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2923migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2924compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2925work, was also included.
2926
2927GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2928module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2929
2930h8300-*-*
2931mcore-*-*
2932mn10300-*-*
2933ns32k-*-*
2934sh64-*-*
2935v850-*-*
2936xstormy16-*-*
2937
2938Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2939made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2940
3c7012f5
AC
2941* REMOVED configurations and files
2942
2943Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2944Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2945Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2946Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2947Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2948AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2949Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2950decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2951riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2952sonymips mips-sony-*
2953sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2954
e5fe55f7
AC
2955*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2956
2957* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2958
2959The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2960GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2961command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2962program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2963with GDB".
2964
2965* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2966
2967Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2968libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2969cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2970GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2971shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2972the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2973are created.
2974
2975Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2976
2977* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2978
2979The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2980non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2981compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2982
2983* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2984
2985Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2986wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2987
2988* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2989
2990The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2991permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2992systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2993
2994* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2995
2996Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2997has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2998
2999* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
3000
3001GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
3002its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
3003panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
3004
3005* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
3006
3007When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
3008by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
3009not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
3010
faae5abe 3011*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 3012
9175c9a3
MC
3013* Removed --with-mmalloc
3014
3015Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
3016conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
3017
3cc87ec0
MK
3018* Changes in AMD64 configurations
3019
3020The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
3021the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
3022and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
3023you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
3024
f0424ef6
MK
3025* Revised SPARC target
3026
3027The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
3028FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
3029support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
3030from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
3031(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 3032
59659be2
ILT
3033* New C++ demangler
3034
3035GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
3036names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
3037with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
3038programs.
3039
9e08b29b
DJ
3040* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3041
3042GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
3043arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
3044encountered these.
3045
8dfe8985
DC
3046* C++ nested types and namespaces
3047
3048GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
3049improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
3050is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
3051Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
3052namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
3053"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
3054frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
3055if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
3056GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
3057
cced5e27
MK
3058* New native configurations
3059
3060NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 3061OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 3062OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
3063OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
3064OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 3065
b4b4b794
KI
3066* New debugging protocols
3067
3068M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
3069
7989c619
AC
3070* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
3071
3072The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
3073and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
3074tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
3075
5994185b
AC
3076* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3077
3078Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3079been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3080configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3081permanently REMOVED.
3082
3083Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
3084Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
3085Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
3086Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
3087Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
3088AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
3089Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
3090decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
3091riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
3092sonymips mips-sony-*
3093sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 3094
0ddabb4c
AC
3095* REMOVED configurations and files
3096
3097SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
3098SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
3099Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
3100Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3101H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
3102HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3103HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3104HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
3105PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 3106386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
3107Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3108 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3109 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
3110SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
3111SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
3112Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3113Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 3114
c7f1390e
DJ
3115*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
3116
1fe43d45
AC
3117* Objective-C
3118
3119Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
3120integrated into GDB.
3121
e6beb428
AC
3122* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
3123
3124DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
3125information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
3126By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
3127backtraces.
3128
3129The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
3130have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
3131DWARF 2 CFI support.
3132
3133* Hosted file I/O.
3134
3135GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
3136file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
3137remote protocol documentation for details.
3138
3139* All targets using the new architecture framework.
3140
3141All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
3142architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
3143to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
3144ppc32 on ppc64).
3145
3146* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
3147
3148GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
3149per-thread variables.
3150
3151* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
3152
3153GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
3154GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
3155
3156* Separate debug info.
3157
3158GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
3159automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
3160of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
3161system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
3162and optional debug files.
3163
3164* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
3165
3166DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
3167describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
3168debugger.
3169
3170GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
3171for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
3172
3173* Java
3174
3175A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
3176Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
3177considered "useable".
3178
85f8f974
DJ
3179* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
3180
3181The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
3182commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
3183kernel.
3184
0fac0b41
DJ
3185* GDB supports logging output to a file
3186
3187There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
3188used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 3189
6ad8ae5c
DJ
3190* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
3191
3192The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
3193disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
3194command.
3195
e286caf2 3196* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
3197
3198The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
3199registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
3200
d28f9cdf
DJ
3201* Profiling support
3202
3203A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
3204be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
3205session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
3206"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
3207data, for more informative profiling results.
3208
da0f9dcd
AC
3209* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3210
3211The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3212option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3213"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3214
3215Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3216removed.
3217
fb9b6b35
JJ
3218Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3219Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3220Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3221 in a subsequent -var-update.
3222
954a4db8
MK
3223* New native configurations.
3224
3225FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3226
6760f9e6
JB
3227* Multi-arched targets.
3228
b4263afa 3229HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3230Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3231
1b831c93
AC
3232* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3233
3234Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3235been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3236configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3237permanently REMOVED.
3238
8b0e5691 3239Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3240Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3241H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3242HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3243HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3244HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3245PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3246Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3247 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3248 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3249Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3250Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3251
5835abe7
NC
3252* REMOVED configurations and files
3253
3254V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3255Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3256IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3257i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3258i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3259i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3260HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3261 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3262 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3263Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3264Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3265Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3266OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3267I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3268
a094c6fb
AC
3269* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3270
3271The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3272the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3273context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3274address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3275The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3276
299ffc64 3277*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3278
46248966
AC
3279* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3280
3281When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3282`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3283in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3284library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3285shared libs like mad''.
3286
b9d14705 3287* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3288
b9d14705
DJ
3289Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3290the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3291arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3292powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3293
e0e9281e
JB
3294* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3295
3296GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3297and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3298they expand.
3299
dd73b9bb
AC
3300The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3301invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3302
3303The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3304macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3305
e0e9281e
JB
3306Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3307information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3308your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3309information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3310
2250ee0c
CV
3311* Multi-arched targets.
3312
6e3ba3b8
JT
3313DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3314DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3315NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3316National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3317Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3318Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3319
cd9bfe15 3320* New targets.
e33ce519 3321
456f8b9d
DB
3322Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3323
e33ce519 3324
da8ca43d
JT
3325* New native configurations
3326
3327Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3328SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3329MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3330UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3331
cd9bfe15
AC
3332* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3333
3334Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3335been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3336configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3337permanently REMOVED.
3338
92eb23c5 3339Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3340OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3341IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3342Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3343Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3344Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3345i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3346i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3347i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3348HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3349 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3350 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3351I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3352
db034ac5
AC
3353* OBSOLETE languages
3354
3355CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3356
cd9bfe15
AC
3357* REMOVED configurations and files
3358
3359AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3360A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3361AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3362AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3363AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3364
3365testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3366
20f01a46
DH
3367* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3368
3369This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3370commands. The default is 1024.
3371
a5941fbf
MK
3372* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3373
3374Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3375
89743e04
MS
3376* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3377
3378These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3379to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3380from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3381
9fb14e79
JB
3382* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3383
3384The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3385including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3386of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3387
2037aebb
AC
3388*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3389
3390* New targets.
3391
3392Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3393
3394* Bug fixes
3395
3396gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3397mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3398Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3399
3400gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3401dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3402Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3403
3404Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3405Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3406By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3407
3408i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3409avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3410By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3411
37057839 3412*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3413
1a703748
MS
3414* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3415
3416This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3417really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3418In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3419target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3420This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3421(notably embedded) targets.
3422
cefd4ef5
MS
3423* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3424
55241689
AC
3425This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3426process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3427GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3428hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3429
352ed7b4
MS
3430* New command line option
3431
3432GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3433
3434* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3435
3436There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3437command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3438a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3439be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3440open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3441issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3442a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3443it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3444GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3445is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3446
fe419ffc
RE
3447* Changes in ARM configurations.
3448
3449Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3450configuration is fully multi-arch.
3451
eb7cedd9
MK
3452* New native configurations
3453
fe419ffc 3454ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3455x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3456AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3457Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3458
c9f63e6b
CV
3459* New targets
3460
3461Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3462
9b4ff276
AC
3463* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3464
3465Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3466been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3467configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3468permanently REMOVED.
3469
3470AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3471A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3472AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3473AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3474AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3475
b4ceaee6 3476testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3477
e2caac18
AC
3478* REMOVED configurations and files
3479
3480TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3481WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3482PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3483PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3484PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3485Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3486Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3487 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3488SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3489Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3490Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3491ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3492Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3493
c2a727fa
TT
3494* Changes to command line processing
3495
3496The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3497for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3498
467d8519
TT
3499* Changes to key bindings
3500
3501There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3502
7072a954
AC
3503*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3504
3505Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3506
3507Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3508corrupted.
3509
3510Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3511
3512Numerous documentation fixes.
3513
3514Numerous testsuite fixes.
3515
34f47bc4 3516*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3517
3518* New native configurations
3519
3520Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3521x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3522MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3523MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3524ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3525s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3526
bf64bfd6
AC
3527* New targets
3528
def90278 3529Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3530CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3531UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3532
17e78a56 3533* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3534
3535x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3536Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3537Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3538 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3539TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3540WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3541Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3542PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3543PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3544PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3545SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3546Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3547ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3548Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3549
17e78a56
AC
3550stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3551kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3552
7fcca85b
AC
3553Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3554been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3555configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3556permanently REMOVED.
3557
a196c81c 3558* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3559
3560Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3561Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3562Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3563ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3564Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3565ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3566
6d6b80e5 3567* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3568
6d6b80e5 3569GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3570sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3571present.
3572
bf64bfd6
AC
3573* Other news:
3574
e23194cb
EZ
3575* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3576
3577* The MI enabled by default.
3578
3579The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3580revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3581engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3582using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3583which is now deprecated.
3584
3585* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3586
3587GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3588main features are supported:
3589
3590 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3591
3592 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3593 extension;
3594
3595 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3596
3597 - a Pascal expression parser.
3598
3599However, some important features are not yet supported.
3600
3601 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3602
3603 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3604
3605 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3606 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3607
3608 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3609
3610 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3611
3612* Changes in completion.
3613
3614Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3615to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3616users expect at the shell prompt.
3617
3618Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3619`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3620program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3621files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3622be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3623considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3624name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3625
3626`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3627
3628* New platform-independent commands:
3629
3630It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3631hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3632documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3633
3634* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3635
d7275149
MK
3636Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3637revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3638many threads as your system allows you to have.
3639
e23194cb
EZ
3640Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3641
d7275149
MK
3642Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3643multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3644
3645* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3646
3647Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3648
e23194cb
EZ
3649GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3650debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3651supported.)
3652
3653* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3654
3655Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3656breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3657implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3658put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3659and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3660registers.
3661
3662The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3663debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3664watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3665
3666* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3667
3668New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3669the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3670
3671New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3672display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3673IDT.
3674
3675New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3676from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3677New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3678a given linear address.
3679
3680GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3681program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3682which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3683
3684DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3685
6c56c069
EZ
3686It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3687
e23194cb
EZ
3688* Changes in documentation.
3689
3690All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3691Documentation License.
3692
3693Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3694manual.
3695
3696TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3697
3698Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3699manual.
3700
3701The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3702documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3703hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3704
5d6640b1
AC
3705* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3706
3707The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3708``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3709contents of this file.
3710
1a1d8446
AC
3711* gdba.el deleted
3712
3713GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3714
9debab2f 3715*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3716
c63ce875
EZ
3717* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3718
3719Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3720programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3721displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3722greater level of detail.
3723
3724* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3725
3726It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3727bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3728on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3729written.
3730
3731* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3732
3733The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3734necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3735machines ``out of the box''.
3736
3737The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3738possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3739signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3740would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3741interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3742
3743It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3744standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3745even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3746and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3747terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3748
3749The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3750enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3751also works.
3752
3753DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3754GDB.
3755
3756It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3757directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3758times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3759breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3760
ed9a39eb
JM
3761* New native configurations
3762
3763ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3764PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3765
7a292a7a
SS
3766* New targets
3767
96baa820 3768Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3769x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3770PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3771TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3772
085dd6e6
JM
3773* OBSOLETE configurations
3774
3775Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3776Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3777Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3778ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3779Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3780
9debab2f
AC
3781Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3782but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3783these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3784be permanently REMOVED.
3785
5330533d
SS
3786* Gould support removed
3787
3788Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3789
bc9e5bbf
AC
3790* New features for SVR4
3791
3792On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3793without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3794load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3795
3796* Many C++ enhancements
3797
3798C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3799in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3800
adf40b2e
JM
3801* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3802
3803A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3804sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3805with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3806``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3807
3808 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3809 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3810
43e526b9
JM
3811* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3812
3813A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3814expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3815instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3816
3817The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3818added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3819
96baa820
JM
3820* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3821
3822The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3823``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3824include ``set remote P-packet''.
3825
11cf8741
JM
3826* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3827
3828The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3829accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3830``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3831
7876dd43
DB
3832* ``apropos'' command added.
3833
3834The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3835documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3836try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3837
bc9e5bbf
AC
3838* New MI interface
3839
3840A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3841interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3842process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3843"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3844enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3845
3846 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3847
c906108c
SS
3848*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3849
3850* New native configurations
3851
3852HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3853HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3854M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3855
3856* New targets
3857
3858Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3859Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3860Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3861
3862* OBSOLETE configurations
3863
3864Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3865
3866Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3867but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3868these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3869be permanently REMOVED.
3870
3871* ANSI/ISO C
3872
3873As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3874buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3875containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3876use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3877available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3878configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3879information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3880already.
3881
3882* Readline 2.2
3883
3884GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3885
3886* set extension-language
3887
3888You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3889languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3890you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3891 set extension-language .c c++
3892The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3893and their associated languages.
3894
3895* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3896
3897When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3898you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3899PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3900
3901 set processor NAME
3902
3903sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3904following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3905
3906 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3907 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3908 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3909 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3910 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3911 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3912 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3913 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3914 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3915 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3916 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3917
3918At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3919special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3920registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3921only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3922
3923* HP-UX support
3924
3925Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3926more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3927library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3928support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3929for xdb and dbx commands.
3930
3931* Catchpoints
3932
3933HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3934generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3935to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3936
3937This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3938argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3939output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3940
3941* Debugging across forks
3942
3943On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3944in the inferior.
3945
3946* TUI
3947
3948HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3949it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3950configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3951
3952* GDB remote protocol additions
3953
3954A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3955Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3956fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3957allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3958
3959For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3960full 64-bit address. The command
3961
3962 set remoteaddresssize 32
3963
3964can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3965the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3966will be discarded.
3967
3968In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3969command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3970
3971 maint packet heythere
3972
3973sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3974disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3975time.
3976
3977The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3978target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3979downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3980
3981* Tracing can collect general expressions
3982
3983You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3984further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3985doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3986
3987* mask-address variable for Mips
3988
3989For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3990a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3991of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3992
3993* Higher serial baud rates
3994
3995GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3996230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3997to achieve all of these rates.)
3998
3999* i960 simulator
4000
4001The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
4002builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
4003
4004
4005*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
4006
4007* New native configurations
4008
4009Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
4010Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
4011Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
4012PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
4013PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
4014Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
4015Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
4016
4017* New targets
4018
4019Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
4020Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
4021Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
4022Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
4023MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
4024MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
4025MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
4026Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
4027Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
4028Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4029NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
4030
4031* New debugging protocols
4032
4033ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
4034M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
4035DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
4036PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4037PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4038Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
4039
4040* DWARF 2
4041
4042All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
4043format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
4044information.
4045
4046* Java frontend
4047
4048GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
4049only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
4050
4051* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
4052
4053For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
4054loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
4055locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
4056
4057* Live range splitting
4058
4059GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
4060range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
4061more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
4062
4063* Hurd support
4064
4065GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
4066updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
4067
4068* ARM Thumb support
4069
4070GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
4071instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
4072instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
4073accordingly.
4074
4075* MIPS16 support
4076
4077GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
4078instruction set.
4079
4080* Overlay support
4081
4082GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
4083linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
4084will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
4085control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
4086additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
4087in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
4088
4089* info symbol
4090
4091The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
4092the symbol at the specified address.
4093
4094* Trace support
4095
4096The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
4097asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
4098extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
4099includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
4100file tracepoint.c for more details.
4101
4102* MIPS simulator
4103
4104Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
4105by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
4106of most MIPS variants.
4107
4108* Sparc simulator
4109
4110Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
4111by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
4112Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
4113
4114* set architecture
4115
4116For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
4117basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
4118architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
4119the possible architectures.
4120
4121*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
4122
4123* New native configurations
4124
4125Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
4126M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
4127PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
4128PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
4129PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
4130RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
4131
4132* New targets
4133
4134ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
4135I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
4136MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
4137MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
4138PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
4139Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
4140Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
4141
4142* PowerPC simulator
4143
4144The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
4145contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
4146PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
4147basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
4148performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
4149
4150* Solaris 2.5
4151
4152GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
4153
4154* Windows 95/NT native
4155
4156GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
4157To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
4158which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
4159Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
4160ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
4161
4162* dont-repeat command
4163
4164If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
4165command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
4166useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
4167extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
4168
4169* Send break instead of ^C
4170
4171The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
4172rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
4173GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
4174
4175* Remote protocol timeout
4176
4177The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
4178that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
4179to read from the target. The default value is 2.
4180
4181* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
4182
4183By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
4184loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
4185stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
4186when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
4187in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
4188
4189Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
4190/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
4191automatically on hpux10.
4192
4193* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
4194
4195Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
4196
4197* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
4198
4199When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
4200may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
4201the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
4202every character. The default value is 1050.
4203
4204* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
4205
4206If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
4207a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
4208replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
4209details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4210remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4211to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4212
4213* Speedups for remote debugging
4214
4215GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4216the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4217and more efficient S-record downloading.
4218
4219* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4220
4221GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4222Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4223
4224*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4225
4226* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4227
4228The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4229can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4230
4231* Remote targets use caching
4232
4233Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4234remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4235it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4236debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4237off' turns the the data cache off.
4238
4239* Remote targets may have threads
4240
4241The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4242in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4243gdb/remote.c for details.
4244
4245* NetROM support
4246
4247If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4248support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4249acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4250write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4251support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4252another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4253sequence is something like
4254
4255 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4256 load <prog>
4257 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4258
4259* Macintosh host
4260
4261GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4262may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4263it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4264available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4265device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4266directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4267scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4268mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4269
4270* Autoconf
4271
4272GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4273but does simplify configuration and building.
4274
4275* hpux10
4276
4277GDB now supports hpux10.
4278
4279*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4280
4281* New native configurations
4282
4283x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4284x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4285NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4286Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4287
4288* New targets
4289
4290A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4291HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4292CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4293PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4294WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4295
4296* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4297
4298GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4299possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4300filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4301the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4302if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4303
4304* Arguments to user-defined commands
4305
4306User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4307Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4308trivial example:
4309define adder
4310 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4311
4312To execute the command use:
4313adder 1 2 3
4314
4315Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4316Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4317use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4318
4319* New `if' and `while' commands
4320
4321This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4322commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4323expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4324execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4325terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4326`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4327if the expression is zero.
4328
4329* Fortran source language mode
4330
4331GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4332Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4333variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4334with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4335Fortran compilers.
4336
4337* Better HPUX support
4338
4339Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4340running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4341processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4342for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4343that behavior do the following before running the program:
4344
4345 adb -w a.out
4346 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4347 control-d
4348
4349This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4350To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4351
4352 adb -w a.out
4353 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4354 control-d
4355
4356You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4357the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4358external linkage.
4359
4360GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4361HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4362
4363* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4364
4365You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4366commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4367current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4368"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4369associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4370configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4371
4372* New DOS host serial code
4373
4374This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4375no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4376a PC's serial port.
4377
4378*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4379
4380* New "complete" command
4381
4382This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4383were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4384
4385* Trailing space optional in prompt
4386
4387"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4388allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4389
4390* Breakpoint hit counts
4391
4392"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4393has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4394can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4395to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4396less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4397that breakpoint.
4398
4399* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4400
4401"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4402an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4403arrays actually contain only short strings.
4404
4405* Shared library breakpoints
4406
4407In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4408breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4409
4410* Hardware watchpoints
4411
4412There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4413targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4414
55241689 4415Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4416
4417* Annotations
4418
4419Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4420and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4421
4422* Improved Irix 5 support
4423
4424GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4425
4426* Improved HPPA support
4427
4428GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4429
4430* New native configurations
4431
4432Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4433HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4434Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4435RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4436
4437* New targets
4438
4439OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4440MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4441Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4442
4443* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4444
4445There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4446This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4447
4448* Fixes
4449
4450As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4451and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4452
4453*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4454
4455* Irix 5 is now supported
4456
4457* HPPA support
4458
4459GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4460to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4461GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4462of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4463can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4464
4465
4466*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4467
4468* User visible changes:
4469
4470* Remote Debugging
4471
4472The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4473target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4474debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4475integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4476debugging info for the mips target).
4477
4478* DEC Alpha native support
4479
4480GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4481debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4482work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4483Alpha-specific notes.
4484
4485* Preliminary thread implementation
4486
4487GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4488
4489* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4490
4491This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4492to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4493for details).
4494
4495* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4496
4497This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4498mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4499call methods, ...etc.
4500
4501*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4502
4503 * User visible changes:
4504
4505Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4506supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4507other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4508somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4509
4510Filename completion now works.
4511
4512When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4513arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4514addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4515
4516All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4517vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4518should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4519your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4520to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4521
4522 * DEC alpha support
4523
4524This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4525cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4526
4527
4528*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4529
4530 * Testsuite
4531
4532This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4533The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4534via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4535
4536 * C++ demangling
4537
4538'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4539emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4540Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4541disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4542use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4543
4544 * Simulators
4545
4546GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4547So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4548Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4549
4550 * New targets supported
4551
4552H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4553H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4554SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4555Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4556IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4557
4558Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4559version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4560GO32 memory extender.
4561
4562 * New remote protocols
4563
4564MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4565
4566 * New source languages supported
4567
4568This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4569used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4570into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4571
4572
4573*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4574
4575 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4576
4577GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4578version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4579University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4580compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4581format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4582(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4583
4584Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4585
4586 * Faster and better demangling
4587
4588We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4589demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4590character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4591only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4592This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4593increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4594symbol lookups.
4595
4596`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4597from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4598compiler does not actually implement.
4599
4600 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4601
4602In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4603inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4604recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4605very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4606The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4607circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4608fix.
4609
4610The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4611release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4612
4613 * Improved configure script
4614
4615The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4616you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4617host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4618done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4619
4620We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4621version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4622`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4623The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4624only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4625We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4626
4627 * Documentation improvements
4628
4629There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4630produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4631before submitting changes.
4632
4633The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4634M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4635`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4636you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4637a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4638
4639*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4640We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4641been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4642or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4643`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4644around this problem.
4645
4646 * New features
4647
4648GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4649the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4650`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4651the target program.
4652
4653The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4654how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4655
4656 * New native hosts supported
4657
4658HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4659386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4660
4661 * New targets supported
4662
4663AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4664
4665 * New file formats supported
4666
4667BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4668HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4669
4670 * Major bug fixes
4671
4672Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4673
4674We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4675printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4676
4677We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4678for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4679release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4680
4681You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4682will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4683
4684We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4685for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4686especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4687libraries.
4688
4689The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4690information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4691command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4692any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4693when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4694
4695 * Internal improvements
4696
4697GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4698debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4699
4700GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4701Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4702symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4703contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4704shared code that handles any of them.
4705
4706 * New command line options
4707
4708We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4709
4710 * Mmalloc licensing
4711
4712The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4713General Public License.
4714
4715*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4716
4717 * Host/native/target split
4718
4719GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4720hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4721target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4722local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4723ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4724
4725The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4726GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4727is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4728code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4729any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4730built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4731handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4732
4733GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4734It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4735plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4736
4737 * New hosts supported
4738
4739HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4740386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4741386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4742
4743 * New targets supported
4744
4745Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
474668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4747
4748 * New native hosts supported
4749
4750386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4751 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4752386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4753
4754 * New file formats supported
4755
4756BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4757supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4758format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4759
4760 * New commands
4761
4762`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4763`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4764These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4765
4766`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4767
4768You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4769scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4770prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4771executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4772
4773 * C++ improvements
4774
4775We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4776info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4777symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4778
4779Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4780
4781 * Major bug fixes
4782
4783The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4784fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4785by the compiler.
4786
4787We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4788support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4789
4790John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4791slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4792that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4793purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4794the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4795mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4796
4797Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4798about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4799completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4800we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4801
4802 * AMD 29k support
4803
4804A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4805specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4806calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4807usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4808in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4809
4810We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4811Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4812of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4813resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4814
4815 * Remote interfaces
4816
4817We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4818with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4819message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4820This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4821needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4822breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4823each instruction being stepped through.
4824
4825The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4826registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4827
4828There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4829find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4830Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4831processor with a serial port.
4832
4833 * Configuration
4834
4835Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4836`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4837supported, and what files each one uses.
4838
4839 * Library changes
4840
4841There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4842disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4843Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4844disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4845
4846The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4847Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4848can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4849grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4850
4851 * Documentation
4852
4853The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4854reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4855as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4856encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4857system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4858bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4859
4860And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4861
4862
4863*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4864
4865 * Better support for C++ function names
4866
4867GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4868names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4869(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4870single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4871Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4872
4873GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4874the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4875You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4876lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4877for the list of formats.
4878
4879 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4880
4881Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4882C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4883directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4884can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4885usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4886about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4887this problem.)
4888
4889 * New 'maintenance' command
4890
4891All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4892the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4893can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4894
4895 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4896 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4897 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4898 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4899 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4900 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4901
4902The following commands are new:
4903
4904 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4905 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4906 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4907
4908 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4909
4910We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4911(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4912be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4913read after argv processing.
4914
4915 * New hosts supported
4916
4917Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4918
55241689 4919GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4920
4921We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4922is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4923for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4924masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4925fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4926It costs extra.
4927
4928 * New targets supported
4929
4930Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4931
4932 * More smarts about finding #include files
4933
4934GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4935all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4936greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4937especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4938the one that contains your sources.
4939
4940We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4941breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4942try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4943
4944 * Interesting infernals change
4945
4946GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4947section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4948target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4949stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4950
4951 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4952
4953There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4954 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4955 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4956
4957See the ChangeLog for details.
4958
4959*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4960
4961 * New machines supported (host and target)
4962
4963IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4964
4965SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4966
4967 * New malloc package
4968
4969GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4970Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4971capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4972This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4973pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4974more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4975
4976 * info proc
4977
4978The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4979'help info proc' for details.
4980
4981 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4982
4983The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4984Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4985possible.
4986
4987 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4988
4989Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4990support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4991conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4992environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4993that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4994in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4995
4996 * Cross byte order fixes
4997
4998Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4999targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
5000
5001 * New -mapped and -readnow options
5002
5003If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
5004system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
5005`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
5006program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
5007called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
5008Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
5009and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
5010the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
5011option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
5012starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
5013
5014You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
5015the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
5016information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
5017slower, but makes future operations faster.
5018
5019The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
5020build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
5021A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
5022use is:
5023
5024 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
5025
5026The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
5027It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
5028shared across multiple host platforms.
5029
5030 * longjmp() handling
5031
5032GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
5033siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
5034all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
5035platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
5036
5037 * Solaris 2.0
5038
5039Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
5040this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
5041reading symbols.
5042
5043 * Bug fixes
5044
5045As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
5046People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
5047crashes and trashed symbol tables.
5048
5049*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
5050
5051 * New machines supported (host and target)
5052
5053SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5054 (except core files)
5055BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
5056Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
5057
5058 * New machines supported (target)
5059
5060AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
5061
5062 * C++ support
5063
5064GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
5065The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
5066per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
5067
5068GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
5069`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
5070extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
5071good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
5072will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
5073released.
5074
5075 * New features for SVR4
5076
5077GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
5078shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
5079only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
5080
5081The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
5082on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
5083it prints the address mappings of the process.
5084
5085If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
5086bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
5087
5088 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
5089
5090Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
5091now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
5092skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
5093make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
5094same code linked statically.
5095
5096 * New Getopt
5097
5098GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
5099version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
5100continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
5101Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
5102added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
5103future by other options that begin with the same letter.
5104
5105 * Bugs fixed
5106
5107The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5108Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5109See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5110
5111
5112*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
5113
5114 * New machines supported (host and target)
5115
5116Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
5117NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
5118Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
5119
5120 * Almost SCO Unix support
5121
5122We had hoped to support:
5123SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
5124(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
5125that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
5126about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
5127
5128 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
5129
5130GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
5131debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
5132is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
5133send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
5134reqired (if any).
5135
5136 * New Readline
5137
5138GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
5139is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
5140required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
5141
5142 * Bugs fixed
5143
5144The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
5145Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
5146See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
5147
5148 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
5149
5150GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
5151supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
5152symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
5153
5154Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
5155mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
5156debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
5157mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
5158version 2.
5159
5160Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
5161really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
5162line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
5163variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
5164situation somewhat.
5165
5166When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
5167However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
5168methods.
5169
5170We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
5171DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
5172encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
5173
5174
5175*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
5176
5177 * Improved configuration
5178
5179Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
5180Porting BFD is simpler.
5181
5182 * Stepping improved
5183
5184The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
5185of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
5186in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
5187function that has debugging information is called within the line.
5188
5189 * Bug fixing
5190
5191Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
5192
5193 * New host supported (not target)
5194
5195Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
5196
5197
5198*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
5199
5200 * Multiple source language support
5201
5202GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
5203It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
5204and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
5205language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
5206You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
5207`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
5208
5209 * GDB and Modula-2
5210
5211GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5212currently under development at the State University of New York at
5213Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5214continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5215
5216Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5217debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5218symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5219
5220There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5221in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5222
5223 * set write on/off
5224
5225GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5226a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5227the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5228by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5229effect immediately.
5230
5231 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5232
5233When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5234shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5235The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5236examining core files.
5237
5238 * set listsize
5239
5240You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5241The default is 10.
5242
5243 * New machines supported (host and target)
5244
5245SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5246Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5247Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5248
5249 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5250
5251IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5252
5253 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5254
5255AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5256AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5257Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5258
5259 * New remote interfaces
5260
5261AMD 29000 Adapt
5262AMD 29000 Minimon
5263
5264
5265*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5266
5267 * New Facilities
5268
5269Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5270
5271Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5272target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5273is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5274remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5275remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5276also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5277using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5278stub on the target system.
5279
5280New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5281
5282GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5283library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5284object file types such as a.out and coff.
5285
5286There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5287refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5288
5289
5290 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5291
5292All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5293by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5294
5295For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5296``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5297Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5298
5299What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5300print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5301will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5302all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5303
5304confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5305 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5306 it is already running. Default is ON.
5307
5308editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5309 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5310 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5311 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5312 Default is ON.
5313
5314history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5315 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5316 or the value of the environment variable
5317 GDBHISTFILE.
5318
5319history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5320 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5321 HISTSIZE.
5322
5323history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5324 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5325 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5326
5327history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5328 history expansion will be performed on
5329 command line input. The default is OFF.
5330
5331radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5332 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5333 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5334
5335height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5336 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5337 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5338 variable TERM.
5339
5340width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5341 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5342 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5343 variable TERM.
5344
5345Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5346``set width'' instead.
5347
5348print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5349 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5350 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5351 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5352
5353print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5354 is OFF.
5355
5356print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5357 "raw" form if off.
5358
5359print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5360 like instructions.
5361
5362print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5363
5364
5365 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5366
5367The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5368new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5369are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5370window.
5371
5372
5373 * Support for Shared Libraries
5374
5375GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5376Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5377before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5378happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5379At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5380from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5381shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5382It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5383
5384sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5385 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5386 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5387
5388info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5389
5390
5391 * Watchpoints
5392
5393A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5394expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5395tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5396quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5397problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5398more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5399
5400watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5401
5402info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5403
5404delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5405disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5406enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5407
5408
5409 * C++ multiple inheritance
5410
5411When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5412for C++ programs.
5413
5414 * C++ exception handling
5415
5416Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5417ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5418the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5419handler's context).
5420
5421catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5422 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5423 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5424
5425info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5426 current stack frame.
5427
5428
5429 * Minor command changes
5430
5431The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5432command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5433is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5434
5435The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5436at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5437frames without printing.
5438
5439 * New directory command
5440
5441'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5442The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5443about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5444with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5445find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5446
5447 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5448
5449For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5450for more details.
5451
5452GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5453two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5454Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5455where the program that you are debugging will run.
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