* configure.host: Add x86_64-*-cygwin* as host.
[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 7.5
5
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6* New native configurations
7
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9FreeBSD/powerpc powerpc*-*-freebsd
10
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11* New targets
12
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13ARM AArch64 aarch64*-*-elf
14ARM AArch64 GNU/Linux aarch64*-*-linux
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15Lynx 178 PowerPC powerpc-*-lynx*178
16
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17* If the configured location of system.gdbinit file (as given by the
18 --with-system-gdbinit option at configure time) is in the
19 data-directory (as specified by --with-gdb-datadir at configure
20 time) or in one of its subdirectories, then GDB will look for the
21 system-wide init file in the directory specified by the
22 --data-directory command-line option.
23
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24* New command line options:
25
26-nh Disables auto-loading of ~/.gdbinit, but still executes all the
27 other initialization files, unlike -nx which disables all of them.
28
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29* Removed command line options
30
31-epoch This was used by the gdb mode in Epoch, an ancient fork of
32 Emacs.
33
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34* The 'ptype' and 'whatis' commands now accept an argument to control
35 type formatting.
36
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37* 'info proc' now works on some core files.
38
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39* Python scripting
40
41 ** Vectors can be created with gdb.Type.vector.
42
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43 ** Python's atexit.register now works in GDB.
44
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45 ** Types can be pretty-printed via a Python API.
46
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47 ** Python 3 is now supported (in addition to Python 2.4 or later)
48
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49 ** New class gdb.Architecture exposes GDB's internal representation
50 of architecture in the Python API.
51
52 ** New method Frame.architecture returns the gdb.Architecture object
53 corresponding to the frame's architecture.
54
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55* New Python-based convenience functions:
56
57 ** $_memeq(buf1, buf2, length)
58 ** $_streq(str1, str2)
59 ** $_strlen(str)
60 ** $_regex(str, regex)
61
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62* The 'cd' command now defaults to using '~' (the home directory) if not
63 given an argument.
64
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65* The C++ ABI now defaults to the GNU v3 ABI. This has been the
66 default for GCC since November 2000.
67
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68* The command 'forward-search' can now be abbreviated as 'fo'.
69
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70* The command 'info tracepoints' can now display 'installed on target'
71 or 'not installed on target' for each non-pending location of tracepoint.
72
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73* New configure options
74
75--enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck
76 By default, development versions are built with -lmcheck on hosts
77 that support it, in order to help track memory corruption issues.
78 Release versions, on the other hand, are built without -lmcheck
79 by default. The --enable-libmcheck/--disable-libmcheck configure
80 options allow the user to override that default.
81
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82* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
83
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84catch signal
85 Catch signals. This is similar to "handle", but allows commands and
86 conditions to be attached.
87
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88maint info bfds
89 List the BFDs known to GDB.
90
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91python-interactive [command]
92pi [command]
93 Start a Python interactive prompt, or evaluate the optional command
94 and print the result of expressions.
95
96py [command]
97 "py" is a new alias for "python".
98
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99enable type-printer [name]...
100disable type-printer [name]...
101 Enable or disable type printers.
102
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103set debug notification
104show debug notification
105 Control display of debugging info for async remote notification.
106
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107* Removed commands
108
109 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been removed
110 (has been deprecated in GDB 7.5), and "info all-registers" should be used
111 instead.
112
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113* New options
114
115set print type methods (on|off)
116show print type methods
117 Control whether method declarations are displayed by "ptype".
118 The default is to show them.
119
120set print type typedefs (on|off)
121show print type typedefs
122 Control whether typedef definitions are displayed by "ptype".
123 The default is to show them.
124
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125set filename-display basename|relative|absolute
126show filename-display
127 Control the way in which filenames is displayed.
128 The default is "relative", which preserves previous behavior.
129
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130* MI changes
131
132 ** Command parameter changes are now notified using new async record
133 "=cmd-param-changed".
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134 ** Trace frame changes caused by command "tfind" are now notified using
135 new async record "=traceframe-changed".
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136 ** The creation, deletion and modification of trace state variables
137 are now notified using new async records "=tsv-created",
138 "=tsv-deleted" and "=tsv-modified".
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139 ** The start and stop of process record are now notified using new
140 async record "=record-started" and "=record-stopped".
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141 ** Memory changes are now notified using new async record
142 "=memory-changed".
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143 ** The data-disassemble command response will include a "fullname" field
144 containing the absolute file name when GDB can determine it and source
145 has been requested.
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146 ** New optional parameter COUNT added to the "-data-write-memory-bytes"
147 command, to allow pattern filling of memory areas.
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148 ** New commands "-catch-load"/"-catch-unload" added for intercepting
149 library load/unload events.
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150 ** The response to breakpoint commands and breakpoint async records
151 includes an "installed" field containing a boolean state about each
152 non-pending tracepoint location is whether installed on target or not.
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153 ** Output of the "-trace-status" command includes a "trace-file" field
154 containing the name of the trace file being examined. This field is
155 optional, and only present when examining a trace file.
5b9afe8a 156
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157* GDB now supports the "mini debuginfo" section, .gnu_debugdata.
158 You must have the LZMA library available when configuring GDB for this
159 feature to be enabled. For more information, see:
160 http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/MiniDebugInfo
161
80c8d323 162*** Changes in GDB 7.5
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164* GDB now supports x32 ABI. Visit <http://sites.google.com/site/x32abi/>
165 for more x32 ABI info.
166
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167* GDB now supports access to MIPS DSP registers on Linux targets.
168
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169* GDB now supports debugging microMIPS binaries.
170
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171* The "info os" command on GNU/Linux can now display information on
172 several new classes of objects managed by the operating system:
173 "info os procgroups" lists process groups
174 "info os files" lists file descriptors
175 "info os sockets" lists internet-domain sockets
176 "info os shm" lists shared-memory regions
177 "info os semaphores" lists semaphores
178 "info os msg" lists message queues
179 "info os modules" lists loaded kernel modules
180
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181* GDB now has support for SDT (Static Defined Tracing) probes. Currently,
182 the only implemented backend is for SystemTap probes (<sys/sdt.h>). You
183 can set a breakpoint using the new "-probe, "-pstap" or "-probe-stap"
184 options and inspect the probe arguments using the new $_probe_arg family
185 of convenience variables. You can obtain more information about SystemTap
186 in <http://sourceware.org/systemtap/>.
187
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188* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
189 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
190 record/replay support.
191
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192* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
193
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194* Python scripting
195
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196 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
197 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
198
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199 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
200
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201 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
202 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
203
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204 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
205
206 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
207 the source at which the symbol was defined.
208
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209 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
210 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
211 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
212 symbol's value.
213
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214 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
215 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
216
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217 ** New methods 'global_block' and 'static_block' on gdb.Symtab objects
218 which return the global and static blocks (as gdb.Block objects),
219 of the underlying symbol table, respectively.
220
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221 ** New function gdb.find_pc_line which returns the gdb.Symtab_and_line
222 object associated with a PC value.
223
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224 ** gdb.Symtab_and_line has new attribute 'last' which holds the end
225 of the address range occupied by code for the current source line.
226
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227* Go language support.
228 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the Go programming
229 language.
230
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231* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
232 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
233
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234* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
235 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
236
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237* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
238 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
239 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
240 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
241 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
242 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
243
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244* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
245 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
246 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
247 build/libcpp/expr.c.
248
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249* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
250 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
251
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252* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
253 since December 2007.
254
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255* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
256 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
257 command does. For instance:
258
259 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
260
261 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
262 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
263 created, using the "condition" command.
264
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265* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
266 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
267
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268* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
269
270* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
271 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
272 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
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273 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new command
274 "set use-deprecated-index-sections on" will cause GDB to use any older
275 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but the
276 ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost in symbol
277 files with older .gdb_index sections.
481860b3 278
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279 The .gdb_index section has also been updated to record more information
280 about each symbol. This speeds up the "info variables", "info functions"
281 and "info types" commands when used with programs having the .gdb_index
282 section, as well as speeding up debugging with shared libraries using
283 the .gdb_index section.
284
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285* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
286
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287* GDB can now support 'breakpoint always-inserted mode' in 'record'
288 target.
289
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290* MI changes
291
292 ** New command -info-os is the MI equivalent of "info os".
293
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294 ** Output logs ("set logging" and related) now include MI output.
295
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296* New commands
297
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298 ** "set use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
299 "show use-deprecated-index-sections on|off"
300 Controls the use of deprecated .gdb_index sections.
301
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302 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
303 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
304
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305 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
306 several hits.
307
57651221 308 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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309 C++ and Java objects.
310
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311 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
312 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
313 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
314 configured with '--with-python'.
315
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316 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
317 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
318 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
319 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
320 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
321 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
322 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
323
324 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
325 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
326 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
327 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
328
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329 ** "dprintf location,format,args..." creates a dynamic printf, which
330 is basically a breakpoint that does a printf and immediately
331 resumes your program's execution, so it is like a printf that you
332 can insert dynamically at runtime instead of at compiletime.
333
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334 ** "set print symbol"
335 "show print symbol"
336 Controls whether GDB attempts to display the symbol, if any,
337 corresponding to addresses it prints. This defaults to "on", but
338 you can set it to "off" to restore GDB's previous behavior.
339
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340* Deprecated commands
341
342 ** For the Renesas Super-H architecture, the "regs" command has been
343 deprecated, and "info all-registers" should be used instead.
344
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345* New targets
346
347Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 348HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
a58b110a 349
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350* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
351 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
352 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
353 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
354 evaluates to true.
355
356* New options
357
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358set mips compression
359show mips compression
360 Select the compressed ISA encoding used in functions that have no symbol
361 information available. The encoding can be set to either of:
362 mips16
363 micromips
364 and is updated automatically from ELF file flags if available.
365
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366set breakpoint condition-evaluation
367show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 368 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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369 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
370 available mode.
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371 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
372 target.
373
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374set auto-load off
375 Disable auto-loading globally.
376
377show auto-load
378 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
379
380set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
381show auto-load gdb-scripts
382 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
383
384set auto-load python-scripts on|off
385show auto-load python-scripts
386 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
387
388set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
389show auto-load local-gdbinit
390 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
391
392set auto-load libthread-db on|off
393show auto-load libthread-db
394 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
395
7349ff92 396set auto-load scripts-directory <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
9cc815f5 397show auto-load scripts-directory
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398 Set a list of directories from which to load auto-loaded scripts.
399 Automatically loaded Python scripts and GDB scripts are located in one
400 of the directories listed by this option.
401 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
402
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403set auto-load safe-path <dir1>[:<dir2>...]
404show auto-load safe-path
405 Set a list of directories from which it is safe to auto-load files.
406 The delimiter (':' above) may differ according to the host platform.
407
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408set debug auto-load on|off
409show debug auto-load
410 Control display of debugging info for auto-loading the files above.
411
d3ce09f5 412set dprintf-style gdb|call|agent
e7e0cddf 413show dprintf-style
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414 Control the way in which a dynamic printf is performed; "gdb"
415 requests a GDB printf command, while "call" causes dprintf to call a
416 function in the inferior. "agent" requests that the target agent
417 (such as GDBserver) do the printing.
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418
419set dprintf-function <expr>
420show dprintf-function
421set dprintf-channel <expr>
422show dprintf-channel
423 Set the function and optional first argument to the call when using
424 the "call" style of dynamic printf.
425
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426set disconnected-dprintf on|off
427show disconnected-dprintf
428 Control whether agent-style dynamic printfs continue to be in effect
429 after GDB disconnects.
430
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431* New configure options
432
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433--with-auto-load-dir
434 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load scripts-directory'
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435 setting above. It defaults to '$debugdir:$datadir/auto-load',
436 $debugdir representing global debugging info directories (available
437 via 'show debug-file-directory') and $datadir representing GDB's data
438 directory (available via 'show data-directory').
7349ff92 439
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440--with-auto-load-safe-path
441 Configure default value for the 'set auto-load safe-path' setting
7349ff92 442 above. It defaults to the --with-auto-load-dir setting.
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443
444--without-auto-load-safe-path
445 Set 'set auto-load safe-path' to '/', effectively disabling this
446 security feature.
447
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448* New remote packets
449
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450z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
451
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452 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
453 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
454 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
455 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
456
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457QProgramSignals:
458
459 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
460 program without GDB involvement.
461
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462* New command line options
463
464--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
465 before loading inferior.
466--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
467 execute it before loading inferior.
468
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469*** Changes in GDB 7.4
470
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471* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
472 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
473 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
474 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
475 inferior changes.
476
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477* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
478 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
479
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480* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
481 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
482 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
483 target hardware watchpoint.
484
485 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
486 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
487 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
488 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
489
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490* Python scripting
491
32d1c362 492 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 493 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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494 existing one.
495
3a7bf607 496 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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497 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
498 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
499 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
500 now "message", which just prints the error message without
501 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 502
baacfb07 503 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 504 Python API.
713389e0 505
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506 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
507 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 508 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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509 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
510 corresponding value.
511
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512 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
513 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
514 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
515 on GDB start-up.
516
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517 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
518 static_block will return the global and static blocks
519 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
520 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
521
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522 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
523
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524 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
525 "gdb.breakpoints".
526
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527 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
528 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
529 available in the CLI.
530
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531 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
532 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
533 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
534 "some_type.items()".
535
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536 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
537 new object file.
538
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539 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
540 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
541 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
542 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
543 any anonymous fields.
544
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545* MI changes
546
547 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
548 "solib-event".
549
550 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
551 "=breakpoint-modified".
552
553 ** New command -ada-task-info.
554
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555* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
556 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
557 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
558 lives.
559
560 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
561 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
562 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
563 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
564 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
565
566 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
567 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
568
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569* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
570 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
571 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
572 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
573 use this option to specify where to find it.
574
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575* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
576 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
577 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
578 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
579 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
580 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
581 section in the user manual for more details.
582
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583* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
584 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
585 become available after that.
586
71eba9c2 587* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 588
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589* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
590 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
591 gcc version 4.7.
592
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DE
593* New commands
594
595!SHELL COMMAND
596 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
597 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
598
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TJB
599* Changed commands
600
601watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
602 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
603 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
604
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DE
605info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
606 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
607 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
608
71eba9c2 609info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
610 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
611 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
612 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
613 name starts with a hyphen.
614
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SS
615collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
616 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
617 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
618 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
619 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
620 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
621 number of bytes that will be collected.
622
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SS
623tstart [NOTES]
624 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
625 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
626 setting the variable trace-notes.
627
628tstop [NOTES]
629 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
630 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
631 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
632 trace-stop-notes.
633
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634* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
635 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
636 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
637 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
638 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
639 is running.
640
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641* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
642 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
643 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
644
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645* New options
646
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DE
647set debug dwarf2-read
648show debug dwarf2-read
649 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to reading
650 DWARF debug info. The default is off.
651
652set debug symtab-create
653show debug symtab-create
654 Turns on or off display of debugging messages related to symbol table
655 creation. The default is off.
656
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657set extended-prompt
658show extended-prompt
659 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
660 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
661 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
662 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
663 prompt is displayed.
664
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665set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
666show print entry-values
667 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
668 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
669 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
670
671set debug entry-values
672show debug entry-values
673 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
674 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
675
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DE
676set basenames-may-differ
677show basenames-may-differ
678 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
679 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
680 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
681 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
682 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
683 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
684 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
685 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
686
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687set trace-user
688show trace-user
689set trace-notes
690show trace-notes
691 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
692 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
693 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
694 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
695
696set trace-stop-notes
697show trace-stop-notes
698 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
699 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
700 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
701 started by someone else.
702
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703* New remote packets
704
705QTEnable
706
707 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
708
709QTDisable
710
711 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
712
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SS
713QTNotes
714
715 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
716
717qTP
718
719 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
720
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SS
721qTMinFTPILen
722
723 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
724 be placed.
725
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PP
726* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
727 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
728
11315641
YQ
729* New targets
730
731Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
732
87326c78
DD
733* New Simulators
734
735Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
736
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JB
737*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
738
739* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
740
d6e00af6 741*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 742
60f98dde
MS
743* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
744 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
745 matches the given regular expression.
746
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DD
747* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
748
b716877b
AB
749* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
750 dumping the instruction opcodes.
751
aae1c79a
DE
752* New command line options
753
754-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
755 This is mostly for testing purposes.
756
a86caf66
DE
757* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
758 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
759
99e7ae30
DE
760* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
761 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
762 source path list instead of augmenting it.
763
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TT
764* GDB now understands thread names.
765
766 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
767 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
768
769 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
770 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
771
f4b8a18d
KW
772* OpenCL C
773 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
774 has been integrated into GDB.
775
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PM
776* Python scripting
777
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PM
778 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
779 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
780 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
781
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PM
782 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
783 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
784 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
785 and allows for more dynamic content.
786
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787 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
788 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
789 have an is_valid method.
790
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PM
791 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
792 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
793 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
794
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DE
795 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
796
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PM
797 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
798 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
799 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
800 that function like so:
801
802 result = some_value (10,20)
803
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DE
804 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
805 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
806 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
807
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DE
808 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
809 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
810 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
811 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
812 New function: register_pretty_printer.
813
814 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
815 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
816
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DE
817 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
818
d8e22779
TT
819 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
820 selected thread.
821
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TT
822 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
823 holds the thread's name.
824
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SW
825 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
826 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 827 occurring in the process being debugged.
c17a9e46
HZ
828 The following events are currently supported:
829 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
830 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
831 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
832
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TT
833* C++ Improvements:
834
835 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
836 instantiation. For example, if you have:
837
838 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
839
840 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
841 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
842 was added to GCC 4.5.
843
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TT
844 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
845 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
846 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
847 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
848 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
849 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
850
4aac0db7
UW
851* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
852 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
853 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
854 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
855 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
856
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TT
857* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
858 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
859 execution to a label.
860
861* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
862 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
863 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
864 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
865
b56df873 866* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 867 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
b56df873
TT
868 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
869 of scope.
870
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PA
871* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
872
873 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
874 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
875 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
876 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
877 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
878 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
879
880 (gdb) info threads
881 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
882
883 While now you see this:
884
885 (gdb) info threads
886 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
887
888 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
889 dumps.
890
891 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
892 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
893 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
894 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
895
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TJB
896* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
897 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
898 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
899 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
900 section in the user manual for more details.
901
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JB
902* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
903
1aee7009
JB
904 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
905 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 906
eb826dc6
MF
907 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
908
44603653
JB
909* New native configurations
910
911ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
912
91021223
MF
913* New targets:
914
915Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
916
6e1bb179
JB
917* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
918 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
919 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
920 in the GDB user manual.
921
50c97f38
TT
922* Guile support was removed.
923
448a92bf
MF
924* New features in the GNU simulator
925
926 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
927
66ee2731
MF
928 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
929
76b8507d 930*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 931
ba25b921
PA
932* Shared library support for remote targets by default
933
934 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
935 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
936 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
937 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
938 was always disabled for such configurations.
939
4656f5c6
SW
940* C++ Improvements:
941
942 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
943
944 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
945 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
946 For example:
947 namespace A
948 {
949 class B { };
950 void foo (B) { }
951 }
952 ...
953 A::B b
954 foo(b)
955 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
956 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
957 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
958
959 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
960
961 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
962 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
963 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
964 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
965 entry.
966 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
967 mentioned flavors of operators.
968
254e6b9e
DE
969 ** static const class members
970
971 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
972 class definition has been fixed.
973
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PM
974* Windows Thread Information Block access.
975
976 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
977 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
978 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
979 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
980 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
981 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
982
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PA
983* Static tracepoints
984
985 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
986 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
987 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
988 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
989 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
990 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
991 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
992 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
993 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
994 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
995 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
996 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
997 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
998 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
999 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
1000 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
1001 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
1002 the "New remote packets" section below.
1003
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SS
1004* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
1005
1006 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
1007 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
1008 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
1009 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
1010
1011* Observer mode
1012
1013 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
1014 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
1015 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
1016 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
1017 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
1018 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
1019 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
1020
1021* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
1022 current thread.
1023
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PM
1024* New remote packets
1025
1026qGetTIBAddr
1027
1028 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
1029
dde08ee1
PA
1030qRelocInsn
1031
1032 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
1033 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
1034 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
1035 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
1036 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
1037 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
1038
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PA
1039qTfSTM, qTsSTM
1040
1041 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
1042
1043qTSTMat
1044
1045 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
1046 program.
1047
1048qXfer:statictrace:read
1049
1050 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
1051 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
1052 to gdb's qSupported query.
1053
ca11e899
SS
1054QAllow
1055
1056 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
1057
1058QTDPsrc
1059
1060 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
1061 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
1062
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DE
1063* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
1064 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
1065 a directory.
1066
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PA
1067* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
1068
0fb4aa4b
PA
1069 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
1070 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
1071 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
1072 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
1073
1074 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
1075 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
1076 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
1077 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
1078 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
1079 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
1080 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
1081
1082 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
1083 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 1084
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1085 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
1086
c8d5aac9
L
1087* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
1088 it understands register description.
1089
7c953934
TT
1090* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
1091
8685c86f
L
1092* X86 general purpose registers
1093
1094 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
1095 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
1096 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
1097 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
1098 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
1099
95a42b64 1100* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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PA
1101 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
1102 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
1103 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
1104 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
1105 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 1106
8bd10a10
CM
1107* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
1108 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
1109 in the specified file.
1110
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1111* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
1112 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
1113 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
1114 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
1115 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
1116 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
1117 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
1118 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
1119 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
1120 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
1121
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PA
1122* New commands
1123
f1421989
HZ
1124eval template, expressions...
1125 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
1126 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
1127
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PA
1128set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
1129show target-file-system-kind
1130 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
1131 names.
1132
6149aea9
PA
1133save breakpoints <filename>
1134 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
1135 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
1136 definitions, use the `source' command.
1137
1138`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
1139is now deprecated.
1140
0fb4aa4b
PA
1141info static-tracepoint-markers
1142 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
1143
1144strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
1145 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
1146 function, line, address, or marker ID.
1147
ca11e899
SS
1148set observer on|off
1149show observer
1150 Enable and disable observer mode.
1151
1152set may-write-registers on|off
1153set may-write-memory on|off
1154set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
1155set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
1156set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
1157set may-interrupt on|off
1158 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
1159 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
1160 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
1161 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
1162 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
1163 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
1164 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
1165
1166set record memory-query on|off
1167show record memory-query
1168 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
1169 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
1170
53a71c06
CR
1171* Changed commands
1172
1173disassemble
1174 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
1175
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PM
1176* Python scripting
1177
9279c692
JB
1178** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
1179 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
1180 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
1181 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
1182 GDB using Python' in the manual.
1183
adc36818 1184** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
595939de
PM
1185 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
1186 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
1187 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 1188
fa33c3cd 1189** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
1190 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
1191
1192** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
1193
1194** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 1195
967cf477
DE
1196** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
1197
8a1ea21f
DE
1198** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
1199 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
1200 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
1201
a7bdde9e
VP
1202* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
1203there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
1204tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
1205regular breakpoints.
1206
05071a4d
PA
1207* New targets
1208
1209ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
1210
6aecb9c2
JB
1211* D language support.
1212 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
1213 language.
1214
431e49aa
TJB
1215* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
1216 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
1217 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
1218 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
1219 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
1220
1221* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
1222 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
1223 conditions of the form:
1224
1225 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
1226
1227 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
1228 interface mentioned above.
1229
bfbf3774 1230*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 1231
4eef138c
TT
1232* C++ Improvements
1233
1234 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
1235
1236 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
1237 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
1238 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
1239 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
1240 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
1241
4eef138c
TT
1242 ** Bug Fixes
1243
1244 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
1245 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
1246 qualified name.
1247
1248 ** Cast Operators
1249
1250 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
1251 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
1252
2d1c1221
ME
1253* New targets
1254
1255Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 1256Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
1257
1258* New Simulators
1259
1260Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 1261Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 1262
6c95b8df
PA
1263* Multi-program debugging.
1264
1265 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
1266 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
1267 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
1268 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
1269 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
1270 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
1271 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
1272 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
1273
d5551862
SS
1274* New tracing features
1275
1276 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
1277
1278 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
1279
1280 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
1281 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
1282 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
1283 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
1284 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
1285 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
1286 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
1287 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
1288 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
1289 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 1290
d5551862 1291 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
1292
1293 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
1294 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
1295 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
1296 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
1297 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
1298 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
1299 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
1300 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1301 the regular trace command.
1302
d5551862
SS
1303 ** Disconnected tracing
1304
1305 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1306 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1307 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1308 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1309 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1310
00bf0b85
SS
1311 ** Trace files
1312
1313 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1314 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1315 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1316 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1317 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1318 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1319 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1320
1321 ** Circular trace buffer
1322
1323 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1324 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1325 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1326 not be available for all target agents.
1327
21a0512e
PP
1328* Changed commands
1329
1330disassemble
1331 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1332 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1333
0fe7935b
DJ
1334info variables
1335 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1336 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1337
fb2e7cb4
JB
1338source
1339 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1340 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1341 support.
1342
1343 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1344 "set script-extension" (see below).
1345
6c95b8df
PA
1346* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1347
399cd161
MS
1348record save [<FILENAME>]
1349 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1350 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1351
1352record restore <FILENAME>
1353 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1354 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1355
6c95b8df
PA
1356add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1357 Add a new inferior.
1358
1359clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1360 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1361 inferior has loaded.
1362
1363remove-inferior ID
1364 Remove an inferior.
1365
1366maint info program-spaces
1367 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1368
9a7071a8
JB
1369set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1370show remote interrupt-sequence
1371 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1372 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1373 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1374 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1375 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1376
1377set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1378show remote interrupt-on-connect
1379 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1380 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1381 Linux kernel.
1382
1383set remotebreak [on | off]
1384show remotebreak
1385Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1386
f61e138d
SS
1387tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1388 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1389
1390info tvariables
1391 List trace state variables and their values.
1392
1393delete tvariable $NAME ...
1394 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1395
6da95a67
SS
1396teval EXPR, ...
1397 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1398 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1399
7a697b8d
SS
1400ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1401 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1402
b0f02ee9
JK
1403* New expression syntax
1404
1405 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1406 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1407
6c95b8df
PA
1408* New options
1409
1410set follow-exec-mode new|same
1411show follow-exec-mode
1412 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1413 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1414 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1415
236f1d4d
SS
1416set default-collect EXPR, ...
1417show default-collect
1418 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1419 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1420 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1421
d5551862
SS
1422set disconnected-tracing
1423show disconnected-tracing
1424 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1425 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1426 upon disconnection.
1427
4daf5ac0
SS
1428set circular-trace-buffer
1429show circular-trace-buffer
1430 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1431 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1432 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1433 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1434
fb2e7cb4
JB
1435set script-extension off|soft|strict
1436show script-extension
1437 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1438 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1439 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1440 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1441 evaluation failed.
1442 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1443
2b71fc8e
JB
1444set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1445show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1446 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1447 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1448 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1449 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1450 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1451 is on.
1452
de2e5182
TT
1453* Python API Improvements
1454
1455 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1456 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1457 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1458
1459 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1460 `is_base_class' attribute.
1461
1462 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1463
1464 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1465 evaluate an expression.
1466
f61e138d
SS
1467* New remote packets
1468
1469QTDV
1470 Define a trace state variable.
1471
1472qTV
1473 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1474
d5551862
SS
1475QTDisconnected
1476 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1477
4daf5ac0
SS
1478QTBuffer:circular
1479 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1480
d5551862
SS
1481qTfP, qTsP
1482 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1483
2d483d34
MS
1484* Bug fixes
1485
1486Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1487
6e0e5977
JB
1488Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1489much more reliable. In particular:
1490 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1491 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1492 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1493 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1494 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1495 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1496 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1497 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1498 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1499 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1500 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1501 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1502 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1503 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1504 non-threaded programs.
1505
93c26624
JK
1506PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1507This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1508libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1509executable program.
1510
abc7453d 1511*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1512
4efc6507
DE
1513* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1514dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1515them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1516for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1517"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1518
782b2b07
SS
1519* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1520breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1521or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1522the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1523for tracepoint actions.
1524
53a71c06
CR
1525* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1526raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1527modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1528
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1529* Process record and replay
1530
1531 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1532 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1533 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1534 execute commands.
1535
64644d9b
MS
1536* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1537step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1538set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1539reverse execution.
1540
b9412953
DD
1541* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1542feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
15432.6.28 or later.
1544
6c7a06a3
TT
1545* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1546target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1547char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1548literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1549U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1550`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1551system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1552the installation instructions for more information.
1553
f1838a98
UW
1554* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1555remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1556with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1557the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1558
55333a84
DE
1559* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1560and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1561
7f6a6314
PM
1562* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1563now complete on file names.
1564
65d12d83
TT
1565* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1566completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1567For instance, consider:
1568
1569 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1570 # struct example variable;
1571 (gdb) p variable.
1572
1573If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1574completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1575
edb3359d
DJ
1576* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1577the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1578
2fae03e8
TT
1579* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1580operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1581macros.
1582
47a3467a 1583* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1584the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1585implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1586
1587* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1588registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1589can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1590and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1591
08388c79
DE
1592* New remote packets
1593
1594qSearch:memory:
1595 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1596
a6f3e723
SL
1597QStartNoAckMode
1598 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1599 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1600 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1601
d7713ae0
EZ
1602vKill
1603 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1604 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1605
07e059b5
VP
1606qXfer:osdata:read
1607 Obtains additional operating system information
1608
47a3467a
PA
1609qXfer:siginfo:read
1610qXfer:siginfo:write
1611 Read or write additional signal information.
1612
060871df
PA
1613* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1614
1615 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1616 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1617 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1618
c055b101 1619* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1620DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1621
1622* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1623and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1624`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1625
31fffb02
CS
1626* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1627with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1628
88d8a8e0
JB
1629* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1630
7f99b190
JB
1631* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1632
ccd213ac
DJ
1633* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1634which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1635
1fddbabb 1636* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1637list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1638
a0ef4274
DJ
1639* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1640conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1641have also been fixed.
1642
bfb8797a 1643* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1644From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1645are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1646
71c25dea
TT
1647* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1648example, given:
1649
1650 template<typename T> class C { };
1651 C<char const *> c;
1652
1653GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1654
1655 ptype C<char const *>
1656 ptype C<char const*>
1657 ptype C<const char *>
1658 ptype C<const char*>
1659
ccd213ac
DJ
1660* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1661
1662 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1663 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1664
7ae0e2a2
UW
1665 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1666 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1667 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1668
a6f3e723
SL
1669 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1670 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1671
da8bd9a3
DJ
1672 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1673 gdbserver.
1674
d70e31dd
DE
1675 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1676 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1677
1678 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1679 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1680 as appropriate.
1681
d57a3c85
TJB
1682* Python scripting
1683
1684 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1685 available is determined at configure time.
1686
d8906c6f
TJB
1687 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1688
aadc346a
JB
1689* Ada tasking support
1690
1691 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1692 been introduced:
1693
1694 info tasks
1695 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1696 info task N
1697 Print detailed information about task number N.
1698 task
1699 Print the task number of the current task.
1700 task N
1701 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1702
adb483fe
DJ
1703* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1704add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1705
2277426b
PA
1706* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1707
1708 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1709 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1710 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1711 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1712 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1713 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1714 below.
1715
08d16641
PA
1716* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1717"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1718information.
1719
e35359c5
UW
1720* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1721to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1722architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1723See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1724more information.
1725
85e747d2
UW
1726* Multi-architecture debugging.
1727
1728 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1729 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1730 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1731 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1732 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1733
1734* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1735use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1736Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1737powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1738--enable-targets configure option.
1739
11ade57a
PA
1740* Non-stop mode debugging.
1741
1742 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1743 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1744 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1745 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1746 section in the user manual for more information.
1747
1748 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1749 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1750 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1751 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1752 extensions on linux targets.
1753
d7713ae0 1754* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1755
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1756catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1757 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1758 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1759 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1760 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1761 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1762 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1763 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1764 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1765
08388c79
DE
1766find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1767 val1 [, val2, ...]
1768 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1769
d57a3c85
TJB
1770maint set python print-stack
1771maint show python print-stack
1772 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1773
1774python [CODE]
1775 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1776
d7713ae0
EZ
1777macro define
1778macro list
1779macro undef
1780 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1781 interactively.
1782
1783info os processes
1784 Show operating system information about processes.
1785
2277426b
PA
1786info inferiors
1787 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1788
1789inferior NUM
1790 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1791
1792detach inferior NUM
1793 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1794
1795kill inferior NUM
1796 Kill inferior number NUM.
1797
d7713ae0
EZ
1798* New options
1799
3285f3fe
UW
1800set spu stop-on-load
1801show spu stop-on-load
1802 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1803
ff1a52c6
UW
1804set spu auto-flush-cache
1805show spu auto-flush-cache
1806 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1807 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1808
d7713ae0
EZ
1809set sh calling-convention
1810show sh calling-convention
1811 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1812
e0a3ce09 1813set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1814show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1815 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1816
1817set disassemble-next-line
1818show disassemble-next-line
1819 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1820 the debuggee stops.
1821
1822set remote noack-packet
1823show remote noack-packet
1824 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1825 under "New remote packets."
1826
1827set remote query-attached-packet
1828show remote query-attached-packet
1829 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1830
1831set remote read-siginfo-object
1832show remote read-siginfo-object
1833 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1834 packet.
1835
1836set remote write-siginfo-object
1837show remote write-siginfo-object
1838 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1839 packet.
1840
40ab02ce
MS
1841set remote reverse-continue
1842show remote reverse-continue
1843 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1844
1845set remote reverse-step
1846show remote reverse-step
1847 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1848
d7713ae0
EZ
1849set displaced-stepping
1850show displaced-stepping
1851 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1852 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1853 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1854
1855set debug displaced
1856show debug displaced
1857 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1858
1859maint set internal-error
1860maint show internal-error
1861 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1862
1863maint set internal-warning
1864maint show internal-warning
1865 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1866
ccd213ac
DJ
1867set exec-wrapper
1868show exec-wrapper
1869unset exec-wrapper
1870 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1871
aad4b048
JB
1872set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1873show multiple-symbols
1874 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1875 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1876 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1877
74960c60
VP
1878set breakpoint always-inserted
1879show breakpoint always-inserted
1880 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1881 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1882 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1883
0428b8f5
DJ
1884set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1885show arm fallback-mode
1886set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1887show arm force-mode
1888 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1889 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1890 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1891 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1892
10568435
JK
1893set disable-randomization
1894show disable-randomization
1895 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1896 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1897 multiple debugging sessions.
1898
d7713ae0
EZ
1899set non-stop
1900show non-stop
1901 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1902 a breakpoint.
1903
b3eb342c 1904set target-async
d7713ae0 1905show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1906 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1907 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1908 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1909 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1910
6c7a06a3
TT
1911set target-wide-charset
1912show target-wide-charset
1913 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1914 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1915
84603566
SL
1916set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1917show tcp auto-retry
1918set tcp connect-timeout
1919show tcp connect-timeout
1920 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1921 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1922 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1923
17a37d48
PP
1924set libthread-db-search-path
1925show libthread-db-search-path
1926 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1927 libthread_db.
1928
d4db2f36
PA
1929set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1930show schedule-multiple
1931 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1932 the current process.
1933
4e5d721f
DE
1934set stack-cache
1935show stack-cache
1936 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1937 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1938 affecting correctness.
1939
910c5da8
JB
1940set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1941show interactive-mode
1942 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1943 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1944 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1945 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1946 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1947
2277426b
PA
1948* Removed commands
1949
1950info forks
1951 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1952 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1953 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1954 command.
1955
1956fork NUM
1957 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1958 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1959 alias for the `fork' command.
1960
1961process PID
1962 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1963 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1964 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1965
1966delete fork NUM
1967 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1968 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1969 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1970 fork' command.
1971
1972detach fork NUM
1973 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1974 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1975 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1976 fork' command.
1977
a80b95ba
TG
1978* New native configurations
1979
1980x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1981
b8bfd3ed
JB
1982x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1983
75a2d5e7
TT
1984* New targets
1985
c28c63d8 1986Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1987x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1988x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1989S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1990
6de3146c
PA
1991* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1992 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1993
d5cbbe6e
JB
1994* Removed commands
1995
1996catch load
1997catch unload
1998 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1999
75feb17d 2000*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 2001
af5ca30d
NH
2002* New native configurations
2003
2004NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 2005Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
2006
2007* New targets
2008
2009NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 2010Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 2011
7a404eba
PA
2012* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2013
2014 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
2015 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
2016 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
2017 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
2018
430ebac9
PA
2019* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
2020(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
2021
fe6fbf8b 2022* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 2023is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
2024
2025* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
2026including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
2027and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 2028
10665d76
JB
2029* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
2030accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
2031more than one contiguous range of addresses.
2032
7cc46491
DJ
2033* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
2034
d71340b8
DJ
2035* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
2036registers on PowerPC targets.
2037
523c4513
DJ
2038* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
2039targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
2040
a6b151f1
DJ
2041* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
2042commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
2043
2d717e4f
DJ
2044* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
2045extended-remote mode.
2046
24a836bd 2047* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
2048The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
2049error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
2050The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 2051
d0c678e6
UW
2052* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
2053building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
2054target architectures.
2055
d64a946d
TJB
2056* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
2057Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
2058now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
2059stored in two consecutive float registers.
2060
ee163bf5
VP
2061* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
2062breakpoints now.
2063
b93b6ca7 2064* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
2065Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
2066include:
b93b6ca7
JB
2067 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
2068 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
2069 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
2070 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
2071 of an assignment
2072 - Improved command completion in Ada
2073 - Several bug fixes
2074
d001be7a
DJ
2075* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
2076process.
2077
a6b151f1
DJ
2078* New commands
2079
6d53d0af
JB
2080set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
2081show print frame-arguments
2082 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
2083 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
2084
a6b151f1
DJ
2085remote put
2086remote get
2087remote delete
2088 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2089
2090* New MI commands
2091
2092-target-file-put
2093-target-file-get
2094-target-file-delete
2095 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
2096
2097* New remote packets
2098
2099vFile:open:
2100vFile:close:
2101vFile:pread:
2102vFile:pwrite:
2103vFile:unlink:
2104 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 2105
2d717e4f
DJ
2106vAttach
2107 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
2108 mode.
2109
2110vRun
2111 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
2112
8d5f9c6f 2113*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 2114
19d378fc
MS
2115* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
2116bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
2117Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
2118
3a40aaa0
UW
2119* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
2120symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
2121-Bsymbolic linker option.
2122
a6ec25f2
BW
2123* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
2124recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
2125is not supported.
2126
6dd09645
JB
2127* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
2128frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
2129
c9bb8148
DJ
2130* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
213132-bit or 64-bit register values.
2132
0d5de010
DJ
2133* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
2134
23181151
DJ
2135* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
2136target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
2137a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
2138
ea37ba09
DJ
2139* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
2140automatically displayed as character or string data.
2141
2142* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
2143arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
2144as strings.
e1f48ead 2145
123dc839
DJ
2146* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
2147for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 2148only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 2149
05a4558a
DJ
2150* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
2151iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 2152
7c963485
PA
2153* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
2154ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
2155has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
2156
b18be20d
DJ
2157* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
2158
0ca420ce
UW
2159* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
2160
31d99776
DJ
2161* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
2162layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
2163segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
2164
a4642986
MR
2165* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
2166immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
2167
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2168* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
2169"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
2170packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
2171where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
2172Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
2173
2174* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
2175(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
2176
2177* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
2178according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 2179
c9bb8148
DJ
2180* New commands
2181
23776285
MR
2182set remoteflow
2183show remoteflow
2184 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
2185 when debugging using remote targets.
2186
c9bb8148
DJ
2187set mem inaccessible-by-default
2188show mem inaccessible-by-default
2189 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2190 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2191 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
2192 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
2193 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
2194
2195set breakpoint auto-hw
2196show breakpoint auto-hw
2197 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
2198 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
2199 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
2200 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
2201 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
2202 including "next" and "finish".
2203
0e420bd8
JB
2204catch exception
2205catch exception unhandled
2206 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
2207
2208catch assert
2209 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
2210
f822c95b
DJ
2211set sysroot
2212show sysroot
2213 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
2214 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
2215 an alias to "set sysroot".
2216
83cc5c53
UW
2217info spu
2218 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
2219 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
2220 architecture.
2221
bd372731
MK
2222* New native configurations
2223
2224OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
2225
23181151
DJ
2226set tdesc filename
2227unset tdesc filename
2228show tdesc filename
2229 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
2230 not query the target for its built-in description.
2231
c9bb8148
DJ
2232* New targets
2233
54fe9172 2234OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 2235MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 2236Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 2237
6dd09645
JB
2238* New remote packets
2239
2240QPassSignals:
2241 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
2242 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
2243
23181151
DJ
2244qXfer:features:read:
2245 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
2246 features.
6dd09645 2247
83cc5c53
UW
2248qXfer:spu:read:
2249qXfer:spu:write:
2250 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
2251 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
2252
cfa9d6d9
DJ
2253qXfer:libraries:read:
2254 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
2255 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
2256 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
2257 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
2258
483367ee
DJ
2259* Removed targets
2260
2261Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
2262
d08950c4
UW
2263alpha*-*-osf1*
2264alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 2265d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
2266hppa*-*-hiux*
2267i[34567]86-ncr-*
2268i[34567]86-*-dgux*
2269i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
2270i[34567]86-*-netware*
2271i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
2272i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
2273i[34567]86-*-sco*
2274i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
2275i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
2276i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
2277i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
2278i[34567]86-*-unixware*
2279i[34567]86-*-sysv*
2280i[34567]86-*-isc*
2281m68*-cisco*-*
2282m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 2283mips*-*-pe
483367ee 2284rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 2285sh*-*-pe
483367ee 2286
7ce59000
DJ
2287* Other removed features
2288
2289target abug
2290target cpu32bug
2291target est
2292target rom68k
2293
2294 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
2295
ea35711c
DJ
2296target hms
2297target e7000
2298target sh3
2299target sh3e
2300
2301 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2302 H8/300.
2303
2304target ocd
2305
2306 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2307 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2308 interfaces.
2309
7ce59000
DJ
2310DWARF 1 support
2311
2312 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2313 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2314
54d61198
DJ
2315Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2316
2317 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2318 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2319 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2320 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2321
ea35711c
DJ
2322MIPS ".pdr" sections
2323
2324 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2325 in debugging information.
2326
2327Scheme support
2328
2329 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2330 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2331
1a69e1e4
DJ
2332set mips stack-arg-size
2333set mips saved-gpreg-size
2334
2335 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2336
6dd09645 2337*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2338
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2339* New targets
2340
2341Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2342Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2343
6aec2e11
DJ
2344* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2345(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2346running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2347
2348* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2349Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2350supported.
2351
17218d91
DJ
2352* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2353broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2354
9ebce043
DJ
2355* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2356stub provides the required support.
2357
7d3d3ece
DJ
2358* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2359longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2360
4f8253f3
JB
2361* New commands
2362
2363set substitute-path
2364unset substitute-path
2365show substitute-path
2366 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2367 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2368 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2369 between compilation and debugging.
2370
9fa66fd7
AS
2371set trace-commands
2372show trace-commands
2373 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2374 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2375 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2376
1f5befc1
DJ
2377* REMOVED features
2378
2379The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2380
2ec3381a
DJ
2381Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2382an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2383
3d00d119
DJ
2384The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2385
be2a5f71
DJ
2386* New remote packets
2387
2388qSupported:
2389 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2390 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2391 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2392 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2393 target.
2394
0876f84a
DJ
2395qXfer:auxv:read:
2396 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2397 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2398
9ebce043
DJ
2399qXfer:memory-map:read:
2400 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2401 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2402
2403vFlashErase:
2404vFlashWrite:
2405vFlashDone:
2406 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2407
0876f84a
DJ
2408* Removed remote packets
2409
2410qPart:auxv:read:
2411 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2412 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2413
e374b601 2414*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2415
96309189
MS
2416* New targets
2417
2418Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2419
2420Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2421
53e5f3cf
AS
2422* New commands
2423
2424init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2425 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2426
ac264b3b
MS
2427The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2428
2429checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2430
2431restart <n> Return the program state to a
2432 previously saved state.
2433
2434info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2435
2436delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2437
2438set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2439 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2440
2441info forks List forks of the user program that
2442 are available to be debugged.
2443
2444fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2445 forks of the user program that are
2446 available to be debugged.
2447
2448delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2449 that are available to be debugged (and
2450 kill the forked process).
2451
2452detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2453 that are available to be debugged (and
2454 allow the process to continue).
2455
3950dc3f
NS
2456* New architecture
2457
2458Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2459
0ea3f30e
DJ
2460* Improved Windows host support
2461
2462GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2463native console support, and remote communications using either
2464network sockets or serial ports.
2465
f79daebb
GM
2466* Improved Modula-2 language support
2467
2468GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2469basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2470pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2471printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2472written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2473GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2474
acab6ab2
MM
2475* REMOVED features
2476
2477The ARM rdi-share module.
2478
f4267320
DJ
2479The Netware NLM debug server.
2480
53e5f3cf 2481*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2482
e0ecbda1
MK
2483* New native configurations
2484
02a677ac 2485OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2486OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2487
d64a6579
KB
2488* New targets
2489
2490Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2491
b33a6190
AS
2492* New command line options
2493
2494--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2495--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2496 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2497--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2498 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2499 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2500 with the --command (-x) option.
2501
11dced61
AC
2502* Deprecated commands removed
2503
2504The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2505removed:
2506
2507 Command Replacement
2508 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2509 othernames set arm disassembler
2510 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2511 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2512 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2513 regs info registers
2514
6fe85783
MK
2515* New BSD user-level threads support
2516
2517It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2518library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2519configurations are:
2520
2521FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2522FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2523OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2524
2525Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2526are not yet supported.
2527
5260ca71
MS
2528* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2529(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2530
e84ecc99
AC
2531* REMOVED configurations and files
2532
2533VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2534Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2535National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2536
31e35378
JB
2537* New "set print array-indexes" command
2538
2539After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2540when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2541behavior.
2542
e85e5c83
MK
2543* VAX floating point support
2544
2545GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2546
d91e9901
AS
2547* User-defined command support
2548
2549In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2550to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2551section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2552
f2cb65ca
MC
2553*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2554
f47b1503
AS
2555* New command line option
2556
2557GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2558debugging.
2559
f2cb65ca
MC
2560* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2561
2562GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2563information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2564by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2565proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2566to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2567
d08c0230
AC
2568* Internationalization
2569
2570When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2571internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2572continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2573
117ea3cf
PH
2574* Ada
2575
2576Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2577implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2578into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2579
d08c0230
AC
2580* New native configurations
2581
2582GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2583
2584* Remote 'p' packet
2585
2586GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2587packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2588
2589* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2590
2591GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2592The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2593features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2594i386 application).
2595
2596GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2597compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2598continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2599configurations:
2600
2601hppa-*-hpux
2602ia64-*-aix
2603mips-*-irix*
2604*-*-lynx
2605mips-*-linux-gnu
2606sds protocol
2607xdr protocol
2608powerpc bdm protocol
2609
2610Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2611made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2612
2613* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2614
2615Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2616been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2617configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2618permanently REMOVED.
2619
2620h8300-*-*
2621mcore-*-*
2622mn10300-*-*
2623ns32k-*-*
2624sh64-*-*
2625v850-*-*
2626
ebb7c577
AC
2627*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2628
2629* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2630
2631When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2632heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2633been fixed.
2634
2635* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2636
2637When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2638fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2639IRIX long double values).
2640
2641* VAX and "next"
2642
2643A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2644command. This problem has been fixed.
2645
860660cb 2646*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2647
0dea2468
AC
2648* Fix for ``many threads''
2649
2650On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2651rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2652error message:
2653
2654 ptrace: No such process.
2655 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2656
2657This problem has been fixed.
2658
2c07db7a
AC
2659* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2660
2661Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2662GDB to dump core).
2663
c23968a2
JB
2664* New ``start'' command.
2665
2666This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2667
71009278
MK
2668* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2669
2670Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2671live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2672platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2673
2674FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2675FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2676NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2677NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2678NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2679OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2680OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2681OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2682OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2683
3c0b7db2
AC
2684* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2685
2686Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2687These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2688of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2689call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2690signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2691
73cc75f3
AC
2692Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2693features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2694include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2695
7243600a
BF
2696* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2697
6f606e1c
MK
2698* New native configurations
2699
97dc871c 2700GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2701OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2702OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2703OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2704OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2705NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2706OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2707
a1b461bf
AC
2708* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2709
2710GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2711The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2712including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2713migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2714compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2715work, was also included.
2716
2717GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2718module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2719
2720h8300-*-*
2721mcore-*-*
2722mn10300-*-*
2723ns32k-*-*
2724sh64-*-*
2725v850-*-*
2726xstormy16-*-*
2727
2728Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2729made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2730
3c7012f5
AC
2731* REMOVED configurations and files
2732
2733Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2734Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2735Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2736Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2737Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2738AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2739Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2740decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2741riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2742sonymips mips-sony-*
2743sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2744
e5fe55f7
AC
2745*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2746
2747* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2748
2749The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2750GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2751command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2752program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2753with GDB".
2754
2755* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2756
2757Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2758libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2759cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2760GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2761shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2762the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2763are created.
2764
2765Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2766
2767* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2768
2769The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2770non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2771compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2772
2773* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2774
2775Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2776wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2777
2778* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2779
2780The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2781permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2782systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2783
2784* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2785
2786Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2787has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2788
2789* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2790
2791GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2792its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2793panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2794
2795* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2796
2797When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2798by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2799not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2800
faae5abe 2801*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2802
9175c9a3
MC
2803* Removed --with-mmalloc
2804
2805Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2806conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2807
3cc87ec0
MK
2808* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2809
2810The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2811the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2812and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2813you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2814
f0424ef6
MK
2815* Revised SPARC target
2816
2817The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2818FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2819support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2820from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2821(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2822
59659be2
ILT
2823* New C++ demangler
2824
2825GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2826names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2827with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2828programs.
2829
9e08b29b
DJ
2830* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2831
2832GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2833arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2834encountered these.
2835
8dfe8985
DC
2836* C++ nested types and namespaces
2837
2838GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2839improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2840is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2841Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2842namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2843"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2844frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2845if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2846GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2847
cced5e27
MK
2848* New native configurations
2849
2850NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2851OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2852OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2853OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2854OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2855
b4b4b794
KI
2856* New debugging protocols
2857
2858M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2859
7989c619
AC
2860* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2861
2862The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2863and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2864tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2865
5994185b
AC
2866* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2867
2868Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2869been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2870configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2871permanently REMOVED.
2872
2873Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2874Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2875Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2876Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2877Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2878AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2879Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2880decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2881riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2882sonymips mips-sony-*
2883sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2884
0ddabb4c
AC
2885* REMOVED configurations and files
2886
2887SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2888SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2889Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2890Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2891H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2892HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2893HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2894HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2895PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2896386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2897Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2898 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2899 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2900SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2901SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2902Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2903Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2904
c7f1390e
DJ
2905*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2906
1fe43d45
AC
2907* Objective-C
2908
2909Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2910integrated into GDB.
2911
e6beb428
AC
2912* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2913
2914DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2915information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2916By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2917backtraces.
2918
2919The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2920have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2921DWARF 2 CFI support.
2922
2923* Hosted file I/O.
2924
2925GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2926file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2927remote protocol documentation for details.
2928
2929* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2930
2931All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2932architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2933to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2934ppc32 on ppc64).
2935
2936* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2937
2938GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2939per-thread variables.
2940
2941* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2942
2943GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2944GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2945
2946* Separate debug info.
2947
2948GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2949automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2950of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2951system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2952and optional debug files.
2953
2954* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2955
2956DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2957describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2958debugger.
2959
2960GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2961for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2962
2963* Java
2964
2965A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2966Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2967considered "useable".
2968
85f8f974
DJ
2969* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2970
2971The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2972commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2973kernel.
2974
0fac0b41
DJ
2975* GDB supports logging output to a file
2976
2977There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2978used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2979
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2980* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2981
2982The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2983disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2984command.
2985
e286caf2 2986* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2987
2988The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2989registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2990
d28f9cdf
DJ
2991* Profiling support
2992
2993A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2994be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2995session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2996"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2997data, for more informative profiling results.
2998
da0f9dcd
AC
2999* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
3000
3001The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
3002option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 3003"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
3004
3005Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
3006removed.
3007
fb9b6b35
JJ
3008Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
3009Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
3010Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
3011 in a subsequent -var-update.
3012
954a4db8
MK
3013* New native configurations.
3014
3015FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
3016
6760f9e6
JB
3017* Multi-arched targets.
3018
b4263afa 3019HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 3020Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 3021
1b831c93
AC
3022* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3023
3024Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3025been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3026configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3027permanently REMOVED.
3028
8b0e5691 3029Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 3030Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 3031H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
3032HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
3033HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3034HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 3035PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
3036Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
3037 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
3038 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
3039Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3040Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 3041
5835abe7
NC
3042* REMOVED configurations and files
3043
3044V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
3045Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
3046IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
3047i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3048i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3049i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
3050HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3051 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3052 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
3053Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3054Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3055Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3056OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3057I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 3058
a094c6fb
AC
3059* MIPS $fp behavior changed
3060
3061The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
3062the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
3063context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
3064address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
3065The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
3066
299ffc64 3067*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 3068
46248966
AC
3069* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
3070
3071When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
3072`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
3073in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
3074library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
3075shared libs like mad''.
3076
b9d14705 3077* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 3078
b9d14705
DJ
3079Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
3080the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
3081arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
3082powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 3083
e0e9281e
JB
3084* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
3085
3086GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
3087and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
3088they expand.
3089
dd73b9bb
AC
3090The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
3091invocations in expression, and shows the result.
3092
3093The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
3094macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
3095
e0e9281e
JB
3096Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
3097information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
3098your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
3099information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
3100
2250ee0c
CV
3101* Multi-arched targets.
3102
6e3ba3b8
JT
3103DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
3104DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 3105NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 3106National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
3107Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
3108Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 3109
cd9bfe15 3110* New targets.
e33ce519 3111
456f8b9d
DB
3112Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
3113
e33ce519 3114
da8ca43d
JT
3115* New native configurations
3116
3117Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 3118SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 3119MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 3120UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 3121
cd9bfe15
AC
3122* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3123
3124Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3125been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3126configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3127permanently REMOVED.
3128
92eb23c5 3129Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 3130OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 3131IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 3132Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 3133Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 3134Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
3135i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
3136i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
3137i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
3138HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
3139 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
3140 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 3141I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 3142
db034ac5
AC
3143* OBSOLETE languages
3144
3145CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
3146
cd9bfe15
AC
3147* REMOVED configurations and files
3148
3149AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3150A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3151AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3152AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3153AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3154
3155testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
3156
20f01a46
DH
3157* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
3158
3159This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
3160commands. The default is 1024.
3161
a5941fbf
MK
3162* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
3163
3164Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
3165
89743e04
MS
3166* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
3167
3168These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
3169to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
3170from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 3171
9fb14e79
JB
3172* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
3173
3174The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
3175including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
3176of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
3177
2037aebb
AC
3178*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
3179
3180* New targets.
3181
3182Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
3183
3184* Bug fixes
3185
3186gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
3187mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
3188Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
3189
3190gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
3191dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
3192Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
3193
3194Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
3195Surprisingly enough, it works now.
3196By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
3197
3198i386 hardware watchpoint support:
3199avoid misses on second run for some targets.
3200By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
3201
37057839 3202*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 3203
1a703748
MS
3204* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
3205
3206This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
3207really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
3208In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
3209target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
3210This can be a significant performance improvement on some
3211(notably embedded) targets.
3212
cefd4ef5
MS
3213* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
3214
55241689
AC
3215This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
3216process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
3217GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
3218hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 3219
352ed7b4
MS
3220* New command line option
3221
3222GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
3223
3224* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
3225
3226There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
3227command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
3228a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
3229be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
3230open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
3231issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
3232a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
3233it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
3234GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
3235is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
3236
fe419ffc
RE
3237* Changes in ARM configurations.
3238
3239Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
3240configuration is fully multi-arch.
3241
eb7cedd9
MK
3242* New native configurations
3243
fe419ffc 3244ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 3245x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 3246AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 3247Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 3248
c9f63e6b
CV
3249* New targets
3250
3251Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
3252
9b4ff276
AC
3253* OBSOLETE configurations and files
3254
3255Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3256been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3257configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3258permanently REMOVED.
3259
3260AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
3261A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3262AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
3263AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
3264AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
3265
b4ceaee6 3266testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 3267
e2caac18
AC
3268* REMOVED configurations and files
3269
3270TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 3271WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
3272PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3273PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3274PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 3275Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
3276Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3277 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 3278SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 3279Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
3280Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3281ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 3282Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 3283
c2a727fa
TT
3284* Changes to command line processing
3285
3286The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
3287for the inferior from gdb's command line.
3288
467d8519
TT
3289* Changes to key bindings
3290
3291There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
3292
7072a954
AC
3293*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
3294
3295Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
3296
3297Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
3298corrupted.
3299
3300Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3301
3302Numerous documentation fixes.
3303
3304Numerous testsuite fixes.
3305
34f47bc4 3306*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3307
3308* New native configurations
3309
3310Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3311x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3312MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3313MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3314ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3315s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3316
bf64bfd6
AC
3317* New targets
3318
def90278 3319Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3320CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3321UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3322
17e78a56 3323* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3324
3325x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3326Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3327Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3328 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3329TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3330WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3331Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3332PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3333PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3334PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3335SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3336Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3337ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3338Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3339
17e78a56
AC
3340stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3341kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3342
7fcca85b
AC
3343Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3344been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3345configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3346permanently REMOVED.
3347
a196c81c 3348* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3349
3350Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3351Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3352Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3353ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3354Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3355ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3356
6d6b80e5 3357* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3358
6d6b80e5 3359GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3360sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3361present.
3362
bf64bfd6
AC
3363* Other news:
3364
e23194cb
EZ
3365* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3366
3367* The MI enabled by default.
3368
3369The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3370revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3371engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3372using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3373which is now deprecated.
3374
3375* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3376
3377GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3378main features are supported:
3379
3380 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3381
3382 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3383 extension;
3384
3385 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3386
3387 - a Pascal expression parser.
3388
3389However, some important features are not yet supported.
3390
3391 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3392
3393 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3394
3395 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3396 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3397
3398 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3399
3400 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3401
3402* Changes in completion.
3403
3404Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3405to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3406users expect at the shell prompt.
3407
3408Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3409`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3410program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3411files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3412be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3413considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3414name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3415
3416`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3417
3418* New platform-independent commands:
3419
3420It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3421hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3422documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3423
3424* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3425
d7275149
MK
3426Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3427revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3428many threads as your system allows you to have.
3429
e23194cb
EZ
3430Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3431
d7275149
MK
3432Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3433multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3434
3435* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3436
3437Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3438
e23194cb
EZ
3439GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3440debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3441supported.)
3442
3443* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3444
3445Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3446breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3447implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3448put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3449and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3450registers.
3451
3452The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3453debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3454watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3455
3456* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3457
3458New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3459the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3460
3461New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3462display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3463IDT.
3464
3465New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3466from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3467New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3468a given linear address.
3469
3470GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3471program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3472which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3473
3474DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3475
6c56c069
EZ
3476It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3477
e23194cb
EZ
3478* Changes in documentation.
3479
3480All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3481Documentation License.
3482
3483Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3484manual.
3485
3486TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3487
3488Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3489manual.
3490
3491The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3492documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3493hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3494
5d6640b1
AC
3495* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3496
3497The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3498``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3499contents of this file.
3500
1a1d8446
AC
3501* gdba.el deleted
3502
3503GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3504
9debab2f 3505*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3506
c63ce875
EZ
3507* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3508
3509Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3510programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3511displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3512greater level of detail.
3513
3514* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3515
3516It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3517bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3518on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3519written.
3520
3521* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3522
3523The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3524necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3525machines ``out of the box''.
3526
3527The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3528possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3529signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3530would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3531interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3532
3533It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3534standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3535even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3536and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3537terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3538
3539The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3540enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3541also works.
3542
3543DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3544GDB.
3545
3546It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3547directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3548times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3549breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3550
ed9a39eb
JM
3551* New native configurations
3552
3553ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3554PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3555
7a292a7a
SS
3556* New targets
3557
96baa820 3558Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3559x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3560PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3561TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3562
085dd6e6
JM
3563* OBSOLETE configurations
3564
3565Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3566Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3567Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3568ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3569Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3570
9debab2f
AC
3571Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3572but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3573these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3574be permanently REMOVED.
3575
5330533d
SS
3576* Gould support removed
3577
3578Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3579
bc9e5bbf
AC
3580* New features for SVR4
3581
3582On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3583without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3584load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3585
3586* Many C++ enhancements
3587
3588C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3589in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3590
adf40b2e
JM
3591* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3592
3593A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3594sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3595with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3596``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3597
3598 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3599 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3600
43e526b9
JM
3601* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3602
3603A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3604expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3605instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3606
3607The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3608added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3609
96baa820
JM
3610* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3611
3612The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3613``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3614include ``set remote P-packet''.
3615
11cf8741
JM
3616* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3617
3618The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3619accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3620``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3621
7876dd43
DB
3622* ``apropos'' command added.
3623
3624The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3625documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3626try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3627
bc9e5bbf
AC
3628* New MI interface
3629
3630A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3631interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3632process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3633"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3634enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3635
3636 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3637
c906108c
SS
3638*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3639
3640* New native configurations
3641
3642HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3643HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3644M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3645
3646* New targets
3647
3648Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3649Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3650Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3651
3652* OBSOLETE configurations
3653
3654Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3655
3656Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3657but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3658these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3659be permanently REMOVED.
3660
3661* ANSI/ISO C
3662
3663As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3664buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3665containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3666use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3667available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3668configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3669information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3670already.
3671
3672* Readline 2.2
3673
3674GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3675
3676* set extension-language
3677
3678You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3679languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3680you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3681 set extension-language .c c++
3682The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3683and their associated languages.
3684
3685* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3686
3687When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3688you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3689PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3690
3691 set processor NAME
3692
3693sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3694following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3695
3696 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3697 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3698 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3699 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3700 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3701 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3702 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3703 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3704 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3705 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3706 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3707
3708At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3709special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3710registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3711only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3712
3713* HP-UX support
3714
3715Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3716more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3717library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3718support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3719for xdb and dbx commands.
3720
3721* Catchpoints
3722
3723HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3724generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3725to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3726
3727This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3728argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3729output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3730
3731* Debugging across forks
3732
3733On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3734in the inferior.
3735
3736* TUI
3737
3738HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3739it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3740configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3741
3742* GDB remote protocol additions
3743
3744A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3745Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3746fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3747allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3748
3749For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3750full 64-bit address. The command
3751
3752 set remoteaddresssize 32
3753
3754can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3755the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3756will be discarded.
3757
3758In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3759command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3760
3761 maint packet heythere
3762
3763sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3764disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3765time.
3766
3767The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3768target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3769downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3770
3771* Tracing can collect general expressions
3772
3773You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3774further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3775doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3776
3777* mask-address variable for Mips
3778
3779For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3780a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3781of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3782
3783* Higher serial baud rates
3784
3785GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3786230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3787to achieve all of these rates.)
3788
3789* i960 simulator
3790
3791The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3792builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3793
3794
3795*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3796
3797* New native configurations
3798
3799Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3800Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3801Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3802PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3803PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3804Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3805Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3806
3807* New targets
3808
3809Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3810Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3811Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3812Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3813MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3814MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3815MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3816Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3817Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3818Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3819NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3820
3821* New debugging protocols
3822
3823ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3824M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3825DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3826PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3827PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3828Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3829
3830* DWARF 2
3831
3832All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3833format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3834information.
3835
3836* Java frontend
3837
3838GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3839only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3840
3841* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3842
3843For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3844loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3845locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3846
3847* Live range splitting
3848
3849GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3850range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3851more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3852
3853* Hurd support
3854
3855GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3856updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3857
3858* ARM Thumb support
3859
3860GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3861instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3862instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3863accordingly.
3864
3865* MIPS16 support
3866
3867GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3868instruction set.
3869
3870* Overlay support
3871
3872GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3873linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3874will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3875control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3876additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3877in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3878
3879* info symbol
3880
3881The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3882the symbol at the specified address.
3883
3884* Trace support
3885
3886The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3887asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3888extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3889includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3890file tracepoint.c for more details.
3891
3892* MIPS simulator
3893
3894Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3895by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3896of most MIPS variants.
3897
3898* Sparc simulator
3899
3900Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3901by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3902Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3903
3904* set architecture
3905
3906For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3907basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3908architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3909the possible architectures.
3910
3911*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3912
3913* New native configurations
3914
3915Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3916M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3917PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3918PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3919PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3920RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3921
3922* New targets
3923
3924ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3925I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3926MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3927MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3928PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3929Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3930Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3931
3932* PowerPC simulator
3933
3934The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3935contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3936PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3937basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3938performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3939
3940* Solaris 2.5
3941
3942GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3943
3944* Windows 95/NT native
3945
3946GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3947To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3948which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3949Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3950ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3951
3952* dont-repeat command
3953
3954If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3955command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3956useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3957extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3958
3959* Send break instead of ^C
3960
3961The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3962rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3963GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3964
3965* Remote protocol timeout
3966
3967The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3968that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3969to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3970
3971* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3972
3973By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3974loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3975stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3976when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3977in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3978
3979Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3980/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3981automatically on hpux10.
3982
3983* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3984
3985Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3986
3987* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3988
3989When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3990may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3991the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3992every character. The default value is 1050.
3993
3994* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3995
3996If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3997a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3998replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3999details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
4000remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
4001to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
4002
4003* Speedups for remote debugging
4004
4005GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
4006the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
4007and more efficient S-record downloading.
4008
4009* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
4010
4011GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
4012Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
4013
4014*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
4015
4016* Psymtabs for XCOFF
4017
4018The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
4019can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
4020
4021* Remote targets use caching
4022
4023Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
4024remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
4025it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
4026debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
4027off' turns the the data cache off.
4028
4029* Remote targets may have threads
4030
4031The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
4032in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
4033gdb/remote.c for details.
4034
4035* NetROM support
4036
4037If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
4038support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
4039acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
4040write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
4041support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
4042another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
4043sequence is something like
4044
4045 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
4046 load <prog>
4047 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
4048
4049* Macintosh host
4050
4051GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
4052may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
4053it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
4054available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
4055device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
4056directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
4057scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
4058mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
4059
4060* Autoconf
4061
4062GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
4063but does simplify configuration and building.
4064
4065* hpux10
4066
4067GDB now supports hpux10.
4068
4069*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
4070
4071* New native configurations
4072
4073x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
4074x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
4075NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
4076Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
4077
4078* New targets
4079
4080A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
4081HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
4082CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
4083PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
4084WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4085
4086* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
4087
4088GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
4089possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
4090filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
4091the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
4092if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
4093
4094* Arguments to user-defined commands
4095
4096User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
4097Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
4098trivial example:
4099define adder
4100 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
4101
4102To execute the command use:
4103adder 1 2 3
4104
4105Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
4106Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
4107use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
4108
4109* New `if' and `while' commands
4110
4111This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
4112commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
4113expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
4114execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
4115terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
4116`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
4117if the expression is zero.
4118
4119* Fortran source language mode
4120
4121GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
4122Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
4123variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
4124with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
4125Fortran compilers.
4126
4127* Better HPUX support
4128
4129Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
4130running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
4131processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
4132for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
4133that behavior do the following before running the program:
4134
4135 adb -w a.out
4136 __dld_flags?W 0x5
4137 control-d
4138
4139This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
4140To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
4141
4142 adb -w a.out
4143 __dld_flags?W 0x4
4144 control-d
4145
4146You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
4147the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
4148external linkage.
4149
4150GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
4151HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
4152
4153* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
4154
4155You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
4156commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
4157current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
4158"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
4159associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
4160configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
4161
4162* New DOS host serial code
4163
4164This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
4165no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
4166a PC's serial port.
4167
4168*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
4169
4170* New "complete" command
4171
4172This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
4173were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
4174
4175* Trailing space optional in prompt
4176
4177"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
4178allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
4179
4180* Breakpoint hit counts
4181
4182"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
4183has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
4184can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
4185to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
4186less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
4187that breakpoint.
4188
4189* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
4190
4191"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
4192an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
4193arrays actually contain only short strings.
4194
4195* Shared library breakpoints
4196
4197In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
4198breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
4199
4200* Hardware watchpoints
4201
4202There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
4203targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
4204
55241689 4205Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
4206
4207* Annotations
4208
4209Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
4210and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
4211
4212* Improved Irix 5 support
4213
4214GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
4215
4216* Improved HPPA support
4217
4218GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
4219
4220* New native configurations
4221
4222Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
4223HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
4224Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
4225RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
4226
4227* New targets
4228
4229OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
4230MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
4231Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
4232
4233* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
4234
4235There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
4236This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
4237
4238* Fixes
4239
4240As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
4241and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
4242
4243*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
4244
4245* Irix 5 is now supported
4246
4247* HPPA support
4248
4249GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
4250to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
4251GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
4252of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
4253can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
4254
4255
4256*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
4257
4258* User visible changes:
4259
4260* Remote Debugging
4261
4262The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
4263target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
4264debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
4265integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
4266debugging info for the mips target).
4267
4268* DEC Alpha native support
4269
4270GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
4271debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
4272work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
4273Alpha-specific notes.
4274
4275* Preliminary thread implementation
4276
4277GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
4278
4279* LynxOS native and target support for 386
4280
4281This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
4282to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
4283for details).
4284
4285* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
4286
4287This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
4288mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
4289call methods, ...etc.
4290
4291*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
4292
4293 * User visible changes:
4294
4295Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
4296supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
4297other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
4298somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
4299
4300Filename completion now works.
4301
4302When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4303arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4304addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4305
4306All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4307vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4308should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4309your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4310to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4311
4312 * DEC alpha support
4313
4314This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4315cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4316
4317
4318*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4319
4320 * Testsuite
4321
4322This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4323The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4324via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4325
4326 * C++ demangling
4327
4328'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4329emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4330Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4331disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4332use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4333
4334 * Simulators
4335
4336GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4337So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4338Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4339
4340 * New targets supported
4341
4342H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4343H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4344SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4345Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4346IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4347
4348Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4349version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4350GO32 memory extender.
4351
4352 * New remote protocols
4353
4354MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4355
4356 * New source languages supported
4357
4358This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4359used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4360into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4361
4362
4363*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4364
4365 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4366
4367GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4368version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4369University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4370compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4371format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4372(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4373
4374Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4375
4376 * Faster and better demangling
4377
4378We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4379demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4380character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4381only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4382This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4383increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4384symbol lookups.
4385
4386`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4387from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4388compiler does not actually implement.
4389
4390 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4391
4392In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4393inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4394recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4395very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4396The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4397circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4398fix.
4399
4400The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4401release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4402
4403 * Improved configure script
4404
4405The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4406you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4407host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4408done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4409
4410We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4411version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4412`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4413The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4414only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4415We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4416
4417 * Documentation improvements
4418
4419There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4420produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4421before submitting changes.
4422
4423The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4424M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4425`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4426you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4427a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4428
4429*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4430We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4431been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4432or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4433`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4434around this problem.
4435
4436 * New features
4437
4438GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4439the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4440`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4441the target program.
4442
4443The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4444how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4445
4446 * New native hosts supported
4447
4448HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4449386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4450
4451 * New targets supported
4452
4453AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4454
4455 * New file formats supported
4456
4457BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4458HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4459
4460 * Major bug fixes
4461
4462Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4463
4464We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4465printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4466
4467We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4468for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4469release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4470
4471You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4472will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4473
4474We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4475for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4476especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4477libraries.
4478
4479The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4480information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4481command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4482any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4483when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4484
4485 * Internal improvements
4486
4487GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4488debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4489
4490GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4491Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4492symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4493contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4494shared code that handles any of them.
4495
4496 * New command line options
4497
4498We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4499
4500 * Mmalloc licensing
4501
4502The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4503General Public License.
4504
4505*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4506
4507 * Host/native/target split
4508
4509GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4510hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4511target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4512local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4513ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4514
4515The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4516GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4517is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4518code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4519any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4520built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4521handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4522
4523GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4524It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4525plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4526
4527 * New hosts supported
4528
4529HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4530386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4531386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4532
4533 * New targets supported
4534
4535Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
453668030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4537
4538 * New native hosts supported
4539
4540386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4541 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4542386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4543
4544 * New file formats supported
4545
4546BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4547supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4548format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4549
4550 * New commands
4551
4552`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4553`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4554These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4555
4556`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4557
4558You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4559scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4560prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4561executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4562
4563 * C++ improvements
4564
4565We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4566info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4567symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4568
4569Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4570
4571 * Major bug fixes
4572
4573The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4574fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4575by the compiler.
4576
4577We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4578support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4579
4580John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4581slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4582that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4583purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4584the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4585mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4586
4587Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4588about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4589completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4590we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4591
4592 * AMD 29k support
4593
4594A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4595specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4596calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4597usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4598in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4599
4600We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4601Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4602of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4603resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4604
4605 * Remote interfaces
4606
4607We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4608with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4609message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4610This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4611needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4612breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4613each instruction being stepped through.
4614
4615The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4616registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4617
4618There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4619find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4620Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4621processor with a serial port.
4622
4623 * Configuration
4624
4625Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4626`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4627supported, and what files each one uses.
4628
4629 * Library changes
4630
4631There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4632disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4633Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4634disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4635
4636The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4637Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4638can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4639grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4640
4641 * Documentation
4642
4643The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4644reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4645as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4646encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4647system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4648bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4649
4650And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4651
4652
4653*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4654
4655 * Better support for C++ function names
4656
4657GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4658names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4659(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4660single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4661Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4662
4663GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4664the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4665You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4666lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4667for the list of formats.
4668
4669 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4670
4671Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4672C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4673directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4674can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4675usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4676about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4677this problem.)
4678
4679 * New 'maintenance' command
4680
4681All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4682the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4683can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4684
4685 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4686 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4687 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4688 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4689 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4690 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4691
4692The following commands are new:
4693
4694 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4695 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4696 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4697
4698 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4699
4700We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4701(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4702be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4703read after argv processing.
4704
4705 * New hosts supported
4706
4707Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4708
55241689 4709GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4710
4711We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4712is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4713for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4714masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4715fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4716It costs extra.
4717
4718 * New targets supported
4719
4720Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4721
4722 * More smarts about finding #include files
4723
4724GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4725all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4726greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4727especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4728the one that contains your sources.
4729
4730We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4731breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4732try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4733
4734 * Interesting infernals change
4735
4736GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4737section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4738target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4739stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4740
4741 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4742
4743There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4744 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4745 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4746
4747See the ChangeLog for details.
4748
4749*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4750
4751 * New machines supported (host and target)
4752
4753IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4754
4755SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4756
4757 * New malloc package
4758
4759GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4760Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4761capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4762This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4763pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4764more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4765
4766 * info proc
4767
4768The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4769'help info proc' for details.
4770
4771 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4772
4773The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4774Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4775possible.
4776
4777 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4778
4779Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4780support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4781conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4782environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4783that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4784in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4785
4786 * Cross byte order fixes
4787
4788Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4789targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4790
4791 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4792
4793If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4794system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4795`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4796program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4797called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4798Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4799and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4800the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4801option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4802starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4803
4804You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4805the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4806information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4807slower, but makes future operations faster.
4808
4809The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4810build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4811A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4812use is:
4813
4814 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4815
4816The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4817It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4818shared across multiple host platforms.
4819
4820 * longjmp() handling
4821
4822GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4823siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4824all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4825platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4826
4827 * Solaris 2.0
4828
4829Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4830this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4831reading symbols.
4832
4833 * Bug fixes
4834
4835As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4836People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4837crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4838
4839*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4840
4841 * New machines supported (host and target)
4842
4843SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4844 (except core files)
4845BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4846Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4847
4848 * New machines supported (target)
4849
4850AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4851
4852 * C++ support
4853
4854GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4855The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4856per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4857
4858GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4859`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4860extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4861good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4862will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4863released.
4864
4865 * New features for SVR4
4866
4867GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4868shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4869only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4870
4871The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4872on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4873it prints the address mappings of the process.
4874
4875If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4876bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4877
4878 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4879
4880Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4881now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4882skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4883make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4884same code linked statically.
4885
4886 * New Getopt
4887
4888GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4889version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4890continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4891Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4892added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4893future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4894
4895 * Bugs fixed
4896
4897The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4898Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4899See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4900
4901
4902*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4903
4904 * New machines supported (host and target)
4905
4906Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4907NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4908Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4909
4910 * Almost SCO Unix support
4911
4912We had hoped to support:
4913SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4914(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4915that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4916about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4917
4918 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4919
4920GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4921debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4922is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4923send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4924reqired (if any).
4925
4926 * New Readline
4927
4928GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4929is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4930required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4931
4932 * Bugs fixed
4933
4934The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4935Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4936See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4937
4938 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4939
4940GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4941supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4942symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4943
4944Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4945mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4946debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4947mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4948version 2.
4949
4950Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4951really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4952line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4953variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4954situation somewhat.
4955
4956When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4957However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4958methods.
4959
4960We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4961DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4962encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4963
4964
4965*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4966
4967 * Improved configuration
4968
4969Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4970Porting BFD is simpler.
4971
4972 * Stepping improved
4973
4974The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4975of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4976in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4977function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4978
4979 * Bug fixing
4980
4981Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4982
4983 * New host supported (not target)
4984
4985Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4986
4987
4988*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4989
4990 * Multiple source language support
4991
4992GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4993It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4994and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4995language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4996You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4997`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4998
4999 * GDB and Modula-2
5000
5001GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
5002currently under development at the State University of New York at
5003Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
5004continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
5005
5006Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
5007debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
5008symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
5009
5010There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
5011in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
5012
5013 * set write on/off
5014
5015GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
5016a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
5017the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
5018by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
5019effect immediately.
5020
5021 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
5022
5023When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
5024shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
5025The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
5026examining core files.
5027
5028 * set listsize
5029
5030You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
5031The default is 10.
5032
5033 * New machines supported (host and target)
5034
5035SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
5036Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
5037Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
5038
5039 * New hosts supported (not targets)
5040
5041IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
5042
5043 * New targets supported (not hosts)
5044
5045AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
5046AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
5047Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
5048
5049 * New remote interfaces
5050
5051AMD 29000 Adapt
5052AMD 29000 Minimon
5053
5054
5055*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
5056
5057 * New Facilities
5058
5059Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
5060
5061Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
5062target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
5063is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
5064remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
5065remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
5066also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
5067using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
5068stub on the target system.
5069
5070New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
5071
5072GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
5073library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
5074object file types such as a.out and coff.
5075
5076There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
5077refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
5078
5079
5080 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
5081
5082All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
5083by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
5084
5085For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
5086``Show prompt'' produces the response:
5087Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
5088
5089What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
5090print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
5091will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
5092all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
5093
5094confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
5095 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
5096 it is already running. Default is ON.
5097
5098editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
5099 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
5100 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
5101 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
5102 Default is ON.
5103
5104history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
5105 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
5106 or the value of the environment variable
5107 GDBHISTFILE.
5108
5109history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
5110 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
5111 HISTSIZE.
5112
5113history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
5114 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
5115 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
5116
5117history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
5118 history expansion will be performed on
5119 command line input. The default is OFF.
5120
5121radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
5122 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
5123 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
5124
5125height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
5126 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
5127 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5128 variable TERM.
5129
5130width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
5131 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
5132 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
5133 variable TERM.
5134
5135Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
5136``set width'' instead.
5137
5138print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
5139 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
5140 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
5141 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
5142
5143print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
5144 is OFF.
5145
5146print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
5147 "raw" form if off.
5148
5149print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
5150 like instructions.
5151
5152print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
5153
5154
5155 * Support for Epoch Environment.
5156
5157The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
5158new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
5159are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
5160window.
5161
5162
5163 * Support for Shared Libraries
5164
5165GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
5166Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
5167before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
5168happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
5169At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
5170from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
5171shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
5172It can be abbreviated ``share''.
5173
5174sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
5175 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
5176 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
5177
5178info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
5179
5180
5181 * Watchpoints
5182
5183A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
5184expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
5185tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
5186quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
5187problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
5188more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
5189
5190watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
5191
5192info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
5193
5194delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5195disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5196enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
5197
5198
5199 * C++ multiple inheritance
5200
5201When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
5202for C++ programs.
5203
5204 * C++ exception handling
5205
5206Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
5207ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
5208the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
5209handler's context).
5210
5211catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
5212 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
5213 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
5214
5215info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
5216 current stack frame.
5217
5218
5219 * Minor command changes
5220
5221The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
5222command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
5223is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
5224
5225The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
5226at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
5227frames without printing.
5228
5229 * New directory command
5230
5231'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
5232The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
5233about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
5234with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
5235find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
5236
5237 * Configuring GDB for compilation
5238
5239For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
5240for more details.
5241
5242GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
5243two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
5244Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
5245where the program that you are debugging will run.
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