gdb/
[deliverable/binutils-gdb.git] / gdb / NEWS
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1 What has changed in GDB?
2 (Organized release by release)
3
8d5b6c2b 4*** Changes since GDB 7.4
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6* GDB now supports reversible debugging on ARM, it allows you to
7 debug basic ARM and THUMB instructions, and provides
8 record/replay support.
9
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10* The option "symbol-reloading" has been deleted as it is no longer used.
11
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12* Python scripting
13
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14 ** GDB commands implemented in Python can now be put in command class
15 "gdb.COMMAND_USER".
16
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17 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" is now deleted.
18
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19 ** A new class, gdb.printing.FlagEnumerationPrinter, can be used to
20 apply "flag enum"-style pretty-printing to any enum.
21
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22 ** gdb.lookup_symbol can now work when there is no current frame.
23
24 ** gdb.Symbol now has a 'line' attribute, holding the line number in
25 the source at which the symbol was defined.
26
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27 ** gdb.Symbol now has the new attribute 'needs_frame' and the new
28 method 'value'. The former indicates whether the symbol needs a
29 frame in order to compute its value, and the latter computes the
30 symbol's value.
31
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32 ** A new method 'referenced_value' on gdb.Value objects which can
33 dereference pointer as well as C++ reference values.
34
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35* GDBserver now supports stdio connections.
36 E.g. (gdb) target remote | ssh myhost gdbserver - hello
37
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38* The binary "gdbtui" can no longer be built or installed.
39 Use "gdb -tui" instead.
40
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41* GDB will now print "flag" enums specially. A flag enum is one where
42 all the enumerator values have no bits in common when pairwise
43 "and"ed. When printing a value whose type is a flag enum, GDB will
44 show all the constants, e.g., for enum E { ONE = 1, TWO = 2}:
45 (gdb) print (enum E) 3
46 $1 = (ONE | TWO)
47
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48* The filename part of a linespec will now match trailing components
49 of a source file name. For example, "break gcc/expr.c:1000" will
50 now set a breakpoint in build/gcc/expr.c, but not
51 build/libcpp/expr.c.
52
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53* The "info proc" and "generate-core-file" commands will now also
54 work on remote targets connected to GDBserver on Linux.
55
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56* The command "info catch" has been removed. It has been disabled
57 since December 2007.
58
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59* The "catch exception" and "catch assert" commands now accept
60 a condition at the end of the command, much like the "break"
61 command does. For instance:
62
63 (gdb) catch exception Constraint_Error if Barrier = True
64
65 Previously, it was possible to add a condition to such catchpoints,
66 but it had to be done as a second step, after the catchpoint had been
67 created, using the "condition" command.
68
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69* The "info static-tracepoint-marker" command will now also work on
70 native Linux targets with in-process agent.
71
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72* GDB can now set breakpoints on inlined functions.
73
74* The .gdb_index section has been updated to include symbols for
75 inlined functions. GDB will ignore older .gdb_index sections by
76 default, which could cause symbol files to be loaded more slowly
77 until their .gdb_index sections can be recreated. The new option
78 --use-deprecated-index-sections will cause GDB to use any older
79 .gdb_index sections it finds. This will restore performance, but
80 the ability to set breakpoints on inlined functions will be lost
81 in symbol files with older .gdb_index sections.
82
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83* Ada support for GDB/MI Variable Objects has been added.
84
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85* New commands
86
87 ** "catch load" and "catch unload" can be used to stop when a shared
88 library is loaded or unloaded, respectively.
89
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90 ** "enable count" can be used to auto-disable a breakpoint after
91 several hits.
92
57651221 93 ** "info vtbl" can be used to show the virtual method tables for
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94 C++ and Java objects.
95
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96 ** "explore" and its sub commands "explore value" and "explore type"
97 can be used to reccursively explore values and types of
98 expressions. These commands are available only if GDB is
99 configured with '--with-python'.
100
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101 ** "info auto-load" shows status of all kinds of auto-loaded files,
102 "info auto-load gdb-scripts" shows status of auto-loading GDB canned
103 sequences of commands files, "info auto-load python-scripts"
104 shows status of auto-loading Python script files,
105 "info auto-load local-gdbinit" shows status of loading init file
106 (.gdbinit) from current directory and "info auto-load libthread-db" shows
107 status of inferior specific thread debugging shared library loading.
108
109 ** "info auto-load-scripts", "set auto-load-scripts on|off"
110 and "show auto-load-scripts" commands have been deprecated, use their
111 "info auto-load python-scripts", "set auto-load python-scripts on|off"
112 and "show auto-load python-scripts" counterparts instead.
113
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114* New targets
115
116Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
60c9a3c0 117HP OpenVMS ia64 ia64-hp-openvms*
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119* GDBserver supports evaluation of breakpoint conditions. When
120 support is advertised by GDBserver, GDB may be told to send the
121 breakpoint conditions in bytecode form to GDBserver. GDBserver
122 will only report the breakpoint trigger to GDB when its condition
123 evaluates to true.
124
125* New options
126
127set breakpoint condition-evaluation
128show breakpoint condition-evaluation
cf65ecd3 129 Control whether breakpoint conditions are evaluated by GDB ("host") or by
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130 GDBserver ("target"). Default option "auto" chooses the most efficient
131 available mode.
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132 This option can improve debugger efficiency depending on the speed of the
133 target.
134
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135set auto-load off
136 Disable auto-loading globally.
137
138show auto-load
139 Show auto-loading setting of all kinds of auto-loaded files.
140
141set auto-load gdb-scripts on|off
142show auto-load gdb-scripts
143 Control auto-loading of GDB canned sequences of commands files.
144
145set auto-load python-scripts on|off
146show auto-load python-scripts
147 Control auto-loading of Python script files.
148
149set auto-load local-gdbinit on|off
150show auto-load local-gdbinit
151 Control loading of init file (.gdbinit) from current directory.
152
153set auto-load libthread-db on|off
154show auto-load libthread-db
155 Control auto-loading of inferior specific thread debugging shared library.
156
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157* New remote packets
158
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159z0/z1 conditional breakpoints extension
160
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161 The z0/z1 breakpoint insertion packets have been extended to carry
162 a list of conditional expressions over to the remote stub depending on the
163 condition evaluation mode. The use of this extension can be controlled
164 via the "set remote conditional-breakpoints-packet" command.
165
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166QProgramSignals:
167
168 Specify the signals which the remote stub may pass to the debugged
169 program without GDB involvement.
170
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171* New command line options
172
173--init-command=FILE, -ix Like --command, -x but execute it
174 before loading inferior.
175--init-eval-command=COMMAND, -iex Like --eval-command=COMMAND, -ex but
176 execute it before loading inferior.
177
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178*** Changes in GDB 7.4
179
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180* GDB now handles ambiguous linespecs more consistently; the existing
181 FILE:LINE support has been expanded to other types of linespecs. A
182 breakpoint will now be set on all matching locations in all
183 inferiors, and locations will be added or removed according to
184 inferior changes.
185
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186* GDB now allows you to skip uninteresting functions and files when
187 stepping with the "skip function" and "skip file" commands.
188
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189* GDB has two new commands: "set remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit"
190 and "show remote hardware-watchpoint-length-limit". These allows to
191 set or show the maximum length limit (in bytes) of a remote
192 target hardware watchpoint.
193
194 This allows e.g. to use "unlimited" hardware watchpoints with the
195 gdbserver integrated in Valgrind version >= 3.7.0. Such Valgrind
196 watchpoints are slower than real hardware watchpoints but are
197 significantly faster than gdb software watchpoints.
198
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199* Python scripting
200
32d1c362 201 ** The register_pretty_printer function in module gdb.printing now takes
7d0aff21 202 an optional `replace' argument. If True, the new printer replaces any
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203 existing one.
204
3a7bf607 205 ** The "maint set python print-stack on|off" command has been
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206 deprecated and will be deleted in GDB 7.5.
207 A new command: "set python print-stack none|full|message" has
208 replaced it. Additionally, the default for "print-stack" is
209 now "message", which just prints the error message without
210 the stack trace.
3a7bf607 211
baacfb07 212 ** A prompt substitution hook (prompt_hook) is now available to the
3a7bf607 213 Python API.
713389e0 214
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215 ** A new Python module, gdb.prompt has been added to the GDB Python
216 modules library. This module provides functionality for
baacfb07 217 escape sequences in prompts (used by set/show
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218 extended-prompt). These escape sequences are replaced by their
219 corresponding value.
220
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221 ** Python commands and convenience-functions located in
222 'data-directory'/python/gdb/command and
223 'data-directory'/python/gdb/function are now automatically loaded
224 on GDB start-up.
225
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226 ** Blocks now provide four new attributes. global_block and
227 static_block will return the global and static blocks
228 respectively. is_static and is_global are boolean attributes
229 that indicate if the block is one of those two types.
230
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231 ** Symbols now provide the "type" attribute, the type of the symbol.
232
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233 ** The "gdb.breakpoint" function has been deprecated in favor of
234 "gdb.breakpoints".
235
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236 ** A new class "gdb.FinishBreakpoint" is provided to catch the return
237 of a function. This class is based on the "finish" command
238 available in the CLI.
239
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240 ** Type objects for struct and union types now allow access to
241 the fields using standard Python dictionary (mapping) methods.
242 For example, "some_type['myfield']" now works, as does
243 "some_type.items()".
244
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245 ** A new event "gdb.new_objfile" has been added, triggered by loading a
246 new object file.
247
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248 ** A new function, "deep_items" has been added to the gdb.types
249 module in the GDB Python modules library. This function returns
250 an iterator over the fields of a struct or union type. Unlike
251 the standard Python "iteritems" method, it will recursively traverse
252 any anonymous fields.
253
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254* MI changes
255
256 ** "*stopped" events can report several new "reason"s, such as
257 "solib-event".
258
259 ** Breakpoint changes are now notified using new async records, like
260 "=breakpoint-modified".
261
262 ** New command -ada-task-info.
263
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264* libthread-db-search-path now supports two special values: $sdir and $pdir.
265 $sdir specifies the default system locations of shared libraries.
266 $pdir specifies the directory where the libpthread used by the application
267 lives.
268
269 GDB no longer looks in $sdir and $pdir after it has searched the directories
270 mentioned in libthread-db-search-path. If you want to search those
271 directories, they must be specified in libthread-db-search-path.
272 The default value of libthread-db-search-path on GNU/Linux and Solaris
273 systems is now "$sdir:$pdir".
274
275 $pdir is not supported by gdbserver, it is currently ignored.
276 $sdir is supported by gdbserver.
277
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278* New configure option --with-iconv-bin.
279 When using the internationalization support like the one in the GNU C
280 library, GDB will invoke the "iconv" program to get a list of supported
281 character sets. If this program lives in a non-standard location, one can
282 use this option to specify where to find it.
283
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284* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
285 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports masked hardware
286 watchpoints, which specify a mask in addition to an address to watch.
287 The mask specifies that some bits of an address (the bits which are
288 reset in the mask) should be ignored when matching the address accessed
289 by the inferior against the watchpoint address. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
290 section in the user manual for more details.
291
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292* The new option --once causes GDBserver to stop listening for connections once
293 the first connection is made. The listening port used by GDBserver will
294 become available after that.
295
71eba9c2 296* New commands "info macros" and "alias" have been added.
edc84990 297
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298* New function parameters suffix @entry specifies value of function parameter
299 at the time the function got called. Entry values are available only since
300 gcc version 4.7.
301
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302* New commands
303
304!SHELL COMMAND
305 "!" is now an alias of the "shell" command.
306 Note that no space is needed between "!" and SHELL COMMAND.
307
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308* Changed commands
309
310watch EXPRESSION mask MASK_VALUE
311 The watch command now supports the mask argument which allows creation
312 of masked watchpoints, if the current architecture supports this feature.
313
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314info auto-load-scripts [REGEXP]
315 This command was formerly named "maintenance print section-scripts".
316 It is now generally useful and is no longer a maintenance-only command.
317
71eba9c2 318info macro [-all] [--] MACRO
319 The info macro command has new options `-all' and `--'. The first for
320 printing all definitions of a macro. The second for explicitly specifying
321 the end of arguments and the beginning of the macro name in case the macro
322 name starts with a hyphen.
323
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324collect[/s] EXPRESSIONS
325 The tracepoint collect command now takes an optional modifier "/s"
326 that directs it to dereference pointer-to-character types and
327 collect the bytes of memory up to a zero byte. The behavior is
328 similar to what you see when you use the regular print command on a
329 string. An optional integer following the "/s" sets a bound on the
330 number of bytes that will be collected.
331
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332tstart [NOTES]
333 The trace start command now interprets any supplied arguments as a
334 note to be recorded with the trace run, with an effect similar to
335 setting the variable trace-notes.
336
337tstop [NOTES]
338 The trace stop command now interprets any arguments as a note to be
339 mentioned along with the tstatus report that the trace was stopped
340 with a command. The effect is similar to setting the variable
341 trace-stop-notes.
342
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343* Tracepoints can now be enabled and disabled at any time after a trace
344 experiment has been started using the standard "enable" and "disable"
345 commands. It is now possible to start a trace experiment with no enabled
346 tracepoints; GDB will display a warning, but will allow the experiment to
347 begin, assuming that tracepoints will be enabled as needed while the trace
348 is running.
349
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350* Fast tracepoints on 32-bit x86-architectures can now be placed at
351 locations with 4-byte instructions, when they were previously
352 limited to locations with instructions of 5 bytes or longer.
353
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354* New options
355
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356set extended-prompt
357show extended-prompt
358 Set the GDB prompt, and allow escape sequences to be inserted to
359 display miscellaneous information (see 'help set extended-prompt'
360 for the list of sequences). This prompt (and any information
361 accessed through the escape sequences) is updated every time the
362 prompt is displayed.
363
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364set print entry-values (both|compact|default|if-needed|no|only|preferred)
365show print entry-values
366 Set printing of frame argument values at function entry. In some cases
367 GDB can determine the value of function argument which was passed by the
368 function caller, even if the value was modified inside the called function.
369
370set debug entry-values
371show debug entry-values
372 Control display of debugging info for determining frame argument values at
373 function entry and virtual tail call frames.
374
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375set basenames-may-differ
376show basenames-may-differ
377 Set whether a source file may have multiple base names.
378 (A "base name" is the name of a file with the directory part removed.
379 Example: The base name of "/home/user/hello.c" is "hello.c".)
380 If set, GDB will canonicalize file names (e.g., expand symlinks)
381 before comparing them. Canonicalization is an expensive operation,
382 but it allows the same file be known by more than one base name.
383 If not set (the default), all source files are assumed to have just
384 one base name, and gdb will do file name comparisons more efficiently.
385
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386set trace-user
387show trace-user
388set trace-notes
389show trace-notes
390 Set a user name and notes for the current and any future trace runs.
391 This is useful for long-running and/or disconnected traces, to
392 inform others (or yourself) as to who is running the trace, supply
393 contact information, or otherwise explain what is going on.
394
395set trace-stop-notes
396show trace-stop-notes
397 Set a note attached to the trace run, that is displayed when the
398 trace has been stopped by a tstop command. This is useful for
399 instance as an explanation, if you are stopping a trace run that was
400 started by someone else.
401
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402* New remote packets
403
404QTEnable
405
406 Dynamically enable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
407
408QTDisable
409
410 Dynamically disable a tracepoint in a started trace experiment.
411
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412QTNotes
413
414 Set the user and notes of the trace run.
415
416qTP
417
418 Query the current status of a tracepoint.
419
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420qTMinFTPILen
421
422 Query the minimum length of instruction at which a fast tracepoint may
423 be placed.
424
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425* Dcache size (number of lines) and line-size are now runtime-configurable
426 via "set dcache line" and "set dcache line-size" commands.
427
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428* New targets
429
430Texas Instruments TMS320C6x tic6x-*-*
431
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432* New Simulators
433
434Renesas RL78 rl78-*-elf
435
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436*** Changes in GDB 7.3.1
437
438* The build failure for NetBSD and OpenBSD targets have now been fixed.
439
d6e00af6 440*** Changes in GDB 7.3
797054e6 441
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442* GDB has a new command: "thread find [REGEXP]".
443 It finds the thread id whose name, target id, or thread extra info
444 matches the given regular expression.
445
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446* The "catch syscall" command now works on mips*-linux* targets.
447
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448* The -data-disassemble MI command now supports modes 2 and 3 for
449 dumping the instruction opcodes.
450
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451* New command line options
452
453-data-directory DIR Specify DIR as the "data-directory".
454 This is mostly for testing purposes.
455
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456* The "maint set python auto-load on|off" command has been renamed to
457 "set auto-load-scripts on|off".
458
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459* GDB has a new command: "set directories".
460 It is like the "dir" command except that it replaces the
461 source path list instead of augmenting it.
462
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463* GDB now understands thread names.
464
465 On GNU/Linux, "info threads" will display the thread name as set by
466 prctl or pthread_setname_np.
467
468 There is also a new command, "thread name", which can be used to
469 assign a name internally for GDB to display.
470
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471* OpenCL C
472 Initial support for the OpenCL C language (http://www.khronos.org/opencl)
473 has been integrated into GDB.
474
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475* Python scripting
476
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477 ** The function gdb.Write now accepts an optional keyword 'stream'.
478 This keyword, when provided, will direct the output to either
479 stdout, stderr, or GDB's logging output.
480
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481 ** Parameters can now be be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
482 you may implement the get_set_doc and get_show_doc functions.
483 This improves how Parameter set/show documentation is processed
484 and allows for more dynamic content.
485
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486 ** Symbols, Symbol Table, Symbol Table and Line, Object Files,
487 Inferior, Inferior Thread, Blocks, and Block Iterator APIs now
488 have an is_valid method.
489
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490 ** Breakpoints can now be sub-classed in Python, and in particular
491 you may implement a 'stop' function that is executed each time
492 the inferior reaches that breakpoint.
493
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494 ** New function gdb.lookup_global_symbol looks up a global symbol.
495
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496 ** GDB values in Python are now callable if the value represents a
497 function. For example, if 'some_value' represents a function that
498 takes two integer parameters and returns a value, you can call
499 that function like so:
500
501 result = some_value (10,20)
502
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503 ** Module gdb.types has been added.
504 It contains a collection of utilities for working with gdb.Types objects:
505 get_basic_type, has_field, make_enum_dict.
506
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507 ** Module gdb.printing has been added.
508 It contains utilities for writing and registering pretty-printers.
509 New classes: PrettyPrinter, SubPrettyPrinter,
510 RegexpCollectionPrettyPrinter.
511 New function: register_pretty_printer.
512
513 ** New commands "info pretty-printers", "enable pretty-printer" and
514 "disable pretty-printer" have been added.
515
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516 ** gdb.parameter("directories") is now available.
517
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518 ** New function gdb.newest_frame returns the newest frame in the
519 selected thread.
520
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521 ** The gdb.InferiorThread class has a new "name" attribute. This
522 holds the thread's name.
523
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524 ** Python Support for Inferior events.
525 Python scripts can add observers to be notified of events
824446ad 526 occurring in the process being debugged.
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527 The following events are currently supported:
528 - gdb.events.cont Continue event.
529 - gdb.events.exited Inferior exited event.
530 - gdb.events.stop Signal received, and Breakpoint hit events.
531
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532* C++ Improvements:
533
534 ** GDB now puts template parameters in scope when debugging in an
535 instantiation. For example, if you have:
536
537 template<int X> int func (void) { return X; }
538
539 then if you step into func<5>, "print X" will show "5". This
540 feature requires proper debuginfo support from the compiler; it
541 was added to GCC 4.5.
542
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543 ** The motion commands "next", "finish", "until", and "advance" now
544 work better when exceptions are thrown. In particular, GDB will
545 no longer lose control of the inferior; instead, the GDB will
546 stop the inferior at the point at which the exception is caught.
547 This functionality requires a change in the exception handling
548 code that was introduced in GCC 4.5.
549
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550* GDB now follows GCC's rules on accessing volatile objects when
551 reading or writing target state during expression evaluation.
552 One notable difference to prior behavior is that "print x = 0"
553 no longer generates a read of x; the value of the assignment is
554 now always taken directly from the value being assigned.
555
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556* GDB now has some support for using labels in the program's source in
557 linespecs. For instance, you can use "advance label" to continue
558 execution to a label.
559
560* GDB now has support for reading and writing a new .gdb_index
561 section. This section holds a fast index of DWARF debugging
562 information and can be used to greatly speed up GDB startup and
563 operation. See the documentation for `save gdb-index' for details.
564
b56df873 565* The "watch" command now accepts an optional "-location" argument.
14c0d4e1 566 When used, this causes GDB to watch the memory referred to by the
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567 expression. Such a watchpoint is never deleted due to it going out
568 of scope.
569
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570* GDB now supports thread debugging of core dumps on GNU/Linux.
571
572 GDB now activates thread debugging using the libthread_db library
573 when debugging GNU/Linux core dumps, similarly to when debugging
574 live processes. As a result, when debugging a core dump file, GDB
575 is now able to display pthread_t ids of threads. For example, "info
576 threads" shows the same output as when debugging the process when it
577 was live. In earlier releases, you'd see something like this:
578
579 (gdb) info threads
580 * 1 LWP 6780 main () at main.c:10
581
582 While now you see this:
583
584 (gdb) info threads
585 * 1 Thread 0x7f0f5712a700 (LWP 6780) main () at main.c:10
586
587 It is also now possible to inspect TLS variables when debugging core
588 dumps.
589
590 When debugging a core dump generated on a machine other than the one
591 used to run GDB, you may need to point GDB at the correct
592 libthread_db library with the "set libthread-db-search-path"
593 command. See the user manual for more details on this command.
594
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595* When natively debugging programs on PowerPC BookE processors running
596 a Linux kernel version 2.6.34 or later, GDB supports ranged breakpoints,
597 which stop execution of the inferior whenever it executes an instruction
598 at any address within the specified range. See the "PowerPC Embedded"
599 section in the user manual for more details.
600
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JB
601* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
602
1aee7009
JB
603 ** GDBserver is now supported on PowerPC LynxOS (versions 4.x and 5.x),
604 and i686 LynxOS (version 5.x).
248c9dbc 605
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MF
606 ** GDBserver is now supported on Blackfin Linux.
607
44603653
JB
608* New native configurations
609
610ia64 HP-UX ia64-*-hpux*
611
91021223
MF
612* New targets:
613
614Analog Devices, Inc. Blackfin Processor bfin-*
615
6e1bb179
JB
616* Ada task switching is now supported on sparc-elf targets when
617 debugging a program using the Ravenscar Profile. For more information,
618 see the "Tasking Support when using the Ravenscar Profile" section
619 in the GDB user manual.
620
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TT
621* Guile support was removed.
622
448a92bf
MF
623* New features in the GNU simulator
624
625 ** The --map-info flag lists all known core mappings.
626
66ee2731
MF
627 ** CFI flashes may be simulated via the "cfi" device.
628
76b8507d 629*** Changes in GDB 7.2
bfbf3774 630
ba25b921
PA
631* Shared library support for remote targets by default
632
633 When GDB is configured for a generic, non-OS specific target, like
634 for example, --target=arm-eabi or one of the many *-*-elf targets,
635 GDB now queries remote stubs for loaded shared libraries using the
636 `qXfer:libraries:read' packet. Previously, shared library support
637 was always disabled for such configurations.
638
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SW
639* C++ Improvements:
640
641 ** Argument Dependent Lookup (ADL)
642
643 In C++ ADL lookup directs function search to the namespaces of its
644 arguments even if the namespace has not been imported.
645 For example:
646 namespace A
647 {
648 class B { };
649 void foo (B) { }
650 }
651 ...
652 A::B b
653 foo(b)
654 Here the compiler will search for `foo' in the namespace of 'b'
655 and find A::foo. GDB now supports this. This construct is commonly
656 used in the Standard Template Library for operators.
657
658 ** Improved User Defined Operator Support
659
660 In addition to member operators, GDB now supports lookup of operators
661 defined in a namespace and imported with a `using' directive, operators
662 defined in the global scope, operators imported implicitly from an
663 anonymous namespace, and the ADL operators mentioned in the previous
664 entry.
665 GDB now also supports proper overload resolution for all the previously
666 mentioned flavors of operators.
667
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DE
668 ** static const class members
669
670 Printing of static const class members that are initialized in the
671 class definition has been fixed.
672
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673* Windows Thread Information Block access.
674
675 On Windows targets, GDB now supports displaying the Windows Thread
676 Information Block (TIB) structure. This structure is visible either
677 by using the new command `info w32 thread-information-block' or, by
678 dereferencing the new convenience variable named `$_tlb', a
679 thread-specific pointer to the TIB. This feature is also supported
680 when remote debugging using GDBserver.
681
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PA
682* Static tracepoints
683
684 Static tracepoints are calls in the user program into a tracing
685 library. One such library is a port of the LTTng kernel tracer to
686 userspace --- UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer, http://lttng.org/ust).
687 When debugging with GDBserver, GDB now supports combining the GDB
688 tracepoint machinery with such libraries. For example: the user can
689 use GDB to probe a static tracepoint marker (a call from the user
690 program into the tracing library) with the new "strace" command (see
691 "New commands" below). This creates a "static tracepoint" in the
692 breakpoint list, that can be manipulated with the same feature set
693 as fast and regular tracepoints. E.g., collect registers, local and
694 global variables, collect trace state variables, and define
695 tracepoint conditions. In addition, the user can collect extra
696 static tracepoint marker specific data, by collecting the new
697 $_sdata internal variable. When analyzing the trace buffer, you can
698 inspect $_sdata like any other variable available to GDB. For more
699 information, see the "Tracepoints" chapter in GDB user manual. New
700 remote packets have been defined to support static tracepoints, see
701 the "New remote packets" section below.
702
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703* Better reconstruction of tracepoints after disconnected tracing
704
705 GDB will attempt to download the original source form of tracepoint
706 definitions when starting a trace run, and then will upload these
707 upon reconnection to the target, resulting in a more accurate
708 reconstruction of the tracepoints that are in use on the target.
709
710* Observer mode
711
712 You can now exercise direct control over the ways that GDB can
713 affect your program. For instance, you can disallow the setting of
714 breakpoints, so that the program can run continuously (assuming
715 non-stop mode). In addition, the "observer" variable is available
716 to switch all of the different controls; in observer mode, GDB
717 cannot affect the target's behavior at all, which is useful for
718 tasks like diagnosing live systems in the field.
719
720* The new convenience variable $_thread holds the number of the
721 current thread.
722
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723* New remote packets
724
725qGetTIBAddr
726
727 Return the address of the Windows Thread Information Block of a given thread.
728
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PA
729qRelocInsn
730
731 In response to several of the tracepoint packets, the target may now
732 also respond with a number of intermediate `qRelocInsn' request
733 packets before the final result packet, to have GDB handle
734 relocating an instruction to execute at a different address. This
735 is particularly useful for stubs that support fast tracepoints. GDB
736 reports support for this feature in the qSupported packet.
737
0fb4aa4b
PA
738qTfSTM, qTsSTM
739
740 List static tracepoint markers in the target program.
741
742qTSTMat
743
744 List static tracepoint markers at a given address in the target
745 program.
746
747qXfer:statictrace:read
748
749 Read the static trace data collected (by a `collect $_sdata'
750 tracepoint action). The remote stub reports support for this packet
751 to gdb's qSupported query.
752
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SS
753QAllow
754
755 Send the current settings of GDB's permission flags.
756
757QTDPsrc
758
759 Send part of the source (textual) form of a tracepoint definition,
760 which includes location, conditional, and action list.
761
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DE
762* The source command now accepts a -s option to force searching for the
763 script in the source search path even if the script name specifies
764 a directory.
765
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PA
766* New features in the GDB remote stub, GDBserver
767
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PA
768 - GDBserver now support tracepoints (including fast tracepoints, and
769 static tracepoints). The feature is currently supported by the
770 i386-linux and amd64-linux builds. See the "Tracepoints support
771 in gdbserver" section in the manual for more information.
772
773 GDBserver JIT compiles the tracepoint's conditional agent
774 expression bytecode into native code whenever possible for low
775 overhead dynamic tracepoints conditionals. For such tracepoints,
776 an expression that examines program state is evaluated when the
777 tracepoint is reached, in order to determine whether to capture
778 trace data. If the condition is simple and false, processing the
779 tracepoint finishes very quickly and no data is gathered.
780
781 GDBserver interfaces with the UST (LTTng Userspace Tracer) library
782 for static tracepoints support.
d337e9f0 783
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784 - GDBserver now supports x86_64 Windows 64-bit debugging.
785
c8d5aac9
L
786* GDB now sends xmlRegisters= in qSupported packet to indicate that
787 it understands register description.
788
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TT
789* The --batch flag now disables pagination and queries.
790
8685c86f
L
791* X86 general purpose registers
792
793 GDB now supports reading/writing byte, word and double-word x86
794 general purpose registers directly. This means you can use, say,
795 $ah or $ax to refer, respectively, to the byte register AH and
796 16-bit word register AX that are actually portions of the 32-bit
797 register EAX or 64-bit register RAX.
798
95a42b64 799* The `commands' command now accepts a range of breakpoints to modify.
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PA
800 A plain `commands' following a command that creates multiple
801 breakpoints affects all the breakpoints set by that command. This
802 applies to breakpoints set by `rbreak', and also applies when a
803 single `break' command creates multiple breakpoints (e.g.,
804 breakpoints on overloaded c++ functions).
95a42b64 805
8bd10a10
CM
806* The `rbreak' command now accepts a filename specification as part of
807 its argument, limiting the functions selected by the regex to those
808 in the specified file.
809
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PA
810* Support for remote debugging Windows and SymbianOS shared libraries
811 from Unix hosts has been improved. Non Windows GDB builds now can
812 understand target reported file names that follow MS-DOS based file
813 system semantics, such as file names that include drive letters and
814 use the backslash character as directory separator. This makes it
815 possible to transparently use the "set sysroot" and "set
816 solib-search-path" on Unix hosts to point as host copies of the
817 target's shared libraries. See the new command "set
818 target-file-system-kind" described below, and the "Commands to
819 specify files" section in the user manual for more information.
820
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PA
821* New commands
822
f1421989
HZ
823eval template, expressions...
824 Convert the values of one or more expressions under the control
825 of the string template to a command line, and call it.
826
ab38a727
PA
827set target-file-system-kind unix|dos-based|auto
828show target-file-system-kind
829 Set or show the assumed file system kind for target reported file
830 names.
831
6149aea9
PA
832save breakpoints <filename>
833 Save all current breakpoint definitions to a file suitable for use
834 in a later debugging session. To read the saved breakpoint
835 definitions, use the `source' command.
836
837`save tracepoints' is a new alias for `save-tracepoints'. The latter
838is now deprecated.
839
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PA
840info static-tracepoint-markers
841 Display information about static tracepoint markers in the target.
842
843strace FN | FILE:LINE | *ADDR | -m MARKER_ID
844 Define a static tracepoint by probing a marker at the given
845 function, line, address, or marker ID.
846
ca11e899
SS
847set observer on|off
848show observer
849 Enable and disable observer mode.
850
851set may-write-registers on|off
852set may-write-memory on|off
853set may-insert-breakpoints on|off
854set may-insert-tracepoints on|off
855set may-insert-fast-tracepoints on|off
856set may-interrupt on|off
857 Set individual permissions for GDB effects on the target. Note that
858 some of these settings can have undesirable or surprising
859 consequences, particularly when changed in the middle of a session.
860 For instance, disabling the writing of memory can prevent
861 breakpoints from being inserted, cause single-stepping to fail, or
862 even crash your program, if you disable after breakpoints have been
863 inserted. However, GDB should not crash.
864
865set record memory-query on|off
866show record memory-query
867 Control whether to stop the inferior if memory changes caused
868 by an instruction cannot be recorded.
869
53a71c06
CR
870* Changed commands
871
872disassemble
873 The disassemble command now supports "start,+length" form of two arguments.
874
f3e9a817
PM
875* Python scripting
876
9279c692
JB
877** GDB now provides a new directory location, called the python directory,
878 where Python scripts written for GDB can be installed. The location
879 of that directory is <data-directory>/python, where <data-directory>
880 is the GDB data directory. For more details, see section `Scripting
881 GDB using Python' in the manual.
882
adc36818 883** The GDB Python API now has access to breakpoints, symbols, symbol
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PM
884 tables, program spaces, inferiors, threads and frame's code blocks.
885 Additionally, GDB Parameters can now be created from the API, and
886 manipulated via set/show in the CLI.
f870a310 887
fa33c3cd 888** New functions gdb.target_charset, gdb.target_wide_charset,
07ca107c
DE
889 gdb.progspaces, gdb.current_progspace, and gdb.string_to_argv.
890
891** New exception gdb.GdbError.
fa33c3cd
DE
892
893** Pretty-printers are now also looked up in the current program space.
f3e9a817 894
967cf477
DE
895** Pretty-printers can now be individually enabled and disabled.
896
8a1ea21f
DE
897** GDB now looks for names of Python scripts to auto-load in a
898 special section named `.debug_gdb_scripts', in addition to looking
899 for a OBJFILE-gdb.py script when OBJFILE is read by the debugger.
900
a7bdde9e
VP
901* Tracepoint actions were unified with breakpoint commands. In particular,
902there are no longer differences in "info break" output for breakpoints and
903tracepoints and the "commands" command can be used for both tracepoints and
904regular breakpoints.
905
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PA
906* New targets
907
908ARM Symbian arm*-*-symbianelf*
909
6aecb9c2
JB
910* D language support.
911 GDB now supports debugging programs written in the D programming
912 language.
913
431e49aa
TJB
914* GDB now supports the extended ptrace interface for PowerPC which is
915 available since Linux kernel version 2.6.34. This automatically enables
916 any hardware breakpoints and additional hardware watchpoints available in
917 the processor. The old ptrace interface exposes just one hardware
918 watchpoint and no hardware breakpoints.
919
920* GDB is now able to use the Data Value Compare (DVC) register available on
921 embedded PowerPC processors to implement in hardware simple watchpoint
922 conditions of the form:
923
924 watch ADDRESS|VARIABLE if ADDRESS|VARIABLE == CONSTANT EXPRESSION
925
926 This works in native GDB running on Linux kernels with the extended ptrace
927 interface mentioned above.
928
bfbf3774 929*** Changes in GDB 7.1
abc7453d 930
4eef138c
TT
931* C++ Improvements
932
933 ** Namespace Support
71dee663
SW
934
935 GDB now supports importing of namespaces in C++. This enables the
936 user to inspect variables from imported namespaces. Support for
937 namepace aliasing has also been added. So, if a namespace is
938 aliased in the current scope (e.g. namepace C=A; ) the user can
939 print variables using the alias (e.g. (gdb) print C::x).
940
4eef138c
TT
941 ** Bug Fixes
942
943 All known bugs relating to the printing of virtual base class were
944 fixed. It is now possible to call overloaded static methods using a
945 qualified name.
946
947 ** Cast Operators
948
949 The C++ cast operators static_cast<>, dynamic_cast<>, const_cast<>,
950 and reinterpret_cast<> are now handled by the C++ expression parser.
951
2d1c1221
ME
952* New targets
953
954Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze-*-*
34207b9e 955Renesas RX rx-*-elf
2d1c1221
ME
956
957* New Simulators
958
959Xilinx MicroBlaze microblaze
34207b9e 960Renesas RX rx
2d1c1221 961
6c95b8df
PA
962* Multi-program debugging.
963
964 GDB now has support for multi-program (a.k.a. multi-executable or
965 multi-exec) debugging. This allows for debugging multiple inferiors
966 simultaneously each running a different program under the same GDB
967 session. See "Debugging Multiple Inferiors and Programs" in the
968 manual for more information. This implied some user visible changes
969 in the multi-inferior support. For example, "info inferiors" now
970 lists inferiors that are not running yet or that have exited
971 already. See also "New commands" and "New options" below.
972
d5551862
SS
973* New tracing features
974
975 GDB's tracepoint facility now includes several new features:
976
977 ** Trace state variables
f61e138d
SS
978
979 GDB tracepoints now include support for trace state variables, which
980 are variables managed by the target agent during a tracing
981 experiment. They are useful for tracepoints that trigger each
982 other, so for instance one tracepoint can count hits in a variable,
983 and then a second tracepoint has a condition that is true when the
984 count reaches a particular value. Trace state variables share the
985 $-syntax of GDB convenience variables, and can appear in both
986 tracepoint actions and condition expressions. Use the "tvariable"
987 command to create, and "info tvariables" to view; see "Trace State
988 Variables" in the manual for more detail.
7a697b8d 989
d5551862 990 ** Fast tracepoints
7a697b8d
SS
991
992 GDB now includes an option for defining fast tracepoints, which
993 targets may implement more efficiently, such as by installing a jump
994 into the target agent rather than a trap instruction. The resulting
995 speedup can be by two orders of magnitude or more, although the
996 tradeoff is that some program locations on some target architectures
997 might not allow fast tracepoint installation, for instance if the
998 instruction to be replaced is shorter than the jump. To request a
999 fast tracepoint, use the "ftrace" command, with syntax identical to
1000 the regular trace command.
1001
d5551862
SS
1002 ** Disconnected tracing
1003
1004 It is now possible to detach GDB from the target while it is running
1005 a trace experiment, then reconnect later to see how the experiment
1006 is going. In addition, a new variable disconnected-tracing lets you
1007 tell the target agent whether to continue running a trace if the
1008 connection is lost unexpectedly.
1009
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SS
1010 ** Trace files
1011
1012 GDB now has the ability to save the trace buffer into a file, and
1013 then use that file as a target, similarly to you can do with
1014 corefiles. You can select trace frames, print data that was
1015 collected in them, and use tstatus to display the state of the
1016 tracing run at the moment that it was saved. To create a trace
1017 file, use "tsave <filename>", and to use it, do "target tfile
1018 <name>".
4daf5ac0
SS
1019
1020 ** Circular trace buffer
1021
1022 You can ask the target agent to handle the trace buffer as a
1023 circular buffer, discarding the oldest trace frames to make room for
1024 newer ones, by setting circular-trace-buffer to on. This feature may
1025 not be available for all target agents.
1026
21a0512e
PP
1027* Changed commands
1028
1029disassemble
1030 The disassemble command, when invoked with two arguments, now requires
1031 the arguments to be comma-separated.
1032
0fe7935b
DJ
1033info variables
1034 The info variables command now displays variable definitions. Files
1035 which only declare a variable are not shown.
1036
fb2e7cb4
JB
1037source
1038 The source command is now capable of sourcing Python scripts.
1039 This feature is dependent on the debugger being build with Python
1040 support.
1041
1042 Related to this enhancement is also the introduction of a new command
1043 "set script-extension" (see below).
1044
6c95b8df
PA
1045* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
1046
399cd161
MS
1047record save [<FILENAME>]
1048 Save a file (in core file format) containing the process record
1049 execution log for replay debugging at a later time.
1050
1051record restore <FILENAME>
1052 Restore the process record execution log that was saved at an
1053 earlier time, for replay debugging.
1054
6c95b8df
PA
1055add-inferior [-copies <N>] [-exec <FILENAME>]
1056 Add a new inferior.
1057
1058clone-inferior [-copies <N>] [ID]
1059 Make a new inferior ready to execute the same program another
1060 inferior has loaded.
1061
1062remove-inferior ID
1063 Remove an inferior.
1064
1065maint info program-spaces
1066 List the program spaces loaded into GDB.
1067
9a7071a8
JB
1068set remote interrupt-sequence [Ctrl-C | BREAK | BREAK-g]
1069show remote interrupt-sequence
1070 Allow the user to select one of ^C, a BREAK signal or BREAK-g
1071 as the sequence to the remote target in order to interrupt the execution.
1072 Ctrl-C is a default. Some system prefers BREAK which is high level of
1073 serial line for some certain time. Linux kernel prefers BREAK-g, a.k.a
1074 Magic SysRq g. It is BREAK signal and character 'g'.
1075
1076set remote interrupt-on-connect [on | off]
1077show remote interrupt-on-connect
1078 When interrupt-on-connect is ON, gdb sends interrupt-sequence to
1079 remote target when gdb connects to it. This is needed when you debug
1080 Linux kernel.
1081
1082set remotebreak [on | off]
1083show remotebreak
1084Deprecated. Use "set/show remote interrupt-sequence" instead.
1085
f61e138d
SS
1086tvariable $NAME [ = EXP ]
1087 Create or modify a trace state variable.
1088
1089info tvariables
1090 List trace state variables and their values.
1091
1092delete tvariable $NAME ...
1093 Delete one or more trace state variables.
1094
6da95a67
SS
1095teval EXPR, ...
1096 Evaluate the given expressions without collecting anything into the
1097 trace buffer. (Valid in tracepoint actions only.)
1098
7a697b8d
SS
1099ftrace FN / FILE:LINE / *ADDR
1100 Define a fast tracepoint at the given function, line, or address.
1101
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JK
1102* New expression syntax
1103
1104 GDB now parses the 0b prefix of binary numbers the same way as GCC does.
1105 GDB now parses 0b101010 identically with 42.
1106
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PA
1107* New options
1108
1109set follow-exec-mode new|same
1110show follow-exec-mode
1111 Control whether GDB reuses the same inferior across an exec call or
1112 creates a new one. This is useful to be able to restart the old
1113 executable after the inferior having done an exec call.
1114
236f1d4d
SS
1115set default-collect EXPR, ...
1116show default-collect
1117 Define a list of expressions to be collected at each tracepoint.
1118 This is a useful way to ensure essential items are not overlooked,
1119 such as registers or a critical global variable.
1120
d5551862
SS
1121set disconnected-tracing
1122show disconnected-tracing
1123 If set to 1, the target is instructed to continue tracing if it
1124 loses its connection to GDB. If 0, the target is to stop tracing
1125 upon disconnection.
1126
4daf5ac0
SS
1127set circular-trace-buffer
1128show circular-trace-buffer
1129 If set to on, the target is instructed to use a circular trace buffer
1130 and discard the oldest trace frames instead of stopping the trace due
1131 to a full trace buffer. If set to off, the trace stops when the buffer
1132 fills up. Some targets may not support this.
1133
fb2e7cb4
JB
1134set script-extension off|soft|strict
1135show script-extension
1136 If set to "off", the debugger does not perform any script language
1137 recognition, and all sourced files are assumed to be GDB scripts.
1138 If set to "soft" (the default), files are sourced according to
1139 filename extension, falling back to GDB scripts if the first
1140 evaluation failed.
1141 If set to "strict", files are sourced according to filename extension.
1142
2b71fc8e
JB
1143set ada trust-PAD-over-XVS on|off
1144show ada trust-PAD-over-XVS
1145 If off, activate a workaround against a bug in the debugging information
1146 generated by the compiler for PAD types (see gcc/exp_dbug.ads in
1147 the GCC sources for more information about the GNAT encoding and
1148 PAD types in particular). It is always safe to set this option to
1149 off, but this introduces a slight performance penalty. The default
1150 is on.
1151
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TT
1152* Python API Improvements
1153
1154 ** GDB provides the new class gdb.LazyString. This is useful in
1155 some pretty-printing cases. The new method gdb.Value.lazy_string
1156 provides a simple way to create objects of this type.
1157
1158 ** The fields returned by gdb.Type.fields now have an
1159 `is_base_class' attribute.
1160
1161 ** The new method gdb.Type.range returns the range of an array type.
1162
1163 ** The new method gdb.parse_and_eval can be used to parse and
1164 evaluate an expression.
1165
f61e138d
SS
1166* New remote packets
1167
1168QTDV
1169 Define a trace state variable.
1170
1171qTV
1172 Get the current value of a trace state variable.
1173
d5551862
SS
1174QTDisconnected
1175 Set desired tracing behavior upon disconnection.
1176
4daf5ac0
SS
1177QTBuffer:circular
1178 Set the trace buffer to be linear or circular.
1179
d5551862
SS
1180qTfP, qTsP
1181 Get data about the tracepoints currently in use.
1182
2d483d34
MS
1183* Bug fixes
1184
1185Process record now works correctly with hardware watchpoints.
1186
6e0e5977
JB
1187Multiple bug fixes have been made to the mips-irix port, making it
1188much more reliable. In particular:
1189 - Debugging threaded applications is now possible again. Previously,
1190 GDB would hang while starting the program, or while waiting for
1191 the program to stop at a breakpoint.
1192 - Attaching to a running process no longer hangs.
1193 - An error occurring while loading a core file has been fixed.
1194 - Changing the value of the PC register now works again. This fixes
1195 problems observed when using the "jump" command, or when calling
1196 a function from GDB, or even when assigning a new value to $pc.
1197 - With the "finish" and "return" commands, the return value for functions
1198 returning a small array is now correctly printed.
1199 - It is now possible to break on shared library code which gets executed
1200 during a shared library init phase (code executed while executing
1201 their .init section). Previously, the breakpoint would have no effect.
1202 - GDB is now able to backtrace through the signal handler for
1203 non-threaded programs.
1204
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JK
1205PIE (Position Independent Executable) programs debugging is now supported.
1206This includes debugging execution of PIC (Position Independent Code) shared
1207libraries although for that, it should be possible to run such libraries as an
1208executable program.
1209
abc7453d 1210*** Changes in GDB 7.0
75feb17d 1211
4efc6507
DE
1212* GDB now has an interface for JIT compilation. Applications that
1213dynamically generate code can create symbol files in memory and register
1214them with GDB. For users, the feature should work transparently, and
1215for JIT developers, the interface is documented in the GDB manual in the
1216"JIT Compilation Interface" chapter.
1217
782b2b07
SS
1218* Tracepoints may now be conditional. The syntax is as for
1219breakpoints; either an "if" clause appended to the "trace" command,
1220or the "condition" command is available. GDB sends the condition to
1221the target for evaluation using the same bytecode format as is used
1222for tracepoint actions.
1223
53a71c06
CR
1224* The disassemble command now supports: an optional /r modifier, print the
1225raw instructions in hex as well as in symbolic form, and an optional /m
1226modifier to print mixed source+assembly.
e6158f16 1227
e7a8dbfb
HZ
1228* Process record and replay
1229
1230 In a architecture environment that supports ``process record and
1231 replay'', ``process record and replay'' target can record a log of
1232 the process execution, and replay it with both forward and reverse
1233 execute commands.
1234
64644d9b
MS
1235* Reverse debugging: GDB now has new commands reverse-continue, reverse-
1236step, reverse-next, reverse-finish, reverse-stepi, reverse-nexti, and
1237set execution-direction {forward|reverse}, for targets that support
1238reverse execution.
1239
b9412953
DD
1240* GDB now supports hardware watchpoints on MIPS/Linux systems. This
1241feature is available with a native GDB running on kernel version
12422.6.28 or later.
1243
6c7a06a3
TT
1244* GDB now has support for multi-byte and wide character sets on the
1245target. Strings whose character type is wchar_t, char16_t, or
1246char32_t are now correctly printed. GDB supports wide- and unicode-
1247literals in C, that is, L'x', L"string", u'x', u"string", U'x', and
1248U"string" syntax. And, GDB allows the "%ls" and "%lc" formats in
1249`printf'. This feature requires iconv to work properly; if your
1250system does not have a working iconv, GDB can use GNU libiconv. See
1251the installation instructions for more information.
1252
f1838a98
UW
1253* GDB now supports automatic retrieval of shared library files from
1254remote targets. To use this feature, specify a system root that begins
1255with the `remote:' prefix, either via the `set sysroot' command or via
1256the `--with-sysroot' configure-time option.
1257
55333a84
DE
1258* "info sharedlibrary" now takes an optional regex of libraries to show,
1259and it now reports if a shared library has no debugging information.
1260
7f6a6314
PM
1261* Commands `set debug-file-directory', `set solib-search-path' and `set args'
1262now complete on file names.
1263
65d12d83
TT
1264* When completing in expressions, gdb will attempt to limit
1265completions to allowable structure or union fields, where appropriate.
1266For instance, consider:
1267
1268 # struct example { int f1; double f2; };
1269 # struct example variable;
1270 (gdb) p variable.
1271
1272If the user types TAB at the end of this command line, the available
1273completions will be "f1" and "f2".
1274
edb3359d
DJ
1275* Inlined functions are now supported. They show up in backtraces, and
1276the "step", "next", and "finish" commands handle them automatically.
1277
2fae03e8
TT
1278* GDB now supports the token-splicing (##) and stringification (#)
1279operators when expanding macros. It also supports variable-arity
1280macros.
1281
47a3467a 1282* GDB now supports inspecting extra signal information, exported by
58d6951d
DJ
1283the new $_siginfo convenience variable. The feature is currently
1284implemented on linux ARM, i386 and amd64.
1285
1286* GDB can now display the VFP floating point registers and NEON vector
1287registers on ARM targets. Both ARM GNU/Linux native GDB and gdbserver
1288can provide these registers (requires Linux 2.6.30 or later). Remote
1289and simulator targets may also provide them.
47a3467a 1290
08388c79
DE
1291* New remote packets
1292
1293qSearch:memory:
1294 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1295
a6f3e723
SL
1296QStartNoAckMode
1297 Turn off `+'/`-' protocol acknowledgments to permit more efficient
1298 operation over reliable transport links. Use of this packet is
1299 controlled by the `set remote noack-packet' command.
1300
d7713ae0
EZ
1301vKill
1302 Kill the process with the specified process ID. Use this in preference
1303 to `k' when multiprocess protocol extensions are supported.
1304
07e059b5
VP
1305qXfer:osdata:read
1306 Obtains additional operating system information
1307
47a3467a
PA
1308qXfer:siginfo:read
1309qXfer:siginfo:write
1310 Read or write additional signal information.
1311
060871df
PA
1312* Removed remote protocol undocumented extension
1313
1314 An undocumented extension to the remote protocol's `S' stop reply
1315 packet that permited the stub to pass a process id was removed.
1316 Remote servers should use the `T' stop reply packet instead.
1317
c055b101 1318* GDB now supports multiple function calling conventions according to the
a0ef4274 1319DWARF-2 DW_AT_calling_convention function attribute.
c055b101
CV
1320
1321* The SH target utilizes the aforementioned change to distinguish between gcc
a0ef4274
DJ
1322and Renesas calling convention. It also adds the new CLI commands
1323`set/show sh calling-convention'.
c055b101 1324
31fffb02
CS
1325* GDB can now read compressed debug sections, as produced by GNU gold
1326with the --compress-debug-sections=zlib flag.
1327
88d8a8e0
JB
1328* 64-bit core files are now supported on AIX.
1329
7f99b190
JB
1330* Thread switching is now supported on Tru64.
1331
ccd213ac
DJ
1332* Watchpoints can now be set on unreadable memory locations, e.g. addresses
1333which will be allocated using malloc later in program execution.
1334
1fddbabb 1335* The qXfer:libraries:read remote procotol packet now allows passing a
31fffb02 1336list of section offsets.
1fddbabb 1337
a0ef4274
DJ
1338* On GNU/Linux, GDB can now attach to stopped processes. Several race
1339conditions handling signals delivered during attach or thread creation
1340have also been fixed.
1341
bfb8797a 1342* GDB now supports the use of DWARF boolean types for Ada's type Boolean.
158c7665
PH
1343From the user's standpoint, all unqualified instances of True and False
1344are treated as the standard definitions, regardless of context.
bfb8797a 1345
71c25dea
TT
1346* GDB now parses C++ symbol and type names more flexibly. For
1347example, given:
1348
1349 template<typename T> class C { };
1350 C<char const *> c;
1351
1352GDB will now correctly handle all of:
1353
1354 ptype C<char const *>
1355 ptype C<char const*>
1356 ptype C<const char *>
1357 ptype C<const char*>
1358
ccd213ac
DJ
1359* New features in the GDB remote stub, gdbserver
1360
1361 - The "--wrapper" command-line argument tells gdbserver to use a
1362 wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
1363
7ae0e2a2
UW
1364 - On PowerPC and S/390 targets, it is now possible to use a single
1365 gdbserver executable to debug both 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1366 (This requires gdbserver itself to be built as a 64-bit executable.)
1367
a6f3e723
SL
1368 - gdbserver uses the new noack protocol mode for TCP connections to
1369 reduce communications latency, if also supported and enabled in GDB.
1370
da8bd9a3
DJ
1371 - Support for the sparc64-linux-gnu target is now included in
1372 gdbserver.
1373
d70e31dd
DE
1374 - The amd64-linux build of gdbserver now supports debugging both
1375 32-bit and 64-bit programs.
1376
1377 - The i386-linux, amd64-linux, and i386-win32 builds of gdbserver
1378 now support hardware watchpoints, and will use them automatically
1379 as appropriate.
1380
d57a3c85
TJB
1381* Python scripting
1382
1383 GDB now has support for scripting using Python. Whether this is
1384 available is determined at configure time.
1385
d8906c6f
TJB
1386 New GDB commands can now be written in Python.
1387
aadc346a
JB
1388* Ada tasking support
1389
1390 Ada tasks can now be inspected in GDB. The following commands have
1391 been introduced:
1392
1393 info tasks
1394 Print the list of Ada tasks.
1395 info task N
1396 Print detailed information about task number N.
1397 task
1398 Print the task number of the current task.
1399 task N
1400 Switch the context of debugging to task number N.
1401
adb483fe
DJ
1402* Support for user-defined prefixed commands. The "define" command can
1403add new commands to existing prefixes, e.g. "target".
1404
2277426b
PA
1405* Multi-inferior, multi-process debugging.
1406
1407 GDB now has generalized support for multi-inferior debugging. See
1408 "Debugging Multiple Inferiors" in the manual for more information.
1409 Although availability still depends on target support, the command
1410 set is more uniform now. The GNU/Linux specific multi-forks support
1411 has been migrated to this new framework. This implied some user
1412 visible changes; see "New commands" and also "Removed commands"
1413 below.
1414
08d16641
PA
1415* Target descriptions can now describe the target OS ABI. See the
1416"Target Description Format" section in the user manual for more
1417information.
1418
e35359c5
UW
1419* Target descriptions can now describe "compatible" architectures
1420to indicate that the target can execute applications for a different
1421architecture in addition to those for the main target architecture.
1422See the "Target Description Format" section in the user manual for
1423more information.
1424
85e747d2
UW
1425* Multi-architecture debugging.
1426
1427 GDB now includes general supports for debugging applications on
1428 hybrid systems that use more than one single processor architecture
1429 at the same time. Each such hybrid architecture still requires
1430 specific support to be added. The only hybrid architecture supported
1431 in this version of GDB is the Cell Broadband Engine.
1432
1433* GDB now supports integrated debugging of Cell/B.E. applications that
1434use both the PPU and SPU architectures. To enable support for hybrid
1435Cell/B.E. debugging, you need to configure GDB to support both the
1436powerpc-linux or powerpc64-linux and the spu-elf targets, using the
1437--enable-targets configure option.
1438
11ade57a
PA
1439* Non-stop mode debugging.
1440
1441 For some targets, GDB now supports an optional mode of operation in
1442 which you can examine stopped threads while other threads continue
1443 to execute freely. This is referred to as non-stop mode, with the
1444 old mode referred to as all-stop mode. See the "Non-Stop Mode"
1445 section in the user manual for more information.
1446
1447 To be able to support remote non-stop debugging, a remote stub needs
1448 to implement the non-stop mode remote protocol extensions, as
1449 described in the "Remote Non-Stop" section of the user manual. The
1450 GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been adjusted to support these
1451 extensions on linux targets.
1452
d7713ae0 1453* New commands (for set/show, see "New options" below)
75feb17d 1454
a96d9b2e
SDJ
1455catch syscall [NAME(S) | NUMBER(S)]
1456 Catch system calls. Arguments, which should be names of system
1457 calls or their numbers, mean catch only those syscalls. Without
1458 arguments, every syscall will be caught. When the inferior issues
1459 any of the specified syscalls, GDB will stop and announce the system
1460 call, both when it is called and when its call returns. This
1461 feature is currently available with a native GDB running on the
1462 Linux Kernel, under the following architectures: x86, x86_64,
1463 PowerPC and PowerPC64.
1464
08388c79
DE
1465find [/size-char] [/max-count] start-address, end-address|+search-space-size,
1466 val1 [, val2, ...]
1467 Search memory for a sequence of bytes.
1468
d57a3c85
TJB
1469maint set python print-stack
1470maint show python print-stack
1471 Show a stack trace when an error is encountered in a Python script.
1472
1473python [CODE]
1474 Invoke CODE by passing it to the Python interpreter.
1475
d7713ae0
EZ
1476macro define
1477macro list
1478macro undef
1479 These allow macros to be defined, undefined, and listed
1480 interactively.
1481
1482info os processes
1483 Show operating system information about processes.
1484
2277426b
PA
1485info inferiors
1486 List the inferiors currently under GDB's control.
1487
1488inferior NUM
1489 Switch focus to inferior number NUM.
1490
1491detach inferior NUM
1492 Detach from inferior number NUM.
1493
1494kill inferior NUM
1495 Kill inferior number NUM.
1496
d7713ae0
EZ
1497* New options
1498
3285f3fe
UW
1499set spu stop-on-load
1500show spu stop-on-load
1501 Control whether to stop for new SPE threads during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1502
ff1a52c6
UW
1503set spu auto-flush-cache
1504show spu auto-flush-cache
1505 Control whether to automatically flush the software-managed cache
1506 during Cell/B.E. debugging.
1507
d7713ae0
EZ
1508set sh calling-convention
1509show sh calling-convention
1510 Control the calling convention used when calling SH target functions.
1511
e0a3ce09 1512set debug timestamp
75feb17d 1513show debug timestamp
d7713ae0
EZ
1514 Control display of timestamps with GDB debugging output.
1515
1516set disassemble-next-line
1517show disassemble-next-line
1518 Control display of disassembled source lines or instructions when
1519 the debuggee stops.
1520
1521set remote noack-packet
1522show remote noack-packet
1523 Set/show the use of remote protocol QStartNoAckMode packet. See above
1524 under "New remote packets."
1525
1526set remote query-attached-packet
1527show remote query-attached-packet
1528 Control use of remote protocol `qAttached' (query-attached) packet.
1529
1530set remote read-siginfo-object
1531show remote read-siginfo-object
1532 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:read' (read-siginfo-object)
1533 packet.
1534
1535set remote write-siginfo-object
1536show remote write-siginfo-object
1537 Control use of remote protocol `qXfer:siginfo:write' (write-siginfo-object)
1538 packet.
1539
40ab02ce
MS
1540set remote reverse-continue
1541show remote reverse-continue
1542 Control use of remote protocol 'bc' (reverse-continue) packet.
1543
1544set remote reverse-step
1545show remote reverse-step
1546 Control use of remote protocol 'bs' (reverse-step) packet.
1547
d7713ae0
EZ
1548set displaced-stepping
1549show displaced-stepping
1550 Control displaced stepping mode. Displaced stepping is a way to
1551 single-step over breakpoints without removing them from the debuggee.
1552 Also known as "out-of-line single-stepping".
1553
1554set debug displaced
1555show debug displaced
1556 Control display of debugging info for displaced stepping.
1557
1558maint set internal-error
1559maint show internal-error
1560 Control what GDB does when an internal error is detected.
1561
1562maint set internal-warning
1563maint show internal-warning
1564 Control what GDB does when an internal warning is detected.
75feb17d 1565
ccd213ac
DJ
1566set exec-wrapper
1567show exec-wrapper
1568unset exec-wrapper
1569 Use a wrapper program to launch programs for debugging.
fa4727a6 1570
aad4b048
JB
1571set multiple-symbols (all|ask|cancel)
1572show multiple-symbols
1573 The value of this variable can be changed to adjust the debugger behavior
1574 when an expression or a breakpoint location contains an ambiguous symbol
1575 name (an overloaded function name, for instance).
1576
74960c60
VP
1577set breakpoint always-inserted
1578show breakpoint always-inserted
1579 Keep breakpoints always inserted in the target, as opposed to inserting
1580 them when resuming the target, and removing them when the target stops.
1581 This option can improve debugger performance on slow remote targets.
1582
0428b8f5
DJ
1583set arm fallback-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1584show arm fallback-mode
1585set arm force-mode (arm|thumb|auto)
1586show arm force-mode
1587 These commands control how ARM GDB determines whether instructions
1588 are ARM or Thumb. The default for both settings is auto, which uses
1589 the current CPSR value for instructions without symbols; previous
1590 versions of GDB behaved as if "set arm fallback-mode arm".
1591
10568435
JK
1592set disable-randomization
1593show disable-randomization
1594 Standalone programs run with the virtual address space randomization enabled
1595 by default on some platforms. This option keeps the addresses stable across
1596 multiple debugging sessions.
1597
d7713ae0
EZ
1598set non-stop
1599show non-stop
1600 Control whether other threads are stopped or not when some thread hits
1601 a breakpoint.
1602
b3eb342c 1603set target-async
d7713ae0 1604show target-async
b3eb342c
VP
1605 Requests that asynchronous execution is enabled in the target, if available.
1606 In this case, it's possible to resume target in the background, and interact
1607 with GDB while the target is running. "show target-async" displays the
1608 current state of asynchronous execution of the target.
1609
6c7a06a3
TT
1610set target-wide-charset
1611show target-wide-charset
1612 The target-wide-charset is the name of the character set that GDB
1613 uses when printing characters whose type is wchar_t.
1614
84603566
SL
1615set tcp auto-retry (on|off)
1616show tcp auto-retry
1617set tcp connect-timeout
1618show tcp connect-timeout
1619 These commands allow GDB to retry failed TCP connections to a remote stub
1620 with a specified timeout period; this is useful if the stub is launched
1621 in parallel with GDB but may not be ready to accept connections immediately.
1622
17a37d48
PP
1623set libthread-db-search-path
1624show libthread-db-search-path
1625 Control list of directories which GDB will search for appropriate
1626 libthread_db.
1627
d4db2f36
PA
1628set schedule-multiple (on|off)
1629show schedule-multiple
1630 Allow GDB to resume all threads of all processes or only threads of
1631 the current process.
1632
4e5d721f
DE
1633set stack-cache
1634show stack-cache
1635 Use more aggressive caching for accesses to the stack. This improves
1636 performance of remote debugging (particularly backtraces) without
1637 affecting correctness.
1638
910c5da8
JB
1639set interactive-mode (on|off|auto)
1640show interactive-mode
1641 Control whether GDB runs in interactive mode (on) or not (off).
1642 When in interactive mode, GDB waits for the user to answer all
1643 queries. Otherwise, GDB does not wait and assumes the default
1644 answer. When set to auto (the default), GDB determines which
1645 mode to use based on the stdin settings.
1646
2277426b
PA
1647* Removed commands
1648
1649info forks
1650 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `info
1651 inferiors' command. To list checkpoints, you can still use the
1652 `info checkpoints' command, which was an alias for the `info forks'
1653 command.
1654
1655fork NUM
1656 Replaced by the new `inferior' command. To switch between
1657 checkpoints, you can still use the `restart' command, which was an
1658 alias for the `fork' command.
1659
1660process PID
1661 This is removed, since some targets don't have a notion of
1662 processes. To switch between processes, you can still use the
1663 `inferior' command using GDB's own inferior number.
1664
1665delete fork NUM
1666 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `kill
1667 inferior' command. To delete a checkpoint, you can still use the
1668 `delete checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `delete
1669 fork' command.
1670
1671detach fork NUM
1672 For program forks, this is replaced by the new more generic `detach
1673 inferior' command. To detach a checkpoint, you can still use the
1674 `detach checkpoint' command, which was an alias for the `detach
1675 fork' command.
1676
a80b95ba
TG
1677* New native configurations
1678
1679x86/x86_64 Darwin i[34567]86-*-darwin*
1680
b8bfd3ed
JB
1681x86_64 MinGW x86_64-*-mingw*
1682
75a2d5e7
TT
1683* New targets
1684
c28c63d8 1685Lattice Mico32 lm32-*
75a2d5e7 1686x86 DICOS i[34567]86-*-dicos*
4c1d2973 1687x86_64 DICOS x86_64-*-dicos*
5f814c3b 1688S+core 3 score-*-*
75a2d5e7 1689
6de3146c
PA
1690* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports x86 Windows CE
1691 (mingw32ce) debugging.
1692
d5cbbe6e
JB
1693* Removed commands
1694
1695catch load
1696catch unload
1697 These commands were actually not implemented on any target.
1698
75feb17d 1699*** Changes in GDB 6.8
f9ed52be 1700
af5ca30d
NH
1701* New native configurations
1702
1703NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*netbsd*
94a0e877 1704Xtensa GNU/Linux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d
NH
1705
1706* New targets
1707
1708NetBSD/hppa hppa*-*-netbsd*
94a0e877 1709Xtensa GNU/Lunux xtensa*-*-linux*
af5ca30d 1710
7a404eba
PA
1711* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
1712
1713 When the '-p NUMBER' or '--pid NUMBER' options are used, and
1714 attaching to process NUMBER fails, GDB no longer attempts to open a
1715 core file named NUMBER. Attaching to a program using the -c option
1716 is no longer supported. Instead, use the '-p' or '--pid' options.
1717
430ebac9
PA
1718* GDB can now be built as a native debugger for debugging Windows x86
1719(mingw32) Portable Executable (PE) programs.
1720
fe6fbf8b 1721* Pending breakpoints no longer change their number when their address
8d5f9c6f 1722is resolved.
fe6fbf8b
VP
1723
1724* GDB now supports breakpoints with multiple locations,
8d5f9c6f
DJ
1725including breakpoints on C++ constructors, inside C++ templates,
1726and in inlined functions.
fe6fbf8b 1727
10665d76
JB
1728* GDB's ability to debug optimized code has been improved. GDB more
1729accurately identifies function bodies and lexical blocks that occupy
1730more than one contiguous range of addresses.
1731
7cc46491
DJ
1732* Target descriptions can now describe registers for PowerPC.
1733
d71340b8
DJ
1734* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the AltiVec and SPE
1735registers on PowerPC targets.
1736
523c4513
DJ
1737* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports thread debugging on GNU/Linux
1738targets even when the libthread_db library is not available.
1739
a6b151f1
DJ
1740* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports the new file transfer
1741commands (remote put, remote get, and remote delete).
1742
2d717e4f
DJ
1743* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports run and attach in
1744extended-remote mode.
1745
24a836bd 1746* hppa*64*-*-hpux11* target broken
d001be7a
DJ
1747The debugger is unable to start a program and fails with the following
1748error: "Error trying to get information about dynamic linker".
1749The gdb-6.7 release is also affected.
24a836bd 1750
d0c678e6
UW
1751* GDB now supports the --enable-targets= configure option to allow
1752building a single GDB executable that supports multiple remote
1753target architectures.
1754
d64a946d
TJB
1755* GDB now supports debugging C and C++ programs which use the
1756Decimal Floating Point extension. In addition, the PowerPC target
1757now has a set of pseudo-registers to inspect decimal float values
1758stored in two consecutive float registers.
1759
ee163bf5
VP
1760* The -break-insert MI command can optionally create pending
1761breakpoints now.
1762
b93b6ca7 1763* Improved support for debugging Ada
d001be7a
DJ
1764Many improvements to the Ada language support have been made. These
1765include:
b93b6ca7
JB
1766 - Better support for Ada2005 interface types
1767 - Improved handling of arrays and slices in general
1768 - Better support for Taft-amendment types
1769 - The '{type} ADDRESS' expression is now allowed on the left hand-side
1770 of an assignment
1771 - Improved command completion in Ada
1772 - Several bug fixes
1773
d001be7a
DJ
1774* GDB on GNU/Linux and HP/UX can now debug through "exec" of a new
1775process.
1776
a6b151f1
DJ
1777* New commands
1778
6d53d0af
JB
1779set print frame-arguments (all|scalars|none)
1780show print frame-arguments
1781 The value of this variable can be changed to control which argument
1782 values should be printed by the debugger when displaying a frame.
1783
a6b151f1
DJ
1784remote put
1785remote get
1786remote delete
1787 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1788
1789* New MI commands
1790
1791-target-file-put
1792-target-file-get
1793-target-file-delete
1794 Transfer files to and from a remote target, and delete remote files.
1795
1796* New remote packets
1797
1798vFile:open:
1799vFile:close:
1800vFile:pread:
1801vFile:pwrite:
1802vFile:unlink:
1803 Open, close, read, write, and delete files on the remote system.
d0c678e6 1804
2d717e4f
DJ
1805vAttach
1806 Attach to an existing process on the remote system, in extended-remote
1807 mode.
1808
1809vRun
1810 Run a new process on the remote system, in extended-remote mode.
1811
8d5f9c6f 1812*** Changes in GDB 6.7
6dd09645 1813
19d378fc
MS
1814* Resolved 101 resource leaks, null pointer dereferences, etc. in gdb,
1815bfd, libiberty and opcodes, as revealed by static analysis donated by
1816Coverity, Inc. (http://scan.coverity.com).
1817
3a40aaa0
UW
1818* When looking up multiply-defined global symbols, GDB will now prefer the
1819symbol definition in the current shared library if it was built using the
1820-Bsymbolic linker option.
1821
a6ec25f2
BW
1822* When the Text User Interface (TUI) is not configured, GDB will now
1823recognize the -tui command-line option and print a message that the TUI
1824is not supported.
1825
6dd09645
JB
1826* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now has lower overhead for high
1827frequency signals (e.g. SIGALRM) via the QPassSignals packet.
1828
c9bb8148
DJ
1829* GDB for MIPS targets now autodetects whether a remote target provides
183032-bit or 64-bit register values.
1831
0d5de010
DJ
1832* Support for C++ member pointers has been improved.
1833
23181151
DJ
1834* GDB now understands XML target descriptions, which specify the
1835target's overall architecture. GDB can read a description from
1836a local file or over the remote serial protocol.
1837
ea37ba09
DJ
1838* Vectors of single-byte data use a new integer type which is not
1839automatically displayed as character or string data.
1840
1841* The /s format now works with the print command. It displays
1842arrays of single-byte integers and pointers to single-byte integers
1843as strings.
e1f48ead 1844
123dc839
DJ
1845* Target descriptions can now describe target-specific registers,
1846for architectures which have implemented the support (currently
8d5f9c6f 1847only ARM, M68K, and MIPS).
123dc839 1848
05a4558a
DJ
1849* GDB and the GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now support the XScale
1850iWMMXt coprocessor.
fb1e4ffc 1851
7c963485
PA
1852* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support
1853ARM Windows CE (mingw32ce) debugging, and GDB Windows CE support
1854has been rewritten to use the standard GDB remote protocol.
1855
b18be20d
DJ
1856* GDB can now step into C++ functions which are called through thunks.
1857
0ca420ce
UW
1858* GDB for the Cell/B.E. SPU now supports overlay debugging.
1859
31d99776
DJ
1860* The GDB remote protocol "qOffsets" packet can now honor ELF segment
1861layout. It also supports a TextSeg= and DataSeg= response when only
1862segment base addresses (rather than offsets) are available.
1863
a4642986
MR
1864* The /i format now outputs any trailing branch delay slot instructions
1865immediately following the last instruction within the count specified.
1866
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1867* The GDB remote protocol "T" stop reply packet now supports a
1868"library" response. Combined with the new "qXfer:libraries:read"
1869packet, this response allows GDB to debug shared libraries on targets
1870where the operating system manages the list of loaded libraries (e.g.
1871Windows and SymbianOS).
255e7678
DJ
1872
1873* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, now supports dynamic link libraries
1874(DLLs) on Windows and Windows CE targets.
f5db8714
JK
1875
1876* GDB now supports a faster verification that a .debug file matches its binary
1877according to its build-id signature, if the signature is present.
cfa9d6d9 1878
c9bb8148
DJ
1879* New commands
1880
23776285
MR
1881set remoteflow
1882show remoteflow
1883 Enable or disable hardware flow control (RTS/CTS) on the serial port
1884 when debugging using remote targets.
1885
c9bb8148
DJ
1886set mem inaccessible-by-default
1887show mem inaccessible-by-default
1888 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1889 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1890 prevents GDB from accessing memory outside the memory map. This
1891 is useful for targets with memory mapped registers or which react
1892 badly to accesses of unmapped address space.
1893
1894set breakpoint auto-hw
1895show breakpoint auto-hw
1896 If the target supplies a memory map, for instance via the remote
1897 protocol's "qXfer:memory-map:read" packet, setting this variable
1898 lets GDB use hardware breakpoints automatically for memory regions
1899 where it can not use software breakpoints. This covers both the
1900 "break" command and internal breakpoints used for other commands
1901 including "next" and "finish".
1902
0e420bd8
JB
1903catch exception
1904catch exception unhandled
1905 Stop the program execution when Ada exceptions are raised.
1906
1907catch assert
1908 Stop the program execution when an Ada assertion failed.
1909
f822c95b
DJ
1910set sysroot
1911show sysroot
1912 Set an alternate system root for target files. This is a more
1913 general version of "set solib-absolute-prefix", which is now
1914 an alias to "set sysroot".
1915
83cc5c53
UW
1916info spu
1917 Provide extended SPU facility status information. This set of
1918 commands is available only when debugging the Cell/B.E. SPU
1919 architecture.
1920
bd372731
MK
1921* New native configurations
1922
1923OpenBSD/sh sh*-*openbsd*
1924
23181151
DJ
1925set tdesc filename
1926unset tdesc filename
1927show tdesc filename
1928 Use the specified local file as an XML target description, and do
1929 not query the target for its built-in description.
1930
c9bb8148
DJ
1931* New targets
1932
54fe9172 1933OpenBSD/sh sh*-*-openbsd*
c9bb8148 1934MIPS64 GNU/Linux (gdbserver) mips64-linux-gnu
c077150c 1935Toshiba Media Processor mep-elf
c9bb8148 1936
6dd09645
JB
1937* New remote packets
1938
1939QPassSignals:
1940 Ignore the specified signals; pass them directly to the debugged program
1941 without stopping other threads or reporting them to GDB.
1942
23181151
DJ
1943qXfer:features:read:
1944 Read an XML target description from the target, which describes its
1945 features.
6dd09645 1946
83cc5c53
UW
1947qXfer:spu:read:
1948qXfer:spu:write:
1949 Read or write contents of an spufs file on the target system. These
1950 packets are available only on the Cell/B.E. SPU architecture.
1951
cfa9d6d9
DJ
1952qXfer:libraries:read:
1953 Report the loaded shared libraries. Combined with new "T" packet
1954 response, this packet allows GDB to debug shared libraries on
1955 targets where the operating system manages the list of loaded
1956 libraries (e.g. Windows and SymbianOS).
1957
483367ee
DJ
1958* Removed targets
1959
1960Support for these obsolete configurations has been removed.
1961
d08950c4
UW
1962alpha*-*-osf1*
1963alpha*-*-osf2*
7ce59000 1964d10v-*-*
483367ee
DJ
1965hppa*-*-hiux*
1966i[34567]86-ncr-*
1967i[34567]86-*-dgux*
1968i[34567]86-*-lynxos*
1969i[34567]86-*-netware*
1970i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v5*
1971i[34567]86-*-sco3.2v4*
1972i[34567]86-*-sco*
1973i[34567]86-*-sysv4.2*
1974i[34567]86-*-sysv4*
1975i[34567]86-*-sysv5*
1976i[34567]86-*-unixware2*
1977i[34567]86-*-unixware*
1978i[34567]86-*-sysv*
1979i[34567]86-*-isc*
1980m68*-cisco*-*
1981m68*-tandem-*
ad527d2e 1982mips*-*-pe
483367ee 1983rs6000-*-lynxos*
ad527d2e 1984sh*-*-pe
483367ee 1985
7ce59000
DJ
1986* Other removed features
1987
1988target abug
1989target cpu32bug
1990target est
1991target rom68k
1992
1993 Various m68k-only ROM monitors.
1994
ea35711c
DJ
1995target hms
1996target e7000
1997target sh3
1998target sh3e
1999
2000 Various Renesas ROM monitors and debugging interfaces for SH and
2001 H8/300.
2002
2003target ocd
2004
2005 Support for a Macraigor serial interface to on-chip debugging.
2006 GDB does not directly support the newer parallel or USB
2007 interfaces.
2008
7ce59000
DJ
2009DWARF 1 support
2010
2011 A debug information format. The predecessor to DWARF 2 and
2012 DWARF 3, which are still supported.
2013
54d61198
DJ
2014Support for the HP aCC compiler on HP-UX/PA-RISC
2015
2016 SOM-encapsulated symbolic debugging information, automatic
2017 invocation of pxdb, and the aCC custom C++ ABI. This does not
2018 affect HP-UX for Itanium or GCC for HP-UX/PA-RISC. Code compiled
2019 with aCC can still be debugged on an assembly level.
2020
ea35711c
DJ
2021MIPS ".pdr" sections
2022
2023 A MIPS-specific format used to describe stack frame layout
2024 in debugging information.
2025
2026Scheme support
2027
2028 GDB could work with an older version of Guile to debug
2029 the interpreter and Scheme programs running in it.
2030
1a69e1e4
DJ
2031set mips stack-arg-size
2032set mips saved-gpreg-size
2033
2034 Use "set mips abi" to control parameter passing for MIPS.
2035
6dd09645 2036*** Changes in GDB 6.6
e374b601 2037
ca3bf3bd
DJ
2038* New targets
2039
2040Xtensa xtensa-elf
9c309e77 2041Cell Broadband Engine SPU spu-elf
ca3bf3bd 2042
6aec2e11
DJ
2043* GDB can now be configured as a cross-debugger targeting native Windows
2044(mingw32) or Cygwin. It can communicate with a remote debugging stub
2045running on a Windows system over TCP/IP to debug Windows programs.
2046
2047* The GDB remote stub, gdbserver, has been updated to support Windows and
2048Cygwin debugging. Both single-threaded and multi-threaded programs are
2049supported.
2050
17218d91
DJ
2051* The "set trust-readonly-sections" command works again. This command was
2052broken in GDB 6.3, 6.4, and 6.5.
2053
9ebce043
DJ
2054* The "load" command now supports writing to flash memory, if the remote
2055stub provides the required support.
2056
7d3d3ece
DJ
2057* Support for GNU/Linux Thread Local Storage (TLS, per-thread variables) no
2058longer requires symbolic debug information (e.g. DWARF-2).
2059
4f8253f3
JB
2060* New commands
2061
2062set substitute-path
2063unset substitute-path
2064show substitute-path
2065 Manage a list of substitution rules that GDB uses to rewrite the name
2066 of the directories where the sources are located. This can be useful
2067 for instance when the sources were moved to a different location
2068 between compilation and debugging.
2069
9fa66fd7
AS
2070set trace-commands
2071show trace-commands
2072 Print each CLI command as it is executed. Each command is prefixed with
2073 a number of `+' symbols representing the nesting depth.
2074 The source command now has a `-v' option to enable the same feature.
2075
1f5befc1
DJ
2076* REMOVED features
2077
2078The ARM Demon monitor support (RDP protocol, "target rdp").
2079
2ec3381a
DJ
2080Kernel Object Display, an embedded debugging feature which only worked with
2081an obsolete version of Cisco IOS.
2082
3d00d119
DJ
2083The 'set download-write-size' and 'show download-write-size' commands.
2084
be2a5f71
DJ
2085* New remote packets
2086
2087qSupported:
2088 Tell a stub about GDB client features, and request remote target features.
2089 The first feature implemented is PacketSize, which allows the target to
2090 specify the size of packets it can handle - to minimize the number of
2091 packets required and improve performance when connected to a remote
2092 target.
2093
0876f84a
DJ
2094qXfer:auxv:read:
2095 Fetch an OS auxilliary vector from the remote stub. This packet is a
2096 more efficient replacement for qPart:auxv:read.
2097
9ebce043
DJ
2098qXfer:memory-map:read:
2099 Fetch a memory map from the remote stub, including information about
2100 RAM, ROM, and flash memory devices.
2101
2102vFlashErase:
2103vFlashWrite:
2104vFlashDone:
2105 Erase and program a flash memory device.
2106
0876f84a
DJ
2107* Removed remote packets
2108
2109qPart:auxv:read:
2110 This packet has been replaced by qXfer:auxv:read. Only GDB 6.4 and 6.5
2111 used it, and only gdbserver implemented it.
2112
e374b601 2113*** Changes in GDB 6.5
53e5f3cf 2114
96309189
MS
2115* New targets
2116
2117Renesas M32C/M16C m32c-elf
2118
2119Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2120
53e5f3cf
AS
2121* New commands
2122
2123init-if-undefined Initialize a convenience variable, but
2124 only if it doesn't already have a value.
2125
ac264b3b
MS
2126The following commands are presently only implemented for native GNU/Linux:
2127
2128checkpoint Save a snapshot of the program state.
2129
2130restart <n> Return the program state to a
2131 previously saved state.
2132
2133info checkpoints List currently saved checkpoints.
2134
2135delete-checkpoint <n> Delete a previously saved checkpoint.
2136
2137set|show detach-on-fork Tell gdb whether to detach from a newly
2138 forked process, or to keep debugging it.
2139
2140info forks List forks of the user program that
2141 are available to be debugged.
2142
2143fork <n> Switch to debugging one of several
2144 forks of the user program that are
2145 available to be debugged.
2146
2147delete-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2148 that are available to be debugged (and
2149 kill the forked process).
2150
2151detach-fork <n> Delete a fork from the list of forks
2152 that are available to be debugged (and
2153 allow the process to continue).
2154
3950dc3f
NS
2155* New architecture
2156
2157Morpho Technologies ms2 ms1-elf
2158
0ea3f30e
DJ
2159* Improved Windows host support
2160
2161GDB now builds as a cross debugger hosted on i686-mingw32, including
2162native console support, and remote communications using either
2163network sockets or serial ports.
2164
f79daebb
GM
2165* Improved Modula-2 language support
2166
2167GDB can now print most types in the Modula-2 syntax. This includes:
2168basic types, set types, record types, enumerated types, range types,
2169pointer types and ARRAY types. Procedure var parameters are correctly
2170printed and hexadecimal addresses and character constants are also
2171written in the Modula-2 syntax. Best results can be obtained by using
2172GNU Modula-2 together with the -gdwarf-2 command line option.
2173
acab6ab2
MM
2174* REMOVED features
2175
2176The ARM rdi-share module.
2177
f4267320
DJ
2178The Netware NLM debug server.
2179
53e5f3cf 2180*** Changes in GDB 6.4
156a53ca 2181
e0ecbda1
MK
2182* New native configurations
2183
02a677ac 2184OpenBSD/arm arm*-*-openbsd*
e0ecbda1
MK
2185OpenBSD/mips64 mips64-*-openbsd*
2186
d64a6579
KB
2187* New targets
2188
2189Morpho Technologies ms1 ms1-elf
2190
b33a6190
AS
2191* New command line options
2192
2193--batch-silent As for --batch, but totally silent.
2194--return-child-result The debugger will exist with the same value
2195 the child (debugged) program exited with.
2196--eval-command COMMAND, -ex COMMAND
2197 Execute a single GDB CLI command. This may be
2198 specified multiple times and in conjunction
2199 with the --command (-x) option.
2200
11dced61
AC
2201* Deprecated commands removed
2202
2203The following commands, that were deprecated in 2000, have been
2204removed:
2205
2206 Command Replacement
2207 set|show arm disassembly-flavor set|show arm disassembler
2208 othernames set arm disassembler
2209 set|show remotedebug set|show debug remote
2210 set|show archdebug set|show debug arch
2211 set|show eventdebug set|show debug event
2212 regs info registers
2213
6fe85783
MK
2214* New BSD user-level threads support
2215
2216It is now possible to debug programs using the user-level threads
2217library on OpenBSD and FreeBSD. Currently supported (target)
2218configurations are:
2219
2220FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2221FreeBSD/i386 i386-*-freebsd*
2222OpenBSD/i386 i386-*-openbsd*
2223
2224Note that the new kernel threads libraries introduced in FreeBSD 5.x
2225are not yet supported.
2226
5260ca71
MS
2227* New support for Matsushita MN10300 w/sim added
2228(Work in progress). mn10300-elf.
2229
e84ecc99
AC
2230* REMOVED configurations and files
2231
2232VxWorks and the XDR protocol *-*-vxworks
9445aa30 2233Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
9445aa30 2234National Semiconductor NS32000 ns32k-*-*
156a53ca 2235
31e35378
JB
2236* New "set print array-indexes" command
2237
2238After turning this setting "on", GDB prints the index of each element
2239when displaying arrays. The default is "off" to preserve the previous
2240behavior.
2241
e85e5c83
MK
2242* VAX floating point support
2243
2244GDB now supports the not-quite-ieee VAX F and D floating point formats.
2245
d91e9901
AS
2246* User-defined command support
2247
2248In addition to using $arg0..$arg9 for argument passing, it is now possible
2249to use $argc to determine now many arguments have been passed. See the
2250section on user-defined commands in the user manual for more information.
2251
f2cb65ca
MC
2252*** Changes in GDB 6.3:
2253
f47b1503
AS
2254* New command line option
2255
2256GDB now accepts -l followed by a number to set the timeout for remote
2257debugging.
2258
f2cb65ca
MC
2259* GDB works with GCC -feliminate-dwarf2-dups
2260
2261GDB now supports a more compact representation of DWARF-2 debug
2262information using DW_FORM_ref_addr references. These are produced
2263by GCC with the option -feliminate-dwarf2-dups and also by some
2264proprietary compilers. With GCC, you must use GCC 3.3.4 or later
2265to use -feliminate-dwarf2-dups.
860660cb 2266
d08c0230
AC
2267* Internationalization
2268
2269When supported by the host system, GDB will be built with
2270internationalization (libintl). The task of marking up the sources is
2271continued, we're looking forward to our first translation.
2272
117ea3cf
PH
2273* Ada
2274
2275Initial support for debugging programs compiled with the GNAT
2276implementation of the Ada programming language has been integrated
2277into GDB. In this release, support is limited to expression evaluation.
2278
d08c0230
AC
2279* New native configurations
2280
2281GNU/Linux/m32r m32r-*-linux-gnu
2282
2283* Remote 'p' packet
2284
2285GDB's remote protocol now includes support for the 'p' packet. This
2286packet is used to fetch individual registers from a remote inferior.
2287
2288* END-OF-LIFE registers[] compatibility module
2289
2290GDB's internal register infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2291The new infrastructure making possible the implementation of key new
2292features including 32x64 (e.g., 64-bit amd64 GDB debugging a 32-bit
2293i386 application).
2294
2295GDB 6.3 will be the last release to include the the registers[]
2296compatibility module that allowed out-of-date configurations to
2297continue to work. This change directly impacts the following
2298configurations:
2299
2300hppa-*-hpux
2301ia64-*-aix
2302mips-*-irix*
2303*-*-lynx
2304mips-*-linux-gnu
2305sds protocol
2306xdr protocol
2307powerpc bdm protocol
2308
2309Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2310made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.4, and REMOVED from GDB 6.5.
2311
2312* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2313
2314Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2315been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2316configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2317permanently REMOVED.
2318
2319h8300-*-*
2320mcore-*-*
2321mn10300-*-*
2322ns32k-*-*
2323sh64-*-*
2324v850-*-*
2325
ebb7c577
AC
2326*** Changes in GDB 6.2.1:
2327
2328* MIPS `break main; run' gave an heuristic-fence-post warning
2329
2330When attempting to run even a simple program, a warning about
2331heuristic-fence-post being hit would be reported. This problem has
2332been fixed.
2333
2334* MIPS IRIX 'long double' crashed GDB
2335
2336When examining a long double variable, GDB would get a segmentation
2337fault. The crash has been fixed (but GDB 6.2 cannot correctly examine
2338IRIX long double values).
2339
2340* VAX and "next"
2341
2342A bug in the VAX stack code was causing problems with the "next"
2343command. This problem has been fixed.
2344
860660cb 2345*** Changes in GDB 6.2:
faae5abe 2346
0dea2468
AC
2347* Fix for ``many threads''
2348
2349On GNU/Linux systems that use the NPTL threads library, a program
2350rapidly creating and deleting threads would confuse GDB leading to the
2351error message:
2352
2353 ptrace: No such process.
2354 thread_db_get_info: cannot get thread info: generic error
2355
2356This problem has been fixed.
2357
2c07db7a
AC
2358* "-async" and "-noasync" options removed.
2359
2360Support for the broken "-noasync" option has been removed (it caused
2361GDB to dump core).
2362
c23968a2
JB
2363* New ``start'' command.
2364
2365This command runs the program until the begining of the main procedure.
2366
71009278
MK
2367* New BSD Kernel Data Access Library (libkvm) interface
2368
2369Using ``target kvm'' it is now possible to debug kernel core dumps and
2370live kernel memory images on various FreeBSD, NetBSD and OpenBSD
2371platforms. Currently supported (native-only) configurations are:
2372
2373FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2374FreeBSD/i386 i?86-*-freebsd*
2375NetBSD/i386 i?86-*-netbsd*
2376NetBSD/m68k m68*-*-netbsd*
2377NetBSD/sparc sparc-*-netbsd*
2378OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2379OpenBSD/i386 i?86-*-openbsd*
2380OpenBSD/m68k m68*-openbsd*
2381OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2382
3c0b7db2
AC
2383* Signal trampoline code overhauled
2384
2385Many generic problems with GDB's signal handling code have been fixed.
2386These include: backtraces through non-contiguous stacks; recognition
2387of sa_sigaction signal trampolines; backtrace from a NULL pointer
2388call; backtrace through a signal trampoline; step into and out of
2389signal handlers; and single-stepping in the signal trampoline.
2390
73cc75f3
AC
2391Please note that kernel bugs are a limiting factor here. These
2392features have been shown to work on an s390 GNU/Linux system that
2393include a 2.6.8-rc1 kernel. Ref PR breakpoints/1702.
3c0b7db2 2394
7243600a
BF
2395* Cygwin support for DWARF 2 added.
2396
6f606e1c
MK
2397* New native configurations
2398
97dc871c 2399GNU/Linux/hppa hppa*-*-linux*
0e56aeaf 2400OpenBSD/hppa hppa*-*-openbsd*
bf2ca189
MK
2401OpenBSD/m68k m68*-*-openbsd*
2402OpenBSD/m88k m88*-*-openbsd*
d195bc9f 2403OpenBSD/powerpc powerpc-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2404NetBSD/vax vax-*-netbsd*
9f076e7a 2405OpenBSD/vax vax-*-openbsd*
6f606e1c 2406
a1b461bf
AC
2407* END-OF-LIFE frame compatibility module
2408
2409GDB's internal frame infrastructure has been completely rewritten.
2410The new infrastructure making it possible to support key new features
2411including DWARF 2 Call Frame Information. To aid in the task of
2412migrating old configurations to this new infrastructure, a
2413compatibility module, that allowed old configurations to continue to
2414work, was also included.
2415
2416GDB 6.2 will be the last release to include this frame compatibility
2417module. This change directly impacts the following configurations:
2418
2419h8300-*-*
2420mcore-*-*
2421mn10300-*-*
2422ns32k-*-*
2423sh64-*-*
2424v850-*-*
2425xstormy16-*-*
2426
2427Unless there is activity to revive these configurations, they will be
2428made OBSOLETE in GDB 6.3, and REMOVED from GDB 6.4.
2429
3c7012f5
AC
2430* REMOVED configurations and files
2431
2432Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2433Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2434Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2435Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2436Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2437AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2438Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
2439decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2440riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2441sonymips mips-sony-*
2442sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
2443
e5fe55f7
AC
2444*** Changes in GDB 6.1.1:
2445
2446* TUI (Text-mode User Interface) built-in (also included in GDB 6.1)
2447
2448The TUI (Text-mode User Interface) is now built as part of a default
2449GDB configuration. It is enabled by either selecting the TUI with the
2450command line option "-i=tui" or by running the separate "gdbtui"
2451program. For more information on the TUI, see the manual "Debugging
2452with GDB".
2453
2454* Pending breakpoint support (also included in GDB 6.1)
2455
2456Support has been added to allow you to specify breakpoints in shared
2457libraries that have not yet been loaded. If a breakpoint location
2458cannot be found, and the "breakpoint pending" option is set to auto,
2459GDB queries you if you wish to make the breakpoint pending on a future
2460shared-library load. If and when GDB resolves the breakpoint symbol,
2461the pending breakpoint is removed as one or more regular breakpoints
2462are created.
2463
2464Pending breakpoints are very useful for GCJ Java debugging.
2465
2466* Fixed ISO-C build problems
2467
2468The files bfd/elf-bfd.h, gdb/dictionary.c and gdb/types.c contained
2469non ISO-C code that stopped them being built using a more strict ISO-C
2470compiler (e.g., IBM's C compiler).
2471
2472* Fixed build problem on IRIX 5
2473
2474Due to header problems with <sys/proc.h>, the file gdb/proc-api.c
2475wasn't able to compile compile on an IRIX 5 system.
2476
2477* Added execute permission to gdb/gdbserver/configure
2478
2479The shell script gdb/testsuite/gdb.stabs/configure lacked execute
2480permission. This bug would cause configure to fail on a number of
2481systems (Solaris, IRIX). Ref: server/519.
2482
2483* Fixed build problem on hpux2.0w-hp-hpux11.00 using the HP ANSI C compiler
2484
2485Older HPUX ANSI C compilers did not accept variable array sizes. somsolib.c
2486has been updated to use constant array sizes.
2487
2488* Fixed a panic in the DWARF Call Frame Info code on Solaris 2.7
2489
2490GCC 3.3.2, on Solaris 2.7, includes the DW_EH_PE_funcrel encoding in
2491its generated DWARF Call Frame Info. This encoding was causing GDB to
2492panic, that panic has been fixed. Ref: gdb/1628.
2493
2494* Fixed a problem when examining parameters in shared library code.
2495
2496When examining parameters in optimized shared library code generated
2497by a mainline GCC, GDB would incorrectly report ``Variable "..." is
2498not available''. GDB now correctly displays the variable's value.
2499
faae5abe 2500*** Changes in GDB 6.1:
f2c06f52 2501
9175c9a3
MC
2502* Removed --with-mmalloc
2503
2504Support for the mmalloc memory manager has been removed, as it
2505conflicted with the internal gdb byte cache.
2506
3cc87ec0
MK
2507* Changes in AMD64 configurations
2508
2509The AMD64 target now includes the %cs and %ss registers. As a result
2510the AMD64 remote protocol has changed; this affects the floating-point
2511and SSE registers. If you rely on those registers for your debugging,
2512you should upgrade gdbserver on the remote side.
2513
f0424ef6
MK
2514* Revised SPARC target
2515
2516The SPARC target has been completely revised, incorporating the
2517FreeBSD/sparc64 support that was added for GDB 6.0. As a result
03cebad2
MK
2518support for LynxOS and SunOS 4 has been dropped. Calling functions
2519from within GDB on operating systems with a non-executable stack
2520(Solaris, OpenBSD) now works.
f0424ef6 2521
59659be2
ILT
2522* New C++ demangler
2523
2524GDB has a new C++ demangler which does a better job on the mangled
2525names generated by current versions of g++. It also runs faster, so
2526with this and other changes gdb should now start faster on large C++
2527programs.
2528
9e08b29b
DJ
2529* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2530
2531GDB support for location expressions has been extended to support function
2532arguments and frame bases. Older versions of GDB could crash when they
2533encountered these.
2534
8dfe8985
DC
2535* C++ nested types and namespaces
2536
2537GDB's support for nested types and namespaces in C++ has been
2538improved, especially if you use the DWARF 2 debugging format. (This
2539is the default for recent versions of GCC on most platforms.)
2540Specifically, if you have a class "Inner" defined within a class or
2541namespace "Outer", then GDB realizes that the class's name is
2542"Outer::Inner", not simply "Inner". This should greatly reduce the
2543frequency of complaints about not finding RTTI symbols. In addition,
2544if you are stopped at inside of a function defined within a namespace,
2545GDB modifies its name lookup accordingly.
2546
cced5e27
MK
2547* New native configurations
2548
2549NetBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-netbsd*
27d1e716 2550OpenBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-openbsd*
2031c21a 2551OpenBSD/alpha alpha*-*-openbsd*
f2cab569
MK
2552OpenBSD/sparc sparc-*-openbsd*
2553OpenBSD/sparc64 sparc64-*-openbsd*
cced5e27 2554
b4b4b794
KI
2555* New debugging protocols
2556
2557M32R with SDI protocol m32r-*-elf*
2558
7989c619
AC
2559* "set prompt-escape-char" command deleted.
2560
2561The command "set prompt-escape-char" has been deleted. This command,
2562and its very obscure effet on GDB's prompt, was never documented,
2563tested, nor mentioned in the NEWS file.
2564
5994185b
AC
2565* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2566
2567Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2568been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2569configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2570permanently REMOVED.
2571
2572Sun 3, running SunOS 3 m68*-*-sunos3*
2573Sun 3, running SunOS 4 m68*-*-sunos4*
2574Sun 2, running SunOS 3 m68000-*-sunos3*
2575Sun 2, running SunOS 4 m68000-*-sunos4*
2576Motorola 680x0 running LynxOS m68*-*-lynxos*
2577AT&T 3b1/Unix pc m68*-att-*
2578Bull DPX2 (68k, System V release 3) m68*-bull-sysv*
0748d941
AC
2579decstation mips-dec-* mips-little-*
2580riscos mips-*-riscos* mips-*-sysv*
2581sonymips mips-sony-*
2582sysv mips*-*-sysv4* (IRIX 5/6 not included)
5994185b 2583
0ddabb4c
AC
2584* REMOVED configurations and files
2585
2586SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
2587SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4a8269c0
AC
2588Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
2589Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
2590H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
2591HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2592HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2593HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
2594PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
cf7c5c23 2595386BSD i[3456]86-*-bsd*
4a8269c0
AC
2596Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2597 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2598 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f0424ef6
MK
2599SPARC running LynxOS sparc-*-lynxos*
2600SPARC running SunOS 4 sparc-*-sunos4*
4a8269c0
AC
2601Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2602Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
0ddabb4c 2603
c7f1390e
DJ
2604*** Changes in GDB 6.0:
2605
1fe43d45
AC
2606* Objective-C
2607
2608Support for debugging the Objective-C programming language has been
2609integrated into GDB.
2610
e6beb428
AC
2611* New backtrace mechanism (includes DWARF 2 Call Frame Information).
2612
2613DWARF 2's Call Frame Information makes available compiler generated
2614information that more exactly describes the program's run-time stack.
2615By using this information, GDB is able to provide more robust stack
2616backtraces.
2617
2618The i386, amd64 (nee, x86-64), Alpha, m68hc11, ia64, and m32r targets
2619have been updated to use a new backtrace mechanism which includes
2620DWARF 2 CFI support.
2621
2622* Hosted file I/O.
2623
2624GDB's remote protocol has been extended to include support for hosted
2625file I/O (where the remote target uses GDB's file system). See GDB's
2626remote protocol documentation for details.
2627
2628* All targets using the new architecture framework.
2629
2630All of GDB's targets have been updated to use the new internal
2631architecture framework. The way is now open for future GDB releases
2632to include cross-architecture native debugging support (i386 on amd64,
2633ppc32 on ppc64).
2634
2635* GNU/Linux's Thread Local Storage (TLS)
2636
2637GDB now includes support for for the GNU/Linux implementation of
2638per-thread variables.
2639
2640* GNU/Linux's Native POSIX Thread Library (NPTL)
2641
2642GDB's thread code has been updated to work with either the new
2643GNU/Linux NPTL thread library or the older "LinuxThreads" library.
2644
2645* Separate debug info.
2646
2647GDB, in conjunction with BINUTILS, now supports a mechanism for
2648automatically loading debug information from a separate file. Instead
2649of shipping full debug and non-debug versions of system libraries,
2650system integrators can now instead ship just the stripped libraries
2651and optional debug files.
2652
2653* DWARF 2 Location Expressions
2654
2655DWARF 2 Location Expressions allow the compiler to more completely
2656describe the location of variables (even in optimized code) to the
2657debugger.
2658
2659GDB now includes preliminary support for location expressions (support
2660for DW_OP_piece is still missing).
2661
2662* Java
2663
2664A number of long standing bugs that caused GDB to die while starting a
2665Java application have been fixed. GDB's Java support is now
2666considered "useable".
2667
85f8f974
DJ
2668* GNU/Linux support for fork, vfork, and exec.
2669
2670The "catch fork", "catch exec", "catch vfork", and "set follow-fork-mode"
2671commands are now implemented for GNU/Linux. They require a 2.5.x or later
2672kernel.
2673
0fac0b41
DJ
2674* GDB supports logging output to a file
2675
2676There are two new commands, "set logging" and "show logging", which can be
2677used to capture GDB's output to a file.
f2c06f52 2678
6ad8ae5c
DJ
2679* The meaning of "detach" has changed for gdbserver
2680
2681The "detach" command will now resume the application, as documented. To
2682disconnect from gdbserver and leave it stopped, use the new "disconnect"
2683command.
2684
e286caf2 2685* d10v, m68hc11 `regs' command deprecated
5f601589
AC
2686
2687The `info registers' command has been updated so that it displays the
2688registers using a format identical to the old `regs' command.
2689
d28f9cdf
DJ
2690* Profiling support
2691
2692A new command, "maint set profile on/off", has been added. This command can
2693be used to enable or disable profiling while running GDB, to profile a
2694session or a set of commands. In addition there is a new configure switch,
2695"--enable-profiling", which will cause GDB to be compiled with profiling
2696data, for more informative profiling results.
2697
da0f9dcd
AC
2698* Default MI syntax changed to "mi2".
2699
2700The default MI (machine interface) syntax, enabled by the command line
2701option "-i=mi", has been changed to "mi2". The previous MI syntax,
b68767c1 2702"mi1", can be enabled by specifying the option "-i=mi1".
da0f9dcd
AC
2703
2704Support for the original "mi0" syntax (included in GDB 5.0) has been
2705removed.
2706
fb9b6b35
JJ
2707Fix for gdb/192: removed extraneous space when displaying frame level.
2708Fix for gdb/672: update changelist is now output in mi list format.
2709Fix for gdb/702: a -var-assign that updates the value now shows up
2710 in a subsequent -var-update.
2711
954a4db8
MK
2712* New native configurations.
2713
2714FreeBSD/amd64 x86_64-*-freebsd*
2715
6760f9e6
JB
2716* Multi-arched targets.
2717
b4263afa 2718HP/PA HPUX11 hppa*-*-hpux*
85a453d5 2719Renesas M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
6760f9e6 2720
1b831c93
AC
2721* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2722
2723Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2724been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2725configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2726permanently REMOVED.
2727
8b0e5691 2728Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
67f16606 2729Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
fd2299bd 2730H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
56056df7
AC
2731HP/PA running BSD hppa*-*-bsd*
2732HP/PA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
2733HP/PA Pro target hppa*-*-pro*
78c43945 2734PMAX (MIPS) running Mach 3.0 mips*-*-mach3*
2fbce691
AC
2735Sequent family i[3456]86-sequent-sysv4*
2736 i[3456]86-sequent-sysv*
2737 i[3456]86-sequent-bsd*
f81824a9
AC
2738Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
2739Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
fd2299bd 2740
5835abe7
NC
2741* REMOVED configurations and files
2742
2743V850EA ISA
1b831c93
AC
2744Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
2745IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
2746i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2747i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2748i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
2749HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2750 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2751 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
2752Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
2753Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
2754Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
2755OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
2756I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
5835abe7 2757
a094c6fb
AC
2758* MIPS $fp behavior changed
2759
2760The convenience variable $fp, for the MIPS, now consistently returns
2761the address of the current frame's base. Previously, depending on the
2762context, $fp could refer to either $sp or the current frame's base
2763address. See ``8.10 Registers'' in the manual ``Debugging with GDB:
2764The GNU Source-Level Debugger''.
2765
299ffc64 2766*** Changes in GDB 5.3:
37057839 2767
46248966
AC
2768* GNU/Linux shared library multi-threaded performance improved.
2769
2770When debugging a multi-threaded application on GNU/Linux, GDB now uses
2771`/proc', in preference to `ptrace' for memory reads. This may result
2772in an improvement in the start-up time of multi-threaded, shared
2773library applications when run under GDB. One GDB user writes: ``loads
2774shared libs like mad''.
2775
b9d14705 2776* ``gdbserver'' now supports multi-threaded applications on some targets
6da02953 2777
b9d14705
DJ
2778Support for debugging multi-threaded applications which use
2779the GNU/Linux LinuxThreads package has been added for
2780arm*-*-linux*-gnu*, i[3456]86-*-linux*-gnu*, mips*-*-linux*-gnu*,
2781powerpc*-*-linux*-gnu*, and sh*-*-linux*-gnu*.
6da02953 2782
e0e9281e
JB
2783* GDB now supports C/C++ preprocessor macros.
2784
2785GDB now expands preprocessor macro invocations in C/C++ expressions,
2786and provides various commands for showing macro definitions and how
2787they expand.
2788
dd73b9bb
AC
2789The new command `macro expand EXPRESSION' expands any macro
2790invocations in expression, and shows the result.
2791
2792The new command `show macro MACRO-NAME' shows the definition of the
2793macro named MACRO-NAME, and where it was defined.
2794
e0e9281e
JB
2795Most compilers don't include information about macros in the debugging
2796information by default. In GCC 3.1, for example, you need to compile
2797your program with the options `-gdwarf-2 -g3'. If the macro
2798information is present in the executable, GDB will read it.
2799
2250ee0c
CV
2800* Multi-arched targets.
2801
6e3ba3b8
JT
2802DEC Alpha (partial) alpha*-*-*
2803DEC VAX (partial) vax-*-*
2250ee0c 2804NEC V850 v850-*-*
6e3ba3b8 2805National Semiconductor NS32000 (partial) ns32k-*-*
a1789893
GS
2806Motorola 68000 (partial) m68k-*-*
2807Motorola MCORE mcore-*-*
2250ee0c 2808
cd9bfe15 2809* New targets.
e33ce519 2810
456f8b9d
DB
2811Fujitsu FRV architecture added by Red Hat frv*-*-*
2812
e33ce519 2813
da8ca43d
JT
2814* New native configurations
2815
2816Alpha NetBSD alpha*-*-netbsd*
029923d4 2817SH NetBSD sh*-*-netbsdelf*
45888261 2818MIPS NetBSD mips*-*-netbsd*
9ce5c36a 2819UltraSPARC NetBSD sparc64-*-netbsd*
da8ca43d 2820
cd9bfe15
AC
2821* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2822
2823Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2824been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2825configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2826permanently REMOVED.
2827
92eb23c5 2828Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
a99a9e1b 2829OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
1c7cc583 2830IBM AIX PS/2 i[3456]86-*-aix
7a3085c1 2831Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
7fb623f7 2832Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
eb4c54a2 2833Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
d8ee244c
MK
2834i386 running Mach 3.0 i[3456]86-*-mach3*
2835i386 running Mach i[3456]86-*-mach*
2836i386 running OSF/1 i[3456]86-*osf1mk*
822e978b
AC
2837HP/Apollo 68k Family m68*-apollo*-sysv*,
2838 m68*-apollo*-bsd*,
2839 m68*-hp-bsd*, m68*-hp-hpux*
4d210288 2840I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
92eb23c5 2841
db034ac5
AC
2842* OBSOLETE languages
2843
2844CHILL, a Pascal like language used by telecommunications companies.
2845
cd9bfe15
AC
2846* REMOVED configurations and files
2847
2848AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2849A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2850AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2851AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2852AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2853
2854testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
2855
20f01a46
DH
2856* New command "set max-user-call-depth <nnn>"
2857
2858This command allows the user to limit the call depth of user-defined
2859commands. The default is 1024.
2860
a5941fbf
MK
2861* Changes in FreeBSD/i386 native debugging.
2862
2863Support for the "generate-core-file" has been added.
2864
89743e04
MS
2865* New commands "dump", "append", and "restore".
2866
2867These commands allow data to be copied from target memory
2868to a bfd-format or binary file (dump and append), and back
2869from a file into memory (restore).
37057839 2870
9fb14e79
JB
2871* Improved "next/step" support on multi-processor Alpha Tru64.
2872
2873The previous single-step mechanism could cause unpredictable problems,
2874including the random appearance of SIGSEGV or SIGTRAP signals. The use
2875of a software single-step mechanism prevents this.
2876
2037aebb
AC
2877*** Changes in GDB 5.2.1:
2878
2879* New targets.
2880
2881Atmel AVR avr*-*-*
2882
2883* Bug fixes
2884
2885gdb/182: gdb/323: gdb/237: On alpha, gdb was reporting:
2886mdebugread.c:2443: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_data not initialized
2887Fix, by Joel Brobecker imported from mainline.
2888
2889gdb/439: gdb/291: On some ELF object files, gdb was reporting:
2890dwarf2read.c:1072: gdb-internal-error: sect_index_text not initialize
2891Fix, by Fred Fish, imported from mainline.
2892
2893Dwarf2 .debug_frame & .eh_frame handler improved in many ways.
2894Surprisingly enough, it works now.
2895By Michal Ludvig, imported from mainline.
2896
2897i386 hardware watchpoint support:
2898avoid misses on second run for some targets.
2899By Pierre Muller, imported from mainline.
2900
37057839 2901*** Changes in GDB 5.2:
eb7cedd9 2902
1a703748
MS
2903* New command "set trust-readonly-sections on[off]".
2904
2905This command is a hint that tells gdb that read-only sections
2906really are read-only (ie. that their contents will not change).
2907In this mode, gdb will go to the object file rather than the
2908target to read memory from read-only sections (such as ".text").
2909This can be a significant performance improvement on some
2910(notably embedded) targets.
2911
cefd4ef5
MS
2912* New command "generate-core-file" (or "gcore").
2913
55241689
AC
2914This new gdb command allows the user to drop a core file of the child
2915process state at any time. So far it's been implemented only for
2916GNU/Linux and Solaris, but should be relatively easily ported to other
2917hosts. Argument is core file name (defaults to core.<pid>).
cefd4ef5 2918
352ed7b4
MS
2919* New command line option
2920
2921GDB now accepts --pid or -p followed by a process id.
2922
2923* Change in command line behavior -- corefiles vs. process ids.
2924
2925There is a subtle behavior in the way in which GDB handles
2926command line arguments. The first non-flag argument is always
2927a program to debug, but the second non-flag argument may either
2928be a corefile or a process id. Previously, GDB would attempt to
2929open the second argument as a corefile, and if that failed, would
2930issue a superfluous error message and then attempt to attach it as
2931a process. Now, if the second argument begins with a non-digit,
2932it will be treated as a corefile. If it begins with a digit,
2933GDB will attempt to attach it as a process, and if no such process
2934is found, will then attempt to open it as a corefile.
2935
fe419ffc
RE
2936* Changes in ARM configurations.
2937
2938Multi-arch support is enabled for all ARM configurations. The ARM/NetBSD
2939configuration is fully multi-arch.
2940
eb7cedd9
MK
2941* New native configurations
2942
fe419ffc 2943ARM NetBSD arm*-*-netbsd*
eb7cedd9 2944x86 OpenBSD i[3456]86-*-openbsd*
55241689 2945AMD x86-64 running GNU/Linux x86_64-*-linux-*
768f0842 2946Sparc64 running FreeBSD sparc64-*-freebsd*
eb7cedd9 2947
c9f63e6b
CV
2948* New targets
2949
2950Sanyo XStormy16 xstormy16-elf
2951
9b4ff276
AC
2952* OBSOLETE configurations and files
2953
2954Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
2955been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
2956configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
2957permanently REMOVED.
2958
2959AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi, udi29k
2960A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
2961AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
2962AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
2963AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
2964
b4ceaee6 2965testsuite/gdb.hp/gdb.threads-hp/ directory
9b4ff276 2966
e2caac18
AC
2967* REMOVED configurations and files
2968
2969TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
7bc65f05 2970WDC 65816 w65-*-*
7768dd6c
AC
2971PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
2972PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
2973PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
5e734e1f 2974Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
1406caf7
AC
2975Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
2976 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
7e24f0b1 2977SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
9b567150 2978Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
3680c638
AC
2979Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
2980ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
a752853e 2981Apple Macintosh (MPW) host and target N/A host, powerpc-*-macos*
e2caac18 2982
c2a727fa
TT
2983* Changes to command line processing
2984
2985The new `--args' feature can be used to specify command-line arguments
2986for the inferior from gdb's command line.
2987
467d8519
TT
2988* Changes to key bindings
2989
2990There is a new `operate-and-get-next' function bound to `C-o'.
2991
7072a954
AC
2992*** Changes in GDB 5.1.1
2993
2994Fix compile problem on DJGPP.
2995
2996Fix a problem with floating-point registers on the i386 being
2997corrupted.
2998
2999Fix to stop GDB crashing on .debug_str debug info.
3000
3001Numerous documentation fixes.
3002
3003Numerous testsuite fixes.
3004
34f47bc4 3005*** Changes in GDB 5.1:
139760b7
MK
3006
3007* New native configurations
3008
3009Alpha FreeBSD alpha*-*-freebsd*
3010x86 FreeBSD 3.x and 4.x i[3456]86*-freebsd[34]*
55241689 3011MIPS GNU/Linux mips*-*-linux*
e23194cb
EZ
3012MIPS SGI Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3013ia64 AIX ia64-*-aix*
55241689 3014s390 and s390x GNU/Linux {s390,s390x}-*-linux*
139760b7 3015
bf64bfd6
AC
3016* New targets
3017
def90278 3018Motorola 68HC11 and 68HC12 m68hc11-elf
24be5c34 3019CRIS cris-axis
55241689 3020UltraSparc running GNU/Linux sparc64-*-linux*
def90278 3021
17e78a56 3022* OBSOLETE configurations and files
bf64bfd6
AC
3023
3024x86 FreeBSD before 2.2 i[3456]86*-freebsd{1,2.[01]}*,
9b9c068d 3025Harris/CXUX m88k m88*-harris-cxux*
bb19ff3b
AC
3026Most ns32k hosts and targets ns32k-*-mach3* ns32k-umax-*
3027 ns32k-utek-sysv* ns32k-utek-*
76f4ea53
AC
3028TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3029WDC 65816 w65-*-*
4a1968f4 3030Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1 a29k-nyu-sym1 a29k-*-kern*
1b2b2c16
AC
3031PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3032PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3033PowerPC Netware powerpc-*-netware*
24f89b68 3034SunOS 4.0.Xi on i386 i[3456]86-*-sunos*
514e603d
AC
3035Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x m68*-sony-sysv news
3036ISI Optimum V (3.05) under 4.3bsd. m68*-isi-*
d036b4d9 3037Apple Macintosh (MPW) host N/A
bf64bfd6 3038
17e78a56
AC
3039stuff.c (Program to stuff files into a specially prepared space in kdb)
3040kdb-start.c (Main loop for the standalone kernel debugger)
3041
7fcca85b
AC
3042Configurations that have been declared obsolete in this release have
3043been commented out. Unless there is activity to revive these
3044configurations, the next release of GDB will have their sources
3045permanently REMOVED.
3046
a196c81c 3047* REMOVED configurations and files
7fcca85b
AC
3048
3049Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3050Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
3051Pyramid pyramid-*-*
3052ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
3053Tahoe tahoe-*-*
a196c81c 3054ser-ocd.c *-*-*
bf64bfd6 3055
6d6b80e5 3056* GDB has been converted to ISO C.
e23194cb 3057
6d6b80e5 3058GDB's source code has been converted to ISO C. In particular, the
e23194cb
EZ
3059sources are fully protoized, and rely on standard headers being
3060present.
3061
bf64bfd6
AC
3062* Other news:
3063
e23194cb
EZ
3064* "info symbol" works on platforms which use COFF, ECOFF, XCOFF, and NLM.
3065
3066* The MI enabled by default.
3067
3068The new machine oriented interface (MI) introduced in GDB 5.0 has been
3069revised and enabled by default. Packages which use GDB as a debugging
3070engine behind a UI or another front end are encouraged to switch to
3071using the GDB/MI interface, instead of the old annotations interface
3072which is now deprecated.
3073
3074* Support for debugging Pascal programs.
3075
3076GDB now includes support for debugging Pascal programs. The following
3077main features are supported:
3078
3079 - Pascal-specific data types such as sets;
3080
3081 - automatic recognition of Pascal sources based on file-name
3082 extension;
3083
3084 - Pascal-style display of data types, variables, and functions;
3085
3086 - a Pascal expression parser.
3087
3088However, some important features are not yet supported.
3089
3090 - Pascal string operations are not supported at all;
3091
3092 - there are some problems with boolean types;
3093
3094 - Pascal type hexadecimal constants are not supported
3095 because they conflict with the internal variables format;
3096
3097 - support for Pascal objects and classes is not full yet;
3098
3099 - unlike Pascal, GDB is case-sensitive for symbol names.
3100
3101* Changes in completion.
3102
3103Commands such as `shell', `run' and `set args', which pass arguments
3104to inferior programs, now complete on file names, similar to what
3105users expect at the shell prompt.
3106
3107Commands which accept locations, such as `disassemble', `print',
3108`breakpoint', `until', etc. now complete on filenames as well as
3109program symbols. Thus, if you type "break foob TAB", and the source
3110files linked into the programs include `foobar.c', that file name will
3111be one of the candidates for completion. However, file names are not
3112considered for completion after you typed a colon that delimits a file
3113name from a name of a function in that file, as in "break foo.c:bar".
3114
3115`set demangle-style' completes on available demangling styles.
3116
3117* New platform-independent commands:
3118
3119It is now possible to define a post-hook for a command as well as a
3120hook that runs before the command. For more details, see the
3121documentation of `hookpost' in the GDB manual.
3122
3123* Changes in GNU/Linux native debugging.
3124
d7275149
MK
3125Support for debugging multi-threaded programs has been completely
3126revised for all platforms except m68k and sparc. You can now debug as
3127many threads as your system allows you to have.
3128
e23194cb
EZ
3129Attach/detach is supported for multi-threaded programs.
3130
d7275149
MK
3131Support for SSE registers was added for x86. This doesn't work for
3132multi-threaded programs though.
e23194cb
EZ
3133
3134* Changes in MIPS configurations.
bf64bfd6
AC
3135
3136Multi-arch support is enabled for all MIPS configurations.
3137
e23194cb
EZ
3138GDB can now be built as native debugger on SGI Irix 6.x systems for
3139debugging n32 executables. (Debugging 64-bit executables is not yet
3140supported.)
3141
3142* Unified support for hardware watchpoints in all x86 configurations.
3143
3144Most (if not all) native x86 configurations support hardware-assisted
3145breakpoints and watchpoints in a unified manner. This support
3146implements debug register sharing between watchpoints, which allows to
3147put a virtually infinite number of watchpoints on the same address,
3148and also supports watching regions up to 16 bytes with several debug
3149registers.
3150
3151The new maintenance command `maintenance show-debug-regs' toggles
3152debugging print-outs in functions that insert, remove, and test
3153watchpoints and hardware breakpoints.
3154
3155* Changes in the DJGPP native configuration.
3156
3157New command ``info dos sysinfo'' displays assorted information about
3158the CPU, OS, memory, and DPMI server.
3159
3160New commands ``info dos gdt'', ``info dos ldt'', and ``info dos idt''
3161display information about segment descriptors stored in GDT, LDT, and
3162IDT.
3163
3164New commands ``info dos pde'' and ``info dos pte'' display entries
3165from Page Directory and Page Tables (for now works with CWSDPMI only).
3166New command ``info dos address-pte'' displays the Page Table entry for
3167a given linear address.
3168
3169GDB can now pass command lines longer than 126 characters to the
3170program being debugged (requires an update to the libdbg.a library
3171which is part of the DJGPP development kit).
3172
3173DWARF2 debug info is now supported.
3174
6c56c069
EZ
3175It is now possible to `step' and `next' through calls to `longjmp'.
3176
e23194cb
EZ
3177* Changes in documentation.
3178
3179All GDB documentation was converted to GFDL, the GNU Free
3180Documentation License.
3181
3182Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3183manual.
3184
3185TUI, the Text-mode User Interface, is now documented in the manual.
3186
3187Tracepoints-related commands are now fully documented in the GDB
3188manual.
3189
3190The "GDB Internals" manual now has an index. It also includes
3191documentation of `ui_out' functions, GDB coding standards, x86
3192hardware watchpoints, and memory region attributes.
3193
5d6640b1
AC
3194* GDB's version number moved to ``version.in''
3195
3196The Makefile variable VERSION has been replaced by the file
3197``version.in''. People creating GDB distributions should update the
3198contents of this file.
3199
1a1d8446
AC
3200* gdba.el deleted
3201
3202GUD support is now a standard part of the EMACS distribution.
139760b7 3203
9debab2f 3204*** Changes in GDB 5.0:
7a292a7a 3205
c63ce875
EZ
3206* Improved support for debugging FP programs on x86 targets
3207
3208Unified and much-improved support for debugging floating-point
3209programs on all x86 targets. In particular, ``info float'' now
3210displays the FP registers in the same format on all x86 targets, with
3211greater level of detail.
3212
3213* Improvements and bugfixes in hardware-assisted watchpoints
3214
3215It is now possible to watch array elements, struct members, and
3216bitfields with hardware-assisted watchpoints. Data-read watchpoints
3217on x86 targets no longer erroneously trigger when the address is
3218written.
3219
3220* Improvements in the native DJGPP version of GDB
3221
3222The distribution now includes all the scripts and auxiliary files
3223necessary to build the native DJGPP version on MS-DOS/MS-Windows
3224machines ``out of the box''.
3225
3226The DJGPP version can now debug programs that use signals. It is
3227possible to catch signals that happened in the debuggee, deliver
3228signals to it, interrupt it with Ctrl-C, etc. (Previously, a signal
3229would kill the program being debugged.) Programs that hook hardware
3230interrupts (keyboard, timer, etc.) can also be debugged.
3231
3232It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that redirect their
3233standard handles or switch them to raw (as opposed to cooked) mode, or
3234even close them. The command ``run < foo > bar'' works as expected,
3235and ``info terminal'' reports useful information about the debuggee's
3236terminal, including raw/cooked mode, redirection, etc.
3237
3238The DJGPP version now uses termios functions for console I/O, which
3239enables debugging graphics programs. Interrupting GDB with Ctrl-C
3240also works.
3241
3242DOS-style file names with drive letters are now fully supported by
3243GDB.
3244
3245It is now possible to debug DJGPP programs that switch their working
3246directory. It is also possible to rerun the debuggee any number of
3247times without restarting GDB; thus, you can use the same setup,
3248breakpoints, etc. for many debugging sessions.
3249
ed9a39eb
JM
3250* New native configurations
3251
3252ARM GNU/Linux arm*-*-linux*
afc05dd4 3253PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
ed9a39eb 3254
7a292a7a
SS
3255* New targets
3256
96baa820 3257Motorola MCore mcore-*-*
adf40b2e
JM
3258x86 VxWorks i[3456]86-*-vxworks*
3259PowerPC VxWorks powerpc-*-vxworks*
7a292a7a
SS
3260TI TMS320C80 tic80-*-*
3261
085dd6e6
JM
3262* OBSOLETE configurations
3263
3264Altos 3068 m68*-altos-*
3265Convex c1-*-*, c2-*-*
9846de1b 3266Pyramid pyramid-*-*
ed9a39eb 3267ARM RISCix arm-*-* (as host)
104c1213 3268Tahoe tahoe-*-*
7a292a7a 3269
9debab2f
AC
3270Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3271but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3272these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3273be permanently REMOVED.
3274
5330533d
SS
3275* Gould support removed
3276
3277Support for the Gould PowerNode and NP1 has been removed.
3278
bc9e5bbf
AC
3279* New features for SVR4
3280
3281On SVR4 native platforms (such as Solaris), if you attach to a process
3282without first loading a symbol file, GDB will now attempt to locate and
3283load symbols from the running process's executable file.
3284
3285* Many C++ enhancements
3286
3287C++ support has been greatly improved. Overload resolution now works properly
3288in almost all cases. RTTI support is on the way.
3289
adf40b2e
JM
3290* Remote targets can connect to a sub-program
3291
3292A popen(3) style serial-device has been added. This device starts a
3293sub-process (such as a stand-alone simulator) and then communicates
3294with that. The sub-program to run is specified using the syntax
3295``|<program> <args>'' vis:
3296
3297 (gdb) set remotedebug 1
3298 (gdb) target extended-remote |mn10300-elf-sim program-args
3299
43e526b9
JM
3300* MIPS 64 remote protocol
3301
3302A long standing bug in the mips64 remote protocol where by GDB
3303expected certain 32 bit registers (ex SR) to be transfered as 32
3304instead of 64 bits has been fixed.
3305
3306The command ``set remote-mips64-transfers-32bit-regs on'' has been
3307added to provide backward compatibility with older versions of GDB.
3308
96baa820
JM
3309* ``set remotebinarydownload'' replaced by ``set remote X-packet''
3310
3311The command ``set remotebinarydownload'' command has been replaced by
3312``set remote X-packet''. Other commands in ``set remote'' family
3313include ``set remote P-packet''.
3314
11cf8741
JM
3315* Breakpoint commands accept ranges.
3316
3317The breakpoint commands ``enable'', ``disable'', and ``delete'' now
3318accept a range of breakpoints, e.g. ``5-7''. The tracepoint command
3319``tracepoint passcount'' also accepts a range of tracepoints.
3320
7876dd43
DB
3321* ``apropos'' command added.
3322
3323The ``apropos'' command searches through command names and
3324documentation strings, printing out matches, making it much easier to
3325try to find a command that does what you are looking for.
3326
bc9e5bbf
AC
3327* New MI interface
3328
3329A new machine oriented interface (MI) has been added to GDB. This
3330interface is designed for debug environments running GDB as a separate
7162c0ca
EZ
3331process. This is part of the long term libGDB project. See the
3332"GDB/MI" chapter of the GDB manual for further information. It can be
3333enabled by configuring with:
bc9e5bbf
AC
3334
3335 .../configure --enable-gdbmi
3336
c906108c
SS
3337*** Changes in GDB-4.18:
3338
3339* New native configurations
3340
3341HP-UX 10.20 hppa*-*-hpux10.20
3342HP-UX 11.x hppa*-*-hpux11.0*
55241689 3343M68K GNU/Linux m68*-*-linux*
c906108c
SS
3344
3345* New targets
3346
3347Fujitsu FR30 fr30-*-elf*
3348Intel StrongARM strongarm-*-*
3349Mitsubishi D30V d30v-*-*
3350
3351* OBSOLETE configurations
3352
3353Gould PowerNode, NP1 np1-*-*, pn-*-*
3354
3355Configurations that have been declared obsolete will be commented out,
3356but the code will be left in place. If there is no activity to revive
3357these configurations before the next release of GDB, the sources will
3358be permanently REMOVED.
3359
3360* ANSI/ISO C
3361
3362As a compatibility experiment, GDB's source files buildsym.h and
3363buildsym.c have been converted to pure standard C, no longer
3364containing any K&R compatibility code. We believe that all systems in
3365use today either come with a standard C compiler, or have a GCC port
3366available. If this is not true, please report the affected
3367configuration to bug-gdb@gnu.org immediately. See the README file for
3368information about getting a standard C compiler if you don't have one
3369already.
3370
3371* Readline 2.2
3372
3373GDB now uses readline 2.2.
3374
3375* set extension-language
3376
3377You can now control the mapping between filename extensions and source
3378languages by using the `set extension-language' command. For instance,
3379you can ask GDB to treat .c files as C++ by saying
3380 set extension-language .c c++
3381The command `info extensions' lists all of the recognized extensions
3382and their associated languages.
3383
3384* Setting processor type for PowerPC and RS/6000
3385
3386When GDB is configured for a powerpc*-*-* or an rs6000*-*-* target,
3387you can use the `set processor' command to specify what variant of the
3388PowerPC family you are debugging. The command
3389
3390 set processor NAME
3391
3392sets the PowerPC/RS6000 variant to NAME. GDB knows about the
3393following PowerPC and RS6000 variants:
3394
3395 ppc-uisa PowerPC UISA - a PPC processor as viewed by user-level code
3396 rs6000 IBM RS6000 ("POWER") architecture, user-level view
3397 403 IBM PowerPC 403
3398 403GC IBM PowerPC 403GC
3399 505 Motorola PowerPC 505
3400 860 Motorola PowerPC 860 or 850
3401 601 Motorola PowerPC 601
3402 602 Motorola PowerPC 602
3403 603 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 603 or 603e
3404 604 Motorola PowerPC 604 or 604e
3405 750 Motorola/IBM PowerPC 750 or 750
3406
3407At the moment, this command just tells GDB what to name the
3408special-purpose processor registers. Since almost all the affected
3409registers are inaccessible to user-level programs, this command is
3410only useful for remote debugging in its present form.
3411
3412* HP-UX support
3413
3414Thanks to a major code donation from Hewlett-Packard, GDB now has much
3415more extensive support for HP-UX. Added features include shared
3416library support, kernel threads and hardware watchpoints for 11.00,
3417support for HP's ANSI C and C++ compilers, and a compatibility mode
3418for xdb and dbx commands.
3419
3420* Catchpoints
3421
3422HP's donation includes the new concept of catchpoints, which is a
3423generalization of the old catch command. On HP-UX, it is now possible
3424to catch exec, fork, and vfork, as well as library loading.
3425
3426This means that the existing catch command has changed; its first
3427argument now specifies the type of catch to be set up. See the
3428output of "help catch" for a list of catchpoint types.
3429
3430* Debugging across forks
3431
3432On HP-UX, you can choose which process to debug when a fork() happens
3433in the inferior.
3434
3435* TUI
3436
3437HP has donated a curses-based terminal user interface (TUI). To get
3438it, build with --enable-tui. Although this can be enabled for any
3439configuration, at present it only works for native HP debugging.
3440
3441* GDB remote protocol additions
3442
3443A new protocol packet 'X' that writes binary data is now available.
3444Default behavior is to try 'X', then drop back to 'M' if the stub
3445fails to respond. The settable variable `remotebinarydownload'
3446allows explicit control over the use of 'X'.
3447
3448For 64-bit targets, the memory packets ('M' and 'm') can now contain a
3449full 64-bit address. The command
3450
3451 set remoteaddresssize 32
3452
3453can be used to revert to the old behaviour. For existing remote stubs
3454the change should not be noticed, as the additional address information
3455will be discarded.
3456
3457In order to assist in debugging stubs, you may use the maintenance
3458command `packet' to send any text string to the stub. For instance,
3459
3460 maint packet heythere
3461
3462sends the packet "$heythere#<checksum>". Note that it is very easy to
3463disrupt a debugging session by sending the wrong packet at the wrong
3464time.
3465
3466The compare-sections command allows you to compare section data on the
3467target to what is in the executable file without uploading or
3468downloading, by comparing CRC checksums.
3469
3470* Tracing can collect general expressions
3471
3472You may now collect general expressions at tracepoints. This requires
3473further additions to the target-side stub; see tracepoint.c and
3474doc/agentexpr.texi for further details.
3475
3476* mask-address variable for Mips
3477
3478For Mips targets, you may control the zeroing of the upper 32 bits of
3479a 64-bit address by entering `set mask-address on'. This is mainly
3480of interest to users of embedded R4xxx and R5xxx processors.
3481
3482* Higher serial baud rates
3483
3484GDB's serial code now allows you to specify baud rates 57600, 115200,
3485230400, and 460800 baud. (Note that your host system may not be able
3486to achieve all of these rates.)
3487
3488* i960 simulator
3489
3490The i960 configuration now includes an initial implementation of a
3491builtin simulator, contributed by Jim Wilson.
3492
3493
3494*** Changes in GDB-4.17:
3495
3496* New native configurations
3497
3498Alpha GNU/Linux alpha*-*-linux*
3499Unixware 2.x i[3456]86-unixware2*
3500Irix 6.x mips*-sgi-irix6*
3501PowerPC GNU/Linux powerpc-*-linux*
3502PowerPC Solaris powerpcle-*-solaris*
3503Sparc GNU/Linux sparc-*-linux*
3504Motorola sysV68 R3V7.1 m68k-motorola-sysv
3505
3506* New targets
3507
3508Argonaut Risc Chip (ARC) arc-*-*
3509Hitachi H8/300S h8300*-*-*
3510Matsushita MN10200 w/simulator mn10200-*-*
3511Matsushita MN10300 w/simulator mn10300-*-*
3512MIPS NEC VR4100 mips64*vr4100*{,el}-*-elf*
3513MIPS NEC VR5000 mips64*vr5000*{,el}-*-elf*
3514MIPS Toshiba TX39 mips64*tx39*{,el}-*-elf*
3515Mitsubishi D10V w/simulator d10v-*-*
3516Mitsubishi M32R/D w/simulator m32r-*-elf*
3517Tsqware Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3518NEC V850 w/simulator v850-*-*
3519
3520* New debugging protocols
3521
3522ARM with RDI protocol arm*-*-*
3523M68K with dBUG monitor m68*-*-{aout,coff,elf}
3524DDB and LSI variants of PMON protocol mips*-*-*
3525PowerPC with DINK32 monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3526PowerPC with SDS protocol powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3527Macraigor OCD (Wiggler) devices powerpc{,le}-*-eabi
3528
3529* DWARF 2
3530
3531All configurations can now understand and use the DWARF 2 debugging
3532format. The choice is automatic, if the symbol file contains DWARF 2
3533information.
3534
3535* Java frontend
3536
3537GDB now includes basic Java language support. This support is
3538only useful with Java compilers that produce native machine code.
3539
3540* solib-absolute-prefix and solib-search-path
3541
3542For SunOS and SVR4 shared libraries, you may now set the prefix for
3543loading absolute shared library symbol files, and the search path for
3544locating non-absolute shared library symbol files.
3545
3546* Live range splitting
3547
3548GDB can now effectively debug code for which GCC has performed live
3549range splitting as part of its optimization. See gdb/doc/LRS for
3550more details on the expected format of the stabs information.
3551
3552* Hurd support
3553
3554GDB's support for the GNU Hurd, including thread debugging, has been
3555updated to work with current versions of the Hurd.
3556
3557* ARM Thumb support
3558
3559GDB's ARM target configuration now handles the ARM7T (Thumb) 16-bit
3560instruction set. ARM GDB automatically detects when Thumb
3561instructions are in use, and adjusts disassembly and backtracing
3562accordingly.
3563
3564* MIPS16 support
3565
3566GDB's MIPS target configurations now handle the MIP16 16-bit
3567instruction set.
3568
3569* Overlay support
3570
3571GDB now includes support for overlays; if an executable has been
3572linked such that multiple sections are based at the same address, GDB
3573will decide which section to use for symbolic info. You can choose to
3574control the decision manually, using overlay commands, or implement
3575additional target-side support and use "overlay load-target" to bring
3576in the overlay mapping. Do "help overlay" for more detail.
3577
3578* info symbol
3579
3580The command "info symbol <address>" displays information about
3581the symbol at the specified address.
3582
3583* Trace support
3584
3585The standard remote protocol now includes an extension that allows
3586asynchronous collection and display of trace data. This requires
3587extensive support in the target-side debugging stub. Tracing mode
3588includes a new interaction mode in GDB and new commands: see the
3589file tracepoint.c for more details.
3590
3591* MIPS simulator
3592
3593Configurations for embedded MIPS now include a simulator contributed
3594by Cygnus Solutions. The simulator supports the instruction sets
3595of most MIPS variants.
3596
3597* Sparc simulator
3598
3599Sparc configurations may now include the ERC32 simulator contributed
3600by the European Space Agency. The simulator is not built into
3601Sparc targets by default; configure with --enable-sim to include it.
3602
3603* set architecture
3604
3605For target configurations that may include multiple variants of a
3606basic architecture (such as MIPS and SH), you may now set the
3607architecture explicitly. "set arch" sets, "info arch" lists
3608the possible architectures.
3609
3610*** Changes in GDB-4.16:
3611
3612* New native configurations
3613
3614Windows 95, x86 Windows NT i[345]86-*-cygwin32
3615M68K NetBSD m68k-*-netbsd*
3616PowerPC AIX 4.x powerpc-*-aix*
3617PowerPC MacOS powerpc-*-macos*
3618PowerPC Windows NT powerpcle-*-cygwin32
3619RS/6000 AIX 4.x rs6000-*-aix4*
3620
3621* New targets
3622
3623ARM with RDP protocol arm-*-*
3624I960 with MON960 i960-*-coff
3625MIPS VxWorks mips*-*-vxworks*
3626MIPS VR4300 with PMON mips64*vr4300{,el}-*-elf*
3627PowerPC with PPCBUG monitor powerpc{,le}-*-eabi*
3628Hitachi SH3 sh-*-*
3629Matra Sparclet sparclet-*-*
3630
3631* PowerPC simulator
3632
3633The powerpc-eabi configuration now includes the PSIM simulator,
3634contributed by Andrew Cagney, with assistance from Mike Meissner.
3635PSIM is a very elaborate model of the PowerPC, including not only
3636basic instruction set execution, but also details of execution unit
3637performance and I/O hardware. See sim/ppc/README for more details.
3638
3639* Solaris 2.5
3640
3641GDB now works with Solaris 2.5.
3642
3643* Windows 95/NT native
3644
3645GDB will now work as a native debugger on Windows 95 and Windows NT.
3646To build it from source, you must use the "gnu-win32" environment,
3647which uses a DLL to emulate enough of Unix to run the GNU tools.
3648Further information, binaries, and sources are available at
3649ftp.cygnus.com, under pub/gnu-win32.
3650
3651* dont-repeat command
3652
3653If a user-defined command includes the command `dont-repeat', then the
3654command will not be repeated if the user just types return. This is
3655useful if the command is time-consuming to run, so that accidental
3656extra keystrokes don't run the same command many times.
3657
3658* Send break instead of ^C
3659
3660The standard remote protocol now includes an option to send a break
3661rather than a ^C to the target in order to interrupt it. By default,
3662GDB will send ^C; to send a break, set the variable `remotebreak' to 1.
3663
3664* Remote protocol timeout
3665
3666The standard remote protocol includes a new variable `remotetimeout'
3667that allows you to set the number of seconds before GDB gives up trying
3668to read from the target. The default value is 2.
3669
3670* Automatic tracking of dynamic object loading (HPUX and Solaris only)
3671
3672By default GDB will automatically keep track of objects as they are
3673loaded and unloaded by the dynamic linker. By using the command `set
3674stop-on-solib-events 1' you can arrange for GDB to stop the inferior
3675when shared library events occur, thus allowing you to set breakpoints
3676in shared libraries which are explicitly loaded by the inferior.
3677
3678Note this feature does not work on hpux8. On hpux9 you must link
3679/usr/lib/end.o into your program. This feature should work
3680automatically on hpux10.
3681
3682* Irix 5.x hardware watchpoint support
3683
3684Irix 5 configurations now support the use of hardware watchpoints.
3685
3686* Mips protocol "SYN garbage limit"
3687
3688When debugging a Mips target using the `target mips' protocol, you
3689may set the number of characters that GDB will ignore by setting
3690the `syn-garbage-limit'. A value of -1 means that GDB will ignore
3691every character. The default value is 1050.
3692
3693* Recording and replaying remote debug sessions
3694
3695If you set `remotelogfile' to the name of a file, gdb will write to it
3696a recording of a remote debug session. This recording may then be
3697replayed back to gdb using "gdbreplay". See gdbserver/README for
3698details. This is useful when you have a problem with GDB while doing
3699remote debugging; you can make a recording of the session and send it
3700to someone else, who can then recreate the problem.
3701
3702* Speedups for remote debugging
3703
3704GDB includes speedups for downloading and stepping MIPS systems using
3705the IDT monitor, fast downloads to the Hitachi SH E7000 emulator,
3706and more efficient S-record downloading.
3707
3708* Memory use reductions and statistics collection
3709
3710GDB now uses less memory and reports statistics about memory usage.
3711Try the `maint print statistics' command, for example.
3712
3713*** Changes in GDB-4.15:
3714
3715* Psymtabs for XCOFF
3716
3717The symbol reader for AIX GDB now uses partial symbol tables. This
3718can greatly improve startup time, especially for large executables.
3719
3720* Remote targets use caching
3721
3722Remote targets now use a data cache to speed up communication with the
3723remote side. The data cache could lead to incorrect results because
3724it doesn't know about volatile variables, thus making it impossible to
3725debug targets which use memory mapped I/O devices. `set remotecache
3726off' turns the the data cache off.
3727
3728* Remote targets may have threads
3729
3730The standard remote protocol now includes support for multiple threads
3731in the target system, using new protocol commands 'H' and 'T'. See
3732gdb/remote.c for details.
3733
3734* NetROM support
3735
3736If GDB is configured with `--enable-netrom', then it will include
3737support for the NetROM ROM emulator from XLNT Designs. The NetROM
3738acts as though it is a bank of ROM on the target board, but you can
3739write into it over the network. GDB's support consists only of
3740support for fast loading into the emulated ROM; to debug, you must use
3741another protocol, such as standard remote protocol. The usual
3742sequence is something like
3743
3744 target nrom <netrom-hostname>
3745 load <prog>
3746 target remote <netrom-hostname>:1235
3747
3748* Macintosh host
3749
3750GDB now includes support for the Apple Macintosh, as a host only. It
3751may be run as either an MPW tool or as a standalone application, and
3752it can debug through the serial port. All the usual GDB commands are
3753available, but to the target command, you must supply "serial" as the
3754device type instead of "/dev/ttyXX". See mpw-README in the main
3755directory for more information on how to build. The MPW configuration
3756scripts */mpw-config.in support only a few targets, and only the
3757mips-idt-ecoff target has been tested.
3758
3759* Autoconf
3760
3761GDB configuration now uses autoconf. This is not user-visible,
3762but does simplify configuration and building.
3763
3764* hpux10
3765
3766GDB now supports hpux10.
3767
3768*** Changes in GDB-4.14:
3769
3770* New native configurations
3771
3772x86 FreeBSD i[345]86-*-freebsd
3773x86 NetBSD i[345]86-*-netbsd
3774NS32k NetBSD ns32k-*-netbsd
3775Sparc NetBSD sparc-*-netbsd
3776
3777* New targets
3778
3779A29K VxWorks a29k-*-vxworks
3780HP PA PRO embedded (WinBond W89K & Oki OP50N) hppa*-*-pro*
3781CPU32 EST-300 emulator m68*-*-est*
3782PowerPC ELF powerpc-*-elf
3783WDC 65816 w65-*-*
3784
3785* Alpha OSF/1 support for procfs
3786
3787GDB now supports procfs under OSF/1-2.x and higher, which makes it
3788possible to attach to running processes. As the mounting of the /proc
3789filesystem is optional on the Alpha, GDB automatically determines
3790the availability of /proc during startup. This can lead to problems
3791if /proc is unmounted after GDB has been started.
3792
3793* Arguments to user-defined commands
3794
3795User commands may accept up to 10 arguments separated by whitespace.
3796Arguments are accessed within the user command via $arg0..$arg9. A
3797trivial example:
3798define adder
3799 print $arg0 + $arg1 + $arg2
3800
3801To execute the command use:
3802adder 1 2 3
3803
3804Defines the command "adder" which prints the sum of its three arguments.
3805Note the arguments are text substitutions, so they may reference variables,
3806use complex expressions, or even perform inferior function calls.
3807
3808* New `if' and `while' commands
3809
3810This makes it possible to write more sophisticated user-defined
3811commands. Both commands take a single argument, which is the
3812expression to evaluate, and must be followed by the commands to
3813execute, one per line, if the expression is nonzero, the list being
3814terminated by the word `end'. The `if' command list may include an
3815`else' word, which causes the following commands to be executed only
3816if the expression is zero.
3817
3818* Fortran source language mode
3819
3820GDB now includes partial support for Fortran 77. It will recognize
3821Fortran programs and can evaluate a subset of Fortran expressions, but
3822variables and functions may not be handled correctly. GDB will work
3823with G77, but does not yet know much about symbols emitted by other
3824Fortran compilers.
3825
3826* Better HPUX support
3827
3828Most debugging facilities now work on dynamic executables for HPPAs
3829running hpux9 or later. You can attach to running dynamically linked
3830processes, but by default the dynamic libraries will be read-only, so
3831for instance you won't be able to put breakpoints in them. To change
3832that behavior do the following before running the program:
3833
3834 adb -w a.out
3835 __dld_flags?W 0x5
3836 control-d
3837
3838This will cause the libraries to be mapped private and read-write.
3839To revert to the normal behavior, do this:
3840
3841 adb -w a.out
3842 __dld_flags?W 0x4
3843 control-d
3844
3845You cannot set breakpoints or examine data in the library until after
3846the library is loaded if the function/data symbols do not have
3847external linkage.
3848
3849GDB can now also read debug symbols produced by the HP C compiler on
3850HPPAs (sorry, no C++, Fortran or 68k support).
3851
3852* Target byte order now dynamically selectable
3853
3854You can choose which byte order to use with a target system, via the
3855commands "set endian big" and "set endian little", and you can see the
3856current setting by using "show endian". You can also give the command
3857"set endian auto", in which case GDB will use the byte order
3858associated with the executable. Currently, only embedded MIPS
3859configurations support dynamic selection of target byte order.
3860
3861* New DOS host serial code
3862
3863This version uses DPMI interrupts to handle buffered I/O, so you
3864no longer need to run asynctsr when debugging boards connected to
3865a PC's serial port.
3866
3867*** Changes in GDB-4.13:
3868
3869* New "complete" command
3870
3871This lists all the possible completions for the rest of the line, if it
3872were to be given as a command itself. This is intended for use by emacs.
3873
3874* Trailing space optional in prompt
3875
3876"set prompt" no longer adds a space for you after the prompt you set. This
3877allows you to set a prompt which ends in a space or one that does not.
3878
3879* Breakpoint hit counts
3880
3881"info break" now displays a count of the number of times the breakpoint
3882has been hit. This is especially useful in conjunction with "ignore"; you
3883can ignore a large number of breakpoint hits, look at the breakpoint info
3884to see how many times the breakpoint was hit, then run again, ignoring one
3885less than that number, and this will get you quickly to the last hit of
3886that breakpoint.
3887
3888* Ability to stop printing at NULL character
3889
3890"set print null-stop" will cause GDB to stop printing the characters of
3891an array when the first NULL is encountered. This is useful when large
3892arrays actually contain only short strings.
3893
3894* Shared library breakpoints
3895
3896In SunOS 4.x, SVR4, and Alpha OSF/1 configurations, you can now set
3897breakpoints in shared libraries before the executable is run.
3898
3899* Hardware watchpoints
3900
3901There is a new hardware breakpoint for the watch command for sparclite
3902targets. See gdb/sparclite/hw_breakpoint.note.
3903
55241689 3904Hardware watchpoints are also now supported under GNU/Linux.
c906108c
SS
3905
3906* Annotations
3907
3908Annotations have been added. These are for use with graphical interfaces,
3909and are still experimental. Currently only gdba.el uses these.
3910
3911* Improved Irix 5 support
3912
3913GDB now works properly with Irix 5.2.
3914
3915* Improved HPPA support
3916
3917GDB now works properly with the latest GCC and GAS.
3918
3919* New native configurations
3920
3921Sequent PTX4 i[34]86-sequent-ptx4
3922HPPA running OSF/1 hppa*-*-osf*
3923Atari TT running SVR4 m68*-*-sysv4*
3924RS/6000 LynxOS rs6000-*-lynxos*
3925
3926* New targets
3927
3928OS/9000 i[34]86-*-os9k
3929MIPS R4000 mips64*{,el}-*-{ecoff,elf}
3930Sparc64 sparc64-*-*
3931
3932* Hitachi SH7000 and E7000-PC ICE support
3933
3934There is now support for communicating with the Hitachi E7000-PC ICE.
3935This is available automatically when GDB is configured for the SH.
3936
3937* Fixes
3938
3939As usual, a variety of small fixes and improvements, both generic
3940and configuration-specific. See the ChangeLog for more detail.
3941
3942*** Changes in GDB-4.12:
3943
3944* Irix 5 is now supported
3945
3946* HPPA support
3947
3948GDB-4.12 on the HPPA has a number of changes which make it unable
3949to debug the output from the currently released versions of GCC and
3950GAS (GCC 2.5.8 and GAS-2.2 or PAGAS-1.36). Until the next major release
3951of GCC and GAS, versions of these tools designed to work with GDB-4.12
3952can be retrieved via anonymous ftp from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist.
3953
3954
3955*** Changes in GDB-4.11:
3956
3957* User visible changes:
3958
3959* Remote Debugging
3960
3961The "set remotedebug" option is now consistent between the mips remote
3962target, remote targets using the gdb-specific protocol, UDI (AMD's
3963debug protocol for the 29k) and the 88k bug monitor. It is now an
3964integer specifying a debug level (normally 0 or 1, but 2 means more
3965debugging info for the mips target).
3966
3967* DEC Alpha native support
3968
3969GDB now works on the DEC Alpha. GCC 2.4.5 does not produce usable
3970debug info, but GDB works fairly well with the DEC compiler and should
3971work with a future GCC release. See the README file for a few
3972Alpha-specific notes.
3973
3974* Preliminary thread implementation
3975
3976GDB now has preliminary thread support for both SGI/Irix and LynxOS.
3977
3978* LynxOS native and target support for 386
3979
3980This release has been hosted on LynxOS 2.2, and also can be configured
3981to remotely debug programs running under LynxOS (see gdb/gdbserver/README
3982for details).
3983
3984* Improvements in C++ mangling/demangling.
3985
3986This release has much better g++ debugging, specifically in name
3987mangling/demangling, virtual function calls, print virtual table,
3988call methods, ...etc.
3989
3990*** Changes in GDB-4.10:
3991
3992 * User visible changes:
3993
3994Remote debugging using the GDB-specific (`target remote') protocol now
3995supports the `load' command. This is only useful if you have some
3996other way of getting the stub to the target system, and you can put it
3997somewhere in memory where it won't get clobbered by the download.
3998
3999Filename completion now works.
4000
4001When run under emacs mode, the "info line" command now causes the
4002arrow to point to the line specified. Also, "info line" prints
4003addresses in symbolic form (as well as hex).
4004
4005All vxworks based targets now support a user settable option, called
4006vxworks-timeout. This option represents the number of seconds gdb
4007should wait for responses to rpc's. You might want to use this if
4008your vxworks target is, perhaps, a slow software simulator or happens
4009to be on the far side of a thin network line.
4010
4011 * DEC alpha support
4012
4013This release contains support for using a DEC alpha as a GDB host for
4014cross debugging. Native alpha debugging is not supported yet.
4015
4016
4017*** Changes in GDB-4.9:
4018
4019 * Testsuite
4020
4021This is the first GDB release which is accompanied by a matching testsuite.
4022The testsuite requires installation of dejagnu, which should be available
4023via ftp from most sites that carry GNU software.
4024
4025 * C++ demangling
4026
4027'Cfront' style demangling has had its name changed to 'ARM' style, to
4028emphasize that it was written from the specifications in the C++ Annotated
4029Reference Manual, not necessarily to be compatible with AT&T cfront. Despite
4030disclaimers, it still generated too much confusion with users attempting to
4031use gdb with AT&T cfront.
4032
4033 * Simulators
4034
4035GDB now uses a standard remote interface to a simulator library.
4036So far, the library contains simulators for the Zilog Z8001/2, the
4037Hitachi H8/300, H8/500 and Super-H.
4038
4039 * New targets supported
4040
4041H8/300 simulator h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4042H8/500 simulator h8500-hitachi-hms or h8500hms
4043SH simulator sh-hitachi-hms or sh
4044Z8000 simulator z8k-zilog-none or z8ksim
4045IDT MIPS board over serial line mips-idt-ecoff
4046
4047Cross-debugging to GO32 targets is supported. It requires a custom
4048version of the i386-stub.c module which is integrated with the
4049GO32 memory extender.
4050
4051 * New remote protocols
4052
4053MIPS remote debugging protocol.
4054
4055 * New source languages supported
4056
4057This version includes preliminary support for Chill, a Pascal like language
4058used by telecommunications companies. Chill support is also being integrated
4059into the GNU compiler, but we don't know when it will be publically available.
4060
4061
4062*** Changes in GDB-4.8:
4063
4064 * HP Precision Architecture supported
4065
4066GDB now supports HP PA-RISC machines running HPUX. A preliminary
4067version of this support was available as a set of patches from the
4068University of Utah. GDB does not support debugging of programs
4069compiled with the HP compiler, because HP will not document their file
4070format. Instead, you must use GCC (version 2.3.2 or later) and PA-GAS
4071(as available from jaguar.cs.utah.edu:/dist/pa-gas.u4.tar.Z).
4072
4073Many problems in the preliminary version have been fixed.
4074
4075 * Faster and better demangling
4076
4077We have improved template demangling and fixed numerous bugs in the GNU style
4078demangler. It can now handle type modifiers such as `static' or `const'. Wide
4079character types (wchar_t) are now supported. Demangling of each symbol is now
4080only done once, and is cached when the symbol table for a file is read in.
4081This results in a small increase in memory usage for C programs, a moderate
4082increase in memory usage for C++ programs, and a fantastic speedup in
4083symbol lookups.
4084
4085`Cfront' style demangling still doesn't work with AT&T cfront. It was written
4086from the specifications in the Annotated Reference Manual, which AT&T's
4087compiler does not actually implement.
4088
4089 * G++ multiple inheritance compiler problem
4090
4091In the 2.3.2 release of gcc/g++, how the compiler resolves multiple
4092inheritance lattices was reworked to properly discover ambiguities. We
4093recently found an example which causes this new algorithm to fail in a
4094very subtle way, producing bad debug information for those classes.
4095The file 'gcc.patch' (in this directory) can be applied to gcc to
4096circumvent the problem. A future GCC release will contain a complete
4097fix.
4098
4099The previous G++ debug info problem (mentioned below for the gdb-4.7
4100release) is fixed in gcc version 2.3.2.
4101
4102 * Improved configure script
4103
4104The `configure' script will now attempt to guess your system type if
4105you don't supply a host system type. The old scheme of supplying a
4106host system triplet is preferable over using this. All the magic is
4107done in the new `config.guess' script. Examine it for details.
4108
4109We have also brought our configure script much more in line with the FSF's
4110version. It now supports the --with-xxx options. In particular,
4111`--with-minimal-bfd' can be used to make the GDB binary image smaller.
4112The resulting GDB will not be able to read arbitrary object file formats --
4113only the format ``expected'' to be used on the configured target system.
4114We hope to make this the default in a future release.
4115
4116 * Documentation improvements
4117
4118There's new internal documentation on how to modify GDB, and how to
4119produce clean changes to the code. We implore people to read it
4120before submitting changes.
4121
4122The GDB manual uses new, sexy Texinfo conditionals, rather than arcane
4123M4 macros. The new texinfo.tex is provided in this release. Pre-built
4124`info' files are also provided. To build `info' files from scratch,
4125you will need the latest `makeinfo' release, which will be available in
4126a future texinfo-X.Y release.
4127
4128*NOTE* The new texinfo.tex can cause old versions of TeX to hang.
4129We're not sure exactly which versions have this problem, but it has
4130been seen in 3.0. We highly recommend upgrading to TeX version 3.141
4131or better. If that isn't possible, there is a patch in
4132`texinfo/tex3patch' that will modify `texinfo/texinfo.tex' to work
4133around this problem.
4134
4135 * New features
4136
4137GDB now supports array constants that can be used in expressions typed in by
4138the user. The syntax is `{element, element, ...}'. Ie: you can now type
4139`print {1, 2, 3}', and it will build up an array in memory malloc'd in
4140the target program.
4141
4142The new directory `gdb/sparclite' contains a program that demonstrates
4143how the sparc-stub.c remote stub runs on a Fujitsu SPARClite processor.
4144
4145 * New native hosts supported
4146
4147HP/PA-RISC under HPUX using GNU tools hppa1.1-hp-hpux
4148386 CPUs running SCO Unix 3.2v4 i386-unknown-sco3.2v4
4149
4150 * New targets supported
4151
4152AMD 29k family via UDI a29k-amd-udi or udi29k
4153
4154 * New file formats supported
4155
4156BFD now supports reading HP/PA-RISC executables (SOM file format?),
4157HPUX core files, and SCO 3.2v2 core files.
4158
4159 * Major bug fixes
4160
4161Attaching to processes now works again; thanks for the many bug reports.
4162
4163We have also stomped on a bunch of core dumps caused by
4164printf_filtered("%s") problems.
4165
4166We eliminated a copyright problem on the rpc and ptrace header files
4167for VxWorks, which was discovered at the last minute during the 4.7
4168release. You should now be able to build a VxWorks GDB.
4169
4170You can now interrupt gdb while an attached process is running. This
4171will cause the attached process to stop, and give control back to GDB.
4172
4173We fixed problems caused by using too many file descriptors
4174for reading symbols from object files and libraries. This was
4175especially a problem for programs that used many (~100) shared
4176libraries.
4177
4178The `step' command now only enters a subroutine if there is line number
4179information for the subroutine. Otherwise it acts like the `next'
4180command. Previously, `step' would enter subroutines if there was
4181any debugging information about the routine. This avoids problems
4182when using `cc -g1' on MIPS machines.
4183
4184 * Internal improvements
4185
4186GDB's internal interfaces have been improved to make it easier to support
4187debugging of multiple languages in the future.
4188
4189GDB now uses a common structure for symbol information internally.
4190Minimal symbols (derived from linkage symbols in object files), partial
4191symbols (from a quick scan of debug information), and full symbols
4192contain a common subset of information, making it easier to write
4193shared code that handles any of them.
4194
4195 * New command line options
4196
4197We now accept --silent as an alias for --quiet.
4198
4199 * Mmalloc licensing
4200
4201The memory-mapped-malloc library is now licensed under the GNU Library
4202General Public License.
4203
4204*** Changes in GDB-4.7:
4205
4206 * Host/native/target split
4207
4208GDB has had some major internal surgery to untangle the support for
4209hosts and remote targets. Now, when you configure GDB for a remote
4210target, it will no longer load in all of the support for debugging
4211local programs on the host. When fully completed and tested, this will
4212ensure that arbitrary host/target combinations are possible.
4213
4214The primary conceptual shift is to separate the non-portable code in
4215GDB into three categories. Host specific code is required any time GDB
4216is compiled on that host, regardless of the target. Target specific
4217code relates to the peculiarities of the target, but can be compiled on
4218any host. Native specific code is everything else: it can only be
4219built when the host and target are the same system. Child process
4220handling and core file support are two common `native' examples.
4221
4222GDB's use of /proc for controlling Unix child processes is now cleaner.
4223It has been split out into a single module under the `target_ops' vector,
4224plus two native-dependent functions for each system that uses /proc.
4225
4226 * New hosts supported
4227
4228HP/Apollo 68k (under the BSD domain) m68k-apollo-bsd or apollo68bsd
4229386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4230386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or i386sco
4231
4232 * New targets supported
4233
4234Fujitsu SPARClite sparclite-fujitsu-none or sparclite
423568030 and CPU32 m68030-*-*, m68332-*-*
4236
4237 * New native hosts supported
4238
4239386 CPUs running various BSD ports i386-unknown-bsd or 386bsd
4240 (386bsd is not well tested yet)
4241386 CPUs running SCO Unix i386-unknown-scosysv322 or sco
4242
4243 * New file formats supported
4244
4245BFD now supports COFF files for the Zilog Z8000 microprocessor. It
4246supports reading of `a.out.adobe' object files, which are an a.out
4247format extended with minimal information about multiple sections.
4248
4249 * New commands
4250
4251`show copying' is the same as the old `info copying'.
4252`show warranty' is the same as `info warrantee'.
4253These were renamed for consistency. The old commands continue to work.
4254
4255`info handle' is a new alias for `info signals'.
4256
4257You can now define pre-command hooks, which attach arbitrary command
4258scripts to any command. The commands in the hook will be executed
4259prior to the user's command. You can also create a hook which will be
4260executed whenever the program stops. See gdb.texinfo.
4261
4262 * C++ improvements
4263
4264We now deal with Cfront style name mangling, and can even extract type
4265info from mangled symbols. GDB can automatically figure out which
4266symbol mangling style your C++ compiler uses.
4267
4268Calling of methods and virtual functions has been improved as well.
4269
4270 * Major bug fixes
4271
4272The crash that occured when debugging Sun Ansi-C compiled binaries is
4273fixed. This was due to mishandling of the extra N_SO stabs output
4274by the compiler.
4275
4276We also finally got Ultrix 4.2 running in house, and fixed core file
4277support, with help from a dozen people on the net.
4278
4279John M. Farrell discovered that the reason that single-stepping was so
4280slow on all of the Mips based platforms (primarily SGI and DEC) was
4281that we were trying to demangle and lookup a symbol used for internal
4282purposes on every instruction that was being stepped through. Changing
4283the name of that symbol so that it couldn't be mistaken for a C++
4284mangled symbol sped things up a great deal.
4285
4286Rich Pixley sped up symbol lookups in general by getting much smarter
4287about when C++ symbol mangling is necessary. This should make symbol
4288completion (TAB on the command line) much faster. It's not as fast as
4289we'd like, but it's significantly faster than gdb-4.6.
4290
4291 * AMD 29k support
4292
4293A new user controllable variable 'call_scratch_address' can
4294specify the location of a scratch area to be used when GDB
4295calls a function in the target. This is necessary because the
4296usual method of putting the scratch area on the stack does not work
4297in systems that have separate instruction and data spaces.
4298
4299We integrated changes to support the 29k UDI (Universal Debugger
4300Interface), but discovered at the last minute that we didn't have all
4301of the appropriate copyright paperwork. We are working with AMD to
4302resolve this, and hope to have it available soon.
4303
4304 * Remote interfaces
4305
4306We have sped up the remote serial line protocol, especially for targets
4307with lots of registers. It now supports a new `expedited status' ('T')
4308message which can be used in place of the existing 'S' status message.
4309This allows the remote stub to send only the registers that GDB
4310needs to make a quick decision about single-stepping or conditional
4311breakpoints, eliminating the need to fetch the entire register set for
4312each instruction being stepped through.
4313
4314The GDB remote serial protocol now implements a write-through cache for
4315registers, only re-reading the registers if the target has run.
4316
4317There is also a new remote serial stub for SPARC processors. You can
4318find it in gdb-4.7/gdb/sparc-stub.c. This was written to support the
4319Fujitsu SPARClite processor, but will run on any stand-alone SPARC
4320processor with a serial port.
4321
4322 * Configuration
4323
4324Configure.in files have become much easier to read and modify. A new
4325`table driven' format makes it more obvious what configurations are
4326supported, and what files each one uses.
4327
4328 * Library changes
4329
4330There is a new opcodes library which will eventually contain all of the
4331disassembly routines and opcode tables. At present, it only contains
4332Sparc and Z8000 routines. This will allow the assembler, debugger, and
4333disassembler (binutils/objdump) to share these routines.
4334
4335The libiberty library is now copylefted under the GNU Library General
4336Public License. This allows more liberal use, and was done so libg++
4337can use it. This makes no difference to GDB, since the Library License
4338grants all the rights from the General Public License.
4339
4340 * Documentation
4341
4342The file gdb-4.7/gdb/doc/stabs.texinfo is a (relatively) complete
4343reference to the stabs symbol info used by the debugger. It is (as far
4344as we know) the only published document on this fascinating topic. We
4345encourage you to read it, compare it to the stabs information on your
4346system, and send improvements on the document in general (to
4347bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu).
4348
4349And, of course, many bugs have been fixed.
4350
4351
4352*** Changes in GDB-4.6:
4353
4354 * Better support for C++ function names
4355
4356GDB now accepts as input the "demangled form" of C++ overloaded function
4357names and member function names, and can do command completion on such names
4358(using TAB, TAB-TAB, and ESC-?). The names have to be quoted with a pair of
4359single quotes. Examples are 'func (int, long)' and 'obj::operator==(obj&)'.
4360Make use of command completion, it is your friend.
4361
4362GDB also now accepts a variety of C++ mangled symbol formats. They are
4363the GNU g++ style, the Cfront (ARM) style, and the Lucid (lcc) style.
4364You can tell GDB which format to use by doing a 'set demangle-style {gnu,
4365lucid, cfront, auto}'. 'gnu' is the default. Do a 'set demangle-style foo'
4366for the list of formats.
4367
4368 * G++ symbol mangling problem
4369
4370Recent versions of gcc have a bug in how they emit debugging information for
4371C++ methods (when using dbx-style stabs). The file 'gcc.patch' (in this
4372directory) can be applied to gcc to fix the problem. Alternatively, if you
4373can't fix gcc, you can #define GCC_MANGLE_BUG when compling gdb/symtab.c. The
4374usual symptom is difficulty with setting breakpoints on methods. GDB complains
4375about the method being non-existent. (We believe that version 2.2.2 of GCC has
4376this problem.)
4377
4378 * New 'maintenance' command
4379
4380All of the commands related to hacking GDB internals have been moved out of
4381the main command set, and now live behind the 'maintenance' command. This
4382can also be abbreviated as 'mt'. The following changes were made:
4383
4384 dump-me -> maintenance dump-me
4385 info all-breakpoints -> maintenance info breakpoints
4386 printmsyms -> maintenance print msyms
4387 printobjfiles -> maintenance print objfiles
4388 printpsyms -> maintenance print psymbols
4389 printsyms -> maintenance print symbols
4390
4391The following commands are new:
4392
4393 maintenance demangle Call internal GDB demangler routine to
4394 demangle a C++ link name and prints the result.
4395 maintenance print type Print a type chain for a given symbol
4396
4397 * Change to .gdbinit file processing
4398
4399We now read the $HOME/.gdbinit file before processing the argv arguments
4400(e.g. reading symbol files or core files). This allows global parameters to
4401be set, which will apply during the symbol reading. The ./.gdbinit is still
4402read after argv processing.
4403
4404 * New hosts supported
4405
4406Solaris-2.0 !!! sparc-sun-solaris2 or sun4sol2
4407
55241689 4408GNU/Linux support i386-unknown-linux or linux
c906108c
SS
4409
4410We are also including code to support the HP/PA running BSD and HPUX. This
4411is almost guaranteed not to work, as we didn't have time to test or build it
4412for this release. We are including it so that the more adventurous (or
4413masochistic) of you can play with it. We also had major problems with the
4414fact that the compiler that we got from HP doesn't support the -g option.
4415It costs extra.
4416
4417 * New targets supported
4418
4419Hitachi H8/300 h8300-hitachi-hms or h8300hms
4420
4421 * More smarts about finding #include files
4422
4423GDB now remembers the compilation directory for all include files, and for
4424all files from which C is generated (like yacc and lex sources). This
4425greatly improves GDB's ability to find yacc/lex sources, and include files,
4426especially if you are debugging your program from a directory different from
4427the one that contains your sources.
4428
4429We also fixed a bug which caused difficulty with listing and setting
4430breakpoints in include files which contain C code. (In the past, you had to
4431try twice in order to list an include file that you hadn't looked at before.)
4432
4433 * Interesting infernals change
4434
4435GDB now deals with arbitrary numbers of sections, where the symbols for each
4436section must be relocated relative to that section's landing place in the
4437target's address space. This work was needed to support ELF with embedded
4438stabs used by Solaris-2.0.
4439
4440 * Bug fixes (of course!)
4441
4442There have been loads of fixes for the following things:
4443 mips, rs6000, 29k/udi, m68k, g++, type handling, elf/dwarf, m88k,
4444 i960, stabs, DOS(GO32), procfs, etc...
4445
4446See the ChangeLog for details.
4447
4448*** Changes in GDB-4.5:
4449
4450 * New machines supported (host and target)
4451
4452IBM RS6000 running AIX rs6000-ibm-aix or rs6000
4453
4454SGI Irix-4.x mips-sgi-irix4 or iris4
4455
4456 * New malloc package
4457
4458GDB now uses a new memory manager called mmalloc, based on gmalloc.
4459Mmalloc is capable of handling mutiple heaps of memory. It is also
4460capable of saving a heap to a file, and then mapping it back in later.
4461This can be used to greatly speedup the startup of GDB by using a
4462pre-parsed symbol table which lives in a mmalloc managed heap. For
4463more details, please read mmalloc/mmalloc.texi.
4464
4465 * info proc
4466
4467The 'info proc' command (SVR4 only) has been enhanced quite a bit. See
4468'help info proc' for details.
4469
4470 * MIPS ecoff symbol table format
4471
4472The code that reads MIPS symbol table format is now supported on all hosts.
4473Thanks to MIPS for releasing the sym.h and symconst.h files to make this
4474possible.
4475
4476 * File name changes for MS-DOS
4477
4478Many files in the config directories have been renamed to make it easier to
4479support GDB on MS-DOSe systems (which have very restrictive file name
4480conventions :-( ). MS-DOSe host support (under DJ Delorie's GO32
4481environment) is close to working but has some remaining problems. Note
4482that debugging of DOS programs is not supported, due to limitations
4483in the ``operating system'', but it can be used to host cross-debugging.
4484
4485 * Cross byte order fixes
4486
4487Many fixes have been made to support cross debugging of Sparc and MIPS
4488targets from hosts whose byte order differs.
4489
4490 * New -mapped and -readnow options
4491
4492If memory-mapped files are available on your system through the 'mmap'
4493system call, you can use the -mapped option on the `file' or
4494`symbol-file' commands to cause GDB to write the symbols from your
4495program into a reusable file. If the program you are debugging is
4496called `/path/fred', the mapped symbol file will be `./fred.syms'.
4497Future GDB debugging sessions will notice the presence of this file,
4498and will quickly map in symbol information from it, rather than reading
4499the symbol table from the executable program. Using the '-mapped'
4500option in a GDB `file' or `symbol-file' command has the same effect as
4501starting GDB with the '-mapped' command-line option.
4502
4503You can cause GDB to read the entire symbol table immediately by using
4504the '-readnow' option with any of the commands that load symbol table
4505information (or on the GDB command line). This makes the command
4506slower, but makes future operations faster.
4507
4508The -mapped and -readnow options are typically combined in order to
4509build a `fred.syms' file that contains complete symbol information.
4510A simple GDB invocation to do nothing but build a `.syms' file for future
4511use is:
4512
4513 gdb -batch -nx -mapped -readnow programname
4514
4515The `.syms' file is specific to the host machine on which GDB is run.
4516It holds an exact image of GDB's internal symbol table. It cannot be
4517shared across multiple host platforms.
4518
4519 * longjmp() handling
4520
4521GDB is now capable of stepping and nexting over longjmp(), _longjmp(), and
4522siglongjmp() without losing control. This feature has not yet been ported to
4523all systems. It currently works on many 386 platforms, all MIPS-based
4524platforms (SGI, DECstation, etc), and Sun3/4.
4525
4526 * Solaris 2.0
4527
4528Preliminary work has been put in to support the new Solaris OS from Sun. At
4529this time, it can control and debug processes, but it is not capable of
4530reading symbols.
4531
4532 * Bug fixes
4533
4534As always, many many bug fixes. The major areas were with g++, and mipsread.
4535People using the MIPS-based platforms should experience fewer mysterious
4536crashes and trashed symbol tables.
4537
4538*** Changes in GDB-4.4:
4539
4540 * New machines supported (host and target)
4541
4542SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4543 (except core files)
4544BSD Reno on Vax vax-dec-bsd
4545Ultrix on Vax vax-dec-ultrix
4546
4547 * New machines supported (target)
4548
4549AMD 29000 embedded, using EBMON a29k-none-none
4550
4551 * C++ support
4552
4553GDB continues to improve its handling of C++. `References' work better.
4554The demangler has also been improved, and now deals with symbols mangled as
4555per the Annotated C++ Reference Guide.
4556
4557GDB also now handles `stabs' symbol information embedded in MIPS
4558`ecoff' symbol tables. Since the ecoff format was not easily
4559extensible to handle new languages such as C++, this appeared to be a
4560good way to put C++ debugging info into MIPS binaries. This option
4561will be supported in the GNU C compiler, version 2, when it is
4562released.
4563
4564 * New features for SVR4
4565
4566GDB now handles SVR4 shared libraries, in the same fashion as SunOS
4567shared libraries. Debugging dynamically linked programs should present
4568only minor differences from debugging statically linked programs.
4569
4570The `info proc' command will print out information about any process
4571on an SVR4 system (including the one you are debugging). At the moment,
4572it prints the address mappings of the process.
4573
4574If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please send mail to
4575bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were reqired (if any).
4576
4577 * Better dynamic linking support in SunOS
4578
4579Reading symbols from shared libraries which contain debugging symbols
4580now works properly. However, there remain issues such as automatic
4581skipping of `transfer vector' code during function calls, which
4582make it harder to debug code in a shared library, than to debug the
4583same code linked statically.
4584
4585 * New Getopt
4586
4587GDB is now using the latest `getopt' routines from the FSF. This
4588version accepts the -- prefix for options with long names. GDB will
4589continue to accept the old forms (-option and +option) as well.
4590Various single letter abbreviations for options have been explicity
4591added to the option table so that they won't get overshadowed in the
4592future by other options that begin with the same letter.
4593
4594 * Bugs fixed
4595
4596The `cleanup_undefined_types' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4597Many assorted bugs have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4598See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4599
4600
4601*** Changes in GDB-4.3:
4602
4603 * New machines supported (host and target)
4604
4605Amiga 3000 running Amix m68k-cbm-svr4 or amix
4606NCR 3000 386 running SVR4 i386-ncr-svr4 or ncr3000
4607Motorola Delta 88000 running Sys V m88k-motorola-sysv or delta88
4608
4609 * Almost SCO Unix support
4610
4611We had hoped to support:
4612SCO Unix on i386 IBM PC clones i386-sco-sysv or i386sco
4613(except for core file support), but we discovered very late in the release
4614that it has problems with process groups that render gdb unusable. Sorry
4615about that. I encourage people to fix it and post the fixes.
4616
4617 * Preliminary ELF and DWARF support
4618
4619GDB can read ELF object files on System V Release 4, and can handle
4620debugging records for C, in DWARF format, in ELF files. This support
4621is preliminary. If you bring up GDB on another SVR4 system, please
4622send mail to bug-gdb@prep.ai.mit.edu to let us know what changes were
4623reqired (if any).
4624
4625 * New Readline
4626
4627GDB now uses the latest `readline' library. One user-visible change
4628is that two tabs will list possible command completions, which previously
4629required typing M-? (meta-question mark, or ESC ?).
4630
4631 * Bugs fixed
4632
4633The `stepi' bug that many of you noticed has been squashed.
4634Many bugs in C++ have been handled. Many more remain to be handled.
4635See the various ChangeLog files (primarily in gdb and bfd) for details.
4636
4637 * State of the MIPS world (in case you wondered):
4638
4639GDB can understand the symbol tables emitted by the compilers
4640supplied by most vendors of MIPS-based machines, including DEC. These
4641symbol tables are in a format that essentially nobody else uses.
4642
4643Some versions of gcc come with an assembler post-processor called
4644mips-tfile. This program is required if you want to do source-level
4645debugging of gcc-compiled programs. I believe FSF does not ship
4646mips-tfile with gcc version 1, but it will eventually come with gcc
4647version 2.
4648
4649Debugging of g++ output remains a problem. g++ version 1.xx does not
4650really support it at all. (If you're lucky, you should be able to get
4651line numbers and stack traces to work, but no parameters or local
4652variables.) With some work it should be possible to improve the
4653situation somewhat.
4654
4655When gcc version 2 is released, you will have somewhat better luck.
4656However, even then you will get confusing results for inheritance and
4657methods.
4658
4659We will eventually provide full debugging of g++ output on
4660DECstations. This will probably involve some kind of stabs-in-ecoff
4661encapulation, but the details have not been worked out yet.
4662
4663
4664*** Changes in GDB-4.2:
4665
4666 * Improved configuration
4667
4668Only one copy of `configure' exists now, and it is not self-modifying.
4669Porting BFD is simpler.
4670
4671 * Stepping improved
4672
4673The `step' and `next' commands now only stop at the first instruction
4674of a source line. This prevents the multiple stops that used to occur
4675in switch statements, for-loops, etc. `Step' continues to stop if a
4676function that has debugging information is called within the line.
4677
4678 * Bug fixing
4679
4680Lots of small bugs fixed. More remain.
4681
4682 * New host supported (not target)
4683
4684Intel 386 PC clone running Mach i386-none-mach
4685
4686
4687*** Changes in GDB-4.1:
4688
4689 * Multiple source language support
4690
4691GDB now has internal scaffolding to handle several source languages.
4692It determines the type of each source file from its filename extension,
4693and will switch expression parsing and number formatting to match the
4694language of the function in the currently selected stack frame.
4695You can also specifically set the language to be used, with
4696`set language c' or `set language modula-2'.
4697
4698 * GDB and Modula-2
4699
4700GDB now has preliminary support for the GNU Modula-2 compiler,
4701currently under development at the State University of New York at
4702Buffalo. Development of both GDB and the GNU Modula-2 compiler will
4703continue through the fall of 1991 and into 1992.
4704
4705Other Modula-2 compilers are currently not supported, and attempting to
4706debug programs compiled with them will likely result in an error as the
4707symbol table is read. Feel free to work on it, though!
4708
4709There are hooks in GDB for strict type checking and range checking,
4710in the `Modula-2 philosophy', but they do not currently work.
4711
4712 * set write on/off
4713
4714GDB can now write to executable and core files (e.g. patch
4715a variable's value). You must turn this switch on, specify
4716the file ("exec foo" or "core foo"), *then* modify it, e.g.
4717by assigning a new value to a variable. Modifications take
4718effect immediately.
4719
4720 * Automatic SunOS shared library reading
4721
4722When you run your program, GDB automatically determines where its
4723shared libraries (if any) have been loaded, and reads their symbols.
4724The `share' command is no longer needed. This also works when
4725examining core files.
4726
4727 * set listsize
4728
4729You can specify the number of lines that the `list' command shows.
4730The default is 10.
4731
4732 * New machines supported (host and target)
4733
4734SGI Iris (MIPS) running Irix V3: mips-sgi-irix or iris
4735Sony NEWS (68K) running NEWSOS 3.x: m68k-sony-sysv or news
4736Ultracomputer (29K) running Sym1: a29k-nyu-sym1 or ultra3
4737
4738 * New hosts supported (not targets)
4739
4740IBM RT/PC: romp-ibm-aix or rtpc
4741
4742 * New targets supported (not hosts)
4743
4744AMD 29000 embedded with COFF a29k-none-coff
4745AMD 29000 embedded with a.out a29k-none-aout
4746Ultracomputer remote kernel debug a29k-nyu-kern
4747
4748 * New remote interfaces
4749
4750AMD 29000 Adapt
4751AMD 29000 Minimon
4752
4753
4754*** Changes in GDB-4.0:
4755
4756 * New Facilities
4757
4758Wide output is wrapped at good places to make the output more readable.
4759
4760Gdb now supports cross-debugging from a host machine of one type to a
4761target machine of another type. Communication with the target system
4762is over serial lines. The ``target'' command handles connecting to the
4763remote system; the ``load'' command will download a program into the
4764remote system. Serial stubs for the m68k and i386 are provided. Gdb
4765also supports debugging of realtime processes running under VxWorks,
4766using SunRPC Remote Procedure Calls over TCP/IP to talk to a debugger
4767stub on the target system.
4768
4769New CPUs supported include the AMD 29000 and Intel 960.
4770
4771GDB now reads object files and symbol tables via a ``binary file''
4772library, which allows a single copy of GDB to debug programs of multiple
4773object file types such as a.out and coff.
4774
4775There is now a GDB reference card in "doc/refcard.tex". (Make targets
4776refcard.dvi and refcard.ps are available to format it).
4777
4778
4779 * Control-Variable user interface simplified
4780
4781All variables that control the operation of the debugger can be set
4782by the ``set'' command, and displayed by the ``show'' command.
4783
4784For example, ``set prompt new-gdb=>'' will change your prompt to new-gdb=>.
4785``Show prompt'' produces the response:
4786Gdb's prompt is new-gdb=>.
4787
4788What follows are the NEW set commands. The command ``help set'' will
4789print a complete list of old and new set commands. ``help set FOO''
4790will give a longer description of the variable FOO. ``show'' will show
4791all of the variable descriptions and their current settings.
4792
4793confirm on/off: Enables warning questions for operations that are
4794 hard to recover from, e.g. rerunning the program while
4795 it is already running. Default is ON.
4796
4797editing on/off: Enables EMACS style command line editing
4798 of input. Previous lines can be recalled with
4799 control-P, the current line can be edited with control-B,
4800 you can search for commands with control-R, etc.
4801 Default is ON.
4802
4803history filename NAME: NAME is where the gdb command history
4804 will be stored. The default is .gdb_history,
4805 or the value of the environment variable
4806 GDBHISTFILE.
4807
4808history size N: The size, in commands, of the command history. The
4809 default is 256, or the value of the environment variable
4810 HISTSIZE.
4811
4812history save on/off: If this value is set to ON, the history file will
4813 be saved after exiting gdb. If set to OFF, the
4814 file will not be saved. The default is OFF.
4815
4816history expansion on/off: If this value is set to ON, then csh-like
4817 history expansion will be performed on
4818 command line input. The default is OFF.
4819
4820radix N: Sets the default radix for input and output. It can be set
4821 to 8, 10, or 16. Note that the argument to "radix" is interpreted
4822 in the current radix, so "set radix 10" is always a no-op.
4823
4824height N: This integer value is the number of lines on a page. Default
4825 is 24, the current `stty rows'' setting, or the ``li#''
4826 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4827 variable TERM.
4828
4829width N: This integer value is the number of characters on a line.
4830 Default is 80, the current `stty cols'' setting, or the ``co#''
4831 setting from the termcap entry matching the environment
4832 variable TERM.
4833
4834Note: ``set screensize'' is obsolete. Use ``set height'' and
4835``set width'' instead.
4836
4837print address on/off: Print memory addresses in various command displays,
4838 such as stack traces and structure values. Gdb looks
4839 more ``symbolic'' if you turn this off; it looks more
4840 ``machine level'' with it on. Default is ON.
4841
4842print array on/off: Prettyprint arrays. New convenient format! Default
4843 is OFF.
4844
4845print demangle on/off: Print C++ symbols in "source" form if on,
4846 "raw" form if off.
4847
4848print asm-demangle on/off: Same, for assembler level printouts
4849 like instructions.
4850
4851print vtbl on/off: Prettyprint C++ virtual function tables. Default is OFF.
4852
4853
4854 * Support for Epoch Environment.
4855
4856The epoch environment is a version of Emacs v18 with windowing. One
4857new command, ``inspect'', is identical to ``print'', except that if you
4858are running in the epoch environment, the value is printed in its own
4859window.
4860
4861
4862 * Support for Shared Libraries
4863
4864GDB can now debug programs and core files that use SunOS shared libraries.
4865Symbols from a shared library cannot be referenced
4866before the shared library has been linked with the program (this
4867happens after you type ``run'' and before the function main() is entered).
4868At any time after this linking (including when examining core files
4869from dynamically linked programs), gdb reads the symbols from each
4870shared library when you type the ``sharedlibrary'' command.
4871It can be abbreviated ``share''.
4872
4873sharedlibrary REGEXP: Load shared object library symbols for files
4874 matching a unix regular expression. No argument
4875 indicates to load symbols for all shared libraries.
4876
4877info sharedlibrary: Status of loaded shared libraries.
4878
4879
4880 * Watchpoints
4881
4882A watchpoint stops execution of a program whenever the value of an
4883expression changes. Checking for this slows down execution
4884tremendously whenever you are in the scope of the expression, but is
4885quite useful for catching tough ``bit-spreader'' or pointer misuse
4886problems. Some machines such as the 386 have hardware for doing this
4887more quickly, and future versions of gdb will use this hardware.
4888
4889watch EXP: Set a watchpoint (breakpoint) for an expression.
4890
4891info watchpoints: Information about your watchpoints.
4892
4893delete N: Deletes watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4894disable N: Temporarily turns off watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4895enable N: Re-enables watchpoint number N (same as breakpoints).
4896
4897
4898 * C++ multiple inheritance
4899
4900When used with a GCC version 2 compiler, GDB supports multiple inheritance
4901for C++ programs.
4902
4903 * C++ exception handling
4904
4905Gdb now supports limited C++ exception handling. Besides the existing
4906ability to breakpoint on an exception handler, gdb can breakpoint on
4907the raising of an exception (before the stack is peeled back to the
4908handler's context).
4909
4910catch FOO: If there is a FOO exception handler in the dynamic scope,
4911 set a breakpoint to catch exceptions which may be raised there.
4912 Multiple exceptions (``catch foo bar baz'') may be caught.
4913
4914info catch: Lists all exceptions which may be caught in the
4915 current stack frame.
4916
4917
4918 * Minor command changes
4919
4920The command ``call func (arg, arg, ...)'' now acts like the print
4921command, except it does not print or save a value if the function's result
4922is void. This is similar to dbx usage.
4923
4924The ``up'' and ``down'' commands now always print the frame they end up
4925at; ``up-silently'' and `down-silently'' can be used in scripts to change
4926frames without printing.
4927
4928 * New directory command
4929
4930'dir' now adds directories to the FRONT of the source search path.
4931The path starts off empty. Source files that contain debug information
4932about the directory in which they were compiled can be found even
4933with an empty path; Sun CC and GCC include this information. If GDB can't
4934find your source file in the current directory, type "dir .".
4935
4936 * Configuring GDB for compilation
4937
4938For normal use, type ``./configure host''. See README or gdb.texinfo
4939for more details.
4940
4941GDB now handles cross debugging. If you are remotely debugging between
4942two different machines, type ``./configure host -target=targ''.
4943Host is the machine where GDB will run; targ is the machine
4944where the program that you are debugging will run.
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